Hey everyone, I don't really leave author's notes on this fic, but I was wildly disappointed in the lack of reviews compared to the amount of people who followed or added it to favourites. I have just finished writing my 28th chapter of this, so I keep on top of it, and good authors need good reviews to keep them focused or they just keep writing without knowing their strengths, weakness, popular and unpopular points of the story. PLEASE review if your read - it really is helpful and inspiring :)

-Sarita x

Chapter 10: Mental

Over the loud music someone had put on, I pushed through the throngs of drunk, kissing, crying (or all of the above) teens to Sarah and Becky, who were stood in the middle of the dancefloor, twirling away. I could see a few Hufflepuff girls giving them envious looks from a few feet away, teetering on their uncomfortable heels.

Sarah had borrowed one of my skin-tight red dresses for the night and with her long, long legs, rippling raven hair and tanned skin, she looked better in it than the pale, redheaded (pregnant) ol' me ever would.

Kick me while I'm down, won't you life?

Becky however had gone for a metallic silver skirt and an icy blue low-cut top; I had noticed a few years before that while Sarah went for the hot, smouldering colours like blood red or tougher materials like leather, Becky had an attraction to the cooler colours like blue and silver and softer materials like suede. Dom had a penchant for the sunset pastels; pink, blue and yellow or orange mainly, while I stuck to the earthy colours like brown, green and sometimes blue.

I realised with a strange jolt that this reflected our personalities in a test we had done for Divination a few years back. I had been Earth: down-to-earth, but outspoken, strong willed and honest – you either liked me or you didn't. Sarah had been Fire: passionate and strong, but sometimes aggressive, as well as rebellious, impulsive, intuitive, and stubborn. Becky had been water: creative, sensitive, calm and relaxed, while Dom had been Air: practical and pensive, sometimes whimsical but bold.

It's funny what you notice about your friends isn't it?

…I'm such a nerd.

"Hey, Ro." Becky shouted over the noise, taking Sarah's hand and walking back and forwards to the music.

"Have either of you seen-"

"HELLO!" Said a slurred voice behind me. I turned to see a pie-eyed James, a bottle of something strong (possibly weed killer) in his hand. He stepped in between all three of us.

"Which one of you bitches wants to dance?" He slurred, swaying on the spot. James liked his drink after a win.

Who am I trying to fool? James likes his drink at any time.

"There's something wrong with him in the head." Becky said with a laugh, turning away from him to dance with Sarah again.

"Hey, you with the blue eyes and the hair and the boobs and stuff..." A boy said from beside Sarah, looking at her through drunken eyes and speaking through intoxicated lips.

"Back off you whore!" James screamed at him in a high pitched voice and shaking his ominous bottle at him. The dark haired boy staggered away from us as James advanced a few uneven steps.

"Hello foxes" He said with an exaggerated wink. Sarah stepped away from us with a smile.

"James, where's Amy? Shouldn't she be looking after you?" She asked, stepping towards him and laying both hands on his shoulders. James looked around the huge, crowded room.

"I dunno. I want you to look after me." He said with a huge shrug, looking just at her lips. I rolled my eyes.

"James, go and dance, there's a good lad." I said.

"Don't worry Ro, I'll put him in one of the beds." Sarah sighed with a smile at him.

"Yes please, baby." James said with a saucy wink, slouched over slightly and his arm flung over her shoulder.

"Don't get ideas. Come on you." She said, putting a hand on James's waist. He saw this as an excuse to hug her, so he buried his head in her hair like he'd done earlier and a shocked Sarah patted his back.

"Sarah, what are you doing?" An irritated voice said from behind us. Danny had appeared.

Wearing a muggle hooded jumper with grey and white stripes and black combat trousers, his muscles were shown off and his dark hair set off the look. Sarah held her hands up in the air and shook her hands to show she had no idea.

"What's wrong with him?" Danny asked me, nodding his head towards James, who was immersing himself in Sarah on the middle of the dancefloor.

"What do you want, a list?" I asked.

"He's shit-faced." Sarah said. James looked up.

"I am perfectly sober, honestly officer." He said, holding his hands up in surrender.

"James! What are you doing here with her?" Amy said.

Honestly, where are all these people popping up from?!

