A/N: A very Merry Christmas to my amazing friend, Bridge, who has been a wonderful friend to me in the past few months. I really hope you like it! This is my first published fan fiction, so I hope you enjoy.
Christmas and Biscuits
. The snow drifted down on the village of Godric's Hollow, coating the streets with sheets
of white. Carols rang out from the small church – it was Christmas Eve, 1979, and in houses all over, children were staying awake in their beds, adults preparing for the next day, and in a particular cottage, on the outskirts of the village, Christmas Cookies were being baked.
Inside the little cottage, it was almost too hot for Lily, the fire roared in the grate and the oven radiated heat. The air was thick with the smell of baked biscuits – a surprise, seeing as James had never been good at cooking especially with Muggle appliances. Lily stood up from the warm lounge and set her book down on the coffee table.
She placed a hand on her belly – her baby. When she had discovered she was pregnant, Lily had at first been shocked. But it was a pleasant surprise all the same – she could not believe that in seven months, she and James would be cradling a baby in their arms – their baby, all their of their own. James's boundless enthusiasm for the child had kept her in high spirits for the past month or so.
Smiling to herself, she wandered into the kitchen where James was cooking, and leant against the kitchen counter. It was even hotter in here. Her husband was knelt down near the source of heat, doing who knew what. Lily rolled her eyes and smiled. It was just like James to - wait, was that smoke?
The stale stench of it filled the air as he opened the oven door and the smoke billowed out, filling the small kitchen. Lily covered her mouth and nose and coughed, then grabbing a magazine, tried to waft the smoke away.
Suddenly, James's messy dark hair emerged from the cloud of acrid grey. He was coughing fitfully, and Lily ran over in alarm.
"James? What in the name of Merlin happened?" He leant on her in support as he coughed again, pointing at the oven as if accusing it of a dreadful crime. Lily sighed, and dispatching James onto a kitchen chair, cautiously went over to inspect the cause of smoke. Covering her mouth with one hand, and waving away smoke with the other, she could just make out the cookies on the stovetop – burnt to ash on a silver tray. They looked like they'd been rescued from a furnace, smelling nothing like the sweet biscuits Lily had imagined before.
James joined her now, helping her wave away the last of the smoke clouds. His eyes fell forlornly on the ruined cookies. Lily knew he had been looking forward to making them the Muggle way. She grabbed his hand and smiled, patting him on the back. "It's okay, James, we can make some more later," though staring down at the slightly melted door of the oven, she amended, "Erm, maybe when the oven is fixed, though."
Her husband frowned. "But why, Lily? Why did it go wrong? I swear, I did everything perfectly, I put all the ingredients in the bowl, and I stirred it, and put them in for fifteen minutes, just like the book said!" James looked so much like a lost puppy with his confused and pleading eyes that Lily had to laugh. He looked adorable.
She planted a kiss on his cheek (which at least made him smile a little), and turned to the oven once again, scanning the scene for any clues. James watched, rambling on to her about the recipe, and how it was faulty.
"I mean, it's obviously this bit that made it wrong, who puts the chocolate chips in before you put them on the tray?"
Lily sighed. "James."
"And, this bit," he gestured to a paragraph wildly, "How could putting the milk in as the third ingredient help?"
"James."
"And whoever said putting this much flour in instead of more sugar is right is obviously Confunded."
"James!"
"Now, we'll have to rely on Sirius's stupid cookies, and who knows how they'll taste, I mean, he's a worse cook than me!"
"James! Will you listen to me for one second?" James stopped abruptly and looked at his wife. Lily stood with her hands on her hips, lips pursed, eyebrows disappearing into her bright hair. James grinned sheepishly, ruffling his hair in old habit.
"Sorry, Lils, What were you going to say?" He smiled sweetly.
Lily rolled her green eyes, but they sparkled with amusement. She pointed at the dial on the oven which set the temperature. "Why is the dial on five-hundred degrees?"
