Helllooo! Well, I cut my hair super-short. Now's it's just below my ears. O.o I don't know whether I should like it or scream and get a wig. I'm glad that people liked chapter ten! Thanks to my absolutely fabulous beta PhoenixFanatic999 Thanks for all the reviews. 70 already? GASP!
Chapter Eleven: A Date With James
Review Replies: Clevernugget: Sirius is a failure at life. :D Nah, just joking. Sent you a PM already. :D georgethecunt Don't worry. People complained about how long it took for James and Addison to kiss in SSY and so, therefore, I'm going to speed things up just a smidge in here. Attacking? This chapter. ForeverTeamEdward: Awwwwww. Love your reviews! It took me a while to finish this chapter...O.O RenaMystique: Thanks! I hope that you have many more favorite chapters later on in the story!xXxFredWeasleyForeverxXx LOL yeah, this chapter was sooo easy to write, but sooo hard to finish. Strange, right? Here's your more! AikoRose: I have only one thing to say to you...you'll see. Nah, just joking. But you WILL see. Thanks for the review! Mabel: Thank YOU! It's nice to know that I have an anonymous reviewer! FleurSuoh: Ooh, you're a Ravenclaw? My sister's a Ravenclaw because ravenclaws are apparently the "only awesome people ever." LOL. I can't be a ravenclaw. :D
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: Weave me the sunshine out of the falling rain. ~Uh, i forgot the song so could someone be supah special and look it up for me?
Annabel was sick of it.
Completely sick of it.
You might ask what she was sick of.
Blake and Lily.
Blily.
"Oh shh, you!" Lily said, laughing, her green eyes sparkling merrily as she and Blake talked to each other. Annabel watched them, realizing that she was probably turning just a bit green with envy that Blake was having all of Lily's attention. Not that green, though, just a pale...shade...
Oh who was she kidding?
She was incredibly jealous.
Annabel leaned over Alice, looking over her friend. Alice was sleeping, her eyelids white with those tiny blue veins trembling through them. Noelle was on her other side, reading a book that had a small candle flame on the front cover, long hair sweeping the pages of the book.
Annabel stood there for a second, just staring at Noelle. It was funny, she never really realized how pretty Noelle was, because Noelle's school uniform was probably the most unflattering ever, and when she did see Noelle in normal clothes, she was, well, used to it.
Noelle's eyes darted up. "What?"
Annabel shook her head. "Sorry. I was in a whole new universe." Yawning, she stretched. "I need to go eat. Anyone joining me?"
Noelle shook her head, and Lily looked up at Annabel and smiled. "Nah. I'm happy here."
Yeah, with Blake.
Annabel walked out of the Hospital Wing, rubbing her head and trying to work through the knots in her hair. "Yeah, because everything is so incredibly sucky like that, but bah! I'm hungry but no one else is hungry...I always knew that Noelle and Alice were best friends, but I don't want to go...ah, I'm being petty again." She walked straight into someone and mumbled her apologies, turning around to go the other way.
A strong arm prevented her.
"What?" she snapped, and then saw it was Remus with Sirius. "Oh. Hi Remus. Hi arse."
Remus turned to Sirius. "Do you like being called an arse?"
"Only if it's a hot arse."
Annabel scowled at him. "What the bloody crapping hell were you thinking?"
Remus smiled.
"And what are you smiling at?" Annabel snapped, turning to Remus.
"Everything," Remus said. "Bloody crapping hell. Imaginative. Mind if I use that someday?"
"No," Annabel said, begrudgingly giving a very small smile. "But what is that doing here?" She pointed at Sirius.
"I have a name!"
"Shut up, Black!"
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Look, I'm sorry. But it would've worked if Alice hadn't gotten into the way."
Annabel's mouth dropped open. "IN THE WAY? IN THE BLOODY WAY? IF YOU HADN'T SHOT IT EVEN, YOU..." She threw the thing in her arms at him-quills, which didn't work so well. When Sirius just merely brushed them beside, she slapped Sirius again, who went down like a stone. When he just struggled again up, Annabel yanked a thick, heavy book from Remus' rucksack (although he tried to snatch it back) and dropped it square on Sirius' body, and he howled and went down again. "NEVER. INTERFERE. AGAIN."
