Author's Note: Another update, once again slightly later than I had planned. And the worst part? Summer's over! No!!! Argh…I started school last two Mondays ago, and I already hate it.

There are too many people at my school. There's like 2200 people there!! Too MANY! Plus almost all of them are older than I am…I'm just a lowly 10th grader L. Plus, homework has started coming…and it sucks. Anyway, I'll try and keep up with updating as much as I can.

Lady of Masbolle: Yes, I liked that chapter a lot more than any of the others, and I'm glad you liked it too! Thanks!

koalacancan: Glad you liked it! Oh, sorry about the confusion thing…it seems I confused myself on that part. I had initially planned to interject an A/N in there, but erased it (I just hate it when people put A/Ns in the middle of the stories…so I just couldn't bring myself to do it). Then, after I had erased the A/N part, I forgot to put dashes altogether! Ooops! Anyway, as for the POV…there isn't one. I tried writing from POVs, and I found it extremely hard to do with two people (especially 'cause I'm not a guy and don't know quite how they think!). So all of the story is told from 3rd person, but it jumps back and forth from telling about James' life to Lilys'. So there it is, my explanations!!! Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you continue to read!!!

Chrissy8887779999: Glad you liked it, and here's an update! Thanks!

Dee Ann: I'm doing well, thanks! I'm really glad you love the story, and I hope you like this chapter tons! Thanks!

Windowseat Wonderer: I'm so happy that you liked that chapter, it was much better than the previous one, and I must say I really enjoyed writing it. This chapter…hmm…I had to rewrite it so many times, I don't know whether people are going to like it or not. Anyway, I'm glad you liked the Voldemort part, and there will be more to come--not every chapter (i.e. not in this one), but he'll pop up every once in a while. Hope you like this chapter, and thanks!

stargazer: Of course I acknowledged your review, and I'm doing it again! Anyway, I'm sooooooooo happy you're enjoying reading my story!! And yes, Sirius is great--he's one of the great parts of writing a Lily/James story. Anyway, thanks & I hope you like this chapter! (Oh, and by the way, that's majorly cool that you think this story's funny! I never considered myself being funny!)

moonlizard: Thanks so much!

MidnightStars: Okay, I updated, so hopefully I'm still on your favorites list, even if it was a late update. Anyway, thanks!

Chapter Thirteen

James arrived home after only a couple hours on the train, and quickly apparated to his home. His parents greeted them as though they hadn't seen him in a decade, and James found himself very glad that he had come home. It only took a few minutes before they were sitting in the living room, asking him about everything and anything that had happened this year.

"How have you been doing in your studies, dear?" Mrs. Potter asked, positively ecstatic that her only son was home.

"Good," James replied, thinking about other things. Would they ask him if he had a girlfriend? And, if so, should he tell them?

"Well, that's good, then. You'll never get a good job otherwise," Mr. Potter said, though James had heard him say this hundreds of times before.

"How has it been, being Head Boy?" Mrs. Potter asked. James shrugged--it hadn't exactly been bad, nor had it been great. The only good thing that had come out of it was spending more time with Lily.

"Er…fine. I just patrol the corridors and that stuff," James said.

"You never did tell us, dear, who's Head Girl?" Mrs. Potter questioned again. James hesitated for a moment. Due to the fact that Sirius had spent quite a bit of time in the Potter household, his parents knew some things about Lily--most particularly the fact that James liked her a lot.

"Oh, um," James began, "It was…er…Lily Evans."

"Is this the girl Sirius told us so much about?" Mr. Potter asked slyly, "The one who…er…didn't like you very much?"

"Yes, that would be her," James replied, flushing slightly.

"That's nice," Mrs. Potter said brightly.

A very awkward silence followed. James's parents exchanged a glance for a moment, before turning back and staring at James, Mrs. Potter still smiling kindly. It eventually became apparent that they were waiting for James to speak next, though he didn't have an inkling of how to carry on the conversation. Finally, his mother broke the silence.

"Well…it sounds like you're doing fine, at any rate," She said, slightly half-hearted, "How are your friends?"

