The party was in full rage mode.
I've seen many of the Gryffindor parties. Most of them for Quiditch matches, some of them for birthdays and lots of them for the Marauder's entertainment ( I normally hid in the library for those ones), but never have I seen one like this.
Kids danced on tables with there arms swinging while they jumped along to the music. A circle of students had firewhiskey shots in their hand and were having a competition of who could drink the most the fastest. In another part of the room, people crowded around a bottle, spinning it around, while one pair of students snogged awkwardly with the bottle facing them. Fireworks still zoomed around and someone had enchanted the candles to flash bright changing colours between red and gold.
The place was havoc.
I'll be honest, the Head Girl in me started to have a mental breakdown; I wanted to run to the Headmaster's office and never come back. The part of me, a tiny part, that James seemed to have brought out was riveting, wondering what would happen next. All of me just hopped that I could sit and watch it all from a corner.
James, however, had other ideas.
"Drink?" He asked me, grinning proudly at his work.
I nodded in bewilderment and watched his walk of to one of the tables with a bottle of firewhiskey to pour me a glass.
From one side of the room, I could just about make out the top of Mel's hair. Cautious of all the dancing crazies, I pushed past and saw her making out with some boy.
As I got closer I came to realise who it was...
Sirius- freaking- Black.
He had his arms wrapped around her, they were a bit too low for my liking (if you know what I mean) and she was on her tip toes kissing him back whole heartedly. Eww.
For a couple of seconds, I watched them awkwardly, when I felt James stand next to me. Silently he handed me a glass.
"I don't think I've ever seen anything so gross," I mumbled, taking a sip of my drink. It felt hot as it slid down my throat.
James shook his head. "Nope," he said, "I've seen worse."
I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "And I'm totally not surprised." I tilted my head to the side. "How are they going for that long?" I asked disgusted. "They're not even breathing."
"I don't think I wanna know," James muttered back.
Shaking my head, I rid myself of the fogginess. "Should we stop them?" I asked.
Before James could reply, Mel pulled away from Sirius and looked behind him. Her eyes caught mine and she smiled drunkenly at me.
"Lily!" She exclaimed, running over to me and jumping as she wrapped her arms around my neck. She went slightly floppy and I had to hold her up. She moved her mouth to my ear and whispered, "I kissed Sirius Black", in complete disbelief.
I chuckled at how intoxicated she was. "I know," I replied, pulling her back to look at her. "Wait 'till I tell the grandkids."
Her hair was tangled and her eyes were red. She had this bizarre little grin on her face and her pupils were dilated. She opened her mouth to say something but then her smiler dropped away. "Lily, I don't feel so good," she grumbled.
I gasped as she put her head to the side and threw up all over the carpet. After a second of staring at it she smiled and said, "That's better."
Gagging, I jumped back and put my hands out to clench her shoulder, avoiding any form of mess. With the other hand I took out my wand and muttered a spell to remove the sick. "We need to get you cleaned up," I informed her.
She grunted in disapproval and tried to pull away. "No, Lils," she pointed at the curling as her eyes focused on the floor. "There's a party."
"I know," I replied, talking to her like she was a child. "And I promise that you can come back later. You just need to clean your yucky hair, okay?"
She frowned and then picked up a strand of her hair. It was covered in sick. "Eww, Lily, my hair!" She wasn't drunk enough to neglect her hair, apparently.
I looked to my side, looking for James, but he seemed to be in a similar situation as me with Sirius a little to my left. We met eye contact for a minute and he smirked at me, while Sirius ran off in the other direction, along advantage of James's distraction. James visibly sighed and followed behind him.
I took Mel by the arm and dragged her up the stairs to the dorm rooms. Pulling her over to the sink, I let her was her face and her hair, as I watched her from my bed.
I held back the question that I wanted to ask for a few minutes, but as I was about to give in she turned to me with a bemused smile on her face.
"I look like you, Lils," she said, he face breaking out into a tipsy smile.
