Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. :(
Hey guys! GUESS WHAT, I've decided to update more frequently during the summer, so expect to be seeing at least one new chapter each week, if not two! 8) BTW, did you see the new Harry Potter 7 trailer? OMG MY HEART BROKE, November has to come faster!
Thank you to my lovely reviewers! I didn't expect many, because the last chapter wasn't exactly the best, but you still reviewed it so it made me feel amazing! (Btw, Annabelle is back in Hogwarts in this chapter which means... MORE HARRY!) Aha, so thank you to kt . potter93, Leanora, pixiestixz, xxbabyxox, JainaZekk621, hollowbastiongrl, and Tonks . Loves . Moony!
Enjoy! :)
Annabelle walked into the common room with a rather HUGE surprise waiting for her. As she stepped through the portrait hole, her eyes wandered around the common room for her friends. When they reached the sofa, and the occupants that were on it, she gasped out loud.
Ron was kissing …. Lavendar?
Not kissing, snogging is more like the word for it. She tried to make out which hand is which and who's mouth was who's – but it was everywhere. In truth, watching them like that, Annabelle felt disgusted.
Ron, who must have noticed her stare stopped kissing and turned around with a grin at Annabelle. Annabelle smiled back, but her heart was broken for Hermione.
"Annabelle! I have to talk to you! But let me finish, you know," he grinned sheepishly. Annabelle nodded and was about to walk towards the dormitory and get some sleep, but she wanted to talk to Hermione. Much more, she wanted to find out what the heck was going on. So knowing exactly where her friend would be at the time, she headed out to the library.
On her way she didn't pass any of her friends, which was very odd, but she kept walking anyways. When she reached the big oak doors of the library, she opened them, and walked over to her "special spot." Hermione found out about it, so she decided to claim it too, which was perfectly fine with Annabelle.
When Annabelle reached the table, she was relieved to find Harry with Hermione. Hermione was sitting with an annoyed expression on her face, and she was working harshly on some paper. Harry didn't have anything with him, he was just watching Hermione.
Harry glanced up, and when he saw Annabelle, a wide grin spread across his face.
"Annabelle!"
Hermione didn't even look up.
Annabelle didn't say anything; she crossed her arms and stared at Harry intensely, waiting for him to get the message. She chanced a quick but pointed glance at Hermione, and he right away knew that she had seen Ron.
"There's this one book I wanted to show you," he muttered anxiously, standing up and grabbing her arm. "Be right back, Hermione."
Harry led her to a different part of the library, and looked around his surroundings cautiously. Annabelle, on the other hand, wasn't so cautious.
"What is going on with Ron and Lavendar?" she demanded. Her voice must have been pretty loud because Harry turned on his heel in alarm and shushed her quickly. Thank goodness there were no curious bystanders.
"He asked her out," Harry whispered. "The day you left. He and Hermione got in this stupid fight, and he asked her out."
Annabelle stared at him incredulously.
He raised his palms up innocently. "Don't ask me why he did it! I don't even know what they fought over!"
"So now they're not talking to each other at all?"
"Nope."
She stared at him in disbelief. Out of all possible girls… Lavendar? She must have known though, all along she was staring at him as if he were some delicious object.
"And Hermione… just… let it?" Annabelle asked quietly.
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I guess so."
Annabelle looked over her shoulder and watched Hermione painfully, who was jabbing the quill forcefully on the piece of parchment.
"Welcome back, by the way," Harry said, steering the subject in a different direction. "Did you have fun?"
Annabelle opened her mouth to say no, but she forgot that Harry doesn't know anything about her so she nodded helplessly. "Yeah… it was great," she lied.
"Yeah we had the best time," he said, his eyes mischievous. "You know, with you gone and everything," he winked.
"Jerk!" Annabelle cried, grabbing the nearest book and smacking him in the side.
Harry laughed, and the sound was like music to Annabelle's ears.
Unfortunately, Madame Pince decided to come around just in time to see Annabelle violate the library book.
"Excuse me miss," she said angrily. "That's a library book, not a weapon."
Annabelle felt herself go red. "Sorry," she said quickly.
"I'm not sure if you're very sorry," Madame Pince said knowingly. "Perhaps a detention to sort your priorities out? Not to mention, the book you just used is very valuable."
