Fic; Parting the Fog [1/4]
Title: Parting the Fog [1/4]
Author: perilousgard
Character/Pairing: Lily/James, Mary/Remus, Sirius/OC, mentions of Dorcas and Marlene.
Word Count: 3,239 (this chapter)
Rating: PG-13 for references to drinking and whatnot.
Summary: Lily wakes up from a night of partying with a lot of questions and only one person who can answer them.
Author’s Notes: I know, it’s been done before, but hopefully not quite like this. Lyla is my friend Terri’s character, I’m only borrowing! There will be more chapters for this, so if the ending seems a bit abrupt, that’s why! Everything will get resolved.
...And I just realized this is my second drunk fic in a row. What's up with that? Oh well. xD
The first thing Lily thinks, when she wakes up, is that half of her body is very cold and the other is very warm.
She is lying on her stomach, which is the warm half, but instead of being pressed against a mattress as she believes she ought, she is pressed against something a little bit less malleable and more smooth. She is definitely lying on top of someone, and that someone is taking deep, even breaths that ruffle her hair when they breathe out.
She prays that it is Mary, or even Peter-because now as she shifts she can tell the form beneath her is decidedly male-but when she lifts her head slightly, she spots glasses that are very much askew and black hair that is even wilder than usual, and Lily has to accept the fact that she had fallen asleep on top of James Potter.
She sits up as quickly as she dares, sliding lightly down his body and then off the couch, and the next thing she realizes is that she’s in her skivvies. For that matter, so is James, and under ordinary circumstances she might laugh at his boxers, which are patterned with Martin Miggs the Mad Muggle. As it is, she can only bring herself to hug her own arms and look around madly for her clothing, which seems to be nowhere in the immediate vicinity.
They’ve made an absolute mess of Mary’s lake house, though, and Lily knows they have a long day of cleaning ahead of them if they don’t want her parents finding out about their little soiree. Even with magic, they have managed to turn the place so upside-down and backwards that she doesn’t even know where to begin. It gives her a headache just thinking about it-although that could also be the hangover.
Lily grabs the first thing she can find off the floor that resembles clothing, and it turns out to be a plain grey t-shirt. It comes down to mid-thigh when she slips it on, which means it’s probably a boy’s tee, but she decides not to wonder which boy it belongs to. The shirt is slightly stained with butterbeer and something purple-jam, maybe?-but it will do. She moves out into the hallway, where she finds a massive trash bag that is only slightly filled, where someone apparently tried to start cleaning up the night before. And that’s how she finds Mary, fast asleep and nursing a large wine bottle as if it were a child. She’s fallen asleep with a necklace clutched in one fist, and upon closer inspection, Lily recognizes it as the one Remus usually wears, the one with the silver half-moon dangling from it. She smiles to herself, wanting to wake Mary up now and ask her what happened, but she is loath to disturb anyone who fell asleep cradling a bottle of wine.
Sirius and Peter are asleep in the master bedroom, Peter on his back with a record still in his hand, and Sirius with his head pillowed on Peter’s slightly distended belly. Sirius has his hand stretched out on the bed as if he was reaching out for someone, but no one else is in the room. The record player is still on, though it reached the end of the record long ago, and Lily lifts the needle and cuts it off before moving on.
In the bathroom she finds the pretty blonde Ravenclaw that Sirius invited, whose name she remembers as Lyla. She’s asleep in the tub, curled up with her knees up against her chest, and she’s completely starkers. Lily gently closes the door and wonders if she knows she spent last night happily snogging Sirius, though she had told Lily many times before the alcohol came out that she’d never, ever do that.
The rest of the house is just as big a mess, and Lily discovers Dorcas and Marlene in the kitchen, both of them wearing chains of garlic around their heads and looking as though they’d passed out arguing. After grabbing a glass of water from the sink, Lily heads outside, thinking the only person she hasn’t stumbled across is Remus.
