A/N: Yeah, I know, this idea's probably been done before, but I tweaked it some because I needed a Christmas fic. Even though it won't sound too much like it at the beginning, it really is a Christmas fic. Sort of. Just finish it and you'll see.

Takes place during the winter of Year 4. And read the whole thing before you decide I'm a loony-bin high on sugar. Trust me.

This is a two-shot, guys – this chapter has been posted on the eve before Christmas Eve and the next bit will be posted on Christmas Day.

Happy Holidays, my darlings!

Xx

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Too Good to be True
By: Zayz

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James POV

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If only she knew.

That's the story of my life, really, if I think about it hard enough.

If only she knew.

Of course she doesn't. Lily is one of those girls who doesn't care enough to. It's the single most maddening thing about her (and I've got quite an extensive list to choose from), and yet it is the thing that draws me most to her, because if this is what she is without knowledge, imagine how she would be with it.

The possibilities are endless, endless, but they're nonexistent because she doesn't bleeding know.

Frustrating. It's all so damn frustrating.

I muse upon this in the common room, sitting here, alone by the fire with a mug of butterbeer on this cold Christmas night. Things are deathly quiet, because it's about four in the morning Christmas Day and the party ended about an hour ago. The sun should be rising soon. People high on firewhiskey have already crashed in bed and here I am, the only one here, drinking butterbeer wide awake and thinking about Lily, the girl who knows absolutely nothing of true importance.

Yeah, she's book-smart all right – she is at the top of our class and the teachers adoreher – but she doesn't know me. I want her to know me; and that's the exact reason she won't know me. It's a sick sort of irony, really, and Sirius thinks it's karma.

Me? I think the Big Guy Upstairs is just having his Christmas laugh at my expense over some heavenly wine.

It's sad, because I'm a bloke sitting down here by myself, and normally it's the girls who do that, thinking about how pathetic their lives are without some guy to knock up after they've been intoxicated well enough. It's been a girl thing through all my fourteen years – never would I have even considered the possibility of myself indulging in nonsensical self-pity before now – but there we go again, with the whole having-a-laugh-at-poor-old-James-Potter deal.

Sighing to myself, I stare into the dying fire and all I can think about is the fiery red hair of the girl I love. Her hair is the color of the orange in that flame, vivid and too hot to touch (rather like her, come to think of it), and Merlin, if only she knew how she could make me feel. I don't know who made up the rule that guys are emotionless robots, but I certainly don't follow it. Anyone who knew Lily Evans wouldn't.

I drum my fingers on the arm of the sofa I am seated upon and take a hearty swig of butterbeer, the warmth of the drink spreading through my insides as only butterbeer can. And that's when I hear it.

The sound of softly padding feet coming down the staircase.

Curious to see who my company is at this strange hour, I turn instinctively and a figure clad in moderate pink catches my eye. I double-take just because I didn't expect this to happen, not at all, not one bit:

Because here comes Lily Evans, Lily Evans, descending down the stairs in her nightgown, barefoot and determined, right towards me.

The first thing I can think is holy fuck, where did she come from?! Lily left the party at around midnight, claiming to need to go to bed, so she should be sound asleep, not here, not with me, not when I'm thinking about her. I'm disarmed, not prepared for her. What could she possibly want with me now, when she refuses to catch my eye every other minute of every other day?

She sashays towards me with the grace of a dancer, her steps strident and confident, her hair barely rustling despite the speed she's coming at. I'm kind of speechless, watching her come to me; and instinctively, I stand up, curious, slightly shocked.

"Evans, what are you doing down?" I ask, because that's the logical thing to ask a girl when she comes to the common room at four in the morning. "Anything wrong?"

"Don't be foolish, you know exactly why I'm here." Her smile is mischievous – and rather alarming for it, if truth be told – and she stands so close to me I can soak in her soft, floral scent emanating off her body.

"Erm…" I'm at a loss for words. What am I supposed to say to that?

She puts a finger to my lips and her eyes twinkle with impishness that I'm not accustomed to seeing from her. Like I needed to be told to keep quiet; for the very first time in my life, I'm speechless, and she knows it. She removes her finger.

