Summary: Lily Evans only went to the party because her roommate forced her too… But she was very glad she went. No Voldie in this one... PostHogwarts... Basically this is some rather unrealistic but nevertheless lurvely PWP...but that's sort of the definition of a Lily/James fic anyway, isn't it? ;)...enjoy!

Pairing: Lily/James

Disclaimer: Of course it's not mine… if it were --- sigh… daydreams for a few hours--- no one would be dead! Plus they'd be doing much more ---ahem--- entertaining stuff than just saving the world… lol

Note: It's AU – you'll figure it out in a little while, but the main thing is no Voldie… He'd just be in the way. And no one likes him anyway. I mean, really, who here thinks that the Potters should have died? Let's have a show of hands...yeah, didn't think so! And what about poor little Sirius Black? Now that was an unnecessary death if I ever saw one. He was hot! He shouldn't have died...sigh. Anyway, on with the show...

Chapter 1

Reflections

Lily Evans stared at her reflection in the mirror. She sighed. Ugh. Disgusting! If only she looked more like her roommate Saer…

Saer was tall and slender, with an aggravatingly small waist and incredibly long legs. She had long blond hair that Lily swore reflected sunlight; it was so fucking blindingly beautiful. She had a huge smile with perfect white teeth and, although her face might have been what you would call classicly beautiful, it had a sort of glow to it that drew people to her like moths toa flame. Most annoying of all,she was one of those people who you'd think would be sort of stuck up or even downright bitchy, but she was actually a really nice person...if not the best roommate. Really, she was actually quite dreadful in that area. The apartment was absolutely covered with her stuff, to the point that it took a good 5 minutes to walk from one side of the living room to the other. But she and Lily got along so well that it didn't matter much. Except, today, Lily wasn't really feeling that. In fact, right now, Lily was feeling really annoyed.

Physically, Lily was almost Saer's opposite. Lily was petite, at 5'2", with a wiry frame and light, creamy skin, that was sprinkled with freckles no matter what "fool proof, works on everyone" magical creams or gels she used. She had even tried a spell she read in a magazine once. Lily couldn't help giggling now, remembering it. To say that it had been a bit of a mistake was a vast understatement. Her face had been green for a week! Anyway, back to the reflection at hand. Lily's eyes were a shocking emerald green, and her long hair was a fiery red. Fuck! Thought Lily. I'm hideous!

This was, of course, not true at all. But Lily wasn't exactly feeling so peachy right now. She had broken up with her boyfriend of two years just 3 weeks ago. Never mind that Lily was the one that had done the actual "It's not working out… let's just be friends," etc. She still felt horrible about it. She wasn't even sure why she'd done it. Jack was a great guy – sweet, smart, and completely loyal to Lily (like a bloody puppy dog, she thought, unkindly). But she just woke up one morning and realized she wasn't in love with him. In fact, he was kind of getting on her nerves. This realization didn't come from the middle of nowhere – it had been there for a while, in the back of her mind, but she just didn't want to face it. But she did. And, well…she felt sort of liberated…she guessed. Mostly just grumpy, and annoyed that she'd wasted a whole two years of her life. Damnit, what was wrong with her? Lily moaned silently. Why could she never meet the right guy? At 24, she was still young… but not that young. It would be nice to meet someone… which brought her back to the subject at hand. The party. That Saer was forcing her to go to. That was the last thing Lily wanted to do right now. But Saer thought it would be good for her. Bah. Humbug! What was wrong with a nice month-long mope? Damnit, no one ever left her alone!

At that very moment, Lily heard Saer's voice from the other room of the 2-bedroom flat.

"You are getting ready, right? And not just sitting there, pouting?"

Lily jumped, guiltily, realizing that she had, in fact, been doing just that for… Oh, bloody hell! 45 minutes!

And she was still in her sweat pants and Winnie the Pooh pajama shirt! Going into getting-ready-quickly mode that she always used to use when she slept late at Hogwarts, Lily sprang up from the stool she was sitting on, and flew to her closet, to the outfit she had decided on earlier. It was a simple green halter top, with a flouncy black mini skirt and sparkly high heels. She threw it on, and smiled at her reflection in the mirror, albeit a bit weakly. The halter really did look good, she reassured herself. It brought out the color in her eyes so well. And her legs were pale, and not so long compared to Saer's, but they were smooth and wonderfully slender – skinny, really, and the skirt made them look quite…good.

There was no time to worry anyway. Lily opened her makeup drawer, and wrinkled her nose in disgust. She almost never wore makeup, so she only owned the dollar-store variety (though some of it was made for witches, most of it was muggle), and a few nice lipsticks and glosses and stuff that people had given her as presents. She fished these out, and set to work. 10 minutes later (Ok, maybe 15… or 20), Lily was bronzed, blushed, glossed, shadowed, and mascaraed. She was almost ready to go. After a moment's hesitation, he decided to leave her hair down, letting it flow down her back in soft waves – smooth, shiny and soft from its recent deep conditioning (another thing dear ol' Saer had forced her to do. Argh! She had to admit that she liked the effect, though.) Lily looked at her reflection one more time before taking a deep breath and turning her back to the mirror.Okay, so itdid feel good to know she looked nice, Lily thought, even though she usually despised vanity. It just made her more… confidant, and free to think about other things, knowing she looked alright.

Lily smiled slightly. Maybe, just maybe, this party would be ok after all.