But there he is, sitting at the end of the dock with his feet in the water, and though he’s wearing a pair of jeans that look two sizes too big for him, he’s at least fully dressed and seems in better condition than the rest of them. Lily wonders briefly if she should try and find a pair of pants, but the t-shirt covers enough of her that it would hardly matter. Besides, there is a fair chance Remus already saw her in her underwear, since she has no idea how long she went without shirt and shorts.
She cuts a path across the grass, wet from last night’s rain, and it’s chillier this morning because of it. Still, the dew feels good between her toes, and the cool air makes her head feel slightly clearer. She’s halfway across the beach when Remus suddenly notices her, and he gives her a little wave. Lily smiles as she crosses the dock and drops down next to him, and would have slipped right into the water if not for Remus’ steadying hand on her arm.
“Long night, huh?” he says, his voice hoarse, and when Lily laughs it sounds far too loud for her own ears.
“Yeah. At least, I think it was.”
“You can’t remember?” he asks, his eyes traveling the length of the stained tee that obviously does not belong to her. She blushes, uncomfortable, and suddenly wonders if there’s a reason other than alcohol that she woke up mostly naked.
“I’m not too clear at the moment. I only had two of those Firewhiskeys, how pathetic is that…”
“Sirius and Peter spiked them,” says Remus, a bit of amusement coloring his tone. “Twice, I think.”
Lily groans, and then laughs again. “I guess that explains why everyone is in varying states of stupor, then. Myself included.”
Remus nods, looking down at his feet in the water. “I woke up hours ago, before the sun was even up. I think the alcohol had kind of an odd effect on my system.”
Lily grins, leaning back on her hands. “I just don’t think you had as much as the rest of us.”
“That could be it, too.” Remus chuckles.
After a moment of silence, Lily brushes away the hair falling into her face so she can look at him properly. “Did something happen between you and Mary last night?”
Remus blushed and reached up to his throat, where she can tell he’s searching for the necklace that is currently held tightly in Mary’s hand. “Yeah, something happened.”
Lily nods, sensing that he doesn’t want to discuss it, but unable to resist asking, “It didn’t go the way you wanted it to, I take it?”
“Well, I would have preferred us both to be sober, obviously.” He pauses, and Lily tugs on the hem of the t-shirt, now wishing she had stopped to find pants. “I would have been more prepared for her to kiss me like that.”
In spite of herself, she smiles broadly. “She’s been trying to pack up the courage to kiss you since third year.”
He laughs. “If she remembers what happened when she wakes up, I’m going to ask her out. I just wish it could have happened a little differently.”
Lily looks up at the sky, where the faint hues of yellow and purple left over from the dawn are being replaced by endless blue. “That makes two of us, then.”
Remus looks at her oddly. “What do you mean?”
It’s Lily’s turn to blush. “I woke up on top of James in my knickers.”
“Oh.” Remus’ eyes go round in surprise, and he seems a bit embarrassed. “I don’t know anything about that, I’m afraid. You two disappeared, and I hadn’t seen either of you until now.”
“Disappeared?” she repeats. “Where did we go?”
Remus shrugs, pulling his feet out of the water. “Dunno, do I? We were still playing that ridiculous drinking game, and suddenly Marlene asked where one of you had popped off to. You don’t remember that?”
Lily wracks her brain, trying to part the fog that seems to be filling her entire head. She remembers the beginning of the party, when she and Mary had put on The Beatles and started singing obnoxiously on the back porch while they ate crisps and dip. She remembers all of them diving off the tall rocks behind the house into the lake, which was chilly for mid-September, and how Sirius and Lyla had both climbed out after only a few minutes, claiming they were too cold. She remembers Sirius and James disappearing for about an hour and coming back with Firewhiskey on the back of their broomsticks. And she remembers, with startling clarity, the feeling of James’ fingers threaded through hers and his voice in her ear, but she can’t remember the words, or what happened next.
“I don’t know,” she tells Remus at last, the desperation clear in her voice. “I’m going to kill Sirius later.”
Remus grins. “I think you’ll have to deal with James first.”
