*"I don't need help from filthy Mudbloods like her!" Severus' eyes were cold and he wore an expression of hatred and embarrassment.
Lily woke up with a beam of light shining directly into her eyes. The aching pain in the pit of her stomach that came along with her frequent dream was pushed aside by excitement. She couldn't wait to begin skiing and got ready in record time. It wasn't until after she was finished with breakfast that any of her friends had even woken up.
"Good morning, Sunshine," said a sleepy Cassie. She was still in her pajamas with her hair thrown lazily in a bun.
"It's seven-thirty!" exclaimed Lily. "Why aren't you dressed?"
"Why are you?"
There was a pop and Cassie went to retrieve her now toasted bagel.
Lilly greeted Bess and Jill as they made their way to the kitchen and prepared meals for themselves. They returned her greetings half-heartily and Lily wondered if anyone was even remotely excited to start skiing.
"I'm gonna finish getting ready," declared Lily and she headed off to her room.
She pulled on her snow pants and jacket and went to look for her mittens. She wrapped her gold and maroon Gryffindor scarf around her neck and topped off her outfit with a green helmet. Lily was definitely ready for skiing.
Lily plopped herself down on the couch as she waited for her friends to get ready.
"Hey, Lily?" asked Jill from her bedroom. "Are we meeting up with James and Sirius?"
"No," was Lily's automatic response. She didn't want Potter and Black slowing them down. End of story.
"Why not?" whined Bess from the bathroom.
"Come on, Lils," said Cassie. "They're nice."
"Yeah, they are real charming," said Lily sarcastically, rolling her eyes. All three girls had now joined her in the living room.
"Please, Lily?" asked Cassie who was now giving Lily puppy-dog eyes.
"Fine," said Lily as she gave a sigh of defeat. She crossed her arms and listened to the girls talking cheerfully about how much fun the day would be now that the handsome Sirius Black and adorable James Potter were joining them.
"How about someone goes down and fetches them?" suggested Jill after a while. Bess, Jill, and Cassie all turned to look at Lily who glared back at them.
"Don't look at me," she said angrily. "I don't even want them to come."
"But Lily," said Cassie, "you're the one who knows them!"
"I don't want to go!" said Lily who was now standing to face her friends. Bess walked to the door and opened it, but Lily wouldn't budge.
"Fine," said Cassie, "I guess we'll just have to force you." At that, the two girls pushed and shoved Lily until she was in the hallway and the door was slammed in her face.
"I'M GONNA BLOODY KILL YOU!" shouted Lily and she punched the door as hard as she could. This was a bad idea, however, because now her knuckles were fairly sore.
Lily's pants swished with each step she took as she sulked down the hallway towards the boys' room. As she reached her destination, she lifted a hand and knocked on their door. No answer. She banged her fist on the door, this time with more force. Still, no answer. Lily had little to no patients and found herself kicking the door, hoping for a response from the other end. She nearly lost it when there was, yet again, no answer.
"Let me in this blasted door or I'll hex you!" she shouted after making sure no Muggles were lingering about.
"You're not allowed to do magic outside of school, Evans," the smooth voice of Sirius Black replied.
"Just open the door," Lily said coldly.
"Password?"
"You're not the Fat Lady, Black," sneered Lily who was now very fed-up and in a terrible mood.
The door swung open to reveal Sirius and a snickering James in the background. Lily scowled at them both as she entered.
"In case you were wondering, the password was 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,'" said Sirius, a grin across his face.
"What kind of password is that?" asked Lily.
"A good one," replied James. "Lovely morning, Evans?"
"Brilliant," she said sarcastically and she rolled her eyes at him. "My friends wanted to know if you wanted to ski with us."
"Of course!" exclaimed Sirius happily.
"And how have your mornings been?" asked Lily, not wanting to be rude.
"Mine was stellar," James said cheerfully as he laced up his boot. "Ready to go?"
She nodded at him and walked out the door as he held it open for her, letting it go just in time to hit Sirius in the face. James didn't hear Sirius curse loudly though, because he was too busy escorting Lily down the halls. Sirius just sighed and ran to catch up to his best friend.
Lily's bitterness was almost completely forgotten as they stepped outside. It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day and the mountains looked perfect.
"Aren't you guys excited to start skiing?" asked Lily as she basked in the sunlight. It wasn't very cold either.
"Oh," said James, "we aren't skiing."
Lily gave him a confused look.
"We're snowboarding!" finished Sirius. "I can't wait! I've never played a Muggle sport before, but Jamsie here tells me it's just superb." He then began skipping towards the ski shop where they would be renting their equipment.
"Do you think he'll be all right?" Lily asked James.
"Of course he will; he's a Marauder!"
****
It was two hours later and everyone was on top of the smallest bunny hill. Lily and her friends were experienced skiers and James didn't hesitate to brag about his snowboarding experience. It was Sirius who they were worried about.
Sirius' eyes were wide with fear under his goggles. It was a miracle that he was even standing.
"It's okay," Cassie told him. "It's not so hard!"
"Just do exactly what I do," said James and he slowly started down the hill.
With a little help, Sirius started down the run. At the first turn, he managed to copy James, but he couldn't change directions the second time. He started heading straight down the side of the mountain, unable to control himself. The rest of the girls followed after him, trying to catch up with little success.
After nearly hitting a tree, Sirius toppled to the ground, his snowboard flying out from below him. But instead of coming to a stop, he continued rolling down the hill, knocking down small children in his path. Lily pictured Sirius the magnificent human snowball as he kept falling down the mountain with no sign of stopping.
