All three girls began to walk around the cottage. A huge clear window peered out among the ski hills, a valley of snow, and the mountains fading in the distance. Lily was stuck in shock at the scenery, Arabella took a seat and leaned back on the brown leather couch, staring straight up to the high ceiling, and Hannah made a journey into the stonewalled kitchen. The place was clean, bright and warm. The fire was going at a roaring pace, which filled up the living room with a delightful smell of warm cedar. James and the other two boys shrugged at the girls amazement and walked up the stairs to the second level which contained most of the bedrooms.
James' room would be the one his parents slept in. The dark wooden bedframe stood out from the rest of the forest green curtains and bed sheet. He placed his bag on the floor, and walked into the ensuite bathroom. The marble flooring was a tad cold under his socks, but the sky light gave it a magnificent glow. Once he got settled in, he went to find who was sleeping in his room.
Sirius had already thrown his bag open on the dresser in James' room, and the bed sheets were already unmade. Sirius was leaning back in his bed, watching the wide screen across from him. The light blue sheets complimented the navy back splash on the walls, as well as the white curtains. Sirius looked up and smiled. James dragged him out from there and went to find Remus in the spare room.
Remus was finishing unpacking his bags when the other two walked in. James and Sirius sat down on the dark grey sheets, and did a quick scan of the room. The simple light grey walls stood out in the winter sky, and the warm was cozy with warmth. As soon as all three boys were done, they headed back down to find out what the girls were up to.
"Hello?" Bella called from the bottom of the stairs, curious if the boys were up there. James walked out into the hall and shifted his glance down to the bottom of the stairs.
"We're up here!" James shouted back. With that, all three girls began dragging their bags up the 12 steps, and waited in the hall.
"So, where are we sleeping?" Bella asked curiously. James looked at the three boys. They forgot that the girls needed somewhere to sleep too. Sirius shrugged.
"You can sleep on the couches down stairs." He laughed, but was quickly shut up by all three of their glares. They stood their with their arms crossed, looking very pissed. Sirius stood up.
"You can sleep in my room, Bella dearest." He walked down two feet down the hall, picking up Arabella's bag and placing it beside the queen size bed. Bella giggled and finally agreed. Sirius smiled, and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
"You can stay in here Hannah. You can have the bed if you like, I don't mind." Remus said, pointing at the bed for her and the double seated couch for himself. Hannah smiled.
"It's big enough to share, if you want?" Hannah blushed, and Remus gave a small smile.
"James has a king size bed, Lily." Sirius noted, making James blush. He knew Lily would rather sleep on the couch then in the same room as him. Lily sighed.
"I guess it's my only choice." Lily said, losing her smile. She walked down to the end of the hall and opened the door. Her smile soon came back when she realized how beautiful the room was. Something about it reminded her of her own house, which comforted her. She walked back down the hall with a smile. Once they were all briefly settled, they headed back downstairs to make some dinner.
"Well, who here can cook?" Bella asked, scanning the room for raised hands. Of course, only two people raised them; Lily and Remus.
"At least I trust Remus' cooking!" Sirius joked, making Lily kick him in the shins. He stopped smiling and bent down to rub the pain away. Lily and Remus agreed to cook, and walked into the kitchen to find what there was for food. The drawers, cupboards and fridge were empty. Not a scratch of food was to be seen.
"Um James?" Remus called out to him. James wandered into the room, looking around for a problem.
"We have no food to cook with." Remus noted. James opened the fridge and realized that he wasn't kidding.
"Well, there is a small corner store 2 blocks from here. Who wants to come and get some food?" James asked. They could have apparated, but no one knew exactly where they might end up, not knowing the area clearly. Both Lily and Remus looked at each other.
"I'll go." Lily said. She didn't seem excited, but she didn't really want to be left with hearing Sirius and Bella flirt with each other. Remus smiled, and went to go find Hannah.
"Ok, dress warmly. It's way below freezing." James said and ran upstairs. Lily started to follow and remembered that they shared a room. Quite hard to change. She dragged her bag into the bathroom and put on as many layers as possible. James did the same thing.
"We will see you guys soon enough. If we're not home by dark, come find us!" James called out from the doorway, making Lily shiver nervously.
They walked down the pathway leading away from the house in silence. They kept quite for most of the way until it came to a steep hill, going downwards, where they could see the corner store lights just barely from the setting sun.
