Edited on 1/22/13

Before Dawn

Plot: Annabel: sixth year. She's made to be partners with Remus for this stupid Herbology project, and in turn, they become friends. Petty drama, this guy named Blake that Lily is just in love with (He's a real prat, that one) and her friends, Noelle and Alice already in drama, it's no wonder her life is messed up! And there's something on the loose, a big something.

And it's attacking the sixth years.

Annabel looked dubiously at her dad, and he gave her an encouraging smile.

"You want me," Annabel said flatly, "to run into a wall?" She cocked an eyebrow at him.

He nodded.

"Dad, did you take your medication today?"

Instead of telling his daughter off, John just laughed and ruffled her hair. Annabel cringed and ducked down, trying futilely to keep her father's hand away from her hair. He knew how much she hated it when he did that, and it irked her when he kept on ruffling her hair. It was incredibly annoying. "I know, you think your old dad is crazy and possibly insane. But believe me – that's what you're supposed to do! In fact, when my parents told me to do it, I thought they were crazy as well!" He smiled at her. "Just trust me."

Annabel grimaced. "It's never a good thing when you're like a boy," she told her father.

John laughed some more. "Annabel, have some trust in your apparently crazy father."

"Da-a-ad!" Annabel whined, stomping her foot pathetically. "Stop fooling around and please, please just tell me the real way already! This will be my first day at Hogwarts! I'm supposed to be excited and you're not supposed to be playing tricks on me."

"I resent that," her father said. "But, fine." His voice was dramatic. "I shall show you the real way."

"Finally!" Annabel said, pouting.

Her father winked at her and then walked into the brick wall and disappeared into it.

Annabel stared at the wall for a while, jaw agape and wondering, what just happened?, when she happened to notice the time. It was only around ten minutes until the train departed, and her father had warned her that the train was notorious for leaving without straggling students. So Annabel cringed, shut her eyes, and ran into the wall.

"Dad, wait for me!"

Annabel found an empty compartment somewhere around the middle of the train. Everyone around seemed tall and older, and she had to practically drag her suitcase around with her, which, she might mention, was getting heavier by the moment. There were sixth years kissing and she wrinkled her nose at them.

When she got to the compartment, she dropped the luggage with a sigh of relief, and then put the owl next to her. She lunged towards the window and waved at her father through it just in time. The train was moving. There was a blur of faces as the speed picked up, and then free, open country.

Only ten minutes into the journey, she was bored.

It wasn't at all how she'd expected her first day at Hogwarts to go - weren't things supposed to go a little more smoothly? Instead, she was sitting alone in a compartment, hearing the faint chit-chat outside. She didn't even have an owl to converse with, for crying out loud. (Annabel wasn't one for pets.)

She was contemplating going outside and wandering around for a while when the compartment door slammed open.

"Whoops!" A sheepish, red-haired girl with dazzling green eyes stood there in the compartment door. Behind her was a sallow-faced boy with stringy, black hair and a hooked nose. "I'm sorry. I didn't know this one was taken. I guess we'll just be going then."

"It's alright!" Annabel said, giving a huge grin that hurt her face. "I don't mind. I'm Annabel Foster. And you are?"

"Lily Evans, and my friend here is Severus Snape. Though I call him Sev," the girl said briskly, taking Annabel at her word and sitting down. "Goodness gracious! Why is your luggage on the floor?"

Annabel looked at her, confused. "Goodness gracious? Who's gracious?" Then it clicked. "Oh, are you a Muggleborn?"

"A what?" Lily asked.

"A Muggleborn," Annabel pointed out. "It's someone with nonmagical parents."

"Oh. Yes, yes I am. Is there a problem with that?" Lily gasped. "Oh my God! Does that mean that Muggleborns have less magical potential than all of the hereditary wizards and witches? Does that mean that we're not going to be as successful as all the other people, and that we're not going to be at the top of the class? That's awful! I would never want to be anything like that!"

Annabel stared at her, momentarily lost for words. Then, she recovered. "Um, okay. Lily, the first thing that you need to know is that wizards and witches don't say, 'Oh my God'! They say, 'Oh Merlin' or 'bugger'. Anything like that."

"They don't teach wizard slang in books," said Lily, frowning.

"From all the muddle that you were saying, the only thing that I could pick up on was the part where you were worrying about Muggleborns having less...less potential than us purebloods or half-bloods. We all have the same magic...I think..." Annabel said, her brow puckering. "How about you? Do you know anything about it?" she asked, addressing Severus, who seemed to be surprised to be dragged into the conversation.

"We all have the same potential," Severus said, and Annabel frowned slightly when she realized that his voice was icy, resentful. But Lily said nothing, or noticed nothing, just grinning obliviously to her friend's hatred towards a girl that he had only just met. "I had no idea that no half-blood knew that. How foolish."

