Disclaimer: I disclaim all that is Harry potter, to my dismay.
(A/N: I won't waste your time with my comments now... but there will be one at the end ^_^ Enjoy.)
Chapter 11: Tis the Season
“Lily!” Someone was shouting, bringing Lily out of her comfortable sleep. She grumbled and turned over.
“LILY WAKE UP!” Raven was now trying to wrestle the covers away from Lily, who had them tucked under her chin.
“Why?” Lily asked sleepily. “I don’t wanna get up just yet.”
“But there’s presents to be opened! This is also my pay back for all those times you woke me for class,” Raven retorted and with a final tug managed to rip away the covers.
“I saved you from detention.” Yawning, Lily slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position. The first thing she saw “ other than Raven’s beaming face “ was a huge stash of presents at the foot of her bed.
“Excellent! Present time!” she exclaimed, reaching forward and picking up a brightly wrapped and oddly shaped package.
“That’s what I “ argh, never mind,” Raven muttered, frustrated, and dumped her own pile of presents onto Lily’s bed. She sat cross-legged as she began to open them. They had decided to do this the night before, thinking that it would be more fun to open their presents together.
Most of Lily’s gifts contained candy from the Hogwarts gift shop. She received a rubber ball from her sister. Supposedly, it was to entertain one by bouncing all over the place while they tried to catch it.
“How thoughtful,” Lily said dryly, placing the ball on her bedside table.
“It’s better than what David got me,” Raven said, holding up a pair of neon pink socks from her brother. Raven detested pink. Lily reached over and grabbed a note that had fallen out of the wrappings in Raven’s haste to rip them off her disappointing present.
She laughed. “I think he wants you to take up jogging. They sing while you run.”
“No,” Raven said disbelievingly. She snatched the note from Lily’s hand and groaned. “Well that’s it then. I’m never wearing these!” And, as though to prove it, she threw the socks across the room so they slid under her bed.
Lily picked up her only present left to be unwrapped. It was in the shape of a small cube, about the size of her palm, and wrapped in light brown paper. She bit her lip apprehensively as she turned it over in her fingers. Raven didn’t know that every Christmas since she’d attended Hogwarts she’d received a present, always wrapped in the same brown paper, from a mystery person. It was one of the very few things Lily kept secret from her best friend.
“Lily, do you plan on waiting until the new year to open that?” Raven said impatiently. She had finished opening all of her presents.
Lily gave her an apologetic grin and tore the brown paper away. A dark wooden box fell into her hands. It was covered in beautiful, intricate carvings of different great magical creatures, like unicorns and dragons. They were so minuscule that Lily had to bring the box right before her eyes and squint to actually make them out. She traced a griffin carving with her little finger and suddenly it expanded, pushing away all the other carvings until only it remained. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she traced the carving again. Immediately, it disappeared into the original design.
“What’s inside it?” The ever impatient Raven demanded. Lily scowled at her friend. “Don’t give me that. You wouldn’t ever get anything done if it weren’t for me. Other than homework,” Raven added hastily, knowing what Lily was going to retort.
“And it’s amazing I get any done at all,” Lily muttered and pried open the lid gently with her fingernails. The inside was covered with black velvet and was holding a necklace. Lily stuck her fingers in and drew it out carefully. She held it up and began to examine it. A small pink glass heart hung from a fine silver chain. Looking at it carefully Lily realized that the heart was air-blown like a muggle lightbulb so that the inside was hallow.
“Put it on!” Raven urged.
When she clasped it around her neck a soft pink glow erupted inside the necklace’s heart pendant, surprising Lily and Raven. For a moment the light was strong enough to illuminate the space around her, originally dulled by the winter snow on her window, and then it faded to a tiny fire within that hardly emitted any light.
“Wow,” Raven breathed, “Who’s it from?”
“I don’t know,” Lily said truthfully. She’d never received any kind of note from her mystery present giver. Although, this was the most valuable of all the gifts she’d received. Usually they were just small trinkets for her amusement.
“I bet it’s from James!”
Lily rolled her eyes. “I already got something from him,” she said, holding up a package of chocolate frogs James had given her and waving them in front of Raven’s face.
Raven frowned. “Who could it be from then?”
Shrugging, Lily told her friend about the previous gifts she’d gotten from her unknown well-wisher. Raven was annoyed that Lily hadn’t told her before then, but quickly got over it in the excitement of a mystery.
“We have to find out who it is!” Raven exclaimed, eyes bright with mischief.
“I’ve already tried,” Lily said, sighing. “I even did a tracking charm. Whoever it is, they’ve covered all their tracks.”
