RP: Party Planning

[rar_lisa]

Date: 26 April 1999
Characters: Lisa Turpin, Lavender Brown
Location: Calliope's Cafe
Status: Private
Summary: Lisa and Lavender plan a birthday party.
Completion: Complete

Comments

[rar_lavender]

Friday afternoon and time for a spot of post-ballet refuelling. Lavender was enjoying her lessons, even if she was often left rather wiped afterwards and her feet hurting. So, after a shower and changing into some comfortable shoes, Lavender headed to Diagon Alley after Bobbin the house elf had informed her that her grandmother was having dinner with a gentleman caller. Lavender wasn't quite sure she wanted to know what that meant, and so she decided to go out for something to eat.

She considered going to the Pink Umbrella, but she knew if she went there she could just end up pigging out on chocolate brownie and a sinfully good chocolate milkshake.

So she headed to Calliope's instead, knowing she wouldn't be quite so tempted and that she could get a decent sandwich or something there. When she arrived at the café, Lavender spotted Lisa as as she was looking for a table, and stopped to say hello.

"Hi! Haven't seen you for a while."

[rar_lisa]

Lisa had just written "Invitation List" at the top of her parchment when she heard a voice greeting her. She looked up to see her old housemate standing next to her. "Hi, Lavender!" she said, brightly. "It has been a long time. How are you? How's your grandmother's house?"

[rar_lavender]

"I'm alright, thanks. Just came to get something to eat because Gradma's gone out for the night. The house is good. Very different than Hogsmeade. What about you? I'm sure Parvati told me what you're doing these days, but I can't remember."

She tilted her head, looking at the parchment Lisa was writing on. "Oh, what are you planning?" she asked curiously.

[rar_lisa]

"Things are good," Lisa said, smiling. "I'm working on the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad at the Ministry, actually. Just training now, but I think we're going we're going to get to start on our first cases soon."

She glanced back down at the parchment, then shrugged. "My birthday party. Or my potential party, I guess." Lisa gestured to the seat across from her. "Do you want to sit?"

[rar_lavender]

"Oh, that's right." Lavender nodded. "Are you finding it interesting?"

She smiled, then nodded. "Sure." It certainly wouldn't hurt to have a little company and it was better than sitting by herself as she so often seemed to do. Lavender slipped into the seat opposite Lisa, reaching for a menu so that she could take a look at it.

"When's your birthday?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "Mine's in a couple of weeks, funnily enough."

[rar_lisa]

Lisa nodded. "It's brilliant so far. I've learned so many new spells already--I can't wait to start putting them into practise."

Lavender sat down, and Lisa couldn't help grinning. The two had never really been close, even when sharing a house, but she'd always liked the other witch. It was nice to have someone for a chat, and maybe Lavender could give some good input on her party plans. "It is? That is funny! Mine's May ninth. I don't usually have a big party, but this year it just seems...right. When's yours?"

[rar_lavender]

Lavender looked up from the menu, raising her eyebrows. "The twelfth." She giggled. "I can't believe we lived together and I never knew that."

She nodded as she considered Lisa's reasoning. "Yeah, this year's different, isn't it?" Last year she'd spent her birthday living in the room of requirement and she knew Lisa's must have been far, far worse. It was the missing birthday, the one that hadn't really happened. "I was kind of debating whether or not to have a party this year. I wasn't sure."

[rar_lisa]

"Me either," she said, shaking her head as she laughed. "I guess it just never came up because we weren't living together in May."

Lisa nodded, knowing that Lavender understood exactly what she meant. "It is. I wasn't sure I'd make it here at all, much less make it here and actually be happy to see it." She tapped the tip of her quill on the parchment. "I hadn't consciously considered it until I went to Utopia for the first time last week. Terry and I went, and it was...perfect, I think. Plenty of space for people to sit and talk, games to play, a bar. And I just realised I had to have a party there."

[rar_lavender]

"That's true," Lavender relented.

"Utopia's nice," she agreed, deciding that she'd order a ploughman's as she really couldn't make up her mind and, that way, she'd get a little bit of everything. "I've been there a couple of times. Met one of your old housemates there, actually, Kevin. The food's not too bad, either."

[rar_lisa]

"I loved it there. Even bought a book so I can learn some of the wizarding games." Lisa laughed. "Not terribly surprising, I guess. I didn't eat much, but what I did have was good."

She paused as they ordered their dinner. Lisa opted for egg salad after a last minute glance at the menu. Maybe she'd order something sweet afterwards, or even stop by the Sweet Shop. She still had some chocolates left from her visit to Honeydukes, but it didn't hurt to vary it up a little. Once the waitress had gone, she turned back to Lavender. "I was thinking about Saturday the eleventh." She frowned. "Though that would make it tough for us to both have parties.... You know, we could just plan something together, if you wanted."

[rar_lavender]

Lavender ordered a drink as well as her food, putting the menu to the side when they were alone again.

She looked at Lisa, a little surprised by the offer. "I... yeah. That might be fun, especially as we probably have a fair few friends that overlap, I expect." Oh, this could be interesting. "Saturday the eleventh sounds good to me."

[rar_lisa]

Lisa grinned. She was glad voicing the sudden thought had paid off. "It makes perfect sense, really. Might be a bit bigger than for just one of us, but I think you're right--we share enough friends that much of the guest list would be the same." She let out a little girly giggle and then clapped one hand over her mouth, laughing at herself. "I don't think I've ever planned a party like this before. I think it will be fun."

[rar_lavender]

Lavender wrinkled her nose teasingly. "They say size doesn't matter. But bigger can be good." She grinned.

"I haven't done anything like this for ages, so this will be nice. I guess one of us will need to talk to the manager at Utopia or something? And... invitations once we've worked out who to invite, I suppose."

[rar_lisa]

Lisa nodded and pulled out a couple more pieces of parchment and a quill, passing one across the table to Lavender. On her second sheet, she began making a list. "I don't mind talking to the manager. I wonder if they'll let us decorate." She made a face. "I'd be terrible at that part. We'll need to figure out how many people we're inviting so we can order enough food, send invitations...."

She sat back in her chair, sighing playfully. "All right, I'm exhausted with this planning already. Maybe this is why I never had big parties. There's so much to consider."

[rar_lavender]

"I don't see why they wouldn't let us decorate," Lavender said, shrugging. "And I'm not too bad at that. You'd just have to stop me from going overboard or sneaking in too many Wheezes."

Her drink was brought over and Lavender sipped her lemonade, giggling. "It'll be fine. Book Utopia, come up with a guest list, then the pub can do the food if we tell them the numbers." She frowned. "Don't think there'd be much more to do after sending the invitations."

Lavender smiled slyly. "Apart from the all-important choice of outfit. And that's where Parvati is very useful."

[rar_lisa]

"Really?" Lisa said. Then she laughed. "Well, I guess it's a good thing you've got some experience with this sort of thing. I'd have spent hours just trying to calculate how many orders of chips to get."

She looked back down at her list, then flipped over to the invitation list again. "Maybe we should just start with who to invite, then. That way I'll have a number to give the manager when I go to Utopia, and we can work on the invitations." She pointed to Lavender's blank parchment. "We can each make a list, and then just cross off the names we've duplicated. We'll be less likely to forget anyone that way."

Lisa groaned. "I refuse to spend my birthday in some terribly uncomfortable dress. You should have seen this skirt--" She stopped, chuckling. "No, I'm sure you would have liked it, too." She sighed. "I suppose I should resign myself to letting her dress me up for every special occasion. Maybe I can at least talk her down to denims and a nice shirt this time."