Sirius coughed.
Annabel walked away.
The minute she sat down at a table, a boy sidled next to her. For a brief second, she thought it was Remus or Blake and twisted around to glare at him, and the glare turned into embarrassment as she realized that it wasn't Remus or Blake.
It was a Ravenclaw guy.
She could tell by his blue-striped tie, and the intense look in his eyes, but he seemed a bit nervous too, as if he wanted to say something. "Hi," he breathed. "I'm, um, David Thomas."
"Hi," Annabel said. She had the vague feeling that she knew that guy. Something associated with some particularly tricky spell and a pair of hot-pink knickers. Oh yeah. "David Thomas," she breathed. "I know you! You produced the Riddikulus charm and caused the boggart, which was shaped like a banshee to appear in hot pink knickers!"
David Thomas turned bright bright red.
Annabel realized how crass that sounded and turned a matching shade of red. "I mean, not that it's not bad or anything, I thought that it was actually sort of brilliant in an odd way, if you know what...I mean?"
David Thomas was still bright red and sputtered out, "Anyway, my mates and I wanted to know if you know, wanted to sit with us for just today, because we thought that you might be a little lonely, here, not that you're a loner or anything...but?"
Annabel, still embarrassed, shrugged and said, "That'd be...lovely, thank you so much Thomas."
"David," David said. "I'd prefer you call me David."
Annabel gave him an appraising look and said, "David, then."
David led her over to a group at the Ravenclaw table and said, "Everyone, this is Annabel Foster. She'll be sitting with us for today. Annabel, this is the rest of the people."
"Thanks David, we're really feeling the love," said one girl. Her eyes were the strangest shade of purple Annabel had seen, and were completely at odds with her very dark brown hair. She saw Annabel staring at said, "Spell went wrong. I could've changed it back, but I like the color purple."
"Yeah," Annabel said. "I wouldn't change my eyes either."
There were two other girls in the group, and four boys excluding David. One of the girls was steadily ignoring all of them, brown eyes intent on her book and her long, almost black hair falling around her shoulders in pretty curls. "That's Marie," David said, pointing at the purple-eyed girl, "and that's Tisha." He pointed at the reading girl. "And that's Fauna."
Annabel squinted at Fauna and then her eyes widened. "You're Charlotte's twin, right?"
Fauna looked up, her blue eyes widening in shock. "Oh wait, you're Annabel, friends with Noelle, right?"
"Yeah," Annabel said. "We're dorm mates."
Fauna stared at Annabel for a long moment, long enough that Annabel squirmed in embarrassment. "I don't like you," she said.
Annabel stared back at her. "You friends with Clara?"
"No," said Fauna.
"And you've just met me?"
"Yep."
"And you hate me."
"Yeah."
Annabel raised her eyebrows. "Alright."
Tisha punched Fauna's arm lightly. "Faun! Isn't that a bit presumptuous of you?"
Fauna gave Tisha a blank look. "I'll tell you later."
Annabel sat down next to David and some guy who she knew to be Tom, slightly uneasy. After all, she had people who hated her, but never so...
Quickly.
"Mate, she's not so gorgeous," muttered a guy to David, quietly. Still, Annabel could hear him. "Why'd you make her come over here?"
Oh great.
Juuusssttt great.
And so, therefore...
Lunch was very awkward.
"It's not like I'm incredibly jealous," Annabel said, yanking at her hair agitatedly. "I'm just a bit jealous. Yeah, just a bit jealous. And blababerry, aargh! Buggering bloody Mary with a sprinkling of honey and some sugar-"
"Annabel, what the hell are you doing?"
Annabel whirled around and saw that Remus was staring at her with an expression of complete shock on his face. A little amusement, yeah, but mostly shock and a bit of mortification on his part that he had to see such a weird thing.
"Nothing!" Annabel said, feeling herself turn red. "Like, nothing, um...a bee! Yes, there was a big, big bee and I thought that it was...Bugging me! Yes! Bugging me, so I told it to, er, stop buggering me and-"
"Then why were you jealous?"
"Jealous?" Annabel forced out a laugh. "Because the bug...had pretty wings! So I was very—jealous—of the bug and its...pretty wings. Right. Um. What are you doing here?"
