Tough Love

The first few weeks of school flew by without incident, for Anya the days were full of her friends, classes, homework, and more time with friends, particularly with Isabel and George; although now she was spending more time on her essay for potions which would earn her detention if she failed.
“This essay’s going to be the death of me,” she announced, banging her head on the table after four hours straight of working on it and getting nowhere.
“Really? That bad?” George asked, leaning over her shoulder and looking at what she’d gotten so far.
“Yep,” Anya answered, her voice muffled by the desk.
“When was the last time you went outside?” Isabel asked from the armchair next to hers.
“Erm. What’s today?”
“Wednesday,” Isabel replied.
“Ok, then four days, seven hours, twenty nine minutes, and eleven seconds,” Anya answered, looking over at her watch.
Isabel, George, and Fred stared at her like she’d lost her mind, making her look up, “What?”
“You know the exact amount of time it’s been since the last time you went outside?” Fred asked incredulously.
“Yep,” Anya replied, going back to working on her paper.
“Ok, you need to stop with that and you get outside,” Isabel told her, snatching Anya’s papers from her and dragging her out of her chair, “come on,” she told her dragging her towards the painting that doubled as a door.
“Isabel…” Anya started, just to be cut off by her persistent best friend.
“Don’t even start, you’re going outside and you’re going to like it,” Isabel told her in a no nonsense kind of voice.
Anya decided it was best to not argue anymore, she’d learned in these past few weeks about the pointlessness of arguing with Isabel. “Fine, but only for a little while, I still have to finish that evil paper before Snape gives me enough detention to last me a lifetime.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll have you back to your paper in no time, trust me,” Isabel said, pulling her through an arch and out into an open court yard. “See, sunshine is good.”
“Yes, you were right; can we go now?” Anya asked, trying to walk back inside.
“No, you may not go back in now,” Isabel told her, dragging her back, “at least stay out here for five minutes, please.”
“Fine,” Anya answered with a sigh, “but only five minutes, then I’m going back.”
Isabel laughed and sat down at one of the benches under a huge tree, looking at the other students sitting around outside, noting the group of Slytherins on the other side of the court yard and the blonde boy in the middle of it all who kept staring at Anya when he thought no one was looking. “Are you like a boy magnet or something?” Isabel asked her, “because every time I turn around some boy is staring at you or wants to talk to you.”
“What are you talking about?” Anya asked, looking confused.
“Blondie over there hasn’t been able to keep his eyes off you since we got out here.”
Anya looked in the direction of the Slytherins, “Oh, you mean Draco. He does that because he doesn’t like most of my friends, so he watches from a distance,” she explained.
“Ok, but that doesn’t make his creepy staring any less creepy.”
“I know, I’ll talk to him about it later,” Anya told her, “now come on, it’s been five minutes and I have to finish this paper. It’s due tomorrow!!”
“Fine, let’s go back,” Isabel agreed grudgingly.
They had only gotten about a third of the way down the hallway before they heard an oily voice calling them back. “A word, Ms. Evans if you please,” it said.
“Yes sir,” Anya replied, wincing and turning back towards one of the last people she wanted to see right now.
“You seem to have a lot of free time to spend outdoors, Ms. Evans. Meaning that you have already finished the paper I assigned to you, give it here please,” Professor Snape said, staring at her with an icy glare.
“I-I can’t sir,” Anya replied, looking nervous.
“And why ever not, Ms. Evans?”
“Because I haven’t finished yet, sir.”
“Yet you have time to loiter in a courtyard, is that right?”
“Yes, but…”
“No buts, Ms. Evans. You may finish your essay tomorrow night in detention. My office, five o’clock, do not be late.” Snape told her before turning on his heel and walking away.
“Yes, sir. I’ll be there,” Anya told the retreating back of her least favorite teacher.

Anya and Isabel walked back to the common room in silence, Isabel couldn’t think of anything to say; it was her fault that Anya had been outside instead of working on her paper, although that didn’t give Snape any reason to give her detention. She thought about the unfairness of it all until they reached the common room entrance where she pulled Anya to a stop, “Look, I’m sorry. It’s because of me that Snape gave you detention…”
“It’s ok,” Anya interrupted her, “he was going to find a reason to give me detention at some point anyways. He just happened to pick now for some odd reason.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive, and look on the bright side; blondie’s going to be there too, so I can tell him to stop staring at me for you.”
“Wait, why is blondie going to be there? I thought he was one of Snape’s favorites.”
“He is, he’s doing something for extra credit or something like that,” Anya explained.
“Oh… that explains it then,” Isabel replied, “come on, let’s go tell the guys the ‘great’ news.”
The next afternoon, Anya was on her way down to the dungeons for her detention with Snape. She reached the dimly lit, cold hallway and knocked on the door, “Come in,” the oily voice called, sounding bored. Anya walked into the room and walked to the front of the classroom where Snape directed her to sit at one of the desks and to start writing; Draco was already working on whatever he was supposed to be doing in a desk on the other side of the aisle. About half an hour into it, Snape announced that he had somewhere to go and he’d be back in about ten minutes and they’d better still be there when he got back.
The two nodded and kept right on working, not even bothering to look up. After a few minutes of silently working Draco suddenly said, “Hey Anya, could you come here for a sec?”
A bit unsure of what to expect Anya walked over to see what he wanted, “Can you help me with this? I have no idea what I’m doing,” he asked. Being the nice person that she was, Anya walked over and began explaining, but he wasn’t listening to her, he was just staring at her. Abruptly he cut into her explanation and said, “Anya, I’ve been wanting to tell you something for a long time, but I was too nervous to say it…”
Out of nowhere a firework exploded with a loud bang, flooding the room with a bright purple light. Anya turned around to see Fred and George laughing their heads off in the now open doorway, mimicking Draco, “ooh Anya ohh I love youuu but I’m too scared to say, ooh I’m such a girl ooooh.” Anya just shook her head and laughed at their attempt at sounding like Draco, although even she had to admit that they sounded almost exactly like him, as Fred waved and started walking back down the hallway still laughing. George still stood at the door, looking nervous as he said, “Anya, would you come here for a sec please?”
“Sure,” Anya answered, getting up and walking over to him.
“There’s been something I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while, but I’m a bit scared of how you’ll react,” he paused for a second and laughed, “I know that that’s exactly what Malfoy just said, but listen, I’ve had a crush on you for the longest time, I just didn’t want to ruin our friendship, but I don’t want to lose you to someone else either,” he told her, glancing over her shoulder at Draco who was glaring back, “please, stay with me. What do you say?”