For my Jily Secret Santa, who's url is currently forloveoflimes and is named Elena and who likes Ed Sheeran.
Merry Jily Christmas!
Lego House.
[I'm gonna pick up the pieces, and build a Lego house.]
"They complement your hair," he whispered into her ear as he placed the garment on her head.
She laughed and shook the headband off, the fake antlers falling to the floor. "James, please, those are for you." She picked them up and spun around to put them on his head. "There, Prongs."
James wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in closer, kissing her quickly. "This is nice," he whispered, looking around their flat. He saw their tree, their few presents for each other and for their friends, their candy wrappers and their tea mugs, little reminders that they were living, that they were here, they were together.
Lily laughed at him. "James, this is the definition of broke teenagers who have no idea what they're doing," rolling her eyes and twisting in his arms to look at the room, he back pressed against him. She saw the boxes they still needed to unpack, the war-filled Daily Prophet, the book of household spells she just bought open to various holiday charms, their pile of shoes and cloaks by the door, little reminders that their lives were far from stable.
"Yes but we're broke teenagers together," he sighed into her neck, so happy about that small fact that not even the impending threats and the paranoia that usually crowded his mind could put him down.
Lily smiled, and bent her head back to meet his, and James kissed her ear. "Yeah," she sighed. "Together."
And that was what kept her going.
[And if it's dark in a cold December, I've got you to keep me warm.]
Every time she woke up at night, the sounds of the London streets below too loud, or too suspicious, or too much like curses flying back and forth, James was right there for her. He would hold her and kiss her and keep her warm. He wouldn't laugh at her fears. He wouldn't fall back to sleep. He wouldn't even say anything if that's what she needed. Like now. Like now, how his arms made her feel like fighting this losing war wasn't a lost cause, he reminded her of what they fought for. She was fighting for herself, and for her friends, and for him, because being without him would be the last thing she ever did. Because Lily was strong, but so much of that strength came from her love for James. Like now, as she watches the snow falling outside the one window in the room, and as she leans against her boyfriend, she feels warm and happy and in love, despite it all.
"Plus we're not broke, Lily, you're just too proud to let me pay for decent furniture," James said, and she could feel him laughing behind her.
"Oh shush," she smiles in spite of herself, and breaks free of his arms to grab some more decorations.
They turn up the radio and James pretends he can sing and Lily charms the tinsel to wrap itself around him in the hopes of shutting him up, but he just hops over to her with his arms pinned to his side and kisses her, and he can feel her smile under his lips.
[Out of all these things I've done, I think I love you better now.]
James remembers Christmases past, the ones he spent with Lily at school. Only two years ago was she even friendly enough towards him to leave her dormitory on Christmas morning. Before that, she would just celebrate in her room, quiet and happy, away from all the noise and boisterous Marauders. But last year… last year was the first Christmas they were together, and it was their last one at school, and all of their friends stayed with them. The Seventh Years claimed a circle of couches for the holiday and Lily and James never left each other's side.
James remembers how timid she was at starting a relationship with him, even when he could tell how much she liked him. Lily was awkward and stubborn and desperate to show her affection without too much PDA and still staying in control of herself ("Oh you drive me mad, Potter," she whispers, even these days). But even then he could feel her smile when they kissed, he could make her whole day with a simple note in the middle of Charms class, he could see that their imperfect relationship was what made it so perfect.
[If things go right we can frame it, and put you on a wall.]
And they never stopped being that. They grew into each other. They carried out their Heads responsibilities at school together. They fell in love together. They finished Hogwarts together. They joined the Order together. They bought a flat in London together. They bought a Christmas tree together. They did all those things bickering and laughing at each other like they always did, and always will. They made the imperfect pieces of their life fit together so seamlessly, so perfectly.
So wonderfully, that as James watched Lily pick up an ornament in the flat that they share, he smiles because she loves him as much as he loves her. His eyes wander to the pile of gifts, wrapped in the positive pages of the Daily Prophet, and he narrows in on the small ring box from the jewelers in Hogsmeade that Lily will open tomorrow, and James can't do anything but smile.
[And it's all for you.]
A/N: Hi Elena! You asked for first post-Hogwarts Christmas and Ed Sheeran, and this is what happened! I hope you like it! I had never thought of this song as a L/J song, but now I can't stop... I really like the idea of them being so boggled and imperfect and in love when they leave Hogwarts, and this song really captures how they are facing all these war-broken pieces of their lives and they put it together in such an impermanent but happy way... :)