James walked down the fourth floor corridor of Hogwarts, nearing the Grand Staircase. He wore a red Santa hat with white fur trim and a sprig of holly tucked neatly into it. He found his friend Sirius standing on the staircase, books in hand, waiting for him. Sirius also had a Santa hat on, patterned exactly like his friend’s.

“James!” Sirius yelled, waving James over. The latter started at a run, and soon met up with his friend. “So,” Sirius said, his voice at a normal volume now, “what are our Christmas plans?”

“I was thinking,” James said, “that we decorate the castle, and throw a party in the common rooms. You know, get our friends from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff to throw ones for their houses, and we take over Gryffindor.”

“Ah, but James,” Sirius said, “you’re forgetting that Gryffindor’s will be better than the other two’s put together, simply because all four of us are planning it.”

“Too right you are.” James grinned. “So, are we going to call off all plans, or just let Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw be second-best?”

“I vote second-best,” Sirius replied, “but that’s just because I love a good party.”

James laughed, and the two best friends walked down to the Great Hall together, where they were spending part of their day. Remus was meeting them down there in fifteen minutes, as he was asking Professor McGonagall if there was a possibility of a Christmas ball (this was, of course, a diversion so that she’d be blissfully unaware of their party plans). Peter was waiting in the hall, securing four seats at the end of the Gryffindor table so that they could plan in secret.

When the two reached the Great Hall, they saw Peter sitting at the north end of the Gryffindor table. He was noticeable due to the bright red Santa hat that he wore along with Sirius and James, his with a fluffy white pompom at the tip of it. Sirius and James sat near him, James next to him and Sirius across from them.

“So, Pete, anything new with the plans?” James asked.

“Well,” Peter said. “Marisa LaCroix said she’d be happy to head the Ravenclaw party, as long as she got to plan most of it.”

“Done, we can’t be bothered putting too much energy into three parties,” Sirius said dismissively. “She’s got creative license.”

“Okay. I’ll tell her that. And Owen Landers said that he’s happy to do Hufflepuffs if his friends can help.”

“Why would that be a problem?” James asked.

“No idea,” Peter replied, “I’m just the messenger. But anyway, that’s about all that I’ve gathered from them.”

Sirius nodded. “So tell them they can do what they want, it’s okay. The four of us need to focus our energy on the Gryffindor party so that it goes down in Hogwarts history.”

Just then, Remus walked jauntily into the room. His red Santa hat perched precariously on top of his head, and his mouth was spread into a wide smile. “Hello, boys,” he said, sitting down. “Well, it just so happens that McGonagall is vehement in her refusal for a Christmas ball. So, she is now under the impression that our holiday spirit is so dampened by this that we won’t be doing anything.”

“And why would she think that?” Peter asked.

“I guess fake-crying goes a long way with the middle-aged,” Remus said with a wide grin.

Sirius rolled his eyes but smiled just the same. “Remus, Remus, Remus. What would we do without you?”

“You’d be nothing, of course,” Remus joked.

“Please, you’re nothing without us,” Sirius volleyed back good-naturedly.

Severus Snape walked by with a cold sneer, and Sirius scowled at him. The Slytherin continued on his not-so-merry way, and Sirius turned back to his friends. “How much of our plans d’you reckon he heard?”

“Like it matters,” James said. “Now, are we going to the Three Broomsticks to get sufficient Butterbeer and food tonight?”

“James!” Sirius sounded aghast. “We can‘t sneak out of the castle! It‘s against the rules!”

James shrugged and gave him a crooked smile. “I‘m a Marauder. So I guess I don’t really care. Anyway, how do we?”

“I can have Rosmerta do us a favor,” Sirius said slowly, as if he was debating. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure she’d be glad to help.”

Peter nodded. “Make sure to get enough for all three houses; I refuse to share any of our secret passageways with Ravenclaw! Untrustworthy…” He trailed off with a sheepish look in their direction. “What I mean to say, is…they’re just…Never mind.”

~*~

“Severus? Severus? Severus!” Victoria James said, snapping the boy out of his reverie. “What are you thinking about?”

“The Marauders are planning a party.” Severus’s voice was devoid of any emotion. “And I think they’re actually going to get away with it.”

