Whizzing through the stone wall gave Hermione a rush almost as great as platform nine and three-quarters. Her brown eyes were met with tables and couches and chairs, perfected equipped for a party that would even hold up to the standards of Fred and George Weasley. The room was almost as large as the common room itself.

"Amazing," Hermione whispered to herself.

"I know, right?" added back Sirius who clearly heard her delicate whisper.

Grabbing Hermione's attention as she appeared through the stone wall with ease, Marlene entered holding two bottles of Firewhiskey that were immediately snatched away by James and put onto one of the several tables. Sirius filled several small cups to the brim with the fiery beverage, while Alice and who Hermione assumed to be Frank Longbottom faded into the secret room.

Gathering up as many acceptable seventh years as she could find, Lily filtered in and out of the party every few minutes. Peter worked up the courage to spark a conversation with the beautiful Slytherin Quidditch captain Emma Vanity, while Bertram Aubrey and Dirk Cresswell, two nosey Ravenclaws, let loose for the first time in a long time.

Remus cast the Muffilatio charm before accidentally spilling his drink all over Dorcas Meadowes' new dress. She wasn't all that pleased, but the beginning-of-the-term party was the last time anyone could be careless until spring exams, especially now that they were seventh years.

Nervous, quiet, and unfamiliar to most in the room, Hermione felt out of place. Truth be told, she had never been to a real party before, let alone take a slip of anything stronger than butterbeer. But all around her were red cups knocked over onto the ground by Sirius and James; everyone was drinking. And, she had no reputation to live up to. She would only be Harper Slughorn for a small snippet of time, so would there really be any harm in taking a few sips?

Now two shots in, Hermione knew that something was off, that she wasn't herself. But, in her defense, she was Harper, not Hermione. She spotted Remus scrambling to clean up James and Sirius' mess. It was quite funny to Hermione, after all, he was much more drunk than she. It still baffled Hermione to see a man who used to be her teacher wobbling around the room, trying to clean up someone else's mess while heavily under the influence.

"...and they better not do that anymore," he mumbled to himself.

"Hey, Remus do you need any help?"

"Oh," Remus said to Hermione while pulling out his wand to clean up the mess, "I think I'm, I'm all good," he stuttered. "This cleaning spell should only take just a second," Remus said as he poorly waved his wand to dry the spilled alcohol on the ground. Afterward, Remus grabbed his own red cup and took a seat next to Hermione.

"Have you had any of this stuff yet? It's great!" he asked in a tipsy voice while he took a sip.

She raised her cup into Remus' view, saying "I've got it right here, and it is quite tasty, innit?" Hermione stuttered and she couldn't help but smile from ear to ear, even though there was nothing to laugh about. Firewhiskey really was good!

The first instance of the night in which someone stood on top of a table, Sirius climbed up on one and tried his best to keep his balance while getting the attention of everyone in the room.

"Hey," he drunkenly spoke, eyes closed. "Hey, hey, hey everyone? Yeah? So we've got a new student here today and her name is Harper, now everyone, be polite and say 'hello' to Harper," he said, mushing the words together faster than usual, and pointing directly to Hermione, causing her to blush.

A mix of druken responses to Sirius' not-so-subtle introduction instantly filled the room. Based on the slurred tone in everyone's voice, Hermione suspected that most of the people in the room would not remember who Harper was in the morning. But some time passed, and after meeting the gorgeous Dorcas Meadowes, the bold Arnold Dent, the kind Mary MacDonald, and the shy Sherman Shafiq.

Alice, one of the only people present who wasn't drunk, walked over to a few of the boys and whispered a sentence or two into their ears.

"It's nearly 1:00 am, shouldn't everyone except the Gryffindors get going now?" she said.

Peter, realizing that Alice was completely right, cut the music, and wobbled on top of the tallest table.

"Hey, hey!" he drunkenly yelled, trying to get everyone's attention. "Everyone who isn't a Gryffindor, kindly, um, get out, please," he rambled, "except for you, Emma, you beautiful little thing." He was so drunk, and Emma Vanity's face grew rosy. It seemed as if the Firewhiskey had given him more confidence than usual.

Sirius seconded Peter's statement by screaming "Get oooout!" at the top of his lungs before belching even louder until even Emma Vanity was no longer in the room. The only remaining people were Gryffindor students. Alice and Marlene left for bed as soon as they cast sobering charms on everyone too drunk to function.

"Ah, thank you Wormtail!" shouted Sirius as he helped James fix his glasses, even though Peter wasn't the one who cast the charm. Hermione chuckled.