"Good," James said, glad to be off the subject of Lily.

"Speaking of friends," Mrs. Potter interjected, "You make sure to remind Sirius he's still got a few things here, and he'd better come pick them up at the end of the year. I'm most certainly not keeping them."

This sort of small talk continued for a few more minutes, and James told them nearly everything else that had happened this year, carefully avoiding the subject of girls in general. Eventually, his mother went to go start making dinner; his father said he had to go reply to a letter from the Ministry; and James retreated to his room.

---

Lily and Anna were sitting on their beds in their dormitory, trying to escape from the havoc that Sirius, Remus, and Peter were creating. Not only had they enchanted a dozen snowballs to whack into the back of Snape's head during lunch, they had taken to making them fly and hit anyone they came across. After Professor McGonagall had given them each a detention and told them snowballs were "for outdoors only", they had taken her advice and gone outside. However, instead of throwing snowballs at people outside or at each other, they were enchanting them to hit windows---most specifically, any window that was close to Lily and Anna. So far, they had managed to drive them out of the Library and Common Room.

"I think they gave up, they're pelting them at a bunch of second years," Anna said, getting up and looking out the window, "Finally."

"Yeah," Lily said distractedly, "What do you think I should get James for Christmas?"

Anna goggled at her. "Is that all you've been thinking about," She asked, "While we were getting snowballs shot like bullets at us?"

"No," Lily lied indignantly, "Okay…yes, mostly. Except for when they almost broke the window in the library, because then I wondered whether James would still like me if I got horribly scarred from shards of glass."

"You are the worst," Anna said, "First of all, you need to start thinking about something else, because the world does not revolve around James--though, I'm sure if he had it his way, it would-- and second of all, I don't think he could help himself from liking you even if you didn't have any arms or legs."

"All right, all right, you don't have to be so touchy," Lily replied, "But back to the point--what am I supposed to get him? I can't think of anything he'd like…I mean, something he'd really like."

"Well, it's not that hard, when you think about it," Anna said logically, "Anything to do with trouble-making or Quidditch should do the trick, I'd guess."

"Since when did you get to be such an expert on buying gifts for boys?" Lily asked her.

"Well, just because you weren't friends with the four of them doesn't mean I wasn't," Anna said complacently.

"Are…you…by the four of them, you mean James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter?" Lily sputtered.

"Do you know another 'four of them'?" Anna asked.

"You've been buying them Christmas presents for six years?" Lily asked, "And you never even told me?"

"Wrong," Anna replied, "You never asked or noticed. And, it hasn't been six years, more like four."

"Oh, I…I can't believe you…" Lily said, feeling slightly angry.

"Well, it's going to help you now, isn't it? You need help buying James a Christmas present, and you've got a veritable expert on that right across from you!" Anna said, getting up from her bed and opening her trunk, "Anyone for Hogsmeade?"

As much as Lily had been shocked by Anna's recent confession, the lure of finding a proper Christmas present for James was too much to resist, and, so, the two of them set out towards Hogsmeade.

It turned out to be much more of an ordeal than they had thought. Since Lily was Head Girl, she could easily persuade teachers to allow them to go to Hogsmeade--which meant that they didn't have to sneak in, like everyone else. However, Professor McGonagall was skeptical about letting them, reasoning that there was a trip to Hogsmeade in three days. After ten minutes of Lily & Anna begging her to let them go, she obliged, and they set off on the path to Hogsmeade.

Unfortunately, Sirius, Remus, and Peter, weren't ones to miss opportunities. They noticed Lily and Anna, and, since they hadn't managed to hit them with enough snowballs before, they took full advantage. The two girls were nearly buried in snowballs before finally sending a few well-aimed jinxes at their attackers. Brushing snow off themselves, they finally made it into Hogsmeade.

