Yay! I'm so excited to write this chapter because I'm writing in Galveston on my birthday! July fifth is my 17th birthday you guys and late birthday presents are accepted, lol.
Oh, yeah; also because I have been looking forward to this chapter for a long time. It's going to be a fun one! Eight is actually my favorite number, so it makes sense that this chapter is so much fun!!
And if anyone gets a chance will you please take a look at my story "Dying is Just the Beginning" on fictionpress.com? I'm trying to write a novel and I need all the support I can get. (I'm under the same screen name.) It's not Harry Potter, but if you like my writing take a look at it. Please?
Okay, I'll shut up now. No more plugging. Maybe next chapter. (Besides this chapter is fairly long, so you can't be too mad at me for talking. At least I hope not.)
Lily had rings under her eyes the next morning. She blamed Sirius. When she woke up again at about eight thirty she discovered that she barely had enough make-up left to cover up the bags as well as the humongous pimple that had suddenly appeared right in the middle of her left cheek.
She tried to use magic to zap it away or at very least hide it, but in the end she was convinced that someone had put it there on purpose with a spell that she had no idea how to counteract. Either that or it was one stubborn zit.
Finally she just gave up and got dressed, planning on covering the monster up with her hand all day. She went downstairs to find the marauders sitting at the kitchen table. Remus looked just as bad as she did.
"I swear there were five owls that flew into my room last night!" James was arguing over his chocolate milk. Sirius gave him a skeptical gaze and fought the urge to roll his eyes.
"Right," Sirius chuckled, swirling his cereal around with his spoon. "Because that explains why there are no letters in our room and why I remember so much of this." He caught sight of Lily and his face changed from disbelief to surprise. Lily self-consciously covered up her zit.
"Merlin Lily, you and Remus sure complement each other today. Was there a secret rendezvous that I didn't know about?"
"Suck it, will you?" Lily grabbed the milk out of the fridge and reached for a glass from the cupboard.
"Ah, now that depends on what I'm sucking, Lils."
"That's disgusting."
"You enjoyed it."
James looked as if he was going to be sick to his stomach. "Anyways…" he quickly tried to change the subject, not at all content with the mental images he was receiving. "I have to go do something today, so the rest of you get to entertain yourselves." He stopped and rethought what he had said. "And that has nothing to do with what you two were just discussing." Sirius feigned a gloomy exterior.
Remus nodded with the rest of them, but his head snapped up a second later. "Wait, you're going to be gone all day?!"
"I hope not." James got up and walked out the door, leaving his milk untouched. The three left over stared at each other in alarm.
"Well, if no one's going to drink that I will." Sirius said, reaching out and snagging the chocolate milk.
"Sirius this is serious!" Remus and Lily exclaimed at the same time.
Sirius blinked. "Wow. That was ironic in more ways than one." He earned separate but equal stares from both.
"Oh, he's not going to be gone all day." Kat wandered into the room, pouring the abandoned milk Lily had set down into a bowl and drinking from it.
"What do you mean? How could you possibly know that?" Lily let herself get distracted by the sight of an outwardly normal seventeen year old drinking milk from a bowl.
Kat lapped up another sip. "I followed him yesterday." She earned several raised eyebrows. "What? I was bored and I'm a good tracker. He's been going to Diagon Alley mostly."
"Quidditch no doubt." Remus nodded, relaxing a little.
"Hmmm…no. He avoided that store like the plague. He went into a candle store and was in there for about half an hour."
There was a confused silence. "Well…that's…weird." Lily finally commented. "Weird…but refreshing?" Sirius and Remus stared at her.
"He'll be home." Kat reassured them.
"Ok, well as long as he's gone, we should look for some decorations and get the food all ready." Lily said, trying to not go into her ponderings as to why James was in a candle store.
"Right," Remus went into business mode immediately. "The caterer said that the food should apparate in at about five, which gives us an hour before the party starts. We have butterbeer fresh from Hogsmeade that will be here at five thirty to keep that perfect temperature."
"Great. All that's left is music and decorations."
"Uh, Lils…" Sirius started, now halfway through James' leftover milk and just now tuning in.
"Don't. Call. Me. That." Lily gave him an eerie smile and turned back to Remus.
"But-"
"Not now, Padfoot." Remus chimed in.
"But-"
"No!" Lily and Remus shouted in tandem. Kat jumped from her spot on the kitchen counter.
