Under the Mistletoe

Hogwarts had never seen a more beautiful winter. Snow fell softly all around the castle, and everyone's mood seemed to lighter up during the holiday season. Some professors completely ditched the idea of homework and just let their students go romping around the castle. The first and second years clung to their childish ways and built snow men and made snow angels. The third years talked excitedly about the winter Hogsmeade trip. The fourth years did whatever they did. The fifth years threw their books away and completely forgot about studying for O.W.L.s. The sixth years also did whatever they did. The seventh years? Well… they covered their ears as the Head Girl screamed at the Head Boy for not ordering the proper decorations for the seventh year New Years Ball. Oh, but don't worry. This happened very often, ever since first year in fact, so many of the seventh years had learned how to multitask.

For example, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin had stuffed tissue in their ears and were happily playing a fair game of wizard's chess. Well, Remus was. Sirius was just yelling at his pieces for being so damn unlucky, to which the pieces responded to by calling Sirius a pig.

Meanwhile, Mary Macdonald and Hestia Jones were covering their ears and betting on how long their best friend Lily's fit would last this time. (That's not possible Hestia! It'll be at least another hour!)

It was their best friend Lily Evans, in fact, that was the Head Girl who was currently yelling at James Potter, also known as Head Boy, Gryffindor Quidditch Captain and chaser, one of Hogwarts' most eligible bachelors, one fourth of the infamous Hogwarts Marauders, and the guy that was constantly being yelled at by Lily Evans, his dream girl. (She obviously was oblivious to this little detail.)

James had loved Lily for quite some time, since he first saw her, but Lily was still certain that she was just a trophy girl. Now it was Christmas Eve of their seventh year, and James still hadn't gotten Lily to go on a single date with him, and it killed James on the inside.

"Lily, please," James pleaded. "I am so sorry! I really thought that the gold ones were nicer! Besides, silver would show off a Slytherin color!"

"Potter, the list said silver bells, and those are the ones that we can pt up! We are not putting up gold bells!" Lily screeched.

You probably think that this argument over what color the bells decorating the Great Hall are is ridiculous, and you are most certainly correct.

"And also Potter, what are these?" Lily held up a bag of mistletoes. "What are they Potter?" she demanded.

"They're mistletoe Lily. isn't that obvious? And…" James shut up quickly after Sirius and Remus gave him a glare. The two were James' best friends and two of his fellow Marauders. The mistletoe were going to be part of one of their Christmas pranks.

Lily knew how to weed information out of James very easily though, so James didn't get to relax right away. "James," she crept over to him. "Please tell me what the mistletoe is for. I promise to take it OK." Then she curled a lock of her fiery red hair around her finger and gave him her cutest puppy dog face.

"Erm…" James started to weaken. Her deep emerald eyes were just to much for him. "Um… well, see, the guys and I…" he started.

"Yes?" Lily stared at him.

"Oh no you don't!" Sirius jumped in. "James is not falling for that crap today, are you Jamesie?"

James flashed back to reality. "As long as you don't call me Jamesie," he wrinkled his nose. "Hate that name."

"Pleeease Jamesie! Tell me!" Lily pouted.

"Lily, that is enough," Remus ordered. Lily hung her head and nodded.

After she left, Sirius practically jumped on James.

"I'm sorry guys!" James apologized. "I really am!"

"Yeah, yeah. Apology accepted," Sirius rolled his eyes. "But next time, don't get caught up in a pair of big goo goo eyes!" James nodded vigorously.

"Lils, that wasn't right. You're not supposed to spoil Marauder pranks. It totally ruins it for us people that actually enjoy seeing others squirm. Us sevies in Gryffindor have nothing to worry about anyway!" Hestia waved her arms and exclaimed.

"Hest, pranks are against the rules, and you know that," Lily pointed out.

"Rules shmules, who cares!" Hestia shrugged. "Like Black always says, 'Though I may be the smartest (at this Hestia stifled a laugh) guy in the world, I have done my fair share of stupid things. Most of them though, involved a slimy Slytherin covered in dung afterwards, making it totally worth it!' See Lils? Pranks may be stupid, but they give everyone a great sense of satisfaction afterwards!"

"Not the Slytherins," Lily muttered.

"So what's the plan Moony?" Sirius said in a hushed whisper.

"Well, we place mandrake mistletoe all over the room here, here, here, and here," Remus pointed at all the places on the map.

"I don't get it Moony. Why would it be called mandrake mistletoe?" Peter Pettigrew, the last Marauder, asked.

"It screams it's head off when a couple is underneath it," James explained matter of factly.

"What if it's two blokes, or to girls?" Peter wondered.

"Nah," Sirius shook his head. "It only screams at two members of the opposite sex. Why Wormy? Think you're gay?"

At this Peter swatted Sirius' head with the Daily Prophet.

"Alright guys! Can we just go now?" James wondered impatiently.

"Yes Prongs. We'll just leave those two idiot's behind," Remus agreed and headed out the dormitory. James followed, and Peter and Sirius hopped up immediately to follow.

