A/N: Why hello again! I am astonished by the amount of new reviewers I have received since last chapter! It's all very much appreciated. Anyhoo, this chapter is dedicated to Johnny, and to stumble till you fall's James Potter. Enjoy this chapter, read, review. Thanks!

Chapter Twenty-Six: Hearts and other Fluffy Things

"You're to stay in your room the entire evening!" Petunia Evans, soon to be Dursley, said to her little sister on New Year's Eve.

"Don't worry." replied Lily, rubbing her puffy, swollen jaw. Today she was going with out her sedatives, in hope she could get a couple of glasses of champagne, and she couldn't mix alcohol with sedatives.

"Mum and Dad are gone this evening, and this is my party with my friends, and they don't know about you!" continued Petunia.

Lily tried to hold in a laugh. The people at the party were not Petunia's friends—they were associates of Vernon's who just happened to bringing their wives.

"Alright, I'll stay in my room, but you have to bring me my pudding." mumbled Lily, heading up the stairs in her nightgown, looking completely different then her sister, who was wearing more make up than necessary, shiny gold earrings, and a red dress she was certain was found in the old maid part of the department store.

"Thank-you!" replied her sister at the bottom of the stairs, sounding more annoyed than appreciating, "They'll be here any minute, so don't you dare poke your nose out till after they've left."

"Don't worry." Lily replied, not looking back at her sister as she headed to the room. She was glad that she didn't have to sit around in a house dress all evening pretending to be interested in golf and tennis and other corporate hobbies.

However, the night ahead of her was sure to be a dull one. Trapped in her room, with a painful mouth, with all of her friends at Allison's family's New Year's Party, Lily sunk into her bed with her copy of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe .James was going to be there, wearing dress robes and looking handsome. Lily didn't even try to lie to herself about how she was feeling about James anymore, she was dying to know how handsome he looked tonight, and she sighed, who he might be dancing with.

James had written her twice every day since Christmas, not love letters, but short little notes of what he and Sirius were going to be up to that day, advice on what pranks Lily should pull on Petunia and Vernon when they were being particularly horrible, and just saying hello. They helped to brighten up Lily's day, especially since she hadn't been able to eat solid food for two days.

"Charlotte, are you ready?" called James from outside his cousin's room. He and Sirius had been waiting on her to be ready for the Prewitts' party for twenty minutes.

"Yes—almost!" she replied through the door in a heavy French accent that seemed to emerge in stressful situations.

James checked his watch. The Prewitts' party was to start at eight, and it was ten after. He walked down the stairs to wait with Sirius, who was wearing a pair of dress robes like James. James's were plain black, with a white vest and bow tie. Sirius was wearing pinstripes with a bright orange cumber button and bow tie.

"She almost ready?" asked Sirius, while eating a roll the house-elves must have provided for him.

James shrugged. "Supposedly."

Sirius nodded understandingly, and chewed on the roll. Five minutes later, Charlotte walked down the stairs, wearing a flowing red gown with her neat black hair up elegantly. Sirius's jaw dropped as he saw her.

"Charlotte, you look amazing!" he commented. "I am definitely dancing with you!"

Charlotte laughed flirtatiously and took Sirius's and James's arms so that she was walking in between them. "Ready?"

"No, I fancied having a five-course meal before we left." mumbled James sarcastically, he wasn't as excited about the evening like he had been before he realized Lily couldn't attend.

"Oh sod off." replied Charlotte lightly before leading them out the door.

The three apparated together and appeared outside the gates of the Prewitt mansion.

Sirius was staring at Charlotte, and James just took a breath while looking at the star spangled sky.

He thought of Lily, and knew what he had to do.

"Go on ahead without me…I've got some things to do." stated James.

Sirius looked at his friend puzzled, but then nodded in understanding. Charlotte shook her head and laughed. "You didn't want to be late."

"What should we tell Allison?" asked Sirius.

"I got sick." replied James. "Tell her I'm sorry, but I just wasn't feeling well."

Sirius nodded and took Charlotte's arm. "Alright, love, let's go."

Charlotte laughed and leaned her head on Sirius's shoulder as they walked up the path.

After making a detour to his house to gather some things, James found himself in Lily Evans's backyard, lurking around bushes like some sort of burglar. He gazed through the windows, a party was going on, Petunia's party. He needed to get into see Lily, and he, James Potter, ingenious Marauder, could not think of anything other than to try his odds at the front door. Maybe Lily was the door answerer and would be the one to open it.

His finger traced the doorbell for a moment before he took a breath, pressed the warm, lighted button, and waited for someone, hopefully Lily, to answer the door.

He would have no such luck.

A tall, skinny, horse-toothed young woman with blonde hair and an abnormally long neck answered the door. This had to be Petunia Evans, and from what James had heard, he should be horrified right now.