"I'm here," she says, slyly unbuttoning the first couple of buttons on her gown to reveal a hefty amount of cleavage, "because while I was upstairs, lying around listening to a party go on, I couldn't stop thinking about you. I didn't hear you come up when your friends did, so I decided to see if you were still here. Turns out you are."

I clear my throat, trying hard not to stare but failing miserably. "Erm, yes, I am still here."

She rumples up her red hair at my words, looking sexier than I could ever tell her in the strange, surreal glow of lighting left after the party. She takes one more step closer to me and I swear, I stop breathing for a second.

"Good," she says. "It's just you and me now."

A little confused, I must ask her, "Evans, don't you…don't you hate me, o-or something?"

I don't like to stutter, truly I don't, but her sudden appearance, her bold actions…it makes a guy who's been cursed many times over for even looking at a girl's arse just a tad nervous. And indeed, I'm even more nervous when a ripple of stark irritation passes over her face, her jaw setting in a way that means trouble.

"Don't call me Evans," she says, her tone unexpectedly strained. "I don't like it."

"What do you want then?" I ask.

"I want you to call me something else…like Lils, or Flower, or Lil…even plain old Lily would do." Her eyes are far too enigmatic for their own good. "Anything that's not Evans."

"Oh…kay." I clear my throat once more. "Lily it is."

She takes one more step and now she's so close we're almost touching. Her perfume is even stronger now, but it hasn't lost its beauty. She does smell bloody fantastic. I swallow and find my throat is actually very thick. Wow.

With a smile that would make Aphrodite jealous adorning her full, rosy lips, she puts her arms around my neck and whispers so quietly that my spine tingles and my stomach knot, "Thank you."

"D-Don't mention it," I say, awkwardly letting my hands rest on the curve of her waist. It's amazing that she hasn't slapped me for touching her yet. This is almost way too good to be true.

"You know…" Lily's face is right in mine, close enough for me to see every shade of those brilliantly green eyes of hers, and her breath fans out right under my nose. "James, you've always been a dashing sort of bloke."

"Have I?" I try to flash her a grin, but it comes out a bit weak, mostly because she is starting to play with the front of my buttoned shirt.

"Yes," she purrs in confirmation, her hands now starting to go to my hair. "I just…couldn't tell you so. After all the fuss I'd made before, how could I stand up and say that I was monstrously attracted to you? It wouldn't have done."

"I suppose not." I'm trying to play along and sound conversational, but she doesn't know how she's making me feel right now, with her hands all over my hair and her body pressing up against mine without shame. Merlin…

"Of course not." She holds my stunned face in her hands and presses her mouth so carefully on my nose, applying her pressure and letting go so deftly I'm left even more speechless. "But you know what, I'm tired of playing games. I'm tired of pretending I hate you; because the truth is, James, I don't hate you at all."

She blows in my ear, sharp and naughty. "Not even one bit."

"Bloody big waste of time, then," I say, rather hoarse as I move my hands up her back and pull her in even closer to me, "that you spent these four years acting like I was the bane of your existence. You and I could've been a fully-fledged couple by now, you know."

"I do know." Her velvety warm voice is now tainted with the essence of regret. "And I hate that I've taken so long to figure it out." She strokes my hair with the utmost care and presses her breasts against my chest, the feeling so perfect I could swear it was meant to be.

"But we're here now, aren't we?" She stares me right in the eye, her lips parted and her words barely there, the two of us so caught up in the intense intimacy we have that I have a hard time remembering it's four in the morning on Christmas day in the middle of the Gryffindor common room. "And I think that's all that matters."

"Whatever you say, Lils," I say, our foreheads touching and our noses grazing, breath intermingling in the distance between us while time somehow manages to both stop and stretch on forever.

"Exactly." Her mouth comes as close as it can to mine without actually touching me, the electricity between our bodies taut and filled to the brim with friction. "Whatever I say."

Her hands on the nape of my neck, she pulls me in at long last, and we kiss for the first time, every part of us touching, in our first clumsy exploration of the other.

Immediately, my blood surges and I feel a frenzy I've never known before. I know Lily feels it too, because the slow kiss we start morphs almost at once into something with primitive, animal instinct, fast and furious and needy.

