A/N: Hello everybody, and welcome to the final chapter of New Year. It's always a weird feeling to finish a fic, and I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who's read, followed, favourited, reviewed or otherwise offered their support to this story. You're all wonderful, and I just hope that this final chapter isn't in any way a disappointment for you.

Also, a few people have asked about the possibility about carrying on the story in a sequel. Well I'm not going to say never, because if you know me you'll know that my mind is nothing if not unpredictable when it comes to writing. I am going to say that if this story does continue, it won't be soon. I have absolutely no ideas for taking this further at the moment, and I have written a Jily seventh year fic so recently that I don't know that I could get any originality going. But it's a possibility I won't rule out.

So that's it, I'm sorry it was so long-winded, and thank you.

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9th December 1977, 11.15am

'You prat!' Lily swung for James, but she wasn't all that serious about it and he was much too quick for her anyway. He caught her hand and gave her his sincerest puppy dog eyes as he pressed a quick kiss to her fingers, pleading silently for forgiveness.

Naturally she saw straight through his brazen attempt at faking an apology, but she was unable to help the twitch of her lips at the sight of his overdone expression. He was just too bloody amusing to be really angry with. Still, she shouldn't let him get off too lightly for this one.

'You got us thrown out of Zonkos. Zonkos! That shouldn't be possible, the stuff people get up to in there. In five years I have never seen anyone do anything annoying enough to be thrown out, but you. You had to cast that trip jinx didn't you?'

'I didn't know that he'd crash into that display stand!' James protested. 'Or that the falling boxes from that would hit the other stand, and really, who could have foreseen that the other shop assistant would be knocked unconscious and fall off his ladder?'

Lily rolled her eyes at his indignant expression. 'Perhaps you remember a conversation we had about you not being so free with your hexes?'

'Well, yes, but love…' he tugged her a little closer, his free hand landing on her waist, 'I get all irrational about these things. I can't help it.'

'Other men are allowed to talk to me Potter.' Lily's finger drilled into his chest accusingly.

'Of course they are heart.' James murmured, risking another step closer so that his body bumped hers. 'They're just not allowed to ogle you. And that shop assistant was very definitely ogling you.'

'He was showing me their new range of fireworks. Filibuster something or other.'

'That's not what he actually wanted to show you.' James muttered the words, knowing that they wouldn't do him any favours should Lily actually hear them but being unable to keep from letting them slip.

'What was that?' Lily raised an eyebrow and James smiled disarmingly.

'Nothing at all sweetheart. Just thinking out loud.'

'Hmm.' He could tell she didn't believe him, but he also recognised that she was letting it slide and he seized the opportunity to not have an argument. They began to walk down the street, their hands still clasped together as they strolled aimlessly.

'Is there anywhere you wanted to go today?' James asked as they stopped to look in a window.

Lily shook her head. 'No. No, I just wanted to be out.'

'You're the only person I know who loves winter.'

She shrugged and dropped his hand so she could adjust her hat. 'Always have. Frosty mornings, that bite in the air, frozen leaves on the ground. I just love it.'

'And of course there's Christmas.' James teased. 'And your birthday.'

'Nothing to do with it Potter.'

'Of course not.' He agreed cheerfully. 'You know it's extremely inconsiderate of you to have your birthday so close to Christmas. I have to find two gifts with barely a month in between.'

'We can't all be spring and summer babies, but you're welcome to take the issue up with my parents. It's their fault after all.'

'I'm not sure they'd appreciate any kind of sex-related talk from their daughter's boyfriend.' James mused. 'But I could give it a shot if you like.'

Lily shuddered. 'Please don't. Please don't ever bring the subject, or any related subject, up in the presence of any of my family.'

'Not even Petunia?'

'Especially not Petunia.' Lily answered firmly. 'She's constantly pissed off at me already, you don't need to offend her any further.'

