[The Next Morning, December 24 – 5:45 AM – Potter Household]

James woke up feeling rather grumpy as he rolled off his bed and fell, what usually happened to him when he was forcing himself to wake up at an early hour, but still with a cheery air to him as he lazily pulled on his clothes. He lumbered down the stairs very quietly, walking across the living room and stepping outside into his back yard, plopping down into a chair tiredly. He ran a hand through his hair as adjusted his glasses, looking around his garden. The sun had risen slightly, but there was still a red-ish tint in the sky as he leaned back in his seat. He was feeling rather excited, yet proud of himself for thinking of a plan to make Sirius feel better. He was his best friend after all, wasn't he?

He knew Remus was going to arrive first, since Remus usually woke up early naturally, not forcedly. His thoughts started straying away to weird things as he awaited the arrival of his friends.

James' thoughts were taken away in about three minutes though, as a loud pop could be heard and Remus was standing in James' backyard with a smile on his face and a sack full of presents in his other hand.

"Hey James!" he said, apparently in a good mood and sat down in the chair facing James, his light brown hair falling in to his eyes as he squinted slightly through the suns increasingly piercing rays.

"Hello Remus." James said, nodding his head with a grin. "Knew you would be here first!" he said, chuckling slightly as Remus smiled The two immediately got talking about what Sirius' reaction might be when they woke him up with a bucket of freezing water.

"He nearly killed us last year, remember?" Remus said, laughing slightly. All he remembered was James nearly dieing from laughter while Sirius tackled him to the floor. Remus had enough sense not to remain standing near Sirius out of bed too early.

POP.

Three girls were standing in James backyard.

Kathy smiled cheerfully and waved. "Hi you guys!" she said and hugged both of them, "we missed you!" she said, holding a sack like Lily and Jen.

Jen looked grumpy, but she was managing to smile every 20 minutes…once. "Hey." She said and smiled, plopping down on the ground in front of the table. "Soo...tired…I hate you Potter..." she joked, shaking her head slightly as she ran a hand through her long blonde hair.

"Hello James, Remus," Lily said pleasantly as she also hugged both of them as set her sack down on the ground, pulling up a chair next to James. "How has the holiday been for all of you so far?" James asked and smiled.

"Good," Lily said, tilting her head slightly.

"Same here." Kathy said.

Jen snorted in reply. She was too tired to talk.

Remus nodded, "it's been fine, as usual." He said.

James stood up. "Okay, let's get down to business." He said and grinned, running a hand through his already messy hair. "Okay, its already 6:10 right now." Lily said, and put her arms on the table, folding them elegantly. James was watching while Remus spoke up.

"Okay, I think we're all going to apparate to outside the apartment building he lives in, and then we...go inside - very, very quietly of course as Sirius can wake up quickly when people are sneaking in." he said and sniggered.

"Right," James said, turning away from his staring-at-Lily-while-she-isn't-looking and looked back at Remus, deciding to continue before someone cleared his or her throat loudly and embarrass him. "And also, we aren't waking him up gently because then he'll think it's a dream…ice cold water should do the trick." He said and sniggered, giving Remus a high-five while the girls laughed slightly. "Lets go people, that means you too, Grisdale!" James barked like a drill-sergeant, also in a joking tone as Jennifer stood up, grumbling slightly and whacking James' arm.

"On the count of three, all of us are apparating there at the same time. We don't want to attract too much attention, he lives in a muggle area." Remus said seriously. All of them nodded.

"One, two, three!" James said.

Extremely loud POP.

[In front of Sirius Building]

POP.

Two boys and three girls appeared out of the middle of nowhere, a few feet back from the door that lead into the building. It was a nice, homely looking building.

James opened the door and walked in, all the others following as they went up the stairs, Jen grumbling slightly, something about having to wake up too damn early.

"And remember, not a sound." Lily whispered as Remus, as quietly as he could, whispered 'Alohomora', and gave his wand a small wave. The door quietly unlocked with a small noise. Remus put his wand back in his pocket as James very slowly pressed down on the handle and silently, deathly opened the door and all of them tiptoed in one by one.

'E's in his room,' James mouthed, pointing to the way as Remus filled a bucket with ice-cold water and silently walked over to all of them, who were standing in front of the door of his room. Lily very gently and quietly opened the door, and they all walked in, to find Sirius sleep and sound with one arm hanging off the bed. They all held back snorts of laughter as they stood themselves around his bed, and Remus held up the bucker of water.

"One," Kathy mouthed, "Two," Jen mouthed.