There was a silence, in which her husband cricked his neck between looking at the dial, the recipe book and Lily, who stood with a smirk on her face. He opened his mouth, and closed it again. His eyebrows furrowed as he read the recipe over. Finally, he bit his lip, lifted his eyes to Lily's. She stared back, arms crossed with an eyebrow quirked.
"Maybe I need new glasses?" James whispered.
The next minute he was being attacked by the copy of Witch Weekly that had supplied the recipe. Lily thwacked her husband on the head, shouting, with every hit.
"You – could – have – burnt down – the – house – James!"
To his credit, Lily noticed, he accepted the blows without resistance, only shielding his supposedly faulty spectacles with his arms.
"Okay, okay, Lily! I'm sorry!" She put down the book.
"You're lucky I'm not hexing you, you know."
"Then it would be just like old times, eh?" James joked.
His wife was not impressed. She drew her wand out of her dressing gown (James flinching) but instead of pointing it at him, she waved it, and the oven's door repaired itself. Another jab of her wand and the last traces of smoke evaporated from the room. With a final flick, the tray that held the black biscuits lifted itself up and floated over to the bin, whereupon it tipped its contents unceremoniously into the rubbish. James watched them wistfully.
Lily looked at James and sighed, her anger gone now. She knew how much James wanted to impress her by baking her cookies. He and Sirius had made a bet about it even, the best cookie maker (judged by Lily and Remus) getting to serve his biscuits at Christmas dinner, a day from now. But James had now ruined his batch, leaving Sirius the winner by default, unless they made some more.
"C'mon, James," Lily pulled her husband up out of his seat. "There's no use moping about it. We'll just have to cheat!"
James stopped in the middle of an over-dramatic sigh. He turned his head towards his wife's.
"Did you just say cheat?"
Lily frowned. "Do you have an aversion to it? I thought you cheated on everything!"
James chuckled. "Well of course I cheat, but Miss I'll-Tell-On-Anyone-For-Cheating-Even-If-It's-Only-First-Year doesn't, or has she mysteriously changed her ways?" He wrapped his arms around Lily and lifted her into the air.
Lily squealed, batting at his arms. "Put me down, James!"
"Not until you tell me why you cheat now!" He grinned
"Fine, fine! Just put me down, already!"
James relented, setting her down on the tiled floor. He then cocked an eyebrow, put a hand behind his ear and leant in. "Tell me your secret."
Giggling, Lily said, "I guess I've been badly influenced?" James grinned in reply, and picked her up again.
"So how do we cheat?" he asked.
"Like this!" With a flourish of her wand, a steaming batch of cookies appeared before them on the counter. James raised his eyebrows.
"They're from the store down the road; I bought them a couple of days ago. All I had to do was put a Freshening and Warming Charm on them, and voila!
James laughed, shaking his head. "I've taught you too well, haven't I?"
"Don't take all the credit, Mister. I could have done this without you, easy peasy!"
"Sure you could have."
"I could!" Lily protested, laughing. James smiled.
"Come on." He gathered the shop-bought biscuits onto a plate, and dragged Lily by the hand into the living room. Sitting down on the comfy chintz lounge, he gestured next to him.
"What're you doing, James?" Lily said confusedly.
"Enjoying my first married Christmas Eve with the love of my life," he replied. He patted his lap, and shoved one of the cookies into his mouth. Lily laughed and sat down next to him, taking her own cookie from the plate.
"I guess the boys will have to do without our amazing biscuits, then?"
James didn't reply, but wrapped his arms around Lily. They sat there, together, in silence, occasionally taking a still warm cookie from the plate, but mostly just enjoying the cold night, in each other's arms, their first married Christmas Eve. The fire roared warmly in the grate, and the couple sat together, forgetting about the war outside, forgetting their responsibilities, and forgetting everything else but each other, and the biscuits on the plate before them.
A/N: Please, please review, as this is my first published fanfiction. Any feedback is welcome! Merry Christmas!