Chapter 10

"Gail Forester! You...!" A shriek came from across the Great Hall. Amber darted over to her quickly. Upon turning, Gail received a rather harsh slap across the face.

"I was beginning to think you had... But here you are," Amber spluttered, glaring daggers down at Gail, "you know I like him, and you're still doing this!"

Gail raised herself off of the bench indignantly, before snapping, "I was trying to get you a second chance, which you don't even deserve."

Amber only looked slightly shocked, "no you were! You.... You were trying to steal him away!"

"Excuse me?" Sirius said quite loudly, finally speaking up for himself. He didn't look very happy about Amber's presence, "but I don't think I'm an item that can be stolen."

Amber gaped at him for a moment, "w-what? I-I didn't think..."

"No, you didn't think," Sirius stared at her with a mildly bored expression, "I don't much care for possessive girls, hun, so you can just run along."

"Padfoot," Remus's hoarse voice was quite, "couldn't you dump her more... gently?"

Amber wasn't paying attention to the boys anymore, her gaze was fixed on Gail. Threateningly, she pulled out her wand. Gail, on edge because of the incident with Rosier, had untangled herself from the bench and had her own wand out quickly. Before Amber could launch any spells at her, though, both of their wands jumped out of their hands.

"Dueling in the Great Hall?" Professor McGonagall looked extremely unimpressed as she spoke sourly, "I would expect better behaviour from you girls. You will both serve your detentions under Professor Ketteburn by patrolling the Forbidden Forest. Now pick up your wands. You will not be warned again."

As Amber picked up her wand and went to leave the hall, she kept glaring at Gail. It was quite obvious that Gail had been pinned with "poisoning" Sirius Black's mind against her again. At the moment, Gail felt that she would rather serve a detention with Rosier as her companion. It would be safer.

"See what happened?" Remus sighed, "Padfoot, you need to break it to a girl gently..."

"Why should he?" Gail smiled bitterly, "it's not his neck, and girls will always find blame in someone else instead of themselves."

Sirius nodded slowly, "if you break it to them gently, they think that you still 'feel' something for them. Rationally, it's always better to rip the bandage off quickly."

Peter spoke up from where he had been enjoying the show, "that's how girls break up with me, and I'm fine."

James grumbled something into his cereal about "one girl."

Sirius ignored Remus' pained expression, and turned to Gail, "I'll deal with her, so just sit tight."

Gail snorted, settling herself further away from him, "oh, my prince charming. How wonderful. She'll just think I'm influencing you. I'll try to talk to her during our detention."

Sirius ignored her response. He was focused on grabbing the most bacon with one fork he could. Gail finished her breakfast quickly before departing.

Amber looked like she had gone mad when she arrived for the detention. Her blonde hair looked like a rat's nest, and her skin was blotchy. Her robes were a mess. One of her knee socks was the wrong colour, and the toe of her right shoe was missing. Gail could only guess that Sirius had "dealt" with Amber the way he would deal with any annoyance – with a prank or two.

The two girls didn't say a word to each other while waiting outside for Kettleburn. Gail was fighting back the need to say a nasty remark, and Amber was just glaring at her spitefully. Kettleburn arrived a few minutes after Amber, staring at the two girls for a moment.

"Did you do that, Miss Forester?" Kettleburn asked calmly, referring to Amber's apparel.

"No," Gail said truthfully, catching the professors eyes before Amber could even speak, "the 'marauders' did that to her, as they do to anyone who annoys them."

"Hrm..." Kettleburn pointed his wand at the girls shoe and mended it, "you two are going to patrol the forest tonight. If you find anything, send a flare up."

"Yes sir," Gail nodded, biting the corner of her bottom lip.

"You two work together. There's enough danger in the forest without you two hexing each other," Kettleburn glared at the two girls as if he was daring them to do the opposite, "don't leave one another to the beasts of the forest. Stick together. Keep each other safe."

