A/N: It's been a while! And all I can say is sorry, and on with the story! It is far too late and I am far too tired to write anything else! (It's kinda funny because it's not really that late where I am, I'm just insanely tired haha) As always, thank you all for the reviews, you know how much they mean to me!

Enjoy :)

Dear Mum, Dad, and Petunia

I know I was supposed to be coming home from Marlene's this afternoon but there has been a change of plan! Somebody has stolen all the floo powder (the stuff I use to get from place to place), and so I'm stuck unless I want to fly home by broomstick, and I don't. I'm staying at James Potter's house until the situation gets sorted out, but shouldn't be more than a few days, a week at the most, don't worry.

James Potter's family is very respectable, Mum, and his parents are here, as well as Sirius Black, and his girlfriend Simone.

I'll be fine, don't worry about me, and I'll see you soon!

Love,

Lily.

Lily dear,

Are you sure you can't fly home? You know it is Petunia's rehearsal dinner in a few days and she'll be very upset if you aren't there. Even if you aren't a bridesmaid, I'm sure she'd really appreciate it if you came; you two are sisters, after all.

And who is this boy you are staying with? Why aren't you staying at Marlene's?

We have a lot to talk about when you get home, young lady.

Love,

Mum, Dad and Petunia.

Mum,

You know Petunia would be glad if I didn't turn up.

And I've told you about James before- the immature one, remember? Marlene is coming over tomorrow, so there will be even more supervision on me!

Love,

Lily.

Lily Evans,

You know your sister cares about you! She will be extremely disappointed if you don't turn up, as will I.

You had better be there, in appropriate dress, and with a date, at seven pm. The restaurant is called 'Mango,' but feel free to come home first, if it fits into your life.

I don't know what to do with you sometimes, Lily. One minute you hate this boy and now you're staying at his house! Marlene must be there or you will be grounded when you come home.

Love,

Mum.

Mars,

I know there's no floo powder, but could you pretty pretty please with a cherry on top come to James's house tomorrow and bring some clothes for me as well as my wand? I already told my mum you were coming so I'm dead if you don't! And James says it's fine and that there is a less than zero percent chance of you being attacked while flying (although he didn't tell me why), so you'll be fine! Not that you don't like taking risks.

I'd love you forever if you came!

Love love love,

Lily.

Lily,

I don't like cherries, remember? Sigh.

But I suppose I can brave the dangers of the outside world and come to you.

See you tomorrow!

Marlene the Great.

P.S Since when do you call James, James? Be prepared for questioning Lily Evans, I know there's something you're not telling me!

P.P.S I hope you're alright since the hide and seek thing. Love you.

Marlene,

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I owe you!

See you soon!

Love,

Lily.

P.S Yes, I'm mainly fine, just not dwelling on it. Love you too.

Mum,

I'll try my best to come, but I can't promise anything. I'll see you when I see you.

I have to go now.

Love,

Lily.

Letting out a deep sigh Lily fixed the last two notes to Marlene and her Mum to James's owl and watched as it set off out the window into the sunset. She waited until it was just a speck on the horizon before getting to her feet and stretching, loosening out the kinks in her back. She was suddenly very exhausted and every step she took out of the owlery in the west wing of the Potter mansion took more effort than the last. When she finally reached the kitchen, it was all she could do to slump down at the large dining table. The excitement of the last two days were fast catching up to her, and as she rested her head upon her forearms for just a second, she felt herself drifting off into a dreamless slumber.

A loud squeak followed by a crash woke her half an hour later and she jerked upright, looking around the room wildly for the source of the noise.

"Sorry Miss Lily!" cried a voice from beside the leg of her chair. She looked down and took in the quivering form of Tinky the house elf.

"Tinky was startled and Tinky didn't mean to wake Miss Lily!" To Lily's astonishment the little elf started banging her head against the chair leg while chanting "Bad Tinky, bad Tinky!" The vibrations from the force of which Tinky was hitting her head against Lily's chair got more and more violent until Lily reached out apprehensively and took the small creature's shoulders and pushed her away from the chair.

