A/N: Hi! You know that gif of the girl from American Horror Story going all "surprise, bitch, bet you thought you'd seen the last of me"? Yep, that's me.

THREE AM – SIXTH YEAR

For the past three hours or so, Lily had diligently been trying to convince herself that she could fall asleep even with the music blaring in the common room below. She had the power to shut the party down – she was a Prefect, after all – but Gryffindor had just won the Quidditch Cup, and what kind of Gryffindor would she be if she rained on the team's parade?

Not that she really cared what the team thought of her, she hastened to correct herself. Especially not the Captain. Oh, no. No caring there at all, none whatsoever. And she definitely wasn't hiding in her dormitory instead of celebrating with the rest of her house like she normally would be because of him. Never.

With a sigh, Lily rolled over and burrowed further into her blankets, trying to fall asleep for what had to be the hundredth time since midnight. She knew even as she forced her eyes to close that there would be no sleep for her until the party shut down, and that could happen in five minutes or five hours.

It seemed, however, that someone was smiling down on Lily, because it only took a few moments for the music to abruptly shut off. Sending a silent prayer of thanks to whoever had brought on the silence, she closed her eyes again, ready to drift off into sleep, but something niggled at her conscience.

I should really go downstairs and make sure everything's okay… she thought, not liking the idea at all. I should go check that none of the younger kids were exposed to anything unsanitary. She very determinedly did not think of the older students who very definitely were exposed to these unsanitary things, because as long as she didn't think of them in general, she wouldn't think of one in particular.

"Ugh," she groaned as she hunted around for a sweatshirt to pull on over her pyjamas. Grabbing her wand, she started down the staircase and began to mentally prepare herself for the destruction she was probably about to witness and the idiots who couldn't hold their Firewhiskey that she would have to somehow get into their beds.

As it turned out, however, there was only one idiot. And to his credit, he was trying to deal with the (mild) destruction in the common room. It just so happened, however, that he was very much having problems in the holding-his-Firewhiskey department, and as such his efforts weren't doing much good.

Lily knew who it was even before he turned at the sound of her feet on the stairs.

"Evans!" he said, grinning widely. "Come to join the party? You're a bit late, you know."

"Sorry, Potter," she said with a bit of a smile. "I'm just the clean-up crew."

"Well that's not fair, is it?" he asked, slurring just a little. "You should have come to the party." He frowned a little. "Why weren't you at the party?"

Avoiding the fact that I probably fancy you and the fact that putting you and me and alcohol in a room together probably isn't a good idea right now, she thought. What she said, however, was "I was just a little tired, that's all. Though I suppose I might as well have stayed down here, it's not like I was ever going to get much sleep."

"You should have come to the party," he repeated. He took a step backwards, tripped over a table leg, and fell onto the sofa. "Oops," he said, but made no effort to get up.

"Had a bit too much to drink there, Potter?" Lily asked, but it was more out of concern than reproach.

"You weren't there," he muttered. "I got bored. Had to do something."

Lily's breath caught a little, but then she reminded herself that despite what she thought was probably going on she was not supposed to fancy James Potter.

"Well then," she said, and if James hadn't been so drunk he may have noticed that her tone was slightly off, but as it was it went unnoticed. "The party's pretty much over now, I'd say, so let's get you up to bed, yeah?"

"Will you come with me?" James asked without skipping a beat, and Lily laughed.

"No, Potter, not tonight. I will take you there, though, because I'm not sure you'll manage on your own." She held out a hand and James grabbed it, letting her pull him to his feet. "Come on, then."

She let him put an arm around her – just for support, of course – as they walked up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. Occasionally, Lily directed her wand at some of the more pertinent messes (such as bodily fluids), but figured she'd deal with the rest later. And by deal, of course, she meant she'd make sure that those responsible for the mess were also responsible for the cleaning.

They got to the sixth-year boys' dorm mainly without incident. Lily did have to slap James's hands away once or twice, but she couldn't bring herself to be annoyed. Unceremoniously, she pushed him slightly so he keeled over straight into his bed.

"Ugh," he moaned, putting his hand to his head, but Lily couldn't bring herself to very sympathetic, either.

"You'll feel even better in the morning," she promised with a chuckle. "Do try and sleep or you'll feel even worse."

James made a noncommittal noise, and Lily headed towards the door with a smile. She was about to close it behind her when James called out. "Night, Lily."

"Night, James."