How It All Happened

"Okay! James Potter" Lily answered and giggled.

"Oh my god! I knew you thought he was the cutest!" Celestina said. They were playing "spin the bottle" at Lily's place.

"OK it's my turn!" Lily said giggling a bit more.

"Which boy at Hogwarts would you want to kiss the most?" Lily asked and span the empty coke bottle.

"Why are we even bothering to spin the bottle? I mean it's only the two of us!" Celestina burst into a brand new fit of giggles.

"Hey! No avoiding the questions!" Lily grinned evilly.

"I don't know... either Sirius or Remus, Sirius is really cute, but Remus is so... er, well he's like a lost puppy! You just want to hold him, you know..." Celestina giggled.

"All right girls! Enough giggling! Get to sleep!" Lily's dad said through the door.

"Just a few more minutes! Please?" Lily called back.

"All right, but you're keeping your sister up!" her dad left, and they they could here the stairs groaning as he walked back downstairs.

Lily loved her parents, they had always been very supportive of her being a witch and even though they weren't perfect - they sometimes fought about how her mother hadn't wanted to slave as a waitress to put her father through medical-school, that she had wanted to go to school too... - they loved her and her sister very much.

"Lets go to sleep, we wouldn't want to keep precious Petunia up, now would we?" Lily yawned as she crawled into her bed.

"Yeah, I just have to brush my teeth!" Celestina left for the bathroom.

Lily hadn't had a sleep-over for a long time, not since she and Amanda, her Muggle neighbor had been good friends, but Amanda moved away, around the same time as Lily went to Hogwarts.

Lily was about to enter her forth year at Hogwarts in a week and Celestina was going to Kings Cross with Lily and her parents because her parents were at work, they were Aurors and were fighting this really evil wizard called Voldemort.

Celestina returned from the bathroom, smelling minty.

"There's an owl coming" she said and pointed at the window.

"Oh!" Lily gasped and jumped out of bed.

Lily let the owl in and wasted no time ripping the envelope open, while Celestina fed the snowy owl.

"It's from James" Lily squealed excitedly.

"Read it for me!" Celestina begged and sat down on her cot.

Lily made herself comfortable on her bed and read,

Dear Lily!

You're invited to my birthday party on the 29^th of August.

I know that Celestina is there with you, she's invited too! The party will be held at my house in Helga's Hollow 45

Hope to see the both of you!

P.S. Bring swimsuits

James

"Wow! A guy invited us to his birthday party!" Celestina squealed, then she lost her balance on the cot and fell, when she managed to straighten herself up, Lily's dad had yelled at them for too much noise, (Lily had never laughed that hard in her life) and Lily had found the letter, she had dropped it whilst laughing, they continued their conversation.

"What do you give a guy for his birthday?" Lily said, suddenly worried.

"I don't know... candy or something from Zonko's?" Celestiona suggested.

"We don't have time to go to Diagon Ally!" Lily said, frustrated.

"Just give him some Muggle thing then!" Celestina shrugged.

"What are you gonna get him?" Lily asked.

"I have some dungbombs that I'll never use" Celestina yawned, "look I'm really tired, can we talk about this tomorrow?" she asked, as she tried out a position to sleep in.

"sure, we'll talk tomorrow, good night!" Lily flopped her red haired head (which she had inherited from her mom, her dad was a gorgeous blond) down on her pillow.

"G'night" Celestina answered sleepily.

*

"Thanks Sirius!" James cooed not taking his eyes of the broomstick care kit he had just unwrapped.

"I caught you looking at one of these at Diagon Ally!" Sirius mumbled biting absentmindedly at his nails.

The doorbell rang and James ran to the door to get it.

"Happy Birthday!" Lily yelled and kissed him on the cheek, making him blush scarlet.

He mumbled something in reply and took the neatly wrapped package she handed him.

"Happy B-day!" Celestina smiled, she also handed him a parcel.