"Hello." James greeted. "I'm James Potter. Is Lily in?"

Petunia's gray-blue eyes narrowly scanned James, and her mouth formed a thoroughly shocked expression.

"You're one of those freaks, aren't you?" she whispered, ushering him down the porch stairs and closing the door carefully behind her.

James studied her for a minute, looking around the house—just in case he had the wrong one.

"Um, I—I go to the same school as her." replied James, gaining confidence and finding this woman insulting to both him and Lily.

"You need to leave, right now. Before I get Vernon!" she snapped.

James was about to respond, but he realized it was useless and turned away, he walked back down the path and started down the road until he heard the front door shut behind Petunia. Making sure she wasn't still out, James headed back to the side of the two story house and tried to guess which window could be Lily's.

After sneaking around the house a couple of times, James's eye caught the frilly white lace curtains of two of the windows, with a light on inside. A giant oak tree with long limbs shaded the area against the moonlight, and James decided to try to climb up.

Several close calls with death later, James was positioned on a branch with a bag under his arm and his wand reaching one of the windows to tap it.

He heard someone stand up excitedly and he heard what he hoped were Lily's feet tip-toeing towards the window.

The pretty redhead opened the window and stuck her head out, gasping as she saw James, stuck rather awkwardly in a tree and wearing the magical equivalent of a Muggle tuxedo.

"James—what are you doing here?" she whispered.

He grinned. "Well I figured you were probably having a dreadful time cooped up here, and I wasn't going to have that great of a time at the Prewitts, so I decided to stop by."

"You're mad!" replied Lily, still in shock. "If my sister sees you, she'll absolutely freak!"

James shrugged. "She already has, I went to the front door at first. And she didn't react too badly."

Lily stared at him in horror. He had faced the wrath of Petunia Evans just to come and see her. There was no way she was going to send him home after that.

"Well, climb up here." she said, motioning for James to climb through the window. "Be careful, and be quiet."

James threw her his bag and began to climb limberly to the roof and to attempt to get through the window.

Once he was inside, Lily realized that she was not wearing the appropriate attire for such an encounter. Her nightgown only had thin straps, came down barely to her knee, and nevertheless she felt entirely revealed, as James had never seen in her such a state.

James seemed to have noticed as well, and was looking around her room oddly and standing uncomfortably by the window, as if he was scared to move any further.

Lily cleared her throat. "What's in the bag?" she held it up to James, who smiled.

"Well there's crackers, Exploding Snap cards, chocolate, butterbeer, glasses, and a change of clothes." James replied.

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Change of clothes?"

James nodded. "Well these dress robes are right buggers really, and I thought maybe this might be a formal occasion, you said your sister was throwing a party…and so I was going to play it safe and not change out of this yet…but er, I realize it's not so formal, up here, and just in case I brought a pair of trousers and a shirt."

Lily nodded. "Oh, well, I don't think I can risk you running out of here to the bathroom, but, how about I'll change in my closet and you change out here?"

"Sounds like it'll have to do." he smiled. "Sorry to barge on you like this, I realize it was rather reckless…"

"Reckless, yes." replied Lily, staring at James's eyes. "But appreciated. I was settling for an evening of reading and going to bed before the year came in."

James shook his head. "Tisk, tisk, tisk. We can't have Head Girls being old maids."

Lily laughed before going to her closet, turning on the light, and just as she tried to shut the door, she had James peeking in, looking around like a curious little boy.

"James!" she cried. "I'm going to change!"

James stepped back out of the closet and nodded, still looking around. "The light…"

Lily realized what James had been interested in, and let out a laugh that made James's heart flutter. "It's electricity, James—honestly you really should have taken Muggle Studies."

James shrugged. "How does electricity work? Is it like lightening?" he asked excitedly.

Lily let out a laugh again. "Sort of, I don't know the specifics, it's rather complicated…all's I know is that you flip a switch which turns on some sort of current that gets you electricity."

James nodded, still quite amazed.

"I'm going to shut the door." Lily stated, pulling the door shut behind her and preceding to change.

James took another look around Lily's room now that he had no one watching him, he'd never really looked at it, he had always been in the room with Lily and therefore had been more observant of her than anything else in a hundred meter radius. The room really did shout Lily, it was neat, slightly girly, slightly intellectual, and just had an orientation that James associated with Lily. After looking around a minute, he decided to get out of his clothes and change, before Lily was done.

Five minutes later, Lily called from the closet, asking if James was done.

"Yes, just a minute." James replied, going to the mirror to check his appearance. He tried pushing his hair down flat a few times, but gave up after the second try. "Ok, I'm presentable." He smiled as her heard Lily's laugh as she walked back into the room, this time with a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.

