Seventh year. Lily and James are slowly getting used to sharing the confined space of the Head Dormitory together, and their relationship begins to grow.

"Potter…" Lily frowned as she folded her arms, watching James pin banners around the room, "I don't think hosting a party is the right way to show the professors that you're capable of being a mature, responsible head boy". James half turned his head to address her, holding the end of one banner in his teeth while securing the other end to the wall.

"Ebans… 'ee need to thelebrate the finalithathion of the quiddish team", he pinned up the other end and cleared his throat. "I think they will understand. Besides, I've been doing this for years and I never get into trouble. Just relax." He hopped down from the stool he was standing on and walked across the room to her. "And if anything bad does come of this innocent little celebratory gathering, I'll be sure to take the entire blame immediately so you don't tarnish your perfect, goody-two-shoes reputation". He flashed her a charming grin before patting her shoulder gently.

"I don't know why you keep thinking that. I'm not little Miss Perfect, you know. Just because I get better grades than you-"

"Woooah, low blow, Evans. One time you beat me in Charms. One time. And besides, you're perfect in other ways," he shrugged off the compliment. Although it was sincere, complimenting Lily Evans was just mere habit these days.

Lily stepped aside, turning her head to hide her flushed cheeks. Since practically living together since the start of the year, she too had been noticing that James' devotion to her was not a pretence to show off in front of his friends; it wasn't about jealously or possession or looking cool. She was beginning to see how innocently devoted her was to her, and she couldn't help but enjoy and appreciate it. Day by day her change in her perception of the head boy was becoming more apparent, and she was sure that her attitude towards James was now noticeable to those around her. Two years ago, she would have been sick at the thought of feeling anything other than disgust towards James Potter. Now, however… She didn't care. People change, after all. Severus was a prime example of that.

"Well," she said after composing herself, "All the same, I want nothing to do with this. I don't want to get into trouble. I can't deal with the drama any more. That's why I stopped putting my efforts into insulting you, Potter. I'd rather save my energy." She threw him a small smirk as she reached for the jacket hanging by the door.

"Fair enough," she heard James say from the far side of the room, who was once again busy hanging up decorations in red and gold. "But, Evans-" he whipped around before she stepped out of the door to the head dormitory. She fought back the urge of habit to roll her eyes and instead cocked an eyebrow in reply to him. "You're still going to come, though, right?"

Each moment of silence saw James' hopeful expression drop more and more. Eventually, Lily sighed and said, "Well, I don't have much of a choice, do I? Seeing as this is my dormitory too, and I know there's no way into talking you out of this."

His face broke into a dazzling grin, one guaranteed to make every third-year female student swoon. Lily couldn't help but return a smile of her own, before quickly checking herself and smoothing the front of her sweater. She held up a delicate hand in farewell, slipping out of the door, but not closing it before she heard, "Nine-thirty, Evans!"

Shutting the door behind her, she freely released her smile now that she was out of James' view. People really do change, she thought, but I'm noticing it more in myself than in James… Maybe I've just been far too stuck up all these years…

…

The time had slipped away from her, and Lily was rushing back up to the head dormitory at eleven o'clock. She'd hardly done any productive studying in the library, for she had been deciding what best to wear to show James that her attitude had really changed. Fancy wanting to get dressed up to impress Potter, she thought as she jumped two steps at a time. Maybe I'm going crazy, or maybe I'm just lonely.

Lonely, maybe. Unpopular, definitely not. The gaggle of people rushing to get into the dormitory told her this, as she could barely decipher one greeting from another as she battled to the front trying to get inside. She began to question already why she was condoning this. Whatever happened to enjoying a nice cup of tea and book by the fire in their private dormitory?

Politely nodding her greetings as she pushed through the packed living area, she scanned the room briefly. Already the room was a mess, packed with people, with the host seemingly nowhere to be seen. She managed to slip quietly into her bedroom without any stragglers following, locked the door and then collapsed onto her bed. She was exhausted already, and the party had nowhere near begun.

