- - just for tonight.

[lily evans]

Lily never thought she would be thankful to see the shrieking shack. Yet after a long, and awkward walk with James Potter, she was more than eager to rush inside and join her friends, and the festivities. “Here we are” Lily said triumphantly, walking up the steps and pushing open the door, to the old an ancient house. The door creaked, and groaned as it opened up to a small and dark hallway, that was covered in at least an inch of dust. It lingered everywhere, from the stairs, to the walls, the windows and the old light fixtures. Everywhere except the floor, which had been disturbed, no doubt by people who had already arrived, of which there did not look many. Eager to join the others, Lily looked around for a sign of were they might be. The footsteps led off in three distinct different directions. One to the left, and to a small room that must have once been the living room. Second towards the back of the house, which Lily could only guess was the kitchen. Then the third, let up the stairs towards the bedrooms. “Where do you think they are?” Lily asked James, looking at each of the three places, as if an answer would pop up. Then she heard it, the distinct laugh of Sirius Black, booming from upstairs. “I wonder what he has done now? And even more, who was the victim of his first prank of the night” Lily said with a grin, as she turned in a flash of red hair, and raced up the stairs to join Sirius, and what she hoped was the rest of her friends. She wasn’t disappointed; rounding the top of the stairs and following the laughter into the room at the far end of the corridor, she found everyone. From Remus to Marlene and Alice to Peter, all her close friends, and people she had agreed to walk to the lock in, were there setting up the room for their nights stay in the dingy house. “So who’s idea was it then” she said accusingly, with a smile plastered on her face, as she eyed each of them with her emerald green eyes. “My guess is Black, it has your stink written all over it” she mocked throwing him a grin, before she uncrossed her arms, and went to greet her friends with warm hugs. Before she ended up across the far side of the room, stood between Marlene and Alice.
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tagged for all the seventh year Gryffindors! Thread is set at the beginning of the evening, after James and Lily arrive. They were given the wrong time of the group meet up, to walk down to the event, so they would have some alone time. sadly backfired, and most of it was spent in complete silence. Enjoy.

[sirius black]

Sirius Black couldn’t contain his laughter, as he held the old worn, muggle scissors in his hands, Lily’s sleeping bag in the other. Tonight was the night his best friend got some. Sirius was getting bored of his constant whining and whinging about Evans so he had come up with a foolproof plan to get James laid. After all, it was his job as James’ best friend. It was written in his job description on that very first day back on the Hogwarts express when they were eleven years old. ”thou shalt do all you can to get your best friend some booty” – it was rule number one, the most important rule of all, and Sirius was determined that he would uphold it. He looked towards Peter and summoned him over . ”Peter, hold this end while I cut. This muggle thing is hard.”

[/color] he stated before ripping into the sleeping bag and scattering it like confetti over Marlene’s head. ”here comes the bride.”[/color] he chuckled, before put the scissors back in his bag and taking out a bottle of firewhiskey. He sat himself down next to the blonde, and offered her a swig before he had even taken a swig himself. He wasn’t sure what it was about Marlene, but he wanted to be almost... gentlemanly around her. The mischievous glint in his eye as he heard two pairs of footsteps approaching the shack, he could hear the gleeful laughter he had been expecting though, which worried him. James was a bloody catch, and over the last couple of weeks Sirius had done everything he could to make Lily see sense. Heck. If he could Sirius would shag James in a heartbeat – you know – if they were both gay for each other, which, contrary to popular belief (or at least Severus Snape) they weren’t. ”Remus pal, don’t you feel right at home here.”[/color] he joked, pretty sure everyone in the room except for Remus and Peter had no idea what they were talking about. As the door creeped open and Lily walked in, Sirius felt another explosion erupt from his stomach. ”prank? What prank?”[/color] he denied staring right into Lily’s green eyes, trying to keep a straight face. It was no use though, he felt a third cackle bound off the walls of the old shack. ”i blame alice.”[/color] he grinned, pointing at the little girl who he saw as more of a sister than a shag... though that didn’t stop him from trying, before he downed a gulp of firewhiskey and held it out to Lily. ”it’ll calm that temper of yours.”[/color] he told her, before shrugging, assuming she was too much of a goody two-shoes and turning to offer the bottle to his best friend instead.[/font][/blockquote][/justify]

[frank longbottom.]

