A/N: I invented a wizard tradition. And took some creative licence. Also, I've never written JamesxLily and English isn't my first language, but I hope it's readable =P
This was written for Liza (forever-sirius*tumblr*com), for the hpficexchange.
(it wasn't titled but I needed one to post here, so my apologies for being so cheesy and boring and whatnot)
also, unbeta'ed
A Flick of Light
The floor's covered in snow to the point of no green being visible. The water on the lake has long frozen and most of the trees by the edge of the forbidden forest have lost their leaves. From far away, the castle, with its snow covered towers, looks like a mystical ice palace, but up close it makes Lily feel at home more than she has felt in her parent's house in years. She sighs, looking through the tall window in the Griffindor common room and blaming the depressive thoughts on the cold, and turns around when her name is called.
"You coming?" James asks, coat in one hand while the other keeps the entrance portrait open.
"Am I allowed to know where we're going yet?" she replies, still not moving.
"No," James answers with his crooked smile. "That's why it's called a 'surprise', Evans. And you're supposed to be clever."
She smiles, bathing in the warming feeling that the teasing leaves in her skin, in opposite of what it used to do, and finally walks up to her boyfriend. They're alone in the common room, as one would expect in a Saturday morning during the winter break, and her intuition tells her this is precisely why James asked her to meet him so early by the fireplace.
"I don't like surprises," she tells him half-heartedly as she passes through the entrance.
"You love surprises," James retorts, stopping outside as well and letting the Fat Lady's portrait close behind him. Over his shoulder, Lily notices the Fat Lady is fast asleep. "You just pretend not to because you never know how to respond to them."
He's right, of course he's right, and it still scares Lily a little bit that he knows her so well even though they have only been officially dating for less than two months. He really had been paying attention, she thinks, and feels all warm inside even with the cold air.
"Lead the way then. I promise to react honestly to your surprise. Even if I hate it."
"Aw, thank you, but not need to worry. You will love this one, trust me," James says, taking her hand and pulling her down the hall. "I know Meg did when Sirius took her there."
"And I'm supposed to believe you're a surprise repeater? Please, James. I know you better than this."
"I know, I was just testing you. And trying to calm you down." He squeezes her slightly sweaty hand and looks back to wink at her, which makes her blush, but she simply giggles and follows him in silence for the rest of the way.
Lily had never thought she and James would be able to stay quiet around each other. She'd been surprisingly happy when she realised how good it felt.
When they get to the Great Hall and James pulls her through the hardly open front doors, she realises she should have expected that. James has a thing for outdoors. He hates being locked down. Teasingly, she thinks it probably has something to do with his necessity of always having his hair messed up to look as if he just landed a flight and the wind helps, but before she can says this out loud, they're in the snow and it's almost 12 inches high and the sun hasn't even properly risen yet, which succeeds in erasing any other thought from her mind.
"James," she calls sweetly, making him stop with a pull of her hand. He turns to her expectantly, the childish happiness emanating from his every cell making her rethink her words. But then, she ends up saying, "Where exactly are you taking me? I mean, look at all this snow. We could—"
"Lils," he interrupts her, his voice soft and oh-so-patient. "Trust me, ok? You will love this."
She thinks for a second. Then, nods and lets him take her wherever the surprise is waiting.
At first, she thinks he's taking her to Hagrid's cabin. But then, he makes a turn and goes past it, farther away from the castle and into the school ground. She's about to ask if they are really supposed to be doing this when James speaks up.
"I'm hoping you've never done this before," he says sheepishly. "I don't think so, because you're muggleborn and this is a wizard tradition that parents do to their children. If you have, pretend you didn't, will you?"
"James, you're rambling," Lily states, amused. Then, after thinking for a while, "Is this your way of getting me excited?"
"Is it working?"
She just laughs. "Keep walking, Potter."
It doesn't take long to get there—whatever there is. Lily only knows they've arrived because James stopped her, only a few feet from the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and as crazy as he may be, she knows James would never take her there unless she vocally expressed her desire to do so.
She thinks about it. It's wrong, she knows, but she's slightly curious as to why James and his friends love it so much.
Before she can mention anything, though, a far away light catches her eye. It's shining from one of the few trees that haven't lost all of their leaves and, for a second, Lily thinks of the lights hanging from the houses and Christmas trees that certainly are ornamenting her street back on her home town.
But it can't be Christmas lights. Because they're at Hogwarts. Then what—?
"Have you ever thought about what the professors use to make the lights in the trees in the castle?" James asks with an important sounding voice, which makes Lily think he rehearsed this.
"I've always thought it was some kind of spell," she answers, feeling slightly foolish. In her defence, this is the first Christmas she has ever spent at Hogwarts, mostly because this is, after all, the last chance she's got to, and also her boyfriend is staying and she quite likes being around him. The fact that Petunia is bringing her new boyfriend home for the holidays was also a decisive factor.
James smirks. "Let me prove you wrong then. Merlin knows this is an exquisite occurrence," he says, and then pulls her toward the light. In her mind, Lily is going over all of the animals whose existence she has discovered since finding out she was a witch, but she hardly thinks James is taking her to see a dragon or any other animal capable of creating fire out of nothing.
