"Bye Mum!" James called over his shoulder as he and Sirius walked down the sloping driveway.
"Be safe," she called back, waving her dinner spoon in the air by the door.
They walked through the iron gates and onto the stony lane that led to Teirm. It was a windy day and the sun was setting already, and James figured it would already be dark by the time they got there. He glanced at Sirius, who grinned back at him.
"This better be worth it, Prongs," he said, stuffing his hands into his pockets. After hours of muggle observation on their broomsticks, and careful consideration, they'd formed a general idea of what muggles would wear to a party. The girls wore something entirely different, but for the boys, they'd assumed a pair of jeans and a plain shirt would be enough for them to blend in. "I mean," he continued, "what if muggles don't even have parties like we do? What if their idea of a good time is to… I don't know, sit around and talk about their feelings?" James snorted. "No really! Or sit on their arses watching their televisions or whatever they're called."
"Sitting around watching the telly isa good time," James said indignantly. "My mum's cousin's recently married a muggle, and we went over to visit him and let me tell you…"
He went on to explain to Sirius the wonders of the telly as they walked over the hill that separated his house from Teirm. It was a large hill, so they were breathing rather hard by the time they reached the crest. The view was astounding. Teirm was quite a small town, but in the dark, they could still see it stretched out for at least two miles. James had never been to Teirm after dark before, seeing as his parents were so paranoid about it, and it was a pity, because it was a lot more fascinating at night. Tiny pinpricks of light lit up the city, and their cars zoomed up and down the roads. Gaping, the two began to descend the hill.
They walked through the roads, barely being able to pass by eye-catching things. They must've looked like foreigners, especially to the people they asked for directions from. Even with the directions, they got lost a couple of times, but eventually they approached a large house with blazing lights and loud music blaring so loudly, they could feel the vibrations in their feet.
James' jaw dropped open. On the front lawn of the house, there were about a dozen people, most of them girls (scantily clad girls), talking and laughing with plastic cups in their hands. If he knew anything about alcohol, they were all piss drunk. Looking through the open front door, he could see there were more people – a lot more people – in the house, dancing and laughing and falling around.
Simultaneously, both Sirius and James turned to look at one another, grinning widely.
"Oh hey, you made it!" A trilling voice came from the house and two girls walked over towards them, each with a wide smile on her face. They were the girls they'd met at Teirm last week. Though last week, they'd been wearing baggy sweatshirts and had thrown their hair up into messy buns; today, they wore skirts that would've given James' mother a stroke, and skimpy tops that showed their stomachs. Somehow, James didn't mind.
"Couldn't miss it," Sirius grinned. "It looks like a great party."
"It should," the blonde one – her name was Tricia if James remembered correctly – flipped her hair, smiling. "I amturning seventeen, and you only turn seventeen once, right?"
"Happy birthday," James said politely, but he didn't think she heard him. She was too busy fingering the edge of Sirius' collar. He wasn't sure whether to laugh, or to look away awkwardly as she inched closer to Sirius, who had a dumbstruck look on his face.
The brunette beside him – er, Lana wasn't it? – laughed and rolled her eyes. "She's drunk," she told me. "She'll snog anyone. Your friend's not bad though, he's rather good-looking," she eyed Sirius. James blinked rapidly as he looked back; his best mate and Tricia were already locked at the lips. He looked away quickly when Sirius wrapped his arms around her waist and instead locked eyes with Lana.
Perhaps she noticed him staring at her because she smiled and said, "You know, you're not bad yourself. Here, let me show you around."
She tugged at James' sleeve and all but dragged him into the house, chattering on about how great it was that he came. He wrinkled his nose as the smell of alcohol and smoke hit him. He wondered what kind of alcohol the muggles drank, but not for long, because Lana dragged him to the table where little glass cups of a clear liquid stood, along with an assortment of food. She grabbed two cups and shoved one into his hand.
"Here's to meeting new people, eh?" she announced, holding her cup in the air. James grinned at her. "To meeting new people," he repeated and they both downed the drink. A burning sensation followed it down his throat and he almost choked. It vaguely occurred to him that he'd promised his mum there'd be no drinking.
Oh well.
Two hours later, he was on the dance floor with Lana and he couldn't remember where Sirius was. He couldn't remember much, really, what with the light buzzing in his head, and Lana kissing him. It'd been uncomfortable at first – he had known her for two hours after all – but it got nicer. She was a great kisser, and her hair was really soft. It wasn't red, though.
He pulled away from her quickly, feeling uncomfortable all of a sudden. She glanced behind him – she'd been doing that a lot – and her eyes widened. She quickly pulled his face towards her and smashed her lips against his, rougher than before.
"Mmph," James protested against her mouth, and pulled away again. "What the hell?"
She rolled her eyes and looked pointedly behind her. He turned to look at what'd been distracting her all night, and saw a muscular, curly-haired boy standing by the drinks, glaring at him.
You see, Lana had a boyfriend. Had being the operative term. A few nights ago, Lana had been off to visit her cousin, Betty, when she'd caught her boyfriend of two years (Adam) hiding, half-naked under Betty's bed. Apparently, he'd been cheating on her for at least a month, and she'd been oblivious. Despite his protests, she'd broken up with him on the spot, declaring that she hated him and never wanted to see him again. Unfortunately for Lana, she didn't hate him (how could she after they'd been dating for two years), she only hated what he'd done to her, and she swore to herself that she would pay him back. It was unfortunate for James that she'd chosen to use him in her plan for revenge, because Adam was a very short-tempered fellow.
