CW: Gets a little spicy toward the end of the chapter

"Oh, um... last summer... Potter and I wrote to each other... quite a bit, and, um..." she was blushing now, "... well, he said he wished he could see me while we were writing to each other, and well... I don't know why I let him, but I let him come to my house just to take a photo of me from a distance, and, um... yeah."

"Lily," I said. "Are you and James dating?"

"What!?" Lily cried. "Ew, no. Never. Ever."

"Do you like him?"

"No! I told you. I find him attractive, but I don't like him. At. All," said Lily, but she was blushing, which was even more obvious on her pale skin than it was on most people.

"Lily! Come on! The party's starting!" came a voice, and Lily led me to the living room and we sat down with the crowd in a huge circle. I noticed that Lily and I were the youngest in the group. Most people were the same age as Petunia and Vernon and were passing around glasses of champagne, and Lily's parents told everyone not to give her or me a glass.

"I'll be seventeen in a month, and still not able to drink," Lily muttered to me as we were both handed a glass of orange juice. "In the muggle world, you have to be eighteen."

"Oh, OK," I said, taking a sip of the juice. It was very sour.

"Alright, everyone," said Petunia, standing up with her glass of champagne in her right hand, with her left hand flashing the diamond ring on her finger. "I'm so glad that you could all come to celebrate the engagement between me and my now fiancée, Vernon! I think we'll all go around and make our speeches, I'll go first."

"Speeches?" I whispered, turning quickly to Lily.

"It's OK, you don't need to have a speech since you're only here to keep me company," said Lily, watching Petunia as she pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket.

"I will never forget that day near the end of autumn when Vernon and I were taking a walk in the park, and then when he got down on one knee I began to cry and said yes before he could even bring out the ring and ask me to marry him." Tears were coming to Petunia's eyes. I saw Lily roll her eyes through my peripheral vision. "So, I'd like to thank a few people. First off, Vernon, obviously..."

Petunia's speech went on for some time. And then Vernon's speech went on forever as well. Then Vernon's parents' speeches, then Petunia and Lily's parents' speeches, and then all of Petunia and Vernon's friends. Lily jumped when it was time for her speech because she'd practically fallen asleep.

"Ah, right... sorry," she said, grabbing her paper from her pocket. "So, Petunia... I just wanted to say I'm really happy for you, and I can't wait to be your maid of honour. You've been, er... such a great sister to me all these years. You are my role model, Tuney. Love you."

Lily sat back down in her seat, and then Petunia said it was time for us all to 'party, party, party'.

"Are you going to dance with your boyfriend, Lils?" Petunia said, gripping Vernon's hand and passing Lily and I.

"Remus isn't my boyfriend," Lily said, rolling her eyes at Petunia.

"Yeah, I think you're a bit too busy with someone else," I said quietly to Lily after Petunia and Vernon had arrived on the dance floor.

"Shut up, Remus, I'm not busy with anyone. Come on, there are sweets in the kitchen."

"Not busy?" I said. "After writing a lot to a certain someone over the summer?"

"I was lonely, alright?" said Lily.

"Why write to him, then, if you hate him so much?" I asked. "Why not Mary, or Marlene, or Dorcas, or Alice, or me, or... I dunno, someone you don't claim to hate?"

"I don't hate him, Remus," said Lily. "I've never hated him. I just don't particularly like him."

"Yeah, alright," I said, as Lily grabbed one of the bowls of sweets and passed it to me, rolling her eyes.

"Come on, let's go chill out with the sweets," said Lily. "It is almost Christmas time, after all."

Christmas day itself was a quiet day, just my parents and I in our apartment eating turkey and pudding. New Year's Eve, however, was spent at the Potters'. Sirius was there, obviously, as well as Peter's family, Marlene's family, Dorcas's family, Mary's family, Alice's family, Frank's family, and Lily's family. It was crowded.

There was a huge dinner and pudding made for everyone, and after we'd eaten, we spent the night reflecting on the year we'd just had, which I personally thought was quite cringe, but it filled in time, and once we were finished it was past eleven o'clock, and the adults got out the firewhiskey early, and all my friends and I went to the Potters' living room to hang out.

"Only an hour left of 1976..." Mary said, looking at the clock and grinning.

"Hey, Mary...?" said Sirius, suddenly. "Would you mind... can I ask you something?"

"Me? Yeah, sure," said Mary, a small smile appearing on the corner of her mouth.

"How's Reg doing?" Sirius asked.

"Reg?" Mary repeated. "Um, well... he hasn't asked me out yet, even though everyone still says he fancies me."

"Reg... what?" said Sirius, but then he realised something, and said, "Oh. Not Reg Cattermole. Sorry, I meant Reg, as in Regulus. My... brother. He's in your year, isn't he?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry," said Mary. "Um, I don't know. I only have Potions with him. He doesn't talk to anyone other than Barty Crouch."

"Oh, OK... that's OK," said Sirius.

"Didn't you run away from them, though?" Alice asked, running her hand through her hair that was now down to just past her chin. "Why would you want to know about your brother?"