James snorted a laugh, then did his best to hide it. Lily looked sideways at him out of the corner of her eye, and her face slowly slipped into a smile, then into a laugh. 'Oh Merlin, imagine you having a sex talk with Tuney.'

'Never happen.' James said confidently. 'I'd be too afraid that she'd start telling me about Vernon.'

Lily laughed harder, and James swung their joined hands like they were five years old as they meandered down the street.

'Let's walk up towards the Shrieking Shack then.' James pulled her in that direction. 'It's a nice walk through town if all you're interested in is being out in the fresh air.'

They walked in comfortable silence for a while, smiling at people they knew as they passed but avoiding being dragged into conversation. Sometimes they felt like they didn't get much time for each other, between Head duties, Quidditch, slug club and everything else in between.

It took them about ten minutes at a leisurely pace to reach the Shack; Hogsmeade was so small that ten minutes was about the longest it took to get to any part of it. They stopped and leaned on the ragged fence, staring up at the ramshackle building perched on the hill.

'When I look at it and think about Remus in there…' Lily trailed off and James put an arm around her shoulder.

'It's not as bad as you think.' He soothed. 'Moony hasn't seriously hurt himself in months. I mean, it's not pleasant, but he's doing okay.'

'Because of you.' Lily buried her face in his chest. 'You and Sirius and Peter. What would he do without you?'

'He'd be fine.' James stroked her hair gently. 'Moony is so much tougher than you think. He got along without us.'

'He's better with you.' She mumbled the words into his Gryffindor scarf.

'Aw, sweetheart, haven't you realised by now that everything is better with me?'

Lily heard the self-mocking tone, but she found herself unable to find a smart answer for him, because it was actually horribly, infuriatingly true. This whole year had been better because of him. She was better when she was with him.

She felt the words that she desperately didn't want to say bubble up at the back of her throat, felt her heart clench at the idea of saying them, of putting everything out there for him to accept or reject. Even though she had a fairly good idea of which he would do, the thought was still terrifying.

She couldn't say them.

They wouldn't come out.

It wasn't the right time.

She was such a liar. A liar and a coward.

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18th December 1977, 9.45am

James stood on the platform in Hogsmeade, directing first years left, right and everywhere else. Had he been that small once, that wide-eyed and confused? Somewhere off to his right he heard Lily's voice rise in annoyance, and he was pretty sure he heard her screech Sirius' name, so that ought to make for an interesting train ride later.

He turned his attention back to the small first year in front of him, and smiled reassuringly. 'Right, what did you say you'd lost again?'

'I haven't lost anything.' The boy sniffed. 'An older boy took my bag of sweets.'

James half wanted to roll his eyes at the trivial nature of the problem, but the boy was obviously upset, and if he thought about he probably would have been distraught at the loss of a bag of Honeydukes sweets whenhe was eleven. Besides, he thought as he set his jaw firmly, stealing sweets from younger children was nothing more than bullying, and he'd decided at some point in his life that he detested bullies.

'Point him out.'

The young boy pointed towards a group of boys who were laughing and pushing each other around, and James turned and headed towards them. He planted himself firmly behind them, folded his arms and waited for them to notice him.

One by one the boys realised that the Head Boy was standing directly alongside them, and they fell silent and stopped their shoving and jostling of each other. James waited until every one of them was looking at him, and then he spoke.

'I don't know which one of you thought you could steal from a younger student, but whoever it was is going to march right over to him and give him sweets back, with an apology.'

'Nobody took anything.' One of the boys spoke up, eyes flicking nervously around. Not him then, but he knew who it was. James' eyes moved around the group, noting the general uneasy shifting. Sometimes it was nice to know you could be intimidating.

'Okay boys, here's the thing. Either one of you –and I don't care who – takes that boy a bag of sweets in the next two minutes, or I spend next term devoting my considerable energies to making your lives hell. It's your choice. Give him his sweets back and we'll say no more about it, or be stubborn idiots and watch me find excuse after excuse to give you detentions for the rest of the year.'

