Without Warning

Previously In Chapter Fifteen:

"Whoo! Let's get this party started!"

Lily pulled away quickly as Gryffindors and party-goers began tumbling through the portrait hole. The Ball was over.

She stepped back from James feverishly, as if repelling a bad disease and looked around the ever-growing crowd.

"Lily," James began quietly, touching the side of her arm.

She looked up at him hastily. "Sorry...Sorry, I...I shouldn't have done that." She took a deep breath and then marched off towards the stairs leading up to the dormitories.

"Oi!" Sirius sauntered up beside James. "So," he handed James a tankard of something. "How'd it go? What happened?"

James watched Lily's form hurrying up the stairs and disappearing from view.

"As usual Padfoot, excellent timing."

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: The One With Copious Amounts of Firewhiskey

"Hang on, hang on," said Indigo, flapping her hands out in front of her. "Let me make sure I've got this straight. You called him a squib, he called you a scarlet woman and you retaliate by snogging him?!"

Lily frowned. "It sounds far more insane when you say it like that."

"Wow, that's funny...because, you know, to any sane person it doesn't sound crazy at all!" Indigo's voice dripped in sarcasm as she sat on her bed, gawking at Lily in astonishment.

Lily bit her lip and looked away. "Oh god Indigo," she mumbled, putting her face in her hands. "What have I done?"

"Well, I...I'm still in a state of shock here myself, Lil."

"It's just ... well I mean, I was furious at him - I am furious at him - and then...then he just sort of got all frustrated and ... well, he's never fought back before... He seemed so determined and ... I don't know. I was pissed off. I lost myself. It seemed logical at the time. "

Indigo laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"I'm going to overlook your burbling for just a few seconds, here ...You're trying to justify a kiss, Lil! A kiss is a justification in itself."

Lily looked at Indigo suspiciously. "Have you been drinking? Because you've completely lost me."

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I have. Copious amounts of it too, thanks to Sirius. But I digress," she said, waving a hand impatiently. "A kiss is a justification in itself! It shows how you feel about someone. It justifies your emotions. You can't help it Lily, you like Potter."

Lily groaned loudly in response and fell back onto her bed. Suddenly, she sat up again and looked at Indigo, frowning slightly.

"Hang on - you were drinking copious amounts of alcohol with Sirius Black?

"Well...I...yes?"

Lily looked confused by her friend's antics. Though really, she shouldn't have been surprised. "But...but, but what about Peter?"

Indigo snorted faintly. "We got rid of him."

"We? As in, you and Black?"

"...Yes, didn't we just establish that?"

"Indigo!"

"What?"

"Poor Peter!"

"Well you're not exactly a saintly being at the moment, either! Anyway, Sirius told me Peter has a low alcohol tolerance. So...so really, we were saving him the embarrassment."

Lily raised an eyebrow.

"It's not a big deal, Lil. We just drank Firewhiskey and ... chatted."

"Chatted?"

"Chatted."

"Right."

"What? I don't like that tone. That's your 'I know something you don't' tone."

"You like him, don't you?" Lily asked, wryly grinning at Indigo.

"Who?" Indigo was puzzled.

"Black, Indigo! Sirius Black! You like him."

"I do not!" Indigo screeched in an amused tone.

"I'm sorry, but you definitely had a tone then."

"Oh really? And just what might this tone imply, Miss Tone Indentifier Extroadinaire?"

"It's the 'my voice has gone all squeaky because I'm lying through my teeth' tone."

"Oh shush!" Indigo poked her tongue out at Lily, whom returned the gesture.

"So," began Indigo after a minute, as she bent down and opened her trunk. "What are you going to do about Potter?"

"What are you going to do about Black?"

Indigo didn't reply. Instead, she retrieved a large glass bottle of something and shook it suggestively at Lily, so that the amber liquid inside sloshed to and fro

"I'll drink to that," grinned Lily.

***

Due to reasons that he didn't want to go into - though James suspected Firewhiskey - Sirius was in one of his 'I'm going to be an annoying prat because I'm bored' moods.

"Please don't sing it again, Padfoot," pleaded Remus, rubbing his temples as he did so.

"Yeah Sirius, we heard it enough the other morning," added Peter, looking avidly around the common room at the ever-growing mass of party people.

"How would you know, Pete? From what I recall, you were snoring your arse off." Sirius waved a hand impatiently. Peter really was a git, the git.

"Unlike some people, I'm capable of multi-tasking."