Victoria shook her head, her auburn curls wavering as she did so. “No, they’re not. Because now we’re going to tell Professor McGonagall so that their Christmas is ruined.”

“Tori,” Jamie Yohe groaned, “why are you so intent on causing misery and woe in everyone’s lives? It’s like, it’s almost like you live for it.”

“I do?” Victoria offered.

Renee Tworkowski walked into the Great Hall, an unattractive scowl on her face. “Great,” she snarled as she sat down next to Victoria, “the Marauders are out to throw a party for Christmas. We should tell McGonagall; that’ll be about as holly-jolly as it gets.”

Regulus Black wandered over to the table and sat down between Jamie and Severus. “What are we moping around about?” he inquired.

“Marauders and Christmas cheer,” Severus growled. “They’re throwing a party.”

Regulus grinned. “Are we invited?”

That earned him a slap on the back of the head from Renee. Regulus scowled and muttered something about it being a valid question before stalking away from the table. Jamie and Renee shrugged and stood up, slowly walking away as well.

~*~

Kristen Hays smirked as she walked over to her best friend in the world, Lily Evans. The redheaded girl sat at a library table, books spread out around her pertaining to every subject the school had to offer and then some. However, none of these held Lily’s attention. What she was doing wasn’t even school-related. She had her head down on a book of advanced spells, her eyes closed and her breathing soft.

“Trying to soak up the knowledge by sleeping on it?” Kristen asked.

Lily’s head jerked up, and she blinked a few times as she registered what was going on. “Oh, hi, Kris. How are you?”

“I’m good,” Kristen said as she sat down across the table from Lily. “How about you?”

“Tired.” Lily yawned. “I was up all last night working on that essay for Binns.”

Professor Binns was the History of Magic teacher, and one of the strictest ones in the school. Although he had one of the easiest subjects to master, it was one of the hardest to focus in as he tended to ramble on in a droning monotone. Most of his students talked through his classes, if they weren’t asleep.

“You’re at the top of the year, and yet you save your homework for the night before it’s due?” Kristen asked. “Wow. I underestimated you.”

Lily smirked. “You’ve known me for five years, Kris, I think you’d know by now. When’s the last time I did one of Binns’ essays before the night it was due?”

“Point taken,” Kristen replied. “So I hear the Marauders are throwing a party on Christmas. Is this true, or do my sources lie?”

“Oh, I’d say it’s a fair shot that your sources are all-knowing.” Lily rolled her emerald-green eyes. “I wish they weren’t, though. You can bet that Potter’s gonna ask me to go with him.”

Kristen pursed her lips. “Or maybe, he’s going to be normal about it. You never know, Lily.”

Lily sighed. “I guess. Maybe you’re right. We’ll just let it happen as it happens, yeah?”

Lily stood up, and she and Kristen walked out of the library. It took an unusual amount of time to find their common room, due to the fact that the moving staircases were unusually exuberant since the holidays were approaching, and every three seconds they decided to rearrange themselves. In fact, more than once Kristen nearly fell off of them as they moved as she went from one staircase to the other.

As they finally reached the common room, Lily gave the portrait the password (“Jolly Holly”, as the Fat Lady had a love of rhyming around the holidays) and the two friends entered, Lily feeling rather jovial despite Kristen’s ranting about the staircases.

“It’s like, okay, I know you’re going to move, but can you at least wait until I’m on the next set of stairs before you swing in another direction? I mean, I almost died!”

“Okay, Kris, calm down,” Lily said with a laugh as she sat down in a cozy maroon armchair by the fire. She sighed happily and pulled a book off the table to her right. It was entitled The Sorcerer’s Companion and covered a variety of topics going from Potions to Muggle Studies to Ancient Runes. Lily opened to a page about the boggart before a celebratory whoop! shattered her thoughts.

“…the hell?” she asked no one in particular.

Kristen looked up from her seat on the floor by Lily, where she was working on a rather extensive essay for Herbology, and looked around. “Well that was unexpected.”

James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter ran into the common room just then from the portrait hole, each of them still wearing their Santa hats and a broad grin. Sirius led the group in, his eyes sparkling with excitement and his cheeks flushed red.