The castle was dark at midnight, but this was not an obstacle for the Marauders. If anything, it was to their advantage. They had set up so many pranks in the dark, it had become unnatural to do it in broad daylight, Besides, no one would see them when they took off the invisibility cloak.

The boys went to each classroom, each hall, and each tower. Even the bathrooms! They put mandrake mistletoe in every single place a couple would possibly go to snog. Or even a place two people would pass through as friends. The library, the Astronomy Tower, and the huge Great Hall. The boys even took passages into each of the houses common rooms to set up their prank. There was no place to go in Hogwarts where the Marauders hadn't set up mandrake mistletoe.

After their expedition, James left for the Head's Dorm. He wanted to sleep in his warm bed for at least a few hours. James fell asleep the instant his head touched his pillow.

The next day brought cheer to the whole castle. It was Christmas, the day every person loved. The shock of first years due to finding their presents under a huge tree, the happy faces of all the students, Dumbledore in his bonnet, and the brilliant feast was nothing new to the seventh years. In fact the first thing each seventh year thought of before leaving there rooms was what the Marauders' Christmas Day prank was going to be. The boys did one each year, and everyone was psyched to find out. Even some of the Slytherins were curious.

It was easily found out what it was when the shrieking was heard throughout the castle. Jonathan Prescott and Leah Smith were the lucky couple first caught under one of the mandrake mistletoe. Everyone came to watch. It was known to everyone that Leah had like Jon since first year. Everyone but Jon, who was currently dating Cindy Ramirez, who hated Leah and had started dating Jon for this reason. Jon gulped as Cindy glared at him.

"Sorry Cind! But my ears are killing me!" Jon winced at his girlfriend's glaring and then swooped Leah into a kiss. Everyone cheered, and Leah practically melted. Literally.

"See Lils?" Mary told Lily. (They had both witnessed the previous event.) "Pranks aren't always bad. In fact, I'd say this isn't even a prank."

"It probably hurt Cindy though!" Lily insisted.

"Oh come on Lils! You and I both know that Cindy's a bitch, and only went out with Jon to tear Leah's heart to shreds!" Hestia, who'd also been present, exclaimed.

"Okay, I guess I can't really argue with that," Lily laughed. Everyone knew that Cindy Ramirez never went out with guys because she liked them. She only did it to crush people she didn't like. Lately, her true eye had been on Sirius and James though. For some reason, Cindy was convinced that Lily and Hestia had huge crushes on the two boys, which was obviously not true. Since the three girls were at the top of Cindy's "Kill These People" list, it was obvious who she wanted to break at the moment.

For the rest of the day, students watched where they stepped, and tried to stay away from the opposite gender. Still, about a two hundred forty-six couples were caught, and Sirius and Remus had to do a silencing charm when a couple of first years were caught. After that they put a charm only allowing third years and up to be caught.

That night Lily sat on her bed thinking when Mary walked in.

"Hey Lils," she put on a ake smile. Obviously Mary hadn't known Lily would be in their room.

"Her Mar," Lily also greeted her friend awkwardly. "I something wrong? You seem a bit down."

"Nah. I'm just fine," Mary answered.

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Well, okay then."

"Yup."

"Um, are you quite certain?"

"Oh Merlin Lils! It's just not fair!" Mary suddenly started wailing.

"Oh Mar! What's wrong?" Lily patted Mary's head which was now in her lap.

"Ch- CH- Cha- Chase! H-he w-was with th-that awful C- Cindy!" Mary bawled. Lily had never seen her friend this upset. Chase Lawson had been Mary's boyfriend for two years.

"What was he doing with her?" Lily inquired.

"S-s-snogging!" Mary finally got out, then started howling once again.

Lily stroked Mary's hair and tried to calm her down. When Hestia walked in demanding to know what wa the matter, Lily let Hestia take over and started to explain.

"That bitch!" Hestia clenched her fists. "Oh she's gone too far this time. I'll take it, but Mary doesn't deserve this," Hestia growled and looked at Mary sincerely.

"Hest, don't do anything rash," Lily warned.

"Oh trust me," Hestia's eyes twinkled wickedly. "I won't."

On New Years night the girls all giggled as they were getting for the ball. Leah, especially, was being trampled with questions.

"Is he a good kisser?"

"How did it feel?"

"Did he break up with that bitch?"

"Are you going to the dance together?"

"Have you planned a date yet?"

"Have you seen him strip?"

"Does he have good abs?"

"Have you had sex yet?"

"Is it... good?"

Poor Leah was being overwhelmed, considering most of the answers to the questions were no.

"Guys!" Hestia yelled. "Leave the poor girl alone!"

"Besides, we all already know about Jon's abs," Marissa Blake wiggled her eyebrows. "But Lay, how is Jonny in bed?"

"Oh lay off!" Nellie Summers threw a shoe at Marissa, and the heel hit her in the head.

"Ow!" Marissa yelped.

Meanwhile, Lily poked Hestia. "Hest, I wanna be sure that Cindy is going to leave the Great Hall tonight exactly the same as she is now. Please?" Lily begged. Knowing Hestia, Lily was almost certain that Cindy would be Avada Kadavra'd by the time the new year rolled around.

