A/N: Hey, all! I'm taking a quick break from SSNF because, writer's block. To try to cure it, I messed around with some James/Lily because at heart I'm always Jily AF. Do not fret, however. SSNF should be updated by this Saturday at the VERY latest. So, enjoy my Jily. Or don't. It's up to you.

Fifth Year:

James, still fuming, fully dressed and unable to fall asleep, reached under his pillow and pulled out his invisibility cloak. After grabbing the folded sheet of parchment that was resting on his side table and swinging the cloak over himself, James tiptoed out of the dormitory, as to not wake any of his sleeping roommates.

A pick me up is what he needed, he thought to himself as he closed the common room door behind him. The house elves that worked in the kitchen loved him, and if he turned his charm on high enough he would be able to convince them to give him some of the Firewhiskey he knew they kept stored down there for the teachers. James would've tried to nick some out of Sirius's stores, but he knew for a fact that he would notice if any had gone missing, so he had decided against taking that risk.

As he crept down the stairs on his way to the basement, James scanned the Marauder's Map, making sure each floor was empty before he ventured to it. It was two in the morning, so he already knew that he was completely alone in the castle, but his careful examination of the map distracted him from Evans's voice which had been ringing in his ears for hours now. Sort of. You make me SICK. This wasn't a new insult per say, but the context in which it had been yelled had affected James in a way he wasn't used to. Normally he just shook it off as banter but this was…something different. The hate in her eyes had been clear and violent and James didn't know what to make of it. It had kept him up all night.

By the time he had reached the first floor he was fuming again, stomping instead of walking, and he wouldn't have bothered to check the map a final time if he hadn't heard loud sniffling coming from the stairs down to the basement. James stopped in his tracks, hoping that whoever the source of the sound was hadn't heard him. The sniffling continued on uninterrupted and James let out a sigh of relief. He looked down at the map to see if he would be able to sneak past whoever was there, or if perhaps it was ghost, and nearly dropped the map in surprise. Lily Evans was sitting four steps down the staircase to the basement by herself. At two in the morning. Sniffling.

James felt a strong urge to go comfort her, hug her, stroke her face or something but he held himself back as her words rang in his ears again. She wouldn't want to see him, let alone be comforted by him and he didn't think he could bear being yelled at by her again. Shaking his head, James was about to walk back up the stairs towards Gryffindor Tower when a strangled sob sounded out from the basement staircase, followed by quieter crying. Without taking a moment to think about it, James rushed back towards the staircase, pulling his cloak off and stowing it under his robes as he went.

He saw Lily four steps down, leaning against the side of the stairs with two bottles of Firewhiskey sitting next to her – one completely empty and one half-empty. She didn't notice him – her knees were up and she was leaning her head against them, her face in her hands. Quietly, he sat down on the same step as her, leaning against the opposite side of the stairs. She didn't notice him at first, so he cleared his throat loudly and she looked up. Her bright green eyes were glassy and her cheeks were flushed a bright red that matched her hair from crying and alcohol, but she seemed unbothered by his presence.

"Oh," she said, "Hi, James."

James stared at her as she picked up the second bottle of Firewhiskey and took a drink from it. She had never called him James. It was always Potter, or git or some other insult that fit the circumstances, but never James. Lily seemed unconcerned by this change, however, so James went with it.

"Hi, Lily," he said, her first name feeling weird on his tongue, "Why are you down here?"

Lily stared at him for a moment before laughing manically – and loudly. "Didn't you hear, James? I'm a Mudblood. A dir-y, stup, filt-y Muhblood." She started slurring her words and furrowed her eyebrows then shook her head, taking another drink from the bottle.

"Lily, what Snape said doesn't matter," James started to say, but Lily interrupted him.

"Is not just Snape! It's Potter too!" she said, her eyes lighting up with anger.

"Lily," James said cautiously, wondering if she'd really onlyhad a bottle and a half, "You know that I'm Pot-"

Lily interrupted him again. "Be stop talking, James. I'm trying to tell you what Potter did."

James considered trying to explain to her what she was having difficulty grasping, but he was curious as to where this was going, so he sighed, put his hands up in surrender and said, "Sorry, Lily. Continue, please."

Lily nodded seriously. "Tank you. I was saying, Snape called me a Budblood but Potter tried to defend me but he is just as bad and I don't want him to defend me I want him to fall in the lake and get eaten by the Giant Squib."

James bit his lip to stop himself from laughing. "You mean the Giant Squid?"