'You can't do that, you've got to be fair and everything.' The tallest of the boys objected, and James lips turned up at the corners.

'Oh really? They must have forgotten to show me that page in the rule book. Mind you, rules were never my forte.' He made a show of mulling the point over, and eventually one of the boys moved sullenly towards the first year standing nervously nearby and handed over a bulging bag of sweets. James shook his head. There had to be at least four galleons worth of sweets in that bag; the kid had probably been saving all term to afford that much.

'I better not be hearing any stories about you from any other students.' James warned, and the boys took that as their queue to leave and slouched off towards the other end of the platform, probably with the intention of putting as much distance as possible between them and the Head Boy.

'You couldn't really have given them detentions all year you know.' Lily's voice came from behind him, and James turned to face her slowly.

'I reckon I could have found enough reasons.'

She took a few steps towards him, her hands tucked in her pockets in defence against the cold. 'Sooner or later a professor would have wondered why the same few boys kept landing up in detention.'

He shrugged. 'I would have had a reason for each and every one. If necessary, I would have had Sirius frame them for a few things.'

Lily winced. 'I'm just going to erase that from my memory.'

James grinned at her. 'Don't worry yourself love. I only use my powers for good.'

'Is that what you call it?'

'Knocking bullies down a peg or two? Definitely. Stealing sweets from kids is pretty low, and I bet they get up to even more unsavoury stuff too.' James drifted a few steps closer to her.

'Playing the hero Potter?' Lily closed the gap between them, her hands lifting to slide along his shoulders to his neck.

'Of course.' James used his most pompous tone and affected a haughty pose. 'Head Boy don't you know, guardian of morality and decency at this fine educational establishment.'

'Lord have mercy.' Lily muttered under her breath as she toyed with the scarf end tucked into the neck of his coat.

'I heard that.'

'I know.' She smiled up at him, and he couldn't resist lowering his head to brush his lips across hers.

That proved to be a mistake, because that slight moment of contact reminded him that he only had a few hours on a train with her, and then he had to suffer through a week of missing her, and that had his lips pressing against hers more forcefully and his arms wrapping round her to pull her in tight.

If he'd been thinking more clearly he might have been surprised at the ease of her acquiescence, the willingness with which she responded to him, and he would almost certainly have been pleased to realise that it meant that she would miss him as much as he was going to miss her.

Unfortunately his brain wasn't quite that functional, steeped as it was in thoughts of the taste and smell and feel of Lily, and the realisation passed him by. Another realisation was pounding through his veins though, one that had sat at the back of his mind for months if he was honest, waiting to ambush his thoughts when his mind was idle. The words, those three little words that could change everything, sat in his chest and he'd wanted to say them so many times but for the first time ever he felt capable of saying them, and they rushed up his throat and found their way to the tip of his tongue as he pulled away and rested his forehead on hers, staring down at those ridiculously green eyes.

He'd just about opened his mouth when reality came rushing back in with the sound of Sirius' voice yelling some choice words at them, and they realised that almost everyone was on board the train.

Perhaps under other circumstances they might have been embarrassed, but as it was they were punch drunk on the ridiculous high that being with each other could give them, and they kept their hands clasped together as they ran towards the nearest carriage door and hopped aboard.

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25th December 1977

Dear James,

You stupid tosser. You made me cry. I cried, in front of my family on Christmas morning when I opened my gift from my boyfriend. Do you know how hard that was to explain?

Do you know how baffled they were at me crying over a pile of books? Old books at that. They think I'm mental.

Oh God James. A first edition copy of each of my favourite books? Really? I didn't even know you knew I liked some of those. I cried buckets over them, they're probably water damaged, their value is going to plummet. I don't actually know what to say.

Well I do, it's just…I can't put it in writing okay? It needs to be said face to face.

So, I'll tell you tomorrow. And I'll try not to cry.

Lily

PS. I hope you like your gift, now I've seen what you got me it seems completely inadequate.

