Annabel Lee

Severus's Point of View

Only two weeks into the school year and the Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry was already beginning to boil.

“I can’t believe we lost,” Regulus muttered, slumping over onto the table. It had been rather embarrassing. And for that, the entire Gryffindor House paraded around the castle to boast about their victory for two straight days.

“A great way to starts off the year, don’t you think, Padfoot?” the Slytherin table heard behind them. The rest of the Grand Hall seemed unaware.

“There’s nothing better, Prongs,” Black howled. This wasn’t how I’d planned spending my breakfast.

“Forget about them,” Narcissa commanded, calling my attention back to my friends.

“Are you sure you two can’t come today? You never come to Hogsmeade,” Regulus said pushing a whole stick of French toast in his mouth.

“Sorry,” Annabelle chirped, shaking her head.

“Why not and why can’t Snape go?” he asked choaking down the syrup-coated breakfast. Lucius cast Regulus a weak glare.

“Stop whining. Annabelle doesn’t have a signature for her slip, so Snape is being a gentleman and staying with her.” I couldn’t tell if he was serious or trying to poke fun of us. I guess Annabelle took it as the latter, because her face turned blood red.

The flapping of wings accompanied by squawking told me that the morning mail had arrived. Everyone scrambled to put down their forks and spoons to catch the Daily Prophet or letters.

“Look what we have here!” Lucius cackled as Narcissa pulled a vile of blue potion from a wooden box and I quickly identified it as a Brewed Birth Control. Narcissa hastily closed the box and stuffed it into her bag.

“What’s that?” Annabelle asked as she nibbled on a pancake. The others laughed behind quickly at her and I shook my head at her. She got the idea.

She wouldn’t want to know.

“Bellatrix says hi to everyone. She’s excited to meet you at winter break, Annie,” Regulus enthused and Annabelle ducked her head into her shoulders shyly.

“She might not have to wait till then,” Lucius said from behind his letter. “It seems my family is throwing a Halloween banquet.” Then he added nonchalantly, “Naturally you’re all invited.”

“That’s great,” Narcissa cheered and hugged her boyfriend's arm.

“What did you get, mate?” Regulus asked as a letter ended up on my plate of waffles. I recognized my mother’s handwriting and pulled out my Hogsmeade slip, it was sighed.

“It’s just my mother trying to get me to go this weekend,” I said, showing them the syrup stained slip.

“Eep!” Annabelle squeaked when an owl dropped a letter in her lap.

“Annabelle, did you owl someone?” I asked scooting closer to her. I began blushing when I realized it was a bit too close. My hair could touch her shoulder and my ear was an inch from her knit hat. But Annabelle failed to notice, she was string down at the letter.

Dear Miss Emaciare,

I’m pleased to inform you that after a visit with your father, he has agreed to sign this permission slip. I hope with it you can enjoy trips to Hogsmeade with your friends for the rest of the year.

However, he also informed me that he has not heard from you from you for quite a few years. I’d like for you to meet me I my office tonight after your outing. Enjoy your trip.

Sincerely yours,
Albus Dumbledore

She took the letter into her left hand and looked at the slip. At the bottom was a sloppy signature written in dry splotchy ink.

“Her dad signed the slip,” I said, sounding barely concerned. Narcissa, Lucius, and Regulus were stunned for a moment before Narcissa smiled.

“Blimey! That’s great, Annie!” she said placing her hand over Annabelle’s. She didn’t flinch but her free hand twitched slightly. The others followed Narcissa’s praise and gave her small compliments on how it was nice she was getting in touch with her father.

Only I knew that Annabelle’s father was a monster like mine. No one else knew that Annabelle was still afraid, or that her mother suffered for years before she got sick and died.

“Thanks,” Annabelle smiled and I stood up.

“Come on, Annabelle. Let’s go get your coat,” I said casually. I turned my head over to the others. “We’ll meet you outside in the courtyard.”

“See you,” Narcissa waved and the others got up to exit. Annabelle and I on the other hand, walked down towards the dungeon.

“Severus,” Annabelle began as she stared straight ahead, “I’ll be okay. Don’t worry, alright?”

“Are you sure you can handle this?” I questioned her with a straight face. Annabelle turned to head slightly to examine my expression. Then, without batting an eyelash, she turned awake and smiled.

“I’m sure Dumbledore will make things right. Plus,” she stopped to put her small hand on my arm, “I’ll always have you and the others.” I nodded reassuring her and she walked into the Common Room. I stood outside of the dungeon, trying to think of where her father could be.

“Snape,” I heard a familiar voice call from down the hall. Lily was standing near the wall, her hands nearly clasped together.

“Lily?” I had forgotten how nice it was to say her name out loud. “What are you-” I started but she stopped me.

“Stop,” she said calmly and stood her ground. “I’m not here to just chat. I want to ask you a favor.” I nodded quietly as Lily took a deep breath and tried to keep her frown on her face. She never did have the heart to be an angry person.

“Leave her alone.”

“What?” I snapped unintentionally. Lily unclasped her hands and curled them into fists at her sides.

“Annabelle is a sweet girl. I don’t want you and your Dark Arts buddies to ruin her. She’s been through too much already and you know it.”

