October 7, 1977

Lily was stress packing on Friday night when James knocked on her door. He hadn't made many attempts to talk to her outside of their last date and rounds and classes, so she wasn't feeling great about any reason he had to knock on her door now. She figured that maybe he was going to break up with her after their date since it mostly just became an excuse for them to talk more about the war and how different their two lives were outside of Hogwarts.

He had asked about her family and she had told him the truth, that her parents were proud but didn't understand Hogwarts or her wizard life or how much she missed it over the summers and that Petunia was malicious to her and purposefully kept her out of the wedding because she was a witch and didn't want her ruining the day. James talked about how lovely his family was, his parents adopting Sirius even because they were just so loving. His life was so much easier since his parents understood that he was a wizard and had been to Hogwarts themselves. They knew and listened to him complain about classes and wrote owls to him weekly if not even more often than that. They sounded so kind in comparison to her family, who despite doing their best was overbearing and not at all understanding.

Lily swung the door open to reveal a relaxed looking James, in sweat pants and a t-shirt.

"Hey there, Evans." he grinned. "I just wanted to see if you maybe wanted to hang out, since we haven't really done much this week."

"Potter, I'd love to, but I'm packing." she sighed. "You can sit in here and talk while I do that, though?"

"I wouldn't mind that." he shrugged, confused. "What are you packing for?"

"I'm leaving for my sister's wedding in the morning." she ran her hands through her hair and reached up around his neck to hug him. "But I really don't want to talk about that."

James embraced her back, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing the top of her head. "I guess I didn't realize that was so soon."

"Yes, but it's only a week, so I won't be gone too long at least." She smiled weakly and pulled away, going to pack more.

James sat on her bed, opposite of where she was packing her bag. Lily pulled several pairs of jeans and nice blouses out of her closet and sat them in the bed. She pushed her suitcase to the foot of the bed so she could sit next to James as she folded.

"Are you excited to be home at least for a week?" James tried to find something to ask about as she folded her clothes next to him. "I bet it's got to be nice thinking about no rounds or prefect duties for a whole week."

"I don't know. My parents have been on my case about a new boyfriend so soon and I have to go to Petunia's wedding to that awful boy and Evan wants to meet at some point and try to talk about things. It's just starting to pile up, and I don't think it's going to be any more relaxing than being here."

James tensed up at the thought of Lily going to meet Evan. "Well, rest assured at least everything here will be taken care of." he smiled through his discomfort.

"Actually, about that..." Lily put down the clothes she was folding and positioned herself so she was facing James face on, sitting on her knees and reaching towards his hands to grab them. "I was really hoping maybe you'd want to come with me."

James stared at her in shock; why would Lily want him at this wedding or even to come home with her for a full week.

"I was just thinking you could meet my parents." she expected James to at least say something. "You can say no, I promise I won't be mad."

"I would love to, Evans." James laughed. "I'm just processing a lot right now."

"I mean..." Lily sighed, feeling like maybe she had forced this too quickly on James. "They invited you... Do you want to meet my parents? I know we aren't like.."

"Stop that." James interrupted, pulling her closer by her hands. "I would love to meet them. You are my girlfriend and it would mean the world to me if I got to introduce myself."

Lily blushed and laid her head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead several times before she spoke again.

"I don't remember agreeing to be your girlfriend anyway." she laughed, poking fun at him for saying it so confidently.

"Well, do you disagree with the statement?" he didn't want to give in on it. Lily was his practically girlfriend, he just hadn't gotten around to formally asking her and it had slipped out, but it felt right to say and he didn't want to lose that.

"I didn't say I disagreed, no, just that I don't recall you asking me in the first place." she smirked back at him and pushed herself closer to his chest.

"Fine then." he laughed, just glad she didn't actually disagree with him.

"I'll wait..." she egged him on, hoping for another sarcastic response in return.

"Lily Evans," James sighed and laughed at the same time. "Would you do me the fantastic honor of being my girlfriend?"

She pulled her head back just enough to look him in the eyes and smiled widely. "I would love to be your girlfriend, James."

James leaned down and cupped her face with his hand. He pulled her face all the way up to meet his and kissed her gently. It wasn't exactly how he had planned their first kiss going, but so far, nothing in their relationship had gone as he planned and he was loving every bit of it, so he figured there couldn't be any harm in this not being quite how he wanted it either.

Lily was astonished when James pulled back. She had expected it on their last date and it never came, but she didn't expect it right now. She didn't really have words to say to him, but she was glad he didn't react poorly to her question. Things were moving faster than she expected or had ever experienced before, but it felt good. Things with James were good.

Lily and James exchanged awkward smiles for a long time then Lily broke the silence.

"Dumbledore is disapparating us around 10 tomorrow morning." she spoke at a whisper, unsure of how loud was too loud after what had just happened.

