So, the Quidditch Cup is safely returned to its rightful place. Displayed in the middle of the Gryffindor Common Room sat the magnificent silver cup with scarlet and gold beads draped over it. Yes, these young Gryffindors were rather excited to have the Quidditch Cup back for a second year. I’m sure you all remember what happened last time they won: a late night party. Without a doubt, another one is going on right now.
Seated in the middle of the room were Ron, Lily, and James along with the other members of the team. There was a refreshment table set up at one end with every food imaginable. Obviously someone took a little trip down to the kitchens before the match. There was also something that looked rather like a Coke machine. It produced butterbeer, the warmest most soothing drink that was allowed for the young witches and wizards in training. Hermione sat opposite Ron with a glazed look in her eyes. It had been a long day; perhaps she was just tired.
Ron and James were taking turns recounting the match for the umpteenth time. Their excited voices could be heard echoing throughout the dormitories as well as the common room below. “And then,” James said dramatically pausing to ruffle his hair a bit, “I swooped over to the Slytherins ever so carefully and closed my fist around the snitch, but not without dodging the angry Slytherin team.” Okay, so he was exaggerating a bit, but it seemed the others, particularly Dennis and Colin Creevy, liked it better with the effects. After clapping James on the back Ron got up and stretched.
“Anyone for another butterbeer?” He called as he made his way towards the machine. Immediately a bunch of hands were raised indicating that they wanted some. Rolling his eyes lightly he smirked. “Well get it yourself!” He pushed a bright red button making a bottle of the foamy liquid come out the hole. He uncorked it and tossed the bottle cap in the rubbish bin before draining it in one gulp. A line formed behind Hermione as they waited for their own turn for a butterbeer. Truthfully, since the beginning of this party they had all had their fill of them, but just couldn’t seem to get enough. I mean sure butterbeer’s great, but it’s not that great.
After that last one, Hermione seemed to have had it. She began running around the common room flapping her arms like a duck much to the enjoyment of Ron and James. Lily however was nowhere to be found…
They boys continued to take turns at the machine drinking way too much at a time. Ron and James flopped onto the couch next to Hermione laughing woozily. James smirked as Hermione began to “peck” at his cheeks much to the annoyance of Ron.
“Get off of ‘er!” Ron yelled defensively.
“Er-Ron, she came onto me!” James shot back. They went back and forth for a while before Ron tackled James knocking over the butterbeer machine making it break into a million pieces. The group of students huddled around the now ruined machine gasped. Seamus Finnigan in particular seemed mad.
“They ruined our fun!” Seamus pointed at James and Ron. Catching each others’ eyes they scrambled to their feet and hurtled towards the portrait hole. This only caused the form of Seamus to laugh. “They’ll be back. They left their beloved girlfriend here!”
At the moment Ron was trying to wretch open the door leading to the outside to no avail. “She’s not my girlfriend!”
James yelled indignantly. “He fancies her!” Ron’s ears went red in an instant. He abandoned his attempt at getting the door open and stood there glaring at James as if trying to see through him. Hermione seemed oblivious to the whole thing. She was currently running in mad circles around the couch. “Look, I didn’t mean,” James trailed off. Seeing the advancing butterbeer mob he grabbed Hermione’s shirt sleeve and made a mad dash for the door with Ron at his heels.
Now, Seamus had gotten the others to carry torches and what seemed to be homemade pitchforks. Running down the hall the threesome ducked behind a tapestry leading somewhere even James didn’t know. Panting and breathing heavily they slumped onto the floor.
“Where do you come off telling everyone my secret love life?” Ron muttered between heavy, slow breaths.
“Sorry, mate,” James panted. “Not that it really matters. Since they’re all drunk on butterbeer they won’t remember any of this in the morning.” He laughed. He never imagined getting drunk on butterbeer of all things, but it seemed they were all drunk.
Ron nodded thoughtfully watching the oblivious Hermione run off to the end of the passageway. “What do you reckon?”
James shook his head slowly. “No idea.” They both got up and followed her to the end where the passageway turned sharply. For some reason unknown to the boys she let them go ahead of her. “After you,” James muttered apprehensively as he pushed Ron forward.