“What do you mean?” asks Lily, whipping around as though she expected to see James making his way down the beach.
He chuckles lightly. “I just mean he might remember a little more than you. And if he does, I’m sure he’ll be looking for you.”
She sighs. “I don’t know. He looked pretty out of it. Didn’t even move when I got off of him.”
Remus shrugs, standing, and reaches down to help her to her feet. “We might want to get everyone up, anyway. Aren’t Mary’s parents coming back today?”
“Yeah, they are,” Lily says, running a hand through her hair. “Right, fine-let’s get everyone up.”
When she walks back through the house, she runs right into Sirius, who’s making his way towards the bathroom. He scrubs a bit at his eyes and grins at her lopsidedly. “Hey, Red. I have a thousand questions, but I really need to piss first.”
Lily pushes down a laugh. “Sirius, you do realize you’re naked, right?”
He glances down, and then back up, cocking an eyebrow at her. “Well, look at that. It’s really liberating, actually, walking through someone else’s house starkers.”
She glances back at the bathroom door, remembering Lyla curled up in the tub. “The bathroom door’s stuck. I’m afraid you’ll have to piss outside. And not in the flower bed, Mary’s mum will have your head.”
Sirius shrugs amiably, not even questioning her, and heads for the back door. “I’m sure there are plenty of decent trees out there.”
Smirking, Lily watches him go, then opens the bathroom door, where Lyla has woken up and is sitting with the shower curtain held to her body. “Thanks,” she says, with a little smile.
“No problem. Let me find you some clothes,” Lily replies, and returns a moment later with a dress she thinks Marlene was wearing last night.
Lyla takes it gratefully. “Where did Sirius go?”
“I sent him outside. I think he’s gone to find a tree to piss on,” Lily says with a grin, and Lyla makes a sound that is halfway between a snort and a laugh. “He’s walking around naked, though.”
“Of course he is,” says Lyla, shaking her head, and after pulling the dress on, she cautiously climbs out of the tub. “I suppose I’ll go take him his shorts.”
Lily laughs and leaves her to it, making her way back down the hall. She’d left James in the living room, she thinks, but when she peeks in, the couch is empty. She does discover that James apparently slept on her jeans, which are flattened against the cushions, and is just crossing the room to grab them when he walks back in the room, holding a glass of purple liquid and at least dressed in a pair of pants now. She freezes with her hand inches from the cushions.
“Morning,” says James, and Lily automatically tugs again on the bottom of the t-shirt.
“Morning,” she says faintly.
“Ah-I’ll turn away,” he says when he notices her hand on her jeans, and immediately turns his back to her. Hurriedly, Lily steps into her pants and pulls them up, dropping the t-shirt over them. She starts to gather her hair up, knowing that it’s a mess, but she has no idea what happened to her scrunchie. With a sigh, she drops down on the couch.
“You can look now.”
He turns back, and studies her a moment, and Lily avoids his eyes, but she can feel his gaze anyway. She wonders what he might be thinking, what he might be remembering, and her face burns, even though she doesn’t have any idea. But that’s the problem, she thinks, because it could be anything.
The cushion sinks beside her, and she finds the glass of purple stuff being shoved under her nose. Sniffing a bit, she looks at James. “What is it?”
“Sirius and I never buy Firewhiskey without also buying the anti-Firewhiskey,” he says. “Just drink it. You’ll feel better.”
After hesitating a moment longer, Lily takes the drink from him and sips at it, finding that it tastes a bit like grape soda. It burns her throat a bit on the way down, in a similar way to Firewhiskey, but a moment later she does start feeling a bit better. Her headache recedes, and her limbs feel less leaden. “Wow.”
“Sirius and I have been tempted on many occasions to send thank-you letters to the wizard who invented this stuff,” says James fondly, looking at the glass. “We would never have managed so many world-famous Marauder parties without it.”
Lily rolls her eyes, taking a few more sips before handing it back to him. “Ah, so the big secret is revealed. I was wondering how you always managed to get to every class the next day.”
