New Year Shindigs

I could damn my Mum from calling me to dinner on Christmas day. Merlin's underpants! I was just getting into a very interesting conversation with Lily and then Mum goes and ruins it all. Not only that, but she also went and took the silencing charm off Sirius. Dum luck. I think my ears are bleeding. Anyway, I'd returned to my room to find not one, but two owls waiting for me. I picked up the letter off Bertie's leg first knowing it would be Lily.

J.

Come on then.

Damn! I'd missed what was clearly an invitation to Lily's. She was daring me to go over there and take advantage of her naughtiness and my mother just had to go and ruin it all. I could have been charming her over so I could get to kiss her again. Just thinking of kissing her made me tauten. I need to get some self control... and a cold shower. Maybe a bath... NO! I hadn't been able to go near a bath since the bathroom episode with Lily. Merlin, that woman does things to me.

So after my freezing shower, I thought about writing a reply back to Lily. It had been hours and I figured she might have forgotten about our previous correspondence. Of course, the thought had crossed my mind that she might have been a little bit peeved that I hadn't messaged back or even shown up on her doorstep. That thought gave me the most awesome idea of going. I mean really going. I could seriously turn up. I could turn up, ring her doorbell, she would answer and I would sweep her into a passionate kiss. What in the world of Merlin's socks? I need another shower.

I picked up the second letter. The owl who delivered it nipped my fingers for taking so long to get to him before taking off into the cold night sky.

For the eyes of James Potter and Sirius Black.

Dear James and Sirius,

Hope you are having a lovely holiday so far. I am writing to invite you to a little shindig at New Year. I say little, it will literally be you Marauders, myself, Liz, Mary and Lily... oh and my annoying family. Anyway, be there. Just in case you can't remember the way to my house, you just cross the street.

Merry Christmas.

Jennifer Salmon. A.K.A Jenny.

P.S. Everyone else has said they're coming so we're expecting you. Oh, and it's on New Years Eve. Oh, and your parents will be there too. HA!

Excellent. I'd be seeing Lily sooner than I thought. And I might get to kiss her at the end of the New Year countdown. Unless she's decided to hate me for not replying to her last letter. I quickly scrawled out a reply to Jenny telling her a) can her parents uninvite my parents and b) we were touched by her concern she thought we might get lost on our way over. Then I penned a note to Lily telling her I'd see her on New Years Eve. Now I had something to look forward to.

'PADFOOT!' I called, 'WE'RE GOING OVER TO SALMON'S FOR NEW YEAR!'

'YEAH, MATE! I ALREADY KNOW!' came his muffled response.

x-x-x-x-x

So I admit it, I was a little miffed that James didn't just magically appear on my doorstep on Christmas day. I would have really enjoyed a little respite from the bores that made up the Dursley family. However, I'm now back in magical territory and time was going very swiftly. Mary and I had arrived at Jenny's house/mansion on the 30th so all us girls could travel into Diagon Alley to do a bit of shopping.

Mary and I stopped at Florean Fortesque's for some ice cream while Lizzie and Jenny went over to Madam Malkins to have a look at some new dress robes just in. While we were stood in the queue for our ice creams, Mary took her chance to collar me.

'So, you've spoken to James then?' How did she know?

'We've corresponded.' I said nonchalantly. Ooh, how grown up am I?

'You'll be able to see him tomorrow night, you know. He only lives over the road from Jenny's place. I'm surprised he didn't see us both arrive and stalk over to whisk you away. Butterscotch and chocolate please.' She told the assistant before turning back to me, 'has he said much about your little incident?'

'No. In fact, we didn't speak much past Sirius's superstar singing abilities.' I could feel a blush creeping up my neck. How attractive.

The assistant passed Mary our ice creams, 'Thank you.' She paid the 2 sickles and we went to sit down. 'I think he really likes you, you know.'

'Really? Because I think he was put on this earth just to annoy the living daylights out of me. He has me totally confused, disappointed, wound up, head over heels and just...' I trailed off. Mary just stared at me while licking her ice cream. 'He drives me insane. One minute he's all gentlemanly like, the next he's rude, arrogant and ignoring me, and then he's neither... rather he's outrageously flirting with me...' I remembered the bathroom incident. 'I wish he could just pick one characteristic and stick with it.'

'Which characteristic do you think he should use all the time then?' Well how do I know the answer to that? Wasn't the whole point in being confused to not know what on earth was going on?

