Party
Lily walked through the open doors with Marlene by her side. She had opted for her favourite green slip dress and brown crinkle boots. She had flooed to Marlene's and spent the last hour doing each other's nails and pregaming before heading down the street to Potter Manor.
The two girls walked through the hallway, filled with other teenagers, some of who they recognised from classes, until they made their way to the large lounge.
Lily instantly spotted James, standing on his coffee table and playing some odd wizarding drinking game that seemed to involve charmed paper balls whizzing above people's heads. James clasped onto one, unfolded it, and chugged a red cup handed to him by Sirius, to the cheers of the others surrounding them.
"This is so stupid", Lily muttered, taking her eyes off James to take in the rest of the party. A ravenclaw girl, she vaguely recognised from the year above, threw up into a large plant pot beside Lily.
Lily turned up her nose, "I think I hate teenagers."
Marlene snorted, grabbing Lily by the arm and pulling her over to the kitchen, "You are a teenager, Lily, so lets have some fun! Get a little tipsy, snog some people we'll regret snogging and then head back to mine and get yelled at by my mum!"
Lily laughed, letting Marlene pour her a cup of spiced mead.
"Cheers!" Marlene held her own cup up against Lily's.
Lily gently tapped Marlene's plastic cup before bringing the drink to her lips and taking a large gulp.
"Ugh", Lily muttered afterwards, "God, I hate wizard alcohol."
"There's some muggle wine and scotch in the cellar."
Lily whirled around to see James standing in the kitchen doorway.
He lifted a hand to his hair nervously, "Would you-uh... Would you want some?"
Lily nodded, placing the cup of mead back onto the side. Marlene quickly took it and poured it into her own cup.
James grinned, "Right. Which would you prefer?"
Lily shrugged, "I'm not sure. How about I come with you to look?"
"Sure", James tried to lean against the doorway casually but tripped slightly and tried to play it off by turning around and making his way to the cellar.
Lily held back a laugh and followed him.
James pointed his wand into the dark cellar, setting the lamps alight and brightening up the room.
"So... Here it all is", James hummed, glancing to Lily.
She looked to the labelled 'muggle drinks' shelves and plucked out a bottle of scotch.
"I've never tried it", she turned to James, "My Dad gets it as a special occasion on his birthday though and I've always wanted to try it."
James nodded, "Is your dad... nice?"
Lily snorted, "Yeah. I mean he works a lot, so does Mum, but when he's not then we do a lot of stuff together, he tends to take a lot of days off when I'm home for break because he says he missed me. And, I don't know, he cares about me I suppose."
James grinned, "Well, I'll send him a bottle of my dad's best scotch for Christmas."
Lily turned to him with a frown, "You don't need to do that."
"Well, I want to."
"You don't even know him."
"But I know you."
Lily sighed, "Why are you... like that?"
James paused, "Like, what?"
"That", she threw her arms up, "I mean we're barely friends and you're still buying presents for my family. People don't do that."
"I always buy presents for my friend's family. As long as they're nice, although I suppose I did get a present for Sirius' before but it was more of a prank gift? Like I basically transfigured a snake into a tiny lion and put it in a gryffindor jumper. Sirius said his mum got so mad she gave herself a migraine."
Lily laughed, "You're really something, Potter."
"In a good way?" He tilted his head slightly.
Lily smiled, "Yeah. In a good way."