The Day of the Party, Lunch Time
Lily plopped herself down on the bench and immediately put her head on Zoe's shoulder and pouted.
"Bad day so far?" Zoe asked without looking up from her sandwich.
"You know how much I hate Thursdays," the ginger replied.
"I don't," Zoe assured her, knowing that letting Lily explain her crazy theory would make her feel better. "Please tell me."
"Because," Lily began immediately, as though they rehearsed this, "I have two classes before lunch - just two! - but they're Arithmancy and History of bloody Magic."
"We keep telling you to drop that class, Lil," she replied, offering Lily a piece of buttered bread.
"I need to get all the NEWTS I can."
"Seeing as you don't fancy being a magical historian, I doubt you'll need History of Magic."
"Anyways, Remus is in Arithmancy with me, which is all fine and dandy, but he sits on the other side of the room and we never have any free time-"
"And History of Magic is the worst class this school has to offer," Zoe finished.
"Exactly!"
"Hmm," Zoe said, chewing thoughtfully. "We've got the party, though. Nice antidepressant."
"True," Lily conceded. "Where is everyone?" She added, just now noticing the absence of Harley and Marlene.
"I think Harley is doing something for Divination-"
"Speaking of useless classes-"
"And Marlene is talking to Slughorn about the homework."
"Oh," Lily said. "All right. Would you mind if I left you? I should probably get as much homework done as I can, too."
"No problem," Zoe shrugged as she and Lily stood up. "I have to talk to Flitwick so I can get out of choir practice. See you in Defense?"
With one final wave, Lily and Zoe split up when they reached the large doorway to the Great Hall. Lily ascended the Staircase while Zoe went off to find Professor Flitwick, her short black hair bobbing in its ponytail.
When she finally made it to the last corridor leading to the Common Room, she could almost hear her History of Magic Essay calling to her from down the hall. Distracted by that thought, she almost didn't notice the tall, disheveled boy running full speed right at her.
"WATCH OUT!"
"James?"
"Oops! Sorry, Lily."
Lily jumped out of the way at just the right time, but noticed that James had not stopped moving. He was, in fact, running small circles in front of her, a look of annoyance on his face. His feet appeared to be little blurs attached to his ankles.
And they were tapping insistently.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.
"Not that I'm not impressed by your tap-dancing talents, but would you mind stopping that?" She asked him after about five seconds.
"I wouldn't mind, actually."
…tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.
"So?"
"So what?"
"Are you going to stop?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I can't."
"You can't."
"Nope."
"Why?"
James gave a great sigh, resting his head on his hand while trying (unsuccessfully) to remain still, but his feet still moved wildly underneath him.
"Every year," he began, "on Sirius's birthday, he always plays a prank on me. Well, actually, I do it on my birthday too. Could you please help me?"
"Why?" Lily asked.
"Because it's the right thing to do?"
"No, I mean - ugh," Lily flicked her wand and James feet stopped suddenly, causing Lily to shoot out her arms and steady him before he crumpled to the ground in a tangle of limbs and robes.
James sighed in relief. "Thanks."
"No problem," Lily said, watching him take his wand out of his shoe and stow it in his robe pocket. "So why do you two prank each other on your own birthdays?"
"No idea. It started in First Year. That was accidental. He turned my hair bright green when I tried to surprise him."
"I remember that," Lily smirked. "I thought Rosier did that after you bragged about Gryffindor's win over Slytherin in the Quidditch match. And you weren't even on the team then."
"Excuse me. I was one of the youngest and most dashing reserves the team had ever known, thank you very much."
"You were the waterboy."
"I have no idea what you're talking about and will continue on with my story as though there was no interruption."
"Of course," Lily smiled.
"Thank you," James said. "Now as I was saying, the tradition started from there. It's all revenge for the previous prank, and the first prank was because I failed in trying to surprise him. I was waiting with his present, hiding around a corner. When I saw him I yelled 'boo' and all that, and bam! green hair for First-Year James."
"That's a little weird."
"Not really," James shrugged. "Sirius hates surprises. I guess when you grow up with a family like his, no surprise was ever a good one."
Lily frowned. "Yeah, I guess so."
James could sense the sudden drop in the mood, and changed subjects back, now walking back towards the Portrait Hole with Lily.
"Anyways, he seemed to think it was simply the funniest thing on this planet, giving me green hair."
