I could've sworn I posted this here already but apparently I didn't haha. Anyway, this was a secret santa gift for the absolute doll, Emma (jamespotterly) over on tumblr.

Of Knitting Needles and Secret Snoggers

Lily swore vehemently as those blasted knitting needles pricked her finger for the umpteenth time that evening. The temptation to just shove the infernal things through her neck and put herself out of her misery was overwhelming. Angry tears gathered at the corner of her eyes and Lily glared down at the pile of tangled yarn which sat in her lap.

She spent most of the past week scouring the library for any charms she could use to aid her but her search was futile. It was then Lily resigned herself into having to do it by hand. When she and Petunia was younger, their grandmother had taken it upon her to teach them how to knit. Petunia picked it up easily of course. Meanwhile Lily was too busy entangling the cat with yarn to pay attention. Figures it would come back to bite her in the arse eventually.

So after sneaking out to Hogsmeade and purchasing the necessary materials, Lily locked herself in her dormitory and tried to knit James a jumper without any sort of directions other than that she gained from a tattered and torn Witch Weekly magazine that must have first come out when McGonagall was a schoolgirl.

It was safe to say that that plan wasn't working out too well.

James had let it slip to her a while back that every year for as long as he could remember his mum would send him a handmade jumper along with his other presents for Christmas. The only reason she was so set on doing this bloody thing was because Mrs Potter passed away a few months ago and there would no longer be a knitted jumper waiting for James on Christmas morning.

Perhaps it would have been easier to do something else- a scarf, a hat, even a pair of bloody mittens- but Lily was hell bent on the idea of the jumper. Once again she picked up the pair of knitting needles and, with a resolute sigh, she set back to work.

However, only a few minutes had passed before she pricked her finger again and this time the angry tears that had been welling up for the past hour finally spilt down her cheeks and she chucked the bloody thing, yarn and all, across the room so that it landed in tangled pile by the door.

She hated giving up but what else could she do? She hadn't a fucking clue as to what she was doing. Lily used the end of the scarf to mop up her eyes and stood up to take a few minutes to calm herself by the window.

The wind nipped at her exposed skin but Lily did nothing besides tighten the scarf around her neck. Hogwarts during the winter would never cease to amaze her. The grounds always looked like a scene out of one of the cards her family always receives from friends, what with the lake completely frozen over and the towering pines of the forest dusted with the powdery coating of snow. It was magical in a whole other sense of the word.

And then a snowball came flying through and shattered the small bit of peace she created for herself.

She jerked back just before it would have come in contact with her face and it landed on the dormitory floor in a slushy mess.

"Come out here Evans!" she barely heard Sirius' yell, most of it having been carried off by the wind. "You can't possibly be that ill if you're sticking your neck out in weather like this!"

"I'll have you know, Black, that it's nice and warm in here," called Lily.

"Yeah!" another voice joined him, "You were perfectly fine last night!"

He would know, what with having cornered her in the library and pressed her up against the book case as he- well, what he did certainly didn't matter now, but Lily was glad that the winter season gave her an excuse to wear a scarf. Lily didn't need to see his face to know about the shit eating grin that had plastered itself there. For someone who wanted to keep this 'relationship' thing of theirs a secret, he sure loved dropping not so subtle hints all about.

"Bugger off Potter!" she yelled back, ignoring the smile that tugged at the corners of her lips. "I'm resting; I'm sure you of all people won't want me to get hypothermia and die!"

"A bit of fun won't kill you, you know," he shouted back. "Besides, I can always warm you up if the need arises out here."

Lily rolled her eyes, though he couldn't see it. "I'm closing the window now," she said to them all down below- James, the rest of the Marauders and her dorm mates. "Stop charming snowballs up here!"

Her statement was met by a chorus of protests and pleads of her to come down and surely she couldn't be that sick, James was right, she was fine yesterday. They were immediately cut off when she shut the window closed.

Feeling less frustrated than before, Lily picked up the yarn and needles from the floor and settled back down in her nest of blankets to get back to work. Less than ten minutes later though she heard the sound of someone clomping up the steps and she just had enough time to stuff the yarn under the pillow before the door opened to reveal none other than the idiot she had been snogging in dark corners for the past two months.

"Alright Evans?" James greeted as he walked into the room and pushed the door shut.

Once upon a time she might have dropped everything and questioned him as to how he got up the stairs but now she merely raised an eyebrow as she gazed at him sceptically.

"What do you want Potter?" she asked, sighing slightly and trying to act as nonchalant as possible.

"Just making sure you're not dying as yet like any good secret boyfriend would," he replied, stepping further into the room so that he was directly within arm's length.

"I thought we agreed that we won't call you that."

"Fine then; a good secret snogging someone then."

Lily snorted. "Well, I'll give you points for alliteration," she said to him.

He took another step forward so that his knees were pressed against the edge of the bed. Lily flinched slightly as his hands, cold from being out in the snow for who knows how long, cupped her face before tracing down the line of neck until they picked up the end of her scarf. "It's not cold enough in her to warrant a scarf," he muttered, playing with the ends.

"I needed to do something to stop Mary from asking questions after someone," she jabbed him in the chest though she highly doubted that he could feel it through the layers of winter clothes he wore, "Ambushed me in the library last night. And it was a little bit nippy this morning."

A wicked grin overtook his features. "You were far from complaining," he said in silky yet dangerous voice. "Besides, if you were feeling cold you could have told me something. I would gladly warm you up." One of his hands sneaked under the hem of her jumper- well, it was his originally; really it was a wonder how come more people didn't think they were snogging- and came to rest lightly against her lower back, while the other slowly tugged off the scarf.

The realisation that all James had to do was say a few words and give her that look and she was putty in his hand probably should have been a little bit embarrassing but Lily couldn't find it in her to care, not when he was standing that close to her, running his hands across her bare skin and- fuck, she was completely fucked.

