Annabel Lee

Annabelle’s Point of View

Why does this happen every year? I thought with exasperation. Benvolio, bundled up in my knapsack, stirred as we walked through the brick wall to Platform 9 ¾. Severus and I had arrived together but a few moments ago he and I got separated.

Now this wasn’t uncommon, every year I somehow got separated from at least one of my friends (Narcissa and Lucius usually), but I’d never been least alone like this. I didn’t know where he went and I didn’t know where anyone was.

So I walked around the train, peeking into compartment windows. I thought I’d spotted Regulus in a compartment and opened it with some excitement. Sadly, it wasn’t him in the room.

“What do you want?” Potter asked. I had four sets of eyes on me now and I found it difficult to breathe. Black in particular gave me a strange look. He gave me those a lot.

I shut the door as quick as possible.

“Annabelle?” Lily said coming up behind me. She grew even more beautiful in the three recent years, and I tried not to be jealous of it.

“I think I saw Severus and Malfoy enter a compartment up ahead,” she told me, a little tired. She always sounded so motherly, but I had to assume she was becoming tired of me always running away from her. Though I nodded nervously, Lily appeared crest fallen by my silence.

Okay, now I felt guilty.

“Thank you,” I whispered. Lily’s emerald eyes lit up animatedly like I’d made her year. I couldn’t help but smile back. Benvolio jumped down to Lily’s keg and purred.

“You have a cute cat,” she said bending down and petting him.

“Thank you.” Was I repeating myself? I probably sounded like a dumbstruck troll. My face flushed with embarrassment. Even with all the time my friends call her those horrible names, she still treated me kindly.

“I’m sorry,” I added. I tried talking in a normal tone, but it came out as childish. “I’m sorry about my mates.” Lily was silent. She continued stroking Benvolio with a pensive look, but then shrugged.

“I’m sorry about mine.” I nodded, smiling at her with real admiration.

Maybe we can end up being friends in the long run. Once we’re out of school and away from the silly house rivalry and blood status discrimination.

“You better go find Severus. I’ll try and keep them,” she pointed towards the compartment of Marauders, “away from the general area.” I smiled again at her and nodded before running off to the compartment Lily pointed out.

I knocked first and Severus briskly opened the door, his face stricken with stress. He had matured over the year. He was cuter and still had the long hair.

“Annabelle?” he asked panicky. I smiled but he closed the door a little to try and hide something. I caught a glimpse of a few boys I didn’t recognize.

“Is that Annie?” Narcissa, in all her beauty, bounced out of the compartment and shit the door quickly. “Let’s go find a compartment.”

“What about the others?” I asked in an exhale of breath. I practically had to run to keep pace with her. Narcissa laughed shakily.

“Don’t worry about them. The boys are talking business.”

They’re talking about the Dark Lord was the real translation. We found a nice compartment at the end of the train.

“So… You’ll never guess what Lucius and I did four days ago,” Narcissa giggled bundling up next to me. Her face was slightly pink and her eyes glistened with happiness. This perked me up.

“What?” I asked tilting my head. She looked side to side and then took a deep breath.

“Oh Annie,” she sighed. “We made love!” My stomach churned and I couldn’t help but gape like an idiot. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. It was magical! Oh it was just like I imagined! There were candles and rose pedals and he did this thing where—!”

“Narcissa!” I squeaked, my voice cracking. She rolled her eyes.

“Can’t you for once just be a normal teenage girl and say ‘Merlin Narcissa, you sure did bag a hot one. I’m happy for you! ’”

“I am happy for you, Cissy,” I whispered.

“I know sweetheart. You’ll understand one day. That is, unless Snape decided to make a move already?” she winked. Severus and I sometimes held hands in privacy and it was implied I went wherever he was, but neither one of us had made any real advances.

“Cissy!”

“Don’t’ worry, Annie. I know you aren’t like that. In fact, I’ll probably have to give you the talk myself.” After that embarrassing moment, Severus, Lucius, and Regulus greeted us.

“Narcissa! Annabelle!” Regulus grinned. He ran over and hugged Narcissa, and afterwards he leaned over and pet my head. “Are you sure you don’t want a hug?” he laughed and I took a deep breath.

“Okay.”

“What?” he asked surprised. I smiled, standing up and walking right past Regulus to Severus. He looked particularly stone faced today.

“He gets one first,” I said childishly. Severus, who looked embarrassed but happy, looked at my short form as I hugged his chest, my head just reaching his chin.

“My little Annabelle is coming out of her shell,” I heard Regulus say and I felt how fast Severus’s heart was beating. I let go and blushed a little, hugging Regulus quickly before sitting down with Narcissa.

“The usual, dears?” the woman from the candy trolley asked. Lucius dug into his pocket and pulled out a handful of galleons and syckles.

