Hey I recommend rereading some of the previous chapters if you haven't in awhile because they have occurred within the same night as this chapter (in case you don't make that connection.)

Chapter 8: Coming Together

Her robe pooled around her in dark puddles. Her hair was pulled back into a tight knot, held firm by 2 pencils, Chinese-chopstick style. Her blue eyes shone as she wrote with her favorite pen and in a beat-up pink notebook she had brought from home. Her characters declared their hate for one another, while deeply wishing to say how they really felt. Her face glowed with the joy she received from writing. Her peace, however, was suddenly disturbed by a certain bored, and rather loud, Marauder.

"Hello Annie!" James Potter trumpeted… unfortunately right in her ear. Annie started with surprise and automatically snapped her notebook closed, something she had learned was wise to do when she had a little sister poking around.

"Annie?" Annie cocked a red eyebrow at James, who was at this time situating himself in a chair opposite her.

"Oh right, uh... Martin?" James shook his head negatively," Bloody Hell, could I just call you Annie? This tradition calling each other by their surnames is getting old and annoying. Besides we're friends right?" Annie chuckled lightly.

"Sure call me Annie, Annie the Avenger of Worlds!" James laughed as Annie pinked slightly. "Sorry it's an inside joke."

"And you may call me James, Pranker Extraordinaire!" He smiled beneficially. Annie laughed, a little uncomfortably at his open camaraderie. She then, feeling and hoping the conversation was over, reopened her notebook, to hopefully return to her peaceful writing state without further interruption. Nevertheless, her neck prickled as she felt his gaze remaining fixed upon her. She glanced up to find him doing exactly that as well as continuing to grin. She sighed inwardly and decidedly closed her notebook and laid it on the small table that separated them.

"Okay James, is there something you want? Because otherwise I'd like to get back to Elise and Charlie."

"Who…?" James looked down at the worn notebook. "Oh. Well the thing is, Jamie and Remus are on prefect duty, Peter is asleep, and Sirius and Lizz haven't been seen for almost an hour, which I'm wondering if they aren't in a broom closet somewhere and…"

"Excuse me!" Annie almost screeched, "Lizz and Sirius? You've got to be kidding me James. She hates his perverted guts, no matter how handsome he considers himself. Plus she isn't just some slut willing to jump into bed with any guy that gives her notice! Besides I know for a fact that she's taking a bath in our dorm. As for Sirius, he's probably snogging Vivian Le-whatever in your broom closet." The remaining students in the common room hurriedly turned back to their business. Annie clenched her fist in an effort to control her anger, but damned if she was going to let anybody talk about her friends like that.

"Sorry, I'm sorry! I just know Sirius and his reputation more than I know Lizz." James held up his hands in surrender. Annie sighed, releasing her anger.

"I'm sorry too; I just get so upset when anyone speaks badly about my friends, especially when they're not there."

"I can tell." James chuckled. Annie turned a slightly darker shade of pink and was suddenly rather interested in her chipped nail polish. Need to redo my nails again, oops he's talking again.

"…as I was saying, I'm bored out of my mind and I hoped I might get some entertainment from a fellow Gryffindor, and here I find you all alone yourself. So let's talk," James paused enthusiastically, "I'll even let you pick the topic!" Here James beneficially grinned again, as if giving her the greatest gift she could ever hope to receive. Annie resisted the urge to snort at his ego.

Five minutes later James's grin faded.

10 minutes later Annie snorted.

15 minutes later James succumbed to insanity, while Annie laughed maliciously over his twitching body before turning into stone.

(Had you going didn't I)

In all actuality 30 seconds passed before James finally decided to end it before it got carried away.

"Um, any particular reason you're refusing to talk?" James said. Annie smiled and explained slowly, as if to an ignorant child,

"Because I'm not really very good at talking on command." And because you need to learn not to expect everyone to simply do whatever you say. Annie smiled over-sweetly, mostly to hide her amusement at her own joke so he wouldn't ask her to explain.

"But I'm sure if you really do wish to talk, we can, however I'm not just going to talk to show off" Annie said, "and I honestly have no idea what to talk about."

"How 'bout we just ask each other questions and go from there?"

"You first, Mr. Potter," Annie said, while imitating his own English accent.

"Hmm, okay…" James tapped his chin in thought, "What's your favorite animal?"

"Easy, a falcon," Annie said. James's mind zoomed into overdrive as he remembered the night they met up with the other Animagi. Particularly James remembered the falcon because of the way the wolf never flinched as the falcon landed gracefully on her head.

"Any particular reason?"

"Nope it's my turn. Okay, how do you get to Charms?"

"What?"

"How do you get to charms? We've gotten lost every single time! The only time we've made it without any problems was when Remus helped us on like the first day." Annie said and shook her head, "It's kinda depressing..."

"Charms isn't too hard to find, you just can't miss the left at Uric the Oddball and from there…"

"Eric the who?"

"He's this bald statue on the first floor, you can't miss him. Actually now that I think about it there are least four bald statues on the first floor." James stopped and thought for a second "You know I think I'll have to show you, how about I give you a tour of Hogwarts?"

"Okay but is it alright if Jamie and Lizz come along?"

"Absolutely I'll give you all a Marauder-worthy tour!" James excitedly rubbed his hands together and smiled at his immense genius.

"Okay it's your turn Potter" James's smile quirked at the continued look of his surname, and flashed a small frown before continuing.

"What's your family like, you know, siblings and parents?" A small pained expression crossed Annie's face for a millisecond before being pushed aside by an affectionate smile.

"I have a younger sister named Emily, she's great, but seems to have suddenly realized how incredibly awesome the guys seem to be in her year." Annie chuckled, "She's part of at least 3 bevies."

