Hello Hello! I am submitting this story as my contribution for Jily Secret Santa! My present is for the one and only Alexandra, otherwise known as miraclefred on Tumblr. I hope you like this fluffy seventh year Jily Christmas fic! Merry Christmas, 3 Taryo88 (as you all probably know, I do not own these characters. They are owned by the amazing JK Rowling)
Christmas Tradition
James Potter had been watching the Head Girl struggle to place the red and gold Gryffindor tree topper on the Christmas tree for the better part of thirty minutes, and it he still hadn't lost interest. His eyes clung to the way her body was stretched out and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't manage to stop ogling her perfect figure. He was sure she could feel the heat of his gaze boring through her back, but James had given up trying to care. It was after the thirty first minute that he couldn't take it anymore, and stood up from the couch he had been lounging on.
James made his way stealthily across the heads common room towards Lily, being sure not to alert her to his presence. He slunk right up behind her and took care to brush her back with his chest as he reached up along her arm to take the poor tree topper from her outstretched hand. When his fingers lingered over hers, he felt her shiver and then stiffen.
They had been dancing around each other for the past few weeks. James still loving Lily, and Lily being so obviously in denial that even the famously clueless Peter Pettigrew had noticed the definite change in affection Lily had acquired for the Head Boy. Sadly for James however, the one person who didn't realize Lily was in denial was Lily herself, but he simply took this situation in stride and used it as an opportunity to try and bump her in the right direction.
For James, being that close to Lily and not touching her was torture, so he took the liberty of "tripping" over his own two feet, leaving him with no choice but to place a hand on the Head Girl's waist as a means of steadying himself. A hand that he, of course, did not remove.
"Potter," she said stiffly, but not quite hiding the amusement that was in her voice, "would you mind removing your hands from my person?"
James wrapped both arms tighter around her thin waist after placing the red and gold ornament securely at the top of the tree. "I don't know Lils, I'm pretty comfortable just like this, and plus, I wouldn't even have needed you to prevent my inevitable face plant - very noble and chivalrous of you by the way - if you had just asked me for help in the first place. I mean, I could have easily put that up there withou- come to think of it, so could you!" James's face had become contorted with confusion as he pondered the thought that so helpfully had popped into his Lily-filled brain, "Why didn't you just use your magic to get it up there? Much quicker."
That comment seemed to finally break Lily out of her reverie and she turned towards James without breaking from his hold, surprising James further, because, unbeknownst to the Head Boy, Lily was no longer lingering in the stages of denial. There was a semi offended look plastered on her face. "Use magic on Christmas?" She asked sounding completely appalled by the idea; "I can't use magic on Christmas!"
"And why the hell not?"
"It's just that...I mean...magic...and Christmas...you know..." Lily stuttered quite uselessly before blurting out, "Christmas is a muggle holiday."
Now it was James's turn to look appalled. "What do you mean a 'muggle holiday'?" He asked, taking his hands off her waist to utilize them in the makings of air quotes.
Lily sighed. Turning from him, she perched herself on the couch and shook her head at him, "I didn't mean it's a muggle only holiday, I just meant...well I've always spent the winter hols at home, you see, and we always do things the muggle way." She seemed to ponder this for a second, "Well obviously we do, my family consists solely of muggles and wizard haters...anyway, I've never done Christmas the wizard way and I quite like the way I'm doing it now, so no magic on Christmas for me."
James simply shook his head, "That makes absolutely no sense."
Lily sighed again, "If I used magic on Christmas, I would feel like I was betraying tradition! And plus, Christmas is about doing things with friends and family; decorating the tree, making cookies, it just wouldn't feel the same if I took the lazy way out and used spells to do all that for me."
James stared at her for a few more seconds before slowly nodding his head. "Alright," he exclaimed, "where do we start, Evans?"
"What?"
"Well, we're doing Christmas the muggle way aren't we? You're the expert, where do we start?" The Head Boy was full out grinning at this point, delighted by the astonished look on Lily's face. She steadily got over her surprise, however, and donned a look of mock indignation.
"I don't recall inviting you, Potter. Who said I wanted to share my Christmas ways with you?" Lily was positively beaming at this point, relishing in the normalcy of their banter.
"Oh Evans," he said, clutching his heart, "your cruel words cut like knives. I was just hoping to participate in your strange, if not endearing, Christmas traditions, but alas, it was not meant to be."