“Ladies and gentlemen of Gryffindor house,” Sirius yelled. “Lend me your ears!”

“Drop it, Sirius,” Remus muttered.

“Fine, fine.” Sirius rolled his eyes. “Party in the common room, Christmas Eve, be there.” He then spun on his heel and dashed out of the common room. He walked back in with a rather irritated expression on his face. “You know, my dramatic exit would have been made that much better had you followed.” He glowered at James, Remus, and Peter.

“Okay, Sirius, let’s go calm down,” James said, walking over and taking Sirius’s arm. “Come on, boy.” He slowly led the other up to the boys’ dorm, and Remus and Peter ran after them.

Lily looked at Kristen. “So. Party on Christmas Eve. This could be fun.”

Kristen gasped. “Lily Evans? Accepting to go to a party thrown by the Marauders? Is the world ending?”

Lily grimaced. “Kris, calm down. Remus and Peter are two of my best friends. And Sirius is pretty close to me too. And…even…James…is kind of my friend.”

There was an audible gasp from the staircase, and obviously the boys hadn’t fully made it up yet. The sound of a small scuffle followed, closely succeeded by a loud string of profanities that couldn’t have been thought up by anyone other than Sirius, and finally the slamming of a door.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have said that?”

“You think?”

~*~

Severus looked around at his acquaintances as they sat in the library the next morning. It was December the twenty-third, and if they were ruining Christmas, they had to do it soon. Renee sat with her legs propped up on the coffee table, and she sighed as she stared into the fire. There was a garland falling gracefully over the ends of the mantle, and small red holly berries were set periodically around it.

Jamie focused his eyes on one of the holly berries, and Victoria set her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. “Can we do something?” she muttered.

Severus stood up. “I’m going to tell McGonagall. This is getting out of hand.”

“Nothing’s happened, Sev,” Renee said, putting a hand on Severus’s shoulder and gently pushing him down onto the couch again. He just stood up again and walked quickly out of the common room.

He passed several prefects on the way up to the Great Hall, but not one of them stopped him to ask where he was going. He made it to the Great Hall in record time, only to be stopped by a petite redhead with emerald eyes.

“Hello, Lily,” he said with a grin.

“Hi, Sev!” Lily exclaimed. She ran up to him and threw her arms around him, grinning widely. “I haven’t seen you in forever!” she said as she let go. “Where are you going?”

“I, er, I, uh…” Severus trailed off.

Lily cocked her head to the side. “Sev?”

“McGonagall…party…tell her…Marauders…” Severus muttered softly.

Lily put her hands on her hips. “Sev, come on! It’s just a little Christmas spirit! Why is it such a big deal if they throw a party in Gryffindor? It doesn’t affect you.”

“Not the point,” Severus said. “It’s against the rules.”

“So is wandering the castle at night,” Lily said, “but that never stops you. Please, don’t deny it, I’ve seen you when I’m on the way to the common room.”

“But Lily, come on,” the boy said. “How come you’re defending them? It’s not like they’ve ever done anything particularly wonderful towards you! It’s not the deepest bond of friendship you’re ever shared with a person; you hate Potter and Black!”

“I don’t hate Sirius,” Lily said. “But Potter’s a different story…But still, you can’t expect me to let you get Remus and Peter in trouble.”

Severus sighed. “Lily, I don’t care about them. But if you really don’t want me to tell McGonagall…”

“Tell McGonagall what?” said a strict voice behind the two of them.

Lily’s eyes widened, and Severus shook his head as they both turned around. Professor McGonagall stood behind them, her arms folded in front of her as she looked expectantly at her students. “Tell me what?”

Lily stared at Severus. “I refuse to say anything, because there’s not really a problem as far as I know.”

“The Marauders are throwing a party,” Severus said, sounding rather reluctant considering this had been his mission. “Tomorrow night, Christmas Eve.”

McGonagall exhaled loudly. “I cannot believe them. And to think that I believed Mr. Lupin when he said he was so upset over not having a Christmas ball that they wouldn’t be able to think of anything different.” She turned on her heel, no doubt to find the Marauders and assign them detentions. “Both of you, back to your common rooms. Immediately!”

