A/N: This is more of an ensemble Marauder's Holiday one shot, but with Lily and James being more in the spotlight. Inspired by the holidays and all the holiday goodness going around, Friends and of course, the Marauder's themselves. Please, read enjoy and comment. ^^ Merry Christmas Eve to everyone who observes it!

"Have I gone and died and woken up in a parallel universe? Lily Potter is letting others help decorate the Christmas tree? Her first Christmas tree as a married woman?" an unbelieving voice called out as it entered the living room. Peter and James sniggered as they continued to hang ornaments.

"Shaddup Sirius!" he voice called back as she draped tinsel on the tree. Lily stood back and critically studied the tree. It looked okay she thought.

"Whatever you're thinking, Mrs. Potter, don't worry. It looks fine." Her best friend's voice teased.

Lily turned around and saw Rowan MacIntire and Sirius Black grinning widely at her. She tried to keep a stern face on but failed miserably. Her face broke out in a smile and she shook her head.

"I come bearing supplies!" Rowan proclaimed shaking a big box that rattled with its contents. She enthusiastically plunked the box down a little too hard and they all heard some things break.

Lily looked at her. "Oops," Rowan said sheepishly. "But then again, that's what magic is for!" she brightly said as she opened the carton and waved her wand. The ornaments repaired themselves.

Remus and James peered into the box and took out the ornaments with a critical eye.

"Dancing unicorns? DANCING UNICORNS?" James said loudly shaking the ornament. Rowan nodded. "Dancing Unicorns, snowmen…HOUSE ELF ORNAMENTS?" James cried out. Remus looked one and turned it over in his hands.

"Yeap, got them custom made!" Rowan said proudly. Lily smiled and shook her head.

"What kind of tree are we creating here?" James sputtered.

"The most awesome tree in the WORLD!" Rowan declared.

Lily laughed and turned to Sirius. He brandished a foiled covered dish at her.

"Look! Look! Lils, I COOKED!" Sirius said proudly. Rowan coughed slightly. He looked at her.

"Baked. Sirius baked." She corrected. Lily snorted and accepted the dish from him.

"What's the difference between cooking and baking?" Sirius asked confused. Rowan rolled her eyes.

"Baking usually involves an oven, and it's finished food in a closed oven by heat above 180 degrees up to 260 degrees. Cooking is cooking food by boiling in liquid 80 degrees to 100 degrees." Lily explained. Sirius just looked at her with a befuddled expression.

"And both of them do not involve setting off the fire alarm!" Rowan added loudly as she grabbed some Christmas lights. She plunked her butt on the couch and started to untangle them.

"Oi Lily, what is up with using all these tiny gold coloured lights? At James' house we used to use real live fairy lights!" Remus said indignantly. His girlfriend, Marlene McKinnion laughed as she came out from the kitchen. In her hands was a bowl and she stirred its contents.

"That's such a good story grandpa!" Marlene teased. James' eyes widened comically at this and Lily shoved an elbow into his side. "Relax James. I'm not pregnant and I don't have any plans to become pregnant any time soon."

"I should hope not, we've barely been married for six months!" He said in relief. Sirius tousled his hair affectionately. "Look at us getting all old. My best mate is married, another one of my best mates is engaged…Peter got promoted…"

"You got promoted?" Marlene squealed. She dropped the bowl she was holding and it shattered on the floor. Ignoring this she hugged Peter tightly who blushed.

"Yeah. It's not a big deal," he mumbled.

"Of course this a big deal! Congratulations!" Lily exclaimed. She too hugged him.

Mumbling something Peter blushed again and sat down next to Rowan and helped her untangle the lights.

Sirius waved his wand at the ceiling above the Christmas tree, snow began to fall, warm and dry and it looked lovely.

"Nice one Padfoot," James said appreciatively. He took a swig of the butterbeer he was holding.

"Thanks. I can't believe this is your first Christmas as a married couple!"

