Only three more chapters to go, guys!

Snape; That's a true cause for celebration! Break out the party balloons!

Marie; *Shrugs* Sorry, Sevvie, we used all of those for Melda's surprise birthday party.

"I own nothing. Not even balloons."

Marie stood tall..well, as tall as a woman of exactly five feet could. She was finally back in her client Canon. She and all the rest of the Fellowship had breathed a collective sigh of relief. The others seemed comfortable as well, but she knew that wouldn't last. Here they were waiting upon the field of battle for their army to show. It was a kind of nervous silence that left them slightly discomfitted and uncertain, despite their confidence. However, Gandalf was due to arrive any moment now from the other Canons with their warriors in tow.

Jareth stepped forward and placed a hand on her shivering shoulder. "Just a few more minutes." He said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Todd studied the blades in his hands, turning them over and over. "My friends, there'll be a shave or two today."

Tarrant sipped some tea he'd gotten from goodness knows where and grinned. Then he began to sing. "Twinkle, twinkle, little bat. How I wonder where you're at. Up above the world so high, shining like a tea tray in the sky-"

Jack cut him off. "No, mate. A true fight should star' wit' ah rousin' chorus o' sea janties! Nawt some rubbish abou' a tea tray and ba's" He turned to Edward. "Nawt tha' there's anythin' wrong wit' bats, my bloody buddy."

Edward chuckled and his teeth gleamed in the sunlight. Marie glowered at him from her new hiding spot behind Jareth. "In my Canon, vampires do not shape shift into bats..nor any other animal."

Eddie glanced up at them. He was sharpening his scissors. "Is it bad to want to chop up the Sues and Stus into tiny bits?" He asked shyly. They laughed and told him that it was actually a very *good* thing. He just smiled and went back to work.

turned to Marie. "SO I've heard you have an excellent recipe for Sue-and-Stu Stew. Do you think it would make a nice pie filling?"

"Oh, absolutely." Marie replied with an evil, indulgent smirk. "We'll just have Todd and Eddie prepare them for us and we'll be all set!"

Willy pinched his nose and stuck out his tongue in disgust. "Ew..who would want to eat that?"

Marie and laughed disturbingly and gave each other conspiratorial winks. "We never said that anyone would eat them volluntarily." giggled.

Marie nodded her agreement. "Indeed, we actually plan on shoving them down the throats of the authors who created them."

Snape appeared beside her, his robes billowing dramatically out and around him as per usual. "Isn't that a splendid idea? Really, if the two of you had been enrolled in Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat would have sent you straight to me. " He continued silkily. "After all, Slytherin could always do with more cunning, conniving members."

Marie shook her head somewhat sadly. "No, I'm afraid I'm too nice to be a Slytherin. After all, we're only feeding the creators what they made themselves...we could have made them choke on it."

"True." He glanced at the top of her head."Pray tell me what that thing is doing on the top of your head?"

She fingered the purple bow in her hair. "You don't like it? Gimli told me it was cute."

Jareth snorted. "My dear, Gimli would think you were cute if you painted orange spots all over your body and your only covering was an oak leaf. He's head-over-heels for you."

Snape circled her. She bit her lip and craned her neck up to look him in the eye. "You would like it if it were silver and green." She challanged with a glint in her eye.

"I don't think I would."

"Wanna bet?"

Snape reached into one of the pockets in his robes."Not particularly, but how much?"

"Two galleons says you will."

"Deal. Though Heaven knows what you would do with a couple of galleons, anyway." He grumbled.

"I would have Gimli make them into earrings."

His eyes widened. "Why? You don't even have pierced ears!"

"To bother the heck out of you." She answered, laughing at his ire.

"Why not a necklace?!" Thundered Snape. "It makes no sense! At least get your damn ears pierced, for Merlin's sake!" He pressed his fingers to his temples. "Never mind." He growled. "I hope you realize that you're nearly as annoying as a Sue."

Her jaw dropped. "I'm not that bad!" She turned to Jareth. "Am I?"

"Yes..you kinda are." He admitted, but quickly added. "But that's why we love you! You're annoying in an endearing way...like Spongebob!"

Marie just stood there for a moment, then whipped out her cell phone and started pressing buttons rapidly. jareth leaned in to see. "What are you doing?" He asked nervously.

"I'm taking you out of my Fave Five!" She replied tearfully, shutting the phone.

"What? Why?!"

"You compared me to a talking, yellow sponge! Wouldn't you be offended? And not just any talking, yellow sponge. It has to be one that goes-" She did an impersonation of the Spongebob laugh. Many who heard her winced..the weaker ones cried out for their mommies.

Tarrant shook his head at them. "You are all mad."

"Like you have any room to talk!" Snapped Snape, to whom Marie had come for comfort. He wasn't much help. He held her at arm's length and patted her head in a half-hearted attempt to soothe her.