"I'm so glad you could help us out with this!" Mrs. Evans said brightly as she handed James the large furry red suit. "It's going to make Lily's cousins so happy!" James nodded and forced himself to smile.

Mr. Evans then entered the room, bearing a pile of pillows. "You might need these, son," he said, thrusting the pillows into James' hand and clapping him on the back. "The suit's a little on the large side. I'm sure Lily told you, her Uncle Mark usually wears it. James again forced the smile onto his face as he nodded.

"Well, I guess I'll just go and, you know," he glanced towards the pile in his arms.

"Of course," Mrs. Evans laughed. "And thanks again for doing this, it's a great help!"

James walked up the stairs of the Evans house to the guest room where he had been told he would be staying. It was neat and plain, but nice. He dumped the pile of Santa garb on his temporary bed and sighed. When Lily had asked him to come to her house for the first few days of the holiday break to meet her family and help out at a Christmas party they were having, he hadn't thought twice about it. But now….well he was regretting it.

There was a light knock on the door. "James?" Lily called softly.

"Come in," James replied. Lily entered the room, her long red hair cascading down her back in waves as she pulled out the pins that had been holding it up. James sighed. She was beautiful…..

"So," Lily said, "Mum told me she gave you the costume. What do you think?"

"Well," said James, "I can't for the life of me understand why Muggle children actually believe that a group of magical deer pull a fat man in a red suit through the sky once a year."

Lily laughed. "It's strange, I know," she said. "But they do. And all my little cousins are counting on Santa to be here today. That's you."

James sighed. When she put it like that, how could he let the little kids down? And more importantly, how could he let her down? The answer was simple. He couldn't. James turned to the pile of red faux fur.

"You'll probably want to wear shorts and a t-shirt under it," Lily advised him, as he began to separate out the pieces of the costume. "Uncle Mark always used to say it was pretty warm in there."

"How big is your Uncle Mark?" James asked as he held the giant suit up to his tall lanky frame.

"Well…much bigger than you," Lily replied. "But he had to stuff the suit too."

James laughed, "Well I guess I better get started stuffing then."

He moved his hands towards the buttons on his shirt.

"Wait," Lily said. "Don't you think I should…?" She glanced toward the door.

"Leave?" James said, "Why? You've seen me without clothes before."

"Well….yeah," Lily said. "But, you know…my parents?"

"Oh," James said. "Right" He took a couple long strides across the room and clicked the lock on the door.

Well that's Chapter 1...hope you enjoyed it...reviews are nice. See that box...type something. I'll post more in a few minutes. Happy Christmas everyone!