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"Maren, I'm going to miss you so much!" Lily murmured, hugging her friend good-bye. Christmas had come and Lily was heading home for the holidays.

"I know, but a nice break with your family will give you plenty of time to think about James."

"Maybe, Petunia will want nothing to do with me, but my parents, they'll be thrilled that they're eldest daughter is home," she rolled her eyes.

Laughing, Maren agreed, "Yeah, mine would be too, except it's Chelsea's first year so she's going home to visit and their letting me spend my final Christmas here."

"Lucky!"

"Yeah, but I'll be working the whole time."

"What to you mean?" Lily inquired suspiciously.

"Finding out what James still thinks of you, of course!" she said with content.

"No, no, no!" Lily's eyes opened wide in terror. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Oh wouldn't I?" Maren grinned slyly.

"But, but, we made a deal!"

"And that wasn't part of it!" The Hogwarts Express let out a loud whistle. "You don't want to miss your train!" Shoving her friend between the closing doors, Maren called out, "Have a nice holiday!"

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"This is going to be a long holiday." James murmured. He was sitting in front of a roaring fire in the Gryffindor common room, playing wizard chess with Sirius.

"What makes you say that?" Sirius asked distractedly as he concentrated on his next move.

"The fact that it's only been 49 hours and we've already resorted to playing chess." James answered glumly.

"Well, we could make it more interesting."

"Chess or the holiday?"

"The holiday, you prat!"

"How?"

"Well, Snivellus should be around somewhere, he always stays for the holidays, or we could sneak down to Hogsmeade."

"Or," a new, slightly higher voice entered the conversation, "you could tell me why you keep avoiding Lily."

James spun around so fast that the chess board went flying to the floor. "What on Earth are you talking about, Goldberg?" He attempted to recover from his shock.

"Why won't you talk to Lily? Why won't you at least hear her out?" She fired the questions off so fast, James almost couldn't keep up.

"I think you've found yourself a girl," Sirius nodded at Maren, clearly amused.

"Naw, I'm into your friend Lupin, it's Lily that likes Potter."

Completely taken aback by this statement, James couldn't seem to find his voice.

"Just hear her out, Potter, you might be surprised."

"Goldberg," he rasped, "you think I'm going to forgive her, just like that?"

"If you really, honestly love her, yes."

"But she doesn't like me, she made that clear the night she humiliated me," James avoided Sirius who was trying to catch his eye.

"Swallow your pried, Potter. She made a mistake, that thick hair of hers blinded her to the obvious, kind of like how Black's is blinding him." Maren cocked her head in the direction of his puzzled friend. "Just think about it, Potter, you've got the whole holiday to think. You might just want to try to hear her out, after all, absence makes the heart grown fonder." She paused, making sure James was taking all of this in. "Right, I'll leave the task of explaining this mess to Black up to you. Night, Potter." And as quickly as she had appeared, Maren vanished into the growing crowd.

Sighing, James turned to his previously ignored friend. "Right, I guess I should be telling you the story then."

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"Lily! Lily darling!" Lily Evans turned towards the sound of her mom's cheery voice.

"Mum! Dad! Petunia!" Wheeling her trunk toward them, Lily surveyed the group before her. Her parents were waving madly, noticeably excited that they're daughter had come home. But excited was hardly the word to describe Petunia. She was staring at a point somewhere beyond Lily, her tight-lipped expression revealed that she was clearly livid at being dragged a long. Ever since Lily had been accepted into Hogwarts 7 years ago, Petunia had not been the same. She was no longer the carefree 10-year- old who spent endless hours playing with Lily. No, now she wanted nothing to do with her sister.

"Oh, honey!" Her mom swallowed her daughter in a hug, "it's so good to see you! How's school?"

"Now, now Iris," Lily's dad broke in, "Lily can tell us all about it in the car. Let's just get her stuff there first." Smiling, Mr. Evans took the cart from Lily and pushed it towards the waiting car.

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"It's great, they've been keeping us really busy, after all, it is our last year and we need to be prepared to face the world once we're out of school." Lily was safely in the car, going into detail about the first half of her school year.

"That sounds wonderful, darling. What about your friends? I'd like it if you were having some fun in-between all that work."