"How can we get down this?" Lily asked, looking over at James. He looked around but couldn't seem to find what he was looking for. He then looked back at Lily.
"Hold on." He said, taking her hand. In shock, Lily was forced to follow James down the icy bank of snow, and soon enough, they were sliding down on their butts. Lily was screaming, until they finally hit the bottom, which was a lot rougher then James had originally hoped for. Once they were stopped, he stood up and wiped as much snow off of him as he could. Lily still was lying down in the snow, a little overcome by shock.
"Come on, we're almost there." James said, putting out a helping hand. Lily grasped as tightly as she could, but he picked her up with ease. Lily never realized how strong he was, but he has just dragged her down a steep slope of ice and wasn't ready to make any compliments. Once inside the store doors, they took off their hoods and rubbed their hands together in the warmth. The place was quite, except for the faint store music that was singing above them.
"Ok, so what do we need?" James asked, looking at Lily. They hadn't bothered to make a list, and she was trying to think of what there would be in a place like this.
"I don't know. What should we get?" Lily asked. James shrugged and they stood their for a moment, unsure of what to do. Finally Lily walked down the first isle, taking a look at what there was. A variety of junk food, snacks, crackers, chips and multiples of candy bars stood out. She frowned. This wasn't what she was hoping for. Both of them made a quick tour around the store to see what was available. 15 minutes later, they had their arms full with every available soup, cracker, bags of chips, popcorn, cocoa, milk, a selection of pops, a few chocolate bars, and a fashion magazine that Lily said was a necessity for the girls. Once they were outside the store, James opened the worn leather bag around his neck and they placed all 7 bags into it. It closed with ease and soon they were heading back with nothing to carry but themselves.
"Finally! Now I have to call off the search party!" Sirius cried out from the living room. They got home after the dark had settled, but James knew the Sirius was kidding.
"I knew you wouldn't go out looking for us." James joked helping Lily unpack the groceries. Soon after everything had been put away, Remus decided that he would cook the first meal; Soup and crackers.
They all sat around the big diningroom table, with tomato soup and fish crackers. Even though they had expected to eat something more decent, they loved it all the same. Once dinner was finished and everything was clean, Lily and Hannah proceeded to read the magazine on the floor in front of the fire. James and Remus watched, curiously. They didn't know anything about fashion magazines. As soon as Hannah got up to go the bathroom, James quickly walked over and peered over Lily's shoulder. He was looking at still pictures that we're showing two females. One in a silver dress, the other in a royal blue. The title said "Famous", but James had no idea who they were. They were obviously muggle, but why would they be famous then?
"Holy crap!" Lily shouted when she realized that James had been behind her for some time. He jumped and blushed.
"Sorry. Who's famous?" He asked her, once she had caught her breathe. Lily cleared her throat.
"Oh this? It's just talking about the latest Lindsay Lohan problem. Getting out of a rehab and then stealing someones car. And it's about how she could get away with it since she's all famous and everything." Lily spat, not really amused by it. Hannah loved Lindsay, but Lily didn't find her appealing. She didn't have a favorite, but kept up on all the gossip just the same. James looked closer.
"Hm, she's not bad looking." James smiled. Lily gagged and closed the magazine. Placing it beside her, she began to watch the fire. James nervously walked back to Remus who was now in a conversation with Hannah.
"I think I'm ready to head to bed." Hannah said, yawning. Remus nodded and let Hannah go get changed first. James looked around, and when he noticed that Sirius and Bella weren't anywhere to be found, he figured they were already in bed.
"Lily, everyone's going to bed." James spoke silently. She turned her head and nodded. She followed him up the stairs and into their bedroom. She found a loose tank top and her striped pajama pants, and changed in the bathroom once again. As soon as she walked out, she noticed that James hadn't finished. He was pulling off his shirt just as she opened the bathroom door, and he toned abs were highly visible. Lily didn't move. She didn't want to. As he picked up his other shirt, he noticed Lily standing in the door way, blushing.
"Everything ok?" He asked, holding the shirt in his hands, unsure of what she was looking at. She quickly diverted her attention to the other side of the bed and jumped under the covers, facing away from James. Pulling his shirt of, he got under the covers.
"Good night Lily." James said, waiting for a reply. Lily has already fallen asleep. James smiled and rolled over.
