The air was cool, even for mid-November and the brisk wind whipped around the ground sending flurries of red, orange and brown leaves into the air before floating back down to the ground to be crunched underneath the feet of a horde of teenagers thundering down the stone steps from the imposing castle on the hill towards the snow-topped village of Hogsmeade.

Sirius had made sure that his friends had been up early enough to wolf down some breakfast and then start the queue to leave for the village and he was lucky enough to have the sort of friends that were quite happy to do as they were told, however much they also moaned about getting up early. Sirius and Peter were now having an animated discussion – not argument as Remus had been told several times– about whether to go to Honeyduke's or Zonko's first.

"Honeyduke's will be busy!" Argued Peter.

"So will Zonko's!" Sirius retorted, "The whole of Hogsmeade will be busy. The only time it isn't is when the whole of Hogwarts isn't coming down for their mid-term sugar and joke fix."

"We're going to both so it doesn't really matter, does it?" Remus complained, he had been hearing about this pretty much since the notice had gone up on the common room board about a week ago. Neither of them took the slightest bit of notice of him, however, and the argument resumed.

"Honeyduke's is on our way into town, we can work up the street and stop half-way for some lunch at the three broomsticks." Sirius explained to him.

"Everyone does that. It's the average route. We should go the other way down from Zonko's and hit Honeyduke's last when they're selling everything off!"

"That's a myth Peter, it's sugar – it doesn't go off so they don't sell it cheap for a while." Remus told him.

James shook his head and leaned towards Lily's ear. He no longer cared about where they went – as long as he went there with her.

"Shall we sneak off and go to Madam Puddifoot's for lunch instead?" Lily smiled and nodded in agreement. It was the regular date place for Hogwarts students and, although she had gone with friends a few times when they had had dates there, Lily had never been with someone whom she considered her boyfriend.

By the time the group made it into town, Peter had managed to argue his point well enough and they headed straight up the road towards the joke shop. As large pranksters, the group always enjoyed the shop and took great pride wandering around and reminiscing about past jokes or planning new ones. During their discussions, Lily managed to get away from the group and hid herself away in a far corner of the shop looking at gift boxes they sold. Although it was a month away, Lily wanted to get James something great for Christmas. She knew he loved jokes – everyone in the school knew that – but she wanted to get him something that would show that she truly knew him, in a way that was different to everyone else. She was still pondering them when she felt someone cover her eyes.

"Guess who?" James jeered. It was so obviously him and Lily just laughed.

"I don't know. Hmmm, can I have a clue?"

"It's your boyfriend!"

"Which one?" Lily joked. James removed his hands and Lily turned around to kiss him lightly.

"Come on lovebirds, it's time for lunch!" Sirius called from the front of the shop. James and Lily jogged to catch them up as they left the shop.

"It's only eleven!" James pointed out.

"We're trying to miss the rush!" Peter called as the group sped off towards the Three Broomsticks. Lily noticed Remus roll his eyes at this.

"Madam Puddifoot's?" James asked Lily. She took him in for a moment before replying. James had been with his friends for over five years and had been neglecting them slightly over the past month that they had been together.

"No, come on. Let's go to the Three Broomsticks with everyone else." A smile swept over James' face as Lily said this. He threw an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer into him as they walked behind the three boys. Lily knew she had made the right decision – she wouldn't be the girlfriend that breaks apart the group of friends and James would still want to spend time with her.

Lunch was nice as the loud group of five laughed and told stories – many of which seemed to be stories about James that made him cringe and he sometimes whispered in Lily's ear to make sure she still liked him even though he had once managed to get his nose and mouth stuck in a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.

Peter had been right and the pub was much quieter than it had been when Lily had previously visited, however, the group stayed for so long that even the huge lunch rush was beginning to think about leaving. The gang walked out of the cosy pub and down the street towards Honeyduke's colourful windows filled with every kind of sweet you can imagine.

Inside were boxes of every flavour beans: mixed, devilish delight (which boasted that it was filled with only the most horrible flavours such as earwax and vomit), Cowardly Candy (which had a 100% guarantee of none of the flavours in the Devilish Delight box); as well as boxes of fudge; lollipops; chocolate frogs; cauldron cakes; and everything else imaginable.

