(Late chapter, mostly unedited, sorry)

The Sunday of that same weekend was free except for Snape's detention in the evening. Anna left her three Gryffindor best friends to their own fun earlier that day. She didn't want to discuss what she and Harry had seen the previous night, and she didn't want to explaining her sympathy towards the young Tom Riddle.

Yes, she had just a shred of sympathy, but not enough to ever forgive him or justify what he'd done.

After spending all of second year conversing with almost only the young Riddle, she understood him a bit. How he was an orphan, neglected, and a complete loner, and those things only got worse with age.

Regardless, she couldn't explain her feelings. She despised of Voldemort with every inch of her being and wanted to kill him in the worst way possible, but she felt a flicker of sympathy upon seeing him as a child.

She pushed the thoughts aside as she wandered aimlessly through the castle's corridors. The weather was a nice, warm, fall day, so almost everyone was outside, leaving the girl to a bit of alone time.

Anna rounded the corner and something caught her eye.

The Quidditch trophy case.

She stopped in front of it, her eyes skimming the contents. The 1976 Gryffindor Quidditch plaque stood out, polished and all. They had won the Quidditch Cup and all of the players' names and positions were listed. It was something Anna hadn't noticed before and her eyes widened at two of the engravings in particular,

Beaters: Sirius Black and Leah Kendricks

"Oh my gosh..." whispered Anna, her grey eyes widening. Sirius had told her he was a Beater - at which she wasn't surprised - but he never said her mother was.

In fact, he never told her much about her mother in general.

Not that she asked, though, because when Anna was reunited with her father, that was more than enough. Besides, she couldn't stand to see the pained look in his eyes at any mention of her.

"Um, Anna?" asked a warm voice.

She spun around the meet Caspar's gaze. "Oh, hey! Sorry, I didn't realize you were there."

"It's fine," he said with a smile. There was a moment of silence as his eyes scanned her, trying to figure out if she was sad or mad or merely tired. He decided against prying, as he had a tendency to do. "So, I heard you were Quidditch captain? Are you trying to picture your name on one of these plaques?"

"Actually, Harry and I are co-captains," she said with a raised eyebrow. "But no, I'm just looking, that's all."

"Ah, okay...'Sirius Black'. Your father was a beater?" asked Caspar, looking at the 1976 plaque.

Anna clenched her jaw, refusing to show any emotion. "Yeah, apparently my mother was too, Leah Kendricks."

"So what position do you play?"

"Um, well, it's ironic but I've played every position except Beater," she said with a chuckle. "I played Chaser the first two years and filled in for Harry before as Seeker, then stuff happened in the third and fourth year and I didn't play, then last year I played Keeper."

"Well, maybe you could try out Beater this year?"

"I don't know how-"

"I could teach you," he suggested with a grin. "You know...I was the best Beater at Ilvermorny."

"Really?"

"Yep. Well, don't tell my buddy Jason that. We always argue over it. I mean, we did, because I don't play for Wampus anymore."

"I believe you," she said sheepishly. "Tryouts are next weekend though, I could never-"

"Do you want to be Beater?" He received a nod. "Then we could train every night until tryouts. I'm sure we'll get the Pitch open and permission for it. And even if we have to sneak out, we'll make it work. I determined to make you the best damn Beater on the team."

A smile broke out onto Anna's face. "Sounds great. I can get permission from McGonagall...can we start tomorrow? I have detention with Snape tonight."

"Of course," he said. As he was about to speak again, a flash of platinum blonde hair caught Anna's eye.

"Draco!" she called out. The pale boy stopped and spun around to face them. His cold grey eyes caught onto Caspar and his gaze turned horrified and angry and confused all at the same time. He settled for a glare before stalking off again.

"Seems like he's in a hurry," muttered Caspar.

Anna looked at him and sighed. "I have to go...I really need to talk to him. See you later?"

"Without a doubt," he said, giving a nod.

