yo holla atcha disclaimer: uh so ya s/o to J.K. Rowling to creating these wonderful lovely characters & please enjoy my slightly terrible stories

Chapter Five: Fifth Year

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Christmastime was the most magical time of the year, Lily Evans had decided. Everything was dusted romantically in snow and holiday spirits were held high. Decorations were hung all around the castle; great glittering Christmas trees ornately decorated were found at every corner, suits of armors topped with Santa hats and wrapped with House scarves. There was an inescapable, palpable happiness felt in the air. It was unmistakable and beautiful. Christmastime was everything to Lily. It was especially important this year because she was going to Professor Slughorn's Christmas party with a boy named Max Bell. He was remarkable and amazing with top grades and a star spot on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. He was nice and Lily couldn't contain her excitement. She managed to find a beautiful dress from one of her mates. It was a dark emerald-colored velvet, fitted along the torso and flowed out at the hips in luxurious waves, creating a stunning silhouette. Paired with a high set of silver heels and shining silver earrings, Lily determined that this was going to be a fantastic night.

It was the night of and a mere hour before, when Lily heard the gossip that sounded like it could ruin her perfect night. Her hair bounced in loose ringlets over her shoulders as she walked down the hall to her dorm to grab her purse. A sentence floated by her ears, as she passed a giggling group of girls, that stopped her dead in her tracks. A particular brunette was speaking, and Lily recognized her to be a girl from the "Slug Club" as well. "You guys won't believe who's going to Slughorn's party with me," she squealed. Her friends gazed with wide, anticipating eyes. "James Potter!" All of her friends swooned as the groaned things like, "Ugh! He's so attractive," and, "You're so lucky. Make sure you kiss him for me!"

Lily thought she was going to throw up. James Potter. Going to Slughorn's party. With some irritatingly unintelligent female. She knew only one thing that could result from this: disaster.

Still, she kept a stiff mind-frame and clicked her way down the hall, arm-in-arm with her lovely date and hoped to salvage her happiness for the night.

X

Well, Max had gone and got himself drunk. The amount of inappropriate activity was shocking and no one had the faintest idea where Slughorn was, for he disappeared shortly after congratulating Lily on her impressive improvement in Potions. Lily stood by the hearth, staring into her punch with an extremely upset expression. It was supposed to be a great, romantic night. Instead, her date is off doing who-knows-what with someone who's not her.

"Lily?" an annoyingly familiar voice behind her said.

Lily turned her head and saw the face of James Potter. He looks good cleaned up. Really good, she thought. Um, rewind, she thought immediately after. "Hey, Potter," she replied, trying to her hardest to sound casual.

"You look a bit lonely," said Potter jokingly.

"Ha, ha. You're funny." Lily stuck her tongue out at James and suddenly thought of how socially inept she probably appeared to be at this party.

"I'm a bit lonely, too." James glanced over at his own date, who was dancing wildly atop a table current.

"Ah," said Lily. She felt the awkwardness set in and decided to look around, since she actually didn't do much of that this evening. She quickly realized that she shouldn't have. Above the pair was a sprig of mistletoe, decorated with a beautiful red bow. It was pretty, yet also very intimidating. Mortified, she blushed.

James seemed to notice as well and smirked, "Y'know, Evans, it's bad luck to break the tradition."

Before Lily could even respond to this remark, James began leaning in slowly. Her inner-self wanted him badly to kiss her, but the Lily that always despised James wanted to push him away. But she looked in to his eyes that were staring down at her lips. There was something in them Lily couldn't quite explain. She stared at the tiny flecks of brown in his hair, reflected by the fire. She stared at his eyelashes and though of how the long curls would feel against her cheek in the morning. Some mysterious, unexplainable force propelled Lily to stand on her toes and meet James in the middle.

They kissed for what felt like an eternity. James cupped Lily's face with such gentle care it made her melt. He took his other hand to the back of her neck and pulled her closer as an insatiable feeling washed over him. This was Lily Evans. She was kissing him finally after years and months of him dreaming about it. It was everything he wanted and he refused to let it end. Unfortunately, it had to end.

"This never happened," whispered Lily with a sly smile when they were finished. James stared at her retreating figure sadly, knowing that he wanted something he would never have.

author's note: whoa holy crap this one is so much longer than I intended. but I actually like it a lot and I hope you do too! I guess I just got caught up in the fluff. enjoy! also i'm desperately in love with Christmas -lia

p.s. I'm not even totally sure that Slughorn held a Christmas party before the one in the 6th book but um hey we're just gonna go with it.