“Yes, twenty chocolate frogs please.”

At the feast, my friends and I took pleasure in our annual game of: Which House?

“Hufflepuff, definitely Hufflepuff,” Narcissa said as a meek first year sat on the stool. The hat was placed on his head.

“Why do you say that?” Lucius asked, putting another slice of roast beef on his plate.

“He looks too shy to be put in any other house,” Severus answered.

“Well that means he could just as easily be put in Ravenclaw,” Regulus answered.

“Narcissa’s right,” I whispered, looking up from my empty plate.

“Now you’re on her side?” Regulus sighed. Narcissa cackled.

“A girl knows these things.”

“Hufflepuff!”

“Yes!” Narcissa grinned and had Regulus hand over her prize: a chocolate frog. Regulus reached over and handed me mine.

“Roy Parkinson,” Mrs. McGonagle announced, and my mates looked up from their food for a moment.

“Slytherin,” Severus assured us and the rest followed suit.

“I agree.”

“Yeah.”

“He’s definitely a Slytherin.” They all looked at me with a new found intensity. Was there something I didn’t know about this boy?

“Who is he?” I asked and Regulus stopped shoving food in his face, staring off at the boy. Lucius took a sip of butterbeer.

“That’s Clovis Parkinson’s son, he’s a prominent follower of the Dark Lord,” Narcissa muttered under her breath. She fidgeted uncomfortably at talking about him.

“Is that a bad thing?” I inquired. No one talked about him in front of me, but I had heard the title more than once while walking into the Slytherin Common Room.

“Slytherin!”

“Far from it,” Lucius said proudly.

“Sorry Annie, you lost your frog this time,” Regulus said chipperly to get off topic. I smiled and nodded, passing my chocolate frog back to the middle of the table.

“Regulus,” Lucius said as he put an arm around Narcissa, “I’ve wondered lately your impression of the meetings.”

“I’m proud to be present at them, mate,” he answered giving a small smirk. Narcissa continued to fidget under the weight of her boyfriend’s arm.

“You haven’t completed your assignment yet,” Lucius added smoothly as he cast a glance at Dumbledore. He was giving the usual announcements: don’t go in the forbidden forest, don’t wander about the castle after curfew, a new D.A.D.A. teacher, etc.

“Not in front of Annabelle,” Severus hissed. This caught me off guard. Severus never snapped at them like that. Regulus absentmindedly grabbed a hold of his left forearm. Lucius gave a relaxing smile to both of them.

“Calm down, Snape,” Lucius said. “I was simply stating that Regulus needs to recruit someone in the near future.” I noticed that the air around us had shifted dramatically. Severus, who sat at my right, put his hand closer to mine so his pink lay against mine.

“If you need someone to go with you to the party, I can go with you, Reg,” I murmured politely and smiled at him. Severus growled a little at my response.

“No, Annabelle, you can’t,” he seethed. Lucius narrowed his eyes slightly.

“Why are you so objective if you are loyal?” Lucius quipped. Severus hesitated in his answer.

“It’s not safe for someone like her,” he said calming down.

“I’ll ask someone else. I have someone in mind,” Regulus said looking at me and then towards Lucius. “Do you know who I speak of?”

“Oh well then, everything’s fine.” Lucius smiled, and with that the air was light and free again.

“Who got the most frogs?” Regulus asked and Narcissa gave a wicked little grin.

“That would be me, boys,” she laughed and pulled the jackpot in the piddle onto her plate, transforming it into a small box. Then, she took a slice of pumpkin pie and did the same spell.

“Here Annabelle, we’ll snack in bed later. We better head up to bed, guys,” she giggled and stood up. We all got up and walked our way out of the Grand Hall. On my way out, I passed Lily with her friends sitting next to her. She saw me too and smiled.

I really hope we can be friends this year.

As we began to part ways, Severus pulled me aside.

“If anyone ever asks you to a meeting or a party make sure to tell me before you agree,” he said in a hushed voice. I tilted my head.

“Why, Severus?” I asked blushing. He took a deep breath and looked at me for a long time, like he was trying to look deep, deep down into my soul to tell me something.

“Just, do it. Okay?” I smiled and took his hand in mine.

“Thank you,” I whispered and he furrowed his brow.

“Why are you thanking me?” I know he asked like he thought I was an idiot, but that was just the way he talked sometimes.

“Because you care about my safety,” I giggled softly. He blushed faintly and squeezed my hand.

“I almost forgot,” he mumbled bashfully and pulled something from his pocket, placing it in my hand. It was his collection of chocolate frogs he had one. I pulled the two into my pocket and stared at the floor.

“Th-Thanks,” I said sweetly, face red. He gave a lopsided smile and shrugged.

“Good night, Annie.”

“Good night, Sev.”