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James:
"I'm excited for your mother's ball." Sirius is always excited for my mother's ball. He always gets ass.
"You are pathetic. I don't even know if there are any single girls coming that you haven't hooked up with."
"Really? C'mon mate I haven't hooked up with that many girls before."
"Do you know how many girls you've hooked up with before. Or even had sex with?"
"I never thought to count that! Hmm, let's see… well I lost my virginity to that Beaxbatons exchange chick in third year and the next day I shagged two girls-"
"You lost your virginity in THIRD YEAR and proceeded to shag not one, but TWO girls the next day?" I am very surprised, although I know that I should not be. Remus is laughing at my outburst.
"James," Sirius looks at me matter-of-factly, "It's ok to be bad in bed being a virgin, but after that it goes down in your track record. I couldn't have girls thinking I am a bad shag!"
My jaw opened wide. I should have known, I should have known. Remus was laughing still, pointing at me and holding his stomach. "Keep laughing, Remus, and you'll never your virginity."
Remus' face straightened as he quickly insisted, "I am so not a virgin, I lost it one summer on vacation in Rome to this-" Remus fidgeted as he finished his sentence "-girl."
"Remus, your obvious pause between the word this and girl signifies you were trying to think of description for this non-existent girl but failed and subsequently decided it was unnecessary, thus ending the sentence in girl." Sirius said astutely, nodding.
"Yeah, Remus, even I don't believe that." Peter agreed, far less eloquently.
"You don't believe that because you are an idiot, Peter." Remus said.
"Hey, hey Remey, no low blows. We're just calling things as we see them" Sirius said jokingly.
"Don't call me Remey, prat." Reus got up and fumed out of the room.
"I did not realize Remus' still-in-tact virginity was such a touchy subject." Sirius mused after Remus had left the room.
"Not all of us are so sexually talented Sirius." I said. And it is true, Sirius is rumored to be quite the shag. "Anyway, he'll get over it by the ball. I think he is just anxious and a little embarrassed. It doesn't help that Ellie isn't a virgin."
"You're right, mate. Poor Remus. I know Ellie is experienced, it's surprising she hasn't put out yet."
I shrugged. "I overheard Ellie telling Ayla that in a serious relationship, you should wait a while."
We both tilted our heads in thought. "But then where is the fun in the relationship?" Peter asked.
"Where is the fun, indeed?" Sirius agreed.
It's sad to see, but Peter is not the type of person who is frequently in long term relationships. He's slept with a good amount of girls but I know for a fact that it is often a too-drunk girl, a mistake. Sometimes girls like him, the ones he is dead set on not liking back. I think he should give them a try though.
"So is Ayla coming to the ball?" Sirius asked.
"No, she's on holiday with her parents," I reply, thanking Merlin for this impeccable timing. How could Operation Lames occur if Ayla were around. Also, Reminder to self: force Heather to discontinue calling it "Operation Lames" as it is a ridiculous name and I will be made fun of if anyone ever hears it.
"So it looks like I'm going to be the only one getting ass tonight," Sirius smirked.
"You, mate, are the most obnoxious person I know."
James:
I'm getting ready for the ball. I'm wearing a tuxedo, my mom insisted. My mom enjoys to put on themed ball, which I understand, but I think it is a little ridiculous that every other ball is muggle-themed. I know it is simply because she likes wearing evening gowns.
Someone knocks on the door as I put on my fedora and I am pleasantly surprised to find that it is Ellie. Ellie is tall and blonde, nobody can deny her beauty.
"What's with Remus today?" she asks, concerned. "Nice hat, by the way. Very hot."
"Thanks, Ellie. And about Remus, he's just a little sad, we were teasing him about his," I paused and Ellie looks at me, curious, "his innocence."
"Oh." Ellie looks down. "He's not a virgin, is he? He told me he wasn't. Why does everyone lie to me? I ought to punch him."
"He is," I tread carefully. Lying is never good, Remus, especially to your girlfriend. "He says he isn't a virgin, but he's not a good liar. But this is a lie he's been carrying on for ages, he even insists to us that it's true, and he must be very convincing to a non-Marauder."
