Disclaimer: All names, places, events and otherwise related to Harry Potter are owned by J.K Rowling.

 

Thank you to all those who reviewed Part 8, ‘Slugs and Trips to Hogsmeade’:

 

Ljstagflower4e: thanks! Hmm, well she might …

Agloechen: well, Petunia is just going to have to deal with it. I thought it would be interesting if the five of them spent Christmas together, and I decided on Lily’s house, so … Petunia entered into the plot again.

Amelia Bedelia: thank you! You always give me lovely long reviews. I like out-of-school stuff too, but I also love inside-school events. I don’t know why I thought of them spending their last Christmas as Hogwarts students out of Hogwarts; but in ‘Suspended’, I can reveal that they will definitely be spending the Christmas holidays in Hogwarts. And very eventful they will be too. (Aha, see: long review gives a long reply!)

Purple Bananas: thanks! Hmm, getting together won’t happen until later, I’m afraid. But not long now …

Lil Miss Magic: yep, I’m British. And, contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t rain all the time here – just most of it. What do you like about James and Lily? Hang on – did you mean you liked my interpretation of them, or just them generally? Sorry about the questions!

 

Ahem, so this is Part 9. I can safely say that there will be fourteen parts. And that this part is too stuffed full of fluff to be safe to humans. And Part 10 is worse. Once again, I apologise deeply for my awful writing style from long ago.

 

 

This chapter is dedicated to all my lovely reviewers, but most particularly Amelia Bedelia, who has tirelessly reviewed each and every long chapter of my two stories with a nice lengthy review – as well as providing me with many funny remarks. Thank you so much. Even though I have never met you, and probably never will (sadly), your support means a lot to me. Although it would be nice if we collided on MSN a bit more, so we could chat. Hmm. I may send an email and get one of our huge email banters going on. And where, may I ask, is the next chapter of ‘Light’? You may lecture me about updating quicker, but you, my girl, are far worse! (Hahaha – hurry up with it, will you? I can’t wait much longer without expiring.) Merlin, I’m burbling! I’ve got into the habit of using sayings connected with Merlin (e.g – saying things like ‘Merlin’s beard’, or exclaiming ‘Oh, Merlin!’ and having my friends look at me as if I’ve grown three heads) since I make some of my characters use those expressions. They’re addictive, I tell you. 

 

Yes, well, after this horrendously huge ramble, I’ll let you get on and read.

 

 

 

PART NINE

 

 

Christmas, changes and unfamiliar feelings

 

 

 

James spent an enjoyable week at Sirius’s cousin Andromeda’s house. The two of them spent the days playing chess, Exploding Snap, talking, eating and doing all the other things that Hogwarts students did in the holidays – which did not, regrettably, include magic to students under seventeen. This matter Sirius had moaned about for the last six years, protesting that surely it would help students’ learning progress if they were allowed to practise magic in the holidays, to which James replied that Sirius would most likely blow someone up if he was able to perform magic during the holidays. So it was probably just as well that magic was forbidden to most students.

James, as was a habit of his, woke up early on the morning of his eighth day at Sirius’s. Sirius was snoring loudly in his bed, which James found rather annoying, but he looked at the clock and decided not to wake Sirius up, because it was only half past seven. And he would not appreciate being woken at such an early hour, James thought.

No sooner had he settled down with a book off one of the slanting wooden shelves did a bubbly, wide-awake Nymphadora (Andromeda’s small daughter) come bounding into the room, a huge grin on her little face.

“Sirius!” she said, jumping on to his bed.          

“Ugh,” Sirius mumbled crossly, turning over with a grunt. “Whasso good about Christmas Eve? Don’t get any presents, and Christmas is still a whole day away. Now buzz off and leave me to get some sleep.”

Nymphadora giggled childishly, and toddled out of the room.

“No Regulus these holidays,” James heard Sirius mutter. “Thank Merlin.”

James hated these sibling quarrels – having no siblings himself, he wasn’t used to the unpredictable arguments that flared up without warning between Sirius and his younger brother. 

Remus had always said that James and Lily fought quite like siblings, but James disagreed. When he and Lily had fought, it had been different to sibling arguments – Lily was somebody his own age, an equal match, somebody who could come up with insults and funny remarks just as quickly as he could. He hadn’t felt any particular need to hold power of some sort over her, like many older brothers and sisters did of their younger ones. Different ages (especially a large gap), different intelligence, resentment and the need to have power over each other were the factors that sparked sibling rivalry. And he and Lily didn’t meet the terms of any of those.

There was a swift tap at the window; James got up and opened it, and a snowy owl flew in. It deposited a letter on James’s bed and settled down next to Sirius’s large brown owl, which was fast asleep with his head under his wing.

James picked up the letter and opened it.

 

Dear James,

I thought I should send you this because you’re the only person I could send it to, and I need to talk to somebody who understands, even if it’s not face-to-face.

D’you remember me telling you about my sister Petunia? Well, things have just taken a turn for the worse. She hardly ever speaks to me in the holidays, but now she’s taken to doing other things, like tripping me up and ruining my homework. It’s horrible. It’s worse than any harsh words she might throw at me, and I don’t know what to do. She does all this stuff when my parents aren’t looking, and they don’t know that she hates me, and I don’t want to tell them. They’ll either tell me not to be so silly, or give Petunia a serious lecture, and then she’ll be worse than before.