Tugging at her lip, Raven thought with a frown on her face. Suddenly she brightened. “We could get the marauders to help,” she suggested.
Lily made a face. “Somehow I don’t think that James would be entirely okay about a mysterious gift giver. He’ll probably think it’s a guy..”
“Which it probably is. Unless it’s him.”
Lily opened her mouth to protest once again but Raven held up a hand. “Yes, I know! The chocolate frogs are ever-so romantic and must be the only thing he could’ve thought to give you!” she exclaimed sarcastically. “He’s probably going to tell you that it’s him.”
Lily gave Raven a doubtful look but she hoped her friend was right. She wanted it to be James, it meant a lot less complications. If she found out who it was a guy other than James... well, that would be awkward. She’d thought once or twice in the past that it could be James. More often then not she would rule it off as too romantic and sentimental to be James. As of late she had, obviously, reconsidered.
“Let’s get changed and go downstairs,” suggested Lily, changing the subject. “Maybe James, Sirius and Remus will be in the common room.”
“You’re not going to ditch me for your boyfriend, are you?” Raven’s tone was light, but Lily saw in her face that she was serious.
“You know me better than that,” Lily said softly, she was a little hurt that Raven had even thought she would drop her best friend for a boy. Another thing bothered her. “He’s not my boyfriend. We haven’t even gone out yet!”
Raven smirked, back to her usual self. “It’s only a matter of time,” she said with an annoying air of one who knows all.
With a scowl Lily retorted, “Just because I said I’d go out with him doesn’t mean we’ll be together forever!”
“Sure it doesn’t,” Raven said in a voice that was too agreeable for Lily’s comfort. “But maybe you want it to!” Lily picked up a pillow to throw at her but Raven, having sensed danger, had fled from the room.
~*~
Lily sat sideways on an armchair, her legs hanging over one of its arms and her back pressed against the other. Raven was in a similar position on another chair across from her. They were chatting amiably while listening to the new wizard radio Raven had received for as one of her Christmas gifts. A distant bell rang, announcing that it was two o’clock in the afternoon.
“Maybe we should have gone out and had that snowball fight with the boys,” Raven said, interrupting the comfortable silence that had fallen between them.
“I’m sure there will be plenty more for us to take advantage of,” Lily said dryly. And when we do join in, you and Sirius will probably end up at each other’s throats, she thought but didn’t add.
“Let’s play gobstones,” Raven suggested.
“No, you always beat me. It’s extremely disheartening, I don’t think I could take another defeat.”
“You just want to smell nice when James comes back in,” Raven teased.
“So what if I do?” Lily asked, grinning. She wouldn’t let Raven’s teasing get to her this time. “How about wizard chess? We’re evenly matched there.”
Raven groaned. “We’ve played that like a million times. I don’t know how many more times my pieces can be magicked back together!”
Lily’s hand went into her pocket to fiddle with the rubber ball from her sister she’d stuffed in there earlier. An idea lit in her head and she pulled it out. “We could make a game using this.”
The game they created was very exhausting. They tipped over the common room’s chair, tables and any other furniture they found. Using that, they formed a kind of obstacle course. One person would pick a starting mark and the other would throw the ball across the room where it would bounce all over the place. The player would then have to leap over the furniture and try to catch it. It was a simple game, but a lot of fun. Soon they’d made up a scoring system and Lily had pulled an old stop watch she’d forgotten about out of her trunk. Raven had just dived spectacularly over a table to grab the bouncing blur of a ball, when three very soaked male forms lurched into the common room. James, Sirius and Remus were all covered in snow and laughing merrily.
“It’s amazing how the fat lady will allow just about ANYBODY into this dignified common room!” Lily said to them, laughing. Raven scrambled to her feet, the ball still clutched in her hand.
“What’s so dignified about it if they let that thing in?” Sirius asked in a mock disgusted voice. “And what happened? Did a tornado hit?” he added, seeing the usually neat furniture strewn all across the room.
“Can’t we leave you unruly girls alone for a second without fearing the destruction of our beloved home!” James’s huge grin spoiled his act of vexation.
“Sorry Professor,” Lily and Raven both retorted.
“So, er, why exactly is our common room in shambles?” Remus asked sensibly.
“It’s part of our game,” Lily explained.
“Game?” questioned Sirius and James, instantly intrigued.
Raven held up their source of amusement. “We decided to put Petunia’s lame present to use.”
James walked over and took the ball from her. “What is it? Some kind of... wingless muggle snitch?”
Lily shook her head, grinning. People like James, who were so bemused by such simple muggle things, made her laugh. They could have enchanted things all around them, yet something so simple as a rubber ball confused them to no end.
“Throw it,” Raven suggested wickedly.
