People began showing up not long after Lily retreated into the kitchen. Just as she threw the last napkin into the garbage can, James ran in to find her.

"Lily!" He exclaimed. "Everyone's here! Come on!"

Lily shook her head. "Gotta go change. Be right down, okay?"

He nodded and kissed her before leaving to continue hosting his guests. Lily went upstairs through the House Elve's passageways so no one would see her covered in flower and in baggy clothes. She rifled through her trunk and found it, the party dress Alice had wasted no time in finding and sending to her. With a few quick spells, all the wrinkles left her dress, her hair was brushed, her teeth were cleaned, all traces of cooking ingredients gone from her skin. She dropped the dress over her head and suddenly felt ridiculous as she looked in the mirror. She rolled her eyes, both at the fact that Sirius had a full length mirror in his room and that the dress Alice had picked for her was so not...Christmas.

She shook her head and examined the dress. Knee length, sparkling green, cross straps across her chest and her back. She laughed at her reflection before turning to run down the stairs, excited to show Alice she was wearing her dress.

She ran straight into Remus, who laughed. "Careful, Lily. Wow." He stepped back and shook his head, removing his steadying hands from her waist. "You look beautiful, Lily."

Lily smiled and kissed his cheek. "Thank you, Remus. Have you seen Alice?"

He rolled his eyes. "Mistletoe."

Lily nodded. "Thanks. Should have guessed."

Lily ran to where she'd seen Sirius hanging mistletoe and found Alice abusing her mistletoe rights. Rolling her eyes, she pulled Alice off of her fiance, who laughed and walked away to find someone to talk to. Alice turned around, ready to yell at her best friend, when she saw what she was wearing.

"Lily!" She squealed, hugging her best friend. "You wore it! Oh my Godric! You look gorgeous!"

Lily laughed and pulled away from the hug. "Thanks!" She looked at Alice's dress, which was much more Christmas-a long-sleeved sweater dress. "You look pretty, too, of course."

Alice waved her off and rolled her own eyes. "Yeah, right. I wore this last year. Weddings aren't cheap, Lily."

Lily's eyes bugged. "Then why did you buy me a dress?"

Alice shook her head, grinning. "I didn't. That's the material from my bridesmaid dresses. I had some extras, transfigured it into a dress, changed it from purple to green, and ta-dah! A pretty dress, fit for a Lily!"

Lily laughed. "Well, thank you. I love it."

"How does James like it?" She wiggled her eyebrows.

Lily laughed some more. "I haven't shown him yet. I wanted to make sure you approved, first."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Lily, I made the freaking dress. I know what it looks like. Go show your boyfriend!"

She turned Lily around and pushed her in the direction of James, who was perusing the music selection, apparently not liking what some girl had showed him.

Lily pointed at one of her favourite muggle bands-the Doors, a record she had contributed to the group-and James turned around. "The Doors? They're okay, I mean-Lily!"

Lily laughed. She put her hands behind her back and gestured to the CD. "You don't have to play-"

Her speech was suddenly stopped by James' lips. "You're so pretty you made me forget my pick-up line," he whispered. She smiled.

"Thank you."

They stood, just appraising each other, appreciating each other, when Sirius jumped in between them, one arm around James, one around Lily. "You enjoying the party, Lily?"

Lily nodded. "Sure, I guess."

"Good, good," Sirius said. "Then why don't you go enjoy it? I've got to have a word with Mr. Potter, here."

"Sure, okay," Lily said, wandering over to Mary, who had her arms crossed and was leaning against the wall, apparently missing her boyfriend.

She grinned at her as Lily approached. "Hey, Lily. Your boyfriend ditch you, too?"

Lily shrugged. "Nah, yours just wanted to have a chat. What do you suppose they're talking about?"

Mary shrugged, her eyes straying over to the two of them. "Not sure. But it doesn't look very good. They look kind of angry."

Lily nodded, also watching the conversation go on. Sirius' arm was still around James' as he pulled him towards an empty side of the house.

"Prongs, I heard that one Slytherin kid say that the Death Eater Youth were planning on sending someone to crash the party," Sirius mumbled, so as not to attract attention from anyone.

"Let them come," James growled. "They won't get passed the door without being shot at."