Sirius ignored them. "Decorations are a bad idea!" he insisted.
Lily sighed. "And why, perhaps, would that be?"
"Because then it would be more like a seven-year-old's birthday rather then a seventeen-year-old's."
"Sirius, we're having decorations. Tough luck."
"You're still mad at me for the whole RSVP thing, aren't you?"
"Whatever gave you that idea?"
"Fine, but just remember that I'm always right." Sirius slumped back and grinned.
Lily turned to Remus and back again. "I'll keep that in mind."
It was twelve o'clock and due to Sirius' annoying mantra ("I'm just saying…seven or seventeen…you gotta choose.") that he had adopted over the past hours Remus and Lily banished him to the living room to figure out how to get a good band on short notice.
However, forty minutes later Sirius showed up in the attic once again to annoy them.
"Sirius! I thought I told you to stay in the living room- I mean find a band!" Lily was covered in dust from the attic and apparently had discovered that dust aggravated her zit. It felt twice as big as before. She was not in a mood to be messed with.
"I did."
"What do you mean you did? It's been forty minutes!"
"Lils, calm down. I got The Sinister Sisters."
That managed to stun Lily and Remus. "You got the most popular band this side of Britain?" Remus stuttered from halfway across the room, his hands coated in dust and holding some old essays of James' father.
"Yeah, well…I have connections." Sirius evaded, trying to be mysterious.
"I'm not even going to ask. I don't care. But if they don't show up tonight I'm going to take out the rest of my anger towards you on your wand, if you know what I mean." Lily's eyes were blazing so brightly Sirius just nodded and tried to take a step back.
"Hey, I think I found something!" Remus called after starting the search again. He ran over to Lily and Sirius carrying a big box in his hands. It was completely saturated with grime and filth.
"Oh thank Merlin." Lily opened the box and pulled out a blue banner. "`It's a boy'. We're not using something that's from the fifties…Ooh there's a lot of Hawaiian stuff in here!"
"Hawaiian's good. Lots of coconut bras?" Sirius picked one up and grinned.
Lily snatched it out of his hands. "Don't even think about it!"
Remus put on a lei and smiled. "I think this just might work."
Sirius smirked a crooned, "Everybody's getting laid tonight! Get it?" Remus and Lily groaned together and gave him the same look of disgust.
"You know, you should really take that act on the road."
Six hours later over two hundred teenagers milled around the Potter's house to celebrate James' seventeenth birthday. The only hitch was that James, that happy seventeen year old, had not shown up yet.
"Where is he? I thought you said he would be home by now!" Lily hissed at Kat, who was currently getting ready to launch herself at Sirius, who was chatting up a brunette Gryffindor. She in turn looked more than willing to do anything Sirius said.
"I said he'd be home, not when he'd be home." Kat said sidetracked by Sirius catching sight of her and scampering off. She gave up. "Look, he's coming, ok?"
Lily sighed and tried to relax, but she was too high strung. There were two hundred people here and they were getting restless. The food and cake weren't being touched now, but it was only a matter of time and if the butterbeer weren't automatically replenishing itself she'd be worried that it would be gone by now.
Amidst all her worries, Lily suddenly caught sight of thick black hair on an incredibly gorgeous girl who was calmly sipping from a plastic cup of butterbeer ad being hit on. Her eyes went wide as she did a double take and her blood pressure went up ten notches. Lily stalked off to find Sirius before she exploded in front of her mortal enemy.
"Who the heck invited Graziana Harding?!" She shouted at Sirius, who was cowering away from Kat while trying to hit on the same girl as before as well as look cool at the same time.
Unfortunately right as Lily shouted at the blubbering idiot, James walked in the door and everyone tried to say "Surprise!" at the same time. It didn't work as expected, but it did drown Lily out and manage to scare the crap out of James. Only a few people around Lily actually heard her.
"Oh sorry Lily, m'dear." Lily spun around to find Graziana standing directly behind her looking poised as always and ready to pounce on her enemies. She constantly reminded Lily of a lioness. Too bad she doesn't look like a walrus, Lily thought. "I did get an invite, if you must pry into my personal life. And I sent back the RSVP also. Just in case." She raised her perfectly manicure eyebrow, daring Lily to contradict her. "I figured Jamesie wouldn't want to miss me."
I figure he wouldn't miss you if I pushed you off a cliff…Lily didn't care that she was being ultra violent tonight. But before she could dare to say what was on her mind, Sirius appeared by her.
