All Of Me | A Jily Love Story

Chapter Twenty Nine: Pretence

- LILY -

It took a great deal of self restraint and composure to sustain the playful relationship I'd had with James up until the moment when everything had changed. It's not as if I hadn't tried to convince myself that our Amortentia had been faulty, but this hadn't seemed to get me anywhere. I was excellent at potions. It seems the universe had to make me the fool who fell for James Potter.
My denial had only proved so.
I'd managed to somewhat work on my acting skills whilst growing closer with him furthermore, if only so that we could remain as a United front for the school. It wasn't without a struggle, even a few tears on the odd day if my hormones were all out of wack. I couldn't believe that I was crying, let alone over an unrequited love, and the bottle of wine that I drowned myself in had done nothing to mend my aching chest. It was disgusting. I was disgusting.
Now that I was aware of the feelings that grew more and more everyday, it only became more difficult to resist the urge of touching him. And I didn't don't mean sex, (however that was definitely part of it) but the physical and mental strength I needed to restrain myself from accidentally brushing my arm against his, or unintentionally making out with him in Transfiguration as he bit down into his lip with fierce concentration...it was more than I ever could have imagined.
I'd let myself cheat no more than a few times, where I was walking within such a close proximity of him that I would 'accidentally on purpose' brush the warmth of his calloused hand with mine. Each and everytime tingles would shoot down my spine, gathering into a little ball of nerves in my belly.
Stupid Evans, a little voice inside had whispered everytime I felt the urge to do so. You're suffering more than necessary...
However, sometimes I didn't even have to try. Him being my best friend, he was often playful. He always had been, yet I assumed I was more aware of it now than ever.
The weeks flew by, a repetitive patten of me laughing at his jokes and playfully slapping his hands away every time he gave me 'playful' sharp electric shocks in my sides - before turning my back and pulling a desperate face of pain at Marlene that made her snort in amusement. It was agonising, resisting every single touch and unable to fall back into those arms when they snagged across my shoulder at the Gryffindor table. It would have been so much easier for him to hate me. But I couldn't bring myself to stay away.
We were already ending the very last week of term, with each day speeding by faster than the previous. Every night my dreams were haunted with James, bleeding to death in that corridor. And Snape, his creeping hands roaming across my shaking body. With Bellatrix, shooting fire across my very skin and bleeding me out.
Within these last three - almost four months, I'd experienced the raw foundation of hell. But I knew within me that this was only the beginning. If we were out there in the world right now...I shuddered at the thought. I still had a few months yet. I would not scare myself to the point of no return. Here, between these walls, we were safest.

...

"Hey Padfoot, make sure you don't let Moony try to hang himself with the tinsel again." James called from across the heads common room.
Sirius yanked his head out of the cardboard box he'd been consumed by and straightened up, glancing to James, who was cross legged on the floor attempting to untangle a collection of Christmas decorations, and to Remus, who was balancing precariously on the tallest rung of the wooden ladder Sirius'd temporally stolen from Filch. He insisted it was borrowing, despite the fact that he'd been chased down three corridors and screamed at for trespassing.
"I'll give it back when I'm done." He'd excused distractedly, cigarette in hand.
"Or toss himself off the ladder." Peter, who was reserved in the corner wrapping thick novels as pretend gifts, added in quietly.
"I'm at the point," Mary began, dusting off her hands as she stood up. "Where it's like, should I be concerned? Or do we just accept that wherever Remus goes, sorrow follows?"
"Sod off." He scowled, proceeding to rather violently rap his wand against the ceiling beam as he attached rows of golden tinsel along each canopy.
"You lot are such bullies." I commented disapprovingly, letting my eyes flicker to James briefly before returning to my hands. A tiny smile curved up the corner of my mouth as my fingers continued to fiddle with the half sewn Christmas stocking in my grasp. He always poked his tongue out when he was concentrating. And right about when he was about to give up, he'd wrinkle his nose and huff loudly. Impatient, if you ask me.
