November 1977
Gryffindor Common Room
It was around 3 am and the party had just ended. They celebrated every time they beat Slytherin at quidditch.
A few couples were still sucking face in the corner, but everyone else had gone to their dorms.
Lily was sleeping on Thea's lap. James and Sirius were drunk and singing We are the Champions. Remus was upstairs and had asked not to be disturbed. Peter was shoving cheeseballs in his mouth and staring at the fire as a brownie that Sirius had given him earlier wasn't entirely chocolate. Dorcas and Marlene fell asleep entangled, not that they minded.
The world was asleep, but they defied it and were awake.
Cups filled with butterbeer or firewhiskey or perhaps muggle alcohol that a muggleborn had smuggled in laid everywhere.
There was red and gold confetti littering the floor and sticking to anything it touched.
Various articles of clothing were strewn everywhere from jackets to lingerie to singular socks.
Sirius's brownies were discarded on a tray on the floor, half of them eaten, but the other half stepped on.
James tipped, fell off the table, and tumbled onto the couch and then down onto the floor.
He laughed hysterically as he did, but then promptly passed out when the pillow that Thea had just thrown to him made its way under his head.
Sirius got annoyed that he was asleep and tried, in vain, to wake him up. When he moved away to try and get Peter to sing with him, tripped over James fell over one of the chairs.
Turning his body over, he fell asleep as well, murmuring the lyrics of the song in his newfound slumber.
Thea used magic to take the cheeseballs away from Peter, afraid that he might either choke or go into cardiac arrest. He fell asleep as well, his head on the end of Lily's legs.
Thea watched the fire, still a little bit tipsy, but mostly tired. She watched as it burned and burned and eventually became nothing more than ashes and embers.
She felt her heavy eyes try and close and she gave in, letting sleep succumb.