i hope that you all can comment in this one, because it went very differently from what i was expecting when i first started writing it. i'm sorry.

UNCOMFORTABLY LIKE THEM

"No matter how much I think that this is the best of the jokes you ever made, Anne, I still think it's time to break character," said Sirius eyes wide and an odd smile, he seemed half-frozen in that expression. He really was hoping that the story was naught but a joke. "Really. Stop. Say that you're jesting."

"I'm not, though," she said.

"Anne, for Merlin's sake – no, please, for my own sake, please, say that you're joking!" Sirius said.

Severus shifted in his place uncomfortably.

"Unfortunately, Black, we are not joking," he grumbled.

Before Sirius could have any other reaction besides staring at both of the people standing in the middle of the Room of Requirement, Regulus laughed so loudly with eyes closed off tight as he held on his own belly after holding his laugh from so long.

"I heard he rumour, mate, but I wasn't expecting –" laughed Regulus, stopping himself to gasp a breath.

"Rumour?" Anne asked. "Regulus, stop laughing, this isn't funny! Stop! Severus is about to pass out."

"Don't pass out, please," James said, looking at Severus by the corner of his eyes.

"Don't tell me what to do," Severus grumbled back.

Anne rolled her eyes at the interaction and looked at her mother, who was watching both boys with lips thinning out in dissatisfaction. Severus looked away, clearly a bit upset and embarrassed for his cheek while James just looked at Lily and raised his eyebrows as if he was having a silent conversation with her, which made her look away from them and to Anne, almost saying 'see?'.

Regulus dried his laughter tears, looking at his confused and still shocked brother only to go back to laughing when he saw Remus Lupin biting his own lip to hide his laughter.

"Nice," Anne grumbled, annoyed at his reaction. "Everybody is now talking about how I'm sleeping with your best friend and that is your reaction?"

James winced silently and Lily rolled her eyes at his reaction.

"Everybody was already talking about you sleeping with my best friend, Anne," Regulus said once he recovered a bit. "Ever since my birthday."

"I must be seen as a whore, then," Anne complained.

"You're always glued to me or Severus whenever you're in social gatherings with Slytherins," Regulus said, pushing his hair back from his face. Anne thought he looked great when he did that. "It's common for Slytherins to take care of friend's girlfriends, especially if they're not from the House. It's a tradition. Why do you think that I don't mind at all that you spend so much time with Severus? I trust you and I trust him. I don't mind you two spending time without me there."

"That's not normal," Sirius complained.

"That's because you're a dog and you like to piss on things that 'belong' to you," Regulus answered straight away. Sirius turned to complain, but Remus' smirk made him swallow down his words. "Now, it's quite good that this rumour is becoming true for them. Mother will get off my back now, even more than when the rumour started circulating."

James turned to Regulus.

"What happened in your birthday to make the rumour start?" he asked.

"Well, I –" he hesitated, looking at Anne and Severus.

Anne bit the inside of her cheek, not sure of how to explain everything that had happened that day. Regulus was so drunk that he barely remembered any of it, but it had been so traumatic to Severus that she could see his tone disappearing from his face quite quickly as he remembered everything.

"It was the day I was marked," Severus explained shortly.

James turned to him once more.

"Marked?"

"The Dark Mark," Anne jumped in.

If it was anyone other than Severus, she would've put her hand on his back, pet it a few times for comfort, but all she did for him was figuratively stand in front of him to protect his moment weakness from the person he wanted to appear stronger to. His shameful stumble was protected as she explained superficially how the Dark Mark looked.

None of the Marauders dared to ask to see it, but Regulus could feel Sirius' eyes over his covered left arm.

Lily however seemed to be avoiding to look anywhere near Severus' arm; she had seen the Mark before, but only now she understood completely that he had been held down and cried himself to the point of humiliation in pain and begs. He had gone to Anne after that, Lily realised, finally seeing how much Severus trusted her, maybe more than he had ever trusted her to do anything about something as heavy and dark as that – Lily had been his friend from when he was a child, the one that he had seen as innocent and good, the wish of who he wanted to be as well, always hiding his abuse, always downplaying his wounds in all ways to make sure she could continue being a child. Anne was the one that he had run to for her to fix things, he had gone to her for help and comfort, not distraction. Lily had been a childhood memory and a fantasy, that was why it was so painful for him to let her go; it wasn't the romantic love he had thought it to be, it was his inner child begging for something he knew to be safe.