Sirius smirked. "That's what I like to here. But how do we know who it's going to be? What if they use Pollyjuice potion or something? Or what if they slip passed and-" He shook his head. "It'll just make the party that much more fun," Sirius announced. "What' a Potter-Black Christmas party without a little sparring?"

James laughed and rolled his eyes, recalling all of the times that he had had to fight people off of his property, either for getting too drunk off of spiked punch, causing fights, getting angry, or for just being too stupid to deal with anymore.

A slow song suddenly came on. "Well, I'll keep an eye out..." James said, inching away from Sirius. His eyes slipped over to Lily, who was fiddling with her dress, leaning against the wall beside Mary, with one leg crossed over the other. "I've gotta..." He swallowed. "I've gotta go."

Sirius laughed and patted James on the back. "Go get some, Jamesie."

James rolled his eyes and snuck over to Lily. He held out a hand, and she looked up from the floor, dropping the hem of her dress.

He winked. "Would you like to dance?"

Lily scanned the room, seeing all of the other dancing couples, realising the song was no longer a fast-paced one. She smiled and took his hand. "Of course I would."

James grinned and led her out to all of the other dancers. Lily leaned her head against his shoulder and James held her close.

They'd been dancing for most of the song when Lily realised her legs had suddenly stopped working, as had James', apparently, as he wasn't moving anymore. She laughed and looked up, her suspicions confirmed when she saw the little green leaves tied just above her and James.

Sirius was laughing, too, as he approached them. "Well, you guys know the rules."

Lily rolled her eyes before looking up at James. He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows, causing Lily to laugh more. Without any more hesitation, James dropped his lips to hers. Lily immediately felt her legs receiving the okay to move, but she wasn't so sure she wanted to. She blushed when people started cheering and James put a hand on the small of her back, pulling her closer, but when everyone suddenly grew silent, both she and James pulled away. It took her a second to be able to pull away from his eyes, but she soon looked where everyone else's eyes had gone. The door.

"Mon Dieu," Remus breathed, his shock causing him to revert to the language he'd originally spoken. He shook his head and stepped towards the door before Sirius could get violent. Lily pulled away from James and ran towards the door as well to help.

"Peter, are you sure you should be here?" Lily whispered hurriedly.

Peter made a whimpering sound.

"Lily's right, Peter," Remus said, looking ashamed of himself and unable to bring his eyes to his ex-best friend's. "You should just leave before someone ends up hurting you."

He shook his head. Lily noticed the necklace was gone. She felt like crying.

"Peter, you took off the necklace!" She exclaimed in a whisper. She wanted to hug him when his own eyes filled up with tears. She shook her head. "Peter, I would love to invite you in, but the others...they won't trust you..."

He nodded and took a step back. "I'm sorry."

"Get out of here, Peter!" Sirius called spitefully. "No one wants you here!"

Lily turned to look daggars at him before pushing Peter out the door and going out after him, shutting the door.

"Lily, will they ever trust me again?"

Lily sighed, rubbing her arms-it was freezing out, and she only had on her skimpy little dress. "I'm not sure, Peter. You'd have to prove yourself trustworthy, and I'm not even sure how. I just know that now's not the time. They're still too angry, and there are too many people in there. You know they're not themselves around people. They've got their reputation. James has changed, and Remus is never different, but you know that Sirius doesn't think as much when he's around people."

Peter nodded.

Lily sighed again. "I've got to go in before I catch a cold, but one things for sure." She held out her pinky and winked at him. "You pinky promise you're done with them?"

Peter stared at her pinky a second before a small smile twitched across his lips and his plump pinky wrapped around hers.

"Good," said Lily. "And you've gotten rid of that necklace for good?"

He nodded. "I dropped it down a well."

Lily nodded as well. "Then I trust you. And it's only a matter of time before James and Sirius and Remus trust you again, too."

Peter nodded. "Thanks, Lily."

Lily watched him shove his hands in his pockets and sadly tromp through the snow until he was out of sight. Lily sighed once more and turned to return to the house, where warmth and confrontation awaited her.

...

So, right to the summary, then.

The party was going well until Sirius heard news that someone was planning on crashing the party! When Peter shows up, Sirius suspects that it's him, but Lily finds that Peter has dropped the Slytherins and wants to return to the Marauders. Lily forgives him, and promises that it'll take time, but the marauders will eventually forgive him.

Stay tuned!