'Why can't he just be a normal human being and stop messing with my head? How is that for an answer.' Mary just stared at me.

'Did you give him that Christmas present you bought him?' She asked finally.

'Since when have I had the chance to give him anything?' Does that sound dirty? I think it does a little bit.

'Oh, I don't know. You might have bumped into him in another bathroom or something... perhaps another sprig of mistletoe...' Mary obviously thought my comment was dirty. 'I have a bit of a confession to make Lils. And please don't hate me but I thought it would do some good and well...' Yes Mary? She looked like some madwoman possessed, 'And well, that day when you ran into James outside of the library... there was no mistletoe there...'

'Yes there was... I saw it.' OK, now I'm really confused.

'Well, it wasn't there until I...' Until you what Mary? 'Until I magicked it there.'

I pictured my jaw dropping. I must have looked like a giant fish or something. 'Oh.'

Nothing more was said on the matter, because Jenny and Lizzie decided to grace us with their presence complete with arms laden with bags. Well, that was food for thought. I had a little meddlesome friend who was probably almost certainly conspiring with James Potter behind my back. Just because not everybody has a simple love life. I'm sure we'd have managed it on our own thank you very much... would have just taken a little bit longer.

Mary's words had me thinking for the rest of the day about the whole situation with James Potter. I was totally confused about everything to do with the situation. Would we still be ignoring each other had Mary not conveniently placed that Mistletoe? And then I thought to Megan... and thinking of her made me think that she might have been the reason that James didn't come over on Christmas day. I might not be with Sirius anymore, but he was still with Miss Ravenclaw Prefect. This just annoyed me. Now I was annoyed with Potter. And I'm also back to calling him Potter. And that was where sleep took over.

I'd be seeing him in less than 4 hours and I had no idea what to say to him. It was OK when we were sending messages through Bertie... he couldn't see the unattractive blush on my face.

It didn't help that one of my so called friends kept throwing furtive glances my way. Really, here I was thinking that Miss MacDonald was my confidante, yet she'd been speaking to James about me behind my back. Thankfully, she hadn't told him the full extent of my feelings towards him... In fact, nobody even realised anything like that was going on... well, Jenny and Lizzie were completely oblivious anyway, and probably Peter too.

T minus 2 hours and 7 minutes until he arrives. Remus is here already and Jenny has us all preparing food for tonight. I hate not being able to use magic outside of school. Cutting carrots up would be so much easier with a wand.

T minus 21 minutes and counting. Us girls are getting ready now. I don't know why we are bothering. It's not as if it's going to be some massive party. Just a small Shindig with the Salmon's, the Potter's and us. Lizzie insisted that she wanted to wear her new dress robes though so here we are, preening in front of mirrors and trying on all of Jenny's shoes. She has millions... I swear, I've never seen a shoe collection so big that it warrants its own walk-in wardrobe.

I heard the doorbell ring about 6 minutes early. Mary looked over at me as I took a gulp of air. I don't quite know why I was so nervous. It was just James Potter. The same James Potter that had been the bane of my existence for the past five years. Oh, the same James Potter who in 3rd year, claimed he was going to marry me... The same James Potter who was downstairs with his parents waiting for the rest of us to saunter in. As we neared the top of the staircase, only four voices were distinguishable. Yes, James wasn't there. Not yet. I had some more time to compose myself.

'Ah, Lily, Mary,' Mrs Salmon greeted us as we attempted not to trip down the stairs, 'We'd like you to meet Mr and Mrs Potter.' We greeted them with handshakes. Mrs Potter seemed very nice, almost exactly as I'd imagined her. James was the spitting image of Mr Potter who unnervingly had that same mischievous glint in his eye as James.

'Lily as in Evans?' Mr Potter asked.

'Yes, I suppose that's me.' I replied not knowing what was coming next.

'Oh, it's so lovely to meet you at last.' Mrs Potter said pulling me into a hug. I didn't know whether to be embarrassed or not. 'We've heard so much about you... it seems that you have quite captured our son's attention.' She turned to Mr Potter, 'She's more beautiful than we expected isn't she, Charles?'

I was spared yet more embarrassment with arrival of the object of my constant thoughts these days. Sirius sauntered in followed closely by James. My breath caught in my throat. Glances were thrown between the two of us by his parents as though they were waiting for some kind of reaction. Our eyes were locked on one another but neither of us said anything. It was Sirius who broke the silence in the hallway.