"Capable of multi-tasking," muttered Sirius, turning to James. "Are you hearing this Prongs? Pete reckons he can multi-task...do you know, I always thought they said it was only women who could multi-task...Guess I was wrong...Oh. No wait, Peter is a girl."

"You're a prat Sirius, I am not."

"Sure you are, remember when I accidentally charmed you to fly up to the ceiling in Flitwick's class? You squealed like a little girl."

James grinned briefly whilst Remus became increasingly interested in his tankard in a bid to cover up his snickering.

"Sod off, Padfoot," scowled Peter, looking away.

James sighed desperately. He looked around at the partying crowd. Dancing. Laughing. Drinking Firewhiskey and generally having fun. Why couldn't he be any of those things? He should have been one of those things. But no. This would be so much easier if she wasn't such a stubborn cow. But alas again, no. She had to go and kiss him then run off, didn't she?

Not that he was complaining or anything. But Merlin! It hadn't been a simple 'thank you for saving my life' peck on the cheek like last time, no sir. It had been a completely passionate, smack-bam-on-the-lips snog, which he was sure - given half the chance - he could have prolonged immensely.

"It started with a ki-iss..."

"Sirius!!" Three sets of lungs yelled at him in unison.

"What?" He managed to ask in an annoyingly innocent manner.

James decided he now knew how McGonagal felt. Sometimes.

"Not even under your breath," growled Remus through gritted teeth. "I'm still having nightmares."

"Oh all right," sighed Sirius. "Don't get your knickers in a twist ... So. Prongs. Plan of attack?"

James shook his head absent-mindedly, staring forlornly at nothing in particular. "There is none."

"She must have been a good kisser."

"Why's that?"

"You're still away with the fairies."

"What?" James asked tersely. Fairies were vile creatures who destroyed most varieties of flora and bit you if you got too close. So, to say the least, he wasn't too happy to be associated with them

"Muggle expression. Means you're in a daze."

James glanced at his best friend. "I'm not. I just...I don't have a 'plan of attack' as such."

"Oh, I see. I remember now. Because of your girly chat with Indigo McKinnon."

"From the sounds of it Padfoot, you've been having a fair few of those with her yourself," grinned Remus wryly, slurping at his drink.

"What? Moony, are you drunk?" Sirius asked, suddenly rather tense.

"I saw you two walk in from the courtyard together tonight. Laughing ... Grinning ... Flirting. Disgusting behaviour on your part, really." Remus enjoyed the way Sirius flinched slightly after each of his verbal descriptions.

"Well...I...we..."

"Sounds like there wasn't much girly chatting after all, " muttered Peter in a sulky tone.

"Actually," piped up Sirius, suddenly confident again. "You're right, Pete - there wasn't."

James suddenly looked at Sirius wide-eyed. This seemed just a smidgen unnatural given the circumstances. "You snogged Indigo McKinnon?"

"Well...no, I didn't. I drank copious amounts of firewhiskey with her though...hence why there wasn't a lot of girly banter," he paused thoughtfully. "Not that I would engage in that sort of activity in a sober situation anyway."

They were just about to mock Sirius into next week, when an unfamiliar voice entered their surroundings.

"Erm, excuse me James?" A female voice intervened.

All four of the boys whirled around to see Grace Parker, breathless and pink-cheeked.

"Sorry to interrupt, I - I just was wondering if you'd seen Lily at all? I need to talk - tell her something."

James chuckled bitterly. Grace stared at him, slightly confused. This baffled James to no end. Surely Grace would know of the antics of the evening? Being one of Lily's friends, shouldn't she be throttling him right about now? Come to think of it, why was she conversing with him at all?

"She's probably in your dorm," interjected Remus, smiling.

"Oh, right ... okay. Well, thank you," she said. For a few seconds she eyed each of the boys warily, then she smiled warmly and turned to leave.

"Oi! Hang on a sec," Sirius called out. She turned back and looked at him.

"You don't know if...if Longbottom and Fletcher snogged do you?"

Grace frowned, her face creased, her mouth sagged. She stared goggling like a gold fish for at least ten seconds before whispering "no" as her eyes filled with tears and she stalked off.

"Nice one, Padfoot. Real first class gentleman, you are," said Peter.

"Eat slugs, Wormtail."

"Sod off."

"Oh wait - they're a delicacy for rodents aren't they?"

"Shut up, the both of you," snapped Remus.

