Daughter of a Criminal

The Hungarian Horntail

Rita Skeeter had gone even further than transforming his "er's" into long, sickly sentences: She had interviewed other people about him too.
'Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Anastasia Black, a stunningly pretty pure-blood girl who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school,"
Ann had come in for her fair share of unpleasantness too, but she hadn't yet started yelling at innocent bystanders; in fact, Harry was full of admiration for the way she was handling the situation.
"Stunningly pretty? Her?" Pansy Parkinson had shrieked the first time she had come face-to-face with Ann after Rita's article had appeared. "What was she judging against â€" a crow?"
"Ignore it," Ann said in a dignified voice, holding her head in the air and stalking past the sniggering Slytherin girls as though she couldn't hear them. "Just ignore it, Harry."

But Harry couldn't ignore it. Ron hadn't spoken to him at all since he had told him about Snape's detentions. Hermione and Ann were both furious with the pair of them; the two went from one to the other, trying to force them to talk to each other, Ann to Harry, and Hermoine to Ron, but Harry was adamant: He would talk to Ron again only if Ron admitted that Harry hadn't put his name in the Goblet of Fire and apologized for calling him a liar.
"I didn't start this," Harry said stubbornly. "It's his problem."
"You miss him!" Hermione said impatiently.
"And I know he misses you â€"" Ann added
"Miss him?" said Harry. "I don't miss him. . . ." But this was a downright lie. Harry liked Hermione very much, and Ann, while Ann was by far one of his favorite people, but neither was Ron. There was much less laughter and a lot more hanging around in the library when Hermione was your best friend. Ann on the other hand was less worried about homework, so there was still some laughter. But Anns friendship with Cedric had blossomed. So much so that she confided in him about the article explaining much to Cedrics delight that her and Harry were just friends. Harry and Hermione consequently spent a lot of time poring over books during their lunchtimes. Ann would join the pair giving Harry tips, as she was by far the best at wandwork out of the four. Viktor Krum was in the library an awful lot too, Hermione often complained about Krum being there â€" not that he ever bothered them â€" but because groups of giggling girls often turned up to spy on him from behind bookshelves, and Hermione found the noise distracting.
"He's not even good-looking!" she muttered angrily, glaring at Krum's sharp profile. "They only like him because he's famous! They wouldn't look twice at him if he couldn't do that WonkyFaint thing â€"" Ann gave Hermoine a quizzical look.
"Do you mean Wronski Feint?," she asked,
"Yes the Wonky-," Hermoine tried
"Wronski Feint," said Harry, through gritted teeth.
Time Skip
On the Saturday before the first task, all students in the third year and above were permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade. Ann told Harry that it would do him good to get away from the castle for a bit, and Harry didn't need much persuasion.
"What about Ron, though?" he said. "Don't you want to go with them?"
"Well I was going to met up with Cedric but he's busy with homework, Hermoines studying in the library and Ron, uh…" Ann went slightly pink. "I thought we might meet up with them in the Three Broomsticks. . . ."
"No," said Harry flatly. The Ron thing made him quickly forget about Cedric.
"Oh Harry, this is so stupid â€""
"I'll come, but I'm not meeting Ron, and I'm wearing my Invisibility Cloak."
"Oh all right then . . ." Ann snapped, "but I hate talking to you in that cloak, I never know if I'm looking at you or not." So Harry put on his Invisibility Cloak in the dormitory, went back downstairs, and together he and Ann set off for Hogsmeade. Harry felt wonderfully free under the cloak; he watched other students walking past them as they entered the village, most of them sporting Support Cedric Diggory! badges, but no horrible remarks came his way for a change, and nobody was quoting that stupid article.
"People keep looking at me now," said Ann grumpily as they came out of Honeydukes Sweetshop later, eating large creamfilled chocolates. "They think I'm talking to myself." "Don't move your lips so much then."
"Come on, please just take off your cloak for a bit, no one's going to bother you here."
"Oh yeah?" said Harry. "Look behind you." Rita Skeeter and her photographer friend had just emerged from the Three Broomsticks pub. Talking in low voices, they passed right by Ann without looking at her. Harry backed into the wall of Honeydukes to stop Rita Skeeter from hitting him with her crocodile-skin handbag. When they were gone, Harry said, "She's staying in the village. I bet she's coming to watch the first task."
"She's gone," said Ann, looking right through Harry toward the end of the street. "Why don't we go and have a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, it's a bit cold, isn't it? You don't have to talk to Ron!" she added irritably, correctly interpreting his silence. The Three Broomsticks was packed, mainly with Hogwarts students enjoying their free afternoon, but also with a variety of magical people Harry rarely saw anywhere else. Harry edged slowly toward a spare table in the corner while Ann went to buy drinks. Harry finally reached the table and sat down at it. Ann joined him a moment later and slipped him a butterbeer under his cloak.
"Look, it's Hagrid!" Ann said to Harry, after a while. The back of Hagrid's enormous shaggy head â€" he had mercifully abandoned his bunches â€" emerged over the crowd. Hagrid was so large, but standing up carefully, Ann saw that Hagrid had been leaning low, talking to Professor Moody. Hagrid had his usual enormous tankard in front of him, but Moody was drinking from his hip flask. Madam Rosmerta, the pretty landlady, didn't seem to think much of this; she was looking askance at Moody as she collected glasses from tables around them. As Ann watched, he saw Hagrid and Moody get up to leave. Moody, however, paused, his magical eye on the corner where Harry was standing. He tapped Hagrid in the small of the back (being unable to reach his shoulder), muttered something to him, and then the pair of them made their way back across the pub toward Harry and Ann's table.
"All right, Ann?" said Hagrid loudly.
"Hello," said Ann, smiling back. Moody limped around the table and bent down; he muttered,
"Nice cloak, Potter." Harry stared at him in amazement. Moody grinned.
"Can your eye â€" I mean, can you â€" ?"
"Yeah, it can see through Invisibility Cloaks," Moody said quietly. "And it's come in useful at times, I can tell you." Hagrid was beaming down at Harry too. Hagrid now bent down on the pretext of reading Ann's 'The Goblin Revolution of 1456' essay, as well. Straightening up, Hagrid said loudly,
"Nice ter see yeh, Ann," winked, and departed. Moody followed him.
"Why does Hagrid want me to meet him at midnight?" Harry said, very surprised.
"Does he?" said Ann, looking startled. "I wonder what he's up to?"
"Dunno," said Harry
"I don't know whether you should go, Harry. . . ." Ann looked nervously around and hissed, "It might make you late for my dad."