It wasn’t a bad afternoon, partly cloudy but that didn’t matter much, the combined power of Fauna and Gris ensured that they could get through anything! They’d found a good spot along the Jurassic Coast and had set up protective charms to ensure no one could disturb the event, ranging from all sorts of concealment charms and finally to ones to keep heat and stop the rain from ruining the party, it was as much of a tropical paradise as you could get in the UK, barring the Eden Project really.

The sun was due to set in a few hours still, the waves gently pushing up against the beach, the tide wasn’t due to go out for several hours still, leaving everyone dry, unless they wanted to go swimming in the sea, however it was only the start of March, especially in the south west of England the water would be cold, but any who braved the waters of Hogwarts lake had taken colder before.

Gris grabbed a Smirnoff ice from the cooler by the twin tents, heading over to Fauna she passed the barbeque puffing away as various foods were cooked inside, many of which Gris never even would of thought about! She would of just gone for Quorn and Meat, she never considered Soya for Vegans, or Gluten Free, even the alcohol had so much thought put in by Fauna! She was just going to go hard alcohol, but Fauna convinced her to bring non alcoholic drinks, like water!

With a happy grin, Gris wrapped her arms around Fauna in a hug. “Thank you so much!” Fauna had been instrumental, Gris had never really planned anything before, she even gets day of the week socks wrong! As soon as Fauna even came up with any sort of ideas for this she just nodded and said yes, it was a good partnership. Fauna had all the ideas, Gris had the money. It worked perfectly really.

“You’re amazing! Any girl is lucky to have you!” She giggled, she wasn’t to afraid to admit she might have started drinking fairly early, it was her Birthday after all, she was twenty today! Sure she still can’t drink in America, but twenty was still a big number! Two decades since she came screaming into this horrid existence known as life and she’s been enjoying almost every moment of it! Besides, it was compulsory to drink when you have a barbeque in Britain, the sun only came out for two minutes every year after all.

Fauna could not cook to save her life, but had become an excellent baker. Thankfully, one of her friends had taken over the barbecue,[1] which left Fauna in charge of arranging the desserts and drinks on the other tables and checking on the decorations inside the two tents.

The desserts table had an array of brownies, cookies, custard tarts, and lemon scones that Gris liked. Fauna kept the cake in the cake box for now, prepared to bring it out this evening.

On the drinks table was a large coffee thermos of Gris' favorite coffee - Hebridean black - and plenty of water, juice, and tea to balance the other half of the table, which had alcohol of many different types, and room for more.

The tents were much larger on the inside, and the canvas floor was piled with cozy rugs, colorful floor pillows and blankets, and a flameless fire in the center for light and warmth. Glow lights hung in the shape of sleepy cat faces, and Fauna had sectioned off a small area with curtains to create a photo booth, complete with silly props.

Abby had already nicknamed it the kissing booth. Of course it was.

There were public toilets somewhere - somewhere! - down the beach. Up on the cliffs and just inside the village, the witch who owned the inn had agreed to let anyone who needed to use the floo system tonight, in exchange for a platter of Fauna's cookies.

There was an archway built into the cliffs nearby that Fauna had snapped a photo of and attached to the invite, for anyone who wanted to apparate here.

Had she thought of everything? She hoped so. They'd set up the tents close to the cliffs, on the widest expanse of the shore, so they wouldn't have to worry about the sea creeping in.

Fauna had optimistically worn a hat with a wide brim, hoping for some sun peeking over the clouds, but no such luck so far. Her hat tipped a little as Gris hugged her and exclaimed in her ear.

She chuckled, hugging her back and blushing at the compliment. Merlin's sake! Had Gris already gotten into the alcohol? Yes. The bottle in Gris' hand told her yes.

"You know what, I'm always happy to help plan a party, especially for someone who keeps my spirits up on Level Two," Fauna smiled at her. Hufflepuffs had to stick together. Fauna understood how hard it was to fit into a competitive environment when Gris' default was kindness and making jokes about paperwork.

Oh look, someone was arriving! The pop of apparition sounded in the rocky archway built into the cliffs. Disillusionment wards behind the arch glimmered in the sunlight for a moment. Working! Good.

Fauna waved. She wore an extra long sweater dress that cinched at the waist, and over that, a light wool cloak.

Time to get this party started.

