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"Snowballs!" Marlene exclaimed the next morning at breakfast, grinning as she looked at the girls surrounding her. Mary had skipped breakfast in order to get ahead of schoolwork, not wanting to fall behind in classes, while Dorcas was seated with her brother at the Ravenclaw table (for the time being), which left Marlene alone with Lily and Asteria. The three girls had been rapidly spitting out ideas for their future prank, craving for a manner in which to incite revenge against the boy who had stolen the other half of Asteria's soul.
"What about snowballs?" Asteria asked dejectedly, tiredly sipping on her pumpkin juice. The entire morning had consisted of Marlene saying random words and calling them ideas, a feat which soon got not only on Asteria's nerves, but on Lily's as well. The two loved Marlene to death, but the girl was a morning person and accidentally found herself irking Asteria, who was, in fact, not a morning person.
"We can enchant them so they'll follow Avery around wherever he goes!" Marlene continued, a happy smile on her face.
"You know, that's actually not a terrible idea," Lily looked up from her jam, the mischievous smile returning to her face.
"For once," Asteria teased, to which Marlene only rolled her eyes and stuffed her mouth with eggs. "Do you happen to know said charm, Marls?"
The fork froze in Marlene's hand as she slowly turned around to face Asteria. "Er..." Marlene only sheepishly smiled, putting the forkful of omelette into her mouth.
"I'm sure we could easily find it," Lily waved her off, tapping her chin as she thought of the charm. Her expression quickly soured as her eyes landed on something behind Asteria and Marlene, but the cause was quickly explained when a familiar voice sounded behind them.
"Good morning, ladies," James slipped into a seat beside Lily, much to her dismay. The other three boys followed, Sirius sitting on James' other side, giving Asteria a small smile (which she gingerly returned), while Peter sat beside Marlene. Remus took a seat beside Asteria and gave her a side hug, grimacing slightly when her elbow bumped into his sight. Asteria thought nothing of it, for the moment.
"Long time no see, eh?" James asked.
"NO!" Marlene suddenly exclaimed, jumping up to her legs. "I spent... the entire holidays listening to you, James Potter, and, as entertaining as it was, I can't handle it anymore. I cannot!" Her dramatic statement was one that caused the boys, especially James, to laugh and shake their heads as she stomped away. Lily and Asteria simply exchanged a confused glance, though Asteria vaguely remembered Marlene complaining about James' theatrics over the holidays. Ironic, given that the two of them were the most dramatic people Asteria knew - other than herself, of course.
"You broke her, James," Asteria remarked with a grin, but it took James a moment to respond. He was much too in shock at the fact that she had willingly spoken to him, as if she wanted to hold an actual conversation and not simply yell at him for Merlin knows what. In fact, all four boys and Lily stared at her with surprise painted all over their features, but Asteria paid it no mind. She continued to lather her toast with butter, laughing slightly at her own joke.
