AN: hi, yes, I'm back. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own HP.

Lily loved drinking, and she loved parties. She was good at capturing the attention of the entire room with a single smile, and she knew it. She absolutely hated two things about parties, though: being Marlene's wingman, and the Marauders.

She had known Marlene for two years; since she left the boarding school she had been lucky to get a scholarship to. Unfortunately, she had known the Marauders for far, far longer, and had hated them since the day she met them.

"C'mon, Lils!" Marlene whined. "It's been forever since I had a good shag, and the Marauders parties are never that bad. They're better than those game nights at Snape's you used to drag me to."

"God, would you stop bringing those up, Marlene? It's been six months!"

"You so owe me for those," Marlene muttered as they approached James Potter's house. He was rich enough to own his own house at only nineteen, a nice cottage in the better part of Godric's Hollow. Lily and Marlene lived in a small flat above a bar, and lived paycheck to paycheck. Lily couldn't help but think James Potter did not deserve to have everything so easy for him.

The party inside was loud and filled with people. Lily sighed as Marlene dragged her through the crowd. At least in this mess, she probably wouldn't have to see any of the Marauders. "Let's dance!" Marlene shouted in her ear.

Lily wanted to make her way straight to the beer, or to the vodka she somehow knew James kept hidden in the cupboard closest to his fridge, but she followed Marlene instead. To her relief, Marlene stuck by her for the next two hours, until the party was winding down.

"Over there!" Marlene hissed then, pointing at a gorgeous man just a few feet away. Lily had not had enough to drink to deal with her best friend going after Sirius Black, another Marauder and James Potter's best friend.

She followed along dutifully, wishing she had grabbed the vodka earlier. She knew if she was just a little bit drunker, or drunk at all, really, the prospect of being her best friend's wingman for a Marauder might feel even just a little better.

"Evans?" Sirius asked as they approached.

"Black," Lily replied, attempting to sound cordial, and probably failing. "This is Marlene."

"Sirius!"

As if this night could get any worse, Lily thought. James Potter was approaching. Lily had spent seven years seeing him every day at school—she could have dealt with never seeing him again, even if she did attend parties at his house on a semi-regular basis.

While Lily had been paying attention to her rapidly approaching nemesis, Sirius and Marlene had been flirting their heads off. Two attractive, tipsy individuals didn't really need her help to get together.

Sirius turned to talk to James, muttering something about a 'fit bird' and 'orange vodka'. Lily tuned him out, figuring that it was probably better not to know. "Lily," Marlene whispered in her ear. "Do me a favor and don't come home tonight, yeah?"

"Don't you dare, Marlene McKinnon!" Lily hissed in return. "I will personally rip you limb to limb."

"Bye, Lils!" Marlene said, taking Sirius's hand. "See you tomorrow."

Lily rolled her eyes and turned, hoping to find Remus Lupin lurking around somewhere. As the most tolerable of the Marauders and Sirius' roommate, he was her best hope for a couch to crash on. Instead of seeing Remus, she found herself face to face with James Potter. It may have been better to describe her situation as nose to chest, as she had to crane her neck to even see his eyes. She hated being short.

"Evans," James said. "What are you still doing here?"

"Looking for Remus," she said. She tried to push past James, but he was like a rock. A hard, annoying rock she wanted to punch in the face, but a rock nonetheless.

"He's sick," James replied coolly. "You're welcome to crash on the couch if that's what you need."

"It isn't," Lily snapped. "I just... missed him."

James sighed. "Look, Evans, I really don't care what you do with your time. But I have a trashed house, the beginning of a hangover, and I have been ditched by my best friend in favor of yours. I'm not in the mood to scream at you."

"Are you sure you're not the one who's sick?" Lily retorted. "I've never seen you miss a chance to insult me, you prat."

"Must you?" James asked. He trudged off towards the kitchen, and Lily found herself following him. He was right in that she had nowhere else to go, unless she wanted to walk in on her best friend in an inopportune position. Once they were in the kitchen, Lily headed towards the vodka on instinct. The shelf it was on was too hard for her to reach, and she pondered her dilemma, not even noticing James shaking with suppressed laughter behind her.

"You walk into a man's house and go straight for his liquor without even asking, Evans? How rude of you."

"Yeah, well, maybe I wouldn't head straight for the vodka if you didn't drive me to drink, Potter."

"Don't blame me for making you a lush," James replied. He was easily able to grab the bottle, but he held it over Lily's head, just out of arms reach. "Say please, Evans."

"You have got to be kidding me," Lily muttered. "I can assure you Potter, you will never hear me begging for something from you."

"Do you want to bet on that?" James' eyes had darkened, Lily noticed.

"Yeah," she said, "I do. What do you want to put on the line?"

"You win," James said, "and you get this vodka. And whatever bottles follow it, whenever you want. I win... a date."

"A date?" Lily asked. "Seriously, Potter? You're so bad at the pull you have to strike up bets to get women to go out in public with you?"

"What do you say, Evans? Is the bet on?"

Lily held out her hand to shake on it. "The bet is on."

James smirked and instead of shaking her hand, he leaned down and kissed her. Lily broke away. "This wasn't part of the deal, Potter."

"It wasn't not part of the deal," he replied.

Lily shrugged and pulled him in again. James scooped her up, deepening the kiss, and placed her onto the counter, where she wrapped her legs around his waist. This wasn't the first time Lily had kissed James. It wasn't even the third or fourth time. It had been happening on and off since they were seventeen—since James' seventeenth birthday, in fact, when the two of them got completely hammered and woke up next to each other, cuddling of all things.

A half hour later found them curled up on James' bed. He nuzzled Lily's ear playfully, and then nipped at it. "I win."

Lily yawned. "Win what?"

"Our bet."

"What do you mean?"

"I seem to recall someone begging for more, please James, more!" His voice went up to a falsetto before his attempts at imitating her gave way to deep laughter.

"You dirty cheat!"

"You like it anyway," James said, rolling over to capture her lips in another kiss.

"Yeah," Lily sighed when they pulled apart. "God knows why, but I do like you."

James just smiled. "You owe me a date now."

"Don't remind me. Now shut up. I'm trying to sleep."

"In my bed. At my house. In my shirt."

"Shut up, Potter."

"G'night, Evans."

"G'night, Potter."