Lexi sat at the island of her kitchen, contemplating life as she iced herself. And by 'iced herself', really she had two ice packs that she was rotating from joint to joint, muscle to muscle, ache to ache. One week until the full moon and she was already a miserable wreck. A blue moon too. She'd never experienced a blue moon, but someone had told her that everything gets enhanced faster, your body hurts more, the transformation is even more taxing, and the cravings are nonstop.

So, as she resisted the urge to eat all of the chocolate in her house, she grabbed her coat and walked out the door, headed for Annette's house. Earlier in the week, she had mentioned not having something to wear for Christmas, and Annette said that her Dad was making her wear a dress. And then she added that she could loan Lexi a dress. How exactly they were going to get Lexi to agree on a dress, that was beyond her.

She arrived shortly after and knocked on the door, hoping Annette's dad would answer because he hated her guts and would probably make her leave. If he tried, Lexi would find another way in though. She could scale a wall, climb through a window, back door? Who knows, she just wanted to talk to her friend and she was in a stubborn mood. She was going to get what she wanted no matter what.

Annette's House Plan

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Annette had finally gotten her father to go up into his attic office. She now paced in front of the door, ready to pull Lexi into her room when the red head knocked on the door. Eliza watched her from the kitchen, breaking apart the bacon bark Annette had made the night before for Lexi. Someone knocked on the other side of the door. Nette pulled the door open and grabbed Lexi's sleeve.

When her father had found out that Lexi was a werewolf over the summer, he was outraged, he had forbidden that Annette be friends with a werewolf, he had spat. Nette now tried as hard as she could to keep the two as far apart as possible. But with Alexandra McGee right under his roof, Annette wondered what would happen if he came out from his office and saw the two girls.

"My dad's in the attic, working on some budget thing for the Ministry, he'll be busy for a while." Annette led the way up to her room. Annette was squeezed into a new designer dress her parents had bought her to wear. Ever since she had gotten back from Hogwarts, it was gifts and presents, material things she could really care less about, but if it made her parents happy, she would deal with it.

"My parents bought me at least 2 dozen dresses to try on for the Christmas Party" Annette said, opening her closet doors. "I can always tailor them if they don't fit." I'm wearing the gold one." Nette said, gesturing to the first dress. "Have at it"

Lexi paced before Annette opened the door, wondering what exactly she would say or do if he dad came to the door. Thankfully, Annette came to her rescue and pulled her in by her sleeve, basically dragging her by her arm. Lexi didn't dare say anything until they got into Annette's room, and she made sure to close the door behind her.

"Thank god it was you, I was so worried it was going to be your dad and that I would have to break in or something! If he shut the door in my face, I was going to climb up the wall." She said, "And that was a stupid idea, so I'm glad you came to the door."

She watched as Annette opened the closet doors and tilted her head to the side, "Wow, you ever worry about what to wear?" Lexi chuckled, looking through a couple of them and pulling a few hangers down.

"Seriously?" Lexi asked, "Two dozen dresses for one party?" That was surprising, even to Lexi. She knew that the Lotusorders were sort of focused on having pride and having a good image, but this was insane. "Wait, your Dad is going to be at the party?" She asked, eyes wide.

"Yeah" Annette said, putting an arm behind her head. "Eliza and my mum bought all the dresses based on my dad's guidelines for proper attire" Anni pointed to a piece of parchment taped to her closet door. "I was going to wear one of the blue ones in there, but, I decided not to, my dad would have had a heart attack right then if I came down stairs in it, it broke most of the rules.

Annette fingered a blue, dress with one shoulder. "My Dad goes to everything, Lex, he never takes a break, his saying is "Image is everything" It's ridiculous, he wants me to be an aristocratic debutante, God knows I'm probably the farthest thing away from that as possible." Annette sighed. "He forced me through 3 years of etiquette lessons!" She flopped onto her bottom bed.

"It's ridiculous sometimes. Christmas especially."

"Alright," Lexi said, "So I need a dress above my knees, missing at least one shoulder, a neckline two and a half inches away from my neck," she said with a wink before continuing. "No tights and a bright color." She turned back to Annette to find her holding a blue one, that basically broke almost every rule.

