Chapter 17

The day passed so slowly for Lily. She was constantly on edge, hoping and praying that no one was going to say anything wrong. That her parents.......her mother would tell an embarrassing story of something humiliating Lily had done when she was three. Or that Petunia would make some snidey comment about magic, or that her father would start judging James. And then there was James. Lily inwardly groaned at what he could tell her parents. 'Oh by the way Mr and Mrs Evans, do you know what your perfect Head Girl daughter did the other day? She got so drunk that she woke up in my bed with absolutely no memory of what she'd done.'

Fortunately everyone was on their best behaviour. There were no questions, no stories and no 'guess what your daughter did the other day.......'

"So, how was your birthday Lily dear? Did you get our present?" her mother asked. James looked round curiously.

"It was good thanks," Shame she couldn't remember it. "Yeah I got your present. How did you know I wanted that?"

"Your friend (Ellis is it?) sent us an 'extensive' list of everything she thought you wanted," her father smirked. James saw in an instant who Lily had got her grin from.

"I am going to-" Lily didn't have a chance to finish off what she was going to do to her friend as her mum announced that dinner was ready. Petunia decided as Lily had her boyfriend for Christmas; she was going to invite Vernon round. They all made polite conversation while Petunia and Vernon tried to outdo James in everything.

"So James, Lily tells us you're excellent at Qui-"

"Sports," her father interrupted. Vernon was a muggle after all.

"Really? Well I wouldn't say excellent......." James replied, grinning at Lily.

"What no ego today?" Lily whispered.

"Did I tell you that Vernon's on the school boxing team?" Petunia asked loudly.

"Really?" their parents asked.

"Only one team? James is on every sports team for our house,"

He was on the Quidditch team and that was the only sports team for Gryffindor, Lily thought. She was becoming quite the Marauder already.

"Vernon's a prefect!" Petunia said glaring at her sister.

"James is Head Boy," Lily replied smugly.

"Vernon's just been offered a job at a large company,"

"Really?" Lily enquired politely, "I didn't know Weight Watchers was taking on staff,"

"LILY! That's enough from both of you!" her father reproved. But Petunia couldn't resist it.

"So what does 'darling James' do?" she asked sneering. Lily had been praying that she would ask that.

"Oh James doesn't work," Beside her he was trying to become very interested in his food. ("This is delicious Mrs Evans!")

"Scrounger!" Petunia muttered.

"No. It's just that unlike some," Lily looked directly at Vernon, "He can afford not to," Next to her, James groaned and she realised that she had gone to far.

"Look it's starting to snow!" he quickly pointed out.

"Lovely. Why don't you kids go out and we'll tidy up?" her dad offered. They all agreed and Lily ran upstairs to get some warmer clothes. Grabbing the winter set Isabelle had given her for Christmas.

They crunched through the snow in silence for what seemed like miles.

"Why did you have to do that?" James asked quietly.

"I'm sorry. It's just she always thinks she's so much better.........it drives me insane!" Lily complained kicking snow into the air. "You're so lucky you don't have a sister,"

"Yeah I guess. Doesn't mean I don't know what it is like to have a girl drive me crazy," he grinned.

"Sorry. But I can't be that bad, you're still here," she reasoned.

"Yeah," he sighed taking her hand, "I'm still here."

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Finally Christmas morning came and their stay at the Evans's was over; they could leave. Lily could feel relief floating off of her as she disapparated to James's house. They seemed to have arrived somewhere in the country as they were surrounded by large fields. They stood together at the end of a long drive that lead to a house somewhere in the distance.

"What are your parents like?" she asked gripping his hand tightly, she was so nervous.

"They're okay I guess. You couldn't let go a bit could you? It's just I can't feel my fingers," she did, and he flexed his hand before finding hers again.

"What do they do?"

"Dad works in the Ministry, Mum does other stuff,"

"Whereabouts in the Ministry?"

"Floo Network at the moment. It's not very interesting. Here......" he dragged her off the road to a small gap in a hedge, just through it she could see his house. And was promptly terrified.

