· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽
▎ COUNTING STARS ▎
»»————-　act one. young, wild & free
NINE ━━ where is peter when you need him?

ᵒ .༄ ࿐ ࿔* ✨🌙💫
♯ ❝YOU KNOW SHE'S GONNA
TELL LILY ABOUT THIS! ❞
⋆⋅ ━━━━ ‧ ༻✩༺ ‧ ━━━━ ⋅⋆

     "JUST FIVE DAYS IN THE SCHOOL YEAR AND WE ARE ALREADY SLAMMED WITH HOMEWORK." JULIA GROANED LOUDLY AS SHE SLAMMED HER BOOKS ON THE TABLE in the library, making the other girls winch as the sound echoed in the large room.

     "I don't think we've gotten that much. Besides this year is going great so far." Lily shrugged casually as she neatly placed her ink and feather on the table next to an empty piece of parchment. "I thought it would be worse, you know, with our O.W.L's this year." She added as an afterthought.

    "That's true, with the way they were speaking about it at the end of last term made it seem like complete torture." Annabelle nodded in agreement.

     "Easy for you guys to say. You didn't get Bubotuber pus on you, or had a potion exploding in your face." Julia pointed out.

     "That's because you weren't paying any attention." Lily countered matter-of-factly.

    "I was too!"

    Lily, Annabelle and Marlene (--who also had a free period. ) all gave her a look.

     "Well... shut up."

     Before they were scolded for being too loud in the library, Annabelle focused on her work at hand, a Potion assignment. She wanted it done before her last two classes. Charms and transfiguration.

     The year had started good for Annabelle. Potion with Slughorn was fine to her surprise—she still didn't know half the stuff she was doing, but to her luck she had been partnered up with Remus for their first assignment. And the boy had been a godsend for her when it came to Potions. It was also rather amusing to see Slughorn praise Lily in everything she did.

     "Oh look everyone! Lily has finished the potion already! Wonderful. Wonderful. Would you look at the colour! Absolutely perfect." He had praised her, voice high and giddy as he gazed into her cauldron, while Julia, who was seated next to her was sulking with her arms crossed. Slughorn had taken one glimpse at her brown coloured potion, one that should have been teal-coloured by now and flinched away.

     At least her potion, thanks to Remus whispering instruction in her ear, was also at least looking like it was supposed to. Even Slughorn seemed surprised by the fact when he came to their station, humming approvingly before moving on the next table.

     But to her pure relief, her next class of the day had been Herbology, one of her absolute favourite subjects. She loved how comforting the greenhouse felt— the warmth that most people found suffocating actually made her feel happy and the smell of all the flowers would always calm her down after Potions. It after all reminded her of her mother's own shop or summer days spend in the garden. Her mother loved gardening so much and dragged her only daughter with her every chance she got when she was just little wide eyed Annabelle. Leaving teenage Annabelle with a love for plants which in turn made Herbology easy and enjoyable to do. Plus Herbology was one of the only semi-magical things Lillith comprehended the best about Annabelle education and the two easily bonded over the subject.

     The greenhouse really was just another home to her.

     All Annabelle could say about Defence Against the Dark Arts was that she hated and loved it at the same time. It was one of the harder subjects for her to comprehend, her wand, luckily did favour the subject quite well, yew wood was after all notorious and even feared in the spheres of duelling and curses. But it was not an easy wand to conquer with a Phoenix feather as the core. And  the fact that the DADA professor job was cursed didn't help either. No teacher had been there longer than a school year.

     It often made her wonder why in Merlin's name people still applied for the job.

    And all the other subjects were just fine, but there was still one subject she dreaded the most; Astronomy.

    Annabelle didn't know why she had to take the subject in the first place, and trudging up a few too many stairs in the middle of the night were pure torture too.

    Why would they want to stare and map a bunch of balls of fire in the sky that all looked the same? Only Rowena Ravenclaw would know.

     "Hopefully, McGonagall won't be too hard on us." Julia's voice brought her back to reality.

     "I don't think that is going to happen. Isn't she supposed to be rough on all of you guys this year?" Marlene retorted as she rolled up her finished homework assignment before stuffing it in her bookbag.