James was watching Grace retreat through the throng of people and up the dorm stairs.

"Well. She was being nice to me," he remarked after a minute.

"You're a nice guy, Prongs." Sirius grinned and smacked James on the shoulder a couple of times for good measure.

"No, too nice. She's one of Lily's mates. Don't you realise the 'damage' I've supposedly caused tonight? Grace wouldn't be touching me with a ten-foot pole with a rag on the end if she knew what had happened with Lily. She must've been somewhere else."

"Huh...wonder where?" Sirius thought out loud yet didn't really care.

"Probably miserating of Longbottom," concluded Peter in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Why's that?"

"Because he and Fletcher were all over each other."

Sirius scowled and grabbed his firewhiskey.

***

"Grace!" Lily squeed with much enthusiasm. "Come have a drink with us!"

"Yeah Grace, come sit down," agreed Indigo, patting the floor next to where she was sitting.

Grace smiled as she clicked the door shut behind her. Lily and Indigo were sitting on the floor at the foot of Indigo's bed, taking swigs from a rather large firewhiskey bottle.

"Erm, Lily, I...I have to tell you something."

"Great! Here," she said, thrusting the bottle into Grace's hands and hiccoughed loudly. Indigo giggled.

It was quite clear that both of them had had far too much to drink or had had gone completely balmy. Grace preferred to previous to the latter. She frowned slightly and looked down at the bottle she was now clinging to, contemplating on how to tell Lily what she'd heard.

"So," Lily quipped. "What exactly do you need to talk to me about?" She tried to focus her attention on Grace but found it waning every time she caught a glimpse of the firewhiskey bottle.

"Erm..." Grace watched as Lily grabbed back the bottle and took another slug from it. "Er, I...I forgot. It's okay. I mean, it's not important. It...it can wait." She decided this was hardly the time to discuss such a serious thing. Anyway, it was more than likely she wouldn't remember it in the morning at the rate she was going.

"Oh...okay. You sure? You look a little...I don't know, anxious? Don't you think she looks a little anxious, Indigo?"

Indigo, whom had been staring off into space in a drunken stupor, clicked back to reality at her name and mumbled something hardly audible under her breath.

"Oh...Oh yeah, well..." Grace sighed. "Frank sort of ditched me for Alice Fletcher tonight, but apart from that - "

"What a pitiful scoundrel!" Indigo exclaimed, sobering slightly. After all, she wasn't exactly sorry that Alice and Frank had run off together. It had freed up Sirius to chat with her all night. Guilt. Guilty guilty guilt.

"That's horrible, Grace! Here, you definitely need some of this," said Lily as she passed the increasingly empty bottle back over to Grace.

Grace stared down at the brownish-amber liquid swirling around in the large glass bottle. She'd never tried Firewhiskey before...too many calories...

"Meh, what the hell," she said, quaffing a mouthful of the stuff.

Lily and Indigo watched her in anticipation, awaiting her reaction.

Grace shrugged. "Mm, not too bad."

Both Indigo and Lily raised their eyebrows, surprised by Grace's indifferent reaction.

"You know what?" Indigo asked after a moment. "To hell with boys. Who says we need them to have a great night? We can enjoy it simply because...we...can."

"Yeah," said Lily, trying to look serious but failing as she took another swig.

Grace was surprised. Though she shouldn't really have been. Why else would they have been drinking up here by themselves.

"Did you not have a good night, Lil?"

"Pah! Not good? Try absolutely disastrous! Didn't you see?"

"Well...no, I was...taking a walk..."

"James Potter dung bombed her," prompted Indigo. "So we all hate him, okay?"

"Oh! That's horrible!" Grace decided that maybe she didn't need to bother warning Lily about James after all.

Lily nodded morosely.

"Yes, it is," agreed Indigo. "And there's only one way to fix it. We're going back down to that party, and we're going to have a ruddy good time, too." She struggled drunkenly to her feet and grinned.

"You're absolutely right," slurred Lily. "C'mon," she quipped, grabbing Grace's hand. "Let's go."

***

"Prongs, incoming," said Sirius suddenly.

"What?" James looked up from the couch.

"In...come...ing!" Sirius exclaimed pointedly, gesturing towards the girls coming down the dormitory stairs.

On the last step, the boys watched as Grace slipped slightly and clung to Lily to sturdy herself, whom started to laugh hysterically.

"Have to watch that step, you do. Trust me, I would know," grinned Lily, as Indigo started laughing too.

