Lily had become fed up of moping around. It had been nearly a week since the 'Big Christmas bust-up' as she had dubbed it, and the jerk over the balcony had yet to show his stupid face, let alone utter and apology. Enough was enough, so she'd decided to call in reinforcements.

Marlene, Alice and Mary had arrived a few hours ago, bundling through Lily's door about twenty minutes after receiving the distress call…and they'd brought gin. The four of them were now sprawled out on the floor or draped across the furniture, giggling uncontrollably.

"Marlene! Marleeeeeeennnneeee!"

"WHAT?!"

"More gin please."

"Coming right up!" She leapt from her seat and swayed violently, completely and utterly pissed. They all were. There was no denying it. But Marlene and Lily were more so than the rest. "Where is it again?"

"Who knows?! But more gin!"

"Found it!" Marlene lunged for the bottle of gin on the counter, tipping straight over Mary's outstretched legs and landing sprawled on the floor. "FUCK!"

The other three girls howled with laughter as their friend peeled herself up off the floor.

"And she's down, ladies and gents!" Alice cackled gleefully through her glass and Mary smirked.

"Yeah, down for anything." Marlene snapped her head round, affronted.

"Bitch!"

"Well, it's true."

"It may be true, but I'm the only one who's allowed to insinuate my sluttiness...and Lily."

"Love you Marls," the red-head gushed, blowing her best friend a kiss and holding out her glass expectantly. "Gin please, dearest."

Marlene sloshed the gin into Lily's glass and Alice reached over with the tonic. She poured with surprising precision for someone who was 6 drinks in, but she had a surprisingly high alcohol tolerance, being on the University ladies first football team. Looking her friend square in the face she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh no…" Lily's eyes widened in panic and she scrambled back from Alice as quickly as she could without spilling her drink. "Oh no. I don't like that face. Mary, Marls, she's doing the face!"

"What face?" Mary queried innocently, the smile on her face giving away her amusement.

"The 'I'm about to interrogate you and leech the information I want out of you' look!"

"Oh, that look…yeah good luck, Lils," Marlene patted her on the head roughly before slumping down in the armchair with a wide grin on her face. "Besides, I am very intrigued to know why you needed us to come cheer you up..."

"Don't start…"

"Don't start what Lils? We all know that when you need cheering up there's always a boy involved. So come on! Spill!" Lily tried in vain to hide her face, but Mary was having none of it. She sat directly in front of her and went to pry the redhead's glass from her hands. With a strangled cry Lily protectively cradled the glass to her chest.

"Fine! What do you want to know?" Mary squealed and began furiously bombarding the girl with a million questions all at once.

"Woah! Slow down there, MacDonald, give the girl a chance to think!" Alice's voice of reason broke through the tirade. "I say we all guess who it is that's got deal Lilykins all screwed up emotionally."

"It's definitely that Potter boy over the balcony."

"Absolutely."

"Yeah that's what I was gonna say."

Lily stared, gaping like a fish at her friends.

"Was it really that obvious?" Marlene scoffed at the shock on her face.

"Lils, babes, it had to be him. He took you to coffee the other week after that stupid pizza bet you two had." Lily narrowed her eyes at her best friend and surveyed her cautiously.

"How did you know about that?" She had definitely not told anybody about the pizza debate she had (willingly) lost – and not just because she wouldn't have to pay Potter back double.

"I'm banging Sirius on the down low." Marlene stated bluntly, taking a long sip of gin.

Lil gaped afresh, and this time Alice and Mary joined in.

"You're WHAT?!" They cried collectively. Alice seemed the most shock of the three of them.

"I thought you said you wouldn't touch that 'fleabag', as you so affectionately called him, with a ten foot pole?"

"Anyway…" she continued, unfazed by the confused expressions on her friends faces, "he told me that Lily and Potter had this stupid bet and Potter 'lost' so he got to take lily out on a date."

"It was not a date!"

"Did he pay?"

"That was part of the bet…"

"Did you not miss our 9am TV journalism lecture as a result?"

Mary and Alice gasped theatrically at Lily's sheepish look.

"Did the always punctual, never missed a class in her life, Miss Lily Evans, skip a lecture for a BOY?"

"Oh shut up."

"Oooooh she did."

"But that's not the point," Marlene interrupted before Mary could start gushing again. "Lily likes Potter and he's done something that's annoyed her and she's dwelling on it, which she wouldn't do if she didn't like him. Also he's the only boy you ever seem to really talk to outside of class so it was easy enough guessing."