Please don’t tell Sirius about this. You’re the first person I’ve ever told, and I don’t want anybody else to know.

Can you give me any advice on how to deal with Petunia? Apart from turning her into a slug, of course.

        Please write soon.

                                                                                              Lily.

 

James read the letter and frowned, his forehead creased in thought. What was Petunia’s problem? All right, so she was jealous. But that didn’t mean she had to be so awful to Lily.

“What’s the matter?” said Sirius, concerned, seeing his friend’s worried expression. “Something wrong?”

“No … nothing,” James answered. He stuffed the letter back into its envelope and into his pocket, deciding to comply with Lily’s wishes about not telling anybody about her sister. “It’s just a letter from Lily, that’s all.”

“Oh,” said Sirius. “OK. Shall we go down to breakfast? I can’t get back to sleep, and I’ve just discovered I’m hungry.”

“Yeah, all right,” said James.

Andromeda had to hide a smile when she saw her sleepy-looking cousin amble into the kitchen, wearing dark blue pyjamas with Quaffles on them and yawning. He shuffled over to the cereal cupboard, and James, who was considerably more awake and in red pyjamas, followed, greeting her as he did so.

“Morning, James. Good morning, Sirius,” she added to her cousin in a pointed tone, and received a mumbled “Morning, Andy,” in return.

When he had woken up a bit, Sirius proceeded to question Andromeda about her sisters, Bellatrix and Narcissa; she was the only way he could obtain information about them.

Andromeda’s grin faded. “You mean you haven’t heard about Narcissa?”

“No,” said Sirius, wondering what was wrong. “What’s she done?”

“She’s engaged to that piece of Malfoy scum,” said Andromeda, tripping over a chair leg and almost sending Nymphadora flying.

“Lucius Malfoy?” squeaked Sirius; James righted the chair hurriedly before the oblivious Sirius fell over it.

“Yes,” Andromeda replied grimly. “I’ve heard he’s right in Voldemort’s inner circle, like Lestrange.”

James’s memory vaguely recalled the fact that Bellatrix, who was the oldest sister of the three, was married to Rodolphus Lestrange. He let Nymphadora amuse herself by playing with his glasses whilst Andromeda and Sirius discussed various family members. Nymphadora climbed awkwardly on to his lap and held out her arms, plainly asking for a hug.

“So they’ve finally become friends,” Sirius was saying as Nymphadora proceeded to prod James’s nose, obviously fascinated. “Haven’t you, James?”

“What?” asked James, and then howled as Nymphadora poked him in the eye.

“Sorry,” apologised Andromeda, and she hastily removed Nymphadora from James’s lap. Nymphadora began to scream, her small arms flailing.

“No! No!”

Sirius seized James’s arm and pulled him from the room, with Andromeda gabbling apologies and trying to control Nymphadora at the same time. Sirius slammed the door; the boys could still hear Nymphadora’s shrieks.

“Sorry about that,” said Sirius, as James slowly removed his hand from his sore eye. “She seems to have got attached to you ...”

“Fantastic,” he muttered.

“She was rather attached to me before,” admitted Sirius. “I think she still is, but at least I’ll have a break for a while.”      

The two boys took their breakfast up to Sirius’s bedroom and sank down on to his bed, talking about what they were going to do that day. James didn’t know what he wanted to do, and Sirius wanted to laze around or sleep.

Almost half an hour later, Sirius was lying on his bed, reading, and James seized the opportunity to write back to Lily. When he had finished, he tied the letter to the leg of Lily’s owl, which was still perched on the cage in the corner of the room. It swooped out of the window and was soon a mere white speck in the dull grey sky. James watched it until it was out of sight.

 

 

 

“Come on, Vernon!” Marjorie Dursley roared up the stairs. “Hurry up, or there’ll be nowhere to park!”

“Coming, Marge, coming,” came the rumbling voice. “I’m just putting my shoes on, I’ll be down in a minute.”

Lily watched silently from the living room door as Vernon thundered down the stairs and joined Marge and Petunia. They were going into town to do some last minute Christmas shopping. Why they had left it until Christmas Eve, Lily had no idea.

“We’ll be back around three, Mum!” called Petunia. She turned around and sneered at her younger sister, who just looked back at her with those intense green eyes of hers and disappeared into the living room.

The door slammed as the three of them left. Lily buried her face in the cushions, breathing in their slightly musty smell and praying that the days went quickly until James and the others arrived. She didn’t think that she could handle another of Petunia’s taunts or scoffs without hitting her.

She took James’s letter out of her pocket and read it again, and then sank back on to the sofa, feeling instantly better. His letters had a calming effect on her; they were almost like some drug that made her feel tranquil, like she didn’t have a care in the world.

That was the strange thing about it, she thought. They were only letters, after all … surely just letters couldn’t have such an effect on anybody? She shrugged, hearing her mother’s voice from the kitchen.

“Lily!” called her mother. “Have you seen the recipe book with the Christmas cake in it? I’m sure Gran will want to make it when she comes this evening.”

“No,” she said, going into the kitchen. “I haven’t seen it … isn’t it on the shelf where it normally is?”

