James turned to the other side of the bed and pulled the blanket a bit further up. He outstretched his hand in order to pull Lily closer to him, but what his hand met was air. His wife wasn’t there.
Surprised, he got up, wore his slippers, put on his robes and walked out of the room. He entered the kitchen to see the fire lit.
Lily was standing near the kitchen slab and was cutting some vegetables. The stove was on, and a ceramic pot was on it. Apparently, Lily was in a cooking mood. Since Christmas was enough reason for Lily to cook food for an entire army- or so it seemed- James wasn’t surprised. There was cold turkey on the kitchen table. Fruits were overflowing from a bowl. A lobster was on a plate. The whole table was covered with dishes.
James had no idea how Lily would cook all the food without magic. Yes, without magic. Lily absolutely refused to cook food magically. She had no problem with anything else, but food and magic she would not let mix.
He shrugged subconsciously. Lily was Lily, and she did whatever she wanted to, no matter what. So if she wanted to cook food and have it all done before the evening started, she would.
He walked forward and wrapped his arms around Lily’s waist. She turned around and smiled.
‘Merry Christmas, dear!’ Lily greeted James.
‘Merry Christmas to you too, love!’ her husband said. He muttered something in her ear; she nodded and turned back as James walked out of the kitchen and back to their room.
He returned twenty minutes later, now fresh and decent, hand in his pocket. ‘Hey, Lily! I’m back!’ he said energetically now that he was fully up.
‘About time. Now come over here and taste this,’ she replied without turning around.
‘I’m sad,’ James pouted. ‘It’s Christmas; you’re not supposed to be sarcastic to me.’
This time, Lily turned around and smiled ruefully. ‘Sorry, it’s just that, you know, I’ve to get all this ready before the kids arrive.’
‘I understand… wait, what? What kids?’ James asked, bewildered.
‘Well, you know that there’s that Muggle orphanage where I donate to. I went there first thing in the morning, and the children weren’t at all in the Christmas spirit, because nothing was happening for them. So I invited them all over. They’ll be coming by six in the evening, and I need to cook all this before they come.’
‘Well, you do know that you’re a witch, and-’ James started.
Lily cut him off. ‘No. I won’t make any food with magic, and you know that. I don’t even know why you started offering that all over again.’
‘Okay, then. I’ll help you cook,’ James said, resigned. He knew, though, that Lily would refuse his offer, in which case he could just go to the Ministry for work- even though it was a day off- or maybe meet with the Marauders.
‘Thanks for the offer, but I’d like to give the kids something edible,’ Lily said.
James tried to look offended but ended up grinning. ‘Are you sure you don’t want an expert’s help?’ he asked again.
‘Sure,’ she replied firmly, but when he turned to leave, she continued. ‘Wait, where are you going? You were helping me, right?’
James looked confused. ‘Yeah, but you said that you would do the cooking yourself.’
‘I’m doing the cooking alright. But I need you to go out and pack the gifts I bought for the kids,’ she said. On seeing the woebegone expression on her husband’s face, Lily smiled and said, ‘You can use your wand, honey.’
James’ face brightened- but only for a second- when Lily continued. ‘There are about twenty five gifts: dolls, games, balls, books, shoes, clothes, crayons, etc. Just wrap them up. I forgot to buy the gift paper though, so you’ll have to go and buy it.’
James nodded his head. As long as he wasn’t told to cook. He left the kitchen, leaving Lily wrestling with the turkey.
Ah… all the gifts have been finally wrapped. James strolled into the kitchen, walked softly behind Lily and muttered ‘Boo!’ in her ear.
Lily kept her position, and said, ‘It’s Christmas, not Halloween. And if you want to act like a ghost… why don’t you become one?’ With that, she turned around and dumped a bowl of white flour on James’ head. His glasses, his hair, his face, his clothes, everything was covered with the flour, and he seemed quite stunned. Clearly, he had not expected this attack.
As soon as he recovered, he Summoned some more flour and threw it at Lily. This flour fight carried on for the next fifteen minutes, until Lily remembered that she had food to cook. She straightened, muttered the Vanishing Spell, rubbed her hands and set to work as if nothing had happened.
James placed the bowl on the slab and left the kitchen. He called out that he was going to meet Sirius and would bring the rest of the Marauders home with him.
Lily remained quiet and continued baking the Christmas cake.
Lily walked out of the kitchen for the first time in four hours when she heard some noise coming from the drawing room. She stood there, watching the spectacle in front of her, her hands on her hips.
‘Sirius. Remus. Peter,’ she started quietly before raising her voice and saying, ‘James.’