    "You're lucky you're still an itty bitty fourth year." Annabelle jested, nudging the blonde's shoulder.

     Marlene gasped, eye mockingly wide and eyebrow disappearing behind her golden locks of hair. "How dare you call me itty bitty you wanker!" She smacked her arm with her rolled up parchment.

     "But you're so tiny." Annabelle grinned cheekily.

     Marlene just huffed and Lily took this as an opportunity to regain some sort of peace before Madam Pinch would throw them out for being too rowdy.

     "It can't be that bad." The redhead tried to reassure the girls but even she didn't sound so sure. "It's mostly things we have learned already."

    "I just studied it all the day before, I already forgot most of it two days after." Julia groaned, dropping her head in her crossed arms.

     Lily just sighed at the sight. "Maybe you should have started revising earlier."

    Annabelle gave her a look. "I don't think we would enjoy hours of studying like someone we know." Annabelle stated raising her eyebrows.

    "Hush." Lily chuckled lightly.

    Annabelle just smiled at her friend, teasingly responding with a 'yes mother' gaining a burst of laughter from the other girls.

     "What is going on here!" The sound of Madame Pince shrill voice rounded the corner.

     All girls lowered down in their seats.

ᵒ .༄ ࿐ ࿔* ✨🌙💫
⋆⋅ ━━━━ ‧ ༻✩༺ ‧ ━━━━ ⋅⋆

     WALKING INSIDE THE TRANSFIGUATION CLASSROOM FOR THE LESSON THEY SHARED WITH THE OTHER HUFFLEPUFF FIFTH YEARS, Annabelle glanced around the fairly filled up room to spot something quite unusual.

    Remus was sitting alone at one of the desks, looking rather gloomy by his lonesome while James and Sirius chatted happily in the seats behind the tall teen—and little Peter Pettigrew was nowhere to be found.

     Contemplating for a second, Annabelle decided it was the perfect moment to catch up with her friend as she approached the empty seat knowing Julia wouldn't mind sitting next to Lily.

    Dropping her bag on the table, louder than she had anticipated, all three turned to look at her in startled surprise and she smiled sheepishly at the trio of boys before turning her full attention to Remus whilst she placed her Transfiguration book on the table. "Hey" She greeted sitting down.

    "Uh. Hello." He greeted, albeit looking a bit confused by her decision . "If you don't mind me asking." Remus began." Why are you sitting here. Don't you always sit with Julia in this class?"

    Annabelle nodded. "I know but you seemed awfully lonely here. And I thought Julia wouldn't mind."

    Remus smiled at her sweetly, happy to have her in his company for a change, both teens focusing ahead when Professor McGonagall neatly write today's lesson and instruction on the board.

    "Doubling charm." Annabelle hummed contently, happy to see something she had actually heard of before. "That should be fun."

    Remus nodded in agreement, twirling the feather of his quill between his fingers mindlessly as he turned back to the brunette girl. "So I finally saw Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory per your request."

    Annabelle grinned lopsidedly, propping her head on her hand, "So what did you think about it?"

     "Child endangerment Belle, child endangerment." Remus tutted in disapproval.

     "But Rem! There is a chocolate river! Chocolate. You love chocolate. If anyone would like that—no scratch that, love that, it would be you Mr. chocoholic."

     "I'd love the chocolate river, not so much to sociopath owning the damn thing for merlin's sake." He stated feverishly, "that cane of his is a murder weapon."

     "Well, yes but the chocolate river rem—"

     "How are you doing Anna?" Sirius head popped up between the two friends, grinning crookedly at her in what she assumed he thought was actually charming.

     Annabelle narrowed her eyes, nose scrunching up in annoyance at the sudden interruption, and the fact that Sirius was smirking proudly at her—clearly far too close to the girl than she would have liked. She liked him better at the other side of the castle, out of her sight.

     Taking a deep breath, Annabelle scooted her chair away from the boy before leaning backwards to look passed him at Remus. "All I'm saying, a chocolate river? Genius. Makes me wonder if the man is wizard if it wasn't a movie. Wouldn't that be wicked? I mean that sleeping beauty movie is based off of the Draught of the Living Dead. Who's to say there isn't a chocolate river hiding somewhere—"

     "Ehm."

