A/N Just a little ditty I wrote the other night. I hope you like it! ~MaryLouise1996

Better Late Than Never

When Lily rolled out of bed on the 1st of January, the night before could have been any other night. She had stayed up a bit later, had a little more to drink and definitely, definitely not kissed anyone.

The fact was that Lily Evans had spent New Year's Eve with her immediate family. Which meant her mum, dad, Petunia and Petunia's whale of a boyfriend Vernon.

At half past 11, Petunia and Vernon announced that they had a party to attend and therefore would be leaving. Lily's mum then decided that she may as well go to bed. So Lily and her dad sat in the living room and played jenga.

Trying to avoid thinking about how she had been invited to a party at Marlene's house, but had declined since her mum had asked her to spend the New Year with family, Lily had counted down to midnight with her father, given him a big hug and was given a glass of champagne in return.

Her dad had then announced that he too would go to bed now, wished her a very happy new year, and disappeared. Lily had grabbed a couple of bottles of cider from the fridge, dragged a chair into the garden, spread a blanket over herself and watched the fireworks that neighboring houses were letting off in celebration.

Deciding that now was as good a time as any to do some reading, Lily had run up to her bedroom to fetch her book. In a fit of mournfulness, she had sent off an owl to Marlene telling her exactly what had happened and saying how she wished she was there with them.

At around three in the morning, Lily had gone to bed. And that was her New Years Eve.

So you can imagine her surprise, when she had gotten up at midday and unrolled her hair from the makeshift curlers that she had decided to experiment with the night before for something to do, applied some make-up in case there were visitors already here to wish her parents the best for the new year and trudged downstairs still in her pyjamas, to find Marlene, Alice, Sirius, Peter, Remus and James all sitting around her kitchen table looking a little worse for wear.

Remus recovered first.

"Happy New Year, Lil!"

"Oh, erm, thanks Remus…"

Lily blinked at them all, astonished.

Marlene managed to jump up and rush over to give her a hug. When she pulled back she surveyed Lily with a critical eye.

"Your hair looks nice. But you don't look nearly hungover enough."

"Erm, thanks?"

Peter piped up from where he was sitting between James and Sirius, who were both collapsed on the table.

"We felt bad that you'd had a crappy New Years Eve, so we came over to make it better!"

Lil felt hot tears of thankfulness to have such amazing friends. She pushed them back down immediately.

"Thanks Pete! Thanks guys… You really shouldn't have. I mean, you should all be in bed; look at you!"

Alice rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well. It's our own fault, we shouldn't have had so much to drink. It's not your fault that your sister bailed on you."

Sirius finally lifted his head from the table.

"Besides, it didn't feel right celebrating without you. You're our Tiger-Lily. No party should ever be without their Tiger-Lily."

"Oh come on, you probably didn't even notice I wasn't there. You would have been way to drunk for that!"

Lily laughed and moved over to the kettle and began boiling some water for coffee.

"I noticed you weren't there."

James made his appearance. His hair was messier than ever, his face looked pale and drawn and his glasses were skewed on his face.

Lily turned back to the cafetiere to hide the blush creeping into her complexion and laughed again.

"James, you look like a ghost! Do you want some coffee? I find it helps."

"Oh, erm, yeah… if you don't mind."

"Of course not! Anyone else want one?"

Hearing several chimes of 'Yes please!' Lily reached into the cupboard and brought down seven mugs. She was just pouring the coffee out as the rest of the people gathered silently nursed headaches when her mother came in through the front door wrestling with shopping bags. She stuck her head into the kitchen and Remus jumped up to help her.

"Oh good, you're up, Lil. I would have woken you now if you hadn't been. I didn't want to when your friends arrived because I wasn't sure what time you went to bed."

"Thanks mum."

"Has Marlene mentioned to you about…?"

Lily's mum trailed off and looked questioningly at Lily's blonde friend, who shook her head and turned excitably to Lily.

"My parents asked if you wanted to come and stay until we go back to school. The others are all staying anyway because their parents have something or other to do, and it's just not the same without you."

With the end of her announcement Marlene raised her eyebrows pleadingly and Lily, laughing again, turned to her mum who was already nodding and smiling.

"I'm fine with it dear, as long as you promise to behave well."

"Thanks mum!"

Later that day, as Lily wrestled with her empty trunk, trying to force it into the empty closet that lead off from the room she was staying in, she heard a gentle tap at the door.

Flustered, she turned around to find James standing in the doorway looking mildly embarrassed.

"You alright there?"

"Yeah, fine. The bloody thing won't go in the closet. I'll get there though."

"Ok. I'm just next door if you wanted a hand."

James disappeared and Lily coloured slightly, realizing that she was sleeping next door to James Potter. She turned to look at the hopeless situation that was her trunk.

"James! Wait!"

James stuck his head back around the door, grinning crookedly.

"Yep, Lil?"

"I need a hand."

"Course."

He came over to where she was standing and assessed the situation.

"Erm. Have you tried shrinking it slightly?"

Lily shook her head.

"I don't want to, 'cause it won't go back to exactly the same size again and I like it the size it is."

"Ok. Shall we tip is onto it's side then? It'll fit better that way."

They struggled together with the heavy trunk for a while, until finally they managed to fit it into the cupboard. In a fit of excitement, Lily flew at James and pulled him into a bear hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

James patted her back awkwardly.

"That's ok. Least I could do."

Lily pulled back and they locked eyes. Lily could feel her heart rate quickening and suddenly felt very flushed. Before she knew it, James had lowered his head and their lips met, soft and slow.

Lily lifted her arms and tangled one hand in his hair, the other gripping the back of his neck, pulling him closer towards her. James wrapped his arms around her waist, one hand on the small of her back, pulling her closer still, deepening the kiss, and still they kissed, standing there in Marlene's guest bedroom.

When they finally pulled apart, they stared at each other, quite unsure what to make of this very new occurrence. Finally, James smiled slightly.

"Happy New Year, Lil."

He hugged her close, bringing her head into his shoulder. She nestled there comfortably and sighed.

"Better late than never."

A/N In case it's not clear, this event occurs over the Christmas holidays during the characters' seventh year. I decided for the purpose of this story that at this point Lily, Marlene and Alice have become friends with the Marauders but James and Lily have a slightly strained friendship since they both have unspoken feelings for each other but still have to work together as Head Boy and Girl.

I hope you liked it! Please review and let me know what you think! ~MaryLouise1996