frank was still hyped up from what him and alice had been doing earlier. it had only involved kissing and touching, of course. but those were things he and alice hadn't done before. well, the kissing they had but not the touching. the lock in was just something to do tonight. he didn't know what would happen if they'd a) forgotten about the lock in or b) if the lock in wasn't actually happening. frank shook the thoughts from his mind, trying to focus on actually having fun at the shrieking shack. not that it would be fun. what with james, lily, sirius, peter and every other one of alice's friends who hated him. remus? he didn't know if remus was coming. he only knew about the others from alice herself and from the fact it was james's idea. frank used his free hand to rub the back of his neck as his other hand was currently occupied by alice's own hand. he looked down at their hands together and then his eyes looked up her arm and then to her face, grinning at her lightly. he stepped closer to her and then squeezed her hand gently.

he wouldn't arrive on his own and the only other person he'd wish to arrive with was alice. seeing as though not many other people spoke to him he looked down at the floor, watching what he was stepping on. he then looked at her feet, trying to make his steps the same as hers and then laughing when he failed and nearly stumbled. he shook his head, looking back to her face and then sighing. he let go of her hand and put his arm around her shoulders, sighing lightly. "so, we going to show them all a good time, logan?" he asked, kissing her cheek softly and then chuckling lightly.

[alice logan.]

alice looked around her nervously, bag full of drink hanging heavily off her shoulder as she waited for the others to arrive, far too spooked to even think about dropping the heavy weight. if it got to it, alice wanted to be able to make a quick get away, & needing to grab her bag would only slow her down. having already doled out bottles of firewhiskey when requested, alice stood towards the edge of the room, on the only bit of flooring she found safe enough to be near. arms folded, alice ignored the conversation around her & chewed at her lip, nervously pushing her hair behind her ear, still paranoid it was sticking up in all directions from hers & frank's activities earlier. looking across at marlene, alice offered a weak smile, & found frank's hand with her own, jumping as sirius stabbed a sleeping bag. alice had just been about to offer her help, but quickly changed her mind. they weren't expected to .. to sleep here, were they? even just hanging around in a relatively safe corner was far too spooky for alice, but sleeping here?! alice thought she might die of fright; she almost had after being surprised by the rest of their group on her way here. if ever alice was going to have a heart attack, it was going to be tonight, she just knew it. at least she had frank, & lily, whenever she decided to turn up. & remus! alice felt herself relax at the thought of remus. if remus was here, then it really couldn't be half as dangerous as alice imagined, could it? she pushed away the reflex thought of 'who's covering the prefect rounds?' once she remembered that she'd given them to the sixth year prefects ( under remus's orders; he didn't seem to think that she could complete her rounds whilst being here at the shack at the same time - she'd only reluctantly agreed ). alice jumped at the sound of footsteps, & allowed frank to pull her closer, clinging onto his hand for dear life. alice didn't relax until lily stood in front of her. she looked across at sirius at her accusation, & fidgeted with her hair nervously, blinking in surprise as sirius blamed her. "m-me?!" alice squeaked, her grip on frank's hand turning bone-crushing. "i did nothing!"

[peter pettigrew]

dropping the incriminating sleeping bag as soon as lily entered the room peter made his way, as inconspicuously as possible over to remus' side as his friends began to filter through. looking over at sirius and laughing along with his joke took a seat on the floor next to his own, unharmed, sleeping bag to make camp for the night. sitting there in the room filled with all of his friends, some closer than others, peter could hardly believe this was his life. after all, when he'd first come to hogwarts he'd never have assumed he would have made it this far with these people, and yet here he was. he was part of the 'gang', one of the few privileged enough to have organized the event and was not reaping the benefits of it. smiling over to the new entires in the room he held up his personal bottle of firewhisky, one of many stored away for the night, at james and lily as a toast to their entry. "finally made it here then, did you guys?" he asked innocently, although the ever present smirk on his lips would have easily given him away. his interests in setting up prongs with the evans girl weren't nearly as prevailing as sirius' but he still couldn't help but want them to be together. after all, it was all james ever talked about anymore. how amazing she was, how he wanted her to be his girlfriend, how she was constantly knocking him back. it was sort of humiliating really to see it all unfold, especially with his best friend getting girls left right and center. but then again he wasn't the only one. as he watched frank and alice, still standing hesitantly in the corner, he couldn't stop himself from looking up to remus, just to check he was okay. it couldn't have been easy to be him at the best of times, but surely this wasn't going to make life easier. the shrieking shack held a lot of memories for them all, but that same location mixed in with seeing logan and longbottom all loved up and fresh in the throws of 'love'. it was times like this peter was glad he never really found himself all that comfortable in the romantic company of women. or at least the women they socialized with. it was all so much easier when your friends were the only things that mattered.