Lily decided that she should set an example to her fellow students as head girl: yes, she would condone the party and underage drinking for the sake of fun, but she would also have to be meticulous that nobody got themselves into any trouble. Sighing, she sifted through her trunk, which still hadn't been unpacked after more than a month. Eventually she picked out she easiest thing she could find and threw on a long sleeved black dress, quickly fluffed her hair and swiped some colour across her lips, before taking a deep breath and facing the noisy crowd outside of her door.

Within seconds, a cup filled with strong-smelling firewhisky was shoved into her hand by Marlene. "Where have you been, Lily? Come on, drink this. You need to catch up!" Eyeing the goblet suspiciously, she could already taste the regret of tomorrow morning, but an overwhelming desire to have fun overpowered this. She gulped down the contents of the cup, and before she knew it, it had been replaced with a fresh one. Humouring Marlene, she managed to stomach three cups of the belly-warming liquid, but after the third her head girl habits kicked in.

"I'm good right now, Marlene. I have to keep a steady head and make sure Potter doesn't get us all kicked out, at least. Where is he, anyway?"

Her friend shrugged. "I don't know, I haven't seen him for a good half hour. Maybe he went to steal some food from the kitchens, do you think?"

"Maybe," she mused, deciding it best to find him before he started a riot that even she couldn't control. Vision dancing slightly already, she wandered over to the table by the window which was laden with various bottles of liquids, at least seven bottles of firewhisky and several bowls of a very suspicious looking punch. She decided it was best to see what she was dealing with, so grabbed a plastic cup and poured a little punch into it. As she brought the cup to her lips, it was abruptly knocked almost out of her grasp.

"Evans! Oh shit, I'm sorry-" Sirius Black slammed a huge tray of snacks down onto the table. "Hey! You're drinking my punch! Do you like it?"

If Sirius had made this punch, it was probably lethal. "I just wanted to see what was in it. Someone's got to keep an eye on you drunken lot, you know."

"Well, what do you think?" He asked her eagerly.

"I haven't tried it yet, seeing as you knocked most of it down my dress! I think I'll give it a miss though, really…"

Sirius grabbed a fresh cup and filled it up, offering it to her. "Come on, just try it. I promise you'll like it, it's fruit!"

Not wanting to even begin to fight for a lost battle, she took the cup from him and suspiciously sipped it. She almost gagged. "Fruit and what, exactly?" The hot feeling at the back of her throat lingered pleasantly.

"Vodka, rum, tequila, firewhisky, obviously… I think there was something else too, but I forget."

Lily's eyes widened. "Sirius! There are kids here! I can't let them drink this, they'll be ill!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "They aren't kids, Evans. The youngest here are in, like, fourth year. Let them have some fun."

"No- really, I can't just let people-"

He placed a gentle arm on her shoulder and steered her away from the table. "Evans, chill. Why don't you take some time off, huh? Stop worrying about what everyone else is doing. Anyway, there're prefects here too, and Remus for Merlin's sake, who doesn't even drink. They can look out for anyone getting themselves in a state. Just chill out, okay? Have some fun."

He steered her towards the sofa and she sat. Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin sat opposite, both looking very alert at their surroundings. Lily supposed she could take one night off. She knew Lupin was sensible. Next time she caught a prefect she'd just tell them to make sure they were on the ball. She could afford to have one night off.

"So," she sighed, leaning back onto the sofa, "Is James still in the kitchen?"

"Hm? Kitchens?" Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"I assumed he had gone with you to get that food. I haven't seen him since I got here."

"Nope, I went alone," he shrugged, then smiled, "Since when has he been 'James' anyway? Did you get tired of spitting out 'Potter' every time he said something stupid?"

"He says stupid things much too often for that," Lily agreed with a laugh. "I don't know. It's just been James this year. Until he pisses me off, I guess. You really haven't seen him, then?" She downed the sickly sweet yet burningly strong beverage.