"Well, I had to take Sirius to the Hospital Wing after you assaulted him," Remus said, dropping into one of the common room chairs. "He was groaning in agony, yes."
James slammed into the common room, muttering something under his breath and looking just like Annabel with a dark ferocious scowl on his face. He blew past Annabel without a single glance and headed straight to the chair next to Remus.
"You alright, Prongs?" Remus asked.
"No."
"That's straightforward," Remus said, sighing and rubbing his forehead with a hand.
Annabel bit her nail. "James, what's wrong?"
"Bugger off, Annabel."
Annabel felt a twinge of annoyance. "That's nice, James. I'll see you later, Remus." She stormed up the girl's staircase and slammed the dorm behind her. There was no one in the empty dorm, so she blew into the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror.
"Mate, she's not so gorgeous."
"Then why were you jealous?"
"Bugger off, Annabel."
"Just shrug it off," she told her reflection. "Nothing to worry about. They're just...impatient, and mad, and you're just a jealous chit with messy hair and no makeup and old clothes." Slowly, she picked up the brush and started detangling the hair. "David's nice though. Sweet...and kind...and kind of cute. And what rubbish that Sirius likes to create. A romance spell! Ha! Like that would ever work in the whole world." Swinging back the hair, she divided it into three sections and started plaiting it into one plait. "Anyway, I still have that date with Calvin next week for Hogsmeade, and Fauna still hates me." She tilted her head. "Should I ask Noelle?"
"Ask me what?" Noelle asked, slamming into the room, making the door hit the wall with a thud.
"Nothing," Annabel said quickly. "It's just that...do you think I'm pretty?"
"Uh-huh."
"You do?"
"Yep."
"Thanks."
"Yep."
"Are you just saying yep because you don't want to say anything else?" Annabel asked resignedly.
"Yep-I mean, you are pretty, why do you need me to confirm that?" Noelle asked.
"Well, you know," Annabel said. "It's easy for you to say, you're drop dead gorgeous and have a snog every time you feel like it—which, thankfully, isn't much—and Lily...well, Lily's Lily. And Alice is only interested in Frank, and has her own type of prettiness...where do I fit in? Slag category? Lily did call me a slag once, remember?"
"Yes, I remember." Noelle stared at Annabel for a minute. "I'd put you in the Ordinary Pretty Girl gone hot."
"That makes absolutely no sense." Annabel glared at the mirror for a second, and then said, "Aguamenti." The spell shot a stream of water at her mouth and she swallowed it down.
"What a waste of magic," commented Noelle. "And it does make sense. Truth or sugarcoating?"
"Truth, please," Annabel said.
"You're not downright sexy, to be blunt. You're pretty, with a lot of potential, but you don't have that 'damn, that girl is hot' appeal." Noelle offered a weak smile. "I'm sorry. You just look a bit too innocent and sweet. I know that people like you, and some people want to snog you, but nobody wants a one-night stand with you or anything."
"Right, thanks." Annabel flopped onto her bed.
"I mean, Alice doesn't have it either, and I'm not going to say that I have it. Lily does, however."
"Right," said Annabel again, staring at the ceiling.
"Don't take that the wrong way, please," pleaded Noelle.
"No, no, no, I know what you mean. No offense taken. It's just that David invited me to sit with his group of friends at lunch, and one of them went over to him and whispered, 'Why did you invite her? She's not so hot.' and I dunno, I just got annoyed."
"Just ignore it," offered Noelle.
"I know but-"
"He's just being an arse," Noelle said. "You have to learn to ignore these people, Anna! They're going to be everywhere and-"
"Noelle, please shut up."
There was an awkward silence and Noelle looked like she'd been struck in the face. "Alright," she said quietly. "I'm um, going to be in the common room."
Annabel said nothing and drew the drapes around her bed.
After Annabel left, James stared at the fire and then stormed up into the dorm. Remus followed him with a slightly panicked feeling, and James stomped. Loudly.
"What's wrong now, Prongs?"
"Everything!" James shouted.
It was so loud that Remus nearly took a step back. "And what do you mean by 'everything'?" he asked.
"Lily!"