"Who's that?" James asked in a low voice.
"My boyfriend," Lana explained.
He turned to stare at her in horror. "You have a boyfriend? What the – bloody hell, I-"
"Ex-boyfriend," she said quickly. "He cheated on me with this slag and I found out yesterday and – just ignore him, he has no right to be upset – oh, God, he's coming over here. Ignore him. Just leave it to me."
James raised his hand to his forehead, not believing what was happening. She'd broken up with her boyfriend only oneday ago, of course he was going to be upset. It was pretty much an unwritten rule: wait at leasta week before snogging someone's ex-girlfriend.
"What do you want, Adam?" Lana's cold voice came and James raised his head to see the boy, Adam, standing quite too close to him for comfort, along with a couple of other boys.
"Who is this guy?" Adam asked her angrily, jerking a thumb in James' direction.
He was about to reply that he was James Potter, Quidditch Player Extraordinaire, just to see the look on their faces, when Lana cut him off, folding her arms. "Absolutely none of your business. Now leave."
"Lana," his voice took on a pleading note, and he grabbed her arm. "Look, I'm sorry, it was an accident-"
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said scathingly, "did you accidentally shag my cousin, or did you accidentally let me find out?" He tried to talk again but she grabbed James' shirt and began to walk off, dragging him along behind her. "Go to hell, Adam. And take that the little tramp of a cousin down there with you."
"Lana!" He grabbed her hand again and she yelped. Perhaps it was the Gryffindor in him making its way out, or it was the alcohol; either way, James felt he should step in at that point. He wrenched Adam's hand off of Lana and pushed him back. "Piece of advice, mate," he said, arching an eyebrow. "Next time, keep it in your shorts, yeah?"
James turned away and saw Lana smiling at him for a brief second, before he was pushed and pinned against the wall. Stars appeared in front of his eyes, as the crowd gasped and fell silent. As his vision cleared, he saw the Adam boy looming over him, anger written all over his face. Behind him, his cronies stood trying to look threatening; James would've laughed if the situation wasn't so dire. Where the hell was Sirius?
As it turned out, he wasn't too far away.
"Get your hands off him, you knob!"
Adam whipped around – there was a loud smack and he fell back on to a table full of food, holding his jaw. Chaos ensued. It all seemed to happen very fast. James straightened up as he saw Sirius duck a blow from one of Adam's friends. The other one lunged at James, but he dodged it as well, and felt his fist connect with the boy's jaw.
People were fighting everywhere; He couldn't see Lana anywhere amongst the hot swell of bodies pressed around him. Sirens were wailing outside and people began to scramble about yelling 'Police!' Looking around wildly, James saw Sirius deliver another punch to a blond boy. Deciding they'd caused enough trouble, he grabbed Sirius's arm and tugged at him. Sirius whipped around, as if about to let loose another punch, but he lowered his arm when he caught sight of James. Together, they pushed their way through the crowded room and towards the back door, where people were scrambling to get out. Cars were being revved up and driven away, and, not for the first time, James wished he had one of them. He didn't know exactly what these 'police' were but he guessed they weren't people he wanted to meet.
The noise from the house faded as the two of them jogged down the street, lit with the lights from the other buildings. When they were far enough so that they couldn't hear the sirens, they paused to catch their breath. James' hand was throbbing slightly from the punch he'd delivered.
Sirius looked at him, his breathing still slightly heavy. "Well… at least we didn't do any drugs."
"Yeah," he panted in reply. "There's that."
Laughing, they walked through the town till they arrived at a street they recognized. It wasn't too hard to find their way back up the hill from there. It wasn't midnight yet, and there weren't any visible bruises anywhere from the fight, so they were confident they would be able to throw off any of Marie's suspicious questions. As they left Teirm behind and headed closer to James' house, he congratulated Sirius on his accomplishments for the night.
"Really, Padfoot, that was a very nice left hook," he said, impressed. "He fell, the wanker. He's not as tough as he acted."
"Well, I amthe brawn," he smirked, and James punched him slightly on the arm. "I saw you too, Prongs. You gave that other guy a nice little bruise on his jaw."
He bowed. "Thank you. Ha, who knew muggles were so much fun? And the girls," he whistled. "That Lana girl was fit, wasn't she? And she was fun too… until Mr. Muscle showed up, obviously."
"Yeah, she was fit," Sirius agreed, as they pushed through the iron gates. "So was Tricia. That girl can do things with her –"
He trailed off and James glanced at him. "Do things with her what?"
He didn't answer. He was staring up at James' house, a strange look on his face.
"Sirius…" James followed his gaze up to his house and instinctively took a step back.
Hovering above it was a smoky, green skull with a serpent protruding from the mouth.
A/N: Mmmm, it's a bit American... Lol sorry I don't know how to not be American. Updates will not be coming this frequently, I just had a whole day off today, and I got really into this. I rather like this chapter :)
Sooooo, tell me what you think? Seriously it literally takes like ten seconds. TEN SECONDS will make me happier than a mother hen. Do this for me please? Updates come faster with reviews, just sayyyyinnnnnnng'. :)
