"maybe some women aren't meant to be tamed. maybe they just need to run free until they find someone just as wild to run with them." ~ Carrie Bradshaw
~august 1975~ (continued)
The Potters were regular members of an upscale country club in Surrey. When Artemis found this out, she had to sit down on the living room floor from laughing so hard. It was so fitting and at the same time so strange, it took her a few minutes to recover. Then, on the last day of summer break, Mr. and Mrs. Potter announced that they were taking James, Sirius, and Artemis to the club for the day to celebrate the end of the holiday.
Artemis dressed up without really knowing what to expect. Her family had been poor growing up, that was no secret, so she had no clue how to handle herself in wizarding high society, much less the muggle world. Mr. Potter rented a muggle car to drive them up to the club and when they got there, Artemis and Sirius stared wide-eyed at the sprawling vineyards and golf courses with the extravagant club house sitting neatly between two hills. "Mrs. Potter, you know I love you, but what is this?" Sirius asked, amusement twinkling in his eyes as a muggle family passed decked out in golf skirts and argyle sweaters, ready for a day on the green.
"Oh, I know it's silly," said Mrs. Potter, smiling as she gazed at their scenic surroundings. "But Fleamont and I came here once when we were young and we fell in love. Muggles can be so fun sometimes, I'm sure the three of you will have a good time."
"Not too good a time," Mr. Potter said, raising his eyebrows at the three kids in the backseat. It had only taken two months for James's father to find out how much trouble his son and his friends were, though the three of them could still do no wrong in the eyes of Euphemia.
They parked and got out of the car. Artemis pulled her sunglasses off and set them on top of her head to get a better look at her surroundings. It was a busy place, muggles everywhere- eating at the restaurant, strolling through the vineyards, and talking in circles with glasses of expensive wine perched in their hands. "Well, come on then," said Mrs. Potter, fixing her hair. "There's the Petersons, I've been meaning to talk to them for so long now."
Sirius, James, and Artemis trailed after Fleamont and Euphemia Potter. James kept his head up, looking bored and a little haughty, used to following his parents into rich social circles. Artemis and Sirius, on the other hand, were too curious to put on an uppity act. They gazed around everywhere, taking in all of the senses that surrounded them like they were in another world. James looked over his shoulder at them, let a small smile slip onto his face, and backtracked a little to fall into step with his friends. "I know it's sort of a lame way to spend our last day of summer, but my mum's been talking about taking you guys here for months. She loves it."
"It's not lame," Artemis murmured, craning her neck to get a better look at a group of girls her age giggling together and staring at a group of boys a few feet away getting ready to head onto the golf course.
"Yeah, your parents trying to fit into the muggle upper class might be the funniest thing I've ever seen," said Sirius. He tossed his head so his hair, freshly cut by Artemis the night before, blew in the breeze and he put on the snobbish look he used for parties he attended with his own parents. "And anyway, I'm fantastic at talking to rich grown-ups."
"Yeah, you've already got the fucking posh accent," Artemis laughed.
"Okay, Miss Yorkshire," said Sirius, sticking out a foot to trip her. She dodged expertly.
The three of them were laughing together when they were approached by a couple adorned in the most expensive athletic attire money could buy. "Oh, James!" the woman said, rushing to give James a heavily perfumed hug.
He gave her a charming smile and stuck out a hand to shake her husband's. "Lovely to see you, Mrs. Stevens. How's Theo doing?"
"Oh, fine, fine. We're sending him to Westminster this year and he's ever so excited. You two have grown up so much." She pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at the phony tears in her eyes.
"What, he get kicked out of Wycombe Abby?" James joked, warranting a laugh from Mr. Stevens.
"And where is it you go again, boy?" Mr. Stevens asked jovially.
Sirius and Artemis both turned to look at James expectantly, awaiting his answer in amused anticipation. "Ruthers, it's in Wales. It's small, but took me forever to get into. The application process is very rigorous."
"Ahhh, Wales," Mr. Stevens said, bobbing his head. "Where in Wales?"
"Cardiff," James answered again, as if on instinct.
A dreamy look crossed Mr. Steven's face. "Oh, yes, I've spent time in Cardiff. Fine place, very fine."
"And who are your friends?" asked Mrs. Stevens, turning to Artemis and Sirius, who perked up and mimicked James's relaxed pretension with ease.
James grinned back at them. "Oh, this is Sirius Black and Artemis Blake. Sirius is a friend from school and Art goes to our sister institution, Ognosh."
"Lovely to meet you," Artemis said, smiling softly.
Sirius shook Mr. Stevens hand. "Play much golf?"
Mr. Steven's face lit up. "Oh, yes. This is the best club for it, I swear. I've been to them all. Do you play at all?"