"Lily? Isn't she your, 'dearest, darling Lily-flower'?" Remus quoted.
"Yes, she is," James said, sitting on the floor. His glasses fell off of his nose and he made no attempt to pick it up. The silence in the air now was so thick that Remus longed to back out of the room, get Sirius, but he knew somehow that if he did, James would be even more angry and moody. Angsty.
Finally, James spoke. "I went to the Hospital to check on Alice." He swallowed dryly. "It wasn't the best check-up. She was looking kinda dead when I went to look at her, and Blake and Lily were sitting together, giggling and chatting, and then Lily kissed him on the cheek and hugged him." He stared at the ground. "What does he have that I don't? Why does she like him more than she likes me? I've loved her since first year."
"Maybe that's the problem," Remus said. "You might need to back off a bit, let her have some of her own space."
"DON'T YOU THINK I'VE TRIED THAT?" James bellowed. "Fourth year. I dated Amelia Bones. Worst three weeks of my life. She was too judgy and I kept imagining what she would look like with red hair and green eyes. Fifth year—I dated Christene. She was gorgeous, and distracted me for a while, but she has no substance. It was all air and giggles. She never really talked to me, it was all really just...snogging." James ruffled his hair. "She-she's gone out with a million blokes, and none of them are me. We rarely have a good conversation, and if we do, I botch it up somehow." He grumbled something. "And I've got to meet her in three days."
"What? Why?"
"For...something." James looked away edgily.
"Right," Remus said helplessly. It seemed that no one remembered his birthday was in four days, but it wasn't like it really mattered right now. "Well, night Prongs." He changed into his sleeping boxers and crawled under the covers.
"Yeah, night," said James. He kept turning something over and over in his hands, a rather odd something that was shaped like a gleaming circle.
Remus turned around and shut his eyes.
Dear Alice's Frank Diary,
Well, Alice woke up for a few seconds just to tell me to write in her diary about what happened, just in case. I don't like the 'just in case' bit, but I'm doing as she wishes.
I guess I should introduce myself.
I'm Noelle Jonn and the owner of this diary in question is right now lying unconscious (again) in the bed with a dead look on her face. Her name's Alice Prewett, if you want to know, and she likes to call you her 'diary' although the rest of us call it the 'Frank Diary' and threaten to give it to Frank if she makes us mad...yeah, we're cruel people.
Why is Alice unconscious? Mainly because Sirius is most possibly the worst boy in the whole world. He tried to cast a love spell on Annabel and Remus, but instead managed to cross spells with Snivellus and somehow...I don't know, the spell turned orange and hit Alice. Madame Pomfrey says that it's most likely just a knockout thingy mebober and she'll wake up in a few days. She stirs sometimes.
Hm.
Well, I may as well add that Annabel is mad at me.
I have absolutely no idea why.
She's crazy, our Anna. One minute, she and Lily are laughing about each other, joking how gorgeous each other are, and then the next minute looking at herself in the mirror with an absolutely broken expression and asking me if I consider her 'pretty'. I do, of course, but she just snapped at me.
And I don't have a crush on Sirius.
Really.
I don't fancy him.
REALLY.
Merlin, I need to get a life.
...and a diary.
Love,
Noelle.
P. S. Alice, please wake up. Please.
The next morning was a normal waking up day and it was all blah-blah-blah. Normal and everything. Noelle went off to check on Alice again and Annabel and Lily sat next to each other and started eating breakfast. But
To Annabel's great relief, Blake wasn't there again. But James was, and he was giving Lily the most uncommon filthy looks that Lily was practically shrinking. "Is he still glaring at me?" she whispered to Annabel.
Annabel checked. "Yep."
"What did I do this time?"
"No idea, lovely Lily."
Lily ate another piece of bacon with a slightly distraught look on her face. Her homework was on the table, neat with her slightly curvy, slightly sloppy script with its round O's and its strange Gs. "It's like he's mad at me. He's never been really mad at me. Well, he did yell at me once, but that was because I was being a total ass to you."
"Righto," said Annabel. She wasn't really paying attention though; instead, her attention was firmly on the delicious tangerine that she was eating. It was sweet and yummy and warmed, slightly sticky...
