Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I affiliated with it in any way.

Author Note: Merry Christmas, Cate.

Fallen Snow

"No. Huh-uh. Absolutely not. No way."

James was standing at the edge of the pond with his arms crossed firmly over his chest. He was shaking his head steadily at Lily, who was grinning wickedly as she eased backward on her skates.

"Oh, come on, Potter," she said, punching his last name a bit to bait him. She turned on the surface of the frozen lake, tracing a perfect circle around herself on the ice with the toe of one skate. "Don't be such a fuddy-duddy."

James only frowned, arms crossed over his chest. He would have looked quite stern if it hadn't been for the fact that he was wobbling slightly on his own borrowed skates. "I am not a fuddy-duddy," he said, mostly pretending to be offended. "I just think this is a horrible, terrible, impossibly bad idea."

Lily pointed at him, her eyebrows lifting in a playfully accusatory expression. "Hey, a deal is a deal, Potter. I help you pass your History of Magic N.E.W.T., you skate."

"Lapse of judgment," James countered. "We made that deal months ago while I was suffering from pre-exam panic, and you took advantage of me in a moment of weakness. Not very sporting, Evans," he said, he half-scolded. "Besides, in my defense," he continued, trying not to grin, "when I agreed to those terms, I didn't think you'd actually manage to fill my head with enough useless facts for it to work."

Lily laughed, a teasing, jovial sound that sent a shiver down his spine that had nothing to do with the chill in the air. Despite himself, he allowed a smirk to escape.

"You know, I think you're enjoying this a little too much," he accused.

Lily only shrugged at him, pretending to look guilty as she performed a backward loop, skating a little further away from him with each crossover step. He was sure she was making it look far easier than it actually was.

"I didn't take you for a squelcher, Potter," Lily said, hands tucked together at the small of her back as she danced gracefully across the ice.

He was silent for a few more moments, watching as she skated closer to the center of the lake and further away from him, enticing him to join her with every stretch of her leg or extension of her arm. A sudden fit of nervousness clutched him somewhere around his navel.

Magic, James thought to himself as he watched her. That girl is magic.

He sighed heavily, arms dropping to his sides in defeat.

"So, am I supposed to follow you on my own, or are you going to come help me?" he called across the ice to her.

Lily's face lit up and she launched herself across the lake at him, picking up speed with every glide. He sucked in a breath and, with nowhere to run on his wibbly-wobbly skates, prepared himself for impact. Before any collision could happen, however, Lily came to an abrupt stop in front of him, spraying his shins with a harmless cascade of ice chips. James, unprepared for her sudden approach and already unbalanced, flailed his arms around himself in a vain attempt to stay upright before toppling straight over to one side before Lily had a chance to reach for him. Unable to turn to catch himself, James found his entire left half lodged firmly in a snow bank.

James struggled for a moment to lift himself from the ground, but only managed to turn himself over onto his back. A faint sound somewhere between a squeak and a wheeze drew his attention. His eyes traced it to its source and he saw Lily doubled over on the ice with her face buried in her mitten-clad hands, doing her best to stifle the uncontrollable giggling fit she was having.

He waited for several moments while she composed herself, but when she peeked between her hands and saw him looking at her, eyebrows raised in annoyance, her giggles returned anew. She laughed so hard she had to kneel on the ice and place one hand on the ice to keep herself from falling over.

"Ohmigosh, James," he managed to pant once her giggles had subsided. She straightened back to her feet while James slowly—and with great trepidation—got back to his feet. "I was just... having a bit of fun... I didn't expect..."

James began to purposely beat the snow off of him, which was difficult since both of his gloves were coated in snow. Mostly, he only succeeded in patting the snow into sticky ice clumps that clung to his sweater.

Lily held her hand out to him to help him onto the ice, and he look at it skeptically.

"Come on," she said softly, her face still aglow from laughter, but her eyes soft and inviting. "No funny business," she promised.

James watched her for a moment, knowing that there was nothing he could ever deny her. Finally, he gave her an exaggerated, long-suffering sigh, and took her hand. In return, she offered him the brightest smile she could, and gently tugged him onto the ice along with her. He tried to follow as best as he could, but each time he tried sliding forward on one foot, the other foot slid back out from under him.

"It isn't like walking," she told him. "When you step forward on your right foot, it's your right leg doing the work. It's different when you skate. Instead of stepping forward with your right foot, you push backward with your left foot to send the right foot forward."

