A/N: Hello! Here is another chapter for you. The year is still 1977, so quite a way to go. Lily and James graduate in 1978 so come to think of it, we're not far off. Thank you for sticking with this story, it is my first Fanfic but I hope it's not too bad.

Once again, I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, all credit goes to J K Rowling and no copyright infringement is intended.

I hope you enjoy this chapter! Have a good day.

THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS

THE MCKINNON (PREV. LIGHTWOOD) MANSION

LILY'S P.O.V

"I cannot believe I'm paired with Remus," Alice says, throwing her letter on Mar's kitchen table with abhorrence.

"What's wrong with Remus?" I ask, scowling at her.

"Nothing's wrong with Remus. It's just, everybody else gets cool pairings and I'm stuck with the smart guy."

"And what's wrong with smart guys?" Mar asks, waving her wand at the juice carton so that it pours three glasses of orange juice.

"Well, a number of things. First of all, the romance –"

"Is awkward but actually really sweet," Mar cuts in.

"Hm," Alice pulls a face, "and then there's the kissing –"

"Not all smart guys are bad at kissing. True, they tend not be very experienced but they sure learn fast," Mar chuckles at her own joke.

"Still, a nerd?" Alice scoffs.

"You happen to be best friends with the biggest female nerd in our year," I say, raising my eyebrows at her.

"That's different, this is marriage," the three glasses of orange juice float over to where we're leaning on the table.

"Would you rather marry Amos?" Mar asks.

"No," Alice sighs, "I guess I've got nothing to complain about then."

"That's a first," Mar mutters, taking a sip of orange juice.

"You two were so lucky."

"Yeah, we are," I smile to myself. I got James in my paring and Mar got Sirius. It was one of the happiest moments of my life.

"What are you doing this Christmas?" Alice asks, after a while.

"Well, I'm seeing my sister and her fiancée with James at a Muggle restaurant which I'm half assuming will be a disaster. Then on Christmas Day, I'm spending it with the Potters and Sirius."

"Of course," Mar laughs, "because you live there now."

"Hardly, I'm mostly at your mansion or at Hogwarts. James sent me an owl yesterday saying he missed me."

"Already?" Alice teases, "it's only been a day."

"I know but we're used to spending a load of time with each other."

"So much so, you neglect your best friends," Mar says, giving me a cold look.

"Like you don't spend most of your time with Sirius," I snort.

"We spend the nights together, the rest of my time is dedicated to my social life."

"Oh about spending nights with people…" I blush heavily.

"You did it, didn't you?" Mar's face cracks into a mad grin.

"Yeah."

"Why? I thought you wanted to wait until marriage."

"I did, but that was when I thought I'd be able to marry whomever I wanted. I was worried I wouldn't be paired with James and I wanted him to be my first and for us to do it because we love each other not because some law says we have to."

"So? Details?"

"It was… painful at first but after that it was quite enjoyable."

"Get you, Lil. So grown up," Mar smiles. I feel a little sad, that sounds like something my mother would say. Though I doubt she'd be proud of me for losing my virginity.

"So this means none of us are virgins then?" Alice says.

"You…?" I look at her bewildered.

"Yeah," she turns pink, "with Amos."

"You did it with that git?" Mar asks, dumbfounded.

"I didn't know what I was doing!" she says defensively. "I thought it was what he wanted."

"What about what you wanted?" I scowl at her.

"Look, I just did whatever made him happy. I didn't particularly like it or want to do it again."

"Just like Lily and her first kiss then," Mar smirks.

"I was trying to forget that experience," I groan.

"We're never letting you forget."

"I don't even know why I'm friends with you two."

"Because you love us dearly even though we humiliate you."

"Whatever you say," I smile at them both. I really do love my best friends. What would I do without them?

DINNER AT THE MUGGLE RESTAURANT

JAMES' P.O.V

It's six o'clock and Lily hasn't turned up yet. Mind you, she did say ten past but still. I followed her advice and dressed smartly, I don't want another reason for this Vernon to dislike me. Then someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn around. It's Lily. She's pinned back the front parts of her curly ginger hair so that it hangs elegantly down her back and around her shoulders without getting in her face. She's wearing a dark blue silky shirt and a red skirt.

"You look dazzling," I tell her. She smiles and stands on her tiptoes to kiss me.

"So do you, very handsome."

"Are you nervous?"

"Am I ever? I'm quivering inside."

"It'll be fine."

"I put an awful lot of trust in you, James."

"You just love me too much."

"I do," she says very seriously.

I kiss her again.

"Ready?" she says when we pull away. "Let's meet the monsters."

"I hope you're joking," I say. She just smiles in response.

We walk into the restaurant, Lily leading the way. How odd. There are people holding trays and plates, what a waste of time and energy. Lily sits down at a table with a thin sullen blonde woman and a rather large man with a red face of a pig. So this is Lily's existing family. I assume her parent's looks were inherited only by her. I dread to think what their children will look like.