She smiled before jogging to catch up with her cousin. Draco was, indeed, in a hurry. His strides were quite long and his demeanour was determined. "Hey!" He ignored her...until she grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"What the hell do you want?" he growled, turning to face her.

The girl flinched a bit, but her surprise grew upon seeing him.

It was evident Draco was going through something. His usually lively grey eyes were a dull, bloodshot grey with many dark bags under them, his pale skin had a greyish tint to it, and his clothes practically hung off him.

Sympathy and fear flooded Anna as she looked at her distressed cousin. She recognized the depression and guilt in his appearance, as it reflected as hers had been in the summer.

"Draco...what's going on? What's wrong?" asked Anna quietly.

He responded quickly. "Nothing. Mind your own business, yeah?"

"You can trust me..." Silence. "Um, look...there's rumours about you being a Death Eater-"

"Who fed you that lie? Saint Potter?" spat Draco, giving her a malovent glare.

Anna crossed her arms. "No, he didn't 'feed' me anything. Speak of Harry, why'd you attack him on the train? And don't say you didn't, I know it was you."

"Because Potter's an idiot who needs to stay out of other's business. I reckon it served him right, he got what he deserved-"

"If you're going to take your anger out on anyone, use me! I'm the one that turned your father into the Ministry! I'm the reason he's in Azkaban!" exclaimed the girl quickly. And it was true, Anna had stopped and turned in Lucius Malfoy to the officials the night of the Battle.

Draco just stood there, dumbfounded. She didn't know how much hell she caused for him.

She didn't know how it was her fault he had to be a Death Eater in his father's place.

She didn't know she was the reason he had to kill Dumbledore.

"I don't care," he lied through gritted teeth. He turned on his heel. "Just keep yourself and Potter out of my affairs-"

Anna reached forward and took his hand in hers, causing him to turn in surprise. "Draco..." She was at a loss for words and looked at his covered left arm. The temptation to pull back his sleeve and check for a Dark Mark flooded her but she resisted. "Just remember that we're family."

He merely looked at her, his eyes full of sadness and surprise. He wanted so desperately bad to tell her, to warn her about how he was and what was coming, to just stay safe.

But no, he couldn't fail his mission. So he hardened his gaze and said, "Stay away from people you don't know. There's so much deceit...you can't trust anyone."

"Are you talking about Casp-"

"Stay close to the idiots in your house, not anyone else," Draco cut her off. He gave her one last look before walking off, jaw clenched.

Anna just watched her mysterious cousin as the distance grew between them. What could he have possibly meant? And what was he hiding?

~=~

The week passed quickly and before the Gryffindors knew it, it was the day of Quidditch tryouts. The maroon and gold table was buzzing with excitement and nerves, including the four famous teenagers.

"Double homework in all of our classes and Quidditch tryouts? That's too much for one day," whined Ron.

Anna gave a smirk. "Hey, we still have tomorrow and our free periods Monday-"

"Don't encourage procrastination!" Hermione scolded, shooting the blonde a glare. "Besides that, we really should see Hagrid...I think he's mad at us..."

"Not me," said Anna cheekily. "You know, you really should've taken his class. It's fun."

"Well sorry, but unlike you, we didn't have an alternate motive," muttered Harry.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, we can go after Quidditch. Speaking of which, since when did it get so popular? There's so many people trying out..."

"How can you two be so daft?! It's not Quidditch that's popular, it's you!" explained Hermione, her brown eyes flitting between the two. "You're the Chosen Ones! You've never been more fanciable-"

Ron choked on his pumpkin juice. "'Fanciable'?!"

"Well, yes. Especially since they aren't together. Anna, I know you've been taking advantage of that-"

"Oh really?" asked Harry through gritted teeth.

