I crave your forgiveness for the wait of 33 DAYS! My only excuse is that I have been away for some of that time and those pesky teachers at school have made me sit a couple of GCSE's, claiming they will be important in years to come. BAH!

Anyway, for all of those still following this epic tale of bloodshed and gore here is the next chapter of Lily's Tale wherein this chapter you will find: a pair of glasses; a soppy moment, and a very bad smell.

Please enjoy!

The moon was staring down at Hogwarts, leaving everything it touched bathed in silver. The stars twinkled, laughing at a joke only they can understand. And a meteor plummeted out of the night sky, my insane best friend, screaming silently on its back.

Wait a minute...

What I'd first mistaken for a meteorite was in fact a very large, very black, very dangerous, flying motorbike. And I only knew one boy in the entire world, insane enough to even contemplate the thought that it would be a good idea to charm a Muggle motorbike to fly.

"Looks like we're not the only ones sneaking around tonight." I leaned into James' chest and breathed in his smell of broomstick polish and cinnamon which shouldn't of worked, but just somehow did.

"Hmm?" He said absentmindedly, turning another page and wrapping his arm more securely around my waist

"I said, it looks like we're not the only ones sneaking about tonight."

He set down his book and buried his face in my hair. "Oh and who might be sneaking around this fine night?" His lips grazed my ear, just slightly sending that thrill through me that always made my toes curl.

"Artemis. And Sirius."

"Oh?" He said again, then, with a grin, pulled me into his lap, kissing the tip of my nose.

"Yes, in fact I bet that if I were to head back to the dorm right now I'd find her bed mysteriously empty, her clothes vanished without trace and your buffoon of a best friend seducing her into temporally forgetting her chronic fear of heights so much as to clamber onto that death-trap he has the nerve to call a motorbike and soar off into the moonlight. " I said, all in one breath.

"Sirius isn't a buffoon." He said automatically. I stared at him. "Okay, maybe he is but that's not the point."

"Oh? And what is the 'point' may I be so bold as to ask?" I teased, pulling his glasses off his nose and sliding them onto my own. The world went fuzzy.

"I think you may!" He growled, pushing me down onto my back and kissing me playfully on the tip of my nose.

"Why Good Sir, you are too bold, too bold indeed." I giggled, and wrapped my arms around his neck. "One would almost think you were taking liberties." He nibbled my earlobe and I shivered. "Go ahead," I squeaked. "Take all the liberties you want."

-o-0-o-

"Come on, "I sighed as, somewhere down a corridor, the clocked chimed midnight, "We'd better move." He rolled off the rug reluctantly and began pulling on his shirt as I lay there, watching his easy, graceful movements. Then I, too, rolled into my feet and beckoned towards him. "Your hair's a mess."

"My hair's always a mess."

"I love your messy hair."

"I thought you hated it."

"Only when you're annoying me. Then I loathe it."

"I'm hurt."

"Don't worry, I haven't loathed you since we started dating."

"Hah!" He pounced on the word. "So we are dating!"

"Well, not exactly. More like-"

"-Making out whenever we want. Come on Lily, we are dating, you just don't want to admit it."

And the truth was, I didn't want to admit. However much I liked James (and I now knew that I really, really, really did like James) I knew that if I admitted that we were dating everyone would have known I'd been wrong about him and I am never wrong. Never. Well, occasionally but only when no-one's looking.

"Lily?" His hazel eyes met mine and concern was written all over his face. "You're talking to yourself again."

I flushed, then leaned forwards and pressed my lips against his cheek. "Can we...can we just not tell anyone. I mean-" His face darkened, "-Just not yet. Until, you know, I'm used to...All this."

I could see the indecision, one the one hand he desperately wanted to tell everyone, proclaim it to the world that, finally, he gotten his heart's desire, but on the other, he wanted to do what I wanted too.

"James, look at me. Just until New Year. Then, heck, you can yell it from the Astronomy Tower if you want too." I pleaded. "I just can't stand all the rumours and gossip right now."

"Even if it's something good?"

"Especially then, I couldn't stand it if it all went wrong and other people ruined it for us."

"I love you." He said, so simply and so straightforwardly, that I knew it must be true. "And if that's what you want then that's fine with me."

"Thank you, you have no idea how much-"

"-But you owe me."

"What?"

"I think a kiss will do it."

He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the tip of my nose, then my forehead, then my lips. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and smiled blissfully under his lips.

"I love you Lily." He murmured into my neck.

"And I, you. And I, you."

-o-0-o-

"I mean it this time, we've got to go. Filch could catch us, or Peeves. Or worse, McGonagall. I could lose my Head Girl badge and you could get kicked off the quidditch team and-"

"You worry far too much. Look, I'll know within seconds if anyone's coming."

"Oh? And how, pray, will you know?"

"You talk funny sometimes, you know that?"

"JAMES!"

"Sorry, look."

"It's just a bit of mouldy old parchment."

"A Piece Of Mouldy Old Parchment!" He spluttered, clutching the piece of parchment to his chest as one would, a new baby. "This took me almost two solid years of study and one hundred and thirty-four detentions for sneaking around at night to make."

"You made this? James, dear, don't take this the wrong way but it's a mouldy old piece of parchment! and-"

"-Stop calling it that, you'll hurt it's feelings!"