"THREE!" James and Lily yelled loudly together.

Remus tipped the bucker of ice-cold water over Sirius' head. His eyes flew open as he let out a very startled yelp and shot up straight about three feet.

"HEY SIRIUS!" all of them yelled at the same time, all standing at the end of his bed, laughing as he wiped the water away from his face and a grin grew on his face as he leaped on all of them. He ended up tackling James, Remus, and Jen to the floor, and they all fell, laughing like mad as Sirius brushed his wet, black hair away from his face.  Lily, who had smartly enough packed the camera with her, took it out and snapped a picture of all of them on the floor, as she had taken a picture of Sirius when the water was tipped over him.

"What…what are all of you doing here?" Sirius asked, a happy look on his face as he pulled the people he had knocked down off the floor one by one.

"We decided to come and surprise you, since we didn't want you to spend Christmas by yourself!" Kathy said and smiled, "But it was James." She said and grinned.

"Yep, it was James idea!" Lily said, smiling at James. "He had thought it up, which must have taken a while," she joked, "and he owled us and asked us if we would. Can't believe he actually thought we wouldn't!" she finished.

"Yeah!" Jen and Remus said.

Sirius looked grateful, and slightly awed as he looked to the floor with a smile on his face then back to all of them, "I don't know what to say...I…thanks you guys, that means a lot to me." he said and smiled, as they all hugged him again. This was one of the moments they would all remember for the rest of their lives.

"So Sirius, why haven't you got any decorations up?" Jen asked as Kathy looked like an idea had just sparked in her head.

"We should put up some decorations now, then!" Kathy said and smiled and got some loud agreements. Sirius already had a small tree, but they all wanted a big one, so Remus and Jen went off to get one. (A/N: Don't even think about asking me where they got it from, cause I don't know XD.) And while they did that, the others busied themselves with other things.

Kathy was busy hanging those bush-like thingies that look like straps with some things you can hang on to them along everything that had a shape, such as every single table in the house, and the chairs, and everything else. They also had those glowing lights that were all together like you put them up on one net along the walls and everywhere else. They put up a circle thingie that was green on the door, and inside, they had one whole wall covered with all kinds of things that were Christmas-y.

The more they decorated, the more all of them got in to a more warm and holiday-ish spirit, tossing things around to each other and tiding around the house, putting up red, green or white decorations wherever they could. "Hey, pass me that snowman over there, the one Kathy spent half an hour blowing!" Lily called from where she was standing in the kitchen, leaning against the counter. Sirius brought it over to her. It was just a medium-sized, cute, blow-up snowman that she set on top of the fridge. It had taken Remus and Jen about two hours to get the tree.

"Oh this place looks wonderful!" Kathy gushed when they were done, just as Remus and Jen walked in, each one holding the medium-sized tree from one end. They all mock-cheered, as though it was the trip of a life time to go get the tree and come back.

"Why did it take you so long?" James half-joked after they were all done mock-cheering as he and Sirius helped put the tree up straight.

"Argh, it's so empty!" Kathy said, bringing over a box of things to put up on the tree.

(A/N: I am so sorry I suck at describing Christmas decorations XD)

"Okay then lets start putting things on it!" Lily said and grinned. She was glowing. Literally. She had one of those net things with tiny light bulbs on it on her shirt, and the lightbulbs light was reflecting on her face. She looked so pretty, with the light illuminating her pale face, and making her eyes sparkly. James sort of got distracted, watching her. Everything else seemed to tune out as he watched her, smiling happily and putting things up with everyone.

"Hey, James!" Sirius called over to him, winking at him with a slight smile. He had been watching him, he knew that James was practically dying for Lily...he knew how long James had been waiting. He knew that James would wait forever if he had to.

James grinned sheepishly and hung a tiny snowman on the tree, as Lily put an angel up. Kathy put up a little red ball with glitter on it, while Remus put a tiny bell and Jen put up a golden star. They were all talking excitedly and putting things up on the tree, until it was all covered with small things, looking extremely beautiful as Sirius wrapped one of those net things with light bulbs on it around it. If they turned it on at night, which they would, the three was going to look amazing.

"Wow," Lily said softly, tilting her head slightly as she looked towards the tree rather fondly. They were all standing next to each other, admiring the tree. It was teamwork, that's why the tree was so special. It had a sense of friendship to it. James was standing next to Lily. He looked at her, and as though it wasn't him who had thought of it, put his arm around Lily's shoulders, grinning.

