Tough Love

Anya stared at him, more out of surprise than anything; she had definitely not seen this coming. She’d liked him since her very first voyage on the Hogwarts Express when he’d befriended her by letting her sit in with him, Fred, and Lee Jordan in their car. She was dying to say yes, that she wouldn’t leave him, but Draco was still glaring at George like he wanted to curse him; she just couldn’t bring herself to hurt him like that, and especially not in front of the guy who had just exploded a firework in his face and was trying to take her away from him; Anya just couldn’t see how that would have a happy ending.
An awkward silence fell on the dungeon, only to be broken by Snape returning, dragging an angry looking Isabel into the room behind him.
“Why won’t you answer me?!” Isabel asked, glaring at the back of his head, “Why won’t you tell me why you gave her detention for trying to have a life?”
“I do not have to explain myself to you or anyone else Ms. Hernandez, and I will not be spoken to that way, twenty points will be taken from Gryffindor,” he replied coldly, pointing her in the direction of an empty desk, “and as for you Mr. Weasley, you may have a seat since you seem so keen on interrupting my detention’s.”
George groaned and plopped down next to Isabel, glancing over at Anya who was still standing by the door, trying to read her expression.
“Ms. Evans, please sit down or I will be forced to take more points from Gryffindor.”
Anya nodded and slowly walked back to her seat, throwing a questioning glance at Isabel who just gave her a look that asked ‘not now?’ She finally made it back to her seat and began working again although she looked distracted and uncomfortable. After about forty five minutes, Anya raised her hand and after she had been acknowledged by Snape, she asked, “I’m done sir, can I go now?”
“Let me see what you’ve come up with,” he demanded.
“Yes sir,” Anya responded, handing over her paper.
“Hmmm… You may go,” Snape said grudgingly after reading through her essay and finding nothing wrong with it.
“Thank you, sir,” Anya answered, grabbing her bag and practically running out of the room. George watched her retreating back as she left the dungeon and sprinted down the hallway, before continuing to write lines.
Over an hour later, Snape finally dismissed the three left in detention; they quickly exited the dungeon and hurried up to the main hallway. Suddenly Isabel grabbed the backs of their robes and pulled them to a stop, “What did you two do to Anya?” she demanded, “I’ve never seen her act like that in all the time I’ve been here.”
“I didn’t do anything to her,” Draco said in an arrogant tone, “I was simply asking her a question when that… filth… and his repulsive twin barged in and interrupted me.”
“Hey! One, don’t call me or my brother ‘filth’, and two, you were doing more than just asking her a simple question, you were trying to steal her from me,” George shot back at him.
Draco looked like he was about to say something else, but before he could Isabel jumped back in, “Would you two Neanderthals stop trying to rip each other’s throats out for five seconds and focus!? Anya’s disappeared because you two had to be butts and put her on the spot like that!” she yelled at them, her voice bouncing off the walls of the narrow corridor, “Now you two had better grow up and help me find her, or I’ll make you two disappear permanently; got it?”
“Got it,” they answered, looking nervous.
“You’d better have,” Isabel replied, glaring at the two of them; ‘why do boys have to make things so complicated?’ she asked herself as they ran off to search for Anya.
They looked everywhere, yet they couldn’t seem to find her anywhere. “Where could she be?” George puffed after climbing seven flights of stairs, “the castle isn’t that big.” Isabel shrugged and kept walking towards the next flight of stairs when she heard a voice that sounded oddly like George, but seeing as George was still trying to get his breathing back to normal it left only one other option: Fred. Fred was standing about a third of the way down the hallway to their left, talking to a door. “Erm. Fred?” Isabel called down the hallway, “why are you talking to a door?”
Fred cut off midsentence and turned to stare at her, “I’m not talking to a door,” he replied, “I’m trying to get Anya out from behind the door so I can figure out why she’s been hiding for the past three hours.”
“Okay then… have fun with- wait. Did you say Anya’s behind that door? Why haven’t you just forced her out?” Isabel asked.
“Yep. I’d have gotten her out hours ago, but Filch’s been watching me to make sure I don’t sneak into the girl’s bathroom,” Fred replied.
“Oh. In that case...” Isabel pushed past Fred and into the bathroom; the first thing she noticed was that Anya was sitting in a giant circular window about thirty feet off the ground, and secondly that she had changed clothes and was now talking to a ghost. “Anya Rose Evans, you’d better get your butt down here or I’m coming up there,” Isabel announced, hands on her hips. “Can’t I just stay up here?” Anya called back down, “Myrtle’s cool, and the bathroom happens to be boy free.”