[james potter]

as sordid as the treck to the shrieking shack was, james, regrettably, rather enjoyed himself. any time with miss lily evans was time well spent, be it in silence or not, and after making vaguely pitiful attempts to talk to her as the failed-gentleman he promised to be, prongs was overly pleased to see the destination in question only footsteps ahead of them. once inside, he followed lily, with a grin, up the stairs (though he could easily of just found them all himself, being the clever git he was). the sight that greeted him was one of pure amusement, though just for being in the same room as evans he was smiling. “awe, don’t blame sirius.” immediately, the gryffindor jumped to his friend’s defence, though his tone declared otherwise; in a sarcastic wit, one reserved for teasing lily over the years. he caught sight of the sleeping bag in tatters and winked at his best friend as he took hold of the firewhiskey; even though he had brought some himself, it was only polite to accept a swig of a drink someone offered you. after taking a fair few mouthfuls james extended the bottle back to sirius, and turned around the room to greet the various gryffindors all ready there. he gave smiles where they were deserved—near enough everyone in the room then—and moved to situate himself down right next to said aforementioned best friend, swinging his bottle-filled bag to the floor with an almighty clunk. though this was done gently enough to preserve the glass, he should have been more careful. “i may make this my new home,” james declared with a secretive glance at his fellow marauders. then, with a chuckle, he purposefully looked at lily as he said, “so, where is everyone sleeping?”

[/color] he swept the room expecting someone to rush a typically witty answer, though the atmosphere certainly did not need soothing. he knew more people were to arrive, though the times were scattered for groups who were aiming to come down together; james, however, had gained his alone-time with lily. more would come, he promised himself, stealing another glance at who he was convinced would be his future wife. another wide all-too-knowing smile at remus, and james grabbed one of his own bottles—there seemed to be more than enough for everyone, but knowing the party and the state of his friends, this would not last.
[/blockquote][/justify]

[marlene mckinnon]

marlene mckinnon had arrived to the shrieking shack with a half empty bottle of firewhiskey in her hand and giggling hysterically over something that was no doubt, not even funny. she figured, if she was tipsy off of alcohol, then she wouldn't be as terrified of the proclaimed "most haunted house in britain" and so far, that plan was going swimmingly. although at first she had been slightly hesitant over the fact they had given james and lily the wrong time, but those two needed some alone time, it was obvious that they needed it. marlene really didn't understand why everyone was so reluctant to just do each other, after all, it was just sex. the girl grinned widely as sirius sprinkled the insides of the sleeping bag over her head like confetti and accepted the bottle of firewhiskey offered to her. she took a swig before lazily handing it back to sirius, resting her head on his shoulder. sure he could be a right arrogant prat sometimes, but he was one of the most decent people she had come across at hogwarts. it always amazed her that he wasn't some bitter, cold teenager after how his family had treated him. the fact he had run away from home and was now living with james was a well known fact among the gryffindor seventh years and various other students in school. and for some reason, he treated her differently than most. sirius black gentleman? it was hard to believe. her eyebrow raised slightly when she looked across at alice, whose hair seemed to be in a disarray of some sort. making a mental note to herself, marlene returned the smile, purposely running her fingers through her blonde hair. she had been tracing circles absentmindedly onto sirius' jeans with her fingertip when voices could be heard from downstairs. if they hadn't sounded like james and lily, the blonde would have probably freaked out. a light giggle came from her lips as the accusations went around the room. knowing that she had absolutely nothing to do with it, marlene stood up and gave lily a warm hug before dropping back down next to sirius. frowning at the empty bottle of firewhiskey next to her feet, the girl leaned over and pulled a full one from alice's bag. in reality, the house didn't seem that "haunted". it was basically like the one she and aurelia rosier used to play house in when they were kids. sure it was old and dusty, but otherwise it was quite cute. apart from the fact there were supposed to be all these ghosts roaming about. "this place isn't as scary as you guys made it out to be," marlene announced to the group, taking a swig of firewhiskey and smiling brightly.