"Remind me why we're drowning this room in everything Christmas?" Sirius asked bluntly, slinging his hands onto his hips.
"Well, obviously you're not." Marlene retorted, emerging from the bathroom door with raised eyebrows. "You're not doing anything to help, are you?"
"Nice shit?" Mary asked her sweetly, plastering a fake smile onto her cheeks.
"Was lovely." She replied, snorting. "Lily's soy candle should waft the smell away in roughly forty five minutes. Please, refrain from going in there. Unless you're suicidal." She added.
"Hear that Moony?" Sirius called out teasingly, causing James to whack him over the head with a quilted Christmas pillow.
"Shut up, you insensitive twat."
"Biggest hypocrite I've ever met." Ali muttered to me out of the corner of my mouth. I chuckled quietly, and forcibly dragged my eyes away from the biggest hypocrite that Alice had ever met's bright, sparkling brown eyes.
"How about you do something useful?" Marlene suggested, walking over to where James sat - surrounded by three boxes that looked as though they were about to fall to pieces, labeled 'decorations'. The room of requirement really came in handy when there were no other options.
"What, help Peter wrap fake presents to make It look like Prongs and Lils have early gifts from their rich London parents?" Sirius shot back rather snarkily.
"Exactly." I answered sweetly, flashing him a fake smile before scowling. "Honestly, where is your Christmas spirit?"
"Destroyed, by the looks of it." Alice mumbled.
"It just seems a bit of a waste." He paused, running his fingers through his silky locks of hair. "Not very ethical, if you ask me."
"Sirius, you don't even know what ethical means." Remus sighed as he lifted another half a metre of tinsel upwards, scaling it against the ceiling beam.
"Y'know, I'm glad you forced me to ask the houseelves to leave this room blank of decorations." James said to me fondly, nudging his frames up the bridge of his nose with a knuckle as he inspected a golden star between his fingers. "Reminds me of Christmas with my parents as a boy."
"You're still a boy." Mary pointed out before adding "Christmas was huge for me, too. Although it did suck a little, because that was when I was still being forced to go to church."
"I'm still being forced to go to church." Alice said in a strained voice, gazing out of the window as though in hope for a better world. "It made me hate Christmas, and everything about it."
"See, Ali understands." Sirius flashed her a sparkling grin.
"Sounds cult like if you ask me." Marlene sung, tossing a particularly ugly decoration into the farthest box from her.
"Sounds like a traumatic childhood experience that I can fuck with." Sirius snorted in return. "I'd rather go to church than be forced to stare at my black Christmas tree and unwrap boxes of rocks."
A brief silence covered the room as we all looked up from what we were doing, my own eyes widening slightly in shock.
"What?" Marlene asked after a prolonged moment of quiet. Mary coughed and hurriedly returned to her ribbon cutting, flashing me a look as she turned her back to them. I cleared my throat, lowering my eyes to the failed project I was stubbornly pursuing.
"Padfoot." James murmured, letting his hands fall into is lap. He scanned Sirius's face, a small frown tugging across his forehead. Sirius stared right back at him, as if challenging him to show even an ounce of pity.
"This year will be different." Remus announced, his quiet words deafeningly loud in our bubble of silence.
"Why rocks?" Marlene pushed casually as James inclined his head once, eyes returning to the box before him. I noticed that they didn't move; even when his hands did. "Did Regulus, too?"
"Nah." Sirius replied gruffly, picking on the corner of the red couch. I always harassed him not too. One day there'll be a tiny hole there with a cigarette butt poking out, and I'll know who to blame. Yet now didn't seem like the appropriate time to scold him. "Reg didn't misbehave like me." 
"Well, I'm glad I'm not alone in having bad experiences of childhood Christmases." Alice said cheerfully, and I saw Sirius flash her a grateful look.
"I thought my parents were getting me a car in fifth year." I sighed, squinting slightly as I threaded the needle between my fingertips with red cotton. "They dropped hints and everything."
"And instead?" Remus prompted, glancing at me over his shoulder.
