Attention, good people. I need a BETA. And I'm not quite sure how to get one with the thing on the site.. I'm rather stupid when it comes to computers and following instructions. Also, I need someone to inspire me to keep writing. SO, just let me know if you're interested… My grammar usually isn't too bad, but I don't like reading back over what I wrote, which isn't a good thing.


Over the next few weeks, Lily received letters from Jarnsettfe on a weekly basis. The letters always came to her at the end of the school week, which was usually enough to leave her sighing romantically in her room for hours every Friday. Although she loved the idea of the words, she couldn't ignore the feeling of betrayal inside of her. It was like she had an obligation was to someone else.

James wanted to tell her that he was the one who had been sending her the letters, but he didn't want to ruin things for her. She seemed so happy when she got the letters, but he knew that she wouldn't feel the same way if she knew that James had been the one writing them.

In order to make absolutely sure that Lily didn't know the identity of Jarnsettfe, James began acting out, orchestrating more and more pranks with the Marauders.

Soon, the weather began to change, and as students huddled together by fires to keep themselves warm, James was pondering ways to start his own fire-of looove…………………erm.

As was often his habit, James climbed to the top of a snowy hill to watch the sun set, but as he reached the top, he saw a glint of something red… FIRE?!

He began hurling snow blindly as fast as he could, and he only stopped when all signs of red had disappeared from view. A second later, Lily surfaced from the snow.

"Potter!!"

"Oh, hello Lily. You didn't happen to be on fire, did you?"

"No!"

"Ah well then I must have thought that your head was on fire again. That happens quite a lot."

"Really? I hadn't noticed."

"You poor dummy. So what are you doing up here?"

"Just reading." She sighed dreamily and held up her latest letter from Jarnsettfe. "He really is the most amazingly romantic guy I've ever met."

"Ahh," James 'Ahhed'. "The amazing Jarnsettfe. But how do you know you've met him?"

"Well I had to have met him at one point, don't you think?"

"I suppose…" James purposefully looked away. There was a slight pause.

"… You know something," she said slowly, squinting her eyes like she was trying to understand.



"What? How could-"

"Shut up. Yes you do. You just purposefully looked away."

"Pft- that? Well maybe...maybe the glare from your flaming head hurt my delicate eyes, and I could no longer stand the agony of looking at you. So I looked away."

"Potter. Now."

"Well since you asked so nicely. See, the thing about him is-"

BLAM!

He threw a pile of snow in her face and took off, sprinting as fast as his wee potter legs would take him. Finally, he stopped running, still laughing at the mental picture of Lily with snow in her face.

"What a dummy-ARGH-"

SECOND BLAM!

She tackled him from behind, then proceeded to shove powdery snow up his nose. When she finally stopped, they both just sat in silence for a second.

"James, you look rather like a coke whore." He wiped his nose and pouted. She elbowed him playfully. "Aww, you're no fun. Now we even. Will you tell me?"

"Maybe," he said with his bottom lip still sticking out.

"….Alright…."

"Nope."

"Oh come on now. What do I have to do to get you to tell me?"

"I cannot, under any circumstances, reveal his identity."

"Ok." She thought for a second. "Then can you just tell me something about him?"

"That I can do," he allowed. She instantly cheered. "For a price…." Her face fell.

"You're going to take a page out of Black's book, aren't you?"

"Hmm.. . Well let me check." He pulled a small black book from his pocket that had the title "Sirius Black's 33 Step Guide to Getting the Girl." After thumbing through the pages for a couple of seconds, he smiled and tore the page out. He handed said page to Lily.

"Damn. You are a sick, sick bastard, Potter."

"Yes, of course."

"Exchanging kisses for information, you slimy grease ball? It's sickening, but you have yourself a deal."

"Really?!"

"Yeah. A kiss is just a kiss, and it will prove once and for all that there is nothing between us."

"Yes ma'am. Super. Ok so he- WAIT! A kiss on the lips, right?"

She flinched. "Yes."

He let out a silly giggle and began. "Ok so, I suppose he's a rather decent wizard. And a few girls thing he's good looking… And he really is in love with you. He annoys his friends quite a lot with his constant Lily talk." He smiled and looked at her; she was smiling too. But it was a smile meant for another guy.

