Fighting Friends Smiling Enemies

Gabby stared up at her ceiling, counting the cracks. It was three in the morning, but she couldn't sleep. Instead of trying to sleep again, she gave in to lying there and losing herself in her thoughts. She felt extremely guilty about Daniel. She felt like she was leading him on.

'You are leading him on,' she thought silently to herself. She turned over uncomfortably. 'You still like Kyle, admit it. This isn't right; dating Daniel when you're secretly crushing on one of his friends. What's up with Kyle anyways? I can't believe he winked at me again. This is the 5^th time. That note, what the heck was in that note,' her mind pestered her. Again, she shifted in her bed, frustrated with herself. Kyle had written her a note in their History of Magic class. He had meant to give it to her, but right when he was about to hand it to her, Catherine had started talking to him. Before she left, he had winked at her again.

'Forget the note. Forget Kyle. Think about Daniel. What am I supposed to do? He's actually really nice and sweet. I can't take this. Erg, I wish there was someone to talk to,' Gabby thought.

She lifted her head slightly to look around the bedroom at her sleeping friends. Telling Sarah would be like going up to Voldemort and telling him you wanted to die. Gabby crossed her off the mental list of possible friends to tell. She shifted her gaze to Catherine. That was pure suicide since Catherine was also infatuated with Kyle. Her eyes finally came to rest on Ginny. Even though Ginny was by far the closest and most dependable person, she still knew she couldn't tell her. That would be admitting that she was, in a way, lying when she was supposed to be supporting Catherine. She could see the look of disapproval on Ginny's face as she imagined the idea. No, she couldn't tell Ginny. That was pretty much the end of all her close friends at Hogwarts. When it came to this problem, she was very and extremely alone.

Gabby let out a yawn and glanced at her magical clock. Gabby's favorite feature of it by far was its magical "sensing light" ability. If you wanted to know the time, the clock would glow in the dark so that you could read it. When you really didn't care anymore, it would stop glowing. This was useful so that it would not keep her up all night. It was only 3:30AM now.

'I should just go to sleep. Thinking about this isn't helping. It's just making me more miserable. I have that Herbology test tomorrow too. Yes, Herbology. I should focus on that. I wonder if I'll ever be good at any class. Maybe the family rumors are true-maybe Grandma Bailey really was a squib. Maybe I'm half-squib,' she thought to herself. As she occupied herself with the idea of being a squib, Gabby eventually started to drift to sleep. She let out one final sigh before completely emerging herself in the dream world. If anyone had been listening closely, they might have heard her murmur a boy's name-Kyle.

~*~*~

When Gabby had awoken, she was quite proud of herself. Her dreams had given her an idea. There was indeed someone she could confide in. She had a childhood friend, who was also a witch, named Veronica. They had been close. She, Veronica, and Sissy had been a trio since age 3, although Gabby had always been best friends with Ginny off to the side. But Veronica and her parents had decided to move to Djibouti back when they were nine. Gabby had kept in touch though.

Resolute on writing Veronica when she got the time, she was in a good mood when she strolled down to breakfast with Ginny, Catherine, and Sarah. When Mark made another crude comment in Transfiguration, she rolled her eyes, and to his surprise, did not hit him over the head with her textbook. When Snape insulted her again in Potions, it didn't faze her. When Sissy made a snide remark about her poor grades, she took it in stride. When Daniel had helped her that night with homework (which, she noticed, was going down now in the amount of time it took that Daniel was helping her out), she hadn't been flustered. To Gabby, nothing could bring her down with this newfound possible solution to her problems. She didn't even doubt the idea until later that night.

'Maybe I shouldn't be getting my hopes too high. I don't even know if Veronica is going to be able to offer awesome advice. For all I know she'll be as hopeless as I am. Even worse, what if I can't do it. What if I end up following it as well as I'm following my resolve to forget about Kyle right now? Erg, no, no, no! I am thinking of him again. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it!' she thought idly again at 3:00 AM.