"But being a virgin is a good thing! Why does nobody realize that? Everyone is such an idiot these days."
I laugh. "Please, when is being a virgin a good thing!"
"You're disgusting. He's so innocent! It's kind of sweet! I've never been with virgin. He's so pure." Ellie's smile suddenly turned sour. "Do you think he hates me because I'm not a virgin? Do you think he resents me? I'm a slut. How come he was able to keep his virtue but me not able to keep mine? I known I should've kept the magical chastity belt my mom gave me when I started school!"
"I think Remus is in love with you."
This takes Ellie by surprise, and she pauses and contemplates my words. "Oh." She looks at me, a little scared.
"Ellie, since when do you worry about anything. I remember you once telling me that no boy you've ever liked has not liked you back."
"Just at the beginning!" Ellie says, almost frantically. "That becomes null and void when you actually start the relationship!"
"Just be yourself, Ellie."
"That's the shittiest, most cliché advice I've ever heard. I would expect more from James Potter."
"That's all you're getting tonight. Now go, he's waiting for you!"
Ellie ran out of the room; she didn't say anything, but I could tell she was a little happier.
Lily:
Heather and I just arrived at the ball and let me say that I am so out of place here.
So, so out of place here.
Heather, on the other hand, is having the time of her life, of course. She's much more of a social butterfly, and has left me behind to fend for myself. I look around awkwardly. Remus comes by, hand in hand with the breathtaking Ellie, whose skin shines in her peach colored dress. Only she could make a relatively plain, floor length, fairly conservative gown look so amazingly beautiful.
"Hi Lily, I'm glad to see you here." Remus greets me. Ellie nods in agreement.
"That's a beautiful dress you've got on," Ellie adds.
"Same to you," I reply.
"Thanks," Ellie replies, smiling. "Have you seen Heather, I haven't seen her yet?"
"No, I came with her, but she ran off to greet a large list of people, her parents' orders, I'm sure you know the drill."
Ellie smiles and nods. "By the way, the teenagers are mostly hanging out in a lounge upstairs. The Potters kind of converted it into a smaller ballroom, and the James converted it into a more teen-friendly event, if you know what I mean."
I nod. It would be a good thing if I got some alcohol in me, Merlin knows it makes me a lot more outgoing. "Cool, I'll be there." I respond slowly.
"Bring Heather too." Remus adds on.
"Of course," I smile.
"Should be fun, see you there." Remus says as Ellie pulls him away, going o greet someone much more important than me, I'm sure.
Could that have been any more awkward? I immediately curse Heather for bringing me. I almost want to fake an emergency and leave, but I know Heather would kill be, and she did somehow force me into letting her buy me this dress. Note to self: somehow pay her back for it. It just feels so fake to hang out with people who know how I am but would never invite me to an event if it wasn't for Heather. I hate being this huge, awkward tagalong, I feel ridiculous.
I walk around, trying to not make direct contact with anyone, trying to find Heather. Finally, after what seems like eternity, I find her. She's flirting with some man twice her age, who can no doubt get her a job in the ministry after next year if she keeps in friendly contact. Heather always likes to have contacts.
After she looks like she's finished, I wave for her to come over to me.
"How's the party?" she asks, smiling and breathless. She's clearly enjoying it.
"It's good," I lie. Thankfully she doesn't notice. "Listen, I think Remus and the others have set up a more teen-friendly party. They want you over there, when you finish hitting on the entire ministry."
"Lily, it's not hitting on them when you aren't actually interested in them," Heather reprimanded. "Anyway, I'm pretty much finished, let's go to the real party!"
Heather takes me by hand and leads me up the stairs. She knows where the others are set up with out even asking. Just another clue to show how she belongs here and I do not. We enter through a mahogany double door into a dark room with loud,sultry music.
"This is pretty classy for Marauders." Heather comments and I have to agree. Pretty classy indeed.
"Heather!" Sirius beckons. I am pretty sure Heather is the only single girl here he hasn't shagged. And I think she has no plans to change that, or at least I hope she doesn't.
