Hello to everyone after a very long time away! I'm very sorry to those of you who follow this story so closely! But in the last two years a lot has gone on in my life and I didn't have the time to focus on or commit to this story. This chapter is short but I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.

Hope you enjoy it!

Lots of Love and Thanks to all of you! And as always please review!

-Valkyrie3

Light Sabers and Gnomeholes

Chapter 25

Lily tried to be as slow and methodical getting dressed as she could. Yet, she still found herself fully clad and ready to go twenty minutes before Sirius, James and Mr. Potter were due to arrive.

"Oh Lily dear," her mother exclaimed when she saw her. "You look lovely."

She frowned. "I look the same as always mum."

"Perhaps it's the fact that your boyfriend will be here soon then, that's making you look so rosy." Her mum replied teasingly.

Lily rolled her eyes and left the kitchen to go and pace in the living room. Petunia had conveniently remembered she had something to do with Vernon regarding the wedding when Lily had mentioned that her friends would be coming to the house before they left for the theatre. Though, Lily did have to admit that her sister didn't make any of the usual snide comments about wizards and magic before she left. They were making progress she supposed. After all they hadn't fought once since Lily had come home from school and they had even been getting along rather well when planning out Petunia's bridal party.

On Christmas when Lily had opened up James' present to see that he had gotten her a bracelet to match her necklace, while her mother was exclaiming over how beautiful it was, Petunia merely smiled and tried to look pleased for her.

So when Petunia had opened up Vernon's gift for her to reveal the ugliest fur coat Lily had ever seen, she had smiled and said kindly, "That was very thoughtful of him. I'm sure he's realized how cold it's been out and noticed that all your other coats are getting worn."

Petunia had smiled brightly and said rather emotionally, "I daresay he did."

Christmas that year had been very near what it was like when they were young. Lily had been almost sad to see it end.

Her dad appeared at some point and smiled at all her pacing.

"There's no need to wear out the carpet. I'm sure things are going to go along all right."

"Dad, thank you for doing this." She said sincerely. "It means a lot to me that you are willing to try and get to know James and his family."

"It's no problem kiddo. It is pretty obvious you care about the lad and judging by the pretty trinkets you've gotten for Christmas two years in a row I'd say he's rather fond of you as well."

Just then the doorbell rang and Lily, who had been a jumble of nervous energy only a moment before, froze.

Her father chuckled in amusement.

"Don't you think you'd better get that before your mother does?"

With those words Lily sprang into action and rushed toward the door. Her mother was visible making her way toward it and Lily sighed in relief when she yanked it open.

The sight that met her eyes made her smile. Mr. Potter stood in front grinning at her and trying not to look exasperated with James, who he was holding back from rushing toward Lily by keeping a hand on his chest. Sirius and Remus stood a little behind them and the latter was keeping the former from pushing Lily's doorbell again.

"Hello Lily." Jason said, still struggling to keep James back behind him.

"Hello. Please come in its rather cold out there." She instructed trying not to laugh as Jason's hand had to change operatives and was now working to drag a rather nervous looking James forward and into the house.

Once the four of them were inside Lily closed the door behind them and stepped around them to introduce her parents.

"It's lovely to meet you officially." Her mum said brightly shaking James' dad's hand. "Lily's told us so much about you all."

"You as well." Jason replied genuinely. "My coming to inform you that Lily wasn't feeling well while at our house wasn't a very great beginning afterall."

"We were just glad she was in such good hands." Her mother replied before turning her attention to the three teenage boys gathered in front of her.

Lily had to fight the urge to laugh as she had the silly thought that it was probably more testosterone than her mother had ever faced in her lifetime.

"So let me try and get this straight. You must be Sirius," She said pointing correctly at him. "And that would make you Remus." She said gesturing to him, as he nodded. "And you," She turned to James. "Are very obviously your father's son."

Lily took deep worried breaths as her mother met her boyfriend for the first time.

"We do look a bit alike." James agreed and offered her his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Evans."

"You as well dear." Her mother replied.