"Okay." James didn't stop smiling. He leaned down and kissed her quickly one more time. "Let me help you finish packing and then you can come and raid my wardrobe and find appropriate clothes for this because Merlin knows I can't dress myself."

Lily laughed and rolled her way out of the bed. She quickly recounted all of the clothes she had already packed and finished up her own packing as she talked to James.

"What are you wearing to the wedding?" James asked.

"I'm really not sure. My mum said she found a dress that she wants me to wear and it's the same colors as the rest of the family, so I guess I will wear that."

"Well, I'm sure you'll look wonderful either way." he laughed as he snuck his way under the blankets. "Do you have to keep it so cold in here though?"

Lily laughed at him. "It is not that chilly."

"It's like ten degrees! I practically have hypothermia just sitting here."

"Hush." Lily rolled her eyes and closed up her suitcase as she finished packing. "We can go to your room if you're that cold."

"Oh, but Evans, I just got cozy under these blankets." he whined, opening up his arms. "Come cuddle with me."

Lily smiled and crawled in her bed up next to James who, despite complaining about how cold he was, was extremely warm to the touch. "There is no way you were cold enough to get under the blankets, Potter." she laughed at him, but not moving away.

"Yeah, but it got you under the blankets with me," James smirked. "And I really just wanted to cuddle and talk."

Lily settled herself up next to him, leg draped across his waist and his arm around her. "What did you want to talk about then?"

"Well, the last time we talked about your family I think I upset you a fair amount." he trailed off. "I just want to know what I need to be on the lookout for and what not to say around them."

"Just be yourself, Potter." she snickered. "They're really nice people, especially my dad and he can't wait to meet you."

"Oh no, I already have a reputation?"

"Not a bad one. They know very little about you actually..." Lily tried hard to think about what she had actually told them. "They know you're the head boy... and they know that we are dating... and my mum knows that your name is James and you have messy black hair?"

"My hair is not messy, it is windswept, thank you." James laughed.

"Hush. My point is you have a pretty blank slate. They don't know much and you're important to me, they'll like you plenty."

"Well, if we're on the note of parents." James took deep breaths to work up enough confidence to continue. "My mum told me to invite you home for Christmas break, and I totally thought it was too soon to ask you, but since I'm meeting your parents I feel like it's only fair that you come meet mine too."

"Sure, what day did she want me to come over?" Lily smiled, this was going well.

"Oh.." James turned bright red with embarrassment. "Since Sirius lives with us and Remus doesn't usually go home for breaks, they're both coming the whole break... And with them of course comes Peter and Marlene, so I just figured maybe you'd want to stay the whole time with us too."

"Oh, wow." Lily gasped. "That's a big offer.. And a lot of people for your parents to house. Are you sure there's room for me? I really don't have it as bad as the rest of them, so I don't want to take up too much space..."

James chuckled at the thought. "We have plenty of room, and my mom loves hosting. She's been begging me to ask you already. I think she's excited to finally have girls in the house."

Lily sat silent for a moment. Plenty of room? How many bedrooms could they possibly have if James was an only child? Would she get there and sleep on the floor for all of break? And what if James's parents didn't like her? She couldn't agree to stay for almost a month if they hated her...

"I can tell you're kind of flustered by the question. It's no rush, I just wanted to pitch the idea and let you know I want you to meet them.." James rushed, trying to recover how nice the conversation had been before. "And obviously, if you only want to come for a day or just dinner or something, I'd love that too.."

"I haven't though about it much but I'm pretty used to seeing you every single day." Lily poked him. "How ever will you deal without me?"

"Probably a lot better, honestly." James jokingly rolled his eyes. "No girlfriend to make sure I get up at 4 in the morning to go on rounds?"

"Don't blame me for you being head boy." she scoffed "You wanted this, remember?"

"Hmm.." James pretended over-dramatically to think. "I guess what I'm really going to like being away from is just my head boy duties. You're really not that bad."

"Oh, I'm not that bad." Lily laughed.

"No, actually I quite like you." James yawned, it was getting late and they still had to pack his things and probably find someone to take care of their head duties, but he didn't care. He let his eyes drift to closed, cuddled up warm next to Lily. "We should..." he mumbled sleepily.

"We should go pack your clothes, and then we need to go talk to Remus." Lily laughed. "Someone will have to take over for the both of us while we're gone."

"You're so smart, Lils," He laughed, but pulled her in even closer in bed. "But your bed is so comfortable and we could cuddle for like ten more minutes before we have to do that."

"Ten minutes... that's it." Lily laughed and settled in to him. They laid cuddled for much longer than ten minutes before getting up to pack James's things, but neither of them felt any reason to get up. Things felt good for the first time since the attack on the school and they savored it while they could.