A/N: Sorry for the delay, but as I think I said last chapter, I was in San Francisco and couldn't write much while I was there. This chapter is dedicated to Silk399 who was the 100th reviewer! Hope you like it. Enjoy!

Lily knew a lot of people were coming to the Potters for Christmas Eve, but she was definitely not expecting over a hundred people to arrive.

Earlier, that morning, she had been woken up by a bouncing Lily Luna who kept chanting about a party that was being held up there. Lily had jumped so high in the air that she fell out of her bed. She didn't have anything to wear for this party! Why didn't they tell her about this the day before, when they were in Diagon Alley? And it was while she panicked, that her salvation appeared in the form of one Ginny Potter, holding out a beautiful gold dress.

"I wore it for my oldest brother Bill's wedding." she had said giving Lily a heart-warming smile. "I think it will fit you."

So here she was now, standing in the middle of the bedroom she shared with her granddaughter (even though she was unaware of this fact), wearing the golden dress, high heels, and make-up, which had been forced upon by Lily Luna and Rose. Both of them had their dressing robes on as well. Lily Luna's was sky-blue, and Rose's was marine blue. The three red-heads had shoved the guys away from the room as soon as Rose made her appearance at four in the afternoon. Several charms had been placed outside so that they would know if someone who was male was approaching.

Ginny had joined them them an hour later, and she was now styling her hair in a bun with soft curls gracing her face. Her dress was lilac, and she too was wearing stilettos.

"You look beautiful, Mum!" Lily Luna said as she watched her mother model to herself in front of the mirror. "I'm sure Dad will love the dress."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Your dad is always oblivious to anything I wear. He seems to never notice; not even the colour!"

"Well," Rose said sighing. "Mum told me Dad used to be like that too."

"Ron's always been clueless." laughed her aunt.

Just then, a knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Rose stood up and opened it after making sure it wasn't a guy. A brunette woman who looked a lot like Rose's brother, Hugo and Rose herself stepped inside with a big grin on her face.

"Hermione!" Ginny said and she hugged her best friend.

"Ginny! I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier, it's just that work-"

"Forget your bloody work now!"

Hermione chuckled and her eyes fell on Lily who was staring at her. "Is this...?" Ginny nodded slowly, and then Hermione smiled at Lily.

"You must be Lily Evans." Lily nodded. "I'm Hermione Weasley, Rose and Hugo's mother."

"Nice to meet you, you look very like your daughter."

"Oh yes! Although she has her father's hair." Hermione said as Ginny sat her down to start putting make-up on her. "Ginny, why do we keep doing this every Christmas? We're not teenagers anymore, we have kids and-"

"Shush. We're teens at heart." Ginny said giving her best friend a dry look that shut her up almost immediately.

Lily smiled at seeing them interact. It was just the same way their daughters, Lily Luna and Rose, did. It was nice to see such a great family together, she would have wanted to be like that with Petunia, but unfortunately, she couldn't stand magic or anything of the sort.

Seeing as there was nothing else she could do but wait till it was nine o'clock, her thoughts drifted towards last night... the book she had bought at Flourish & Blotts, Modern DADA, and Harry Potter. She wasn't sure why, but she felt a profound sadness at reading about the Boy-Who-Lived as she discovered they called him. What does it mean?

Meanwhile, in the boys' changing room, James Sirius and Albus were arguing again.

"James, you should really stop going after Lillian, she will never set her eyes on you!"

"Can you stop fighting, please?" Hugo said looking back and forward between them.

"How the hell are you so freaking sure, Al?" James ignored Hugo. "We have as an example gr-" but before he could finish, Albus' hand shot up, and set itself upon James' mouth successfully stopping him from revealing the truth.

"Yes, well... you're right. Keep pestering her, then." And with that he turned to look at himself in the mirror, fixing his tie. Hugo's eyes had widened so much that it seemed as if they were going to fall of their sockets.

The Marauders, who had been strangely quiet during their whole bickering, looked at each other. They had been expecting them to spill something related to their future, but it seemed like they would never say a thing about it in front of them. Sirius and James had discussed it the night before, after James had reprimanded him for the way he had treated Lily. There was something fishy about the whole story they had told them. Why was it that they weren't back for Christmas? They thought their older selves would have come back by now, but it seemed like they were still on the mission.

Then there was the fact that James' wife hadn't been mentioned at all. When the Potter children talked about a certain 'grandma', they always talked about Mrs. Weasley; they said she was in the burrow preparing the meal along with the house-elves.

