I'll Take it Shaken, Not Stirred

Chapter 20: Act of Contrition

Note: I loathe this chapter. Still, be a love and review, won't you?

History: JKR, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, WB, and various others own rights to Harry Potter. I own OCs, the plot, and the account. That's it, guys.

Much-Loved Recap: Praedam gets sacked for mysterious reasons (gasp!); Sirius's girlfriend, Rachel, breaks up with him because she thinks he's cheating on her. Lily and James use the Marauders' Map and discover that Praedam is not what he pretends to be. Gryffindor wins the Quidditch Cup and consequently throws a huge party after which, Lily finds Eden in their dormitory, tear-stained and guilty.

Quick note: Now I know you all are dying for some L/J action. All I can say is that there will be some intermixed within all this silly "plot" stuff (if you look carefully you'll see Lily's random jabs at Redival and James's subtle and occasional spouts of jealousy), but trust me, I just sketched an upcoming chapter that positively teems with "L/J love connection™."

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"It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive." –Earl Warren

Darkness.

He shut his eyes tight, and then opened them again.

Bright light.

He shut his eyes again, very quickly, swearing under his breath. His head ached—every part of his body ached. He had had much too much to drink last night. Damn it.

There was a particular spot in his back that ached worst of all.

Very slowly, an irritated and stiff James Potter sat up and (again, very slowly) opened his eyes for a third time. The world was a blur of light that did nothing good for his head, but he persevered. He felt around for his glasses and found not only the object of his search, but also that he was not in his dormitory.

James pushed his glasses on hastily, and the room around him came into slight focus. He was on a couch in the Common Room. The Quidditch Captain swung his legs around the edge of the couch and surveyed the scene about him. It was a mess, to put it lightly. He looked at the depression in the couch that imitated his sleeping figure, and saw a yellow plastic horn that some fourth years had been using earlier. That explained why his back hurt.

The grandfather clock near the stairwell struck seven times, and James moaned. Seven o'clock? It was seven o'clock? It then occurred to James that he was not sure if it was seven o'clock in the morning, or seven o'clock in the evening. He got to his feet with some difficulty and staggered to the window. Outside, the sky was grey—it was clearly 7 am. James was nothing short of bewildered. How had he woken up? Now that he thought of it, he'd only gone to sleep (at most) two hours earlier.

A squeak from somewhere behind him caused James to start and look around. A house elf had appeared near the couch he had just risen from. The creature, a seemingly younger elf with large blue eyes, began to pick up the debris from the party. A few more appeared moments later, and a few more just after that.

Distracted from his pain and exhaustion for the time being, James watched as they worked. They ignored him completely and did not stop until every sofa cushion was back on the sofa, every glass bottle was disposed of in a black sack, every stain on the floor was vanished, and the odor of alcohol and junk food was nonexistent.