"You live there?"

"It's my paretns house,"

"That's not a house! It's a bloody mansion!"

"No, no, no, no! You're not leaving me to face my parents alone," he grabbed the back of her new scarf, the only part he could reach, as she tried to run away

"Are they that bad?" Lily noticed with alarm that they were dangerously close to the front door. He was saved answering by his mother opening the front door. She pulled them into a quick hug.

"Hello you must be Lily," she said, "Sorry Jamie but I'm busy with lunch, we can talk later. Why don't you show Lily her room?"

"Jamie?" Lily grinned.

"Shut up!"

Lily immediately liked Mrs Potter. She was so different from her own mother. More sensible and straightforward, unlike Lily's bustling mother who fussed over everything.

She returned to the kitchen and started chatting with someone who sounded just like-

"Morning!" Sirius said. Lily looked at James in disbelief.

"What are you doing here? You moved out!" he asked.

"Merry Christmas to you too!" Sirius replied pretending to be offended.

"MUM!"

"Well I was...." She began to explain, "in Diagon Alley, doing a bit of Christmas shopping when I bumped into Sirius. He 'just happened' to mention about fifteen times, how he had no plans for Christmas and how he would probably spend it alone in his flat, so I invited him round. Now are you going to show Lily her room, or are you just going to let her stand out in the hall with all her bags?" James grunted an apology, took her bags and showed her the way upstairs.

Lily was about to go through the first door on the landing, but James walked right past it........and the second........and the third.........and the fourth. Lily was beginning to think that she was going to have to sleep outside when James finally opened a door and lead her into one of the most beautiful rooms she had ever seen. The ceilings were high and were decorated in a way that seemed both elaborate and simple at the same time. She was sinking into the thick carpet and she walked to the huge bed in the centre, putting her bags down on it.

"Bathroom's through there," he pointed. And he left her to unpack. She had about a month's supply of clothes for the week that she would be staying there. As she didn't know what it was going to be like, she had packed old clothes, and posh clothes, and muggle clothes and wizards robes.

"I've brought some towels up for you dear. No doubt James didn't think of it," his mum said as she walked into Lily's bathroom. "No decorations!" she said horror struck. "Honestly! I told Henry that you would be staying here and to put up some decorations. He can be such a miserable bugger sometimes!"

"Never," she advised Lily, "Marry a man who doesn't like Christmas!" Lily could hear James and Sirius yelling out Christmas carols from the other side of the house.

'I don't think there's any danger of that!' she smiled to herself. His mum conjured some holly, tinsel and even a small Christmas tree out of nowhere. Satisfied she also left Lily to unpack.

Now that there were decorations were up Lily was feeling much more Christmassy. It was very rare for her, but she even began to sing.

"I don't want a lot for Christmas........" she sang as she put her clothes away.

"All I want for Christmas.............is you!" she finished her song just as James sneaked up behind her to make her jump.

"Anyone I know?" he whispered putting his arms around her.

"Doubt it," she replied. How could she have thought his eyes were boring and dull? They were just the right colour, and were twinkling away at her. They kissed until they were interrupted by gagging and retching sounds.

James only paused for a second, to say

"Piss off Sirius," before carrying on.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but if you could just prise yourself off of her, lunch is ready,"

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Their Christmas dinner could not have been more different to the dinners they had had at Lily's house. The conversation came easily and it was not in forced politeness. Lily was relieved to find that there was no bitchy comments or arguing.

Halfway through dinner Mrs Potter decided that it was safe to mention the event set for the next day.

"Have any plans for tomorrow you two?" she asked cautiously.

"No, why?" James asked suspiciously.

"Well, your dad and I were talking about having a little 'get together' tomorrow night." James sighed and banged his head on the table.

"A party?" Sirius asked, suddenly interested.

"Not the kind you're thinking of," James replied. Lily couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Sirius's crestfallen face. He was about to ask more, when Mr Potter stood up and asked to talk to James outside.