"Sometimes I still can't believe that we're married," Lily added.

"Me either, just last year we were studying our brains out for NEWTs and having snowballs fight outside on the grounds of Hogwarts." Marlene said. "I miss Hogwarts," she added sentimentally.

"Done!" Rowan said triumphantly. She waved her hand at the tree with a flourish. "Ta da!"

Lily and Marlene looked at the tree. The Marauders stepped back and put their hands on their hips, all four of them, so to any visitor who would be looking in on the group would find this scene rather amusing.

"It looks like Christmas retched on the tree," Sirius finally said. James agreed.

The side of the tree that faced them was sagging under the weight of the sheer amount of ornaments that was on it. Tinsel was draped willy nilly all over the branches. An army of snowflakes cascaded down on one side of the tree and millions of tiny lights were wounded over every available branch, illuminating every glittery surface of the ornaments.

"It looks nice," Lily said mildly. Then she went to the tree and tugged at the base that it was on, she turned the tree around and sighed satisfied. "But this looks nicer," she added. Rowan shrugged.

"Now it feels more like Christmas." James remarked. The group laughed.

Around four the group sat down for tea and all of them stared at the foiled cover dish that Sirius so proudly had baked.

Gingerly Lily lifted a corner of the foil, and then with great trepidation she pulled the foil off completely.

Silence.

"So what did you bake exactly?" James inquired.

"A sour cream coffee cake," Sirius replied proudly.

Marlene gently pressed her finger on the surface. "Feels right, spongy, but firm."

"Looks okay," Remus added taking a good look at it. He lifted the glass bottom pan and looked at the bottom of it.

"Doesn't smell funny," Peter chimed in.

Rowan's shoulders were shaking as she silently laughed. Sirius shot her an annoyed look. She abruptly stopped and gave him an innocent look.

"Will you lot just stop being pansies and just try it? I worked really hard! I even set off…what's that thing called again?" Sirius asked Rowan.

"The fire alarm," she answered promptly. Sirius snapped his fingers. "Yes! The fire alarm!"

"And that's supposed to be a good thing?" Peter asked sarcastically.

"Shut up and try it." He snapped.

"Okay okay okay, everyone calm down. I'll try it first." James said waving his hands. Lily handed him a fork, and his fingers brushed lightly against hers. She blushed faintly; James smiled, amazing, he could still get a rise out of her in such a simple manner, even after being married for sixth months.

He grasped his knife and cut himself a small piece. Then he tentatively stabbed the piece of cake. He chewed for a moment. Then he said. "It's not bad. Not bad actually. It's actually…quite good!" he praised.

"Are you serious?" Marlene asked surprised.

"Try it!" he insisted.

Plates and forks were passed around and Sirius cut his cake with pride and watched as it disappeared into his mate's mouths.

"Wow this is really good Sirius!" Lily said as she helped herself to another piece. Sirius beamed at her.

"Well done Sirius. You are officially a grown up. You can bake." Remus congratulated.

"Now if he only learns how to cook he'd be a real man!" James snickered.

"Hey, I am a REAL man. I assure you. Rowan, assure him." Sirius looked at his girlfriend.

"Oh yes. Sirius is a real man. I assure you. In some areas. In other's…not so much,"

"Hey!" he cuffed an arm around her neck and messed up her hair.

Lily smiled at the couple. Then Sirius added, "I can cook. I can cook toast."

"That's not cooking!" James protested.

"Wait, I can cook toast AND eggs." Sirius finished. He sat back with a "ha!" kind of look on his face.

"Well Sirius, if you're so confident in your abilities, then you can cook Christmas dinner for us," Lily said sweetly.

A panicked look slid onto Sirius' handsome features. Marlene laughed. "Don't worry, I volunteer to help."

James and Sirius let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank god. Otherwise we might all end up in St. Mungo's for food poisoning!"

"Shaddup James!"