James bows slightly at the waist. “It’s only one of the many reasons we’re never caught.”
She smiles a bit, looking down at her jeans. Most unfortunately, a new hole has somehow been made in the knee, and she has no idea where her wand ended up. James watches her play with the fringe for a bit before speaking again. “That stuff does wonders for your memory, too.”
Lily’s head snaps back, and she meets his eyes for the first time that morning. She wonders if the fear and anxiety is as plain on her face as she thinks it is, and it must be, because James gently reaches out and tucks a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear. His fingers brush against her lobe in the process, and her fingers curl imperceptibly against her palms. “Before you panic, nothing happened.”
What’s nothing? she wants to demand, but she can feel the fog in her brain beginning to clear, and slowly the details are returning to her. Yes, she and James disappeared from the drinking game. She had needed to use the bathroom and he’d wanted a smoke, so they had both left at the same time. When Lily was finished, she had joined him on the back porch to get away from the noise for a bit, and they had talked-mostly about the end of school and what was going to happen when they graduated. She remembers being surprised that he had given up his lifelong dream of playing Quidditch, because he knew he was going to have to do his part to help with the war. When she had asked him what that meant, he had told her he honestly didn’t know. And that was when Lily had decided to race him down to the lake.
The water was so cold with the sun down that neither one of them had been able to stand it much longer than a few minutes, and they had both gotten out trembling from the cold. She remembers him offering her his soaked t-shirt-the same one, she realizes with a start, that she’s wearing now-and laughing because it was no less wet than the one she was wearing. And that is how she ended up in her underwear…she and James had stripped themselves down on the back porch, neither of them feeling particularly modest because of how much they’d had to drink, and when they’d gone back inside, she had pulled him into the living room and asked him to stay with her instead of going back to the party.
“Why?” he asked, and she remembers his hands resting lightly at her waist, helping to keep her steady.
“Because I don’t want to be alone,” was all Lily could think of to say.
His lips pressed against her forehead, and then he had taken her over to the couch, where she had almost instantly fallen asleep with her head on his chest.
Lily blinks. “Nothing happened.”
He shakes his head, and she thinks she imagines the regret in his tone when he says, “No.”
There is an awkward silence, and she reaches over to take another sip of the purple stuff to give her hands something to do. James is still watching her, and she thinks that she really ought to be getting him to help her clean up Mary’s parents’ house so they don’t all get a lifelong ban, but all she can do is sit there and stare at her reflection inside the glass.
After a moment, James gets to his feet, and offers her his hand. She takes it, launching herself up at the same time that he gives her a pull, and ends up knocking right into him. He steadies her without a word and lets go of her very quickly.
“Your wand’s here, by the way,” he says suddenly, reaching into his back pocket, and Lily takes it thankfully, not even bothering to question how it ended up in the back pocket of his jeans. Pointing at the floor, she starts gathering trash together, and sending fallen items back to where they belong. James pulls his own wand out and does the same, and they put the living room back in order silently.
“Our clothes are disgusting, too,” says Lily, plucking at the t-shirt, and James laughs.
“Right, did you know that’s my shirt you’re wearing?”
She flushes. “Actually, yes. Where’s my shirt?”
“Still on the back porch, as far as I know,” says James. “That’s where I found my pants.” He pauses a moment. “But, you can wear mine, if you want to.”
She hesitates. “James, I-“
“It doesn’t have to mean anything,” he interrupts. “It’s just a shirt.”
The tone of his voice says the exact opposite. Lily sighs and wishes she had picked the trashbag to wear instead. “It’s not about the shirt. I just wanted to say, about last night-“
“Meant nothing, right.” James gets a dark look on his face and runs a hand through his hair. “You don’t have to tell me that, Lily.”
She chews a corner of her tongue. “It never means anything when you’re drunk.”
He frowns. “It means something when you can remember it.”
Lily drops her gaze. “I’m going to go find my shirt,” she says.
