Lily eased open the Portrait hole and instantly, a wall of noise slammed into her. The usual cheering, music, and loud conversation rose around her like a symphony as she slipped into the Common Room. In no way was she surprised by the impromptu party; in fact, she would have been more surprised if there wasn't a party after a Quidditch match, win or lose.

Keeping nearest to the wall, she scanned the room for her friends, nodding or giving a quick wave to those who called her name in recognition. It was days like these when she wondered why the Sorting Hat had chosen to place her in Gryffindor all those years ago. She detested these loud parties where you couldn't even hear yourself think, where the noise was so deafening that you had to shout to the person standing directly next to you. Though without fail, she attended the events just to make an appearance, to show off her house pride, and wait for the later hours where she would either disappear to somewhere quieter with her friends, delightfully invigorated, or the party naturally died down and she and her friends were left in the blissful quiet.

Though on this particular afternoon, she really didn't have the patience to wait. She had homework and exams and while she had plenty of time to do them tomorrow, she was simply unquantifiably and inexplicably exhausted. All in all, thoroughly not in the mood to deal with a raucous party where she debated between relaxing and having fun or being the responsible Head Girl that she was and trying to assert at least some of the rules on her classmates. Usually, the former won out.

"Lily!"

And there goes her plan to slip upstairs unnoticed before getting roped into anything.

She turned towards the noise, her eyes naturally finding the mop of messy black hair that stuck out, slightly above the crowd of students. She pushed her way through the Common Room, towards the back corner by the window that her group typically inhabited, trying to ignore the expectant grins that followed her. Undoubtedly, every student here was looking forward to the reunion between the Head Boy and Girl whose relationship had suddenly spiked to the top of everyone's gossip list. Eventually, Lily knew that people would lose interest or find something better to stick their noses into, but right now, a flare of annoyance rose up while she pictured every student trying to listen in on their conversation or memorize the momentous occasion to share with friends from other houses or anyone not fortunate enough to be here themselves.

Lily shoved her annoyance away and plastered on a smile. "I take it we won?" she asked.

"More than that!" Dorcas cried, jumping forward excitedly, her deep brown coils bouncing with her. "We crushed them! We're practically guaranteed to finish in at least second now!"

"That's great!" Lily said. And she meant it. While she would be the first to admit that she was far from athletically inclined, she was an avid Quidditch fan and would happily scream along with the rest of the crowd, all from the safety of the stands.

"Congratulations!" she said, including Sirius and James in her praise since they were the only other team members in their vicinity.

"Why thank you, Miss Evans," Sirius said cordially, bowing at the waist with a bottle of butterbeer in hand.

"It was great!" Peter said, sticking his head further in the circle. "You should have seen it! This one ravenclaw chaser had the quaffle and almost made a goal, but Sirius and James came in on either side and-" his explanation ended in a series of strange sound effects and elaborate pantomiming, his face flushed from excitement and quite clearly, liquid courage.

Lily tried to keep a straight face, but she could feel her eyes widening and her mouth quirking up in amusement.

"If you can't tell, Peter's had one too many drinks," Remus explained with a smirk, laying a hand on his friend's shoulder to steady him.

"I can see that," Lily replied, laughing. She looked up at James who, she knew, had been flicking his gaze between Lily and the cup in his hand repeatedly with an odd expression on his face.

"You're awfully quiet," Lily said with a raised eyebrow, jabbing him lightly in the arm. Apparently all the students who were quietly hoping for a romantic reunion were going to be sadly disappointed.

"Just thinking," he said, offering a forced smile.

"Don't hurt yourself, mate," Sirius teased.

Lily stepped closer, her smile fading into a worried frown. "About what?"

"Nothing."

"What is it?"

"I was just wondering why you didn't-why you couldn't make it?" he asked quietly, in an effort to make their conversation somewhat private.

Remus smirked. "You didn't have enough fans in the crowd without her, Prongs?"

"He doesn't care about the rest of his fans, Moony. Don't you know, she's the galleon in a world of knuts." Sirius replied, arcing his hand in a graceful rainbow to emphasize the point. Crimson rushed to Lily's cheeks and Sirius raised a hand, pretending to whisper something to her while continuing to speak at the same level. "He really did say that."

Lily grinned and glanced at James who was smiling himself. He rolled his eyes and shoved Sirius away from them. "Shove off, Padfoot,"said James.

"But really, why didn't you come?" he asked again.

"Sorry, James. I really wanted to, but on my way down, there was a third-year who was crying and I had to take her to the infirmary," she explained with a soft smile.

"That shouldn't have taken that long though," James pressed.

