A/N- I only own the plot and OC characters.

This chapter is dedicated to ICantRemberSodAll, for her amazing compliment to me (Thank you thank you thank you!)

Thanks to all of you who reviewed the last chapter: AsItThunders, x-Clare-x, GeeWiz3, and ICantRemberSodAll! I love you all!

And here is the twelfth chapter… enjoy!

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me: eleven pipers piping, ten lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.

James and Lily walked hand in hand through the corridors, both completely content, well, beyond content: exuberant. Neither could stop smiling. They were nearly to the common room when Sirius came barreling around the corner. He ran right up to them, then screeched to a halt, clutching a stitch in his side as he gasped for breath to tell James. Both Lily and James were completely nonpulsed at the expression on Sirius face. Sirius was still trying to catch his breath when he spotted their linked hands and asked, "are… you two… together?"

James smiled and nodded, Sirius' grin shown like a beacon, for just a moment, before it was wiped off his face by his grave news.

"James, the Slytherins… and Snape, they've escaped!"

"What?!" asked James in gaping disbelief, "How? When? They couldn't have!"

"That doesn't matter right now," said Lily, taking the logical approach, "what matters is how we're going to deal with this."

"What? We?" asked James, "Oh, no Lily! You can't be involved in this, Sirius and I can handle this."

"I am even more involved in it than you are," said Lily, "and unless you want me to call you Potter again, Potter, I suggest you let me fight the death eaters with you. They've done a lot worse things than what they've done to me."

James seemed to be suffering an internal struggle. Finally he said, "So… you'll call me James?" Lily confirmed this by nodding, "Well, you do have a point… I guess you can help with the planning."

Lily shrugged, she knew she'd get James to do whatever she wanted for her. Sirius nudged in, "but what are we going to do. You really can't kill them, James, you'd get kicked out!"

"Do you think I care?" asked James fiercely, "After what they did, they deserve to rot in hell!"

"Undoubtedly they will," said Lily, trying to calm James down, "but you have to think about our future. You can't do that, I refuse to let you kill them."

James could tell she wasn't budging on this point, "okay," he agreed. He liked the way she had said 'our' future, as if it was already guaranteed that they would be together.

"But what are we going to do?" asked Sirius once more.

The three were at a loss of words for a moment, then Lily said, "Why don't we just wait for them to act first, then, if we are dueling, they can't kick us out, it was self defense."

"She has a good point," agreed James, glad that this plan did not involve Lily dueling death eaters.

"What?" asked Sirius, "Marauders don't just sit around!"

"Don't worry," assured Lily, "When word gets out about James and I, I don't think we'll have to wait very long."

James draped his arm around her shoulder protectively.

0o0

Lily woke the next morning to a ruckus. There were eleven little toy men with hooks protruding from their heads marching around the base of the little tree. They all had little golden flutes held up to their mouths and were piping "The Twelve Days of Christmas" merrily. On their backs were strapped large red hearts that complemented their green suits. Lily smiled and got dressed, hoping against hope that it was James who had sent her that.

Lily came down the staircase dressed in a tight, green satin dress that came just below her mid thigh with a square neckline. She also wore gold textured tights and green flats. She was accessorizing with her bracelet she had gotten for the sixth day of Christmas. She hoped she hadn't dressed too over the top for her date with James, they would be leaving for Hogsmeade shortly after breakfast. She was relieved to find girls in the common room dressed in similar fashion, Christmas Eve came but once a year, after all.

Lily had her wand stuck in a fold of her dress, just to be safe.

"Hey, gorgeous," said James. Lily smiled shyly and took the hand he offered her. They exited the common room amidst the whispers of the whole of Gryffindor house.

0o0

Breakfast was a rather awkward affair. James tried to remember all the manners his mother had taught him, and Lily tried to eat daintily. They were glad when it was over and they were out on the snowy grounds, bundled up cozily.

The walk to Hogsmeade was fairly uneventful. Lily didn't see any of the death eaters, and she relaxed into James arm. Once they got to Hogsmeade, James asked where Lily wanted to go, unsure where couples went, as he had never had a real girlfriend before.