"It an inanimate object-"

"Shhh! I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

"Yes I know that, " I said exasperatedly, "Oh, James, it looks like you spilt coffee on it now, give it here,"

I unfolded the parchment, carefully smoothing the creases and set it out in front of me, watching, first in shock, then in bemusement at the tiny little footsteps wandering around the castle.

"James...What aren't you telling me?"

He smirked. "I shall tell thou a tale, a tale of wonder and adventure, of mystery and intrigue, of romance and passion-"

"-JAMES!"

"Sorry. Well, I don't know if you can remember back to our first three years at Hogwarts, bathed as it was, in the mists of time, " I raised my eyebrows at him. "Sirius and I occasionally broke one or two of the less important rules."

I snorted.

"Well maybe more than one or two. Anyway, we decided that enough was enough. We wanted to still have a bit of fun without the hassle of getting caught afterwards."

"Oh yes I can totally see that's fair and reasonable."

"Yeah, well that's what I thought. So we decided to pick Mooney's brains and came up with the idea for a map. The Marauder's Map."

"Why do you call him Mooney." I interrupted.

"Ahh, 'tis a long and thrilling tale that I cannot do justice to know, in the wee hours of the morning."

I poked him and he carried on.

"So for many months we learned all we could about the castle, night wanderings, skipping class, picking everybody's brains we could about legends and the castles history until we had comprised the most accurate map of Hogwarts ever drawn."

"An you never got caught? All that time, wandering around the castle and you never got caught?"

"Well, it does help if you can become invisible."

"Huh?"

"You work it out, everyone goes on about how you're the smartest witch of the year."

I sat for a few moments lost in thought, then it suddenly dawned on me. "You've got an invisibility cloak!"

"Got it in one. It was my dad's and I sort of nicked it when I came to Hogwarts in First Year.

"'Sort of' or 'nicked it'?"

"Oh very funny, do you want to hear the tale or not."

I nodded and snuggled into him.

"So we had this map which was very well and good until Wormy almost got caught by Filch on a kitchen run and we realised something had to me done. It was my idea though to enchant it so that every living, and some dead too I suppose, person in this castle could be seen. It took weeks of experimenting but eventually it worked. But it also worked in a different way too. Now when students leave and new ones come it recognises them. Whoever is in Hogwarts, not matter what they look like to the human eye this Map can see them for what they really are. Polyjuice potion or invisibility cloak, it's all part of the magic."

"Wow. That's amazing."

"Always the tone of surprise." He nuzzled my ear.

"Don't tell me you're too insulted to want your Christmas present?"

"You got me a prezzie? Let me see, let me see!"

"Down boy, I don't know if I ought really, I mean, it's not fair to the others to make them wait, though technically it is Christmas morning." I teased, then squeaked as he dived on top of me, tickling me without mercy.

"Stop, No! PLEASE," I gasped, "Stop! You can have it I swear. Here."

I passed him the oblong package I'd hidden in my robes and he fell on it, tearing the paper open like a toddler.

When he saw the book bound in red leather he flicked it open and as he turned the pages his confused face turned to a grin. He kissed my cheek, then carried looking through the photos I'd collected from everyone I knew throughout our years at Hogwarts.

"I've enchanted it so there'll always be room for more pictures without getting really thick and heavy. Do you like it? I mean, I just thought you might but-"

He kissed me on the lips and I could feel his lips smiling under my own.

"It's perfect."

We kissed for a few moments, then I finally dragged my face away and stood, gathering up our stuff.

As we strolled back to Gryffindor Tower, occasionally darting in a deserted classroom to avoid ghosts and teachers. (All thanks to James's amazing map.) we made it back to the Tower without mishap, or at least until we reached the portrait hole where we found the Fat Lady engaged in a loud battle of wits against Peeves.

"Oh Merlin, what do we do now?" I whispered but James strolled out into the open without so much as a backwards glance and after a few seconds of dithering I followed him.

"STUDENT'S OUT OF BED ON THE-"

"Peeves, if you don't shut up and move on straight away I am going to personally curse so badly that you can only do good things for an entire month."

"-SEVENTH FLOOR!"

"I did warn you." He sighed and pointed his wand at Peeves, muttering something under his breath.

Immediately a smell, so bad I almost passed out, erupted from the end of James's wand straight at Peeves. But if the smell had seemed terrible to me, the effect it had on Peeves was a hundred times worse.

He swooped away, wheezing and panting, clutching his throat like he was being poisoned.

"It'll stick to him for a month, getting stronger when he causes mischief."

I took the proffered hand and clambered through the portrait hole. The Fat Lady seemed so relieved that Peeves was gone, she didn't even ask what we doing out of the Tower at almost three in the morning. She swung closed behind us and we started across the deserted common room to the staircases leading to the dormitories.

"Happy Christmas James." I gave him a lingering kiss, savouring his lips, then stepped back, smiling.

"Happy Christmas. Oh, I almost forgot, your present." He thrust the tiny package into my hands then took the stairs two at a time, vanishing out of sight.

I slowly pulled at the ribbon and let the paper fall open. There was a tiny green box inside with a small clasp which I unfastened. Inside was a tiny silver bracelet with three tiny little charms soldered onto the chain links. A tiny book; a lily and a miniature castle which, even at a glance, I could see was Hogwarts.

"Oh James, " I whispered, even though I knew he couldn't hear me. "It's beautiful."

And so saying I too vanished up the staircase to my dormitory, the delicate silver charm bracelet, securely fastened at my wrist.

Worth the wait? Please let me know what you thought!

R&R!