It was the night after exams and lily was exhausted. All the same, she could hear the noise all the way up the stairs and down the hallway on her way to the gryffindor common room. She knew there was a massive party going on, just like every year. Nobody knew how to party like the gryffindor. Except, strangely enough, normally a dozen or so hufflepuffs showed up with such partying spirits the lower year students were always shocked. It was typical to expect the hufflepuff to be quiet and peaceful, when in fact they were anything but. Lily was a prefect, so she could put a stop to all the partying if she really wanted to but as long as nobody got hurt and real destruction wasn't done to the room itself she really didn't care. It was kind of a nice tradition anyway. She had been hiding out in the library for the last couple hours not really doing much of anything. She had taken out a book for pleasure reading to try and relax but she was so tired she ended up just staring at the same page for twenty minutes before she could finally move on to the next one, not really grasping anything she was reading.

Lily took a deep breath as she stood in front of the portrait of the fat lady. She sighed and uttered the password, readying herself for the state she was sure the common room would be in. sure enough, as soon as the portrait hole opened assaulting variants of the color red greeted her, some yellow thrown in from the hufflepuffs. Various games of exploding snap were blowing up all around her from the younger students and occasionally she would hear someone yell "shots!" before the sound of many shot glasses all slamming onto the table at once that immediately followed.

"Evans!" she was greeted by a surprisingly sober james, who took her hand and helped her through the portrait hole.

"Potter! You're not drunk yet!" she exclaimed

"No, no," he shook his head "i waited for you on that one."

"How kind of you." she commented

"Well, i'm nothing if not a gentleman." he said with that charming smirk of his that still sent her swooning

"Ah yes, because the reputation of james potter states first and foremost that he is a gentleman." she teased

"Does it not? I shall have to fix it then shan't i?" he threw an arm around her "Come! Eat, drink, be merry! And remember, the eating part is very important or else the hangover will be all the worse"

"Ah yes, with the thought of hangovers in mind i believe i'll pass."

"Evans!" he exclaimed, in mock horror "these are our days to be young and free! Don't you want to be young and free?"

"I want to wake up tomorrow without a splitting headache, if it is all the same to you."

"Ah, but it isn't!"

"Don't you have friends to get drunk with?" she scanned the room "see! Right over there remus and sirius and peter are waiting for you."

"Yes but remus and sirius and peter don't kiss me when they're drunk." he stated. Lily smirked

"I bet they would if you asked." just then, sirius walked up, a bottle of firewhiskey in hand

"Oi!" james said on a fluke "kiss me!"

"Why, james, i thought you'd never ask!" and to lily's great surprise sirius actually grabbed james's face and planted a very quick, but very real, nonetheless, kiss on his mouth. Lily squealed and cat whistles went up around the room. Sirius ran off to remus and peter again and james turned to lily, slightly flustered.

"I have to admit, i didn't think he would actually kiss me." lily laughed.

"He definitely didn't wait for me to get drunk." she agreed, still laughing.

"Come, come." james insisted, pulling her further into the party. She tried to protest, but it was no use. Lily was pulled in. she was now in the midst of dancing and cheering and exploding snap and, to her surprise, she loved it.