A/N: Sorry for the delay. I apologize of this isn't my best work. I had a lot of writer's block with this chapter. That's why it's also a bit short.

A few hours later in the common room, Anna looked up from her book to survey the Gryffindors. A few had managed to fall asleep and were now slumbering sloppily on the scarlet furniture. Two first year girls, a pair of blonde best friends slept leaning on one another on a couch. A boy with messy chestnut colored hair who Anna recognized as Joshua from one of her classes sat with his legs crossed on the soft red carpet with a girl's head in his lap smiling softly. Anna grinned mischievously at that, having guessed long ago that he had a crush on Maria. They were so cute together.

She noticed that a large amount of the awake students had their hands covering their mouths to muffle their giggles and their eyes trained on the other couch where Fred and George were squirting shaving cream into the hand of their brother, Percy Weasley while he was napping a scarlet recliner. She sighed and remembered the time James had decided to try that on her once before after she had fallen asleep studying for McGonagall's exam. He had thought it was funny until she had dyed all of his Quidditch uniforms neon green with pink polka dots.

That was the last time James Potter pranked Anna Evans.

With a soft, nostalgic smile, she shook her head and looked back at her novel with a small yawn. By the time she turned to the next page she heard a 'Splat!', followed by a groan. Soon enough the irate prefect was on his feet lecturing the the group of Gryffindors as if it were a federal offense to prank him. The Professor had to stifle a giggle at the sight. After all, she had been the one to give the boys the shaving cream in the first place.

Once a marauder, always a marauder.

*Time Skip*

Anna was sad to hear that Neville was going to be severely punished for his mistake. It wasn't like he had intended for the passwords to fall into Sirius' hands. She'd tried her best to persuade Albus and Minnie to lighten his sentence but they remained stubborn. Since Neville seemed to be the person to have suffered the most from Sirius' little stunt, Anna decided that she would do her best to help him through his slump.

The poor Gryffindor was miserable. Everyone had been forbidden to give him the password to get past the Fat Lady (who had agreed to go back to her job of guarding the entrance as long as she had a team of security trolls protecting her), which meant he was left sitting outside the door until someone let him in. And even if the students were aloud to tell him, the majority still held grudges against him for allowing a murderer into the common room. Minerva had banned him from Hogsmeade. And, as if those punishments weren't bad enough on their own , he was also given detention. Originally, he was going to spend his detention with McGonagall or Snape, but Anna managed to pull a few strings and made it so she, Remus or Professor Sprout would have him for their detention, depending on which teacher was available on the days he had detention.

But the worst penalty Mr. Longbottom had to face came in the form of a crimson letter he receive the following morning at breakfast: a howler from his grandma.

Anna had to wince in sympathy as she munched on her banana-nut muffin. Being sent a howler was the magical equivalent of having your mother burst into the school cafeteria while you are eating, yank you up by your ear, and start berating you through a megaphone about something stupid you did. It was a mortifying experience that gave all the ammo a bully needed to terrorize a kid for at least a month.

Next to her, Severus rolled his eyes at his friend's pitying expression, "I'll never understand why you're so fond of that boy."

"It's because she's not heartless like you Severus," Remus curtly replied, "Why do you always have to pick on poor Neville? He's got enough bad luck already without you always making life difficult for him."

Anna elbowed her husband for being rude but it was too late to stop the impending quarrel between the two men. The Slytherin cast an annoyed glance in the werewolf's direction, "I wasn't talking to you mutt."

Anna sent each of them a warning look, "No fighting you two." She paused before glaring at Snape with tired eyes, "And stop calling him mutt, Sev. I'm sick of it."

She drained the last of the coffee her goblet was filled with before walking away, feeling an air of victory in in her strides. She wasn't even that mad at Severus, but she saw no harm in making him feel guilty about calling her husband names. He deserved it.

*Time Skip*

Later that evening was yet another Hogsmede trip. Anna had decided that the commotion created from the field trip made it the perfect time for her to slip away to try and interrogate Sirius about his actions. Then, if she had time, she spend sometimes with Neville. After all, the boy had a potions essay and could use all the help he could get.