     All eyes travelled back to Sirius who was still leaned forward, half standing, half sitting and elbows rested on the edge of his desk, head swivelling between looking at Remus and at Annabelle.

    He just stared at her, smile only getting bigger by the second.

    "Well, as I was saying before I got rudely interrupted—" she glowered at the dark haired boy, "—there might be a chocolate river and waterfall hiding somewhere. I would love to see something like that."

     "It's just a movie Belle." Remus chuckled, chest vibrating as he tried to stifle his laughter when she gave him an offended look.

     "Well if I ever do find one, or make one, you can bet your lanky little ass you won't be going near it."

     "Ehm."

     "What?!" She whirled back in her chair to look at Sirius once more, ignoring James who was stifling his laughter behind her, and failing miserably at it too.

    "Nothing." Sirius shrugged casually, eyes flickering away from her to look at the board where McGonagall was just finished writing everything down. "Just thought you should know I'm here."

     She gritted her teeth as he spoke in a teasing tone, "I know you're here."

    "Admiring the view then Anna?" He smiled cheekily.

     "Would not be possible, you're in the way of James."

    She had to hold back her laughter as James seemingly started to choke on air, ears turning red as he quickly looked across the room where Lily was seated with Julia, hoping the redhead hadn't heard their conversation.

     Sirius expression morphed into one of pure anguish, clearly insulted by her words. "Anna you wound me!" His voice rose an octave higher. "The mere idea of you thinking Prongs is pretty is truly nightmarish!"

    Annabelle just rolled her eyes, focusing back on Remus instead to address him, "Can I punch him?"

    Remus chortled at her words, "No Belle, you can't."

     "How dare you even suggest hurting this handsome face!" Sirius gestured to his head, waving his hands around wildly as if to make her see how absurd her idea was.

    "Are you sure I can't punch him?" She inquired once more with pleading eyes, but instead of Remus, it was McGonagall who replied.

     "I don't condone violence in my classroom Ms. Rose."

    She smiled sheepishly at her professor, ears turning pink from embarrassment. "What if I break his nose just a little?"

     "Let's focus on the Gemino Curse instead Ms Rose."

     Annabelle sighed, but nodded nonetheless, but she did smile a little when McGonagall reprimanded Sirius for his untucked and loose hanging tie.

     "No that I do have everyone's attention." Minerva began, voice stern and eyes settled on them when she spoke, "The Gemino Curse, also known as the doubling charm, is a spell used to duplicate an object, creating an exact replica of the target entity. It can also be used to bewitch an object into multiplying repeatedly when touched." She informed them as all the students eagerly took notes.

     McGonagall continued to tell the history of the spell before instructed the students to start trying the spell themselves.

     Remus was the first student to duplicate his goblet, earning them five house points and slowly but surely more student started to grasp the spell—or at least managed to change something. Half-finished goblets appeared in front of some students and poor Matilda Gibbs' goblets didn't stop multiplying at all. Which send McGonagall in quite the frenzy seeing that only the caster of the spell could stop it again.

    Annabelle stared proudly at her own two goblets, sharing a smile with Remus when he complimented her.

     "So where is Peter?" Annabelle finally inquired to satisfy her curiosity knowing the Transfiguration teacher was too bus noticing them talking instead of practising

     "He is sick." Remus replied, eyes till focused on his duplicate, twirling the golden around to inspect all the designs etched into it.

     Annabelle nodded, only now truly noticing how pale the boy in front also looked. She hadn't seen it before, but it had been dark outside at the start of the lesson, but now the sun had finally peeked through the clouds, making light filter through the windows. "You don't look so good yourself, Remus. Maybe you caught a cold too."

    Remus stiffed, but Annabelle didn't notice as she continued to talk to him. Glancing behind him he saw James watch them, concern swirling in his eyes. Quickly thinking of something to say, James turned to Annabelle.

     "He was sick first, that's why Peter is sick. But Remus is all better now." James explained in a rushed manner.