Finally, he slowed down as the hill ended and at last, came to a stop. James and Lily helped Sirius up and led him to the closest bench.
"I think you need some lessons, mate," said James as he patted Sirius on the back. Once Sirius had recovered, the boys and girls stood up and headed to the front desk.
"No adult classes?" asked Sirius. The women behind the desk nodded her head.
"We don't have any available at the moment, but there is still room in the childrens' classes if you would like," she said, looking apologetic.
"Sure," said James. "Sign him up." Sirius looked defeated.
"The class starts in ten minutes at the bottom of this hill. Here is your pass." The lady handed him a bright orange pass that said CHILD in bold letters and had a smiley face drawn below it. Lily had to stop herself from laughing out loud.
James thanked the woman and they headed to the bottom of the hill.
"Orange beginners over here!" called a man holding a snowboard. A group of young kids were gathering around him, all wearing the orange pass. The oldest was probably seven years old. Before Sirius had a chance to escape, James and Lily grabbed him by the arms and pulled him over to his beginners' class.
"All right, Padfoot," started James using Sirius' nickname that Lily never quite understood, "you'll be good now, won't you?"
"Don't fight with the other children and remember your manners," Lily told him with a smile. Sirius just scowled at them both as Jill, Cassie, and Bess giggled behind them.
"Why are you so tall?" asked a whiny kid as the group headed towards the ski-lift.
"It's because I'm a giant, you little prat...."
As they walked over to Lift Ten, Lily spotted a sign that read: "Three to a chair."
"I volunteer to sit with dear Lily!" said James as he wrapped his arm around Lily's shoulders.
She jabbed him in the side with her elbow and hissed, "You better not try anything, Potter." James just gave her a lopsided smile, grabbed her hand, and pulled her to the lift. She gave her friends one last angry look before she and James were whisked away by the chair.
"Enjoying the view, Evans?" asked James. They were now soaring over evergreen trees and other skiers riding down the mountains.
"Mmm-hmm...," she replied. She still could not believe that she was stuck on a ski lift with Potter. She looked over at him and he was smiling pleasantly and singing the Hogwarts song under his breath.
"Nooo..." Lily groaned as she spotted another sign that said, "15 minutes from here to the top." James, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying her misery. This must be the longest ski-lift here, thought Lily. Her thoughts were interrupted, though, by a shout from below. Someone had wiped out on the mountain and was having a difficult time locating their pole.
"Not the best skier, eh?" said James with a chuckle.
"Oh, and I'm sure you're so great," said Lily, a little irritated now.
"I'm actually a fantastic skier," James said with a smirk on his face.
"Your head is too big for your own good, Potter," said Lily and she frowned at him.
"It's not that big..." said James, looking a bit offended now.
"You think you're so great! You never miss an opportunity to hex somebody to show your mates how great you are!'' Lily felt her anger boiling up inside her.
"Hey! I hardly ever hex anyone any more--" started James, but Lily cut him off.
"I haven't forgotten what you did to Sev last year. You made him so upset that he called me a Mudblood."
"Wait a second," said James, "I didn't make him call you that." Lily looked as though she wanted to argue, but he continued anyway. "You can't blame that on me.''
"That's why I wanted to get away from home," Lily said quietly after a minute of silence. "Sev and I used to hang out together every summer. He was the only one I could talk to about magic and Hogwarts." James was listening intently and let her go on. "We aren't exactly friends anymore, so I didn't want to... to..."
"Have to be reminded of him," James finished and Lily didn't even flinch when he held her hand. "I'm sorry."
"You shouldn't be."
There was another awkward silence as they continued up the side of the mountain. After what seemed like hours, but was only a few minutes, James spoke up.
"Would you jump off here?" he asked. It was quite a random question that Lily was not sure how to answer.
"I'm not sure what you're asking," Lily replied truthfully.
"If Voldemort himself were hanging to the ski-lift, his wand pointing at you, would you jump off?"
"If You-Know-Who was pointing his wand at me I would use expelliarmus and then push him off." Lily told him.
"That wasn't the question," said James, a slanted smile on his face. "Where would you jump off?"
"Not here. There are too many rocks and I wouldn't want to crack my skull open."
"How about up ahead a little?"
"It's definitely close enough to the ground, but there is a chance of hitting that tree...."
The two spent the rest of the time determining the best spots to jump off the lift and before they knew it, they were at the top of the mountain.
"Lets go!" said Jill once they had positioned themselves at the top of the slope.
They spent the entire day skiing down difficult runs and by the time they called it quits, they only had three wipe-outs and one incident that involved James running into a tree.
When they reached the bottom of the bunny hill to pick up Sirius, they found him surrounded by little kids. A small girl was holding his hand and another was throwing snowballs at him. A boy was hanging onto Sirius' jacket and being pulled behind him, while another boy, who could be his twin, was jogging to keep up as he carried a snowboard in his little arms.
"How was your lesson?" James asked Sirius.
"He fell on his face a lot," piped in one of the twins. "He wasn't very good...."
Lily and the girls laughed as Sirius scowled at the kid.
"I'd like to see him try to play Quidditch," he said just loud enough for James and Lily to hear. "And I was just fine, thank-you-very-much."
The friends went back to the Christophe Brazier and said goodbye before going their separate ways. Once Lily got into her room, she headed straight for her bed and was so tired that she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Today had been fun and she couldn't wait for what tomorrow would bring.
*Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling, Page: 648
Snowflakes by The_Dream_Team
Chapter Notes: Here's chapter 4!
Chapter Endnotes: I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my cousin, Alex, who is the co-creator of the "When Would You Jump Off Game!" Thanks for reading and please leave a review! It means a lot!