Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine. I just took a couple of characters and mixed them in with my warped imagination.

"So Annapelle," Lily was saying slowly as she and Dorcas were walking to the library, "has been taking notes…on me…"

"Yes," said Dorcas in a frustrated tone; she had been telling Lily that fact for the past half an hour.

"In a little black book," Lily concluded finally.

"Yes," said Dorcas. "She has. Get the picture?"

"So, all this information about me is in that little black book?"

"Yes."

"Like…"

"I don't know, why don't you borrow it from her and read it?"

"Actually, that's a – Dorcas, like she'd let me read it."

"Almost gotcha."

"Where's Emmeline?" asked Lily, her voice dropping to a whisper as they reached the library.

"I don't know, look for the brown hair."

"Dorcas, there are a lot of people here with brown hair."

"See, it's so much easier to find you in the library."

"What's that got to do with it?"

"I dunno, maybe we should look for you."

"Dorcas, I'm right beside you."

"Oh! Hi Lily!"

Lily sighed and shook her head. Then she spotted Emmeline's head, close to the desk she was writing on. She tiptoed over to her, careful not to disturb anyone else.

"Emmeline," Lily whispered.

Emmeline looked up. "Hey Lily. Whaddya want?"

"Do you know about Annapelle's little black book?"

"Yeah, she showed it to me."

"She showed it to you?" Lily asked disbelievingly.

"Yep. It has all sorts of stuff 'bout you in it. What times you go to the toilet during the day, what your favourite colour is, what your favourite food and sweet is, what your –"

"I've heard enough," said Lily, a furious expression coming over her face. "How did she…I mean…Huh?"

"Lily," said Emmeline quite suddenly, her eyes wide. "Get under the desk."

"Get under the what? Ew, there's like Drooble's Best –"

"Get under there!" said Emmeline, shoving Lily beneath a desk for the second time that day.

A pair of familiar legs appeared. "Hey Emmeline, hi Dorcas. She wasn't down by the lake and I asked around and there is no girl in Hogwarts named Lisa. Were you lying to me? Anyway, where is she then? Normally she's with you, but I can't see her anywhere."

"Oh, um, Lisa left, that's right," said Dorcas trying to cover up her tracks. "But, um, I think Lily went to the toilet…"

"Really?" said Annapelle excitedly. Lily saw her arm fly to her bag and quickly pull out a little black book. "Saturday, eleven thirty a. m., twenty-two seconds." Lily saw her return the book to her bag. "Thanks guys!" She skipped off.

Lily crawled out from under the desk. "She didn't…she wouldn't…she's a…stalker."

"We know," Emmeline said, turning back to her essay. She noticed Dorcas' hand sneaking towards it. She slapped her hand.

"Ow! I only wanted to get some ideas," said Dorcas, frowning.

"Your 'ideas' are normally written exactly the same way as mine," said Emmeline.

"Oh, shut up, the both of you," Lily said as Dorcas opened her mouth to retaliate. "We have to get that book away from Annapelle. Any ideas?"

"How about we break into her dormitory while she's sleeping and steal it?" suggested Dorcas.

Emmeline and Lily gave her a look.

"What? I can't help it if I'm a kleptomaniac," said Dorcas, shrugging.

"A klepto-what?" said Emmeline, confused.

"Kleptomaniac," repeated Dorcas, then she smiled sheepishly and emptied out her pockets. There were five spoons, six quills, an empty ink bottle and a ring.

"When the hell did this start?" said Lily, looking at the objects in front of her. This was the first time she had heard of Dorcas' kleptomania.

"About second year. I only steal from people I don't like, though. I don't steal from you, or Emmeline, or Siri –" Dorcas suddenly stopped and looked at her feet.

Emmeline raised her eyebrows, but Lily changed the subject.

"So, first we have to get this little black book from Annapelle, then we have to hide it from Potter."

"Why is that important?" asked Dorcas, pocketing all of her items and a stray bookmark in the process.

Lily looked at Dorcas as if she was stupid. "Potter…" she said slowly, "getting…a hold…of…that…book…not…good…"

"Oh," said Dorcas in comprehension. "Why is that?"

Emmeline and Lily groaned in frustration at their friend's slowness.

"Look," said Emmeline. "Do you know how bad it is if James Potter gets a hold of Annapelle's book, which contains almost everything about Lily, the girl he really likes in it, and uses this information to his advantage?"

Dorcas bit her lip in thought. "Um…really bad?"

"Yes Dorcas," said Lily. "Really bad."