Judging from the grin he wore, James seemed to realise the effect he had on her too. Lily's hands snaked up to link behind his neck and she tugged him closer. His lips were right there and just as she raised her head, he pulled back so that his mouth was just out of reach, refusing to even budge as she tried to tug him closer. She couldn't help the slight pout that graced her face after that.

"Thought you said you were sick," he asked, eyes twinkling.

"So help me James Potter I will push you out that goddamn window if you don't get your cheeky god for nothing mouth back here this very moment."

"You like my mouth- my very talented mouth, might I add- far too much to ever push me out a window."

Lily flicked her wand and the window swung open. She looked him dead in the eye. "Oh yeah? Try me."

His laugh reverberated throughout the entire room and this time he allowed her to pull him back to her muttering, "Someone's rather pushy this morning," against the skin of her neck as he placed small butterfly kisses against it.

Everywhere his lips touched she seemed to catch aflame and Lily leant back against the bed, pulling him flush against her. Her hands made quick work of pushing his jacket off his shoulders before they quickly disappeared under the thick woollen jumper he wore. His skin was scorching and James hissed as she scratched against it gently.

The kiss itself was slow and heated, with one of his hands entangled in her mass of red curls while the other propped up his weight so he wasn't completely squashing her. Meanwhile her hands remained under his jumper, perfectly content with tracing the bumps and ridges, relishing in the soft grunts and hisses he made against her lips. Lily sighed into his mouth, feeling more blissful than she had been in a long time and just revelling in the way James touched her skin and caressed her face while their lips lazily moved from one kiss to another.

Then, all too soon for her liking, he pulled away, a look of confusion on his face. Lily propped herself up on her elbows, knowing fully well that she was sporting just snogged hair and slightly swollen lips.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

James ignored her and the dip between his brows got deeper as he shifted his arm. Lily's eyes followed the length of his arm and she immediately tensed when she saw that his hand was under her pillow.

"Lily," said James slowly. He pulled out the ball of maroon coloured yarn and held it up, dangling needles and all. "Why do you have a ball of yarn under your pillow?"

Heat flooded her cheeks and she looked anywhere but him. "It's actually a bit of a funny story," she giggled nervously.

"Were you trying to knit?" he asked incredulously.

Staring down at her bedspread, Lily shook her head and was sure that at that point no one could tell where her face ended and hair started.

It took a few moments of coaxing on James' part before she finally gathered enough courage to tell him the entire plan she had set out, how she snuck out of school to buy the material and spent the past few weeks searching the library for anything that could help her knit the blasted jumper for him because he wasn't going to wake up to a new one tomorrow. The words fell out easily and halfway through her whirlwind explanation, Lily realised that she had nothing to be embarrassed about. This was James. She told him everything, things much worse than attempting to knit something for her- what was it he had said- secret snogging someone.

At the end of it, before she even finished her sentence properly, James gathered her up in his arms and started placing kisses on whatever parts of her body he could reach- her cheeks, her nose, her lips, at some point Lily was sure he placed a kiss on her elbow.

"You are the best secret girlfriend in existence," he proclaimed, the words slightly muffled against her skin as he continued to lavish her in kisses.

Lily laughed and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm glad you appreciated the effort," she said softly before catching his mouth with hers in a kiss that was just as slow as the other, but far softer.

The sound of another snowball being magicked through the window and hitting the floor caused them to break apart and scurry over to the window to poke their heads out of it.

"Hurry up Potter!" came Sirius' aggravated yell. "I'm sure it can't possibly be taking that long to convince Evans to stop being a stick in the mud."

Lily turned to face him, eyebrows cocked. "Been sent to fetch me, yeah?"

"Got a bit distracted," he said, tracing the planes of her face, "There's a bird I've been seeing for a while now, fantastic at snogging too. Managed to keep me in bed. It's a secret though."

"Well," said Lily, tugging him closer so that their noses brushed against one another, "I guess no one can fault you to that. Sexual coercion is rather distracting."

His eyes were twinkling again. "Right that is." And then he kissed her soundly on the mouth like they had been doing before Sirius distracted them, though this time he was more determined to take things a bit further than that.

Half an hour later, when some more articles of clothing were missing and several barely acknowledged attempts by Sirius to gain their attention, James pulled away from her. Both their chests were heaving from the exertion. He smiled down at her. "Have I ever told you that you're the best secret girlfriend ever?"

Lily stared up at him. "You stopped snogging me," she said slowly, "To tell me something that I already knew?"

He pinched the back of her thigh painlessly. "And you called my mouth cheeky."

"If you're not going to serve your purpose anymore then I'll send you back down by Sirius and they," she threatened, getting ready to clamber off him.

He held on firmly to her hips. "Are you saying that you only use me for my body, Ms Evans?"

"Unashamedly and unabashedly yes," she acquiesced, eyes glittering.

James grinned and pressed a kiss to her collarbone. "You're something else you know?"

"Yes, yes, I'm fabulous. Now get back to snogging me. I'm not going to lie here in my knickers all day."

"Always so pushy," James sighed before flipping them over so he laid on top her, his hands skimming up her bare sides.

She raked her hands through his hair, causing it to stick up more than before. "Only for you, love."

"Well I guess I can't complain about that."

"Hey Potter?"

He nudged her nose with his and pressed a light kiss at the corner of her mouth. "Yes, love?"

"Shut up and snog me. Properly this time or else I really will shove you out that window."

James grinned down at her. "Anything for you, Evans," he said before leaning down and doing exactly that, though perhaps more, er, thoroughly than she expected. Not that Lily minded of course, though she figured Mary might. They were on her bed after all.

Happy New Year everyone!

xoxo
Nai :)