A/N: I've stopped apologising a long time ago.

TWO AM – FIFTH YEAR

He had to admit, he was surprised when he peeked around the corner and found her drunk at the top of the Astronomy Tower.

Well, he wasn't surprised that he found her at the top of the tower – the map had shown him that, which was why he was there – but he was surprised that she was entirely wasted. He'd never even seen her drinking before.

Somewhere in the distance, one of the assorted clocks that littered the hallways of Hogwarts chimed twice. It was two in the morning. James let out a sigh.

Carefully, he rounded the corner and entered her field of vision.

"Er, Lily?" he asked tentatively. "Are you, ah, okay?"

Seemingly shaken out of some sort of reverie, she looked at him as if she was trying to focus her vision. "Do I look 'kay?" she managed to get out.

James laughed, but stopped abruptly when she glared at him through her drunken haze. "Is this f-funny?" she asked.

"No," he said, chuckling again, "I'm sorry. I was just about to say, you do normally look better, but even now you look more than okay." He would have winked, but felt it might have gone over her head just a little bit in the state she was currently in – or she might have slapped him, both were very real possibilities.

He gestured to the empty space on the floor near her. "May I?"

"I don't own the bloody floor, do I?" Lily asked, still glaring. James sat down, suppressing another chuckle. He was used to Lily insulting him, but the tone and the inebriety were both new. When drunk, she didn't sound as furious as she usually did, but rather like she was only angry for the sake of being angry at him.

"So what's made you get yourself into this mess?" he asked. She turned to look at him blankly.

"Do you really expect me to believe you haven't heard?" she countered, and turned away again. Had James looked closely enough, he would have seen the tears dripping from her chin to her lap.

"Okay, fair enough," he said, putting an arm around her. She tensed, then relaxed into him. "Just so you know," he continued, "I always thought that Thomas kid was a bit of a dick."

She sighed. "I thought – it's stupid, I know, but I thought he could be the one." The blood in James's veins felt like ice, but he did nothing to show it.

"There'll be others," he told her, half-heartedly. Half-heartedly, because he knew that he would probably never be one of the others; he would have to watch other boys claim her heart and then stamp it to pieces, because Merlin knows that's what happens when you're fifteen. When you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, you're going to believe it.

She turned, looked at him, her eyes lighting up a little. "You think?" she asked in a small voice.

"I know," he said firmly. If you'd let me, I'd love you in a heartbeat, he added in his mind. "Now come on, I think it's time we got you back to the dormitories, yes?"

Her face slipped into a panicked expression. "But – but what if someone sees us?"

"Don't worry," James smiled. "I can fix it." He pulled out his Invisibility Cloak, and in the state she was in, Lily didn't even question it, nor did she protest when he picked her up and started to carry her down the stairs.

On the way back to Gryffindor Tower, a thought occurred to James. "Where did you even get the alcohol?"

Lily laughed softly. "James, I've been in the same house with you for nearly five years. I've learned a few things."

When they reached the tower, he was still thinking about the fact that she had called him James.

A/N: yes, that was an intentional Taylor Swift quote.