A/N: Written for Round Four of Bookwormlovesharrypotter's Marauder Challenge. The prompts were Pre-Hogwarts, Lily and Severus, and Green Evergreens. Oh, and I also learned one of my entries for this challenge is non-canon, because Lily's parents apparently died of natural Muggle causes. Oh well.
To ten-year-old Lily Evans, it didn't feel like Christmas until the tree was decorated. No matter how long the stockings had been hung by the fireplace or how many gingerbread cookies she ate, it wasn't really Christmas until the final touch was put on the tree – the golden star at the top.
Decorating the tree was exactly what Lily was doing when the doorbell rang. Petunia quickly got up to answer it, not enjoying the tree decoration as much as her sister was. A few seconds later, her call of "Lily!" came down the hall. By the combined disgust and annoyance in her voice, it wasn't hard for Lily to guess who was at the door.
"I'll be there in a minute, Tuney!" Lily yelled down the hallway, hastily putting her homemade snowman ornament on the tree. She almost raced down the hall. Why is he here? she wondered. Is it even him? It must be, he's the only one Tuney doesn't like. But he never comes here!
And yet there he was, standing at the doorway, looking remarkably out of place in the Evans' home with his oversized jacket and jeans and his greasy black hair. "Hi, Sev!" Lily said cheerily. No matter how strange it was for Severus Snape to actually come to her house instead of meeting her in the park where they'd met, she wasn't going to act as if he wasn't welcome. "Want to help me decorate the tree?"
"Sure…" he said uncertainly, looking slightly confused. Even though Lily had been his best – well, only – friend for almost a year now, he still wasn't used to being wanted by anybody for anything other than to be yelled at. He followed her into the living room where the tree towered over both of them.
Lily turned around to see her best friend standing with an expression that resembled awe. She giggled. "You've seen Christmas trees before, Sev, it's not like this one is special. Nothing like the one at your house, I'm sure," she added enviously. Since his mother was allowed to use magic, their tree was probably twice as tall and had three times as many decorations.
Severus shifted uncomfortably. "There's no…I mean, we don't really have a Christmas tree at our house. We don't really even have Christmas. Dad doesn't like it."
Lily bit her lip, but brightened quickly. "You'll just have to help me with this tree, then."
Severus hesitated. "I shouldn't…I'll just mess something up. I should go." He started to leave, but Lily caught his arm and almost dragged him back into the room.
"You're not going anywhere until you've helped me with the tree," she said with a grin. "Besides, it's there is no wrong way to decorate a Christmas tree." She grabbed some tinsel and shoved it into his hands as he looked at it with a bewildered expression. "Well?" she said with mock impatience. "Put it on the tree!"
One hour and fourteen gingerbread cookies later, the tree was sparkling with tinsel and ornaments.
"It's perfect," Severus said, looking at all of the carefully placed decorations.
"Not quite perfect," Lily said, her voice muffled from having her head half into one of the boxes as she tried to find the finishing touch. With a triumphant shout, she pulled out the one thing that had yet to go on the tree – the golden star. With a flourish, she handed it to Severus. "Will you do the honor?" she asked.
Severus looked at the tree skeptically. "There's no room left," he said.
Lily laughed. "It goes on the top, silly! There's plenty of room up there!"
Neither of them could reach the top of the tree on their own, so Severus brought a chair and stood on it. It still wasn't quite enough height. He stood on his toes, just barely reaching the top. The chair was tilting precariously. He put the star in its place on top of the tree…just as the chair tipped over and sent him tumbling into the tree.
Lily gave a shriek as the tree came dangerously close to tipping over. Severus carefully climbed down from the tree, trying not to ruin the decorations that they had spent so long putting up. Once he was safely on the ground again, both he and Lily started to grin. There was something about crashing into a Christmas tree that was more funny than scary.
After fixing the tree and making sure that it could still stand upright, Severus said thoughtfully, "The tree smells nice. And it's so…green." This seemed a pretty obvious thing to say about the tree, but they both knew what he meant – there are some things that just have a color, and there are some things where the color is as much a part of the object as the rest of its appearance. The tree was so green that it seemed to radiate green-ness, if that was even possible.
"I guess that's why they're called evergreens." Lily said. "Green evergreens….a bit redundant, don't you think?"
"That's a good thing, sometimes." Severus replied. "Green evergreens. I like it."