Asteria closed her eyes, slowly feeling the wave of sleep overcome her. She'd been sat in the library for several hours and was finally reaching a point of exhaustion.
That was until the Marauders burst onto the scene.
"We've been looking everywhere for you!" James exclaimed, slamming his hands down onto the table.
"W-what?" Asteria jumped up, rubbing her eyes tiredly.
"We have the leaves. Today's the day, remember?" James pulled out one of the chairs and sat down, followed by the other boys.
"Oh, right yeah..." Asteria watched as James pulled the mandrake leaves out of his pocket.
"How long do we have to keep it in our mouths?" Peter asked.
"A month." She repeated.
"You going to join us? Fancy becoming an illegal animagi?" Sirius stood behind Asteria and rested his hands on her shoulders.
Asteria frowned, "I don't know..."
"Who wouldn't want to?" James asked.
"Anyone in their right mind." Muttered Remus under his breath.
"I guess I could give it a go..." Asteria pursed her lips.
"Then, you'll have no excuse not to kiss me." Sirius smirked, murmuring it just loud enough so that everyone sat at the table could hear it.
"Sirius!" Asteria shrieked, blushing as she turned to glare at him.
"Nobody wants to hear about that, Sirius." Remus grumbled.
"Just because all your love lives are barren doesn't mean I can't flaunt what I have." He grinned stupidly.
"You don't have me." Asteria raised an eyebrow.
Sirius' eyes widened, "That's not what I meant, you know that."
"Of course I do." Asteria grinned as he relaxed.
"You could've kept playing that, really made him think you were annoyed." Remus chuckled.
"That would just be cruel." Sirius frowned and sat down beside Asteria.
James looked around at them all, "Back to business." He reminded them.
"As always." Peter nodded in agreement.
"There's nothing else to it. You just hold the leaf in your mouth for a month. Afterwards you use the leaf as the final ingredient in the potion, drink the potion and voilà." Asteria explained nonchalantly.
James issued out the leaves, "Seen as you're officially joining us on a Snivellus prank, you're an honorary Marauder for this adventure."
"Thanks." She laughed.
"Pleasure, as always." He grinned.
"A toast?" Sirius held up his leaf and stretched his other arm out across the back of Asteria's chair.
"That's for drinks." Remus pointed out.
"Well there'll be a drink in this at some point." Sirius reminded him.
"A toast." James confirmed, holding out his own leaf.
"To what?" Peter piped up.
"What would you toast, Pete?" James turned to look at him.
"I don't know... Bread?" He looked at everyone - puzzled.
"Pete, that's not what-"
"Bread is good enough. To bread!" James leant over the table and held out his leaf. Sirius and Asteria glanced at each other for a moment, almost telepathically agreeing to just go with the flow.
"To bread!"
So the five of them all stood up and tapped their leaves together before falling back down into their seats roaring with laughter.
"On the count of three?" Sirius suggested.
"Three!" James shovelled the leaf into his mouth, scrunching his face up at the taste of it.
"Three?" Asteria hesitantly followed his lead, then followed by the others. Each person grimaced as the leaf touched their tongues and sent a sour taste down their throats.
Remus laughed, placing his leaf back on the table and enjoying the bliss that was fun at his friends' expense.
A mere two hours had passed and Sirius had spat out his leaf a grand total of twenty seven times. This meant that the point in which the group could attempt their transformations was ever so slowly getting pushed farther and farther out of reach.
"Sirius! Stop it!" Asteria shrieked as they stood by the Black Lake, Sirius holding the leaf out on his tongue and waggling it in front of Asteria's face.
"Does this count as in my mouth?" He asked although it was slightly difficult to understand him.
"On account of it not being in your mouth, no." Asteria shoved his shoulder away, turning her face from him.
"Okay, okay fine. It's just gross, is all." Sirius moved the leaf back into his mouth and clamped his jaw shut.
"Oh you are such a posh boy." She rolled her eyes.
"Posh? I am not." Sirius held his hand up to his chest and pretended to be hurt.
"Please, you are so whiny and if stuff isn't expensive enough then it's terrible and-"
"Well that's just quality. Good quality stuff is worth more money, it's a fact."