“I don’t think so,” said her mother, looking flustered. “I looked there a while ago, and I couldn’t find it. I … there it is!” She picked up the thick recipe book that was lying on the table. “What’s it doing there? You didn’t move it, did you?”

“No. Maybe Petunia was trying to cook something.”

“Yes … that reminds me, could you help me make some mince pies? You know how much Grandpa likes them, and I promised him I’d have some when he came to stay.”

“’Course I will. How long are Gran and Grandpa staying for?” asked Lily, finding the page with the recipe for mince pies on it.

“For the rest of the holidays,” her mother replied. “I expect they’ll be glad to meet your friends, as they haven’t met anyone from Hogwarts before.”

“Apart from me, that is,” said Lily.

“Well, yes, but they haven’t met any of your friends,” Mrs Evans said. She got out the flour from a cupboard above her head, and paused to look at her daughter. “Dad wasn’t very keen on you having the boys sleeping in your room, was he?”

“No,” Lily said.

“I know you won’t do anything stupid, Lily. And there’s nowhere else for them to sleep. Dad just doesn’t want you to get into trouble.”

“I know,” said Lily, wondering vaguely why all these speeches about boys were being thrown at her all of a sudden because her friends were sleeping in her room. First her father, now her mother? Her grandparents would be lecturing her next.

When she had finished making the mince pies, Lily wandered slowly back up to her bedroom, and sat down on her bed. She watched the snow drifting gently down outside her window and smiled. She liked snow. It brought back memories of her childhood, when she and Petunia used to play outside for hours building snowmen and having snowball fights, not caring that their mittens were sopping wet and there was snow in their hair.

This time, though, the memories were painful. Lily remembered Petunia’s smiling face and then the sneering expression of her twenty-year-old year old self an hour ago when she had left, and marvelled sadly at how much she had changed.

Lily rarely cried. When she had broken down in her dormitory in front of James, it had been the first time she had cried in more than three years. This time was no exception; she merely clenched her fists angrily and wondered how one letter could change Petunia so drastically – could drive her to hating Lily.

Two hours later, whilst Lily was in the middle of an interesting book, the doorbell rang. She put down her book and bounded downstairs, hoping that it was her grandparents at the door. When she opened it, Petunia scowled at her.

“Oh,”  Lily said, disappointed. “It’s only you.”

“Who did you expect? Santa Claus?” Petunia snarled, pushing past her sister. She was carrying several shopping bags. “Move out of the way, you little brat, and let Marge and Vernon come in. It’s freezing out there.”

Without a word, Lily moved away from the door and walked into the kitchen. “Petunia’s home,” she told her mother, who was sitting at the kitchen table reading a thick book.

“Oh, good,” Mrs Evans said, glancing up at her younger daughter. “Do you think you could put some more tinsel up in the lounge? It’s in the big brown cardboard box in the hall.”

“Yeah, OK,” Lily said. She went out of the room and fetched the box her mother had pointed out. She spent the next half an hour decorating the lounge and living room with red and gold tinsel – which, she noted with pleasure, were the colours of Gryffindor house … Petunia wouldn’t be too pleased about that, if Lily told her, but she didn’t need to know, did she? She would probably take it all down again if she knew, anyway, because anything to do with Hogwarts, even the name, infuriated her.

Her father walked into the room and helped her to put up the last of the red and gold tinsel. He had done some last minute Christmas shopping of his own when he had dropped Petunia, Marge and Vernon off in town, and had brought some more ornaments to go on the Christmas tree. The two of them hung the new baubles and miniature stockings on the tree, and then stood back to admire it.

  Lily’s grandparents arrived that evening. After they had greeted her, they immediately wanted to know how the term at Hogwarts had been.

As her sister happily related what had happened during the last few months at school, Petunia stood in the doorway with Marge and Vernon. A smile was on her face, but inside she was boiling with rage and hate. How could they all look at Lily like that … like they loved her – her, the little freak who went to a school with other freaks and thought that she could just … just invite them over for the holidays.

“And how about you, Petunia, dear?” said her grandmother. “University, eh? What do you want to do as a job when you leave?”

“I – I’m not sure,” said Petunia.

“Did you get that birthday card we sent you in September?” asked her grandfather, smiling at her.

“Yes. Thank you very much for the money. I used it to buy a new book.”

“Was it a fantasy book?” said her grandmother. “I remember how much you used to love fantasy books when you were younger.”

“Fantasy is childish,” Petunia said stiffly. At this, Lily flushed slightly, knowing that this was a deliberate jibe at her. She didn’t realise that she was wrong, as well as right.

Before Lily had received her letter inviting her to attend Hogwarts, Petunia had been better. She had never been exactly civil to her younger sister, but she hadn’t hated her. It had just been normal sibling rivalry.

It was when Lily had had her letter that things had changed. Both girls had been keen on fantasy, Lily especially. Now she had been getting the chance to be a witch, and Petunia had been stuck going to a Muggle school, and she was jealous. So jealous of her sister that she had thrown all her fantasy books, figures, hats, clothes and shoes into the bin in cold, silent fury. (Her mother had fished them all out of the dustbin when she had found them there, but had never told her older daughter.) Petunia had kept this wrath to herself, under control when Lily came home for the holidays, for the last six years. Hating the way her parents made a fuss of their daughter when she came home, asking what she had learnt, had she made any new friends? Hating the way they praised her and hugged her. Hating Lily.

