The Flower and the Badger

Chapter 5

Once the train got into the station, Anna and Hermione got into a carriage with Ginny and Luna. Ginny told Anna how they had ben at the Quidditch World Cup when Death Eaters invaded. Anna shuddered as she listened. "Probably a good thing that I was laid up in the hospital then."
Hermione nodded. "It was absolutely terrifying."
After they had pulled up to the castle, the foursome piled out of the carriage and they went inside to the Great Hall. Anna was absolutely starving. However, her hunger vanished when she heard Dumbledore talking about something called the Triwizard Tournament. Her interest dissipated when Dumbledore said that the tournament was only for students that were at least seventeen. Absolute rubbish, in her opinion. She watched as students from the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang schools came in. Anna glowered as every boy's (including Fred's) gaze wouldn't leave the girls in their blue uniforms.
Anna fought to keep her jealousy at bay. After all, many of the girls were at least part Veela, boys couldn't help but stare at them, while girls like Anna and Hermione rolled their eyes. She didn't care much for the Durmstrang boys either, a lot of them wore cocky smirks and seemed very pompous and arrogant. They reminded Anna of Draco. Finally everyone was allowed to eat. A couple of the Beauxbaton girls sat at their table, so naturally, all the boys were watching. Anna scowled at her plate, Fred had barely spoken a word to her since the Beauxbaton girls had entered, he was as mesmerized as everyone else.
"You alright?" Ginny asked, and Anna nodded as she stabbed at her baked potato. "I'm just peachy Ginny."
Her appetite was no longer there, so she excused herself, saying that she was tired and that she would be gong to bed. As soon as she left, Ginny went over to Fred and she whacked him on the back of the head, causing him to yelp in surprise.
"Ow! What the hell was that for Gin?!"
"Are you completely daft?!" Ginny exclaimed. "Did you even notice Anna leave?"
"She did?" Fred looked around in surprise, causing Ginny to roll her eyes. "Yes, she did, because she couldn't stand you making goo goo eyes at the Beauxbaton girls!"
"I was not making goo goo eyes." Fred said defensively as he folded his arms across his chest.
"Actually you were." Angelina piped up. "You and all of the other boys acted like they were the only girls in the room."

Fred bit his lip. Had he really done that? He couldn't imagine how Anna must have felt. Certainly she must have felt jealous, maybe a bit insecure as well. One of the Veelas, a girl named Valentina, started talking to Fred, but he barely seemed to hear her.
"Um...Excuse me." He mumbled as he stood up and made his way out of the Great Hall and he quickly walked towards Gryffindor Tower. He found Anna on the couch, staring at the fire. He sat down next to her, and she barely acknowledged his presence.
"Finally had enough of the Veelas?" She grumbled, and Fred sighed softly. "Anna, I'm sorry."
"Really? Because you sure didn't seem sorry back in the Great Hall."
Fred flinched at the remark. "Anna..." He took her hand. "Were those girls beautiful? Yes they were, but they're nothing compared to you. You are far more beautiful than those girls could ever even hope of being."
"Flattery will get you everywhere." She said, a small smile on her face, and Fred grinned as he lightly pecked her lips. "I love you Anna, and only you, remember that."
"I will." She said as she wrapped her arms around his neck. It seemed silly that she had been jealous now, but she couldn't help it. Those girls were all so beautiful, Anna didn't know how she could compete with any of them. But if Fred insisted that he thought that she was more beautiful to him than any of the Veela girls could ever be, than it must be true.

A couple weeks had passed, and Anna was sitting in the courtyard with Cedric, who was telling her about how he was planning on putting his name into the Goblet of Fire.
"Ced, are you sure?" Anna asked, somewhat worriedly, she had heard stories about former tournaments in which participants had met gruesome and deadly ends.
"It'll be fine." Ceric assured her. "I'll be fine, I promise. Besides, there's not even a guarantee that I'll be chosen."
Anna hoped that he wouldn't be chosen. If he was picked as a Champion and something were to happen to him, Anna didn't know what she would do.
"Besides, you're one to talk about participating in dangerous quests." He teased, causing Anna to blush.
"You aren't going to let what happened this summer go are you?"
"Are you kidding? It makes for great blackmail, of course I'm never going to let it go."
Anna shook her head as Cedric laughed. "You're impossible, you know that?"
"That's me, the impossible boy."
I should have never introduced you to  Doctor Who."
Cedric ruffled her hair, and Anna swatted his hand away. "You don't touch the hair."
"Since when did you start caring about your hair?"
"Since guys like you decided to try and mess it up every chance that they got."
"You mean there's other people like me that like to mess with your hair?"
"You started a trend." Anna said as she pouted. "The twins won't leave it alone now. If they're not trying to mess it up, they're trying to change its color. George turned it green once and said that I was secretly a Slytherin. It took dozens of showers for the color to finally get washed out."
"I remember that." Cedric laughed. "I'm surprised that you didn't kill him."
"Believe me, I was very close to doing just that. Hermione had to stop me from strangling him."

It looked like it might rain at any moment, so Anna and Cedric gathered up their things and scurried inside just as the clouds opened, releasing bucketloads of rain. Thunder boomed,causing Anna to jump a bit.
"Scared?" Cedric teased her, causing Anna to glare at him. "It just surprised me, that's all."
"Mmhmm, suuuuure." Cedric said, laughing before yelping as Anna started to whack him with her bag.
"Ah, help!" He cried dramatically. "I'm being abused!"
"Oh shut up you big baby. I didn't hit you that hard."
"Did too. What have you got in there, bricks or something?"
"No, just my History of Magic textbook."
"Well that explains it then. That book weighs a ton."
Anna rolled her eyes at Cedric's antics. If she knew just how little time she might have left with him, she would have spent a lot more of it with him.