Wait for it…

"Lily seems quite smitten with you. It's nice to finally put a face to the gorgeous young man she's been describing."

And there it was!

Lily wished a hole would open up in the carpet to swallow her, as she did her best to avoid the amused looks coming from her friends.

"Rose." Her father cut in. "Let's at least act like we don't want to embarrass our daughter in front of her boyfriend shall we. I'm sure there'll be plenty of time to be obvious about it later."

Lily sighed with relief, thankful once again that it would be her dad accompanying them and not her mother. She loved her mum, but like all mums the woman could just be downright mortifying.

"It's nice to meet you James," her dad said sticking out his hand.

"You as well sir." James replied offering his up without hesitation.

Lily tried not to wince as the two no doubt gripped each other's hands with enough force to strangle a hippogriff. She sighed in relief when they let each other go.

"Well now that we've all met, can I offer you all some tea or…"

"Mum we've got to go remember? It starts at five. And there is no doubt going to be a huge crowd." Lily reminded her.

"She's right Rose. We'll be needing to get moving." Her father agreed.

"I'm sure you are all very excited." Her mother went on as Lily and her father collected their coats. "Lily says you've all never been to see a film before. It is going to be quite exciting for you I imagine."

As James' dad answered her Lily was surprised to feel a pair of strong hands helping her into her coat. She turned her head to see James standing behind her.

"Thank you." She said softly as the colony of normally sleeping butterflies in her stomach deciding to take flight.

"You're welcome." He replied just as softly.

"Alright boys," James' dad directed. "Let's get going."
Lily and her father followed them out and James' dad helped everyone get situated into her dad's Ford Consul and they were off.

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As they exited the theater James knew his face must look comical. He looked to his left and was happy to see Sirius and Remus were wearing similar expressions of complete and utter shock.

"Wow." James' dad said shaking his head. "That was really something."

"It sure was. I wouldn't recommend going to another movie for a while." Mr. Evans advised. "That was pretty much incredible."

"So they aren't all like that then?" Remus asked, his voice hoarse from disuse.

"No." Lily said her eyes looking slightly glazed. "They are most definitely not all like that."

As they were exiting the theater, when most of them had recovered their senses enough to speak again, Lily's dad asked, "So would you like to go get some food? That popcorn didn't fill me up enough."

"It's probably because your mouth was open through the whole movie in astonishment instead of to eat." Lily teased.

"Don't pretend you weren't going 'whoah' every two seconds." Her dad shot back.

"Dinner sounds great." Jason agreed smiling at their exchange. "Where would you like to go?"

They ended up at an Italian place near the theater.

The moment they sat down Sirius exclaimed, "I cannot believe that Obi Wan Kenobi died in the end! I mean who just gives up like that?"

"He did it for a good reason mate. Self-sacrifice for the greater good, I could see Dumbledore doing something just like it." James put in.

"All I know is that that Solo fellow knew what's what. He was definitely my favorite." Sirius went on.

"Of course he was your favorite," James smirked, "You two have the same views on life."

As the two dads also got into a conversation about the movie between them Sirius leaned forward and whispered, "You know I was counting them up and there were at least three times that I could have made a 'that's what she said' joke."

Lily burst out laughing and had to grab onto James for support.

"You have got to be kidding me. Those were the most amazing special effects I've ever seen in my life and all you can think about are the lines in the film that could be interpreted as sexual."

James grinned.

"I know one. 'Put that thing away before you get us all killed!'" He supplied causing the others to laugh outrageously.

"How about, 'You came in that thing, you're braver than I thought!'" Sirius put in snorting.

"Here's one, 'You've got something jammed in here real good.'" Remus added in one of his rare moments of immaturity.

"Hey Moony how'd you like the one where he says 'Get in there you big furry oaf! I don't care what you smell!'"

The four of them had completely lost it by that point and were in a state of complete hysterics when the waitress came over to take their orders.

They continued to talk about the movie until the food came.

"Oh Merlin this looks delicious." Sirius exclaimed excitedly as he prepared to dig in to his pasta.