“Wait!” Unfortunately, Ron couldn’t completely get his thoughts out before he was falling off the edge of some weird cliff. Before he went over all the way he grabbed the hem of James’ robes pulling him down as well. Hermione blinked before looking over the edge. It seemed to be a sort of stone slide. Figuring this was all right she jumped on headfirst. Yep, the butterbeer has definitely had an effect on all of them.
They landed with a THUD on the stone floor beneath the slide but not before going through another tapestry. This one looked familiar to both Ron and Hermione. It was the same one that hung on the wall of the Room of Requirement.
“Where are we?” James asked clueless.
“The Room of,” Hermione trailed off collapsing on the blue carpet beneath her.
“Bloody,” Ron couldn’t finish his sentence because he had just let out a deep hiccup. James was sure Filch would have heard that. Before darting back up the slide, though, he noticed something: a blue beanbag chair with something curled up inside of it, or rather someone.
You guessed it, Lily had wandered off apparently drunk and ended up here. James sighed heavily before poking her in the back urging her to wake up. Footsteps echoed off the stone walls from outside; Filch and his bloody cat were coming. Ron had dragged Hermione off of the ground and into the tunnel, but James wasn’t having much luck. Lily looked at him viciously before hissing and scurrying up the slide behind Ron.
James threw up his hands irritably. “Whatever,” had just escaped his lips as the door clicked open. He made a mad dash to the tunnel and hurried up it. Mrs. Norris was sniffing around below. All four were now holding their breath. James because he was afraid of being caught and the other three were apparently having a “How long can you hold you breath?” contest. All seemed well. From underneath them they heard “It appears there’s no one here.” But then of all moments Hermione sneezed, loudly. It echoed off the walls of the tunnel and up through the castle.
“Run!” Ron screamed as all four leapt up and dashed out the tapestry and towards the Gryffindor Common Room. There were a few problems here. One, none of them remembered the password and two, the Fat Lady was gone.
“Great,” James muttered.
“Great,” Hermione repeated clapping her hands together like an excited four-year-old. Lily was curled up under the empty frame and Hermione was now slumped beside her. Both were asleep within minutes. Ron and James however, were not so lucky. Coming around the corner was none other then the butterbeer mob.
“There they are!” Seamus snarled with a crazed look in his eyes. Not far behind him were Dean who seemed to be foaming at the mouth and Parvati who was drooling uncontrollably onto Lavender’s robes. Lavender was petting the top of Neville’s head as if it were a dog and Neville was holding one of his shoes like it was a baby. They all held torches and pitchforks, with the exception of Neville.
“Er-Guys, maybe we should talk about this?” Ron offered as he backed up. He then realized he was up against the wall with nowhere to go. The mob was closing in.
“It’s just a little butterbeer,” James moaned as he too slid against the wall. This appeared to be the wrong thing to say because the oncoming mob closed in around them even more. Closing his eyes James gulped. This was how his life was going to end. He could see the headlines of the Daily Prophet now. “Boys Killed by Angry Mob of Drunken Students.”
With his back against the wall Ron felt something poking into his ribs. He slowly pulled out his wand. How could they ever be so stupid? Oh, that’s right they were all drunk. That explains it. He pulled it out and threw it across the hall. Okay, not your normal escape attempt but either way the whole mob went running after the stick. Maybe they wanted to play fetch.
It was then a voice behind them muttered “Do you want in or not? The ruckus woke me up.” It was the Fat Lady; she had returned. A light bulb must have gone off in Hermione’s head jut then because she jumped from her spot on the floor to an upright position. After moving so quickly she got a bad crick in her neck. She rubbed her neck stupidly with one hand and muttered the password “Butterbeer,” of all things.
After clambering through they heard the portrait door close with a snap. Not long after they also heard people throwing themselves against the door trying to get inside, most likely the butterbeer mob. After all that they certainly were not going to let them inside. Anyway, they had all fallen asleep on the floor after coming in. If this is what being drunk on butterbeer is like, I’d hate to see a butterbeer hangover. Oh, that’s right we will see that tomorrow when the Gryffindors wake up. Er-that is if they wake up and decide to get out of bed.