She understood, finally, that people, too, can be addictive for those who look for addictions.

"Bad things happen in initiations. I had mine not too long after," Regulus said. "Severus got sick because of the reaction of the mark, Anne took care of him in the bathroom, but Lucius saw it and, of course, couldn't stop talking about everything. At first, I was upset, so I drank more, so I don't remember much after that, I just know that after that day people started talking and when she kept on talking to him in public, things were a lot surer and... well, now he protected her in public and also admitted to being in love with her."

"I never said that!" Severus said.

"And you never said you weren't," Regulus said.

"I'm not!" he insisted. "Can you stop the jealousy now?"

"No jealousy here, just amusement," Regulus dismissed. "But you know how it is with Slytherin. We read between the lines, you didn't say you love her, but you did protect her and you face off a very important Rosier to make sure she was alright; you didn't need to say anything. We understand."

"Actions over words, indeed," Anne agreed, nodding. She turned to Severus with a smirk. "Do you love me?"

"Don't push your luck, girl," Severus hissed towards her, turning with his best glare that usually made people wince or outright flinch.

She didn't look taken aback by his rudeness like Lily usually did when he snapped at her, even if it had been done playfully, she just chuckled and rolled her eyes away from him in the way she had been doing all that time as they teased and poked fun at one another.

"I'll take that as a yes since you didn't right out say no," she teased, turning to wink at her father, who would usually approve of her teasing of Severus, but he looked just plain disappointed.

"You're trying to get hexed, aren't you?" James asked to his daughter, who just smiled back. "Snape, how do you take that, I would have hexed her already..."

"Dad!" Anne said, taken aback by his open teasing.

"You know I do love you, but you can be annoying when you're trying, even if you're not trying that hard," James admitted.

The way Severus' eyebrows twitched made sure to let her know that there was a part of him that agreed, though he wouldn't dare to say it out loud, it was neither to give James the satisfaction of being right nor because Anne was scary when she wanted to be, but because it was a lot funnier to just leave things slightly implied with conversations with Gryffindors. But he forgot Anne grew up looking a him, being reminded of that in the moment the elbow hit his ribs and made him huff.

Regulus could feel Lily retracting away from the conversation and into her own mind as she watched Anne putting the boy she loved and she boy she loves somewhat together in a civil way that she never managed to achieve, always making herself chose sides when she could've stood the middle ground in a fight that wasn't yours.

Severus had manipulated her to see him as a victim, made sure to never attack the Marauders unprovoked in front of her, only to do twice as bad as them once they were distracted. At first, James had thought Severus liked the prank and that was why he was retributing and he did all in good faith, only finding out that it wasn't like that when Severus actually managed to break his arm in third year by making him fall down the steps. James took the pranks and teasing to another level after that escalation, making them cruel and humiliating because of the pain he had felt.

Neither was right. Both were human.

Regulus, for a long time, had chosen Severus' side even though he knew the whole story (contrary to Lily, who knew nothing even to that point); he would do anything to be against his brother and his friends. Now, he could see he grey Anne liked to tread on, smiling and waving for him to step on the addicting indifference of seeing the unbiased story.

Anne looked right at him, as if she knew that he was thinking of her, and smiled.

Regulus offered her his hand, reaching out. She got up, walking away from Severus and holding Regulus' hand to sit down beside him on the sofa, kissing his lips in a quick peck while her father was busy talking to her mother, ignoring the way Sirius looked to Remus as if he was readying himself to complain, but was stopped.

"This is going to be fun," she said.

"No, this is going to be amazing, Anne, and I'm so excited to watch it," Regulus said.

Apparently, a relationship with Severus Snape, even a very fake one, had rules – not unspoken ones, but spoken (and written) ones. No touching, no flirting, not as much as a public wink; they were to act as if there was nothing different between them, which made Regulus quite happy, even if he wouldn't dare to admit so out loud.

Still, things were different. People were looking now as she sat down beside him in class or when they walked past each other with nothing but a quickly smile (on Anne's part) or a twitch of he lips (by Severus', of course). Regulus would walk beside his friend, winking at Anne, knowing that she had agreed not to look back for Severus' heart's sake.

