Lily's christmas break was as good as her summer, which she kind of expected already. She was sitting on the train now, waiting for her friends to show up and of course, James was the first one. God forbid he's ever late.

"Hiya, Evans" He said with a bright smile, she loved it when he smiled, it suited him. He sat right next to her, even if the entire compartment was empty, she didn't mind though.

"Hi, Potter" She said smiling widely as well, her cheeks turning red for some reason. "And Peter?"

"Oh he made a stop to see Desdemona" He explained as he ruffled his hair, that suited him too. "Had a good break?"

"As good as my summer, how about you?" She shrugged

"Definitely better than our last christmas break, that's for certain" He snorted as if Lily had an idea of what he meant.

"What happened on your last christmas break, Potter?" Lily asked, folding her arms and raising her eyebrow. His eyes looking around in panic trying to find an answer. But lucky for James, Mary and Marlene entered the compartment right at that second.

"Are we interrupting anything?" Marlene asked smirking, taking a seat across Lily

"Like a secret snogging sesion of some sort?" Mary added holding back a laugh and seating next to Mary. Lily rolled her eyes and James snorted, him a little flushed. "I'll take that as a yes"

"Piss off, Mary" Lily said, she sounded annoyed but the smile on her face didn't help her, Mary winked at her and switched the conversation to another subject.

"First time patrolling since christmas." James said as if it were a magical date to remember. It had been two weeks since they got back. Lily couldn't help but feel a little excited for it, probably because she liked the responsibility of being a prefect, nothing to do with James of course.

"Yeah well… it really isn't that memorable" Lily shrugged, as soon as she finished the sentence, Regulus Black showed up in the end of the hallway, he clearly didn't know James and Lily were there. James dragged Lily behind a pillar and they sneakily stared and waited for the youngest Black brother to do something. He was reading something and then got his wand out to put into practice, but right at that second James got out from hiding, his wand raised as well.

"What are you doing, Reggie? Go to your dorm." He said firmly. Regulus jumped at James's sudden appearance and then walked over confidently, defying him.

"What are you doing here, Potter?"

"I'm a prefect, you git, I'm patrolling" James was annoyed, clearly. Lily couldn't really see his face because she was still hiding. "And I could give you detention for being out of bed. Go back to your dorm."

"No. You know why? Because it's your word against mine." Regulus dared, making Lily unexpectedly angry, so she walked over beside James and raised her wand as well as the other two.

"Not really, no. Now, I have no idea as to what Potter here is waiting for, but I sure as hell won't hesitate to ruin your blank reputation, hear me?" She glared at Regulus, and he returned the hateful look.

"Oh well, what a nice surprise! The psychopath that came to the dungeons the other day." He folded his arms, with a pleased smile that made Lily's blood boil. "What were you doing back there? Snogging?" James flushed at this and looked at his feet. Lily, on the other hand, tightened the grip on her wand. "What a nice match you make, by the way! The blood-traitor and the mu-"

"Do not finish that sentence." James said firmly, Regulus took a step back and laughed at him. "What's so funny, Reggie? Maybe this christmas wasn't as hilarious as the last one, or was it?" The boy's face froze in terror and then he looked… hurt, taken back.

"Fuck off, Potter"

"Yeah, why don't you do it? It's not like you should be here anyways." Regulus opened his mouth to say something but closed it immediately, he hesitated but ended up going back to where he came from. "He's alright" Regulus turned around in less than a second

"Can you… Can I…" He wasn't able to finish his sentences

"He wouldn't like us talking, but I'll make sure he knows you are okay too" Regulus looked relieved as James said this "I know he'll want to know, regardless of how he doesn't show it." The boy nodded and kept walking back to the dungeons, and James and Lily kept on patrolling.

"Hey, Potter, you never told me what happened last christmas" Lily asked after several minutes in silence, James awkwardly chuckled and looked at her.

"Well, it was a lot…" He said as they entered another classroom to search for students, he closed the door once they were inside, which they never did. Lily grew red and a little nervous. He just closed a door, control yourself, she thought.

"What is a lot?" She stepped closer to James, teasing him and he looked at his feet as he flushed. Maybe she was going too far with the questions but the curiosity was killing her. "Don't you trust me or something"

"Well as of last year you did hate me" He laughed but Lily just looked at him intently, suddenly they were closer than what she had imagined. James hesitated and began talking. "They tried to force him… to join them… the Dark Lord." Lily's face dropped. "They used that curse… the cru… torturing curse. He managed to Flu into my house, barely conscious…" They stayed in silence for a bit, processing what James had just told Lily.

