Le 10th chapter...lol

The next morning Lily woke up and rolled over under the soft comforter. She felt James beside her and smiled; she loved waking up like this. James grunted as he felt her slide up next to him and kiss him softly on the cheek. Lily smiled and whispered in his ear, "I'm going to make us some breakfast." James opened his eyes as he felt Lily slip out off the bed and grinned a little sheepishly as she walked across the room and slipped on one of his long shirts. He rolled over and closed his eyes as the door clicked shut.
James waited until he heard the sound of bacon sizzling in a pan downstairs before he finally dragged himself out of the bed and into the bathroom for a quick morning shower.

As James walked into the kitchen clad only in a pair of boxers from last Christmas, Lily set their plates down across from each other, along with the paper and went to get mugs for their coffee.
"Thank-you, sweetheart," James said, sitting down on his stool and spreading some butter across his and Lily's toast.
"You're very welcome," Lily replied, setting down his coffee next to her own and leaning across the table to give him a quick kiss. "After all, it's the least I can do after that amazing display last night. What was that all about?" she asked, grinning as she opened the marmalade and put a glob on her toast before passing it over to James.
He smiled and spooned some marmalade onto his toast and put the top back on. Lily licked some goo off of her finger and looked over at him.
"Well..." he said, very mysteriously. Lily raised an eyebrow at him. "I've been given...a promotion!" he beamed as he finished his sentence. Lily was silent a moment before she realized his words, and then, quick as a shot, she was off of her chair and around the little island table.
"James!" she screamed, and he caught her in his arms. "That's wonderful! It's, well, it's amazing actually, considering how long you've been there…what is it?" Lily could hardly catch her breathe from the excitement. Her arms were still around James' neck, her legs keeping her airborne as they clung to his waist.
"Well, it's just the next level up, Junior Auror, but it means I'll actually be out in the field a few days a week...easy work, Hun, nothing dangerous yet!" he added, reassuring Lily.
"Well," he said, kissing him once," I am very," she kissed him again," proud," kiss "of," kiss "you!" She kissed him long and hard this time. James cradled her head as he was still holding her up in the air. His hand traveled up her shirt and caressed her back. Lily pulled away, but she was smiling.
"Tonight, you are going out with the boys. Tell them no excuses, no girlfriends, just lots of partying and celebrating before you have to get all serious and become an official Ministry Official," she let her voice go all deep and manly for the last three words and giggled. He grinned.
"Did I tell you that I love you?" he asked, grinning up at her.
"Maybe.." she replied, teasing.
"And that you're fantastic, and brilliant and perfect..." James trailed off as he carried Lily back up the stairs, their laughter echoing through the hallway.

That evening, Lily lay on the bed as she watched James get ready for his big night out to celebrate his promotion. All of the boys had been able to make it; James had even managed to twist Peter's arm enough to get him to join in.
"Honey, have you seen my-" James asked as he searched though a pile of clothes in the hamper.
"It's in the back of the closet. Try the other door," Lily cut him off before he even had to finish asking.
"Thank-you, sweets," James said, pulling back the other side of the closet where most of his clothes were hanging. He pulled out the shirt he had been looking for and smiled. "Ah, perfect, you're amazing."
James slipped the shirt on over his head and found a pair of jeans to match. He turned to Lily with two belts in his hands. "Which one?"
Lily squinted and then pointed to the one on the left. "That one," she said. James winked and looped his through his jeans, buckling it and finding the shoes Lily had set out for him earlier.
"Ah, where do I have clean-" Lily chucked a rolled-up pair of socks at James' head and giggled. "Right and my-" he stopped as he saw Lily pointing to the bureau top where his cologne was sitting. James slipped on the socks, tied up his shoes and dabbed just a bit of cologne on each side of his neck.
James quickly checked his face in and hair in the mirror, smoothed down his clothes and smiled. He walked over to the bed just as there was a quick knock on the door and then the sound of someone entering.
They heard Sirius' voice as he yelled up to them. "Come on, Potter! I didn't know we were waiting for a girl to join us this evening!" which was quickly followed by Peter's timid and slightly hushed voice tellingg Sirius off for barging into the house. "Oh, get off it, Peter...James! Let's go! Remus left to car running!" he yelled shrilly up the stairs.
James grinned and kissed Lily on the cheek. "You'll be alright tonight by yourself?" he asked.
"Who says I'll be by myself?" Lily replied coyly.
James arched an eyebrow. "What…have you got a hot date lined up for this evening, Lily?" he asked, joking.
"Yes, the girls should be here very soon, actually," Lily replied, giggling. James smiled.
"Promise not to be out too late, I love you." James headed out the door.
"I love you, too!" Lily replied. He winked and walked out. Lily heard James take the steps two at a time and the sound of Sirius greeting him ("About time, mate. What happened? Your make-up gave you a hard time did it?"), followed by the door shutting and the sound of a car pulling away down the road.