Lily scrunched up her face and said, "Mhmm. That."

"Well," James started slowly, not wanting to push his luck, "Why do you want that?"

"Want wha?"

"For Potter to be eaten by the Giant Squid."

"Oh," Lily seemed to ponder for a moment before saying intelligently, "He's dumb."

"Why is he dumb?" James pushed, "I mean, he's got pretty good Transfiguration marks, I've heard." James tried to keep the arrogance out of his voice and failed. Luckily, Lily didn't pick up on it.

Lily shook her head. "Not like that dumb. Like dumb dumb. Like always trying to…to like…to show off…and to be all…dumb."

James rolled his eyes. "Thanks for clearing that up, Lily."

"Mhmm," Lily said again before reaching for the Firewhiskey again.

"Let's be done with that, okay?" James asked, reaching out and grabbing the bottle before she could, placing it out of her reach.

"Hey, that's Marlene's, give it," Lily huffed.

"I'll give it back to Marlene," James promised, "But you don't need anymore right now."

Lily glared at him for a second before sighing resignedly. "Fine."

James smiled at her, standing up and reaching out the hand not holding the bottle to her. "Let's get you back up to the common room, alright, Lily?"

Lily eyed his hand for a moment before grabbing it and he pulled her up, grabbing her arm as she stumbled. "Thanks," she mumbled, leaning into his chest.

James froze for a second before wrapping his arm around her waist tightly – so that she wouldn't fall again. "'Course, Lily. Anything for you."

Slowly, he helped her back up the many staircases to the Gryffindor common room. Lily leaned on James the entire time, lurching often and randomly, but his grip on her was tight and she remained mostly upright.

When they reached the Fat Lady, she raised her eyebrows, eyeing the clearly intoxicated Lily, who was now quietly giggling to herself, and the bottle of Firewhiskey in James's free hand, and opened her mouth as if to say something, but James gave her a look and said, "Hippogriff."

"If you say so," the Fat Lady said, swinging open.

The common room was completely empty, but the fire still roared in the fireplace, so James led Lily over to the couch. She followed his lead without question, and when they reached the couch she flopped down onto it, stretching out and taking up the entirety of it. She burrowed her face into one of the pillows and sighed.

James chuckled and said, "Can I sit with you?"

"No," Lily replied, her voice muffled by the pillow.

"Alright," James said, dropping into a chair next to the couch, "But I can't go up into the girl's dormitory, and I don't think you can walk up the stairs by yourself."

Lily turned her head to look at him and considered this. "Probably right. I'll sleep here."

"Do you want me to stay with you?" James asked, a hint of hopefulness in his voice.

"Mmm…if you want to, James. But I'm not sleep yet," she said, contradicting herself with a loud yawn.

"That's alright," he said, "We can talk until you fall asleep."

"Why does Potter like me so much?" She asked suddenly, her voice clearer than before.

"Er," James said, caught off guard.

"No other guys like me, except Severus, and I don't like Severus, but other guys tell me I'm boring so I don't get why Potter likes me. Do you know, James?" She looked up at him, her wide green eyes full of confusion. "Why are you smiling?"

James quickly dropped the smile that had appeared on his face when Lily said she didn't like Snape and said hastily, "I don't know. Er, you're not boring, Evans, you're really-"

"Evans?" Lily was staring at him as though he had just sprouted five heads.

"That's you…" James said slowly, watching as her eyes grew wider and more confused.

"Potter, what are you doing down here? I was just talking to…I was…" Lily's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head. "Oh…"

"Lily, wait," James started to say but Lily stood up abruptly, stumbling slightly but regaining her balance.

"I'm going to bed, I'm going to, uh," she said, her eyes darting around the room, looking at everything but James.

"Lily, come on," he said standing up and reaching out to grab her arm to steady her but she stepped away from him and turned, walking as quickly as she could without falling towards the girl's staircase.

James hadn't moved – he was staring at the foot of the staircase, feeling like he'd been punched in the face.

Seventh Year:

James trudged heavily up the stairs, his entire body sticky with sweat. He had taken his jersey off and left it in the lockers, and despite his tendency to tear his jersey off at the end of games, he sincerely hoped he didn't run into anyone on his way up to Head's dorm. Ripping his shirt off in an adrenaline-filled craze wasn't quite the same as explaining to McGonagall why he was walking around the school shirtless.

Quidditch practice that night had been brutal. It was his first year as captain and his last year at Hogwarts, so the pressure was unbelievable. However, this meant that practices were tending to last longer than usual with the desire to win their first game of the season, which was coming up in a week, at an all time maximum.

