𝐿𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒

Happy Christmas!

A/N: I feel like you should be used to this by now, but just in case, the letters are in italics.

...

Julia had not gotten a good night's sleep since she left Hogwarts. Marlene and Mary insisted upon playing the loudest music possible until Eve had taken the stereo away from them, but she couldn't permanently shut them up, so there was no helping Julia, who had a room right next to them.

Of course, Julia had taken to writing to Annie and talking to Myles, who she discovered was her favorite McKinnon brother, about the whole thing and they both had the same response. Well, technically, Myles had been sarcastic about his answer and Annie had been serious, but she hadn't paid attention to the fine details of it all.

The first fact was that both Mary and Marlene hated waking up early, while Julia was usually the first person up, bar Eve McKinnon. The second fact was that they had kept Julia up for near a week, so she was very sleep-deprived and annoyed, to say the least. Julia concluded that she needed revenge and her revenge would take place perfectly on Christmas morning.

She woke up before the birds could chirp and the sun could rise to sneak down into the kitchen. Looking around, she found a spaghetti pot and a metal spoon.

The only downside of the prank was already taken care of as Julia asked Myles and Marcus to put up silence charms around the house. This would let her wake up only the two girls she had intended to.

Creeping back up the stairs, Julia only hesitated for a moment before opening the door open a crack that could barely let her squeeze through.

There was Marlene and Mary sound asleep in the former's bed. Julia noted to tell Mary she snored and that Marlene drools, but that was a future conversation that needed to take place. Right now, she needed to wake them up before they could sense her presence.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"What the hell was that?" Julia could hear Marlene's startled voice from her hiding place, successfully obscuring her from their view.

"I have no clue," Mary responded.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Julia started to giggle when she heard more curses and almost lost it when she heard them start to speak again.

"Dear Merlin, I know I haven't been the best child in the past, but please do not let whatever that is kill us," Marlene said with a quavering voice.

"What she said," Mary spoke in an almost whisper.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"This is the end!" Marlene's voice practically shouted.

Julia couldn't help it, she burst out laughing, which definitely broke her cover. Mary peeled the covers off of her and went to inspect who she suspected was her sister.

"Really Julia?" Mary sighed as her sister continued to laugh harder.

"Next time, let me get some sleep and this won't happen," Julia abruptly stopped laughing and walked out of their room.

"I don't know what you're expecting. She's best friends with a Potter," Marlene reminded Mary with tired eyes and a smirk.

...