"Oh gosh, Annette, it has to be that one," Lexi said with a smile, taking out the dress. "He's going to have a heart attack! And he won't be able to do anything about because," she started before pouting and batting her eyelashes, "I'm just an adorable little girl with a really big boo-boo."

Lexi stopped, reverting back to her cocky smile. "And Alice's mom would probably scold him if he dared to cross the line and insult me or something. That woman has it under control."

Lexi sat down next to where Annette had flopped over, "And don't worry, it's nice to look good or whatever, parents want the best for their kids, and he loves you, even if he's showing it in a strange way." She said, hoping to reassure Nette.

"Oh, wait," she said, sitting up straight, "We have to keep him away from Julie." She turned to Annette after jumping to her feet, "Julie was literally raised a debutante! Like, homeschooling, etiquette classes, poofy dresses, ballet classes; he can never know! She hates it when people bring it up! She'd kill him!"

"Eeee, Christmas is going to be a challenge this year." Annette said laughing. "I can't wait to see my dad's face when he sees you in that dress!" She giggled. "Mrs. Hunter will keep it together, she always does." She added, sitting up. "My dad wants me to be just like him, be raised as a proper lady, marry an aristocrat, and work at the Ministry, or bare his grandchildren." Annette shuddered. "I have my entire life planned out, and the clothes to go with it."

Nette turned back to Lexi, "Put it on in the bathroom, and I'll find some needles and thread if we need to tailor it." Annette jumped up from the bed and skittered over to her desk, digging through several cluttered drawers, she found the perfect thread and a thin needle. A knock came on the door. Annette put her spool and needle down.

She opened her bedroom door. Eliza had the tray of bacon bark in her hands. "Thanks Eliza." The elderly witch nodded. "Je vais le tenir occupé pour vous."[1] She handed the plate over to Annette. "Merci Eliza, Je vous dois"[2] "Nice conjugation ma petit chou" She turned and headed back down the stairs.

Annette closed the door, the plate of Chocolate Bacon bark balanced on her right hand. "I made you a little something!" Anni called.

1.	I'll keep him busy for you
2.	I owe you

"Hey, if the thought of having kids isn't fun, come visit me next full moon and I'll turn you into a wolf. Pretty sure you can't have kids when you're a werewolf, Alice did the calculations." Lexi said as she walked towards the bathroom with the dress, closing the bathroom door behind her just as someone knocked on Annette's bedroom door.

Her breath hitched, she hoped it wasn't Annette's dad, but she heard Annette talking to Eliza, and Lexi resumed breathing as she changed into the dress. She looked at herself in the mirror quickly to make sure it was all in order before she hear Nette call her. She walked out of the bathroom and spun around, "Am I breaking enough rules?"

"Is that chocolate bacon! You're totally awesome!" Lexi squealed, "Just set it down for now, I don't want to get any on your dress, that'd be a disaster." She looked at herself in Annette's mirror. The bright blue dress complimented her stark white scar quite well, or so she thought. "Look," she said turning so her back was to Annette, "You can literally see almost the entire scar!" And Lexi thought this to be quite an accomplishment.

"My dad would really kill you then, he'd kill me too." Annette scoffed at the idea of becoming a werewolf, but Dessa had brought up a clever idea, what if she became an animangus? Like Remus Lupin's friends. Annette pushed the thought away, focusing on Lexi's dress. Laughing as the red head squealed with happiness at the sight of the savory, sweet treat. The dress almost framed Lexi's scars. "I think that they're beautiful." Annette said honestly, "The dress goes amazingly well with them."

She pulled a tailor step from under her desk and instructed Lexi to stand on it. "I'm going to tighten the waist and the shoulder, so it will look like it's part of you. Annette pulled a spool of gold thread out of her drawer along with the blue and started to fold the cloth to flow with the ginger's body. "When I'm done with this, you can put on a sweatshirt and eat some bark, then I'll cinch the shoulder, sound good?" Annette asked.

"Nah, I wouldn't let him kill you. He'd have to get through me first." Lexi said, watching as Annette's face flickered, like she had an idea she wanted to say but then decided against it.

