Before anyone was truly aware that so much time had passed in the year, the Christmas Holiday arrived. Everyone was excitedly talking about what their plans were. Remus, Sirius, and James were staying at school. Remus because his family was on holiday in Spain and James and Sirius chose to stay because James' parents told them too. Dawnelle also was staying. Her mother's friend was getting married and her parents were going to the wedding and intended to stay and visit. Amber was returning to her house. She did so every year so she could visit with her older brother living in America. Her parents, like Lily's were both muggles and so the only time they really got to see him was two weeks in the summer and at Christmas time. Lily decided to stay at school for the holiday. Her parents weren't planning anything special and they told her it would be alright since she needed to concentrate on her studies.

The train left from Hogsmeade that evening, carrying Amber and most of the other students at Hogwarts. Remus bid her a bittersweet goodbye and promised to write to her over the break.

"Oh cheer up Remus," Sirius said to him as the train pulled out. "It's not like you won't see her at all. You are inviting her to the party, aren't you?"

"Of course I am!"

"Well good!"

"Party?" Dawnelle asked.

"Yeah, the one the Potter's throw every year. The reason why we never go home for Christmas. Mum says that we make it impossible for someone to think in that house, let alone plan a party."

"I can see where she might get those ideas from," Lily said.

"Oh Lily, I'm hurt! You think Jamesy and I are bad kids!"

"Uh, no. I KNOW you're bad kids. You must drive that family up a wall."

"You, Evans, are a cruel and heartless person. I don't know what Prongs sees in you." At this James looked up and scowled at him.

"Standing right here Padfoot."

"True. You are standing right there." Sirius grinned at Dawnelle and winked at her. She smiled and winked back. "By the way, we need to talk to you two. Moony, how long until dinner?"

"About an hour."

"Perfect!" Sirius threw his arm around James' shoulders and walked away with him. Dawnelle linked arms with Lily. Remus turned from them and walked away.

"She's going to kill me when she learns I worked out the kinks in this plan," Remus muttered to himself as he walked.

Dawnelle and Sirius lead Lily and James towards the Quiddich pitch.

"Where are we going?" Lily asked.

"We can't tell you that, if we did, we'd have to kill you," Sirius answered. James laughed dryly and shrugged at Lily in defeat. The two of them had been acting strange around each other since the Quiddich match. James liked the fact that she now said hello to him in the mornings and didn't want to lose that by saying something stupid, so he had been rather quiet around her. Lily, on the other hand, had spent the last few weeks thinking about James more then she ever had before. She was starting to think that maybe he wasn't such a bad guy. She still wasn't ready to fully admit it yet but she didn't want to loose the shaky, would you call it friendship? Or something else that she had managed to start with James. However, she had to admit that she was starting to miss his arrogant attitude which had been replaced by this awkward quiet thing.

"Oh Merlin Sirius, will you ever grow up?" Lily muttered. Dawnelle laughed.

"I think he is just fine how he is," she replied.

"Why thank you!" Sirius and Dawnelle, on the other hand were a much more comical issue. The two of them still hadn't announced that they were official but surely after a month people would start to figure it out? No. Girls still asked Sirius out, to which he replied no, and boys still asked Dawnelle out to which Sirius replied no. Yes, he did in fact tell anyone talking to Dawnelle to go away.

"Yeah, but only because he got Eric Peterson to stop bothering you by charming his nose to turn different colors," James pointed out.

"Oh that was good!" Lily agreed. "I can't even lie, I thought he would follow her around for the rest of the year."

"Ugh, me too," Sirius said. "That thought was annoying."

"Yeah, right. So what exactly are we doing? What do we need to talk about?" James asked. They were standing outside the Gryffindor Quiddich locker rooms. Sirius grinned evilly and Lily suddenly knew this was not going to end well.

"Well, Prongs, I noticed yesterday that you left your head boy's badge in here after practice."

"Oh is that where I left it?" he disappeared into the locker room. Sirius pulled the badge out of his pocket and flipped it up in the air. Lily did not like where this was going. She liked it even less when Dawnelle turned and ran back to the castle. Sirius was grinning wickedly now and Lily took a step backwards.

"Sirius, I'm going back with Dawnelle." Lily turned and ran back. She cursed Sirius for being faster then her as he caught her not two seconds later.

"Now, now Lily, I think it is high time that you worked things out with James."

"YOU WHAT? SIRIUS BLACK DON'T YOU DARE!" Unfortunately for Lily, Sirius Black generally did what ever he wanted to do. It didn't really matter what anyone else thought. He laughed as he pushed her into the locker rooms and slammed the door after her. She went flying through the door before she could think and crashed into James. The force knocked them both to the ground.