After being pushed into the forest together, the two girls walked along in silence for a while. Gail was beginning to feel more at ease than she had in the past few weeks. She had been so busy with social drama that she hadn't spent much time helping care for the creatures.

"I heard there are werewolves in this forest," Amber whispered, breaking the silence. She looked terrified.

Gail looked over at the girl and shook her head, "it's not a full moon. You don't have to be afraid of werewolves tonight."

"What about the giants? Centaurs? Spiders?" Amber latched herself onto Gail's arm. Under the light of the stars, Gail could see the whites of the girl's eyes. Her eyes were bulging out of terror.

"Calm down," Gail commanded, "you're a Griffindor for goodness sake."

Amber took a few heavy breaths and released her grip on Gail's arm, "why?"

"Hmm?" Gail asked, seriously studying the blonde, who was still shaking out of fear.

"Why are you nice to me? I spread horrible rumours about you. You could... You could just leave me here, you know. You could keep Sirius to yourself then," Amber muttered, attempting to keep her hands from shaking.

"Who would want to keep Black?" Gail snorted, snatching one of Amber's hands in her own. The blonde's hands were a few degrees cooler and trembling. Gail kept her voice calm to soothe Amber, "I couldn't care less about rumours. I'm just sorry that Black put you through the ringer, but I know you'll find a nice boy who will treat you properly."

Amber's eyes shone in the moonlight. Her hand stopped trembling so much. She didn't speak again, but her soft hand squeezed Gail's calloused one. The girls were so busy rebuilding their relationship that they almost hadn't heard something approaching them from further into the forest.

"Gail, what's that? Lumos!" Amber asked, pointing her want forward. Several pairs of arachnid eyes focused on the girls when Amber illuminated the forest. The girls were partially surrounded by large spiders. The blonde let out a whimper, and took a few steps back.

"Keep your wand on them," Gail hissed, pointing at the sky. She shot off a red sparkler that floated into the sky and lit up like simple firework, "we have to run if they start forward."

The biggest spider of the bunch twitched, moving its leg forward slightly. The other spiders seemed to tremble in response. Gail, still holding Amber's hand, turned her wand on them as well, "let's go, Amber."

Quickly, Gail turned on her heels and sprinted, tugging Amber along after her. The blonde wasn't as sure footed as Gail, who had walked the forest with Kettleburn in the past, so she stumbled from time to time. Gail had to continually catch the girl and force her back to her feet. At that moment, she was thanking the months of moving large wheelbarrows of dung. She was able to keep a good pace as she ran, dragging the blonde along behind her.

"Gail!" The blonde gasped for air, "they're... not... following!"

Gail slowed her run slightly to accommodate the blonde,"keep moving, they might be trailing us to see if we weaken from running."

"Where are you girls running to?" Kettleburn's harsh voice sounded from Gail's right. She abruptly stopped running and turned to face her professor. Amber was panting heavily beside her, and her breathing was somewhat fast.

"Professor," Gail finally spoke, "we found several smaller acromantula... I think."

"I thought they were just giant spiders," Amber whimpered, still clutching tightly to Gail's hand even though both of their hands were sweaty.

"That's what acromantula are," Kettleburn growled, "I told Hagrid not to breed them... Luckily, most of the babies die off in the first year of life because they aren't "

"Hagrid?"

"The man that's set to take over groundskeeping for me within the next few years. I figured I would train him on the finer aspects while I'm still around," Kettleburn explained, ushering the two girls towards the exit of the forest. Gruffly, the man smiled at Gail, "now don't give me that look, it will be a long time before Hagrid will take over my entire job."

Kettleburn cleared his throat, "you two girls did good looking out for one another. Take ten points each. Now, run along. It's past your bedtimes."

Gail released the blonde's hand, but Amber walked next to her all the way up to the tower.

"So you two ran from a bunch of spiders?" Lily asked, staring at Gail and Amber. It had taken them a better part of an hour to explain absolutely everything to the other girls. There was a general understanding between them that what had happened was purely a misunderstanding on both girl's parts, and no one was to blame.