'Alright, Red. How goes it, Mary?' well that wasn't awkward.

'Hi Sirius!' Mary and I both chimed, 'Hello, James.'

'MacDonald, Lily.' I hear James mumble, 'Mum, I tried to find that elf wine you wanted but I could only find that French stuff... you know the champagne?'

Remus chose that point to appear by Mary's side and we were all directed into the Salmon's living room.

T minus 3 hours and 24 minutes... I'd started a new countdown. The countdown to midnight.

3 hours and 11 minutes later and I'd somehow manage to retreat to the kitchen while all the others were playing muggle board games... apparently, this particular group of wizards love them. Anyway, James had barely said two words to me all night. I didn't know if I should be disappointed or if this was all part of Mary's little plan to get us together. So there I was sitting at the kitchen table, staring at myself in the back of a spoon.

'You, really don't need to do that. You haven't got anything on your face or in your teeth.' I jumped.

'James! You startled me.' Well, I thought everyone was too engrossed in their current game of Pictionary.

James sat himself opposite me and took the spoon out of my hand. 'You know,' he said thoughtfully, 'I remember back in 4th year that you threatened to chop off my manhood with a rusty spoon if I ever asked you to Hogsmeade again.' He chuckled.

'I remember saying that.' I smiled. 'You never did ask me to Hogsmeade again.'

'I've only just got over my fear of spoons you know... you gave me nightmares about them.' I had no choice but to laugh at him. 'I'm glad that amuses you.' We fell into a comfortable silence.

'So your mum took the silencing charm off Sirius I hear.' I really could hear. His laughter was so loud just then, the whole street probably heard.

'Yeah, funnily enough, she threatened him with castration if he sang one more word.' I giggled. 'Your house is still standing then?'

'Yeah, just about. I'm afraid I can't say the same for our sofas. Vernon's sister, Marge, she broke my dad's favourite armchair.' We both chuckled then.

'And the hair loss potion?' He asked hopefully.

'Yeah, did that stuff have a timer effect placed on it because I was expecting instantaneous results... seriously, I was staring at her moustache for hours! My mum pulled me aside at one point and told me to stop staring at other people's unfortunate appearances.' James was laughing so loud, 'It worked though... not 'til she got home though... quite disappointing really. Your futile attempt to keep me amused through the most boring 5 hours of my life failed miserably. I do believe you owe me a good time.'

James's head shot up at this exclamation. 'A good time eh, Evans.'

'As in marauder fun, pranks and the such... not a date, Potter.' Oh, who am I kidding? I'd do anything for a date with him. I'm just trying to keep the sexual tension to a minimum here.

'Who said anything about a date, Evans?' He had that cocky grin plastered to his face.

'You were bound to say it sooner or later... I just decided to tell you first.' I could feel the blush painting my cheeks a humiliating shade of red.

'I love it when you blush, Evans. Means you're not so infallible.' He began to move his way around the table.

'Nobody's perfect, Potter.' He was right in front of me now, towering over me.

A shout came from the living room, 'OI! PRONGS, RED! THE COUNTDOWN IS ABOUT TO START!'

'Oh, I don't know about that, Evans.'

'10!'

'The name's Lily.'

'9!' He grabbed my hands and pulled me out of my chair.

'8!'

'Nice to meet you, Lily.'

'7!'

'My name is Potter.' My face fell.

'6!'

'James Potter.' He said with his trademark grin. I grinned.

'5!'

'But you can call me James.'

'4!'

'That's really corny, James.'

'3.' He whispered, keeping his eyes locked on mine.

'2.' I purred.'

'1.' He growled. 'Happy New Year, Lily.'

'Happy New Year, James.' He leaned in. I could feel his breath on my cheeks. I closed my eyes in anticipation. Our noses touched.

'HAPPY NEW YEAR!' Sirius! We sprang apart and he dropped my hands. Sirius clapped James on the back and gave me a swift hug and smacked a fat kiss on my cheek as the others piled in to wish us both happy New Year. I tried to hide my frustration as best I could while giving everyone well wishes for the year to come... the well wishes were more like death wishes.

Urgh! Foiled by the official kissing holiday!

I'm so behind with my posts. But I think I'm over my writers block for now.

I'll try and get some more chapters up soon :)