Annabelle glanced down at the title of the book. 101 Ways to Wear Black for Women.
She wasn't sure how 'valuable' this book really was.
"I was teasing her Madame Pince," Harry stepped in.
Madame Pince's owl eyes zoomed over to Harry. "Is that a good excuse to hit you with a book, Mr. Potter?"
When Harry didn't say anything, Madame Pince turned back to face Annabelle smugly. "Wednesday night at 7 then. You can come to the library and help me sort out shelves of books. You can put that book away now, and maybe leaving the library would be a good choice."
Obediently, and completely embarrassed, Annabelle placed the book back on its shelf and started to follow Madame Pince away from the area.
There was a sudden loud thump from behind her, and Annabelle jumped. She looked around to see Harry with crossed arms, the same book she put back by his feet.
"Mr. Potter," Madame Pince said, her eyes fiery with anger. "Did you just throw that book on the ground?"
Annabelle looked at Harry in complete shock, then back at Madame Pince fearfully.
"Maybe," Harry said.
Annabelle wanted to laugh. Oh, Harry was such a great friend.
"I've had enough of it!" Madame Pince shrieked, throwing up her arms. "Both of you have detention for the next week. I don't care if you have any other activities," she said seriously, glaring at Harry who shrugged.
She then left with her nose in the air, and Annabelle finally giggled.
"You didn't have to do that," she told Harry.
Harry smiled – it was absolutely gorgeous. "I wanted to."
"Neville, just do it," Annabelle said, the fortieth time that evening. She was sitting on the couch beside him, and she could have swore this was the most relaxed she was in a long while. It was the first of December, and everything was going fine so far. It's been a week and a few days since Thanksgiving, but Annabelle tried not to think about that. Instead, she found herself convincing Neville into doing an 'impossible' task.
To ask Luna Lovegood to the Cedric's Ball.
"I can't just go up to her Anna," he said, frustrated. "I barely talked to her since last year… I doubt she even remembers me!"
"Of course she remembers you!"
"How would you know?" Neville demanded.
Annabelle re-arranged how she was sitting, and found herself face to face with Neville. "I know because I see the way you look at her, and I see the way she looks at you. She likes you too Neville, really!"
"So what, you want me to just ask her out? Get rejected and become the school's biggest loser again?"
Annabelle opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. "The worst thing in life is not saying anything, and then regretting it later. Take the chance Neville. The worst she can do is say no," she said softly.
Neville peered over at her with a serious expression on his face. "Coming from the person who won't have the guts to ask Harry out," he said grimly.
Annabelle froze – but for only a second – before she grabbed a pillow to throw at him. He was a second to fast though, and he stopped the pillow from coming his way with his wand.
He looked very amused.
Annabelle was worried someone else heard – and Seamus, oh thank God Seamus wasn't here – but no one seemed to notice anything. She turned back to Neville with fire in her eyes.
"Neville!" she hissed.
Neville laughed out loud, annoying the hell out of Annabelle.
After a few minutes of complete annoyance, Annabelle slumped in the sofa, something else coming into her mind.
"Why does everyone think I like Harry?" she asked quietly.
Neville glanced at her knowingly. "Because we see the way you act around him Annabelle. We see the way Harry acts around you."
Annabelle didn't say anything.
"You don't like Seamus that much anymore, do you?" he asked gently.
Annabelle thought of Harry, the butterflies, the smiles, the laughing…
And then she thought of Seamus.
Annabelle couldn't believe she shook her head, in a response to saying "No."
Annabelle was following Hermione hurriedly into Defense Against the Dark Arts. Hermione was walking so fast, Annabelle was practically sprinting to keep up.
"He's perfectly fine to date whomever he wants," Hermione was saying, her nose in the air.
"It might not be a great decision, but it's his choice, and his consequences."
"Hermione – "
"I don't care, I really don't. In fact, I couldn't be less bothered."
"Hermione," Annabelle tried again.
They were in front of the classroom now.
"If he wants to have a stuck up snob as a girlfriend, then so be it."
They sat in their usual spots in the back of the classroom, and Snape stood in his usual spot, in front of the classroom.
