Anna Black, The Girl Who Lived (Book 6)

13: Too Late, Potter

As the month went on, classes became more and more difficult, and so did the nagging request of Dumbledore. Speak of it, Harry and Anna sat together in Potions, brewing the Euphoria Elixr using the Half-Blood Prince's book.

"Ugh, this is so hard to read! She could've at least wrote more in the margins rather than over the original print," said Anna, eyeing the heavily marked book with distaste.

"She?" asked Harry. "You can't tell me you still believe this is your mother's-"

"I do, and until you prove it otherwise I'll continue to do so," she stated with a smirk. The girl was sure she was correct with her assumptions, and she didn't see a problem with her conclusion. Who else's book could it be? She vaguely recognized the handwriting from somewhere as well...it just had to be her mother.

Before Harry could protest, Slughorn strode over to them merrily. The boy immediately put in the wrong ingredient causing Anna to groan and roll her eyes. "What the hell are you doing? You're supposed to add porcupine quills, not shrivelfig."

"Sorry, I must've gotten them mixed up," he lied, hoping Slughorn would see Anna's apparent dominance in Potions.

She was still oblivious to the professor behind her. "How? Do you need new glasses? Actually, why do they even have glasses in the magical world? Can't that just cure bad eyesight?"

"You know, your mother asked that same question," said Slughorn, startling Anna. She spun around and narrowed her eyes, staying silent. "You know, you're a lot like her."

"I wouldn't know," she said coldly.

Dumbledore's request popped into Harry's head, 'Make sure Slughorn takes a greater liking to Anna, she's crucial for this to work.'

"Anna's great at potions," he blurted out. "You know, if I didn't work with her, I'd probably fail this class. I don't know what I'd do without her, she's brilliant."

Slughorn smiled and pat the boy on the back. "Well, you know how women are, bossy but always right...even when they aren't!"

Anna merely cringed while the two laughed but felt relieved as she heard the bell chime, indicating they had to leave. Slughorn gave them a perfect score and strode off to quickly grade everyone else.

They packed up and started towards the door. But as they were leaving, something caught Anna's eye; there were many pictures on top of a cabinet near his office, and she could've sworn she recognized some of the people in them.

Before she could go look, Harry had lightly pushed her forward by the small of her back so they could leave. She felt a bit of a spark and silently cursed herself. 

"Anna, you need to be kinder to him, you know it's Dumbledore's request...hey, what're you doing?" asked Harry as Anna had taken him by the hand and quickly led him down the corridor where nobody else was. He gave a sigh and stopped her, looking her in the eyes. "We can't do this...you know how I feel about us being together-"

"What? No no no, don't be stupid, you're too much of a stick in the mud anyway," said Anna with a forced laugh, trying to ignore the memory of the last time they'd snogged and she'd practically melted under his touch. "We need to sneak into Slughorn's room-"

"We need to make friends with him, not give him a reason to hate us-"

"We also need to find out more about him!" she hissed. "Look, if we can find a lead or even a conversation starter, we should do so. I saw something that I need to take a better look at...Harry, please, come with or at least help me!"

He hesitated, but one look into her pleading gaze made him sigh and say, "Okay, fine, but we better not get caught."

"Thank you!" she said happily, and without thinking, she pecked his cheek and smiled as she watched him turn red.