Sirius shook his head. "Nope. I mean, last time I saw him was about an hour ago, he was talking to one of our new reserve chasers. Not seen him since though."

Peter sat up a little. "You mean Emily Brown? He came out to get her a drink I think. He was moaning about her being a bad kisser. Then he went back into his room. A while ago now."

Lily tried not to outwardly react to the pang in her stomach at hearing this news. She lowered her gaze, and let out a small, "oh". Remus, Peter and Sirius all exchanged puzzled glances, before Peter announced he was getting some more drinks.

"I'll come with you," Remus cleared his throat, obviously a little uneasy at the sudden shift of atmosphere. "Make sure everyone's behaving…"

Lily and Sirius sat in silence as he watched he fiddle with a loose thread on the bottom of her dress. Why was this bothering her? She knew James was a ladies' man. She knew he was in high demand, and besides: she wasn't interested anyway. She'd just have to keep telling herself that.

"So… New chaser, huh?" she began. "Does the team look pretty good this year then? Hope we can bag another win. It'd be nice, with it being that last year and all…"

"Yeah…" Sirius uncomfortably scratched the back of his head. "Reserve chaser, mind. She's alright. Team looks good. No one can beat James, anyway so I think we'll be good."

Lily looked up and gave a small smile as Peter handed her another cup of Sirius' toxic punch. "Well, fingers crossed." She downed the cup, wincing at the sickly aftertaste, much to Sirius' surprise.

"I didn't have you down for a drinker, Evans! You like to party?" He finished off his own drink.

"No," she shook her head, "I just wanna get drunk." She had an overwhelming desire to be around James now, to talk to him, to be next to him, to know what he was doing with that chaser girl… Was this jealousy? Was she jealous that James Potter was seeing some other girl?

Aware she was becoming lost in her own thoughts, she could sense Sirius getting bored but being too polite to say so and leave her alone on the sofa. "Sirius, you don't have to sit with me, you know. I'm happy to stay here alone and just… drink. Chill out, like you said."

He scoffed. "I'm not going to let you sit here and get wasted by yourself. Prongs – I mean James - would go mad if he knew I'd let something happen to you."

She sat up straight, crossing her legs beneath her on the sofa. "Well how about a drinking game then?" This wasn't really her thing, but she needed a distraction.

Sirius grinned. "Now you're talking my language! What do you prefer?" Lily shrugged dismissively, and Sirius got up in search for things to use in his drinking game. She finished off the rest of the drink Sirius had left, unbothered by if he would mind or not.

She felt a soft squeeze on her shoulder, and before she could look around, James himself had planted himself beside her on the sofa. "Having fun, Evans?". She could not bring herself to look at him. She didn't understand why she was feeling this way, why suddenly there was a hot, bubbling anger in the pit of her stomach. "How much have you had to drink?! This is the first time I'm seeing you look any different than composed."

"Just having fun," she said monotonously, refusing to turn her head and make eye contact.

"Prongs, mate! Where have you been?" Sirius had returned and was clapping James on the back. "You're being a shit host, man. You can't just disappear." He sat down opposite, grinning, setting down empty cups and bottles on the table between them.

"People are having fun, I don't need to host. Even Evans is enjoying herself!" James winked at her, a little taken aback when she didn't respond to him.

"I'm setting up beer pong, Prongs. You wanna play?"

"I – uh, should probably get back…" From the corner of her eye, she saw James nod towards his bedroom door. She stole a glance in that direction, and immediately regretted it upon seeing a short, pretty girl with tousled brown hair waving from the door frame. "See you later – say hi to Moony and Wormy for me, will you? Later, Evans!" He hovered for a moment or two anticipating her response, which she did not give. Instead, Lily watched him walk back towards the girl in his room, and then slumped back down on the sofa.

Sirius, somewhat oblivious, had just finished setting up the game. "Ladies first, Evans."