At first, it had just been the fact that Lily was going off to learn to be a witch that Petunia had hated about her. But over six years, the hatred of Lily had slowly grown until it was an obsession. Petunia hated Lily’s striking appearance, with her dark red hair and bright green eyes, her petite frame, the way she laughed, smiled, talked, ran, ate, the clothes she wore … but most of all, Petunia hated the way Lily pretended that she was no different to her family.

Mrs Evans broke the rather strained silence that had descended upon the household, smiling at her two daughters.

“Would anybody like a mince pie?”

“Yes, please,” said Marge, and took two. Petunia took one, and the rest of the family followed suit. All except Lily, who sat on the floor, deep in thought.

           

 

 

“Nymphadora, no!”

The shriek ripped through the Tonks’ silent house at four o’clock in the morning.

“Whassamatter?” Sirius mumbled.

James sighed, and pulled the covers over him again. Sirius’ snores filled the room a minute later, and James didn’t hear anything after that.

At eight o’clock, James mumbled something and turned over, opening his eyes. “Morning,” he said to Sirius, who grinned.

“Merry Christmas, Prongs.”

“Wh – oh … Christmas … yeah. Merry Christmas to you too, Padfoot.”

“Presents,” Sirius said, getting out of bed. He chucked James’s present at him, retrieved his own pile of presents at the end of his bed and dumped them on it. Climbing back in, he settled down to open them.

James smiled. He caught his present from Sirius and opened it, staring for a minute at the odd wrapping paper (pink with green carrots on it). “How did you know this was just what I wanted?” he said.

Sirius had to laugh at the expression on his best friend’s face. In his hands he held a Broomstick Servicing Kit – his old one was five years old and completely worn out. Sirius had brought it for him when he had got on to the Quidditch team in their second year.

“Ah, Prongs, I know you too well,” joked Sirius.

“Hope you like what I got you,” James said. “I went all over Hogsmeade, looking for it, because the shops didn’t seem to sell it.”

“I’m intrigued,” Sirius grinned. He ripped the wrapping paper off the present that James had given him, gawped at it for a few seconds, and then started to laugh. It was a large, cuddly black dog, almost of replica of Padfoot himself.

“Like it?” James asked, smiling at him wickedly.

“It’s hilarious!” Sirius said, looking down at it. He put it on the desk, thanking his friend, and began opening his other presents.

Later in the day, James received presents from all his other friends, as did Sirius. Peter’s present to both of them was a box of Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Botts’ Every Flavour Beans each. Remus’s for James was a book about Quidditch (“trust Moony to get you a book,” said Sirius) and some prank material, and for Sirius, quite a few dungbombs and some of Droobles Best Blowing Gum. Lily gave Sirius three boxes of Filibuster Fireworks and some Peppermint Toads.

Lily brought James a very interesting book about pranks that he could play. He spent half of the day with his nose buried in it, eagerly devouring each trick and charm, passing the particularly good ones on to Sirius, who sat on his bed, nodding at each prank that James read out and eating Peppermint Toads. He laughed until he cried when he heard about a charm that could set people’s hair on fire.

“We will have to try that one on Snape,” he said, and then lapsed into his own thoughts, not hearing the next half a dozen pranks James recited.

He had not seen the image of Azkaban so often since he had discovered that that was what he had been seeing in his mind. It was almost as though        now that he knew this, he had no need for the visions any longer.

He puzzled over this thought for a lot of the rest of the day, withdrawn and quiet even downstairs with his cousin and her husband, his second cousin and James at the table during Christmas dinner. They chattered and laughed around him, and only James noticed his silence, but made no remark on it.

“So what are you doing for the rest of the holidays?” said Andromeda, forcefully making Nymphadora lower her spoon, which had been flailing wildly. “You’re going to friends’ houses, aren’t you?”

Sirius, for the first time, gave a grin. “Stephanie’s.”

James rolled his eyes at his friend.

“I’m going to Remus’s, and then Lily’s,” he said.

“Yeah, we’re all going to Lily’s house for the last week of the holidays,” said Sirius; and, at Andromeda’s blank look, “Lily Evans.”

“Still clueless,” said Andromeda, nonplussed. “Oh, hang on, the one you were telling me about?”

“She’s a Gryffindor in our year,” said James, nodding.

“And James –”

“Shut it,” James interrupted. “Kindly remember, Sirius, that I have actually grown up since fifth year, unlike you.”

“But that doesn’t change your feelings, does it?” said Sirius, a maddening smile threatening to dominate his face. All thoughts about Azkaban had gone from his mind.

James said nothing.

Sirius started to laugh, enjoying humiliating his best friend – who was going to shortly become the best friend of a dead boy is Sirius wasn’t careful. “Lily’s nice. She was a bit tough on James here in fifth year, and he hasn’t forgiven her.”

“Yes, I have,” said James quietly. “Of course I have. I didn’t begrudge her that in the first place. I just … she’s just so … I don’t know. She’s a mystery sometimes.”

“Merlin’s beard, James, you asked her out – in a very unflattering manner, too, - in front of half our year!”

