/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝟑.𝟜.𝟣

"no amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart." ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

~october 1973~

"You put me on the team!" Emmeline's shriek echoed through the entire common room and Artemis looked up from her book to see Emmeline throw her arms around Mitchell McKinnon's waist.

Mitchell, looking slightly uncomfortable, patted Emmeline awkwardly on the head. "Yeah... yeah, you're on the team. Don't get so excited, though. You're just an alternate."

"But I'm on the team!" Nothing could falter Emmeline's elation in that moment. She let go of Mitchell and danced over to James's seat. "I'm on the team, I'm on the team," she chanted in a singsong voice.

James grinned up at her. "Congrats. You earned it."

"Can't wait to have another girl on the team," Marlene said, joining Emmeline and James. "Seriously, it'll be great."

Emmeline beamed up at her. "D'you really think so?"

"We saw you at the tryout," said Fabian Prewett, sitting on the arm of the couch next to James's chair. "You're insanely good. We're going to win the championship for sure."

"She's only an alternate!"

"Shut up, Mitch," snapped Marlene. She looked back at Emmeline. "It's going to be fantastic."

Emmeline, still grinning ear to ear, gave Marlene, James, and Fabian each one last hug and ran off to squeal to her second year friends about having made it. "Well, glad someone's excited," said James, standing up and slinging his bag over his shoulder. "More than I am to go to Defense class. Bones has been brutal this year."

"He has not," Artemis argued, grabbing her own bag and following him towards the portrait hole. "He's just trying to teach us."

The third years sat in the light-filled Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom in clumps. Marlene and Lily had taken the seats right behind Artemis and Mary and were bent low over over a scrap of paper, scribbling back and forth to one another.

He's so cute and did you see him say hi to me in the halls earlier? Marlene wrote in her loopy, flowing scrawl. She passed the paper to Lily, who was only half pretending to pay attention to the lesson.

Lily's writing was neater and blockier, something Marlene appreciated. She loved how easy it was to read. Her note, however, was only three short words. Ask. Him. Out.

I can't, Marlene wrote back.

Lily took the paper, frowned, and moved it over her textbook to make it look like she was taking notes on the class. Why not? Aren't you the one who's always talking about how times are changing? The boy doesn't have to ask the girl out anymore. Take a chance, McKinnon.