~*~

“This is going to be great!” Sirius said to Kristen as they sat in the common room. “I’m picturing music, food, everything!”

Kristen smiled. “If you can pull this off, I’ll forever be in love with you.”

Sirius raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything, looking at James. “So, are we going to get the supplies in the Three Broomsticks yet?”

“Wait until tomorrow, yeah?” James suggested. “We don’t want to tip McGonagall off before it’s over, and I think that four teenage boys smuggling in food and drinks is a pretty good hint as to what’s happening.”

“Sounds good,” Sirius said. “Besides, I don’t fancy sneaking out of the common room right now to tell Marisa and Owen we‘re getting everything tonight; wouldn’t want to provoke the wrath of Flitwick.” He snickered.

Just then, Lily burst into the common room, out of breath from running so fast. “Remus, James, Peter, Sirius!” she shrieked.

James looked up. “Yeah, Evans?”

“McGonagall!” Lily panted. “S-she’s c-coming! D-detention. Party. M-marauders. Sn-snape. No ch-choice.”

“What?” James looked at his friends.

“McGonagall’s coming to give us detention because Snape had no choice but to tell her about our party,” Peter translated. He gave Lily a thumbs-up sign, which she weakly returned.

“Oh, no,” Sirius said slowly. “What can we do?”

“Maybe you misunderstood?” Remus turned to Lily.

“I was right there; I heard it all,” Lily said with a frown. “She definitely heard him correctly.”

Just then, the portrait hole banged open. An angry professor stood there, hands on her hips, eyebrows knit together. “I cannot believe you four!” McGonagall yelled. “Throwing a party without permission? As if you believed it was in the rules to do so! Mr. Lupin, I’m especially astounded with you. Lying to a teacher’s face! All four of you will serve detention with me tomorrow night.”

“Tomorrow?” Sirius sprang up from his chair. “It’s Christmas Eve!”

“Oh, is it?” McGonagall’s lips were a straight line. “Maybe this way you’ll be less likely to still throw this party. Good night, all.” And she walked out of the common room.

~*~

Lily and Kristin sat by the fire the next night, staring at the flickering flames with blank expressions.

“Some Christmas Eve,” Lily muttered. “Stupid Snape.”

Kristin groaned. “I was so excited for this party! I can’t believe it’s over just because of Snape and McGonagall. It’s not like it would be exceptionally hard to pull off.”

Lily sat up straighter. “Kristin, you’re right!”

“I know?” Kristin said. “That’s why I said it; I hate being wrong.”

“No, don’t you see?” Lily asked. “It’s not too hard; surely two or three girls could pull it off.”

“What are you--” Kristin gasped. “Oh, yes! Yes, you’re right! It’s perfect! But just the two of us…?”

“Who did Sirius say was helping them yesterday?” Lily asked. “Marisa LaCroix, and who else?”

“Owen Landers, I think,” Kristin said. “Yeah, I’m almost positive it’s them. How do we find them?”

“Owen would be in the Great Hall, right?” Lily asked. “He’s a prefect.”

“Don’t you love that there’s a prefect throwing these parties?” Kristin asked with a laugh.

“Remus,” Lily pointed out, “is also a prefect.”

“Really?” Kristin asked. “How soon you forget with the Marauders…”

~*~

The girls found Owen in the Great Hall; sure enough, he was a prefect on patrol, and he didn’t fancy leaving his post. That turned out to be the reason that he wanted his friends to help him throw the Hufflepuff branch of the party, and Lily and Kristin agreed to simply give him their supplies when they returned to the castle and leave him out of it. They couldn’t find Marisa anywhere, seeing as they were out of the common room after hours, and carefully snuck up to the third floor.

Kristin tiptoed down the corridor, Lily following her quietly. The corridor was dark as pitch, and Lily couldn’t distinguish the statue they were looking for from the doorway to the Defense against the Dark Arts classroom. Kristin pointed out the statue, actually, and they carefully hid in the shadows behind it.

“Are you sure this is how to get there?” Lily asked softly.

“I overheard Peter talking about it,” Kristin replied. “I’m almost positive.”