“So?” said James, whose cheekbones were reddening as everybody in the room looked at him: Andromeda, her husband Ted, Nymphadora and Sirius, whose face was faintly exasperated but with a grin curling the corners of his mouth. James knew what he had done in fifth year had been stupid, but he needed to defend himself against this tirade. “Only a few people heard.”

“Including Snivellus, which gave him ammunition against you for life! Seriously, what did you expect her to do?” said Sirius, rather impatiently. “Squeal yes and snog you? You know Lily better than that, James.”

“I know I do,” James said. “I … look, I don’t know why I said it, all right? It was one of the most idiotic things I think I’ve ever done, but at least I grew up because of what she said to me. And she doesn’t hate me any more.”

“James and Lily, sitting in a tree …” began Sirius. Nymphadora banged her fork on the table in time to his chant, her little face smiling impishly.

“Sirius …” warned James.

“ … K-I-S-S-I-N-G …”

Sirius howled and scarpered as James went rushing out of the room after him, his face as red as his shirt. Hearing the yelps from the hall, Andromeda grinned.

 

 

“Here you are, Lily dear,” said her grandmother, handing her a present from under the tree. “This one’s from me.”

Lily had received nothing from Petunia this year, and she couldn’t help feeling a little let down. Although she had never been given anything from her sister the previous six years, she had been at Hogwarts for the holidays, and she had hoped that perhaps this year would be different, considering that she was actually home. But obviously not.

She sighed, but was distracted by the arrival of a snowy owl rather like her own at the window: James’s owl. Getting up, she opened the window and the owl flew in, gently shaking the flakes of snow from its white wings. It was shortly followed by two more owls, which she recognised as Remus and Peter’s owls. She’d had a present from Isabel and Jess earlier in the day.

Lily settled down on the floor to open the presents, not noticing the glare her sister sent in her direction.

 

To Lily,

How are you? I hope you like this, just keep it out of your sister’s way, as it can cause damage to Muggles if they use it, but you’ll be fine, don’t worry. It shows you what’s happening at your home, so you’ll be able to see what’s going on at your house whenever you want! See you in a few days.

                        Merry Christmas!

        Remus.

 

Lily ripped off the wrapping paper and revealed a shining ball that glittered in the coloured lights on the Christmas tree. It looked a bit like a crystal ball, but it was smaller and less of a milky white colour, more silver. She grinned, put it by her side with Remus’s letter and went on to open Peter’s present.

It was a slim volume about Charms that could be used for defence. Lily smiled, thinking that this would be useful to her, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter when Snape started pelting them with curses.

Sirius’s present, a very lumpy package, had come with James’s owl, along with James’s present. Lily opened Sirius’s first.

 

            Lily –

  Hi! James grumbled for ages about me sending this with his owl, but mine’s sending presents to other people. He’s such a fusspot, James is. Don’t know why he’s my friend, the idiot.

                        Well, anyway, Merry Christmas, and enjoy!

                        See you,

                                                     Sirius.

 

Sirius’s present was a packet of Pepper Imps, some delicious-looking vanilla fudge, a bar of Honeyduke’s chocolate and some Cockroach Cluster. She laughed, imagining the look on Petunia’s face if she could see this – or what the two Dursleys would do to gain possession of the gifts.

 

                        Dear Lily,

Are you OK? Is Petunia still getting at you? She hasn’t hurt you, has she?

Right, now my spontaneous worrying fit is over, I can actually get on with what I wanted to say.

I really, really hope you like this. I spent hours looking for it in Hogsmeade – all the others seemed to be the wrong colour. I thought that this was the right one, and I hope you like it.

Merry Christmas … see you in a few days.

Yours,

                       James.

P.S – Anything that Sirius has said about me in his letter, ignore it. I could see that he was writing about me from the look on his face when he wrote your letter.

 

Lily ripped off the wrapping paper, smiling to herself. It was rather astonishing how James and Sirius could practically read each other’s minds. A small black box fell into her hands; she pressed the catch and it sprang open. When she saw what was inside, she gasped.

It was a fairly thin gold chain, and on the end of it was a fiery red stone, which was almost the exact colour of her hair. She stared down at the necklace, barely hearing her mother say, “Lily, what’s that you’re holding?”

She and Lily’s grandparents came over and looked at the necklace in her hands.

“It’s beautiful, Lily,” her grandmother said. “Who gave it to you?”

“James,” Lily said, and closed the little box again with a smart click. “I think it’s magical.”

“It certainly looks as though it might be,” nodded Mrs Evans. “You’d better thank James when he comes over.”

“I will,” said Lily, and her mother went back to opening her own presents. Lily sat on the floor in silence with her grandparents for a few minutes, watching the others unwrapping their presents.

“I think it’s time for a toast,” her father said, when everybody had opened all their presents. He stood up, and raised his champagne glass. “Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas!” echoed the others, holding up their own glasses. And Lily, although she didn’t have a glass, because she hated champagne, found herself repeating her father’s remark along with them.

 

 

 

Since Lily had owled James that letter about Petunia, he had been keeping in touch daily.

Regard these nonsense ramblings of mine, he had written in his first letter, as patches of light in your dark world.

To which Lily had replied: Those patches of light are so strong I’m being blinded. Has Sirius been filling your weird mind with phrases?