Gail shook her head, "more like 'giant' spiders."

Amber nodded frantically, "they were huge."

"But they were small for acromantula," Gail added.

"Wait," Amber stopped talking, and turned to Gail, "those were small? How big do they grow?"

"With proper nourishment in their first year, they can become roughly four feet tall. Full grown ones, well..." Gail had to think a moment, "full grown ones can become the size of a small house."

Jo, Avalon and Melanie seemed rather dazed by the fact that Amber and Gail had forgiven each other in such a short time span. None of them had really said anything after they had helped Amber remove the knots out of her hair. They listened quietly when Gail had begun telling Lily about the Forbidden Forest. They seemed rather shocked by the story.

"At least there wasn't a werewolf or two," Melanie piped up, smiling pointlessly at the two girls.

Jo stood up from where she had been sitting and took a few steps forward. Her eyes had not been welcoming to Lily or Gail in the past few days, but she was crying quite profusely. She used her long, quidditch trained arms to wrap Amber, Gail and Lily in a hug.

"No fair!" Melanie squeaked, getting to her feet to join in the group hug. Avalon trailed behind, but she also joined in the hug.

Gail felt a tug in her chest. She was thankful that the other girls had forgiven her. It made her happy to see Lily and Jo acting kindly towards one another again. She knew things between them wouldn't be the same as before, but their relationship would be able to expand in different directions.

"Hello Remus."

Gail slid into her regular seat in Astronomy, next to the pale boy. He smiled at her warmly, "Gail! How have you been? I didn't see you at breakfast."

"I was up late last night because of my detention," Gail responded to Remus with a sheepish smile, "I had about five minutes to eat."

"How was your detention?" Remus asked softly, "did you work things out with Amber?"

Gail scooted closer to Remus, whispering back, "yes, no thanks to Black."

Remus chuckled, allowing his forhead to bump Gail's, "you know I can't do anything about that. Padfoot can be pretty pigheaded."

Gail pressed her forehead against Remus' more forcefully, "you big wimp."

"Mmm," Remus moved away from her, noticing that many of the other students in the class were staring at them.

Gail grinned at Remus. It was nice to have a male friend that she could "wrestle" with once in a while. She wasn't ever rough with him, because he was a little frail. Gail had found that Remus was sweet-tempered and down to Earth. During the fight between Amber and herself, she had been able to confide in him about her problems. He even understood how she couldn't really talk about it with Lily.

She hadn't told him about how Sirius had kissed her cheek. It had slipped her mind when she was dealing with Amber, but now that the 'crisis' was over, she found that she was very embarrassed over the fact. She was glad that it had merely been on her cheek. It wasn't her first kiss. That was all that mattered, right?

Gail had been staring at Remus for a while. His smile had faded and he waved a hand in front of her face.

"Oh, sorry Remus," Gail smiled weakly at him, "I was just debating on how to tell you that Black kiss my.... My cheek."

Remus blinked a few times. He looked a little shocked, "Padfoot did? I guess that means he's forgiven you. Congratulations."

"You don't..." Gail paused, rubbing her thumb against the callous on her pointer finger, "it doesn't mean anything, does it?"

"Maybe a thank you?" Remus laughed happily, "if he meant anything by it, you would know it."

"Would I?" Gail wondered, turning her attention to their astronomy professor.

Author Note:

This was a huge chapter for friendship. I'm really happy things turned out well at the end of this small-arc. I named Amber after one of my best friends in school. I hope I portrayed the fact that girls can be cruel to one another, but it's always possible for them to become true friends.

Today's Deleted Scene is one that I was actually planning on using in chapter 9. I decided I didn't like it because it pulled the characters too far out of what they would really do in the situation. I hope you enjoy it.

I would also like to apologize ahead of time about the Comment Gallery. What as I thinking in letting Bellatrix Black... Well, we'll see how it goes.