Lily,

Sirius is denying it, but I'm certain that he was complicit in your present buying. You may be brilliant - and you are, and no-one is more aware of that than me - but you haven't a clue about Quidditch gear.

Thank you, it's all perfect and just what I needed. I suspect you spent far too much, but that's an argument for another time.

I hope you like the books. It took me a while to track them all down, and I hope I got all of your favourites, but I'm sure that I missed at least one. I had a bit of a crisis of confidence about the whole thing as a matter of fact, it seemed wrong to give you a present that wasn't new as such, but Remus convinced me to go with my first instinct. I hope that wasn't wrong.

I wish you were here and I can't wait to see you tomorrow. I miss you a ridiculous amount.

James

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26th December 1977, 9.40am

Potter Manor. That's all she had to do, just step into the floo, and say the words and she'd be deposited right into James' arms more or less. Well, his father's study, but who was splitting hairs?

The floo powder had been clutched in her hand for so long that it was actually starting to clump as it mixed with the nervous perspiration that was making her hands slippery.

Ridiculous. That was the only word that described her right now, utterly ridiculous. She threw the powder and managed to whisper the words in a not-too-wobbly tone of voice, and then she was spinning through green flames and fireplaces, and at least she could claim the whirling confusion and giddiness in her head was down to floo travel now.

Her landing was less than graceful, and she found herself in a heap on the Persian rug that sat in front of the fireplace in Mr Potter's office. A pair of hands gripped her under the arms and lifted her gently to her feet.

'Well, you don't look like you travelled too well.'

The voice was warm and familiar, and more welcome than she'd ever imagined it could be. She screwed her eyes tight closed against the unexpected prickling of tears and reached out blindly with her arms until she could wind them around him.

'Hey, what's this? Have you been crying?' A gentle hand stroked across her cheek and brushed her hair out of her face. 'Are you sick? Lily, are you floo-sick?'

She nodded. A lie, but a white one, and surely understandable in the circumstances. She'd had anxious responses to stress before, but she couldn't recall ever having such a strong physical reaction before. She felt James' arms let go of her momentarily and change position so that he could her could sweep her up, and she rested her head against his shoulder, feeling the warmth of his skin and the movement of his chest as it rose and fell with steady, even breaths.

She heard footsteps approach as Mrs Potter appeared, and opened her eyes to reassure her that there was nothing really wrong, just a little nausea and headache. James' mother headed off to find a potion, brushing off Lily's protests that she didn't really need it, and James continued on through the house with Lily still carefully balanced in his arms.

She wasn't paying a huge amount of attention to where they were going – wasn't sure she could have recalled the layout of the house anyway, even after spending a week there earlier in the year – but she couldn't say she was surprised when she opened her eyes after hearing a door open and found herself in James' room. He deposited her gently on the bed and knelt in front of her, concerned eyes glinting behind the steel-framed glasses.

'How do you feel?'

'Okay.' Lily nodded slowly. 'Just a bit queasy.'

'You should lie down.' He reached over her to rearrange the pillows, ignoring her weak protests. Dorea bustled in behind him, shaking a bottle of potion.

'How are you dear?' She smiled kindly at Lily as she passed her the vial of potion, and Lily tried her best to manage a smile in response as she removed the stoppert and prepared to drink it.

'I'm okay thanks Mrs Potter, just not feeling one hundred percent.'

Mrs Potter nodded wisely. 'Floo travel can take you like that sometimes. It's the motion I'm afraid; it's not quite as bad as apparition, but it can still be disorientating.' She took the empty vial back and offered Lily a sympathetic smile as she left.

James perched on the edge of the bed and watched Lily carefully. 'Do you want me to leave you to have a nap?'

She shook her head. 'No, stay with me please.'

He sat alongside her and leaned back on the pillows. She moved towards him and cuddled her head onto his chest. They lay there for a while, his hand running gently over her hair while her breathing calmed and her headache subsided. It was amazing how much more level she felt when she was with him. She should have realised months ago, that James was the only person who levelled her out like that. She should have known what that meant, should have had the sense to recognise exactly why he was the person who balanced her moods and boosted her spirits.