It seemed to be a rather strange habit she was forming. The night before she had woken up exactly at 3:00, and she had done the same today. Wondering where this new foible was coming from, she again resorted to counting the cracks. She was continually forced to start over because a stray thought would cause her to loose track if she had already counted that crack or not.

'If I keep this 3:00AM waking up to mull over things that are bugging me habit, I'm probably going to be able to memorize the wall. I'll be able to draw exact pictures,' she thought humorously, as if knowing the amount of cracks on the wall was a great accomplishment that made the time spent worth it.

~*~

The letter took over a week for Gabby to write. The reason was partly due to the fact that she was extremely busy with homework, Daniel, and avoiding Kyle. The fear from Sirius Black's supposed attack over Halloween didn't help either. But it was mostly due to the fact that she no longer saw a need. Kyle had asked Catherine out the day after Gabby had come up with the idea of contacting Veronica, and now it seemed like writing her would serve no purpose. She wrote it anyways and finished by Friday but in the end decided not to bother her friend. Kyle hadn't winked or said anything to her all week; he hadn't even glanced at her when he came to walk Catherine to the Quidditch match.

Gabby concluded that Kyle had just been joking or something. Over the next two weeks, she continued avoiding him, as he seemed to be avoiding her. Her grades went up slightly with the help of Daniel. Before, she usually got P's and D's, but now she mostly got P's and A's.

If one good thing could come out of this, she had concluded, it was her newfound talent to fake-smile so well, everyone believed her. She got many chances to practice this as Catherine gushed about Kyle every night before they went to bed. Sometimes Gabby used the excuse of homework to either shut her up, or leave the room, but most times she just resorted to the fake smile. She fake smiled when Sarah went on about how wonderful it was to her in History of Magic, she fake smiled when Ginny discussed it with her during breakfast, she fake smiled when Daniel commented during their study dates, she fake smiled when Catherine ran over to her giddy with excitement because Kyle had just kissed her. Gabby wondered if it was possible to get your face stuck on a fake smile.

She contemplated this idea at 3:00AM one night as she counted the cracks again. This foible had stuck; she had woken up at 3:00AM every night for over two weeks. Sometimes she was able to get back to sleep in a matter of two minutes, others she was up till 4. She envisioned the looks of horror people would have when her face got stuck in a smile. The idea of her smiling while she was actually screaming her head off at her children a few years from now was quite amusing. Glancing at her magical clock, which magically lighted up, she saw that it was 5:00. She groaned quietly. This was the latest she had ever stayed awake so far.

'Maybe I just need to do something,' Gabby thought. The letter she had written to Veronica popped into her mind. She reached under her bed for it but found that it wasn't there. She didn't think much of it. 'Must have misplaced it,' she thought. She simply pulled out a quill and a piece of parchment to rewrite it. Deciding that she needed real light, she snuck quietly downstairs to the common room. After finding a comfy chair to sit in, she set to writing the letter under the glow of the fire.

Veronica, darling, how is Djibouti?

I've missed you very much, you know that right? Deepest apologies for not writing in a while, I've had a very busy school year. Do you still keep in touch with Sissy? Anyways, I've written to ask for your advice. Please do not inform Sissy of anything I say to you. Now, onto my problems in life. There is this boy, yes, a boy, I broke my promise-boys are not forever yucky. His name is Kyle and he's charming.. But, Catherine(friend of Ginny's) is dating him. Also, I'm dating his best friend. I know, it sounds terrible! I can't stop thinking of him. I try, really Veronica, I do, to forget him. He seems to have forgotten me too, ever since he asked Catherine out anyways. I know, what can you do? I've already tried to forget him but it's not working. I don't really know how to do it. I desperately needed to talk to somebody, and here you are. I'm so tired; it's like 5AM. Am I coherent at all? Do you think I'm a squib? Can you research if it's scientifically possible to have your face stuck in a smile? Never mind, I must sound crazy. Write back sweetheart.