"She has a name." Becky snapped, while Sarah ignored Amy's rudeness.

"I'm just taking him to one of the beds." She said calmly. Amy folded her arms in a no-nonsense way.

"No way. I'll do it. Come on, babeeey!" She said in a high pitched, fake as hell voice, holding her uninjured arm out to James.

Since she was wearing next to nothing (a cropped boob tube [really!] and silver short-shorts) I could see her shoulder plainly, which had been bandaged thickly by Madame Pettifoot, the matron.

"You sure you can support him with that arm?" Sarah said, with only the trace of a smirk. Becky and I grinned at each other, although I was scanning the room for Freddie.

"Yeah, thanks for that by the way, bitch." Amy said, momentarily forgetting James and folding her arms, wincing.

"No problem, the bandage doesn't go with your outfit though." Sarah said casually. "Then again, the only thing that would make that outfit look any good is more clothes, but each to her own." She shrugged, her arm still around a sleepy James, whose hand was, to Danny's intense annoyance sliding down her waist.

"Look, step away from my boyfriend will you?!" Amy shrieked. Becky stopped dancing at this point and I saw her beckon across the room in a serious way to Dom, who had been picking her way through the crowd towards us.

"Chill your beans; he was my friend before you meant anything to him. I'm putting him to bed and then I'm coming out here to dance with my own boyfriend." Sarah said, making to leave once more. Amy put a hand on Sarah's shoulder, her short nails digging into her arm.

"I said I'll do it!" She snarled. Sarah turned around, shrugging Amy's hand off and looked down at the girl. Dom, sensing the hostility in the air, began jogging in her platform-like heels over to us, while Becky joined my side. I in turn was stood beside a bewildered Danny.

"They've not exactly hit it off, Sarah and Amy. Amy called her a whore the other week and said she was out to steal James." I said to him out of the corner of my mouth in an undertone.

He deserved to know who his girlfriend was likely to kill in the immediate future. A future which, from where I was standing, didn't seem too far away...

"Thanks for the heads up." He nodded to me, before stepping forward to help Sarah.

"Look, girls..." He began but neither appeared to have heard him.

"Keep your hands off me, all right? This is your warning - next time I'll break your fingers." Sarah growled at Amy, leaning down to look her in the eye and ignoring Danny.

"S'okay chickens, you don't need to fight over me. I'm not as drunk as I thought I was." James said suddenly, standing up straight and looking perfectly sober.

Except he wasn't. Sober, that is. In fact he was every bit as drunk as he had seemed, but he didn't want a massive catfight at his party because he knows what we're like. And by we, I meant Dom, Becky, Sarah and I.

If one of us is in a fight, we all are. We were pack animals before we were even Animaguses: We're best friends.

"Come on James." Amy said, not taking her eyes off Sarah. "Let's go." She said, grabbing James by the elbow and steering him away. He shrugged over his shoulder at us and Sarah turned to us, fuming.

"I can't believe those two. I was trying to help him!" She said, enraged. Danny took her shoulder soothingly and massaged it.

"Let's just stay away from the pair of them shall we?" He said, scowling after James's retreating back when he thought Sarah wasn't looking.

I was looking though.

Sarah sighed as Danny continued to work her shoulders. Becky and Dom were now dancing together (I noted that Rich was nowhere to be seen, which was strange) and as for Freddie, I hadn't seen him anywhere. As a matter of fact, I couldn't see Scorpius or Albus anywhere and they are usually in the middle of the dancefloor with us at parties.

"We're going for a walk around the grounds, see you later guys" Sarah sighed a few minutes later, holding Danny's hand.

We nodded and they left quickly, just as Amy and James reappeared. James looked sober now...and unhappy. Amy opened her mouth to say something but I turned and, pushing my way through the crowd, looked for Freddie.

I found that now more than ever, I just didn't want to hear any of her shit.

Two hours later I found myself in the middle of the dancefloor, my arms circled around Freddie's neck (no, I wasn't trying to strangle him) as we swayed around our friends.