"It looks amazing, doesn't it?" he asked softly. He loved it when Lily was looking like she was admiring something meaningful. She was so beautiful. He really wanted to tell her how much he loved her, how much he cared about her…

"Yeah..." she said, nearly not noticing James' arm...but she did when she suddenly started feeling warm, as though everything else in the world suddenly didn't matter. She glanced at him. He was staring at the tree with a gleam in his eyes...his hazel eyes, his pretty hazel eyes. The ones she thought were so deep and nice. Kathy softly nudged Jen in the ribs, motioning to Lily and James with her eyes, a slight smile on her lips. Lily's head was slightly tilted, and James had his arm around her, and both of them were staring at the tree.  Quite a cute scene, in many opinions.

SNAP.

Lily and James jumped slightly as they turned to see that Sirius had taken a picture of them. They were both blushing as they pulled apart, laughing slightly.

'THAT WAS SOOO WEIRD…but...it felt nice!' Lily thought, still blushing slightly as she looked over at James, who was joking around with Sirius about something. She found Kathy and Jen sitting on either side of her, both grinning quite widely as Remus went into the kitchen to get some water.

"Don't you ever dare deny it, Lily!" Jen said and got up, chucking slightly as Kathy giggled.

"Lets put the presents under the tree!" Remus said and smiled.

They all set the presents they got all under the tree. Now it looked even prettier with colorful presents all under. It looked more…complete.

Jen and Kathy plopped back down on the couch next to Lily, while Remus and James played a game of Exploding Snap. The winner was to play against Sirius.

Kathy and Jen exchanged a knowing look, then turned to Lily.

"We know." They both said quietly but determinedly, keeping straight faces.

Lily looked confused.

"You know what?" she asked.

"That you like James." Kathy said and grinned.

Lily opened her mouth, but Jen silenced her with a hand. "It's quite obvious. We caught you staring at him a few minutes ago! Aahaha!" she said and stuck her tongue out.

"You guys!" Lily said and frowned. "I was only trying to figure something out!" she said, turning away moodily.

Jen and Kathy rolled their eyes and Lily sighed slightly, leaning back in to the soft couch. 'I don't know if I like him or not...I mean...he is...well...he's James! The guy I hated so much, the guy I would never ever be friends with, the guy I know think is great! Wait, I did not just admit that to myself...ack! I need to think. But why is it that every time he touches me, I get butterflies in my stomach, and I'm constantly staring at him...his eyes...those eyes!' she thought distractedly. 'There's just something weird going on...me and James are just friends!'

Lily was snapped out of her thoughts as Jen began laughing at the site of Remus with his eyebrows missing. And for the rest of the morning, it was like that, just plain fooling around and playing games, till it was time for lunch, around 2 o'clock.

"There's nothing in your fridge except junk, Sirius!" Kathy said and frowned, pulling Sirius' ear as though he was a little kid. "Up." She commanded.

"There she goes with the mini-mom thing again," Jen whispered to Lily, who grinned slightly.

"What?" Sirius asked and blinked, trying to pry her hand away from his poor ear.

"Get up. Move it, we're going shopping right now. You need to learn what's good for you…and what kind of junk to buy anyway!" she said and grinned, as he stood up, grumbling slightly as she nearly kicked his butt out the door.

Everyone else was laughing of course.

"Kathy loves cooking…so of course she's planning to make some lovely things for tonight." Lily said and smiled.

"But whatever you do...don't ask her to make soup. Peh." Jen said, shuddering slightly.

"Shut up Jen!" Lily laughed, "You're the only one who doesn't like her soup!"

"Don't start!" Remus and James said at the same time, not wanting to watch a girl-argument right now. "Sirius is probably dieing right now...Kathy is good at being like her mother!" Lily said and laughed.

[At the Supermarket]

"Yes, get the pasta if you want it." Kathy said and rolled her eyes.

Sirius had begged her to get the pasta for half an hour. But no, she wouldn't. But after five minutes of puppy dog faces, one had to give in. It was the Christmas spirit getting to her. She grinned slightly and put some sauce to go with the pasta. She had got Sirius quite a big supply of vegetables and fruits, something she didn't find in his fridge, and also some other basic things like cheese, bread, jam, and some other good stuff to pick out on whenever you need it. (A/N: I know. XD. I eat a lot o.o).

After about an hour, they were done. And there wasn't much junk in there either, much to Sirius' protests.

"You are so evil." Sirius said, poking her.

"No I'm not, you're irresponsible." She joked as they paid for the stuff…with some trouble handling the muggle money at the cashier of course.

