The Christmas holidays fastly arrived and Gryffindor tower was only housing Lily, Marlene, Alice, Remus, Sirius and James. Peter and Mary had gone home to spend Christmas with their families whereas the others decided to stay behind as it would be the last Christmas that they would get to spend at the castle. For Lily it was also because she would rather avoid meeting her sister's boyfriend and pretend that she was a muggle when Petunia was the only one in her family who was ashamed of what she was.

The common room was decorated with a tree dressed in red and gold tinsel with matching red baubles and permanantly lit candles that floated a millimetre above the branches. Piles of presents had been placed underneath the tree and surrounded it if they couldn't fit under, making Lily feel in the Christmas spirit.

On Christmas eve there had been a trip to the village for the students who had decided to stay at school, giving people the chance to do some last minute Christmas shopping if they had forgotten. Lily had gone to the village with Marlene and Alice to go for a drink and had also gotten James a last minute Christmas present from Zonko's joke shop.

They had returned to the common room to find that the boys had gone to the kitchens in their absence and had brought back mince pies, muffins, chocolate eclairs, pumpkin pasties and cauldron cakes. They had even managed to get four bottles of firewhiskey.

"We thought we'd spice this evening up." Sirius grinned.

"How exactly?" asked Lily warily.

"Truth or Dare. We'll use my wand to circle who's turn it is and when if the player chooses truth and lies the wand will glow red and will have to do a forfeit from one of the cards." said Sirius, holding up a deck of cards.

"And the dares?" Marlene questioned.

"Anyone can pitch in an idea." Sirius answered.

"And the forfeit cards? Are they handwritten by you?" Alice queried.

"Of course." Sirius grinned.

"Which means they're dirty forfeits." Lily tutted.

"I'll play but only if the foefeits are given consent from both parties if it involves more than one person." Marlene stated.

"Agreed." said Sirius, taking a shot of firewhiskey.

They all sat in a small circle in front of the fireplace after moving some of the furniture about, Lily was sat next to James and Marlene who seemed to be considering herself unfortunate that she was sat next to Sirius.

Sirius placed his wand in the centre and they all watched nervously as the wand spun before landing on Remus.

"Alright Moony, truth or dare?" asked Sirius.

"Truth." Remus replied.

"Have you had sex with Mary?" asked Sirius.

Marlene slapped Sirius on the arm, causing him to moan and turn to face her.

"Marley, that hurt!" Sirius complained.

"Why do you have to associate everything with sex?" Marlene growled.

"It's fine, the question has been asked now." Remus smiled.

"So?"

"The answer is no I haven't." Remus stated truthfully.

The wand glowed green and and began to spin again before settling on Alice.

"Alright sweet little Alice, truth or dare?"

"Dare." Alice replied confidently.

Sirius grinned and summoned ten empty shot glasses and poured them to the top with firewhiskey.

"I dare you to down these without taking any water until after you've had all ten, good luck; firewhiskey burns like a bitch!." said Sirius, handing over the first shot glass.

Alice grinned devilishly, it was very rare for Lily to see her best friend be quite into games like this. So as they all watched as Alice downed each shot one by one, Lily was proud that Alice had managed to get all ten shots of firewhiskey down her throat. They all cheered as she coughed hard and poured herself a glass of water with her wand.

The wand began to spin once more and Lily's heart raced when the wand came to a slow stop on her. She didn't particularly fancy answering any embarassing questions that she knew that Sirius would ask her and she didn't particularly fancy doing something embarassing either that she knew that Sirius would suggest.

"Lilykins, this should be interesting." Sirius teased.

"Oh leave her alone Black!" Marlene grumbled.

"Truth." Lily sighed.

"Have you ever had an 'inappropriate' dream about Jamie boy?"

Lily gulped, she didn't really want to answer that question for the answer to it was yes she had. Nothing sordid, her dream about James had been rather romantic but she didn't really want to disclose details to the whole group; she didn't even want James to know about it.

"I'm not answering that." Lily answered.

Sirius chuckled darkly, "Rules are rules, Lilypad." he stated.

The wand flicked towards the forfeit card and a card flew towards Lily. She sighed as she caught it and turned it over, her heart stopped beating as she read it:

Take the person on your right to a private space and show them this card. For ten minutes, they will be in charge of what you both do.

