5 September 1971

Saturday! Finally it's Saturday! Other than my few conversations with Lily and Remus the past few days have been a nightmare! I was cornered by Black several times, with his friend James Potter always nearby; they seem to think teasing me is entertaining. I am quickly growing to strongly dislike them. They seem to have adopted Remus, and another boy, Peter Pettigrew, into their circle of friends. I have a feeling they'll become a close knit group. Kind of like Lily, Margo Crantz, Alice Howard, Mary Fortescue and I are becoming. I think living in the same dorm room is having some effect on that, but I can't be sure. We all get along well, and I'm glad for it. I don't know how we would survive the next six years if we didn't. I'm going out to enjoy the sun while it lasts.

Annicka Llewellyn

8 September 1971

We seem to have found a rhythm, the first years, I mean. The class schedule is becoming routine, and I'm remembering more names and faces everyday. In the few classes we have with the Slytherines the already legendary rivalry between our houses is very apparent. The only people who seem able to ignore it are Lily and Severus Snape. They manage to ignore the divide between houses and spend most of the class conversing by themselves.

I asked her about their friendship, and she explained it all to me. He was the one who told her she is a witch and about the magical world in general. She says they're just friends, but I can tell from the way Snape looks at her that it is a lot more than that for him. I don't think she sees it, but now she has another problem to occupy her time. James Potter is chasing after her now, and that is causing big problems between Potter and Snape.

Annicka Llewellyn

10 September 1971

Okay, so keeping track of my time here is proving a little difficult. I was originally planning on writing every day, but I just don't have anything I want to say, or remember that badly. Today is an exception; today Lily and Potter had their first row, and let me say that Lily has a temper to match her hair. I think Potter might actually be traumatized by the experience, Black and Remus too. In fact I think most of the House was, including the older years.

She threw out some interesting insults that people who grew up in the Wizarding world would have no reference for, including Potter. He understood enough to know that he was being insulted, and chose to throw a few choice words of his own. After that I tried to calm Lily down, while Black and Remus tried to calm Potter down. I can honestly say that school will be interesting from now on.

Annicka Llewellyn

The common room was crowded with students, most of them playing and joking around, there were a few scattered around the edges of the room sitting at tables studying. Annicka and Remus were among them. Annicka sighed and set down her quill, rubbing her eyes. "Tired?" Remus asked with a small laugh.

"If my eyes have to stare at all of these meaningless facts about the Troll Wars they'll become permanently unfocused," she grumbled in reply. "I don't see why minorities always have to hold grudges."

"What do you mean?" Remus inquired setting aside his own quill.

"Take the Goblins for instance," Annicka offered, "it's been over a hundred years since the last Goblin War, yet if you ask them any questions unrelated to their profession they act as though you're trying to pick a fight. Just because our people fought each other at one point because of prejudice and greed does not mean that every word any witch or wizard says is designed to insult or injure Goblins. I really wish they would just get over themselves."

"You are very passionate about these things aren't you?" Remus asked.

"What things?"

"Prejudices, unfair treatment," he explained.

"I suppose so," Annicka agreed. "What are you passionate about?"

Black and Potter suddenly popped up behind Remus, "What are you two talking about?" Potter asked.

"History of Magic," Annicka replied shortly.

"Oh, that's too bad for you, we have to take Remus," Black informed her as they each took one of Remus' arms and lifted him from his chair. Annicka was left speechless as she watched them drag her friend away. With a sigh she turned back to her homework.

Potter and Black pulled Remus up to their dorm room where Peter Pettigrew was already waiting for them. "What are you doing?" Remus finally demanded to know.

"We need your opinion on this," Peter replied holding up a plan for a prank. Remus sighed and snatched the parchment from Peter's hand.

12 September, 1971

Today Potter, Black, Pettigrew and Remus (after he was pulled away from studying) pulled their first house-wide prank. They turned the entire House's robes gold, and I mean the entire House. Everyone in the dormitories, any Gryffindor who was in the library or halls also had their robes changed. I'm not entirely sure how they did it; it may have something to do with the house crest . . . Lily just scared Potter into reversing whatever it was they did. I'm surprised at the ingenuity and magical talent it would have taken to pull this off. Black and Potter are reasonably intelligent, no matter how they decide to use it.

Annicka Llewellyn

15 September, 1971

I know how Black is going to use his intelligence – to torture me. He is trying to drive me crazy. I really think he is, because he just humiliated me in front of everyone in the Great Hall at supper. Black managed to levitate a pudding over my head without anyone noticing until it tipped over onto my head. Everyone laughed the moment they heard my gasp. I mean everyone. All of my friends, everyone in the other houses, I even heard a few snickers from the teacher's table. I left immediately, of course, to get myself cleaned up. Lily is the only one who followed me. I'm plotting my revenge.

