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Summary: Lily wasn't the daring type. No, she preferred to read a book than, say, hex Snape into oblivion. She was pretty and shy, and.... well.... that's about all the people really knew about Miss Popular at Hogwarts. If only they knew the truth....

Disclaimer: I own none of the people you recognise.... the others... well... I do! Duh! *snickers at silly readers*

You know, I always wondered why I never got out more.... until I did. Then I understood PERFECTLY why.... but then it was too late! Here's my story of the night I 'opened up to people' as one of my friends called it.

My name is Lily Evans, and this is during my sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry......

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"Christmas Break! We're free from the other people for the whole of Christmas and New Years!" James Potter, the other Gryffindor prefect (I was one that year with him. You should feel sorry for me....) yelled across the deserted common room to where I was reading 'Romeo and Juliet' for about the thousandth time.

I looked up at him with a rather unreadable expression. "I already knew that, James. In fact, it's only you, Remus, and Sirius left out of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw! Snape and Malfoy stayed from Slytherin."

James made a face. "Trust those two slimy gits to stay and ruin my holidays!"

I laughed a bell-like sound and grinned. "Well, at least we can make fun of his hair. Maybe I'll even help you put a hex on him so it gets washed, dried, and cut..."

James smirked. "You know, it's definately nice to have you as my little secret weapon sometimes. Who'd ever think that YOU would hex Snape and Malfoy?"

I glared at him mockingly. "Well, I never.... Of course I'll hex 'em! Those gits won't know what's coming!"

James laughed. "No, I mean most of the students here wouldn't expect it from you..... everyone thinks all you do is study, study, talk to the Marauders about not studying enough, and study some more. Somewhere in there you sleep and eat, but whatever..."

I smirked. "Well, maybe I should do a 180 and let them see just how Lily Evans REALLY is, eh?"

James looked thoughtful.

"Nah!" we decided simultaneously causing a fit of giggles from us both.

"Hey! I'm insulted..... you two are always laughing and joking without me around! And Moony, too!" Sirius Black teased with a puppy-dog face. (He's really good at those... for OBVIOUS reasons!)

I rolled my eyes. "You just don't hang out with us much after everyone else is away. We have our Head Student meetings..."

Sirius wrinkled his nose. "I don't want to know what really goes on in those 'meetings' do I?"

James and I glanced at each other before replying, "No!"

Sirius pulled a face. "That gave me a bad mental image I never wanted to see, guys. Thanks a lot!" he muttered sarcastically.

"You're -" James started to reply.

"Welcome!" I finished with a giggle.

Sirius shook his head at our weirdness. "I will never fully understand why I must be tortured with psychopaths for best friends, really, I won't." he muttered jokingly.

James snorted. "Us? Ha! You're more nuts than Lily, Moony, and me combined!"

Sirius grinned smugly. "Glad you noticed!"

We just snickered at Sirius while he continued to not understand we were insulting him by saying that. Trust Padfoot to muck up everything we say.... *rolls eyes*

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Christmas Eve, three days later......

"It's just after eleven o' clock now.... what're we gonna do 'till it's Christmas? I want to muck around and stuff before midnight, tell everyone Happy Christmas and then go to sleep. Presents tomorrow morning 'cuz I'll be tired by then..." Remus Lupin, otherwise known as the infamous Moony, said rubbing his tanned hands together excitedly.

James, Sirius, and I laughed.

"Well, we could make a nickname for Lily....." Sirius suggested, eyeing me suddenly.

I gave him a weird look and glanced away quickly.

"Do you have a secret animagus form we never knew about? We know about the owl, cat, and -" Sirius burst out laughing, "the er... what was it, Remus? Oh, yeah! The mermaid.... and how did this happen again, Moony?" he asked, not even looking at Remus when he said it.

I gave Sirius a scowling look and he quickly shut up. "You know it wasn't any choice. I couldn't just let Angel die like that!"

James, Remus, and Sirius chuckled.

"We know, Lilz. It's still weird that you're now part mermaid, though. Even if it is like 1%...." James managed finally before giggling again like a girl.

I grinned evilly. "Keep laughing then, Potter! 'Rictusempra'!"

James was suddenly laughing so hard he was crying tears of mirth. They rolled down his cheeks and wet his sweatshirt a little while I sat back and teased him playfully.

"St-op!" he gasped after a few minutes.

"Oh, all right. You're such a spoiler of my fun... Finite Incantem!" I muttered grudgingly and with a swish and flick of my wand, he was able to not be tickled anymore.

James got up and playfully glared at me before checking his watch. "Five minutes!"

Everyone gasped from anticipation and excitement.

"5.... 4.... 3..." I said.

"2... 1!" James finished happily.

"HAPPY CHRISTMAS!" the Marauders and I bellowed at the top of our voices. Simultaneously we swished our wands and streamers fo every color showered upon the room like a New Year's party.

Everyone hugged and each of the Marauders gave me a friendly kiss on the lips as a welcome to Christmas morning. It had always been a tradition with us...

After we hugged and everything, Remus tossed out our presents, dividing them into seperate chairs and onto couch cushions when the chair overflowed. What can Is say? We were popular...

"Wow, thanks, Remi!" I gasped after opening the book I'd been searching for for ages. ('Advanced Charms Volume V')

The other guys just gaped at me. Well, except James...

"You're actually onto THAT volume?!? You study too much, Lily..." Sirius muttered with a sigh.

I rolled my eyes. "Actually I read them so we can curse Snape and Malfoy in ways they've never heard of before. There's also this really awesome charm I'm reading about called the Concealment Charm we can use to make ourselves or other objects invisible AND soundproof! By the way, it's ONLY volume 10 out of 20!"