Becky and Rich were dancing a few feet away, although while Rich seemed content in her arms, Becky looked strained and tense. Sarah and Danny, who had rejoined us earlier were kissing a few feet away silently, eyes closed in passion. Albus had found some tart to dance with, though it looked platonic on his part in the way they held each other's hands and shoulders. Amy had her head on James' shoulder further away and over her head, he was staring longingly at Sarah (as usual.) Chelsea had Scorpius up against the far wall of the smoky room and was doing her best to remove his tongue from his head via suction power.

I kissed Freddie and pulled away in the middle of the song. He looked surprised – he had been just about to kiss me I think.

"Sorry, I'm gagging for a drink. You want something?" I said over the slow, romantic music.

"Yeah, just some of the party punch please love." He said before grinning at me.

"Okie doke. Dom looks lonely as hell, do me a favour and give her a quick spin around the floor while I get us the drinks?" I said in my nicest voice.

"All right. See you in a few." He said, calling Dom over with a nod of his head.

I meandered through the crowd to the table with about fifty different bottles of booze on and a bowl the size of a tractor tyre sat in the middle. Behind this makeshift bar, to my surprise, was my own brother, Hugo.

"All right mush? What you doing here?" I asked.

"James told me to man the bar for a bit to make sure no-one spikes the punch." He replied.

Was I hearing correctly? James had specifically asked for there to be non-alcoholic beverages at one of his parties?!

Get out of town...

"Are you having a laugh?!" I asked in shock. "This is non-alcoholic?!" I made to reach for it.

"Oh god no, James only asked me to watch the bowl because he's already spiked it himself three times."

Life is normal again.

"That explains it. I said, taking one of the cups and pouring Freddie some. I got myself a virgin Gillywater cocktail, bade my brother goodbye and wandered through the crowd again.

I was distracted by raised voices and turned to see my own cousin Lily in one of the corners of the gargantuan room, 'talking' with a sixth year by the name of Michael Troy. I stepped closer and saw that Lily was being taunted by Troy and a bunch of his sixth year friends and their girlfriends.

Sarah was beside Lily with a dangerous look in her eye and Dom and Becky stood nearby too. I had no idea where the lads were but they'd be needed if this kicked off. We girls can all more than hold our own in a fair fight but they outnumbered us three on one.

"You only got on the team because you're the captains brother!" Troy was saying.

"She got in on talent, something alien to you. Shame you're not on the Slytherin team really, I'd have liked to have broken your arm!" Sarah snapped viciously with her own arm around Lily, who was wearing a defiant expression that didn't quite cover up the fact that she was on the verge of tears.

"I'd like to see you try; you didn't get in on talent any more than she did! You're only on the team because you shagged the captain, how classy! And they say you've got the looks to model!" A girl who had to be his girlfriend snapped at Sarah.

"Keep your dog on a lead, Troy. She's barking." I spat at the boy, who put his arm around his girlfriend.

"What the hell do you think you're on about?" Lily added to the girl, I think her name was Lianne. "If you don't think she's the most beautiful girl in the whole bloody school then that would explain why you're with that bitch; your eyesight must be screwed!" She said to Troy.

Lianne squared her pointed jaw and opened her mouth.

"Yeah, seriously Troy. Get a muzzle for your pet. I think she's going to cough up a hairball or something." Dom snarled.

I loved having all this backup.

"She does model, Lianne, you silly tart. I've heard you sent off your pictures to some agency in London and they sent them back saying you were too short and weren't pretty enough! Sarah's been approached by more agents than she can wave a wand at! Jealous much?" I added. I had to get my two-bit in.

The crowd we had gathered were laughing, even a few of the boys stood behind Troy and Lianne were fighting to keep straight faces. Seemed he wasn't as popular as he thought himself to be.

"She's not all that." Troy said with doubt heavy in his own voice, looking Sarah up and down.

"You weren't saying that last week when you were asking me out." Sarah said defiantly. Troy went a deep puce as Lianne pulled away from him and looked up at him. He spluttered useless apologies at her.

"Get out of here Troy." Becky said.

"And take your bitch with you." Sarah added.

"You're the bitch, you know that?!" Troy spat at Sarah as Lianne stormed out of the party.

"If I am, I'll never be yours. Now you lay off Lily or you'll see what colour your insides are, you got that?!" Sarah said. Troy gave her one last leer up and down and then he turned and left.

Lily looked up at Sarah and Dom, Becky and I came closer.

