After spending the entire day in the library, I began to make my way back to the Gryffindor common room. I would have to face James and Jonathan sooner or later-I had come to the decision that I would ditch Jonathan and take up James' offer and go to the dance with him instead. Don't ask me why I made that decision…if I think about it anymore I might just change my mind again.

After the game, it had turned into an extremely stormy day, with loud wind and pelting rain. I said the password, and the portrait of the fat lady swung open to let me in. I could hear cheering from inside, meaning the party was still going on-also meaning that James was still in there somewhere. I could corner him and ask to talk to him in private. Yeah, that could work. After, I'd break the news to Jonathan. Perfect plan.

I walked inside, my eyes scanning over every inch in the room. The party was booming, with a large amount of people from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff houses included in it. Everyone was ecstatic, all yelling and cheering and drinking. Either you were currently involved in a deep quidditch discussion, were in a group drinking butterbeer, or snogging. No other events seemed to be going on in the room, other than the casual groups that were actually listening to the cranked, blasting music in the room and were dancing to it (dirty dancing to it actually…).

My eyes stopped on a particularly feverish couple, and I laughed to myself as I watched them grip each other and exchange saliva rather…well, excitedly. The girl was Jillian Thornton, an extremely pretty, skinny, and tall blonde girl with a very bouncy chest and tan skin. And the boy was…

"James?" I croaked out in a horse whisper heard by no one but me. I watched as his thumbs kneaded into her back busily, tugging at the bottom of her black v-neck with a sort of heated passion. She responded happily, smothering his lips with her own, slightly swollen ones.

I needed a drink.

I searched the room at top speed until I spotted a bottle of vodka (muggle-borns, such as myself, always managed to sneak in muggle alcohols to fill our own consent: by guess, this was Freddy Gordon's gift to the party-he was very well known for having a great stash of muggle alcohol in his trunks). I quickly dashed over to it, pouring myself a glass hastily, before downing it. It burnt my throat and left tingling, unpleasant sensations on my tongue. Yet, I needed more.

After a few further drinks, I had eventually found Violet and Alice, who were also clutching cups of alcohol in their hands, though they didn't seem to be abusing it such as I was. I shouted words of greeting and zeal- everything was blurring, my senses dulling, to the point where I didn't even know what I was saying anymore. I downed two glasses of butterbeer and danced with a few people.

"L-Lily, babe, hellooo." After a few minutes-or maybe it was an hour? I couldn't tell anymore- I felt a hard peck on my cheek. Looking up, I had found Jonathan, a cup of butterbeer sloshing around in his hand, and a silly grin on his face. Without thinking about it, I crashed my lips against his. His eyes widened in surprise before responding back enthusiastically. I opened one eye, peering out of it, and low and behold, James was watching Jonathan and me. His expression was unreadable. Or perhaps it was just unreadable to me in my current state.

I stopped, gasping for breath, before taking Jonathan's hand and leading him out of the Gryffindor common room. He clumsily walked after me- by the looks of it, he was just as drunk as I was. We both giggled, noisily making our way up to the Head Boy and Head Girl's room. I said the password, and the portrait swung open, allowing Jonathan and me to go inside.

I ran, still clutching his hand, up into the dormitories available to the two Heads, and began to kiss Jonathan again. We fell onto the bed, him moving on top of me, my hands fumbling with the buttons of his shirt. I briefly heard the pelting rain and noisy winds again before I completely blacked-out.


"Evans? Evans, wake up."

"Ngh, go away."

My head pounded with a pain that felt similar to someone hitting your head with a hammer repeatedly before setting you on fire.

Yeah, that bad.

I groaned, throwing an arm over my eyes with much difficulty. My body felt sore, every part of me aching, and my arms felt like lead and were hard to lift. Sunlight streamed through the windows, directly on me, and even though my eyes were closed, the light burned them with an intensity that hurt like hell.

"I have something that will make you feel better." Wait. That voice… I opened my eyes, which felt like they were crusted over with cement.

"P-Potter?" the boy smirked down at me.

"Morning, Evans." I clutched a hand to my head, trying (and failing) to sit up straight in bed. He wrapped a supporting arm around my shoulders and repositioned the pillow before setting my back against it so I was sitting upright. My stomach suddenly churned, and before I knew what was going on, James was shoving a bucket underneath my face and holding my hair back. I retched into it, and with a flick of his wand, the sick disappeared. I groaned and leaned back, embarrassed beyond belief that Potter, of all people, was seeing me like such a mess.

"Here, drink this." He handed me a potion, and without question, I gulped it down. The nausea went away quickly, and the head ache lessened by a bit- however, my body was still sore, and there was still a light pounding in my head. Other than that, though, I felt at least ten times better.

James pressed a wet cloth to my head, and I closed my eyes in relief. "Mmm, that feels nice…"

He laughed, repositioning himself in the chair he was sitting in. I don't remember there being chairs in the girls' dormitories…My eyes suddenly snapped open, and I turned towards James. The abrupt action caused a pain in my neck, but I didn't care at the moment.

"Wait, where are we? And how did I get here?" I looked around the room- I seemed to be in the Heads' dorms. James sighed, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms over his body.

