My head droops forward, coming within an inch of my toast. Lily grabs the back of my collar and wrenches me upright just before I make contact though. Which would have been bad, considering it's smothered in syrup.

"Thanks," I mutter, still groggy.

Lily makes a sound deep in her throat, simultaneously a trill of sympathy and a cluck of disapproval.

"Has anyone seen Emmy?" I'm starting to worry; I haven't seen her since breakfast yesterday morning.

Marlene shrugs on my other side. "Beats me." She takes in a forkful of eggs. "I don't think she came back last night," she mumbles around her food.

Lily sighs. "I hope she's at least almost done her History of Magic essay."

I can't help but snort. "Doubtful."

"Ladies, good morning," a smooth voice says from behind my shoulder, rich and full and deep like Nutella.

Marlene chokes a little, gagging comically.

I turn around. Did I say smooth and rich and full voice? I meant to say scratchy and annoying and arrogant.

"Hi Webb. Marlene." James slides in across from Lily excitedly. "Evans, top of the morning to you! How's it going?"

"Fine, Potter." I can tell that Lily's struggling to maintain adequate civility in her tone.

James is undeterred though, still grinning like a little boy who's just received a bright red fire engine for a present. "Personally, I'm starved." He starts shovelling scrambled eggs onto his plate. Sirius slides in beside him, effectively sitting straight across from me.

Great, just great. Now I'll have to look at his arrogant face all breakfast. Wonderful start to the day, really.

I look over his head. Greta has just walked into the Hall as well. She gestures slightly, indicating that I should put into action our – her – plan for vengeance. I really can't deal with this right now.

I scowl into my eggs, savagely ripping a chunk of toast with my teeth and chewing vigorously.

"What happened to your face, Webb?"

I look up in surprise. "What?"

"Your face," Sirius repeats. "Something happen to it?"

I stare at him blankly, uncomprehending. "Excuse me?"

"It looks foul," he explains.

Reflexively, I whip my half-eaten toast at him. "Bugger off!"

Sirius deflects, and it ends up hitting James' head, syrup colliding with hair. It sticks there like a really bad headpiece.

My hands rise to clap over my mouth. "Oh dear, sorry, Potter!"

"Prongs, it was an accident – totally not my fault. Webb threw it at you!"

"What? No, I threw it at Black because he insulted my face."

"I meant to say your face looked like you smelled something foul." Sirius peels the toast from James' head. Lily is barely stifling her laughter from beside me, hiding behind a hand. A couple of occasional chuckles escape nonetheless.

I stare at him in disbelief. "That's clearly not what you meant." Rude git.

James still seems to be in shock. "My... my hair..."

Marlene gives him a sympathetic look. "Your hair looks fine, Potter, calm down."

"That is what I meant!" Sirius insists.

A strike of inspiration hits me. "You know what?" I snarl at him.

"What?" His voice is a challenge, not about to back down.

"You're right. I do smell something foul."

Marlene looks at me. "I don't smell anything."

I ignore her. "You. You smell like rude beast and stupid git and dirty imbecile and donkey dung." I wrinkle my nose for effect. "You should probably go shower. Wouldn't want to force an evacuation of Hogwarts due to your stench."

Our section of table slowly goes quiet; even those sitting near us have paused their conversations to listen in on ours.

I expect Sirius to retort or throw food at me or something. Anything. Instead, he's staring at me with an intensity that almost scares me. His expression is unreadable.

Lily and James make eye contact accidentally, and then they both awkwardly look away.

Marlene breaks the silence by giggling nervously beside me. "Oh come off it, Norah. Sirius is one of the best looking guys in school."

I can't even bring myself to break eye contact with Sirius to glare at her.

Bellatrix walks by, flanked by Narcissa on one side and a bulky Slytherin boy on the other. "What stench would that be, Webb? The stench of blood traitor?"

And then all hell seems to break loose.

Sirius sends a Jelly-Legs jinx at her, which Bellatrix quickly counters with a Stinging Hex. Marlene dives under the table, shrieking a little.

Narcissa and the other boy simultaneously raise their wands. Lily leaps to her feet and exclaims, "Flipendo!" sending them both flying backwards.

Bellatrix and Sirius are exchanging hexes and jinxes at a rapid rate. The students around us have all shuffled to get away. Despite my desire not to, I can't help but admire Sirius' wand work for a moment.

"Expelliarmus!" I shout, finally joining the fray. I mean, it is kind of my fault that it started.

I catch both their wands and the full brunt of their glares.

Suddenly everyone goes slack and stare at me like I've sprouted an extra head. A second later, it all makes sense. A hand clamps down hard on my shoulder. "Webb."

I turn around slowly. "P—Professor Beery." I drop my hands to my side, now clutching three wands between them. "I'm sorry, I—"

"An explanation won't be necessary at this time." He sweeps his gaze across the scene. "Headmaster's Office, now. All of you."

I gulp. "A—all of us?" Marlene squeaks.

"Yes, Miss McKinnon," he answers. "All of you."

We shuffle into line. "Kindly return Mr. and Miss Black's wands to them, Miss Webb."

I do it quickly and meekly, avoiding both their gazes.

Narcissa bumps into my shoulder hard as we follow Beery out of the Great Hall, curious stares at our back. "Way to go, Webb," she snarls.

"Great going," Bellatrix mutters, stalking ahead angrily.

Lily gives my hand a quick squeeze. It's a reassuring gesture. "Thanks," I whisper. She nods.

"Thanks a lot, Webb," adds the other Slytherin boy, grunting.

"And who are you?" I say acidly.

Sirius stalks past me without a word as well. This is strike two, and I know it. First spilling a drink on him and now this...

Well, let's just say this doesn't bode well for my position on the Quidditch team.

James walks up beside Lily, keeping pace. "Let's just hope we don't get detention times that affect Quidditch practice," he says. "Fingers crossed!" He raises both hands to show us.

I breathe out a small exhalation of relief. So this means I'm still on the team then?

I mean, it's not like Sirius and James don't get a ton of detentions either way, considering that they're both quite the troublemakers.

"Fingers crossed," I agree, repeating the gesture.

Here's hoping that things will start looking up after this.

I mean, it's not like it could any worse. Right?