Annicka Llewellyn

22 September 1971

I have exacted my revenge upon Black! Today Lily distracted the boys for the ten minutes I needed to sabotage Black's hair-care potion with some peroxide I had brought from home (just in case). Tomorrow we'll see what happens. I hope it's awful.

Annicka Llewellyn

The entire Gryffindor house was woken at 6am by a scram from the boy's dormitory. Everyone left their rooms to find a fuming Sirius Black with lime green hair, standing in the center of the common room glaring at everyone he saw. "Who did this?!" Sirius demanded to know. There was a quiet moment when the Gryffindors tried to understand what he was talking about, then as they grasped that he had been the one to scream, the laughing began.

Annicka was the last to emerge from her dorm room. Sirius immediately focused on her expression, but it was no more or less amused than anyone else's. He pushed past the crowd, going back to his dorm to try and fix his hair. Lily came to stand by Annicka at the top of the stairs and give her a high-five. "That was priceless," Lily complimented her.

"Yes it was. Fancy some breakfast?" Annicka asked. Lily looked at her already in her school uniform, with her school bag and smiled.

"Let me get dressed first," Lily requested, Annicka nodded. As Lily and the other girls went back to their rooms, she went down the stairs into the common room.

"It was you, wasn't it?" a male voice asked from behind her. Annicka turned to see Remus standing there.

"Now Remus, whatever gave you that idea?" she asked playfully.

"Almost poetic, as far as revenge goes. He dumped pudding on you in form of the whole school, so you turn his hair green for the whole school to see. Equally humiliating," Remus appraised her 'prank'.

"Do you think so?" Annicka challenged. "He can just claim he was practicing a new spell and it went wrong. When he dumped pudding on me I didn't have an excuse, because everyone saw it happen. I don't really think that balances out on the Scales of Humiliation."

"He was just trying to get your attention," Remus defended his friend.

"Well he got it," Annicka retorted.

"Are you angry with me for some reason?" Remus asked abruptly.

"No. Why?" Annicka asked in turn.

"You don't sound all that happy with me," he reasoned.

"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you're defending the person who humiliated me," she pointed out tersely.

"I'm not defending what he did!" Remus objected.

"So you don't approve of what he did?" she asked. "Okay, then why didn't you come after me when I left the great hall? Why didn't you make sure I was okay?"

Remus seemed to freeze for a moment before he started scrambling for an excuse, "Well, you see Sirius was a little . . . "

"Remus, you're friends with Black, and I respect that, but one friendship shouldn't override all your other friendships." Annicka looked up over his shoulder when she heard Lily coming down the dormitory staircase. "All ready?" she asked lightly.

"Yeah," Lily replied with a smile. "Bye Remus," Annicka waved as she and Lily left the common room.

Severus Snape was waiting fro Lily in the entrance hall. "Go ahead," Annicka sighed, "just leave before his House-mates show up."

"Okay," Lily agreed and walked over to join Severus, as Ann went into the great hall.

"What was she saying?" Snape asked when Lily joined him.

"Nothing really," Lily replied, "she's just saving a seat for me. How are you?"

"I'm good. I just wanted to talk to you away from everyone," Snape replied with a grin. Lily and Snape spoke for several minutes until groups of people from all the houses started arriving. Annicka was sitting in the exact center of the table, plate piled high and eating alone, when Lily joined her.

"Trouble's coming," Lily whispered to Annicka. They looked to the doors of the Great Hall where Black, with his lime green hair, and friends were coming toward them. Annicka shrugged and went back to eating her breakfast. Remus sat next to Annicka with the three other boys sitting across from them.

"I know it was you," Black stated, his voice contorted with barely concealed rage.

"How did you work that out?" Annicka asked serenely.

"You are the only one with a motive," he stated. "This is about the pudding, isn't it?" he accused.

"I knew you had a brain," Annicka replied cheerily. "Let's see how well you use it."

23 September, 1971

The gauntlet has been thrown. Now it is war, war between me and Sirius Black. We have challenged each other to a battle of wits, the weapon? Pranks; over the next few months, at least, we will stretch our imaginations and to our best to . . . humiliate each other.

I was a little harsh with Remus this morning, but I'm not going to go on the emotional rollercoaster of wondering if he's my friend or not. I've been that dance my whole childhood, and I don't want to go through it again. Well, "fun times" are on their way!

Annicka Llewellyn