Spin the Bottle
By The GryffindorGals
Author's Note:
This was random… Hannah drew a scribble on a piece of paper and it turned out to look like a pretzel. Then we just decided to write a story about pretzels and got side tracked, then ended up with this. Hope you like it anyway!
Disclaimer:
What we do own: A couple pairs of socks, a toothbrush, and a stapler.
What we don't own: Everything else in the world. Including Harry Potter.
"Pass the pretzels!" Sirius's exclaimed one Thursday night, in the seventh year boys' dormitory.
James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Frank, Lily, Emily, Alice, and Mary were all having a big "Study" group filled with pretzels and butterbeer. Some more willing to be there than others. Emily was very enthusiastic about spending more time with her long time crush, Sirius Black, but Lily on the other hand wasn't very happy with Emily for dragging her along.
"Is there any more butterbeer?" Mary asked from her spot on Remus's bed.
There was a clink of empty bottles.
"Nope," Frank replied disappointedly.
"Hey Lily," Emily said turning to her, "what's that muggle game that they play with the empty bottles?"
Alice's face lit up. "Oh I've heard of that, spin the bottle, right?"
"Yes," Lily reluctantly said.
"How do you play?" Emily asked again.
Lily glared at her friend. "Everyone sits in a circle with a bottle in the center and you take turns spinning it. Who ever the top of the bottle points to, you have to kiss."
"Like on the lips kiss?" James asked.
"Yep."
"What if it was my turn and the bottle pointed to a bloke?" Sirius questioned.
Lily rolled her eyes.
"Then you can just give the bottle to the person it pointed to." Lily said, getting many sighs of relief in return.
"Let's play!" Emily exclaimed.
"You don't really all want to play do you? Shouldn't we be studying?" Lily asked, looking at Remus for help.
"I think we deserve a break," he said, giving her an apologetic look.
"I'll get the bottle!" Mary exclaimed.
Everyone sat on the floor in a circle and Mary placed the bottle in the middle.
"Okay!" Sirius said, "I'll go first."
He spun the bottle and it stopped pointing at Alice.
"Sorry Frank," Sirius said as he crossed the circle and quickly kissed Alice.
Lily noticed Emily shudder at Sirius's lack of hesitation.
"All right then, my turn!" Alice grabbed the bottle and spun it.
Its top pointed to Peter.
Alice's enthusiasm quickly dropped as she leaned in to kiss a blushing Peter. Peter then spun the bottle himself and looked up to see where it was pointing. Emily. He gulped, crossed the circle and hurriedly kissed Emily, rushing back to his seat.
Emily bit her lip as she spun the bottle, silently wishing it would point to Sirius, but was horrified when it sat pointing at James.
"Isn't this against the rules? I can't kiss my cousin!" she screeched.
James's jaw dropped. "I am not kissing Emily!"
Lily grinned at them, "You have to, it's the rule!"
Emily scrunched up her nose and made her way over to James.
"Do I really have to?"
"Yes!"
Emily looked at James whose eyebrows were raised.
Well, he is hot even if he is my cousin, and with that thought in mind she leaned in to a disgusted James and just barely pecked him on the lips.
"Ewwwww! Gross!" Emily screamed pulling away immediately. "My lips are tainted!"
Everyone but James and Emily laughed, James was too busy wiping his lips off with the back of his hand and Emily was spitting all over the place.
After James was done de-Emilyfying himself, he spun the bottle, holding his breath. It lay pointing at Mary. James exhaled, relieved that it hadn't landed on Emily again.
As James advanced towards Mary, Lily felt a prang of jealousy in the pit of her stomach. And as his lips touched hers, she suddenly felt protective over James. She had to restrain herself not to stand up and run over and smack him.
James withdrew from Mary, and it was her turn to spin. Remus. She smiled and shifted to face her right side, only to find a grinning Remus. Lily gazed upon them, filled with envy, as they both leaned in for a Titanic worthy kiss. It seemed to Lily that hours had flown by before Sirius shouted, "Get a room!" and they snapped back to reality.
Remus blushed. "My turn, then." He spun the butter beer bottle. It stopped on Alice who was perched just to Remus's right.
Remus and Alice kissed quickly.
The bottle then pointed to Frank, and Lily was again jealous as she witnessed Frank and Alice's overly long snog. Why couldn't she have that? Lily glanced over at James...
Frank grabbed the bottle, still partly-kissing Alice, and spun it.
Emily revised her gaze from Sirius to find everyone staring at her, Sirius with a raised eyebrow.
"My turn?" she asked.
"Yep," Frank replied as he pecked her on the lips.
This was her last chance, probably ever to snog Sirius, the hottest guy in school. Emily closed her eyes, mentally crossed her fingers, and twisted the bottle. She waited until she could no longer hear the bottle scraping the wood floor, and slowly opened one aqua eye.
Sirius! YES!
Emily tried to remain her composure as she excitedly hurried over to snog her dream-crush. Sirius looked over-joyed himself, it was no secret that they both liked each other.
