Hi, this is my very first fan fiction, so I'm very sorry if there is any grammatical / spelling mistakes. Feel free to review. I'll be grateful if you do that. :)


"Mom, are they coming soon? I'm starving to death!"

Ginny Weasley heard her son shouting. She angrily yelled from the kitchen to the living room. "Stop complaining, James," she said sternly. "This is the third time you've asked that question in the last ten minutes. If you don't finish with the decorations quickly, they will come here soon and see what a mess this room is." She strode into the living room while her eyes carefully scanned the clean, yet a bit messy living room. Her two boys always left a great mess at wherever they went. If the Weasleys comes and they didn't have it finished yet,… But then, her thoughts were immediately cut off as the Christmas tree in the room's corner caught her eyes, which were staring in horror.

The Christmas tree was beautifully decorated, as it always was, except for the fact that its top was not really finished. Right close to it, Albus Potter was standing precariously on top of a six-feet-high ladder, placing one of the last ornaments on it grudgingly. Why was he always the one who did the work for James? "Another one, James," he said and reached out with his hands, waiting for one to come.

"Comin' through," replied James cheerily. As swift as a deer, he snatched a glass ball from an old carton box and threw it towards Albus, even though he knew that his mother was watching the whole scene. Luckily, the younger boy quickly caught it, thus preventing a crashing noise, much to Ginny's relief. Turning to the other one, she looked at him with a burning gaze, as if her anger was going to explode… And it did.

"James Sirius Potter," Ginny bellowed at the top of her lungs, "can't you help your brother properly even just for once? Don't you know what you are doing is dangerous?" Her face flushed with a shade of red. "If I ever see you do that again," her words now went through her gritting teeth, "surely I will lock you up for the whole dinner. Now quickly do your job before they arrive!"

Nevertheless, right then, a crack was heard outside and the door flung opened. A man stepped in and swept off all the snow on his coat. "Dad! You're home!" both James and Albus shouted at the same time, and the latter almost fell off the ladder. "Lily, Dad's home!"

From the kitchen stepped out a little girl holding several dishes, setting the dinner. At first glance, we can say she was like a younger version of her mother. She excitedly tried to see her father, but Ginny's figure had already half-covered her view of the living room. Next, two cracking noises were heard behind Harry, so Lily ran out to see who they were. "Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione! I thought you wouldn't come!" She ran to Hermione and gave her a hug. "Rosie," Lily gave a hug to another girl who had appeared beside Hermione. "… and Hugo?" she stopped confusingly at the sight of a younger boy, whom she had never seen before, according to her memory.

Ron shrugged reluctantly, as if it was not his fault. "Well, actually, we used to send him to my parents during holidays. They really like him. But,… oh well… He wanted to come over here this year," he explained.

"Hi, Lily," Hugo smiled and shook Lily's hand. "Wow, the tree looks brilliant," Hugo looked over her cousin's shoulder "Just… where is the star?"

The question did not surprise Ginny at all. She turned to the Christmas tree, only to find James aiming a large, golden star at Albus, who could not do anything beside shivering. Not waiting for Ginny to say anything, James took all of his power to throw the star. Unfortunately, unlike the other throws, this one disastrously ended up smashing across the wall since Albus could not get a hold of the golden star; he would have fallen off the ladder trying to catch it. After colliding with the wall, it had delightfully landed on the mantelpiece, leading to several other consequences, including breaking one of Ginny's trophies and vases.

"That's it," said Ginny. Her words went in an angry whisper. The living room had just become more of a mess because of the throw, and this was definitely James' fault. She took out her wand, pointing it at any broken things she saw. "Reparo… Reparo… James Potter, what did I just say to you?"

"Hey, guys! It's snowing, isn't it?" exclaimed Albus, who had been trying to look through the shoulders of many people at the door for the whole time. Everyone, except Ginny Weasley, turned to look outside, completely distracted from the crashes and James' fault. "Yay, it's really snowing!" Albus quickly ran outside, leaving his sibling being scolded and yelled at incessantly by their mother.

"Wait for me," James was about to run after his brother but he was held up by Ginny, who ordered him, in a dangerous tone, to stay in his room until the dinner ended.

No sooner had Albus started rolling a giant snowball, Rose calmly followed him outside, and started making snowball too. "Come on, let's play!" Lily smiled at Hugo. A nice smile played around Hugo's mouth in return. As he rushed outside with his sister, he held Lily by her hands, much to the latter's surprise. And together, they joined in the fun of winter with a mixture of joy and excitement.

The evening sky was so beautiful. Beneath the dark sky, everything was covered with a blanket of white. Along the streets, people were covering themselves with coats and scarves, shivering whenever a freezing breeze came. "Hey, Hugo," someone suddenly shouted.

Hugo, who had been busy admiring the scene, turned around just in time to see Lily's snowball flying towards him. He swiftly dodged it, only to receive a bigger one full in the face from another direction. Albus broke into laughter when Hugo swept the snow out of his face. "Watch what I can do!" he yelled back at his cousin only seconds before his snowball was thrown to the latter. Nevertheless, it missed the boy and hit another girl sitting not far behind him.

"Hey, I didn't do anything…" Rose stood up. Although her face showed somewhat of an annoyance, she quickly threw several snowballs in all directions. As a result, most of her snowballs landed either on the others' clothes or their faces.

"Just not yet," Lily finished Rose's sentence, making some more snowballs. And so, the snowball fight began between the three children. Albus and Rose must have been on the winning side, for not long after the fight started, Lily and Hugo, half-covered by snow, lay next to each other and started making some snow angels on the ground.