But as she was walking through the halls, she heard two familiar voices talking in hush tones around the corner. Realizing it was Professor Trelawney and Sophia, one of her favorite students, the marauder in her jumped at the chance to eavesdrop on their conversation.

She had begun to notice Sophia getting more and more distracted and tired in her classes. Her grades were still high but Anna was still concerned.

"I'm afraid I don't understand, professor."

The divinations teacher patted the third year's head, "I wouldn't expect you to, dear. But you will one day."

Sophia frowned, "But what do my dreams mean? Why am I having them?"

Trelawney put a hand on her shoulder and smiled mysteriously, "Perhaps it is because one day you will have an important role to fill , Sophia, whether it be big or small. Only time will tell what that role may be."

Sybil started to walk away from her student but the Ravenclaw ran after her and tugged on her sleeve, "Wait!"

Anna heard her colleague sigh wearily and turn to face her student one last time looking a little impatient, as if her advice hadn't been vague and confusing for the young girl, "What is it, child?! I have to prepare for my next lesson."

The young girl swallowed nervously now that Trelawny's expecting gaze was turned back to her. She looked at her hands shyly, "I can't just sit and wait for my destiny. I need to know more! My visions are trying to tell me something, I know it! Please, do you think you could help me? You could teach me or read my future or...oh I don't know! Something! At least try!"

There was a moments pause before the Professor answered, "Come to my classroom during lunch tomorrow for tea. I'll help you then."

Sophia smiled and thanked the professor before skipping off to join her friends for Hogsmede.

Anna's brow furrowed at the new information she had stumbled upon. She wondered if these visions, the ones Sophia said she dreamt of, were the reason the girl always seemed so tired as of late. And, in truth, the redhead felt a bit guilty. She had noticed her Sophia's change in behavior and hadn't even bothered to ask about it. Then again, lots of kids were having nightmares and lack of sleep because of Sirius' late night breaking.

Anna sighed as she began walking through the halls again, not even really sure where she had been going before she stumbled upon Sophia's conversation.

To say the least, she was disappointed in herself. She prided herself on being the type of person to stick up for the underdog and not to overlook the little guy. Yet she had been neglecting Sophia, a student she had come to adore although they didn't interact as much as she did with Ron and Hermione. In fact, she had barely spoken to the girl this year. No wonder she had confided in Sybil instead of Anna.

And that was another thing that worried Anna. Trelawney wasn't a very good seer. Anna may not be interested in Divinations but she had met plenty of better oracles than that woman. She was almost certain the woman had to be a fake and, if that was true, it sickenede the redhead to know that someone would take advantage of Sophia and lead the girl to believe that Trelawney was a seer. The fox was already irritated that she felt the need to scare poor Harry and several other students by insisting that either they or someone they loved was going to die. All it did was make her look good and cause unnecessary stress to the children.

With those thoughts, Anna decided that she would have question Sophia about Trelawney later and, if it turned out the woman really was just humoring Sophia and playing with her emotions, then she would take one of the Professor's crystal balls and-

"Anna!"

The distracted woman turned to see a relieved Neville Longbottom, "Neville?" The boy was breathing hard and Anna felt a second twinge of guilt. He had clearly searched the entire school for her.

She approached him and patted his back, "Are you alright?"

He smiled sheepishly, "Yeah. I was just hoping you could help me with what we're learning in DADA. I really don't understand much about vampires and I still have to do that essay you assigned. I'm just unclear on a few things. Does Garlic hurt them or just repel them? Why can't they see their reflection? Does simply being bitten by a vampire turn someone into a vampire or does the vampire have to do something special to turn someone? They don't really sleep in coffins, do they? That just seems silly..."

He went on and on with all of his misgivings on the subject and Anna tried to correct and explain them the best she could. After all, there were a lot of aspects and abilities possessed by magical creatures that simply weren't meant to be understood.