She shook her head. "I don't want to play anymore."

"Wha-? Oh…" He glanced from her to James' bedroom door behind him. "…Oh." He'd had more than his fair share of girls' bad moods when they were jealous. "So you don't want to play? Alright." He slumped down in his armchair opposite her, between them looking a very miserable site at a student party.

Minutes passed in silence, until Sirius leaned forward. "You wanna go smoke a joint?"

Lily looked up and blinked. "What?" He raised his eyebrows, not needing to verbally repeat his offer. "Do you know how much trouble you could get into for bringing that into school?! How did you even get it past-"

"What happened to having fun and chilling out?" Sirius interrupted. "I wasn't looking for a lecture, just a yes or no." He shrugged and then said, "You just look like you need it."

She stared into his deep brown eyes for a moment, wondering why she was so surprised at this feat. It was Sirius Black, after all.

"Sure, why not? Let's go."

…

Sirius was worried the climb up to the Astronomy tower would sober him up, so he filled his flask before they left.

"Why the astronomy tower?" Lily questioned, taking the hipflask from Sirius.

"Highest point, isn't it? Smoke just rises so there's less chance of being caught." Lily nodded at the simple logic.

Sirius took out a tightly packed roll from the inner pocket of his denim jacket and lit it. He relished his first exhale of thick smoke, before handing it to Lily. She'd only smoked once before and wasn't confident that she wouldn't make a fool of herself. Right now though, she couldn't care less. She was confused and angry and upset, and she just wanted to ignore it from her mind. She took a long drag, and unsurprisingly let out a barking cough.

"Let it out," Sirius laughed, patting her back. "Coughing just gets you more baked anyway."

Again, they stood in silence, leaning over the balcony of the astronomy tower and passing the joint back and forth.

Finally, Lily said, "Do you think he likes her?"

Taken aback at first, Sirius had to ponder the question. In reply, he hid the smugness from his tone and asked, "Do you like him?"

"No!" she said instantly, out of habit. "No. I don't know. He's not so bad."

Sirius smirked. "He just likes the attention. It's never anything serious, anyway. He's never had anything serious."

Light headed and airy, Lily dropped to the ground and crossed her legs beneath her. "He said she was a bad kisser."

Chortling, he sat down opposite her. "Yeah, she is. Too enthusiastic, if you ask me."

She sat and thought about this for a few minutes as Sirius sipped his hipflask. She slowly reclined backwards, the cold stone floor refreshing on her back. He's just doing it for attention then, she thought, like he needs to boost his big head ego anymore! He can't like her that much though, if he said she's a bad kisser.

Suddenly she sat up. "Does he think I'm a bad kisser?" she asked abruptly, startling her companion.

Half smirking, half frowning, he replied, "Well, he's never snogged you, has he? Or has he?" His eyes widened.

She let out a sigh of relief. "No, of course not. I forgot. What if he thinks I am though? What if that's what he expects?!"

Now Sirius was laughing. "Merlin, Evans, you make it sound like you want to kiss him!"

"No – I don't, I just- ", flustered, she couldn't think of anything to say that would get her out of this hole. "I was just wondering. Just in case."

He put a hand on her shoulder, sincerely. "Even if you were the worst kisser in the world, I don't think that would bother James at all."

"You think I'm the worst kisser in the world?!" she cried, eyes wide and looking more flustered than before. She wondered if this is what they meant when they said smoking causes paranoia.

"Evans, I've never kissed you either, remember?"

Before she could even calculate a reply, she was saying, "Well… do you want to?"

Sirius spluttered out the mouthful he had just taken. "Do I want to kiss you?!"

If James could have some fun, why couldn't she? It didn't mean anything, anyway. She was just having some fun.

"D-do you want me to?"

"I want you to tell me if I'm a bad kisser, I guess…" she shrugged, gazing again into his deep brown eyes, softly reflecting the starlight.

He cleared his throat. "I – uh, can do that. I suppose. Don't tell James though, okay?"

