/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝟔.𝟚.𝟣

When they reached the house, James was waiting eagerly in the kitchen. "Prongs!" Artemis yelled, and flung herself at him the same way she'd done to Sirius. He leaned against the doorframe and watched, trying not to get jealous. "I missed you so much!"

"We missed you too," James said eagerly. "Wait- Mum! Mum, Art's here!"

Mrs. Potter bustled in quickly from the living room and instantly engulfed Artemis in a hug. "Oh, thank goodness you're here, darling," she said dramatically. "Make these boys sane, please?"

"I think that's a lost cause, Mrs. Potter, but it's nice to be here anyways," said Artemis, disentangling herself from Mrs. Potter's arms with a rueful grin.

Mrs. Potter nodded emphatically, and then ushered all three of them to the table. "Here, sit, sit, I'm making sandwiches for lunch."

Artemis took a seat at the little round kitchen table and scrutinized Sirius. Finally, he caught her eye. "What are you looking at?"

"This-" She leaned forward and gently brushed a few pieces of hair from his eyes, revealing a nasty purplish bruise above his left eyebrow. "Is it from- before you got here?"

Sirius waved her hand away and averted his eyes from the concerned expression on her face. "Yeah, I mean, James didn't give it to me or anything," he muttered.

"I'd be too frightened," said James. "You could beat the shit- sorry, Mum! Heck- you could beat the heck out of me."

Mrs. Potter tsked disapprovingly as she levitated a plate full of sandwiches and three glasses of lemonade to the table with her wand. "Language, love," she said, moving to Sirius's side and pulling his shaggy hair back to view the bruise. "It's not getting much better, Sirius, are you sure they didn't use a spell?"

"You've got to get out of there, Sirius," Artemis murmured, running a finger over his forehead and frowning.

James leaned back in his seat and took a bite of a sandwich, watching his mother and Artemis fawn over Sirius with keen amusement. "Having fun there, Pads?" he said, catching Sirius's eye. Sirius gave him a distinct please-help-me look, but James merely laughed and rocked his chair back onto two legs.

"Alright, alright!" Sirius said at last, trying to push them off of him as gently as possible. "I'm fine, really, it's probably just taking a little longer to heal. They do that sometimes, Art, you know."

"Yeah," Artemis said darkly, sitting back in her seat. "Yeah, I know."

There was silence for a minute as Mrs. Potter sighed and said something about getting the laundry, and then James seemed to shake himself from a dark trance. "So how was the beach, Art? Got any pictures of Lily in a bathing suit?"

"James!" Artemis cried, reaching across the table to smack his shoulder.

"I'm joking!" he whined, dodging her. "I'd take fully clothed pictures too, whatever you've got."

Artemis looked over her shoulder to make sure Mrs. Potter was out of sight, and then flipped him off. "When're you going to grow up and realize she's perfectly fine without you?"

"Is she though?" said James, looking hopeful. "I mean, is she really?"

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "You have no idea how many one night stands she had last month. Believe me, she's doing perfectly fine."

"How was the beach anyways?" Sirius asked, changing the subject for James's sake.

A smile crossed Artemis's face and she reached into her bag. "Actually, I do have pictures. Mary brought her camera. And it was great, honestly, one of the best nights of my life."