Belladonna

The Boggart's Form

Belladonna 24

The Boggart's Form

12 January 1994

Sadie knew about Ana's crush on Fred. Sadie had known about it for some time, but Sadie didn't know the full extent of Ana's feelings. How could she when she'd never felt anything remotely close to it herself?

Sadie likened boys to ice cream. How could she know her favorite flavor, if she didn't try each one at least twice? So for her, the logical solution to help her best friend over a heartache, was to throw her into the arms of another man. Her ideal choice would have been Adrian Pucey.

Adrian and Ana got along splendidly. He came from a good family, with good merits and good money. And perhaps most importantly, Flora would have approved the match. Then the four of them could have remained a tightly knit group of best friends. For whatever reason, though, Adrian showed no interest in being anything more than Ana's friend.

So Sadie settled for Graham Montague. Sadie had noticed Graham staring at Ana with wide, glassy eyes on many occasions. It was clear that Ana had not noticed, but then again, she hadn't noticed anyone apart from the Weasley boy. So Sadie saw it absolutely necessary to accept Graham's proposal on Ana's behalf.

And it worked!

Ana seemed happy. She was laughing, and smiling, and spending many hours with Graham over the holidays. They'd sit in the common room and talk about potions or Quidditch. Sadie even caught them snogging a time or two.

All Sadie wanted was for her best friend to be happy. She truly only had good intentions; surely she couldn't be held accountable if those intentions turned to dust.

Ana was miserable.

It was nothing against Graham. He was a decent bloke, and Ana did enjoy spending time with him. She learned something new about him every time. But he wasn't the one person Ana wanted to spend her time with.

Since her date with Graham, Fred was somehow more scarce than he was before. He almost immediately went out and got detention for snogging some fifth year; Ana didn't bother to learn her name or her house. Ana supposed it was his way of getting back at her, and she had to remind herself that he had started this mess with his silence and open flirtation with Macavoy.

Graham was a good distraction. Other good distractions were cleaning the creature tanks in Professor Lupin's class, and Quidditch. Ana spent a few hours each week in Lupin's classroom cleaning cages and tanks of various creatures. He still had the grindylow, and he had obtained a red cap, a hinkypunk, and a few others. Since Ana was not there serving detention, she was allowed to use magic to speed up the process. And while cleaning, Professor Lupin often let her test her skills against the creatures.

All through the Christmas holiday, the Slytherin team practiced vigorously. They had yet to have their first match of the season—due to an "injury" that Draco obtained during his first Care of Magical Creatures lesson—but they were set to have it the first weekend after the start of term. Ana was eager for the rush that came from winning, and she was sure they would. She and Graham worked together like magic. In the two years that he didn't make the team, he studied Ana and Adrian and he knew their moves by heart.

The result of their first match wasn't quite what Ana expected. Slytherin still won, but it was only a narrow defeat. Ravenclaw had caught the snitch, but Ana, Graham, and Marcus managed to score enough points to obtain a victory. Still, it was a win and a nice distraction.