Don't Let Your Guard Down
chapter 18
i am soooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry that this update is so late! I've been really busy with work and I was in Washington DC for a bit and I had my spring break...etc etc. but i am finally updating so you can't hate me that much!
disclaimer: blah blah i'm not JK Rowling etc etc
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"WAHOO!" Lily shouted, doing a cartwheel on the grass a few hours later.
Kacie laughed as she took a huge gulp of wine straight from the bottle and Gigi just rolled her eyes, getting ready to climb the tree.
"Hey Gi, be careful," Kacie advised.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Gigi cried out from the tree.
"Be careful!" Kacie shouted.
"Hmm, 'be careful.' Now, I remembered how to climb the tree, and how to get up here on this branch, but why the hell couldn't I remember to be careful," Gigi said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
"You will be sooo sorry when you fall," Kacie joked.
"Is anyone else hot?" Lily asked, taking off her sweater.
"Lily, you're gonna freeze. All you're wearing is a tank top under that sweater!" Gigi yelled from the tree.
"She's moments away from streaking in the woods," Kacie said with a giggle and another sip of wine.
"I'd pay to see that," Gigi said, also giggling.
"How come we don't do this more often?" Lily asked.
"It's illegal and expensive," Gigi said.
"I like hanging out with just the girrrls," Lily said, rolling her r's. "Who needs the male species?"
"I do," Gigi said. "Sex with girls is just no fun."
"Snogging girls isn't any fun either," Kacie said with a wink.
"Whoooa," Sirius said, whacking James in the arm and pointing to his other friend. "Look at Peter."
"Damn," James said. "He's not usually the first one to snog a girl he picks up in the bar." James turned to Sirius. "It's usually you."
Sirius shrugged. "No girl prospects today."
"Are you kidding?" James asked, taking another drink of beer. "You've been dancing with at least a dozen of them. By now, you'd be stumbling back to the room to have sex with one of them."
"I'd rather just get drunk and hang out with you," Sirius said.
"If I was single, coming to a bar to hang out with you would be the last thing I'd want to do," James said. "No offense."
"How the hell did you mean no offense from that comment?" Sirius joked.
"Oh you know I love hanging out with you," James said. "Although, right now I'm picturing you as Lily."
Sirius hit him over the head and ordered another beer.
"Is anyone else surprised that Peter is the only one out of us getting some from a girl?" Remus asked, coming over and sitting on a stool at the bar.
"He's probably pretending the girl is Penny," Sirius said with a laugh.
"So how much have you had to drink?" James asked Remus.
"Far less than you and Sirius," Remus explained.
"Well then here," Sirius said, sticking two beers into Remus's hands. "Drink these."
"You trying to get me drunk?" Remus asked, taking the beers from Sirius.
"Yeah, and then he's gonna take advantage of you," James said with a laugh.
"Well, hello boys," Rosette said, coming over to them.
"Please Rosette. We aren't boys," Sirius said. "We are grown men."
"You still sleep with a nightlight," Remus said.
Sirius pouted and turned to Rosette. "So you were saying?"
"Just seeing how you guys are doing," Rosette said with a shrug.
"As long as we've got alcohol in us, we're perfectly happy," Sirius said with a wink.
"And Peter has a girl…so he's the happiest of all," James noted.
"Well, I'm going home in five minutes," Rosette said.
"Need help getting home?" Sirius asked flirtatiously.
"Oh yeah, because apparating home is really hard," Rosette said.
"I hear it's a two person job," Sirius said.
Rosette smiled and ruffled Sirius's hair. "Maybe next time hon." And with that, she walked away.
"She so wants me," Sirius said.
"And we are so out of here," Peter said, coming up from behind.
"Why?"
"That girl wants to bring me home to meet her parents," Peter hissed.
The three boys looked at him and burst out laughing. "You are so screwed!"
"I'm not ready to leave," James said. "I'm not drunk enough and it's no where near five o'clock."
Sirius smiled widely. "C'mon, I know where else we can have fun."
"What is this that I'm drinking?" Lily asked with a giggle.
"Beer," Kacie answered.
"Wine," Gigi corrected.
Kacie and Gigi exchanged glances and burst out laughing. "Who cares? It's alcohol."
"The only thing missing from this night is some hot guy to hook up with," Kacie said.