"Er- Tinky. It's fine. There's no need to, um, punish yourself." Glancing away awkwardly as she tried to find suitable words to stop a house elf from hurting itself, her eyes found the large clock on the wall. Lily let out a shout of shock, all thoughts of Tinky flying out of her mind.

"Seven o'clock?! Thank you for waking me up Tinky, I owe you!" she yelled over her shoulder, already halfway out the door and into the corridor.

Less than a minute later she burst into Sirius's room, panting.

"Come on, Black! We need to go to dinner!"

Sirius gave her a look, eyebrows raised.

"Evans, I am not going to dinner with you looking like that. Go and take a bloody shower while I transfigure you an outfit. Merlin knows you need one; I don't know how James didn't wake up when you bought that smell into his bed last night."

Lily gasped, affronted. "Black! How dare you! Why, you arrogant little-"

"Alright, alright! You're not that bad, okay? But you do need to take one; you're looking a bit bedraggled. The plan won't work if you're not looking delicious."

"Humph." Lily turned on her heel and stalked towards the door.

"Third on your left," came Sirius's amused voice from her behind her.

"I knew that," Lily said, before exiting the room and making her way towards the bathroom. When she reached the door that apparently contained the bathroom, she hesitated slightly, not wanting to disturb anyone who could be lurking inside. Oh to hell with it! She thought, and heaved the heavy oak door open. She made it barely two steps inside before the grandeur of the room stopped her in her tracks. No way was this the bathroom Sirius and James used.

The room was much larger than she had expected, and was a pristine white all over, from tile floor to the papered walls, with gold accents warming the room in the form of taps and wall edging. To Lily's left was a deep, octagonal bath the size of a small pool set into the floor, with warm water already inside, the steam rising from the surface in spirals and shimmering slightly in the golden light from the tiny lights inset in the ceiling that looked like tiny golden stars. On the wall above the pool-bath were racks and racks of fluffy white towels adorning the wall. Lily tore her gaze from them and saw that to her right was a vanity sink. But not just any sink. This one was larger than any she had ever seen before and was entirely made out of marble. The sink was large and square, with a huge mirror stretching from wall to wall above it. A small stool covered in ruffled white and gold material sat in front of the structure, an arch in the vanity where her knees would be able to rest easily.

Lily finally remembered to close her mouth, before making her way over to the sink and opening one of the many gold-handled drawers at random. It was filled with nail polishes of every shade she could ever have imagined. She shut that and opened another drawer. Cotton buds, balls and wipes were stacked inside neatly, while another drawer contained stacks and stacks of eye shadows. It seemed this vanity contained everything. At least she wouldn't need to worry about having no make up, she thought in relief. Letting out a shaky breath, Lily made her way towards the bath. She wasn't really a bath person, but it was hard to think about that when she was presented such a magnificent specimen. Halfway there, however, she noticed a door she hadn't seen at first. It was the same white as the walls and blended in- the only reason she had noticed it at all was because there was a golden handle jutting out of the wall. Lily opened the door curiously and found herself looking down a short corridor illuminated by the same lights from the ceiling, only they were in the walls at ankle height, lighting the way like an aeroplane landing strip. She came out of the corridor, looked up and stared straight into her own eyes. The entire back wall was a mirror.

"Oh God…" Lily mumbled. She wasn't exactly ashamed of her body, but the thought of having to see herself showering was off-putting.

"Go away, mirror…" she grumbled, turning her eyes away from the offending wall feature just in time to miss seeing it shimmer and disappear. Instead, Lily was examining the contents of a wall hanging cupboard. There were hairdryers, straightners and curlers inside that could easily have been the property of Evelyn Winters, winner of Witch Weekly's best hair for 1975, and Marlene's idol. Thinking of what her friend's reaction would be to the hair products made Lily chuckle, and with a smile on her face she turned around to face the previously mirrored wall. The smile slid off her face like a knife through butter when she realised it wasn't there anymore.

"What the…" Bemused, Lily shook her head and walked to the glass shower that spread over the entire length of the room- almost three metres- and had shower heads at both ends. Lily whistled in appreciation before stripping off and climbing inside. The water came on automatically.

"Gaah!" she cried in shock. "How do I turn the temperature down? It's bloody hot!"

Instantly, the water cooled down to a bearable degree.