"Remus please be careful." James cut in tiredly, letting his hands flop into his lap for the second time this morning. "I'm nervous you're about to topple right off and break your neck."
"Honestly Mum, I think you're forgetting that I'm not eleven anymore." Rem flashed him a cheeky grin.
"It was a bike." I explained when he glanced back to me expectantly, ignoring James's tutting. "To replace my broken one from when I was about thirteen. A bright pink bike that clashed brilliantly with my hair, topped off with a cute little basket."
"Sounds like a sweet ride!" Sirius barked out a laugh, swinging a curtain of thick hair over his shoulder. "Hey Evans, I'll nick that if you've still got it."
"It's brand new." I snorted, shaking my head. "And my Mum's idea, of course. Dad apologised, he knew I didn't really want a new bike. But it does the grocery runs, and I've even painted daisies along the -"
"Even better." Sirius beamed at me, his stormy eyes sparkling gleefully. "Name your price."
"He's serious." Remus added in when I raised my eyebrows in confusion. I heard James chuckle in the corner of the room and suppressed a snort.
"Consider it yours." I said to Sirius, offering him the warmest smile I could muster.
"Och Babe, I reckon you'd look hot on a pink bike." Marlene grinned at him mischievously, dragging her fingertips along his shoulders in a seductive manner.
"Any chance an owl can deliver?" He growled over his shoulder as Marlene leaned in to slowly kiss his cheek.
"My eyes!" Mary complained, shaking her head and hiding her face behind a hand.
"Filthy children." Peter half grinned, briefly glancing up from his fake-gift wrapping. I tugged on the ends of my red knit cardigan, glancing to my right. Ali had a lollipop twirling between her teeth as she waved her wand, the puppet behind each strand of cotton that sewed itself together to create the shape of a Christmas stocking.
"How does yours look so good?" I sulked, letting my face fall as the added yellow thread to finish the last embroidered stitch on a perfect, cursive 'R'.
"Don't be silly." She replied, flashing me a disapproving look.
"She's not, hers looks atrocious in comparison." Mary snorted from above us, scanning the two Santa stockings we'd spent the past half an hour stitching together. Mine, half finished and the shape of an apple, was barely distinguishable. Alice's perfect demonstration was like a store bought Christmas gift. Defeated, I let my shoulders slump and tossed the useless stocking besides me on the carpet.
"I give up. Ali, you're going to have to finish the rest."
"Don't be so bitter." She scoffed, glancing besides her where my half-arsed stocking sat. She cocked her head, face smooth of any emotion and. "Huh." She hummed. "You know, I take that back."
"It looks like a plum." Sirius commented from feet away, to which I responded with by poking my tongue out at him.
"Really?" James asked, scrunching his nose. "I was going to say it resembled more of a grape like structure."
"Give it to Peter." Sirius snorted.
"I'll give it to you, twat." Mary grumbled, rolling her eyes at me. "He's so self righteous that it physically pains me."
"Enough with the remarks." I tutted, waving my hands about. "Christmas is about giving, and -"
"Jesus's birthday." Remus cut in, flashing me a dazzling grin. I opened my mouth to reply, but paused.
"Why do I celebrate Christmas?" I asked myself in wonder. "I was always well educated as a child, but my family was never religious. Spiritual, maybe, but not Christian."
"It's a bandwagon thing." Sirius said through a mouthful of chocolate, Marlene wrinkling her nose in distaste. "The whole idea is corrupt. Unless you believe in god." He added.
"This is true." James agreed as he shoved a hand into the cardboard box that was a mere 50 or so cm in length, consuming both his bicep and shoulder soon after. I watched in fascination for a moment, appreciating my love for magic.-
"But the entire country will celebrate it either way." Alice said brightly, folding the finished stocking neatly in her lap. "7 down - I've only got Peter and James's left to do, now."
"Who's the ninth Marauder?" Sirius asked bemusedly, temporarily removing the cigarette from his mouth to raise an eyebrow at her.
