A/N: Okay my wonderful little elves, here it is. Chapter two. Woo hoo. Hey, that rhymes! Go me! Anyhow, all the review stuff is on the bottom, so refer to there (My Lordy, you guys are amazing with reviews! Ay ay ay!) It was really long doing all the thank-you stuff, so in the future I don't think I'm going to give such lengthy thank-yous to every single reviewer. I'll just put your name or something unless I need to answer a question or something. Wow, I said 'something' a few too many times, eh? But other than that, I got this up as soon as physically possible. I've been really busy lately with driving school (yeah that's right. I'm gunna be driving. If you live in the New England area you better watch out!), parties (yes, I do have friends. Quite a few, thank you very much.), traveling to Rhode Island to visit my g-parents and other familia people, and other very important things (aka sleeping until about one every day). So, I hope you all enjoy and keep the reviews coming! I love them so much!
Summary: Lily Evans and James Potter are finally going out. What will a Christmas break at the Potters' mansion do to the newly established couple, though? Can they survive everything that the holiday season throws them… which of course includes a certain Mr. Sirius Black?
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Blah. That blows.
Chapter Two: Blushing and Suck-ups
Snow. Frozen precipitation in the form of white or translucent hexagonal ice crystals that fall in soft, white flakes. One of the prettiest types of natural beauty that the earth offers. The reason for so many Christmas songs. It also happens to be the thing that has been lacking in England on Christmas for the past twenty years.
"It's really not fair," Sirius complains as he gets off the Hogwarts Express, "It will either snow tonight and melt before Christmas, or it will snow on the twenty-sixth. What's the point of snow on the twenty-sixth of December? Honestly, I don't know what those clouds are thinking."
"Uh, Sirius, clouds don't usually think. They just… go," Lily states as she also climbs down from the train.
"Well that makes sense," James starts as he too gets off the train, "That's what Sirius does also."
Before Sirius could try to retaliate against his best friend, a scream was heard from the back of the express. All five seventh year Gryffindors look back and see red and green smoke coming out of the caboose of the train while all the younger students are running out of their compartments as fast as they could.
"I don't know why they're running so fast," Sirius states matter-of-factly, "I made it so that the smoke from the dungbomb would smell like gingerbread. Merlin, kids these days. No holiday spirit I'm telling ya."
He shakes his head disappointedly and turns to walk towards the throng of family and friends at the far end of the platform that are waiting for the students. Lily looks as though she is about to burst with indignation being Head Girl and all. James sees steam practically coming out of his girlfriend's ears and puts his arm soothingly around her shoulders.
"It was just a harmless prank, Lils. He was trying to spread the holiday cheer."
"Yeah, well he could've spread it around by giving out Christmas cards or something equally safe and abiding to the rules."
"Aw c'mon Lily," Remus says while he picks up his trunk, "I know you want everyone to follow the rules, but this is Sirius we're talking about here. Do you really think there is any way that he could follow the rules? I'm sure it took every bit of self-restraint to make the smoke smell good. Give him some credit."
Lily huffs slightly but shrugs it off… for now. She and James both say good-bye to Remus and Peter and watch as they depart towards the exit of the platform. Lily involuntarily sighs and goes to grab her own trunk. But before she could get to it, someone else takes it.
"Allow me, fair maiden. For someone as lovely and delicate as yourself cannot go and carry such heavy burdens. You may ruin your perfect, smooth hands and I cannot have that happening," James says in a very old-fashioned and snooty voice while bowing to the girl in front of him.
Lily simply smiles and shakes her head slightly at the antics of her boyfriend. She allows him to take her stuff and follows closely behind him. But she is not complaining, nope not at all. Because James Potter from the back is almost as nice as James Potter from the front.
'Must be all that Quidditch,' Lily thinks to herself, 'I guess sitting on that broom for so long really does work the muscles in your…'
"JAMES, DARLING!"
Lily is immediately thrown from her very distracting reverie with the sounds of what seems like a very happy woman coming towards her. Lily looks up and sees who must be James' mother if the way he dropped both the trunks he was carrying to embrace the tiny woman in front of him. Lily couldn't help but admire how much James seems to really care for his mother. How could she have been so blind to the sweet, gentle, compassionate, loving, tender, affectionate, charming, kind, considerate, caring…
"Lily, I would like you to meet my mum, Catherine Potter. Mum, this is my Lily."
Lily looks up into a pair of eyes that she has now come to love dearer than anything else in the world. Catherine Potter is a short, slightly chubby woman with long chestnut brown hair. She also has the hazel orbs that were passed down to James. Lily couldn't help but think that she was the most beautiful middle-aged woman she has ever seen.
"Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Potter," Lily says with a slight tremor in her voice, "I have heard such wonderful things about you."
Lily sticks out her hand to shake the woman's in front of her, but instead finds herself to be pulled into a warm hug.
"Oh my word," James' mother murmurs in Lily's hair, "You are even more beautiful than James described."
Lily blushes slightly at this comment, but still returns the affectionate gesture. She notices that Mrs. Potter smells like fresh cut daisies and…wait. Pudding? Well, whatever it was, it was a very good smell. Almost as good as her son's… yum. Now that was something that Lily wouldn't mind smelling twenty-four hours a day.
Mrs. Potter takes hold of Lily's shoulders and puts her at an arm's length away from her.
"Oh my, you are just gorgeous aren't you?" she asks rhetorically. "James, you did not do this girl any justice at all. And I was thinking with the vivid and lengthy descriptions you gave in every letter since fourth year, mind you, that there was no way she could be any prettier. But I guess I was wrong. Oh dear! You are just simply darling!"
With that Mrs. Potter takes Lily in another bone crushing hug and then releases her. Lily turns to look at James and finds that he's… blushing. Blushing! The James Potter is blushing. This is just too cute.
With a quick peck on the cheek to her boyfriend (she simply couldn't resist. I mean, he was blushing for goodness sake!) Lily turns back to Mrs. Potter and says with more confidence now, "Well, Mrs. Potter, I can only hope that I someday look half as beautiful as you. James never mentioned how stunning you are."
"Cough! Suck-up! Cough!"
With a simultaneous roll of the eyes, both James and Lily turn to see Sirius standing behind them. It seems that James is about to say something, but Mrs. Potter beats him to it.
"Why, Sirius Black, are you saying that I am not beautiful?"
This was the moment that Lily was given her first glimpse at the ever famous ice stare of death. And believe me, it was cold. Lily could have sworn that if Mrs. Potter would give that to the clouds then they would just start snowing from the below freezing temperatures given by her eyes.
She lightly nudges James and whispers, "Is that the cold glare that you were telling me about?"
James looks over at his mother and back to Lily. "No way. That is nothing compared to when she's really upset. That's more of a warning one."
Well, it was that moment that Lily decided that she never, ever wanted to see Mrs. Potter angry. But of course, it seems that Sirius is not affected by the icy glare his way at all and answers charmingly, "Of course, not my dearest kitty cat. You are by far the most beautiful, radiant, dazzling, brilliant, glowing woman I have ever laid eyes on. If I were only a few years older I would steal you from that ruffian that you call a husband and…"
"What exactly would you do, Sirius?" comes a voice from behind the group. "After all, you already stole her from that evil 'ruffian' to whom she married."
Lily, James, and Sirius all turn around to see Mr. Potter standing behind them with a mischievous and rather amused twinkle in his eye that Lily knows only too well. Lily immediately sees the uncanny resemblance of James and his father. They are both tall, skinny, and devilishly handsome. James certainly inherited his father's messy black hair, and Lily tells herself to thank Mr. Potter later for giving his son the locks that she loves to run her fingers through. Even with Mr. Potter's growing age, he still sends out same youthful vibe that he most likely has his entire life.
"Ah!" Sirius bellows, "Just the man I wanted to see! The smartest, most talented, richest, and might I add, handsomest, man in the entire wizarding world!"
"And you call Lily a suck-up, Padfoot?" James asks with sarcasm evident in his voice. Sirius shrugs and gives Lily a sheepish smile.
"So here she is!" Mr. Potter exclaims as his attention diverts to the redheaded girl next to his son. "The girl I have been hearing about for the past seven years of my life. The person whom I'm sure I know more about than I know my own son! And might I say that he did not begin to describe your beauty in all, and I mean all of his letters?" he continues as he gallantly kisses the top of Lily's hand.
"Isn't she just a doll, David?" Mrs. Potter coos to her newly arrived husband.
"She certainly seems it," Mr. Potter answers with a kiss on the cheek to his wife. "And, Merlin! Look at our son! Blushing like he just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar!"
Lily looks over to her boyfriend and finds that, yes; once again, James Potter is blushing on her behalf. She'll have to remember to discuss, or not discuss, this new trait with him later.
"It's wonderful to finally meet you, Mr. Potter," Lily says with a smile on her face. "It truly is a great honor to finally meet the man that many say will be the cornerstone of the future of the magical world."