Glancing at his watch, he saw that he was ten minutes late for his rounds with Lily. He groaned. He'd already been late for rounds twice in the past two weeks, and Lily had made it extremely clear that his face would become extremely familiar with the business end of one of her hexes if he was late a third time.

It wasn't that Lily still hated him – they had managed to become sort of friends during their sixth year. However, there was a still a strange tension between them that would cause Lily to freeze him out randomly and storm off when a conversation had gotten good. To James, it seemed that she was deliberately forcing herself not to fancy him. Several times he had gotten her laughing only for her to shake her head, mumble something about studying and run as far from him as she could. Sirius would try to console him by saying hey, at least she's talking to you at all, but it never really stopped the sinking feeling in his stomach that there was something wrong with him. They got along, he made her laugh, they were friends, and though he would never say it to her directly he had seen her face when he pulled off his jersey at the end of the Quidditch Final last year. He knew this wasn't just friendship, so why wouldn't she admit it?

James sighed and stopped himself mid-thought. Now wasn't the time to wonder about Lily Evans's intimacy issues. Now was the time to face her inevitable wrath. He figured that he might as well get it over with, so he marched up the final steps to the Head's dorm with only a little bit of fear in his eyes. As he opened the door, he put his arms in front of his face, expecting to be attacked the moment he walked in. Instead, he was met by very high-pitched giggling.

Lowering his arms slowly, his eyes found Lily sprawled across the couch in front of the fireplace, a bottle of Firewhiskey dangling from her hand. An empty bottle lay on the floor next to her and she was staring at the ceiling, cackling like a lunatic.

Slowly, James walked towards the couch, his arms not completely away from his face. "Lily?" he asked, "Are you okay?"

Lily let out another shrill laugh, still staring at the ceiling. "Oh, I am just grand, James. Absopolutely grand."

Sitting down in the chair next to her, James smiled slightly and said, "Are you sure? Because it looks like you've almost entirely finished my store of Firewhiskey. I had plans for that, you know."

Still refusing to look at him, Lily replied, "Oh, I am so sorry, James. Now how will you and the martyrs get drunk? Ha, ha, ha. I got drunk for you."

"The Marauders, Lily, not the martyrs," James corrected her, "And I think they would've preferred if you hadn't gotten drunk in their place."

"Well, that is stinky for them because I am already drink. It's too late. Tooooooo late. Tooo late, Snivellus. Way tooo late."

James stiffened. "Snape? What did he do, Lily?"

Lily shrugged, closing her eyes. "Toooo late. Tooooo late. Toooooo late," she sang quietly to herself.

"Lily."

"Too late."

"What did Snape say?"

"Duzznt matter. Too late."

"Lily, tell me," James demanded, exasperated.

"Fine," Lily said, her eyes still closed. "He came to me and he said he's sorry that he said I was a Mudblood and I said well I am one and he said well if you be my friend and not Potter's friend then we'll find a way to say you're not a one and I said but I AM one and he got mad, he said this is Potter's fault and I hit him." She stopped and started giggling. "I hit his face, James. With. My. Hand."

Trying extremely hard not to laugh at her, James asked, "Why'd you hit him?"

"'Cause I'm a Mudblood. That is me. I'm not…I'm not gonna pretend…just to…his friend…that's stupid," she said, her eyebrows scrunched over her tightly closed eyes. "What's smell?"

"What?" James asked.

Lily tried again, "What's…smelly?"

"Oh," James said, looking down at himself. "That's probably me. Quidditch practice."

"Oh," Lily said, opening her eyes and turning her head to look at him. "Oh," she said again.

"What?" James repeated, looking quizzically at her dumbfounded expression. "Lily, are you alright?"

"I, uh," she stuttered, the Firewhiskey bottle thudding to the ground as she sat up, luckily close enough to the ground that it didn't shatter. "You don't have shirt."

James looked down at himself as though he too had not realized this fact. "Nope," he said, "I don't."

"Why?" Lily asked, squinting as though she was staring at a very bright light.

"Quidditch practice, I told you that."

"No," she said, "You said you were smelly because of it not…"

"Not what?" he asked curiously, a hint of mischief in his voice that Lily didn't pick up on.

"Hot?" Lily was staring at his chest as she said this and didn't even flush in embarrassment when James's cheeks went red. She glanced up to his face and asked, "Why are you hot?"