"I'm making one for Frank." She replied rather defensively, straightening up.
"Don't forget to put antlers on mine!" James exclaimed, and I snickered.
"Yeah, and little paws for mine." Peter grinned, shouldering Remus in the side. "I've learned to accept that my animagus is quite possibly the worst one out of the lot."
Sirius snorted loudly, throwing his head back in amusement. "I didn't let that go for months." He sighed.
"So that's why you followed Pete around school singing 'Flight Of The Rat' by deep purple." Marlene giggled, slumping over the arm of the couch.
"My finest moments." He winked at her, puffing out three large clouds of smoke.
"Alright, this is the best I can do." James announced, removing his head from the cardboard box. "There might be a few rubbish ones in the mix, but I'm bored." I scanned his face, suppressing a snort at his ruffled hair and crooked frames.
"Impressive." I commented mildly, biting down on my lip to prevent my tugging smile. "I thought you would have given up long ago."
He looked up at me, a crooked grin spreading from ear to ear as he nudged his frames up the bridge of his nose.
"Course not."
"Alright, enough flirting." Sirius drawled, clapping his hands together. "Let's get this shit over and done with, shall we?"
"I wasn't flirting." James and I said instantly. I felt my cheeks warm at his amused tone, opposed to my defensive one. We paused, hastily glancing away from eachother as a strange, drafty silence filled the room.
"Let's get decorating, I want to head to the kitchens for lunch." Remus stretched onto his feet and snatched a butterbeer from the mantlepiece, heading over to where James sat besides the towering pine tree.
"Lucky save." Marlene whispered in my ear before following Remus, Sirius clapping a hand to the round of her bum as they crowded around the boxes of Christmas decor. I inhaled sharply and let my eyes wander to his face; a wide golden smile, two sunny eyes and a scrunched nose.
"C'mon Lil, get your first pick!" Ali exclaimed excitedly, grasping onto my hand. I let her haul me upwards onto my feet, a sudden wave of elation washing over me at the familiar smell of Christmas pine and wrapping paper.
"Who's got the fairies?" Remus called out from the middle of the group.
"They're in the pot plant on Lily's day bed," James replied, emerging from the cluster with silver tinsel wrapped around his torso. "They start to suffocate when they're not surrounded by oxygen and plants - also, they bite."
"What a Mamas bear." Sirius cooed, whacking him over the head with a sparkly star decoration. "Stop whinging and go get them."
"They like me more than you." James retorted sourly, striding past him into the edge coffee table. He met my eyes, a tiny smile turning up the corner of his mouth. "Alright if I go in there?"
I stared at him blankly, slowly opening my mouth to ask  'go where, you beautiful creature?'
"Your room?" He added when I merely stared at him, trying not to imagine him naked on my bed.
"Oh." I shook my head, stepping aside for him to pass. "Yeah, sure."
The familiar smell of pine and trees engulfed me as he passed, and I was forced to physically shake it off.
"Ouch!" Sirius exclaimed as I joined the circle of hooligans.
"What's happened now?" I sighed, slinging an arm around Remus's waist.
"He tried to put the tinsel on before the fairies." Marlene rolled her eyes, watching him distastefully.
"Punishable my death." Mary said sweetly, slinging a bright green bauble over her ear. "Hey Ali, you should make these into earrings."
"Where's Prongs?" Remus asked, craning his neck.
"Right here." James grinned from my left, so suddenly that I leapt about a foot in the air.
"For fuck's sake." I exclaimed breathlessly, clutching onto his shoulder in support. "You need to stop doing that!"
"I don't need to stop doing anything." He continued grinning, holding up the copper pot plant in his hands. "I'm the fairy whisperer."
My eyes trailed across the cluster of what seemed to be, at first sight, dozens of golden fireflies clinging to the petals of my sunflower. I blinked, watching in fascination as the tiny glowing dots formed tiny pairs of multicoloured wings and pointed shoes.
