/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝟓.𝟛.𝟣

"you will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. you will ride life straight to perfect laughter. it's the only good fight there is." ~ Charles Bukowski,

~september 1975~

"And then my dad- he's really good at croquet, you know. He won a tournament once- well, it was just something my town was doing so it wasn't all that impressive, but still pretty cool-"

"Oh my god, Peter, will you shut up?" Sirius said at last, covering his face with his hands and leaning his head back against the wall of the basement of Honeydukes. "You've been telling us the same bloody croquet story since we left the dormitory- is that all that happened this summer?"

Peter looked slightly crestfallen. "Well, I was getting to the exciting part-"

"For thirty minutes?" Artemis said, laughing and shoving Peter playfully. "It took you thirty minutes to get to the exciting part?"

It was the first night of term. Upon reuniting with Remus and Peter, Sirius, James, and Artemis were more energetic than they'd been all summer- which was saying something. James and Artemis had both been too restless to remain in the common room with the rest of their house for the first night, so they talked the others into a spontaneous trip to Hogsmeade to kick off the year.

"Want to get food?" James whispered as they climbed the stairs to the rest of the store.

"We just ate at the feast," said Remus. "But I could go for something else..."

James looked over his shoulder at his friends and grinned. "I say we hit up the Hog's Head."

"As long as you're not going to get caught and sent to Dumbledore's office again, I'm fine with whatever we do," Artemis said, giving James a pointed look.

He scoffed and led them out onto the warm, dark street. "Ahhh, I missed this place," he sighed, spreading his arms wide and turning in a slow circle to take in all of the surrounding buildings. "Endless opportunities for fun, I'm telling you, endless."

"Endless opportunities, yet we always end up at the Hog's Head," Sirius laughed.

When they reached the front of the pub, they all paused to lay out their game plan. "Listen," James said, leaning his head forward conspiritorially. The rest of them gathered around to form a tight huddle. "-for maximum Firewhisky opportunities, I say we go in groups. One or two at a time, all spread out so as not to seem too suspicious. Then, we'll gather whatever we've got out here and have a good time."

"I'm in," Artemis said without hesitation. She'd learned over the summer not to question any of James's plans, especially not when he seemed so sure of himself.

Remus snorted. "I'm pretty sure Abe would sell us his entire stock as long as we paid, but if you lot want to be careful about it, I'm not going to complain."