Lily gulped and tugged on James's arm and they both rose from the circle, with the other four staring at them. She shoved the card in James's hand and took ahold of his other one.

"What did you get Lily?" asked Sirius, still sporting a huge grin on his face.

"Shut up Sirius." Lily replied and led James up the staircase to the boy's dormitory.

Once they were inside the dormitory, Lily locked the door and silenced the room around them so that they wouldn't have any eavesdroppers. James looked down at the card and Lily bit her lip when she saw that his eyes widened in surprise.

James chucked the forfeit card to the floor and walked towards her, Lily's heart raced in her chest as his mouth pressed against her own, his tongue massaging hers as his mouth moved urgently. Her hands ran through his hair, gripping gently as she held him to her; matching his urgency. But her heart still hammered away nervously as she didn't know how far the two of them could go in what time remained to them.

She felt herself being lowered down onto James's bed, with him hovering above her so that he didn't crush her with his whole bodyweight. His hands went to her ponytail and pulled it loose, letting her hair fall over his pillow as he ran his fingers through it.

Lily gasped as his lips left hers and undid the first few buttons on her shirt so that he could access her neck a bit better, his left hand left her hair and began to grip at her thigh as his lips travelled upwards from her neck and claimed her lips once more. She was beginning to feel an urge to rip James's clothes from him but she wasn't ready to take that step with him just yet.

It was when he slowly began to push her shirt up to reveal the top of her jeans and her lower abdomen when she removed her hands from his hair and placed them firmly on his shoulders and slowly pushed him away. James pulled away from her mouth and looked down at her, his hazel eyes aflame with desire. She smiled reassuringly at him as they sat up on the bed.

"I'm sorry, I was too forward-

Lily placed a finger to his lips and he instantly fell silent.

"I don't mind. But I want you to know that I'm not ready for that yet." she whispered, looking away from him.

She felt embarassed to admit that she wasn't ready for that part of a relationship yet, she had only had three dates with James and had kissed him a few times; and now she feared that this was going to be the end, that her admission had ruined her having a relationship with him. James smiled as he brought her gaze back to his, bumping his forehead gently against her own.

"Lily, it's okay. We can take this one step at a time, I'm not just with you because I want in between your legs. I really like you, too much some might say." James whispered.

"So the fact that I'm a virgin doesn't scare you?" asked Lily quietly.

James shook his head.

"Now it's my turn to be embarassed." James muttered.

Lily blinked in confusion but didn't say anything.

"I've never slept with anyone before either." he admitted.

Lily's eyebrows skidded up in surprise, she certainly hadn't been expecting James to admit that he had no experience either. The amount of girls who wanted him, the amount of girls he had flirted with.

"Really?" asked Lily in disbelief.

James nodded, "It's not that I've not had opportunities, girls could throw themselves at me and I could easily have a snogging session in a broom cupboard. But I wanted a relationship, to gain someone's trust who had mine in return and who returned my feelings. One night stands don't mean anything, I never wanted that. Sirius is perfectly comfortable in sleeping with a girl without it being anything serious but I'm different." he explained.

Lily gently pecked his cheek, she understood what he had meant because she wanted her first time to be exactly the same as what he wanted. She wanted her first time to be with someone she had feelings for, someone she could love and who loved her back, someone she trusted completely. So far, James was the only person she felt that way about but it was still too soon for her.

"Shall we go back downstairs?" she suggested.

James nodded and the two of them rose from the bed with Lily putting her hair back up into a ponytail. James uncast the charms and the two of them exited the dormitory. But James stopped on the winding staircase and stopped Lily too.

"I don't fancy playing more games, can we go for a walk instead?" he asked.

Lily nodded, "Go and get your cloak and I'll get mine. Meet you outside the portrait in five minutes." she smiled.

With that, James went back into the dormitory to get his cloak and Lily carried on down the stairs; smiling all the way. It seemed that she had been entirely wrong about James Potter.

A/N: I hope you all liked this chapter, next one will be coming soon. If this story still hasn't finished by the end of the month, please be aware that I return to work after my maternity leave ends on the 31st March so updates will as and when I have time.

Thanks for reading so far :)