"Graziana! I didn't think you could make it! Lils never checked you off." He pulled her into a bear hug, most likely crushing her ribs. Lily enjoyed the few seconds in which Graziana looked as if she were going to die from lack of air and decided to forget temporarily about Sirius calling her by that awful nickname. When Sirius released her she gasped for oxygen and muttered weakly about coming for James.
I bet you did come for him, you little witch. Lily thought, horrified at the thought of Graziana and James together. She tried to forget the mental images.
"Speaking of James," Sirius looked around animatedly. "Where is the happy seventeen year old? I thought I heard him walk in."
Hiding, I would think, if he knew that Graziana were here. Lily was blissfully aware that James hated Graziana's guts with a passion. Suddenly she caught sight of Remus across the crowded room trying to get her attention through the throng of people. He was pointing at something and she tried to follow his gaze. His mouth was moving, but Lily had never been good as lip reading…
"Somebody spiked the butterbeer?!" Lily sighed and felt a headache coming on. Sirius glanced down at his cup of butterbeer and grinned.
"So that's why the taste is so much tangier." He mused, taking another swig of the liquid and emptying the cup. "Well, I'm off to get more; have fun searching for James!" before Lily could stop him he had maneuvered his way through the crowd and disappeared.
Lily put pressure on her forehead to try to relieve the pain roaming through her skull, searching for a place to rest. This wasn't supposed to be stressful! There weren't supposed to be this many people here, the butterbeer was not supposed to be spiked (by Sirius, no doubt…), James was not supposed to be talking to Graziana, and Lily was not supposed to have a massive headache because of it all!
Wait. James was talking to Graziana?
Sure enough Lily whirled around to find Graziana and found James standing next to her. She felt her stomach drop as James smiled that smile at Graziana, clearly having a very good time. Her headache started to intensify as Graziana put her hand on James' shoulder, the most flirtatious Lily had seen her be with him in a long time.
The music group Sirius had been able to snag began playing a more upbeat song, which made Lily's head hurt more and distracted her away from the ache she felt in her heart.
There came a crash from her right and Lily was dimly aware that the window was broken, but she couldn't stop thinking about how perfect the two looked together, a couple.
As people ran over to check out what happened, someone pushed a cup of butterbeer into her hands, completely full. Well, at least it should make my headache go away for a while. She took a couple of sips and came to the conclusion that it was definitely spiked. Remus knew his alcoholic tainted drinks, that was for sure. It was bitter, but it helped.
Lily retreated to a corner to drink silently, but was soon joined by others wanting to have fun. Never one to pass up a good time (At least when she was slightly tipsy, anyway) Lily soon became the center of attention after being handed more than her share of butterbeers.
James really wasn't that surprised when he got home. If the loud noise coming out of his house wasn't a tip off, the fact that he had heard Sirius say something about in his sleep last night was.
What was really surprising was that Graziana Harding was there.
Wonderful, James thought as he plastered a fake smile on his face as he made his way towards Lily but got detoured by Graziana. Just what I needed… He still had his overcoat on and he instinctively pulled the box he had hidden in it closer to his body as he got closer. Graziana had always reminded him of a lioness for some reason. Maybe it was the eyebrows.
"Jamesie!"
Merlin that nickname was annoying.
"Graziana…good of you to come…" James swallowed hard and steeled himself for the intense round of flirting that was about to come. Flirting with Graziana was like being in the wild at feeding time; no matter how hard you ran you just couldn't get away from the man-eaters.
"Don't you want to take off your coat, Jamesie?" Graziana batted her eyelashes at him in what she thought was a becoming way, but made James want to blink really badly.
He pulled the box even closer to him and gave her the smile again. "No, I'd really rather not. Have you seen Lily?"
She immediately turned off the never ending flirt faucet. "No I have not seen Lily. Why would you want to talk to her for?"
James raised his eyebrow. "She threw the party for me."
"Right," Graziana giggled, brushing her fingers across James' shoulder. "And aren't you excited that I'm here?" she moved closer to him and he attempted to move a step back.
"Oh I'm so, so excited…" he hit someone who was right behind him and got butterbeer spilled all down his back.
Graziana wasn't letting up. "Hmmm…maybe you should get out of that now, huh?" her eyes were half closed and James seriously considered running away if it weren't for her death grip on his shirt. And the fact that her abnormal eyebrows held him spellbound.
