Julia awoke early the next morning with Remus's arm still draped over her. He was still asleep, breathing heavily. As far as Julia could tell from behind the pulled curtains of the four-poster, everyone else was still asleep. Julia's stomach was extremely upset and her mouth was completely dry. She was experiencing her first hangover.
Julia sat up in bed, prepared to dash towards the bathroom. She did not feel well at all and assumed it was from drinking the night before. She looked over at Remus. He was still peacefully asleep. If she weren't trying to keep herself from throwing up, she would have taken the time to admire how cute he looked. Her thoughts were instantly disrupted by her near certainty that she was about to puke. She jumped out of the bed, barely able to steady herself, and ran to the bathroom just in time to throw up in the toilet. The fire whiskey didn't taste so great coming back up.
When she had finished gagging, she groggily grabbed her toothbrush and cleaned out her mouth. She was embarrassed to go back to bed with Remus having just thrown up, but she was too hungover to try and make it back to Ravenclaw tower. Her only choice was to go back to bed.
When she opened the door to the bathroom, she figured she must have woken the others as she could now hear them gently stirring. She instantly felt guilty. She crawled back into Remus's bed and was too tired to redraw the curtain she had ripped open to make it to the bathroom in time.
"Are you okay?" Lupin rolled over and asked her, sleepily. His hair was a mess.
"Yeah, I mean. I don't know. I just threw up," Julia said, embarrassedly.
Surprisingly, Remus did not look disgusted at all. He chuckled. "Yeah it's okay don't feel bad. Sirius is probably going to puke when he wakes up".
"Really?" Julia replied, surprised. She didn't realize experienced drinkers also got sick.
"Yeah don't worry; it happens to at least one of us every time there's a party", Lupin reassured her as he wrapped her into a tight cuddle. Julia suddenly felt much better knowing she had nothing to be embarrassed of.
As Julia settled back in, Lily slowly opened the curtains of James's bed. Lily also looked extremely hungover. She squinted as she slowly sat up, with her legs hanging off the bed.
"Oh my god shut that curtain the light is hurting my brain," James's muffled mutter came from inside the bed. Julia and Lupin snickered in bed. Last night was Julia's first party and this morning was her first time seeing the aftermath of such celebration.
"Relax I have to go to the bathroom," Lily mumbled back. She stumbled as she stood up.
"Are you still drunk?" James asked, amused.
"I don't know, shut up," Lily shot back as her boyfriend laughed.
As Lily carefully made her way to the bathroom, Sirius's curtains also pulled open. Helena rolled over questioningly, wondering why everything was suddenly so bright. She had the blankets pulled up to her neck. It was pretty obvious she was wearing nothing under them.
"Who's in the loo?" Sirius muttered. He seemed to be in the worst shape of them all.
"Lily," James replied with a yawn.
"Oi, hurry up in there I need to pull the trigger," Sirius shouted towards the bathroom. Julia, who did not know what 'pull the trigger' meant, looked at Lupin questioningly.
"He's gonna make himself throw up," Lupin explained quietly as he could tell Julia was slightly embarrassed by her inexperience in partying. Julia looked back at him, seemingly horrified by this news.
"It's fine," Lupin grinned, "some people do it when they're hungover because it makes them feel better a lot sooner. I'm personally not a fan but it's Sirius's go to"
Peter also opened his curtains with all this commotion. He looked slightly better than the rest, having thrown up all his liquor on Catherine the previous night.
As soon as Lily opened the bathroom door, Sirius pushed her aside and closed it again. Lily, looking slightly disgusted but also amused, cast a silencing charm towards the door. Everyone laughed.
"You'll thank me later. He's loud" Lily explained to a confused Julia. After several minutes, Sirius finally emerged, looking shaken but slightly more energetic.
"Literally, so hung over. I cannot remember anything from like, walking into the Yule Ball until coming back into the room" Sirius said to no one in particular as he rummaged through his trunk for something.
"Yeah, you were crazy. I don't know how you didn't get in more trouble than just getting told to go home from the ball," James chimed in, as he recounted the night's events, embellishing a little at the part where the teachers broke up the after party. Sirius was completely amused to hear about his actions from the previous night. In the mean time, Lupin had conjured water for everyone, which they drank greedily to soothe their dry mouths and sore heads.
