· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽
▎ COUNTING STARS  ▎
»»————-　act one. young, wild & free
FIVE━━ stupid balls of fire

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♯ ❝FIVE MORE MINUTES! ❞
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     ONE CAN SAY, THAT WAKING UP IN THE EARLY HOURS OF A MONDAY MORNING ISN'T THAT BAD, but to Annabelle Rose, it could be pure torture sometimes. Blame her horrendous sleeping schedule, and gossip-filled nights with her friends for that.

So, that specific Monday morning, like most Monday mornings came around all too soon for Annabelle as light filtered through the curtains in their dormitory  and shone on her peaceful sleeping figure—and most importantly interrupting her slumber.

With a loud groan, her eyes fluttered open, brown eyes staring up at the ceiling of her four poster bed. "Have I expressed how much I hate mornings lately?"

The others girls, who were much more awake at this hour laughed at their friends frazzled state as they glanced at Annabelle wrapped in her duvet.

"Don't laugh at me. Like you all don't want to sleep in." Annabelle affirmed pointing her finger at Marlene, who had still been standing in her pyjama's.

"Well yes, who doesn't want to sleep in?" Marlene confirmed before realisation struck her. "You're right I hate mornings." She dramatically fell back on her bed, making all the girls laugh.

"Come one Belle." Lily grinned, holding her hand out in front of Annabelle's face, seeing as time was ticking, and the brunette was already half-asleep again. "We have to get breakfast."

"Five more minutes." Annabelle mumbled, hiding her face in her pillow.

"Belle, if you don't get up you can't have breakfast, and we don't want to hear you complaining during History of Magic about wanting a piece of toast." Julia spoke up as she stuffed loose pieces of parchment in her bookbag.

"If anyone complains about being hungry it is you Jules." Annabelle contradicted, sitting up in her bed, wild curls a complete mess.

"Not true!" Julia exclaimed heatedly, "Now let's go, I am in need for a good piece of bacon." She turned on her heel, tripping over a stray book, Julia barely managed to stabilise herself before she disappeared through the door.

"Alright, let's go alright." Lily turned back to Annabelle as the brunette dragged herself out of bed.

Running around the dorm room, Annabelle was hurriedly putting herself together as she brushed her hair, while simultaneously brushing her teeth. And even after she did that, putting on her uniform  while searching their messy dorm for her books was a whole other level of hell. "Where in Merlin's name is that godforsaken book." She muttered with a frown on her face.

"You mean this book?" Lily held her History of Magic up in one hand, the other placed on her hip as she quirked an eyebrow.

"You, Lily Evans are a godsend!" Annabelle praised, plucking the book form her friend's hand and stuffing it in her satchel bag. "Now let's go." She grabbed her hand and dragged her out of their dorm, laughter spilling from their lips.

The two girls hurried down the Gryffindor Tower and through the crowded corridors.

"No running through the hallways!" Filch shouted, spit flying from his mouth as he glared at the Gryffindor duo, Mrs Norris purring contently in his arms.

The two immediately slowed down, but the moment they turned the corner they busted out in a fit of giggles while they picked up their pace when the Great Hall came into view.

"Oh no, Julia..." Annabelle sighed out as she spotted her dark skinned friend sitting at the table next to a familiar group of boys. "Why does this always happen to me?"

"Let's just get it over with alright." Annabelle suggested after a beat as she linked her arm through Annabelle's.

"Oh no." Lily shook her head, stepping away from her friend. "I promised Severus I'd have breakfast with him this morning."

"No. please you can't just leave me with them." Annabelle whispered harshly, but Lily just smiled apologetically at the brunette as she backed away.

With Lily leaving to join Severus, Annabelle had no choice but to face the table on her own.

She approached the table, and Annabelle quickly took a seat between Julia and Remus.

Feeling quite awkward as silence settled over their part of the table, Annabelle turned to look at Remus, who was looking much better than he did last week.

"Morning Remus." She greeted and gave a little awkward wave.

Sirius pouted. "No good mornings greetings for us?"

"You're right how rude of me." Annabelle corrected herself, "Morning James, Peter. "

"Morning." They replied together.

"I thought what we had was something special, love." Sirius pouted placing a hand on the right side of his chest.

"Sweetheart your heart is on the left side." Annabelle replied dryly, directing his hand to the left.

Sirius looked down. "I knew that." He grinned puffing his chest out.

"Sure." Annabelle forcibly smiled—or more so grimaced really, but before Sirius had the opportunity to gift them with another sarcastic comments, the owls came sweeping in the Great Hall.

Once again, Annabelle spotted Micky arrive, clutching another letter in its beak as he clumsily landed on the table, barely missing a bowl of oatmeal.

"You silly bird." Annabelle laughed as she petted Micky's head, handing him a piece of bacon she still had laying on her plate before opening the letter.

Dear, Annabelle

It was great to hear from you, and I am very glad you're having a great time at Hogwarts so far this year and me and your mother can't wait until you get back for the summer. She still has her doubts about the dragons but I think she'll manage. And about Lily joining us. It would be delightful to have her with us. She is always welcome and we'd love to have her with us to the trip to Romania if her parents agree. Please write back soon about it.