1.	can be anyone

Josie Flint popped. Her red wellies landed on the sand. Her short legs poke out. Clad in stripy red and black leggings. Over which were cropped blue jeans. Ending just below her knees. She wore two t-shirts and a baggy black jumper. On top of it all was a green mac and red bobble hat. She might be northern but she knew coast life. She grew up in Whitby!

Josie seized the straps of her rucksack in each hand. Skipped out of the cave. Down the sand. Heading to the tent. Her bag clanked suspiciously. She could smell barbecue! Fantastic! Josie was always starving!

"Heyyyy!" Called Josie. "Neat postcard!" To Fauna. "Happy biiiirthday." Threw her arms around Gris. They met before. Yeah. Party some time. Yeah. Must have been.

“Josie, you made it.” Theta waved from a circle of people[1] sat inside the tent on the rugs and pillows, a drink in one hand. She had curled her long auburn hair with magic, and like her Muggleborn friend, wore skinny pale blue jeans, but with a long, flowing navy wool cloak, grey sweater and leather boots. A mix of muggle and wix which was becoming her style.

Theta’s gift of novelty stationery was wrapped in star-covered paper beside her, ready for Gris to open. The pair didn’t know each other all that well. Theta’s love of stationery had once led her to a summer job at Scribbulus, which was where she often headed when in doubt for buying gifts. Wixes always needed notepaper and decent self-inking quills. The cat decorations in the tent hopefully confirmed she had chosen well with a cat theme. It seemed rude to turn up without some contribution, present, food or drink.

“Grab a drink, pull up a pillow.”

1.	Can be anyone!

Ambrose looked up from the grill at the newcomer, recognising Josie, Theta’s friend. He had hitched a side-along lift with his cousin, as he still wasn’t quite ready to take his apparition test. When one was magically accident-prone, it paid to take a bit longer to get things right. In the meantime he was getting through a lot of floo powder.

Most of the people at the party seemed to be trainee aurors, who were all a bit older than Ambrose. He felt like he was able to mix in with people a bit more easily than he had been able to when he went out with the other beast handlers. He looked and felt way more grown up than he had nine months ago when he left Hogwarts after his OWL exams.

One thing he seemed to be capable of looking after was the barbecue, well, with some help. He had learned how to look after one from his uncle. Each summer the Peppers had hosted a garden party… It wasn't as grand as it sounded and was rather a 'gathering' of their friends and extended family at his uncle’s place. Like this, but without a tent. It wasn't even a big garden, but well, magic. Uncle Monty had Ambrose on the cooking under his supervision, something about it being a right of passage for a boy. Ambrose had suspected cousin Zeta would have been just as good, if not better…

As the girls all hugged, he poked his tongue out the corner of his mouth and tried flipping a burger with magic. It flipped, but so did a plate of food on the table in the tent…

“Easy Pepper - I mean, Ambrose!” Ariadne realised that she was no longer exclaiming to her fellow Gryffindor in the common room with his rogue spells. That there was another Pepper nearby. She drew her wand to tidy the flipped plate of brownies beside Fauna and Gris. “S’alright, they landed right way up,” she reported back. They hadn’t caught fire either.

She had been glad to get over at a reasonable time after attending the Wasps-Portree game at Wimbourne Minster that morning. She’d written her account of the game at the side of the pitch and owled it back to the Diagon office of the paper. By the time it was printed in the evening or Sunday morning edition she would be lucky if 50 of her 200 words made it in, she was accustomed with three games on a Saturday. Had she not been invited she might have gone to the Cannons-Wanderers match that evening to see if she could get some free tips from Ginny or whoever was covering it.

“So yeah, Zeta must have sent them out to everyone because I got one too.” Ariadne continued the conversation as if nothing had happened. She drew a slightly crumpled flyer from her bag which had arrived that morning. “Take a look,” She offered the SAWS flyer to those nearby to study.

It was a wonderful afternoon to be at the beach, far away from the dark halls of the Ministry and the stress of the recent full moon. Tessa had apparated to the party alongside Charlie Harris, Yasuo Sasaki, and some of her other Capture Unit teammates, who had all met up ahead of time at the flat that Harris and Sasaki shared right outside of Diagon Alley.

After three long days and nights spent shivering on patrol, it felt good to be out without worry even on a cloudy day. Clean and well-rested after a full night's sleep, Tessa was happy to leave the concerns of the full moon behind her to celebrate her friend's birthday.

Well, almost behind her, Tessa thought sourly, as she caught sight of some kind of flyer with a drawing of a wolf and something about werewolf rights being flashed as the little Capture Unit group passed by.

