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▎ COUNTING STARS   ▎
»»————-　act one. young, wild & free
TWO ━━ pranks? no thanks!

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♯ ❝FOR GODRIC'S SAKE! ❞
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ANNABELLE ROSE HAD BEEN KNOWN THROUGHOUT HOGWARTS FOR A FEW THINGS, WHICH, TO THE CHESNUT HAIRED DISMAYAL, wasn't really anything excellent, or in her opinion memorable. Because it didn't show her true nature, and rather gave a perspective of semi-stuck up Gryffindor girl, with no sense of humour. All thanks to that one time in potions where she was teamed up with infamous Sirius Black back in second year for a boring project Slughorn had set for the class. And she did, wholeheartedly try to at least work together with the rebellious boy, but all he did was make inappropriate jokes or try to talk to his friends, who were conveniently sitting at the table behind them of course.

And she did not mean to throw a fit, really. But one can only takes so many quips while trying to finish an important assignment for a subject she had been rubbish at since the second time she entered the classroom (--she is not proud of the fact that the first time she might have even fallen asleep after fifteen minutes.)

A hothead was not something she liked to be labelled as, it sucked and it even made the raven haired boy more determined to annoy the living daylights out of her, much like his equally annoying best friend James Potter did with her friend Lily Evans.

Another thing she had been known as was also the girl that hit Sirius Black in the face at the end of third year—which if anyone asked was a complete accident (--it was not obviously. ) Not her proudest moment, but totally worth it after the boy had had the bright idea to make her cat an ugly green colour. The detention with McGonagall that followed after was horrendous, even if she did get a biscuit at the end of it.

But as her mother had thought her from a very young age, she did not let them get to her, she instead focused on her true friends, making memories and learning everything that the magical world had to offer as she ignored everyone eyeing her strangely, or the teenage boys calling themselves the Marauders.

Now, she had to be honest, Remus and Peter were fine, Annabelle could even say she and Remus were somewhat friends, but the idea of them hanging out with the likes of Potter and Black were completely baffling to her.

But while she and Lily had become professionals in the art of ignoring the Potter-Black duo, it could not be said that the boys didn't try to gain their attention.

Which, sadly for Annabelle, had become once more very apparent as she walked down the stairs of the girls dormitories to be hit in the face by some sort of spell, followed by boisterous laughter and shouts.

"For Godric's sake!" Annabelle cried out in frustration, waving the green smoke blocking her view away from her face to try and find the most likely culprit.

But her apparent attackers had already fled the crime scene as she watched the portrait hole slam shut. She sighed, brushing her hair, that had fallen in front of her eyes during all the commotion, away from her face only to suddenly freeze.

The fourth year clenched her jaw and marched over towards the portrait hole and swung the door open, "Black!" Her voiced boomed along the corridors in the early Wednesday morning hours as she stomped forward, gaining the attention from several startled students already awake, and even frightening some unsuspected first year that had just walked down the hall.

"What happened to you?" Julia Carter's voice rang out behind her, the dark skinned girl eyeing her friends new appearance curiously.

"You can better ask who happened." Annabelle grumbled as she held her green coloured hair between her fingers. "Stupid Black with his stupid little pranks."

Julia snickered at her friend as she approached her, but the girl was already walking towards the spiral staircase before stepping onto the first moving one. Julia barely managed to get on it as well before it started moving.

"I can't stand that boy." Annabelle complained loudly when she was forced to wait at the bottom of the stairs to get onto the next one, and she didn't waste a second when the bottom step touched the ground again to move along.

Julia came to an abrupt halt when Annabelle only started to pick up her pace. "For Merlin's sake, stop running Belle."

Annabelle sighed, green hair tumbling down her shoulders as she looked over her shoulder at her friend before finally stopping to wait for her friend. "I need to find him and murder him. You'll help me, right?" Annabelle suggested with her arms crossed over her chest.

Julia sighed taking her wand out as she muttered a counter spell under her breath turning Annabelle's green hair to its normal brown colour.

"Thanks." Annabelle smiled. "Now about that alibi. You tell them-" Julia interrupted her quickly.

"—We are not going to murder him Belle." She sternly told Annabelle pointing a finger at her face.

"But—" Julia raised a single eyebrow at her friend "—nevermind then." Annabelle muttered.

"That's what I like to hear." Julia grinned proudly before linking their arms. "Let's get some breakfast." She exclaimed dragging Annabelle with her.

"Yeah we wouldn't want you to try and eat your wand again." Annabelle giggled as they moved down the corridor.

"I thought it was a liquorice wand, and I had been very sleep deprived." Julia groaned a blush covering her cheek. "You are never letting me forget that, aren't you?"

"Never."

"But you have to admit it was funny, you look great with green hair." Julia jested, pushing her friend forward with her shoulder.

"Julia!" Annabelle groaned quite loudly, earning some weird glances from other students walking in the corridor on their way to breakfast.

"Nothing going on here, please return to what you were doing." Annabelle yelled as Julia blushed from all the attention she was getting.

"I don't understand why Remus is friends with them." Annabelle sighed thinking about the boy who had been kind enough to explain the potions assignment after she had fallen asleep in the class back in their first year.