After arranging the couches into a circle, everyone sat down: Hermione next to Lily, James next to Sirius, and Peter next to Remus.

"Can we play a game?" asked Peter, significantly quieter than his drunk self.

"What about a good ol' game of truth or dare? Perfect for our new friend," James said as he motioned in Hermione's direction.

"I'm down! Also I've got a spare bottle of Veritaserum from potions class, so we'll be forced to tell the truth!" Sirius shouted.

He poured a vial of Veritaserum into a full bottle of water, and everyone in the circle took a sip. Hermione grew nervous. It was only her first day, and one simple question could screw up everyone she was here for.

"I'll go first," Remus started. He looked Sirius dead in the eyes, and asked, "Truth or dare?" in a sketchy way that prompted a giggle from Peter.

Crossing his arm, Sirius spat out the word, "Truth."

"Now," said Remus joking putting his hands out in from of him and starting to laugh a bit, "how many girls have you snogged within the last year? The ones that you can remember, of course," Remus finished, laughing throughout the entire last sentence.

"Let's see, there's Lucinda Talkalot, Holly Dayly, Jamie Chang, Emma Vanity, Alecto Carrow,"

"You snogged Emma?" whined Peter.

"Sirius! Alecto's only a fifth year!" added Remus.

"Hey I'm not finished!" laughed Sirius.

"Moving on," added Lily, not in the mood to police any arguments between the boys.

"We'll talk about this later," finished Peter, while Sirius sarcastically nodded and James laughed.

"Alright, I'm next. Harper, truth, or dare?" James asked.

Hermione's heart nearly stopped beating as soon as James spoke her name. Initially, she wanted to go with truth, but the combination of the Veritaserum and the amount of information she had to keep restricted created a dangerous mix. As contradictory as it might sound, Hermione thought it was safer to choose dare this time around.

"I dare you to snog Remus," James confidently stated. "I'll even give you 10 galleons if you do it."

And just like that, both Hermione and Remus' face turned the color of ripe red apples within seconds.

"Prongs, I barely know her," Remus said. And Remus was right. They had only met about twelve hours ago.

"Well, I'm pretty sure snogging will help you get to know her!" Sirius said, siding with James and making Hermione's face grow even redder.

Peter just looked at Remus and shook his head, siding with him. Meanwhile, Remus kept his head down and tried to hide his embarrassment. Even though Remus was, let's face it, not ugly to Hermione, she was not about to snog him. She had only ever kissed one boy, Viktor Krum, and it would stay that way for tonight.

"In the most respectable way possible, Harper, I do not want to snog you," Remus spoke truthfully, and James chuckled. Afterall there was Veritaserum in his system.

"Come on, mate, just do it," Sirius said, egging them on. Hermione was more than uncomfortable at this point.

"Okay, now that's enough," Lily said louder than before. "Friendly reminder that it's only her first bloody day! If you guys want Remus to snog her, at least wait another week, for crying out loud."

"It's alright, I'm alright," laughed Hermione after hearing Sirius mutter, "Okay, mum," underneath his breath.

Seeing as Lily was growing more and more frustrated with her best friends, Hermione tried to peacefully end the night.

"Is anyone else extremely tired?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's like 2:00 am," added Sirius, who began to rub his eyes and walk toward the stone wall where they had all entered before. "I'm going to bed," Sirius said as he faded through the stone, followed by Peter and the rest of the boys.

Now alone with Hermione, Lily said, "I hope that wasn't too much for you," hoping that her new friend Harper didn't want to find different friends for the rest of her seventh year.

"No! Of course not, everyone's so much fun," Hermione said as they faded through the stone into the common room. She wanted to establish a friendship with Lily as soon as possible. "I'd love to be friends with the five of you, if that's okay of course," she asked in an awkward way since this was the first time she had to make new friends since her first year.

"Oh my gosh yes! I'm sure all of the boys love you already," Lily said excitedly as she made her way into the seventh year girls' dorm. Soon, both of them grew quiet, as to not wake the sleeping Alice and Marlene as they got ready for bed.

Unlike the past few nights, sleep came easy to Hermione. The only thing she thought of before bed was how uncomfortable she felt when James asked her to snog Remus. Even for 10 galleons, it was weird. Especially for Hermione.

A/N: thanks for so many votes and comments! and for 100 views in less than a week! one last thing, i've posted a new book recently: it's called greyback, and it's remus lupin fic!! i would love it so much if you checked it out.

A/N (6/12/20): sat here for two hours rewriting this piece of sh*t and forgot how bad it was. also can we talk about the unfinished list of girls sirius has snogged in only one year? lowkey not surprised, lol.    - callahan