"Real fairies?" I whispered, gazing at them in wonder as they fluttered amongst one another, climbing the green limbs and twirling in circles. They were barely distinguishable, even centimetres away from them.
"Real ones." James murmured quietly, nudging my shoulder playfully. I glanced up to his face; he was closer than I remembered.
"They like to hang around Oak and Ash trees. Elder too." He added, eyes flickering back towards the fairies. "Magical, huh?"
"I've never seen them before." I shook my head, flabbergasted. "They're not on the trees in the Great Hall, are they?"
"Course they are." He replied in surprise, glancing back down to me. I met his eyes, fascinated by how they sparkled in the fairy light. "They love Hagrid, always dancing around his pumpkins if you look closely. I help him out with that every year, too. These are the summer fairies - they come out of winter hibernation just for the sake of decorating Christmas trees." He beamed down at the dozen of twittering fairies, collecting nectar and communicating amongst themselves. "I couldn't find the winter lot, they must be preoccupied with the great hall."
"You help Hagrid?"
I watched James's eyes gaze at the fluttering fairies, warmth filling my chest.
"Yeah." He grinned widely. "They like my jokes."
At this, one of the tiny dots flew closer to the outstretched hand I hadn't even realised I'd been holding out. I gaped in surprise as she landed on my palm; a tickling speckle of dust.
"She wants to tell you something." James murmured quietly, gesturing to the fairy. Her wings were bright yellow, matching the tiny dress and pointed shoes.
"Hi there." I whispered, leaning closer to my palm. I could just distinguish her eyes - bright yellow, with long, long eyelashes. She blinked once, and raised a tiny arm to point toward James.
"James?" She nodded once, twirling her finger in a circle. I felt my eyebrows crease in confusion, before she screwed up her nose, went cross eyed, and shook her tiny little head.
"Oh." I giggled, covering my mouth with a hand.
"He is crazy, I agree. You don't like his jokes?"
Something of a grin spread across her glowing, luminescent cheeks.
"I like you already." I whispered, winking at her.
"You know they can grow flowers in mere seconds with just a touch?" James asked me as she fluttered away to join her bright, colourful friends.
"I did, actually." I grinned up at him, watching his eyes light up. "I took Care Of Magical Creatures, you know. First lesson of third year."
"Ah." He shook his head. "Third year was truly some abysmal teaching...Hagrid'll never listen, but I wish he'd put an offer in for the job already."
"I've never thought of that!" I exclaimed as he turned to face the tree, which was empty but of the varied wrapped presents at the foot of the hearth.
"Why hasn't he?" I pushed, blatantly surprised that I hadn't thought of the idea myself.
"Judgment." James shrugged, setting the sunflower plant down on the coffee table. "As a half giant, it's technically not legal yet. People like Malfoy and his family are the reason why there's so much inequality still in this day in age. I mean for Christ sakes, it's the 1970s."
"That's awful." I said quietly, scanning his face. "I suppose I didn't realise that."
"I'll tell you all about it one day." He met my eyes, smile slowly disappearing from his cheeks. "You're missing it." He added, eyes melting into my gaze.
"Missing what?" I almost whispered, feeling myself being tugged towards him along a very delicate string. He gestured his head towards the Christmas tree, and I followed his gaze in wonder.
"Oh." I whispered.
The multicoloured speckles of light had formed a single file vertical line, in the very centre of our group. Alice's mouth hung wide open and her eyes widened as she gripped onto Mary's arm, watching the fairies do their magic. Mary and Marlene wore fairly similar expressions, with the three boys opposite smirking like the absolute tools they are.
"What're they doing?" Mary asked in bemusement, without taking her eyes away from them.
"Watch."
We did so, staring in wonder as the line rapidly grew. It all began so suddenly, with a sparkle of bright yellow dust - the fairies flew, in a line, to the very top of the Christmas tree where they began their journey amongst the branches. Starting at the top, they weaved themselves around the tree in a circle, like a string of lights, causing the entire room to pulse slightly in the warming glow. I felt myself gaping as I admired the fairies' dance, all the way to the very last branch of the fur tree.