And to top it off, that Teddy bloke that kept coming in and out of the room every once in a while, kept staring at Remus, just the same way they had discovered Harry looking at Lily.

And speaking of the devil, Teddy entered the changing room, his navy-blue dress robes swishing behind him. He had changed his hair to a soft brown for the occasion, and was looking a lot like his father, who sat in a chair in the back of the room, silently reading a Muggle book, completely oblivious of this.

"Everything's ready, Harry and Ron should be coming again to call you in a minute." and with that, he left, but not before he almost tripped on his way out the door.

When Harry and Ron called them to go down a few minutes later, the Marauders marched down the stairs with their identical ink-black robes to a newly-decorated tent in the 'Quidditch pitch'. The canvas of the tent were purely white, with some sparkling dust on it. The top was high, which meant the Christmas tree was inside.

"Wow," Sirius breathed out as soon as he stepped inside. "This is amazing, mate. Almost like Hogwarts." And it was just as beautiful. Everything was white and sparkly, but there were also the traditional red and green decorations. There was about eighty people already there, but even with that amount of people, the tent didn't look much full. They sat in the table one of the butlers – hired only for the occasion – signed them, and waited for the girls to make their entrance. Scorpius, who hadn't been with them in the changing room suddenly appeared dragging a tall blonde boy with a dreamy expression on his face.

"Hey," He said as he sat down, followed by the other blonde. "This is Lorcan Scamander," he said to the Marauders, and they all nodded at the boy, who tilted his head to the side and smiled. "And that one over there, is Lysander, his twin brother." He pointed to the copy of Lorcan who was drinking some butterbeer near the fountain.

Something stirred in James' mind. "Isn't that Lily Luna's boyfriend?"

James Sirius and Albus grimaced.

"The very same." Scorpius smirked at the Potter siblings, who only shivered when he spoke.

Sirius noticed the boys' attitude. "Why are you grimacing? You should be happy! It's Christmas for G-" but he stopped mid-sentence when the tent was open to let five people in. James and Scorpius stood up with their jaws hanging low.

Lily and Rose looked beautiful with their clothes, they noticed that they had also applied some make-up, which wasn't exactly normal on them.

"You look amazing." James breathed out. Lily tried not to blush as she sat next to him and started fidgeting with the hem of her dress, and then with the small purse she was carrying. Although she was blonde now, with blue eyes, she still had the same factions and soft features.

Two huge sighs were heard, and everyone turned to see Harry and Ron staring at their wives with big grins.

Ginny and Hermione, who were trying not to laugh, gave each other a furtive glance and smiled holding their laughter in. They had succeeded, their husbands had immediately noticed them.

"Have I told you who the most beautiful woman is?" Harry murmured in Ginny's ear; she rolled her eyes.

"You're such a bad romantic, Harry. That line's been more used than Ron's socks."

"Oi," Ron said. He was hugging Hermione too. "Watch it!"

Harry and Ron took their wives away, and left the kids alone. Scorpius took Rose's hand, and she blushed. Soon after, they were gone into the dance floor, where they got lost in between the dancers.

Lily Luna smiled at Lorcan. "Hello Lorcan, where is Lysander?"

"Last time I saw him he was by the fountain." Lily Luna nodded and was about to leave when Lorcan called her back. "Take care, Lily. There are some Nargles around the mistletoes outside." and with that rather bizarre warning Lily Luna left.

"How can she differ between them if they are twins?" Remus asked.

"We don't really know." Albus replied. "But she is the only one who can."

James Sirius shrugged backing up his brother. "It's always been like that."

"What do you mean?" Peter inquired.

"Well, Dad, Mum, Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron have known their mum since Dad's fifth year. She was part of the DA."

"What's the DA?"

Al's eyes grew big and quickly told his brother. "Jay, I heard Lillian was coming, why don't you go and look for her?"

James Sirius jumped grinning madly. "Really? Thanks little bro! Bye!"

"I should probably also leave." Albus said as he stood up. "Have fun!"

"Oh, we will." Sirius said with a mischievous smirk.

Lily gave him a stern look. "Don't go around... marauding, alright? They were kind enough to invite us to the party, they could have left us inside the house, away from this amazing-"

"We get it, Evans!" Sirius exclaimed in exasperation. "But we're Marauders! We have to do a little prank at least."