"I'm on the team at school," said Sirius. "James and I both are."
Artemis raised her eyebrows at him, surprised at how easy it was for him to lie. Mrs. Stevens let out a girlish laugh. "James? Really?"
"I'm ruddy awful at it, but I do my best," James said sheepishly.
"Yes, we've all seen him try his hand at the game," said Mr. Stevens. "Can't be a very competitive team if you let this bloke on."
"I may have pulled a few strings to get him there," Sirius said with a nonchalant shrug, and Mrs. Stevens laughed again.
When they finally disentangled themselves from the Stevens, they ate a nice dinner with the Potters in the restaurant overlooking the water below. Mrs. Potter filled them in on all of the best pointers to fit in. "You can't act like new money," she chided, "-they can smell new money from miles away. You have to act like you've seen every wonder of the world and haven't been impressed by any of them."
"The Stevens' are new money," said Mr. Potter. "Lovely people, but not exactly favored around here. Still, they're a wonderful couple, some of my favorite to play golf with."
After dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Potter excused themselves to go to the club bar to talk to their friends, all of whom were regulars, leaving Sirius, Artemis, and James alone for the rest of the night. "Now, behave yourselves," Mrs. Potter said, trying with little success to fix the pieces of hair that always stood up in the back of James's head.
"Mum, stop it," James protested, but he let her comb his hair back for another second before gently pushing her off. "I look fine."
Mr. Potter looked at his son with stern affection. "I don't want to hear about any mischief while we're gone, understand? No broken windows, no burning the clubhouse down, no dueling to show off for a girl-"
"Like we'd ever!" Sirius snorted, grinning at Mr. Potter.
"I've seen it happen, Sirius," said Mr. Potter, giving Sirius a pointed look.
Sirius brushed it off. "It was one time!"
"My boys would never," Mrs. Potter said lovingly. "Artemis, you're in charge. You keep these two in line."
James and Sirius both made sounds of disbelief. "You're trusting her?" James protested. "You know, last year, she-"
"I'll keep them out of trouble," Artemis cut him off, stepping hard on James's foot to make him shut up. "You two have a good time."
"Ah, we know we can trust you, Art," said Mr. Potter, putting an arm around his wife and winking congenially at Artemis. "Meet us back at the car at midnight." Then, he and Mrs. Potter strode off in the dusky sunset back towards the clubhouse.
As soon as his parents were out of sight, James turned to Artemis and Sirius and grinned. "So, d'you want to burn the clubhouse down first or should Sirius and I duel over a girl beforehand?"
"I love your dad," Artemis said, shaking her head fondly.
Sirius scoffed. "You just like that he would trust you with both of our lives before anyone else."
"Exactly," said Artemis. "So, James, what do people do for actual fun around here?"
James shrugged, thinking hard. "There's usually a bonfire at the edge of the vineyard where all the people who aren't drinking wine that costs a million gallions- sorry, euros- per glass go."
"Fantastic," said Sirius. "Let's go there."
It was nearly dark when the three of them reached the edge of a ring of people, mostly their age or a little older, surrounding a raging bonfire. A lot of the people were talking to one another, mingling and drinking stolen alcohol from plastic cups, and a few others were messing with a travel record player they'd brought, trying to make the sound better quality by tilting the player this way and that, trying to get it at an angle where it wasn't on a hill. "We could help them out," said Sirius, his hand playing at his wand in his pocket.
"Absolutely not," said Artemis. "We're muggles today, Sirius, act like it."
They sat down on a large log that had been set up by the fire and Artemis leaned forward to warm her hands. It wasn't even close to being cold out, but Artemis's hands were always chilly. A boy with sandy hair approached them and sat down next to Artemis. "Hey," he said, casually handing her a plastic cup with some sort of pink liquid in it.
"What's this?" asked Artemis, shifting a few inches away from James to address the boy.
He shrugged. "That's a very good question, but I can promise you it's not poison. I've been drinking it all night."
"So you could potentially be poisoned," Artemis said, raising her eyebrows. "I mean, some poisons don't set in until days after consumption."
"So... more for me?" the boy asked, reaching to take the cup back.
Artemis held it out of his reach. "No, I'll take my chances." Then, she downed a large sip from the cup and grinned at him.
"Ahhh, smart and risky. I like it."
Artemis giggled and took another sip. Behind her, James and Sirius turned to watch her flirt with the guy. They had a split second silent exchange, and then got up to get their own drinks. Artemis looked up to watch them go, then turned back to the boy and stuck out her hand. "I'm Art."
"Cyrus." He gave her a clumsy handshake. "Come around here much?"