Lily's hand flew out in the middle of her tirade, accidentally hitting Annabel's tangerine and knocking it to the floor. "Lily!" Annabel exclaimed.
"What?" Lily snapped.
"You killed my tangerine!"
"It was dead from the moment it was harvested," snapped Lily. "Oh look. Here's Peter. PETER!"
Peter jumped, quavered, and walked over to Lily and Annabel. "Y-yes?"
"Why is Potter so mad at me?"
Peter shook slightly. "I don't know."
"ARGH. GO AWAY."
Peter jumped again and scampered away.
Annabel picked up her soiled tangerine. "Scourgify," she said. There was a sparkle of light, and then the tangerine rose from her palm. "What the-"
The tangerine exploded.
Lily stopped in the middle of her sentence and turned to see Annabel, looking utterly shocked with a splattering of orange pulp on her face.
And then started to laugh.
And laugh.
Lily practically howled with laughter as Annabel gingerly took a napkin and wiped her face off, and combing the little orange bits out of her hair. "Yes, ha-ha," Annabel said. "Very funny."
There was a thud as someone threw the doors open. Lily turned around, but Annabel was a bit distracted trying to blink the orange juice out of her eyes-which stung-and was debating pouring water on her head to get the stickiness out of her hair. After the last Scourgify, she didn't exactly trust herself to do it on her hair. Who knows—maybe she would explode.
Noelle grabbed the back of their school uniforms. "Hurry up!" she said urgently.
"What?" Lily asked, stuffing another bacon piece into her mouth so it sounded like she said, "Whuff?"
"Alice. She's woken up!"
Lily stood up in such a hurry that she promptly twisted her ankle and fell over the bench in a heap of red hair and school uniform. Annabel stood up to get a better look and started laughing hard until Lily, with a scowl, took Annabel's waving hand and dragged her down with her.
Noelle sighed impatiently. "Are you two going to fool around some more or can we go?"
"We're not fooling around," Annabel said, trying to preserve what was left of her dignity by standing up and brushing off her skirts. "Prefect Lily here is going to guide us to the Hospital Wing with grace and dignity."
"I can't," Lily wheezed out, laughing and crying at the same time. "I think I twisted my ankle."
Well, at this, Annabel promptly began to laugh again. Noelle sighed and rolled her eyes, and then most unbecomingly took Annabel and Lily by the back of their uniforms and dragged them across the floor with the help of a muttered spell.
And when the crazy trio left, the great hall let out a sigh of relief and continued eating. All except for Sirius (who felt horribly guilty about the whole thing) who stood up and raced through the doors. And James, of course, went after his friend, and then Remus and the Peter. But by the time Peter got there, the doors were swinging shut and hit Peter in the face.
Alice was awake when the three—or the five really—got there. "Hey," she croaked, giving a little cough and rolling her eyes. "My hair's a mess."
Annabel didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and so she began to do both of them.
Noelle rolled her eyes. "Not this again."
Annabel wiped at her eyes with the edge of her sleeve. "You were dead, Alice."
Alice stared. "Was I really? That's surprising. I've always thought that if you were dead...you generally don't come back to life. You know...the whole 'I'm a zombie' bit." Alice shrugged.
"You could come back to life you were Inferi," Lily said helpfully. "You know, just a bit of information everyone should use." There was an awkward silence and her face fell. "Right. Um, so Alice, how are you feeling?"
"Great," Alice said. "Just great."
"Then let's get to Charms or we'll be late!" Annabel said. Noelle jumped. "What?"
"Since when did you become a time freak?" Noelle asked, looking at herself in the mirror with a slightly apprehensive look on her face. "Holy Merlin, my hair looks like crap."
Sirius nodded. "That it does, Jonn."
"Oh you shut up!" Noelle hit Sirius on the head. "You're just a big jerk, that's what you are."
James snickered.
"You shut up as well," Lily said to James. "Don't laugh at my friend!"
"I'm not!" James said with a shocked expression. "I'm laughing at Padfoot!"
"Ohhh thanks," said Sirius.
"Forget about your hair!" Annabel snapped. "Flitwick has a nasty habit of lecturing people who are late."
"Right," said Lily, leaping up from her chair. "Come on, the lot of you." She tugged on Noelle's arm.