Her mouth ravages mine and I ravage her right back, wanting her too much, far too much, but not being able to find enough of her. She's as close as I can bring her, but she's not close enough, and Merlin, she smells so good, she feels so good, she tastes so good, it's hard to imagine a creature of such perfection even exists.

I can't breathe. I can't think. Nothing, nothing matters, just me and my hot blood and her, all of her, our scrambling, hasty kisses surer than anything we've ever done. I want her more than she could ever know.

Overtaken by the strength of our kisses, we fall back against the sofa I'd been sitting at, glad for some place to rest and properly kiss. She doesn't skip a beat, her legs tangling up viciously with mine and her hands clutching my hair so hard it's probably going to fall out. My own hands are engulfed in the locks of Lily Evans, and she's all I feel, she's all that's here, my mind is blank, it's her, only her, and Merlin, I love her.

One of my hands is on her arse and I clutch onto it and she moans into my lips, making me want her even more, if it's possible. I'm drowning in her, she's it, she's everything, but I can still never have enough of her, can crave more, more, more of her. I rub her bum, faster and faster, like that's going to help at all, and she almost bites my lip in her haste to get her tongue in there.

I can't swallow, can't do a thing; our tongues are having some kind of ferocious brawl in both our mouths, and Lily's robe, I think that's Lily's robe that I'm stripping off to get to her shoulders. I feel her fingers at the zipper of my pants, my body is getting ready, I can feel it coming; Merlin, this is my first time, but I want it to be with her, I've dreamt for it to be with her, I don't want it to be with anyone but her. Eagerly, I try to kick off my jeans while she tries to both devastate my mouth and rip my clothes off. It's an exciting, liberating experience.

This is how it should be, the two of us together, snogging like this is the only moment we've got, loving like we are never going to make it off this sofa. We finally manage to get our clothes off, we're only skin on skin, I can feel we're ready, I know we're ready, Merlin, I love this girl, I love this girl, thank you for letting me have this girl…

Oi…

No, not now, not now. I kiss Lily harder, faster, and she responds like only a girl in love can – by kissing me so hard we nearly fall and roll off the sofa. My guts are wrung out and frightened, I think it's coming…

Oi, James…

No air, no thought, no anything. Just her. Just us. I don't want anything else, goddamn it. I'm almost there…

James!!

What?

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Right out of the blue, James felt a very violent pressure on his shoulders, jostling him back and forth almost desperately; and his eyes snapped right open. It took him a moment to get his bearings back, but his friend Remus Lupin was standing over him, torn between amusement and frustration.

"Oh, Lupin." James rubbed his eyes, wildly looking around. "Lupin, where did Lily go? She was just here, I swear…"

Remus worked hard to hold back his laughter and said, "Prongs, I'm sad to say it, but Lily Evans went up ages ago. It's four in the morning. Let's get up to bed – you look bloody awful."

Disgruntled and slightly pink in the face, James sighed heftily and accepted his friend's hand, standing up and stumbling with Remus up the stairs to his dormitory.

As they went, James asked, "It is Christmas today, isn't it?"

"Yes, it's Christmas, mate, and Lily rejected you yet again; so you not only got drunk off the firewhiskey, but you didn't go too easy on the eggnog either." Remus chuckled. "You passed out just as the party was wearing down."

"Did…did Lily say anything about me before she left?" asked James. "Blimey, I can't remember anything."

Remus appeared rather pained, but admitted, "You tried to tell her you loved her, and she blew up at you, and stormed upstairs early because she couldn't stand the sight of you. Hence the whole you-taking-advantage-of-the-available-drink-and-ending-up-here-daydreaming issue."

"Fuck." James ran his hand through his hair quite wearily as the boys approached the dormitory. "I blew it again, didn't I?"

"To be frank…yes, you did." The brown-haired boy clapped his friend's shoulder, his expression dry but still somewhat sympathetic. "Merry Christmas, Prongs. Better luck next time."

Remus walked into the room and James trooped in after him, exhausted and now brilliantly embarrassed:

He really ought to lay off the eggnog and stop dreaming quite so much.

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A/N: Even though the next chapter shall be coming up day after tomorrow, that is no excuse for you not to review. The button's right down there, guys – all you have to do is type me a little message. It's not hard and you'll even make my day!

See you Christmas Day.
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