"Come in" he said still a bit red.

"I was just opening Sirius's present..." He said after he had showed the girls where to put their coats.

"how'd you get here?" James asked, trying to make the awkward silence disappear.

"My dad dropped us off" Lily said and smiled. She reached out for the bowl on the table, which was full of chocolate frogs and Berti Botts Every Flavor Beans.

James opened his presents and thanked Lily for the candy ('it really doesn't do anything at all? Weird!') and he also thanked Celestina for the dungbombs. ('they'll definitely be of use!') "So, I heard there was gonna be a new student at Hogwarts in our year" Sirius said.

"Yeah, my mom told my about that, Aidan Lynch or something" Celestina said.

"I didn't know his name!" James and stated and the other boys agreed with not having known that name.

"Well, my mom - who is an Auror by the way - was assigned to this protect, she had to bring this kid safely to Hogwarts, there's a rumor that Voldemort has it in for the Lynches, killed his mom and dad at the Quidditch championships two years back, he's been going to a small Irish school, but when his little brother started at the school, Logan Lynch I think his brothers name was, he got killed, Logan I mean. So they didn't think it was safe for Aidan anymore..." Celestina said all this real quick and took a big gulp of Pumpkin juice after.

"We were at that game" Lily mumbled sadly.

"Yeah, where the Lynches got killed" Sirius said.

"I think we still have that newspaper story about it..." James sighed sadly, "But let's not dwell on that! Does anyone wanna go for a swim? We have a pool!" he finished and grinned.

A quarter of an hour later all the kids were in the pool.

Lily was wearing a green one piece swim suit, while Celestina wore a dark blue bikini, earning looks from the boys.

Lily was swimming about a bit away from Sirius and Peter, (Sirius was holding Peter underwater, but Peter didn't seem to like being underwater so he was splashing water everywhere) when someone pulled her under.

She screamed, anyone who has tried screaming underwater knows it's not a good idea.

James (Yes, he is the one who pulled her underwater) pushed her to the surface, where she coughed a lot of water.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you" James gasped, and he looked genuinely sorry. (something that didn't happen very often)

"Jeez! You scared me so much! Please don't do that again!" Lily finally managed to cough out.

When the others were sure about here well-being they started laughing, all except James.

"Are you really OK?" James asked concern in his voice.

"Yeah I'm fine, you just surprised my a lot" Lily smiled. What was with the sudden care for her well-being? She wondered.

"Sorry" James said and blushed a bit.

I never blush! Why do I blush so much around Lily? Cause I like her? I think I do... maybe, but she'd never like me, my hair's horrible and I have to use glasses all the time... James thought and swam to join the others.

Lily followed him.

I wonder if he likes me... maybe that's why he's always blushing, I can't believe I kissed him! I was just gonna give him a hug or something but I kissed him!

Oh who am I kidding! He's like the cutest guy in the world and I'm just... me. I hate having red hair! Why couldn't I get my dad's gorgeous blond hair? Why can't I be tall and beautiful like Celestina? Lily thought as she followed James towards the others.

"What do you say we go inside and get some cake? We're not allowed to be outside longer then four because of You Know Who anyway" James said when they had reached the other four.

"Cake!" Peter said happily.

"Yeah, lets go inside" Remus said, looking relieved.

"I go where she goes" Sirius said, looking at Celestina.

Celestina giggled, "I'll go inside" she decided

They all got out of the pool just in time, cause it started poring down rain the second James closed the door.

After they all got dressed, they sang "Happy Birthday to you" for James (Sirius and Remus messed up his age and sang off key) and he blew out the candle. (Sirius had meant it as a joke, putting only one candle on the cake, but as James said "It just makes it easier to make a wish!")

They all sat near the fireplace in a circle eating cake in silence for a while.

The kids were telling each other ghost stories when James's parents came home.

The girls said goodbye when Lily's dad arrived to take them home.

