A/N: Hello everyone! It's been a while, and here I am with something not even remotely related to updating any of my existing stories. My bad. But this piece is a project I did for tumblr's Jily Secret Santa. It is a really cool thing, you should all consider checking it out next year. This piece was done for messrsnaps, who gave me three prompts to chose from. I selected the "drunken escapades" prompt, of course. I had a lot of fun writing this and it is different from my usual style, especially in format. But I hope you will all enjoy it, especially messrsnaps (by the way, is that a TLAT reference? If it is, major kudos, I love that fic so much).

So, here goes:

To: messrsnaps

From: Your Secret Santa (EmeraldFire512)

Merry Christmas!

Disclaimer: I really don't own any of this, really.

Dare Me

for messrsnaps, Jily Secret Santa 2012

1977, the Marauder's final year at Hogwarts. In light of that fact, they had seemly taken it upon themselves to ensure that any and all events produced by their group would be ones for the history books – or at least that's what Sirius Black decided.

It was the first weekend of October. It was still unreasonably warm for the date, the year was young, and it was his Seventeenth birthday. How many more reasons were needed to throw the most lavish and outrageous rager in Hogwart's history? Or, at least that's what Sirius Black thought.

It was also what he told his best friend as he tried to convince him of the existence of any sanity behind the scheme;

"C'mon Prongs, it's gonna be awesome."

"Sirius..."

"Prongs."

"Sirius."

"Prongs. Don't be such a wet blanket. I knew this Head Boy thing could only lead to misery and sorrow."

James cocked an eyebrow, "Misery and sorrow? Really Pads? All I said was that I don't see any need to even attempt to acquire a fountain of firewhiskey being spouted from the mouths of dragons."

"Exactly. Two months ago you would have considered the idea for at least two minutes before completely dismissing my genius" Sirius replied emphatically, glaring at his friend intensely for a moment before his gaze was broken by a flying pillow from the bed to his left where Remus Lupin sat doing his homework. "Merlin Padfoot, could your head get any bigger? And even if that were not a horrible idea, how exactly do you expect to get something like that past McGonagall?" the ever logical Marauder queried exasperatedly. Sirius sat silently for a moment pondering the conundrum presented to him by his friend while the two other Marauders looked at each other in exasperation.

"We're doomed," James stated simply as they each returned to their homework, leaving Sirius to formulate his scheme.

"I think I see a few seats over there," Lily called over the music, "no, wait...oh. Never mind, those seats are definitely occupied. We could try over by our staircase -"

"Lily," Mary McDonald interjected, "calm down. We don't have to find seats. This is our last year here, it's time to test the waters a bit more." She gestured to the room at large, "there are so many people waiting out there to meet, dance with, drink with -"

"Sleep with?" Lily finished with a raised eyebrow.

Mary shrugged noncommittally, "If you're into that kind of thing."

Lily rolled her eyes. Mary certainly was into that kind of thing, as most residents of Hogwarts knew. "We'll see what happens then, shall we?" she replied as they plunged a new into the crowd.

A little more than 30 minutes found them exactly where Lily knew they would end up: Mary was out dancing with a few of Hogwart's most eligible as Lily grabbed yet another drink from a floating tray. She had danced, but her partner had been a little too interested in everything below her neck for Lily to make any judgement of Mr. Wandering Hands. Thus, as usual she had left the dance floor and located a seat from which she consumed several more drinks. As she surveyed the room she had to admit that she was impressed. There had been many other parties, but this one certain took the cake. Ignoring the sheer amount of people who had spilled into every orifice of the common room, the music was great and, while Lily couldn't be entirely sure, she was fairly certain that there was a fountain on the other side of the room. Before she could properly consider whether or not she was right, a body dropped down onto the couch besides her. She turned to find herself face to face with her fellow head student, James Potter. He met her gaze with a cocky smile, "Evans."

"Potter."

"How are you enjoying the party so far?"

"I have to give you guys credit, I am suitably impressed. But I have to ask – is that a dragon fountain over there?"

James sobered a bit before answering, "It is. Remus and I tried to talk him out of it, but Sirius is nothing if not insistent, and creative."

"How did you even get that in here?"

"So questions are better left unanswered Evans, for both our sakes."

"Duly noted." With that she went to sip her drink only t realize that her glass was empty, again. She frowned at it as James began to chuckle. She turned to look at him again, "What's so funny Potter?"

"You are Evans. How many of those have you had?"

"Ummm..." Lily tried to count in her head. There was the first one, definitely a second one, possibly a third, maybe a fourth...

"A few," she answered after a few moments.

James looked surprised, "You've lost count? Bloody hell Evans, I have to say, I didn't expect you -"

"Didn't expect what Potter? I can drink. I am actually quite good at it. Why does that always surprise everyone? I am not a saint Potter."

James held up his hands defensively, "I never said you were!"

"You implied it."

"I am heartily sorry for that misconceived notion Evans."

"You better be," she muttered with a glare as she grabbed another drink from the tray which had floated over to them. As she took her first sip she looked at him suspiciously, "Where's your drink Potter? I can not be the only one in this conversation who is drinking. That is just unfair."