"Understandably."
"And a few months later, on my birthday, I had him lulled into thinking he was safe, that I forgotten about it, and then hit him with a leg-locker curse while he was trying to chat up Gail Malone."
"And he fell forward and broke her nose with his forehead," Lily finished, smiling at the distant memory. "Gail hated him ever since."
"No she didn't," James protested. "Last year she snogged him behind the Beech Tree."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Anyways, so twice a year you two do unspeakably horrible things to each other just for fun?"
"Well," James said, "no. It's never been anything horrible. Except in Fifth Year, he made it so both my hands stayed in fists, except for my middle fingers. I got seventeen detentions that day."
"I thought you were just being a git," Lily admitted a little guiltily.
"No, I just wasn't going to rat Sirius out. It was his birthday, after all."
"That's… sweet, I guess," Lily said. James grinned at the compliment.
"So, are you excited for the party?"
"Yeah, I guess. Aren't you going to lunch?"
"My mother taught me to always walk a pretty girl to her door. And you don't sound too excited."
Lily almost blushed at his comment, but kept her cool. "I have a boyfriend, mister. And I am excited, I just… I don't know. Today's been a little 'blah'."
"Ah, 'blah' days. Gotcha. And it's okay, I'm not trying to come between The Hogwarts 'It' couple."
Now Lily did blush. "We are not The Hogwarts 'It' couple. That doesn't even exist."
"Not to your knowledge, anyway."
"Hey!"
"I'm just saying, you aren't very in touch with Hogwarts Gossip!"
"And you are? How very manly."
"You forget that I am on very good terms with Marlene, Harley, and Bailey Clarke, seeing as all three of them are on the Quidditch Team."
They arrived at the Portrait Hole, but neither made a move to go in or even look at the Fat Lady yet.
"So how big is the party going to be?" Lily asked, leaning her shoulder against the wall.
James shrugged, mirroring her action so he was facing her. "Remus isn't sure if we should let people from other houses join in. And if we do, who we'll invite."
"It's very obvious that this has been planned very carefully," Lily commented sarcastically.
"Right? But I suppose you can bring your arm candy."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Liam barely knows Sirius. He'll just feel weird coming to the party."
"What?" James said, shocked. "Lily Evans at a party and no boyfriend to watch over her?"
She punched his arm lightly. "Shut up, we're not attached at the hip."
"Who're you going to dance with?"
"I'll find people," she smiled slightly.
"Will you save one dance for me?" James asked quietly, leaning in a little closer.
"Only if it's a Beatles song."
"I'll make sure they're played."
Lily smiled and agreed. "I have to go. Homework, you know. No time to do it tonight."
"Oh," James said, almost forgetting that they were right outside the Gryffindor Common Room. "Right. I'll see you tonight?"
"Sure," she said. "Happy Birthday," she said to the Fat Lady. James had changed the password that morning for Sirius. Obediently, the portrait swung open, but before she could close it behind her, James spoke up.
"Lily?"
"Yeah?"
"Who're the Beatles?"
The Day After, Breakfast
"I still don't understand," Marlene said. "You - you woke up in James's bed."
Lily sighed. "Yes. I don't know how, and I don't know why. But I did."
"You two didn't - well-"
Lily's face drained of color. "We didn't shag or anything! I mean, I wasn't wearing much clothing but I think I would know."
"Just making sure! And he doesn't know either?"
"Nope. No inkling of a clue at all."
"That's strange."
"Very."
"You think it has to do with the party last night?"
"Definitely," Lily answered. "I just don't remember any of it."
"Me neither. Do you get that feeling that you didn't sleep at all?" she asked exasperatedly.
Both of them had dark purple bags under their eyes, and Marlene reported that she found twigs in her hair. Lily had refused to tell her anything before they had both taken showers, since, quite frankly, they both stunk. While scrubbing off the scent of whatever happened last night, Lily felt a weird twinge of regret, like she was washing away all the signs of James from her skin. In frustration, she only scrubbed harder.
Now showered, fresh, and ready for the day of lessons, the two of them took some of Harley's headache-curing-potion that she kept in her bedside table (though, for some reason, half of it was missing) and walked down to the Great Hall to catch the last fifteen minutes of breakfast while Lily and Marlene filled each other in on what had happened not an hour earlier.