James was back with the Marauders as he had promised. But there was a problem. All of them were drunk. They were not that drunk, but they had enough Firewhisky in their bodies that it showed on their faces.
‘Uh, hi, Lily,’ Sirius greeted her, mussing his hair.
‘Sorry, Lily,’ Peter and Remus said at the same time, looking at the ground.
James looked at her with a sheepish smile and remained quiet.
Lily couldn’t help but smile. They all looked like little children who had had been caught stealing cookies from the jar.
When James saw Lily smiling, he came up to her, gave her a peck on the cheek and apologised.
‘Right, now that you four are here, please help me clean up this place. The children will be here in a couple of hours.’
Saying this, and on seeing that the Marauders had taken out their wands and started muttering spells, she went back to the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron.
The cake was almost done, and then she’d have to decorate it. The only dish completely finished was of mashed potatoes and several sauces.
Lily sighed and went back to work.
‘Oh my god!’ James whispered as Lily walked down the steps.
‘Is that you, Lily?’ Sirius asked.
She smiled brightly at them. ‘I take it I’m looking good?’ she asked, as she stepped down the staircase.
James walked up to her, took her hand and said, ‘Not just good, you’re looking very, very beautiful.’ He bent and kissed her hand.
‘Looking gorgeous, dear,’ Sirius said.
Lily turned to Peter. ‘They’re telling the truth,’ he affirmed, nodding his head.
Remus smiled.
She started to thank them but was interrupted by the knocking on the door.
‘Looks like the children are here!’
Lily left the room and went to open the door to usher in the visitors who were, indeed, the orphanage children.
There were children of all ages, but all were below fifteen. Most of them looked to be between eight and twelve years old. There were eleven girls and fourteen boys. Some were short, some tall, some blondes, some brunettes, some thin, some plump, but all of them looked very happy and very excited.
Lily hurriedly ushered them in the drawing room so that they would not catch cold standing outside in the snow. She greeted the teacher who had come with the children.
On reaching the sitting room, the kids were greeted by the Marauders. All of them soon sat down to chat. James and Sirius especially mixed up well with the children. Lily found it expected since they were still so much like children on the inside.
After some time, Sirius suggested they play musical chairs. He was about to Summon the chairs and had taken out his wand, when James rushed up to him to stop him from performing magic in front of the Muggles.
Sighing, he nodded his head and headed off to bring the chairs manually.
They set out the chairs, Christmas music was put on, and the game started.
The children were made to make a line, and Sirius whined to play, so in the end, everyone but Lily joined in.
The game turned out to be quite a lot of fun for everyone involved. People pushed, and ran to grab seats. The wizards wanted to use their wands and only reluctantly refrained from doing so.
The game carried on for about forty minutes. In the end, only Peter and a blonde girl named Alice were left. Peter was about to win the game, but he let Alice win. And the joyous expression on her face was worth it. She was grinning widely, showing her not-so-white, crooked teeth.
When it was finally time for dinner, the children ran into the kitchen to see a splendid sight.
The table had been magically enlarged to allow thirty-one people to sit at it. It was creaking under the weight of the dishes. Right in the middle was the turkey. There were mashed potatoes, several sauces, ham, corn, biscuits, and a whole load of other dishes.
The children’s eyes opened wide when they saw the amount of food in front of them. They looked at their guardian, who gave a nod, and they piled food on their plates and dug in.
Remus looked at James and Sirius, and, smiling, he recalled, ‘That’s just like you two a couple of years back.’
The two smirked, apparently happy at hearing the comment on their appetite.
After the first course was over, Lily brought in the desserts. There were cakes, puddings, jelly and pies. She hadn’t had the time to make anything more.
The children had several helpings, but it was clear that they had had their fill from the first course.
After the dinner was over, they went back to the drawing room and sat down as close to the fireplace as they could. Some children examined the Christmas tree, smiling as they did so.
The group of thirty-one broke into several small groups, talking, the Marauders joking around and the children laughing with them. They left half an hour later, thanking their hosts for the lovely evening. As they were leaving, Lily handed them gifts. That was the last straw: one of the girls started crying of happiness. This seemed to be their most perfect Christmas ever. And Lily’s heart was touched by their thanks and looks of joy. Children were so sweet… She folded her hands over her stomach, and then put one hand up to wave at them as they left.
They watched the children disappear down the lane before going back into the house. Sirius promptly jumped on the couch, Peter sat on the rug in front of the hearth, and Remus sat on a rocking chair.
The three stayed there for the next hour, drinking some more Firewhisky and getting fully drunk. Lily refused to drink and allowed James to have only two glasses. The three drunken bachelors left soon afterwards, leaving a very tired-looking Lily behind. She had, after all, single-handedly cooked a meal for thirty other people in one day.