James checked her appearance quickly and realized she was wearing the ring he gave her for Christmas, and the heart was still facing downward.

Lily made her way to her shelf. "I haven't put the record player you gave me together yet, I'm not very good with electronics and stuff."

He followed to where she stood and saw the record player on the floor, just outside the box with an array of wires spread out, as if in frustration. James smiled. "Didn't it come with directions?"

The look of slight embarrassment on Lily's face told James that she had overlooked that aspect. He reached into the box and pulled out a thin pamphlet of instructions, in three languages. He opened it up to the English side and studied the diagram for a moment, Lily watched his every movement, and found herself sucking in her breath whenever he got close.

After a few minutes, James looked up with an excited look on his face. "I've got it!"

Lily laughed as she watched James fiddle with the cords and wires and put the record player on the shelf next to her records.

"Alright, let's give it a go." suggested James. "What shall it be?"

Lily stood up and went through her records and after a few seconds pulled out a classic holiday one. James smiled. "Is that an ABBA holiday mix?"

Lily frowned. "Of course not, it's Bing Crosby."

James laughed as he put the needle on the record and it began to spin, a slow, deep melody began to play into the room, and Lily jumped up in excitement. "Whoever said men don't follow directions was completely wrong!"

"Well, I didn't really read the directions…" replied James, laughing. "Sorry to disappoint you."

"I suppose it would be out of character for you to have read them." Lily giggled, suddenly grasping her jaw in pain.

James rushed to her. "Is your jaw still sore? Don't Muggles know how to give medication or drugs or anything? I know this great spell we can try."

Lily shook her head. "They gave me some sedatives, but I didn't know if I was going to have champagne or not tonight, and you can't have alcohol with that medicine."

To her surprise, James laughed. "What, is New Years your one and only time to drink?"

Lily pouted. "Don't make fun of me. My parents only ever let me drink on New Years."

James smiled. "I would never make fun of you. Just ribbing you, is all." He laughed. "I take it you've never been roaring drunk before, then?"

Lily hit James lightly in his right arm. "No, I haven't. But who wants to get roaring drunk anyways, it's not like you remember anything."

"Oh why Lily, that's precisely the point." James replied. "But I can't say that I've gone all out that much, either."

"But you have." countered Lily, watching James as he sat down on her bedroom floor.

James looked at her, as if trying to determine how to answer her. "Well, yes. But not as much as some people, I mean there have been a few times—but I'm not like Sirius."

Lily nodded as she sat down. "I don't have anything against it once in a while, it's all in a good time, but I can't see why people do it regularly."

"Some people just have pain like that." James explained as he took out a deck of Exploding Snap cards. "Up for a game?"

Lily scrunched her nose. "I don't like Exploding Snap…what about Rummy? Do you know how to play Rummy?"

"Yes." James answered, pushing his deck aside. "But why don't you like Exploding Snap?"

She got up to get her cards and made her way back to where she had been sitting. "I had a bad experience."

James looked at her excitingly. "Really? Do tell."

Lily laughed. "I got my eyebrows and bangs completely singed off."

James raised his eyebrows. "Is that why you got rid of your bangs after Easter Break third year?"

"Partly." she replied, surprised that James remembered such a tiny detail from years ago. "I also realized how horrible I looked with them."

"You didn't look horrible." James argued.

"Oh, really?"

"Well, I like your hair better now, but you've always been beautiful." James stated, his neck turning slightly red in the intensity of the moment.

Lily blushed as well and began to deal the cards out.

Twelve games later, and the two were still at it, raising the amount of points to win after every game.

"Let's play to three thousand!" tried James, who had just lost.

Lily pouted. "I've already won eight times James!"

"OK, fine, you win." James held out his hand for Lily's cards. "Loser cleans up, right?"

"You bet."

After getting the cards into a neat stack and shuffling. "Up for a different game?" he asked, throwing a winning smile at Lily, who wouldn't be able to resist.

"Sure, what?" Lily asked, green eyes wild with the excitement of competition.

"Fifty two card pick up!" James replied, throwing the deck of cards around the room in a wild disarray, laughing like a mad person the entire time.

Lily began laughing too as she stood up to see the damage. "James! You've made quite a mess!"

"I'm sorry." James replied, laughing, although it was obvious that he was not at all apologetic.

Lily giggled again, but suddenly stopped.

"Shush! My sister's coming!" she whispered. A look of panic crossed both of their once happy faces.

Lily jumped into her bed and under the covers and James dived under her bed, landing on something soft and furry and received a sharp scratch.

He bit his lip to keep from swearing aloud as he heard Petunia's footsteps inch closer to Lily's bed and a cat rushed out from under Lily's bed.

"How's the party?" asked Lily as her sister handed her a tray of pudding and Jell-O.