They arrived just in time for Charms and Flitwick gave them that look. It was lucky that they were with Lily, who was a known favorite of Flitwick, because he overlooked them for once.
"Hello class," he squeaked in his tiny voice.
"Hello Professor Flitwick," the class replied.
"Today class, we will be casting the 'Bird Encounter" charm, also known as "Oppugno. We will be doing the right-hand flick with the swish and Trenton swirl. This is tricky, so you all need to pay attention! Who remembers what the Trenton swirl is?"
Lily's hand shot up way before anyone else's. "It's a complicated flick going counterclockwise and then ending in a little flourish."
"Remarkable!" cried Professor Flitwick with a beam on his tiny, whiskered face. "Good job! Ten points to Gryffindor!"
Lily beamed.
Lily beamed all the way through Charms. Oh, how she loved Professor Flitwick. He was so...cheerful and sweet and kind and her absolute favorite teacher along with Professor Slughorn. No, scratch that, Professor Slughorn was a bit oppressing.
She snuck a look at James, who was completely bored looking. As she stared, he turned around and winked at her, and she looked down, cheeks flaming with anger, embarrassment and even a little mortification.
Mortification?
Lily reached into her pocket for the notebook that she always carried around. It was specially enchanted so no one other than herself could read or write in. Nobody knew about it; they all assumed that it was full of notes. After all, she made sure to look up every now and then as if she was busy listening to what the teacher said.
Date: September 19
Time: 9:31
Class or whatever you call it: Charms, of course.
What's wrong with being mortified?
Mortification is alright.
Yes, just marvelous.
...Aargh! I'm being completely silly. What's wrong with being mortified even if it's Potter that you're being mortified with? Stupid!
And I turned red.
Bright-tomato-red.
That's the curse of being a red-head; you always turn an unfortunate shade of red. Or something like that. So we're learning about the Oppugno charm, and it's pretty boring because I learned how to do it, like, last year. Bless Flitwick. He always gives us easy charms.
Note's just landed on my desk.
Be right back.
So, what're you writing about? -JP
Lily glanced up and glared at Potter, who gave her a cheeky grin.
Nothing, you imbecile! Why aren't you paying attention? -LE
Because you aren't, are you?
Well, no, but I've already learned this charm.
So've I.
Lily shot up with surprise, and James grinned some more at her, raising his eyebrows. She could feel Annabel trying to look over her shoulder at her note and covered it with her hand. Really? I thought you were a do-good nothing who slacked off in everything. You know, like you ALWAYS are, Potter! Where'd you learn the charm?
Ouch, Lily. I learned it in fourth year. I had to use it to curse Snivellus.
Don't call him that! And why are you calling me Lily?
….is there anything wrong with calling you Lily?
Well, why no 'Evans'?
Alright then. Ouch, Evans.
Shut up!
OUCH! Lady, why do you have to throw it at my eye?
Well, you have glasses to protect you, don't you?
IT CAN GET UNDER THE GLASSES, OKAY?
Ooh, touchy touchy. Have I gotten to a skimmed over topic much?
…
Potter?
…
Potter? What's wrong?
…
POTTER! JAMES POTTER.
…
Don't forget that we meet in two days.
AHA! Response!
Lily looked up to see James winking at her, and stuffed the notes into her bag. Annabel, who was watching her, carefully dipped her hand into the bag and drew out the notes and stuffed them into her own rucksack.
"Class dismissed!" chirped Flitwick. "Don't forget, your homework is to practice the charm at least once or twice! There's going to be a pop quiz tomorrow, don't forget!"
Lily caught up to James. "What was that all about?"
James shrugged. "Go out with me, Evans?"
The question seemed to slip out involuntarily, and hung in the air for a while before either one of them reacted. James winced. "No—Lily—force of habit—I'm sorry—"
"Don't bother!" Lily looked completely pissed. "I can't—I just can't. I came over to ask you what was wrong and you...ooh, you make me so mad! Shut up!" She flashed James a glare and stalked away.
I can't believe I have to bake a cake with him in two days! Lily thought to herself, giving an evil scowl at some poor fifth years that were unfortunate enough to bump into her. If the cake wasn't for Remus, then I would totally not do it!
