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Chapter Six: Slag Insults and Slaps


Review Replies: ForeverTeamEdward13: Glad you liked the chapter! It made you laugh? YAY! RenaMystique: Awww, best Marauder FF you've read? I'm really flattered; I really am! xXxFredWeasleyForeverxXx: You laughed? You laughed! WOO HOO! HGromanticsap: I did? Oh drat. LOL haha. I read over it and I was like, "I fail at life" Thanks for pointing it out! The Donut Eater: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Calvin and Blake? Errr...no, but LOOLLLLx12. Seriously. You made me laugh like mad. beba78: Well hellooo! :D Here's your brand new spanking chapter! georgethecunt: Oh, you do? Sorry. But some other people like reading it, and it tends to clear things up...:C Sorry about that. LOL, yeah, james is going to undergo a lot of torture by Lily darling. And there's some more notes in this chapter, so sorry again. *winces*


Before Dawn (The Night is Darkest)

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.


Quote: I'd rather regret the things I have done than regret the things I haven't done. ~Lucille Ball


"Annabel!"

Lily scowled at her friend, who stared at her silently. "You're still ignoring me," she said. "Is it because I yelled at James? I'm sorry for that. Is it because I've been a bit occupied? I'm sorry for that too. But why are you still ignoring me."

No change in demeanor.

"Annabel!"

"I have to go," Annabel muttered, turning away slightly. "Remus and I are going to work on our project, and then the lot of us have detention."

"Yes, what were you guys thinking, passing notes during Transfiguration?" Lily scolded her friend. "That's so irresponsible! You know, I always knew that being friends with the guys would cloud your judgement. I just never thought that it would go this far! I can't believe that you would willingly dance around with them. You know, this is why we're growing apart. Because you believe from Potter that I am...like...the woman Satan of Hogwarts. I can't believe it! After five years of friendship, you would just throw everything away like that, and I knew it. I knew that you were turning into a Potter!"

Annabel closed her eyes and counted to ten. Please, please, let her go away...

A crowd was growing around them. Lily and James, they were a common sight, but Lily and Annabel...those two were inseparable. They were best friends.

"I can't believe it! I've never done anything like this to you. I've been trying to keep us together, but you just keep pushing us apart."

Annabel's eyes opened and flashed blue fire. Lily took a step back. This was not a good sign.

"Irresponsible. Irresponsible." Annabel gave a high laugh. "You think that I'm irresponsible. But yet, here I am, trying to work on a project, and you're here...annoying me. Distracting me. When I'm responsible."

"That's a pathetic response for a insult," Lily said.

She was instantly sorry that she did.

"Dance around with them? Growing apart? Because I believe that you are the woman Satan of Hogwarts? Because James told me that?" Annabel gave a high, incredulous laugh. "I can't believe that it's only the first week and we're already at each other's throats. Listen up, Evans. Everything that James has told me about you is about how pretty you are, or now smart you are. And that after five years of friendship, I would throw everything away? You. Hardly. Even. Think. About. Me. When. Blake. Is. Here."

Lily snarled back, "That's probably because you only notice when I hang out with Blake, and not YOU! YOU don't control my social life, Annabel! I don't always have to be with you!"

Annabel scowled. "When I was supposed to get in a group of four in Herbology. Where did you go? To Blake. The Marauders saved me from looking like a stupid arse. And you've been trying to keep us together? And I'M trying to push us apart? YOU ARE SO INSANELY STUPID. I cannot believe it. No, I can believe it, what I can't believe is that you are actually trying to accuse me of doing something that you are doing."

"It's so obvious," Lily said. "I know why. You're jealous that Blake has been giving me so much attention, and you're trying to pull us apart. Ha! As if that will work. Blake and I...were meant to be." She smirked at Annabel.

This was not the Lily Annabel knew.

"And it's so obvious that you're just trying to make yourself feel good by surrounding yourself with guys," Lily continued smugly. "Well it's not working. All that it's making you look like is a slag."

Annabel stared at her friend wordlessly.

And then there was a smack.

Suddenly, Lily was on the ground, nursing a pink mark on the side of her face while Annabel had an outstretched hand. "You slapped me!" Lily said, sounding insulted.