[/justify][/blockquote]

[lily evans]

“Oh course it was Alice, it is oh so clear now” Lily said with an eye-roll, as she took the fire-whiskey from Sirius and took a swig. Instantly it burned the back of throat, as it made it way down. But she tried not let it show, hiding her discomfort with a smile, as she passed the bottle on. Knowing that having any more, was probably not the best idea, considering what had happened the last time, she had had a glass or two. Lily knew she should probably stay clear of it, at least while she was in James Potter’s company. For she did not want any reoccurrences of what had happened a couple of weeks ago, when she had had a little bit to much to drink, and kissed James Potter. Something that she was still trying to live down, and thankfully James was finally letting her. After a note between the two of them, James seemed to have backed off, accepting that she only wanted to be friends and finally he let her be. Which Lily was grateful for, as she wanted the space to really consider her feelings for him. After-all he had all this time to consider how he felt for her, and Lily had not. Sure she could have let herself consider it, but with her general dislike for him and her annoyance at how he treated her oldest friend, Lily had never considered anything more than general dislike for James Potter. However now, after how she had seen him grow and become somebody she actually liked, Lily had began to consider it, and really consider it. After-all James wasn’t all that bad, sure his childlike nature did get a little wearing, but he was still brave, loyal, loving and not to mention very attractive. What did Lily have to loose in at least considering the idea of dating him? Everyone else seemed intent on the idea of them dating, why shouldn’t she at least give the idea some thought. At first she had been reluctant because she was so stubborn, but now, as he stood there in the middle of the room Lily almost felt an urge to go over and hold his hand, but she suppressed it, and replied to him instead. “Well I’ve got my sleeping bag, so shall probably set myself up over there with Remus and Peter” Lily said proudly, reaching around to her backpack to grab her sleeping bag, but her hands grabbed at thin air. Instantly puzzled, Lily pulled her bag off her bag and ripped it open. No sleeping bag. She was sure she had packed it this morning, but it was not there. Looking around wildly, she noticed something on the floor. Shreds of fabric laid scattered about the place, and one of the held the name tag Lily Charlotte Evans. “My sleeping bag!” Lily explained, pointing a gloved finger to the floor and looking around at all of them. “URGH BLACK I AM GOING TO KILL YOU” she exclaimed, wheeling on him her green eyes burning into his. “What am I meant to do now?”

[sirius black]

Sirius smirked at lily mischievously, before glugging down a mouthful of firewhiskey. He noticed the scissors sticking out of his bag, and he raced up to shove them down. Sirius smirked in reply to James’ wink before settling back down and throwing an arm around Marlene, who – for all intents and purposes – was his date that evening, he smiled as he felt her finger tracing circles on his thigh, he grasped her hand, and intertwined his fingers with hers, slowly feeling her warmth feed into him. ”thats right, don’t blame Sirius.” he smirked, leaning back, resting his head against the wooden wall of the old shack. ”i’m the victim in all this. Little alice practically held me down so she could do whatever her masterplan was. I tried to stop her lily. Honestly.” he winked at alice, who was standing in the corner next to frank. He briefly let his mind wonder what was going on there, they seemed lovey-dovey, but he knew from the gossip blasts that there was trouble in paradise. Relationships seemed like way to much work if you asked him. He preferred what he and Marlene had. No strings, just sex and company. Perfect. He wasn’t exactly mr perfect when it came to girls, infact, you might even say he is a bit of a joke, but he always gives them a good time, no matter what the day of the week it was he knew how to make a girl tick. It just seemed to flow from him. he took his firewhiskey back from James and picked up a piece of the sleeping bag from the floor, and twirled it around his free hand. ”looking for something evans?” he teased before laughing as she started searching in her bag for the sleeping bag which wasn’t going to be in there. He watched in horror as her face turned red and she started shouting in his direction. ”hey hey hey. Temper love. That can give you heart problems later in life you know, and you need to be strong and lively if you are going to be mrs potter.” he joked knowing that little taunt would just make the redhead even madder at him, not that he particularly cared. She was one of his best friends, she wouldn’t stay mad at him for long, in fact she would be thanking him soon when she was all wrapped up warm in James’ sleeping bag. God if those two didn’t just fuck already he was going to explode. He hated all this waiting around, plus, it would do his best friend the world of good.

