/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝟏.𝟜.𝟥

"but, it was a little different tonight. there was a feeling of autumn coming to last a million years." ~ Ray Bradbury

~october 31 1971~

The night before the big Defense Against the Dark Arts test, Marlene and Artemis left Mary and Lily in the library the second they got bored of studying. Artemis was confident that she'd get a high grade on the test since Defense was her best subject, and Marlene insisted that she didn't care about grades anyways. They'd gone straight to the library after their first ever Halloween feast, which left Artemis feeling stuffed and a bit giddy. They wandered the halls aimlessly until ten minutes before curfew and then headed back to Gryffindor tower. As soon as Marlene saw Sirius and James sitting on the couch by the fireplace, she scowled and said, "Let's just go upstairs." Artemis, not in the mood to argue, merely followed Marlene across the room and gave James a small smile when she wasn't looking.

The girls both spread across their beds when they got to their dormitory, staring up at the ceiling as darkness filled the room. Artemis pulled a muggle lighter out of her pocket and started lighting and un-lighting it, flicking it on and off. "Where'd you get that?" Marlene asked after the first few flickers of light.

"Swiped it from that seventh year boy who's always smoking over by the forest." Artemis flicked the lighter again, watching the flame bob around before she extinguished it. "I dunno why he doesn't just use magic."

"Simple fire spell would do it," Marlene said, trying to sound more sophisticated than she was.

"Well, obviously," Artemis said, rolling her eyes. The giddy feeling had faded, leaving her antsy and slightly irritable, not in any kind of mood to deal with Marlene's usual snark. "I'm bored," she sighed, flicking the lighter on and holding it dangerously close to her face.

Marlene raised her eyebrows at Artemis, and then sat up, pulling her hair up into a long ponytail. "Let's do something then."

"Like what?"

"Like... I dunno."

Artemis sat up too, tossing the lighter to the side of her bed. Her long brown hair fell in wild curls around her shoulders, the way they did when she didn't try to style it. She looked a bit insane, Marlene thought. "It's Halloween," Artemis said slowly, a mischievous glint in her eye. "I mean, we could do just about anything."

"What are you talking about?" Marlene asked, her cold, collected front breaking as she giggled, her crooked teeth showing.

Artemis grinned at her, running her fingers through her tangled mess of hair. "Well, James was telling me the other day- no, shut up," she held up a hand as Marlene's face turned to disgust at the mention of James. "He was telling me there's all sorts of secret passages and rooms and things around the castle. What if we went looking for them?"

Marlene's eyes lit up, and for the first time, Artemis saw her face break into genuine excitement. "Alright, let's do it." She jumped out of bed and grabbed her wand off of the bedside table. "Let's go right now." Artemis got up too, quickly growing to like this side of Marlene. Her own eyes were glinting with troublesome excitement, and she grabbed her own wand and led the way towards the door of the dormitory.

Marlene and Artemis only made it to the portrait hole before they were stopped. "Where are you two going?" Lily asked curiously. Marlene and Artemis both jumped and whirled around to see Lily and Mary sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace, books and notebooks spread between them.  "Where are you going?" Lily repeated herself.

"Ahhh," Marlene stammered, looking to Artemis.

"Out," Artemis said with simple confidence. She head her head higher and straightened up to her full height, which wasn't very tall, especially next to Marlene.