She scoffed. "Oh, forget James."

It was the first kiss Sirius had ever felt nervous about. Maybe because it was his best friend's girl? She isn't his girl though, he reminded himself. Especially not after he's made her this jealous. What harm can it do? Just having fun…

He leant in at an angle, softly planting his lips onto hers, very innocently. When he felt her sink deeper into the kiss, hungry for more, his body obliged without objection. He held one side of her head in his hand, entwining his fingers into her soft hair as she kissed him, and he kissed her back again and again. To his surprise, it was her tongue that slowly found it's way into his mouth, softly flicking around the tip of his. Sirius began to lose control and found himself trailing away from Lily's mouth, and instead planting kiss after kiss down her jawline, her neck, her collarbone… He arrogantly tested a small spot on her neck with his teeth, nipping and sucking the skin until it was her hands tangled in his hair.

The feeling of her delicate fingers tugging at the back of his head was driving him crazy and he couldn't ignore the swelling in his jeans anymore. He had to stop. He wouldn't be able to say no to his desires for much longer. Making out with Lily Evans was bad enough. Fucking her would be the end of his and James' friendship. He returned his kisses back to her soft lips, decreasing the pressure and speed with reluctance as Lily was making it clear she didn't want to slow down.

He pulled away from her, his thumb gently resting on her cheek. "We need to stop," he sighed. "We need to."

"Oh," Lily sat back on her knees, looking a little upset.

"Before you say," Sirius said, clearing his throat and slicking back his dark hair, "You're an excellent kisser."

She smiled at him, all of a sudden shy, in disbelief that she had spent the best part of her night drinking and snogging Sirius Black. "I guess you're right, we should head back".

She got up, feeling somewhat accomplished and empowered. If James can have fun, so can I, she mused. Maybe I like the attention too, just not from him!

…

They made their way back towards the party, only to be greeted by students milling about and prefect's shushing them, ushering them back to their dormitories.

"Looks like the party's over then", Sirius checked his watch: a little past two. "Nothing too crazy, I guess."

Peter found their way to them. "Sirius! Where have you been? Remus shut the place down after a couple of fourth years were sick. I told you not to put so much alcohol in that punch!"

"He shut it down?" Sirius chuckled, "See, Evans, I told you he'd keep an eye on things. Shame he cut it a bit short though."

"All the good people had gone anyway," Peter sniffed. "You two disappeared, James had been gone most of the night with that girl. When he came back he thought Lily had gone to bed and you'd buggered off, Padfoot." Sirius shifted uneasily. "So then he kicked that girl out, went to bed himself, and that's when it started to go downhill. Anyway, come on. We need to get back to the dormitory or Moony'll be lecturing us as well. See you, Lily."

"Just a sec, I'll catch up," Sirius patted Peter on the back, then turned to Lily. "Well, it's been fun," he smiled, uncharacteristically nervously.

"Yeah," she flushed, not really knowing what to say. "I'll see you in transfiguration, then."

"Don't tell James," he winked, knowing he didn't need to tell her that, and hopped down the stairs after Peter.

Last to leave the head dormitory was Remus, dusting off his hands. "Lily! There you are. I've done my best. Looks more or less back to normal, I think. I was hoping you could do a better job about the smell of vomit than I could, though."

She smiled sincerely at him. "Thanks, Remus. I appreciate it."

"James is just in there finishing off the last bits. I've gotta run, Lily, see you around!"

With that he ran downstairs too, with little evidence that there had been any kind of forbidden social gathering after hours in the dormitory. When she entered the living area, James was in the same position she had found him that morning, tackling the banners on the wall. She paid him next to no mind.

"Night, Potter," she sung, almost too cheerfully, as she wandered into her own dormitory, locking the door behind her, feeling smug.

She decided she wasn't jealous at all. She didn't like James, that was stupid. She just needed to let some tension out of her system. Sirius had helped her with that perfectly well enough.