James grinned at her and raised an eyebrow suggestively, "Are you trying to get me sloshed so you can take advantage of me later Evans?"

In response she shoved a drink into his hand, "let's see where the evening takes us shall we?"

An hour or so later some of the crowd had dissipated, but Lily and James remained on their couch surrounded by empty glasses. James had lost no time in catching up to Lily and they had grown gradually more and more intoxicated as time wore on. Conversation was flowing freely between them, as was laughter. After one particular comment which neither of them could remember but which had caused them to laugh uproariously for several minutes, James began to speak, " I have to say Evans, for all of the years we have gone to school together, I have always thought you were a little – uptight. Apparently, I was wrong."

Lily sighed and brushed a stray hair out of her face, "you and the rest of the world," she responded glumly, "just because I don't normally get into trouble and I like to do well in school, apparently there is nothing more to me than what meets the eye. It's a common misconception."

They sat in silence for a few moments before it was broken by Lily:

"Potter?"

"Hmm?"

"I want to do something."

He looked at her, puzzled, "Something specific, or just in general?"

"Something daring, something rebellious. Seems like that should be one of your areas of expertise so, do you have any suggestions?"

He thought for a moment, before he broke out into a grin, "actually, I do."

"What is it?"

"It will be better if it's a surprise." He stood up from the couch and offered her his hand, "do you trust me?" he asked.

"Oddly enough, I think I do," she replied as she took the proffered hand allowed herself to be led out of the common room.

The stepped quietly through the castle, James taking all of the turns and twists with such confidence that Lily found herself duly impressed. Several times he led her through hidden doors she never knew existed. Thus when they emerged from a tunnel onto the castle grounds, Lily was surprised, to say the least.

"Potter," she whispered, "what in the name of Merlin are we doing out here?"

"Being daring. We're almost there. And there's no need to whisper, there's no one else out here."

The walked in the direction of the lake for a few more minutes, not stopping until they had nearly reached the shore. At that point James turned around and to face Lily.

"Okay Evans, here's where the daring bit begins."

She looked at him quizzically, "sneaking out onto the grounds in the middle of the night wasn't daring?"

"Somewhat. But this, this is your daring deed for the evening. We are going to go skinny dipping, in the lake."

Lily stared at him blankly for a moment before speaking slowly, "Skinny dipping. In the lake. Together. Potter, is this just a scheme to get my clothes off?"

James held up his hands defensively, "I will turn around while you strip and getting into the water if it will make you more comfortable. This is not about that, this is about doing something daring, something rebellious. About you not-being the uptight straight O head girl people see you as and just being Lily Evans as you want to be for a little bit. I swear there is no plot. Now, are you game?"

She looked at him thoughtfully for a few moments, then, glancing at the lake, she sighed and replied: "Well, why the hell not? You get in first though."

James grinned, and began to remove his shirt. He paused in the process and turned to Lily, "I won't be offended if you want to turn around." She nodded and did so as he continued to strip and headed towards the water. She turned around to see him standing at the edge of the water and only had the briefest of moments to admire, somewhere in the recesses of her somewhat intoxicated brain his impressively toned body before he stepped into the water and continued to walk until he was covered in water up to his chest. At that point he turned around and grinned. "Okay," he shouted, "now it's your turn."

After she ensured that he turned around she began removing her clothes. The slight chill of the night air made her skin prickle as she headed to the water. Once she reached the shore, she stuck a tentative toe into the water, only to discover that the water was a tolerable temperature. Taking a deep breath, she waded in. The feeling was interesting, certainly nothing unlike anything she had every done before. She headed towards James and tapped him on the shoulder once she was sure everything was covered. He turned around to face her, with a huge grin on his face.

"Uptight my arse. How many other people in our year, or even in the school, do you think have ever skinny dipped in the Black Lake?"

She laughed, "I'd guess not to many."

"Exactly! Now come on, let's swim a little bit before we head back inside.

They spent another twenty minutes in the water with no small amount of laughter and splashing before Lily declared that she was beginning to get cold and climbed out of the water, James following closely behind. They slipped their clothes back on and sat on the ground beneath a large beech tree for a while in companionable silence. Eventually, it was broken by Lily, who looked and James and simply said, "thank you."

James was about to brush off her thanks nonchalantly when she continued, "I mean it. I didn't mean to dump everything on you, and you just, well," she gestured towards the lake, "you have done well beyond what is necessary, so thank you."

James looked over at her, pale skin awash in moonlight, her red hair slightly curlier than usual from the drying charm she had used, looking at him, waiting for a response. To which he simply grinned and relied, "you're welcome."

Shortly afterwards, they had arrived back in the common room. Debris from the party were scattered everywhere, but all of the attendees had dispersed, save for the few who were sprawled out on assorted pieces of furniture. They walked silently to the stairs to the girls dorm where they stopped. They looked at each other and then away again, neither knowing what to do or say to part. "Well," Lily began, "good night...Potter. And thanks, again." With that she disappeared up the stairs, pausing at the top to look down on James with a small smile before turning out of sight. James stood at the bottom, watching her disappear from sight. It wasn't until she was completely gone that he spoke at all, very softly:

"Good night, Lily."