"No, Andy! You're not putting on those pants tonight!"
"Why not?"
"Well, to start with, they're at least three years old!"
It was seven o'clock on Friday night. Zoey, Lily and I were getting ready for the party. Zoey and I were having the same fight we had every time there was a reason to dress up; Zoey was helping me pick an outfit and kept suggesting different variations the newest fashion magazine offered, while I insisted on wearing my good old baggy pants.
"Well, since I haven't grown a damn inch during those three years, I might as well take the advantage of it!" I shot back at her last comment.
Zoey shook her head, taking the pants from my hands and throwing them on her bed.
"Nope, the pants are not an option. Come on Lily, back me up here!"
Lily looked up lazily from her bed, where she had been combing her hair.
"I gotta take Zoey's side on this one, Andy. Besides, you look good in those jeans just wear them."
Zoey grinned at me triumphantly.
"Well, since you're all against me, I guess I have no choice," I snorted and bent over my suitcase to look for a shirt.
I usually didn't listen to my friends when it came to clothing, but even I tried to look nice for a party, and Zoey was, with her enormous wardrobe, more than helpful.
"What about this one?" She asked, throwing me a long green top of hers. I pulled it on and looked at myself in the mirror.
"I guess that'll do." I shrugged, sitting beside the mirror and starting to put on make-up.
After I was done I made one pathetic attempt at taming my hair, but gave up on it pretty quickly. My hair was weird. It was extremely frizzy, yet not at all curly. It kind of made me look constantly like I'd just been electrocuted. And it was jet black, courtesy of my Slavic mother. From my British father I'd gotten nothing but freckles and the tendency to get burned just thinking about the sun. Combine black hair and pale skin and you don't have to wonder who lost the gene pool lottery.
I glanced at the clock hanging on the wall of the dorm and saw it was almost eight. The party should've probably started by now.
"You guys ready to go?"
"Yup, let's go drink our body weight." Zoey laughed.
"Except for Andy who's probably going to down more." Lily added.
"Hah, you know you're just jealous because I hold my alcohol better than you." I said, grinning at her smugly. There wasn't even an ounce of truth behind my words and Lily knew it. No 15-year-old was good at holding their alcohol, and I was by no means an exception.
When we arrived downstairs the party was indeed on a good go. People were dancing in the middle of the room, music was playing pretty loud, and few already-reddish eyes told us that the punch had already been spiked.
Zoey, Lily and I found ourselves heading straight to the drink table. We helped us mugs of liquor and took seats from one of the couches. We had sat there only for a few minutes before we heard two familiar voices approaching us.
"Hey, it's Dacres!" Sirius Black shouted a little louder than necessary.
"And Evans!" James Potter added with a same decibel.
"Thanks for remembering the third one," Zoey pointed out sarcastically.
"Almost got you worried, did we, Frost?" Black shouted, smiling, when he sat on the back of the couch next to Zoey and reached to throw his arm around her.
"It's nice to see you, too, Black, but we're not deaf you don't have to shout." I said, looking up at him from the couch. He skilfully slung himself down to the couch next to me. I chuckled when I smelled the alcohol and added, "Started the drinking a little earlier, did you boys?"
"Maybe," he smirked and turned to shout at Potter, "Come on, Prongsie! Let's continue our victorious march!"
Potter lifted his mug at his friend and they waved their dramatic goodbyes to us. All three of us burst out laughing.
We sat there for a good while, talking and laughing with people who happened to pass by. After about an hour of this, Zoey and Lily got up.
"Where are you going?" I asked, confused.
"We, meaning all three of us, are going dancing." Lily pointed at me.
I shook my head. "Nope, no way I'm yet that drunk."
"Come on Andy, don't be so dull! You're gonna join us eventually anyway!" Zoey said in frustration.
"Not this time I'm not. You go, I'll catch up with you later." I said.
They looked at each other, shrugged and headed to the dance floor. Once I was left alone I stood up, deciding not just to stay there alone. I spotted Potter a few metres away from me and made my way through the crowd to him.
"Hey there, Potty, how's it going?" I smiled at him. He turned his eyes to face mine and I tried to suppress my laughter when I realized that he was having a hard time steadying his gaze.
"Dacres!" He shouted and spread his arms to give me a hug. "Hello my little Slovakian friend!"
"Well hello my big, drunken, British friend." I laughed, hugging him back quickly.
"Having a good time? Where'd you lose your little friends?" He asked.
"They abandoned me to go dancing," I put on a sad face and sighed over-dramatically.
"Well, no worries, I'll be happy to keep you company." He said and offered me a fire whiskey shot. "To Hogwarts!" he exclaimed and drank down his own one.
"To Hogwarts," I laughed and drank mine. "How many of these `to Hogwarts's` have you had?" I asked, giving him a pointed look.
"More than your little body could hold I'd say," he said, patting my head.
"Oh, really?" I said challengingly, "And how can you know that I haven't already drunk as much as you?"