Annabelle thought it was an accomplishment that she managed to make Hermione start talking again, but she's not so sure if that was a good idea any more. Hermione would not stop talking about the incident, and it hurt Annabelle to watch Hermione pretend it wasn't bothering her.
"Hermione, I was thinking, for the next Hogsmeade Trip… you and I go together shopping for dress robes?"
Hermione stopped jabbering, her mouth set into a thin line.
"Right," she said, just as Harry and Ron came to sit beside them. "Sure."
She didn't say anything else after that.
For the entire block, it was Harry and Annabelle who kept talking, trying to make peace between the two friends, but none of them budged. Except for Ron. He was trying really, really, hard.
"I like what you did with your hair Hermione. It looks nice today," Ron complimented timidly.
Funny he said it, because today was one of her bad hair days – her hair was so bushy it was unable to be put down.
She ignored that comment.
Things weren't going to be getting any better soon, Annabelle realized.
So the class went on very slowly, but twenty minutes before the class ended, Snape swayed to standing in front of everyone. The entire classroom went quiet.
"I'm afraid there's just been too much chattering in the classroom today, so I hope you don't mind if I assign you an extra lesson," he said smugly.
The class groaned.
"We are going to be learning how to perform non-verbal spells. In other words, spells that aren't said out loud but work all the same. This is a very difficult task, it requires a lot of work."
Everyone watched him expectantly.
"Miss Annabelle," Snape said, his eyes falling on her eerily. "I assume you won't mind when I ask you to come up for a demonstration?"
Annabelle cursed under her breath. Of course Snape would pick on her, the girl who cannot perform a single charm at all.
She grabbed her wand, as useless as it was to her, and walked up slowly to the front of the classroom, all eyes on her.
Snape was smiling, but it looked cold to Annabelle. She stood right in front of him, and prayed that a miracle would come and save her.
"I am going to curse a spell your way, and you're job is to reflect it, using Protego – the shield charm."
Annabelle did everything she could from showing her nervousness to Snape.
"You do so by thinking of the word very hard – but it comes to different people in different ways."
Snape took a few steps back and raised his wand.
Wait, what the heck was happening?
A bolt of lightning escaped before Annabelle had time to react, and in the next moment she found herself hitting the wall painfully, landing wobbly on her feet.
The class gasped, and Snape's face was expressionless. Trying not to give him the satisfaction however, she regained her composure and ignored the massive headache that she just developed.
She stood up with a raised wand and blurry eyes. She couldn't concentrate one bit.
"Pathetic," Snape called. "How are you supposed to defend yourself if you're not even the least bit ready for a curse?"
Annabelle didn't answer. She was too busy getting over the embarrassment of hurting herself in front of everyone.
"We'll try again, hopefully this time you'll do something instead of standing around," he jeered.
Once again he raised his wand, and all Annabelle could think of was her hate towards Snape. She's just been here four months, and it's enough to detest Snape with her whole life. All those times she's been humiliated…
The flash of golden white came at her again, and she expected another blow –
But it didn't hit her. It repelled against her skin, and instead flew right back at Snape who didn't have enough time to gather himself, and was hit by it instead, sending him at a nearby desk.
He crashed with a loud thud – a student screamed, and Annabelle could not believe what she had just done. Her wand didn't do anything, it was all her. Just like that night in the graveyard.
She glanced to the right to see Harry and Ron laughing, and throwing her thumbs up; but she was so confused.
When Snape stood up once again, he looked at her furiously.
"Thirty points from Gryffindor," he said loudly, and the entire class broke out into angry fits – except for the Slytherins.
Annabelle couldn't believe it – she did everything she was supposed to!
"I don't know what game you're playing, but if you try to curse a teacher like that again I will have you," he growled.
"She didn't do anything wrong!" someone called out.
"But sir," Annabelle said desperately. "I used the Shield Charm, just like you – "
"That was not a shield charm," he said through clenched teeth. "Shield Charms don't repel the spells, they simply protect you."
Annabelle opened her mouth, but Snape cut her off.
"If you wish to say anything else, then be sure that you will have detention with me until the New Year. If not, then please sit down like everyone else."
Annabelle wanted to strangle him, yell at him, do something. But she didn't want to spend more time with him than she had to, so she stubbornly walked over to where she was sitting, confusion but anger mixed in her head.