James navigated his way across the crowded dance floor towards the bar. As he reached the counter and tried to get the bartender's eye, he felt a hand grab his arm. He turned to see Sirius pulling out his money-bag and shaking his head.
"Do you really think we'd let you pay tonight!" He was almost roaring just to make himself heard over all the noise in the club. James opened his mouth to protest. "Nuh-uh-uh-uh, no way...you are CELEBRATING!" he grinned at James who, defeated, put his own money back into his pocket. Sirius motioned to the female bartender, who appeared across from him a second later.
"Well, hello there little lady," Sirius said, flashing her a grin.
The woman rolled her eyes, but also gave a slight smile, despite herself. "What can I get you fine fellows?" she asked, clearly used to the chaos surrounding them.
"Give us 4 firewhiskey's and 5 shots, would'ya?" he replied.
"Five?" James inquired, lifting his hand to count off who was with them. His pondering went left unanswered, though, as Sirius was still flirting with the cute bartender.
"Any particular poison preference?" she asked.
"Alliteration aside, I'll let you pick...surprise me!" he winked at her and flashed him a smile as she said,
"Coming right up!"
As she turned away to get their drinks, James looked at Sirius.
"You know what the word 'alliteration' means?" he asked, clearly mystified at Sirus' wisdom.
Sirius threw him a scathing look, "Oh shut up, Potter!" James grinned and they turned as the bartender appeared again, this time balancing a full tray on her right hand. She placed a row of shot glasses in front of the opened firewhiskey bottles and pulled out a large bottle of vodka.
"Excellent choice!" Sirius cried as she ran the bottle along the tray, filling each glass as she went.
"That'll be 7 Galleons even, boys," she said, and Sirius handed her several coins, plus a nice tip. She nodded, smiled and walked off down the counter to help someone else.
"Why five?" James shouted.
"Because," Sirius replied, picking the end shot up and handing it to his friend. "The extra one is for you! Mr. Big Stuff, getting all promoted and such," he laughed and James took the drink from him.
"I'm gonna kill you if I do anything stupid tonight," he yelled. Then he sighed, lifted glass to his lips, and threw his head back. James winced just a little as the liquid stung his throat, and he licked his lips as he slammed the empty glass onto the counter. "Happy now?" he asked.
"Ecstatic!" Sirius replied. "Let's go!" He grabbed the tray and held it high above his head as they traveled back through the crowd of sweaty dancers and found the table Remus and Peter has saved for them.

"To James' promotion, may there be many more in near future!" Remus said, holding up his shot glass and toasting to James.
"TO JAMESSS!" Sirius screamed, following suit, a huge grin on his face. Peter hesitantly lifted his shot glass as well, and James picked his up.
Sirius cocked an eyebrow, and all at once, James, Remus and Sirius threw back their drinks. Peter sipped his and coughed, setting the drink back down on the table and pushing it away.
'Wooo-hooo!" Sirius yelled, pounding the table with his fists. Then he turned to James and looked him in the eye, as if to tell him something very important. "You should get promoted more often, mate!" He grinned and smacked James on the shoulder, who just shook his head and smiled as Sirius took a big swig from his bottle.

