Thanks for all the reviews, even if some of them didn't get to me through the "Review" section. Also, I want to tell Ranma's girl1 that I've added something about Leah here. I wasn't going to say until further on, but... There you go. I hope you enjoy it :)


"So, looking forward to your Christmas holidays?" James asked Lily, sitting down next to her in the Common Room. She was trying to do some homework, but it looked like she probably wouldn't be doing much studying with James here. She closed the book.

"No. I'm staying here," she said, a slight blunt edge to her voice.

James, who had never been a particularly tactful person, didn't pick up on it. "How come? Don't you usually go home?"

She sighed. "Usually, yeah... But I was writing to my mum, and she says they've got a big party to celebrate Petunia's engagement... To be honest, I can't really be bothered. I mean, I'm not even sure if I'm invited to her wedding, so..."

"Oh, right. Sorry," he said.

"No problem. Are you looking forward to the holidays?"

"Yep, but I'm also staying here. Marauder's tradition."

"Oh, yeah, I'd forgotten you four always stay here at Christmas." She smiled. "At least I won't be alone now. I was imagining opening my presents alone, and it was not a cheerful image."

He laughed. "Well, it looks like you're going to be spending the holidays with us." He called over to where Peter, Remus and Sirius were sitting, playing Exploding Snap. "Hey, Lily's staying here this Christmas!"

All three boys looked round at him, and grinned when they saw how excited James looked. It was fun to tease him about how much he liked (or "luved", as Sirius put it) Lily Evans, but all of them were secretly pleased for him. He had doted on her for so man years now, and it was good to see them together, even if just as friends.


A few days before the holidays started, all five Gryffindor 6th year girls met in their dormitory to swap presents. Angeline was new to this ritual, but they had decided to include her. After all, she was their roommate.

Avril stood up, and walked into the center of the room. The other four looked at her expectantly. "Okay, so here are my things. I hope you all like them," she grinned, and started walking around the room, handing around her presents.

Dorcas squealed as she unwrapped hers. It was a clay model of a broomstick, but somehow had managed to enchant it to fly around, and so it whizzed past all their heads before returning to Dorcas.

Robyn also liked her present: it was a clay Crumple-Horned Snorkack (or at least, a model of what Robyn had described them to look like).

Angeline got some earrings made of clay, which were hand-painted in a bright pink, her favourite colour.

Lily was really pleased with hers: it was a clay ink pot, carved with Lily's initials. "Oh, wow, Av! You've really got into clay this year, haven't you? It's really nice, thank you."

"Yeah, well, I can't make you a work of art like Robyn here," she grinned at her artist friend.

"Shall I hand mine out?" Robyn asked them. When they nodded excitedly, she stood up and passed out her presents. They were all paintings, and all beautiful; Dorcas' was of the lead singer of The Hobgoblins, who had long been her crush; Angeline's was a painting of Hogwarts ("well, 'cos you're new and all, you haven't seen it as much as the other three"); Avril's pictured the Eiffel Tower, which she had always wanted to visit; and Lily's was...

"Did you paint that from memory?" she asked Robyn, who nodded happily. "Wow, Rob, it's amazing..."

The canvas portrayed the roof top place where they had been a few weeks before, and a group of eight people sitting in a circle. It brought up all the feelings Lily had had that night, and it was a beautiful present.

"Well, mine are going to be a bit shit in comparison, but anyway," Dorcas gave out hers.

Vanilla perfume for Robyn.

Rose perfume for Angeline.

Mango perfume for Avril,

and lavender perfume for Lily.

"Did you make these yourself?" they asked her.

"Yeah, my mum showed me how to make perfume a few years back, and I thought it would make a nice present, you know."

"It does," Lily sprayed some on, and inhaled deeply. It was a sweet, strong aromatic scent, and it fitted her perfectly.

"My turn," Angeline said, handing around hers. There was a wooden comb for each of them, and they were all painted by hand. Lily's had her name on it, surrounded by white flowers which she saw were lilies.

"Oh, these are beautiful," Dorcas said.

"Yeah, I'll use this," Avril added. Hers had broken a moth before, and she had been using Lily's since then.

"I'll give you mine now, okay?" Lily handed hers out, and waited for their reactions. She had managed to learn how to knit over the summer, and had made them all scarves: Dorcas' was red, orange and yellow stripes; Avril's in blue and green; Robyn's in rainbow (because she had always said she had no favourite colour, she loved all of them equally) and Angeline's in different shades of pink.

They all told her they loved them, and tried them on. They were the right length, and looked really warm and cosy.

Avril gave Lily a big hug, and said to her "Friendship never ends...". Which was cheesy, but described all of their feelings exactly.


The day after, all the girls left, each to their own family, except Lily. She waved them off, smiling and trying to look happy for them.

There was an ache inside her. She always loved Christmas holidays, and would have loved to spend them with her family. But she had a feeling she wasn't welcome in Petunia's life anymore, and she didn't want to spoil her party by being there. Her parents would do fine without her, and in any case she would see them at Easter.

What bothered her most though, was being bored. It looked like she wouldn't have much to do...