"We're awesome aren't we." Becky said, a contented smile on her lips.

"Hell yeah, vaginas unite!" Dom said, taking a swig out of Becky's glass of punch and teetering drunkenly on her heels.

"High fives all around! Sarah said, holding her hand up and grinning at Lily, who stuck her tongue out at all of us and gave us all a resounding hand-slap.

I slept in one of the single beds of the room of requirement that night.

Freddie had been tired after the match so he went straight back to the Slytherin common room, not before offering to walk me back to my common room, which was sweet of him seeing how he was practically dead on his feet. Lily had left the party after the incident, but not before a few sisterly hugs from Sarah and me. Becky and Rich had disappeared early on in the night to the beds, I suspected. Apart from that, James' party was like any of his previous ones; a cigarette-smoke filled room chock full of horny teens and a lot of alcohol.

There was, however, a small scuffle when Sarah was accosted by a boy who pressed her up against a wall in an attempt to kiss her. She'd given him a smashing right hook to the jaw when Danny came back from getting her a drink and all hell broke loose when James arrived on the scene, found out what had happened, and punched the boy's two front teeth out and banned him from any future parties.

Not that he's the jealous type or anything.

I woke the next morning early, as was now the norm for me, ran to the toilets and threw up.

Breakfast in the Great Hall was slightly more awkward than usual; Becky and Rich were over at the Ravenclaw table and Dom wasn't speaking much. Albus, Scorpius and Chelsea were over at the Slytherin table so effectively it was just Sarah, Danny, Amy, James and little old me.

Oh and my unborn child.

Why do I keep doing that? Every time I manage to forget for a few minutes that I have a huge dilemma on my hands (or in my stomach) a masochistic part of me pipes up and reminds me of it. My current policy is to ignore it.

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

"It hurts so much, Jamie baby. Can you take me up to the hospital wing after breakfast?" Amy simpered with a babyish fake-sob.

Sarah raised her eyebrows in disgusted scepticism.

"You know, I might sue for damages." Amy continued in a pained voice, pointing to her shoulder.

James didn't reply or show any sign he'd even heard her as he spread liberal amounts of chocolate spread on his toast. Danny and I exchanged incredulous glances. Sarah snorted disparagingly.

"I don't know why you're laughing!" Amy snapped hysterically at her. "I could have you kicked off your precious team!" She squealed, cradling her shoulder.

"Put a sock in it will you? It's hard enough trying to eat breakfast in peace with the first years around, let alone with you yakking away and whining." I huffed over the newspaper I was holding.

Amy looked at me in surprise. So did James, Sarah and Danny for that matter. Amy had been going on in this vein for about ten minutes about her bloody shoulder and I hadn't said a word about it.

"I'm serious!" Amy said to Sarah, deciding to ignore my comment.

"If you can't stand the heat then stay out of the dragon pen." Sarah advised, biting into her own toast.

Amy made a frustrated little growl and stood up, startling the owl that had brought me the paper and making it fly away in indignation, after grabbing one of the little pieces of toast I had been feeding it.

"James!" She squeaked. James didn't even look up at her.

"Sit down, my little kebab." He said to her calmly. When she did, he looked at her.

"Now, Sarah might look like some kind of mouth-watering goddess or delicate flower, but inside she's a homicidal pitbull or some kind of many-headed vicious monster-" at this point he made the shape of snapping jaws with his hands and growled like a rabid dog -"so it's best not to piss her off unless you really don't value your life." He said sweetly, as if talking to a small child, pointing to Sarah, who looked amused. Danny laid his arm around her looking like he was stifling a laugh and Amy smiled suddenly.

"Okay jellybean." She said to James with her scary smile.

She then grabbed his hair (quite roughly) and brought him forward to kiss her. This went on for about five minutes, with her moaning loudly and opening her eyes and looking smugly at Sarah, who looked revolted.

"Come on, baby." Amy said in her high-pitched and irritating voice, before she dragged James from the hall as was now the usual way things went.

"Well." I said, eyes wide.

"She makes mental illness look like a lot of fun doesn't she?" Sarah said, with a humourless half smile.

I laughed for the first time that day and had my first little moment where I forgot my troubles.

REVIEW READERLINGS ;) Sarita loves ya x