Mischief Managed Y2 Part 2: The Truth of the Tournament

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Fool the Senses

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That Saturday night, on February 3rd, Lily's party commenced and it was an enormous success. There were mainly Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, though there was a rather large group of fourth-year foreign students thanks to Lily's general friendliness. Remus was both nervous and hopeful Mihaela would make an appearance as she seemed to like the limelight and there were several still sealed eggs brought to the party. Remus had his unsealed but unopened egg back in his drawer, not because he had given up but because he had a legitimate concern that either James or Sirius would hurt his dragon in an attempt to open it. He was confused as to why Lily had wanted such a large party this year but supposed the foreign students had something to do with it. Remus realized he hadn't gotten to know very many of them but he was so nervous about everything that he couldn't quite seem to get himself to talk to anyone.

"Hiya, mate. I gave Lily a lily for her birthday but she didn't seem to like it much," James explained, grinning in a way that made Remus certain he did not want to know what had transpired between the two but would no doubt hear about it later. Whether he heard the details from James or not, Remus would most certainly hear Lily rant about it. Complaining about Potter was quickly proving to be a more and more common subject matter for her. Remus was confused why she didn't just ignore James but he supposed it was hard to do that since his over-the-top friend had been up in Lily's face a lot lately. Lupin smiled at Potter as the latter danced away from him, quickly swept into the hype of the crowd. James was wearing a hideous tie-dye shirt since Mary had insisted on everyone dressing in muggle attire for the party.

Remus knew that Mary hung out with her older brother and his Hufflepuff friends a lot as opposed to her roommates but he was glad Lily had Mary who understood the muggle world in a way Marlene and Dorcas did not. Of course, everyone loved Mary's idea and it added a layer of protection against those at Hogwarts with upsetting views on blood status. Remus hadn't realized most witches and wizards had at least a few muggle outfits in their wardrobe but apparently muggle fashion was 'in', especially among the girls. 

Marlene, Dorcas, Mary, and Lily were all wearing long colourful dresses and each had a large peace sign emblem around their neck, which soon every party participant had as well. Remus was surprised but glad that he wasn't out of place in his bell bottoms and button-up shirt. In fact, what he had on was quite tame compared to what most wizards and witches had don. Remus wasn't sure why so many people thought muggles only wore tie-dye but Mary and her older brother Magnus Jr. had taken it as a personal mission to go around and educate everyone in attendance about proper muggle fashion.

Remus had tried to have a similar conversation with James, Sirius, and Peter but had quickly deemed them a lost cause after Black had found just the right spell to tie-dye their white shirts. They had been so excited by the prospect of doing so that Lupin didn't have the heart to tell them that tie-dye button-up shirts weren't exactly a trend. Luckily it wasn't the bad muggle fashion of the students in attendance but Evan's roommate's collective gift to her, a charmed record player that blasted muggle music which proved to be rather awe-inspiring. Remus was pretty sure most of his peers dancing in the common room liked the muggle music more than their usual wizard bands. 

At the very least Sirius was enamoured by the music and had taken Magnus Jr. aside, probably badgering him about the 'music box.' Black was so pleased by The Beatles, whose record was playing for the fourth time that night, that he had forgotten he was cross with Lupin. They weren't really still fighting and Sirius had accepted Remus' apology by offering his own, apparently feeling bad about snapping at the werewolf. However, Remus still wouldn't tell Sirius where he had been, more because he was so annoyed the nosy git seemed to think he 'had to know' than because the expert liar couldn't come up with a fib that would appease his friends. Unfortunately, Remus also had to contend with the fact his insistence that he was just ignoring the petition wasn't fooling any of said friends, least of all Sirius.