Hestia pouted a bit, but finally sighed in defeat, "Fine."

At the ball, Lily saw some rather extraordinary things.

"Lils," Mary had tugged on her friends green dress sleeve, "Remus looks good tonight. Don't you think?" Mary pointed at Remus, who was in a white tux and had his sandy hair combed neatly.

"Um, sure?" Lily tried.

"Oh stuff it!" Mary wacked Lily on the back. "I'm gonna go talk to him, kay?" And then there was one.

Lily watched as Hestia glared at Sirius who was dancing with Jenny Parks.

"Stupid Jen. Thought at least she was a sane one," Hestia mumbled under her breath. When Sirius put his arm around Cindy, who had cut in, Hestia practically threw a fit.

"Hest, why are yo getting so worked up? Just go dance with the guy!" Lily pushed her friend, who oddly enough, actually followed Lily's advice.

Something was missing. Lily knew it. Everything was beautiful, the food was delicious, the Great Hall was lavishing, and everyone was having fun. Lily's two best friends were dancing with their dream guys, and Cindy had finally gotten what she deserved when Hestia pushed her into the punch bowl. Everything was going great, but Lily wasn't having fun. In the stress of planning the ball, Lily had not acquired a date. This was now causing her a great deal of boredom, and Lily felt like just leaving and going to bed.

"May I have this dance?" a hand reached out as a slow song started playing. Lily looked up and recognized James.

"Why not," she grinned. "My night cant get any worse anyway." Lily stood up from her seat on the bench and flung her hair out of her eyes.

"Quite a party, huh?" James commented.

"Yeah, it's good," Lily sighed.

"You're not enjoying it," James asked, though it was more a statement than a question.

"Well, not really," Lily admitted. "I guess I was so caught up in planning I forgot to have fun."

"Yeah, you kinda did," James agreed. "Lils, sometimes you take things just a bit too seriously. You gotta remember that half the fun is the journey. If you don't enjoy it, you probably wont even enjoy it when you reach your destination." James ruffled Lily's hair, and left as the song ended.

"Wait, James!" Lily caught up to him and grabbed his hand. "Dance with me one more time?"

James nodded. "Sure."

After the dance, James was almost certain that his foot would never be repaired. Lily was really a suckish dancer. He was heading through the halls when he heard someone move.

"Potter," smirked Lucius Malfoy. "Enjoy your dance? That mudblood probably stepped on your foot more times than you look in the mirror."

"No," James argued coolly, ignoring the throbbing pain in his foot.

"Really? Well, then I suppose you're tapping your foot because you want to be a ballerina? I've always thought you'd look good in a tutu Potter," Malfoy raised his eyebrows.

"Shut up. Malfoy," James glared at the blond haired boy.

"Alright then," Malfoy smirked. "Suppose you're going to go to bed now. Tell me if the mudblood's any good."

"MALFOY!" James yelled. "Confundo!"

"Protego!"

"Stupefy!"

"Crucio!"

James dodged the curse and glared at Malfoy.

"Impedimenta!"

Malfoy dodged the curse with ease.

"Expelliarmus! Levicorpus!" James yelled. Malfoy was dangling upside down immediately.

"Never. Talk. About. Lily. That. Way," James ordered, and dropped the blond to the ground. Then he headed to the dormitory.

Lily was tired. She'd been waiting for James, because she wanted to make up. She wanted to be friends again. Lily heard the portrait hole swing closed.

"James!" she smiled.

"Lils! What are you doing here this late?" James wondered.

"I wanted to tell you something, we're friends James," Lily told him.

"Okay," he nodded. "I have a question Lily. For you, I mean."

"What is it?"

"Hypothetically, if we're friends and all, and I held your hand, would you yell?" James asked her and stared at her. Lily was completely lost in his hazel eyes.

"Um," she mumbled. He was holding her hand.

"Look," James pointed up. "We're under the mistletoe."

"It's not screaming," Lily pointed out.

"Yeah. I don't know how it got here, but it's not one of the mandrake ones," James ruffled his brow.

"You know, it's probably full of nargles. This guy named Xenophe... whatever his name was, told me," Lily informed.

"Hypothetically, would you yell if..." James started, but Lily cut him off by pressing her lips to his.

"Oh just forget the 'Hypothetically' James," she whispered to him and leaned back in.

"Knew it'd work," Remus grinned at his work.

"Such a cute couple," Mary wiped a tear from her eye.

"Little Lils is all grown up, and snogging guys senseless," Sirius agreed.

"Oh just let us enjoy the merry moment Sirius," Hestia kissed the boy so he'd shut up. "Our wittle giwl is not a wittle baby anymowe!" she started sobbing.

"Yup," Remus sighed.

That night all the members of this story learned something very important. Amazing things can happen under the mistletoe.

Like it? I just HAD to do a holiday special. I loved writing it. I dont know though if the rating is appropriate. Made it T, but it could be M.

Have a very LJ holiday,

Lily