"That was for everything you've done to me and my friends," Annabel said and then ran off.

And on.

And on.

And on.

She ran up to a tapestry on the third floor and flung herself behind it into the secret passage that only she and a few others knew.

So she cried.


If Noelle and Alice hadn't told him, James wouldn't have guessed that Lily was guilty.

She didn't look guilty in the least.

Sure, her mouth was in a thin line, but they always were after a fight. He just thought that it meant that she was angry at the person and thinking, I'm correct in fighting. And they weren't.

Annabel had slouched into class just as the bell rang. She slumped into a seat between Noelle and Alice, who were exuding their, "You did something wrong and we are siding with Annabel" vibe, which Lily was ignoring too.

James looked over at Annabel, who glanced at him as if to say, "What?"

He mouthed, "Are you alright?"

She shrugged tiredly.

So James started some notes.


JP: ANNABEL!

AF: What the hell? James?

SB: At your service

JP: Ha-ha, Padfoot. No, I'm James.

AF: Seriously, James?

JP: No!

SB: He's not Sirius, I am!

AP: You set yourself up for that, Annabel

SB: ...Alice?

AP:The one and the only

NJ: Hey, I'm here too!

SB: Yeah. I never got to thank you for the detention last night. It was wonderful...(Insert suggestive look.)

NJ: RAGHHHHH!

-time lapse-

SB: Merlin, Noelle, do you HAVE to keep getting us detention?

NJ: Take it back!

SB: FINE! Noelle and I did nothing in detention. HAPPY, WOMAN?

SB: And Prongs?

JP: Mmph?

SB: I am freakishly ahead of you in detention count.

JP: WHAT?

SB: Yep.

JP: That can't be true! I was like, twenty detentions ahead of you last year!

SB: No, you were fourteen. And thanks to Noelle here, I am ahead by five.

JP: Now I have to pull a singular prank.

AP: Or get in a fight with Snape.

-time lapse-

AP: Forget that I just said that.

JP: No, no no, Alice, that was a marvelous idea. Just perfect

RL: James, don't. There are easier ways to get detention.

AF: That sounds weird. And James, haven't you done enough to poor Snape?

JP: Snivellus? No, I haven't done enough.

AP: That's just cruel.

NJ: James, I don't like Snape, but you guys are horrid to him!

JP: Horrid? Us? Psh

AF: James Potter, if you harm Snivellus in any way...well...let's just say I have a VERY interesting picture from last summer, and I'm not afraid to use it.

JP: You wouldn't.

SB: Oh Annabel dear, isn't that a bit too cruel?

RL: Annabel! You would go to such measures?

NJ: What are you guys talking about?

AP: I'm lost.

AF: Well, I just happen to have a picture of James, drunk and half-naked, in a pink tutu with bunny ears and ballet slippers. And if his wand slips near Snivellus, well, you might find that my wand likes to blow up embarrassing pictures of friends to immense proportions and put them in the Great Hall. With a permanent sticking charm.

SB: HAHAHAHAHA

JP: You wouldn't

AF: Yes, I would. Now lay off him!

JP: Why do I even invite you to my house? And why do you even CARE?

AF: Because I am fantastic, and you love me? Platonically? And I care because I don't want things to be even more stressed between my friend and me.

SB: Don't tell Lily-flower

-time lapse-

AP: Did Noelle just leave?

AF: Yes, yes she did, and she's muttering something about killing 'Black' because he's a major arse, or something like that.

SB: Hurtful

-time lapse-

AF: Did Sirius just leave?

JP: Padfoot did just indeed leave, and he's muttering something about 'stupid birds'.

AP: They really are perfect together.

AF: So who's left?

JP: You, me, Alice and Remmy.

AF: Remus? You're still here?

RL: Yes, because unfortunately, I am the one that has to take the notes in this group. Otherwise, I wouldn't have anyone to borrow notes from.

AF: You could always ask Lily.

JP: Yeah, about her, Annabel, are you alright?

AF: ...Not perfect, but not that mad anymore. Just sad. And depressed.

AP: (Insert hug from Alice to Annabel here)

AF: It's alright you guys. I'll just go.