"What are you then?" Annabel said, trying to make her voice the same level of coolness as his. It was a struggle. "Muggleborn, or pureblood? Because from the way you described me as a half-blood, I have a feeling that you don't like half-bloods very much."

He simply sneered at her. "I am half-blood," he said, sticking his great hooked nose up in the air. "And what are you?"

Annabel shrugged. "Well, my mother was half-blood, and my father had a father who was half-blood and a mother who was muggleborn, so frankly I have no idea. Maybe I'm a quarter blood?"

"Rubbish," Snape scoffed. "There's no such thing as a quarter blood."

"Then what would I be called then?" she challenged.

Lily was watching us with a faintly bewildered look on her face. When she heard the trolley, her eyes lit up again. "What's that bell?" she asked curiously.

Her question was answered a mere moment later when a woman called, "Food from the trolley?"

"Ooh!" Annabel said, excited once more. "My father said that the trolley was delicious! He said that the food was superb, but I'd have to be careful with Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans. He said-"

"Yeah, yeah," Snape interjected. "We get it. Your father says a bunch of stuff about Hogwarts a lot. You don't need to drill it in."

"Sev," Lily said.

"I'm just telling the truth!" Snape said.

Annabel took out her money bag, which was halfway full, and then took out a few sickles and took some pumpkin pasties, candy, and even a little meaty thingy that looked pretty good. Lily mimicked her, taking everything that Annabel had. Severus just took some dark sandwich out of his pocket and bit into it. It made a crunching noise and Annabel fought not to gag.

Seriously? Annabel thought, eyeing his sandwich. Gross.

"We met these awful boys in this other compartment," Lily told Annabel, rolling her eyes. "They were horrible! They made fun of Sev and me and started calling him Snivellus! Isn't that so very cruel?"

"Yes," Annabel said, nodding and trying to keep her face straight. Because Lily seemed like a really nice girl, even if she was friends with one of the biggest gits that Annabel had ever seen, and she was someone that Annabel wanted to be friends with – if only to keep them from being enemies. "Did anyone tell you that you have really pretty eyes?"

Lily blushed. "Thank you."

They chatted about Hogwarts, and then Snape asked the question: "What house do you want to be in?" Annabel pressed her lips together when she noticed that he was pointedly not looking in her direction and was asking Lily. "I personally want to be in Slytherin," Snape said, his dark eyes boring into Annabel's as if to dare her to speak up against him. "Got a problem with that?"

Annabel decided to join the conversation after all. "Of course not," she said, matching his cool tone, "but personally, I want to be in Gryffindor."

Snape scoffed. "Like those prats in the other compartment?"

Annabel scowled. "Hey, Gryffindor is where I want to be. Got a problem with that?"

Snape's mouth twisted. "Funnily enough, that's what the other boys said. Lily, she's obviously just like them. Let's go."

"Why?" Lily protested. "Annabel's nice, Sev! Why don't we just stay here? Just because she wants to be in Gryffindor doesn't mean that she's bad."

Snape grumbled, but then kept an eye on Annabel for the rest of the ride. Annabel ignored him and chatted with Lily instead, laughing and talking with her about books, magic, spells, teachers and who they hoped would be their roommates. ("It's all-girls, right?" Lily asked, aghast at the thought that they might have unisex dorms. "My mum would kill me if I dormed with a boy." To which Annabel laughed and assured her that yes, it was all girls or all boys and nothing in between.)

The train stopped and then they were ushered onto boats and then sailing across a lake. The spray hit their faces and made Lily's hair all dewy and felt cool against Annabel's flesh. Then they waited outside the doors to Hogwarts, and the doors opened with a slow, majestic creak that Annabel thought was befitting of a magic school. A strict looking woman with dark brown hair pulled back into a bun on top of her head and perfectly pressed emerald green robes stood there. Everything about her screamed of strictness.

"First Years, this way. You will be sorted into your houses, and then you shall eat. After that, follow the prefects."

There was a snickering behind Annabel, and she turned around. Two black-haired boys were laughing to each other. Both were undeniably good-looking, and the one with glasses saw Annabel and smirked at her. She rolled her eyes and turned back to the woman.

"I am Professor McGonagall, and I will be your teacher for Transfiguration."

"Brilliant," Lily muttered to Annabel, grinning at Snape, and then the doors to the Great Hall were opened.

The first thing Annabel thought of was "Wow". The ceiling was the sky, with its sluggish night-blue clouds obscuring the stars, and there were candles floating in mid-air above the students. Professor McGonagall led the way, and there was an old ragged hat sitting on a stool. Annabel looked at it. There was a wide rip near the brim, and she wondered why no one threw it out already.

"When I call your name, you will come up here, sit down and put on the hat," Professor McGonagall said. "Black, Sirius!"

One of the good-looking guys came up and Annabel watched him put the hat on, wondering what it would do.

The rip at the brim opened wide. "GRYFFINDOR," it roared.

