Chapter 18: Drunken Lions

"It's just about halfway over now," Harper said as she glanced at her pocket watch and tucked it back into her jeans.

"Ugh, only halfway?" Lily said, exasperated already with the tedious chore of wandering around the empty castle halls. She was beginning to rethink her logic of avoiding the ball entirely. She was really letting this one thing, this one person, control so much of what she'd been doing lately, which wasn't much at all if she was honest. Her days were getting monotonous and boring, and the betrayal turned to resentment little by little as she conceded her appearances in public. "I'm gonna need a shot of firewhiskey after this I think, this was not nearly what I was expecting."

"I know, me too. I was really expecting some amount of canoodling or hooliganry needing to be broken up by this point. But the only people we've seen are the ghosts."

"And their type of hooliganism isn't the type I want to break up," Lily muttered and they both quietly chuckled.

They had been assigned the West Wing and the area around the main Quad to patrol. That area included Gryffindor Tower, the Divination Tower, and the Clock Tower, which gave them a plethora of staircases to climb and descend. As they were walking through the hallway at the bottom of the stairs to the Clock Tower, they heard faint footfalls.

"Finally! A real person!" Harper whispered as they both lifted their wands to round the corner and confront the illicitly wandering student. They both stopped dead in their tracks when they were met with Severus in his usual billowing black cloak, looking shifty but defiant at the same time. His expression changed completely when he locked eyes with Lily. Her face fell from anticipation to grim in a heartbeat and she turned her back on him to walk away.

"Wait, please!" His voice was strained as he immediately followed them back around the corner.

"Go back to your dorm," Lily said sharply without turning around. Harper had caught up and was glancing half between Lily's face and Severus trailing behind them.

"Please just let me… You don't understand—"

"I understand perfectly, Severus," Lily replied, her pace not faltering even one step as she continued to walk away.

"No truly, I didn't—I mean if that damned P—"

Suddenly Lily turned on her heel to face him, and he took a step back in surprise at the intensity written across her face.

"You made your choice Severus! No one else made it but you! I've been resisting acknowledging it for years now!" Her voice pierced through the empty hallway around them, Severus cringed at the anger bubbling up on her face. "But those creeps you've been hanging around have finally got to you. And I've defended you! Well, I'm through putting up with it. Leave. Me. Alone."

"But Lil…"

"Don't call me that!" Her eyes glittered with the fury she could feel starting to overwhelm her. "Go on, call me by my real name. It's 'mudblood' to you, remember?"

Severus recoiled at her righteous anger, her words felt like they were caving in his chest, crushing the very air around him. He slowly slunk back against the wall of the hallway as he watched Harper wrap a hand around Lily's shoulder and lead her away from him.

Shaky breaths wracked his scrawny frame, the heat of shame and vicious anger was boiling in his gut. He had ruined absolutely everything.

No, he thought, Potter's ruined everything. If he hadn't… his train of thought was disjointed from the rage welling up in him at the thought of Potter and his band of miscreants. She wouldn't hate me if it weren't for him. His thoughts turned self-deprecating, she hates me and I deserve it… she'll always hate me. If she only knew… They will pay for this… He hung his head between his arms that were propped up on his knees and sat there stewing in a pattern of self-pitying hatred and growing malice for the group of Gryffindor boys.

Lily and Harper stalked the hallways in mostly silence after Lily let the brief confrontation that finally felt like closure wash over her. After that, they only found two couples they needed to shoo along to their dorms, and when they repeated their walk through the hallway they had left Severus in, he was mercifully gone.

When the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open, music poured from the portrait hole out onto the staircase to greet them. They both shuffled through and were met with a mass of happy dancegoers who didn't want to let the festivities die down once they'd arrived back. Some of the people had changed from their gowns and dress robes, so Lily and Harper didn't stand out amongst them in their regular attire, but Lily's red hair was a beacon wherever she went. She drew a few curious gazes as she scanned the crowd and noticed her roommates sitting on a couch in the corner before she made her way towards the stairs that led up to the dorms.