Anna gave a nervous chuckle. "Um...no, I don't know what she's talking about. And besides...I'm not 'fanciable'. I mean, I'm not even nice or pretty. Aren't guys into sweet, skinny and short girls? I don't fit that criteria," she said as she fiddled with her necklace, looking at the table.

She was right, she wasn't the most feminine and cute. She was on the taller side and after her recovery, she regained a decent amount of weight and filled out a bit more. The lightning scar on her neck and the obvious long one that ran down the left of her face were viewed by some as cool and by others deemed as hideous. Her hair was still a mess of blonde with a few black streaks in it, but it got better as time went on and her darkness faded.

"Well, I think you're beautiful," said Harry without thinking.

Her fathomless grey eyes flitted to him and her lips curled into a grin. She felt her heart flutter. "You think so?"

Harry immediately regretted his words and cleared his throat, giving her a bored look. "No, it was a joke, I didn't actually mean it."

"Oh..." Anna trailed off. She couldn't suppress her frown and she immediately felt her eyes water a bit.

"So Anna, what position are you vying for?" asked Ron awkwardly.

"Beater."

"What?!" the three of them exclaimed, causing Anna to flinch.

"What's the big deal?"

Harry spoke up. "Anna, you're not going to be a Beater. You have no experience and you'd surely get hurt-"

"Oh, so you care about me getting hurt on a broom but you don't care about hurting my feelings?" she asked quickly, her voice breaking a bit.

They stared at her, dumbfounded, as she rose from her seat. "Anna-"

"It's only a joke, I didn't actually mean it," she mocked Harry. None of them spoke as she stormed off, only to come back a few seconds later to get her bag.

"Anna, I'm sorry-"

"Oh, and I'll have you know that I do, in fact, have experience. Caspar and I have been practising every night for the past week. And I have to admit, it's been some...intense physicality," said Anna with malice in her eyes and a smirk on her face. Harry grit his teeth as he watched her strut away and meet up with the blue-eyed boy at the doors.

"Can you believe her? She has some nerve-"

"Harry...I don't blame her...I mean, since you two won't get together she's going after someone else," said Hermione cautiously. "And besides...Caspar is quite attractive-"

"What the bloody hell are you on about?!" seethed Ron.

She blushed. "Well...I'll admit, if he didn't like Anna I would probably give it a shot."

"He likes Anna? For sure?" Harry asked quickly

"Well obviously. The way he looks at her-"

"What do I do?" he groaned, putting his head in his hands.

"Just snog her, that'd fix everything-"

"Honestly, Ron, she's not just some tool. Snogging won't fix anything-"

"Well...actually-"

Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to a desperate Harry. "I'm sorry about his idiocy, just ignore it. I think you should go apologize to her and see where it goes...you know, it's never too late to be with her."

"Yeah, until she ends up with Mundy," said Harry bitterly, standing up. "Thanks though, I might end up following your advice, Ron. I'll just see where it goes."

"Ha!"

"Oh, hush, Ron. And Harry, good luck. We'll catch up with you later," said Hermione with a sympathetic smile. The raven-haired boy gave a nod and went to the Pitch.

Harry rolled his eyes upon seeing Anna and Caspar standing outside, laughing about something. He walked up to them and said, "Erm, Anna, I need to talk to you...alone."

While Anna glared, Caspar quirked an eyebrow. "I guess I'll just go-"

"No, stay," she said, grabbing Caspar's hand as he started walking away.

Harry a pang of jealousy. "Look, Mundy, it'd be best if you left."

"Oh, really?" asked the blue-eyed boy coldly with a forced smile. "We're on a last name basis then?"

"Of course."

The two stared each other down before Caspar rolled his eyes and sighed. "Okay, Anna, I'll be in the stands. See you later," he said with a smile, kissing her on the cheek, causing her to blush madly and grin. He turned to Harry and gave a smirk. "Bye, Potter."

When Caspar was out of sight, Harry narrowed his eyes at Anna, who was still in a daze. "Don't tell me you fancy that idiot."