Sirius put a hand on James' shoulder. "Mate, she teased you about your glasses, right?"
"Yep," James said, sighing. "I just couldn't help it...I got mad! And this...it was force of habit...and aargh!"
"You crashed and burned," said Remus, almost reverently. "Fast."
James shrugged. "I've done it faster."
Back in her dorm, Annabel drew the curtains around her bed and opened the notes, her pulse quickening. Her eyes widened and she laughed a few times before glossing over the rest and stopping at the end.
"Meet you in two days?" Her eyes widened even more. "What the..." She scratched her head.
There was no doubt. The proof was in the notes.
Lily was going out on a date with James Potter in two days.
Silvery flakes drifted from the sky onto the house. However, it wasn't snow.
No, it was ash.
Gleaming in the moonlight, it drifted onto the woman. Her name was Crystal, and she was as beautiful as crystal itself, with hair that shone silver in the light, but was really a lovely light yellow and her eyes were as blue as a sapphire. The ashes built up onto the woman until it appeared that her hair was full of snowflakes, and her simple nightgown dusted with stars.
But however as pure crystal could be, Crystal was anything but pure. As an innocent robin watched from a tree, she swept her hand around and there was a vibrant burst of flame. Her hands trembling, she uncapped a vial of gold liquid and downed it. The gold liquid steamed, but she downed it with not even a wince.
"Disgusting," she muttered to herself, wiping her mouth on one ash-coated sleeve and dusting the ashes from her skirt with vigorous sweeps.
A man crept from the shadows. He was the twin of the woman, except with a handsome face. But one look at his eyes could show that they were not, in fact, siblings, because there was a terrible longing in his eyes as he stared at the woman.
"Charles," she said in a gentle voice. "How...lovely for you to come." Her voice hardened. "You have news?"
"Indeed, my love," said Charles, his eyes following Crystal's every move. He licked his lips. "A werewolf is in Hogwarts."
This made the woman jerk with surprise. "Oh really?" She chucked dryly. "Hogwarts has fallen far too far." She giggled at her own joke. "Soon, Lord Voldemort will reign supreme, and I will be the only Muggle that the lord will dote upon with all his devotion."
"Of course." Charles had a sour expression on his face that Crystal didn't even notice. "But...my love...may I have one kiss?"
"Of course not?" Crystal recoiled. "How daring of you to ask something like that." Her voice was almost flirtatious.
"But my love-"
"Oh shut up, you." Crystal dragged her long nails across Charles' cheek with a soft purr. "We'll be together...forever...just like you wanted, right?"
"Of course my love, but-"
"Then we need the werewolf blood," said Crystal.
"But why from this werewolf?" whined Charles. "Surely there are more werewolves in this world."
"No, you idiot!" snapped Crystal. "I need his blood because he is young...and he has my type of blood, which is very rare indeed. And none of the other werewolves that are male are so vulnerable like him!"
"Alright, but-"
Crystal's hand descended like a whip, cracking Charles across the face. "Don't ask me questions, you whelp?"
Charles clutched his cheek. "Of course, my pet."
Crystal kissed him on the cheek. "Then go, love."
Charles, nursing his wounded cheek, stumbled across the grass towards Hogwarts, looming in the distance. Women, he thought sourly, and then his mind found a picture of Crystal's face, beautiful and hard, lovely and cold. But they're worth it.
Oh look! The actual idea that there might be a plot! But no, the "big something" is not Crystal. It's...something else. Anyway, there are a few fics that I'd like to recommend for this chapter.
Exposed by RJLupinFan. AWWW such a cute little Remus Lupin/OC one-shot. I find myself reading it time and time again.
Commentarius by B. C. Daily GOD I LOVE THAT FIC! No, seriously. Lily/James, SOOO incredibly hilarious and beautiful!
Literacy and Longing by iluv2eatcarbs. Ohh, I remember that RL/OC fic. So incredibly beautiful and funny!
The True Confessions of Elizabeth Reynolds by SailingAwaySoftly. I have only one thing to say. FETCHEZ LA VACHE!
Tell me in a review a fanfiction that YOU particularly enjoyed and I'll check it out!