After a single day of fake dating someone that barely spoke to her, Marlene McKinnon marched up to Anne as soon as she walked into the Common Room dragging her feet behind her and throwing her bag to the side.

"Anne!" she said.

"Not now," Anne grumbled.

"Yes, now!" Marlene insisted.

Lily cringed.

"I tried to stop her, but I didn't know what to say to her," Lily admitted, looking at Anne over Marlene's shoulder.

Anne sighed. She had to expect that Marlene would be uncomfortable with the fake relationship, not because she knew of the true one, but because there was no way Marlene would ever like Severus Snape in any shape or form.

"Marlene, you already know everything," dismissed Anne. "Severus said what he had to say."

"Oh, he said you give the most amazing blowjobs because he had to," Marlene mocked.

"Oh!" James moaned loudly, turning slightly green as he turned to the wall, lips curling in disgust and eyebrows almost touching each other into his frown. "You heard that from him? He said that?"

"I don't know," Marlene said, throwing the answer over her shoulder to him. "The thing is that somebody said it or said that he said it and now the whole school heard about it. You know who told me that? Jenna Rosvall, from fucking Hufflepuff, the third year I tutor! What the hell? Anne, why aren't you worried? Your reputation is going down the drain!"

"I care little for my reputation," she dismissed. "It'll pass."

"I heard that one before," James said.

"And you shall hear it more if you ask it again," she answered to him. She turned to Marlene once more. "Marls, don't worry. It's nothing big, I promise. It'll die down after a while, I promise."

Marlene sighed in annoyance, but as she opened her mouth to say something else a handful of fifth years walked into the Common Room, the boys turning to look twice at Anne. Uncomfortably, she shifted her weight between legs, recognizing desire and curiosity in their eyes.

When she thought the attention that she didn't want to get by interacting with Regulus was disappearing, another thing came by to make matters worse, this time because of Severus. That was the proof that no matter what Slytherins did, they were always being watched and talked about.

"What are you looking at, mate?" James asked, glaring at one of the boys.

"Sorry," he said.

"You better be!" Sirius said.

"Fifteen points from Gryffindor," Remus said, voice a lot calmer than his friends, but intentions just as clear.

Anne crossed her arms.

"Stop that, I can take care of myself. They just looked, I can deal with that," she dismissed.

"But you don't need to," James said.

The boys passed through them and made their way up the stairs to their dorm.

Before Marlene could go back to speaking what she wanted, berating Anne for her dismissals, the portrait opened again. Peter Pettigrew walked in with face pale.

"You're dating Snivellus?" he asked.

Anne turned to him, arms still crossed and with the best glare she could manage, making the young boy cringe into himself, clearly regretting how he had formulated the question, but didn't say anything to back down.

"Yes," she said.

"Have you gone absolutely mad? Do you know what he's capable of?" he asked. "Anne, he could hurt you."

"Severus would never willingly hurt me, never," she said, rolling her eyes. "And I'm quite aware of what he's capable of. The thing, Peter, is that he's also very aware of what I'm capable of, and that makes us scaringly equal."

Peter shivered. He knew enough about the rumours to know that Severus Snape openly messed with Dark Magic, and to have Anne say that she was equal to him only meant that she, too, was more powerful than he imagined. He still had the image of her crying and screaming in James' arms when he saw her having a flashback and would forever be considered 'fragile' in his mind, no matter how powerful her magic was, he couldn't imagine her degrading people like Severus did... Like Sirius did... Like James had once done, as well.

"He's –" he stopped himself.

"He's what?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"He's not very handsome," he said, though it wasn't what he meant to say.

"That much we can all agree," Sirius said loudly from his place. "Anne, you can't ask the whole world to believe that you're dating him when you look like that and... he looks like that."

"What 'that' is supposed to mean in both ways?" she asked, turning to Sirius, annoyed.

"Anne, you're a pretty girl," Lupin admitted. "Severus isn't."

"Well, thank goodness he isn't a pretty girl, Remus," Lily said, glaring at the werewolf.

"You understood what I was trying to say," Remus dismissed, a bit annoyed as he blushed a little bit.

"Severus isn't ugly," Lily said. "He can a lot of thing, but he's a lot better physically than he was before."

James turned to her in shock. "Am I to be concerned?" he asked, voice snappy.