Julia took a closer look at what Sirius was doing. It appeared that he was grinding up some sort of plant and stuffing it into a sort of glass object. No one else seemed slightly confused by this, and Julia didn't want to ask what was going on. Sirius pointed the end of his wand at the opening of glass pipe he was holding and lit it slightly on fire. Julia realized he was smoking something. She put two and two together and realized he must be smoking marijuana—some sort of Muggle drug that was catching on in the Wizarding world too. Julia had never seen anyone do it, but she knew plenty of Hogwarts students did. She didn't know how comfortable she was with this, but didn't say anything.
Sirius passed the glass thing to Helena, who repeated his actions. Helena passed it to Lily who (to Julia's surprise) also smoked from it, who passed it to James. After James repeated their actions, he held out the bowl to Julia.
"Do you want to smoke, Julia?" James asked.
"I…I don't know. I've never done it. I don't even really know what you're doing," she nervously admitted. This is the first time James, Head Boy, Gryffindor Quidditch star, and overall most popular guy in school, ever addressed her directly.
"It's fine, don't worry!" James replied. Julia, although she was unsure why, was surprised that he didn't mock her.
"It really helps with your hangover. It's not even really that bad for you," Lily chimed in. She explained to Julia that the glass object was called a bowl and that the user was to gently suck in the smoke from the bowl when it lit on fire. Julia had never even considered taking illegal potions or doing any of the Muggle drug fads that came and went at Hogwarts, but something about Lily Evans explaining it like it was so normal made her want to try it.
"Er…okay, I'll try," Julia decided. She was genuinely curious. James handed her the bowl, which she took carefully. "I don't really know what to do".
"Here, I'll help you," James said, kindly. Julia was surprised at how helpful he was. James explained to her how to hold the bowl. "You just worry about getting the smoke; I'll light it and everything."
James lit the tip of his wand.
"Suck in, suck, suck, suck," James coached her.
"Yeah, that what Lupin was saying last night," Sirius smirked. Everyone laughed as Lupin rolled his eyes. Julia, to even her surprised, wasn't offended and smiled as she inhaled the smoke. So far she actually liked Remus's friends.
While she was thinking about Sirius's joke and not really paying attention to what she was doing, Julia realized her mouth was full of the smoke. She wanted to let it out but before she did, James continued his coaching.
"Okay, now breathe in slowly," She obliged, feeling her lungs get hot. She didn't know what to do, "Let it out".
She was surprised at the cloud of smoke that came from her mouth and nose, but was even more surprised at her overwhelming urge to cough. She coughed harder than she ever had in her life and couldn't stop.
"You're fine!" and "You did good!" and other praised from the group filled the air as Lupin handed her a water and patted her on the back, smiling. She happily handed the bowl over to him.
"That was good! It's okay, the first time I did it I though I would never stop coughing," Lily said as Julia's coughs got less and less severe. Lupin lit up the bowl for himself, took a hit, and passed it to Peter.
The group continued to pass the bowl and reminisce on the Yule Ball. Julia was surprised with how well she was getting along with all of Remus's friends. Sure, she had her own group of friends in her year but they were mostly only concerned with school. This group proved you could care about learning, and still have fun. For once at Hogwarts, Julia felt like she was fully relaxed, not worrying about exams, and enjoying herself.
Some time passed as the group hung out and recovered from their hangovers. Eventually, Julia started thinking about the work she needed to get done before holiday break and asked Lupin to take her home. Lily let her borrow some sweats and a t-shirt and told her to bring them back whenever she had the chance. As Lupin and Julia walked back to Ravenclaw tower, hand in hand, she could not help but think how much she enjoyed her time with him. Before they knew it, they were back to Ravenclaw Tower and it was time for them to part ways.
"Remus, thank you for everything." Julia said, hugging Lupin.
"Of course," Lupin replied, "it was fantastic"
The two kissed goodbye, not wanting to leave one another.
"Listen. Let's hang out again really soon. Want to study together this week?" Lupin asked Julia.
"Of course!" she replied. She was hoping he wanted to continue to see her.
"Awesome, we have prefect rounds together tomorrow. James showed me the new schedule so we can plan a time then!" he replied.
Now much happier that they were going to spend more time together, Julia was a little more willing to say goodbye to Lupin. They both parted their separate ways, smiling ear to ear as they walked away.