Lily tried to keep away from her sister and her boyfriend as much as possible and her parents did their best to stop him from coming over all the time – they too were cross that petunia had essentially broken the statue of secrecy for no real reason and they, too, were fed up of the glares and snide looks shared between the couple whenever they saw Lily.

"He's not coming on Christmas day!" Lily's mother exclaimed to her daughter. Lily could hear the two of them arguing downstairs from her bedroom. "Christmas should be spent with family – Lily's not running off to see her boyfriend tomorrow!"

"Vernon is pretty much family-"

"He is not!"

"We're getting married!" Petunia shouted, silencing her mother with three words. "He asked me last week and I said yes. I wanted him to meet Lily before we told anyone."

"So that's something you'll keep a secret. You won't tell your family that you're engaged but you'll tell a man who is almost a stranger about your sister – breaking one of the most sacred laws of her world."

"He wasn't a stranger when I told him. I didn't want him to marry me without him knowing the truth – the whole truth. So I told him about Lily's affliction and, thankfully, he understood that I'm not like her. I'm not a freak."

"Your sister. Is. Not. A. Freak!" Mrs Evans shouted so loud that she wouldn't be surprised if James could hear her a few hundred miles away at Godric's Hollow. It was the same argument again and again – even with this strange twist that Lily hadn't seen coming. Petunia would say that Vernon was coming for Christmas, call Lily a freak and their mother would get angry. The only thing Lily had been able to do recently to calm herself was talking to James.

I'm getting fed up of this, she wrote, mum and Petunia are arguing again about me. Trying to decide if I'm a freak or not. She's decided now that she's marrying that Vernon man. I don't know why – he's horrible. But, then again, he thinks I'm a freak too. I can't wait to see you again James. Another ten days and we'll be back at Hogwarts and I can be myself again. Endless nights in front of the fire in the common room, laughing, joking, and other stuff…

Am I still alright to come down for New Year's Eve? Mum says it's fine as long as your mum agrees and I really want to meet your parents! Hope you and Sirius are having a better time than I am.

All my love,

Lily x

She put the letter in an envelope addressed to James and put some owl nits on top of it. When James sent his owl later it would probably eat the nuts, pick up the letter and drop off James' – a system that they seemed to have subconsciously figured out.

The shouting stopped after the front door slammed as Petunia left the house – presumably heading to Vernon's house – and so Lily decided it was safe to go downstairs again. She found her mother in the kitchen stirring a pot of mince. The smells were filling the house and it smelled amazing as she added the vegetables to the meat. She smiled at her as Lily walked into the kitchen.

"Hey Lil. Do you want to make a start on the dumplings, four big ones or eight small ones?" She said, Lily smiled and began helping her mother with the dinner. She used to do this all the time when she was little (although help was more like get in the way) and she spent most of her holidays doing it since she had started Hogwarts.

"So, what's it like not having to cook?" Her mother asked. Lily laughed.

"I've never had to cook, not with you around! The food at school is really nice but there's nothing like good old mince and dumplings on a cold winter's night. Obviously, I've not been there for Christmas but I've been told it's great, I mean, Hallowe'en is amazing so, how can it not be?" Lily's mother was always very interested in her school and her world in a more vocal way than her father and a more positive way than her sister.

"So is Vernon coming tomorrow?" Lily asked tentatively.

"No. I will turn him away if he appears and Petunia knows that. She can go out with him after dinner but until then it is family time. Between you being at school and Petunia being at work, we get very little time as a family – it's important that we cherish it." There was an awkward silence as both relayed the rest of the argument. "Don't listen to your sister. You're perfect just the way you are and she loves you for it." Lily disagreed with this but didn't want to spark another argument so she just smiled and nodded.

There was a clatter upstairs closely followed by a small squawk. "That's James. I'll be back in a minute; I just need to check on his stupid bird."

Lily walked into her bedroom to find two owls arguing over the few owl nuts she had left out only expecting one. She gave them a confused look but nonetheless grabbed a few more nuts out of the box that James had given her. Satisfied, James' owl picked up the letter and flew to a makeshift perch on the wall. Clearly it had been told to expect an answer as well as a letter. She stroked the other owl lightly on the head which was a light brown tawny owl. It put out its leg so that Lily could get the note with Lily scrawled across it.

Lily,

I'm sorry. Please forgive me I need one more chance.

Your Friend,

Sev.