"No need to look much further Kace," a voice said from across the way.
All three girls turned their heads to see the four Marauder's standing there.
"What are you doing here?" Lily asked with a giggle.
"Saving you before you freeze to death," James said, taking his robes off and bringing them over to Lily.
"A little birdie told us you'd be here," Sirius said, making eye contact with Gigi.
"It's winter Si," Kacie noted. "All the little birdies went south."
"After leaving Hogsmeade-" Sirius started.
"Where we were having a study session," James cut in, eyeing Lily.
"Sirius told us he knew where we could have some more fun," Remus said.
"After our study session," James said.
"So he brought us here," Peter ended.
"To relax after the study session," James finished.
"Oh quit it James. Your girlfriend knows what you were doing. She's not an idiot," Sirius said.
"Idiot, idiot, idiot," Lily slurred jokingly.
"I take that back," Sirius said with a laugh.
"Is she drrunk?" James hissed to the other two girls, slurring the word drunk.
"Of course," Kacie said. "Just like you are."
"Because they give you drinks in that study session, right Potter?" Gigi said with a laugh. "AGH!" Gigi shouted, falling out of the tree.
"GIGI!" Sirius cried out.
Everyone else froze and looked over at him. "Did you just all her Gigi?"
"Okay, the girl just fell out of a tree and you're worrying about what I called her?" Sirius asked.
"Ha! Told ya you'd be sorry," Kacie said to Gigi, who was clearly okay and laughing about the whole thing.
"Okay, I don't find this funny," Sirius said, obviously annoyed.
Kacie handed him a beer. "Drink some more beers. Then you'll find it funny."
Sirius rolled his eyes, but gladly took the beer.
"Where's your random girl?" Gigi asked, looking up at Sirius.
Sirius just shrugged but didn't say anything and instead, took a sip of the beer.
"Do you guys do this every weekend?" James wondered.
"Oh yeah, I am totally the kind of person to get drunk every single weekend," Lily said, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, the last time Lily was drunk was the night she did the stupidest thing ever," Kacie said.
"And what's that?" James asked.
"Slept with you," Kacie said with a smirk.
Remus, Peter, and Sirius burst out laughing. "HA! She told you."
"And the last time Gigi was hammered, she did something really stupid," Kacie said.
"Which was what?"
"Slept with Sirius," Kacie said, looking over at him.
It was James's turn to burst out laughing. "Ha!"
"And now you're wasted," Gigi said to Kacie. Then Gigi turned to Remus and Peter. "Better get those condoms ready."
"Okay, that's a lie," Sirius interjected. "Giliba is drunk at every party, every social event, and almost every weekend. The last time she was drunk was not when she slept with me."
"Can we not talk about me as if I'm not here," Gigi said.
"How did our guys night out turn into a night out with the guys and girls?" Peter wondered.
"We're guys. We have hormones. And Sirius and James can't get away from girls for more than two seconds," Remus concluded.
"Plus, if I recall," Sirius noted. "You were the only one of us to hook up with a girl back at the bar."
"And now you're setting a wedding date," James said with a laugh.
"Are you kidding?" Kacie cried out an hour later. "I always figured it would be Remus walking in on Sirius."
"Well that happened too," Sirius said, gulping down the rest of his beer.
"And who were you with?" Lily asked, taking the wine bottle from James.
"Summer Anston," Remus said with a shrug.
"And who did you walk in on with Sirius?" Kacie asked.
Remus paused.
"Can't remember the girl?"
"No…I'm just trying to remember the names of all four of them," Remus said.
Gigi (who had climbed back into the tree) started climbing down the branch. "I'm bored of this conversation."
"Well we can talk about your sex life," Peter said.
Gigi turned to Remus. "So Summer Anston huh?"
Gigi started walking into the woods, trying to walk off the alcohol. Sirius, who was already standing and leaning against a tree, went after her. "What are you doing?"
"Looking for bears, werewolves, and bats," she said, rolling her eyes. Gigi leaned against a tree and looked up at Sirius. "How was the bar?"
"Apparently the bartender hates me and we were kicked out," Sirius said with a shrug.
Gigi looked at him suspiciously. "Why were you really kicked out?"
"Peter started dancing on the tables and broke one," Sirius said.
"Are you kidding?" Gigi asked.
