twenty-five

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After Chloe, Jessica, and Bella cheered for Ivy since this was her first party, Ivy left to meet up with the Marauders.

        "See you guys soon, I'm gonna go meet Sirius and his friends early," Ivy said, walking away and into the corridor, ignoring the stares she was receiving from the men of Hogwarts. Then she walked past the Room of Requirement three times, thinking of what she needed. Remus, James, Peter, and Sirius appeared. They were all in party attire.

        Sirius had a crop top and a pair of shorts that were a bit too short on, his hair up in a bun. Remus was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt with pair of khaki shorts. James was in a button up shirt plus a pair of jeans on while Peter was a mix of James and Remus. As Ivy stopped in front of them to look at their outfits, they did the same, stopping their conversation to get a good look at her. Remus was staring not so unnoticeably.

"Ivy, you look like a party connoisseur!" Sirius said, getting up from where he was lounging in the chair to examine her close up. "Seriously, you look like an incredible party gir!"

"Well, I did have help from Chloe. These clothes aren't mine," Ivy said with a smile as she looked past Sirius to Remus, who was still looking at her with some sort of indecipherable expression. James grabbed his arm and pulled him away, interrupting their short moment of eye contact.

"Anyways, you look smoking. There's only one thing left for a good party!" Sirius said, grinning as he placed his hands on his hips. Ivy rolled her eyes.

"And what is that?"

"Alcohol!" Sirius's said as he led her over to where James, Remus, Fabian, Gideon, and Peter were standing.

"Ugh, I'm probably not going to do any drinking," Ivy said, bringing the attention of all the people around her. They groaned.

"Come on! You need to let loose! I promise I'll be here to keep you straight if you do decide to get tipsy. I don't like drinking," James said. Ivy looked around at all their pleading faces.

"I'll think about it," Ivy said, satisfying them all.

"I'll drink to that!" Gideon said, taking a shot. The clack of several pairs of heels rang out in the room.

"Did someone say party?" Chloe asked. Her, Jessica, and Bella threw the coats they were wearing to the corner of the room. Chloe stood there in a small, tight, low cut shirt and a black mink skirt, hands on her hips with Bella and Jessica on both sides of her. It seemed all the boys looked at each other knowingly.

        "Looking good, Chloe," Fabian winked. Chloe rolled her eyes with a cocky smirk, breezing past the boys.

         "Thanks, Fabian. And my eyes are up here, Pettigrew," Chloe said, grabbing Peter's chin and lifting it up. With her heels, she was much taller than Peter and almost taller than Sirius. Peter blushed and stuttered, trying to find an excuse as they all snickered to themselves.

After Chloe plus the other two roommates arrived, several more Gryffindors showed up and it soon become a full house. The music was blasting as everyone danced, taking shots and drinking other things. Ivy was in a worried conversation with the Marauders about the prospects of her drinking.

"But don't you guys need someone a bit responsible? I don't want any of you to do something you'll regret. And James, why don't you drink? You seem like the type," Ivy said. James shrugged.

        "It's not good for my health and it's pointless. Hangovers are annoying. I got drunk once, and never again!" James said with a nod of his head.

"I promise James is responsible enough, We know from experience. If you don't want to, you don't have to," Remus said, about to take a sip of firewhisky. Ivy looked down at her own cup that Sirius had poured.

"Alright. Fine. But whatever happens, do not let me take off my shirt," Ivy said. They looked at each other confusedly before nodding.

"Okay. Deal," James said slowly. Ivy exhaled slowly and raised the glass to her lips, taking a sip. It burned her throat, causing her to wince.

"Agh, what the fuck?" Ivy said with a laugh. Peter and Sirius shared a high-five as James and Remus watched her.

"Yes, it burns a bit," Remus said with a small laugh. Ivy finished the short amount and soon began to feel fuzzy a few minutes later. She ended up taking a few shots of some sort of muggle drink while everyone cheered her on  and a few more sips of Firewhisky.

"Alright people, listen up!" James exclaimed, using his wand as a microphone. The music died down and so did the talking. "This is a party for Sirius's seventeenth birthday, everyone say 'Happy Birthday Sirius!'"

All the drunk teenagers shouted 'happy birthday Sirius' in a fashion that was not organized. James continued once the last person was done.

"Here are a few things you need to know. You are welcome to leave whenever you like, but please leave by three thirty A.M. so the hosts of this lovely party can get some sleep. Also, leave at your own risk. If Filch or someone else catches you and gives you detention, you will not blame it on this party, or the hosts will find you and you'll have hell to pay. Lastly, have fun! This is a party, after all!"

After James's quick speech, the crowd cheered and got back to drinking.