She thoroughly enjoyed the intelligible conversation because, unlike other students, Neville didn't simply want to know the answers so he could pass. The shy Gryffindor was one of the few that actually wanted to learn and was genuinely eager to understand. He didn't fail classes because he was a slacker. He failed because sometimes he didn't understand the lesson but was too shy to ask the teacher to explain. The redheaded Professor knew this after spending countless hours tutoring his mother, Alice, when they had gone to Hogwarts together.

At first, it had seemed silly to Anna that some students knew very little about creatures like vampires and werewolves. After all, she had been raised in the muggle world, where supernatural creatures were an exciting and mysterious fictional topic. But, children who were raised by primarily magical folks were often kept in the dark about such things because, unlike muggles, parents who were witches and wizards understood that Vampires were very real and nasty creatures. Therefore, some magical parents and guardians thought it best not to taint their son/daughter's mind with such dark things. Personally, Anna thought it would be better to teach kids how to defend themselves against a vampire attack rather than keep them ignorant of the threat, but what did she know?

She wasn't a parent.

The witch had planned on looking for Sirius but the time flew by far too quickly and, before she knew it, the Hogsmeade trip had ended. She had missed her chance.

Reluctantly, she said goodbye to Neville and returned to her quarters.

*Time Skip*

Anna made herself a cup of tea and pulled a chair over to the window. She let the view of th familiar scenery calm her as she sipped the warm camomile. Her thoughts went all the way back to her first year at Hogwarts. She remembered staring through the glass at the unfamiliar yet beautiful scenery. She remembered it striking her that this was her new life. This was the world she belonged in. It was a strange new reality full of magic, funny trinkets and creatures, and the most beautiful nonsense you could ever imagine.

It was a dream come true.

Anna became lost in thought as she sipped her tea and didn't come out of her haze until a hand touched her shoulder, startling her of her trance. Her instincts kicked in and her hand wrapped around the offending appendage with intentions of standing up and twisting it behind the person's back. Before she could do that, however, her green eyes saw the familiar wedding band on his finger.

She immediately released his wrist and glared playfully at the werewolf, "Don't scare me like that, Remy!"

His previously weary eyes gazed at the fiery redhead with amusement. "Sorry. What were you thinking about?" His body remained behind her as he played with a strand of her brightly colored curls.

She shrugged, "Nothing. Just enjoying the view. How was Hogsmeade?"

"Good. It would've been better if you had been there."

The fox turned around twisted her body to face him with guilty eyes. Her hand grasped his gently, "I'll go next time. I was just tired I guess. I haven't been able get much sleep lately because of my nightmares and I couldn't sleep last night because I had to watch the kids."

Suddenly Remus remembered he had something to tell Anna, "Speaking of kids. I saw Severus talking to our nephew in the hall."

She groaned, "Oh no." Anna should've known Severus would do something out of spite after the little argument they had at breakfast.

The pair went to sit on their bed so Remus could tell his wife what had happened, "I think Harry has been sneaking off to Hogsmeade using one the secret passage from Honeydukes to Hogwarts and I know that Severus suspects the same. I'm not sure Severus knows about that tunnel but he definitely knows that there are secret passages hidden in the castle."

Anna's eyes widened with shock, "He found it all by himself?" She asked referring to Harry. That was rather impressive. It had taken the marauders a while to find those passages ways.

The werewolf shook his head, "No. I think he had help. That's what I wanted to talk to you about." He reached into his suit jacket and brought out a familiar piece of parchment paper.

The witch stared at the paper in disbelief before looking at he husband, "Is that-"

He grinned excitedly, "It is. Can you believe it? It could have ended up anywhere, but fate brought it to Harry."

Red breathed, "Merlin that's spooky. It still works?" She didn't know why she asked. She knew it did. She had designed it.

Remus gently pressed the Parchment into her nervous hands, "See for yourself."

She blinked before hesitantly pointing her wand at the thick, worn paper. She closed her eyes and spoke:

"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."