He immediately froze. "I- have to get out of here. I can't-"

He swiftly rose and sprinted away.

"Wait!" Lily yelled to the retreating figure, "What about the kiss?" Feeling inexplicably disappointed, she sighed as she watched the rest of the sun disappear behind the mountains.


Things were normal, yet still a bit strained, between Lily and James over the next couple of days. James had been engaging in one of his favorite activities, 'watching Lily read.' This was second only to 'watching Lily walk.' She looked up from her book and began gazing longingly out the window at the perfect blanket of snow that had settled over the grounds.

"Something wrong?" James questioned.

"No, not really. I just so want to go outside to see the snow. It's probably one of my favorite things in the whole world."

"Uhm- the why don't you?"

She held up her book. "Studying. I do wish I could though. You know what I've wanted more than nearly anything since I was little? An entire castle made of ice and snow. Not a huge one, but big enough for me to fit. I used to wish for that every Christmas. I'm always too busy, though. That sounds rather lame, doesn't it?"

"Eh. Yes." She made a shocked face and threw a pillow at him. "But I used to want an easy bake oven for Christmas. I'd say that is considerably more lame. My mom's friend who was a muggle used to have one. I tried to steal it so I hid it in my pants. I so would have gotten away with it, except cookies started falling out of my butt."

There was a moment of reflective silence.

"That's special, James."

"Quite. Hey! You called me James."

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did. You said 'That's special, James.'"

"No no no. I said 'That's special pain.'"

"What is special pain?"

She pinched him.

"You're mean."

"You poop cookies."


The Christmas Holidays rolled around, and Lily didn't feel up to dealing with Petunia, so she decided to stay at Hogwarts. Since Lily was staying, James was staying. Since James was staying, Courtney and Adelle decided to stay in order to protect Lily. Remus and Sirius just felt left out, so they decided to stay, as well. And so it was that the six of them were to stay at Hogwarts over the break. It had nothing to do with the immense attraction between Lily and James, Sirius and Adelle, and Remus and Courtney. No, no.

As there were so few students staying at the school, Dumbledore decided to have a bit of a party on Christmas Eve. The six of them, plus a couple of other cool kids, joined the teachers in the Great Hall at 8:00 for dinner.

They started off with a lavish 5-course meal, which was followed by wizard crackers. Dumbledore tugged on one, and out popped a variety of pins. One landed in front of Lily that said "Lily Potter." She gave James a death glare as he laughed along with the others, but in good spirit, she put it on for the rest of the night.

Shortly after, Dumbledore led Professor McGonagall to the middle of the room for a dance, and t ether teachers followed. Remus stood and offered his hand to Courtney, who accepted it with a sweet smile. Only the 4 stubborn teenagers were left sitting in an awkward silence.

"Hem hem. Lily, would you like to dance?" James asked in a deep voice?

"No."

"Oh I'm sorry. You misunderstood me. I said 'You look fat in those pants.'"

"….How original. Really. And I'm wearing a dress, booger face."

"Touché. And what a lovely dress it is. That emerald color is fabulous with your hair. And the fit; to die for! It hugs you in all the right places, and yet you don't look like a tramp. Well done, really. Oh! Is that silk?" he squealed.

"Now, James, I'm going to ask you something , and I don't want you to take it the wrong way. Are you gay?"

"No, but some people think so. Cause I've never had a girlfriend and I'm never interested when they point out a pretty girl or try to set me up."

"Why's that?"

"I guess you could say I have very specific taste."

Sirius cut in. "Very specific. He likes dark red hair, green eyes, about 5'5", wonderfully gifted, beautiful, and fiery. They must also look stunning in a close-fitting emerald dress and must have a name that starts with an 'L' and ends with a 'y.'"

"Loopy Lovegood then?" Lily questioned. "He does wear some pretty fantastic cocktail dresses."

"He does look rather fantastic doesn't he?" Sirius said as they all looked across the room at Loopy.

"Well," Lily said as she got to her feet, "As much as I would love to sit here and listen to Sirius fawn over Loopy Lovegood, I think I'll accept that dance now, Potter, on account of I'm getting really weirded out."