"Since when did Marlene overtake Alice in the sleuthing department?"

"Since Marlene had ten gin and tonics with extra gin," Alice declared, laughing as her friend swayed, a dozy smile on her face.

"True enough."

They interrogated Lily for a further thirty minutes about her 'relationship' (if you could even call it that) with James Potter, the goings on of recent events that had been dragging their best friend down and Lily did not hold back, maybe it was the gin loosening her tongue or maybe it was the fact that she could finally talk about all the emotions going on inside her that she just spilled her guts. When that was over, and her soul laid bare before her best friends, she took a deep sigh of relief and topped up everyone's glasses.

"I tell you what…that felt good."

"Babe, you've got it bad."

"Alice, shush. I do not have it bad at all, I don't even know what 'it' is at this point but I'm gonna go along with it because I am more relaxed than I have been in the last three days and I love it."

"Yeah Alice, leave the girl alone," Marlene teased, eyes glued to her phone screen as she typed out a message.

"If I come over there and find out you're sexting Black, in the middle of Lily's crisis, I'm going to beat you."

"Girlie, chill. I would never do that to a friend."

"Yes you would." The other girls chorused, rolling their eyes as Marlene flashed them a wink but put her phone away, neither confirming nor denying the accusation.

"Right." Mary jumped up from the floor and made her way over to the stereo in the corner. "Enough of this serious talk. Let's party bitches!"

The music blasted from the speakers and the four girls danced and laughed and drank even more. Lily was elated, she felt as though a giant weight had been lifted off her shoulders and it left her feeling free.

"Lils! LILS!" Marlene was waving her over to the kitchen, phone in hand. Lily practically sprinted over, hoping for some juicy gossip.

"What is it? Black hasn't sent a dick pic has he?"

"Nah, I can't remember where your lighter is. I need a smoke."

"How many times have I told you: stop smoking! It's bad for your health! You will get mouth cancer and die and I will not have you believing I endorse this sort of behaviour young lady."

"Yeah, yeah whatever. Live wild, die young. Now, lighter."

"Ugh," Lily reached up and took the candle lighter from the top of the cupboard. "Here. Take it."

"Come with me?"

"Marls…"

"Please? It's cold and Mary and Alice can keep each other company in here."

"Ugh fine."

"Yay! Love you!"

Marlene practically dragged Lily out onto the balcony with her, making her head spin from the sudden movement and had to lean on the railing with her eyes clamped shut to regain her balance. Someone cleared their throat, and Lily knew instantly that she and Marlene were not alone.

Looking up she locked eyes with the one and only James Potter, clearly just come in from work with his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the top few buttons undone. He looked fit.

She blinked.

"Hi." He was clearly nervous.

"Hi."

"So…Marlene said you wanted to talk to me?"

"Wait what?!" Lily spun around to berate her friend only to see her sticking her tongue out at her through the glass doors. She narrowed her eyes but there was a hint of respect in her voice as she admitted aloud, "she's good."

"So you didn't want to talk to me?" James now looked nervous and confused.

"I mean, no, not really. I'm still pissed at you for telling me I was, and I quote, 'a bland, boring hipster' and that I had a perfection stick up my arse. I was having a lovely time with my friends, and now I've been betrayed and abandoned in the freezing cold by them and I am not happy."

"At least they left your drink out here for you."

"They did?!" Lily spun around once again and spied her glass on the patio table she'd purchased in the summer and instantly changed her tune. "Oh my god, I love them so much."

James tried to hide his smile of amusement at the changing temperaments of the girl opposite him. He could tell she was well and truly steaming but refrained from teasing her about it. The text he'd received from Marlene twenty minutes ago had scared him enough to not even consider going there tonight; he fully trusted Marlene's threat of castration if he didn't apologise nicely to her best friend for being a 'jerkish asshole twatbag' as she had so eloquently put it, and he was not willing to risk his manhood over a stupid joke.

"So…uh…" He was as visibly awkward as he felt. "Are you doing anything fun over Christmas? Seeing family at all?"

Lily considered him quietly, peering at him over the rim of her glass as she took a sip.

"I don't really see my family anymore. My sister doesn't exactly…tolerate my presence. Haven't really spoken since I started my first year in boarding school."

"You went to boarding school?!" Lily chuckled quietly to herself, shaking her head at him.