"They're great as well. You remember Maren Goldberg, don't you? I visited her a few summers ago? Well, she's still my best friend. And of course I have plenty of other friends." She added, seeing the concerned look on her mother's face. "I'm not a loner, mum, though sometimes I wish I were, it's almost impossible to get any work done with a group of giggling girls following you." She smiled in spite of herself, she loved those girls and she couldn't care less that they were always following her.

"What about boys, Lil?"

"Yes, darling, tell us!" Her mother sounded eager.

"Well, what about them?" Lily had tried evading this subject for as long as possible. She did not want to bring up the topic of James.

"Come on now, you must have had at least one boyfriend."

"I haven't." She said stiffly. "Is there a law that says I should have?"

"No, but darling, it's just not healthy for a girl of your age to not have had a boyfriend."

Petunia smirked at Lily from across the car. It was the first time she had acknowledged Lily since they had met up again.

"Why, Petunia here," her dad started, proudly, "she's had a good number of boyfriends. Lars, Jason, Ed, Vernon." he ticked the names off on his fingers as he went on.

"Darling, don't be upset, we respect your decision, but honey, you're 17, almost 18, sometimes I think you should concentrate less on your studies and more on your social life."

"But don't you want me to do well?" she chanced a sidelong glance at Petunia who was looking smug.

"Of course we do! But dear, you're a straight A,"

"O," Lily corrected her automatically.

"Right, straight O student, I think you can afford to relax a little."

Watching the smile slide from Petunia's face at the mention of grades, Lily felt slightly cheered. "Mum, I do relax. And it's not like I don't hang out with guys or go on dates, I'm just not deeply interested in a particular one." "Except for James," Maren's voice echoed through her mind. "No Maren, note even James." She thought, disagreeing with one of the first positive thoughts she'd had all day.

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"Ok, so let me get this straight, you like Evans, but you were afraid to tell me because you didn't want me to think you were ditching us?" James had just finished explaining the whole dilemma to Sirius.

"Close enough," he shrugged.

"James, we're 18, we're gonna have to go out with girls sooner or later, mate."

James gave a sigh of relief as Sirius laughed and threw his arm over James' shoulder. "Just make sure she's a worthwhile girl, not some no-brained, no- looks hussy. She's got to go through Padfoot's approval first."

"So, how does Evans check?" James laughed.

"Hm," Sirius feigned a look of concentration, "she passes, though she's not up to Black standards."

"That's good, otherwise you'd have to fight me for her."

"Speaking of fighting, look who just stepped out in front of us."

James took his laughing eyes off the stone floor to find what Sirius was talking about. Catching sight of the oily black-haired student in front of them, James' eyes lost their fire, whereas Sirius' gained it.

Stealing a glance at James' expression, Sirius frowned. "What now, James? Evans isn't here, no one's here except for you, me, and Snivellus."

Regaining his confidence, James muttered an "okay," to Sirius, then, amplifying his voice he said, "Hey, Snivellus!" Have you taken a shower yet this year?" Severus Snape wheeled around. "You better take one soon, even the cockroaches are fleeing."

Sirius sniggered as Snape drew out his wand. "You'll be wanting to put that away, Snivelly, you've forgotten who you're dealing with."

"What? A worthless, brainless Quidditch Seeker with no future and a mangy mutt?" Snape spat out.

Sirius laughed coolly, "Is that the best you can come up with? All that grease must be affecting your brain."

"At least my associate isn't dating a mudblood."

James lunged at Snape, sending him sprawling to the ground before he could even reach for his wand. "You worthless. Filthy. Piece. Of. Scum!" James gasped in between blows to Snape's face.

It was Maren that finally pulled James off of Snape, she had come across the trio on her way to lunch. "James, stop it, he's not worth wasting your energy."

"But he called Lily a-a-" he panted.

"Lily wouldn't have wanted you to do this. Just get up Potter, he's not worth it. Snape, make yourself useful and disappear." Noticing the blood spurting from his nose she suggested, "You might want to get yourself to the hospital wing."

Snape sulkily scampered off as Sirius turned back to James who was staring after Maren's retreating back.

"I'd hate to see what you'd do to him if Lily were actually your girlfriend, mate."

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