A/N: I know I didn't update yesterday and I do apologize- I was hanging out with friends and then went to go see Phoenix and I had absolutely no time to write! I won't give away any spoilers for the movie unless you ask, but I started crying when I saw the original Order's picture and a picture of Lily and James... it's so sad, isn't it? Also, in the movie Alice's hair was short and dark, but for the purpose of keeping her hair long and blond (what I had gotten from my first impression of her, and what a few websites said she looked like) we'll say that she dyed it and cut it in later years, but not now as she's fifteen.

Thanks a million to my reviewers! And please review again!

Disclaimer: I'm trying to think of something creative to say I don't own Harry Potter, but I can't. So let's just say that I don't own it. End of story.

Everyone slept rather well that night; even Mrs. Evans, who had been crying for hours before sleep had overtaken her. Lily hadn't woken up with nightmares; and Alice wasn't talking in her sleep. It was the perfect night to compliment a rather amusing Christmas.

Lily awoke again as the first one up. She yawned, stretched, and got out of her bed, was careful not to trample on Alice's resting body, and ran to her laundry room. Ever since yesterday, there was something she wanted to see… and it was her Christmas present from James Potter.

Lily found her Hogwarts robes and dug into the pocket, finally extracting the beautiful necklace. She held it in the palm of her hand. It was very pretty. She might have to ask Mrs. Potter about it next time she came inside. Lily then took out the key, still embedded in the seventh box of her present, and pressed it into a key hole she hadn't noticed that was there before in the green heart. It began to sing. Lily threw the necklace across the room as if someone were screaming bloody murder. She hadn't expected that to happen. She then picked it up again. The music had stopped, and it changed to a voice recording by none other than Potter.

"Lily," the voice began, "I know that you pretty much hate me, but I would like to invite you to the Quidditch pitch one day where we can hang out; not as a date, if you'd like, but just to hang out between fellow Gryffindors. Merry Christmas! Love, James." Then the necklace was silent.

She smiled. What a creative gift.. and Potter had thought of that all by himself? Apparently the boy had been maturing then. She smiled, putting the necklace around her neck. It brought out her eyes, anyways, and it did look astonishingly good on her.

A good deal of time trickled by, in which Lily decided she was much too bored, and decided on talking to the few Aurors that were guarding her house. She walked outside, immediately facing Mrs. Potter.

"Lily, dearest!" Mrs. Potter called out, granting Lily a hug. "I hope I find you well?"

Lily nodded."Thanks," she replied, "I'm fine; you?"

"Good, good, sweetie," Mrs. Potter replied, polishing her wand that seemed to have gotten dirty with finger prints.

And after an awkward silence Lily decided to ask Mrs. Potter a question.

"What made you want to become an Auror?" Lily asked. She had known that Alice was in love with that idea; but she could never see why. To hunt down Dark Wizards, like that Voldemort everyone seemed to be fearing? Then a little voice answered her that she vowed to strike Voldemort after what he did to Daddy. But she wanted to know Mrs. Potter's reason.

Mrs. Potter pondered that question for a little bit, and then she answered.

"Well, James's dad and I met at Hogwarts, as most other people's parents met," Mrs. Potter began to explain. "We'd been dating since fourth year, and married right after leaving school- although it took us years to finally have a child. His own father, Charlus Potter, was killed by Grindelwald in 1945, one of Grindelwald' last deaths. My husband, who was only seven when he died, wanted to avenge his death, and became an Auror to hunt down all of Grindelwald's supporters. I followed him onto the Auror working field to be with him."

Lily swallowed. "Is Voldemort- You Know Who, worse than Grindelwald?" She had heard of stories that people suspected were linked to Voldemort, but there was nothing for sure.

"That's what everyone is saying," Mrs. Potter said. "I certainly hope it's not true. Either way, I'm near retirement soon, this'll probably be my last job."

Lily attempted to look sympathetic. "So, what happened to Charlus's wife?" She was interested in that subject. Alice's parents never seemed to talk- they didn't actually enjoy talking about their wizard heritage, and Lily had never really discussed the history of a pureblood family before. She found it quite fascinating, and realized that she might want to write about it in a thesis for Muggle Studies.