Mary was sitting on the armrest with her boyfriend, Henry, on the couch next to her. Ren was seated next to him and was leaning towards Sirius who was reclined casually on the other side of her, the top buttons of his dress robes undone. Ren was laughing along with something Mary and Henry were discussing but Sirius' attention was elsewhere. His grey eyes were honed in, a smirk growing on his face as he swirled the amber liquid he had in a glass while he watched Marlene, Remus, Peter, and Theia playing a very loud card game.

"SNAP POT!" Hands shot out to tag a pile of cards in the center of the table, Theia's hand being the last.

"Ugh, shit!" She pulled a face as she took a swig from a firewhiskey bottle but smiled as the group laughed at her. "I shouldn't have suggested we make it a drinking game! I suck at this!" Remus, who'd smacked his hand on the deck first, broadly smirked and took the pile for himself.

"I'd have thought a seeker would be better than this!" Remus teased, making Marlene loudly guffaw as she took a drink from a bottle of beer.

"Oh, bite me!" Theia quipped.

Remus suppressed a subtle shudder. Sirius chuckled into the glass pressed to his lips at the thought of Theia saying that while sticking her tongue out at a fully transformed werewolf like she was currently doing to the boy version of one.

James was heading down the stairs from the boy's dorm with Sirius' birthday whiskey bottle and some glasses after having changed into a jumper and some jeans. He made it to the bottom of the landing just as Lily and Harper had crossed the room. He made eye contact with her and immediately his face flushed with guilt. Lily deadpanned and walked by him to make it to the girl's staircase.

"Hey uh, Evans…" his hand reached out towards her arm to grab her, but he stopped short of touching her without her permission. "Can we talk?"

Harper quirked a brow at Lily who rolled her eyes and gestured for her to keep going up while she turned around reluctantly. She was very much over confrontations with stupid, insensitive boys for the night... week... year even.

"What do you want, Potter?"

"I uh… Listen, what happened out on the lawn..." James' face was pained and embarrassed as he thought back to those events, but he glanced at her with sincerity and true remorse, giving her pause for a moment.

"I really don't want to talk about that," She almost turned to go before he continued.

"No please, I'm sorry."

Lily froze, absolutely floored to have heard what she thought she just did coming out of Potter's usually arrogant mouth. In her shocked silence, he continued.

"I took it too far and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have… If I'd ever thought that he would've turned on you like that I would never have—I'm… I'm just sorry. I've been an idiot. And you didn't deserve that."

Lily was grateful her jaw wasn't on the floor in utter shock to hear him apologizing for the consequences of his actions that she'd suffered. Her brain was whirling, the whole earth felt like it had just fallen off its axis.

This is so bizarre…

"You don't have to—"

"No, I do. I shouldn't have pushed it that far. It was my fault." The guilt written across his face looked overwhelming, and a tiny piece of her heart softened to see him so upset by the events that had haunted her these last few weeks.

"No James…" she heard herself say his first name and his face perked up the tiniest bit. It didn't feel so foreign to say as she had previously thought it would. "It really wasn't. It's not anyone's fault but his… but thank you. That, uh, means a lot."

He scratched the back of his head, tussling his already disheveled hair and still looked quite solemn and ashamed but nodded at her. She turned and went up the stairs in a daze.

What on earth just happened?

James made his way over towards Sirius, who was still posted up on the couch next to Ren. She looked like she was trying to decide if she wanted to attempt to rest her hand on his leg or drape her legs over his lap to get his attention back. Before she made her move, she was distracted by James' return with the whiskey long enough for Sirius to stand up, leaving her alone with the other Gryffindor couple on the couch.

"Ah, a scholar and a gentleman you are," Sirius had a broad smirk as he greeted him, and James handed him over the bottle as a smile blossomed on his face in return.

