Picnic/Swimming Party!

Hilary looked around, admiring their work. They had decided to plan a huge picnic/swimming party to celebrate Theresa's birthday, and she was quite impressed with what they had pulled together. They had tonnes of food from the kitchens, festive decorations, towels for those who wanted to swim, blankets spread on the grass for sitting, among many other things (most provided by the ever-helpful Room of Requirement) It was perfect. They had even managed to dig up a magical stereo so that their party could have music.

Now, they just had to sit back and wait for everyone to show up.

Shelby raced out of the castle and down to the lake where Hilary had been setting up for Theresa's birthday picnic. She was carrying a rather heavy picnic basket that she had gotten from the house elves that carried an enchantment that linked it to the kitchens- that way, they could have whatever food they wanted for the party.

"Hey Hilary," Shelby was a little out of breath when she got to where the other girl had set everything up. She set the basket on the ground to give her arms a rest. "This will get us any food we want from the kitchens. You just have to tell it what you want and it will appear inside."

"Awesome," Hilary said with a smile. She had been getting nervous there for a second. She was starting to wonder if no one was going to show. And now Shelby was here, and to make things even better, she was here with food!

Now they just needed the birthday girl to make her appearance.

Theresa walked out of the castle, still laughing at the message Hilary had sent her. She walked down to the lake where they had always met but stopped when she saw all the decorations, food and other things. "Wow, you didn't have to go through this much trouble" she said as she looked around. She grinned when she saw Hilary and Shelby "hi" she said.

"Of course, we had to go through this much trouble," Hilary said, with a laugh, having overheard what her friend said. "It's what crazy friends do for each other. We sent out some invitations too, but we don't know how many people are going to come down. We have tonnes of food just in case."

She took on a pretend serious expression. "And we have sugar sticks, but don't eat to many. Even if it is your birthday."

"Happy birthday!" Shelby said excitedly through a wide grin. She hugged her friend. "Yes, we did have to do all of this. It's your birthday and it deserves to be celebrated! I hope you don't mind, but we invited a few people. Okay, more than a few people. I basically invited the whole castle. We'll see how many of them choose to make an appearance and wish you a happy birthday."

"Don't listen to Hilary, have as many sugar sticks as you want," Shelby said. "It's your birthday, you get to celebrate it however you want."

Theresa laughed as she listened to her friends "thanks, this is great" she said as she hugged them both. She grinned at the idea of eating sugar sticks, she may be a recovering sugar-holic as Hilary liked to so kindly put it but she was going to have them today.

Lauren arrived and smiled as the four girls were there. "Resa! Happy Birthday!!" Lauren sang at the top of her voice, hoping to embarrass the girl!

Lauren ran to her and gave her a big hug! She had a small gift for her Hufflepuff friend too, but she wanted to wait to give it to her.

"Wow!" Lauren said, "Look at the spread! Fantastic! I can't wait for my birthday!"

Hilary stuck her tongue out at Shelby. She wasn't going to say anything about the sugar today. It was Resa's birthday and if she wanted to spend it hyped up on sugar, she wouldn't say anything.

"We also invited the giant squid and the octopus to the party," she joked. "But we're not sure they got the invitations. They might have gotten soggy before they could read them."

She turned to Lauren and said, sticking her tongue out at the girl, "We're having your birthday in the Forbidden Forest."

Theresa blushed at Lauren's sudden outburst but smiled "thanks" she said. She laughed as she was almost crushed by her friend's hug. "the squid and octopus, we might be able to see them later" she said, laughing at what Hilary had said. She grinned "that's if she doesnt get us caught before we even get in there" she said.

Shelby laughed at Hilary's comment about Lauren's birthday being celebrated in the Forbidden Forest. "Yeah," she agreed. "For your birthday, we're going to make a scavenger hunt that requires you to find a unicorn, ride a centaur, and wrestle a werewolf," she giggled. It actually sounded almost plausible. After all, Lauren was probably the most adventurous out of the four of them.

"Oh ha ha.. You two are so funny!" Lauren said sarcastically. "It's just a shame that I didn't do anything worth while to lose the points over!" Lauren sighed. "That would be hilarious if the squid and octopus did decide to pop up and say hello!" Lauren giggled at the though.

"Oh, and you have to play with the man-eating octopus in the lake when you're done with those things," Hilary added, with a laugh.

She wandered over to where they had set up some of the food. It all looked amazing, and she only then realized just how hungry she really was. She quickly filled a paper plate with food and settled down on one of the blankets.

Theresa looked back at Shelby "that sounds briliant, riding a centaur would be so cool if it wouldn't kill you which it most likely would" she said. She laughed at the thought of the squid and octopus coming to the surface of the lake to say hello to everyone. "Wrestling a werewolf, no offence but my money would go on the werewolf winning" she joked.

Lauren grunted, "Sounds like a blast." She said facetiously. "You all have to do it as well.. I'm not going in there on my own. Do you think if we were caught that I could get away with it because it would have been my birthday?" Lauren thought about it. "Probably not. I bet the teachers just love to take away house points!"

"I am totally up for doing that with you, Lauren," Hilary said from where she was sitting with her food. She was enjoying it too much to bother getting up to join her friends. "And if we survive, we can write a book about our adventure and become millionaires and spend all our money on stuff we don't need."

Jasmeet had got the invitation for the party and thought she should go and wish Theresa a happy birthday. Walking towards the Lake, she saw the girls huddled up and went towards them.

"Happy Birthday Theresa. I was going to the library to do some work, and I thought I'd drop by to say happy birthday," Jasmeet babbled.

Looking towards the other girls, she said, "Hey Lauren, Hilary and Shelby. I like the way that you've set this all up."

Hilary looked up to see Jasmeet approaching the area where they had set up the party. She was glad to see someone outside the four of them stopping by.

"Hey!" she called to the other girl. "Come and get some food. We've got tonnes of it, and it's all really, really good."

"That would be so amazing, we have to do that" Theresa said, laughing at the idea. If the others were going to do it then she was so going to do it, it sounded like so much fun if they wouldn't die.
She looked up when she heard someone and smiled "hi Jasmeet, thanks" she said.

Shelby was glad to see someone else come to wish Resa a happy birthday besides herself, Hilary, and Lauren. "Hey there, come hang out for a while! There's always time to go to the library but Resa's birthday only happens once a year!" she laughed.

She grabbed a plate on the food table and started grabbing a few different things, mostly sugary things, and took a spot on one of the blankets.

Theresa blushed slightly as she went to the table and grabbed a plate, she picked some of the food which of course included sugar sticks and sat down with her friends. "So how did I not see this stuff when I passed here earlier?" she asked suspisiously, something that she had beeen wondering since she arrived.

"Because," she said, holding a very yummy looking cupcake in her hand. "We're awesome and magical and very talented at keeping you distracted."

It was a small party so far, but it was nice, there was lots of food and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Hilary considered, even this early, their party to be a success.

Theresa pretended to scoff "your not that talented, I am easily distracted" she joked. She looked around and had to admit, even though she would never outlowed, that she should have actually noticed something if they managed to do all this, even if they were distracting her.

"You're just mad at yourself for not noticing that we had something planned," Shelby laughed. "Don't worry about it. We were very sneaky with it. There was no way that you would have been able to figure out that we were planning something." She tossed another sugar stick at Resa before taking one for herself.

Lauren grinned, "I'm a pretty good distractor aren't I?" Lauren beamed, knowing that Hilary and Shelby worked hard to put this together. Lauren was smiling as she chewed a chocolate frog from the pile on the table. "Are you having fun?" She asked, "Oh and you never did tell me if you had done your punishment yet?"