Every ounce of cockiness and ego that ran through his veins drained out of him very quickly and all he could manage to reply was, "Er…"

Lily stood up abruptly, swaying on the spot slightly and glaring at him. "What the hell, James?"

"What?" he asked defensively, putting his hands up in front of his face.

"You…why…why!" she exclaimed, her eyes bulging.

"Can you rephrase the question?" James asked, holding back a laugh. Lily picked up on his amusement this time and grew angrier.

"Why you, you," she stuttered, stumbling forward as though to attack him. Instead, she tripped over her own feet and fell on top of him, her head banging into his forehead.

"OW!"

"Ow!"

"Evans, what is wrong with you?" James yelled from underneath her, trying to push her off of him.

Lily started at her last name and she looked up, staring at him. She was lying across his chest and her face was just below his chin. "Evans?"

"Oh, Merlin…" James groaned, "Lily…"

"Potter…" Lily was staring at him, confused, but she still hadn't moved from her position on top of him.

"I'm sorry," James said, "I'll leave you alone. Here, let me help you up."

He put his hands on her waist and moved to lift her but Lily smacked him hard on the arm, jerking her waist out of his grip.

"OW!" He yelled, rubbing his arm. "I'm sorry! Get up yourself then, Evans!"

"Potter," Lily repeated, her voice not angry but confused. She sat up, wrapping her legs around his waist and continuing to stare at him.

James felt a shiver go down his entire body. Lily Evans was straddling his waist and staring at him. If he dropped dead right at that moment, James would've been perfectly happy. However, he noticed that Lily's eyes were still glassy and she was staring at him with a look of such bewilderment that he wondered if she knew who she was looking at. "Evans – sorry – Lily, are you alright?"

"James…Potter…Potter…" she mumbled, continuing to stare at him.

"Yeah," he said, watching her curiously, "That's me."

"Potter James," she said, putting her hand on his chest.

Ignoring the tingling that he felt when she touched him, James said, "Still me."

"Mmm…" Lily kept her hand on his chest, her eyes locked with his.

"Lily?" James asked weakly.

"Shh," Lily said, and then without as much as a second's warning, she leaned forward and crushed her lips to his, wrapping her arms around his neck to anchor herself to him.

James felt such a rush of euphoria run through is body that he briefly wondered if he had spontaneously combusted. Dead or not, he figured he might as well make the most of this moment, so he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, pulling her closer. Lily made a noise in the back of her throat that made James want to pick her up and shove her against the common room wall, but before he could she started grinding his lap, deepening their kiss as she did.

For a minute or five, James let this continue, savoring the taste of her strawberry chap stick mixed with the spicy taste of Firewhiskey, but a guilty thought ran through his mind. She's drunk. You're taking advantage of her. Stop this. Sighing at his conscience, James pulled away from Lily, who let out a whimper of disdain and glared at him.

"Wha?" she asked from her perch on top of his lap.

"You're extremely drunk, Lily," he said, leaning his head against the back of the chair and closing his eyes.

"So?"

"So, I don't want to force you to do anything you wouldn't do sober."

"But…I wanna snog you," Lily whined, grabbing his hand and tugging on it.

"Maybe tomorrow when you're sober," James said, determinedly not looking at her. He knew that if he did, he would never be able to deny her request.

"But…but…James…please?" Lily complained again.

James ignored her, staring at the ceiling, and he thought she was going to give up until he felt her lean forward. "Lil-" he started, but his voice caught in his throat as Lily leaned forward and started kissing his neck.

"Please – snog – me –" Lily said in between kisses. She moved her hands up to James's hair so that she could wrap her fingers in the unruly mess as she continued up his neck, sucking gently on sensitive spots.

"Evans," James groaned, "You have to stop…or I'm not going to…"

"Don't," Lily mumbled against his neck before leaning back up to his lips and snogging him again. James moaned into her mouth, giving up completely. As his hands found their way to her waist again, he figured that they could afford to miss one night of rounds.

A/N (again, sorry): So that was my Jily attempt! Love it, hate it, just want me to start working on SSNF again? Let me know! Love you all.

A/N (part 3): I'm totally not advocating snogging intoxicated girls when they are very clearly tipsy. I like to think that Lily is pretty coherent at this point, at least emotionally. Or I'm just a lazy writer. You tell me (actually please don't, I already know that I'm a lazy writer).

The point is don't take this as me telling you all it's okay to take advantage of drunk people. It's not. Okay. That's all. Bye.