a/n: we're getting closer to the end here, guys! Tell me what you think!

You-No-Drink

"If Hufflepuff beats Slytherin then we only have to beat Hufflepuff in the next game, which is harder than it looks because surprisingly they've got vicious beaters. I've gotten a broken arm in most of the games against them."

"Ouch," I grimaced. "At least you beat Ravenclaw today, I heard they were tough."

"Ravenclaw?" James snorted. "They're the easiest."

"Oh…maybe I should find a new Quidditch consultant."

Way to go Lily, try to be cool around James and you end up looking a right sight like an idiot.

"Who is your Quidditch consultant?" James asked.

"Alice," I grumbled.

He laughed again and linked his arm with mine. "I'll be your Quidditch consultant now, yeah?"

"Er—yeah, yeah, okay…"

Incessant stuttering is a necessity with James, I suppose. This whole week we've been civil and friendly and Alice even accused me of flirting with him (which I believed because Alice knows flirting much better than she knows Quidditch. Unless she planned the whole thing to make me look like an idiot in front of James and have him replace her…in which case I owe her many chocolate frogs and a hug, but I digress) and I've babbled every bloody day. I've also been stuttering recently.

And I have panic attacks almost every night. James still hasn't asked me to Hogsmeade, which is tomorrow, and the fact that my stomach does strange acrobatics whenever he's near tells me that I want to go with him. Alice keeps telling me that he's respecting me by not asking, but I think he's being mean. Not intentionally of course, unless it's one of Sirius' brilliant plans (and by brilliant I mean daft). Alice also said that if I really want to go, I should ask him.

Oh yes, Alice, since that turned out so well the last time.

I've begun to notice that Alice says a lot of things.

A skinny, dark haired boy exited a class on my right. "Sev!" I called, smiling to myself.

He took one look at me, took one look at Potter, took one look at our arms, took another glance at me and then turned around and went back in the class.

James raised an eyebrow as I gasped. "I'm taking it he wasn't supposed to ignore you?"

"He didn't ignore me," I said, annoyed. "He obviously just had homework to do or something." That had to be it. Severus didn't show up and give me a pep talk in the middle of the night to simply forget about it and act like it never happened. Did he?

"Oh yeah, because there's so much homework to do in an abandoned class room," James muttered, glaring at the closed door.

"James," I sighed, breaking our arm's contact.

"Sorry," he said quickly. "Er…it probably helps him think?"

That had to be it. Severus wouldn't avoid me...would he? Yes, he definitely would. You know that, Lily. He's gone so far to act like he doesn't know you exist when he's with his Slytherin friends.

"That's ridiculous!" I snapped.

"Well how—you know, why don't we just forget about Severus, it's making you angry."

"Fine," I muttered. I could do that.

"Rictumsempra," James said quietly, not making another move to touch me as we entered the common room. I was kind of disappointed, Severus had ruined James' mood…at least he hadn't hexed him, which was something to be happy for.

That's when I noticed the party.

Apparently Quidditch is also something to be happy about.

All of Gryffindor house was taking part in a large get-together. Banners hung from the ceiling and draped the walls; the hearth area was now a dance floor and many students were jumping around energetically as Selena Warbeck and assorted artists emitted from the corners of the room. Several armchairs had become official snogging sections while miraculously the couch was only occupied by friends laughing and animatedly talking to each other. The desk that normally held textbooks and essays had been elongated and filled with Butterbeers and Firewhiskys and muffins and cookies and cakes and cheeses and Honeyduke's chocolates and everything imaginable. My mouth watered just looking at it. Everyone cheered as James entered the room and he let out a roar of laughter, his spirits instantly heightened.

A mob engulfed him and shouted congratulations and how we were only one game away from the Quidditch Cup.

I was left standing in the doorway, grinning to myself. Maybe tonight I'd let the atmosphere take me away.

"Lily!" I heard Alice call from across the room. I searched until I found her slender body skipping around the dance floor.

I was so bored. Not just a little bored like draw-on-yourself-bored. I was poke-your-eyes-out-with-quills-and-then-get-sent-to-Madam-Pomfrey-only-to-hex-her-and-risk-getting-expelled-just-to-have-a-good-laugh-bored. And Lily Evans doesn't risk getting expelled simply for something to do. But, oh, how inviting the proposal sounded.

I had been lounging against a wall for the better part of two hours because there was absolutely nothing to do.

I'd eaten everything on the food table, talked to Remus, ate some more, annoyed Sirius, gotten a stomach-ache, startled Peter by reciting a twenty minute monologue about the dangers of eating too much, border-line stalked James trying to find an opening to go and talk with him (unfortunately a little more than half of the Gryffindor female population was fawning over him (along with some girls I was almost positive belonged to Hufflepuff) and there was no possible way for me to say hello), went to find Alice, found her with Frank in a snogging section, ran away, danced a little more, and finally collapsed against the wall waiting for something to do.

Alice had disappeared, it was late (and I mean really late. Some Gryffindors just have a boundless supply of energy. Excluding little Kenneth Creevey, an under-average fifth year who fell asleep curled up at the bottom of the stairs), and I couldn't make myself become tired, no matter how hard I tried. So I continued to wait for something to do.

Something to do hadn't found me yet.

A loud guffaw sounded from the couch along with some obnoxious ranting and the people on the couch shifted uncomfortably. The mysterious ranting continued and I leaned forward, excited at the prospect of solving a mystery. The couch occupants stood up eventually, looking rather harassed and went to talk at the foot of the stairs.

Oh.

Mystery of the mysterious, angry ranting solved.

Sirius Black.

My brain decided it was time to annoy him some more so I picked myself up and sauntered over, taking a seat next to him.

