Chapter 1- Halloween Gone Bad

"I'm a bitch. Deal with it."

Natalie:

The Marauders annual after party was coming to a steady close. The music was still pumping in the Room of Requirement, alcohol still being chugged like water, and the tired and completely drunk dancers were still lazily swaying to their own rhythm. The costumes were bizarre and stood out in colourful hues, dark blacks, and mesmerizing patterns. The Marauders had opted for costumes that they thought either accentuated their 'good' looks – please don't tell them I said that – or some sort of inside joke for them. Sirius Black had come as one of his favourite muggle band members, so basically that could have been anything he wanted, but he chose a leather jacket and a dark ensemble that complimented his stormy grey eyes all too well. James Potter had come as Prince Charming, because they'd heard that Lily Evans was attending as Cinderella – some muggle story book princess. Remus Lupin was dressed with a shirt that read 'I'm a Werewolf', and I had to admit it complimented his figure remarkably well. There was Alice Fortescue over in one of the corners chatting with Mary McDonald, dressed like fairies. The Prewett twins, were in their normal school robes, but instead had swapped houses. Fabian had on his brother's Ravenclaw robes, and Gideon was dressed in some Hufflepuff robes.

Then there was Vici and I.

And we looked bloody hot – if I did say so myself.

I had chosen a costume that I rather thought expressed the real reason girls dressed up in costumes on Halloween. To show off their womanly figures. A.K.A. be a slut. So like any other self thought professional model would do, I decided to come as a – mainly based off my own black cat Misty. I wore a tight fitting black dress that was in a halter-neck style and came up mid-thigh. My hair was styled in loose curls around my head and thick eyeliner. To top off my cat look I wore cat ears, and drew on some whiskers. I thought I looked pretty smoking. . Though Vici thought I didn't resemble anything close to a proper cat – but hey, I was wearing cat ears.
Vici was dressed in a rather pretty ensemble, some other muggle fairy-tale character people seemed to know about. It consisted of her in a rather sweet dress, complimented by a flowing red cape. Her hair was intricately twisted, something I was never able to achieve, and her high heels made her tower above me – like she even needed the added height.

Of course, by the end of the party my eyeliner was smudged, and Vici's hair was falling out, but that wasn't the least of our worries. Little did we know that the Marauders had been planning an early Christmas present for the two of us, and was going to initiate it just before the crowd dispersed back to their common rooms. As I'd both been drinking slightly, a warm buzz filled my body and everything seemed slightly fuzzy. Neither of us had any interest in hooking up with anyone at this party, which was disappointing to Regulus – who had a thing for Vici, so we'd stuck together throughout the night, dancing and having an all-round enjoyable time. At least until Sirius Black started speaking.

"Right! Listen up, lads," Sirius' voice boomed throughout the room, " – er, and ladies." He paused so he could wink and grin around the room. I heard Vici groan beside me. Black was a well-known player – of games, sports, and ladies. "We'd like to thank you all for coming again tonight – some of you more than others." He seemed to turn his gaze directly on me. It was also well-known that Black and I could hardly tolerate each other. In fact I couldn't tolerate any of the stinking Marauders – with possibly the exception of Lupin.

"Dickface," Vici mumbled. I agreed.

"It's time to wrap up for tonight though, sneak back to our common rooms before the house elves rat us out again." There was a groan from most of the room. "Oh," he said a little offhandedly, "also just wanted to say that if any ladies wanted to catch up afterwards, I am more than happy to keep you company – " 

"Keep it in your pants, Pads," Potter grinned, stepping forward and clapping his best friend on the shoulder. "Feel free to take the remaining alcohol back to your dorms, too."

"Hang on a second!" Sirius suddenly piped up, his eyes gleaming. Even in my partially drunken state I could recognize that mischievous gleam anywhere. They were planning something. But what? An uneasy feeling caught in my stomach, and it wasn't just the churning of the firewhiskey. "We almost forgot! If you could all turn you attention to the centre of the room, we'd like to thank our special guests for coming this evening!" Black motioned, along with Potter, towards the crowd in front of them, and it was only as heads turned in our direction that I realized they were talking about us.

"What is going on?" Vici asked, her brow turning quizzical as her Ravenclaw brain started working out the situation. It was the perks of having a friend who rarely drank anything stronger than Butterbeer.

"Bullshit, that's what," I growled under my breath. I didn't mind all the attention that was on me, especially when those around us started to applaud, I didn't like what that attention meant when it involved the studious planning of the Marauders.

"Don't look so frightened," Potter grinned. "It's your party after all. Lift your glasses one more time for Nat and Vici!"

"Natalie," I spat – no one ever called me Nat unless they wanted to be knocked off their brooms.
As two other cups where shoved into Vici and my hands, by God-knows-who, everyone waited until we'd raised the cups to our lips. I paused before my swallow as I noticed the sniggers coming from Black and Potter. Everyone started clapping as Vici finished her small shot, starting to clink their cups together and drink. But it was only a few seconds later that I finally registered the danger of the situation. My drink was spiked, I could tell that much – most drink were at this party, but the worse part was when Vici suddenly doubled over in fits of uncontrollable laughter, her face steadily turning purple. People started laughing, but I could see the real pain that was on her face. I quickly dropped my glass and bent towards her, trying my best to get her to talk, but all she could do was laugh. I felt as though ice cold water had been poured down my back, as I watched my friend cough and splutter blood, before laughing uncontrollably again.
"Vici!" I screamed. It had almost gone deathly quiet as everyone realized that something was wrong. Seriously wrong. "What's wrong? What happened!"