"We McKinnons watch them do this every year." Marlene commented dreamily, sinking into Sirius's side. "They love dancing along the tinsel, too."
"Isn't that just a tad barbarous?" Sirius asked her edgily, arching a single eyebrow. She turned to face him, frowning slightly.
"They choose to be here."
"But what do they eat?" He asked blankly. "Do they have to stay still until us shitty humans are done with them?"
"The obtain nutrients from the tree, you Pratt." Remus rolled his eyes, gesturing to the sunflower pot. "No doubt Lily's got more plants tucked away that they can admire. We're not going to starve them."
"And as for being decorations," James cut in, without taking his eyes from the fairies dancing. "They're under no obligation to do anything. They can dance, if they wish. Most of them are perfectionists, and want us to see how still they can be. No one is controlling them."
"I didn't ask for a bloody novel." Sirius scowled in reply.
"Get on with it then." Remus waved a hand, craning his neck to see where the boxes of decorations had gone.
The light outside slowly sunk into the horizon as we laughed along to Remus's collective Christmas records, foraged in the numerous boxes for a decent Christmas decoration that hadn't been sabotaged or graffitied, and snacked on the plentiful platters of cheese, crackers and butterbeer that the boys supplied from the kitchens.
"James, who let you organise these?" I asked hopelessly as Marlene flopped backwards onto the couch besides me, winking at Sirius in a way that made me want to leave the room. His head appeared around the left side of the huge, towering tree, that was now beautifully festive and bright with dozens of colours, a wide grin stretching across his cheeks.
"You." He winked, fixing a bright red bauble onto a branch.
"Did you purposely leave the dildo in here?" I barely managed to whisper, sliding a hand over my mouth to stop myself from giggling.
"Just for you Evans." He replied cheekily before disappearing around the other side of the tree, leaving me to cope with the sudden explosion of butterflies in my stomach. Forced to hold in my whimper, I merely shoved aside the graffitied dildo that had gracefully been crafted for the purpose of decorating a prostitutes tree. There was a varied range of slightly cracked decorations, ones that were taped together, and some that were plain ugly or had nothing to do with Christmas in any shape or form. James had fixed most of the broken ones, but majority weren't worth saving. There was a collection of owl decorations that I insisted on keeping, and a few ugly stars that Alice had complained were too nice to throw away.
"Sorry if I'm here all through dinner," Remus called out at one stage as the rest of us flopped onto the furniture, sighing happily. "I'm correcting all of the shitty decorating pairings that you've all done. Have any of you ever decorated a Christmas tree before? You have to properly space them out!"
"Hey!" I said defensively, bolting upright. "I'm great at doing that!"
"Most of it was me." Sirius admitted, raising his half empty butterbeer. "I was never allowed to actually decorate the tree, Kreacher did it all for us."
Remus stared at him for a moment before turning back to the tree and muttering underneath his breath, fixing all of the 'shitty decoration pairings.'
"Usually I'm the freak that does all the fixing." I commented lightly, glancing to Remus. "Looks like you were the perfectionist on this side of the War."
"What war?" Mary asked bemusedly as she kicked her feet back onto the coffee table, using Peter as an arm rest. He rolled his eyes and folded his arms into his chest rather sulkily before seemingly giving up and taking a long swig of beer.
"Oh, you know." I waved an absent minded hand.
"The girls vs the guys?" James snorted. I looked up to him from where he sat besides me on the loveseat, shrugging.
"Basically."
"It was always 'not there, Ali! I'm not sitting besides one of them for dinner if we're the last damned people left on earth'." Mary grinned widely, shaking her head.
"Or 'Marauder alert, 3 O'clock.'" Marlene laughed, letting her head roll back onto Sirius's shoulder. "What a laugh."
"It was mostly me." I admitted sheepishly, dragging a hand down the side of my face.
