A/N: This chapter is for Is A Bell X3, my first reviewer eveeeer! *insert goofy laugh* Internet cookies to you, Is A Bell X3!

I wrote this in some night and I haven't yet found the heart to beta it. So sorry for the mistakes, if there are any!

On with the story!

"Caught in the crossfire, warnin' fight
Legends make or break game
Swept up by the rolling waves of the night
The paper chase for fame!"

"Sirius!"

"I was too, too hot, baby
Too hot to handle
Yeah, I was too, too hot
Too hot to handle!"

"Sirius, I swear by god!"

"Wink of an eye, the feelings ran high
A real rock and roll molest –"

„For heaven's sake, Sirius!"

Remus Lupin was on the verge of committing suicide. And he had a reason.

The four Marauders were currently creeping throughout the Hogwarts hallways under James's Invisibility Cloak. It was common occurrence, really, but Remus was now wishing dearly he hadn't agreed to this. True, a party had never before killed him, but he was definitely starting to feel uncomfortable now, crammed against his two, male, friends. Especially now that one of them felt the sudden urge to crow his favourite Muggle song.

"Guys", said James frantically. "Guys! I think that was her!"

"Pro-hooongs?"

Remus closed his eyes.

"What, Sirius?"

"I'm bored. Let's go back."

"You brought this upon yourself!" said James indignantly.

"Did not! You forced us!"

"Oh, yeah", James remembered.

Remus wished for a stone wall to whack his head against.

"But only by bribing us", Sirius went on huffily.

"Hey, that's not true!"

"Not using the Invisibility Cloak to sneak into the kitchens for two months! What do you call this?"

"A diet, maybe?" suggested Remus quietly, unable to help himself.

James waved the comments away. "You would have just used it anyway."

"Oh, yeah", Sirius remembered.

Remus wished for a stone wall to whack his head against forcefully.

"Sirius", he said deadly, "you told me it was under special circumstances that we were going to come early to the Hufflepuff party. Now you're telling me that it's just because James wants company at stalking Lily and you don't want to lose a possibility of fattening by the house elves. Is that what you're implying?"

Sirius shrugged "Pretty much. Why didn't we bring Wormtail, anyway?", he added sulkily. "He's always fun to make fun of. Oi, guys, that was a great sentence! Fun to make f-"

"Firstly", said Remus, his eye twitching, "you are annoying. ALL OF YOU. Secondly, Sirius, Peter is not only there to be covered in fake buttocks again –"

"Christ, that was one time –"

"It was distasteful –"

"- and he only had to shower cold for one hour. Moony." Sirius shook his head disappointedly, and then proceeded to smile patronizingly, as though anyone could have made Remus's mistake.

"He thought he had grown tits" - Sirius laughed frenziedly – "and they smelled like PRUNES, alright?"

"Aaaaalright, Moony-Loony. Don't get you knickers in a twist."

"- AND THIRDLY, YOU ARE STANDING ON MY FOOT!"

Sirius looked down, where his shoe covered Remus's pained foot. "Oopsie?"

"Would you care step down, Padfoot?"

Sirius stomped on Remus's feet like a llama. "OW! You crazed animal, you know that's not what I meant!"

"What? You said step down!"

Meanwhile, James was ignoring his friends, busy looking ahead for the dark red mane he'd have sworn he had seen minutes ago. At dinner, he had coincidentally overheard Eliza Bonnet asking Lily to come earlier to the Hufflepuffs' end-of-Christmas-holiday party. He did not yet know why, nor did he care – but he had ensured he would be there also.

Not alone, obviously.

He was beginning to regret it.

Eliza stepped into the Hufflepuff Common Room. She had to admit it; the Hufflepuffs had already done a great job decorating: the place was dark, but brightly flash-lighted. The cosy yellow sofas had been pushed aside to make room for a big dance floor.

A few Hufflepuffs stood chattering in a huddle, one of them Remus's girlfriend Emma. She caught Eliza's eye, beamed, and hurried over to her, Lily, and Faye.