“Yeah, you do that,” he calls after her.
end part one
[To Part 2]
Author: perilousgard
Character/Pairing: Lily/James, Mary/Remus, Sirius/OC, mentions of Dorcas and Marlene.
Word Count: 3,239 (this chapter)
Rating: PG-13 for references to drinking and whatnot.
Summary: Lily wakes up from a night of partying with a lot of questions and only one person who can answer them.
Author’s Notes: I know, it’s been done before, but hopefully not quite like this. Lyla is my friend Terri’s character, I’m only borrowing! There will be more chapters for this, so if the ending seems a bit abrupt, that’s why! Everything will get resolved.
...And I just realized this is my second drunk fic in a row. What's up with that? Oh well. xD
The first thing Lily thinks, when she wakes up, is that half of her body is very cold and the other is very warm.
She is lying on her stomach, which is the warm half, but instead of being pressed against a mattress as she believes she ought, she is pressed against something a little bit less malleable and more smooth. She is definitely lying on top of someone, and that someone is taking deep, even breaths that ruffle her hair when they breathe out.
She prays that it is Mary, or even Peter-because now as she shifts she can tell the form beneath her is decidedly male-but when she lifts her head slightly, she spots glasses that are very much askew and black hair that is even wilder than usual, and Lily has to accept the fact that she had fallen asleep on top of James Potter.
She sits up as quickly as she dares, sliding lightly down his body and then off the couch, and the next thing she realizes is that she’s in her skivvies. For that matter, so is James, and under ordinary circumstances she might laugh at his boxers, which are patterned with Martin Miggs the Mad Muggle. As it is, she can only bring herself to hug her own arms and look around madly for her clothing, which seems to be nowhere in the immediate vicinity.
They’ve made an absolute mess of Mary’s lake house, though, and Lily knows they have a long day of cleaning ahead of them if they don’t want her parents finding out about their little soiree. Even with magic, they have managed to turn the place so upside-down and backwards that she doesn’t even know where to begin. It gives her a headache just thinking about it-although that could also be the hangover.
Lily grabs the first thing she can find off the floor that resembles clothing, and it turns out to be a plain grey t-shirt. It comes down to mid-thigh when she slips it on, which means it’s probably a boy’s tee, but she decides not to wonder which boy it belongs to. The shirt is slightly stained with butterbeer and something purple-jam, maybe?-but it will do. She moves out into the hallway, where she finds a massive trash bag that is only slightly filled, where someone apparently tried to start cleaning up the night before. And that’s how she finds Mary, fast asleep and nursing a large wine bottle as if it were a child. She’s fallen asleep with a necklace clutched in one fist, and upon closer inspection, Lily recognizes it as the one Remus usually wears, the one with the silver half-moon dangling from it. She smiles to herself, wanting to wake Mary up now and ask her what happened, but she is loath to disturb anyone who fell asleep cradling a bottle of wine.
Sirius and Peter are asleep in the master bedroom, Peter on his back with a record still in his hand, and Sirius with his head pillowed on Peter’s slightly distended belly. Sirius has his hand stretched out on the bed as if he was reaching out for someone, but no one else is in the room. The record player is still on, though it reached the end of the record long ago, and Lily lifts the needle and cuts it off before moving on.
In the bathroom she finds the pretty blonde Ravenclaw that Sirius invited, whose name she remembers as Lyla. She’s asleep in the tub, curled up with her knees up against her chest, and she’s completely starkers. Lily gently closes the door and wonders if she knows she spent last night happily snogging Sirius, though she had told Lily many times before the alcohol came out that she’d never, ever do that.
The rest of the house is just as big a mess, and Lily discovers Dorcas and Marlene in the kitchen, both of them wearing chains of garlic around their heads and looking as though they’d passed out arguing. After grabbing a glass of water from the sink, Lily heads outside, thinking the only person she hasn’t stumbled across is Remus.