"I dunno..." said Sirius, shrugging. "It doesn't matter. What time is it?"

"You're the one with the watch," Lily said to him.

"Oh, right," said Sirius, looking at the watch he'd gotten for his seventeenth birthday. "It's almost eleven-thirty."

"Ugh, you know the one downside to it being the new year?" said Dorcas. "We go back to school tomorrow."

"Aw, don't complain!" said Mary. "I love Hogwarts! It's the only place I get to experience magic."

"Yeah, same," said Lily.

"Still," said Dorcas. "You guys aren't in seventh year, I have like ten essays due the day after tomorrow that I have not started."

"I thought you started your Defence Against the Dark Arts essay?" said Marlene, raising an eyebrow at Dorcas.

"Mmm, yeah, definitely," said Dorcas, looking away from Marlene.

"I think it's unfair to set homework over the break," said Lily. "It's meant to be a break."

"We should protest against break homework," I joked.

"As if they'd listen to us about that, though," Frank sighed, lying his head down on Alice's lap.

"What time is it now?" Peter asked Sirius.

"Eleven thirty-five," Sirius said, and we were all silent for a moment.

"What's the first thing you're all going to do in 1977?" James asked.

"Well..." said Alice, a smile appearing on her face as she looked down at Frank. "We're all staying the night, right?"

James laughed. "We have way too many spare rooms, but if anyone wants to share, that is alright."

"Thanks, Potter," Frank grinned.

"How do we want to finish the year, then?" Peter asked.

"You know, I think we should try and get through our schoolwork," said Lily, and everyone stared at her. "I'm kidding! Why would we do homework during our break!?"

"God, Evans, I know you're a nerd, but I was gonna say..." said Sirius letting out a sigh of relief, then checking his watch. "Sixteen minutes left of the year."

"Evans, will you go out with me?" James asked, speaking very quickly. "I told myself I'd ask you before the end of the year..."

"No, Potter," said Lily.

James's face fell, but I knew that was the answer he'd been expecting, and he just brushed it off with a laugh. "How long, Sirius?"

"Thirteen minutes," Sirius responded.

"I'm tired," Peter complained.

"Hang in there, not long now," Marlene said to him, causing his face to go pink.

"OK, to pass the time, how about we go around the circle and share with each other what we're intending to do after we leave school," said Lily.

And that's what we did. When we were halfway through, however, Sirius check his watch and stood up suddenly. "Thirty seconds, guys!"

Our attention was immediately ripped away from Frank, and we all jumped up and ran out the front of the Potters' house. All our parents were already out there.

People all over Godric's Hollow were standing out the front of their houses, waiting. We were waiting for the magical firecrackers to go off, that one of James's neighbours were organising.

"Ten," said Sirius, and we all joined in with him for the countdown, "Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two... one!"

The first firecracker went off, at the same time as we all shouted, "Happy new year!"

"C'mon, Frankie man," Alice said, pressing her lips against Frank's, and the two of them went inside.

I saw Marlene grip Dorcas's hand, and the two of them went inside as well.

"They don't even want to watch the firecrackers?" said Peter.

"That's love sometimes," James shrugged, glancing at Lily. But she didn't notice, she was too busy watching the magical firecrackers upfront with Mary. They'd both obviously never seen them before, so they were both absolutely mesmerised.

When the firecrackers started to die down, Sirius whispered into my ear. "Want to go upstairs and share our first kiss of 1977?"

I nodded, then we both went inside and walked upstairs, then found a spare room in the Potters' place, locked the door, and Sirius drew his wand and cast a silencing charm.

"Happy new year, Moony," said Sirius, and our lips met before we could say anything else to each other.

"You know... you know you're not very good at whispering in my ear," I said against his lips.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked, not moving away from me.

"You breathed into my ear," I said. "It was like, a dry wet willy."

"Sorry," said Sirius. "I was trying to be sexy."

"You are sexy when you don't breathe into my ear," I said, not really sure what I was saying.

"Do you want to..." Sirius started, his voice trailing away as he gripped my back as I snogged him. He didn't even need to finish what he was saying before I was nodding, and we were moving onto the bed.

"I love you," I said into his ear, making sure to exhale into it, causing Sirius to squirm.

We removed each other's shirts, our lips not disconnecting. And then Sirius gripped the sides of my waist.

In the wrong spot.

And pain shot through my entire body.

And I screamed.

Out loud.

And if Sirius hadn't cast the silencing charm before, everyone would have heard it.

But Sirius was moving away from me now.

And he was panicking.

And I couldn't stop screaming because he'd gripped me too hard in the spot where I'd been bitten over a decade ago.

And I didn't know why, but it hurt.

A lot.

Like, it felt like I was being bitten by Greyback again.

"Moony! Moony! Moony!" Sirius cried out, but I couldn't stop screaming. "I'll get help, OK? OK, stay here... everything will be OK..."

And he ran downstairs to get help.

And I was alone, screaming my throat raw.