"Hello, this is my fiancé, James Potter. James this is Tuney –"

"Petunia!" the twig-like and apparently judgemental woman snaps.

"Sorry, this is my sister Petunia and her fiancé Vernon Dursley."

I hold out my hand. Vernon turns his snout up at it and grunts.

"Pleased to meet you," Petunia sniffs.

"And you," I say politely.

We sit in an awkward silence.

"So, Petunia, why don't you tell James how you and Vernon met?" Lily asks, after a while.

"I left Cokeworth when your lot burned down my house," I begin to open my mouth to protest but Lily kicks me. "I went to London to do a typing course which led to my getting a clerical job. I met Vernon at the company, he was junior executive –"

"I'm now a salesman, in drills. Grunnings, you've heard it, have you?" Vernon cuts Petunia off.

"I can't say I have," I say, confused. What is a drill?

"Well, if you ever need a drill we have the best. I met darling Petunia at my previous company. She took my fancy, you see. So I courted her, took her on a few dates and then proposed to her in the living room of my mother's house!" he chortles.

Petunia forces an endearing smile at her hysterical husband.

"And how – did you two – er – meet?" Petunia asks, lining up her cutlery which was already straight.

"I met him on the train to Hogwarts –"

"We said we wouldn't talk about," Petunia lowers her voice, "that place."

"Fine," Lily says snappily, "we met on the train to school."

"She hated me at first," I smile at her, "but I won her over."

"This school," Vernon says, leaning forward so I can see all seven of his chins, "this is the one for freaks?"

"We're not freaks," Lily says tautly.

"Petunia?" Vernon asked, his eyebrows furrowed into his giant pink head.

Petunia nodded curtly in confirmation. Is everything she does always so cold?

Petunia and Lily started talking to each other in short clipped-toned whispers.

"So, fellow… what car do you drive?"

"Car?" what is a car? Oh wait! I remember, Lily said Muggles use them to get around.

"I drive a Vauxhall Chevette. Very good, correct car you see," he says proudly, sticking out his chest.

Ah, so they boast about their 'cars' like we do about our brooms.

"I don't drive a… car."

"No I don't suspect you do," he says, staring at me with a look oozing superiority. He's a bit too smug for my liking.

I scowl. This man and his so called 'car' will not get the better of me.

"You see… fellow, we don't drive 'cars'. I have a broomstick. A Nimbus 1700, one of the finest racing brooms ever made."

"A broomstick? Like what you sweep floors with?"

"No," I say, annoyed, this Muggle is certainly slow on the uptake, "one which you fly on."

"Oh, like those witches on Halloween? I do despise Halloween. Completely abnormal behaviour, it's disgraceful."

"You don't like abnormal behaviour do you?"

"Of course not! What is it you do for a living anyway?"

"I'm still at school, studying for my NEWTS."

"Brainy, eh? Smart people never get anything good in life."

"Is that so?" this man is infuriating.

"Mhm, I was telling Petunia the other day, education is necessary. Once you can leave, you should. Get a job, start doing your bit. Settle down. You know, normal behaviour. Look at me, went to Smeltings then got a job and now here I am with a wonderful fiancé."

"What have you got against education and knowledge?"

"Well," Vernon considers this, stroking one of his chins, "I suppose it's more to do with the thinking. Such a dull and thinky subject, education. No. One is better off getting the experience over with."

"In the Wizarding World, we value intelligence very highly."

"You would," he snorts, "being freaks. Petunia told me all about your lot. A bunch of horrid nasty people which burn down houses. That's why you're in your world and we're in ours. It's for own protection."

"Petunia told you that?"

"Yes she did."

"And what exactly does Petunia know about the Wizarding World?"

"Enough," he barks, "enough to know that your lot are strange and to be avoided."

He takes a drink from his beer. I crack my knuckles under the table. The only reason I'm not at this pompous bastard's throat is because of Lily. Get through this dinner for Lily.

"Such a waste," he says bitterly, "your lot clogging up the world, draining our expenses because you all live on unemployment benefits!"

"You think we need Muggles?" I demand. I've just about had it with this man.

"What on Earth is a moo-gull? Speak English, fellow!"

"A non-magical person," I say impatiently, "besides, I don't live off your unemployment benefits."

"Well of course you do, how else would you afford living expenses?"

"I have a vault, at Gringotts. Full of Galleons, you know, gold. My parent's fortune."

"Ha! Galleons indeed. You're having me on, aren't you? There's no such thing as a Gringotts!"

"No, really, I am very financially comfortable."

"Pah! Don't you play games with me, fellow! Your lot are a load of freakish unemployed dependant twits!"

"No we're not. I'm telling you fellow, we wizards and witches don't care for your Muggle money at all."

"You're joking. That's –that's –preposterous! There can't –can't be! You're lying –this freak is lying Petunia!"