"I told you," said Ginny, throwing some more wood into the fireplace "and now both of you caught cold." The fire grew brighter and warmer, as if it was reflecting her anger below the soft words.

"Oh, Mom, it… it will be… alright," sighed Lily, who was trying not to sneeze anymore.

Ginny shook her head, thinking of how much Lily resembled her, from her appearance to her personality. She then headed to the bookshelves in Harry's room, and returned with several thick, old books. "Here are some books if any of you wants to read," she left a stack of books besides her daughter, "I don't want to have any crashes when you try to get something from the bookshelves."

Both Lily and Hugo nodded silently. Catching a cold was the price for playing in the snowstorm. They knew they should have come in with Albus and Rose when Ginny told them to. Nevertheless, they insisted that they would come in soon after playing a while more.

When Ginny had gone, Lily turned to the book stack. She reached for the one on top, only to find out that it was an old album. "Isn't this book… your family album?" Hugo asked and Lily nodded instantly. Throughout the book, they found many photos that dated several years ago. In a huge photo on the first page, her father and her mother were kissing each other lovingly on their wedding, while Hugo's parents were applauding them. Then, there were several pages that consisted of pictures in most of which James was shown teasing a crying Albus. In another photo, Ginny was holding a baby girl with red hair in her arms.

But, the one that confused both the most was dated some time in 2013. Harry was cradling a crying Lily. Aunt Hermione was there too. Looking closely, they could see Ron was scolding someone, whose figure was covered by Ginny's back. "What happened?" Hugo asked, yet his face was showing something like "I'm pretty sure I remember that."

"Well, it was some sorts of an accident when I first visited the Burrow…"

August 2013…

It was a nice, beautiful day when Harry and Ginny visited the Weasleys. The sun was shining brightly through the green leaves of summer and onto the fields, even though it wasn't unusual to see the appearance of several fallen yellow leaves. There, a four-year-old Lily Potter was wandering aimlessly. Her hands were full of leaves, and her dress was strewn with some grass, as a result of lying on the field for nearly the whole morning, until she felt like someone was watching her. She ran into a mud puddle, wondering what would happen if she fell into it.

Right then, something confirmed her feelings when she was lying on the field. Right behind a tree not far from Lily, a redheaded boy was looking at her, amused. He came to her with a struggling expression, as if he could not decide if he wanted to talk to her or to remain silent. "Hi… uh…" the shy boy stammered, "Are you… Lily Potter?"

Lily nodded. She was confused with him. Who was he? And how did he know her name? "Who are you?" she asked, but received no reply: He was too shy to say anything. Lily noticed that he had something to tell her, yet his shyness had prevented that. Instead, that mysterious boy did something that she could not think of: The first moment, they were standing there, looking at each other in an awkward silence. The next moment, he pushed her to the mud puddle and ran away.

As a result, she cried loud enough for the people at the Burrow to hear her. Soon, her father was there to pull her out of the puddle and her dress was swiftly cleaned by Aunt Hermione with a flick of her wand. Then, Lily heard some clicking noises behind Ginny. "James," she yelled, "stop taking photos! It's not suitable to take any photographs at the moment!"

Nevertheless, she did not really mind that, as she was looking for the strange boy. She could see the boy was not too far from her. He was standing with Uncle Ron, who was seemingly scolding him. From there, she could hear what her uncle was speaking.

"Hugo," said Ron in an angry tone, though his face did not really show that anger, "did you push Lily into that mud puddle?"

Hugo stood still, and said nothing. However, the question was answered when Ron saw his niece's slight nod from afar. And following that nod was more scolding…

"Hugo," she muttered under her breaths. So that boy was Hugo… She would never forget that name, as well as his surprised expression when she cried…

"Why did you do that?" Lily asked, yet no reply from Hugo came back. He was busy thinking about that memory. She could see something like blushing on her cousin's face, even though the firelight could have hid it away. So she repeated her question with a smaller voice. "Hugo," said Lily, bringing him back to the present, "why did you push me into the mud puddle? I ask this not because of my dress…"

Finally, Hugo said something. He stammered again, as expressing such feelings was definitely not any of his fields. "Since I… Well, I… could not tell you… so I pushed you because… because…" he managed to take in a deep breath, "I thought you would… stood right up and ran after me…" Then, he fell silent.

Lily nodded with a seemingly thoughtful expression. She moved closer to her cousin. "So… do you like me?" Right when the question was out of her mouth, Hugo's blushing became more visible than ever before in the glowing firelight. And so did Lily's. After another awkward silence, the boy nodded, slightly relieved, as though what he wanted to say was eventually said.

Lily smiled. It was a beautiful, friendly and innocent smile. "I think I may like you too…" she said sweetly.

Hugo turned to her with a look of disbelief. He must have thought that she hated him right from the beginning. And he smiled back.

"… back then," Lily ended her sentence with a giggle. Hugo's smile instantly faded as soon as these two words fell upon his ears. However, Lily giggled more. "And now I love you as a relative," she said the last sentence with a kiss on the cheek of her cousin, and both hugged each other in the warmth of the fire.

Behind them, Albus and Rose were standing by the door. They had seen the whole thing between Hugo and Lily. "Dinner," said Rose in her most casual way.

Obviously, Rose's call had startled them, for they jumped on their feet when they heard the third voice, and turned around to see Rose and Albus, both with a mischievious expression on their face. Nevertheless, they still came out, holding each other's hand, chuckling childishly.