Lily groaned and sat up awkwardly. Her legs were draped over Potter's stomach. "I'm sorry," she moaned.

"S'all right, are you ok?" James asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just sitting here planning the imminent death of your friend Sirius Black."

"Oh, please allow me to join you. My badge is not here but this was" he replied. He pulled out a peace of parchment and handed it to Lily. She read it and started laughing.

"You have got to be kidding me!" she exclaimed.

"I wish I was."

"He's seriously not going to let us out till I agree to date you?"

"That's what he says."

"I'm soo going to kill him."

"Tell me about it." Lily suddenly realized that she was still half sitting half on James. She pulled her legs off of him.

"Sorry."

"I'm fine, I assure you," he said, flashing his lopsided, knee weakening grin at her.

"Ah ha!" she exclaimed. "There is the arrogant and annoying Potter that I remember. I was starting to think you'd been replaced or something."

"What?"

"You've been acting weird lately! You've been all quiet and odd. You don't make fun of anyone, you don't pull pranks on me anymore and you haven't asked me out for four weeks and five days."

"You've been counting?" James said grinning.

"Of course I have! Your record before this was a grand total of three days! And I almost can't count those since you were in the hospital wing while Madam Pomfrey attempted to find the counter curse for the hex I used to make your tongue swell up so you couldn't talk." James laughed loudly at that.

"I remember that time! Sirius still makes fun of me for it. That was one of your worse hexes." Lily laughed to.

"I'm sorry, it just seemed right at the time but you should know better than anyone that my temper can easily be pushed passed the point of rationale." James stopped laughing and looked at her.

"Did you just apologize to me?" he asked unwilling to believe it. She stopped and thought about it for a second.

"Yeah, I think I just did."

"Well then you can hardly blame me for acting strange. You have been acting weird too. You actually talk to me like a normal person now and you stopped threatening me and now you're apologizing to me! I'm so confused by you!"

"So I've been told," Lily said thinking back to her conversation with Remus.

"What?"

"Oh nothing."

"You're lying to me!"

"Am not! I'm just not telling you the whole truth."

"Well, you should tell me the whole truth."

"It would bore you. It was just Remus and I talking."

"Oh believe me, nothing about you bores me."

"Oh please James."

"No I'm serious!"

"Ok fine. I'm still not telling you!" James looked at her thoughtfully for a second, weighing his options. He could either let this go and let the conversation drop into an uncomfortable silence or he could pursue a course of action that would get her to tell him. He chose the latter of the two and began to tickle her. She laughed and tried to push him away. He kept up the attack laughing at her ineffective attempts at stopping him.

"Alright! I'll tell you!" Lily screamed after taking as much as she could. He finally let up and sat back. She lay on the ground breathing hard. She looked up at the ceiling as she spoke. "We were talking about you after the Quiddich match." She told almost everything about the conversation minus the part that Remus had mentioned about James possibly loving her. She sat up and looked at him. "There, now do you feel better?"

"Yes."

"Good." She rubbed her hands over her arms to try and warm them up. It was fairly cold in the locker rooms considering they weren't part of the school. James, realizing she was cold, quickly unzipped his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders.

"James, you'll freeze!"

"Nah, I'm fine. We've practiced in worse conditions," he said simply. She nodded and pulled the jacket closer to herself.

They were very close now. James reached out and brushed a strand of her hair back from her face. He let his finger trace its way down her cheek bone. She shivered slightly and moved herself, almost unnoticeably, a little closer to him. Without thinking he leaned down and pressed his lips gently against hers. He was half expecting her to smack him hard across the face and walk away from him but no, instead she returned his kiss. Slowly at first and when he deepened it she allowed him to. She wounded her arms around his neck and tangled them in his hair. He pulled her closer and held her tightly, kissing her passionately.

Her mind was spinning rapidly and she found herself unable to form any sense making thoughts, save one. She was kissing James Potter, and, at that moment, there was nothing she wanted more in the world.

They broke apart when they heard a lock snap on the door. Both were breathing heavily.

"I guess that means we have been freed," James said softly, seductively, his face still only inches from hers.

"I guess it does," she whispered breathlessly.

Neither one made a move to leave.

(A/N: Ok, now I have to write chapter what-ever-the-next-one-happens-to-be since this is as far as I have gotten. Don't worry though, I shall continue to update as fast as I write. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Love!)