"Hey Nyx, care to christen this with me?" Sirius lifted the bottle up to show Theia who was laughing raucously with Peter while she watched Marlene and Remus try to finish their card game. She was still in her red gown, but she had pulled her hair up into a high ponytail to get it out of the way. Her face lit up with glee as she watched Remus and Marlene both reach out to smack the card pile. The game ended with Remus victorious and all of them laughing and cheering.

"I'd be delighted," her face was flushed with excitement and a good amount of firewhiskey as she sauntered over to join him and James. Sirius quickly downed the remnants of the firewhiskey in his glass and cast a quick cleaning charm into it so as not to muddy the flavor of his bourbon with the warm cinnamon drink. He quickly poured a shot into the glasses that James had brought down, and then into the cups Mary, Henry, and the rest of the group held out so they could all toast together. James passed Theia a glass and she eyed it with a glint of nostalgia and anticipation. Sirius locked eyes with her, and she was too buzzed not to stare back even though Ren was standing just behind him.

"To youth and all the foibles that come with it." Sirius held up his glass in front of Theia.

Theia held up her glass, emboldened by the alcohol already coursing through her. Fuck it, it's just a toast… She held his gaze while the group paused before they drank.

"Happy birthday, Sirius." She murmured back at him. A grin spread across his face, and he suddenly looped the arm he was holding his glass with around her own and winked audaciously.

"To Sirius!" James shouted, "Happy belated, brother!"

"Huzzah!" Remus, Peter, Henry, and Marlene all shouted while Mary and Ren giggled at each other as they tipped their heads back simultaneously and took their shots. Sirius and Theia shot their drinks back with their arms intertwined and the entire group laughed and shouted once they'd all finished, the boys taking the opportunity to slap Sirius in the back as he poured them all another round. Theia waved him off, already feeling tipsy enough to enjoy the night.

"No, no it's alright I need to go extricate myself from this." She gestured at her gown, and she felt more so than saw, Sirius' eyes linger on her crimson bodice. She chose to ignore him despite wanting desperately to glance at him and catch him in the act just to see his smirk light up his features. A man in partially undone dress robes was the height of sex appeal, she was beginning to realize. She had watched him unbutton his collar earlier, and now undo his cuffs and roll up his shirt sleeves, exposing his forearms as he held up his cup for another drink to take just with James. She tore her gaze away from his hands and smacked her lips to refocus herself. "I think I saw Lily and Harper come back, and Harper brought my night clothes," she said to the group.

"You can't turn in already, Ethee!" Peter shouted.

"Who said that?" She chuckled, "What, am I not allowed down here in my regular clothes now that I've put on this dress? I have to wear this for the rest of my life I suppose?"

"Merlin, if only…" Sirius muttered to James who laughed back. A flush of red ran up Ren's neck as she overheard him, but she kept her gaze down at her glass as she held it out to him to refill and drank it just as quickly as he'd filled it, much to the amusement of the group around her.

"No, I think you've got the right idea, Nyx," Marlene chimed in, "I'm good and done with this garment for tonight. Let's go get into something more comfortable so we can do some proper drinking." Marlene gestured for her to follow her to the girl's dormitory.

They made their way across the room and as they started ascending the staircase, Theia realized Ren and Mary had followed. Ren's face was flushed and her eyes a little glassy from the few shots of liquor she'd just downed. Theia didn't realize she followed for an ulterior purpose until she spoke up. Ren spoke quickly but wasn't full-on slurring yet since the alcohol was so fresh it hadn't quite hit her system.

"Why aren't you in Ravenclaw tonight?"

Theia cringed at the bluntness of the question and the implication that her presence was unwanted. She turned around and saw a look of drunken frustration on Ren's face.

"Umm… well Harper is here too. Our roommates wanted some time with their dates after the dance and we didn't want to crowd them in the dorm."

