/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝟑.𝟝.𝟤

"and I rose in rainy autumn and walked abroad in a shower of all my days..." ~ Dylan Thomas

~november 1973~ (continued)

The Great Birthday Wars of 1973

Two days before Artemis's birthday, Marlene, Lily, and Mary all gathered in the common room for 'official party planning matters' as Lily called it. "Okay," she said, brandishing a notebook and quill. "We've got two days to get this done, so we need to divide and conquer. Mary, you're in charge of decorations. We need banners, streamers, the whole lot. Got it?"

"On it," Mary said, already working out sketches in her own notebook for a 'Happy Birthday Artemis' banner.

Lily nodded. "Okay. Marlene, I need you to do setup and guests. Get everyone in Gryffindor on our side, not James'. Make sure everyone knows it's a surprise party. And if you can sneak a few people from outside our house into here, that'd be great."

"You got it," said Marlene.

"Great," Lily said, crossing a few things off of her checklist. "I'll cover keeping it a secret from Art and also food and little details-" She broke off when she looked over Marlene's shoulder and saw James and Peter approaching their group, Remus trailing behind them begrudgingly.

"What's up?" asked James, crossing his arms over his chest.

Lily quickly closed her notebook. "None of your business, Potter."

"Party planning?" said James. He scoffed. "A bit late for that, don't you think? We've had all this covered for days now."

"Yeah, because you don't know the first thing about party planning," Marlene snapped.

Remus rolled his eyes. "You all know this is really dumb, right?" he said with a sigh, crashing onto the armchair next to the girls. "Why don't you just have a joint party?"

"Absolutely not," said Lily. "Planning a party with him must be a nightmare." She jerked her head at James and then turned to Peter. "I'm sorry you have to deal with that," she said with false sincerity.

Peter shifted uncomfortably. James snorted. "You think party planning with me is a nightmare? You're a tyrant, Evans. A literal tyrant."

"At least I have an actual plan," said Lily. "Your party's just going to be a bunch of idiots standing around bored."

"Shhhh," Mary said quickly. "Look."

All six of them turned around at once to see Sirius and Artemis climbing through the portrait hole together, arguing back and forth as they walked towards the little group by the fireplace. "Act natural," Lily hissed.

"I'm not saying cheating on your homework isn't easier, I'm just saying it's not ethical," Artemis was saying.

"Why not, though?" argued Sirius. "They give us all this work and expect us to do it all in a matter of hours- what do they expect? I can guarantee all of the teachers know students cheat."