"They seem..." began Remus.

"Are they...?" James gaped with Peter as the girls joined a crowd of dancing sixth and seventh years from varying houses.

"Drunk?" Sirius prompted. "It seems that way, yes." He watched as Indigo danced around drunkenly, laughing with her companions... And admirers. "Right," he said, jumping to his feet. "Prongs, let's go," he instigated, grabbing James by the sleeve and dragging him to his feet.

"Padfoot," James hissed, trying to release himself. "Let go...Padfoot, it's too late! She hates me!"

"Of course she does, that's why she snogged you earlier on."

"I don't care, Padfoot, let me - "

"Oi McKinnon! You dance like my granny!" Sirius called out, completely ignoring James and beaming a charmer of a grin in Indigo's direction.

She turned to look at him. "'Least what I'm doing is considered a form of dancing, Black. What exactly is that strange shuffle you're doing?" She grinned back at him as he laughed.

"Oh touché, my fair lady. I could dance you off this here dance floor!" He grabbed her hand and spun her as she snickered.

James rolled his eyes unknowingly at the same time Lily did. This was bound to happen. The two biggest flirts in Gryffindor. He should have seen it coming.

He looked over at Lily who looked away and pretended to chat with a sixth year Ravenclaw.

He sidled up beside her. "Hey there."

"Do you mind Potter? This is a private conversation."

"Didn't look like much of a conversation...more of a cover up from having to face me."

The Ravenclaw sniffed and looked down her nose at him before walking off in a huff.

"Thanks a lot," snarled Lily.

He sighed. "This is ridiculous, y'know."

"You're ridiculous, Potter."

"Lily, with all due respect, you kissed me!"

"I said I was sorry about that."

"Yeah well, I said I was sorry about before as well."

She frowned, looked down at her feet and turned her back to him. Damnit. He had her there.

"Anyway, I don't want you to be sorry," he blurted.

She turned back to face him. "About what?"

"K-Kissing me."

She regarded him suspiciously. "Why?"

"Because...because I quite enjoyed it."

Annoyed, she sighed. "You know what Potter? You better save that memory in your pensieve forever because I'm telling you right now, you can shove that...that kiss..." She faltered slightly, losing her balance.

"Are you okay?" He offered his hand for her to steady herself on.

She took it.

Gulping, she looked up at him and frowned. "I'm...I'm fine...I'm just..."

"Drunk?"

She let go of him.

"Ugh," she stated, turned on heel and stalked off.

"Ugh," he agreed, running a hand down his face.

***

"Lily!" Indigo grinned and sashayed over to the armchair in which Lily was sitting, nursing another bottle of firewhiskey.

"Why are you so happy?" Lily asked bitterly.

Indigo's expression fell as she slumped into the chair beside Lily.

"Because Lil, we agreed we weren't going to let boys get the better of us, remember?"

"Well that was a crappy agreement," replied Lily.

"You been drinking?"

"Yeah," she said, raising the bottle to her lips and taking a swig.

"Screw Potter," Indigo stated defiantly.

"Mmn," agreed Lily, wincing as she swallowed. "Let's not talk about it."

"All right."

"Let's dance!" Lily giggled, flailing her arms in the air. Her mood change was slightly startling for Indigo.

"Er, are you sure?"

"Yup! I saw you dancing up a storm with Black before so you can do it again with moi," Lily grinned, pointing to herself and laughing.

"Er...okay," Indigo replied hesitantly. She doubted Lily had the capability to stand at that very moment. Helping Lily to her feet, she became increasingly weary as Lily swayed and giggled whilst leaning on Indigo for support.

"He's watching you, y'know," muttered Indigo, noting James' stare from across the other side of the room.

Lily lost her balance as she turned to look in his direction. He looked away quickly.

"I don't care...Gawd, what is he, a bloody stalker?!" Lily snarled as she took another slug from her bottle. But she did care. And she was furious at herself for caring because she'd promised herself she wouldn't.

"I don't care, y'know," she repeated matter of factly as she turned to Indigo who nodded reassuringly.

She stumbled to her left as she held the bottle high above her head, tipping the rest of the contents down her throat. She heard herself giggling and found that she was sitting on the floor.

"Lily," a distant voice began. She looked up and squinted at the figure standing above her. "Lil, I think you've had enough," said Indigo wearily.

"Nonsense!" Lily laughed, clambering to her feet. "Oooh," she groaned, once upright. "Maybe," she swayed and clutched her stomach, feeling increasingly dizzy.