And with a few: "C'ya at Hogwarts" and "Great to see yas" The girls were gone.

*

"Lily!" James yelled, It was a few days before the Halloween weekend and James wanted to go with Lily.

"Hi James" Lily smiled as James caught up with her.

"I was wondering, er... I wanted to ask you, umm will you go to Hogsmeade this weekend with me?" James asked timidly.

His heart was pounding, what if she says no? He thought.

"I'd love to go with you!" Lily beamed at him.

He released the breath he hadn't noticed he was holding in and said, "great, just meet me in the common room around three next Saturday" He sighed relieved, and grinned.

"Walk with me to Charms?" Lily asked.

"Sure!" He said and they started towards the Charms classroom.

"When's the next Quidditch match gonna be?" Lily asked, she didn't really like Quidditch, but when you're talking to a boy who loves Quidditch...

"In about three weeks, it's against Ravenclaw, Lynch is their new seeker, he's supposed to be really good..." James said.

"Oh," Lily said and looked down.

"I've noticed you're really good at Charms" James said, knowing that all girls liked compliments.

She blushed, "You have? I mean thanks... you're really good at Transfiguration" she then complemented.

"Thanks! It's my favorite subject" He said brightly.

"I think it's really hard, I don't know how you and Sirius do it!" She said, smiling.

"Oh look we're here!" James said, just as the bell rang.

They hurried inside the classroom. Lily sat down with Celestina and James with the other Marauders.

"You came in with James! Spill!" Celestina said excitedly.

"He asked me to Hogsmeade and then he walked me to class!" Lily said and smiled happily.

"He asked you to Hogsmeade?!" Celestina said and gasped.

Lily just nodded.

"Miss Evans and Miss Warbeck, pay attention please" Professor Flittwick squeaked.

And they began practicing the summoning charm.

*

Lily sat on her four poster while Celestina combed her hair.

"Really, Celestina. I'm not going to a dance! It's just Hogsmeade, you don't have to do all that!" Lily complained. She hated getting combed by other people.

"OW" she said.

"I didn't even pull that hard" Celestina said, "besides you want to look pretty for James, don't you?" she asked.

"Yeah, I suppose, but could you not pull that hard please" Lily muttered.

She felt like her stomach was full of butterflies. I can't believe he actually asked me out! Then a horrible thought came to her. What if it's a prank? She thought. Then she asked Celestina.

"Of course not!" Celestina said. "You are a beautiful, nice girl! Any boy who can't see that is blind! He likes you for who you are, I know it, I've seen the way he looks at you!" She then said, reassuring Lily.

"You really think so?" Lily asked.

"Of course I do!" she answered.

"Thanks" Lily breathed a sigh of relief. She could do this. She was fourteen years old. She could go on a date - was it even a date? - and not do anything stupid or make a fool of herself. And besides, James probably didn't even like her that way. But then why would he ask her out like this? Oh dear, this was all terribly confusing.

"I'm done!" Celestina announced.

Lily looked in the mirror ("You look lovely dear") and gasped.

"What have you done!" Lily said, not able to look away from her reflection.

"I pulled your hair into a high ponytail and used this charm, (She held up a book) to make your hair go all ringletty!

"This is it! You will be my hair fixing slave forever!" Lily said still staring at the mirror. A few ringlets had escaped the ponytail and were hanging loosely around her eyes.

"I remember a lot of complaining before..." Celestina said teasingly.

"I know, I guess you're right, can you at least teach me how to do it?" Lily smiled cheekily.

"Sure I'll teach you, but you better get going, you don't want to keep your date waiting!" Celestina said pointing at the clock on the wall.

"Aren't you going to go?" Lily asked.

"Naw, this is your day to shine, I figured I'd do some homework" Celestina grinned.

Lily rushed up to Celestina and hugged her.

"You're a wonderful friend! Even if you are a bit of a klutz" She said.

"You too Lily" Celestina answered.