No, my dear Lily, James had answered. The nonsensical comments are all courtesy of yours truly.

Now, sitting in the low branches of an old oak tree, he began to write, his quill scratching from time to time.

 

Dear Lily,

I hope things have got better. Even if it’s only a smidgen better. Don’t worry; you’ll be seeing Sirius and me tomorrow – “yippee!” I hear you say – and Petunia won’t be horrible with five of us around. She’ll be too worried that we’ll turn her into a cockroach or something.

Speaking of Sirius, he’s not here at the moment – I’m at Remus’s – I don’t think he’s available to fill my mind with phrases. I’m going back to Andromeda’s house again in a few days, though, and the mad one will be there too.

My quill has to be the noisiest, most scratchy quill ever – I really need to get some new ones, which is partly why I’m suggesting that we meet up in Diagon Alley the day before we go back to Hogwarts. Are you free then? Write soon.

Yours,

     James

P.S – By the way, don’t worry about the owl. It’s Remus’s; mine’s off delivering a letter to my parents. Remus accidentally managed to dye his owl purple.

 

*

 

When Lily heard the doorbell of her house ring loudly on December the thirtieth, she practically leapt down the stairs, hoping that this was one of the boys. She desperately needed somebody to relieve her from Petunia’s glares.

“Lily!” Remus said, grinning at her as she opened the door. Peter was beside him; Remus’s mother had picked Peter up and driven the two of them here, and she waved goodbye from the ancient-looking red car. The three of them waved back at her as it started to move.

“Mum would’ve come in,” Remus apologised, “but she has to be off quickly. She’s got a meeting at work that she can’t miss.”

“That’s OK,” Lily grinned. “You’re here, and that’s what matters.”  

“What’s all the noise …” Petunia began, coming out of the lounge with Marge and Vernon, but stopped when she saw Lily and the two boys. “Oh,” she said harshly. “The freaks have arrived, I see.”

“Shut up, Petunia,” Lily said, glaring at her sister. Petunia, as always, looked away first. There was something very odd about her sister’s eyes – they were such a bright, intense green. She could never hold Lily’s gaze for long.

Lily was distracted from her sister’s glower by the ringing of the doorbell for the second time. She darted to the door, and pulled it open, not hearing Petunia and her friends retire into the lounge once more. The grinning face of Sirius Black was right in front of her.

“Hi, Sirius!” she said, bundling him inside; it was pretty cold outside. “Happy as usual, are you?”

“Yeah, he is,” piped up Peter, smiling at them both, “because Stephanie Heale’s going out with him.”

“Oh, really?” Lily raised inquiring eyebrows at Sirius, who just grinned even more broadly. “I wasn’t aware that it had gone quite that far … well, good for you! Where’s James?”

“Just coming,” Sirius replied, pointing outside. James had spent the last day at Andromeda’s, after Sirius had returned from Seffie’s. 

Lily turned back to the door to greet James, and as she watched him coming up the driveway with his Hogwarts trunk in his hand, her stomach gave a funny little leap. He looked … different now, somehow, and there was the faintest trace of snow in his hair and a smile on his face.

“Hello,” he said, entering the house. Before her brain had realised what she was doing, Lily hugged him, and he put down his trunk and hugged her back.

“Merlin, am I glad to see you,” she whispered. “Petunia’s being horrible … I don’t know what I’d do if you and the others weren’t staying.”

“You’d have a very long, boring holiday,” he said in a low voice. “And I’m glad to see you, too.” He let go of her, and grinned at Remus and Peter. “Hi.”

The other three looked a bit taken aback at Lily’s display of affection, especially since she hadn’t hugged them as well. “Er … hi,” Remus said, and Peter echoed him.

“It’s good to see all of you,” said Lily. “Um … shall we go into the kitchen?”

“Yeah, all right,” Sirius said, and she led them through the hall and into the kitchen. Her parents and grandparents were there, and they smiled when the five of them entered the room.

“Mum, Dad,” Lily said, feeling rather awkward, “Gran, Grandpa – these are my friends. This is Peter … Remus … Sirius …” She gestured to each of them in turn. “A-and this is James.”

James grinned, his messy black hair falling into his eyes as usual. Lily had often wondered why he didn’t get his fringe cut, because it must be annoying, having it in his eyes so often. But now, for some reason, she didn’t care; in fact, she liked his hair that way.

“It’s lovely to meet you all,” Lily’s grandmother said kindly. Her gaze lingered for a moment on James’s untidy hair, and she smiled.

“James, eh?” Lily’s father said. He was tall and quite thin, with brown hair and piercing blue eyes. “You’re the one we’ve heard so much about.”

“Dad …” mumbled Lily, going red.

“Er … yeah,” James said, and he looked quite uneasy. He was starting to blush as he fixed his gaze on the floor. “Um … I – I’m not exactly sure what horrible things Lily’s written about me in her letters for the last six years, but … but we’re not really enemies any more.”

Definitely not, Lily thought, smiling to herself. Her smile disappeared as quickly as it had come. What’s got into you today?

“I’m very pleased to meet all of you,” Mrs Evans said, smiling at the four boys. She had blonde hair and kindly blue eyes, and was similar in build to Lily. “Petunia, Marge and Vernon are in the lounge, dear, if you want to introduce them to your friends.”