“Myrtle…? Oh, your new friend. Hi Myrtle, could you please ask Anya to come down here and just get it over with? I’d really appreciate it.”
“Sure,” Moaning Myrtle replied with a sigh, “Anya, your friend wants to go with her and just get whatever it is she’s talking about over with.”
“I’m guessing I don’t get a choice in this do I?” Anya asked them both.
“Nope, you most definitely do not,” Isabel answered, “would you come down if I made all the guys but Fred leave?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Anya answered after taking a minute to think about it.
“Okay, just give me a sec and I’ll be right back,” Isabel replied, stepping back out into the hallway where the three guys were waiting, “Okay, here’s the deal: George, Draco, do me a favor and disappear, Fred wait here. Any questions?”
Draco and George just stared at her for a minute, before turning and walking back to their dormitories. Fred stayed where he was and watched them go, “What was all that about?” he asked Isabel. “Anya wouldn’t come out until they were gone,” Isabel explained before going back in to find that Anya had somehow gotten back down from the window and was perched on a sink, “Are they gone?” she asked. “Yep, all but Fred.”
Anya nodded and hopped off the sink, “Bye Myrtle, it was nice meeting you,” she called back to the ghost still sitting in the window; Myrtle waved back and then continued to stare out at the grounds. Anya followed Isabel out to where Fred was waiting, looking slightly confused. “Why did you make them leave?” he asked Anya. “I just didn’t want to have to give either of them an answer, I didn’t think I could handle that kind of pressure,” she responded. Fred thought about her answer for a moment before accepting it, “I can understand that,” he said, “but how do you plan on avoiding my brother? He does live in the same house dormitory as you.”
“I know, I’ll figure that out when it comes to it,” she responded. The three of them then walked back to the portrait hole and entered the common room, Fred leading with Anya closely behind him. Fred blocked her from the rest of the room’s view as she raced up the spiral staircase and flung herself onto her bed. “Fred was right chica, you are going to have to face him sooner or later,” Isabel told her after she’d closed the door behind her. “I know… just not tonight,” Anya told her.
A few days later, George was sitting by the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room thinking about Anya and if he’d made the right decision when he’d asked her to choose him over Malfoy. He didn’t want to see her anywhere near Draco or his family, but that wasn’t really his decision to make, it was hers. He just wished that she’d give him an answer, so he’d know for sure if she hated him or not. Finally he got tired of just sitting around doing nothing and decided to walk around for a while. He walked down towards one of the courtyards when he heard yelling. Curious, he picked up his pace and rounded the corner that led outside to find Draco screaming at a girl in a long sleeve grey and black stripped dress and black sneakers.
“How dare you pick some filthy blood traitor over me?!” he screamed, “He’s a nobody! He can’t even afford new robes or books, yet you chose him-!”
“Who cares that he isn’t rich? Money means absolutely nothing to me, it can’t buy you happiness or anything else that actually matters,” the girl responded, stepping closer to Malfoy and jabbing her finger into his chest, “secondly, he’s the nicest, most considerate guy I’ve ever met, unlike you who assumes that everything’s going to be handed to you on a silver platter. You’re just mad because you lost, and for the record, that’s one of the reasons my answers no; I’m not some prize to be won by the highest bidder.”
Draco just stood there for a moment in shock; he couldn’t believe anyone had dared to speak to him like that. Finally he glared down at her and said, “You’ll regret this someday, and I hope I’m around to see it.” Then he turned around and stalked away. Leaving the girl behind, watching his retreating back. With a sigh, she turned the opposite direction and walked away. George couldn’t make sense of what he’d just seen, it didn’t make sense. He shook his head and went back up to the common room; he’d seen enough action for one day.
He made it over half way there, when he collided with the girl in the black and grey dress on the stairs. “Sorry…” he started, before realizing that it was Anya and lost his ability to speak. He’d never seen her in a dress before, he doubted anyone alive other that her Godfather had, it definitely looked good on her though.
“Um… hi,” she said, taking a tiny step back, “I was just coming to find you.”
“Hi… look, I heard you talking in the courtyard…”
Anya winced, “Sorry you had to hear that, but I guess it saves time in the long run.”
“Saves time…?” George asked, looking confused again.
Anya smiled and nodded while she moved a stray strand of hair away from his eyes, “It saves a lot of time, now all I have to do is answer your question.”
George suddenly realized what she meant, losing both the ability to speak and to breathe.
“My answers yes,” she said simply.
It took less than a second for George to process this, “Really?” he finally managed.
Anya reached up and kissed him gently on his lips, “Really.”