But there he is, sitting at the end of the dock with his feet in the water, and though he’s wearing a pair of jeans that look two sizes too big for him, he’s at least fully dressed and seems in better condition than the rest of them. Lily wonders briefly if she should try and find a pair of pants, but the t-shirt covers enough of her that it would hardly matter. Besides, there is a fair chance Remus already saw her in her underwear, since she has no idea how long she went without shirt and shorts.
She cuts a path across the grass, wet from last night’s rain, and it’s chillier this morning because of it. Still, the dew feels good between her toes, and the cool air makes her head feel slightly clearer. She’s halfway across the beach when Remus suddenly notices her, and he gives her a little wave. Lily smiles as she crosses the dock and drops down next to him, and would have slipped right into the water if not for Remus’ steadying hand on her arm.
“Long night, huh?” he says, his voice hoarse, and when Lily laughs it sounds far too loud for her own ears.
“Yeah. At least, I think it was.”
“You can’t remember?” he asks, his eyes traveling the length of the stained tee that obviously does not belong to her. She blushes, uncomfortable, and suddenly wonders if there’s a reason other than alcohol that she woke up mostly naked.
“I’m not too clear at the moment. I only had two of those Firewhiskeys, how pathetic is that…”
“Sirius and Peter spiked them,” says Remus, a bit of amusement coloring his tone. “Twice, I think.”
Lily groans, and then laughs again. “I guess that explains why everyone is in varying states of stupor, then. Myself included.”
Remus nods, looking down at his feet in the water. “I woke up hours ago, before the sun was even up. I think the alcohol had kind of an odd effect on my system.”
Lily grins, leaning back on her hands. “I just don’t think you had as much as the rest of us.”
“That could be it, too.” Remus chuckles.
After a moment of silence, Lily brushes away the hair falling into her face so she can look at him properly. “Did something happen between you and Mary last night?”
Remus blushed and reached up to his throat, where she can tell he’s searching for the necklace that is currently held tightly in Mary’s hand. “Yeah, something happened.”
Lily nods, sensing that he doesn’t want to discuss it, but unable to resist asking, “It didn’t go the way you wanted it to, I take it?”
“Well, I would have preferred us both to be sober, obviously.” He pauses, and Lily tugs on the hem of the t-shirt, now wishing she had stopped to find pants. “I would have been more prepared for her to kiss me like that.”
In spite of herself, she smiles broadly. “She’s been trying to pack up the courage to kiss you since third year.”
He laughs. “If she remembers what happened when she wakes up, I’m going to ask her out. I just wish it could have happened a little differently.”
Lily looks up at the sky, where the faint hues of yellow and purple left over from the dawn are being replaced by endless blue. “That makes two of us, then.”
Remus looks at her oddly. “What do you mean?”
It’s Lily’s turn to blush. “I woke up on top of James in my knickers.”
“Oh.” Remus’ eyes go round in surprise, and he seems a bit embarrassed. “I don’t know anything about that, I’m afraid. You two disappeared, and I hadn’t seen either of you until now.”
“Disappeared?” she repeats. “Where did we go?”
Remus shrugs, pulling his feet out of the water. “Dunno, do I? We were still playing that ridiculous drinking game, and suddenly Marlene asked where one of you had popped off to. You don’t remember that?”
Lily wracks her brain, trying to part the fog that seems to be filling her entire head. She remembers the beginning of the party, when she and Mary had put on The Beatles and started singing obnoxiously on the back porch while they ate crisps and dip. She remembers all of them diving off the tall rocks behind the house into the lake, which was chilly for mid-September, and how Sirius and Lyla had both climbed out after only a few minutes, claiming they were too cold. She remembers Sirius and James disappearing for about an hour and coming back with Firewhiskey on the back of their broomsticks. And she remembers, with startling clarity, the feeling of James’ fingers threaded through hers and his voice in her ear, but she can’t remember the words, or what happened next.
“I don’t know,” she tells Remus at last, the desperation clear in her voice. “I’m going to kill Sirius later.”
Remus grins. “I think you’ll have to deal with James first.”