"No! Why can't you get it into your thick head that we don't need Muggles to survive?"

"PETUNIA!" he roars, going red with rage, "we're leaving! I did not come here to be made a fool of!"

I watch as he storms out of the restaurant, Petunia following on her spindly legs behind. Lily bursts into tears. I leave a check on the table and Lily and I leave the restaurant. Thunder rumbles outside and rain falls heavily. Could this day get any worse?

THE POTTER MANSION

"I just can't believe it went that badly!" she says, dropping her bag on my hallway. Well, technically it's her hallway too.

"I know."

"They're the most heinous couple I've ever met! He's so conceited! A conceited ignoramus!"

"I know."

"And Petunia! Dear God, that girl has changed. She had the nerve to say I should leave my freakish life and be normal – so that we could stay sisters. I told her the idea was ridiculous, of course. As for her job… I really don't know what to say. She's not working, of course. No, she's settled in nicely in this perfect house in Surrey! Surrey! She didn't even tell me she was moving to Surrey. The last I heard, she was thinking about university so she could take her career further. Then all of a sudden she's a housewife at home. Sitting about all day. She had all these plans and what came out of it? Nothing."

Lily practically peels off her coat which is so soaked; it's stuck to her body. She sighs as she sits down on the first stair case and yanks off her boots.

"I'm going to have a bath," she says, turning to go up the stairs. Then she stops, "thanks for enduring the train crash with me."

"You're welcome, Lil. I'll see you in a bit?"

"Yeah," she smiles before turning on her heel – Apparating away.

LILY'S P.O.V

I turn on the bath taps with a flick of my wand, the smell of lavender and lemongrass reaches my nose. What a night.

I strip off all my clothes, grab my dressing gown and pull it around me. After everything that's happened, I just need to rest. I hear my bedroom door open. I go out of the bathroom to see who it is.

"Padfoot," I beam at him.

"Hey, Evans. How was your dinner?"

"Catastrophic. Absolutely awful."

"I'm sorry to hear that. James said something about a pompous pig?"

"Oh," I laugh, "he means my sister's fiancé, Vernon."

"He sounds unbearable, why did you agree to go?"

"Because they're family."

"I suppose that makes sense, even if they are complete idiots, family is family."

"You'd understand better than most," I rest my head on the doorframe, "is there a point to this conversation?"

"Do you not enjoy my company Evans? But yes, there is a point, so your sister's getting married over the holidays, right?"

"In three days, yes."

"Yeah, well I heard that my darling cousin Narcissa is getting married to the Malfoy snake."

"And why should this interest me?"

"It shouldn't, but the wedding falls on the same day as your sister and Snivellus and Bellatrix will be attending… with the venues only thirty miles apart, the probability of running into them is quite high –"

"And you're worried I'll go into some kind of fit of panic and terror and die just from seeing them?"

"It sounds silly when you say it like that, but yes."

"I'll be fine. I'm completely over the whole thing."

"Really?" he asks, doubtfully, "because your nightmares…"

"And how would you know about then?" I ask hotly.

"You kind of shout in your sleep. It's hard not to hear you."

"Oh. Well don't worry. I've got it under control."

"Hmmm… Moony is coming over soon. Dorea asked him to stay for Christmas."

"What about his family?" I frown.

"Family issues."

"Does this mean Wormy's coming as well?"

"No, why should it mean that?"

"Well, you never invite Moony without inviting Wormtail as well. You always said there's no point in having only three Marauders."

"Well Wormtail's busy," Sirius says shortly.

"Did you guys fall out or something?"

"Yeah, or something."

"What's up?"

"Like I'm going to tell you," he scoffs. I look pointedly into his eyes. "Fine! He's always off doing his own business and we think he's borrowing Prong's cloak 'cause he doesn't show up on the map and he won't tell us where he's going. It's a little suspicious!"

"Is Wormy not allowed to have a life?"

"But that's the problem! Wormtail's never had a life before. It's weird. Almost as weird as the time Prongs and I caught Wormtail and his fiancé Melanie Clearwater kissing. Either Clearwater's blind or under some kind of spell –"

"Or she'll kiss anything in trousers."

"Not jealous, are you?"

"Any girl is welcome to Wormy, in fact, I wish her all the best with him."

"Not about Wormtail, Evans. We all know you hate Clearwater. Why is that again?"

"Piss off, if you're going to be annoying, you can get out."

"That's no way to talk to your brother-in-law."

"You're not my brother yet."

"As good as."

"Good night, Padfoot."

"Aw come on Evans, we were having a nice chat."

"Don't you have Mar to talk to?"

"She's in Italy, I think."

"Really? I thought she was visiting family in Wales."

"Same thing."

"Wales and Italy are definitely not the same thing. I need to sleep."

"I'll see you tomorrow."

"Only if I'm unlucky," I call after him.