Love you lots,

Gabby

Gabby looked the letter over and cracked up. She and Veronica had a tradition of calling each other things like sweetheart and darling and always finished off their letters with a 'loving' comment. 'Love you lots', 'Much love', 'Forever in love with you', etc. filled each letter. This had started when they were eight and decided it would be fun to write fake love letters after observing Veronica's older sister write one to her boyfriend. It seemed good enough to her. Gabby went back up to her room, settled into bed, and fell promptly asleep.

~*~*~

"YES! One day till the Winter Holidays," Ginny exclaimed as she marked off another day on her calendar.

"I know! Hallelujah," Catherine sang from her bed. She was writing in her diary. Gabby could guess it was about Kyle no doubt.

"Are any of you staying this year?" Sarah asked dully. She too was on her bed while reading an article in Witch Weekly. They all shook their heads. "I'm going to go ski in the Alps. It's going to be awesome. You should come Catherine."

"Hmm, that would be nice. I'm not sure. Kyle wanted me to come visit and I still have to be with my parents. I'll get back to you on that later," Catherine said as she set her quill down and closed up her diary.

"So what are we going to do about presents?" Gabby asked, coming out of the bathroom.

"I say we just give them to each other now," Ginny replied. They all murmured in agreement and soon presents were being pulled out of the strangest hiding places. Catherine had transfigured hers into small pins that she pulled out of her sock, hairpin, and ballerina figurine. Ginny had cast enlargement charms in little cracks in the wall. Sarah actually had to run off somewhere to grab hers. Gabby had hid one under her mattress, another in a shoebox, and the third simply under her bed. Sarah came back with a large box and commented that they'd have to open hers last.

The girls went through the presents one by one. Gabby had given a hand mirror to Sarah ("Flatters you non-stop, even if you're an ugly toad!"), fifteen large bags of sugar quills to Ginny, and a "pick-it-yourself" box of candy from Zonko's ("Name the candy you want and it appears directly from our store! Limit of 50 candies.") Catherine had bought her a speak-it-quill ("Don't bother writing, it writes down what you say!") and Ginny had bought her a notes organizer ("Take notes in class. When you write down a question later, it'll pull the answer from your notes immediately.").

Sarah's gift was the grandest of them all. She had unwrapped a strange looking mechanism indeed. In appearance, it looked merely like a block of metal. But what it could do surprised them all. Under Sarah's instruction, each girl put her hand onto the metal. Then, out of nowhere, an old book would appear. They weren't ordinary books. They couldn't be found at the Library and copies hadn't been made for over fifty years. The books were special to each person's greatest school strength. Catherine's was filled with information on potions, Ginny's on charms and hexes, Sarah's on the socializing aspect of school, and Gabby got a book on Divination. Gabby sighed at another blow to her ego. Divination? Her academics were so bad her best talent was going to be at making stuff up!

"Wow, thanks Sarah," they all chimed, flipping through the books.

"No problem. It has a few blank pages in back too, so you can ask it questions and stuff. I found this thing in my old attic. It had 4 more tries left so here we go!" Sarah said, reading the introduction to hers.

~*~

Gabby looked around, expecting to find her mother there to pick her up for break but instead she found Sophie, a friend of her mothers. Her mother was out with some wizard. It didn't surprise Gabby. To pass the time till dinner, she decided to take a look at what kind of junk was written in her book from Sarah.

Hello! You're best subject is Divination! If you don't know, we'll explain what it is! Although most people view divination as a thing for crackpots, there are some truly gifted people who possess the power of the eye. We aren't quite sure if you're one of the crackpots, a gifted person, or someone who's really good at making stuff up because those are the requirements to being good at Divination in school.

It was just as Gabby had suspected. She was going to be awesome at making up lies to please the professor. She had heard about things from Ginny, who had heard tons of tales from her brothers, especially Ron.

When her mother did arrive, she brought her date along. Gabby groaned inwardly. Her mother's taste in men was poor. This was probably going to be another drunk bastard that her mother would be crying about for days.

"So, what school do you go to, Gaile?" the drunk bastard #125 asked at dinner.