Lily was glad that she hadn't spent any of the money she had for James' Christmas in Zonko's when she found 'The Cleansweeter 6' which was a play on James' broomstick and was filled with beans, frogs, fudge, most things in the shop really. Whilst he was distracted by some revolting looking sweets in one corner. Lily quietly paid her three galleons and hid it away in the bag. She also got some beans, fudge, and her favourite cauldron cakes for herself.

Once the boys had bought a few things from the shop, they headed back towards the castle before it got too dark and cold to do anything else. It was a relief to return to the Gryffindor common room (which was much quieter than usual due to the lack of third-seventh years who were still out at Hogsmeade) where there was a roaring fire waiting for them.

After leaving her things in her room, Lily grabbed her books, parchment, quill and some ink and headed back downstairs to make a start on some of the homework that was beginning to pile up. She sat on the floor in front of James and near enough to Remus that they could help each other with the essay – as they seemed to be the only two planning on doing any sort of work today – and tried but failed to ignore the jokes and stories of the boys and often ended up joining in with a funny anecdote or being distracted by a sudden kiss on the head from James (although this mainly only happened to Lily) and soon enough t was time for dinner.

The spread for dinner looked delicious and the whole group seemed glad they had had a lighter lunch than usual when they saw the minced-pork pies, mashed potato and chicken. By the time they left they were more than ready to turn in for the night with food babies making them sleepy.

"Hey Lily!" Someone shouted from across the entrance hall. It was Severus.

"What do you want, Sev?" Lily asked, she couldn't be bothered with his insults right now but she also couldn't quite be bothered to ignore him which was more work than it seemed.

"Just wondering if you wanted to meet in the library tomorrow to work on that essay for Slughorn, I know you aren't brilliant at antidotes so I thought I could help." Lily rolled her eyes, he was always quite happy to point out that she was bad at something but could never admit that there were some things in potions that she was better than him at.

"Actually, Remus and I just finished that essay." Lily lied. It wasn't a total lie, they were almost done but she didn't want to spend any more time than was absolutely necessary with Severus.

"I can help you with it if you like." Remus shrugged. Lily wasn't sure if it was the fact that there was five of them and one of him, or if it was simply the fact that Remus was almost a foot taller than Severus, but he looked intimidating.

"Oh, no. It's fine. Just wanted to make sure you weren't struggling without my help."

"Goodnight." Lily said decisively. Apparently, Severus had decided to insult her on her intelligence when he was bored of her blood status. Whatever, she was fed up of it as, whilst that exchange wasn't exactly as mean and horrible as some of the others they'd had, it also wasn't like the ones she'd had with the boys that she'd only been close with for two months. Quality over quantity, good friends for two months trumps eight years of insults every time.

The next day was much of the same. Working/chatting with her friends (who had decided that their NEWTS were important and so were actually going to be productive today) and so the five of them sat in the library surrounded by all the books they could carry and made notes. Madam Pince almost died of shock when she saw them all as she had been ready to throw James and Sirius out because of the way they usually behaved, but to find them working. It was strange for everyone.

"You're a good influence on them, girl. Keep it up!" She had whispered to Lily as she walked past. Lily smiled at this.

By the time Monday morning arrived, Lily was more than ready to start the new week with her work up to date and her life on track. She and Remus walked down to the dungeons for potions where they had to make antidotes for a potion given to them by Slughorn. Lily was delighted when she realised that she had made the second best in the class, with Remus in front, and Severus was much further down the list.

Transfiguration was another great lesson as, with James' help, she managed to transfigure her mouse into a quill and back again in record time – even if it was a lot slower than James'. This meant an awful lot to Lily as it proved to her that she could balance her social life and her work life – no matter what her parents told her about "focusing on work" in their letters. She was also glad that as much as James was helping her, she could help him. In charms, for example, she showed him the correct way to perform the giddiness charm until they were both on the floor with laughter.

That was the way it went for that whole week, in fact the rest of the term was great. The hardest part of it was a few weeks later when they had to say goodbye to see their families for Christmas.

I promise promise promise it won't be as long next time. I'm sorry life caught up with me and I've been neglecting all my writing. Please review, I will see you all next time – Chescaannie x