"Well, yesterday you got a little…well, let's just say you had a little too much to drink. You and Jonathan came up here last night and…" He said, cutting off his sentence and eyeing me uncertainly.

Oh no.

I looked down at my appearance, and low and behold, my shirt was gone, leaving just the pink camisole I had been wearing under it, although it was extremely hiked up on my stomach. My skinny jeans were still on, though they were unzipped and unbuttoned, revealing the light green and blue silk underwear I had been wearing underneath them. I shrieked.

"Potter! Don't look at me!" The boy flushed in embarrassment and quickly turned around, allowing me to pull my camisole down and do up my pants. I looked around for my shirt, but couldn't find it. I groaned.

"What is it?"

"I can't find my shirt…"I said in a defeated voice. James, almost immediately, took off his black blazer and handed it to me.

"Here." He said. He seemed to be wearing a reddish tee shirt under it, though I didn't think much of it- my vision kept going in and out of focus, and my mind was trying so hard to remember the events of last night. Me and Jonathan snogging…rolling on the bed…him pulling my shirt off…me pulling his pants off…Oh no, no, no, no….

I slammed my eyes shut before speaking in a hushed voice, "Where's Jonathan?"

James turned back around and sat on the edge of my bed. "I have a friend in Ravenclaw who's really good at memory charms. I got him to wipe last night from his mind and bring him to his bed so he'd just think he got wasted last night, and won't know of anything else that happened."

"What about other people? I'm sure they saw us leaving, won't they assume…" I began.

"Evans, everyone at that party was either too drunk to remember or too busy snogging to notice. Don't worry about it," He said, giving me a reassuring smile. I watched him for a minute before I clumsily stood up, shrugging the blazer over my shoulders. It was too big for me, yet I didn't mind, for it reeked off James' scent of cologne and quidditch…

I muttered, "I'm going to go wash-up," before leaving the room and walking into the conjoined one next to it. I shut the door, leaning against it for a few moments, before walking forward and turning towards the sink.

My hair was a bit disheveled, and my make up was running somewhat. My face seemed to be stuck in a moment of flush- I'm sure it was just the after effects of vomiting. Speaking of which…

I ran over to the toilet and heaved into it before groaning and wiping my mouth with a towel, flushing the toilet. I walked back over to the mirror for further inspection. There was a red spot on my neck and my lips looked swollen and teased. Great.

I washed my face in the sink before pulling my hair up into a ponytail and using a conveniently placed toothbrush to scrub of the taste of sick from my mouth. After making my appearance a decent one, I walked out of the bathroom, feeling a bit refreshed.

James was still sitting there, awaiting my return. He smiled up at me after noticing that I had reentered the room, and I returned it hesitantly, still embarrassed that he had seen me in such a foul way.

After picking up my shoes from the ground and tying the laces together so I could carry them much like a purse, together, we began to descend the stairs, me groaning as I clutched the wall weakly to support my weight.

Only a moment after I stumbled down the first step, James wound one arm under my shoulders, the other under my legs. He then lifted me into the air, carrying my bridal style down the flight of stairs.

I blushed in surprise before winding one of my arms around his neck, the other still carrying the shoes. We made it past the stairs, through the portrait, and into the Gryffindor common room without passing anyone along the way- it must have been early.

Once we got to the foot of the stairs to the Girls' dormitories, he set me to my feet. I shrugged out of his blazer, prepared to hand it to him, before he refused. "Keep it. I have about a dozen more." I nodded, slightly dumbstruck, before making my way up the first few steps.

I turned around after the third step, looking down at James. "Thank you," I croaked out, my voice sore and tired. "You're been…a saint. Really. Why did you come after me?"

James shrugged. "Actually, I was heading up there myself with Jillian. Poor thing, she's probably more hung-over than you are. I should probably go see her, too. I'm taking her to the ball, you know."

What the fuck.

"Lovely." I said in a startlingly angry voice. He looked taken back a bit, but before he got the opportunity to question it, I was up the stairs, in my dorm, and lying in my bed, plotting when and where I could finally fulfill part III of my mastery plan.

A/N Short, I know, but I had to get this done—this chapter's a set up chapter for next chapter, and I didn't want it to be too long, because someone complained about the lengthiness of my previous one…

Anyone who's ever been hung-over before knows that what Lily's feeling right now SUCKS. I apologize to anyone who has ever had to experience that awful thing before.

Once again, thank you to everyone who was reviewed and alerted and favorited this story. You guys are my life, pretty much.(:

Ahh, I'm just throwing this in here because I feel like announcing it to someone who doesn't go to my school and won't make rumors about this, but an upper-classman just told me he liked me. WOOT.

The ball, unfortunately, will NOT be next chapter. It will be the following chapter, though. Is there anything in particular that you guys want to see there? I've already gotten a request for a grinding scene and a dance-off haha. I won't promise I will incorporate them into the story, because (SORRY!) I most likely won't, since I've already plotted out the scene. However, I'm extremely curious as to what you guys are interested in reading about and seeing with these characters.

Also, my vacation is ending…

I've had an update time of a chapter every three days or so, but I can't promise that they will be that fast beginning this Monday. I will continue and finish this story though, so count on me making it to the end, because I will. Promise.

Song inspiration for the chapter: Pretend- Secondhand Serenade

Anything by them is great.