"A surprise birthday party? I don't know..." said Lucy, biting her nails.

"C'mon," said Roxy, streching her legs out on the sofa of the Burrow, "she'll love it, really. Lily loves surprises, remember?"

"That," accused Rose, pointing a pretzel at Roxy, "is the biggest lie I've ever heard. We all know Lily absolutely loathes surprises."

"Yes, but she doesn't even know we're up to anything," Roxy tried to convince her cousins. "Come on. Please?"

"It still doesn't sound like the best idea," replied Lucy, hesitantly. "How and when and where and why..."

"Luce, we'll figure that out," Roxy flippantly waved a hand in Lucy's direction, rotating her body so she was sitting up. "She only turns sixteen one. Plus, she's the baby of the family, besides Hugo, right? It's not like we'll get another chance."

"You're barmy," said Rose, shaking her head – but Roxanne had already clearly started to grate her down, as there was some semblance of a smile on her face.

"I still don't know," said Lucy.

"If, and I say if, we get in trouble, we won't blame you, I promise," said Roxy. "We won't get you in trouble with Uncle Perce."

Lucy uncharacteristically rolled her eyes at her cousin.

"So..." drawled Roxy, "how about it?"

"You realize your mother is going to kill you, right? She's still not too happy about the Quidditch in the garden incident." Roxanne winced at the memory before responding to Rose's statement.

"Ah. Right. Forgot about that," Roxanne looked mildly uncomfortable. It had been a very unpleasant experience for both of the seventeen year olds.

"I don't quite fancy getting grounded again," responded Rose.

"I don't quite fancy getting grounded at all," responded Lucy.

"Live a little, Luce," Roxanne bumped her cousin's shoulder. "I'm pretty good at baking. I can make the cake."

"Roxanne, you are complete pants at cooking. I can make the cake," replied Rose.

"So we are doing the surprise party?" asked Roxanne happily.

Lucy didn't say anything.

"I guess so. You wouldn't have stopped bothering me until I said yes," sighed Rose.

"Not bother. Just mildly annoy."

"Is there a difference, Roxy?"

"Not particularly, no."

"I'm pretty sure your dad used to experiment his products on you when you were a kid. There's no other explanation for you," laughed Rose.

"Objection," said Roxanne, but there was a smile on her face. "He did that to me and Freddie. Duh."

"So this surprise party, huh?" replied Lucy. "If we don't cause too much trouble..."

"I think I might be wearing her down," grinned Roxanne. "C'mon. It'll be fun. Pleeeeease?"

"Oh, fine," Lucy huffed, but the smile on her face ruined the effect. "As long as you two are the ones who get in trouble for the things that go wrong."
"Nothing is going to go wrong," Roxanne protested.

"Actually, according to our past record..."

a/n - according to openoffice, wordcount is 502. for Hogwarts Winter Games, biathlon: relay, and also for Represent that Character and One Million Word Competitions. And with this, the collection is finished :)