"Come on," sighed Indigo, grabbing her by the arm and directing her to a chair. Lily wondered when Indigo had started to make herself echo.

"Did you push an echo chum on yourself?"

"Err...yes? Stay here. I'll get you some water."

"Hurrah," Lily replied, leaning back in her chair and watching people laugh and chat amongst one another. Where had Indigo gone again?

Quite suddenly, a wave of...something swept over her. She felt really sick. Really really sick. She needed to go to bed.

Slowly and with great effort, she manoeuvred herself to her feet and made her stumbling way to the dormitory stairs.

She halted. She felt weird. Not just sick, or drunk, but...floppy. She needed to sit down again.

"Whoa," someone said, as she fell into them. Arms were suddenly around her, holding her steady.

She looked up. Oh god. James. Sirius beside him looking amused. James. Looking...looking really...looking really really hot.

Bugger.

"S'okay, You're...fine. I mean, I'm fine. I...am...fine. You are not fine as in good-looking in any way whatsoever. Yet I am fine. Not in the good looking sense that I just referred to you in, but...I mean, I...I..."

"Erm, Lily, how much have you had to drink?"

"Enough to find you attractive, obviously," piped up Sirius.

James glared at him.

"I've just had a bit of furr whiskey, is all," she said as she lost her footing slightly and stumbled to the side.

"Lily, you're smashed," groaned James.

"I'm not! And...and, I'm not talking to you either!"

"Okay, don't talk to me then. But Merlin, please let me take you to bed or something, you don't look good."

Sirius snickered.

James glared.

"I most certainly will not let me take you to bed, James Potter!"

Sirius snickered.

James tried to suppress a grin.

"Lily! Didn't I tell you to stay in your chair?" Indigo appeared with a glass of water in her hand.

"No matter, McKinnon, she's good entertainment," grinned Sirius, as Lily stumbled some more.

"She's a mess," moaned Indigo, watching as Lily giggled.

"I'll look after her," offered James, as he helped Lily sit down.

"Uhhm, as helpful as that would be, Potter, I really don't fancy having her kill me in the morning."

"I don't think she'll remember," muttered Sirius.

"Indigo, you have to believe me, I didn't mean to do that to her," pleaded James.

"Oh yeah, I believe you," she replied in an undertone. "But Lily doesn't. She's hurt, I think, because she was starting to see a different side of you and then you did something very...well, typical of you to do, and I think she was just disappointed that she'd started to like you and you'd turned out to be the same old jerk."

"But I'm not!"

"I know! I walked in when you guys were arguing, remember? Good argument, by the way. Must have really stumped her if she ended up snogging you."

"It's my baby face, it has that type of effect on people."

Sirius cleared his throat as James and Indigo giggled. "What he means to say, is that he likes her and he'd never do anything like that to her...even though, realistically, dung bombs aren't that bad."

Indigo and James looked at Sirius.

"Wow, that was a wonderfully deep and meaningful speech, Black."

"Thank you, I always knew I was a cunning linguist."

Indigo scoffed. "Dirty. Very dirty. Maybe you should have been in Slytherin after all. With you and your dirty self."

"What can I say, Black is a dirty colour."

"Ahem. Back to the situation at hand." James gestured towards Lily whose head was now lolling on the armrest of the chair.

"Er, yeah. I better get her up to bed." Indigo yanked her wand out of her robes.

"Need some help?" James asked.

"No, I should be fine. You can't come up anyway," she replied, conjuring a stretcher.

"All right. I'll just get her onto this for you then."

Just like the time back in Diagon Alley, James swept in and lifted Lily with ease. Just like last time she felt perfect in his arms. Unlike last time, she drooled on his robe sleeve. He placed her carefully on the stretcher.

"Thanks," said Indigo.

"You are most welcome," grinned Sirius, having done nothing.

"Goodnight," James smiled, looking down at Lily. He decided she looked like a sleeping angel with her hair fanning out around her head, creating a type of halo. She took that exact moment as an opportunity to snort in her sleep and mumble nonsensical nonsense.

James dug his hand into his robes pockets as he watched Indigo direct Lily up the stairs. He felt a velvety box-shaped object near his hand. He had forgotten to give it to her.

Yet he reassured himself that there would be many more opportunities.

Hopefully.

"Shit, Prongs. McGonagal's here - Haul ass!"

They bolted.