Asteria rolled her eyes, "You sound like an old man."
Sirius sat quietly for a moment and this sudden silence caused Asteria to turn and face him again. They sat closely together under one of the large oak trees beside the water's edge. Sirius watched as Asteria raised an eyebrow - a common look she wore around him. He couldn't pull his eyes away from looking down at where her lips where slightly parted as if she were about to say something but was deciding whether or not it was worth saying. The way her hair fell over her eyes and covered her face brought a smile to his face that Sirius tried and failed to hide.
"What is it?" Asteria asked, finally tucking her hair behind her ear.
"Nothing."
"You're looking at me funny. Do I have something on my face? Is there dirt?" Asteria turned away again and began to rub her face to remove any signs of dirt, even though there were none.
"Yeah... A little bit of dirt is all." Sirius shrugged, leaning back against the tree trunk and staring out at the water. It was barely even March and the weather was still as cold as it had been during winter, yet they sat outside nonetheless.
"Well where is it? Did I get it?" Asteria turned to look at him again, pursing her lips now. She noticed as Sirius' gaze fell down to her mouth momentarily.
"Yeah, it's gone." He nodded.
"I'm going to head back in for dinner, you coming?" Asteria stood up and straightened out her robes.
"Will do in a bit. You go on." Sirius continued to hold his gaze out on the water of the lake.
"Did I do something?" Asteria asked, looking down at him.
"What?" He turned to look at her, "No! No, I just need to think about something. Promise I'll be up in a bit, okay?"
"Okay..." Asteria frowned slightly before deciding it was probably best to leave the situation be.
Sirius' sudden mood change had sure put a damper on her mood and Asteria hoped that the feast would put distract her from it, or at least put her mind at ease. However, Asteria found that she wouldn't be forgetting about it anytime soon.
"I was hoping I'd bump in to you. Mulciber said he'd seen you going out." Regulus emerged from the tree line and walked beside Asteria as they neared the castle.
"Regulus? What do you want?"
Sure, the two had never exactly gotten along. However over the years of being in the same Hogwarts house, that had grown awfully familiar with one another. Unlike many of the other Slytherins, Regulus didn't make a point to insult, attack or even avoid Asteria. When nobody else was around, they would engage in brief conversations that commonly involved them trying to outwit each other with various comebacks. Yet, as it always was, eventually a superior pureblood Slytherin would come along and Regulus would resort to being cold and distant whilst Asteria pretended she hated the boy.
"You're hanging around with my brother an awful lot... Just the two of you, alone together." Regulus stated, tucking his hands into his pockets.
Asteria hummed quietly in response.
Regulus was well aware that Asteria practically had two personalities. When she was around a select few people she would be very confident, cracking jokes and rambling to fill any and all silences. Yet when certain people arrived or the crowds grew too big, Asteria withdrew dramatically into her shell and barely spoke a word, often even flinching when some people got too close for comfort. Of course, Regulus was aware of both sides as he had been there to witness both. Now whilst Asteria seemed more confident these days, she was also a lot quieter around Regulus.
"What's going on with you and Sirius?" Regulus asked calmly. Truth was, he knew. He was just curious as to whether or not Asteria would be honest.
"What's it to you?" She asked quietly, hoping that once they got inside the castle Regulus wouldn't want to be seen in her company.
"He is my brother, you know."
"I'm well aware."
"You know he's just using you, right?" Regulus stepped forward, stopping in front of Asteria and not allowing her to pass.
"What?"
"Sirius. You know you're just another conquest for him. It's like a game, how quickly can he get a girl to fall in love with him. You know, at first it probably seems real but then he'll go really quiet around you. Then, he'll cut you off completely and treat you like you're dead. One time this girl even showed up at our house and he pretended he didn't even know her name." Regulus chuckled lightly.
Regulus truly didn't want to hurt Sirius, or Asteria for that matter. He simply feared he was losing his brother. Every day, Sirius grew further away from Regulus. They differed in beliefs and attitudes and now Sirius was associating with a girl that was practically a billboard for bad news in their family. Regulus just wanted to help Sirius and ensure that no more harm would befall him at home.
Little did he know what was to come.