Lily shook her head and flipped it over to reply – it wasn't going to be long enough to justify a fresh piece of parchment.

One more chance? Just one? Because I feel like you have had at least five 'one more chances' since September! I came to you because I was struggling and you still just insulted me. I give up with you.

She didn't bother signing it but handed it back to the bird who flew off. Severus would have the note within a few minutes. She turned to the thicker piece of parchment that had been left on her desk by James' bird.

Lil,

Sorry you're having such a bad time but you've got your parents and you don't need anyone who doesn't see how amazing you are. I'm fine, doing great here as is Sirius, miss you but will be seeing you very soon.

It's family day tomorrow for Christmas but mum and dad want to invite you for Boxing day if you're up for it? Dad says we can come get you from your house at about ten on Monday and we'll be travelling by flue – there's a few chimneys not far from you. Hope to see you soon,

James x

After asking her mother quickly who gave a slightly reluctant 'yes' she added it to her original letter as a P.S. and the bird flew off.

The next morning was Christmas and Lily woke up bright and early to take her small bundle of presents downstairs to the tree which already had a fair amount surrounding it. Her parents soon followed her down and then Petunia joined them as well.

From her parents, Lily got a few things she had asked for: a small record player, a Beatle's album (revolver) and some school things. Petunia gave her nothing for school but instead gave her a black hat and pair of gloves. James' package that he had given her turned out to be a beautiful necklace with a golden lion on, making her present of sweets seem a little tacky. She had gotten her mother a box of chocolate cauldrons from Honeydukes, her father a nice quill and ink (he had always been jealous of her for using these), and her sister a chocolate frog and a box of beans.

As soon as Petunia opened the frog box and saw it hopping around a little and Albus Dumbledore moving around in his frame, she shut it again and thrust it back at her. She did the same with the beans. Lily sighed. She had thought that Petunia would enjoy chocolate and jelly beans from any world but apparently not. Petunia stormed off a little after that when Lily handed round the beans and Petunia refused one. Lily tried not to let it bother her and instead tried to focus on her mother's face when she picked an earwax flavoured bean after being lulled into a false sense of security with her husband's strawberry bean.

Normally the whole family worked together to get under each other's feet as they all tried to help with the turkey and the rest of the dinner but this year Petunia refused. It was clear that her plan was to stay away from Lily until she was allowed to see her "'fiancfiancé' after dinner.

Dinner was delicious (as it was every year) with the turkey moist and easy to pull off the bone, the pigs in blanket beautifully crispy, and the roast potatoes perfect. It was better than the Hogwarts food because she was with her parents (although she imagined the actual food would be much the same). And once they had had a small piece of the Christmas cake – which had been cut into small squares – Petunia left. It was only three in the afternoon by this point so Lily and her parents sat down for a good old game of Monopoly.

They all went up to bed at about ten at night after the game had left Lily's father bankrupt, her mother owning only Mayfair and Park Lane (although the hotel she had on each property had taken a lot of everyone else's money) and Lily owning several properties of each colour. It was clear that her father had lost the game and her mother managed to win by £1000 which she went on about until they were all in bed.

Petunia didn't come home that night and she still wasn't back in the morning which Lily thought odd and not at all what she would have expected from her sister. Lily was too nervous to think about this, however, as she was meeting James' parents for the first time and didn't know what to take. With the shops being closed on Christmas Eve's evening, Christmas day, and Boxing day, she had not had chance to buy any flowers for his mother so she hoped they would both enjoy the wine her father had found in the garage then the three of them sat on the couch in the living room and waited. It seemed as though they were as nervous to meet James as she was to meet his parents.

Finally, there was a knock at the door and Lily jumped up. Her father stood and motioned for her to sit down again as he went to open the door. Lily found it hard to contain her laughter as she watched her father try to seem intimidating even though he was actually smaller than him. After a couple of minutes James was shown through to the living room where he frantically looked for Lily. His brown eyes lit up when he saw her and quickly embraced her.

"You're wearing my necklace!" He exclaimed excitedly holding the pendant that hung around her neck.

"Of course, I love it. Thank you so much!" She kissed him lightly on the cheek – very conscious of the fact that two of her parents and one of his were in the room and just hoped that she would be able to thank him better later.