"Okay so we'll see you on Christmas day around three or four all right?" Lily said kissing Remus's cheek as the group left the house.

"I'm sure we'll see you well before then, after all, we all our best mates," Rowan said sarcastically from outside.

"Actually Sirius mate you better come here earlier since you'll be in charge or Christmas dinner, and seeing as you'll need extra time to cook a second dinner after you've messed up the first one," James said tucking his tongue in his cheek.

"HEY!" His friend exclaimed outraged. Marlene laughed and patted his arm affectionately. "Don't worry, it'll be great, and I'll be there to help."

"Thanks for having faith in me Marlz," Sirius said wrapping his scarf around his neck.

"At least one of us does," Peter muttered. He waved goodbye and started down the path towards the main road.

"See you!" Lily called out. Then she shut the door, turned and smiled at James.

He pushed his glasses up his nose and pulled her closer to him. Wrapping an arm around her waist he pressed a kiss to her temple as they walked together down the hallway.

"Man that tree really looked as if Santa's elves went on an ornamental binge," James commented.

Lily laughed. "Rowan did go a little crazy,"

"She always goes crazy! Remember the birthday party she threw for you when you turned sixteen?"

"Oh man that silly putty was still stuck to some of the banisters of the staircase. McGonagall went nuts. She gave her a week's worth of detention."

"She always ended up detention somehow. What I find incredible is that you're her best mate and you never ended up in detention,"

"It's a gift," she shrugged.

"You know what else I think is a gift?" James asked. She raised an eyebrow.

"Your lips," he grinned and kissed her. Lily giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck.

James laughed and broke off the kiss to wave his wand over at the gramophone. Bing Crosby's White Christmas floated out and Crosby sang dreamily about glistening tree tops and sleigh bells.

He wrapped one arm around her waist and captured her other hand in his. They danced around the room, laughing and kissing as he twirled her around. He dipped her and kissed her lightly on the lips.

"I love you," he grinned.

"And I love spending time with you," Lily teased. James stuck his tongue out at her and she slapped a hand to his chest. "Kidding. You know I love you. Sometimes I ask myself why, and then I give myself a headache, but that's okay."

"Lily!"

Lily tipped back her head, exposing her smooth creamy skinned throat and laughed and laughed.

"Ruining the moment here!" James said loudly over her laughing.

She took several deep breaths and calmed herself down. Then she went behind him and put her arms around him. She pressed her cheek to his and James closed his eyes inhaling her familiar scent. She smelled of soap, her raspberry scented body cream and of the candle they lit in their bedroom every night.

A year ago, he would have never, in his widest dream, imagined he would be in this particular scenario. They had started to date last November but he never thought he'd be married straight after graduating school.

Life was funny sometimes in that way. You can plan and plan and plan. You could pray and beg and scheme and hope and still life threw you're a curved Quaffle.

"I'll un-ruin the moment right now," she said. James looked up at her; she smiled down at him.

"And how do you do plan on doing that?"

She took his hand in her own and walked towards the archway that led to the kitchen. Then she stopped and gently ran a finger down his jawbone, his nose, his lips, tracing his features, as if she was reading some story only she could see on there.

She gave a content sigh and then tipped his chin up with her finger. His hazel eyes landed upon the mistletoe. His lips curved.

"Merry Christmas James," she said.

"It's not Christmas yet! We still have two weeks to go!"

Lily's shoulders slumped and she gently head butted him in his chest. "I know, way to ruin the moment!" He said. He felt her shoulder shake.

"Here, let me un-ruin it," he suggested. Then he wrapped his arms around her neck and brought her closer to him. He kissed her softly then enveloped her into their own private world as he deepened the kiss. They both took and gave and drank and drew and everything was bright and clear.

"I love you," he murmured against her lips.

"I love you too, James," she softly said. "Merry Christmas,"

"We still have two more weeks!"

fin

A/N: Love it? Hated it? Any thoughts at all? Please review!