“Yeah, er … OK,” Lily said dubiously, and led the four boys out of the kitchen. “Petunia’s going to be firing insults at you for most of the time that you’re here, so you might as well meet her.”

“What are you doing in here, you little brat?” Petunia said tartly as Lily, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter went into the lounge.

“Er … Petunia, this is Sirius, this is Remus … Peter … and James,” Lily said uncomfortably. Her sister glared at the five of them.

“Hello,” James said. Petunia was tall and skinny with blonde hair and pale blue eyes that had none of the gentleness of her mother’s, and an extremely long neck. Something about her – perhaps her hair, or haughty expression – reminded him of Sirius’s cousin, Narcissa.

“And this is Marge, and this is Vernon,” Lily continued. “Marge goes to Petunia’s school, and Vernon’s her brother.”

Marge just smiled blankly, a smile that seemed false. Vernon scowled at them. He and his sister were both large and hulking, and Vernon, unlike Petunia, had practically no neck.

“At least my school isn’t full of freaks,” Petunia said arrogantly.

Remus spoke up, his tone calm and quiet as usual. “You know, Petunia, there are quite a few members of our school who would consider that your school was the school that was full of freaks.”

Sirius gazed at his friend in admiration. How was it that he was so … so precise with words? He just seemed to say exactly what he meant, in that collected, placid way of his. Remus was the reason that Snape was left stumped for something to say half the time when in a confrontation with him and his friends. Remus was the reason that Sirius had never started a fight with Snape before, however many times he had wanted to. Remus had known it would get Sirius into trouble, and had somehow talked him out of it, even with Snape’s taunts making Sirius want to bash him into tiny pieces. Sirius grinned. Remus was marvellous.

Moony, you’re a saint, he thought.

Petunia stared at the boy standing in front of her. The compassionate look that his friends knew so well had vanished from his strange, golden eyes, and she knew that she would never be able to hold his gaze for longer than he could hold hers.

Infuriated, Petunia looked away, grabbing Vernon and Marge by their arms. “Come on, let’s go. I don’t want to be in the same room as this riff-raff.”

“I think she likes you, Remus,” joked Sirius, and Remus smiled faintly.

“I’m sure she does, Sirius,” he said wearily. He turned to Lily. “Now that we’ve met your sister and her friends, what shall we do?”

“Go up to my bedroom? Then you can put your bags down,” Lily suggested. “Oh, by the way, you’ll all be sleeping in my bedroom as well as me, if that’s OK. Marge and Vernon are in the spare bedroom.”

“That’s all right,” Peter said, and the other boys nodded.

Lily led them up the stairs to her bedroom. It was medium-sized, but the five of them would just be able to fit their sleeping bags in there on the floor comfortably. James looked around.

The desk and floor were tidy – having been in the seventh year girls’ dormitory before, he knew that Lily was only a relatively neat person, and he suspected that her parents had made her tidy her bedroom. She was Muggle-born, so there were various items in the room that weren’t familiar to James; he didn’t take Muggle studies. Her walls were white, but she had several posters on them, which helped to add colour. James was pleased to see that most of them were of Quidditch games or teams – the others were on the theme of saving animals and banning hunting.  

“Prongs, look,” Sirius whispered to him, pointing at a particular poster by Lily’s bed. It showed a large deer, and bore the words “BAN DEER HUNTING” in large, bold red letters.

James grinned. Good for you, Lily, he thought to himself, and glanced at her. She was standing by the door with a discomfited expression on her face that told him she was waiting for the others’ opinions of her bedroom. He decided to relieve her from her awkwardness.

“I like your bedroom, Lily. It’s cool,” he said, causing her to smile at him.

“Thanks,” she said. He grinned back.

“You’re really against animal hunting, aren’t you?” he said, gesturing to the posters on her walls.

She nodded. “Yeah. I think it’s disgusting that people hunt animals for their fur, or because they kill another creature for food – I mean, humans kill other animals for food all the time … how would we like it if we started being hunted to death?”

“Exactly. And to kill an animal because it supposedly wrecks fences and land …” James glanced at the poster of the deer. Being a stag in his Animagus form, he had a certain empathy for the animals. “They don’t know that boundaries mean they’re not supposed to enter a place, do they? It’s not their fault.”

“When you two have finished your discussion,” Peter cut in, “we could decide what we’re going to do.”

“Oh … yeah, OK,” James said.

Nobody was really sure what they were going to be doing over the next few days. Fortunately for them, Mrs Evans had foreseen this, and had several suggestions.

“You could go to the cinema … go into the town and have a look around … go bowling …”

Mrs Evans was the optimistic type, who believed in giving things a go, and thought that there was no harm in trying new things. It was because of this that she had booked for the five of them to go horse riding for two hours the following afternoon. None of them had ever been horse riding before; Remus, Lily and James were looking forward to it; Sirius wasn’t sure whether he wanted to go or not; and Peter was certain that he was going to fall off his horse. 

They arrived at the stables at two o’clock the next afternoon, after driving for half an hour in Lily’s mother’s car. Peter was in the front passenger seat next to Mrs Evans, and Sirius, Remus, James and Lily were squashed into the back. How they all got in there, Mrs Evans had no idea (she was oblivious to the charm which Remus had performed on the car). She said goodbye to them and drove off, after reminding them to wait outside the stables at four o’clock for her to come and pick them up.