The Marauders all adopted evil grins. "Look out, Snape! You and your git boyfriend are in for it now!" Peter exclaimed happily.

I giggled and nodded as the boys whooped and cheered my ideas.

James opened one of his -- from Remus -- next..... "Bloody Hell, Moony! This is awesome!"

Remus grinned broadly. "Thought you'd like it, Prongs. After all... who wouldn't like a copy of '1000 of the Best Pranks in History'?"

I smirked. "McGonagall wouldn't. It'd be a horrid reminder of us after we graduate from here!"

The boys glanced at each other then at me. "Grad present to McGonagall, check!" we exclaimed simultaneously, causing us all to laugh.

"Ooo, she'll hate us forever for this one!" Sirius chuckled a bit later as they planned everything they would write to McGonagall inside the book as er... 'memories of her favorite students' as we called it.

After all the presents were opened, I glanced around the room to survey the present piles in front of each of us. James had the biggest followed closely by mine, then Sirius and Remus with a few less than me, and poor Peter..... he only had his presents from us, one from his mother and father, and another from his older sister who had already gone to Hogwarts before our time....

I had gotten the charms book, candy from Peter (all my favourite flavors of course), a new cloak from Sirius for sneaking out at night (black with silver fastenings), and a pretty charm bracelet from James. There was something.... odd.... about that bracelet, but I wasn't sure what it was at that point.

"James, what's er.... different about this bracelet? I mean besides that it's georgeous and all....?" I asked after Peter had carried his presents upstairs.

James looked up at me from his present pile and gave me a pointed look then glanced at Sirius and Remus. I looked down and continued to gather my things, delaying my time downstairs coming to an end.

Finally, Remus and Sirius left, telling Prongs to hurry up and get some sleep. James instantly flounced onto the couch so I sat beside him. Well, not RIGHT beside him, but on the same general area of the couch....

"I'm not sure..... I was in the new store in Hogsmeade, and the sales clerk asked me to describe you. She showed me the bracelet after I was done, and it seemed perfect." James admitted after a minute

I smiled warmly at him. "That's actually really..... sweet, James. Thank you. Care to tell me what the charms represent?"

James blinked and tensed a little. "It's sort of corny..."

I shrugged. "So? Tell me."

He sighed and took the bracelet, gently laying it across his palm to look at it better. After a few moments of silence, he began to explain.

"The wand with sparkles is for you being a witch, the little teddy bear is like the one Sirius gave to you in first year while you were sick in the Hospital Wing where Snape hexed you with the Wizard Flu, this tiny book is for your love of reading, the telephone is for our talks on the phone for hours during summer break, and this one...." James paused, looking up at me from the bracelet momentarily.

I looked back at him, patiently waiting for him to tell me what the last charm was. It had an odd shape, but I recognised it from somewhere...

"This is a magical charm. Of a stag..... this way, whenever you wear the bracelet I'm always here to keep you company.... whether you need it or not!" James finished with a playful wink.

I grinned. "Cool! I bet I can even charm it to connect with your senses and talk to you sort of through it. It's a really complex spell I read about last year over the summer. It does something with the object you charm and the thing it represents. Since the charm represents you, I can charm you... sort of..... to be able to talk to me through the charm. Then I can charm the charm to talk to me through telepathy, and we'll be telepathic to each other."

James smirked. "You really do know too many spells, Lily. It's just scary! You're brilliant, don't get me wrong.... but it's scary."

I laughed. "I try!"

I stood up and drug him off the couch, falling on top of him as he sank lazily to the floor from his weight.

Mock-glaring and scowling at him, I stood up and he stood up after me with a cute little smirk playing onto his lips slightly.

He glanced upwards and his grin widened. "It seems we fell just beneath the mistletoe, Lily."

I looked up and swallowed rather hard. Magical mistletoe was different from the muggle kind. Once you kissed, it could make your lips locked for who knew how long if it wanted to.... You also couldn't move from under it until you kissed whoever was there with you.

James smirked impishly and encircled my waist with his strong and muscular arms from quidditch and looked into my eyes, his own showing caution.

I was rather amused by the caution James surveyed me with as he lowered his mouth to mine. Like he didn't want to hurt me, and was telling me without words how he felt.

As the distance closed between James's mouth and mine, I noticed how perfectly our lips fit together. Like peices of a puzzle, precisely fitting together like it was supposed to match or something. It gave me shivers later on thinking back and remembering that night.....

We tried to pull away after a couple of seconds, but the mistletoe seemed to have other ideas. Our faces were magically glued together, and it was rather embarassing to say the least...

"BLOODY HELL! MOONY, WORMTAIL COME HERE! PRONGS AND LILY! AAAAAHHH!" Sirius yelleds at the top of his lungs.

There was a parade of crashings like elephants as the two boys bounded down the staircase and stood next to Sirius, smirking, of course, at our predicament.

I let go of James and made a rather erm..... not-so-nice gesture to Sirius (who was of course commenting on how he wanted to godfather of the kid and stuff. Typical of him...), successfully making him shut up.

"Sor-ry! I was just saying -" Sirius muttered grouchily.

"Shut it, Padfoot! Look where they're standing. That damn mistletoe must have gotten 'em. Right, guys?" Remus reasoned evenly.

James and I gave a thumbs up from their lip-locked position.

Suddenly, James realized that the mistletoe simply wanted a little *more* kiss before we could be let go. He sort of shrugged and begged me silently not to shoot him before kissing me again. (A/N: Well, even though our lips had been together they hadn't been really KISSING after a few minutes ago. Get it?)

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