Sorry for the delay! But I am writing this on my new laptop!

Chapter 24 : New Year's Eve

As Lily pulled through the gates she couldn't fight back the feeling that the gateposts were not going to be the only surprises that she would find on this weekend.

"Uh James?" Lily said, trying to remain calm.

"Yea I know," James replied, a bit flippantly. This annoyed Lily slightly.

"But… the muggles… can they see them?"

"Yep," James answered casually again. Seeing the look on Lily's face he continued. "I told you they thought we were a bit mad," he shrugged, trying to laugh it off. This annoyed Lily even more.

"But what about the secrecy act!" she all but shrieked. She had already made up her mind that because James' family were such respected and probably rich people, that the ministry had probably been 'persuaded' to overlook this breach of the act.

"Well they just think they're unusual sculptures don't they? Honestly, I hardly think they're going to guess there's an entire secret civilisation living amongst them by looking at a gatepost!" Lily huffed slightly at the fact James' logic was probably right, and tried to steer the conversation to a less confrontational topic.

"So why are they there then?" She was hoping he could come up with a decent excuse and redeem himself slightly. Merlin knows Lily did not want to fall out with him now, not now they were finally beginning to see eye to eye.

"An ancestor of mine invented them." Even Lily could accept that as a very reasonable explanation.

Nodding in acceptance, and bringing herself back to what she was meant to be doing – driving – Lily realised that they had been going along the same road for a while with still no sign of a house. Just then, the trees that had been surrounding them cleared a bit, and Lily could just make out a large stone building looming over them in the distance, with a long sweeping lawn running up to it. It looked like a miniature Hogwarts.

"What did you say your Dad did again?"

James laughed, and Lily felt a tingle run through her.

Pulling up along side the house a few moments later Lily was just about to park beside a large fountain.

"No, don't stop here, go on round the back" James said suddenly.

"Ok," Lily said, accelerating again. "Why? Aren't we going in?"

"No. Well we are, but not the main house. The party's in the coach house. That way we can get as rowdy as we want and not annoy my parents."

'Coach House!' Lily thought. She had thought James was rich but not this rich.

"Lily!" someone shrieked, and she felt herself being flung backwards. James and Lily had just walked into the coach house, which Lily was pleased to see was far more modest; although she reckoned she could still fit her house inside it.

She felt James hands grab her shoulders so to steady her and whatever had caused her to lose her footing, but he quickly removed them, so she continued falling back. Flat on her back, she spat out some long blonde hair and took a good look round her. She was now able to make out a slightly too excited Caitlin lying on top of her, an obviously mortified James, and Sirius Black having a good laugh at them all.

"So you're back then?" he stately simply, tilting his head to one side, staring at Lily, but obviously directing the question towards James.

"Did you know Lily was coming?" Caitlin inquired, rolling off Lily and propping herself up on the floor to look at Sirius. Lily noted the way Caitlin made this look rather natural, and was sure that she looked like a sprawled mess lying beside her.

"I had an inkling," Sirius answered, eyeing James. James, who Lily supposed was still feeling a bit stupid for letting her fall over, did not return his stare.

"Uh do you want to help me feed Jaffa?" he asked Sirius, obviously keen to get out of the room.

"Yea ok," Sirius answered, smiling slyly at him. "Would you like a hand up first?" he added mock politely to Lily.

"Yes please," Lily nodded. "Who's Jaffa?" she asked as Sirius pulled her up by the arms. Caitlin stayed on the floor.

"James' Shetland pony," Sirius answered.

"You have a Shetland pony?"

"Yea," James answered shortly. When he didn't offer anymore information Lily was forced to question him again.

"Why?"

"I don't know," James laughed annoyingly and looked at Sirius. "Because it's cool, I suppose."

Lily didn't understand why he was being like this. In the letters he had been so decent and down-to-earth, even in the car journey it had great between them, but now – she hated to admit it – he had gone back to his 'usual cocky self'.

"It's not cool," she said icily. Caitlin seemed to shift a bit and stared hard out the window, and Lily was sure she had just seen Sirius roll his eyes.