Julia shrugged. "You have to admit, they can be nice and funny sometimes."

Annabelle shook her head in denial. "Funny, sometimes when they don't irritate me or bully someone. But nice? No way. If they aren't after me they prank Severus."

"And their pranks aren't harmless either." Annabelle continued when she saw Julia open her mouth to argue.

Julia nodded, knowing arguing with Annabelle would always be a losing battle. "Well maybe we just don't see them do nice things."

"Well we will see maybe next year if Black survives this one." Annabelle chuckled as the entered the Great Hall.

Still to this day, Annabelle had been in awe of the Great Hall, even in daylight, with light streaming in from the windows on the backwalls and the sun shining from the ceiling. She could never get enough of it, which could irritate Julia from time to time, seeing as the girl rather went to eat than stare at the architecture of the building.

"Are you still planning on killing him." Julia stared at her friend and when the girl didn't answer her question the dark skinned girl sighed in defeat "Sometimes I think you should be in Slytherin."

"Well if my mother wasn't a muggle then maybe I would have been sorted in Slytherin." Annabelle replied making a mean face at her friend. "I mean all my other wizarding family members, whose names we shall never speak out loud, were Slytherins. I must have inherited some traits."

They stared at each other before bursting out in laughter as they walked towards the Gryffindor table, which was already fairly occupied for this early in the morning, not even all the professors had arrived yet. Only Dumbledore and the Heads of Houses were seated at the teacher's table.

Hollers and laughter echoed from somewhere just outside the Great Hall, and most students turned to look over at the entrance to see four very familiar boys enter. The four marauders walked inside the great hall that morning in a chipper mood, conversing brightly with one another and Sirius grinned looking around before his eyes landed on a familiar brunette.

He shared a quick glance with his friends before making his way towards them as Annabelle had already turned back around in her seat, focusing on her toast with jam, chatting happily with Julia.

Sirius put his hands on her shoulders, leaning down slightly while the other Marauders took a seat at the table. "Good morning." He greeted with a cheeky smile.

Annabelle looked up with a blank stare at the boy before continuing with her conversation.

"Didn't you fancy your new hair colour Anna." Sirius tried to maintain a neutral face but the twinkle in his eyes were a dead giveaway to his ulterior motives—and the fact that he had been the cause of the whole debacle. 

"No, I don't particularly like it when people turn my head into seaweed." Annabelle replied calmly as more students glanced over at the pair.

"I still don't get why so many people like you guys at all." Lily Evans cut in as she came walking past the boys before she sat down beside Annabelle.

James head snapped up from his breakfast, a lovestruck smile on his face as he looked in Lily's direction. "Hey Lilypad." Lily looked at him for a second before turning to her friends.

"Did you guys finish the potion essay already?" Julia asked as she averted her gaze from the boys and towards Lily and Annabelle.

"Yes"

"Yes."

"I don't understand it." Julia pouted. "I always do what you guys do but it just explodes in my face—literally. Teach me your ways." Julia pleaded tucking at her best friends sleeve.

Remus put his book down, far more interested in the commotion happening in front of him than whatever was written on the pages in front of him and watched Julia tuck on Annabelle's sleeve relentlessly and the brunette made eye contact with Remus and mouthed 'help me.'

But when Annabelle looked closer at him she saw how tired he looked, he even looked sickly pale with large purple blemishes under his eyes and it seemed like he was ready to fall asleep then and there. "Are you alright Remus?" Annabelle asked concern laced in her voice as she leaned forward on the table.

The girls were oblivious to the four boys as they made eye contact.

It scared Remus greatly when he thought about people finding out about his secret but he found it even more frightening to think that there was a chance his friends would—well beside his self-proclaimed brothers. Belle was one of his first friends and he was afraid to lose her if she ever found out. He knew the guys had taken it rather well but he didn't know if he could say the same for Annabelle even when the boys had reassured him she wouldn't mind. But Remus remained stewing in self-doubt, a thing he did more often than not.

Annabelle stood up and walked to him when the boy didn't reply, before he could protest and reassure her that he was in fact fine she had already put her hand on his forehead inspecting him like a concerned mother would while Remus tried to swat her hands away, a crimson coat covering his pale cheeks.

"I'm fine Belle." Remus reassured her with a tiny smile, finally managing to make her drop her hands to her side again.

"Are you sure?" She asked placing her hands on her hips as she eyed him for any lies.

"You heard him, nothing is wrong with him you can leave him alone now." Sirius spoke up trying to save his friend from Annabelle's worrying, but he couldn't help the almost undetectable bitter tone, keyword being almost, seeing as James eyed his friend with a certain knowing glint in his eyes. 

"Well sorry if I'm concerned with his well-being unlike you three." Annabelle looked at the remaining Marauders with a frown on her face. The boys were normally very protective of one another, even she could admit that. "Shouldn't you guys be fussing over him? Because to me he does look quite ill at the moment."

"He said he was fine, if he says he's fine you should leave it like that."

"You're insufferable Black."

"No my name is Sirius, not insufferable."

"Stop joking."

"Never."

"Ugh!"

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