Is this how you're supposed to do the author's note? Oh, well. This is it, even if it's wrong. This is my first story ever, so please, PLEASE let me know if you like it or what you want me to change. I'm going to try my best to stick with tradition Hogwarts stuff, but we'll see how it goes.
Disclaimer: I need this because as much as I wish I was as brilliant as J. K. Rowling, I am not. I do not own the characters/Harry Potter world, Rowling does. She has all rights/ownership to all things Harry Potter. The only thing that's mine is this remake, which uses her characters. Is this too extensive?
Technically, it wasn't a party. Exams were finally over, and we had three days of pure leisure on the Hogwarts grounds. Everyone was ecstatic. There wasn't supposed to be food in the common rooms, but I suspected that James and his friends had gotten the elves to give them some anyway. Someone had turned up their stereo very loud, but I was the only one who seemed to be concerned about getting caught. As I cast spells around the door to keep the sounds of music and livery from escaping, I really thought about it. Technically, it wasn't a party. But that didn't mean they couldn't get in trouble for it.
"Come on, Lily!" Andrea Brown giggled. She held up a bottle. "There's butterbeer!"
That explains a lot, I thought. Andrea stumbled and brushed some blonde hair out of her face, where it fell back a few seconds later.
"I'm tired!" I told her.
"No you're not!" Andrea giggled. She grabbed my arm and pulled me over to the food table, where bottles and bottles of butter beer sat next to all sorts of cakes, pies, pudding, tarts, and any other sort of dessert you can imagine. I couldn't pretend I wasn't temped... After all, I love sweets. But i knew half of these must be spiked with something, because I can't picture all of the Marauders leaving every pastry completely clean.
She was right, even though she was drunk. I shouldn't worry right now, at least not so much. I picked up a small cookie and ate it in one bite.
"Have some fun!" she slurred in a shout, slowly stumbling her way to where everyone was dancing in the common room. The couches, chairs, and tables had all been moved to the side, and many of the younger students had gone to bed. Maybe they got scared off.
Deciding it would probably be best to not be drunk and hung over for tomorrow, when I would see my parents, I made my way over to the dancing without any alcohol. Of course, being around so many people with the music so loud gave me a natural high.
A few moments later, it made no difference that I had no butter beer. A mixture of exhaustion, excitement, and lots of people made me feel high, though I was certain I hadn't done any drugs. Perhaps that cookie wasn't as innocent as I thought it was. Andrea wasn't my only friend who had drunk a little too much and was now getting crazy on the floor. Sylvia Macmillan was trying to dance with a guy who could hardly stand upright, and Janice Abbott was busy entertaining multiple guys at once.
Then, before I could do anything about it, I found myself dancing by Potter. Thankfully, the small part of my brain that was still functioning properly kept me from getting too close to him.
"Evans!" he shouted over the music. "Funny seeing you here!"
Still riding on my emotional high, I didn't turn him down. Not yet, at least.
"I know," I replied. "In my own common room! What a surprise."
"I mean dancing by me," he said. The moment the words crossed his lips, the music dies down into softer, slower beats. But no one else was affected by it. Everyone else was still hearing the hard party music.
"How'd you do that?" I asked him quietly.
He grabbed my hands and placed them around his shoulders. My brain was still processing things too slowly for me to move them. His hands were on my waist, and he was close to me. Too close.
"You hear what you want to hear," he whispered. I could easily hear him over the music, where earlier he was shouting and I could only just catch his voice.
"That's not true," I said back to him.
"And why not?"
"Because I don't like the Merlin Brothers," I told him.
"Maybe you're lying," he said.
"I don't lie."
"You've lied to me."
"When?" I said, honestly wracking my brain to think of a time I've lied to him.
"You told me that you didn't like me."
I stared up at him for a moment, into those chocolate brown eyes of his. He hadn't messed up his hair in a while, but it was still unruly. In a good way, I decided. But I'd never tell James that.
"Evans?" he asked.
"What?" I said, snapping back to the present.
"Are you telling me that you were lying?"
"About what?" I said. I couldn't recall what we were talking about. I hadn't even had any butterbeers yet…
"When you said you didn't like me," he prompted, looking at me strangely.
"I don't like you, though," I said. Three little words popped into the back of my brain, but I quickly shoved them from my mind. Not now. Not while I seemed to have little control over what spewed out of my mouth. Not while they weren't even really true. Or were they...? I pushed that thought out of my mind right now, too.
He smiled widely. "You're good, Evans," he said. "But you don't fool me."
I hardly even fooled myself. "Is there something you're trying to say to me, Potter?" I asked him.
"I'm saying go out with me, Evans," he whispered. His eyes were so persuasive, his tone so endearing… I almost said yes right then and there, but I stopped myself. I tried to regain my composure. I couldn't cave. Not now, because I'd regret it later. This is why you turned down the alcohol, remember Lily? So you wouldn't say yes. So don't say yes.
I leaned in close to his face, my nose inches from his. I had to stand on my tippy toes, and he was looking down, but I was close enough that it didn't matter. Using all the self control I could muster, I whispered back, "No." It took everything I had not to kiss him.
I stood back a little and stared at his face. I couldn't make out his expression for a moment, before he reached up and messed up his hair.
"You'll say yes someday, Evans," he said confidently.
"What makes you think that?" I asked him.
"Because you can't resist me," he said. I couldn't decide if he truly believed it or if he was more interested in convincing himself.
I thought about that for a moment. It held some truth to it. A month ago, I would have claimed I hated James Potter, and I would have been telling the truth. If it weren't for these silly teenage hormones that had crept into my brain right now, I wouldn't have changed my opinion of him. I still haven't, I just find it harder to keep that opinion in my mind when I'm looking in those chocolate brown eyes of his.
No. My opinion of him three months ago was the one i should have kept. So why was I still dancing here with him? Was it because I figured the last day couldn't hurt? Was it because I thought he'd forget it all in the morning? Because I hadn't seen Potter drink anything. If either of us would forget it, it would be me. Maybe that was why i allowed myself to dance with him for a few more minutes. What you don't know can't hurt you, right? Ignorance is bliss.
"Lily!" I heard Janice shout. I turned and my hands dropped from Potter's shoulders like lead weights. He quickly removed his hands from my waist. "Lily!" she shouted again. I finally spotted her in the crowd and waved.
When I turned around, James was gone.
"Lily!" Janice slurred, putting her arm on my shoulder and using me as support. "Lily," she said once more.
"What?" I asked her.
"Sylvia is upstairs crying," she said.
Potter forgotten, I hurried upstairs with Janice until I found Sylvia, leaning over a bucket filled with the leftovers of what she ate earlier that night.
"Lily," Sylvia sobbed out uncontrollably, gasping three times just in my name. "Lily, I..."
"What, Sylvia?" I asked her, holding her hair out of her face as she unleashed more leftovers into the bucket. Janice attempted to use a vanishing spell to get rid of it, but she only made more vomit. I lifted my want and vanished it easily.
"I don't feel good," she gasped.
I smiled. I figured that much. "It's okay, Syl. You'll be okay. We're here now."
I caught a weak smile on her pretty face before she got sick again and threw up all over the floor. I took advantage of the vanishing spell once more.