Lily again gazed upon another soon-to-be-happy-couple. She knew she should be happy for Em; she'd been talking about snogging Sirius for years now. But she still couldn't help but feel jealous. Why couldn't someone look at her that way... Kiss her that way... And she found her gaze being lifted towards James.
Meanwhile, Emily and Sirius were at a point in their snogging where it appeared they were eating each others faces off. If James, Remus, Frank, Peter, Alice, and Mary hadn't of known better, they would have guessed they were performing mouth-to-mouth CPR in a life or death situation. Emily and Sirius eventually found their way to the dormitory door, still snogging, and saw themselves out, probably heading to a nearby broom cubbard.
Everyone sat in awe for the longest time, gawking at the door where their friends had just disappeared. At last Remus broke the silence.
"Well now that that's taken care of, who hasn't gone yet?" he asked.
"Lily!" Alice said accusingly.
Lily, however, was busy gawking at James, not quite fully aware of her surroundings.
"Lily...?"
"Huh?" Lily asked.
Mary shook her head. "You haven't gone yet!"
"Oh, oh that! Uh... Sure..." she replied, still quite dazed.
And without thinking twice, she spun the butter beer bottle.
Ten seconds later, there were gasps through out the room.
The bottle had landed on none other than James Potter.
Lily's jaw had dropped. James however was grinning.
"So, Evans, I finally get that snog, do I?" he asked.
Back to her normal self, Lily sneered, though regretted it for some reason afterwards. "In your dreams, Potter."
"It has been, several times."
Lily, choosing to ignore this, stood, and headed for the door.
"Wait! Lily! You made Emily and James follow the rules! You can't just leave!" Alice shouted.
Lily ignored this too and slammed the dormitory door behind her.
Lily headed down the spiral stairs, and out the portrait hole. She let her feet carry her at their will, not knowing where she was headed.
Merlin! Why did I do that! Why did I do that?! Were the most common thoughts that ran through Lily's head as fast as her feet were carrying her. How could I have been so stupid!?
Lily's pace began to quicken as she stepped further and further from the Gryffindor Common Room, not even stopping to think that she could easily get caught by a teacher or a Prefect for roaming the corridors so late. At last, out of breath, she slowed to a halt and took in her surroundings. As it was well into the hours of the night, she felt around the wall searching for a door, or a torch she could possibly light. Cursing that she'd left her wand in her dormitory, her hand fumbled upon a large door handle. Lily pulled with all her might.
You probably have to push it, Stupid! She told herself.
And sure enough, she gave a gigantic heave, and found herself in a most particular room. Actually, it wasn't really that particular at all, the room looked more like and unused classroom than anything. The thing that made it so was a mirror as tall as the ceiling itself, elegant though it was, it looked as it didn't belong.
Twenty-five Minutes EarlierAfter Lily's abrupt outburst, James wordlessly stood and extracted his invisibility cloak from his trunk, along with a blank, folded piece of parchment, and grabbed his wand from his bedside table. He then headed for the fat lady's portrait after Lily, silently slipping on his cloak when he reached the corridor.
"Lumos!" he muttered as the tip of his wand lit up.
Then James proceeded to take the Marauders Map from his pocket. "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good." He whispered into the map as he tapped it lightly with his wand.
Tracking down Lily on the map was easy, since James had marked her with an emerald green. She was headed towards the west side of the castle, moving at a fairly fast pace. Not wanting to become too far behind her, James set off at a sprint with the Marauders Map in one hand and his wand in the other.
It took a few minutes to catch up to Lily, but once he finally did, he had to be careful not to be heard. After about ten minutes of this, Lily came to a halt in front of a rather worn looking door, and entered it after fumbling around for a few seconds searching for its handle. She left the door open a bit, which made it that much easier for James.
He entered the room silently, being careful not to be heard. Then he saw her. Her bright emerald-green eyes cautiously studying the magnificent mirror that lay before her. He could just make out her whisper,
"Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi… Now what could that mean?"
He watched her approach it cautiously, her eyes filled with wonder, as if she had never seen anything quite as extraordinary.
Suddenly, Lily gasped and jumped back as though she had been shocked. She was staring wide-eyed into the mirror, her hand half-covering her mouth. James almost lost his composure and ran over to see what was the matter, but then the awful truth that she was mad at him hit James. How could he reveal himself without her running out on him again? Why had she run out in the first place? He could understand why she'd leave, she hated him! Why would she want to snog him?
Within his own internal battle, he hadn't realized Lily's strange change in behavior. She was again carefully approaching the mirror, but this time, she was staring into it as if she saw something besides herself reflecting upon her. Lily's eyes appeared to become wider and wider the close she drew towards the mirror. She was now staring open mouthed at the inscription. James unfocused from his internal battle when he heard Lily speak the words,
"I show… not your face… but… your hearts… desire…" she removed her eyes from the inscription back to the mirror. Then she whispered one word, "James…"
It was then the light bulb flickered on in James's head, the mirror shows the one thing you truly desire. If Lily was correct about the mirror… and she had just muttered his name…
James silently removed his cloak, and stepped forward. The sound of his feet scuffing the floor caused Lily to spiral around and spot him; one hand still remained reached towards the mirror.