Sirius laughed. "Yeah," Sirius said with a shrug. "Peter snogged some girl and then she wanted him to meet her parents so we bolted."
Gigi burst out laughing. "I wish I didn't miss that."
"Come with us next time and you won't have to miss it," Sirius said with a shrug.
"Like old times?" Gigi asked.
"Exactly like old times," Sirius said, not daring to take his eyes off of Gigi.
Gigi gulped as she realized their faces were really close. "Those were good times," she whispered.
"Extremely good times," Sirius whispered back, almost inaudible. They couldn't take their eyes off each other and Gigi brought her lips to his. Sirius, who was taken aback, wrapped his arms around Gigi and let his tongue enter her mouth. Gigi moaned and explored Sirius's mouth with her tongue, deepening the kiss with fervor she had never felt before. They stood here, kissing passionately, and Gigi let her hands wander into his unruly hair.
"But so Summer said that sh…oh my god," Remus said, barely audible.
"She said oh my god?" Lily asked.
"Gigi and Sirius are making out," Remus said.
"She said Gigi and Sirius are making out?" Kacie asked.
"No, I'm saying that Gigi and Sirius are making out," Remus claimed.
The other friends looked at Remus and then burst out laughing. "Nice joke, Rem. So what did Summer say?"
"No, I'm not kidding," Remus said, pointing into the woods. The other four turned their heads to see what Remus was pointing at.
"OH MY GOD!" they all cried out.
"Oh they are so going to be mocked for the rest of their lives," James said with a smirk.
"I feel like a piano is sitting on my head," Lily explained with a groan the next morning.
"At least you weren't throwing up all night like Gi," Kacie said.
"I can't believe I wasn't throwing up," Lily said. "I thought Gi could hold her liquor."
"Maybe it was the snogging with Sirius that made her throw up," Kacie said with a snort.
"Isn't there some hangover spell?" Lily asked from the ground of Kacie and Gigi's room.
"There probably is…it's just not something they teach us here," Kacie said, getting up and opening the shades and bringing the sun into the room.
"AGH!" Gigi cried out. "No light!"
Kacie glanced at Lily and started laughing. "How you feeling this morning Gi?"
"Like I died last night and just came back to life," Gigi moaned.
"That just about sums up how I feel too," Lily said.
"My hair hurts," Gigi said. Kacie and Lily looked at each other and laughed.
"Who wants to shower?" Kacie asked.
"I just want to eat. My stomach feels incredibly empty," Gigi said.
"Yeah, eating is good," Lily said, attempting to get up from the ground.
"Can you please stop yelling," Gigi said.
Kacie and Lily exchanged glances and whispered, "Sure."
"Remind me again why we used to do that every weekend," Remus asked, rising from the floor of James's common room.
"Why am I sleeping on a table?" Peter asked, rising from the corner of the commons room.
"Because you thought it was a water bed," Sirius noted.
Peter paused. "Did I get married last night?"
Remus and Sirius exchanged looks and burst out laughing.
"Is it cold in here, or is it just me?" Remus asked.
Sirius laughed. "It's you…apparently you thought it would be great to strip for us last night. And it seems that you forgot to put some of the clothing back on."
Remus looked down at him in just boxers (rather small boxers) and nothing covering him up. "Oops?"
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Where's James?" Sirius asked.
"Lily's room."
"Why?"
"He thought it was his room," Remus said.
"Oh…so where's Lily?" Sirius asked.
"In Kacie and Gigi's room," Peter responded.
"So despite the fact that you-" Remus pointed to Peter, "-threw up and you-" he pointed to Sirius, "-ended up snogging the girls you supposedly hate," Remus turned his head towards Lily's room, "and James wasn't having fun because he was too worried about his drunk girlfriend…did you have fun?"
Peter and Sirius nodded. "Getting drunk, hooking up with girls, and then feeling like shit in the morning is what being a Marauder is all about," Sirius said.
"So Padfoot…" Peter said slowly. "Did you know you were snogging Gigi?"
Sirius opened his mouth to respond but James walked in just then. "How'd I get into Lily's room?"
The other three boys looked at each other and burst out laughing. "It's not important."
"Where is Lily?" James asked, plopping down on the couch next to Sirius.
"Probably at breakfast like everyone else at Hogwarts," Remus said.
