AN: Hello! I hate to say it, but final chapter! I think it's fitting that it ended up mapping out to 13 chapters. Thank you so much to the reviews, but I would love a few more when you finish. I do not own Harry Potter, but it is my fault if there's mistakes in this writing! Enjoy.

Chapter 13: Winning

James came back into consciousness slowly, vaguely aware of a crick in his neck. He blinked twice, and took in his surroundings – he was still in the common room, feet propped up on the coffee table, body sunken into the couch. The house elves must have been hard at work because the only debris that remained scattered about the room from the party were sleeping students who hadn't made it back to their four-poster beds. It was already early afternoon, seeing as sun light flooded through the windows, yet still half of Gryffindor House was passed out in the common room.

Directly to James's right, Peter and Joey seemed to have found armchairs to spend the night in – Peter sitting up, his head lolled forward, while Joey had chosen to rest her head on the armrest and sprawl her legs over the other. James rolled his eyes in disbelief as he surveyed Taylor asleep on the coffee table that his feet were resting on, head propped up on a stolen couch cushion. As he rolled his stiff neck to the left, his head dully throbbing in protest against the movement, he spotted Remus on the other end of the couch. Head resting on the armrest, torso on the cushion, and legs swung up onto the back of the couch – James wondered how they were receiving any blood flow. His gaze then fell to the small form between them, and James wished – as he sometimes did – that he could be Remus Lupin. Lily Evans had such a comfortable friendship with the other boy that her head was resting atop his lap – in danger of being thrown off if Remus swung down his legs. The rest of her was curled between the two boys, her feet barely brushing James's thigh.

James stared at her relaxed face a few moments, contemplating how warm Remus must be with her so close, before he became aware of the ache in his legs. He moved to stretch them, propping up his slumped form slowly, as to not disturb the others, and set his feet on the ground. But instead of finding solid hardwood, his feet met something soft and lumpy wedged between the couch and the coffee table just before a muffled yell of protest met his ears. He had found Sirius.

A chuckle broke from his lips as he pulled his feet back up, "Sorry, Sirius. Didn't see you there."

"Prongs," came his moaned response, attempting to roll over, but just hitting the coffee table. The boy groaned again before flopping his head back down and instantly falling back asleep.

The jarring table woke Taylor up, who was up and off her bizarre choice of furniture in a breath and heading towards the girl's staircase. She smiled at James and whispered a, "Good morning, Remus," as she passed.

James's gaze shifted back to the opposite edge of the couch, to his friend who had presumably been woken up by Sirius's yelp – he had always been a light sleeper.

Remus watched Taylor go, then surveyed his immediate surroundings as he blinked sleep form his eyes – the room full of sleeping Gryffindors, the red head resting on his lap, and his best friend giving him a good natured glare. Remus tried not to chuckle, as it would shift the sleeping Lily, as he muttered a, "sorry."

Remus's courtesy of keeping still was of no use because not a moment later Jamie Shintin, a seventh year Prefect, came bursting through the portrait hole.

"Everybody up!" He shouted between deep breaths as he doubled over, resting his hands on his knees, "Everybody! Get up!"

As a few bodies slowly shifted as they stirred back to consciousness and Remus sat up straight, disturbing Lily. "What's going on?" He asked wearily.

"I was just heading down to the Great Hall when Nearly Headless Nick headed me off," he rushed as he fought his labored breathing, "The staff noticed that nearly all of Gryffindor didn't show at breakfast. McGonagall is on her way now!"

"You heard him!" James roared, moving to stand up, "McGonagall's coming! Everyone up!"

Finally the information seemed to click in the drowsy Gryffindors, who all sprung up and scrambled to the dormitory staircases. Luckily they were the only evidence remaining of the party that still needed cleaning up.

Shintin's gaze shifted from the mob of bodies now funneling their way up the stairs, to the now empty common room – just as suspicious as a room full of sleeping students. He yelped in panic and dove into the crowd, pulling random people out by the collar and assigning them positions throughout the room. One of these unlucky few happened to be a certain red head.

Running a hand through her hair in an attempt to tidy it, Lily surveyed Jamie's quick work. A first year sitting rigidly at a study table staring blankly into a NEWT level text book, taking up the sofa was a good looking fifth year bloke trying to make conversation with a petrified third year girl. Jamie himself was slouching in a squishy arm chair feigning sleep – the coward. And Lily was accompanying Sirius Black at a chess set which he was quickly setting up to look like a game that already started.

Lily was thinking how utterly screwed they were when McGonagall came stepping through the portrait entrance. It took the young witch less than a second to realize that she would have to be the one to do the talking. She immediately jumped up, putting on her best look of surprise.

"Professor," she exclaimed, "what are you doing here? Is everything alright?" I mean, it wasn't every day that your Head of House made an appearance in the dorms.

"Sit down, Miss Evans," she responded, approaching the table. Lily sighed internally, having a small victory of distracting McGonagall from the obvious fake scene set before her. "It's nothing serious," she finished.

"Did." A voice said loudly at the end of her words.

"Excuse me, Mr. Black?" The professor asked, eyebrows raised.

Sirius glanced up before returning his gaze back to the chess board, his hand atop the white bishop. "I was hoping you would finish that statement with 'did,' Professor. It's nothing Sirius did."

Lily tried to hide a smile, but McGonagall was not so easily amused. She fixed her stern gaze on the boy, "God bless your mother, Black."

