Chapter Text
Light filtered through the crack in the curtains and landed directly in James’ eyes. He groaned, and tried to bury his head deeper into his pillows… but his pillows didn’t seem to be as soft as they usually are. In fact, his pillows felt quite bony. And, his neck seemed to be at a weird angle. He cracked open his eyes to find that he could see, which meant that he had fallen asleep with his glasses on the night before. Curious. But at least that meant that the bony, freckled shoulder his head rested on was crystal clear in his vision. The bony, freckled shoulder belonged to none other than Lily Evans. She had taken off her white, button-up blouse and was only wearing a thin tank top. And the white strap of said tank top was brushing against James' fringe. He must still be asleep.
“Stop looking at my breasts,” Lily Evans' sleepy voice chided.
His head shot up and his eyes found hers. “I wasn’t!” He panickedly defended himself. “I knew your shoulder would be freckled. That’s what I was looking at.”
A loud groan interrupted their conversation. James glanced around the room, finally locating the source of the sound as a torso and a pair of legs sticking out from under Peter’s bedside table. His head was wedged in the tiny space between the table’s legs. “Shhhhhhhhush,” he said, attempting to remove his head before giving up and groaning some more.
Lily and James looked at each other. Her hand covered her mouth to conceal her giggles. Through the slight pounding in his head, the night before filtered into James’ memory. He was promptly embarrassed to recall his crying over… well, he couldn’t remember what all he cried about, but he knew it was a lot. And Lily, surprisingly, was right there to comfort him the whole while. He didn’t know what this meant for their relationship, but he had a good feeling.
“What’s that smell?” Her nose wrinkled cutely as she looked around. “I think someone vommed in your plant, James.”
He gasped, jumping off of the sofa and going to it. “Oh no! Peace Lily Potter!”
“What?”
He turned to her, eyes wide. “Erm.”
From the other side of the room, he heard Remus’ husky laughter. He glared at him, but his gaze softened when he noticed Sirius still asleep on Remus’ shoulder.
“You named your plant ‘Lily Potter’?”
James shook his head violently, causing the pounding to start back up. The sour vomit smell was radiating out of the pot beside him, making his stomach also turn. “No, no. It’s- it’s the type of plant.” He gestured at it. “It’s a peace lily, see? And it’s my plant, so it had to take my last name.”
Lily stared at him for a long time, before she broke out in cackling laughter. “You’re ridiculous, James Potter.”
A smile grew on his face. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she smiled. She jumped off of the sofa. It seemed that alcohol didn’t affect Lily Evans—or maybe she didn’t drink anything, James wasn’t sure. “I’ll talk to you later, Remus,” she threw across the room with a stern glance. “You, too, James,” she smiled at him again before leaving the dorm.
James raised his eyebrows at Remus, who shrugged with the one shoulder that Sirius wasn’t snoring upon. He watched as the other boy gazed softly down at the sleeping boy. Good, James thought, maybe those two will finally figure themselves out.
“I’m never drinking again,” Wormtail wailed, head still under the table.