"I love how I've just told you that I'm estranged from my family and that's what you pick up on…but yes, I went to boarding school. Got in on a scholarship programme that basically granted me free education to an extent. Petunia got really jealous. She'd applied for the same scholarship two years before I did and didn't get in…"

"So you don't talk to your family…at all? Because your sister can't let go of something that happened years ago?" Lily paused, thoughts were taking longer to process than she was used to, the she nodded, regretting it instantly and screwing her eyes shut as her head spun from the movement.

"Yep. She's petty. But I love my parents though! Mum comes up to visit me, brings me a new plant every now and then, and Dad is more than happy to be of assistance when I'm having some sort of drama. It's just…I'd rather avoid the familial drama that will undoubtedly occur should I return home for Christmas."

"You don't even go back for Christmas day?"

"Nope. No point. It'll just be awkward anyway. Besides, isn't it Christmas day tomorrow?"

Lily watched her neighbour as realisation crossed his face and he seemed to battle with himself internally for a moment. Maybe it was the alcohol flooding her system but he was looking particularly handsome tonight.

'It's the gin Lily, that's why he looks hotter than usual, it's the gin…and the button down.'

James didn't like the fact that his neighbour would be spending Christmas alone. It wasn't fair. It was Christmas Eve and she had no plans for the next day. He wanted to do something about it, and felt that considering how much of a dick he'd been towards her recently, it was the least he could do.

"Look…I'm having the guys over for Christmas dinner tomorrow." He sighed nervously and ran his hand through his hair, completely oblivious to Lily gazing at him as he did so. "If you wanted to…you could join us…for dinner…at my place?"

Lily didn't know what to say. James immediately took this as a rejection of his invitation and he quickly back tracked.

"I mean, obviously it's your choice and I totally understand if you don't want to be around me but I just don't think it's fair that you have to spend Christmas alone because of your sister."

Lily regarded him with interest as he rambled, not really hearing what he was saying. She was very confused by the invitation as this must have shown of her face because James stopped stumbling over his words and locked eyes with her sheepishly. Finally she spoke.

"Why would you want me there?"

James visibly relaxed a little, relieve that he hadn't been completely rebuked. It made Lily smile, which in turn made him smile.

"Well, " the teasing edge was back in his voice, "Remus keeps complaining that there's never any intelligent company over, you keep Sirius in check better than anyone I've ever met, and peter's comfortable enough around you that he doesn't shrink into himself when you're around."

"I've never set foot in your apartment."

"You know what I mean, little miss pedantic." Lily snorted rather unattractively and James went quiet, debating whether to admit the real reason he wanted her to come round. But as he hadn't admitted that even to himself yet, he instead went with: "Also, it'd be nice to have you there, I feel bad for acting like a jerk the other day and I want to make it up to you." Lily cringed.

"Ugh. Don't go soft on me, Potter. You'll make me puke and that would not be an attractive sight to behold for anybody." The sassy tone in her voice gave him the courage to test the waters with some stronger teasing.

"How much have you had to drink?"

"I'm not sure anymore, I stopped counting after number six. Probably double that by now, maybe more."

"Got the big guns out then?"

"You know it."

"I also know that you're gonna feel that really hard in the morning."

"Nah I'll be fine."

"If you say so."

They paused for a moment and Lily seemed thoughtful.

"I accept."

"What?"

"I will join you for Christmas dinner." James didn't know what to say, he was flustered to say the least.

"Really?! I mean… great! That'd be…that is to say… cool."

"You're cute when you're flustered," Lily told him, turning around to head back inside, but stopped as she opened the door and made eye contact with Marlene. A devilish grin cam over her and she turned back. "Oh by the way, tell Sirius that I'll be bringing Marlene. He's a lucky man, she's a sweet piece of ass."

"EVANS! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"And that's my cue to leave, see you tomorrow, byeeeeee!"

"Wait. Hang on a min-" but Lily had already closed the door, leaving James confused and looking like a fish out of water. He quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket and scrolled through his contacts. After a few seconds the dial tone sounded in his ear and Sirius Black answered.

"Hey mate, yeah quick question…how long have you been banging Marlene McKinnon?"

Author's Note:

Surprise! Two chapters within a few days of one another? What a fucking shocker! Who would have thought it possible?!

Hope you guy's enjoyed the dynamics in this chapter, please let me know what you think, I love reading your reviews!

Have a great holiday guys! Merry Christmas! (And if you don't celebrate Christmas: Happy Holidays!)

Love, Hattie x