"You wanna bet?" He said lifting his eyebrows. "We've got enough to drink here, let's see who gives up first?"
I looked at the table full of fire whiskey shots. My mind was trying to tell me to be reasonable: I could never beat Potter in a competition like this, not to mention how stupid and childish the whole thing was. Too bad I wasn't currently listening what my mind had to say, so I stuck my hand out and he shook it.
"Deal!"
We took seats by the table, both of us collecting a row of drinks in front of us. Quite a few people had turned to look at our little merry-making, and they were now observing us keenly, eager to see what was going to happen next. I looked at Potter who grinned at me, downing his first glass. I did the same and moved to the second glass, and then another, and another… After I stopped counting I started to soon feel nauseous. I realized I had to stop. I shook my head, trying to keep my mind in focus. Then I looked at Potter across the table. He had stopped drinking too, looking quite disorganized.
"Who won?" I asked.
He shook his head and laughed. "No idea. Draw?"
I gave a giggly laugh and nodded.
"Sounds good. We're both equally tough."
"Nah, I'll always be tougher than you anyways. You know that." He said, slurring a little with the words.
Since I couldn't figure anything wise to say, I just started to pull myself up, only to find it an extremely hard thing to do. The alcohol was making its way to my head already, and I was losing my focus little by little. When I got up, I felt my feet sway below me and I had to take support from the table to keep my balance. I turned to look at Potter but he was nowhere in sight. Instead, I saw Black watching my attempt to stand up with an amused expression on his face.
"Need a little help there?" He asked, grinning.
"Shut up, you," I sputtered. "Where've you been?"
"You know, business," He said, winking.
I snorted, taking a few steps towards him. Sadly enough, I lost my balance half way through and began to fall down. When I was about a foot away from the floor I felt someone grab me and pull me up. I looked up to see Black looking at me, confused.
"Jeez, Andy, what got you into this condition?" It took me a while to get that he was using my first name. It sounded weird.
"Your stupid little friend," I answered. I guess I struggled with the words a little since he gave a laugh before asking,
"James got you drunk? I thought he was still after Evans."
"No, not like that, we had a competition," I slurred, "not a really wise one."
He laughed at this. "You wanna lie down on the couch?"
I shook my head violently and tried to look more sober than I really was. "No, I'm fine! Come on, let's go dance!" I exclaimed.
I took few steps forward and, again, found it difficult to keep my balance. I grabbed Black's t-shirt not to fall again.
"And the couch it is." He laughed and took my hand to keep me up.
"Tell me, Black, how come you managed to sober up so fast?" I asked, when we were making our way towards the couch.
"I never did, I'm just not as wasted as you." He said, shaking his head, still wearing an amused grin on his face.
When we reached the couch I saw Lily and Zoey had returned from the dance floor. I practically jumped (well, as far as I could) over to them and gave them a huge hug.
"Hej! Priateľu!" I shouted to their ears.
"You're speaking Slovak again, Andy," Zoey said, looking at me, amused.
"Am I? Oops, sorry," I said smiling sheepishly. Apparently I tend to do that when I'm drinking.
"Found the liquor table, did we?" Zoey asked, smirking at me.
"What did you do to her, Black?" Lily said lifting an eyebrow at him.
"Don't blame me," he laughed, "she was like this when I found her."
Suddenly Zoey got up and tugged at Lily's arm.
"Look, there he is!" She said excitedly, pointing at something tall and black that I vaguely recognized as Leonard Jordan. "I'm gonna go say him hey, you coming with me?" She tugged Lily's arm before adding, "Andy's not gonna be of any help in this condition."
"Hey!" I yelled from the couch when Lily nodded.
"Sorry, girl, gotta go! You got Black here to take care of you." She said, waving at me.
I turned to Black who had sat next to me. "Stupid brats, calling themselves friends."
He laughed and reached over to ruffle my hair.
"Hey! Only Potter is allowed to do that!" I protested. Sirius gave me a weird look.
"Why's that?"
"Well, because he won't…stop." I shook my head when I realized that that didn't make any sense.
I took a look around me to see who else was sitting near me, just to get something to do, and spotted Vicky Milthrope, also known as Vicky The Queen, also known as a person I hated dearly and who without a doubt felt the same way about me. She was talking to a guy who, according to my memory, was a Gryffindor sixth year. Something Buckley I guessed.
"Hey, Vicky, my contemptuous dorm-mate, how're you doing?" I shouted out in the spur of the moment.
She looked at me with a look of pure disgust, trying to return to her conversation.
"Come on, show your new friend one of your ah-so-clever insults." I said, a little drunkenly perhaps, sneering at her sweetly.
The Buckley guy looked first at me and then at Vicky with a look of both bewilderment and amusement. Vicky looked like she could kill me at any moment, but just walked away, dragging him with her. I laughed, taking delight of the thought of having made that princess uncomfortable.