As they get closer, though, Lily realises the animal has to be really, really small, because she can hardly see anything other than the lights from here. She thinks of small animals and goes through the short list, but she doesn't remember if any of them is capable of creating light.
"This only happen in the dark and during winter", James says, still with that rehearsed voice. "That's why we had to come so early. I could have taken you at night, but then it would be too cold to be outside and I know you don't like getting wet."
"I still have no idea what these things are," Lily says back, pointing at the lights with the hand that James isn't holding.
"I was counting on that," he whispers, and then makes a small run before pulling them to a stop inches away from the tree. With a careful motion of his free arm, he helps Lily get closer so that she can look at the—
Fairies.
"Oh my, James, are these…" she trails off, leaning closer, only to have a fairy appear inches from her face and attempt to bite her nose. James bates it away with his hand and Lily is about to reprimand him for hurting the fairy when she realises the small creature is okay and flying away rather indignantly.
"They aren't exactly the friendliest creatures, but they look breathtakingly beautiful in a Christmas tree during the night. Because of the cold, they move faster, which makes their dust create some kind of orb around their bodies that shines really bright," James tells her.
"It's so pretty," she says, her hand itching to reach out and touch one of the fairies. They don't particularly look like the ones in the fairytale illustrated books from her childhood, but are unquestionably beautiful. "But," she turns to James, "how do you catch them to put them on the trees? Doesn't it hurt them or anything?"
"That's the tradition," says James mysteriously, and then pulls at the dragon leather gloves he's wearing. "I used to do this every year with my father when we both were younger. You have to catch them on the wings and be careful so they won't spit at you, but then you put them in a jar"—which he conjures with a flick of his wand—"and you're done."
Lily simply watches as James picks one of the smaller fairies by the wings and puts the fighting creature inside of the jar. He closes it and flicks his wand again so that small openings appear at the top of the jar, so that the fairy can breath, reminding Lily of the jar of worms her father always prepares when he goes fishing with his friends.
James hands her the jar, where the fairy is crustily trying to find an exit. The more she struggles, brighter the jar shines with the fairy dust that falls.
"You sure it doesn't hurt them?" Lily asks half-heartedly; the view is too beautiful for her to care too much.
"It doesn't, trust me. People have been doing this for ages. And," he conjures another jar, "I'd be willing to bet they actually appreciate it. After all, they're getting out of the cold to be the pretty ornaments in a Christmas trees. For such vain creatures, this should be a great honour." He hands her the empty jar.
Lily licks her lips, unable to fight a smile, and then, feeling like she's ten, tries to catch another fairy. And then another. And another one.
By the time they're done, there are almost ten occupied jars by their feet and Lily feels warm all over. No matter the cold breeze and the snow covering her feet and part of her legs; she can't remember the last time she had so much fun.
"This is so amazing, James," she says, finally looking at him properly ever since they started catching the fairies.
"It is, isn't it?" He smiles warmly at her. "I had a feeling you're like this."
"This is the best Christmas gift I've ever gotten," she tells him honestly, reaching out to hold his hand.
"But that isn't your gift yet. This was just me being a good boyfriend," he teases, brushing a few locks of red hair that have fallen over her eyes. "And optimistically wishing that my romantic gesture would get me kisses to unfrozen my lips."
"Oh my, you are incorrigible," Lily says, laughing even though she's leaning forward and holding James' jaw in place so that she can press their lips together. Indeed, his are really, really cold, but so are hers, she thinks, and just presses closer, wrapping her arms around his neck and standing on her tip toes, which isn't exactly the easiest with all the snow.
James leans forward to help and Lily uses her hands on his already messy hair to bring his face closer. Around them, the wind is getting harder and colder as the sun rises in the horizon, but she doesn't feel like moving. At least, not from James arms.
After a while, though, she pulls away and regretfully suggests going inside, since the wind is worse than before and there are dark clouds above them.
Carefully, then, they pile the jars and go back the way they came. James tells Lily to stay still for a second when they near Hagrid's cabin and runs there quickly to give him the jars. They probably had already arranged that, because Hagrid makes no questions and simply waves at Lily when James points at her. She waves back before hugging her body again to try and fight the cold, but luckily it isn't too long before James is back and they are fighting their way back to the castle.
"Ok, maybe this wasn't the best idea," he says when they get closer to the front doors with frozen feet and faces.
"It's just a little snow, James," Lily teases, opening the door and waiting for him to pass. "I loved it, seriously. And c'mon, let's go back to the common room. It's still early and we can lit the fireplace up and cuddle by the fire or something like that to warm up."
"I have a better idea to warm up," says James, coming behind her and kissing her neck over the scarf she's wearing.
She laughs. "Common room, James."
He sighs but lets her lead him there. And if he kisses her again by the time they are sitting in front of the lit fireplace and they lose a few of their wet clothes in favour of human heat, you can't really blame her. It is cold, after all, and her boyfriend just took her in yet another romantic escapade. It's only natural for her to give back a little.