“What do you mean?” asks Lily, whipping around as though she expected to see James making his way down the beach.
He chuckles lightly. “I just mean he might remember a little more than you. And if he does, I’m sure he’ll be looking for you.”
She sighs. “I don’t know. He looked pretty out of it. Didn’t even move when I got off of him.”
Remus shrugs, standing, and reaches down to help her to her feet. “We might want to get everyone up, anyway. Aren’t Mary’s parents coming back today?”
“Yeah, they are,” Lily says, running a hand through her hair. “Right, fine-let’s get everyone up.”
When she walks back through the house, she runs right into Sirius, who’s making his way towards the bathroom. He scrubs a bit at his eyes and grins at her lopsidedly. “Hey, Red. I have a thousand questions, but I really need to piss first.”
Lily pushes down a laugh. “Sirius, you do realize you’re naked, right?”
He glances down, and then back up, cocking an eyebrow at her. “Well, look at that. It’s really liberating, actually, walking through someone else’s house starkers.”
She glances back at the bathroom door, remembering Lyla curled up in the tub. “The bathroom door’s stuck. I’m afraid you’ll have to piss outside. And not in the flower bed, Mary’s mum will have your head.”
Sirius shrugs amiably, not even questioning her, and heads for the back door. “I’m sure there are plenty of decent trees out there.”
Smirking, Lily watches him go, then opens the bathroom door, where Lyla has woken up and is sitting with the shower curtain held to her body. “Thanks,” she says, with a little smile.
“No problem. Let me find you some clothes,” Lily replies, and returns a moment later with a dress she thinks Marlene was wearing last night.
Lyla takes it gratefully. “Where did Sirius go?”
“I sent him outside. I think he’s gone to find a tree to piss on,” Lily says with a grin, and Lyla makes a sound that is halfway between a snort and a laugh. “He’s walking around naked, though.”
“Of course he is,” says Lyla, shaking her head, and after pulling the dress on, she cautiously climbs out of the tub. “I suppose I’ll go take him his shorts.”
Lily laughs and leaves her to it, making her way back down the hall. She’d left James in the living room, she thinks, but when she peeks in, the couch is empty. She does discover that James apparently slept on her jeans, which are flattened against the cushions, and is just crossing the room to grab them when he walks back in the room, holding a glass of purple liquid and at least dressed in a pair of pants now. She freezes with her hand inches from the cushions.
“Morning,” says James, and Lily automatically tugs again on the bottom of the t-shirt.
“Morning,” she says faintly.
“Ah-I’ll turn away,” he says when he notices her hand on her jeans, and immediately turns his back to her. Hurriedly, Lily steps into her pants and pulls them up, dropping the t-shirt over them. She starts to gather her hair up, knowing that it’s a mess, but she has no idea what happened to her scrunchie. With a sigh, she drops down on the couch.
“You can look now.”
He turns back, and studies her a moment, and Lily avoids his eyes, but she can feel his gaze anyway. She wonders what he might be thinking, what he might be remembering, and her face burns, even though she doesn’t have any idea. But that’s the problem, she thinks, because it could be anything.
The cushion sinks beside her, and she finds the glass of purple stuff being shoved under her nose. Sniffing a bit, she looks at James. “What is it?”
“Sirius and I never buy Firewhiskey without also buying the anti-Firewhiskey,” he says. “Just drink it. You’ll feel better.”
After hesitating a moment longer, Lily takes the drink from him and sips at it, finding that it tastes a bit like grape soda. It burns her throat a bit on the way down, in a similar way to Firewhiskey, but a moment later she does start feeling a bit better. Her headache recedes, and her limbs feel less leaden. “Wow.”
“Sirius and I have been tempted on many occasions to send thank-you letters to the wizard who invented this stuff,” says James fondly, looking at the glass. “We would never have managed so many world-famous Marauder parties without it.”
Lily rolls her eyes, taking a few more sips before handing it back to him. “Ah, so the big secret is revealed. I was wondering how you always managed to get to every class the next day.”
