true loves poison • james potter

44

Lorelei's alarm clock woke her up at the unholy hour of six in the morning, and she quickly realized she was now having to deal with the worst hangover of her entire life.

It took her a good ten minutes to form a coherent thought, and by that time she was sitting up in her bed glaring at the window for allowing light into the room.

The first thought of the morning was about how hard her head was pounding, as if her brain could pound it's way out of her skull and get pain relief from the fresh air.

Squinting in the dim lighting, Lorelei pulled her comforter off of her legs. She was glad she was at least coherent enough last night to change into pajamas.

Slowly, she readied herself for the day. By the time she had dragged her way through the morning, it was seven on the dot.

Leaving Melissa and Liz to wake up on their own time, Lorelei headed down to the Great Hall.

The sound of eggs made her want to drool and vomit in her mouth all at once.

Stopping in the middle of the hallway, Lorelei backtracked. Walking quickly to the hospital wing, she pushed open the doors quickly.

Hoping for a quick trip, Lorelei scanned the room until she found Pomfrey, who was straightening the sheets on one of the hospital beds. "Madam Pomfrey?" She said as she approached.

The grey haired lady looked up with a curt smile, "Miss Byrd."

"Would you happen to have any," Lorelei paused and blew a puff of air, "Remedies for the after affects of alcohol?"

Pomfrey's serious expression melted into a somewhat fond smile. "I assume the remedy is for you?"

Shaking her head gently, Lorelei denied, "Of course not, it's for a poor gryffindor I found passed out outside the Ravenclaw common room."

Lorelei knew Pomfrey knew she was lying. But luckily the older woman just shook her head slightly before walking over to a cabinet. Pulling the two small doors open Pomfrey pulled out a bottle with a dropper lid. Grabbing a paper cup from the desk below the cabinet, Pomfrey used her wand to fill it with water before putting three drops from the bottle into the cup.

Extending the cup to Lorelei, Pomfrey instructed, "Tell the student to take this ten minutes before eating. And have them drink it quickly, I'm afraid the taste won't be pleasant."

Smiling down at the cup, Lorelei looked up at Pomfrey before thanking the witch.

Quickly leaving the hospital wing, as soon as the doors shut behind her Lorelei drank the liquid like a shot. Gagging a little after lowering the cup Lorelei whispered to herself, "Poppy was right that stuff is vile."

Shaking her head, Lorelei set off on her trek to the Great Hall. The sound of eggs was now becoming less nauseating and more appealing by the second as she mentally counted how many minutes left she should wait before chowing down.

She was down to three remaining minutes when she walked through the large wooden doors leading to the Great Hall. Walking into the room was like breathing fresh air after a dust storm. Her hangover felt officially cured, and her brain had stopped trying to break free from her skull.

Closing her eyes, Lorelei reveled in the moment before being violently reminded by her stomach how hungry she was. Her mental clock let her know she should be fine to eat now, and she let nothing slow her speed as she walked quickly to the mostly barren ravenclaw table.

Nothing except-

"Lorelei!"

Contemplating murder and other illegal acts, Lorelei had a microsecond to decide if she would ignore the clear call of her name or turn and talk.

Against her stomachs better judgement, she decided to turn and talk and hopefully cut the conversation as short as possible. "Yes?" She turned around to the voice she recognized belonging to one James Potter.

James, stopping in front of her, laughed almost nervously, "Hey, I just wanted to make sure you were okay after last night."

Furrowing her brows, Lorelei tried to remember what James could be referring to.

After coming up blank, she slowly shook her head, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Brilliant-" James said a bit too quickly before clearing his throat. "Yeah. Great. Because I wouldn't want our friendship to be weird now-" He cut himself off with a chuckle, "Great, okay. I'll see you later then."

Walking away with a wave, James walked to his own table while Lorelei tried decoding his words. She only got to mull it over for a moment before her stomach violently reminded her she needed food.

Hoping a plate of food might reveal the answers to James's cryptic behavior, Lorelei loaded her plate with eggs, bacon, hash brows, sausage links, and fruit.

"How long have you been down here?" Melissa asked, cranky, while sitting next to her.

Lorelei, half finished with her plate, looked over and smiled, "Probably twenty minutes."

"You should have woken me up," Liz said, sitting across from the two, "I am starving."

Lorelei laughed, "So was I."

"Godric, how are you two so chipper. This place is so loud."

"I ran to the hospital wing before breakfast, and luckily Pomfrey is an angel. She gave me a hangover remedy."

Melissa groaned and covered her eyes, "I need Pomfrey to apparate here and give me some heavy medication."

Lorelei giggled and rubbed Melissa on the back, "You can't apparate in Hogwarts, Melissa."

"I hate you."

Smiling softly, Lorelei returned her attention to her half full plate of food, "I think the house elves knew I needed a good breakfast."

Liz smiled as she put syrup on her pancakes, "If I puke these up later, I won't even regret it."

"Oh," Lorelei said after swallowing a bite, "I had the strangest interaction with James earlier."

"Oh yeah?" Liz asked, only paying half attention as she buttered her toast.

Lorelei nodded even though neither of them were looking at her. "Yeah, he was acting weird. He was asking if I was okay after last night and how he didn't want our friendship to be weird? I don't really know what he meant."

Liz furrowed her brows, "What happened last night?"

Shrugging, Lorelei finished her plate of food. "I remember being with him during the party, and then he drank some firewhisky, and then I drank a little firewhisky. It's a bit unclear after that." Closing her eyes, Lorelei tried to replay her every move from the night before. "We talked, I drank, and then when I came back over I was teasing him about being a cowardly gryffindor and then-" Snapping her eyes open, Lorelei's every muscle went taut.

"Lori?" Liz asked, looking up from her plate at Lorelei's abrupt pause.

"Liz," She started slowly before whispering, "I think I snogged James Potter."