"If you keep that tone with me, yes," she answered, just as snappy.

Anne sighed, clearly more uncomfortable than before her parents started arguing in front of her and their friends.

"My love life is no one's business," she said.

"If you do believe so, you're a lot more stupid than I imagined," Marlene said.

She turned to Marlene with pure shock. She was brutally honest, but she was never cruel with her words. The way the words ran from her mouth and cut straight through Anne's armour without warning made Anne stumble back a few steps as she tried to understand if her friend really meant it. The way Marlene raised a single eyebrow as if urging her for a reaction besides silence made sure to let Anne know that she meant it and that she would not back down from it.

"Then I'm a lot stupider than you thought, Marlene," Anne said, making her best blank face to pretend she didn't care. "It'll die down and people will stop looking and talking about me. You don't want to be in the spotlight? Walk away from me. See if I care!"

"You clearly care," Marlene said. "Don't let people talk –"

"Well, it isn't a lie. I give out great blowjobs!" Anne snapped.

Peter whimpered somewhere behind her, quickly making his way away from the two arguing girls and standing beside Remus who glanced at him before looking back at the two. Marlene was standing three steps away from Anne, leaning forward as if that made her words sharper, but Anne stood straight, face blank, arms crossed as if the words didn't have a single effect on her.

"Well, I wouldn't know, and I don't care," Marlene said. "What I care is that the people from school can be mean and gossips, Anne. I've been here a lot longer than you. You don't understand how school can be."

"You don't know shit, Marlene, enough of this," Anne said.

Lily took a step forward.

"I think it's for the best if you two went your own way for now, take a breather before continuing this," Lily said.

Anne rolled her eyes.

"There's nothing to continue," she said. "Marlene can't tell me anything that I don't already know."

"How mature!" Marlene said. "That talk that 'nobody can teach me shit' is bollocks! You're so inflexible, Anne, that's becoming unbearable to stand beside you. It's tiring, it's draining! Listen up, you're not impenetrable, you're not a tank or bulletproof. You're human."

"I'm quite aware of my species, McKinnon, thanks," Anne scoffed.

"Girls, please –" started Lily.

"You're just a little girl, so defenceless that you have to run to James every time that you get hurt. You're a little girl that has nightmares every single night and is ashamed of asking for help, but I've seen you shaking as if you're about to pass out while pacing around the room. You're weak. No matter what you've been through, that reaction is pathetic – I was patient! I tried to be understanding, but you have such a thick head that is hard to get through you," Marlene added to the attack.

It hurt. It truly hurt. It was becoming harder and harder to breathe, but Anne wouldn't dare show it to anyone at the moment. She needed to be calm. She needed to be still.

Aunt Petunia taught her that. When one is mad, you cannot move, you cannot breathe, you cannot give another reason to make matters worse. Through her witty responses, she was urging Marlene to finish whatever she had to say as fast as possible.

"It must be the hair," Anne said, head cocking to the side with a sneer.

"It must be the bloody superiority complex you have!"

"Well, if that's what you believe in to help you sleep at night, go on ahead."

"You're pathetic, blabbering to James and Lily, running to Sirius and Remus. And after everything I've done for you, you don't trust me!"

"And you're giving me reason not to!" she made an ironic smile come to her lips. More. She needed more.

Marlene gave a laugh that almost sounded like a scream of disbelief.

"You know what, fuck you!"

And there it was. The peak. She had nothing else to say. Nothing else to hurt Anne with, so they were done.

"Fuck you, too!"

Anne started walking, intending to go past Marlene and take a shower to calm down her muscles and the disgusting crawl of fear that people intimidating her gave her skin. She walked past her, following towards the dorms.

Once she was calm, she would talk to Marlene once more and make things better. If there was one thing Anne wasn't and was proud of that was forgiving, but she could make an exception to Marlene; she had been kind to her when she arrived and she was the reason Lily and her talked at all.

"And fuck that 'Harry' you call out at night as well!" Marlene screamed, turning to follow her with her eyes.

Lily gasped loudly.

That was when the world stopped.

Forgiveness disappeared from Anne's mind like smoke in the rain. Anger boiled her blood over quicker a lot faster than fear or memories ever could. Even magic seemed to slip her mind as she turned around and all her memories slipped away.

