The Flower and the Badger

Chapter 3

Warning: Scene of bullying

At breakfast the next morning, Harry plopped down next to Anna in the Great Hall, groaning as he massaged his head. Anna laughed quietly at her brother's misfortune. "Rough night?" She asked, and Harry groaned in response. "Can you please not talk so loudly? How much did I even drink last night anyways?"

"You had quite a few Fire whiskeys, brother dearest."

"Never again." He vowed, but Anna knew that this vow probably wouldn't last long. She glanced over at the Slytherin table, biting back a laugh when she saw Pansy draped all over Draco, and Draco was looking like he would like nothing more than to push the girl to the ground. He was giving Blaise a look that said 'help me', and Blaise merely shook his head, laughing quietly. He looked over at Anna, shrugging her shoulders, and she snorted, biting back a laugh as she looked at her plate.

"What's so funny?" Lavender Brown asked her, and Anna shook her head. "It doesn't matter, it's an inside joke."

"Should you even be friends with Slytherins?" Lavender asked scornfully, and Anna raised an eyebrow. "As hard as it may be for you to believe, not all Slytherins are evil Brown. Some of them are actually quite nice."

"Of course you would say that."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Do you really think that we've forgotten what you did last year? How you were spying on us for Umbridge?"

"You know that I wasn't in a right state of mind then."

"How do we truly know that?" Lavender countered, and everyone at the table was now transfixed on their conversation. "You could have been lying, you still could be a Death Eater for all that we know."

"How dare you!" Anna stood up, glaring at Lavender, and the Gryffindor girl jumped in surprise. Anna couldn't believe that she would insinuate something like that. Surely no one believed what the girl was saying....right?

Anna's appetite was gone by this point, so she walked out of the Great Hall, she needed to calm down a little bit. Blaise followed her out. "Are you alright?" He asked her quietly, and Anna sighed. "They're never going to truly trust me ever again....are they?"

Blaise bit his lip. "I wish that I could say otherwise, but unfortunately I don't think that they will. You may have been in a different state of mind when you got the Death Eater tattoo, but you got it all the same. People like Brown, they don't really care about the circumstances, they just care about the outcome." He reached out and gently grabbed her hand. "I'll always be here for you, you know that right?"

Anna nodded. "Yeah, I do. Thank you Blaise."

Blaise suddenly looked nervous. "Um...are you still with Diggory, by any chance?"

Anna nodded her head, puzzled as to why he would be asking that. "I am, why?"

A look of disappointment flashed across his face, but just as quickly as it had appeared, it went away "I was just curious. I'll see you in class." He walked away, leaving Anna alone in her confusion. What had just happened?

"He probably likes you." Hermione said. Classes were over for the day, and the two girls were studying in the common room. Anna had just told her about the odd conversation with Blaise.

"He couldn't like me that way." Anna insisted. "He and I have been friends for years, he doesn't see me in that way."

"You were friends with Cedric for years too." Hermione pointed out. "And you thought that you would never see him as anything other than a friend and look what happened."

Anna sighed, she had to accept that Hermione was right. Blaise had feelings for her, which made things kind of awkward between them now. Blaise had always been just a friend to her. She didn't know what to do, if she talked to him about it, than she could lose him as a friend and she didn't want that. But they also couldn't just not talk about this. They had to discuss it sometime, but that didn't mean that they couldn't save it for later. Anna would talk to him about it eventually, but it wasn't going to be right now, she was hoping that it would be sometime down the road.

After that encounter, Blaise seemed to avoid Anna, which really only cemented the opinion that he had feelings for her. Things were now really awkward between them, which made Anna kind of upset, because Blaise was one of her closest friends. It really didn't help that they were paired up in Potions either. Blaise barely said a word to her, speaking only when he needed an ingredient passed to him. Pansy, of course, had noticed this change and was all too happy to bully Anna about it.

"He's seen your true colors now, you blood traitor." She and her friends had cornered Anna when Anna had been on her way to Transfiguration.

"I'm really not in the mood Pansy." Anna said irritably. She had gotten a letter from Sirius, saying that Remus had been acting sort of odd the past few days. It wasn't near a full moon, so Anna really wasn't sure what was going on with him, but she was determined to find out come the holidays, or maybe even before then, depending on what the situation was, and how severe it was. A tiny part of her was worrying that maybe Remus had cheated on Sirius, but she quickly shook that feeling away. Remus loved Sirius, he wouldn't cheat on him...right?

"You act as though I care if you're in the mood or not." Pansy pushed Anna against the wall, and Anna winced as she felt the stone dig into her shoulder. "You're a filthy traitor Potter."

"Better to be a traitor than a bitch like you."

Pansy slapped Anna hard, leaving a red mark on her cheek. "You don't talk to me like that!"

"What's going on here?" Draco drawled as he strode up, and Pansy smiled flirtatiously at him. "I'm just showing this traitor here her place."

Draco looked between Pansy and Anna, and for a moment, Anna thought that the blonde boy might come to her aid, but he merely nodded at Pansy. "Good." He said before walking away, and Pansy sneered at Anna. "There's no one here to save you." She giggled and took out her wand. Millicent and Daphne each grabbed one of Anna's arms so that she couldn't retaliate against Pansy. Desperately Anna looked around for someone to help her, but they were indeed alone in the hallway.

"Why are you doing this?" Anna demanded, and Pansy cackled, reminding her of Bellatrix. "Because I can. Crucio!"

Millicent placed her large and beefy hand over Anna's mouth, muffling her screams of pain as Pansy cast the curse again and again.

"Someone's coming!" Daphne hissed, and they released Anna before taking off down the hall. Anna collapsed to the ground, curling up in the fetal position.

"Oh my goodness!" McGonagall kneeled next to Anna. "What on Earth happened?!"

Anna didn't answer, she just whimpered pitifully, and McGonagall helped her to stand up. Slowly, they made their way towards the hospital wing, Anna having to lean against the older Professor. Anna practically collapsed in one of the hospital beds, groaning in pain.

"What happened?" Pomfrey asked her gently, but Anna shook her head; she was in no condition to talk at the moment.

"I will go inform Mister Potter." McGonagall said before she scurried away. Madame Pomfrey started to tend to Anna, muttering something about all the rotten luck that Anna seemed to have. She gave Anna a calming drought, and it wasn't long before the girl slipped away into oblivion.