Her face was turning purple, and I looked up at the Marauders – whose faces had gone pale. My face was rabid with anger, and voice savage as I hissed at them, "What did you do?! What have you done to her?!"

"We – we didn't know – "

"This wasn't meant to happen."

"I don't care what was meant to happen!" I screamed. The music had been cut off, and my voice echoed within the room. "Tell me what you did."

Remus stepped forward, his face a sickening colour, "We put laughing potion in your drinks. Strong ones that wouldn't wear off for days."

A pathetic idea. A pathetic idea that could be killing my best friend. "What's in the potion? What are the ingredients?!"

Lily Evans stepped forward, the potions guru, "Quills of a knarl, horseradish powder, billywing wings, and alihotsky leaves."

This time I nearly choked. My face paled as I looked up at the redhead in panic. "Did – did you say alihotsky leaves?"

She nodded.

"Fuck," I breathed, staring down at my friend, who was still coughing and laughing. I hooked my arms under hers and tried to pull her to her feet. It was harder than it looked.

"Why?" Sirius asked, his cocky demeanor gone.

I turned around in fury, "Because you absolute wanker, Vici happens to be highly allergic to alihotsky leaves. You Marauders," I said in a repulsive and accusing tone, "may be the reason she dies. Now," I said addressing the crowd, "who can fucking help me to the Hospital Wing before she suffocates!"

There was a scramble of bodies, and eventually most of my Slytherin friends had come to the rescue. Regulus, Lucius, and Marlene helped to carry her down to the Hospital Wing. The Marauders had tried to the follow us, but Lily – who hardly knew us – had put them in their places. My blood was still boiling and I felt like my heart was going to rip out of my chest if it beat any faster. A sickening feeling was welling up in the pit of my stomach, as I looked down on my best friend. What if I lose her?

Madame Pomfrey didn't question us when she saw the party costumes, or smell the alcohol on our breath, instead she just focused on her bloody splattered patient. I felt like my world was crumbling to the ground and that the walls of Hogwarts was closing in around me as I watched Madame Pomfrey work quickly and effectively to stop Vici from choking. Regulus and Marlene decided to stay and help me, and Lucius went back to the common room. Marlene had her arm around me, as I leant against her as if I might fall over myself.

It felt like hours, when in reality it had probably only been ten minutes before Madame Pomfrey stepped away from Vici and turned to us.

"Her throat had swelled up significantly, and I daresay that if you hadn't brought her down for another two minutes it would have been nearly irreversible." The look on my face probably told her that saying this wasn't helping the clawing anxiety ripping my insides open. Her expression softened, "She's going to be fine. I'm going to keep her here until she waked up, so I can check to make sure nothing else has been effected. Her voice may take a while to come back, but she'll be as fit as a fiddle in no time."

"Can I stay with her?" I asked tentatively. There were no Marauders around so my bravado attitude and brick wall wasn't surrounding me like a cloak.

Madam Pomfrey paused for a second, "I do not think that's a very good idea. Get some sleep, Miss Roberts. Come back in the morning."

Reluctantly, I let Marlene and Reg lead me out of the Hospital Wing. Not without one last backwards glance at the now peaceful looking Vici was in sleep. That small piece of contentment shattered as we rounded the corner away from the Hospital Wing as I saw the heads of the Marauders. They were most definitely the last people I wanted to see and right now, my emotions were running a little high.

Without a second thought, I charged forward, whipping out my wand and pressing it against Sirius Black's neck. "What the actual fuckwere you thinking?! Spiking out drinks like that," I spat, my eyes sending him a chill worse than that of a basilisks.

"Natalie, calm down," Potter said quietly. His face was pale and he looked like he was about to throw up.

"Calm down!" I screeched, turning my attention to him. "Don't tell me to calm down, Potter. Because of your stupid actions you could have killed Vici! She nearly died because of you lot."
"Natalie, please, listen to us," Remus said, his low voice full of remorse.

I spare him a glance, taking in his honey coloured eyes and the deep scars that ran across his cheeks. Normally I would stop and ponder how he got them, not tonight. Tonight was about getting revenge for Vici. "Why? Are you going to tell me that it wasn't your fault? That you're so sorry for spiking her drink? That you actually didn't know about her allergy? Well I don't care," I said, my voice rising in hysteria. I lowered her voice to a frightening level, "No matter what you lot say, I'm not going to let this go easy. When she gets better you had better watch out. This doesn't end here." I turned away from them viciously, nodding towards my entourage. "Come Marlene, Reg, we're going."

I didn't care that Remus Lupin was sending me such a heartbroken expression, or that Sirius and Regulus were engaged in a silent glaring contest, nor that Potter seemed to have grown paler still. I only wanted to get to my common room, disappear up to my bed, and never leave it until Vici got better. Hell, what I really wanted was to climb onto Vici's bed and hold her hand till she woke up. But instead my mind wouldn't stop playing over every little detail of the party, Vici's coughing up blood, her purpling face, and the stark white faces of each of the Marauders. Especially a certain brown haired, gold eyed one.

I vowed that if Vici didn't recover fully, I'd make sure that every one of those Marauders would pay. Severely and harshly. So much so, their ancestors will feel it.