Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me in any way.
Credit to Mariah Carrey for her song "All I Want for Christmas is You." I realized it did not come out until 1994, but it's fanfiction, so I'm using it anyway.
"Do you think she'll like it?" James Potter looked down anxiously at the ornate box in his gloved hands. He could feel himself shaking slightly. He took deep breaths to calm himself. He glanced about the Gryffindor common room, looking for a streak of fiery red hair. He wanted to give the love of his life, Lily Evans, a Christmas gift.
"Of course, Prongs, she'll love it," one of James's best friends, Remus Lupin, patted him on the back. "Who knows? Maybe now she'll go out with you since she'll see you really do care enough about her to get a beautiful gift for her."
"Not likely," chortled a voice from the chair across from the pair. Sirius Black was sitting in it idly; flipping through his magazine, 'Quidditch and You'. "Last year when you got Evans a box of candy canes, she accused you of buying the candy canes at Zonkos that change your appearance."
"Sirius, they were the Zonkos candy canes," Remus rolled his eyes. "James bought real ones from Honeydukes, you swapped them to see Lily's reaction."
"Which was hilarious, by the way," Sirius swung himself off of the chair to stand next to his friends. "She forced it down your throat- you were three feet tall for two weeks!"
"It wasn't that funny," James grumbled as Sirius guffawed. "And this year, it's not anything edible, so she can't accuse me of that."
"But she can accuse you of putting a curse on it," Remus said, stifling a laugh.
"Not you, too, Moony!" James groaned as his two best friends cracked up at his expense. "Is Christmas Eve the new 'Pick on James Day'?"
"Yes, it is," Sirius said solemnly. "We christened it so this morning."
"You two keep on laughing," James grumbled. "I'll go see if Peter's any more supportive of me than you two pricks!"
Just as James was about to leave through the portrait hole, the group's other friend whom James was just speaking of, Peter Pettigrew, came in.
"Did someone say my name?" Peter said, confused. "I thought I heard it out in the corridor."
"Oh, yes," Sirius said, coming to stand next to Peter. "James was just saying how wonderful it would be if you would make fun of his pitiful attempts to ask Ms. Evans out on a date."
"Oh," A furrow creased in Peter's brow. "You want me to make fun of you, James?" He directed at the messy-haired boy.
"No, Peter," James sighed. "Don't listen to Sirius. It'll make you live much longer if you never listen to a word he says. I'm going to get Lily's present ready."
Taking the engraved silver box, James marched out of the common room, with Remus and Sirius still chuckling at his expense.
"Merry Christmas!" Lily called after Lori Hall, her friend in Ravenclaw as they parted ways to head to their separate common rooms. Lily sighed, hugging her books to her chest. She loved Christmas time, especially at Hogwarts.
As Lily made her way through the corridor, she frowned thoughtfully. Usually, seven o'clock at night was a busy time for the halls going up to Gryffindor Tower. Today, it was very quiet. She wondered what could be the matter. Her question was answered as she reached the portrait hole.
As Lily approached the Fat Lady to give the password, she heard a slight movement to her right. She turned to look, only to see a group of house elves parading over to her. She gasped, looking amazedly at them. The house elves never came out of the kitchen, at least not when the student body was awake. What could be happening?
The group of about forty house elves stopped immediately in front of her and organized themselves into rows. Lily gaped. "What-" she began, but one of the house elves stopped her.
"Shh, miss, we is beginning now," he said quietly. All at once, the elves opened their mouths.
"I don't want a lot for Christmas," the house elves squeaky voices rang out. Lily buried her head in her hands. She could hear people approaching from behind her, obviously staring up at the singing house elves.
"There is just one thing I need," they rang out again. Lily glanced behind her, and nearly groaned out loud. There was about twenty people behind her, looking curiously from the house elves and then to her.
"I don't care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree," they sang out in perfect unison. Lily had a sneaking suspicion she knew who was behind all this…
"I just want you for my own, more than you could ever know," they sang. Lily clenched her hands into fist. Oh, if this was Potter and Black, they were dead three times over.
"Make my wish come true, all I want for Christmas is you." AS the house elves stopped their squeaking, they cleared a pathway to the portrait hole. The door opened slowly to reveal none other than James Potter, Lily's most hated adversary, who just happened to be infatuated with her.
"Will you make my wish come true?" James said, holding out an open silver box. "Because all I want for Christmas is you." He held the box out closer so Lily could glimpse what was inside.
A breath caught in her throat. It was a beautiful silver necklace, with pearls and small diamonds adorning every inch of it. It must have been the most gorgeous piece of jewelry she had ever seen. She looked up to see James grinning widely at her, a smirk marring his features. Lily clenched her formerly relaxed fists again.
"You prat," she hissed. James recoiled, obviously expecting a different reaction. "If you think you can buy my love, you are sadly mistaken." She kicked him in the shin. He nearly dropped the box, clutching his leg in pain.
"I hate you, Potter, and nothing will change that," she smirked, an evil idea forming in her mind. "Pachyderocis!"
James shrieked in pain as Lily's curse hit him in the mouth. He could feel ripping pain coming from his teeth. It lasted nearly ten seconds. When it was over, he didn't even need to cross his eyes to see the damage done. Lily had given him mammoth tusks.
James glanced up from his newly formed tusks to see Lily storming away, coming back from the corridor she came from. The groups of Gryffindors waiting to gain entryway to the common room parted immediately in fear that she would hex them as well. Lily's necklace was on the ground with the box over it.
As Lily disappeared from view, the crowd began to speak and head in their separate ways. From these emerged Remus, Sirius, and Peter, coming towards James at an alarming rate.
"Precatoris," Remus said firmly, pointing his wand at James's tusks. James expected to feel the ripping pain once again but it didn't come.
"Sorry, mate," Remus frowned. "Lily must have set the spell on a timer. No counter curse will work, at least not now."
"S'okay," James said, words slightly slurred.
"Better luck next year, mate," Sirius said, clapping him on the back. "Maybe she'll graduate from hexing you to cussing at you."
"Shmakes shme feel sho shcumtch beshter," (*) James said, glaring at his friends.
"As it should," Sirius said with a grin.
"Don't worry, James," Peter patted his arm. "She'll get over it."
"Unless you sic a pack of singing house elves on her again," Remus smirked. Sirius and Peter laughed while James just pouted.
From then on, for the rest of James's life, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and eventually Lily celebrated 'Pick on James Day' every Christmas Eve.
(*) "Makes me feel so much better." –Translation for James with his tusks.
Thanks for reading, and have a Merry Christmas!