"You don't have a common room?" Ren responded while she crossed her arms in front of her chest and gave a pouty look. Theia frowned, realizing that Ren had been stewing in anger for at least a little while over her appearance in Gryffindor tonight, and felt incredibly awkward and outnumbered without Lily or Harper around to back her up. Marlene piped up from behind her, higher on the staircase.

"She was also invited by James and the boys. I overheard them invite her while we were at the dance." Marlene crossed her arms back at Ren who wasn't making eye contact with her fellow Gryffindor, and instead chose to frown into Theia's face. "Jeez Ren, what's the problem?"

Theia threw a grateful glance at Marlene over her shoulder and noticed she looked more disappointed at the drama being stirred up than rightly pissed off.

"Well, she didn't want to crowd her own dorm and is here crowding up ours! We would also like some time with our dates, you know!" This time the slur in Ren's speech was slightly more obvious. The alcohol was muddling her emotions and irrational anger was the fastest to float to the surface.

"So, who's stopping you?" Marlene quipped back.

"Oh don't be so thick!" Ren shouted into Theia's face like she had been the one to say the smart retort. "You showed up looking like that, and Sirius hasn't looked away practically all night! You wore red just to steal attention and you aren't even in Gryffindor. Red is our color."

"So why didn't you wear it?" Theia replied coolly but could feel her hot temper being piqued. She had deliberately spent the majority of the night doing her absolute damnedest not to elicit extra attention from Sirius as a matter of respect for Ren's obvious feelings and because he was taken. And here she was, still getting persecuted for 'stealing' his attention away.

Ren scoffed back at her while Mary, who was the lowest on the stairs, looked uncomfortable with the fight her best friend had picked with Theia in front of Marlene, the latter of whom was known as the lioness of her year for not backing down from anyone or anything. She could clearly see Marlene wasn't going to let Theia be ganged up on, and even the thought of doing so made Mary a little squeamish. She usually liked Theia perfectly fine, it was just Ren who had been a tad bit resentful all night after she'd descended the stairs alone in her red gown and gob-smacked half the student body. Ren was besotted with Sirius, and it was obvious he was ambivalent towards her, though he had been a perfectly decent date all night and was a prolific flirt at baseline. But the fact that he wasn't breathing sweet nothings into her ear while they lounged on the couch together like Ren had fantasized about for almost a month at this point, and was instead drinking in the appearance of someone else every time she came into view, had tipped Ren over the edge from slightly put out, to utterly green with envy.

"Just admit you wore that to steal Sirius!" Ren deflected.

Theia narrowed her eyes and pulled her shoulders back. She could feel the anger ready to rise in her belly, fueled in part by the alcohol they had all just finished downing. Suddenly, she saw before her quite clearly, two paths. In her mind's eye, they looked like two golden threads coming from a meeting point at the tip of her breastbone. One, in which she lets the anger bubble up and paint her words and expressions to lash out at Ren for being jealous and petty. It led down the road of sullying every visit to Gryffindor Tower for the rest of her time at Hogwarts, and the end of nights she could easily spend in Lily's dorm or in the common room with the Marauders because this is Ren's home turf after all. The other, in which she quells her anger enough to settle Ren's insecurities and reassure her of her true intentions, which don't include date-stealing. After all, she could have done exactly what Ren was accusing her of. She sort of did with the design of her dress, but it wasn't necessarily targeted at pulling Sirius' attention away from Ren, though that had at least partially been the outcome. Instead of leaning into the anger so easily unleashed by intoxicated teenagers, Theia clamped it down.

I'm older than this. I don't need this fight. Getting defensive only serves to confirm her suspicions, which aren't true. So there's no point.

She focused on softening her face and trying to relax her posture. She could feel the heightened emotions of the three girls surrounding her in the small stone stairwell. She tried to exude calmness and comfort and felt the edges of their auras relax minutely in response.