Lily slapped his arm and sashayed up to the partially adorned pine that now held the Gryffindor tree topper, "Shut up and help me decorate this tree." Chuckling slightly at her excitement, James followed along like a hopeless puppy.
It was quite obvious to the both of them after the first half hour that James was terrible at "muggle Christmas". They had been enjoying themselves, deciding which ornaments to put where and which color tinsel would look best on each branch, but after a while it became clear that James's mind was elsewhere. When Lily became distracted, throwing her mind completely into the job she was doing, James would stop and stare. Just like with the tree topper incident, James's eyes could not be pealed from Lily's motions. The determined look on her face, the gentle way she held each delicate ornament, the way she smiled when she placed it in just the right spot. Everything Lily did was beautiful and graceful and precise, and James wanted to etch these moments into his brain and keep them safe forever.
Lily, however, was starting to notice James's lack of involvement, so in an act of self-preservation, James was forced to take drastic measures.
"When you said we should do this the muggle way I didn't know it would involve so much manual labor, Evans." He said, dramatically flopping back first onto the plush couch cushions.
Lily huffed, "If you can spend three hours straight practicing your stupid Quidditch plays, I don't think standing up here decorating a Christmas tree will kill you."
"Hey," He said, looking quite affronted, "don't insult Quidditch like that, you might actually hurt my feelings. And plus, that's different; I'm the captain now. All I have to do is yell at the rest of them. I haven't done any actual work since last year."
"Well then, now's a good time to start. Get your lazy arse up off the couch and go find us a radio or something. We have a serious lack of Christmas music playing right about now." Lily accented her command by throwing a pillow from the couch at James's head; a pillow that he effectively caught right before it mussed up his messy hair even more.
"Alright, alright," James waved his hands in a gesture as though speaking to a rabid animal, "I'll get your stupid music, on one condition."
"Yeah, and what's that?"
"Dance with me."
For the second time that night, Lily seemed to be thrown off guard. She paused in her action of putting more tinsel in the tree and turned to look at him. The sight of her took his breath away. There was gold tinsel in her red hair and her blue t-shirt was covered in needles from the tree, but to James, this is when she looked the most beautiful. Not trying to impress anyone, not being something she's not. Just. Pure. Lily.
There was an unreadable look on the Head Girl's face as she responded to James's words. "Alright," she said slowly, "but it better be good music."
The grin that worked its way across James's face was full of such unadulterated happiness that even Lily had to smile a little. As he searched for the radio he knew he had in his room somewhere, Lily tried to pull some of the tinsel out of her hair with no avail. When James finally exited his room with the radio blaring Christmas music and smirking like a five year old that had just won a board game, Lily had most of her hair devoid of tinsel and was starting to fidget with her shirt hem, wondering if this was a good idea after all.
By the time James reached her, the song had changed to one of a slower nature, so he swept her a bow and held out his hand, "May I have this dance?" he asked in his most posh tone.
"Why of course you may." Lily answered, matching his accent with one of her own, and they started to dance.
It started out as a game of who-can-mess-up-the-most, but as the dancing continued and James's hands found their way back to Lily's waist for the second time that night, and Lily's arms became linked around his neck, the distance between them decreased drastically and they swayed in a more serious manner in time to the rhythmic music.
"So," James started, his voice just above a whisper, "what else is there on the Muggle Christmas Itinerary? We've done 'Tree Decorating' and 'Christmas Music'. Unfortunately I don't think we could convince the house elves in the kitchen to let us bake things on our own without giving them heart attacks, so that knocks off 'Christmas Cookies'. Is there any part of your beloved tradition we are neglecting?"
"Just one thing." Lily responded with a mischievous look on her face.
"Yeah, and what's that?"
Sly as a fox, she pulled her wand out of her back pocket and conjured something right above them. James barely had time to look up and register what exactly she had done when Lily tugged softly on his tie and brought his mouth down to hers. The kiss was short but electric, and when it was over his entire body tingled with the warmth it had caused.
"Lily Evans, you minx," James said, chuckling, "I thought you told me no magic on Christmas!"
"I figured I could make an exception just this once," was her only response before covering his mouth with hers one more time.
It was in that moment that James Potter decided he quite liked tradition. And mistletoe.
But he especially liked Lily Evans.