"Oookay…Shampoo?"

Shampoo dropped down from the ceiling in a stream, and Lily hastily stuck her head underneath the stream. It didn't stop coming out, though, and soon it was running into her eyes and mouth, dripping onto the shower floor.

"Stop!" she yelled, spitting shampoo out of her mouth and screwing her eyes up in pain. Hopping around and shaking her head in agony Lily cursed ferociously.

"Bloody shower!" she ground out angrily, just before she hopped directly below the shower head and bashed her forehead against it.

"Don't you dare bruise!" reaching an arm out towards the wall to stabilise herself, and lifting her other hand to touch the lump on her head gingerly.

Of course, the stabilising thing did not quite go to plan. She undershot by about three centimetres and at the same time as her hand was flailing around, her foot landed in a puddle of the shampoo that had flooded out of the ceiling only moments earlier, causing both feet to fly out from underneath her and deposit her flat on her arse. Lily bit her lip to stop the expletives from flowing forth along with the tears of pain that had welled up in her eyes. Not wanting to risk standing up again, Lily crawled to the shower doors and pushed them open, before making her way carefully down the corridor on her hands and knees and into the huge bath inside the first room. She sighed as she sunk into the neck deep water. Maybe baths were alright after all.

After she had safely managed to clean herself in the bath with no major accidents-banging her hip on a sneaky underwater tap didn't count- she climbed out carefully and wrapped herself in a huge towel, then shuffled over to the vanity to sit down.

Seeing as there was no way she was entering the shower chamber of death again, Lily resigned herself to the thought that she'd just have to go to dinner with wet hair. Or maybe not, actually… Reaching out and closing her hand over a golden handle, Lily said "hairdryers" loudly and clearly, and then pulled the drawer open. Sure enough, there was a hairdryer. Lily squeaked in excitement and proceeded to get ready for the evening using this new technique.

"Black! Can I come in yet?"

Lily had been standing out in the corridor in her towel for the last five minutes, and her patience was starting to wear thin.

"No yet, Evans! I'm not done!"

"Oh for Gods sake! What if someone sees me in my towel?!"

"I bet they'd like that a lot," came a cheeky voice from behind her. Lily whirled around in time to see James disappear into his own room with a towel around his hips.

"Hey!" she yelled indignantly after him. A girl had to have at least a little respect for herself.

"Alright Evans, you can come in now!"

"Finally," Lily grumbled as she turned the handle to his room and trudged inside. Sirius was standing in the centre holding up a… thing on a coat hanger and beaming proudly. "Ta daa!" he said, waving the thing at Lily. "Come try it on!"

"Oh hell no." The thing was hideous. There was no way she was going to wear that to dinner. It looked like Sirius had blended the grey curtains from his windows and the magenta bedspread together to form some sort of toga shaped dress with absolutely no shape, which would surely hang down to her mid-calf if she put it on. Evidentially, Sirius had thought it was too plain, and had therefore taken a garish bright green and red polka-dot tie and attached it to the 'dress' so it acted as a collar- although it only reached around one side of the neckline. The whole thing was truly horrid.

"What?" Sirius looked at her, a crestfallen look spreading over his face.

"Er- I'm just shocked you made it all by yourself," Lily lied, missing the mischievous glint in his eye. "It's really really good! Are you sure you're not gay? You've got a brilliant eye for fashion!"

Her painfully sincere sounding comments were too much for Sirius to take, and he burst out laughing, clutching his sides for breath.

"You prat!" Lily laughed, whacking him on the arm. "Alright, where's the real one?"

Still giggling, Sirius made his way to the wardrobe and pulled out a midnight blue dress with a v neck and a light, floaty, chiffon skirt. Lily smiled widely. "That's more like it!"

After shimmying into it and giving herself a once-over in the mirror, she took Sirius's outstretched arm and, taking a deep breath, followed him downstairs

A/N: Not meaning to be blackmaily here or anything... ;) But if you would be so kind as to review it would make me infinitely more motivated, and therefore chapters would come out much faster! It's a win-win situation: I'm happy, you're happy. So review! (Please?)

Happy new year if I do not get the chance to wish you so before then :)

-Sophia