James cleared his throat and she looked up at him, a little ticked. It soon melted when she discovered how to make this work to her advantage.
"I still have to give you my present, Jamesie." Without allowing a word of protest, she pulled him over to the side of the room and up the stairs. James could hardly get a word out edgewise.
"Uh…this might not be the best idea…you know, it being my party and all…" James stuttered while trying to break free from her grasp and trip up the stairs. "Merlin do you lift weights or something?" her grip was like having a stone statue hold on to you.
Graziana didn't say a word as she dragged him. That only succeeded in freaking James out more. She led him to a random door on the second floor and the music from downstairs started to subside a bit.
She looked around as she opened it and dragged him inside. "This room yours, James?"
"Uh, no…" James swallowed hard. "It's my parents'."
That didn't seem to faze her as much as he hoped it would. "Stay." She ordered and she primly turned around and shut the door behind them.
"Do you want my present now, Jamesie, or later?"
James cleared his throat again, exceedingly uncomfortable. Graziana looked like she was about to die if she didn't take some clothes off fast and he really didn't want to be put in that situation. He prayed for anything to come along to get him off the hook. Anything.
Instantly an angel stumbled into the room on accident. Apparently Graziana had forgotten to lock the door.
She looked so different that James didn't recognize her at first. It was Lily, who was sporting an orange lei around her head that clashed horribly with her hair.
"Oh my gosh…I am so sorry!" she slurred, doubling over and trying to hide her grinning face. "I'll just…I mean…doorway, yeah."
It was then that James realized that she was incredibly drunk. Lily was now snorting and about to be on the floor. James figured that if she got down on the floor once she might not be able to get back up again. He quickly ran to her and pulled her up.
Graziana gave her a look she reserved only for those who couldn't hold their liquor. "Gee Evans, first time drinker? Learn to eat before you drink, will you?"
James sent her a scathing look. "Graziana will you just go get some water or something?" Please. Anything. Just leave. She hesitated for a moment and then stood up a little straighter.
"Sure Jamesie. Anything for you." As she walked towards the door she deliberately did not look Lily in the eye, but gave James a quick peck on the cheek that left a red mark from her lipstick. (Lily, of course, could have cared less at the moment, considering that she seemed very interested in the carpet fibers on the floor.)
Once she left James let out a sigh of relief. "Ok, Lily you go here," he set Lily down on the bed very carefully where she struggled to sit upright. "And the lock goes here." Swiftly he turned the lock and put a quick spell on it to ensure that Graziana couldn't get back in.
"Jamesie," Lily stammered, looking up at him with a silly grin on her face.
Merlin that nickname was adorable.
James was suddenly reminded that they were in a locked room together and Lily was very, very drunk. It would be extremely easy to get away with something here. Then he remembered that only Sirius would do something like that.
Lily slumped forward and James raced to grab her and pull her upright again. "Jamesie, Jamesie, Jamesie…"
"Yes Lilsie?"
She giggled at that one. "I have your present!"
"Really now?"
"Uh-huh. Do you want it?"
James swallowed. YES! Calm down, calm down…it's probably not what you're thinking anyways. "Sure…"
Without warning Lily took his head in her hands and kissed him full on the lips. It only lasted for a few seconds before there was an urgent rapping on the door.
"James! We kinda need your help out here!" Remus' voice was tight and strained. Even though James chose to ignore him for a few minutes as Lily continued to kiss him, he sighed and pulled away from her. Immediately Lily fell over onto the bed, passed out.
James leaned in close to her and whispered. "We're not telling anyone about this." Then he left and joined Remus in the hallway.
"What's the big urgent problem?" James asked, careful to close the door enough so that Remus could see what was inside.
"Well, while you've been MIA, your house has sustained two broken windows, three make-out parties in various sections of the house, and one couple fornicating in your room."
"Gerald and Jessica?"
"Yup."
"Don't worry about them; they'll clean up after their done and we can burn the sheets later."
Remus decided not to take that comment too seriously.
"I'll fix everything else, just make sure that Lily gets into her own room, ok?"
He decided to let that one slide too.
The two slit up as James went to repair the windows, thankful that he was allowed to use magic now, and Remus dragged Lily to her room.
However, Lily, being the unpredictable one, woke up in the middle of Remus' dragging and took off downstairs. Remus chose not to follow her and get Gerald and Jessica out of James' room instead.
After all, Lily was a big girl.
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