"Wrong," a voice said from the entrance of her common room. "She's done with breakfast by now."
Lily walked over to James and gave him a kiss on the lips. "How's my favorite guy doing?"
"I'm your favorite guy?" James asked with a grin, pulling Lily into his lap.
"Well, you're my last hope," Lily said. "One guy is sleeping on the hard floor with practically no clothes on, one guy is sleeping on a wood table, and the other guy is Sirius."
James laughed and asked, "So how are you feeling this morning?"
Lily gave him a look. "How do you think I'm feeling?"
"Like you drank a whole lot of alcohol, stripped down to a bare minimum of clothes when it was freezing outside, and don't remember how you got back to Hogwarts in the morning," James said.
"You forgot to say that she tripped over a tree branch," Peter said with a laugh.
Lily laughed with him and then turned to James. "So did you have a good night last night?"
"Not as much fun as Sirius," James mocked, pulling Lily into his lap. Everyone glanced down at Sirius who just smiled sheepishly.
"Yeah, Rosette and I had such a connection," Sirius said sarcastically, avoiding the subject of Gigi.
"Who's Rosette?" Lily asked.
"The teacher of the study session," James responded.
"Also known as the bartender," Remus said, rolling his eyes.
"Sirius has had a crush on her for years," Peter noted.
"Even though she's five years older," James said.
"Age has never been a factor before," Sirius said, sitting up.
"I better warn you, Kacie and Gigi are coming over," Lily said to Sirius. "So if you wanna run and hide, now is our chance."
"And that's your warning to put clothes on Rem," James said.
"Hey guys," Kacie said, walking in.
"Apparently it wasn't a long warning," James said.
"Don't get this wrong or anything Gigi…but you look like crap," Peter said.
"If I had any energy at all, I'd hit you," Gigi muttered.
"She spent all morning throwing up," Kacie said. "Leave her alone."
"I'm going into Lily's room," Gigi said, trudging her way towards her room, not daring to look at Sirius. "Hey! Where are the blankets to Lily's bed?"
James looked down at the blanket wrapped around him and Lily. "Oops!"
Lily looked at the blanket around him. "Hey! Why are you wrapped up in my blankets?"
"I thought your room was my room last night," James said with a shrug.
"And when you fell into my bed full of fluffypink pillows, you still thought it was your room?"
"I thought Sirius was playing a prank on me and changed my entire room to be pink," James said.
"We should never drink again," Lily said, referring to the whole group.
"Yeah, I feel awful," Peter said. "…let's go again next week."
"How did life get so boring that we had to resort to doing illegal things for fun?" Kacie wondered, plopping down on the ground next to Remus.
Sirius got up from the couch and went to Lily's room. "Where are you going?" Lily cried out over her shoulder.
"To go change James's room back to it's natural color," Sirius lied.
Lily looked back to the group. "If they have sex on my bed, I'm never sleeping again."
Kacie, Remus, James, Peter, and Lily all exchanged glances and quickly got up and ran towards Lily's room, to listen outside the door.
"Giliba?" Sirius asked, lightly knocking on the door and entering.
"Hmm?" Gigi asked, barely opening her eyes.
Sirius sat down on the bed next to her and placed his blanket around her. He bit his lip, took a deep breath, and slowly said, "So...last night was interesting."
"Hmm," Gigi repeated and then opened her eyes and faced Sirius. "Guess you got your hookup with a random girl."
"No," Sirius said. "I got my hookup with you."
"It doesn't mean anything Black," Gigi said tiredly.
"Really? Because when you were snogging me for a good hour, I think you thought otherwise," Sirius said.
"No," Gigi said firmly. "This doesn't change anything between us."
"Are you kidding?" Sirius exclaimed. "This changes everything."
"No!" Gigi cried out, sitting up from the bed and sighing "You're still the same asshole who used me a year and a half ago. You're still the same guy I've hated for a year and a half. You're still the same guy who has continued to be a player and have sex with anything in a skirt for the past year and a half. And I don't feel like getting into all that again."
"Why'd you kiss me then?" Sirius asked.
"I was drunk. I would have kissed a tree if it came onto me," Gigi said.
"Oh?" Sirius asked. "And what about when we kissed a week ago?"
