I was sitting out on the grass by the Great Lake with Lily, Mary and Alice on Friday afternoon. We had a gloriously free-from-schoolwork weekend ahead of us and we were chatting about what to do with our free time.

Alice was keen to have a girly Saturday, complete with make-overs and dressing up, while Mary wanted to do "something exciting," though she wasn't sure what.

"We are NOT playing truth or dare for the fiftieth time," Alice told her. "We all know all the answers anyway. So unless you have an idea for something actually exciting-"

"You could always join us in sneaking into a room where the teachers won't find us and drinking copious amounts of Firewhiskey," suggested an unexpected male voice behind us.

I spun around to see Black grinning down at us, followed by Potter, Lupin and Pettigrew.

"Sounds like a fantastic way to get expelled," Lily told them.

Mary, Alice and I exchanged glances. I was somewhat interested, having never tried Firewhiskey before, and Mary was definitely keen judging by her face.

"Hmm, I've never gotten properly drunk before," Mary said. "I had a few champagnes at my cousins wedding in the summer, and it seemed pretty fun but then my Mum banned me."
"Well now's your chance McDonald." Pettigrew told her. "Are you in?"

Mary shrugged, twirling a strand of her blond hair. "Yeah I reckon so. As long as I can convince this boring lot to come along."

"Hey!" Alice smacked her arm. "I'm not boring, and I'm definitely up for this!" Black grinned at her in approval, and the three of them turned to look at me, clearly thinking I was the easy target and then we could all convince Lily together. They weren't wrong.

"Why not," I said, tilting my head at Lily. "Beats sitting in the common room gossiping about nothing."

"Marlene!" Lily exclaimed. "You were meant to be on my side! What if you get caught?"

"Sorry Lily, but it sounds really fun. And we'll be careful, we won't get caught. Do you really want to sit in the common room all night, alone with the sixth years?" I coaxed.

"Yeah Lily," Alice chimed in. "We need you there to keep us in line." Mary nodded enthusiastically, and Lily looked between our excited faces and the boys smirking behind us, and caved.

"Fine," she sighed. "But we will be careful and we won't get caught. Or drink too much."

"Whatever you say, Evans." Black grinned at her contentedly. "Meet us in the common room after dinner. Don't be late." He smirked one more time and the boys walked away. I couldn't help but think that that smirk was a good look on him.

We all settled in a circle on the couches, marvelling at the room which had appeared out of nowhere after Lupin walked back and forward in front of a blank stretch of wall. It was cosy in there, with exactly enough couches to fit us all in a close circle, a roaring fire in the corner and shelves around the walls stacked with books and board games. Black produced two bottles of Firewhiskey, and Potter pulled a tray of shot glasses off the convenient, but alcohol-free bar.

"Why can't you just ask the room to provide the Firewhiskey instead of sneaking off to get it?" I asked Potter as he handed me a glass.

"Doesn't work," he shrugged. "The room refuses to produce alcohol, it's the only thing we've found it not to do. We think it might be because we're not allowed to drink on school grounds."

Potter settled onto the couch next to me as Black poured the shots and starting listing some of the things they had asked for and been granted, not least of which was enough space to practice quidditch, which I couldn't quite wrap my head around.

"Right," Black said, raising his eyebrows at Potter and I. "Time for a game."

"How about spin the bottle?" Pettigrew suggested. "It's actually an option now there are girls here."
That suggestion was vehemently shouted down immediately, and eventually we settled on truth or dare. I was hesitant given how boring this game usually was, but thought that since the boys were present it might be more interesting.

I soon discovered that it wasn't; the game swung between pointlessly boring; e.g. truth questions about sex, which were unanimously answered in the negative (aside from Alice), and ridiculous; e.g. Remus wearing high heels and a dress and performing the newest hit song. We were all bored after about a round and a half of questions, and Black pondered out loud what other sources of entertainment we might have.