"Gabrielle, just call me Gabby," she corrected him sharply. She didn't really fancy the idea of this weirdo calling her by her nickname, but she figured Gabrielle would be too long for him to figure out.

"Ok Babby, so what school?" he asked again. Gabby rolled her eyes and sighed.

"It's GABBY you git. G-a-b-b-y, get it through your thick drunk skull," Gabby snapped. For the first 50 prats, Gabby had been patient with their idiocy. Now, she didn't bother. They wouldn't even remember after the hangover the next day anyways.

"Gabby!" her mother said sharply. "Don't say such rude things! Apologize and go to your room!"

"Sorry," Gabby muttered insincerely and gladly left. She hated this. She was finally home for a while and her mother was more concerned over the stupid prat who'd be gone within a week anyways.

~*~

"Are you in?" Sarah asked a few days after break to Gabby across the breakfast table. Gabby glanced up; completely unaware of what Sarah was talking about. She had been concentrating on her Transfiguration textbook. By reading about the lesson beforehand, Gabby managed to do better. It wasn't by much, but it was still better. Over the last few days she hadn't received nearly as much extra homework from any teacher, except Snape.

"Snape is just an annoying codger," Catherine had reassured her the night before. The boys had been busy all week doing mysterious things so Catherine had offered to help Gabby during the time.

"Hello? Earth to Gabby! I just asked you a question!" Sarah said impatiently.

"In on what?" Gabby asked, pulling herself out of her thoughts for the second time.

"Do you ever listen? No, don't answer that. Anyways, I've got this plan, a prank. Sissy is getting on my nerves! I can't stand her. So, tonight, we're going to sneak up into her room and put this potion we'll brew later today into her shampoo. Catherine says it'll make her hair fall out! Ginny," Sarah explained, and tilted her head in Ginny's direction, "says she can't. I say she's afraid. Catherine and Sam, she's in our Herbology class and overheard me telling Catherine yesterday, are coming. Are you?"

Gabby paused for a moment, thinking it over. Sissy was getting really annoying. She had sniggered when Gabby had been assigned yet another 'What I Did Wrong' Essay by Snape in Potions. She had then taunted Gabby by whispering loud enough so that she could hear 'only idiots could have gotten that one wrong. Which essay is that? 256 or something?' Gabby had ignored the comment though and kept her mouth shut. She didn't trust her emotions and knew if she bothered to move at all, she might end up doing one of a couple things. These things consisted of cursing out Snape, slapping Sissy, stalking out of the classroom, banging her head on her desk, and crying. This was a perfect chance for revenge. On the other hand, making all of Sissy's hair fall out was pretty mean. If she remembered right, Sissy had always been obsessed with her hair back earlier childhood and took great pride in how silkily soft it was. Sissy would be devastated if she lost it. Then there was the thought of Sarah. Ginny had been able to get away with not participating because Sarah genuinely liked Ginny. But Gabby and Sarah had always been on weak terms. Turning her down could cause more trouble later.

"Ok," Gabby said feebly. She felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. Her conscious was going to be kicking her for days.

~*~*~

"I can't believe it, you agreed to the plan," Ginny said, awestruck, when Gabby informed her in History of Magic.

"Yeah, I don't know about this though. Why didn't you agree?" Gabby asked.

"Well, actually, I did help make the potion. But I don't really want to help in actually putting it in there," Ginny replied. "Why did you agree though?"

"I'm not sure. I was debating it in my head and before I even reached a decision, my mouth started talking," Gabby said wrinkling her forehead. "Do you think I can back out now?" Class ended just as they finished talking. "Oh no! Class is over? I haven't finished these notes! Maybe this is the reason why I'm failing this class."

"No, I'm sure it's your stupidity," Sissy said from behind her. Gabby twirled around to face the girl. The two were the same height, around five feet. Sissy was twirling her raven black hair with her wand. Gabby's eyes rested on it. If she went through with it, there wouldn't be any hair to twirl for a while. She wasn't sure if the school nurse knew how to regrow hair. She probably did, but Sissy would be humiliated by then.