     Sirius oblivious to what was happening turned away from the girl behind them to frown at James. "Remus wasn't si-" He was cut off by a hard nudge in his ribs from James.

    Glancing up he saw Annabelle look suspiciously between them.

     "Oh yes. He was sick. He was very sick." He corrected.

     Annabelle eyed them for a moment, and Remus held his breath, heart hammering in his chest.

     But before she could question the duo, Professor McGonagall finally managed to help Matilda get control over the spell and quieted the room again. She then started her spiel about the upcoming O.W.L.'s and explained her expectations for the school year which gained a couple of groans and whines.

    After class that day Annabelle found herself sitting in a window seat alone, happy to have found a minute of peace between Julia's rambling about how she got hit in the face by one if the multiplying goblets as if she gained a severe battle wound and Lily scolding them for once again procrastinating their assignments.

    The brunette loved her friends dearly, but even she needed some time alone—well alone with Dot who had found her a little while after she sat down, settling in her lap and dozing off minutes later, purring contently.

     She was reading a letter she received from her parents that morning, munching on a homemade cookie her mother send in a little care box like she always did at the beginning of the year.

     She chuckled quietly, enjoying the sun on her skin as she read her mother's retelling of a flustered maid of honour trying to order flowers for her friends' wedding at the last minute. And with her mother's vivid and comedic descriptions she could almost picture the scene.

     The brunette was brought back to reality when boisterous laughter rung down the corridor, interrupted her quiet moment.

     Looking up from her letter she spotted a third year Slytherin boy getting hit by a leg-locker curse and crashing to the ground. Throwing her letter to the side, and pushing Dot off her lap, the cat hissing in annoyance, Annabelle rushed to the boys aid. "Are you gits crazy?" She addressed them angrily, brown eyes ablaze.

    Getting her wand out she kneeled next to the boy to mutter the counter curse under breath before focusing back on the culprits and a couple of other students surrounding them

     "What is wrong with you." She rumbled.

     "Nothing. We just were having some fun." Sirius shrugged, "He was staring Remus' scars.

     "Yes, don't be so cranky Rose" James added, nonchalantly twirling his wand between his fingers.

     "Well I can clearly see he found it hilarious too." She pointed to the boys tear stained face. "I'm sure he didn't mean any harm with the staring." She argued in the boys defence, who in turn nodded nervously in confirmation.

    Grabbing onto the younger boy's jumper, she hauled him back to his feet, dusting off his shoulders before gently nudging him in the direction of the Slytherin Common Room.

     After the boy disappeared from view, and most of the gathered crowd had walked away, she turned her attention to Remus.

     "And you. Did you really think his staring was meant to be hurtful. He didn't know any better. You could just have spoken to him about it. Said you didn't like people staring but no—you send Sirius and James after him."

     "Belle," Remus frowned, "I didn't send them after the boy, you know I wouldn't do that."

      "Just watching is the same as condoning the actions. You know that Remus. You should be stopping them. you're supposed to be the responsible one. You're a prefect for Merlin's sake." She hissed.

     Remus looked down at his feet, a spurt of guilt bubbling in his stomach as Annabelle stared disappointedly at him. He knew he should have had stopped them but they were his friends, his brothers. He couldn't get them in trouble.

    When he didn't say anything else, Annabelle sighed heavily before spinning back around, grabbing her disregarded letter from the ground before walking away from them completely, Dot faithfully trailing behind his owner.

     He watched his friends closer to him, both boys still smiling, but it had become less genuine. James clapped him on the back in an effort to comfort him. "Don't worry, mate. She cool off. She always does."

     Remus turned to watch Sirius, his smile was slowly morphing in a thin line, eyebrows furrowed together as he stared at her retreating figure in the distance.

     "You know she is going to tell Lily about this?" Remus stated.

     James smile fell from his face in seconds as a worried expression took over.

     Quickly turning around he rushed after the girl. "Hey! Wait a minute." He shouted, waving his arms wildly in the air, hoping to catch her attention. "Annabelle! Wait Annabelle!"

     Sirius turned to look at Remus before walking off too. Remus sighed standing alone in the deserted hallway.

     "Where is Peter when you need him." He muttered.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