James smiled and jumped to his feet. "Excellent."

He led her out to the dance floor, and the two danced for a moment in silence.

"You really do look stunning in that dress, you know."

She blushed a bit and looked down. "Thank you."

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

"Yes, of course. I'm just a little warm. Why?"

"You've just been looking a bit sad. For the past couple of weeks, actually.

"Oh, yes. That," she said, looking down again. "Just confused."

"Jarnsettfe?"

She nodded.

"Let me guess. Since you don't know who is writing the letters, you don't know who to direct your feelings towards, or even if it is a good idea, because you could turn out to love someone that you would never have loved had it not been for the letters. Also,this is a wild guess here but I suppose it would be pretty bad if you previously had some interest in someone else. Now you think it's impossible that he wrote the letters, so you're completely torn, and you're trying not to invest too much heart in the letters or in the person. You don't know what to do, so you're trying to give up on the person you previously liked because he couldn't possibly be as romantic or as perfect as Jarnsettfe," James finished, thinking that the person she had previously like was Aidan.

"Uh- yeah. That about sums it up," she said, rather shocked at his insightfulness. She gave him a strange look.

"What?" he asked, "You don't think I'm completely daft all the time, do you?"

She just continued to stare.

"No one is as perfect in real life as they are on paper, Lily. You have to realize that," he said, trying to make her think of him this time, not Aidan. "In person, when you're with the one you love, you can't always think of the right thing to say because you're too worried about remembering not to look stupid, right?"

"I think I may have misjudged you, James."

They had gradually stopped moving, and were just starting into the other's eyes as if they were looking for some sort of explanation for what was happening between them.

All of a sudden, they heard a wolf whistle and both of their heads jerked towards its source. The music had stopped. and it was silent except for someone's awkward cough. All eyes were on the Lily and James, who were still holding eachother. They immediately jumped away. Still no noise.

"Sexual tension's a bitch, ain't it?" Sirius' voice echoed through the hall. "Alright, back to your business, people," he said shooing them away. Gradually, people dispersed and started murmuring and laughing.

Lily walked to the side and sat down, dizzy with confusion and embarrassment. The truth was, it was James that she had liked before she had even started receiving the letters. She supposed she had always liked him, but he'd been different lately. Better. And he had guessed spot-on. She was torn between James and Jarnsettfe.

She glanced over at him. He had two pieces of baby corn up his nose and was pretending to be a walrus with Sirius.

"Mature," she mumbled. She had to tell herself something to get her mind off of how handsome he looked in his dress robes.

He looked over at her and the baby corn fell out of his nose. He gave a sheepish grin, and she couldn't help but laugh. He stood up and offered her his arm. "May I escort you back to your room?"

She laughed. "You may."




After a long walk filled with witty conversation and freakishly accurate impersonations of Filch, the pair finally arrived at the staircase that led up to Lily's dorm.

"Well, thank you, James. I had a surprisingly good time tonight."

"As did I."

"Goodnight. Happy almost-Christmas," she said, leaning in and kissing him tenderly on the cheek. She turned without another word and started up the stairs.

"Wait!" he said, grabbing her arm and pulling her back towards him.

"James, don't ruin it. I owed you that one," she said, smiling.

He had the strongest urge to lean in and kiss her and hold her all night long; to tell her he loved her-

"Uh, Happy Christmas, Lily."

She nodded slightly and retreated up the stairs.

"Hey!" he yelled after her, "That was supposed to be a kiss on the-"

The door slammed.

"…lips."


James (rather violently) threw himself onto his four-poster and touched his flaming cheek, wishing she had felt what he had.

...

Lily sank onto her bed and screamed into her pillow before softly touching her now tingling lips.

...

They both sighed.


AN: Ahh I got a bit mushy at the end, but I can't be completely random ALL the time.

BETAS: in case you didn't read the top, I need one of you. Cause I hate reading over my work. I don't know how to use the thing on fanfiction, and I would rather have someone who is already reading the story.

It would keep me motivated! Look how freaking long this chapter is. And only two days after the last one.



And I lied about not wanting reviews. I rather do now. So click the little button, and I will do something special for you. I don't know what. But I will surely think of something.