Heather walks over to Sirius, smiling mischievously, and I am alone, once again. I stand there, trying to look as comfortable and inconspicuous as possible, keeping my out for the table with the drinks. It's dark, so it takes me a while, but I finally find them and begin to walk over. On the way towards the bar I hear Heather firmly tell Sirius she will remain the only single girl in the room he had yet to shag, and I smile.
"What can I get for you, Miss Evans?" James Potter asks me, smirking. My smile quickly fades. The person who I am convinced is the misplaced heir of Salazar Slytherin is the bartender. Oh great. And he is wearing a fedora, quite possibly the sexiest accessory in the world. Double great. I am asking him a favor and it is taking a lot of my free will not to swoon; it's not a great position to be in with the person who is the enemy.
So I need to be drunk, very drunk, and fast, but there are no shots in sight. I settle for my favorite drink instead, I might as well enjoy my time here. Now that I think about it, I probably should refrain myself from going crazy. "Do you have any scotch?"
James looks amused as he pulls out several bottles. "Which kind?" he asks.
"I don't know," I shrug, "the older the better." I say. I'm trying to act classy. Isn't alcohol supposed to get better as it ages? Maybe that is just wine. Who knows.
James pours me a large glass and I smile politely and take it, attempting to get as far away as possible. Being around him is like fighting a battle with my body; it's very uncomfortable and I could slip up at any moment.
To my dismay he actually leaves the bar and follows me. If he was not such a jackass he would be just my type. Confident and attractive, but not in the most typical way.
"Lily, you look smashing tonight." He says comfortably, right into my ear.
My heart is pounding, I get chills, my cheeks must be an awful shade of red, and my hands are sweating as I clutch my glass of scotch, taking a huge gulp.
"Thanks." I try to look as blasé as possible as I try to toss my hair and look away. It doesn't work as well as I planned, because I trip and stumble to regain balance. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll regain my dignity.
He looks at me and I can tell he's trying not to laugh as he reaches out and steadies me. His hand is cold against my skin, much smoother than what I imagined his hands would feel like.
Not that I was imagining his hands or anything like that.
I have to dislike him. I only want to like him because of his incredibly good looks, charming personality front and his unfair amount of eloquence and social grace. But those things are all superficial because on the inside he is selfish and irresponsible. He views the world completely differently than I do. And I'm so weak for wanting to like him, for letting myself fall even so slightly to his charm. I have him figured out, but most people don't even go that far. It's so easy to like someone like James Potter, even when you shouldn't. And I should not, and practically every girl at Hogwarts should not like him, and they don't even realize it, but I do. I feel like a lone warrior trying to fight for something that seems so obvious to me but only me. And it would be a lot easier to not fight and to fall. But falling implies getting hurt and I refuse to let James Potter hurt me.
Wow, I'm dramatic. I'm also a basket case of hormones. This is fantastic.
"Lily," James says, shaking my shoulder, "Is anything the matter?" There he goes, touching me again. His touch stomps over everything just campaigned to myself, I completely forget about it. His concerned face is too much.
"No, why would anything be the matter?" I say defensively.
"It's just that I asked you a question, and you didn't respond" James said.
"I probably didn't hear you." I say shortly.
"I asked it several times."
I frown. Potter always seems to be right. "Well go on."
"I was just asking if you liked my hat."
I look at him again; he's posing, trying to look as regal as possible. I figure I might as well look like I'm having fun, and I'll trump him another time. If I get to know him a little better, it might even make it easier to put him in his place.
And he does look really good in his fedora.
"It looks nice, I guess."
James grins, and it's infectious. I can feel myself but I try to stop myself. I already told myself I would nice to him, but I don't want to give in to him too easily. Regardless, I fail.
I take another sip of scotch before I realize that I finished the glass. James leads me over to the bar and pours me another and then leads me over to where Remus, Sirius and Ellie were standing.
"Look what the cat dragged in." Sirius drawled. He was clearly drunk. However, I couldn't stop giggling at the statement, so, clearly, so was I.