"He's no idiot! He's much smarter than you. I mean, there was a reason you weren't in Ravenclaw," she muttered as she went into equipment room to drop her bag, him following suit. "And besides, he actually knows how to be decent-"

"I'm trying to protect you, Anna-"

"Protect me from what?!"

"Me!" exclaimed Harry. "Because whenever we're together I always end up hurting you and-"

"Well, how about you just stop being a jerk! That would be a nice change!" she spat. "You don't have to brutally reject me to 'protect me'. Y'know, if you accepted the fact that you're so fucking jealous then maybe-"

"Oh, so now I'm jealous?"

"Yes!" yelled Anna, throwing her arms up in frustration. "Or...I don't know, are you?! You're so damn confusing-"

"Yeah, I'm the confusing one-"

"At least you've got something right. Now it's time to admit that you're just scared of me and being in a relationship and that's why you're resisting it-"

Harry scoffed. "I'm not scared-"

"Then prove it!" exclaimed Anna.

And in a second, Harry had pinned her against the wall and crashed his lips onto hers. She didn't protest and went with it, intensifying it even more. When they finally broke apart, Anna let out a shaky breath and said, "I-I guess you proved it."

"I guess I did," he said, equally surprised. He stiffened a bit when she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder, but then held her close. He felt conflicted...there was so much he didn't know. Was Anna seeing other guys? Girls, even? He'd never found out if those rumours about her were true.

And Caspar...well, it was obvious she felt something for him. How she acted like a giggling idiot around the mysterious Ravenclaw with every encounter. How the slightest touch could turn her into a blushing mess.

How she smelled him in the love potion.

How they'd spent that past many nights together and they'd kept it a secret.

"And all I did was prove a point, that's it," said Harry coldly, letting go. "A kiss doesn't mean anything."

She looked at him with a saddened yet shocked expression. "W-what?"

Before he could respond, Ron unsuspectingly came in and grabbed a broom. He looked at them and quirked an eyebrow. "Uh...did I interrupt something?"

"No. We should get out anyway, tryouts start soon," said Harry.

"Hey! You can't just snog me and pretend like nothing happened!" exclaimed Anna, her irises red.

Ron's eyes widened. "Blimey, Harry, I didn't think you'd actually do it."

She turned to face the raven-haired boy with a cold gaze. "Was this a dare or something?!"

"Erm, yeah," lied Harry, preparing himself for her wrath.

But instead, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and boredly said, "You're so immature, both of you."

"But it wasn't-"

"Let's get out to the pitch, yeah?" Harry cut in quickly. She rolled her eyes and left, leaving the two guys by themselves.

"What happened mate?" hissed Ron.

Harry shook his head. "I don't even know, but it's not happening again-"

"Why?! Mate, she's bloody in love with you, it'd be so easy to-"

"There's something going on with her and Caspar and it feels wrong. It wasn't anything meaningful, just...intense," he said bitterly, leaving the tent without another word.

"Bloody sounds intense," mumbled Ron before following.

Harry went up to the front of the group where Anna stood. She merely glanced at him before her grey eyes went back to combing through the crowd. "There's so many of them."

And indeed there were. Over half the Gryffindor house was recognizable with some others. The crowd ranged from shaking first years to intimidating seventh years.

Speaking of seventh years, a certain one, in particular, waltzed up to the two, flashing a smile. "Hey there, Cormac McLaggen, Keeper...although, Anna already knows. We got to know each other in that broom closet-"

"No, um, I don't know what you're..." Anna sputtered awkwardly. She cleared her throat and straightened up. "What the hell do you want?"

"To introduce myself to Potter and to let you both know that I'm also in old Sluggy's group too."

"We don't care."

"Y'know Anna, you were a lot nicer last time we-"

She cut him off. "You should get back with the other tryouts because you aren't getting any special attention. And besides, you have competition."