Another cough that sounds much like 'brown-noser' could be heard behind Lily and the Potters, but everyone chose to ignore it.
"Pish posh," Mr. Potter waves off carelessly. "I am nothing but a humble auror simply trying my best to make the world my son will live in safer."
"Oh, David," Mrs. Potter hits her husband on the arm exasperatedly, "We all know that you are going to end up saving more people, wizards and muggles alike, than the entire department put together."
"Yeah, dad," James continues with a smile on his face that shows the pride he feels for his father, "take the number that the department saved last year, times it by ten, and then you have the number of lives that will most likely be saved thanks to you in about three months."
"Honestly," Mr. Potter mutters, "I am nothing special." He then turns to Lily and says almost as though it is a secret, "This family of mine put me on a pedestal that is not good for my ego, Miss Evans. I can only hope that you do not do the same for James."
"HA!" Sirius barks after overhearing Mr. Potter's statement. "Lily showering Prongs with compliments! The likeliness of that happening is the likeliness of me living in a cave and eating rats voluntarily."
"Oh, Sirius, I don't know," Lily starts with an innocent voice, "that is something I can imagine happening. After all, you smell much like a rat already. And you know what they say, 'you are what you eat!'"
Mr. and Mrs. Potter laugh heartily at Lily's quick-witted reply while Sirius simply scowls at he girl in front of him. James fondly squeezes his girlfriend's side as he wraps his arm around her waist. Lily just smirks at Sirius and turns around to face the Potter's with a warm smile gracing her features.
"Well," Mr. Potter starts as he also wraps his arm around his wife, "I think it's time to head out troops."
Sirius gets right into military character at the mention of 'troops' and clicks his heels together and salutes Mr. Potter. He then starts marching in place while chanting loudly and clearly "left, left, left right left." Everyone rolls their eyes in response to Sirius's antics and attempt to ignore the crazy boy following them as they leave Platform 9 ¾ to what everyone believes should be a memorable Christmas holiday for all.
A/N: Wow. All I can say is that you guys are amazing. No lie. I am so happy and excited that I got so much feedback on this story. Woot! Woot! So I am gunna do that whole "thank ya" thingamajig now… so on with the show!
Firstly, my "The Missing Piece" Reviewers. You guys be the bomb. You are all my inspiration for this story that I'm writing and, yeah. You're all pretty amazing. So here we go…
Daftlilme- You. Are. The. Coolest. You are my first reviewer EVER so you know have a very special place in my heart. You lucky duck. And because you gave me some cookies, I'm gunna give you some back… COOKIES FOR DAFTLILME! (I wasn't sure what flavor you like, so I went the safe route and just got some chocolate chip…)
Sam- You, of course, are definitely one of my faves b/c you mentioned the word "snog" in your review. I'm really not lying when I say that is the best word ever created. WE should just say snog for everything. Like instead of "I like cream and sugar in my coffee" you could say "I like cream and sugar in my snog." It sounds sooo much better, no?
Rubic-cube- Thank you so much! You have no idea how worried I was that ppl were going to think I was ripping them off. Your review put a smile to my face and was actually the last one I read before starting this story. Thanks again!
Spygirl4747- Thank you! You rock my socks right into the washing machine!
Lunnatica- Thanks so much for the awesome review! I'm so happy that you enjoyed it! I especially liked the little French you added at the end. As a Spanish student, I like to be open to all languages and many of my friends are French and swear at me in French, so I enjoyed seeing a familiar language! Although you were much nicer than my friends and refrained from swearing. Kudos to you!
Chikichiki- um, I'm gunna talk to you later on in my other 'thank ya' part. So refer to there! )
Lipglossnblack- same as chikichiki )
Hokay, now with the cool cats from this story:
PadfootObssesed329- First off, NUMERO UNO REVIEWER! A+ for you! But in all seriousness, I'm very glad you like it and I hope you like this one too.
lovelyravenclaw- thank you so much! I kind of overdid Sirius... uh… a lot but that's the way I like it lol! I love his character and he is so much fun to write. I hope you like this one also!
loveless4ever- You rock because.. well.. I decided you do and I'm always right! And I'm very happy you like it so far.
Kristina Hope- Thank you so much! I think I'm blushing! ) I'm looking forward to hearing (or reading, whatev) what you think of this chapter and later ones.