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"How about this?" Lily asked nervously holding up yet another dress. James was lounged across her bed, casually spinning his wand round his fingers.

"James! I have four hours to find clothes and get ready! Do you realise how little time that is for a girl?" James however was clearly not listening.

"You want to go for a walk?"

She was clearly not going to get anywhere while he was in this mood so she agreed.

They walked through snow across his garden and past a frozen lake. Amusing themselves for a while they slipped across it, pretending to ice-skate.

They were almost a mile away from the house when Lily noticed that it was only an hour before the party started. She dragged him back to the house, panicking in case she didn't have enough time to get ready.

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'Where the hell is she?' James wondered. He was waiting outside her room for her and had been standing out there for almost 40 minutes.

"Lily? Hurry u- WOW!" he said staring at her.

Having finally emerged from her room, she was wearing a black silky halter neck dress, her eyes and nails were dark and her hair hung in messy curls.

"Is this alright?" she asked, smoothing down the front of her dress nervously. He couldn't think how to say it. All he had to say was yes, but he couldn't manage it. All he could do was to stand staring and attempting to speak. Which made him look rather like a goldfish.

Grinning nervously, he took her hand and they walked downstairs. Halfway down, she paused.

"What is wrong with you?" she asked. Her looked confused at her.

"You're gripping my hand so tight it's starting to match my nails!"

"You did it to me yesterday," he reasoned.

"Only because I was terrified about meeting your parents, but you can't be scared about that because you've already met them!"

"Ok," he sighed, "you know my dad wanted to talk to me yesterday? He's trying to get me a job at the ministry during the summer and there's people he wants me to meet,"

"Oh,"

They continued to walk until they got to the rooms the party was being held in. It defiantly wasn't Sirius's kind of party, people were standing around in suits or evening dresses eating things on sticks and the only alcohol available was glasses of champagne being handed out. Nevertheless he was there, and like James he was wearing a formal suit.

"Ev-Lily wow!" he said. Isabelle wandered over and joined them.

"Belle, what are you doing here?" Lily asked.

"Dad was invited, he thought I might like to see you. Great house James."

"Thanks," he muttered. They were about to start a conversation when Mr Potter went over to drag James off to meet some Ministry official.

"James, this is Mr Fudge. I believe that he works in your father's office Lily," he said as he introduced them. James shook hands very quickly so that he could take Lily's hand again.

"You don't want to work with him," Lily whispered so only James could hear her.

"Why?"

"Useless, crap at the job. Probably be fired by the summer,"

They politely made excuses and went back over find Isabelle and Sirius. Except they couldn't see them anywhere. Lily craned her neck in a very Petuniaish way trying to find them but she still couldn't find them. Eventually they gave up and accepted that Isabelle and Sirius must have left together. Though where, they didn't know. They could not have gone outside as a fierce blizzard was blowing and they hadn't heard anyone disapparate.

After having met 17 different ministry workers, and they were both bored out their mind. After the 16th James had finally worked out that if he switched sides, he wouldn't have to keep letting go of Lily to shake someone's hand. He had managed to keep her away from the champagne, perhaps the only thing in the party able to entertain them.

"Can we go?" James asked her earnestly.

"Where to?" she asked. They couldn't disapparate anywhere and the storm was still blowing. "We can't leave the house, and your mum will come looking if we just disappear," James seemed to think for a moment before suddenly having an idea. He ran into the kitchen and scribbled 'Gone to flat. James' sticking it onto their fridge he ran upstairs leaving Lily to totter behind him.

"What are you doing?" she asked as he hurriedly began to shove clothes into a bag.

"Taking some stuff to wear. You don't expect me to wear a suit when I don't have to do you? You might want to get some stuff to,"

Once packed they stood together in his fireplace, he grabbed a handful of Floo powder and muttered something Lily couldn't understand.

Lily had never had a more violent Floo journey. Obviously she was used to travelling in this way, but they seemed to be thrown all over the place.Outside she could hear a city bustling. One thing was certain, she knew as James helped her up, they weren't in the country anymore.

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