Yet the trouble didn't stop there. They looked in every corner of every store in Hogsmeade, and couldn't fin anything sufficient. Anna protested that Lily's standards were too high, and that James would probably settle for an Acid Pop as long as it were from her. Lily told her she obviously didn't know how important this was, and that James was probably thinking up some amazing gift for her, and she couldn't give him anything less than perfect. This sort of arguing continued nearly the whole time they were shopping.

"Well, I give up, how about you?" Anna said as they exited nearly their twentieth store.

"Yeah, I guess so," Lily said, sighing, "I guess I'm going to have to go with Plan B."

"Plan B? There was a Plan B? Did we ever even have a Plan A?" Anna said. She looked extremely frustrated that they had spent the whole day looking for a gift when Lily had already had one in mind.

"Plan A was to find something in one of these stores," Lily said, sounding a little disappointed, "Because Plan B is slightly risky, given who I'm buying for."

"Well, at least you know what to get him, so, problem solved!" Anna said brightly, "Let's go back to the school, I'm freezing."

Lily, however, knew the details of Plan B--and she had a feeling that her problems weren't exactly as solved as she'd like them to be.

---

The next couple of days went by very quickly indeed. James, unlike Lily, was sure he would not have any trouble finding her a Christmas present. He had even gotten up the courage to tell his parents that he had a girlfriend, and something told him that they had known all along. Indeed, they had revealed that they had known for at least a month, due to the fact that they sent letters to Professor Dumbledore quite frequently. James made a mental note never to do anything in front of Dumbledore he wouldn't want his parents to find out about.

All in all, he was enjoying his time at home quite a bit. He spent the first day walking around his house, which (though still very large) seemed much smaller to him than it had before. However, on the second day, reality started settling in, and he had to begin putting together his Christmas gift for Lily. Therefore, he retreated to his room and did not come out until he was finished several hours later.

After waking up the next day, he had to pack very quickly, because he'd been lazy last night and hadn't done it. As he threw everything into his trunk, his mother called up several times to tell him he was going to be late. Finally, about half an hour before his train would leave, he was packed and ready to go.

Instead of apparating by himself this time, his parents accompanied him to the train station to say goodbye. His mother kissed him on the cheek several times, looking very sad at the thought of James leaving. When the train finally got there, they said their final farewells.

The train ride back seemed to take much longer than the ride there had. It was probably because James was getting a little anxious about getting back to school and seeing all his friends. Even when the woman who pushed the food cart told him it would be about twenty more minutes, it seemed he had never waited a longer twenty minutes in his life. Finally the train arrived at Hogsmeade station, and James had to fight the urge to run all the way back to Hogwarts and into Gryffindor Tower.

He walked up the road towards Hogwarts, looking around at the newly fallen snow and the other people who walked by. The sun had almost disappeared behind the mountains, and was casting an orange glow on the grounds. Just as he rounded the corner where he would be able to fully see Hogwarts, a large amount of snow hit him in the side of the head.

"HA! Thought we didn't see you coming?" Someone yelled, and James, wiping snow off his face, saw that it was Sirius.

"No, actually, I didn't actually know that you were out here," James replied, "But thank you for the warm welcome back."

"Have a good time with mommy and daddy?" Sirius said, picking up snow and packing it together to make a new snowball. Remus and Peter stood a ways behind him, still having a snowball fight of their own. They both waved to him.

"Fine, yes, and if you throw that snowball at me I'll curse you into the next dimension," James said.

"Nah, don't worry, it's for Peter. He hit me smack in the face earlier today and I've been waiting to get him back," Sirius said.

"Well, unfortunately, I'm not exactly dressed for a snowball fight, so I'm going to go up to the Common Room," James said.

"Yeah, yeah, nice excuse," Sirius said, "But just so you know, I haven't seen Lily all day."

James trudged through the snow up towards the great oak doors of the castle, and entered them only to find pandemonium. At least three enormous pine trees were laying on the floor of the entrance hall, along with hundreds of strands of garland and boughs of holly. Nearly a whole mountain range of tinsel had been created at the foot of the stairs, and shards of glass icicles lay all over the floor. Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were standing in the middle of it all, both looking extremely upset.

