"Lily!" James shouted running down the hallway to catch up to Lily.

"Yes, James." Lily answered turning to face him.

"Well seeing as we both have a free period now, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with me in the library?"

"James Potter wants to go to the library?"

"Well Sirius broke the bet by going in there when he was eavesdropping on you conversation with Mary the other day. So it doesn't matter if any of the Marauders go into the library now." James turned back to see Lily frozen to the spot with a horrified look on her face. "Lily, what's wrong?"

"Sirius heard our conversation? That was supposed to be private!" Lily was visibly panicking now. "How much did he hear?"

"All of it I think." James answered. Lily had gone pale and steadied herself on the wall.

"And?" she said slowly.

"I just know that your parents passed away and you need somewhere to stay for the holidays," he said in a caring tone.

Lily's body would have completely relaxed if the memory of her parent's death hadn't been so painful. "Yeah," she said, trying to sound calm.

"And I was wondering..." James started.

Lily signaled for him to continue.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to stay at my place for the holidays," he asked, holding his breath.

Lily stared at him, looking right into his eyes. He was beginning to feel self-conscious.

"I mean, only if you want to..."

"Oh James, of course I want to!" exclaimed Lily. She beamed at him and hugged him. "Thank you so much! But, will your parents mind?"

"Nah, our house is big enough. Remus and Peter are coming half-way through. Mary can come as well if you like," said James.

"What about Sirius?" Lily asked curiously, "is he busy, or have you just decided to ditch him?"

James laughed, "No, didn't you know? He hated his home so much he ran away to live with me."

"Wow! I wouldn't be brave enough to do that," said Lily admiringly.

"But you are coming to live with me -"

"I didn't say that! I'm staying with you. Plus, I'm not running away, I've got nowhere else to go."

--

The end of term approached very quickly. Classes finished and the last Quidditch match of the season secured the house cup for Gryffindor, the final feast decorations were amazing and even the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were excited because it meant that Slytherin had lost, yet again.

Lily hopped on the Hogwarts Express with James and Sirius whilst they waited for Remus, Mary and Peter. Soon they were all in the one compartment and had made them selves at home for the trip back. James and Sirius had conjured some cushions and they were all seated comfortably. James and Sirius were tossing the Quaffle and Remus and Mary were playing a very intent game of wizarding chess. Lily was reading a book and Peter was sleeping.

After about an hour the food cart came down the hallway. Sirius got some of everything and conjured a table and covered it in all the food.

"There. We now have a feast that is almost as good as the ones at Hogwarts," Sirius said happily. All of them paused to eat lunch and started talking before resuming what they had been previously doing. By the end of the train ride Lily had finished three books, Mary, Remus, Sirius and James had had a massive chess competition and Mary had ended up as champion and Peter had caught up on a lot of extra sleep. Once the train stopped all six of them packed everything up, said goodbye and dragged their trunks off the train and onto the platform.

"Stay close to me!" James shouted grabbing Lily's hand and dragging her forwards through the swarming crowd of people.

"What about Sirius?" Lily asked, shouting to be heard.

"He'll be there before us, somehow the crowd just parts for him." James replied chuckling. "There they are!" He pointed to a couple waving them over. James looked extremely similar to his Dad.

"Hey, Mum, Dad, this is Lily," James announced.

"Very nice to meet you dear," James' Mum said smiling.

"Yes, very nice," said James' Dad, holding out his hand for her to shake.

"Hey Sirius, how are you?" James' Mum asked. Sirius had just arrived.

"Great, I managed to chat up a few girls on the way and the crowd completely parted for me," Sirius said. They all laughed although Lily was thinking 'I thought you liked Mary, Sirius'

"Come on everyone or we'll miss the portkey," James' Mum said ushering them all to the end of the platform where a lot of portkeys were waiting. They all put one hand on the portkey and gripped their trunks tightly with the other hand, the portkey lit up and they were all jerked up and in less then ten seconds they all had landed on soft grass.

"Here we are, home," Mr Potter said, standing up at the same time as everyone else.

"Where's your house?" Lily asked James, he pointed behind him, Lily looked at the house gobsmacked, "James, you live in a mansion!"