"Shut up," Gabby said tersely. She bent down to pick up her bag but when she lifted it off the ground, it split.

"Oh, no way, too bad! Wasn't it brand new too?" Sissy said with fake concern. The look on her face said it all. She had split the bag. "Oh well, guess you'll have to beg around for money for a new one." And with that, she walked away.

"Ginny?" Gabby asked her best friend who had witnessed the entire thing.

"Yeah Gabby?" Ginny said helping her pick up her things.

"I'm happy my mouth spoke before my brain," Gabby concluded. All doubt was clear from her mind. She was definitely in on this prank.

~*~*~

At midnight, Gabby was awoken by her alarm clock. It was on the self-setting though, so it didn't wake Ginny up. Dragging herself out of bed, and creeping downstairs, she met Sarah, Sam, and Catherine in the Common Room. Sam threw a pair of sunglasses over at her.

"Sunglasses?" Gabby asked while eyeing the accessory. "Is it really necessary in the dark? I mean, I know it's stylish and all, but it's going to be harder to see with."

"Don't be silly. They're charmed of course. Ginny's excellent at that kind of stuff and after Sissy split your bag today, she made them," Sarah said putting them on. "It makes you see better." Indeed, when Gabby slipped them on it was like daylight.

"So explain to me how this is going to work. Sissy's in the Slytherin Common Room, how are we going to sneak into there?" Catherine asked.

"Easy, I have the password," Sarah said twirling the sunglasses on her finger. They looked at her with expressions that obviously meant for her to go on. "Some of those in Slytherin are sly, cunning, smart, and, if I do say so myself, stunningly sexy like that Draco Malfoy in 3^rd year. Others are as dumb as a rock." Looking around at their confused faces, she let out a sigh of exasperation.

"Look, the dumb ones. They say 'ooo, pretty girl. I like pretty girl.' Me, pretty girl, says 'Hey you masculine man. You know, I've always wanted to date a guy like you, but I'd have to keep it...out of my Common Room if you know what I mean. So how about I meet you some time in the Slytherin Common Room.' Then the big ogre says 'ok' and drools. 'Aren't you cute,' I then say, ugh the slobber, and run the finger down his cheek like this, and with the final touch, 'Oh, what is the password again?' he will blubber it out, entranced by my finger. Suddenly, I there's someplace I have to be. The slob doesn't even recognize me a few days later. Voila, and I have the password. You understand now?" Sarah said, gesticulating and acting out the situation. They all nodded in response. "Good, now specially charmed sunglasses on? Ok, follow me."

Then, Sarah twirled on her heel and walked stylishly out of the Common Room. The others looked at each other and followed. Gabby wasn't quite sure how they managed to get to the Slytherin Common Room without being caught but they did. On the way there, she had been in a daze. She followed Sarah blindly. She wasn't even been aware of where they are and had focused on keeping everyone in her line of sight. She was quite surprised when they were finally inside. If some had asked her more, about the entrance, and such, she wouldn't have been able to say.

"Now we need to find Sissy's room," Sarah hissed at the others. If they were heard, or found, they would be in major trouble. The others listened to her and Catherine motioned for her to go on with the rest of the plan. Sarah started gesturing what they were to do, who was to search where, and what to do when they found it. They split up, searching the girl's dormitory quietly, trying not to be caught. It was Gabby who found it first, and Sarah was absolutely delighted. They snuck inside, taking the utmost care to not make any noise. Sarah tiptoed over to the bathroom, and waved for Sam to follow her. They had planned this part before hand. Sarah and Sam were to put the potion into the shampoo, while Catherine kept guard in the bedroom and Gabby kept guard in the Common Room.

Following this plan, Gabby then crept back downstairs to be on the lookout. She scanned the room quickly, checking to see if anyone was there, before stepping off the bottom step. Thankfully, all the pictures were asleep and blissfully unaware of their presence. Deciding that a chair in the corner would be the best position, she walked briskly over and sat down. It gave her a good view of the boys' staircase and the girls' staircase.