"Oh, Dorea Black? What a fine witch. She was related to Sirius, you know, but most wizarding families are related somehow. She was killed in 1977."

Lily nodded. It was strange how everything at Hogwarts was linked. The only ones that seemed to not be related to each other were the Muggle borns, and she hadn't known any other ones in her year. It would be amazing if her parents had been magic, though. She could have so much more knowledge!

At that moment there was a flash of light and a crack. Lily whipped around, but Mrs. Potter cracked her wand out and pointed it at whatever had produced that light.

"Auror on duty!" Mrs. Potter yelled, but the poor boy that was born from the light looked rather disgruntled. He was accompanied by his own mother, who was wearing a red crocodile bag and a pointed hat.

"Oh, Miep, I'm just dropping Frank off here to be with his Hogwarts friends," said the woman conversationally. She then saw Lily. "You'll take care of him, won't you?" Lily nodded, and Mrs. Longbottom, Frank's mother, was off.

Lily bade farewell to Mrs. Potter and lead Frank inside. He thanked her for inviting him over, and walked into the house. Everything still looked remotely like Christmas, and Frank stood in awe.

"What?" Lily asked him. He stared at the house.

"You're Christmas decorations aren't down yet," he observed, touching one of the ornaments on the tree. Lily sighed.

"I'm muggle born, remember? I can't do magic to get it all down. We have to work for that." Frank nodded. He then looked back at Lily happily.

"You said in your letter that Alice was here?" he asked, excitedly. Lily smiled rather devilishly. She had invited Frank over for one reason; and although she was guilty about saying it, she wanted to break Alice and Sirius up. They were getting too annoying, and although Sirius wasn't too bad, Lily just couldn't stand them. She hoped that Frank could help her.

And as if on cue, Alice ran down the stairs, clad in her pajamas. She was wearing pink shorts with a blue tank top, and yawned, her blond hair spilling over her shoulders. She turned to the family room, and immediately caught sight of Frank.

"I didn't know you were here," yawned Alice, as she stretched her arms out and flicked her blond hair back. "Did you have a happy Christmas?"

It took Frank a while to get accustomed to watching the girl he loved right after she had just woken up, and he seemed to be going quite mad. Lily softly kicked his foot, and he regained all thoughts.

"Yes, yes, and you?"

Alice nodded, climbing onto the couch he was standing near as she yawned again. "Sirius and James are here," she told him, "probably plotting some prank." She laughed, obviously imagining the boys's ideas of a prank. Lily, feeling she should let the two alone, suddenly said,

"I'm going to go- uh, check on James," she said finally, "and maybe thank him for his present. Bye." She ran upstairs to her room. She needed to get Alice and Frank together if it was the last thing she did.

xXx

Lily pressed her face against the guest room, trying to hear what Sirius and James were saying. She caught on to their conversation.

"Padfoot, I'll never get her to love me," James said, annoyed. "And all because I kissed that girl she hated, she thinks I'm some sort of man whore?"

Sirius sighed.

"Aye. I'd think so. But she'll turn around- I mean, Alice can convince her, can't she?"

"I just wish that Lily were like Alice and would love me back!" James said rather madly. "Even after that really nice gift I got her, she hasn't said a word to me! And after we saved her? Okay, so it might have been Moony's fault we were outside in the first place, full moon and all, but she doesn't know that- she could've been nicer…"

Lily sighed. She almost felt pity for James Potter. But then she stopped. No, she didn't feel pity for James- she felt pity for his mother, who was so nice and kind. How could she have had such an evil, manipulating son that treated girls like toys?

A/N: Like it? I thought that I would explain about Charlus Potter and Dorea Black for a bit. I was looking up on Lexicon about Harry's family, and it said that on the Black Family tree Jo drew a name "Charlus Black" whose wife was born in 1920, so I assumed that he would be born in 1920 as well. If Lily and James were born in 1958, then their parents could have been born in 1938, making it possible for their grandparents to have been born in 1920. And since that was the time of Grindelwald, there must have been some deaths in wizarding families, so that was the explanation I've had for all of you that think you're going to find a flaw in that :)

So please review! And next chapter is... soon!