She shook her head. "Not much, no. My... my family does, though. That's my- my cousin." She gestured to the shadowy figures of James and Sirius mingling with some people across the fire. "I'm staying with them over holiday."
"Oh, nice," said Cyrus. "My family are all members here, come every summer. Where do you go to school?"
Artemis panicked for a split second, and then remembered the name of the fake school James had told the Stevens. "Ognosh. It's in Cardiff."
"Never heard of it," said Cyrus, shaking his head like he was writing off the school and pounding back the last of his drink. "I go to Roedean."
She quirked an eyebrow and swallowed down the rest of her own drink. "Never heard of it," she said, carefully concealing her cringe as the alcohol stung her throat.
Cyrus opened his mouth to protest, but at that moment, James showed up looking far more drunk than before and holding his hand out to Artemis. "May I have this dance, m'lady?"
"James, nobody's dancing."
"Not yet!" James cried. "Come on, Art, the night is young!" He turned to Cyrus. "Sorry, man, I'm going to have to steal your date for a little. Let's go!" And with that, he took Artemis's hand and pulled her to her feet.
She stumbled into his chest, laughing, and let him lead her to the edge of the fire. She was dizzy and she wondered just how many different types of spirits had been mixed into her drink to have her feeling like this after only one. James spun her around and they danced to the music blasting through the record player to the side. Artemis didn't recognize the song, but she swung her hair around and threw her hands up, laughing wildly as James made himself look like an idiot in the center of the crowd of people.
Sirius stood to the side and watched, a plastic cup forgotten in his hand. He was staring at the way the firelight illuminated Artemis's face, the way she moved smoothly, like she knew exactly what she was doing as she swayed to the music. He watched James catch the eye of a girl a few feet away and stop dancing to lean into Artemis's ear, probably telling her he was going to go take his chances. He felt like he was in a daze until he saw Artemis standing alone by the fire, still swaying a little but looking slightly lost. He snapped out of it.
"Hey," he said, approaching her. "Come on." He grabbed her hands and whirled her around, the two of them dancing dangerously close to the fire.
She looked up at him, her fire-lit face glowing with happiness. "Did you see James just totally leave me?"
"Uh-huh," said Sirius, twirling her and catching her again in his arms. "Don't look now, but I think the girl's turning him down."
"What?" cried Artemis. "Turning James down? Our James?"
"I said don't look now!" Sirius pulled her back. "You'll ruin what little chances he's still got."
Artemis threw her head back laughing and let go of Sirius's hands to spin around, losing herself in the music and the dizziness and the smile still lingering on Sirius's lips. She danced back to him, close to his chest. He threw an arm around her in a half hug. She smelled like faint cigarettes and deep perfume, and in that moment, it was his favorite scent in the world. He was drunk and he was dancing with the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.
Then, James was at his side. "Code red, code red," he said hurriedly, grabbing both Sirius and Artemis by the arms and dragging them to the side. "My mum."
Sirius followed his gaze to the edge of the crowd, where a very stern Mrs. Potter had been standing for who knew how long. He cleared his throat and turned back to Artemis. "Act natural. Don't slur your words."
They all walked over to Mrs. Potter, acting as normal as they possibly could. "Hey, Mum," James said, stumbling slightly and leaning into Sirius's side. Sirius played it off by putting a friendly arm around him. "We were just about to come looking for you- is it midnight already? Crazy how fast time flies. Did you and Dad have fun? I bet it was fun-"
"Young man," Mrs. Potter said, and Sirius and Artemis immediately bristled. They were used to adults getting angry enough to do damage. Mrs. Potter surveyed the three teenagers standing in front of her, all looking messy and guilty. She took a deep breath. "Look, it's late. We'll talk about this tomorrow. For now, let's just get you three back to the car. Come on." She put an arm around Artemis's waist and another around Sirius. "You all smell terrible, what did you do? Drink the sewage?"
"You tell 'em, Mum," James slurred, leaning on Sirius for support. "You tell 'em."
"Don't think you're not in big trouble, young man," his mother snapped, but her eyes softened and she reached a hand up to smooth a bit of James's hair back from his face. "Come on, just back to the car."
When they got to the car, they got a stunted lecture from Mr. Potter, but his heart didn't really seem in it. He patted James's back as he held the backseat door open for him and told the three of them to get to sleep. James leaned against the window and muttered something incoherent. The next time he looked up, Artemis was asleep on Sirius's shoulder, her hair splayed over his arm, his head resting on hers. They were nestled so close, they were practically laying on each other. James thought back to when they'd tumbled out of the fireplace at the beginning of the summer already arguing, and with a small smile, he laid his head on Artemis's other shoulder and passed out.