Disclaimer: I write Harry Potter fanfiction for enjoyment. That's all. This holds over for all chapters.

That Christmas String

L is for Lily

The sixteen-year-old Lily bobbed her feet up and down idly as she stared into the fire in a not-so-focused manner. It was winter – December 1st to be exact - and she was not happy in the least bit. It was cold and she was stuck inside – there was no way to escape Potter now.

Lily let a sigh escape her and she turned her gaze towards the coffee table where she had recently been finishing her homework. She was currently sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room – that was nearly abandoned - and wishing that she could just go to bed.

Lily took a quick glance towards the stairs leading up to the boys' dormitories wondering if she should just risk her friends' anger for using Lumos for homework instead of suffering under the frantic whispers of Potter and his friends hiding on the staircase. Shaking her head, Lily turned her head back to the fire, snuggling closer under the gold-trimmed red blanket. She slowly closed her eyes, readying herself for sleep, although she should be finishing homework, when...

"Hey, Lily!"

"Ah!" Lily screamed. She flung her hand up in surprise and found herself smacking someone behind her in the face.

"That wasn't very nice, now was it?" Sirius said as he rubbed his slightly pink nose.

"What do you want, Black?" Lily asked, sighing. Being pulled out of a sore mood by a nuisance wasn't a good way to lift her spirits – not to mention she had just been about to fall asleep!

"I need your help," Sirius said with a wide grin.

"What is it?" Lily gave another loud sigh causing Sirius to give her a mock reproachful look, which she brushed off.

"I need you to take this string." Sirius pulled a string out his cloak pocket and shoved it in Lily's face as he walked around the velvet chair, causing her to shrink as far back into her seat as she could.

Lily took her foot and gave Sirius a hard push in the chest, causing him to go crashing into the coffee table behind him. Lily fought to hide her grin and stood up, putting her hands on her hips. "Now what am I supposed to do with a random string?"

Sirius gasped and put his hand up over the string as if protecting it. "This is not some random string – this is magic."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and so is this whole place."

"Regardless!" Sirius pursued, holding up his hand and squinting.

Lily shook her head and just gave a small smile at the strange boy before her. "It's a string. What am I supposed to do with it?"

Sirius turned to her with a grave face. "I need you to take the string."

"What will happen if I take the string?" Lily asked.

"Are you trying to be difficult, woman?" Sirius groaned.

Lily scowled at Sirius. "What – am I – supposed – to use – the string – for?" She said in intervals, taking a grand crescendo to show her frustration.

Sirius opened his mouth to reply smartly, but they both were distracted as the Common Room portrait flew open and then slammed shut. Sirius glanced at the door in surprise, shaking his head, and then turned back to Lily – opening his mouth once again.

Lily tapped her foot impatiently.

"Uh – what was the question again?" Sirius asked.

Lily took a deep breath and began massaging her tired eyes. She just wanted to go to bed! Why did she have Sirius push a piece of string onto her?

"Why do I need the piece of string?" Lily asked once more. "I'm warning you now, Black – if you don't answer the question right now I promise I will not take the string and I will go straight up to my dormitory and fall asleep!"

Sirius gave her a pleading look and then took a quick glance around the Common Room. "I'll be frank, all right?"

"That's all I ask," Lily said with a nod of her head.

"This is something I really need you to do. Please take the string – It's all in the thought of Christmas spirit!" Sirius said while holding out the small piece of glittering string hopefully.

Lily stared at his solemn face and judged it. Then, with the hope that this wasn't some ridiculous joke, she snatched the string from Sirius's hands.

Sirius's smile grew until it took up the whole bottom half of his face and he bowed. "Thank you, fair lady."

Lily waved her hand around and rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

Sirius stood back up and stared at her, as if wishing to say something to her.

Lily just gazed at him and raised her eyebrows. "What?"

"Aren't you going?" Sirius said.

"What the hell do you mean, Black?" Lily said with a scoff.

"Well, obviously you're supposed to be going to the Entrance Hall!"

Lily walked menacingly towards Sirius, raising her fist to shake it at him. Sirius began backing away slowly. "So help me, Black – if you don't tell me the whole story behind this damn piece of string I'll get you detention with your family!"

"Okay, okay!" Sirius said as he cowered behind a chair.

Lily backed away, taking deep calming breaths.

"You need to take that piece of string and tie it to another piece of string in the Entrance Hall." Sirius slowly began backing towards the dormitory stairs, finally breaking out into a run as he reached the bottom of the staircase and the end of his explanation. "Trust me – it's all in the spirit of Christmas!"

Lily glared at the now empty staircase and turned towards the chair she had recently been lounging in. She threw on some slippers and walked towards the Fat Lady's Portrait. She stopped and held back from pushing it open. She didn't really have to listen to Sirius. She could just walk on up to bed and go to sleep. Right?