Suddenly, someone jumped on her back. She very nearly toppled over, but managed to stay standing up somehow.

"Agrippa's sake, Sirius, give me a bit of warning!" she cried out, laughing.

"Go on, Lily-flower, give me a piggy-back ride," he begged her.

"Nah, get off, you're too heavy," she giggled, throwing him off.

He grinned at her. "So, seeing as everyone's left, and it looks like it's only us five in the school... Well, apart from some Hufflepuff 1st years, but they don't count... What do you fancy doing?"

"Oh, I don't know," she said, as the other Marauders caught up with them. "What do you guys want to do today?"

"Well, we're definitely not playing "I've never" again," Remus stated clearly. "I had the worst hangover the next morning..."

"We know," Sirius laughed. "It was impossible to speak to you until lunch time, you were buried under so many blankets."

Remus scowled at him, and they all laughed. Lily felt a little lighter than she had a few minutes before. That was the effect the Marauders had on her: they might exasperate her at times, but they could always make her laugh.

"So, any of you fancy a game of Hide-and-Seek?"

"Sirius, are you serious?" Lily laughed.

He stuck his tongue out at her. "Oh, you're so comical, Lily-flower... Like I've never heard that joke before. And yes, I'm both serious and Sirius, if you know what I mean... I like Hide-and-Seek."

"Yeah, but... I don't know, isn't it a kids game?" Peter doubted.

"Of course. But I'm still a big kid, and so are you all. Are we playing or not?"

They laughed, but agreed to play Hide-and-Seek with him. It was decided that Remus would be It, and when he started counting, they all ran off in different directions.

"Oy, wait for me, Lily!" James called after her. She stopped until he caught up, and then carried on walking quickly.

"Won't it be easy for us, though?" she wondered, looking in a broom cupboard and dismissing it. Not enough space. "This castle is rather big, in case you hadn't noticed. There's no way he'll find us."

"Ah, but we use magic, you see," he explained. "The person who's It is allowed to use any spell they want, which can be useful if you're trying to find someone."

"Oh, right... But I thought we weren't allowed to do magic outside of lessons." She didn't think Remus would approve of breaking the rules.

"Well, they don't have to find out about it. I mean, come on, how dangerous is a "Point me" Spell?"

Lily had to admit that she had never found those spells particularly harmful, and so they carried on down the hallway in silence, until James thought of something. "Okay, I've got the best of places, come with me." He took hold of her hand, which was something Lily could not get used to. It sent a tingling feeling down her spine, however many times he did it.

They ran down corridors until they reached the seventh floor and took the left corridor. James lead her past the same spot three times, and Lily began to think he had gone crazy, when suddenly a door appeared. One second it was a blank wall, and the next there was a solid, physically-there wooden door.

James turned the handle quickly, and pulled her through. They were in a small room, not unlike Gryffindor Common Room: it had a similar fireplace, and two armchairs opposite each other. There was also a small table with a jug of Butterbeer on it.

"Like it?" James asked her, sounding as proud as if he had constructed the room himself.

"Yeah, it's nice. I'd never been here before." She looked around her, taking everything in. The armchair looked comfortable, which she soon found to be true.

James sat down opposite, picked up a Butterbeer, and handed her one too. "I only found out about it last year. I was walking along this corridor, looking for somewhere to hide something, when-"

"Something?" she was curious.

"Uh, yeah... It was one of Remus' books, if you must know. I'd spilled some Pumpkin Juice on it. But anyway, I was in the corridor, and suddenly this door opened, and I came inside. And it looked different, kind of bigger and full of loads of random objects. So I spread out the book so that the pages would dry, and left it here. I came back the day after, and gave the book back to Remus."

"Why didn't you just use a spell to take off the Pumpkin Juice?"

He looked at her, and then slapped his hand against his forehead. "The truthful answer is because I didn't even think of it."

She laughed, and he carried on with his story. "I came back a few weeks later, just to see if I could still find the room. At first I thought I was in the wrong one, but then I realized that every time I needed the room, it would appear differently. It would fit my needs, if you see what I mean?"

She nodded. "It's a cool room."

"Yeah. Weird thing is, it's unplottable."

"How do you know?"

"Uhm, I..." She looked at him suspiciously, and he sighed. He pulled a piece of parchment out of his pocket. "Okay, we have this map..."

"We?"

"Me, Sirius, Peter and Remus."

"Doesn't look like a map," she said, staring at the blank piece of parchment.

He tapped it, and announced "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" and Lily gasped. For on the parchment, spreading from the center, a maze of dark brown squiggles had started to appear. They followed a fixed route across the parchment, and it suddenly clicked inside her mind.

"It's Hogwarts, isn't it?"

James grinned. "Yep."

"Merlin... Where did you get it?"

"We made it. All four of us."

"You never!"

"I think you'll find the grammatical aspect of the phrase "you never" isn't quite correct," he smirked.

She stuck her tongue out at him, "But seriously, though, you actually made this yourselves?"