Shocked silence reigned through the halls, with a few hesitant claps. People stared at him, but Annabel noticed that a white-blond haired boy was glaring at him from the green snaky table-Slytherin, she remembered. The boy-Sirius-didn't seem to care, holding his head high as he strode to the Gryffindor table, students moving over to clear a space for him, or maybe to stay away from him.

Professor McGonagall didn't seem to notice, continuing on as if she was oblivious to the stunning silence after Sirius's sorting. "Bones, Amelia!"

A severe looking girl with completely incongruous pigtails went up and placed the hat on her head. "HUFFLEPUFF!" it shouted.

"Carrow, Amycus!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

After that, Annabel lost count until Lily went up.

"Evans, Lily!"

A moment later-"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Take that, Snape!" Annabel muttered to herself and then felt guilty, as it was obvious that Snape held Lily in high regard. Then again, it was also obvious that he held anyone not Lily in low regard and she felt considerably less guilty.

"Foster, Annabel."

Her knees were knocking together, her hands were sweating buckets, though that sounded gross, and she was sure she had turned a pasty shade of white. Tottering forward, she sat down and had the hat placed on her head.

Well, what happens now? she thought to herself.

Normally, I place the person after looking through their thoughts and deciding where they should go...hmm...where should you go? Do you want to go to Hufflepuff? She stiffened. Relax, I'm the hat. You don't think that I just yelled out random houses, did you? A little more searching through her thoughts and the voice became accusatory. You did.

Not Hufflepuff! Annabel thought fiercely, hoping that the hat could hear her. I don't want to be in Hufflepuff! I want to be in Gryffindor! Hufflepuff is for..for..

Don't even finish that thought.

Sorry. But please...please..PLEASE!?

You would be good in Hufflepuff. Lots of esteem-boosters in there.

Oh come on! Not Slytherin, though. I swear, I will rip you apart, Mr Hat, if you don't put me in Gryffindor.

There was a large sniff of derision inside her head. Oh well. I was going to put you in Gryffindor...hmph...GRYFFINDOR!

The last word was shouted out and Annabel nearly collapsed in relief. She gently put the hat down, patted it, and then ran to the Gryffindor table, sitting down next to Lily. There were more people, and "Mary MacDonald," and "Fabian and Gideon Prewett" and a few more girls were put in Gryffindor when "Potter, James" was called up.

"Good grief," Lily muttered. "It's the king of prats himself."

Annabel snorted, amused.

The hat had scarcely touched his head when it shrieked out, "GRYFFINDOR!"

James Potter came down, beaming, and sat down next to Sirius or whatever his name was. "Mate, we're both in Gryffindor. Happy?"

"Very," Sirius said, grinning.

James turned his attention to Lily and Annabel. "And what do we have here? A pair of very fine ladies who-OUCH, MERLIN woman, what is wrong with you?" he said, glaring at Annabel, who held up her nose. "You just stomped on my foot."

"We're first years. Your 'suave' moves are not working on me!" Annabel said angrily.

"What about you, Slytherin befriender?"

At that moment, 'Snape, Severus' was called up and the hat yelled, "SLYTHERIN."

"Don't call her that!" Annabel snapped, coming to her friend's defense. "You're just an arrogant prat, and I would like to eat my first dinner here at school without being disgusted with you pricks!"

James stared at her for a moment, and then a smile spread across his face. "You know what? You have spunk!" James said.

Annabel stared at him. "I have, WHAT?"

"Spunk!" James said. "It's an awesome word to say! You try it, Sirius!" Within seconds, they were both saying 'spunk' when the sorting ended and an old man with a white beard stood up. Lily and Annabel, along with the rest of the students, quieted down, apart from James and Sirius. They were both saying spunk still.

"Spunk!"

"Spunk!"

"Spunk!"

"Spunk-a-roon!"

"Spunk-a-roony!"

"Spunk-a-doodle-do!"

"What're you, a rooster?"

"What're you, a spunk-a-roon?"

"Who's that?" Lily whispered to her.

Annabel gaped at the man. "That-that's Professor Dumbledore! He's one of the most powerful wizards in the whole world...I think I'm going to faint..."

"Oh," Lily said. "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Annabel said, gazing rapturously at the Professor. "He looks so wise, and regal."

Finally, James and Sirius seemed to realize that they were the only ones talking in the silent hall, and then looked up. "Blimey, why is no one else talking?" James asked.

"Because Professor Dumbledore's talking, prats!" Lily hissed at them.

James and Sirius grinned at each other.

Dumbledore talked about places that were forbidden, and stuff. Annabel mostly blanked out during that bit. She returned her gazes to the empty golden plates, feeling her stomach rumble. Finally, he was done, and the golden platters filled.

"Merlin's pants!" Sirius said in awe. "It's like an all-you-can-eat buffet!"

Immediately, the two started digging in.

Annabel rolled her eyes. This was going to be an interesting first year.

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