Lots of love from home.

Annabelle smiled after she read the letter. Looking around for Lily at the Slytherin table and she spotted her animatedly talking to Severus and she quickly stood back up to walk over

She cleared her throat and both turned around to look at her as well as some other Slytherin students eying her distastefully.

"Severus." Annabelle greeted curtly giving a small wave and he merely nodded in her direction.

She turned her head to look at Lily instead. "My parents wrote back." She spoke up, much more excitement laced in her voice.

"What did they say?" Lily asked a smile on her face, trying to mask her eagerness.

"They say you're welcome to join if you parents agree of course."

Lily sprung up and pulled Annabelle in hug. "I will write to them right now." The redhead announced enthusiastically, rushing out the great hall.

Annabelle stood there awkwardly with Severus as their mutual friend dashed out of the Great Hall "so.." she trailed off. "It was nice speaking to you, we should do it more often."

Severus only grumbled walking away.

Meanwhile, Sirius watched with James as they saw Annabelle and Lily talk to Severus. "What is Anna doing with that git?" he asked confused.

James shrugged. "I don't know mate. Maybe she is just talking to Lily."

"No I saw her talking to him." Sirius shook his head and he watched Lily hug Annabelle before walking out the Great Hall.

He turned back to see Annabelle talk to Severus and the greasy haired boy walked away after she said something to him.

He watched as she made her way to the table again and gathered her stuff before leaving the Hall also.

"Keep staring at her like that and she might catch you looking." James told him snapping Sirius out his daze.

"Huh?" Sirius asked. "What did you say?"

"I said if you keep staring at her she might catch you looking." He grinned.

"I wasn't staring prongs." Sirius told him.

"Tell that to the drool on your face." James laughed.

Sirius quickly wiped his face to see his friends laughing at him. Sirius groaned. "I hate you guys." He grumbled.

"No you don't mate." Remus said a smirk on his face.

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MOST HOGWARTS CLASSES WERE ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL, NOT COUNTING DIVINATION, BUT THERE WAS one class she hated above all else, and to contrary believe it wasn't something along the lines of Potions or History of magic, no it was a lesson that required waking up at midnight. And this evening too, Annabelle wandered up the stairs of the Astronomy Towers, barely awake and dragging her feet as she battled with her heavy eyelids.

And even if it was Summer, it in no way was anywhere near warm enough outside as she followed a couple of Ravenclaw students in the outside air.

Most people already sat on the cushions, talking softly and some even napping on their friend's shoulders and when she looked to already see Julia with a Ravenclaw boy she felt utterly betrayed.

Julia, who spotted her friend watched her friend as she raised her brow. The dark skinned girl mouthed a sorry before focusing back on her conversation with the boy.

Shaking her head Annabelle searched for another spot but it looked like the universe just was against her as the only available seat was next to Sirius.

She groaned making her way over.

"What a pleasure to see you here on this fine evening Ms. Rose." Sirius mocked, grey eyes twinkling under the candlelight.

"Yeah. It is a wonderful evening." Annabelle replied in a bored tone focusing her eyes on the sky.

After the professor explained to everyone what they would be doing this lesson Annabelle looked up trying to find anything she needed for her star chart—which basically meant she was staring at balls of fire not having a clue which one was a planet and which one star.  The only thing she had been able to distinguish was the moon, and that's because the thing is too big not to see.

Annabelle defeatedly looked around seeing everybody was filling in the charts in silence, not having such a hard time as she was having. She let out an annoyed sigh looking up again.

"This is stupid." She mumbled.

Sirius looked up from his finished chart to see Annabelle mumbling to herself and grinned.

"Everything alright there?" He asked.

Annabelle turned around and she saw Sirius smiling at her. "Nothing. You can continue." She waved him off.

"I'm already done." He replied cockily.

She snapped her head up to his before her eyes fell on the completely filled star chart.

"H-how." She said shocked.

"It isn't that difficult." He shrugged, casually looking up at the stars shining brightly in the sky.

"Say that to my chart." She whined, holding it up for him to see.

"You've got nothing?" He questioned in surprise, leaning in closer as if to make sure he didn't miss anything.

"I filled in my name." She replied cheekily before puffing out a breath of air in defeat. "They're all the same to me." She groaned.

"Here let me help you." He offered shuffling closer to her.

Julia watched her friend from where she sat with the Ravenclaw boy. She grinned when she saw Sirius sitting closer to Annabelle helping her with the chart. She shook her head before turning her attention back to her own one filling in the rest. A small smile on her lips

When the lesson was over, for the first time in forever, Annabelle actually had a finished star chart to hand in to their Professor. Even the man himself seemed genuinely shocked as she handed it in, without any faults.

"Good job Miss Rose."

"Thank you Professor." She grinned happily before turning back to her spot to gather her books and  pick up quill and ink to put them away in her bag.

She saw Sirius already walk out and walked over to him, albeit reluctantly and she tapped him on his shoulder and he turned around.

She tucked a piece of hair out her face before facing him. "Thank you." She smiled. "For helping me." She elaborated after he gave her a confused look.  "I am not so good at this stuff."

He smiled at her. "It was no problem."

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