"If you haven't noticed, you avoided me this past week because of it," Gigi said. "So I'm sorry if I don't want to get involved with someone who ignores me after one silly kiss."
"You avoided me too!" Sirius cried out, jumping up from the bed. "God Giliba! Why can't you for once do something because you want to and not because you think it's what you should do?"
"What makes you think I want this?" Gigi exclaimed.
"Can you honestly sit here and tell me that it's not what you want?" Sirius asked.
Gigi looked up at him but didn't say anything. Eventually she tore her eyes away from him and looked down at her feet, still not able to say anything.
"That's what makes me think you want this," Sirius said.
"Stop telling me what I want," Gigi said stubbornly.
"Well someone has to tell you since you can't figure out anything on your own!" Sirius shouted, obviously getting aggravated.
"I don't want a relationship with an asshole player! I don't want to get hurt by you…again!" Gigi screamed. "In fact, what I want is for you to leave me the fuck alone!"
"FINE!" Sirius shouted. Sirius stomped off and opened the door, to reveal five people standing behind it.
On impulse, James turned to Lily. "You're right. This door is made of real wood."
Sirius just glared at his friends and walked through them and out of the common room.
"Sirius, wait up!" James called out, Remus and Peter close behind him.
Sirius sighed and stopped, but didn't turn around.
"Some of us are still hungover…running is not a good idea," Peter said as they caught up with Sirius.
"What was that about?" James asked.
"You were listening to the whole damn thing. You know exactly what it was about," Sirius said angrily.
"I don't think he's in the mood to talk about it," James said sarcastically to his other friends.
"Shut up James," Sirius snapped.
"Yup, definitely doesn't want to talk about it," James confirmed.
"You want me to talk about it?" Sirius scorned, violently whipping around to look at them "Okay, let's talk about it. No matter what I do, it's not good enough for her. Okay, yes, I screwed up over a year ago, but I've changed. I've grown up since then."
"The millions of girls you've slept with since then would say otherwise," Remus noted. Sirius turned his head and gave him a death stare. "I mean the millions of girls you haven't slept with," Remus cowered.
Sirius growled as James said, "What does it matter Si? I mean, I thought you hated Gigi."
Sirius turned to James. "Just like you hated Lily this past year?" Sirius asked sarcastically, raising his eyebrows.
"Touché."
"Look, yes, there has been quite a few girls since Giliba," Sirius said. "But I was with them to try and get over her."
"Didn't work, huh?" Peter asked. Sirius snarled at Peter. "Guess not."
"It doesn't matter okay?" Sirius decided. "Who wants a girlfriend anyway? Who wants commitment?" Sirius looked at his three friends and groaned. "Well besides you three."
"Yeah, Peter here went straight through girlfriend all the way to wife," Remus joked.
"Okay! Enough about the Peter getting married cracks!" Peter exclaimed. "How was I supposed to know she would want me to meet her parents? And make cookies for me?"
"Cookies?" James ears perked up. "Hell, I would've kept dating her for cookies."
"We weren't dating!" Peter cried out.
"Well according to her, you're going to have two children named Mopsy and Bopsy," James snickered.
Remus laughed and turned back to Sirius. "I think it's time to admit that you're tired of watching all of us with girlfriend after girlfriend and now you kind of wish you had one."
"Girlfriend after girlfriend?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows. "When's the last time you had a girlfriend Moony?"
"Okay, I'm not going to pretend that didn't hurt," Remus said. "But you're in pain, so I'll let it go."
Sirius turned to James. "And what about you? Girlfriend after girlfriend? Yeah right, Lily's the first girlfriend you've ever had. Other than that, you were a player just like me."
"Okay, but-"
Sirius then turned to Peter. "And you've maybe had two girlfriends in your entire life, both of whom dumped you."
"Sirius, you can't-" James started.
"Sorry guys, but none of you are experts on the relationship advice," Sirius said and then he turned back to Remus. "And do not tell me what I want." And with that, Sirius stomped off.
"He's really upset over this whole thing, huh?" James said.
"He's in love," Remus said with a shrug. "What do you expect?"
"I am NOT in love!" Sirius called out over his shoulder.
Remus exchanged glances with his two other best friends. "Maybe next time we should talk about him after he's completely gone."
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I promise i'll post the next chapter a lot sooner than 11 days later! review and tell me what you think!