James:
Looking at Lily, it's hard not to laugh. She is very drunk, I guess she didn't realize how strong the scotch was and she is a lightweight. In a way it's good though, she never looks this comfortable around me or my mates, and her comfort is important.
Still, she looks around suspiciously. "Where is Heather?" She asks Sirius, accusingly. "You didn't shag her and then break her heart already, did you? And if you, I'll beat you up." Lily says this as she attempts to punch the palm of her other hand. She misses, though, and settles on giving him a very obvious evil eye.
Sirius cannot stop laughing. "No, doll, her mother called her down. She may be shagging the whole ministry right now."
"She just needs connections!" Lily insists.
"I could give her connections. Boy, would I ever like to connect with her."
"Ewwww," Lily exclaims.
"She would be such a good fuck."
"How do you know?" Peter asks, confused.
"Because she is a good eye-fuck," Sirius says, "and accordingly to my calculations 67 percent of good eye-fucks are good shags 97 percent of the time."
"That doesn't even make sense," Ellie says.
"Sure, it does, Ellie! I'm appalled you don't believe in me." Sirius moves adjacent to Ellie and looks her in the eye. "Why don't you believe in me, Ellie?"
Ellie giggles and kisses Remus. "Because, Sirius, dear sir, you make no lick of sense absolutely."
"No, but I'm being very, very, very serious. No pun intended." Sirius adds in as an afterthought. "But I think there are three kinds of men in life: men who follow their hearts through life, men who follow their pointers through life and men who follow their minds. I certainly do not want to be the fool who follows his heart through life, and it seems like men who follow their dicks are generally thoroughly disliked, though I don't understand why. Therefore, I have decided to become the noble man who follows his mind through life. I created ratios and a point system to determine who to fuck. I am a scholar and gentlemen!"
"I think you are a gentle-man." Ellie points out.
"I still think you follow your pointer through life," Lily says, snickering.
Finally Heather comes back and takes both me and Lily by surprise by immediately latching on to Sirius. "Those ministry men sure do like drunk, barely of age witches!" She whispers loudly to Lily.
"Always carry roofie sticks," Lily warns, wide-eyed. "and a rape whistle."
"What are roofies?" Heather asks.
"They are drugs." Lily says. "Like really, really bad ones, though."
"Don't be silly, Lily, Heather doesn't need to be roofied to shag those ministry members." Sirius said. "We all know she will shag her way to Mister of Magic one day."
"Untrue, Sirius, I will do so maintaining my image as a wholesome little girl!" Heather insists.
"You don't look wholesome in that dress." Sirius says, suggestively. To that, Heather giggles in an almost suggestive manner.
After awhile I lead Lily outside for a breath of fresh air.
She dances around, twirling around light posts and doing cartwheels through the grass. "I've never had so much fun at a Potter party," she sings.
"You've never been this drunk." I reply, laughing. I have a good buzz. I'm definitely more than buzzed, I'm a solid drunk.
"You know today, James, I let my guard down, but don't expect it always." Lily says, walking over towards me and stands in front of me. She cranes her neck upwards, as I'm much, much taller than her, and streamlines her emerald eyes towards mine.
"James Potter, my brain has you all figured out," she says, poking me in the chest. "But I cannot convince my body that you look bad in a fedora. In fact, you look beautiful, or handsome, or some shit. But don't think I don't think you don't think I'm a jackass. No. Don't think I think you're a jackass. No." Lily squints as she tries to figure out what she's trying to say. "Don't think I don't think you're a jackass. Yeah."
"Lily."
"Yes, Potter, Sir?"
"I'm not a jackass."
"Yeah right, Potter. Jackasses are always the devilishly handsome ones."
I can't help but laugh. "Lily."
"I'm not going to fall for you because falling implies getting hurt, and I am not going to let you hurt me. And I will trump you. Eventually."
'Lily." I cusp her face in my hand.
"Yes, Potter, Sir?"
"Kiss me"
I bring her lips towards mine, and to my great surprise and enjoyment, she kisses back. And she continues to kiss me back.
And boy, is she a good kisser.
I pick her up and carry her to my room. She can apparate back tomorrow. I don't want to stop kissing her.