James glanced at Lily. She gave a slight nod in answer to his unspoken question. Should he throw it or not?
With a grin, James threw the ball against the wall in front of him. He dodged out of the way as it game speeding back towards them. Sirius, however, was not so quick to notice his danger. The ball smacked him in the back of the neck as he turned to tell Remus something. Curses filled the common room as an angry red weal started to take shape where the ball had abused him.
“Shut up,” Raven said, exasperated, “Let me see it.” To everyone’s great surprise she went over to Sirius and looked at the mark in a calculating manner. “Lily, toss me my wand.” They had left their wands in a safe place, afraid that the strong wood in their pockets would hinder them during their game. Lily picked up Raven’s and handed it to her. A few whispered words later and the mark was just a memory.
“What do you know?” James whispered in Lily’s ear, “Miracles do still happen.”
“It must be the season.”
"I love this season," James replied, putting emphasis into the word love.
Sirius was looking at Raven as though he wasn’t quite sure what to make of her. Raven, in turn had an uncharacteristic blush reddening her cheeks.
“I want to try this game. It looks like fun,” Remus, unnoticed, had retrieved the ball and was looking from Lily to Raven expectantly. The unusual friendliness between Raven and Sirius evaporated instantly.
“You better not have cursed me, Sheppard, or so help me I’ll...”
“You’ll what? Get revenge? I’ll get revenge on your revenge!” Raven retorted.
“I’ll get revenge on your revenge of my revenge!”
Lily and James sighed. “Couldn’t you two just get along?” they asked together, and then grinned at each other. James’s arm moved and Lily though for one fleeting moment that he was going to wrap his arm around her waist, but he didn’t.
“NO!” Raven yelled.
Sirius rolled his eyes. “Let’s get on with that game then.”
~*~
“I believe you owe me a date,” James said lightly as he and Lily walked through the deserted corridors. They had just attended the holiday feast, and somehow, Lily wasn’t sure, the others had disappeared until her only company was James. Not that she minded. Although she was nervous. They hadn’t talked much about the mistletoe incident. In fact, they hadn’t talked about it at all.
“Next Hogsmede trip?” Lily suggested, she twirled a strand of hair around her finger for something to do.
James groaned. “That’s ages away!” he complained.
Lily smiled widely. She felt like she might burst with happiness. The next Hogsmede trip was only a few weeks away, and he thought it to be too long.
“We couldn’t go somewhere in the school...” Lily began, but stopped. Something about the way James was grinning at her made her think that he had something plan. She laughed. “You’ve already thought of something.”
“You can’t blame a guy for being prepared,” James said, messing up his hair with a hand. It seemed that Lily wasn’t the only nervous one. Maybe, behind all the arrogance there’s actually a bit of self-consciousness, Lily thought. “I have an idea for a place. What do you say to tomorrow?”
She was about to protest to it being so soon but stopped herself. He wanted it to be soon, she knew, because he was afraid that in the end, she wouldn’t follow through. At least, that was some kind of explanation. “That sounds lovely, what time?”
“I was thinking we’d meet in the common room before lunch.”
Lily smiled. “Alright. You know we’ll be hard put to get away with Raven and Sirius about.”
“I’ve thought about that and arranged an appropriate distraction.” James grinned, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Tree Tinsel,” he said, making Lily stare. She looked up. She was shocked to see the portrait of the fat lady swinging open. She hadn’t even noticed they were at Gryffindor tower! How was it that whenever James was around she lost track of everything but him?
Lily covered a yawn. She felt warm and content. Feasts always made her tired and the Christmas one she had just attended was no exception. The common room was empty. Their friends must have gone up to bed.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” James said. They were standing before the separate staircases that would each take them to their own dorm.
Lily nodded. “I’ll be here,” she said, smiling. “Goodnight.”
“What, no kiss?” James grinned.
She turned back to him, standing close. One finger to the side of her mouth, she made as though she were thinking. “Hmmm... maybe tomorrow,” she concluded, after pretending to look him over.
“You, Lily Evans, are a tease.” James said in good humor. He closed the small gap between them and gave her a quick, soft kiss.
Pleasant shivers ran down her spine. She wasn’t sure being a tease was such a bad thing, if this is what she got for it.
“Tomorrow,” James said with a nod. He held her hand and was backing up slowly, as though not wanting to leave her.
“Looking forward to it.” She gave his hand a small squeeze, before pulling her hand delicately out of his and climbed the stairs to her bed where an eager Raven waited for details.
(A/N if that wasn't fluff, than I don't know what is. I suppose the next chapter will be about the first date. Or perhaps I should just skip that and go on to the start of term... hmmm...
Thanks for reading! ^_^)