Remus snorted loudly as he appeared from behind the tree, dusting his hands off. "I think that confirms that we really were on opposite sides. All I heard for six years was 'quick, get in - before Evans sees me and takes off.'"
"So that's how you mysteriously appeared at times when you were the last person I wanted to see." I commented mildly, glancing up to James in time to see him grin rather sheepishly.
"It was his utmost life goal." Sirius snorted. "'Oi, d'you reckon Evans'll care if I sit next to her in charms next period? I've done it twice, but the second time she really didn't like it -"
Sirius was cut off by a pillow that flew directly in his face, thrown by James himself - who was shaking his head and settling back into the loveseat, a falsely amused smile painted across his cheeks. I averted my eyes, deciding that it was most likely something that he hadn't wanted me to hear or see.
"Shut up, man." Peter nudged Sirius in the side. I didn't miss the exchanged glance between him and Remus, or the awkward silence that followed when Sirius paused his laughter to take a sip of beer.
"I'm going to need something stronger." Mary mumbled to Alice, who tutted at her disapprovingly.
"A war." Remus chuckled to himself, taking a seat on the stool besides us. "I've never looked at it that way. A six year rivalry, if you please."
"Always a competition." I agreed, smiling at the foggy memories. "Whether it was between Marls and Sirius in Quidditch, or Ali and Pete in Herbology to see who could plant their Mandrake first."
"I'd forgotten about that." Peter grinned, shoulders shaking from silent laughter. "Golly, I s'pose we were all competing against eachother at one point or another."
"No one could beat the dream team." James's voice was quieter as usual, but a glance at his face told me that his smile was more than genuine. It reached his eyes, which sparkled like diamonds when he spoke.
"Don't say that, you'll give me PTSD." I shuddered, wriggling tighter into the corner of the loveseat. "Snape and his damned cutting corners."
"That's right!" Mary snorted loudly, shaking her head. "The dream team. God Lily, I really hated that prick. You never listened."
"I'm sorry." I sighed, meeting her eyes. "I really thought I could step in and stop him from being influenced, but I s'pose you don't see what goes on behind closed doors."
"Are we talking about his fanatic club of deatheaters friends or a gay Slytherin awakening?" Sirius asked drily.
"Ha ha." I rolled my eyes, letting my head rest against the back of the plush velvet seat.
"He can't be gay," Marlene snickered, shaking her head. "Unless Lily's grown a cock."
"You can see my woody through these jeans." I purred in reply, offering her a wink. She bluffed embarrassment, covering her mouth with a hand and giggling rather girlishly.
"I'm slightly concerned with how believable that was." Remus commented mildly.
"Roll with the punches." James grinned, glancing down to me in amusement.
"That might've been the strangest situation I've heard someone use that saying." Sirius said, scanning James with a rather forlorn expression. "You need better come backs, Prongs."
"And you need to sober up." He replied, waving his wand in one fluid motion to clear the remnants of butterbeer and trays of food.
"Are we going to dinner?" Alice piped up, glancing around the room.
"Why not?" I shrugged, glancing down to my half finished beer. "Does anyone want thi -"
James has grasped the tankard out of my hand before I had the opportunity to finish my sentence, and I watched in amusement as he downed the last five sips and tossed it over his head - where it vanished into thin air, almost instantly.
"Nevermind then." I grinned, shaking my head at the smug smirk on his face.
"Do we really want to take him to dinner in this state?" Remus asked with a heavy sigh, cocking his head slightly as Sirius staggered to his feet, brushing the hair from his eyes rather drunkenly. I mocked Remus, pondering all of the disasters that were likely to pan out.
"Not like we haven't before." James answered, joining us.
"What you lookin' at?" Sirius asked gruffly, straightening up. "I'm cool." He paused. "It's cool."
Remus glanced to me, grimacing slightly.
"He's cool." I shrugged, and James snorted.
"In all fairness, it is legal. Just..." I paused, frowning slightly.
"Fuck it I'm hungry." James gave in, turning to face the portrait hole.
"Fuck it." I echoed, following his stride with a bounce in my step.