"Uh-hu," he nodded. "We started off at the beginning of last year, and finished it at the end. Took us a while, but it's been worth it. I mean, just look at that," he pointed towards the edge of the map.

"That looks suspiciously like a secret passage leading into Hogwarts. Am I right or am I right?"

He laughed and took a moment to admire how smart she was. If he had seen a map like this without knowing what it was, he probably would have been completely confused. He smiled at her, but she was too busy gazing at the map to notice.

"So you can track people around the school?" she traced a finger over the moving dots that were labeled. Right now, she could only see Remus (who was walking up a staircase), Peter (who was hiding behind a statue), Sirius (who was on the flat rooftop), and a handful of teachers.

He nodded.

"Stalkers," she muttered. If only you knew, James thought, thinking of all the times he had pulled out the map simply to see where she was. Borderline on stalking. "It's absolutely brilliant, I have to admit," she said, handing him back the map.

"Is that a compliment?" he winked.

"Take it as you will," she answered quickly, taking a sip of her Butterbeer. "Who knows about it?"

"Just us four. Oh, and you now. I hope they don't mind I showed it to you..."

"Shall I pretend you haven't?"

"Nah, it's okay. They shouldn't mind, anyway."

"What are you going to do with it after you leave Hogwarts?" she asked him. "I mean, it's not like it will be very useful once you don't have to sneak out of here..."

"I hadn't thought of that, actually." He fell into silence for a moment, and then grinned. "I'll give it to my first born child."

She laughed. "Really?"

"Yeah, why not? I mean, I expect my kid will be a real trouble-maker, so a map like this will definitely come in useful to him."

"What about the other three? Won't they want to give it to their kids?"

"Uh, I don't know if they'll have kids... Sirius has always said he won't, Remus isn't interested in dating a girl, never mind having a kid with one, and Peter... well, he's Peter, isn't he. I don't think he'd be much of a dad."

"And you've already decided you're going to have kids, have you?"

"Yeah, of course!" he said, and it didn't escape Lily's notice that his eyes lit up when he spoke of this. "I want to have loads and loads of kids. A really big family, you know? Because mine... wasn't."

"No?" she looked at him, worried about the new tone of his voice. He sounded sad, only it wasn't exactly that. More depressed. "But you've got your parents, and your sister..."

"Yeah, well."

"What?"

"She's not actually my sister."

"What?!"

He sighed. "Not many people know this, okay. She's adopted."

"Oh, right... I didn't know." A second after, she realized how stupid that had sounded.

"She's something like a second-cousin once removed or something like that. Her parents died when she was about three, and they decided to take her in. Because only a few months after I was born, my mum got hit by a bus. It turned out alright, I mean she's still alive, thank Merlin, but..." As he said that, it looked like a dark cloud passed over his expression. "In St. Mungo's, they told her she couldn't have kids anymore. She was kind of devastated."

"I'm so sorry..."

"Yeah. Me too, and not because I particularly wanted siblings at the time. It was just she was kind of sad from then on. Like she was missing something."

Silence filled the room, broken only by the sound of the crackling fire. Lily thought of her family, and how they hadn't been exactly happy, either. There was always an underlying worry for her parents, and that was her. They worried about the inexplicable things she could do, about why they happened and whether they would get her into trouble. And Petunia had been nice to her until Snape had appeared, but from then on it had only been cold silences and the odd muttered "freak!". She was getting married now...

"So, you're sister's getting married?" he said, making Lily start slightly.

"How did you know I was thinking about that?"

He grinned broadly. "I'm psychic."

"Yeah, right," she scoffed. "What am I thinking right now then?"

"You're mentally admiring the beauty of my features, and thinking of how much you want to marry me" he said.

She couldn't help but laugh. "You're an A+ asshole, James Potter."

"I try, Lily. I try... Hey, look!"

She did, and his finger was pointing to a dot on the Map. Looking closer, the label said "Remus Lupin", and he had just found Peter.

"Well, that was a bad hiding-place..." she noted. "Does Remus know about this place?"

"I don't think so. I've never told him about it."

"Why not?"

"It never came up, I guess."

They gazed at the Map in silence, tracing the steps of two of the Marauders.

Lily suddenly spoke. "So, how did you know I was thinking about that?"

"You looked half sad and half confused, and that was the exact look you gave me the other day, when you told me about the engagement party."

"Oh, right." She hadn't quite believed him, but she was still relieved to find he wasn't psychic.

"So how come you're not there?"

She sighed. "I... don't get on with my sister."

"Like me, then, really."

"You and Leah kind of get along now though, don't you? After she was in the Hospital Wing and that."

"I guess..." Truth be told, he had been speaking to Leah more since then. It was pleasant, really.

"Well, me and Petunia don't get on, like, at all. So I'm probably not invited to her wedding, let alone this party."

"Right..."

"Also, I don't like the guy she's getting married to. He's an A+ asshole, but a real one this time."

"Meaning I'm not?" he grinned.

"You're not as bad as him, I can tell you that."

They both grew silent as they noticed Remus had found Sirius too. "Looks like we're the last ones to be found," James said.

"Yep. We win," she agreed.