Sirius once again responded coolly as he slid the bishop diagonally across the board to capture one of Lily's supposed pons. "I sure hope so. I think she has been possessed by the devil since I was a young boy."

McGonagall chose to ignore this comment and focused again on Lily. "Almost all of Gryffindor did not show up to breakfast this morning. I, along with the rest of the staff, took notice. Do you know any reason as to why, Ms. Evans? Should I be worried?"

Lily did not respond for a moment as her eyes bounced from the professor before her to the floor, mind working quickly.

Sirius, having more experience in these types of situations, spoke up first, "Well, personally Professor, I try not to leave my bed before the sun hits high time on weekends."

Lily quickly collected herself and added, "A lot of excitement with the quidditch win yesterday, I would expect. Tim Jackson didn't make it out of the hospital wing until late and everyone wanted to congratulate him." She figured a half truth was her best bet.

Just as she finished, James descended the stairs looking rested in jeans and a black t-shirt, but a little worse for wear.

"Morning, Professor," he grinned – their saving grace – "Here to congratulate me?"

"Potter," she regarded him as he walked nearer, "What are you wearing? Does your head feel okay?"

"Muggle clothes are in now," Lily responded, grateful for the subject change.

"Supports equal blood status. Not all that pure blood sh-, um, rubbish," Sirius also supplied.

"I see," McGonagall responded, still slightly confused. "Still, I want you to go straight to the hospital wing and get checked out. Have Mr. Lupin escort you."

"What about me?" Sirius said in outrage.

"And I expect," she raised her voice so it carried up the staircases, "to see you three and the rest of your housemates at lunch. Gryffindor House will not be a spectacle."

"Of course," Lily responded.

"I never miss two meals," James added.

And with a final nod, McGonagall walked out through the portrait hole.

As soon as the Fat Lady swung shut, Sirius called across the room, "Oi, Jamie! I thought I was in Gryffindor common room, you coward! Thanks for your help there."

The seventh year waved him off and climbed the staircase toward his room as student traffic began again. Lily too started heading towards the staircases, the boys following.

"Well," she started, "now that all the excitement is over, I expect we should start studying for exams."

James and Sirius groaned loudly in protest.

"Why, Evans?!" James exclaimed, head thrown back in anguish.

"Why must you always dampen the mood?" Sirius finished, hands running through his hair in distress.

"And they're two weeks away, let's not get ahead of ourselves," James added.

Lily rolled her eyes as the staircases split, "Tell Remus I'll be in the library."

With exams quickly approaching, Hogwarts students took to studying, or at least thinking about studying. Lily, Joey, Remus, and Peter had taken up almost permanent residence at a table in the east corner of the library and went through their notes in a crowded silence. On the other hand, Sirius, James, and Taylor took a different approach. If they did focus enough to study, it was turned into some sort of game. A favorite was named by Sirius, "Studying Rubbish," which entailed a chance to score a point by flicking a ball of paper into the trash bin if a question was answered correctly. One could only merely flick their wand to propel the trash – levitating was not allowed. And to make it more interesting, if the answer was a spell, an extra point could be scoured by incorporating the incantation into the shot. Though all in good fun, Studying Rubbish was almost banned in the dormitory by Remus after his bed curtains were set aflame by a flying ball of flaming paper – James had correctly answered Incentio to his charms question.

Because of this preferred method of study, Lily was a bit surprised to look up and see James Potter settling in the chair across from her in the library. A confused smile graced her lips as she said, "What are you doing here? For a moment, I thought you were Remus."

"And I thought you were kinder," James quickly responded glancing up from his rucksack with his own disarming smile. "I am a human being you know," he went on as he settled into his seat and opened his Defense book, "not some caricature. I am fully capable of toning it down and studying in the library."

His statement sounded more like a confession of a true annoyance than a joke, but it didn't change Lily's response.

"You're a human being? Interesting. I always thought you were some type of troll hybrid."

That comment earned her a good-natured glare.

"Evans, you finally caught a sense of humor I see. Did I rub off on you this year?"

Lily just rolled her eyes and leaned forward a bit to keep her voice low, "When are you going to start calling me Lily?"

James eyed her a moment, weighing his words and wondering if they were worth it.

"When I finally win you over. But no promises."

That flustered the red head – it didn't anger her, it flustered her and James thought he saw her blush.

"It's not winning me over," she said while keeping her eyes on the Charms notes in front of her. "It's who you are. And it's who I am. And… and it's a decision that I make. No one wins anyone."

To James, that sounded like he was winning her over, but he didn't say that.

"My mistake," he responded softly, as his lips quirked up and his gaze returned to his book. But his mind was someplace else. He had had a pretty rough sixth year. But him and Lily had cultivated a friendship out of it, and he wouldn't have changed a thing. Next year was going to be his year, he was sure of it. His and Lily's year, he should say. He needed to talk to Sirius about it. But not now. Now he was content on sitting at this old wooden study table with Lily Evans as she tapped her quill against her lips. Next year.

The End.

AN: Once again, thanks so much for reading if you stuck with me until the end! This was something I originally wrote probably ten years ago and I finally tied it in a nice little bow. So I decided to type it up, delete the immature stuff, and keep what I thought were the fun ideas. I hope you could tell I do have my OCs fleshed out in my head. My personal favorite parts are probably just the dialogue ( I do work hard on that and try and make it as real as possible), and Jones - the guy with the uncontrollable arm in St. Mongo's.

So please, if you've read, drop just one little review. And thank you so much to who ever has reviewed! It's nice to see some feedback. Happy October!