Petunia looked around the room. "Fine, what have you been doing?"

Lily looked around her room—it certainly was a mess, especially being that Lily was usually a very neat and organized person. There were cards everywhere, and James's bag lay disheveled and crumpled with some of the contents spilling out to the floor.

"Oh, you know, being stuck in here for so long makes me jumpy and I have to, I don't know—do random things, like throwing a whole deck of cards around the room." she replied, hoping she didn't sound too nervous. Her sister looked at her oddly, and Lily could tell she was having trouble believing her. To prove her point, she lobbed a glob of the gelatin across her room. Petunia didn't seem pleased, but at least she seemed to believe her now.

"See?" Lily laughed and threw some more of the red glop. "It must be the medicine that's making me so crazy!"

Petunia had had it, and started backing out of the room, she looked at her younger sister sternly. "You stay up here—I don't want any of your weird habits coming downstairs."

"Alright, I wouldn't want to make you look bad." Lily replied, with just a hint of sarcasm in her voice, she heard James stifle a chuckle and she hit her bed to signal him to stop, which didn't go unnoticed by Petunia, who was once again looking at Lily oddly, inches away from the door.

Lily giggled. "That medicine must give me spasms too!"

Without saying a word, Petunia shut the door and headed back down to the party.

Once the footsteps had completely drifted away, Lily hopped up and looked under her bed, to see James reading a magazine of hers with the light of his wand.

"James!" she started. James grinned and looked at her. "Why hello, Evans. Let me tell you, being under your bed is simply delightful and I've seemed to have assaulted some furry critter."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh sod off, she's gone, and that was Walter, my cat."

"Oh, he's a soft fellow. I'm coming out." he replied, although he made no attempt to move. "Your sister should read this article on shoes. Those ones she had on in here made her feet look gigantic."

Lily looked at James with his wand held close to her copy of Witch Weekly, and couldn't help but giggle.

"She has gigantic feet. It has nothing to do with the shoes." Lily replied, laughing.

James pulled himself out from Lily's bed. "I thought that might be it."

"So Walter is your cat?" James asked, as the black and white ball of fur curled himself next to Lily's door and promptly fell asleep. "Why don't you take him to Hogwarts?"

Lily laughed. "Walter has no magical abilities. And besides, they say a cat would rather have a different owner and stay in the same place than move to a new place with the same owner."

James nodded. "I see, I take it you miss him then?"

"Of course I do, I've had him since before Hogwarts when he was just a tiny kitten. I do say he hates it when I'm gone."

"I'm sorry." James said, as he took a look around Lily's room.

"I better help you clean up. I would hate to not be invited back due to my horrible manners." James stated, jokingly, but waving his wand and nevertheless helping with the mess, to the relief of Lily.

Out of habit, Lily checked her watch, and she was stunned to see it was half after twelve. New Years had come and she had missed it, James had made her forget all about the time.

Remembering that her parents were due home from a separate New Years Party at one, Lily walked over to where James was standing.

"You are going to have to leave soon, my parents will be back and my father will want to come in and check on me." Lily started. "I don't think he'd approve of their being a random boy in my room at this hour."

James nodded. "I understand." He shuffled around on the balls of his feet. "Happy New Years, then, Lily."

Lily smiled broadly and helped James gather his things. "Happy New Years, James."

Once at the window, preparing to see James off, Lily felt the sudden urge to do something she had been dying to do for several days.

She reached to her left hand and turned her ring so that it was facing upward. James watched this all very slowly, as if he was hypnotized by it.

Locking eyes, Lily spoke. "I love you, James. You've got my heart."

James stood there, speechless. Lily Evans was saying the very words he had dreamed her saying so many times for so long, and they were in her bedroom, nonetheless, which brought in a whole different array of dreams.

"I love you too, Lily." he finally said. "I always have."

"Good night." Lily smiled, giving James a small kiss on the cheek before he climbed over to the tree.

"No, Lily." James replied, staring directly into her captivating eyes. "Good Morning."

With one final smile, Lily shut her window and closed the blinds, feeling happier than she had ever felt in her entire life.

nowthatspink: Yes, it's called a claddagh as well. I have some friends that have them and I want one so bad, but I can't find them anywhere.

Borntooslow: You created an account just for my story? Aww! Thanks!

Zippy-Wings: Lily doesn't have a car. I mean, she's rarely home as it is and her parents don't see the sense in buying her one. If it makes you feel any better, Petunia doesn't have one either. But it's because she doesn't think women should drive.

blufiresprite, dreamergirl86, PaintedBlank, WhiteCamellia, hpgirl7777, monkicraziemprez, stumble till yu fall, IAMSOAP, and Lily Evans 4 Life: Thanks very much for all of the wonderful reviews. Keep reading, as always!