The Flower and the Badger

Chapter 4

When Anna woke up, Harry was by her bed, so were Hermione and Ron. "What happened?" Anna groaned as she sat up.

"Pansy is what happened!" Hermione snapped, she was obviously upset and pissed off. "She cursed you! You're lucky that Professor McGonagall found you when she did."

"For once can that girl just leave me alone?" Anna grumbled. "Please tell me that she at least got in trouble for it."

"McGonagall gave her detention for the rest of the year." Ron said. "And she also said that if Parkinson steps one more toe out of line than she'll be expelled."

Was it bad that Anna hoped Pansy would be expelled? Probably, but at the moment she didn't really care. "I'm surprised that you aren't with Lavender right now, Ron."

Speak of the devil, Lavender appeared at that moment and dragged Ron away while shooting daggers at Hermione and Anna both, which made Anna laugh a bit. "I think that she's worried we're going to steal him away from her or something."

"Why he's with someone like her, I'll never know." Harry said as he shook his head. "He would be much better off with you, Hermione."

"Yes, well he isn't with me." Hermione said, and Anna grinned a bit. "Not yet anyways, but I would give it some time, it's likely to happen sooner or later." If Anna had her way, the two would be getting together sooner or later, there was no doubt in her mind about that.

Anna had to stay in the hospital wing the rest of that day, and it wasn't until the following morning that Pomfrey released her. The matron hadn't wanted to let her leave so early, but Anna had begged and pleaded with her so much that the woman had finally relented. "Alright, fine, but if you start feeling the slightest bit unusual, you are to come straight back to me."

Word had spread around the school about what Pansy had done to Anna. There was no concrete proof of what Parkinson had done; Dumbledore had checked her wand to see what spell had last been casted, but Pansy's wand showed no sign of having cast the Cruciatus Curse, meaning that she must have used someone else's wand to do it. Everyone knew that she was guilty though, and everywhere the Slytherin went, people shot dirty looks her way. Now, while not everyone liked Anna, they also didn't want the Cruciatus Curse being used on her either, so really the only people that had taken Pansy's side in all this were her fellow Slytherins with a few exceptions. One of them, to her surprise, being Nancy. Anna hadn't spoken to Nancy ever since everything had happened with her dad, so Anna was shocked when Nancy came up to her and didn't even try hexing her or anything. "Anna....can we talk? In private?"

Anna bit her lip and nodded, following Nancy up to the Astronomy Tower. Why would Nancy want to talk to her? Anna thought for sure that she would hate her, because Anna had been responsible for killing her father. True, Anna had been brainwashed at the time, but she had still killed an innocent person, and she knew that would haunt her until her dying days. When they reached the tower, nancy went over to the edge, gazing out at the twilight sky.

"After I first heard about what happened, about what you had done, I hated you. God, I wanted to kill you." Nancy shook her head as tears filled her eyes. "I knew that it wasn't your fault, that you weren't exactly sane, but I didn't care, I just...I wanted someone to pay for his death."

"Nancy..." Anna's voice was barely above a whisper, she couldn't even look the girl in the eye. "I'm so sorry, your father, he should still be here, I'm the one that should be dead."

"No." Nancy went over to Anna, and she wrapped the girl in a hug. "The one that should be dead is Voldemort, he's responsible for this, for everything, the one who needs to pay is him."

The two girls took comfort in each other's embrace, releasing emotions and tears that should have been shed long ago, proving that no matter what, not even the strongest of friendships could be broken.

After that night, things between Nancy and Anna returned to what they were, and their bond may have been even stronger than before, much to Hermione's relief. "I'm so glad that you two have made amends, I know how much Nancy matters to you."

"I'm honestly relieved, I thought for sure that she would want to kill me." Anna answered as she flipped through her textbook, reading about the best ways to keep a Bouncing Bulb at bay. Anna glanced up, grinning when she saw Neville and she waved him over to come and join them. "Neville, do you think that you could help me with this Herbology work? I'm sort of stuck."

"Um, sure." Neville plopped down next to them, and for the next hour they worked, only stopping when it was time for dinner.

"Did you really need help?" Hermione asked curiously as the girls walked towards the Great Hall together.

"Not really." Anna admitted. "But Neville is always so lonely and unsure of himself, I thought that him helping someone, even if it was with something as simple as Herbology work, might make him feel a little bit better about himself."

Hermione smiled softly. "Despite what some people say, you really are a good person Anna, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

The girls sat down at the table, and Anna rolled her eyes when she saw Lavender all over Ron again. "Do you mind not trying to snog his face off while others are trying to eat?"

"At least I'm not a little slut who throws herself at every boy that crosses her path." Lavender countered. "Don't think that I haven't seen how you stare at my Ronniekins."

Anna gagged at that. "Excuse me? Ron is like a brother to me, and an annoying one at that."

"Oi!" Ron protested, he was completely confused as to why two girls were fighting about him; the only thing that he had managed to understand about the conversation was that Anna had called him annoying, which he was slightly put out about. Anna merely rolled her eyes, deciding to ignore Lavender and instead focus on the food that was in front of her.