"You think my scars are beautiful?" Lexi asked in a small voice, one that didn't really go with the whole ferocious werewolf act. She looked down at her shoulder, touching it lightly with one hand and feeling each individual scar that trickled down from the point where she'd been bitten. "I guess that's the first time somebody has told me that, but then again, it's not like I run around in one-shoulder tops."

She blinked twice then went to stand on the tailor step. "If you stab me with your little needles, I will bite you. And it won't be fun for you." She warned, baring her teeth jokingly. If you looked closely, the incisors were still normal, but her teeth had adapted to the new part of her diet... "Do whatever you need to Miss Annette, I will stand here patiently and dream about bacon."

"You think I should wear leggings with this?" Suddenly aware that Annette could see the thin white lines on her legs where she had attacked herself, over and over again on the full moons. Last time, they'd sedated her, or so she'd been told; because she was too dangerous for her own good.

"Ha, thanks" Annette said in response to Lexi's offer to protect her. "And yeah, I think you're scars are gorgeous, they tell a story, perhaps not a very pleasant one, but a story that led you to being who you are today, yellow eyed, red haired, bacon loving Gryffindor, scars and all, and your friends all love you just the same." Anni said, pinning the waist of the dress with pins with little yellow tips.

"Well, don't hold your breath, this may take a while, you just dream of Baconopolis and all of little Baconites who volunteer to be eaten." Annette crouched down on her knees to get to the seem of the dress that split the waist lengthwise. She took a sharp intake of breath. The jagged white lines across Lexi's legs were something Annette had never seen or dreamed about ever before.

Annette hoped that Lexi hadn't heard her gasp and pinned the hem of the dress. "I think that some darker teal or white leggings would compliment this ensemble quite nicely." Annette quickly stitched the the gold waist and decided to leave the hem as is. She tied a knot at the end and admired her handiwork. The dress looked like it was made to be worn on Lexi McGee, her hidden stitches didn't show and the dress moved flawlessly.

"Ha, not a bad job if I do say so myself." Nette stuck her needle into her pin cushion shaped like a tomato on her left wrist. "Okay, bacon time!" Anni grabbed an old Imperial sweatshirt from the closet and tossed it at Lex. "Enjoy"

"Actually, they're gold, thank you very much. And right around the pupil I still have like, one or two green flecks. But they're almost gone." She said, referring to her eyes as she played pincushion for Annette. "I feel like a doll." She remarked.

"That's a sad thought, the Baconites being eaten." Lexi said, "But if they're volunteering, then I have no problems with 'em." She said with a grin, it was quite for a moment as Annette fixed the hem of the dress. Lexi thought she heard Annette startle, but she couldn't be sure. "Yeah, maybe white leggings." She said quickly, wishing Annette would hurry up with the hem.

She almost breathed a sigh of relief as Annette moved onto the waist, her friend hadn't said a word about the scars on her legs. Maybe she hadn't even noticed them. An older witch at the ministry had taken to helping Lexi out after her transformation. She was currently the youngest in there, and she felt like the witch pitied her. Nonetheless, she had sent her home with elixirs for the pain and to help her sleep, and she did her best to heal the scars Lexi left on herself. The witch was almost like a grandmother to Lexi, even if she'd only seen her a handful of times.

Lexi gladly took the sweatshirt and put it on, running over to grab a piece of the bark. "This is really good, Annette." Lexi said between mouthfuls of the bacon. "Really, really good. Right after I'm done I'll change out of the dress."

Annette laughed as Lexi scurried over to the bacon. Annette grabbed piece of it herself, nibbling on the corners, she wasn't a big fan of bacon, she  liked taste and the crunch, but something about the texture and the feeling of it on her tongue made it unappealing. The chocolate paired excellently with the savory edge, and Annette popped the whole piece into her mouth.

"I'll but this in a tin for you to take home with the dress." Annette said, wiping her hands on a tissue from her desk, hating herself for not smearing bacon and chocolate all over her dress. "The shoulder will only take a few second, then we can relax and do whatever." Annette said, climbing up the ladder to the top bunk of her bed. She liked this one much better since she came home from Hogwarts, she liked the height of it, maybe she just liked flying, she wanted to be closer to the sky.