"That's... No one's ever explained it like that," he said, sounding surprised. He was still stumbling over his steps, but it was a bit smoother.

"Just remember to mind the toe pick," Lily told him patiently. "The spiky bit on the toe of the blade," she elaborated when he gave her a funny look. "Make sure when you put your skate back down for the next glide that your blade is parallel to the ice. If the toe pick comes down first, it'll trip you up."

James had both his hands on Lily's shoulders now, and she was holding him at the elbows, skating backward while she taught him. "Try to find your center of balance," she said. "Bend your knees a bit, like mine, and bring your shoulders forward a bit."

James nodded, staring down at his skates between them. "Shoulders forward, knees bent, blades parallel, push backward to go forward," he said. "Got it. That's definitely not too many steps to remember all at once," he joked.

Lily laughed a little. "You'll get it in time, but you shouldn't watch your feet," she told him. "When I let go, you'll want to be able to see what's ahead of you."

James looked up, forgetting several of the slaying tips all at once and nearly pulling them both to the ice. "Let go?" he asked, sounding uncharacteristically nervous. "Why on earth would you do that?"

Lily grinned again, and there was some of that wicked playfulness from before left over. "Why wouldn't I?" she returned, releasing his arms and skating backward just out of his reach.

It was at that point that James realized just out far from the edge of the pond they had gone. He looked back to his full-body impression in the snow where he had fallen before, and it may as well have been miles away.

"Just relax," Lily said, all wickedness vanishing. "Remember what I told you."

James looked back to Lily, who was gazing at him with a confident expression. "I know you're nervous, but if you can ice skate, you can do anything, James. I know you can do this."

For some reason, he believed her.

Lily gestured for him to skate toward her, and he did his best to remember all of her instructions. He wasn't graceful or elegant, to be sure, but he slowly moved forward on his own toward her.

Lily grinned, still moving just outside his range with every glide he took forward. "We're going to try turning now," she said, changing directions sharply and beckoning him to keep up. To her delight, and to James' great surprise, he did.

"You're doing great!" she cried, coming to a stop and letting him finally catch up to her.

James wrapped his arms around her waist as much for balance as the simple desire to hold her close. She looked up into his face which was damp with sweat despite the temperature, and put her arms around his neck..

"I told you you could do it," she said, sounding proud.

James smiled down at her. "Thanks to you," he said, pulling her as close as he dared without upsetting his balance. He leaned down slowly and she stood up on her toe picks to meet him in a soft kiss. He kissed her slowly, like he had all the time in the world, all his boyish nervousness gone.

The kiss was short-lived, though, broken by Lily shrieking and stumbling away from him, swearing and trying to reach down the back of her coat where he had dropped a chunk of something frozen. She used his name in all manner of curses, but James only laughed as she danced around.

Lily grabbed the bottom of her coat and held it away from her, jumping up and down on her skates to shake out whatever it was that was crawling an icy trail down her spine.

"I'm going to murder you!" she screeched at him, as it finally fell out the bottom of her coat.

There was a faint, metallic sound when it hit the ice. Confused, she looked down on the ice where something was glinting in the ice-reflected moonlight.

Before she could react, James slid to both of his knees in front of her and scooped it up, taking her hand in his at the same time. He peeled the mitten from her hand and held the ring up, for now she could see that it was a ring.

"Lily," he began as she paled and then blushed. "You make me crazy," he said, his voice cracking from a combination of raw nerves and the weather. "You make me better."

Lily's other hand went to her mouth as it dawned on her fully what was happening. Snow began to drift to the ground in huge, fluffy flake.

"I'm a prat and a troublemaker, Lily, and god knows I hardly deserve you, but I do love you. My whole life... I've never loved anything else."

Tears pricked at the corners of Lily's eyes as James, with trembling hands, slid the ring onto her finger. "Marry me, Lily," he begged.

Lily, choking slightly over a sob, could only nod.

James beamed and cried out to the sky, a primal, joyous noise.

"Well?" Lily asked expectantly. "Are you going to kiss me or not?"

James, suddenly bashful, look down and around himself at the frozen pond. He laughed and looked back up at Lily, shaking his head. "No," he said. "I can't stand up."

Lily let out a sharp Ha! of laughter and collapsed to her knees next to him. She threw her arms around his neck, tackling him to the ice, and kissed him amidst the fallen snow.