Chapter Thirteen: James' plan didn't really work
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise from JK Rowling's books belong to her, and not me, obviously. I would never do that to Sirius..... (That counts for all chapters before this, as I forgot to include a disclaimer until now).
That weekend, little if any work was done by any Gryffindor, which resulted in a record number of detentions being given out, mostly by Professor Abercrombie. Luckily, the house elves came up and cleaned the entire common room; the job took hours, even with their expert hands. No teachers seemed to have found out about the party, which was another very good thing.
Most of the students stayed in bed all day, occasionally rising to see if they felt any better, then quickly lying back down again. The Marauders didn't even get up once before the evening, let alone venture downstairs. Sirius woke up blearily sometime in the early afternoon, to a pounding head and Remus' repeated mutters of "I will not throw up, I will not throw up", in the bed next to him. He felt he could not face this, so in an effort to feel better, transformed into his dog form and curled up into a warm ball in the comforting darkness under his bed.
Hours later, the sky was nearly black through the window and the common room was subdued. People lounged about on the settees or on the floor, drinking lots of water filled with headache tablets. Even the extra-strong, Wizard-style pills only did a little for Remus' head, and he hunched over in his seat, staring across the room through glazed, puffy eyes.
"There he is," he glowered to Peter next to him, indicating Paul Helter who was behaving in an aggravatingly chirpy manner and talking too loudly in his high voice. "The little bastard. He should never have let me drink so much."
"Remus, don't talk so loud," Peter moaned into his hands, sprawled back on the settee.
"Or at all," James added, as Lily, Bethan, Adriana and Sarah headed their way, looking highly amused at the sight of them.
"Ah, the aftermath of a Marauder party," Bethan said wistfully, plonking herself between Remus and James. "How ya feeling, guys?"
"Kill me, kill me now," Remus answered.
"That was a nice job you made of looking after the little ones, Remus," Sarah commented, sitting opposite him. The girls laughed at his groaned "Shut up". Adriana sat herself next to Peter, who for once didn't immediately start gazing adoringly up at her.
At that moment a loud bang got everyone groaning louder, and they looked up with narrowed eyes as Sirius emerged from the bedroom and staggered down the stairs, holding one hand to his head and gripping the banister very tightly with the other. Reaching the bottom, he saw that there was no room for him on the settees, so he lay down on the floor at his friends' feet.
"Evening, Sirius," Lily said into his ear, and giggled at his moan and his feeble attempt to swat her away. Feeling a bit guilty, she fetched him a glass of water, which he poured over his head.
At breakfast the next day, most of the Gryffindors had recovered after a good night's sleep, but were still displeased with having to face another week of classes, for which hardly any of them had done their work. Out of the sixth years, only Lily was completely chipper. She had enjoyed her birthday party immensely, and could handle her drinks much better than most others; not to mention she had completed all her work in the library before the party.
James, Peter and even Remus managed to get a bit of bacon sandwich down, the first food they eaten, nut Sirius couldn't even look at the food. He had only come down to the Great Hall because he didn't want to be left alone upstairs.
"This has got to go into the book of impossible happenings," James said. "Padfoot's not eating."
"Lily," Sirius croaked, leaning towards her. "Why are those to seventh year girls looking at me?"
"Gee, let me think..." Lily pretended to consider the question carefully. "If I remember correctly, you did spend a lot of time entertaining you up in your dormitory, Sirius – maybe that has something to do with it."
Sirius tried to check them out discreetly. "Really?" he asked, interest renewing. "Go, Padfoot!" he commended himself, a shadow of the old grin passing his pale features. He waved down the table at the two girls and they giggled and blushed at his attentions.
Their first lesson was History of Magic, which was for once a blessing, as it didn't involve any participation, and even less brainwork. Sirius lay his head down on the desk and went to sleep as Professor Binns talked about the preferred lifestyle of trolls and how it has developed over the centuries; it had not, they still lived in caves if they could help it. Everyone else soon followed Sirius' lead, and fell into a doze under the influence of Binns' most unmotivating lecture yet.
Remus and Lily were sitting next to each other, trying their hardest to take a few notes and at least pay attention, but it was very hard, and they were forced to forget their shared reputation as responsible, hard-working prefects. They instead chose to discuss the party in a whispered conversation.
"I remember the first couple of hours," Remus said in hushed tones, "But after that it becomes blurred and I definitely can't remember going to bed."
Lily giggled. "That's because you collapsed, just fell asleep in your chair, and we had to carry you upstairs."
Remus looked horror-struck at this news. "We? Who's we?" he asked.
"Well, I think it was me, Bethan, James and Steven Brown," she told him, unable to keep the smile from her lips.
"Oh, and I suppose the little first year brats found it hilarious," he grumbled, imagining the scene.
"Yes, for sure," she answered. "That little Helter Skelter was most pleased with himself for causing a prefect five years his senior to fall unconscious."
"What I want to know is how the hell he's learned to carry his drink better than me?" Remus asked, his eyes wide with wonder. "I mean, I know I'm not exactly a hard drinker, but – he's eleven years old!"
Lily laughed, putting a hand over her mouth. "You must be so embarrassed!" she said, and laughed further at Remus' unamused expression.
"Next time," he vowed, wagging a finger, "I'll show that little dweeb... you'll have to help me, Lil, you didn't have so much as a headache on Sunday." He frowned at her questioningly, then grinned wickedly. "You must have had a lot of practice."
"No!" she denied. "I'm just good at handling alcohol – all us girls are; you boys are just pansies!"
"Tell that to Sirius," Remus told her, smiling, but looking slightly envious. "He managed to go to bed with the two best-looking girls in the seventh year, even when he was pissed and revolting."
"Trust me, in a woman's opinion, Sirius Black is never revolting," Lily told him, her green eyes glinting. When Remus looked even more disgruntled, she added, "If it makes you feel better, those girls would have gone with anyone, between you and me, and Sirius can't remember anything about it, anyway."
"Yeah, but still, the fact remains that he was up there having a great time with them," Remus answered, "While I was getting literally hammered by a bunch of horrible little kids in a drinking game!"
His grave expression gave way to mirth as Lily shrieked with laughter, then stifled it quickly with her hand and they silently shook with laughter, oblivious of having woken up the rest of their class even including Sirius. Professor Binns droned on...