"How would you know? How many people do you know with a Shetland pony?" James answered, seemingly light-heartedly. Lily was sure he was trying to stir her away from a full blown argument, but his conceitedness meant that he couldn't let her win this heated discussion either.

"I would have to say that there would be only you James," Lily replied, with a slight smile, trying to appear light-hearted too.

"Well Lily now you have to admit, he is pretty cool," Sirius interjected. "Prongs come on." And the two boys left.

Hearing the door shut behind the two of them Caitlin was the first to speak.

"What the hell was that?"

"I honestly don't know," Lily answered, slumping down on an old sofa.

The building she had just entered appeared to be just exactly as James had described it – an old coach house, where the horses and carriages would have been kept years ago. However, finding that they no longer needed it for this use, it appeared that the Potters had renovated it, making it into a place, that Lily assumed James used to chill out and get away from the main house. The place was littered with old sofas and chairs that didn't match, most of which were either threadbare or had stuffing poking out of them. There were other odd items of furniture and ornaments, which had outworn their purpose in the main house and so had ended up here. The ceiling still had the original rafters visible, and there were three giants rugs laid across the floor instead of a carpet. The walls were decorated with Quidditch posters, which were attached crookedly to the raw stone underneath.

"I thought the two of you were getting on better?" Caitlin asked, bringing Lily back to her senses. "I mean, the whole letter thing, and when you arrived here with him, I mean I just thought…"

She didn't need to finish. Lily knew exactly what she had thought. She felt the need to explain herself when she noticed the look of upset on Caitlin's face. She realised that Caitlin wanted her to be with James, probably just as much as she did.

"No, look your right, we have been getting on better," she said earnestly, looking down at Caitlin, who was still on the floor. "I mean the way down in the car was great as well." She sighed to herself. "I don't know, maybe he was just showing off in front of Sirius or something?" She didn't know if she was trying to reason that to herself or Caitlin.

"He wasn't the only one showing off Lily," Caitlin answered, giving a slightly McGonagallistic glare.

As the night proceeded, and the party got underway, things between Lily and James did not improve any. Not that they had seen each other much to let things get better. They had arrived at the house at three, and James and Sirius had not come back from feeding Jaffa until about half past four. They had then spent most of the time getting things ready for that night, while Lily and Caitlin had sat and chatted about their Christmas. The first guests – Peter, Frank and Alice – had arrived at about six, and the rest had been arriving in dribs and drabs ever since.

Most of the guests Lily knew from other houses in her year, although she noticed the distinct lack of any Slytherins. She also noticed quite a few people who had been a year or two above her at Hogwarts, mainly boys. There weren't many people from the years below her, but Caitlin had informed her that all the house Quidditch teams had been invited – minus Slytherin of course. Overall the place was heaving.

This being the first time Lily had really socialised with wizards – well anybody her own age really – outside of school, she wasn't really sure how to act. Caitlin had left her to fend for herself after briefly explaining who everybody was, and then traipsing off to sit with Sirius. Lily could make out James sitting with his back to her sitting with his closest friends. People would often go up and talk to him for a while, James not moving from his chair. After a while they would leave and somebody else would go up to talk to him. Lily thought it looked a bit like a scene out of the Godfather.

After a while the place got so packed that Lily could no longer see James. She found herself sitting in a circle of people, listening to a lengthy discussion about anything and everything, but not really contributing anything to it. After a while people started to drift off to other parts of the room, either to get a drink or just to talk to other people. Nobody asked Lily did she want anything, and nobody offered to let her join their new conversations. In fact Lily was just beginning to wonder if she was imagining the strange looks she was getting when Robbie Brown came to speak to her.

She smiled at him, glad that finally someone was going out of their way to talk to her.

"Uh Lily can you do me a favour?"

"Yes," she replied brightly.

"Can you watch Leanne for a bit? Seeing you don't seem to be doing much else." Lily felt her smile falter a bit.

"Yea Robbie, of course." At least now, she reasoned, she wouldn't be sitting by herself.

The small blonde third year sat down beside her, and looked glumly at the floor. Robbie patted her on the head, winked at Lily by way of thanks and waltzed back into the throng of the party.

"So are you having a good time?" Lily asked, eager to start some sort of chitchat.