The moment they left, Lily got up to clean, but James made her sit down and rest since she was looking so exhausted. He whipped out his wand, muttered a few spells and everything was back in place. The chairs, the food, the plates were washed and stacked. Everything was normal.
He walked into the drawing room and sat down next to Lily whose eyes were closed.
‘You’re done?’ she asked him.
‘Yeah.’
‘Thanks, James.’
‘No problem. Maybe you should go and sleep now. You’re completely beat out. You’ve been up since dawn, working continuously.’
‘Yeah. But it’s Christmas, right?’ Lily asked. A smile had now touched her lips.
‘Hm…’
‘So we exchange gifts on Christmas, right?’
‘Oh. You mean that I haven’t given you your present yet? I brought it in the morning. It was in my pocket, but you were so busy, I didn’t think that you’d want me to disturb you.’
‘Well, I’m here now. What’s your gift?’ Lily asked.
‘Well,’ James started, unsure. ‘I don’t have much of a big gift for you… For you, well, I only got a special picture made.’
He put his hand in his pocket, took out an envelope, and handed it to Lily.
Lily, whose eyes were open now, smiled at him and took the envelope. She opened it and when she saw the picture in her hand, a tear dropped from her eye.
‘I thought that you would like it…’ James said uncertainly.
Though he had a feeling that Lily loved this gift, he had to hear it from her mouth or he would get another gift for her.
‘It’s lovely, James,’ she said, still looking at the picture. The picture wasn’t exactly a ‘real’ picture but an edited one. It was a combination of three pictures. Lily and James were sitting in the middle. Lily’s mother, father, Petunia and her husband Vernon were on the right side, sitting next to Lily. The elderly couple sitting next to James were his parents. All of them were smiling. It was the complete family picture, something Lily had often wished for.
‘Thank you, James. It’s perfect,’ she said, now looking up to him, smiling through her tears.
‘I’m glad that you like it. I was sort of worried,’ James said, smiling, all arrogance forgotten. ‘Oh, and I have another present… well, it’s not exactly a present, but it’s something which I did for you.’
‘Hm?’
‘Er, I exchanged about a thousand Galleons for Muggle money and donated it to the orphanage from where you invited the children.’
Lily remained quiet for a minute, and James thought that maybe he had done something wrong.
Then she spoke, her voice warm with love. ‘James, have I ever told you that I love you?’
‘Yes,’ James replied, grinning. So Lily was happy after all.
‘Well, I’m going to say this again. James Charlus Potter, I love you. Please don’t ever leave me.’
James hugged her and murmured in her ear, ‘You’re not that lucky.’
Then he picked her up and said, ‘Well, you should really get some sleep now.’ He carried her up in his arms and to their room.
Lily undressed herself, and then said, ‘James, you know, I still haven’t given you a gift.’
‘Oh, yeah, Lily. Where is it?’ James questioned, smiling slightly.
‘Well, I didn’t have time to go and buy a present…’ she started.
‘Oh, man. And here I was expecting something from you,’ James teased her.
‘I…’ Lily started but couldn’t go on.
‘Honey, I wasn’t serious. You don’t need to give me a gift. You’re here with me. I’m happy,’ James said solemnly, walking up to her and taking her hand.
Lily took a deep breath, looked up to him straight into his hazel eyes and said, ‘I do have a gift for you… it’s just that it isn’t fully here yet.’
‘What do you mean?’ James asked, confused.
‘I… you… you’re about to become a father, James,’ she finally revealed.
‘Oh Merlin, what? Are you serious, Lily?’ James asked in an excited tone.
‘Very. I wasn’t feeling very well a week ago, and I missed my monthly too, so I went to St. Mungo’s just in case… well, the Healers did some tests… and I’m pregnant with our child,’ she explained hurriedly.
James was very, very happy, but Lily looked a bit serious. Maybe, she didn’t… He spoke his thought out loud, ‘Lily, do you want this child? Are you ready for this?’
She didn’t answer directly. The quiet made James confused. Maybe she didn’t want kids right now. But she loved children so much. She had made so many visits to the orphanage.
She broke the taut silence, ‘I’d love to have a child… only… only if you want me to have one.’
James gave a grin. ‘Obviously I’d love to become a father.
You’ve given me the best present ever, love!’ he said, hugging her tightly.
‘The present isn’t here yet,’ Lily said, smiling mischievously, ‘so maybe I should give you something for now.’
Saying this, she took James’ head in her hands, and kissed him full on the lips.
They pulled apart a minute later and flumped on the bed, side by side, watching the ceiling.
They remained silent for a minute, and then both turned to face each other and said at the same time, ‘I love you.’