[Back at The house – Around 4 o'clock]

After they had all finished eating, it was around four, and they were all tired. Some of them decided to take a nap, while the others decided to go for a walk. Kathy fell asleep on the couch and Remus fell asleep in Sirius' room. Sirius and Jen, who were just the right people to put together for a debate, were currently arguing over something that didn't make sense.

"Feel like going for a walk, Lily?" James asked, yawning slightly with a bored expression on his face as he pushed his glasses up on his nose.

"Yes, anything is better than watching Jen and Sirius argue over what is better, meat balls or chicken...useless!" she said and rolled her eyes, standing up and following James out.

It was snowing and they both had scarves on. And heavy jackets. After they were outside the building, they had started down the side of the road silently, breathing in the cold air.

"So James…tell me why you really thought of coming here." Lily asked and smiled, glancing at him. She knew, but she wanted to hear his point.

"Well...eh...you do know that Sirius is my best friend, and he always will be, or at least I hope so.  He has made it clear that he can't stand his family…so he is always at my place, and he's more than welcome, all the time. But this year, he wouldn't come no matter how many times I had asked him to. So he moved in to this apartment, and when I was thinking about it...I don't know...I just couldn't picture Sirius, of all people, spending Christmas by himself.

"He's a great person, you know, and I'm his best friend, and he doesn't deserve to spend Christmas alone, so I thought that it was almost like a responsibility for me to do something for him, I wanted to." James said and shrugged, a slight smile on his face as he stared ahead at the road while they walked.

Lily was sort of surprised. She never knew James had an emotional side. She sighed slightly.

James glanced at her and cracked up slightly, "Never thought I would do such a thing, did you?" he asked.

"Well…not really." She said and laughed slightly as she brushed her red hair away from her face. "But there's something I think you should know, James." She said. "I have always underestimated you, never gave you a chance to prove that you aren't just an arrogant, bullying toerag...I know that I've hurt your feelings more than once...and I still cant believe I slapped you. More than that is, it was almost like you drove me crazy, but then, as we got older, and things started getting more serious, the picture getting clearer, I started to realize that...it wasn't your fault all along. It was mine. It was almost like I came in to the Wizarding World attempting to, and determined to make myself stand out." She said, and took a deep breath staring ahead of her.

"I...I wanted everything to be perfect, since everything in the muggle world for me wasn't, I was just so new to everything here, and I wanted to be great. I didn't want anything in my way, I was afraid of not being able to fit in, or not being able to do good at school work, everything freaked me out. But then I started realizing that everything wasn't perfect for everyone, it didn't have to be. And all I wanted to say to you is that I'm sorry, and you have every right to be mad at me…" she finished.

James was so shocked. He had stopped walking, and he was staring at her. Where did all of that she just said come from? He could not believe his ears. She had just admitted that it was her fault and not his? But he didn't know if that was entirely true, or not. But he didn't care. He would love Lily no matter what.

"Lily, it is not entirely your fault, I was way too stupid for my own good at one point, but I changed, and so have you, we both changed. We've forgiven each other. Things are different Lily...there are a lot of terrible things going on in the world right now. You have to know that. There are worse things coming, for everyone." He said.

She nodded. This was so awkward. But she was so glad she had James for a friend. She hugged him, "Thanks James…" she said. He hugged her back, and both of them felt warm again. "No problem." He said as they pulled away.

"Anyway…" Lily said as they walked down the road. "We should be heading back now before Jen and Sirius destroy each other, don't you think?" she said and smiled.

"Yeah!" he said and laughed, the awkwardness of the situation only a few moments ago slowly leaking away as they raced each other back to the apartment, on James' demand and childishness, of course.

[Cooking Dinner – Kathy – James – Lily]

"Give me the salt, wont you?" Kathy said while she stirred the soup on the oven, and the salt was passed to her from James, who was helping out in the kitchen since Jen and Sirius were playing Wizard Chess and Remus was helping Jen cheat while Sirius complained.

"You always win, Sirius!" Jen said and stuck her tongue out. "So it's okay if he helps me! Haha!"

"Shut up you stupid shit." Sirius said and poked her. She laughed in his face even more to annoy him. Remus rolled his eyes exasperatedly.

Lily was making a cake, because she felt like it. Sirius had put the cake mix in the basket while Kathy wasn't looking, lucky for all of them. It was a chocolate cake. Lily put the cake in the oven after she was done, and set it for 30 minutes.