"Can I help with that?" Fred Weasley asked as he took James Sirius' empty seat. He was grinning. "I've got some Dungbombs back in James' room, we have them stored there for this kind of occasion." He smirked and added under his breath. "We also have firewhiskey somewhere, just ask for it, and it will be provided."

Sirius' smile could have lit a whole city. "Mate, you got it." And they started planning a way to take the Dungbombs out without being noticed.

"Would you like to dance with me, Lily?" James asked her quietly.

"Uh..." Lily wasn't keen on dancing. She wasn't too bad, but she didn't really like it. "I'm not very good at dancing."

"Oh, then, do you want to walk outside?"

Lily's eyes brightened and she nodded. James held his arm out for her to take it, and they headed outside. The fresh, cold air hit them, and they both inhaled deeply. Lily shivered, and James noticed this. Without a word, he took off coat, and placed it gently on top of Lily's shoulders. She jumped when she felt it grace her body, and instantly warmed up; it also helped that it smelled just like James.

"Thank you," she muttered. "But, aren't you cold too?"

"Nah," James shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

"Why didn't you stay to plan the prank with Sirius? It's kind of weird that you didn't."

"Well," he started. "Let's just say, I had other plans for tonight. I, of course, was tempted to stay, but I'm sure Sirius will plan something for me to do as well."

Lily stared at him. "You've really matured."

He showed her his white teeth. "I'm seventeen, Lily. I was not going to keep being my fifteen-year-old self. I realized, after Voldemort's rising, that people are fighting and dying out there, because of their beliefs. Whether you are part of the good guys, or are a Death Eater, it still means war."

Lily remembered what she had read in the book again, about Harry and felt the sudden urge to hug James and tell him everything that was going to happen to his son; but something held her back. She couldn't say without more information. There were some holes in the story the book told, like the reasons that had led to Voldemort's desire of killing Harry, the reason why Harry had survived the killing curse...

"You've matured too." James said capturing her attention once more. "You used to yell at me before even knowing the complete facts."

"Are you saying that most of our fights were my fault?" she asked faking offence.

James' eyes widened. "No, no – Lily, I – I,"

"Merlin's pants! I was kidding, James!" she said as she laughed.

He just stared at her as she kept making fun of him. Why couldn't he stop loving her? He had been doing his best; trying to see her as a friend, talking to her about things he would talk to Sirius about, but it wasn't the same. If only three years ago he had been told that Lily Evans would be wearing his coat on Christmas night, while both of them held a conversation, he would have laughed in that person's face. Even though he liked her then, he too, thought it was impossible for them to bond and create a friendship.

They had reached a bench near a bush and some roses, they sat down. Lily was still giggling, which made James smile lovingly at her.

"I love your laugh." he said. Lily stopped at once, and fixed her eyes on James. Green met hazel, and for a long moment they just looked at each other. "Y'know, I love Christmas?"

"I didn't know that. Why is that?" Lily asked curiously.

"It reminds me of you." He said, and his eyes drifted towards her hair. "You red hair, just like Santa Claus' costume... and your eyes..." His eyes met hers again. She melted into his gaze. "Green as the Christmas tree. Christmas is you."

Lily blushed and looked away. She knew it was time to give him her present. The conversation had taken a turn she didn't want to, and she needed to remind James that they were friends now. She opened her purse, and gently took out the box containing his present. She took his hand, and placed it there.

"It's your Christmas present." she said when he gave her a questioning look. "I hope you like it."

James smiled as if saying 'of course I will', and with an eager expression opened it. His grin dropped very slightly at the sight of the crystal ball as he read the word Lily had carved.

FRIENDS.

He hugged her then, and murmured a "Thank you, I love it." in her ear. She blushed again. How many times had she blushed in just two hours? She gazed at James' watch, and saw that there were still two hours more till midnight, when the party was ending.

She felt a warm hand squeeze hers, and she looked up to see James staring at something above their heads. She followed his eyes and gasped.

She had been expecting mistletoe (not that she wanted to kiss him, of course... not...), but it wasn't that. It was a man with entirely black robes in a broomstick. He pointed his wand to his throat, opened his mouth, and shouted only a word.

"POTTER!"

A/N: Okay, so I hope you liked this chapter ('cause I really did) :D. I guess you didn't expect something to like this to happen, right? Actually I was going to write them kissing, but in the end, I thought it was just too cliché, so it ended up with this mysterious guy's appearance.

Please REVIEW!