“How do we get it to open?” Lily pointed to the hump on the statue’s back.

“Some spell…” Kristin thought for a moment. “Oh!” She pulled her wand out of her robe pocket, tapped the hump one time, and whispered, “Dissendium.”

The hump opened, revealing a small passageway. “Whoa,” Lily muttered. “They really know their stuff!” She swung her leg up, pulling herself into the passage, and dropped down.

“How is it?” Kristin asked into the hole.

“Not deep,” Lily replied. She waited for Kristin to join her before they made their way down the passage. It was full of twists and turns, and took almost fifteen minutes before they got to a trap door.

Kristin pushed the door open, and climbed up. She found herself in a musty basement, and shuddered. It was freezing! She pulled Lily up, and the two of them looked around.

“Where are we?” Lily asked.

Kristin looked at the boxes stacked around them. “Sugar Quills? Fizzing Whizbees? I take it we’re in Honeyduke’s!”

“Great,” Lily snapped. “We’re supposed to be in the Three Broomsticks! Do the owners here stay overnight?”

“No, I don’t think so…” Kristin started towards the stairs in front of her. She made it up five of them before gasping. “I hear something! God, it‘s even colder!”

Lily quickly followed her, and they carefully opened to door to the main shop. Lily stuck her head in slowly, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. The two girls slowly walked into the main shop, and looked around. There was nothing negatively unusual about it, and so they crossed to the front. Kristin walked outside, and Lily followed her.

Snow covered the ground, and a biting wind whipped through the village. Lily pulled her robes tighter around her, cursing the fact that she hadn’t worn a coat. The girls ran quickly down the street, looking both ways to see where the bar was. Everything looked so much different in the dark, and they wanted to get out of the spooky world as soon as possible.

“There it is!” Kristin yelled over the wind, pointing to her left. The two girls rushed into the building, shivering by the door until they heard a jolly voice.

“Miss Evans, Miss Hays!” Madame Rosmerta yelled from the front of the bar. What are you doing here?”

“Helping our f-f-friends,” Lily stammered. She rubbed her arms with her hands, trying to warm up.

Rosmerta quickly passed them each a mug of butterbeer. “On the house,” she said. “Drink up. Now, what can I get you?”

“Whatever you were going to give James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin,” Kristin said before she sipped her drink. “They’re in detention, and we decided we should help them out tonight.”

“Wonderful, wonderful,” Rosmerta said as she walked quickly into the back room. Less than five minutes later, she reentered the bar and handed the girls three pink bags. “I’ve charmed them so that anything can fit in. Give one bag to Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and keep one. Each has enough drinks and food in it, okay? Now, hurry back to school. Go, go! I don’t want you in trouble!”

“Happy Christmas, Madame Rosmerta!” Lily yelled as they rushed out of the bar.

Kristin shrieked as she was hit by a blast of cold air upon exiting the Three Broomsticks. They ran faster than ever to Honeyduke’s, and quickly ducked into the cellar as they got there, not stopping to look around. Once they reached the trap door in the corner, however, they were almost home free.

“Brr!” Kristin shuddered as they entered the passageway to Hogwarts. “Next time we decide to help the Marauders, let’s make sure it’s in the summer.”

Lily laughed and moved quickly down the passageway. She reached the end of it and climbed out, falling into the third floor corridor in a not-so-graceful heap. Kristin landed on top of her with an “oomph!”.

They stood up and quickly ran to the Grand Staircase, where they almost knew they were home free. Lily looked at Kristin. “I’ll go to the Great Hall and give one to Owen. You go to the library and give one to Marisa; I’ve seen her studying there the last few weeks and I’m assuming she’ll be there.”

Kristin nodded, grabbed a bag, and rushed to the first floor. Lily dashed down to the Great Hall, where she quickly ran into Owen. She thrust a bag at him, explained what it was, and rushed away without waiting for questions. She reached the first floor and waited for about two minutes before deciding she couldn’t spare the time to wait for Kristin and continued on her way.