- - - -

Back at the house, Lily was on the phone in the kitchen, finishing up a large order of take-out from the pizza place down the road.
"Thank-you," she chimed and hung up the phone, rubbing her hands together and letting a huge grin spread across her face. It felt like forever since they had had a real all-girls night together and Lily was really looking forward to having all of her friends back in one place again. Just as she was thinking this, the doorbell rang. Lily sprinted down the hallway towards the front door. Whoever had pushed the button had continued to hold it down, because the cling of the bell resounded through the house as Lily reached the door.
Lily opened the door and saw Carmen standing across from her, her finger pressed firmly on the button.
Lily laughed. "I should'a know, Carma!" she yelled, and her friend let go of the doorbell and launched herself onto Lily.
"God, I missed you sooo much!" she squealed as they let go and Lily closed the door behind her friend and they walked down the hall to the kitchen.
"Aw, I missed you, too. I feel like it's been forever, has it been forever?" she asked, still unable to remove the grin from her face as she popped open a bottle of red wine. Carmen placed two glasses on the countertop and Lily poured them each a hearty glass.
"I think it might just have been forever," Carmen replied, also smiling. "Cheers."
They clicked their glasses together, and just as they began to sip, the doorbell rang again.
"That'll be Liz, she left just after I did" Carmen explained, following Lily back down the hallway.
Sure enough, when Lily pulled open the door a second time, Liz was standing across from her.
"Come in!" Lily cried, and stood back to give Liz room to enter before they hugged as well.
"Ok, so, for our 'all-girls no boys allowed' night," Lily started, and Liz couldn't help but giggle remembering the great evenings they had had like this during their years at Hogwarts. Lily continued, "I have recently placed an order for 3 large pizzas and I have wine and enough sappy girly movies to last us through the night. I expect all food and drink to be gone by the end of evening, got it?" she turned to Liz now who smiled.
"Why not have a glass or two, we're celebrating a most joyous reunion, right!"
"That's the spirit!" Carmen yelled. "Load 'er up!"

- - - -

Meanwhile, back at the bar the boys were well on their way to forgetting tonight tomorrow morning. They had all finished their firewhiskeys as well as another round of shots (Sirius had insisted) and their inhibitions about the evening were quickly cast to the wind.
"LET'S DANCE!" roared Sirius, jumping up from the table as soon as he said it, a huge grin on his face as if he had never come up with a better idea in his life. James and Remus stood up as well, and James looked around for Peter, but he seemed to have disappeared. There were two of Peter's unfinished shots on the table and Remus and James looked at them and then looked at each other (Sirius was already out on the dance floor, apparently trying to woo a group of blonde girls while flailing his arms and gyrating his hips with little success of a rhythm) before they each grabbed one drink and chucked them back.
"Let's do this!" cried James, grinning at his friend as they stepped out to join Sirius on the floor.

Ten minutes later, the three boys were still dancing up a storm, their faces and bodies soaked with sweat from their lack of self-control and, more importantly, their lack of any idea how do dance.
A new song buzzed across the room with a deep techno beat thumping through their skulls. James held up a finger dramatically and stiffened his body before he winked at his small audience and began bopping his head to the beat. Soon his head became his arms, and then his shoulders as he threw them back and forth unappealingly and before he knew it, James was jumping up and down, his appendages spazzing to the music in his pitiful, drunken idea of a dance move. The crowd around him was just as smashed as he was, though, and they cheered him on, loud, deep hollers from the guys and whistles from the girls. Suddenly, James landed on the ground and paused in his routine with his back bent slightly and his eyes closed. All eyes watched to see what he'd do next. He slowly pulled himself back up to a standing position, looked around at the crowd and raised both his eyebrows. His sight stopped on a short, skinny brunette girl on the other side of circle. In one swift motion, he threw his hand up and pointed his index finger at her as if to say 'You! Your Turn'. She giggled and shook her head at him as he cocked just one eyebrow and began to moonwalk out to the edge of the circle, laving the dance space open for someone else.
As James continued to move backwards, he wasn't looking where he was going and suddenly felt himself bump into someone else with a small thud. As the person turned to see what or who had hit them, James fell off balance and went careening to the floor. His head hit the hard surface and his vision went black.