"What're you laughing at?" asked Black from the seat next to me. He had been talking to a dorm mate of his, Cole Derricks, but both of them had apparently been startled at the sudden burst of laughter.
"Queen Vicky," I replied, and when they still seemed confused I just waved it off. "Never mind. You're Derricks!" I suddenly exclaimed turning to him.
"Yeah I am, four years on the same house and now you figure it out?" He asked, chuckling lightly.
"No, no I knew that," I said, trying to steady my gaze. Both of the guys laughed.
"You gotta excuse our little Andy, she's just a bit wasted," Black said throwing his right arm around my shoulders.
I was trying to figure out a smart answer when I suddenly felt extremely tired. My eyelids drew close and I vaguely noticed my head starting to drop. It landed on his shoulder.
I had no idea if it'd been one minute or one hour, but at some point I felt I was being picked up and carried off to somewhere. As the person lowered me down to a couch, I fluttered my eyes open. I found myself staring at Black's grinning face. I suddenly felt I had to say something to him, and I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind.
The last thing I heard was him chuckle and wish me good night.
The first time I woke up it was still night and the room was dark. I blinked a few times, trying to sort out where I was. When my eyes got used to the darkness, I started to make out the shapes of chairs and couches, and people sleeping in them. I was, apparently, in the Gryffindor common room. Fuzzy memories from last night started to fill my mind, along with the growing urge to vomit. My drunken state was starting to change into a nice hangover. I groaned, trying to keep my food and everything else inside me, determined not to throw up.
After a while of wondering what had happened last night, the first clear image to pop in my head was Sirius Black. I frowned at this memory, not understanding what it was about. My frown turned into a smile when I remembered how I had fallen asleep. He took care of me, was the thought that filled my mind, when I realized that a blanket was wrapped around me and a bucket brought next to me (for a potential vomiting I guess). Sure, it wasn't much trouble, but Black wasn't one of the guys to be expected to do something like this. For some reason it made me feel happy and my smile widened.
Whoa, wait a minute! What the heck was I smiling for? This was Sirius Black. It wasn't a good thing to be thinking about him like this now, was it? I almost groaned out loud when I remembered what I had said to him before passing out. Well, I guess my weird habit of speaking Slovak was a good thing for once. Imagine what he would've thought if he'd realized I'd just suddenly out of nowhere told the guy that I actually found him `really cute`. I just hope he doesn't own a Slovak-English dictionary.
I shook my head violently to erase the thought from my head. My mind was still fuzzed from the alcohol and I wasn't thinking clearly. Still feeling exhausted, I allowed my head to sink into a pillow, not even considering the option of climbing up the stairs to my own bed. I lied there for just a couple of minutes before falling asleep again.
When I woke up few hours later it was already morning. The common room was starting to get filled with people, some of them waking up on the couch like me, some climbing down the stairs from their dormitories.
"Well, hello, Andy!" An overly cheerful voice came from somewhere near my couch.
"Having a nice morning?" The other one asked sweetly.
I opened my eyes to see Lily and Zoey take a seat next to my feet.
"Mornin' guys," I muttered.
I sat up and rubbed my eyes, at the same time acknowledging that I must've looked really rosy at the moment. Last night's make-up must've spread into panda-like black circles around my eyes, which, given the way they stung, had to be red and blood-shot by now. And I didn't even want to get started on the stink of old whiskey even I smelt on me.
Both of my friends were looking at me like they were expecting me to say something. I didn't really have an explanation, so I just shrugged before stating,
"Well, it looks like I pulled a Lily with those fire whiskey shots."
Zoey laughed and Lily snorted, though both of them were nodding and smiling the same time.
"Great idea that competition with Potter." Zoey grinned.
"Yeah, not exactly my brightest moments," I said, giving them an ashamed smile.
"Speak of the devil," Lily said and nodded towards the staircase of the boys' dorm where Potter came down, accompanied by Black.
The latter smirked when he saw us. They walked to the couch.
"Look who's finally gotten up!" Black said, sitting at the armrest of the couch near my head.
I smiled at him tiredly, and turned to look at Potter who still remained silent.
"High five for the toughest guys in the school," I said, lifting my hand and giving him a sarcastic smile, which he returned, clapping my hand dryly.
The rest of the guys, Lily, Zoey and Black were starting a casual conversation and were soon joined by Lupin and Pettigrew. I staid silent, letting my mind wander back to last nights events. Pretty soon, my thoughts about this certain Marauder sitting next to me started to sink back into me. Being still unable to tell where they came from, I felt totally confused. I was suddenly very aware of the the way I looked and smelled. That alone should've alerted me; I wasn't usually the one to be concerned about such facts.
"Hey, Dacres," Sirius said suddenly, snapping me back from my thoughts. I felt my shoulder tingle when he rested his hand on it. "What was that thing you muttered to me right before you dozed off?"
I gave him a confused look.
"Yeah, in that language of yours, Slovak?"
Oh, I thought, realizing what he meant, that. Not good.
