Chapter 34 – Christmas Party and Confessions

Lily looked at her appearance in the mirror and smiled at herself; she was about to leave the house for the club where they were all gathering before going on to Rob's parents' house and staying the night there. Lily was wearing a pair of trousers and a sleeveless top with a jacket on over the top; she grabbed her house keys off of her table, picked up her overnight bag off the floor and walked downstairs to say goodbye to her parents. Her sister was sat next to her large boyfriend on the sofa and her parents were sat in two armchairs. She put her head through the door and turned to her mother who was closest to the door.

'I'm going now, I'll see you tomorrow. Bye!' she said and left quickly before her parents or sister could say anything. She walked quickly to the club to keep out the worst of the winter chill, as she walked she cast her thoughts to her friends from Hogwarts; she hoped they were all having a good Christmas, but she wished she could have spent some of the holidays with Kas and the others, especially seeing as it was probably their last together. Lily had never been able to work out why Kas' guardian treated her the way he did, or why he was allowed to get away with it; she'd almost taken Kas straight to Dumbledore's office after the journey on the train when they'd finally been told what happened to her every holiday she spent with her guardian. Lily sighed, in a year she'd be saying goodbye to her best friend and the Florettes wouldn't be the same again with one member missing; the thought brought tears to her eyes that she quickly wiped away, along with the thoughts that brought them, as she reached the entrance to the car park of the club. A few cars were already there and quite a few people were waiting outside; Bradley caught sight of her and waved, Lily smiled and waved back thankful that her friends here could always put a smile on her face.

'Heya little Flower'

'Hey, Si' she said with a smile; Simon had started to call her Flower and it seemed to have stuck as her nickname as some of the others had started using it every so often.

'Heya Lils' Bradley said wrapping her in a bear hug from behind. Lily laughed.

'Heya Brad. Who we waiting for?' she asked as the black 17 year old let go of her.

'Just waiting for Honey, Laura and Pete' Bradley replied; Lily smiled and nodded.

'Come on let's get into cars so we're not freezing out here' Sam said, taking out a bunch of keys. Lily, Bradley and Kim followed Karen to her car and the four climbed in.

'We'll wait for Honey' Karen said to Sam as she closed the driver's door, the other's climbed into the back leaving the passenger seat for Honey who was crossing the car park as they all put their seat belts on. Honey waved to Kathy who was climbing into Sam's car. Kath, or Kathy, was 18 years old with black hair and a white streak down the left hand side of her face and bright green eyes; apparently she loved sweets, especially candy canes, earning her the nickname Candy. Kevin, or Bass as he was sometimes called as he played the bass guitar in a band, joined her behind Sam with Cat and Gemma. Stewart climbed into his car followed by Laura, Simon and Peter; Paul was one of the few Lily hadn't met yet and who had apparently acquired the nickname Lip after his ability to talk almost anyone into the ground and had a comeback for almost everything. He was driving the remaining members, including Rob who would direct them to his parents' farm as most of them couldn't remember the way as they usually got drunk about half an hour after the journey and the last person Lily had to meet properly; Charlie, or Chip after his job down the local Fish and Chip shop, had blue-green eyes and brown hair with one blonde spiked streak along the centre of his hair.

'Here we go' Karen said as she started up the car and pushed a strand of her pink hair out of her brown eyes and pulled out of the car park after Paul's car. Half an hour later and all the cars had pulled up outside a large farm house. Rob had climbed out of Paul's car and taken a bunch of keys out of his pocket and walked up to unlock the front door so everyone could drop off their stuff into their rooms; most people were sharing. Lily, Kim, Honey, Kathy, Cat and Gemma were all sharing a room; some of them were sleeping on blow up mattresses or in the beds already in the rooms. As Lily followed Honey into the house she couldn't help noticing how much the farm house resembled James' house from the times she'd visited it; she mentally shook herself as soon as these thoughts crept into her head. Why am I thinking about that arrogant bully git anyway? I'm here to enjoy myself with my new friends not think about big headed pricks like Potter. After putting her overnight bag on one of the blow up mattresses she and the other girls went back downstairs and out into the barn where Rob was already setting up the food table while Paul and Kevin set up the music. Soon everyone was in the barn and the music was playing loudly whilst people started to get food and alcohol from the various tables along one side of the barn.

A few hours later and Lily couldn't believe there were no signs of the party stopping, more beer and spirits had been brought from a supply somewhere in the house and the food was nowhere near ending, the music was as loud as ever and the people were showing no signs of tiring. At one point a large group had assembled round a table to play their own version of the game 'Roxanne' which included having a shot every time the name Roxanne came up on the song 'Roxanne'. However as they lacked the song they had changed it to suit one of the songs by Dr Busker, namely 'Bestiality' (for reasons that some people know of I am not posting the lyrics to this song on here if you really want them review and tell me and I'll try and email them to you). Kim had dragged Lily away from the table as the word 'Bestiality' appeared about 35 times throughout the entire song; Lily watched on in amusement as the group refilled shot glasses with very small amounts of Smirnoff Ice, or similar drinks, and occasionally had one or two shots of straight vodka. By the end Lily was glad that Kim hadn't let her join in but she'd joined in with various dancing throughout the night including to 'Nellie The Elephant' which included a very… interesting dance that included using your arm to symbolise an elephants trunk and walking around in a large line during the chorus. They'd also played 'Is This The Way To Amarillo?' and 'The Macarena' a few times; it was getting close to 2am and the party was still in full swing with Lily laughing at the antics of some of her more drunk friends and the attempts of the more sober ones at steering them away from the various haystacks that were in the barn. Bradley, Kim and Honey had remained the most sober of the others as they were not legally old enough to drink in the Muggle world, though Honey was very close to being very slightly drunk and it was due to Kim and Bradley that she'd remained sober this long.