"Well," said Lily, "lots of couples go into Madam Puddifoots…" James eyed the frilly restaurant warily, and Lily smiled and continued, "But I don't really like it. Let's go to the three broomsticks."

James seemed very relieved at her plan, so together they made their way into the crowded pub. They sat down at one of the more private tables in the back and waited as the waitress, Rio, came to take their orders.

"I'll just have a butterbeer," said Lily, as the waitress scrawled their order in her booklet.

"Firewhisky for me," ordered James. Lily gave him a stern look, and he amended, "actually, I think I'll have a butterbeer as well."

"Suite yourself," said Rio. A few minutes later she came back carrying their drinks. Lily took a sip of hers and said,

"I'm really happy to be here with you."

"Me, too," said James, "You don't know how long I've waited."

Lily smiled a sad smile and said, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," said James, "Time seems to have made the final product sweeter."

They were slowly leaning towards each other across the little table; not taking their eyes away from each other as they leaned in.

"Do you think it would have been better, if we wouldn't have waited?" asked Lily.

"Let's not wait any longer," said James, they were slowly closing the space between them. James put one warm hand on her neck, and Lily's spine tingled in anticipation. They were inches apart, and then-

"Enjoying the moment, Potter?" asked a nasally voice which belonged to a hook nosed, greasy haired Slytherin whom the Marauders liked to refer to as 'that git,' otherwise known as Snivellous.

"I rather am, actually," replied James, not straitening up, but looking at Snape. Severus' eyes flickered to Lily.

"I actually came to apologize to Lily," said Snape, "If you could give me a moment alone with her."

"Not a chance," snarled James, "It's a little too late for that."

"Why, already done the job for me?" asked Snape. It took a few moments for Lily to realize what they were talking about, and by the time she did, her face was crimson; and James had let go of her and was in Snape's face at once.

"You want to go?" asked James fiercely.

"Yeah," replied Snape, "Let's take this outside!"

They strode outside, and Lily hastened to follow. Sirius noticed what was going on, and followed them out the door, with Carmella at his heels.

Snape had led James and the others out into an alley. James and Snape now stood, wands raised, hurling silent curses at each other so fast, it was hard for the others to keep track. Finally, he managed to disarm James, and took off running toward the Shrieking Shack. James grabbed his wand and followed, and the others pursued him. They were out on the back roads now, James hurling curses at Snivellous' retreating back. Snape led them to the middle of a square, then turned abruptly.

"You know how foolish that was," said James, "There's no-one to save your neck out here!"

"See, that's where you're wrong," said Snape. As he said this, a circle of masked and hooded death eaters surrounded them, closing in. Lily, Sirius, and Carmella whipped out their wands, as did their foes.

"You see," said one of the hooded lot, "It's too bad so many must die for the mistakes of a silly girl. All we were sent to do was kill was James. Ah, well, it will be good practice. Kill them all."

Lily, James, Carmella, and Sirius were fighting about four at a time, dueling for their lives. Carmella was the first to fall, hit by a curse in the chest. Sirius angrily killed the death eater responsible, but Carmella was only stunned.

The others were faring better. Lily had stunned two death eaters, James three. Sirius managed to demobilize three with a single curse, then turned around and stunned one. All in all, they were handling the situation fairly well, but they needed backup. Then Severus pulled a wild card by using Sectumsempra again. He missed James and hit Lily, slashing her waist.

"Lily!" yelled James, as he took advantage of Severus' averted attention and stunned him. He ran through the bodies to see if she was okay. She was losing a lot of blood, but still dueling.

"Get back to fighting, James," as she knocked out yet another death eater. James obeyed, but kept an eye on her. He could tell it was causing her great pain to continue, and the quantity of her blood was shocking against her green dress.

And then one of the death eaters used a curse which they had no knowledge. They all fell, death eaters and heroes alike.

A/N- dundundun… do you all like my cliffies? Hehehe I know I'm mean like that. I'll have the next chapter up tomorrow, unless I don't get enough reviews. I could leave you all hanging… hehe would I be that evil? Review unless you want to find out just how wicked I can be!

:) but I still love you all so don't take that the wrong way :)

LU