"Ren, I would never steal someone else's date. Ever. I don't steal dates. I don't need to. The guys I go for are irrevocably and unequivocally mine." She let the emphasis on the last word linger for a moment while she felt Ren's indecision between being defensive or reassured. She rushed to continue before Ren interpreted her words as a direct challenge to her having a claim to Sirius at all. "Sirius is your date. Dexter was mine. You heard what he said to me, right Marlene? I got the reaction I was going for by wearing this dress from him. Not Sirius." She glanced over her shoulder at Marlene, hoping she was still on board with backing her up.

"Oh aye," Marlene chuckled, recalling Dexter's loud promise to snog Theia if she couldn't find someone else to do so by the end of the night. "Did you ever end up taking him up on his offer before you made your way up here with us? I have to say, the way he said it, even I was half tempted…"

Ren and Mary glanced at each other in confusion, but Theia could feel Ren beginning to calm down as Marlene's confirmation of her explanation sank in.

"Uh, no," Theia chuckled back. "I figured if I have to be on a Quidditch team with him for another year and a half, I'd better not throw that wrench into the cogs of our otherwise functional team dynamics. Besides he's really got the hots for someone else. It'd feel wrong to betray that…"

"Oh right, Sally," Marlene said definitively and got a faraway look in her eye. "Yeah… Merlin who can blame him? No offense."

"None taken," Theia offered with a subdued laugh and turned back to Ren. "Listen, I didn't mean to cramp your night Ren, I'm sorry."

Ren's drunken temper suddenly flared slightly again to Theia's surprise, but she realized it was somewhat hopeless that it would be settled tonight while they were both inebriated and stuck in close quarters.

"I should have asked you if it was okay that I stay over tonight."

"Yeah, no kidding!" Ren swayed in place, "And what was that whole thing with the crossed arms drink with the whiskey!"

"I bought him that bottle for his birthday almost a month ago at this point, Ren. It wasn't anything." The lie was minor, she had only gifted it to him a few weeks ago but Ren didn't need to know that if she didn't already. The anger suddenly crumpled on Ren's face, and she began to sob as she turned around and suddenly booked it back down the stairs past Mary. Before Mary turned to follow her, she glanced up at Theia.

"Lily warned us over a week ago. She asked if you could stay over and Ren and I both agreed it was fine. She knows Sirius sees her as a friend and I think she's just upset that it's so obvious tonight, and she's taking it out on you. I'm sorry Theia, I dunno what's gotten into her..."

"I do," Marlene replied, "Too much firewhiskey. C'mon Nyx, if you need to, you can stay in the sixth-year dorm but let's get out of these damned gowns first." After Mary had turned back down towards the party to find where Ren had run off crying to, Theia turned up the stairs to join Marlene. She led Theia to Lily's dorm and reasserted her prior invitation.

"Seriously, you can stay in our dorm if you need. We'll have an open bed since I know Holly is gonna stay in Roger's dorm tonight. She won't mind you staying in her bed as long as you're not a bedwetter."

Theia let out a loud laugh and shook her head, "Thanks Marlene, it's probably a good idea I give Ren some space tonight. I shudder to think what she would do if she came back to the dorm after I was asleep. I don't really want my head shaved or something equally atrocious."

"Oh, never mind her. She'll apologize in the morning, knowing Ren. It's the way Mary said. Sirius sees her as a friend and on the other hand will probably see that dress of yours in his sleep for the next fifteen years, and she's being pissy over it because she's drunk. It's not a big deal. She'll get a new crush next week and forget about the whole thing."

"Thanks," Theia scoffed and rolled her eyes lightheartedly. "Wanna change quick and go back down? We need to beat that smug look off Remus' face somehow before the night is through."

"Get out of my mind, woman." Marlene gave a smirk that rivaled Sirius. "I'll meet you back here once I'm changed and washed up."

Theia nodded and headed into Lily's dorm room to explain the whole fiasco that had gone down and why she would be sleeping in a different girl's dorm tonight.