- - - -

The girls were crowded around the warm fire in the living room. Their movies were all watched and their food all eaten and just a few glasses of wine sitting around them showed that they had any of that left.
"C'mon, let's playyyy!" squealed Carmen, not from the alcohol but just from the excitement and hyperness of a girls' night in.
"It's so juvenile. I feel like I'm back in 3rd year," Liz protested, taking a sip of her wine to prove that she wasn't 13 any more.
"C'mon...Lily!" she said, turning to her other friend. "You wanna play, don't you?" She gave Lily the puppy dog face and began to whimper slightly. Lily rolled her eyes and sat up, leaning against the couch.
"Well, I don't care either way," she replied.
"YES!" Carmen cried, taking that as an invitation to begin. She turned to Liz, who shot Lily a glare and readied herself for the game.
"Ok, Liz: Truth or Dare?"

- - - -

Back at the nightclub, James had been moved into a back room, a wet towel placed on his head and a large glass of water waiting for him on the counter. As he came to, James could hear low murmurs and wondered quietly to himself how many people were in the room with him. After a minute or so of consciousness, he managed to gain the strength to open his eyes. He looked around the room and saw the blurry outlines of at least five or six people. Someone must have gone and got the guys...
Off in a corner, he saw the small slim figure of woman and a mass of bright blonde hair on top of her head, but he couldn't make out if he knew her. He closed his eyes again for a second before trying to see them all clearly.
As he opened his eyes again, he coughed involuntarily and all of the talk stopped suddenly, leaving a moment of eerie quietness before the blonde, curly-haired lady rushed over to him from the corner.
"James?" She said, from what seemed like light-years away. "James?" she repeated.
He coughed again in reply.
"James, mate...can you hear me?" he heard Sirius' voice ask as his fuzzy outline dropped down beside the girl. He was just beginning to recognize her, putting her rough, hazy image with her distant voice.
He tried to move his head left to see who else was there but it hurt too much and he closed his eyes again.
"Open you eyes, James...That's it, stay with me now," the soothing voice said to him as he looked out at them once again. The woman removed the towel from his head and replaced it with a fresh, cold one. As the blonde curls bounced over him, he realized who it must be.
"Lyla?" he wheezed.
"Shhh…just be still," came her reply.

- - - -

Carmen strutted triumphantly back down the hallway and plopped herself down on the plush rug, grinning widely.
"I cannot believe you just did that," Liz said, trying to look offended, but unable to hide her smile.
"Did anyone see you?" Lily asked, giggling.
"Yeah...a car drove by and there was some old guy behind the wheel. He looked pretty shocked, actually," Carmen replied, taking a sip of her wine.
"Wait...black car, old man with white hair and wire-rim glasses?" Lily inquired.
"That's the one! He had a dog in the front seat, too an-"
"-English Cocker Spaniel." Lily finished Carmen's sentence and covered her face with her hands.
"That's right. What's the matter...the dog didn't seem to mind," she grinned devilishly.
"That's Mr. Durham, he lives just across the street! I see him every morning when he takes Muffy out. He waves at me and I wave back and he's so old and sweet. Oh no, what is going to think of me now?" she groaned, letting her head fall onto a pillow in shame.
"Muffy? Is that the dog or the wife?" Carmen giggled at her own joke and Lily lifted her head contemptuously to reply.
"The dog, Carma."
"Ok, well...he'll get over it...It's your turn, Lily! Truth or Dare?"
Lily thought it over for a second before opening her mouth to reply. "Truth…I don't want to land myself in trouble with all of the neighbors tonight."
"Ok...truth...truth...hmmm," Carmen though long and deep before snapping her fingers. "Ok, got it! Lily Evans, have you ever cheated on a one Mr. James Potter?" she inquired.
"Oh, c'mon...that's so stupid. We know Lily would never cheat on James," Liz cried. She had been hoping for a juicier question than that.
Lily, however, was frowning. "I uh...I- anyone want some more wine?" she stammered.
The other two looked at each other, worried expressions on their faces. It was clear that the game was over.
"Lily," Liz whispered, astonishment grounded in her voice. "You cheated on James?"