"The rest of us woke up this morning in The Three Broomsticks," Marlene explained. "Well, actually, Rosmerta woke us up. She said something about us being irresponsible, and then she called a carriage for us. We were all too knackered to argue, really. Everyone else is at breakfast, but I came up to see if you were in the dormitory."
When they finally entered the room, everything was so loud and normal it was almost like that morning hadn't happened at all. It took a couple of seconds to find Zoe and Harley sitting across the Marauders, all of them practically falling asleep into their porridge and toast.
"So I'm not the only one who needs some caffeine?" Marlene asked them loudly to get their attention, sitting down next to Harley.
"Fuck off, I'm sleeping," the brunette whispered.
Lily sat next to Marlene while the blonde held a cup of coffee under Zoe's nose in an attempt to wake her up.
Lily glanced at James, who was ignoring her and pushing around the scrambled eggs on his plate. Remus, Sirius, and Peter seemed to be cycling through extreme fatigue and starvation, shoveling in food one moment and pausing to set their heads on the table as though they were trying to fall asleep then and there. A quick glance to Zoe told Lily that she was still dozing, something Lily wished she could do as well. Another look to James and he was still having a staring contest with his breakfast.
Behind them, they heard someone's throat clear.
They all turned around and saw Mary MacDonald, Sixth Year and friend of theirs, holding a slip of parchment.
"What's that?" Harley asked her, sitting up and taking the cup of coffee from Marlene. The arrival of Mary at least encouraged everyone else to sit up (and Zoe to regain consciousness), since she obviously had news.
"It's not good," Mary said, frowning and handing it to Lily. "It's your detentions. McGonagall asked me to give it to you."
"Our what?" Lily stammered out.
"Detentions," Mary repeated, looking like she'd rather eat her own hair than tell the Head Girl that she had detention. "According to this, you eight were out of the castle at two in the morning."
"Shit," Sirius muttered.
"So what were you all doing?" Mary asked.
"Does anyone remember?" Harley looked at the group.
"I don't remember much of anything," Peter said.
"I don't think any of us do," James spoke up for the first time, the sound of his voice giving Lily goosebumps.
"You don't remember?" Mary's brown eyes went wide. "How much did you all drink last night?"
"Well, it was fairly obvious we were all very drunk," Sirius said. "What a great party."
"You don't even remember it!" Harley reminded him.
"That's how you know it was so good."
"You're ridiculous."
"This says I was the one who issued the detention," Lily said, reading the detention slip. "Why would I give detention to myself?"
"No idea," Mary said. "I figured it was just Head Girl guilt."
"How can you give a detention and not remember it?" Zoe asked curiously.
"There's a book," James explained blearily. "It only works for teachers, and the Head Girl and Boy. Any of them say they're giving a detention, and the book updates itself. McGonagall usually checks it at the end of every day, and makes the slips."
"Why were we drunk?" Lily asked, turning her attention away from the slip and to the Seventh Years. "There wasn't any alcohol at the party."
Immediately, the table laughed and the redhead looked around at them, confused and embarrassed.
"Evans, we can't remember shit, and I woke up with the worst headache of my life," Sirius said through his chuckles. "Fuck, I don't even know where my wand is, and I'm hoping to Merlin it's just in our dorm. I think there was some Firewhiskey. And don't you remember? After all the kids went to bed, you told me it was all right."
"But why?" Lily asked, frustrated. "I would never let you do that!"
Harley turned to Lily, remembering something. "Freckles, you weren't exactly your normal serene and clear-thinking self then, remember?"
"Why not? I don't - oh." The morning bell chimed, and as everyone but the Gryffindor Seventh Years stood up to go to their first classes, she watched as a group of Ravenclaws walk by with Liam in the heart of the pack, laughing with his friend. He made it out of the Hall, not looking once at her on his way out.
"Right. I remember now."
AN: Woo melodramatic Lily is coming out to play!
But really though.
For some reason I really like the LJ scene in the beginning of the chapter. Like normally I hate most things that are produced by my typing hands, but I just really enjoyed writing and reading that scene. What? I'm the only one who thinks so? I knew it.
I'm kidding - I hope you guys liked this chapter over all! ^_^ Chapter three tomorrow night!
Beta'd by Stefanie over at Bigger and Beta on tumblr! :D