"Hey!" she said breathlessly. "Everything's planned now – how d'you find it? I was all for painting the room new, but the others thought it was bad changing the room permanently. Can't understand them, personally." A stand of dark hair fell into Emma's eyes and she blew it away, still glowing with glee. "Anyway, how 'bout you start mixing drinks, Eliza? We still need some of those and I heard Gryffindors were specialists." She winked.

Eliza grinned back. That was exactly what she'd been hoping for, and it would make everything so much easier. After Emma had been called by her mates, Lily and Faye went to start hexing the dance floor with a few Hufflepuffs' help, and Eliza, feeling very wicked indeed, set off towards the cocktail table covered with bottles and glasses. She fumbled within her robes and produced a tiny lilac vial. After checking that everyone was occupied, she screwed up the vial clumsily and added a few drops of liquid to two bottles of butterbeer. She hastily restored the vial and grabbed the bottles, smiling. She would keep them close.

The door banged open when the Marauders arrived loudly. James was laughing, Sirius was guffawing obnoxiously, and Remus chuckled lightly about some joke. "Hullo, my friends!" Sirius was shouting.

Dexter, a Hufflepuff, came over and explained the Marauders how they were able to help. Eliza got the distinct impression that the only one listening was Remus, though; apparently, Peter was in the Hospital Wing, and Sirius was winking roguishly at the nearest pair of giggling, blushing girls – James seemed to try the same with Lily, but when she noticed his glance, she pursed her lips and turned away to engage Faye in forced conversation.

By 9 o'clock, all the older Hufflepuffs, most Gryffindors and some Ravenclaws had arrived and the party was in full swing. Clutching three butterbeer bottles, Eliza pressed through the mass of dancing bodies to find Lily.

She, Faye, Mary, and Davy Gudgeon (Mary's boyfriend) stood a bit apart from the middle of attention, which consisted mostly of Marauders. Faye was gazing longingly at the dance floor.

"Hey, guys!" said Eliza. "Great party, eh? It's hot in here, isn't it? Lily! D'you want a drink? I've brought two too many." She shook the bottles. "Butterbeer."

When Lily smiled and reached out for the wrong bottle, Eliza panicked and thrust one of the others into her hand. Before Lily could open her mouth, Eliza had blabbered "See you later", and bustled away into the crowd.

What harm could it be? Lily shrugged and took a swig.

One down.

Eliza saw James, not in the middle of mayhem as usual, but in a corner, watching Lily. She plastered a good-natured grin onto her face and walked towards him.

"Hey, Potter."

"Eliza." James looked up and smiled. "How-"

"Want a butterbeer?"

She could have slapped herself.

"Wh- what?"

"Do you want a butterbeer?" Eliza said very clearly. "Look, I've got one in reserve."

"Sure", he said. "Thanks. Wanna get rid of it, hm?"

Eliza, wondering how insuspicious people were of her nowadays, passed the bottle to James, anicipating.

He sat the bottle to his lips, when hands clasped him from behind and Sirius bellowed "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO", into his ear. Eliza watched, horrified, as Sirius took the bottle from James, licked his lips and drank.

Eliza's mouth fell open and she stumbled back into the dancing people, when somebody dragged her away.

It was Faye.

"What did you do in it?" she said greedily, when Eliza was halfway steady.

"Does this anticipation for Lily's pain makes us bad friends?" Eliza said drily.

"Nah", said Faye impassively. "So, what was it?"

"Self-brewed Brain Elixir", said Eliza proudly.

"But you're rubbish at potions."

"Well", said Eliza in a drawn-out way, "doesn't matter now, does it? Sirius drank it. I wanted it to boost James's and Lily's brain power, so James stops behaving like a fool, and Lily overcomes her denial."

"Great plan."

"Yeah, well."

The evening wasn't much fun after this. Eliza was in a gloomy mood when she went to bed in Gryffindor tower way past midnight, only to be awakened fully by a long, piercing scream:

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGHH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

It was Sirius Black's voice.

A/N: The idea I'm gonna use is quite popular already ... Review nevertheless? Please? :)

- Coco