'Oh come on guys one more isn't going to hurt' Honey said slurring her words slightly. Lily smiled as Kim and Bradley shook their heads.

'Oh go on guys its Christmas, let her have a bit of fun. It'll be her own fault when she wakes up with a hangover in the morning' Lily said. Honey beamed.

'See? There's a girl who knows what she's on about' she said putting an arm over Lily's shoulders before walking away to the table loaded with booze.

'And there's a girl who didn't really take in what you just said' Kim muttered to Lily causing her to laugh.

'Well, like I said it's her loss when she wakes up with a banging headache and she's throwing up everywhere' she said; Kim shrugged and nodded before the two girls broke into a giggling fit, Bradley looked on slightly amused.

'Well all I can say is at least Rob locked the turkeys up this time' he said, causing the three of them to dissolve into fits of laughter; Bradley from memories and Kim and Lily from what they'd heard of the incident that had given Pete his nickname. Bradley left the two girls for a while to get a drink; Kim looked at Lily with a big grin on her face.

'What?' Lily asked, Kim shook her head looking innocent and looked away.

'What?' Lily demanded; Kim turned back with the grin back on her face.

'I think Brad fancies you Lily' she said simply. Lily shook her head, a small smile on her face.

'Oh come on Kim we haven't known each other that long, how can you possibly say that?' Lily demanded.

'Well I'll be the one saying "I told you so" later on when he asks you out' Kim said with a smug look on her face. Lily shook her head.

'I would have to say "no" anyway, I already have a boyfriend' Lily replied. Kim looked at her with raised eyebrows.

'You haven't mentioned him before' she said, Lily looked away. True she hadn't mentioned Ben to anyone to at the club.

'We're not really that close… the circumstances surrounding our relationship are… complicated' Lily said.

'We've got a few hours left you wanna expand on that point Lils?' Kim asked. Lily sighed and looked at the girl who was 2 years older than her. She'd become her closest friend out of school it was only fair she told her about Ben and Mike. Lily took a deep breath and explained everything to Kim, omitting the fact that she went to a school for witches and wizards and was a witch herself. When she'd finished Kim looked sympathetic.

'And these boys just yelled at you after you told them what you'd done for them?' Kim asked. Lily nodded, the memory of the Marauders' reactions to the news of her and Kas' relationship advances fresh in her mind. Kim fixed Lily with a solid gaze.

'There's still something you haven't told me Lily. Why do you go to a boarding school but your sister doesn't? Surely you'd go to the same school if you used to be so close?'

Lily took a deep breath and hoped Kim wouldn't pursue that particular line of inquiry. She shrugged as and answer but Kim wasn't buying it.

'Tell me Lily' she said. Lily sighed.

'You'll think I'm mad or I'm drunk or something, and I can't prove it until I'm 17' Lily answered.

'Can't prove what?' Kim asked. Lily looked down at the haystack they were sitting on.

'I'm a witch and the school I attend is called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry' Lily said simply; she then went on to explain about Hogwarts, her classes and the wizarding world in a nutshell. All the time Kim remained quiet and listened to her without interrupting her. When Lily had finished she looked at her brown haired friend with her single black streak; Kim's blue eyes were alive with excitement.

'How cool is that?' she said, Lily couldn't help it: her jaw dropped.

'You don't think I'm mad or I've had too much booze or something?' Lily asked her. Kim looked at her as if she was mad to suggest it.

'You kidding? I think its bloody brilliant! I've been around this lot too long to have something like this surprise me Lils. You'll see the others'll think its amazing too. We've never had a witch in the club before… this could be very cool when you come of age' she said, smiling broadly. Lily couldn't help it, she smiled back.

'Just don't tell anyone outside of the club, we're not supposed to tell Muggles about us and don't try and get me to perform any magic until I'm 17 otherwise I'll be dragged up for a hearing or something' Lily said, Kim nodded with the promise of keeping it a secret inside the club members and that, when they were sober, the others would be made to promise the same thing. The only thing that made Lily worry was when Kim told her they'd be mad at her for not telling them sooner. The two girls laughed and rejoined the party; Lily with a little more energy and a huge weight lifted from her shoulders.

A/N: Well you can all thank Abby and Katie for pestering me for a new chapter for a while that this was written so fast. Actually I wrote it in one evening. I'd like to dedicate this chapter to Katie and to Becci because it's both of their birthday's within the next week and I don't know if I'll be able to write another chapter before the weekend is over. Sorry Abby but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Hmm… cookie…

Anyway enough on the subject of cookies. I've got the next few chapters sorted out, this one kinda changed a lot as I was writing it but the next 2 chapters are roughly planned out in my head anyway.

Happy Birthday Katie! Happy Birthday Bex! I hope you guys like this chapter!

Thank you to all my reviewers, I love you all! Thank you also to all my readers I love you all as well! And a big thank you to all my friends for nagging me and for listening to my odd quiet mutterings to myself which include a lot of 'its' and 'theys' lol. I love you all!

Ciao for now

xStarswordx