"More potatoes?" Kathryn Evans asked later that day.

"Oh, no thanks," Alex replied curtly. All feelings of shyness and nervousness were gone after she'd been welcomed into the Evans household so graciously by everyone. Well, everyone except Petunia, but Lily had warned her that she would be like that.

"So, you've always known you were a witch?" Petunia asked spitefully, deliberately emphasising the 'witch'.

Alex nodded. "Sure have, although I've never been that good at magic," she lied smoothly. "I was so glad when Lily got put in Gryffindor – our house – too. She's really helped me get better. Do you want to see?"

"No, that's okay. Maybe later," Petunia looked absolutely petrified.

Alex smiled, "Of course. Just tell me when." Lily smiled at her in a laughing way.

"So, Lily's good at magic then?" Jack Evans asked, sensing trouble.

Lily blushed as Alex spoke.

"She sure is. She did this," she pulled at her hair gently. "And this is 6th year Transfiguration work."

"Wow," Kathryn gasped. "That's fantastic sweetie," she continued, patting her daughters' hand.

Lily beamed. "It wasn't that hard, really." She said modestly. "And I had a lot of help in Transfiguration off James Potter during my first month there."

Kathryn raised her eyebrows, "Ah, James. Is he still an arrogant bully?"

The answers were contradicting.

"No," was Alex's reply.

"Yes," was Lily's.

Kathryn and Jack laughed.

"He's that good, eh?" Jack asked.

"Your family's great, Lil." Alex told her that night as they prepared for bed. "Well, mostly. I'm not too sure about Petunia."

Lily laughed.

"No, I mean it. Thanks for inviting me."

"Well of course," Lily said hugging her. "It was my mum's idea, though."

"Still, thanks. It beats spending a not-so Merry Christmas with Dad and Jenny, or the whole two weeks with the Marauders and their 'jobs'."

Lily grinned evilly. "Yeah, I heard someone on the train saying they had to work off all the detentions they've received."

"Really? They'll be working for a long time."

They both laughed and stayed up most of the night talking.

--------

Apart from a few older students, the Marauders were the only Gryffindors to stay at Hogwarts during the Christmas holidays. They were also the only ones to be woken up at 5 o'clock on the first official day of holidays. A pair of round eyes and oversized bat-like ears in their faces declaring it was time for "Sirs to get up and do some work. Now." Was not what they expected.

Groaning the boys did as instructed and got ready for their first day of work. It was harder than any had thought, and the three, that is James, Sirius and Peter, were quite relieved to get back to the common room.

"Hard day?" Remus asked lightly as the three collapsed into chairs and groaned.

"It was horrible," was Peter's squeaky, whined complaint.

"I've never done so much work in my life," was Sirius' muffled answer from the many cushions his face was buried in.

Remus laughed at them. "I can't believe you thought they'd go easy on you. What did you have to do?"

"We've helped cook every meal you've eaten today -"

"I thought it tasted a bit funny," Remus commented, easily avoiding the weak and poorly aimed pillow from Sirius.

"- And then washed all the dishes used. How house elves do that every day I don't know," Sirius began before being interrupted by Peter.

"Arboyle had us cleaning the trophy room five times, the muggle way. And then, to top it off, Jenkruss had us restock all her supplies."

"That wasn't too bad, though." Sirius remarked thoughtfully.

Peter looked at him as though he were crazy. "What? All those different organs and things and you think it wasn't that bad?"

"Oh, shush, Peter. You spent all your time drooling over Jenkruss anyway." Peter blushed as Sirius said this. "And anyway, it means James and I don't have to do it in detention now. She'll only give us lines or something. Speaking of which, James, we have to go."

There was no reply and all three turned to look, seeing James asleep.

"Aww, how sweet." Sirius joked before picking up another cushion, this time throwing it at James' head.

James jumped startled, his glasses falling off. "Huh?" he grunted sleepily.

Sirius picked up his glasses for him. "We've got detention with Jenkruss."

James stood grudgingly. "Who decides to let their children do work and detention during their holidays. It's crazy," he complained.

"Oh, come on. At least we don't have to restock again." Sirius said pushing him towards the portrait.

"No, we'll probably have to clean all the burnt, potion encrusted apparatus," James complained, still tired. "Bye guys," he called before going through the portrait. His guess was right.

--------

Christmas came early for the boys. The hard work, early mornings and late nights became a matter of for them. So, naturally, they were up early on the 25th, it wasn't just because they had presents to open (Honest). James was up first. He left his friends asleep, figuring they could do with it. But upon entering the common room and seeing the masses of presents that nicety was forgotten. He ran back upstairs throwing pillows, stealing blankets and shouting "Presents!" as loud as he could.

Not long after the four boys were satin their dormitory with still-wrapped presents around them (They had carried their piles up and mixed them all together to add to the surprise). It took the little time to open them all but amid the mess of wrapping paper and gift tags, presents could be seen. There were the normal gifts; clothes, sweets, letters from family members, as well as the more personal ones from parents.

