Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

I'm a horrible horrible horrible horrible horrible person! I haven't updated since who knows when and now probably nobody will want to read when I do update. I have 4 days off from school (actually 2 weeks but I went to Paris for a while woot woot) and I'm going to spend my time updating and writing, writing and updating so that I at least update every story once. I'm soooo sorry please do still read my stuff!

Lily stepped slowly off the plane. She was full of excitement for Christmas and she couldn't wait to see what Roxy thought of Taylor. Lily and Taylor had exchanged phone numbers in case one of them had to cancel.

As she walked through the airport towards the baggage claim area, Lily noticed the annoying woman from the plane give her a frightened look and start walking quicker. Lily didn't understand where that was coming from but decided not to give it any thought. But she couldn't help wondering…why had the woman done that? And, Lily now remembered, she had gone all quiet after the compartments blew open.

Lily soon arrived at the baggage claim. She walked around the thing, checking to see if her suitcase was there yet. Suddenly she bumped into someone.

"Oh, I'm sor-" she started when the person turned around. Of course, it was the woman. She shrieked.

"Stay away from me!" she shouted and ran quickly to the other side of the baggage claim. Someone who was apparently her butler (he was dressed in a butler suit) followed her. Lily furrowed her brows and went after them.

"Excuse me, but do you have a problem with me?" she asked.

"Yes! I know what you are! Keep away!"

"What I am? What am I?"

"A witch!" the woman whispered. Lily narrowed her eyes. This woman was just like her sister.

"And why is that such a problem to you?" she said coolly.

"My worthless brother is a wizard. I and my parents were normal. But because of him more of his kind came and killed my parents."

"Oh. I'm so sorry," said Lily.

"No you're not! You're just like them. Well, I won't have it! Stay away or I'll call the police!"

Lily, deeply troubled about this, moved away. She soon recovered her luggage and, still thinking about the woman, left the airport.

After picking up the presents for her friends, Lily hailed a cab and gave the driver her old address. As they were driving she had a wave of nostalgia hit her. There was the Big Ben, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace. A fresh new set of tears hit her. She wiped them away as best she could but couldn't make the memories go away. She had thought coming back to London would make her be able to forget James again but it now seemed impossible.

When they reached the building the driver helped her get her things out of the trunk and drove away. She stood on the curb looking up at her old home, just as it started snowing. Casting a featherweight charm on her things, she got out the key she had kept and walked inside. She climbed the four flights of stairs, feeling another flow of tears coming. She stopped for a moment and sank to the ground. She could remember walking up these stairs after her last date with James, how happy she had been.

After about five minutes, Lily got back up. She straightened her sweater and continued up the stairs. She finally made it to the door and lifted up her hand to knock. Soon she heard footsteps approaching.

"Andrea must finally be back," came Sarah's voice. "I didn't buzz anyone in. Did you?"

"No," answered Roxy.

"Andrea, fina–" Sarah started, opening the door. "Lily?"

"What?" asked Roxy coming up behind her. "Oh my God…Lily?" Lily nodded tearfully.

"Lily? I can't believe it…Lily!" Sarah threw her arms around her friend. "I can't believe you're here!" Roxy pushed her away and took her own turn hugging Lily.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice muffled by Lily's hair.

"I decided to come up for Christmas," sniffed Lily, pulling away and wiping her eyes.

"You should have called! We would have cleaned up your old room a bit," said Sarah. Then she shrugged. "Screw it, I can't believe you're back!"

"I know! It's only until the 27th though."

"At least it's something!" Lily smiled and wiped away her tears.

"I'm so happy to be back with you guys again!" she sniffed, laughing. "I missed you so much."

"We missed you too!" exclaimed Roxy. "Come sit down, tell us about New York!" They all fell onto the couch .

"Yeah, how's the modeling going? You look so great!" said Sarah.

"So do you guys! New York is great. I mean, if you're feeling sad or anything at four in the morning and don't want to be alone you can just go outside and there will be people everywhere. It's the most amazing feeling. But nothing beats being back here!"

"It's so great to have you back!" squealed Roxy and Lily's two best friends tackled her in a huge hug.

It was finally Christmas. Lily, Roxy, Sarah, and Andrea (who had come home an hour after Lily had arrived) had spent the past few days catching up and going to clubs. Remus and Sirius were going to come over to open presents and they had no idea that Lily was going to be there.

She woke up early in the morning and wrapped a green robe around her body. Then she went to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. Sarah appeared soon after, fully dressed. She set up breakfast while Lily got dressed and attempted to wake up Roxy. When Roxy finally rolled out of bed, Lily came back into the kitchen in her sweats.

"I can't wait to see Sirius and Remus again," she said trying to sound cheerful. In the back of her mind she saw the clouded silhouette of a black haired man, but she pushed him away. It would do her no good to dwell on the past.