"Well, no…," Lily said slowly. "It didn't take that long to get there. But then Pomferey came and said that her ankle was broken and she was going to have to set the bone and the poor girl was so scared, I couldn't just leave her there all alone!"

"You could've," James grumbled, eyes downcast.

Lily scoffed. "Are you actually mad about this?" she asked in surprise.

"Yes I'm actually mad about this!" he retorted defensively, his voice rising.

"You know I love Quidditch and would have loved to be there to support you, but this just… came up!" Lily said, clearly flustered.

"It's just a matter of priorities!"

Dorcas, Sirius, Remus, and even the drunk Peter were silent now, all watching them bicker with their faces whipping back and forth.

Lily back-pedaled, taking a step away from James, her face now flush with anger. "Of course you're my priority ninety percent of the time, James," she said exasperatedly. "But I was not going to leave a thirteen-year-old sitting in a hospital bed by herself, sobbing and terrified out of her wits. Even Sirius wouldn't be that cold-hearted."

"Don't bring me into this," Sirius murmured from the sidelines, instantly staring down into the depths of his cup.

"You chose a thirteen-year-old girl over me? Are you serious?" James demanded, irrational anger flaring to the surface.

Lily replied in a heartbeat. "No, he's Sirius. I'm Lily."

James was silent. He stared down at her and blinked rapidly. The onlookers held their breath and somehow, conversations continued to roar around them, spewing from the edges of the Common Room as the students who were not close enough to know what just happened continued on, completely obliviously.

A moment later, Lily realized what she had said and she glanced around to take stock. Peter's mouth was agape in awe. Remus was already dissolved in a fit of silent laughter, shoving a fist to his mouth to control himself. Sirius had the look of a proud mother. Dorcas was continuing to look between Lily and James, trying to gauge the appropriate reaction in the heat of the argument.

Finally, Lily's gaze landed on James.

He was looking at her with his head cocked to one side, a faint smirk resting on his lips. The smirk slowly widened into a grin.

Lily was the first to make a sound. She couldn't help herself. She snorted loudly, then hastily covered her mouth to try and take back the sound, but the damage was done.

Like a broken dam, laughter swarmed the group in a tidal wave. Remus bent in half and Sirius slapped his back while also using it to prop himself up as they both broke out into hysterical laughter. Peter collapsed into the armchair behind him and Dorcas had one arm wrapped around her middle. James let out a small chuckle, then shook his head mirthfully, ignoring the rest of their friends and focusing on Lily.

"I think we're rubbing off on you," he commented lightly. Tentatively, as if testing the waters.

Lily grinned. "Let's hope it's in a good way."

"I… have never… been more proud of you, Evans," Sirius managed to get out between bouts of laughter.

Lily rolled her eyes and ignored him. "Are we still good?" she asked.

"How can I say no when you basically just inducted yourself into the group?" James asked, beaming widely.

"That's all it takes to be inducted into the infamous Marauders? A really bad and overused pun?" Lily asked.

"No. You have to make the really bad and overused pun unthinkingly. That's when you're truly one of us," James said, slinging an arm around her shoulders.

Lily leaned in and wrapped an arm around his waist. "What have I become?" she asked wistfully, watching the group that was still overcome with alcohol-buoyed laughter.

"A Marauder. We just went through this, Evans. Merlin, are you as drunk as Peter?" James asked with a smirk.

Lily elbowed him in the side, but laughed nonetheless. "Why do I put up with you ungrateful lot?"

"Ah, you do more than put up with us, Evans. You voluntarily spend hours with us."

"That I do, but I still don't know why."

"Because we're spectacularly fun?"

"And modest to boot."

"It's hard being modest when you're this amazing," James joked.

"How does that broomstick of yours manage to get off the ground with your big head weighing it down?" Lily teased back.

"You wound me," James said dramatically, covering his heart with one hand.

Lily shook her head with a smirk and relented to the beginning of a night of ribbing from Sirius, who looked back on the days when she scorned their sense of humor, complaining from Remus, who bemoaned their sad influence taking down another good heart, and tearful reenactments from the drunk Peter until he passed out. Dorcas flitted out of the circle momentarily, but only to bring Marleen back with her so she wouldn't miss out.

It was one of those parties that lasted into the night with the noise slowly dying down as more and more students headed to bed until at last, blissful quiet. They could talk at a normal level at last without her ringing ears interrupting their conversation and that is exactly what they did. They sat by their favored window, leftover snacks adorning the table, and talked until their voices ached.

A short but sweet story, I figured something a little happier after the last two chapters was in order. Let me know what you thought!