-time lapse-

AP: Well, I'm leaving too.

-time lapse-

RL: Poor Annabel.

JP: I thought that you'd might say that. There's a certain level of fondness between you two.

-time lapse-

JP: What? PRONGS!

JP:...Life is so much easier when you can understand what your friends say.


Annabel really hadn't gotten over the fact that Lily had called her a slag, AND the fact that she, Annabel, herself, had slapped Lily, who was supposed to be her best friend.

BFF, right?

Which hurt. Which really really really hurt.

Get ahold of yourself, Annabel told herself sternly. But she was tired, so tired that she was on the verge of feeling like she was about to pass out.

"Hi Annabel," Remus said tiredly, sitting down next to her. "Lily was kicking up a storm in Gryffindor, screaming at James again."

"Why?" Annabel asked.

"Because James was yelling at her for yelling at you."

His answer was so easy, and slipped out his mouth so quietly that it took Annabel a few seconds to realize what he just said.

"Really?" Annabel said, feeling tears well up in her eyes, something that made her feel intensely embarrassed and touched at the same time. Remus shook back his sandy hair and looked up at her with his warm brown eyes.

"Really," he said. "It took guts, and now he's in his dorm, telling himself, 'I did the right thing. I did the right thing' over and over again."

Annabel smiled into her book, and wiped at her eyes. "James can be incredibly sweet. In fact, I might have had a crush on him if it wasn't so obvious he was in love with Lily. You're sweet, too, Remus. I think the only one that isn't sweet is Sirius. He's too flirty."

Remus gave a slight grin and bent over his work. "Shall we?"

A few minutes later, they had finally finished up the spell. Combining the seeds hadn't worked, so they focused to combining the literal structure of the plant all together. Soon, the Moondew and Rose had collided to make a rose that glowed silver. Annabel had sniffed it and promptly passed out for three minutes. She had awoken to Remus waving an acrid-smelling substance before her nose.

Remus then had started to scribble down an essay. Annabel had just copied him (because she was fairly useless at writing essays)

"Do people do that to you all the time?" Annabel wondered. Remus raised an eyebrow at her. "I mean, do they just copy your notes and it seems like you don't care at all?"

Remus gave a smile, but didn't comment about it. Instead, he said, "You have a way of making people smile. Did you know that?"

Annabel felt a warm tingle spread over her face as she blushed. "Thanks," she said.

She was effectively distracted from her other question.


It wasn't that Remus didn't want to answer her question-he did, he really did-but he had no answer. People did do it to him all the time, and he did care, he just didn't mention it.

Sometimes it was aggravating, he had to admit.

But he was the 'stuffy' marauder. The odd one out. Everyone knew James and Sirius, but he and Peter, they were the ones that weren't really appreciated.

"Mate, you alright?" James said cheerfully, appearing besides Remus."

"Feeling under the weather?" chimed in Sirius, who popped up next to Remus. "Maybe because of your long-time affection of Annabel?"

Remus shoved his friends. "Shove off, will you?" he snapped. "Annabel and I are Herbology partners, and have an "affection" of getting high academic scores."

"Prongs, did you understand a word of what Moony said?" Sirius asked.

"Nope!" James said cheerfully. "All I heard was, 'I love Annabel and want to snog her etc.,"

"Etc?" Remus raised an eyebrow. "Who says that? And I did not say that I love Annabel and want to snog her! She is a friend of mine!"

"A very, very good friend of yours," Sirius put in, waggling his eyebrows.

Remus whacked him on the back. "Seriously?"

"Yes, Siriusly," Sirius snickered.

"Shut up," James said. "I think I know what's the real problem, eh?"

Remus held his breath.

"It's nearly your time of the month, isn't it!" James said, causing people that overheard to laugh. Remus flushed.

"Yes," he said quietly, "but you don't have to advertise it to everyone in the whole world. Remember what happened last year?" He looked at Sirius meaningfully and Sirius turned bright red and embarrassed.

Remus was relieved that they didn't know the real reason he was upset.


Right, so I'm happy that I didn't get hit with a bunch of rotten tomatoes for the last chapter. I know, right? ASTONISHING.

Review?