Happykid- PUDDING! There's actually a line in here dedicated to you… the Mrs. Potter smelling like pudding thing. Well, I have to say I enjoyed reading your review immensely. I actually, GASP, laughed out loud. That's right. I LOL-ed big time. To be quite frank, or Katie, I like past tense stories too. And they're a lot easier to write. But I'm working on my present tense for SAT prep and what not, so there you go. I also used to be the person who just sat back and read while everyone else took the time to write the stuff, but I felt bad after awhile. Stupid conscience. )
Jingle-Bellz-ROCK- Ah! Thank you so much! That part was my friend's favorite part too! ) I hope that this is soon enough as an update and if you do find some errors, b/c believe it or not I'm not really as perfect as I'm sure I seem, GASP! I know, shocking huh? Just let me know. Thanks again! Adios!
OperaGustus- love the penname! Tehehe. It made me giggle. I don't even really know why. It just did. Thanks for the review!
Owl and Crow- Thank you! And thanks for being so honest! I'm not very patient myself either, but I'm sorry to admit that I am a famous procrastinator. Not lying. My whole school knows it. Teachers even say after assigning something stuff like 'But you won't have to worry about it until the night before, Katie.' Seriously. Yeesh. Anywho, I hope that this is fast enough for you!
Lipglossnblack- Well, let's see. First you review my other story now here you are hitting me up with another one. You are flippin awesome. Thank you so much for the continues support ( I sound like and old woman who just got diagnosed with something, don't I?) and for just being, as I said before, flippin awesome.
– I don't know who you are, but I decided your cool in my book! You def boosted up my ego a few notches with your lovely review. I was really worried that ppl weren't gunna be able to read it with so many errors. I'm glad you're enjoying it, and here's the next update!
SodaFizZz19- Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy this one too! Btw, one of my biffs doesn't drink soda because of the fizz. It makes her tongue hurt. I've always found this to be quite comical and decided to share it with you!
NKB- cha ching for longest review! Woohoo! Thank you very much for the compliments! I was thinking of doing some POV changes but I'm really playing this one by ear. I only know what I want the last scene to be, but other than that I have no idea what's gunna happen in this story. I really don't have a plan, so there is a good possibility there will be changes in the future. And Sirius wasn't jealous per se. He was just being slightly stupid. But that's the reason I love him so much! Thanks again! )
Rino- I definitely started singing the song from Pocahontas when they go "dig, dig, dig, diggity, dig… blah blah" when I read your review. Yeah, so gold, eh? That is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me about my crap… I mean writing. You are now one of my fave people... congratulations.
Anidwen- Thank you so much! I hope you like this chapter too! Please review again if you can! )
ShiningWishingStar- hahaha no prob. I always randomly hug ppl after clapping. No biggie. Thanks for the review! I'm very flattered. Keep 'em coming!
Galang a lang- yeah. So you'd be my best friend. I see you every day. We talk to each other more than anyone else in the entire wide world. You smell. No one likes you. I use you because I am secretly in love with your brother and think he's real hot. GROSS! AH! Bad mental images! We are the coolest kids in town. I like chocolate. I am writing this while I talk to you… so... yeah. Uh, goodbye.
Chikichiki- THANK YOU! I hope that you know you are extra cool b/c you reviewed both of my stories. And you said 'bloody awesome' in your review. I love saying 'bloody' before anything. It makes me think of England which makes me think of Harry Potter which makes me think of Ron which makes me think of Rupert Grint which makes me very, very happy. So, you see? You made me a very happy person! Thank you again! )
Bratski- Thank you! I hope you like this one! Keep reviewing!
Tavyn- Aw, I'm happy I could make you happy! ) See, now we're all happy cause your review made me happy which you wrote because my story made you happy which I wrote because… well. I don't really know why I wrote it, but oh well! Thanks so much for the positive feedback! I hope you like this one too! Added after reading your review for "The Missing Piece"— wow. That was one of the sweetest things ever. I'm not kidding. I literally read your review like five times b/c I couldn't get over how nice it was. I'm really touched. Aw, look, you made me get all teary eyed! Thanks for the luck for my YA novel… ay ay ay. God knows I need it. But seriously, you seem like a great person too and, uh, now we should be best friends! ;D lol! I really am touched by your review and it honestly made my day. If you ever are bored and wanna just talk or something you can e-mail me and what not b/c it's obvious that you're a beyond cool person. Thank you so much again! )
Princess Chihiro Yuna- thanks so much for the review! Make sure that you keep writing your stories! I really enjoyed them!
Dveyoni- thanks! Keep the reviews coming!
Okay, kids. The next one will hopefully be up soon! I hope you enjoyed this one! Toodleoo!
