This was written as part of 'Jily Secret Santa' over on tumblr. It was written for 'doctor-hermione-holmes)
As far as Christmas Eve goes, Lily thinks, this year has been the worst by far. She's sitting in the common room and she's not quite sure what to do with herself. It's eleven 'o' clock, and she's looking around the room and she can't find anyone. She's not sure if this is strange or not. She's never spent Christmas Eve at Hogwarts before.
That's when James Potter sits himself next to her. This is not too much of a strange occurrence, he seems to be finding a lot of reasons to sit next to her lately, and she doesn't seem to mind as much as she would have last year. It's nice to have some company on a night that would be ever so lonely, she thinks.
"What's up?" He says. He always starts a conversation with that. She once asked him why, and he said that he thought greetings like 'hello' and 'goodbye' were a bit of a waste of time. Unless he was talking to someone important, like the Minister Of Magic, because his mum would give him a slap 'round the head if he wasn't polite.
"The ceiling," she replys. She always says that. It's become sort of a game between them.
"I do suppose that the chandelier is looking quite exquisite tonight."
She laughs. "I really don't think that it looks any different to every other night."
"That's because you're not looking carefully enough, Evans."
She laughs again.
"So, Lily," his voice takes on a serious note, she notices. "Why are you sitting in the common room on December twenty fourth, alone?"
Ahh, this is what he's been after.
"What do you mean?" She asks, hoping to stall the time between her having to reveal anything.
"I mean, why are you sitting in the common room, alone, on Christmas Eve?"
"I'm not alone, you're with me." She watches as his lips quark upwards.
"I suppose I'll have to change my question then. Why are you sitting in the common room, with me, on Christmas Eve."
"You're the one who sat down next to me Potter, you should be asking yourself that question."
His lips lift up again. It's one of the most amazing sights she's ever seen, she notes. He's kind of cute when he hasn't got a smirk on his face.
"You know what I mean Lily," he sighs. "You never stay for the holidays."
"How would you know that Potter? Been stalking me."
"Not recently," he replies, and she laughs. "The Marauders always stay over the holidays. It's a tradition, and not one that we're about to break now."
"I suppose that means that you would notice any 'newcomers', so to speak."
"Not a thing goes by without me noticing," he smirks. She can't help but smile too, because she knows he's lying. His glasses are crooked. "So, don't you want to see your family this year?"
She takes a sharp breath. She doesn't want to go there with him.
"I'm staying at Hogwarts this year," she says, but she knows that she's not really answering his question.
"I know that Evans, the fact that you're here sitting next to me kind of gives it away." He means it as a joke, she knows, but it doesn't come out that way. He doesn't like that she's dodging his question.
"I have no family to go back to," she finally admits.
He takes a sharp breath. He doesn't do what's expected of him. He doesn't say sorry, and she's greatfull for that. She's heard it so many times before that it's lost its meaning.
"How?" She doesn't expect that. It takes her a while to try and bring the words out. She's never said them before.
"Car Crash. Drunk Driver."
"When?"
"September, a week after school started."
"Gosh Lily, is that why you took two days off of school." She's surprised that he remembers. She nods.
He seems not to have anything else to say, but he's staring at her. She realises that he expects her to talk, to say something. At first she doesn't want to, but suddenly it bursts out of her.
"We had a load of traditions, I used to always put the star on the top of the tree. Every year, my parents would put up the decorations on December first, they were the first on the road. My Dad loved Christmas, he probably would have started decorating the house and singing Christmas Carols in July if my mum didn't stop him. When I started Hogwarts, I couldn't help decorate, so they always left the star for me. I'd put it up the night I got home, after dinner. Dad would lift me up. Tuney was always jealous."
She's sure that he doesn't know who 'Tuney' is, but he is looking at her so intensely that she feels compelled to continue.
"Mum would knit us all matching jumpers, with weird Christmas motifs. Last year, it was Frosty, and the year before it was Rudolph. She spent all year making them, and, even though they tend to be the worst looking things I've ever seen, I always have to wear mine or else I feel horrible."
She's never told anyone this before. She hadn't spoken of her parents after they died until this day, so she feels a large weight has lifted off her shoulders now.
"My favourite part of Christmas though, is how my Dad always put his old record of Elvis Presley on during Christmas Eve. He's stand up, and pull mum for a dance around the living room, and then he'd pull me and Tuney up as well."
James takes her hand. And then she realises. She has just told James Potter, the boy who has spent the last six years tormenting her very existence, all about her family. She has opened up to him more than she has ever opened up to anyone, besides Severus. She laughs. It starts off as a little bubble in her stomach and spreads all over her body until she is hysterical.
"What are you laughing at?"
"I'm not to sure myself." And he joins her.
Suddenly he's standing up, and he has stretched his arm out towards her. "What?" She asks, confused.
"Dance with me."
She feels so cliche when she tells him that there is no music.
"Are you a witch or not?" And suddenly she hears the first strums of 'Love Me Tender' play out of invisible speakers.
She takes his hand and he pulls her up, before putting one of his hands on her waist and holding her hand in the other tightly.
She rests her head on his shoulder as they sway to the music.
"Thanks."