Once he was seated on his horse, a large brown creature that kept flicking its tail, Peter realised that he had been right. He was up here and he was terrified. Sirius wasn’t looking too happy either; he was clutching the reins as if they were his life support and peering tentatively down at the ground, wondering exactly how high he was. It felt extremely high.

Remus, James and Lily felt relatively at ease on their horses. James was used to being up high, as he flew on a broomstick regularly. Remus was perfectly competent on a broomstick, so the feeling of being higher that normal wasn’t particularly daunting. Lily, although she had hardly ever been on a broomstick, liked the feeling of being up high. As James had kept kindly pointing out to her last year, most of the second years at Hogwarts were taller than she was – at five foot three, she wasn’t what could be described as tall – and she found it quite irritating sometimes having to look up at people she was speaking to. But up here, she was far higher than the stable hands on the ground that bustled around tacking up the horses and helping people to mount.

“Are you OK, Sirius?” Lily called, concerned. He was looking a little green, and his face was very pale. He made a strangled sound in reply.

“Hi,” said an unfamiliar voice. They turned to see a girl on a grey, dappled horse trotting towards them. “I’m Kate, and I’m going to be supervising you on the ride, making sure that you’re all right.”

“Hello,” they all chorused. Kate wasn’t much older than they were, about nineteen, with long blondish hair tied back into a ponytail and grey eyes. She clicked her tongue, and her horse set off at an obliging walk.

When his horse started moving, walking slowly with the others along a woodland trail, Sirius felt even worse. And trotting was hell. He just couldn’t seem to get into the rhythm of his horse’s gait, and was subsequently being bumped up and down at every step the black horse took.

He looked at Lily, James and Remus, who were trotting in front of him and Peter. They were in rhythm with their horses’ movement, and seemed completely at home. Sirius sighed. He glanced in Peter’s direction, and smiled slightly. At least Peter felt the same as he did; his face was clenched in fierce concentration, and he was battling hard to stay on his horse, which was jogging along merrily, oblivious to the fact that its rider was on the verge of falling off. 

James’s horse was between Lily’s and Remus’s, and he didn’t mind the fact that it kept nosing Lily’s horse every now and then. He grinned, and glanced over at her.

He had never noticed quite how green her eyes were before. They were such a captivating, dazzling colour … and her hair shone a million different reds in the pale wintry sunlight, making the snow on the ground look boring in comparison.

James was so busy staring at Lily that he didn’t realise everybody else, including Kate, who was riding in front of them, had stopped. His horse went straight into the back of Kate’s horse, and he jerked to a halt with a yelp.

“Sorry –” he said to Kate. She smiled tolerantly.

“That’s all right – oh, Lord, not again!” She turned her horse, a magnificent animal with white socks and intelligent eyes, around and began to separate Lily and James’s horses, who were nosing each other affectionately. James and Lily looked at each other and started to laugh; their horses refused to be parted and Kate was thinking about giving up on them.

“Pepsi, Merlin!” she said in a pacifying voice, rubbing their ears in a kind way. They glanced up at her, and she took the reins of James’s horse, Pepsi, and led it away from Lily and Merlin. Lily smiled at James as he glanced back at her, shrugging.

She wondered why she hadn’t realised how nice his eyes were before now. They were a light, hazel brown at the moment, but at times they could be a black that was as dark as his hair, particularly when he was angry. His eyes were twinkling merrily, full of fun, and when he smiled, they lit up as if he had just done something incredibly brilliant.

“Hey, Lily!” Remus said, prodding her in the ribs. “Earth to Lily Evans!”

“Wha’?” she said vaguely, her emerald eyes focused on James’s back.

“Is something wrong?” Remus said gently. He shook her slightly. “You’ve been very … out of it, the last two days. Ever since we arrived. Is something worrying you?”

“Er,” said Lily. “Um … no, I don’t think so.” She smiled impassively at Remus, and then continued to stare at James.

Remus looked at her and shook his head. He didn’t know what the matter was with Lily, but she definitely wasn’t being her usual self.   

When the two hours were up, Lily, Remus, James, Sirius and Peter dismounted their horses, and said goodbye to Kate, thanking her for taking them on the ride. They left the stables and piled into Mrs Evans’s car.

 As they walked into the house half an hour later, the telephone began to ring.

“That,” said Lily, in answer to Sirius’s look of confusion at something that just started ringing for no reason, “is a telephone.”

Sirius looked at in awe, and picked it up slowly. The others could hear a voice at the other end.

“ … Marge dear? Is that you?”

Sirius, Remus, Peter and James started to laugh. Lily, making signs to tell them to be quiet, grabbed the telephone off Sirius.

“Hello, Mrs Dursley,” she said. “Sorry about that … no, she’s not here at the moment. She’s gone to the cinema with Vernon and Petunia. Yes, I’ll tell her. OK. Bye.” She put the telephone down and started to laugh. “Sirius! Why did you pick it up if you didn’t know what to do once you had?”

Sirius couldn’t answer her. He was hanging on to James for support, his face convulsed with giggles.

“Marge dear? Is that you?” said Remus, in a perfect imitation of Mrs Dursley. This sent the others into another wail of laughter.