She ran into her friend when she got to the fourth floor, and Kristin explained that she had seen Marisa on the second floor on her way to the library to study. Marisa had decided to skip her studying session and genially went back to Ravenclaw’s common room. Lily hadn’t waited to see what Owen did, but she assumed he got the picture and was going to Hufflepuff quickly to pass on the news.

They got to Gryffindor tower without meeting any trouble from prefects, and rushed into the common room after hastily giving the password. Lily saw Delia Richards sitting by the fire, and quickly called, “Delia! Are the Marauders out of detention yet?”

Delia looked at Lily. “Nope, sorry. Why? Is something wrong?”

“We just got back from Hogsmeade,” Kristin explained, ignoring the surprised look on Delia’s face, “and we decided we’re throwing the Marauders’ Christmas Eve party for them, since they got in trouble.”

“Oh!” Delia’s face broke into a grin. “I’ll help you set up; do you want me to get Alice, Mary, Ithaca and Jessica?”

“Yeah!” Lily exclaimed. “Great; that’s great!”

Delia stood up and raced to the dorms, returning with Alice Fenway, Mary Jordan, and twins Ithaca and Jessica Morrison. Lily handed Alice the bag from Madame Rosmerta and instructed her on how to set up a table of drinks and food; transfigure a chair into a table and take everything out of the bag. Kristin asked Jessica and Mary to go to the Marauders’ dorm and get a box of Christmas decorations that just had to be up there somewhere because it was used the previous year to decorate the common room, and Ithaca was instructed to find a radio somewhere in the girls’ dorm.

Jess and Mary returned quickly, saying that James needed better hiding places than underneath his bed. They held a rather large box between them, full of garlands and ornaments and even a miniature Christmas tree covered in ornaments. They began setting the tree up in the corner.

Ithaca arrived back in the common room shortly after that, saying that Jenny Brown had given her a radio from the sixth-year dorm to use. She set it up in the corner, tuning it to a station that was playing Christmas carols. As soon as she was done with it, she went over to the portrait hole where she announced she would tell them when the Marauders were approaching.

As this was happening, more and more people filed in from the dorms and portrait hole. They wondered what was happening, and Kristin explained it as she helped Alice set up the drinks. Everyone was supportive of this, and a pair of burly seventh-year boys offered to take care of all clean-up.

After everything was set up and decorated, Lily and Kristin collapsed onto the couch. “Wow, that was harder than I expected!” Kristin exclaimed. “What time is it?”

Lily looked at her watch with raised eyebrows. “Eleven o’clock. Shouldn’t they be done by now?”

Kristin shrugged, and Ithaca looked into the common room. “They’re coming!” she called.

“Come here!” Lily yelled, and Ithaca joined the rest of the house. The portrait hole opened, and in walked the Marauders.

“Happy Christmas!” Kristin and Lily screamed. They ran forward and each hugged two of the stunned teenage boys; Lily wrapping her arms around Sirius and Remus, Kristin hugging James and Peter.

“What the…” Sirius trailed off, his eyes wide, limply hugging Lily back. “Who the hell…?”

“We did, silly!” Lily exclaimed. “Kris and I knew how much you were looking forward to this, so of course we went ahead and did it for you!”

James grinned widely as Kristin stepped back. “It’s brilliant! But how did you get all the stuff?”

“We went to Hogsmeade,” Kristin said. When James tilted his head, Kristin leapt into a long explanation of overhearing Peter talking about the statue of the witch in the third floor, and how they raced through the streets of Hogsmeade to the Three Broomsticks. James narrowed his eyes when he heard of how careless Peter was, but he couldn’t care that much because of the party around him.

“I can’t believe you did all this for us,” Sirius exclaimed. “This is amazing!”

Peter smiled. “Thanks Lily, Kris. You’re great.”

Remus was at a loss for words. He simply pulled Lily and Kristin into a huge bear hug.

James blinked at them, wondering what was suitable to do. He didn’t want to upset Lily, but he needed a way to express his gratitude. So he simply stood there, thinking for a moment.

Lily rolled her eyes. “C’mere.” She grinned. She walked over to James and threw her arms around him, pulling him into a huge hug and kissing him lightly on the cheek. “Happy Christmas, Potter. This better be everything you wanted it to be!”

James laughed. “It is; trust me!”