-Rue

Deleted Scene: My Superman

As Gail was about to continue walking, someone grabbed her arm roughly and pulled her into a dark classroom. Her heart leapt into her mouth, expecting Sirius Black to be at the end of the hand. Luckily, it wasn't him. A boy with very sweaty hands hand pulled her into an abandoned classroom. Gail's eyes went wide.

The boy was wearing a Slytherin tie. She recognized him from her Care of Magical Creatures class – Evan Rosier. One of the worst people to have a run in with. Rosier was bad news to anyone who wasn't a pureblood. He usually kept company with people like Mulciber, Snape and Avery. Pureblood enthusiasts who would harm other students.

Gail slid a hand into her pocket, searching for her wand.

"What's the hurry, Forester?" Rosier growled at her, yanking her hand back out of her pocket before sliding his hand along her thigh, "why don't you have a little fun with me here?"

"I don't snog snake-kissers," Gail spat, glaring as she dug into her other pocket. She found her wand and whipped it out, "back off."

"Oh?" Rosier licked his lips, eyeing her like she was a steak, "come on, now. Be a good little kitten, so I don't have to hurt you."

"Back off, Rosier. Your attention is unwanted," Gail took a few steps away from the Slytherin, taunting him, "honestly, is there something wrong with you? Do you have to force a girl to get a snog?"

Her taunting just caused Rosier to grin wider. She had been expecting him to pull out a wand. He stepped forward, snarling, "I like girls that fight back. It makes it so much more-..."

Without another word, Rosier felt to the ground with a thud. A dark figure standing behind Rosier had his wand raised. He took a few steps forward into the light. A smug look was smeared on Sirius Blacks face. He looked ecstatic to have hexed a Slytherin, whatever the cause.

"Hey Forester," Sirius greeted her, "sorry if I stole your spotlight."

"Thanks Black," Gail breathed a sigh of relief, stumbling forward. Gail tripped on Rosier's outstreached hand.

With quick reflexes, Sirius' arm snaked around Gail's waist before she could fall to the ground. She could feel his toned body through the front of his robes. Her breath hitched in her throat, and she could feel her face burning up. She didn't dare look up at him for fear of his handsome smirking face, or daring grey eyes. A chuckled reverberated through Sirius' body.

"Aw Gail," Sirius purred in her ear, "you don't have to fall over yourself to thank me."

Gail spluttered, pushing herself away from Sirius. Her heart was pounding in her throat, and she felt like retching. Without another word to Sirius, she ran out of the room.

The Comment Gallery
Host: Gail Forester
Special Guest: Bellatrix Black

Gail: Welcome to the Comment Gallery. I'm- omph.

-Gail slumps over-

Bellatrix: Finally, my chance to make an appearance. You're reading the new, Dark Gallery, hosted by me; the wonderful Bellatrix Black. I've decided to take over this section. It's about time all of you appreciate the Dark Arts a bit more.

-Bella grins wickedly and roughs up her curly hair-

Bellatrix: First of all, I'll need to go through the dirty muggle's reviews to make sure... well, so I know who to hunt down first.

-Bella sneers-

Bellatrix: First up is Angel of Apathy. You are correct, magic is superior to muggle technology in countless ways. This is why mudbloods are dirty, they haven't had the wonderful, pure lives that we have.

-Bella tosses the review onto the ground-

Bellatrix: The next review is from HigurashiRei. This is the next chapter... Are muggles always impatient?

-Bella drops the review onto the ground, sneers as she reads the next one-

Bellatrix: It looks like MaxRideRox has mentioned my dear cousin. Why you would care about that blood traitor, I will never know. Someday soon, he will be burned off the family tree.

-Bella takes a swig from Gail's butterbeer-

Bellatrix: I happen to have heard that the author is planning on running this story all the way to the end of the Harry Potter books. I also heard that she's planning on making our side win the first wizarding war, so it could just be speculation.

-Bella flicks her wand, sitting Gail upright-

Bellatrix: Hmm... that's all that I have to say for now. Send in your reviews, or I'll have some fun with this little mudblood. Crucio!

-Gail shakes violently-

Bellatrix: Bye for now, loves.