'I love you.'

She clenched her eyes shut the second the words were out. Weeks of worrying, and she finally blurts them without a second thought. James lay still next to her, and she felt the tension of waiting for his response in every muscle of her body as she held her breath and nervously chewed on her lower lip. His reaction was not what she expected.

'I know Lily. Just like I think you know that I love you too.'

Her head jerked up, her upper body rising up to rest on her elbows as she looked at him. 'You know?'

Despite her change in position, his hand continued its calm stroking through her hair, winding the red strands around his fingers and letting it slide through, his eyes intent on its movement over his skin. 'Well, "know" might be too strong a word. "Strongly suspected" might be more accurate. I just…I don't think we could be, you know, like we are together without feeling that way. At least, I don't think I could be.'

'Why didn't you say anything?' Lily stared down at him, unsure whether she was shocked or relieved by his admission.

'I was extremely aware that it might be nothing more than wishful thinking. I mean, I think I've liked you longer than you liked me; I could quite easily have been a bit further along in my feelings than you. And you've been a bit skittish about our relationship from the start, and I wouldn't want you to feel like I was putting pressure on you, or that I had expectations for us.'

Lily rested a hand on his face. 'I've given you more than a few moments of uncertainty this year haven't I?'

He grinned up at her artlessly. 'There have been a few, yes. But there have been some fantastic ones too. One of my personal favourites occurred right here on this bed.'

She blushed at that, remembering that day in August when Sirius had walked in on them tangled up on the bed. Almost all of the important memories that she was taking away from this year involved him in some way. He was wound all through her life now, imbedded in every aspect but that was okay because she was the same for him. While they were still James and Lily, they were also "James and Lily" now, and that was…well, it was something she hadn't been expecting, and it was something that scared the living daylights out of her if she was honest, but it also filled her with a ridiculous feeling of giddiness that she had never really believed existed outside of romance novels.

They hadn't changed, not in themselves. He was still impetuous and cocky and too bad-tempered for his own good, and she was still thoughtful and stubborn and overly obsessed with details. It was just that being together made them stronger; combined they were different, more, than they were in their separate parts.

They'd both been lucky enough to understand what it was to have that from a young age, they'd both seen it in their parents, what it was like to have a partner, a person that you trusted and who trusted you implicitly, who supported you and listened to you.

She'd never thought she'd find it.

Her childhood friends had melted away when she'd gone to Hogwarts, unable to sustain long distance friendships, Tuney had abandoned her in favour of as average a life as she could possibly manage, Snape had preferred to pursue his agenda of power and Dark Arts. She'd assumed at some point that she was obviously not destined to have that closeness with someone, and she'd adjusted to it, being content with the close friendships she did have.

Then there'd been James. He'd smashed his way into pretty much every part of her life, and she'd never found a reason to complain about it. Now she couldn't imagine a part of her life she didn't want him to be involved in. That little piece of her that had been broken by Petunia and Severus until she'd chosen to seal it off for good was open again, and in danger of being damaged anew, but this time it was James who held the power to do so, and if there was one thing she couldn't believe him capable of, it was hurting her.

He was still looking up at her, his brow furrowed slightly as he watched the play of emotions across her face, his fingers still twisting in the tips of her hair. She lowered herself down until she could reach his lips with her own. They brushed carefully over his, moving across the full width of his mouth from one corner to another as his mouth turned up in a smile.

'I know exactly the one you mean.' Her mouth kept moving once she'd kissed across his lips, working its way across his jaw, and once she reached the spot just below his ear she continued her progress down his neck.

'Good to know.' James managed to get the words out, even though they sounded a little strained. 'Glad it wasn't just me who found it memorable.'

Lily's laugh made her warm breath blow across his skin, raising goose bumps. 'Oh no, it was very memorable. So memorable that I think we should relive it. There's just one thing about that though...'

