The Flower and the Badger

Chapter 9

There was blood on the wall in the shape of letters, but that wasn't what caught Anna's attention. What caught it was Mrs. Norris hanging upside down, and she appeared to be dead. Eventually Anna's gaze wandered to the wall, and she read the bloody print: THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.
What was the Chamber of Secrets? Could it be the mysterious chamber which Merlin had been talking about? Or was there another chamber entirely? Harry, Hermione, and Ron joined her a minute later.
"Bloody hell..." Ron gasped as he stared at the cat. "What happened?"
"I don't know." Anna said. "I was following some spiders."
"S-spiders?" Ron gulped nervously. Obviously he wasn't a fan of spiders, and Anna rolled her eyes again. "Yeah, spiders. Anyways, they led me here." She looked at Mrs. Norris. Was she dead? She certainly seemed like it. Filch came into the hall, and naturally he began accusing the foursome of killing his beloved cat.
"We had nothing to do with it!" Ron said hotly as more students began to fill the hall.
"You're next Mudbloods!" Draco said with a laugh, and Harry had to hold Anna back from hexing him again. They later learned that Mrs. Norris wasn't dead, only petrified.
"That's too bad." George said the next day. "Pranking would have been a lot easier with that cat gone."
"George!" Anna scolded. "That's not nice." She whacked his arm playfully. As much as she didn't like Filch and Mrs. Norris, a part of her felt bad for Filch. Mrs. Norris was really the only friend the old man had. Sure, it was because he was grouchy and was constantly trying to get the students in trouble, but nonetheless.
"You ready to commentate your first Quidditch game this weekend?" Fred asked, deciding to change the subject before his twin and best friend got into a catfight about....well, a cat.
Anna nodded. "I think so. I'm a bit nervous though." What if she didn't do a good job? What if the audience didn't like her? Or worse, McGonagall?
"You'll do fine." Fred assured her. "Just follow Jordan's lead, he'll help you until you get the hang of things."
Anna nodded, taking a deep breath. They were right, she had this.

That Saturday, everyone was excited for the first Quidditch game of the season. "Naturally our first game is against Slytherin." Harry groaned at breakfast, and Anna sympathetically patted him on the shoulder. "It'll be alright Harry, everyone knows that you're a better Seeker than Draco is anyways."
"Is he now?" Draco drawled as he walked up. "Even when my entire team has brand-new brooms?"
Anna rolled her eyes. "Malfoy, if you honestly believe that you're going to win based on new brooms and not talent, then you're even more stupid than Crabbe and Goyle put together."
Draco scowled at her as Harry began to snicker. "Listen here, you filthy blood traitor! I've got twice as much talent as your brother does!"
Anna shrugged. "Do you? Then why did Harry make the team his first year, and it took you a whole extra year plus you buying the entire team brooms to make it?"
"If you're implying that I don't have any talent-"
"Oh no, I'm not implying it, I'm stating it as a fact." Anna smirked at him as she stood up. "Now, if you gents will excuse me, I need to go get ready. I have a game to commentate."
"I'd watch yourself if I were you Potter!" Draco called after her, to which Anna responded with, "I would, but unlike you I'm not so self-absorbed that I'm totally in love with myself." She walked out of the Great Hall as students began to laugh, and she was sure that Draco was blushing up a storm. As she walked down the hall, Fred jogged up to her. "I thought I would walk with you." He said. "Malfoy looked like he wanted to murder you."
"He probably does." Anna giggled. "Fred...when we were in that broom closet, hiding from Filch...there was something that you were going to tell me."
"Oh..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Forget it, it's not anything all that important."
Anna nodded, a bit disappointed. So Fred hadn't been about to tell her that he liked her after all. She shouldn't have been so surprised by this though. She was only twelve, two years younger than he was. He probably liked someone else that was older than she was. There was an awkward silence between the two as they made their way to the Gryffindor common room. "Um...I'll see you at the game?" Anna asked, and Fred nodded. "Y-Yeah....see you." Anna walked up the stairs, sighing somewhat sadly.