She could – but she was curious. It was a piece of string – what could be so important about this piece of string being tied to another in the Entrance Hall?

Lily pushed the portrait open purposefully and shivered as the cold castle air hit her menacingly. Not the best time to be wearing a tee-shirt and thin PJ pants. Lily uncrossed her arms and stared at the piece of string, watching the glitter woven into it shine as she passed the occasional torch in the corridors.

Lily finally came to a stop – around the third floor – and pulled herself closer to a torch. The first reason to warm her cold body, the second to be able to find out where she was - due to her not having her wand handy, and the third to figure out what colour the string was.

She was warm within a few minutes, but throughout that whole time, she spent it studying the piece of string. It was only a little longer than her middle finger and it was red and green all interwoven with glitter sparkling off it – much like those festive hair ties that many department stores sell around Christmas time. Lily sighed and shook her head, pulling her eyes away from the intriguing piece of string, and began looking for a marker to signify where she was.

After looking around for a good amount of minutes, she found down the corridor was a large statue that was of a raven – there was no reason for it, but that told her that she was near the staircase towards the second floor.

By the time Lily arrived at the Entrance Hall, she was shivering again. She clapped her slippers down against the floor as she walked towards the middle of the pitch-black room, turning in circles to see if her eyes would adjust or see any kind of light.

After she found her eyes would not adjust, she sighed and shook her head. "Absolutely ridiculous of Sirius to send me to do a dirty job in pitch-black! Prat," Lily muttered.

"You probably shouldn't be calling him the prat," a voice muttered behind her.

Lily spun herself around in surprise and light soon flooded the room.

James Potter stared back at her with a blushing face hidden behind a hand. "Sorry. You can go back to bed. This was stupid."

Lily shook her head angrily and her mouth fell to the floor. "No way – you made me travel all the way down her for a stupid piece of string and I want to know why!"

James sighed and pulled out a bouquet of flowers. "The string was just a decoy. I was – I was going to give you these lilies, but you don't like lilies, do you? I mean, it was so hard to get them in winter so I thought – well, I don't know what I thought."

Lily shrugged. "A decoy?"

James gave a sheepish grin, but immediately swiped it off his face. "Sorry. This – this was really stupid. I should've just let you fall asleep."

Lily slowly let a grin creep up her face. "The string was a decoy to get me down her so you could ask me out?" She asked in disbelief.

James stared at her apologetically, with a small twinge of "why are you smiling about this, crazy lady?" thrown in.

Lily then burst into laughter, holding the string in her hand and staring at it. Tears began to form in her eyes and she found herself crying from laughing so much.

James just stood dumbfounded and let the arm holding the lilies drop. "I told you the idea was stupid. You don't like lilies."

"No – no!" Lily waved her free hand and pulled up from her crouched position – tears, stomach pains; laughing could sometimes be painful.

"What? Are you okay?" James asked fervently.

"No! I'm fine," Lily slowly pulled herself up to a standing position and let out a few last chuckles. "Lilies are fine. I just – don't like receiving them. It's kind of corny."

"Either way, it was a bad idea. I'll take you back up to the Common Room. You don't have your wand," James muttered dejectedly.

"No," Lily said softly.

"What? Don't you want to go to bed?" James asked.

Lily slowly reached a hand out and grabbed the bouquet of lilies. She took the piece of string and held the flowers in the crook of her arm as to not crush them, and tied the Christmas themed string to the bottom.

"Er-" James started.

"Look," Lily said with a teasing smile, "if you're desperate enough to use a piece of string as a decoy to get near me and ask me out – then maybe I should give you a chance."

James slowly let a grin creep up his face – as if afraid that what Lily was saying was a joke. "Are you sure?"

Lily bit her lip. Fighting this for six years was a hard battle, but – but there would always be a doubt in her mind. If she turned him down now, she would wonder. She would wonder if it would've been good to accept it – just try one small date with him. It wouldn't kill, would it?

"Yes. I'm sure."

James face sprung into a giant smile and went to hug her, but pulled back awkwardly. "Sorry."

Lily shook her head and took the one step needed towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck. When she pulled away, she began the walk back to the common room, James using his wand to light the way ahead.

The silent walk was awkward, but it was something they would overcome. And the silence wasn't as bad as Lily would have thought either. She was almost content – she was almost flying from happiness!

Lily stopped at the entrance to the Gryffindor Common room. "And James?"

"Yeah?" James said as he turned his face towards her, bringing the light closer to their faces.

"The lilies are wonderful."


A/N: This is for the 25 Days of Christmas Challenge over at HPFC. There will be twenty-five chapters all together.

Anyway, this was my first time writing Lily/James. Wow. I loved it. So much fun!

Questions: Did I manage to keep Lily in character? What about Sirius? How was the story overall?

Please review – I'd love to hear your thoughts!