James was cutting up the vegetables for a salad, since the girls feared he might burn the kitchen if told to make anything else.

Kathy was de-frosting the chicken she had gotten from the supermarket. Who said you couldn't just buy the ready-made chicken and all you had to do was lazily de-frost it?

At the moment, Kathy was also making spaghetti, because Sirius had threatened to shave off her eyebrows while she was sleeping if she didn't. She did not want that to happen. No sir. She had made chicken soup, mash potatoes and rice so far. All of that stuff was easy to make, but she was complaining to Lily about getting the cake out of the oven so she could de-frost the chicken, which was on the typical silver plate, and it had vegetables all around it.

"Alright Kathy, just give it another ten minutes!" Lily said and frowned, also helping cut up the vegetables for the salad.

"James you mix this. And do not put in too much vinegar, or else…!" she said and laughed as he put all the vegetables in the bowl and mixed it, very carefully applying the vinegar.

"See I didn't mess it up!" he said proudly, as though the salad was the most amazing thing on Earth and in the kitchen right now. "I didn't mess it up because I'm the bomb!" he said and danced around the kitchen, making stupid faces. Lily laughed slightly and Kathy joined him for a while.

"Are you going to be done soon?" Sirius whined. Very like him to do that when it came to food.

"Yes, they will be, little pig, don't you worry now. It's beyond me, Sirius, that you eat more than all of us, yet you're not fat...oh well..." Jen said and shrugged, tilting her head slightly but going back to the game.

"I WIN!" Jen said cheerfully as she took Sirius' king and he grumbled, pouting like a small child while she jumped up. "YEAH! I won I won I won, haha!" she said and high-fived Remus.

[10 Minutes Later XD]

Lily took out the chocolate cake, which smelled great, and put it on a nice-looking platter with a cover over it. Kathy then put the chicken in the oven. It had to be in there for around 40 minutes. 

"What do we do for 40 minutes?" James mused out loud, and Lily shrugged, twisting a strand of red hair around a slim finger.

"I don't know." Kathy said and shrugged, glancing at the oven every now and then, like the chicken was going to run away.

"Don't you worry Kathy, if the chicken decides to develop feet and run away, I will catch it." Sirius joked and everyone else laughed, even Kathy, but she was a little red. "Be quiet!" she said and pouted.

Lily was on the couch on her back, her legs hanging off the edge while she stared at the ceiling. Jen was leaning on the couch, her legs crossed. James and Sirius were joking around like little kids, and Remus and Kathy were talking quietly in the kitchen.

"Oh yeah, well…yeah!" Sirius said, attempting to say something back to James, they were arguing over something.  "Whoa," James said slowly, "I think I just got a bit dumber listening to that!"

Everyone cracked up as Sirius hit James playfully.

_______________________________________________________________________

I is so sorry I have not updated for so long. I know that I have been absoloutly selfish and lazy and unfair. *ducks tomatoes* But I have been having a real hard time lately. Yups. Ever since it became 2004, my life turned upside down. Everything became bad, everything changed and I hate it when my life went from good to bad. I miss '03, the best year of my life so far. But I cant keep on crying over it, can I? I want to but I cant. My life began to having meaning that year. I learned to write properly that year, I learned to deal with things properly that year, I learned that James Potter existed that year. I knew who my true friends were that year. Then this fucking year took its place and I have only one person in my life who is my best friend, and my reflection, just prettier and taller XD. These past months have been a living hell for me through family problems, personal problems, school and my friends.

I have been trying to sort my ass out lately and stop being a misreable mut and its working, slightly. I sure do as hell miss that year and whenever I am having a real bad time, pissed off somewhere on my own, I remember the times, and I cry. Makes me feel better knowing that at one, point, my life wasnt as silly as it is now. Hm. Thats part of the reason it took me so long to update. The other is that during '03, near the end, I decided I wanted to stop writing this story. I lost all hope, everything for this story because I was so misreable. Then earlier this week I started thinking, and I realised that this story is a part of me and I cant just forget it like it never happened or mattered. And its part of the good and meaningul things in '03. So I will continue.

I noticed that at some points I got spaced away from the plot, but worry you shalt not, because this stories plot will be fully back soon enough! I thank all my faithful readers who put up with me adn my faithful and lovely and awesome bete-reader.

I HAVE A NEW STORY! PLEASE, PLEASE, CHECK IT OUT AND REVIEW IT, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! PLEASE PLEAS PLEASE!

Its different than this one, more dramatic and all. Different theme.

Love you all,

Delilah