Gabby wondered how long they were going to take. They'd obviously have to figure out which shampoo was Sissy's. Doing so without talking probably made it harder than Gabby thought it was. Gabby opened her mouth to yawn and felt her eyes droop a bit. It was really late. Opening her eyes from the deep yawn she noticed it was suddenly pitch black. The light from the fire had gone out and her sunglasses had been removed from her face. Before she could figure anything out, a hand was clamped against her mouth and around both of her wrists. She was trapped.

"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" she heard a male voice whisper in her ear. It wasn't a normal voice; it was altered. Colin had shown her a muggle toy like that before. Sophie had been muggle-born. Colin's family had been friends with Sophie, and she would sometimes take Gabby to meet Colin. Colin hadn't known that she was a witch until he got his acceptance letter to Hogwarts. The toy disguised the user's voice. Later Sophie had told her on the broomstick ride home that there was a charm to do the same. This boy who had caught her had probably used that charm.

He, whoever he was, slowly removed his hand from her mouth. Gabby quickly debated screaming. If she did, obviously someone would hear and come help her. However, screaming would mean getting caught and into loads of trouble that she didn't have the energy or time to deal with. In the end, Gabby decided against it.

"Nothing," she whispered.

"Liar, you're here to dump some potion in Sissy's shampoo," the boy said, coming out from behind the couch. Or at least, she thought she heard him come out from behind the couch. Gabby wondered how she hadn't been able to see him there. "It's true isn't it?"

"Fine," Gabby replied relenting, "what are you going to do about it?"

"Nothing. But you are going to go along with your friends like I never caught you. Then, when you move to leave, you'll linger behind, go upstairs, and fix it," he told her matter-of-factly.

"I don't know how to fix it!" Gabby said. Then, it suddenly occurred to Gabby. How had he known all of this? He must have overheard them somewhere, but Gabby couldn't figure out where.

"Fine, wait here, and you better be here when I come back," he said, releasing the hold on her wrist. "In fact, if you aren't here, I'll tell Professor Snape that Gabrielle Martin was in the Slytherin Common Room. He wouldn't be too happy now would he?"

Gabby thought she heard him climb the boys' dormitory stairs but she couldn't be sure. She couldn't see a thing. Her heart started to race, finally realizing her situation. Whoever this guy was, he knew her name, and he now held it over her head. She remembered her friends, they'd be down any moment and how would she explain all of it? She decided she'd have to stall. Disobeying his orders, he climbed the stairs. Peeking in the door, she saw that all three of her friends were just about to leave. She had caught them right on time.

"There's someone down there. Wait here," she lied. It wasn't a complete lie, he was down there, but she was leaving a lot of the truth out. They nodded, and gestured that they would wait for her there. She went back downstairs, hoping that the Common Room would be out of earshot.

"You moved," the boy hissed in the darkness. Gabby could sense it was coming off from the right.

"They were about to leave. I told them someone was here and I'm supposed to be here checking if the person was gone," Gabby said.

"Fine, whatever. You're going to tell them I'm gone, let them go, double back or something, and come right back here. Then, you're going to sneak upstairs and take the shampoo downstairs. We'll check the level of the shampoo; empty this new one to that, and you'll sneak back upstairs. Got it?" he said. Gabby nodded in the darkness but realized that he couldn't see her.

"Ok," she voiced aloud. She felt uneasy about this whole situation. She was now a double agent! Following through with the plan, she did exactly as he was told. Afterwards, he had agreed not to rat her out, and she set out on the return journey alone. She got lost a couple times and didn't really recognize anything. It was well over half an hour before she found her way back to the Gryffindor Common Room. Sarah was waiting for her.

"Where were you?" Sarah asked, curled up in one of the chairs.

"Oh, got lost. I guess I wasn't paying attention because suddenly you guys weren't there," Gabby lied. She thanked the heavens that she wasn't a bad liar.

"I see," Sarah said and gave her a pitying look. The two climbed the stairs to the Gryffindor Common Room together. Right before entering their room, Sarah turned to her and said one last mysterious comment; "I don't like it when people lie to me."