'And what's that?' James' free hand rose to press gently on her back.

Lily lifted her face from his neck and hovered her mouth over his lips again. 'I really, really think we need to work out a different ending.'

James' mouth turned up into a smile, his whole face creasing up with it. 'I find I can get behind that idea very easily. Pass me my wand would you?'

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31st December 1977, 11.45pm

'This is ridiculous.' Lily ducked her head as they passed through a particularly low point in the passageway.

'No it's not.' James insisted as he pulled her along behind him. 'It's one of the best ideas I've had all year.'

Lily allowed herself to be hauled along, not really bothered enough to actually make a serious effort to resist. 'I still can't believe you managed to convince Dumbledore to let us come back halfway through Christmas holidays.'

James shrugged. 'It wasn't hard. Dumbledore trusts us both, and as far as the Professors are concerned I imagine they're happy to have both Head students around over the break. Extra supervision.'

'Extra supervision for the five other students here?' Lily asked with amusement. 'Even Filch could probably manage that many by himself.'

'No he couldn't.' James responded. 'Filch couldn't even handle just me being here by himself.'

'Hardly a fair comparison Potter. Pretty much everyone has a hard time handling you. You're like a walking natural disaster.'

He paused as they came to the end of the passageways and he flicked the tapestry covering the exit to one side so he could peer out. 'You know, some people might be offended by comments like that Evans.'

'Some people don't deserve comments like that.'

He grinned at her. 'You know, I don't know why we didn't start dating years ago, these conversations are always so much fun. I might have got into less trouble if I'd been devoting my time to sparring with you.'

'I doubt it very much.' Lily allowed herself to be pulled out into the empty corridor beyond the passage, and they walked the few steps to the kitchen door, which James opened and waved her through.

'What time is it?' Asked Lily as they wandered into the kitchens, greeted several times by house elves who had long since gotten used to the fact that the Head Students periodically turned up in their domain.

James checked his watch. '11:58. Look at that. Just in time.' He turned to face her with a ridiculously boyish grin, his hands snaking out to snag her waist and tug her closer.

'Don't you think this is a little odd?' Lily smiled back, unable to ignore his rather infectious enthusiasm.

'No, I kissed you in the kitchens on New Year's Eve last year, and this year turned out great. I'm thinking we should come back and do this every New Year's Eve.'

'Dumbledore might eventually object to the two of us pitching up every year to snog in his kitchens.'

'I doubt he'd care actually.'

The chiming of a clock somewhere in the upper levels of the school echoed down to them, twelve peals marking the turning of the year. James smiled down at her.

'Happy New Year Lily.' He bent down and kissed her cheek, and she felt a huge grin spread across her face. They'd come full circle. One year that had changed her life.

James drew back from her slightly, and she lifted her hands to grip his face. 'Not even close to good enough this year Potter.' And she dragged his face back down to hers, their mouths meeting in a way that was so familiar now that neither of them knew what they would do without it, because whatever it was they'd never find it with anyone else.

When they broke apart a few moments later, Lily pulled James' forehead to hers and smiled up at him. 'Every year?'

'Oh yeah, every year. Well, its traditional isn't it?'

And their mouths met again, their bodies pressed together, and whatever 1978 was going to bring, they'd always have this.

So wake me up when it's all over
When I'm wiser and I'm older
All this time I was finding myself
And I didn't know I was lost

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A/N: So…that's all folks? Again, I appreciate all the support you've given me over the course of writing this, and Merry Christmas! Or Happy Holidays, or whatever you prefer. Maybe I'll see you for the next fic. If you feel like dropping me a review or PM, please do so, and you can find a link for my Tumblr on my profile if you want to chat over there.

Lyrics at the end of this chapter are from "Wake Me Up" by Avicii, and so are obviously not owned by me in any way. Pretty much everything else belongs to JK Rowling, and I'm very grateful that she lets me play in her sandbox.