15. Flushed Faces and Frantic Flobberworms

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"You're sure that flobberworms will do the trick?" Marlene asked with a mouth full of pancakes.

Evelyn nodded, taking a sip from her mug of orange juice, "Positive, she despises them."

"I would too if I had one of those slimy buggers stuck in my ear," Lily's body shivered in disgust at the mere idea. She slowly slid her plate away from her, apparently, now put off of her breakfast.

"Okay, I'll let the boys know that Operation Snog: version RxH is a go," Marlene rose from her seat, joining the Marauders further down the table. As she whispered the OK into his ear, James's usual grin began to grow as he sent a thumbs-up toward Evelyn and Lily.

Turns out, the boys were just as interested in sparking up a romance between Remus and Holly and had willingly agreed to team up for Operation Snog.

Evelyn, of course, would have preferred to do it without them⁠— Sirius in particular⁠— however, the marauders' experience with pranking was sure to come in handy at Hogsmeade this afternoon. The most difficult challenge now was just getting through the morning without their targets finding out.

Evelyn had left the still-sleeping Holly back at their dorm, making breakfast the perfect time to finalize details with the others. Remus, however, was more difficult to work around, and James was not helping the situation.

He was most enthusiastic about Operation Snog⁠— though, the prospect of spending the Hogsmeade day with Lily was probably the biggest cause for his excitement. The real threat now was the possibility of James blabbing all of the details to Remus. James Potter had possibly the biggest mouth of the century, and subtlety was most definitely not in his vocabulary, leaving the girls to have to monitor him at every chance they got for any sign of unintentional betrayal.

So far, they had been successful in keeping him in check, along with the help of Sirius and Peter, but there were still a few hours before they left for the small village, which meant there were still a few hours for James to blow the entire plan, and the girls were watching him as if he were a ticking time bomb that could go off at any minute.

"James says they've got their part under control," Marlene informed, returning to her seat beside across from Evelyn, "Although, he seems to be taking the flobberworm thing a tad bit too seriously. I did clarify that there weren't actually going to be flobberworms loose in Honeydukes, but I'm still not entirely sure he got the message."

"What a git," Lily grumbled, but Evelyn noticed the corners of her mouth seemed to be fighting back a grin as she did. "So, now what?"

"Now, we wait."


***


Even in October, the rooves of the old shops in Hogsmeade were covered thick, plushy layers of snow. Cobblestone paved the way through the village, now packed by students rushing toward their first destinations of the afternoon.

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