[/justify]

[frank longbottom.]

the only reason frank had agreed to come here was because alice was coming and he didn't want her here on her own. well, he knew she wouldn't be alone as she had everyone else but it was more the fact that he didn't want to be alone. frank missed alice too much when she wasn't there and if she was at the shrieking shack, he'd feel lost without her. worried about her every minute of the time she was there. worried that some ghost was going to make her scared. he wasn't entirely bothered that nobody had spoke to him or even seemed to notice him. they were all friends with alice but he hadn't exactly made the effort to talk to them. ever. if he was being honest, he was a little intimidated by them all and the fact he thought they didn't like him, anyway. he was pretty sure he wasn't james's favourite person. frank sighed slightly to himself, reluctantly removing his gaze from alice's face to look around the not so scary shack. it wasn't what frank was expecting. it didn't look or feel scary to him yet it was meant to be the most haunted building, right? after not seeing anything that interested him, he looked back to alice, biting his lip lightly. he turned his head to look at sirius when he put the blame on alice for something. he hadn't been listening so he couldn't be sure what was going on. frank raised his eyebrows at alice and then winced when she squeezed his hand. "alice, release grip a little please?" he asked quietly, turning his wince into his best smile. he looked back at sirius and then to james when he spoke. frank was confused. he felt so out of the group. he shuffled slightly closer to alice, as though it were possible. he laughed lightly at what sirius said. "she's not as angelic as she looks." he said quietly, grinning lightly at alice and then sighing. this was going to be a long night.

[alice logan.]

alice winced at lily's shriek, chewing at her lip anxiously. so that was what sirius had been doing earlier. he'd destroyed lily's sleeping bag, simply to get her into this predicament. lily knew that james would now offer to share, & that lily would decline & get so worked up that everything turned into an argument. wanting to avoid such a thing, alice quickly spoke up, tucking her hair behind her ear nervously at marlene's inquisitive gaze. "lily, you can borrow mine, if .. if you want," alice murmured, pointing at the lime green teenage mutant ninja turtles sleeping bag behind the redhead. explaining to owen why she'd needed said sleeping bag had not been easy. "i .. i can share with .. with-" alice blinked at sirius's comment, & fought the urge to stamp indignantly. "i didn't do anything!" she protested, bag slipping down her arm to fall on the floor with a clink as she stepped forwards, frowning. she let go of frank's hand at his request, flexing her fingers automatically. "besides," she argued. "i'm a foot shorter than you! how could i possibly 'hold you down'?" alice knew sirius was only saying this to get at her, & alice felt like kicking herself because it was working. she didn't want to fight & she didn't want arguments; she just wanted to get through the night as quickly as she possibly could. "i-" alice's eyes widened as frank called her less than angelic, & she quickly backed off, mumbling something under her breath about not needing that information spread around, thank you very much.

[james potter]

james laughed; he couldn’t really help himself. this evening was turning out a lot better than he’d perceived; maybe, just maybe, something interesting would happen tonight. not that it wouldn’t, of course. he knew people would start pairing off, playing dares with one another, doing who knew what (well actually, he did). james, rather simply, wanted to talk to lily, perhaps wow her a little with his lax, and yet still there knowledge of all that was muggle. he was not, however, going to admit any such thing to his very best friend, who seemed to be busy with a certain blonde next to him. ah. one day, him and evans would be like that—though he would be very much so loyal. “so true. life won’t be boring with me, evans.”

[/color] he raised the firewhiskey, as if to prove a point, and drank a few mouthfuls. then, his ears pricked up. he didn’t have a kind word to offer frank as of now, but he had heard alice, and he sped to object. naturally, of course. “no, no, no! alice cannot give up her sleeping bag; what kind of person would steal yours? i won’t stand for it,”[/color] he grinned rather reproaching, and clapped his hands together, the bottle of firewhiskey beside him. “evans, would you like to share mine?”[/color] he knew the offer would probably not be tempting to her in the slightest, but what other option did she have? he had been counting on this, of course. alice had almost spoilt everything, though he couldn’t bring himself to hate her for it, he wasn’t best pleased. nevertheless, the gryffindor was determined to share the sleeping bag with lily, even though he knew it would lead to nothing else, it would prove to her that he was being kind, gentlemanly, and that he wouldn’t try anything funny. yet. he was waiting for the day where lily would come up to him, confess her love for him, and then he’d sweep her off his feet. james smirked, feigning his innocent look, staring at lily with the same smile he always wore, though he did try to put some truth in that look. try being the operative word here; he wasn’t perfect, after all.[/blockquote][/justify]