"Bevy?"

"Yah, certain guys have a group of girls who kinda worship him" Annie explained as seriously as she could, but she couldn't help a smile as she saw James's reaction, "it's like a club dedicated to his ultimate greatness." James struggled before bursting out laughing like a damn breaking and Annie quickly joined in. Their laughter brightened the common room in one of those mushy happy moments that always make you, the reader, feel better and even let a chuckle escape your lips as you continue reading.

"What about your parents?" James said after they has finally calmed down, though they both had a slight stomachache from the intensity of their laughter. The pained look surfaced again, before Annie struggled to cover it with an attempt of a smile.

"They died last year."

"Annie, I'm so sorry!... If you don't mind me asking, how did they die?"

"It's okay. They were Aurors and though Voldemort," Annie watched as James started, "Don't pay him that compliment James honestly. sigh they were Aurors and though Voldemort is huge here, he's still kinda underground in the U.S. My parents came here to England to check him out and figure how big a threat he is to the U.S. They gathered as much information as they could from the Ministry, but also tried to get some from the field themselves…"

Annie stopped and bit her lip. Her eyes shone as she remembered the day the government agent stood in their door, telling her and Em to start packing. They were going to stay with their godparents, permanently. How did it happen she had asked, knowing what godparents were for. The agent was a hardened military man, who simply said it was confidential before escorting them to their godparent's house. She and made sure to turn his hard-ass bright pink before he left, but it did little to assuage the hurt and pain that took months to shake off.

James watched her carefully, waiting for the right moment to speak again. She wasn't the first who had been terrorized by Voldemort, nor would she be the last. Hardly two weeks went by when a ministry rep didn't show up to share the news with a student and take them to collect their remaining possession, if there were any. Some came back, some didn't.

"I know how you feel, my parents are Aurors as well and I honestly dread the day the ministry will show up for me." Annie smiled slightly, letting him know his effort was appreciated. James continued on in a lighter vein of conversation and soon an hour had passed in which they had talked about books, chocolate, the glory of In-N-Out, fishing, Colin Firth, and how annoying first-years could be.

"I don't care if I once was one, they're still annoying!" Annie said adamantly. James laughed.

"Hey have you guys seen Jamie?" Remus said, in a voice tinged with worry, as he ran up.

"No we haven't seen her since she left with you, is something wrong?" Annie asked.

"No we just got separated." Remus waved good bye as he ran back out the portal. James shrugged his shoulders at Annie's puzzled and questioning look.

"So you hate yourself?" James said, returning to the conversation.

"As a first year? Pretty much."

"I doubt that."

A while later Jamie and Remus came back, but only James could see them so he nodded in acknowledgment before focusing on what Annie was saying again. Remus walked up to their dormitory and gave James a triumphant grin. James smiled then grinned as Lizz walked up humming quietly.

"Hey Annie, what's up?"

"Hey Lizz" They both replied. Lizz jumped as she realized James was in the chair she had been leaning over.

"Oh hey James" Lizz said, a little uneasy.

"How was your bath?" Annie said covertly.

"Very nice" Lizz said with a secret smile.

"I always enjoy a good bath," said James, "You girls should get Jamie to give you the prefect bathroom password, it's incredible."

"We will" said Lizz. She really liked James, but talking with guys was always difficult with her for some reason.

"Uh… did Jamie get back?" Lizz asked looking around.

"Yes," affirmed James "I don't know where she ended up though." James stood up "Well I'll leave you ladies to find your friend; girl's gossip has no appeal for me." He smiled at them and turned to leave, but winked at Lizz before sauntering off.

Lizz flushed beet red (at least she would've if she didn't have genetically olive/tan skin that never flushed or burned to Jamie and Annie's envy.)

"Did he just…?" Annie nodded,

"Yes Lily-Beth he was totally and completely hitting on and/or flirting with you" Annie crossed her arms "Lucky."

Lizz squealed in delight and surprise, luckily there didn't appear to be anyone in the common room.

"Where's Jamie? I have to tell her!"

"Dunno, bet she's reading in some corner."

"Jamie, Jamie! JAMIE!" Lizz called.

"Accio Jane Eyre" Annie flicked her wand towards the burgundy leather couch across from them.

There was a screech of irritation and a crash as something got tipped over. Jane Eyre plopped on the couch, followed by a flash of purple as Jamie cat-leaped into the empty couch, but her weight caused the couch to teeter dangerously and Annie and Lizz to brace for the following crash. Jamie peered over the tipped couch with wide eyes before laughing.

"Dude, that was freakin' awesome!"

"Come on!" Annie said, heading towards their dorm before anyone showed up. They crashed up the stairs, tripping and laughing until they pushed through the doorway. Jamie launched herself with a wild grin onto her bed while Annie sealed the door with a silence charm. Lizz squealed again as she remembered what she had to tell Jamie.

An hour later they had all described what they had done that night. Laughing at Lizz's chase, showing shocks of horror as Annie described the lack of In-N-Out in the UK, and applauding Jamie for clocking someone like Snape, though Jamie didn't mention the interlude with Remus. She didn't feel right about hiding something like that from her friends, but she told herself she was sparing herself the teasing she would receive. That didn't spare Lizz the teasing she received for the attentions of Mr. Potter, though Lizz was immensely happy that he had.

Sirius pulled off the invisibility cloak James had lent him earlier in the dark of his dorm and checked himself for any side effects of the spell Jamie had cast on him. He ran a hand through his hair as he pulled his pajamas on blindly in the darkness before climbing in bed.

Pleaz review!