I got up and wandered towards a shelf full of games, starting to suggest titles out loud. After some discussion, we eventually settled on a mini quidditch game, where you had to get the tiny quaffle through hoops which moved up and down, with the added rule that anyone who missed all three shots on their turn had to drink a shot of Firewhiskey. Pettigrew and Lily were by far the worst, and as a result got drunk more quickly (which resulted in their aim getting even worse). Potter and Black were very good (unsurprising really, considering they were both on the Gryffindor Quidditch team), so Lily and I began adding extra rules on their turns.

"You have to spin around three times before you throw the quaffle," I told Black seriously as he lined up for his fourth shot, and he followed my instructions, stumbling slightly but still scoring with two out of his three shots.

On Potter's next turn, Lily decided that he had to take a shot of Firewhiskey before he even threw the ball. When Black prepared to throw the quaffle again we started waving our arms around the mini hoops to add an extra obstacle for him to avoid. My aim wasn't bad either, and I was chuffed when Potter – as chaser and captain of the quidditch team – told me I was a good shot. I was less happy when Lily and Mary decided that that meant I should be a target of the increasingly ridiculous extra rules as well. It didn't take long before the Firewhiskey bottles were both empty, and we were all exhausted from laughing, though as Black said; "I'm not sure if it's funnier watching Peter and Evans try to hit the targets, or watching Evans and McDonald trying to put us off."

By the time we finished the game it was already past curfew, so we decided we should go back to the common room as quickly and quietly as possible.

We soon realised that wouldn't be as easy as we had thought; the alcohol made itself known as we walked down the corridors, and the group stumbled along, giggling and shushing each other. Lupin had a piece of parchment in front of him that he was checking constantly – half way back to the common room he swore quietly.

"Filch's heading this way. Quick, hide!" We instinctively split up into pairs or threes, and headed in different directions. I ran down a side hallway with Potter and followed him into an empty classroom just as I saw Lily and Mary duck into a closet. I pulled Potter behind the teacher's desk and we both crouched down, holding our breath. We stayed quiet until we heard Filch walk past, and were sure that he had gone, and then we looked at each other and cracked up laughing, trying our best to keep the laughter quiet.

I stood up and offered Potter my hand. He stared at it for a second, then grabbed my hand and I hauled him up. He stumbled slightly, which made me laugh again but when I looked up I realised how close we were standing to one another. He leaned forward, his face coming closer to mine, then suddenly pulled back and stood straight.

"Are you alright, Potter?" I asked in confusion. Had he just tried to kiss me?

"I'm – I'm fine," he muttered, running a hand through his hair.

"Well shall we head back to the tower?" I suggested, still confused about why he wasn't moving.

"Oh, yeah. I mean, wait, no I want to ask you something first."

"Ok then." He paused again and I was getting ready to either smack him or walk away for taking so long, when he drew in a long breath, and not quite looking me in the eyes, said; "will you go to Hogsmeade with me?"
I stared at him blankly in shock. That was so not what I had expected; in fact I had been bracing myself for a question about Lily's bedtime routine or something.

"I – um, are you sure Potter? You mean like a date, right?"
"Yeah, I mean a date. Why would I ask if I wasn't sure?" he teased gently.

"It's just, I mean, everyone knows you've been in love with my best friend since third year. This is pretty unexpected, you have to admit."

"I know that it's out of the blue, and it might seem like I'm using you to get to Evans or something, but I swear I'm not. I decided that it's time I grow up and get over her and the best way to do that is to fall for someone else, right? And I actually didn't even think about it being you until tonight, but we have a lot of fun together. You make me laugh. So why not?"
I blinked for a moment, quite certain I'd never heard Potter be that serious before. But looking at him in the dim classroom light, I believed him. And he was right, we did have fun together. I stood on my toes and pressed a quick, clumsy kiss to his cheek. "Ok Potter, I'll go to Hogsmeade with you." He grinned at me, but before he could respond Black walked in.

"Oh there you two are. Gonna come back with us to the tower or…. Oh." He had apparently noticed that we were still holding hands, standing about 10 centimetres apart. "Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt. We'll see you later." He left and Potter and I burst out laughing again, but then followed Black back to the rest of the group, hastily untangling our fingers.