"Can we not talk about werewolves for one afternoon?" she asked a little huffily, giving a dirty look to the girl showing off the flyer.

That was easy to forget about, though, as she caught sight of Gris, who was busy getting plenty of hugs as the arrivals trickled in. Tessa might have felt a little bit guilty about not being able to help organize the party for her friend, but she suspected that Gris would understand. It helped that fellow Hufflepuff Fauna had ably stepped in to make sure everything came together.

"Happy birthday!" she exclaimed, swooping in to give Gris another hug as soon as Josie Flint was done with her greeting. "Everything looks so great!"

Gris giggled and nodded at Fauna, she wasn't sure about the part of helping cheer her up around Level Two, unless she really enjoyed the coffees, but she was still thrilled with Fauna helping out and getting everything ready! She even recruited her own friends and others to help out! Even if they were knocking over the plate of brownies, it was still amazing to have, and meant the night wouldn't get dull. If ever she got bored she could watch the Pepper burn a burger or watch as he sets fire to the bun that stays away from the flames.

Suddenly she was being hugged by another girl, a smile spread as she hugged back then let go. "Thank you!" She thinks she might know her...possibly? Was she one of Fauna's friends, or Fauna's friend's friend. Or Fauna's friend's friend's friend. It didn't matter much, she wasn't willing to kick anyone unless they were being a right ass, which reminded her. She hoped Kurby didn't get a card...he would be pushing the limits she thinks.

But then Tessa was there! Gris lit completely up and almost squealed as she went full in on the hug, her leg lifting behind her a little as she leaned into it, she'd even brought a few others from the WCU! And none of them were Kurby! That was a certain win in her books.

"Fauna set up everything! I just paid for it, oh and chose my own outfit! What do you think? I bought it just for you~" She teased her with a smirk as she pulled away from the hug. Showing off what she thought was a great party getup. Being a black cropped tank top, cropped denim jacket, denim short shorts, black boots and a choker because why not? It helped hide her tattoo from glowing incase someone was being boring.

Shade had showed up at the beach kind of late to the party.  He had changed his mind a few times about coming since he only knew a few of the people that were going to be there.  He had apparated in a little while ago and made his way towards the tents and hesitated a second before going in.  He only knew a couple of the people there, so he took the initiative and sat down a little ways away from Theta.

He waved at her to say hi and then looked around the tent, he knew it was a birthday party. Evidently the birthday person liked felines.  He didn't really know what to do, he didn't bring a gift, so he had to figure out if he was expected to bring anything.

"Peps! Brose!" Greeted Josie. Good to know people. But not super essential. Josie would talk the ear off anyone. If they allowed.

"What is this?" Said Josie to Ariadne. Moth to the flame of controversy. If there was a story she wanted to know. Took the flyer. "Your sister's art rocks." To Peps. Saw Shade wave at Theta. "Going to introduce us?"

“Easy Pepper - I mean, Ambrose!” Ariadne’s exclamation had made Theta look to her friend more than her younger cousin who had caused the exclamation. Ambrose had ended up at a rather female-centric party at this rate.

“Peps! Brose!” Josie was her usual bubbly self, joining them.

As if nothing had happened, Ariadne was back to their conversation about receiving something from Zeta by owl. Theta had also received a copy of the flyer from her sister, and by virtue they were sisters, was of course going to show up and give some support. She was pretty sure it would not jeopardise her position at work.

“Can we not talk about werewolves for one afternoon?”

Tessa was quick to express her disdain. Theta had seen her in the lifts at work but had little idea what she did, only recalling she had been the year above Theta at Hogwarts. Now seeing her with others, expressing such, Theta drew the conclusion she was from Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

Theta frowned a little at the abruptness and the way it was delivered, but Tessa’s attention was soon switched to the birthday girl and just like Ambrose’s interruption, it did not hold the conversation off for long.

“What is this?” Josie asked, taking the flyer from Ariadne. “Your sister’s art rocks.” Josie affirmed with quick appraisal. Theta smiled proudly.

“I’ll let her know when I write her next.” She assured her friend. A familiar blonde head of hair suddenly caught her eye in the arrivals. Shade O’Connor was waving at her shyly.

“Oh! Hey.” Theta spoke aloud, waving back without a second thought. She hadn’t made out to hide it, but Josie was straight on it.

“Going to introduce us?”