"Er…if you don't mind me asking," James said to the two of them, stepping gingerly around the broken glass and tree branches, "What happened here?"

"Precisely what I want to know," Professor McGonagall snapped, her face extremely red. Professor Flitwick looked like he was at a loss for words.

"Well…you see, Hagrid was bringing in the trees, and then--" Professor Flitwick began explaining, but was interrupted by Peeves zooming into the room and soaring up above their heads, followed closely by a group of students.

"Professor Flitwick, we almost had him in the Charms department, but he only got away from us," One of them said, a girl with brown hair.

"But at least we stopped him from demolishing it entirely," Another replied, this time a boy with blond hair.

A long silence followed this, in which Peeves continued to swoop around all of their heads. James recognized the group of students as being Prefects, and also noticed that Professor McGonagall's face was becoming extremely red.

"Peeves," Professor McGonagall said calmly, obviously trying to contain herself, "If you don't leave right now, I'm going to have to call the Headmaster."

"Headmaster can't stop me," Peeves cackled, and he continued to fly around in the air above them, before resuming the destruction of the Entrance Hall. He now began pulling every tapestry and painting of the walls and letting them crash to the ground. Several girls in the group of prefects screamed shrilly and ran out of the room.

"Potter!" Professor McGonagall shouted over the noise, "Will you do something!?!?!"

"Like what?" James yelled back to her, dodging a portrait of an old man.

"Go get Professor Dumbledore!" She said, just as Peeves picked up several Christmas ornaments and started throwing them at the walls, "And tell him to hurry!"

James, who was glad for any reason to escape the chaos Peeves was creating, sprinted up the staircase, dodging ornaments all the way.

---

Lily was making her way up to Gryffindor Tower when she heard the first crash, which was followed by several more loud bangs and thumps. After wondering for a moment whether she really wanted to know what was going on, she began to follow in the direction the noise was coming from. She realized that she was heading in the direction of the Entrance Hall, and with every step the crashes and bangs got louder. Finally, when she had nearly reached the entrance to the Great Hall, someone came running into the corridor up ahead of her, obviously dodging Christmas ornaments, which were flying into the hall and smashing against the wall. Whoever it was (it was quite dark in the corridor, and Lily couldn't exactly tell) now had turned and started down the corridor towards her.

"Hi, Lily," They said as the walked by, and Lily (still bewildered by who was throwing Christmas ornaments and why they were throwing them) didn't pay much attention to them.

"Oh, yes, hello," Lily said, and took a few tentative steps forward, not wanting to become the ornament-thrower's new target. All of a sudden, she snapped back to reality and realized who had just walked by and said hello to her. "James!" She called after him, almost laughing at how they'd both passed each other by. He then turned and faced her, and he seemed to have realized what had just happened as well. They hugged each other and laughed about how stupid the both of them were.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you again," James said to her, taking her hand in his.

"Yes, so glad you would have ran right by me without even noticing," Lily said sarcastically. James laughed and looked her straight in the eyes before leaning in to kiss her, and at that moment a resounding shattering noise echoed through all of the halls.

"Oh, damn," James muttered, "I forgot…listen, I'm sorry about this, but I've got to get Dumbledore, Peeves is destroying the Entrance Hall."

"Right," Lily said. Typical timing, She thought to herself, sighing.

"Oh yeah, and I wouldn't go in there if you value your health," He said as he walked away.

"I won't," Lily replied.

"And we're going to finish this later!" James said as a parting shot before he disappeared around the corner.

Lily smiled as she began walking back up to Gryffindor Tower, extremely glad that James was back.

Author's Note: YAAY! I'm done finally! I had to rewrite this chapter so many times, but I like the end result better than it would have been with another ending. Anyway, yes, I'm horrible at updating regularly, but I am in school now, so you'll have to cut me some slack…hopefully you keep reading and reviewing. And, hey, at least it was a nice looooong chapter, right? So you'd better get your mouse moving towards that little "Submit Review" box if you want another one! (Kidding, of course I'm going to keep writing anyway, but I just like to scare you sometimes…)