        Over in a corner, Sirius, Ivy, and Remus were laughing wildly about something, clutching their stomachs and bending over. Peter was talking to some girl, his words slurring as they both struggled to make sense. James watched them in a motherly fashion, shaking his head at his friends's stupidity.

          "You're lying!" Ivy said, hiccuping slightly as she took in a shaky breath, stumbling. "You would never do that to James!"

        "Yes I did!" Sirius exclaimed, holding up a hand as Remus wheezed. "I— I put a love potion! In his drink! And that's why he loves Lily Evans so much! And to this day, he has kept up the act!"

         They bust out laughing again. There was nothing remotely funny about what he claimed to do to James, but in their drunken state they found it hilarious. James tutted, a small smile forming on his own face. Peter joined them.

          "What are you... what are you guys talking about?" Peter asked. Remus tried to stop his laughing to explain what they were dying over.

        "Sirius— he— he says he put a love potion in James's drink to love Lily Evans," Remus said. Ivy and him laughed again. Ivy leaned on Remus as he wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her standing.

        "That's not true, James is just a dumbass!" Peter said with the wave of his hand as they laughed harder. James rolled his eyes, trying to tune their teasing out.

"He is quite the dumbass. Look at him!" Sirius said, stumbling over to James and squeezing his cheeks like a grandma.

        "Remus, you and Ivy look like a proper happy couple when you have your arm around her waist like that," Peter said after calming his laughter down, pointing at them. Remus scoffed.

"They practically are a happy couple," Sirius said, motioning over to the two who looked like deer caught in headlights.

          "I mean, I wouldn't mind, but we we're friends," Remus said with shrug. Ivy nodded.

        "Yeah. I'm sure Remus would be an excellent boyfriend but we're friends, and that's it," Ivy said with a giggle, "It's like the saying 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it!' We shouldn't fuck up our friendship."

        The other three looked at the pair confusedly.

        "Something isn't adding up here," Sirius said, waving a hand as he started another conspiracy theory. "Ivy... I think you're just madly in love with Moony."

        "Yeah right. You can dream," Ivy said, gaining some sort of self control. She pushed herself away from where she was leaning on Remus, suddenly feeling kind of awkward as she excused herself and walked over to where Bella was taking shots.

        "Ivy! Enjoying the party?!" Bella said in a high voice. Ivy grinned.

        "Hell yeah! I'm having— I'm having a great time!" Ivy said, stuttering as Chloe walked over.

"Hey girl! I'm so glad you came! Jessica is a big fat buzzkill so she isn't drinking," Chloe explained as Jessica rolled her eyes.

"I have been drinking a few sips of firewhisky, but I'm not a lightweight unlike a few people. And you guys need someone responsible," Jessica explained. Bella scoffed.

"Me and Chloe aren't lightweights, we just drink a lot to get super super drunk. But Ivy's a lightweight, I suppose. You drank like, two sips of butterbeer that one time and you were crazy!" Bella said with the shake of her head.

"It's Chloe and I," Ivy said, not even realizing she was correcting their grammar since it was such a habit at this point. "But yeah, I guess I am a lightweight. That's a bad thing, right?"

        "I dunno," Bella said with a shrug before Chloe dragged them to the dance floor. None of them were very good dancers. Jessica watched, a bit embarrassed as they writhed around. After a while do doing that, a lot of the students had filed out of the Room of Requirement and were in their dorms. The only people left were Ivy and her dorm mates, Lily and her dorm mates, and the Marauders.

        "Ohmigod, just snog already!" Remus exclaimed to Sirius and Marlene. Marlene was batting her eyelashes as Sirius put on his signature smirk. In one swift movement, Sirius pressed his lips against hers. Peter made fake vomit noises as they turned away from the two to give them some sort of 'privacy.'

        Lily and James watched Marlene and Sirius like worried mothers. After what felt like hours they broke apart from the passionate kiss. Sirius gave one big wink before turning on his heel towards Peter who patted him on his back.

         "Hey you guys!" Bella exclaimed to the Gryffindor students, walking over. They waved hello and began to talk to each other.

         "Alright, we've got to get to our dorms for some sleep. Merlin knows some of us need it," Lily said to Jessica after a few minutes of talking, directing her words at Marlene. Her group of girls walked out of the Room of Requirement.

"Well, I guess that's our cue to leave," Jessica said, mostly to James. She brought her voice down so Ivy wouldn't hear. "I'm nervous for Ivy and her hangover."

"Yeah..." James began before he looked over to Ivy, who was laughing with Sirius. He shook his head. "Maybe she'll be fine."

"I doubt it," She sighed. "See you later, Potter."

         Jessica grabbed her group of girls and led them out of the Room of Requirement where they barely made it back to their dorm. Ivy got ready for bed in a struggling manner, Jessica helping them all. They eventually fell asleep, not prepared for the next morning.

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