"About the same as you," Leanne muttered, not looking at her. Lily gave a soft laugh.

"Yea well, how did you end up being dragged along then?"

"Rob," Leanne sighed as she sat back in her seat and rolled her eyes. "Well, I was invited by James before Christmas, out of politeness I suppose. I wasn't going to come though, I don't think James really expected me to. He hasn't spoken to me at all, all night."

"You're not the only one," Lily muttered under her breath. Leanne smiled slightly and continued.

"Robbie made me come though, said it would be rude not to, but I know the real reason he made me," she ended bitterly screwing up her face.

"Oh?" Lily said, vaguely interested.

"He treats me like a commodity, something he can show off. 'My sister plays for the Gryffindor quidditch team you know.' Yea, as suppose to just commentating on it!"

"Ouch, that's a bit close to the mark don't you think?"

"Yea well, I'm allowed to say that. I'm annoyed at him. He drags me out to this party, then gets bored with me after two hours and leaves me all by myself!" Lily could feel herself warming to Leanne, she seemed to like to rant just as much as she did. "But that's enough about Robbie, I no longer have a brother. What about you? Why are you here?"

Lily was left a little confused by the sudden change of conversation but went along with it anyway.

"Uh I was invited, just like you, so I came." Leanne eyed her suspiciously.

"Is that it?" Lily eyed her right back.

"What do you mean 'is that it?' Yes that's it!" Lily replied, feeling like she was in the inquisition.

"Oh it's nothing, just that the rest of them have been talking about you all night," Leanne replied breezily, staring at a table stocked with butterbeers on the other side of the room. "I just picked up that there was some controversy over you being here, but maybe I was wrong," she added slyly.

"Why? What have they been saying?" Lily knew Leanne was playing her, and she should act like she couldn't care less, but she was really intrigued as to find out why she was being treated like a leper. She was, after all friends with most of these people, and even Alice and Scarlet had barely spoken to her all night. Caitlin was excused by the fact that Lily knew she liked to get round as many people as she could at an event like this, although that was not much of an excuse.

"Well," Leanne said, rounding on Lily, and making it look like she was about to get down to business. "I'm not really sure because it's not that they were talking about it to me, more like over the top of me". Leanne made a gesture to indicate her shortness. "The main theme, however, is why would you turn up if James and you don't even get on? One theory I heard is that you were here because you were staying at Caitlin's and she couldn't leave you in the house on your own. Another is that you're here because there's something going on between Remus Lupin and you, and you've been left on your own all night because he's not actually here." Lily looked around and noticed for the first time that this was true. "Although my personal favourite is that you were sent here by Professor Dumbledore to keep an eye on us all and make sure nothing got out of hand."

Lily had managed to keep a perfectly straight face throughout this barrage of information. Now finished, Leanne looked at her eagerly, waiting for her to respond.

"Well I can honestly say," Lily replied coolly. "The answer is none of the above." Leanne blinked at her for a moment, and then sat back in her seat, apparently unperturbed.

"Fair enough," she sighed, again turning to look at the table of butterbeers. Lily laughed slightly at how she had just been reminded by a 13 year-old girl, that the politics between James and her were not the most important thing to everyone at this party.

"Do you want a drink?" Lily asked, getting up from her chair and still laughing.

"Yes," Leanne said quickly, glad that Lily had finally picked up on her hinting. "I would get one myself, but I know that as soon as I get up Scarlet will try and tap me for information about you," she explained, and then added: "She won't believe me if I say you didn't tell me anything, and she can get a tad annoying when she wants something."

It must have been about half eleven before anyone even tried to talk to either of the two girls again. After Lily had returned with the butterbeers the conversation between them hadn't stopped. They had managed to rearrange Hogwarts so it worked more efficiently. Leanne had managed to teach Lily the names of all the teams in the Quidditch League, and more amazingly Lily had managed to learn them. After a while, Lily had felt so comfortable with Leanne that she had told her the whole story with James, but had then sworn her to secrecy. Leanne had then been able to tell her about things she had overheard whilst at quidditch practice with James. None of them were terribly important, but it had been fun trying to extract hidden meanings from them, and trying to relate them all back to Lily in some way.