"You sure know how to give special attention," said McLaggen with a wink, causing her to scowl. "And what competition? Weaslebee?"

"Actually, he's a great Keeper, he was my backup last year."

"Speak of last year," Harry piped up, "you weren't at tryouts."

The brute puffed out his chest a bit. "Yeah, I ate a pound of Doxy Eggs on a bet. Landed me a week in the Infirmary."

"Well aren't you a stud," muttered Anna.

"Maybe your friend Granger thinks so? You should introduce me to her, we could even be on a first-name basis-"

"She's into brains, not brutes," she said.

"It's obvious you two are different, then," said McLaggen, giving one last wink before Anna shooed him away.

Harry opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off. "Don't ask anything you don't want to know."

He merely nodded and swallowed his curiosity, deciding to talk to the crowd. "Um, excuse me," he said, but nobody paid him any attention. "We really need to start tryouts so can you please be-"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" bellowed Anna and everyone fell silent, including Harry. "Well, go on."

"Right, erm, thanks Anna," he said sheepishly and she gave a small smile. "Hi, I'm Harry Potter and this is Anna Black. I'm Seeker and she'll be Beater. We'll start off with a bit of basic flying."

They divided them up into tens and were happy they did this. The first years crashed, as they hadn't flown before. The second group was a group of idiotic, giggling girls - including Romilda Vane. They tumbled from their brooms and clutched each other on the ground, giggling. When they were asked kindly to leave, Romilda ran up to Harry and attempted to snog him.

Needless to say, Anna was so displeased that she chased the idiot girl off the field on foot, her irises glowing red and a Beater's bat in hand. She would've knocked the girl unconscious if Harry hadn't held her back.

The next group was of Hufflepuffs and Harry had yelled for them and any other houses to get off the field. The Ravenclaws followed them dejectedly.

After that, the players were somewhat decent but many injuries and a broken broom occurred - although, the latter was the cause of Anna, who broke it trying to whack a newly-returned Romilda on the field.

"So, what do you think?" asked Harry once they had gone through Chaser and Beater tryouts.

"Katie Bell for sure. That Demelza girl was good too; she dodged all my bludgers. Maybe Kirke?"

"What about Dean? He was really good," he suggested. "You can't hold a grudge. Look, I don't know what happened on that date but-"

"Nothing happened, I just forgot he tried out. You're right, he's good," said Anna quickly. "As for Beater...I can't tell. Personally, I prefer Ritchie as a person but Jimmy sucks less at playing."

"Jimmy it is," said Harry.

The rest of the practice went on well...ha, just kidding.

Many tantrums were thrown and the two had yelled themselves hoarse by the end of it. McLaggen lost by one save - thanks to Hermione - and Ron gained the position as Keeper.

Afterward, the four started towards Hagrid's but were held back by someone. "Hey, Anna!"

They turned to see Caspar. Anna grinned. "Hey Caspar, what's up?"

"Just was wondering if you wanted to hang out? That was rough, but you did a really good job," he said, but his eyes flitted to Harry and added, "both of you did a good job."

Harry merely nodded and Anna replied, "Yeah, I'd love to-"

"I thought we were going to see Hagrid?" asked the raven-haired boy.

Guilt and confliction muddled Anna's mind as she thought about what she and Harry had done earlier.

'No,' she thought. 'I'm done waiting around for Harry.'

So she said, "I have class with him, so it doesn't really matter to me. Tell him and Buckbeak I said hi though."

"I thought it was Witherwings?" asked Caspar. Anna chuckled and waved goodbye before walking off with the boy, explaining why the name was changed.

Harry stared longingly after her, but felt mad at the same time. Who all was she with?

~=~
Hey guys, sorry for mistakes and lateness and the sucky ending. I'm really short on time rn.

Next chapter will be good, I promise.

Question of the chapter,
~on a scale of 1-10, how much do you hate McLaggen?~

Love to all,
~Lumos