Lily's dad chuckled. "That's a common expression among you all I see. It's not just Lily that says it."

"Was that strange for you?" James' dad asked. "Having to learn all about the differences between the world your daughter had entered into and the one she had grown up in?"

"Oh very strange, but we had always known Lily was different. She used to do such odd things as a child. At first we were frightened by it. But after a time it was merely a matter of trying to keep her happy so that anything that was breakable in the house wouldn't explode." Harold chuckled.

"That would be odd. With our kind it's more expected for those things to happen. Our parents would start to worry if things like that didn't occur." James put in.

"Well we were certainly pleased when Lily received her letter and we learned that she wasn't alone in her abilities. We were happy that she finally had a place to fit in. It would have been difficult for her to move through our world and feel as if she belonged."

Lily broke in frowning, "You don't think I would have been okay if I had chosen not to go to Hogwarts? You think I would have felt out of place?"

"Yes I do. You would have never truly found your purpose in life. It's important to feel as if you belong in the world in which you live. You were always so different, so special. Your mother and I used to make ourselves sick worrying you would be unhappy." He answered, then smiled. "You know I remember one time we were watching you and Tuney play in the park. You couldn't have been more than six or so. You were swinging on the swings and going far too high for your own good, when all of a sudden you just leapt off of it and propelled yourself into the air. Nearly frightened the wits out of your mother and I. But you just, sort of…floated back down and landed right on your feet." He chuckled at the memory. "Then of course we were worried that Petunia would try to mimic you and get hurt."

"I used to do that all the time in that park." She replied recalling the memory herself.

They talked more about this and that and James got to see how Lily interacted with her father. They were obviously close and he was glad that she had supportive parents like he did. The conversation moved from the differences between the wizarding world and the Muggle one to the differences between the wizarding world and that of the movie they had just seen.

"All I'm saying is," Sirius went on, "it would be a simple matter to turn my wand into a light-saber! I mean a few charms and a little transfiguration and…"

"What in the blazes would you do with a light-saber?" Remus asked incredulously.

"Lots of things. It would definitely make duels more interesting. I'm also incredibly jealous of all the wandless magic that they can do. We don't explore that aspect of our magical education enough at Hogwarts." Sirius added thoughtfully.

"That's because it's difficult. Most wizards need their wand to do any magic at all." Remus replied gravely.

"Lily can do things without hers." Mr. Potter broke in suddenly.

Four sets of interested eyes turned toward him and Lily looked down shyly.

"What do you mean?" James questioned curiously.

"Well when she was little it was slowing herself down on the swings, or making flowers bloom in her hand, simple things. As she got older it was levitating items down from high shelves or turning lights on and off without using the switch." Her dad explained oblivious to how rare what he was describing actually was. "She still does it at school sometimes she says. Isn't that right Lily?"

"Um, yes…sometimes." She said blushing at their scrutiny. "Just to see if I'm still capable of it."

"That's remarkable." Mr. Potter said sounding impressed. "I've known very few wizards who can do anything of the sort unless they are emotionally lashing out. Dumbledore for one can do many things without his wand. It's very impressive."

Lily looked rather uncomfortable with how the conversation was centered on her magical abilities and surprisingly it was Sirius who took pity on her.

"So if we gave Lily a light-saber and a robe she could be the Luke to my Obi-wan!" He exclaimed excitedly.

"I thought we had just established that you were like Han Solo." Remus said raising an eyebrow at him.

"I'm a very versatile bloke Moony. Don't try and Gnomehole me!"

"Gnomehole?" Lily asked chuckling.

"He heard me say pigeonhole the other day and he decided it was stupid because pigeons don't live in holes." Remus supplied.

"Well that's not exactly…"

"Ya and Gnomes do!" Sirius supplied. "So it makes a lot more sense!"

Lily looked questioningly to James who just shrugged not really sure and shook his head. Sometimes it was just best to let Sirius go.

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Sorry to anyone who thinks I updated again! That error at the end was driving me CRAZY! I just had to fix it!