"Can I join you?" came a particularly suave voice. It was Sirius.

"Merlin Sirius, are you not feeling well?" Lily mocked him. Leanne started to giggle.

"No I'm fine," Sirius replied confused, whilst taking a seat beside them both.

"Are you sure you want to sit there? I mean the others might see you Sirius," Lily teased him again. "You'll upset the whole hierarchy that is this party!"

"See now you've intrigued me," Sirius replied, cocking an eyebrow.

Lily cleared her throat.

"Well you see Leanne and I have worked out that this party is divided into groups, and each group has its own rules and standards. You must follow the rules and standard of your group otherwise you get demoted to a lesser group."

"That's a bit harsh," Sirius answered, appearing to take this very seriously.

"Yea well, those are the rules Sirius. I mean it's not as though we made up the rules," Lily answered, nodding to Leanne. Leanne remained mute. She probably found it easier talking to 17 year-old girls, than 17 year-old boys.

"No of course not," Sirius responded, holding his hands up to show he was nit trying to offend her. "What groups are there then?"

"Well there's the cool group, that's the group your in." Sirius nodded by way of agreement. "That's the highest group, very select few, only the coolest people allowed in. They sit in a secretive circle all night, and rarely talk to anyone outside of their own group, unless someone approaches them, which is very taboo."

"Yea, you shouldn't really attempt it, unless you've built up a big enough rapport with the 'cool group' member first. Otherwise you might get shot down, which could result in you being demoted to a lower group you see?" Leanne added.

"Yes, I understand completely," Sirius said to her, still looking like this was a completely sane idea.

"Then there's the wannabe cool group," Lily continued. "They mostly consist of people older than us…"

"…and my brother," Leanne interrupted.

"Yes, and Robbie. They're almost cool, but what really gets them is that they think they're cooler than the cool group, so they get a few minus points. Overall they're still pretty cool though."

"Well, lets not tell them about the whole 'not being as cool as my group' thing. I mean just as long as the three of us know. Then it's ok," Sirius added. The two girls nodded in understanding.

"Then you have a whole load of subgroups. Basically divided up between quidditch players, and people who do certain subjects in school," Lily said, brushing over the subject quickly. "And then we get to our current problem. You sitting here talking to us." Sirius tilted his head at her.

"What do you mean? What group are you?" he asked earnestly.

"Well we're the complete reject group," Lily admitted. Leanne pretended to hang her head in shame. Sirius gave a fake gasp in horror. "Leanne here, because she is so young, and me, because everyone thinks I'm a spy for Dumbledore."

"Yea I heard that story too," laughed Sirius. In a second he was back to being completely solemn. "Listen, sorry to hear the two of you are complete freaks."

"No it's ok. We can deal with it," Leanne said, holding up her right hand, as if not to accept his sympathy.

"Secretly we're cooler than all of you, you just don't know it yet," Lily added. "But you should leave now. If anyone sees you here you might be thrown out of the cool group, you might even be demoted as far as to become one of us," Lily dropped to a whisper.

"No I think I'll stay," Sirius replied defiantly, settling even further into his seat.

"Why?" Leanne laughed in disbelief.

"Because I'm already at the top, it's too easy," Sirius explained. "If I have to start all over again and work my way up it'll be more of a challenge."

"I admire your courage," Leanne acknowledged.

"But what's the real reason you came over, Sirius?" Lily asked.

Sirius gave a wry smile.

"Caitlin wants to talk to you, she's outside."

"Oh she's finally deigned herself to let me have some of her time then?" Lily asked sarcastically. "Well I better not keep her waiting then. Will you be ok?" she asked Leanne, getting up from her seat.

"She'll be fine," Sirius insisted. "I'll wait with her." Leanne shot Lily a slightly panicked look. Lily returned what she hoped was a reassuring gaze, and left.

It was only when Lily was outside the coach house, the noise of the party dying away as the door closed behind her, that she realised that Sirius had not told her where Caitlin was waiting outside. And the grounds to James' home were pretty expansive.