“Alright,” Theta told Josie in a hushed voice, a little flustered by the look Josie was giving her over the flyer. “Shade, hey, come over, let me introduce you.” She beckoned the wizard.

“Guys, this is Shade, he’s an artist. Been working on and off with my Dad,” Theta’s dad was both a magical portrait artist of some renown and in more recent history known for his attempts to decriminalise flying cars so he could sell them in England.

“Shade,” she gestured between her friends, “Josie, and Ariadne - Ari writes in the Quidditch pages of the Prophet and Josie writes for anything and everything.”

“Can we not talk about werewolves for one afternoon?”

Ari didn’t know a Tessa Fenneken from Shade O’Connor at this point of the conversation. Both were blonde and giving her looks of one kind or another in this tent.

“What is this?” Josie asked, taking the flyer and distracting Ariadne from scowling back at the rude girl.
“Flyer from Zeta, they’re going to protest Zonko’s next Hogsmeade weekend because there’s some joke product that makes you look like a werewolf. She’s trying to rally some voices from outside school.”

Ariadne found it ever so slightly strange to remember she was the grown-up now when Hogwarts stuff reappeared in her life. This time last year she’d have been counting down the days until the Hogsmeade weekends too.

“Oh! Hey.”
“Going to introduce us?”

Ariadne looked round to see a long, blond haired wizard approaching. It took a second but she recognised her old housemate.

“… Ariadne - Ari writes in the Quidditch pages of the Prophet and Josie writes for anything and everything.”

“Hey, long time.” Ariadne smiled in a friendly manner. “We were in the same house, you were in the year above with your twin, Sky. How’s the whole art career going?”

Ambrose, meanwhile did know Tessa from Shade. They were vastly different people.

Ambrose saw Tessa and the others trooping around in the shadow of Kurby Bagnold. He knew well to keep his distance from Mr Bagnold, especially around full moon, when in the nearby vicinity of Penny Pickler, after leaving Madam Ballentyne’s office, or Mr Spectre’s, or on a Monday, Tuesday… well… most days come to think of it. His team seemed to enjoy that distance, only Ambrose wasn’t quite experienced enough to see it more than the WCU were like the beast handlers in that they stuck together.

“Is there a ban on talking shop?” Ambrose asked, innocently, to those nearby. “I wasn’t going to, I just didn’t realise someone made that rule.”

Lots of people were arriving and Gris was happy, so this was going well. Fauna smiled at Ambrose's innocent question, appreciating that he was at the grill so she didn't have to pay attention to the food. Fauna finished a bite of one of the mini-hamburgers and held the brim of her hat to make it stay put.

"No, rules, really. Well, except for avoiding magic outside of the barrier and not bringing truth potion and-," Fauna paused, her brow furrowed. "I forgot to tell Nicholas that showing up in actual clothing is required. Mandatory. Hm."

Damn. She knew she'd forgotten something.[1]

"Er, and I guess the only other rule is not burning the food, so good job, thanks Ambrose," she chuckled.

1.	At the sleepover party in August, Nicholas showed up in his boxers

Anton couldn't remember every being nervous about showing up to a party and it was an entirely odd and foreign feeling.  When he'd first spotted the invitation on Tessa's desk[1], there had been no doubts about his attendance.  Beach party?  Cool new cohort of friends?  How could he not?!  Within 30 seconds, any certainty had been replaced with a whole bucket load of doubt. 

But, Cambridge's lent term ended the following week.  If Anton didn't go to the party, he'd ultimately guilt himself into studying instead.  While Sasha had viewed that as a perfectly legitimate reason to skip the party, there was going to be plenty of late night studying next week.  Party today and study later.  If he was, again, reminded that he had traipsed where he shouldn't have trodden, then he could just say he was planning on having a fun afternoon at the beach with his dog. 

And, an entire tupperware of orange creamsicle jello shots. 

Sir Otto, the Clumber spaniel extraordinaire[2] lumbered lazily a few strides behind Anton's heels, pausing every few steps to sniff and snort the sand.  There were a few familiar faces among the crowd but quite a few he didn't recognize. 

He spared a quick glance towards Tessa, who was noticeably cozy with the guest of honor.  Moving towards the tables, he found a spot to set down the sliced jello-shots-in-peel, shifting them slight to make the one skewered with a purple birthday candle stand upright. 

"Does that mean his clothing's optional?"  Anton asked, arching an eyebrow in Fauna's direction. 

1.	Tell Us How It's Done, Mate
2.	Otto