James bows slightly at the waist. “It’s only one of the many reasons we’re never caught.”
She smiles a bit, looking down at her jeans. Most unfortunately, a new hole has somehow been made in the knee, and she has no idea where her wand ended up. James watches her play with the fringe for a bit before speaking again. “That stuff does wonders for your memory, too.”
Lily’s head snaps back, and she meets his eyes for the first time that morning. She wonders if the fear and anxiety is as plain on her face as she thinks it is, and it must be, because James gently reaches out and tucks a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear. His fingers brush against her lobe in the process, and her fingers curl imperceptibly against her palms. “Before you panic, nothing happened.”
What’s nothing? she wants to demand, but she can feel the fog in her brain beginning to clear, and slowly the details are returning to her. Yes, she and James disappeared from the drinking game. She had needed to use the bathroom and he’d wanted a smoke, so they had both left at the same time. When Lily was finished, she had joined him on the back porch to get away from the noise for a bit, and they had talked-mostly about the end of school and what was going to happen when they graduated. She remembers being surprised that he had given up his lifelong dream of playing Quidditch, because he knew he was going to have to do his part to help with the war. When she had asked him what that meant, he had told her he honestly didn’t know. And that was when Lily had decided to race him down to the lake.
The water was so cold with the sun down that neither one of them had been able to stand it much longer than a few minutes, and they had both gotten out trembling from the cold. She remembers him offering her his soaked t-shirt-the same one, she realizes with a start, that she’s wearing now-and laughing because it was no less wet than the one she was wearing. And that is how she ended up in her underwear…she and James had stripped themselves down on the back porch, neither of them feeling particularly modest because of how much they’d had to drink, and when they’d gone back inside, she had pulled him into the living room and asked him to stay with her instead of going back to the party.
“Why?” he asked, and she remembers his hands resting lightly at her waist, helping to keep her steady.
“Because I don’t want to be alone,” was all Lily could think of to say.
His lips pressed against her forehead, and then he had taken her over to the couch, where she had almost instantly fallen asleep with her head on his chest.
Lily blinks. “Nothing happened.”
He shakes his head, and she thinks she imagines the regret in his tone when he says, “No.”
There is an awkward silence, and she reaches over to take another sip of the purple stuff to give her hands something to do. James is still watching her, and she thinks that she really ought to be getting him to help her clean up Mary’s parents’ house so they don’t all get a lifelong ban, but all she can do is sit there and stare at her reflection inside the glass.
After a moment, James gets to his feet, and offers her his hand. She takes it, launching herself up at the same time that he gives her a pull, and ends up knocking right into him. He steadies her without a word and lets go of her very quickly.
“Your wand’s here, by the way,” he says suddenly, reaching into his back pocket, and Lily takes it thankfully, not even bothering to question how it ended up in the back pocket of his jeans. Pointing at the floor, she starts gathering trash together, and sending fallen items back to where they belong. James pulls his own wand out and does the same, and they put the living room back in order silently.
“Our clothes are disgusting, too,” says Lily, plucking at the t-shirt, and James laughs.
“Right, did you know that’s my shirt you’re wearing?”
She flushes. “Actually, yes. Where’s my shirt?”
“Still on the back porch, as far as I know,” says James. “That’s where I found my pants.” He pauses a moment. “But, you can wear mine, if you want to.”
She hesitates. “James, I-“
“It doesn’t have to mean anything,” he interrupts. “It’s just a shirt.”
The tone of his voice says the exact opposite. Lily sighs and wishes she had picked the trashbag to wear instead. “It’s not about the shirt. I just wanted to say, about last night-“
“Meant nothing, right.” James gets a dark look on his face and runs a hand through his hair. “You don’t have to tell me that, Lily.”
She chews a corner of her tongue. “It never means anything when you’re drunk.”
He frowns. “It means something when you can remember it.”
Lily drops her gaze. “I’m going to go find my shirt,” she says.
“Yeah, you do that,” he calls after her.
end part one
[To Part 2]