She remembered screams and people grabbing her, but once she was herself again, she was pinned down to the ground.

James was on top of her, holding her arms above her head, Remus holding her legs as he spoke in a soothing tone trying to get her to calm down and come back to them. Sirius, Peter and Lily were holding Marlene back, who was still struggling on the ground, trying to go back to attacking Anne, who was just lying there, looking at the ceiling.

She had lied down in the Common Room floor several times before, especially in front of the fireplace, but she had never noticed how uncomfortable it was to lie down there without something under her head, especially with someone that used to be her friend screaming obscenities.

"Get off of me, please," she said, voice wavering. James hesitated. "I'm alright, I just don't want anyone on top of me at the moment, please. Get off, please."

James threw his left leg to the side and sat down beside her, helping her sit up, but not letting go of her wrists.

"Anne, you attacked!" he said. She wanted to say that she knew, but she didn't remember her at all. "If it was so much worse than the time you tried getting to Moody."

"Because this time was real," she admitted. James watched her. "This time I didn't pretend I was attacking; I really was attacking, and I don't even... How did I – I don' remember attacking her. Where is my wand?"

"With me," Remus said.

"Keep it away from me until I talk to Dumbledore, please," she said, not even looking at James or Remus. "I need to find Dumbledore, now."

"Anne –"

"Now!" she said.

That anger that she had felt wasn't natural, the way her memories were scrambled wasn't natural, the way her hands were shaking though she didn't feel unwell at all wasn't natural. Something was wrong, she knew. Too many good things had been happening to her and now she was paying the price of her happiness.

James and Remus got her up, both of them holding her upper arm and wrist as they led her away from the room, leaving Marlene to the rest to deal with without an explanation to where they were going.

As they made their way towards the Headmaster's office, she shook. Had she forgotten her true objective through her happiness and love and now destiny was trying to put her back in line by taking one of her friends away from her? Maybe she deserved it, but Marlene shouldn't have been on the life of fire. Something was off.

Anne didn't feel like herself as they climbed up the steps and knocked on the door.

"Come on in," said Dumbledore. James opened the door. "Mister Potter, what can I – Miss Potter, what happened to you?"

"A fight," Remus answered for her when she didn't say anything. He sat her down. "Marlene McKinnon said some things that she shouldn't and Anne, well, jumped her."

"I crossed the line," Anne said. "I lost control."

Dumbledore looked at her.

"Usually it's the other turn around, right? You say things you shouldn't say and you get the consequences, but this time you got taken by surprise, much like what happened to Moody in your house," he said, looking into her eyes.

He was looking for a break in her shield this time when she was vulnerable, but there was nothing but a small crack that she quickly patched up once she felt the terribly cold feeling of someone snooping around. She didn't even try scolding him this time, she just sat there and stared at him. That was how Dumbledore noticed something was really wrong.

"I'm not quick to anger, sir," she said. "I'm not one to usually allow myself to attack someone else without a big provocation and, even if I have it, I don't usually jump on them without my wand."

"It was a magicless fight?" he asked, surprised.

"Hair pulling, screaming, biting and scratching, sir," James said. "Good, old-fashioned muggle fighting."

"Anyone caught in the crossfire?" Dumbledore asked.

"Lily got punched, but I'm not so sure which one did it," Remus said, scratching the back of his neck. "I got bit by Anne, but I've been bitten worse before in my life," his attempt of a joke was left silently floating around the room.

Silence for a second.

"Is Voldemort possessing me?" she finally asked.

All eyes turned to her.

"Why would you think that? Did something happen?" James asked, quickly sitting on the chair beside her and taking her hand to hold it. "Have you been feeling something and not telling me?"

"That's how Harry would react to everything," she explained. "Professor, am I possessed?"

She had lost the autonomy of her body before, she didn't want that to happen again, even if it's wasn't completely physical this time.

"There's not a drop of dark magic in you at the moment, Miss Potter, everything you did, it was yourself," Dumbledore said.

She thought that would somewhat comfort her, but it didn't. It just showed her that she, too, was capable of physical violence not made by magic. She was no better than Vernon. She was no better than Dudley.

She looked down and, silently, cried.

LET ME START WITH 'I'M SORRY', BUT I DOUBT IT WOULD BE ENOUGH...