"Hello, Black," I said cheerily, "I heard a rumor that you broke your record for most girls snogged by Sirius in one night."

He sighed loudly. "Nope, not—not tonight!"

He hiccupped loudly and sloshed a bit of what I presumed to be Firewhisky over the edge of the bottle. My eyebrows flew up. "Er…Sirius how much have you drank?"

He shrugged, hiccupping again. "It's for the best," he slurred, downing the rest of his bottle. "It's the best medicine. You should try it, Alice."

"I'm Lily," I said slowly, waving a hand in front of his face.

"Er-what?"

I sighed. "I'm Lily. Evans. Lily Pad, remember?"

He swayed where he was sitting. "I know you're Lily. I'm not Peter. You need to drink some; I'll go get more." He stood up, his hands shaking slightly and practically fell across the room to get two more drinks. He came tripping back and sat on me before realizing I wasn't the couch and moving. "Take it," he groaned, shoving the bottle into my hand. "You need it."

"Why do you keep saying that?" I asked, reluctantly taking the bottle from his grip.

"I found your note!"

"What note?" I asked cautiously. Was Sirius lucid or were his sentences Firewhisky-induced?

"Why you love him," he mumbled, giggling.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, looking at him in concern.

He covered his ears, breathing heavily. "Merlin, stop yelling!" I didn't mention he was the one hollering now. Remus was looking over in concern. "I found your list," he said, lowering his voice to a hiss. "I found your list!"

"What list?" I asked in exasperation.

"The list of James! I like him and I don't like him and I do like him, blah blah blah."

A sudden flashback to the library and me writing pros and cons on a sheet of parchment found its way back to me. "What?" I gasped. "You have it? How?"

"It was on the floor when Sluggy made you sit next to Moony and me sit with JP," he slurred.

"You mean James?" I asked. "Are you saying the note fell out of my bag when he let me trade seats with you?"

"Uh-huh…" he paused to gulp some more drink. "You love him, baby doll."

"Sirius Black, I'm going to shave your head if you ever call me that again, and I don't care if you are drunk off your arse."

"Sorry," he said, his eyes flashing fear for a moment before turning vacant once more. "You love him. I can tell."

"I don't love James!" I muttered fiercely. "That's insane!"

"I didn't show him the list," Sirius went on, disregarding my protest and hiccuping loudly.

"Why not?"

"I'm not bad like Frank," he spit the last word, and my eyebrows came together in confusion. "But you love him and he's not asking you out because he doesn't want to mess it up this time. And he won't ask you out! He told me! You have to! And the Froggy I know doesn't ask out Prongs…so you need the drink…"

Well. He did make a good point. Lily Evans in her right mind doesn't ask James Potter to Hogsmeade especially after he rejected her. And drinking Firewhisky (which I had never done but always secretly wanted to do) was one of the only things I hadn't done that night.

Really, what harm could one bottle do?

The answer to that is not much. One bottle of Firewhiskey couldn't do much harm. But that stuff was addicting and pretty soon I had downed three and a half. (A word of advice, if you're not used to drinking this stuff, you should make sure someone cuts you off. Three and half and already my thoughts were fogging and I was giggling at everything Sirius said, even though I couldn't understand half of it.)

Ten minutes later and I was starting on my fifth one and all I could think about was how snog-worthy James looked tonight, and how I was going to make him come to Hogsmeade with me if it was the last thing I ever did.

I stood up determinedly, dropping my bottle which Sirius caught, and suddenly Alice knocked me over.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she giggled. "I just wanted to talk to you."

I dragged myself upright again and felt myself stumbling before hearing Alice dreamily say, "…the stars, oh they were so beautiful!"

I gave a loud, manic cackle and patted Alice clumsily on the back. "You're so funny."

Her eyes almost bugged out of her head. "Lily, have you been drinking?"

I didn't answer, merely lurched my way across the room to where James was giving yet another play by play of the Quidditch game.

"Lily!"

I ignored her.

Everything seemed so much more blurry now, and all I could think was Hogsmeade, Hogsmeade, Hogsmeade.

I pushed a girl roughly out of my way and squeezed through the crowd until I was facing James.

"Evans!" he said, a broad grin taking its place on his face. "Having fun?"

I nodded and said loudly, "Hogswart?"

Oops.

"Hogwarts?" he asked, his bottom lip jutting out slightly. "Are you alright?"

"I mean…Hogsmeade!" I said it slower this time, making sure I pronounced it correctly. He had to come, he just had to.

"What about it?" he asked slowly.

Wow…everything was getting quieter…is this normal? Maybe I should ask Sirius. I heard myself giggle. After I talk to James, I'll ask Sirius, yeah, that's it.

"Come with me."

Nobody spoke, and I heard the gaggle of girls gasp. "Is this a joke?" he asked carefully.

I shook my head and my knees buckled. He caught me out of pure reflex and I breathed him in hungrily. "Come to Hogsmeade with me and drink Sirius…drink seriously at the Three Broomsticks."

He didn't understand my statement, and neither did I for that matter. I had no control over what came out of my mouth. As I realized that I couldn't seem to regain any strength in my legs, I started to think that maybe listening to Sirius and drowning my insecurities in Firewhisky wasn't a good idea.

"And you really want me to go?" James asked, his face looking so vulnerable I would have wanted to give an Alice squeal had I been coherent.

I nodded, because that's all it felt like I could do and James gave a mighty whoop, hugging me tightly and swinging me around one time.

As he set me back on my feet, I stopped spinning, but the room didn't. I closed my eyes trying to ward off the feelings of dizziness and nausea that were creeping in on me. I opened my eyes slowly and James' face swam in front of me, framed with too bright light from the Common Room.

This was not good.

"Of course I'll come with you!" he exclaimed.

I promptly passed out.