I pulled my knees up to my chin, wrapping my arms around my legs with a sigh. "How could you possibly look like me, Mels?"
She flopped onto her bed and rolled onto her side. "I look like you when you look at James."
I frowned in confusion. "What, drunk?"
She yawned and buried her face in her pillow, but I could still hear her muffled reply. "No, in love."
My eyes widened and I let the words sink in. If even a drunk Mel thought so, then my suspicions must be true. "I guess so," I mumbled.
There was no reply. Mel was already asleep.
***
I'd gone to look for James all over the place last night, once I had left a sleeping Mel in our dorm, but someone told me that he had chased Sirius all over the castle, stopped hm from waking McGonagall up from her room, and spent hours trying to get him to actually go to sleep. So, I had just gone back to my dorm and read for a while until I had eventually fallen asleep.
Now, the Common Room held nothing of the party the night before and I felt silently sorry for the poor house elves that had to clean that mess up, the unlucky things.
I knew that I should get some breakfast and find the others, but each time that I woke up lately I realised how many days I had left. It was like my body held a calendar system to the exams that would mark out my future and I totally didn't like it.
I flopped down onto one of the seats near the fire, trying not to get too comfy. Comfy meant sleep and sleep meant distraction. Distraction meant goodbye Auror. I spread my books and notes and quills and parchments and whatever else I needed out around me.
I began to read.
I honestly don't have a clue what time it was or how long I had slept for. All I know is that I had failed and the heat and comfortable chairs had taken me as a victim and won.
Silently, I cursed them.
Moving to sit up straighter in the chair, I turned to see that someone was watching me from the chair next to mine.
James.
"James?" I said, rubbing my eyes slightly. "Were you watching me sleep?"
He smiled vaguely and looked around him in mock confusion. "Me?" He asked. "No, never!"
I let out a laugh and shook my. "What time is it, creep?"
After a couple of seconds, he looked around again. "Creep? Oh, the lady must mean me."
He glanced down at his watch. "12:00"
I shot out of my seat and began to frantically shove my things into my bag. "12:00?" I shrieked. "But that means I've already missed two lessons!" I glared at him for a quick second. "Why didn't you wake me?"
He shrugged and took the bag out of my hand, drawing my waist towards him. "Because you look so beautiful when you sleep."
I let out a genuine laugh and then tried to pull away. "James, we need to get to class."
He smirked and stood up, pulling my closer. I could feel the breath on my ear as he leaned in to whisper, "We could, or we could do something a lot more interesting."
Tantalisingly slowly, he leaned forward and placed hot kisses down my neck. I felt it sting and sucked in a breath, trying to keep my mind clear. "James," I breathed, my voice way to shaky. "We should be in class. There's only a few days until exams."
His lips were pressed against my cheek now and I felt them move closer and closer to my mouth. The closer he got, the more I knew I was a goner. "Well," he said, moving to pull away, "if you insist."
I grabbed his shirt front and pulled his lips to mine. He smirked against my lips and tangled his hands in my hair. Merlin knew what it looked like after just waking up. Wrapping my arms around his back, I pulled him closer. We needed to be closer.
It was this thought that made me say what I said next. It can out it panting breaths and my brain totally wasn't working with my mouth.
"I love you."
For a second we continued to kiss, but then I felt him shudder, the words making sense to both of us. He pulled away and laid his head against mine. I watched him nervously, wondering whether I should have told him.
His brown eyes sparkled under his glasses. "I love you too, Lily," he smiled. "Always have. Always will."
Once he'd said it, I knew I had to kiss him again. He must have felt the same because he pulled me back to him and I closed my eyes as his lips once again met mine.
I didn't hear the door open. So when Sirius coughed, I jumped and pulled away. "Well, well, well," he said. "Look what we have here." He leant up against the wall. "Head Boy and Girl skiving off lessons. I am not impressed."
James glared at him. "Not a good time, Padfoot."
Sirius smiled. "With you two it never is."