"They'll be so happy to see you," smiled Sarah. Andrea nodded as she joined her friends. Just at that moment, a knock sounded on the door.

"I'll get it," grumbled Roxy as she walked into the room, rubbing sleep from her eyes. The other three heard her open the door and the voices of Sirius and Remus as they greeted her. She led them into the kitchen where they stopped abruptly.

"L-Lily?" stuttered Remus. After about a minute of silence Sirius finally made a sound.

"Lilsypoo!" he shouted and jumped at her. Lily let out a strangled cry as he wrapped his arms around her crushingly.

"Sirius, I don't know if this means anything to you, but I don't think she can breathe," said Sarah. Andrea rolled her eyes and went to stop her boyfriend from killing her best friend. As soon as he was pulled off, Remus ran over.

"I can't believe you're back!" exclaimed Sirius.

"It's only for a couple of days," Lily gasped against Remus' shoulder.

"Still! You're back! For Christmas! Oh my God!"

"For Merlin's sake, Sirius, don't flip out or anything," said Andrea amusedly.

"Yeah. Psycho," added Roxy.

"Hey," Sirius said, pouting, and he wrapped his arms around Andrea. "Merry Christmas," he mumbled as he kissed her neck.

"Let's go open presents!" suggested Sarah brightly. Remus let go of Lilly and went to put an arm around Sarah's waist. The group walked to the tree and sat down near it.

"I wish we had presents for you," said Remus to Lily.

"Nah, it's fine," she said. "Really, I don't mind," she added after seeing Sirius' face.

"Well, all right then," he said. "Who wants presents?"

The next day, everyone was preparing to go ice skating. They were almost ready to leave, and Lily was anxiously waiting by the intercom for Taylor. Finally the buzzer sounded.

"Hello?" she called into it.

"Lily?" came Taylor's voice.

"Yeah, it's me. I'm glad you're here. Hold on, I'll let you in." After she buzzed him in, her friends came up to her all dressed in their skating gear.

"Who was that?" asked Roxy.

"A wizard from Beauxbatons I met on the plane. I'm hooking you guys up." Roxy's eyes widened. "Just thought you should know." Lily went to put on her coat.

"O-ok?"

"You'll love him. He's into soccer, just like you, and he's really cute," Lily said and winked. Just then a knock sounded on the door. "Come in!" Lily called. The door slowly opened and Taylor came into the room.

"Hello," he said with a smile.

"Hey. Everybody, this is Taylor Stevens. Taylor, this is Andrea, Sirius, Sarah, Remus, and Roxy," Lily said pointing to each person.

"Hi," Taylor said with a wave. When his gaze fell on Roxy he gave her a smile. She felt herself returning it and looked away.

"Well, let's go then!" said Sirius cheerfully and they headed out the door.

"So, apparently, you and I are being 'hooked up'," Roxy said to Taylor as they walked around the rink, watching everyone else skate.

"Yes, I heard that too," said Taylor. They both laughed.

"And how do you feel about that?"

"Pretty good so far." He smiled at her. They were silent for a moment as they stopped walking. He leaned down slightly but then pulled away and resumed walking. Roxy followed him. They watched as Sirius twirled Andrea around and Remus skated behind Sarah with his arms around her. Lily detached herself from the group and skated over to a bench. She sat down and Taylor and Roxy saw her angrily swipe at her cheek.

"She really loved James, didn't she?" Taylor asked quietly.

"Yes. And he loved her too," said Roxy with a note of sadness in her voice.

"It's horrible what happened." Roxy nodded.

"It's killing her."

That night the group of seven went out to a club. Taylor and Roxy were together the whole night until everyone separated to go back home. The four girls had had quite a bit to drink and they were all feeling quite cheerful. They stumbled on the roads, laughing, and talking.

"Did you see how many guys were looking at you, Lil?" Sarah shouted.

"I know! I should have done something, shouldn't I have?" Lily shouted back, laughing.

"Are you over James?" asked Andrea, stumbling a little on a curb. They four were walking with linked arms so the whole line swayed slightly.

"Of course! Don't you remember how he used to torture me at school?" said Lily.

"Six years! It lasted six years! Of course I remember!" replied Andrea.

"I remember the first thing he ever said to you," exclaimed Sarah suddenly.

"Oh, me too!" chimed in Roxy. "It was in first year, on the train. He came into our compartment with Sirius and Remus and looked right into your eyes and said 'Your eyes. They look like emeralds.'" She, Sarah, and Andrea let out a shriek of laughter but Lily was suddenly silent. As the cheering and laughter of her friends faded into the background she let herself be pulled back home with the phrase repeating as a whisper in her head.

Your eyes. They look like emeralds.