Lily gave Mr Potter the bag containing the wine once she had been introduced to James' father and greeted with a smile and a pat on the shoulder. Then she said goodbye to her parents and they watched them leave from the door. It turned out that Fleamont (James' father) had a good friend who lived in the next town over from Cokeworth and they walked quickly towards it, taking just over half an hour.

The wizard said hello at the door and showed them through to the living room but said very little to any of them. Lily honestly wasn't sure if they really were friends but trusted James and therefore trusted his father. A few minutes later and they arrived in the living room of James' house in Godric's Hollow.

It was a bright and homely room, Lily imagined it must be lovey with a fire blazing in the fireplace as this was something she wished she had at home instead of the little gas one they had where it had probably once been. The wallpaper was a golden colour with aspects of the scarlet Gryffindor red. Lily was fairly sure that James came from a family of Gryffindors and this was why it was decorated like this.

Euphemia Potter came over and introduced herself straight away. Lily noticed that she had the same kind eyes that James had (although he definitely had his father's hair). His mother had lighter, longer, more tame hair – although there was still a lot of it. She and Fleamont left the room and for a second Lily thought they might have a moment alone but then another boy came through the door, with long dark hair. He walked across the room and shook Lily's hand sternly.

"I'm Sirius. If you hurt my James, I swear I will kill you." He said. Lily rolled her eyes and hugged him instead. He looked slightly taken aback at this but soon hugged her back. They broke apart a second later when James cleared his throat.

"Y' know," Lily turned to him, smiling, "I don't even know which one of us you're jealous of." She laughed.

"It's obviously you. He wanted that hug with me." Sirius stated, hugging James like he would a brother.

They broke apart after a longer time than Sirius had hugged Lily and then James put his arm around her shoulders. He kissed her lightly on the forehead.

"Thanks for the present by the way!" He said, no sense of irony in his voice.

"Yeah, I know it was a little silly but-"

"Anything from Honeydukes is good." James shrugged. "And anything from you is even better." He looked straight into her eyes. "Sirius go away." He said without looking away and after a moment they heard a sigh and the door shutting.

Lily stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him (on the lips this time). "Thank you again." She said as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again. The pair had about five minutes of privacy before Mrs Potter called them through for dinner which consisted of cold turkey, cold gammon ham, and boiled potatoes. It was delicious and she loved spending time with them chatting and playing exploding snap after dinner with them all but all too soon it was time to head home. Lily hugged Sirius and Euphemia again, before she left through the fireplace with James and Fleamont.

Fleamont decided to wait at his 'friend's house' allowing James and Lily a half an hour walk by themselves. It was dark but neither was particularly scared.

"Do you promise you will keep your wand on you at all times?" He asked her. She patted her bag.

"Not sure if it's allowed but I won't use it unless I have to." She told him.

"Do you want me to come hex that Vernon guy?" Lily laughed.

"James, I swear I will do it myself if he tries anything!"

"I know you can, but I would quite like to do it too."

"Fine, we'll do it together, I'll send an owl of a time and place when we're ready." She laughed. Then they spotted Vernon and Petunia walking up the street towards the house from the other side and stopped laughing. The other couple seemed to do the same. Lily put on a smile.

"Tuny, this is James. James this is my sister Petunia and her boyfriend Vernon. Before you ask, sis, yes, he's just like me." Lily answered before Petunia could even open her mouth.

"Actually, I'm nothing like her. She's about a hundred times better than me." He smiled, a twinkle in his eye as he looked at Lily.

Both couples said goodnight and the sister's walked into the house. Neither said anything to the other and Petunia walked straight upstairs to bed. Lily chose to go into the living room and recount her day to her parents. It had been a long day and so they all ended up going to bed not long after Lily came in.

Upstairs, Lily found another note on her bed with just 'I'm Sorry' written on it. It was clearly from Severus but she was honestly fed up of it – what was the point in trying anymore. She took the parchment and crumpled it up into a ball before throwing it out of her bedroom window. She watched as it flew over the garden fence and landed in the garden of a neighbour. Part of her felt bad for littering but the other part was too tired and fed up of him to care.

Long wait, I know. I'm sorry. I have been on placement for the past two weeks – leaving at six and not getting in until six in the evening so it's been kind of hectic and I wanted to do a good job of this. I think I have? I tried my best anyway. Please review – I love to read them and I hope to see you next time (can't decide between doing a new Year's Eve party at the Potter's and just skipping it so they can get back to Hogwarts.) – Chescaannie xx