“Lily…”

“Please, Severus,” she pleased, the malice in her voice fading. “I know you two are good… friends, but she’s not strong enough to handle your kind of world. Trust me, I know her well.”

Something inside me snapped.

“I wouldn’t bring her into that scene, Annabelle doesn’t like the Dark Arts, and apparently you don’t know her that well because even if I did invite her to a meeting or something, Annabelle is a strong enough person to know if she wanted to go or not,” I fumed.

Lily stared at me for what seemed like a long time. After a moment I realized what I just did and my face ran pale. I just had a fight with Lily and went so far as to insult her. Didn’t’ I love her?

But when I tried to search in my heart for a speck of guilt, I found nothing.

“If she gets hurt I’ll blame you, Severus,” Lily huffed and twirled around, walking away with her red hair bouncing past her shoulder blades. I felt a little empty inside.

“Severus, are you okay?” I turned around and Annabelle walked up to me with her coat on. Even in her old homeless clothes she still looked adorable.

Merlin, I had to stop using that kind of vocabulary.

“What did you talk to Lily about?” she asked quietly, smiling up at me. I glanced over and shrugged. “Oh, come on. Tell me, Sev,” she pleased grabbing onto my coat sleeve. I stared at her and tried to picture being with Lily like this: her smiling at me, staring at me with emerald eyes, holding onto my arm.

But I really couldn’t, not after what just happened. When I turned away from her, I reached out and held her hand.

“Don’t worry, alright?”I gave her hand a small squeeze. She giggled and looked at the ground blushing.

“Alright,” she whispered. We held each other’s hand for about half a minute and then let go when we reached the Grand Entrance.

After we went outside and handed in our slips, we buddle up in our coats and walked around the shops of Hogsmeade.

“You know what Annie? We could probably get our dress robes at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions!” Narcissa gasped and continued to fantasize about the banquet. Annabelle bit her lip and smiled like she was in pain. “Don’t worry about paying for it. I’ll take of it, sweetie,” she added quickly.

“But—”

“No buts about it,” she said patting her on the head. “We’ll be gone the whole day, so we’ll go shopping nice and early and get you the perfect dress.”

“Thank you,” she whispered and pulled on the hair behind her right ear.

“Let’s go to Honeydukes. Do you boys want anything?” Narcissa asked and we shook our heads. “Alright, be back in a minute!” she grabbed Annabelle’s sleeve and dragged her inside the shop.

“Bloody hell, she has a lot of energy,” Regulus sighed sitting down on a black metal bench. Lucius smirked and chuckled.

“Yeah, she does.”

“So how is she?” Regulus asked pulling Lucius down into the seat next to him. Lucius got a smug look about him and shook his head.

“That’s not something you talk about.”

“Oh please, you used to talk about it all the time when it was other girls,” Regulus huffed. Lucius hissed for him to shut up.

“I had an argument with Lily,” I blurted out. I wasn’t good at conversation. Regulus looked up. “When I was waiting for Annabelle to come back with her coat, Lily came by.”

“What did the mudblood do?” he asked relaxing a bit. Lucius turned the other way because, I think, he didn’t want to hear about some muggle-born. I leaned against a tree and sighed.

“She said we were going to corrupt Annabelle,” I answered and noticed Lucius scrunch his nose up. “She doesn't want us to be around her.”

“Bullocks,” Lucius hissed still not facing us.

“I agree with Lucius. Evans is smart and all for a muggle-born, but she’s mental if she thinks Annabelle is better off without us. She gets all the perks of being with pure-bloods, not to mention she’s loads happier,” Regulus said as he pointed to the two giggling girls in the Honeydukes window.

“You know what this means,” Lucius chuckled turning his attention to us. “This is a good step, mate. You’re moving on to better things,” he said standing up and patting my shoulder.

“Thanks,” I said rubbing the back of my neck.

“I’m glad you’re finally getting it. This is mine and Narcissa’s last year with you guys. I thought we would leave here and you two would still be obvious to each other,” he laughed and Regulus joined in.

“You boys ready to go?” Narcissa asked as the two of them joined us. She was eating from a bag of Chocoballs while Annabelle ate Gummy Owls.

“You bet,” Lucius smirked and picked up his girlfriend like a husband would his bride on their wedding day. He spun her around and then ran off. Regulus burst into laughter at his strange behavior.

“Hold your Hippogriffs!” he shouted jogging after them. Annabelle and I looked at each other and stood in front of Honeydukes awkwardly and in the way. She was eating her gummies quietly and staring at the ground while I blushed in the roaring silence.

“Annabelle,” I said quietly and put her right hand in my left, “we should probably go after them.” Annabelle stared at me, her eyes peeking through her hair and looked at our hands.

Then, like she did the first day I met her on the train, she looked back and forth smiling. I laughed ever so lightly and started pulling her along the path.

I was holding her hand in public, something that overall was rather embarrassing. However, there was a sort of pride that filled my chest that was usually discomfort.

And when I looked over a few minutes later and saw the biggest smile I’d ever seen Annabelle have, I realized moving on from Lily could be a good thing.