"What the actual fuck?" She blurted out after a while, breaking the silence, James smiled.

"Did you just swear, Evans?" He teased, stepping even closer to her. Her eyes flashed quickly to his lips, she wondered what they would taste like but immediately shook the thought away. This is James, you are not catching feelings for him, she told herself.

"What if I did?" She teased back, they were dangerously close now and James had just noticed. He cleared his throat and stepped away, as red as Lily's hair.

"Didn't think you would get so easily distracted from patrolling." He said as he opened the door for Lily and they stepped out back into the corridor, small smiles on both their faces.

"Well hello, my lovely Lily" Sirius said, linking his arm with Lily's. "Where are you destined to?" The other three marauders slowly followed them.

"I'm off to Hogsmeade, my lovely Sirius." She giggled and Sirius did one of his remarkable sarcastic looks that Lily had gotten used to.

"Did you just return my kindness?" Lily nodded with a bright smile. "But that's not the dynamic, besides I refuse to be mean to you, love"

"So I should keep being mean?" Sirius nodded "Then I don't like our dynamic" She made an offended look and Sirius smiled.

"Are you done already?" James asked, unsuccessfully hiding his annoyance, Sirius choked back a laugh.

"Jealous, Potter?" Lily teased, looking at the boy in the eye, he scratched his neck shaking his head.

"You would love it if I was, Evans" He smirked and Lily's stomach flipped. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Oh stop it, Prongs, you are taking her attention from me" He said

"Well that can't be my fault, can it?" He winked at Lily and she quickly looked away hiding the redness on her cheeks. Sirius let go of Lily's arm and put James's around her shoulders instead.

"Take her and go, then." Sirius said, faking annoyance and walked over to his 'girl of the week', who was a ravenclaw. James and Lily laughed as Sirius walked off but they didn't pull away.

"So…" They said at the same time and laughed again. The cold made James's cheeks flush and he looked so good. After a few days of the last time patrolling, Lily had begun to realize that maybe (just maybe) she may be looking at James as more than a friend.

"How's it going, Evans? Clearly constantly avoiding me didn't work, did it?" James teased, it was true she had been slightly avoiding him so the feelings would go away.

"What are you on about? Where's Peter, by the way?" She was trying very hard to turn the conversation's focus from her. She hoped the heat growing on her cheeks would come off like a result from the cold.

"He decided to stay at the castle. Now, don't act like weren't running away from me every chance you got"

"You made a patronus, that was really impressive" Lily noted to change the topic quickly. It was, in fact, amazing. It had been a beautiful silvery stag.

"You really think so?" He didn't look smug, as Lily had expected, but pleasantly surprised. "That's nice of you."

"Seems like I woke up in a good mood, then" Lily smiled up to him sweetly, and he did the same. Their eyes lingered on each other for a little too long before they looked away.

"Three Broomsticks?" James asked pointing at the place, Lily nodded and they went in. It was packed, luckily it hadn't been the whole friend group but just the two of them, because they wouldn't have found where to sit. As soon as they got a table, Severus zoomed out of the place and James didn't seem to notice. Lily groaned. "Something wrong?"

"Yes" James's face fell and Lily panicked once she noticed "I mean, no!" She reached for his hand without thinking and James just looked at their hands and looked up to her, questioning. "There's nothing wrong with you… It's Severus… He just walked out because he saw us here."

"I thought you had settled everything with him already" James said, curious. He still didn't pull his hand away from Lily's, she didn't mind.

"I did but it still bothers me, you know?" James nodded. After a minute or two of a weirdly comfortable silence, James spoke.

"So he walked out as soon as he saw us on date?" Lily looked at him in panic.

"We are not on a date, James" He laughed at this statement and Lily turned red, utterly confused.

"Well of course we are not, but how does it look for people that don't know that, Evans?" Lily didn't have to think that hard to understand what he was getting at. They were alone (which was rare with their friend group) at a table, holding hands and before entering, James had his arm around her shoulders. Like a boyfriend would do, she immediately shook the thought off, hoping that James wasn't a good legilimens. "By the way, how come you weren't able to produce a patronus? You are better than (almost) everyone in our year"

"I don't know, maybe I wasn't focusing enough. But when I manage, it'll be much prettier than yours, trust me on that" Lily stated with a smug smirk, James grew a wide grin and nodded, as if accepting an expected defeat.

Author's Note:Hello! Just wanted to say that this fic is available on Ao3 (same user) and Wattpad (user: ginnywsleysimp)