"Caitlin!" she shouted into the darkness. No-one replied. She took a few steps forward, gripping her sides with the cold, and tried to make out any movements around her. Figuring that Caitlin wouldn't have wandered that far into the darkness, she turned round to go back inside.

Just then someone grabbed her arm.

"Sirius spoke to you then." It was not Caitlin's voice but James'.

"Sirius told me Caitlin wanted me," Lily replied bitterly, removing James' hand.

"He probably realised you wouldn't come out if you knew it was me," he replied honestly.

Lily looked at him straight in those hazel eyes.

"He'd be right James." He broke her gaze and she turned to leave again.

"Look Lily… please… don't… I need to talk to you," James pleaded.

Lily turned to look at him again.

"I'm sorry," he said, still gazing at her. "I've been a complete git all night."

"I haven't been that great myself," Lily admitted.

"No, no," James dismissed her. "You've been reacting to me. I've just been sitting playing 'Mr Cool' all night, worrying about what people think about the party, and I've had a crap night. I just…" he paused, trying to give himself time to think.

"James that still doesn't give you the right to ignore me all night," Lily interrupted. However accusatory her statement, it did not sound in her voice. Somehow she knew that this conversation would not end in an argument.

"I know. I just don't know how to treat you in public. I mean, I love the way we're friends now, I do. I loved the letters, and the car journey down here was great… but it's just… I didn't want them all to know about that." He waved his hand towards the house to indicate the party.

Lily flinched.

"It's not that I'm ashamed or embarrassed or anything," James added quickly. "I just wanted to keep it just between us… special. Does that make any sense?"

"Strangely yes." James seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "But that doesn't mean you can go on ignoring me in public. You'll just have to learn to treat me like any of your other friends. Agreed?"

"Agreed," James whispered. "Would you like to meet Jaffa?"

After several minutes of feeding the tiny plump pony sugar lumps, which James kept transfiguring for her, Lily was starting to feel the cold severely.

"Can we head back?" she asked, rubbing her hands together for warmth.

"Lily, I have a problem," James said at the same time. Lily looked at him puzzled.

"What?"

"I can't treat you like one of my friends."

"Yes you can, it'll just take some getting used to," Lily replied, playfully hitting his arm, assuming he was joking.

"I can't be friends with you," James said coldly.

Lily's mind was flooding with terrible thoughts about James not wanting to talk to her because she was a muggleborn when an explosion of noise and cheering erupted from the house. Lily turned to look while James glanced at his wrist.

"Midnight," he whispered, barely audible.

"Happy New Year," Lily said quietly, looking down at her feet. She was still staring at the ground, her heart breaking when James took her by both hands.

"Happy New Year," James said softly.

When Lily glanced up he was barely an inch away from her face.

Then he kissed her.

"Finally!" I hear you all shout! Read and Review!
Alantie Mistaniu: Sorry there's an awful lot of secrets in this story! Thanks for reviewing!

Ron's Only Girl: Thanks for reviewing!

Angela Caldwell: I think you misunderstood that slightly. They didn't have sex, there not even going out! Lily was just being sarcastic.

Freja: No I don't think this story is particularly fluffy. It's about to get anything but fluffy. Your English is really good! Thanks for reviewing!

elements-of-the-soul: Oh you're very close, but she can't really break up with him seeing they're not going out.

Augurey Song: Lol yea 'update soon' does not work with me. Sorry about the delay again. Hope you can still remember the story!

Leanne: Wow that cameo was completely adlibbed. Are you impressed?

mello80: Glad my story made you laugh so much. That's what it's here for!

ruberduckysrfun: You can shed some more tears now.

ellen: You'll find out.

orly: Hope you enjoyed the party. I promise I will finish this story, if only for myself.

DanceDiva: Thanks for reviewing!

BurningIce22: Thanks, it took me ages to think up something for the names. When are you going to update by the way?

slippersRfuzzy: Thanks for reviewing!

Desi – Siriuslovesyou: I had such fun reading you reviews. Thanks for using the quotes, because I'd forgotten about most of those bits! Hope you enjoyed that chapter!

FaNFicMainIAC88: Thanks for reviewing!

Blinded One: Thanks for reviewing!

MJShunpike: Thanks for reading my story. I love reading yours.