Remus received a selection of books based on defence magic and several sheets of personalised parchment with gold engraved "R.L." in the upper-left corner. There was also a selection of multicoloured inks and a brand new quill. Peter received a photo of his family in an ornate wooden frame. His parents smiled at him and waved, while his own face grinned stupidly, a fact which Peter seemed to find highly amusing. His friends, however, were more surprised by how Peter-like it really was. It was no surprise to them when Peter had managed to break the glass of his frame within 5 minutes. Nor was it a surprise when his attempt at restoring it resulted in a ball of glass, all the sharper points sticking out. Remus had had to repair it for him.

Sirius' present was slightly more than he had expected off his parents, though he suspected this was more a result of his brother Regulus than his parents' care for him. Sirius' opposing attitudes to those of his parents had often led to fights and arguments within the Black household. It had also developed into an uncaring attitude between parents and child. He did, however, have a close relationship with Regulus, which is why he suspected that this present may have been specially picked by him more-so than his parents.

He opened the wrapping to reveal a royal blue, velvet-like covered book with leather binding and gold embossed pages.

"They bought you a book?" Peter squeaked confusedly. "Boy, your parents don't know you very well, do they?"

James hit him hard over the head with Peter's frame at this statement. The glass shattered once more and no-one made an attempt to help clean it up. James did aggressively warn, "Shut up, Peter," though.

Sirius ignored this as he turned the book over to reveal its title; The Magic of Mayhem: An Artists Guide to Detecting Secrets. Flicking through the pages, he grinned. "This is awesome. Good old Reg, he always knows the best things to buy."

James' present was one he wasn't even aware he'd received until his hand fell on a thin piece of paper that felt like it was hiding something.

"Hey, what's this?" he'd asked as he carefully peeled back the paper.

There was a chorus of gasps as he revealed a thin, flowing, shimmering material.

"That's not a…"

"It must be…"

"Where'd that come from?"

James grinned as he read the card concealed within it.

"It was my dads. He says he wanted to give it to me before I left but mum was keeping a close eye on it. Instead he decided to wait until she let up on it. By the time she did he figured it would make a good Christmas present."

"He was right," Remus said stunned.

Sirius breathed audible shock. "You mean your dad has had an invisibility cloak all this time and didn't think to tell us? Man, that's just wrong."

James grinned at him. "But now we can try it out tonight." The smiles on the four boys' faces grew at that thought.

--------

Despite Lily's prediction that her mother would be the first one up on Christmas morning, it was in fact, Alex who was first awake, with Lily as a close second. They sat downstairs talking when her mother did come down, eager to open presents.

"Hello girls. Are you excited?" Kathryn asked, unnaturally cheerful for the early hour.

"Some of us more than others," Lily muttered darkly with matching eyes as she glowered at Alex.

Kathryn smiled, Alex laughed and Lily continued to glare.

Less than half-an-hour later Alex, Lily and her family were sat in the lounge, opening presents. Alex's father had taken the courtesy to send her presents to Lily's house by WizExpress (The Wizarding World's version of overnight delivery). She had to admit that she was surprise by the thought that had gone into them.

"Obviously Jenny's glad I got out of the house so she sent me some good presents," she was to remark bitterly to Lily before going to bed later that day.

Lily and Alex had exchanged their presents before anyone else was up. Alex had received a green, denim-looking jacket with red trim and buttons. It was personalised with the name "Alex" on the upper left pocket. Lily had received a muggle book. It was a book about the different myths and legends of different cultures. Both were happy with their presents and were getting happier and happier with each new present they opened. Finally each one was opened, with the exception of a small gift, wrapped in gold foil paper, unlike the paper any of the other gifts had been in.

"Lily? This ones for you, too." Jack told the grinning girl, who now looked surprised.

"What? But I thought I had all my presents," she stated dumbly as she accepted the present.

Everyone in the household watched her with silent anticipation as she carefully peeled back the shiny foil to reveal a small wooden box. It was only 1.5 cm think, 4 cm wide and 6 cm long, but it somehow managed to conceal a drawer. Opening it gingerly, everyone, Lily included, was amazed to see the plain box transform into a plain wooden jewellery box with three drawers; each with carved metal handles, and a lift up lid containing glass in a heart shape. There was a pattern on the glass; stained glass in the shape of a Lily. Lying delicately in the drawer was a silver charm bracelet.

The room gasped as she pulled it out. Fine linked and with just three charms, an "L", a lily and a four-leaved clover, the bracelet glimmered in the light.

"You didn't buy me this, did you?" she guessed at the shocked look on her parents' faces. They both shook their heads at her question. The look on both Petunia's and Alex's faces, similar to that of Kathryn and Jack's, told her neither of them had bought it either. Not that she really thought they had.

"The box is from the Wizarding World," Alex told her enviously. "I've seen one before, in a really expensive shop. There were only about 10 of them ever made, and they stopped being sold about 8 years ago."

The puzzle of who had bought it stayed with her through the rest of the day. She knew before Alex even told her, that it was from the Wizarding World, by the way it transformed back into the small box when the drawer was closed. But apart from that she had no idea who it could be off.