Chapter Three: The Twelve Days Of Christmas

9:16AM December 23, 1974

James gazed at his list in disbelief. He really had picked a difficult carol to pull off. But he would pull it off. If only to see Sirius' face when he showed up that "Deck the Halls" display. He supposed it was a good thing Sirius decided to get into the challenge so early, it gave James the space and time to think of something whilst his partner in crime was busy serving detention with the most delightful Professor McGonagall.

He smiled to himself; Lily was going to love this. His plan was perfect, absolutely perfect. A perfect plan to woo a perfect maiden. She loved him, he was sure she did, she just hadn't realised it yet. She just didn't want to admit that she had succumbed to his magnificent Potter Charm in all its hair-ruffling glory.

James quickly reviewed his plan before putting it into action. He had decided to go straight to the Twelfth Day of Christmas because of time restraints. It was a pity really; he wished he'd thought of this earlier so he could have done it all properly. Ah well, at least this way Lily wouldn't have time to force him to abstain halfway though in an act of denial and maidenly shyness. That girl. Really.

He looked over the list once more and gulped, it was a long list. With lots of birds on it. That song had an obsession with birds.

---

"Bloody bird!" James cried in frustration as the partridge he'd just transfigured a goblet into zipped around his dorm knocking things of shelves and nearly releasing one of Sirius' socks that they'd locked in a cupboard for the good of mankind.

"That's it," he muttered as the demonic bird made it's way to his broom, "Impedimenta!"

The partridge froze mid-flight and he grabbed it by its tail and strode over to a pear tree, which he'd found in one of the greenhouses. He was rather surprised they'd had one actually; he didn't think Professor Sprout had any plants that couldn't bite your head off or otherwise execute you. He placed the motionless bird on a branch of the small tree and used a permanent sticking charm to attach them to each other.

"I don't think Lily would really condone animal cruelty." Said a voice from the door. James turned to face Remus and grinned at the sight of his friend. He'd been doing a lot of that lately. His nose was so bloody red!

"It's not an animal, it's a goblet in the shape of an animal and it's possessed by a demon. It deserves to be stuck to a branch."

"What makes you think it's possessed by a demon?"

"It tried to let out The Sock, and it was about to kill my broom before I managed to stop it."

"Really?"

"Ha! You don't believe me now but I'm sure you will when it tries to murder you in your sleep."

"I never said I didn't believe you."

"You had that tone. Now go away Rudolf I need to concentrate."

Remus self-consciously covered his nose with a hand and left the room closing the door behind him, leaving James to his scheming and bird cruelty.

---

12:21PM December 23, 1974

"Oh! Lily! What are you doing in bed?" The grating voice of one of her dorm mates called.

"Well, I was sleeping," she replied testily, "but now I'm just lying here wishing I was."

"Lily! It's holidays! You can't just lie around and waste it all, you should be out having fun!"

"You mean having Potter follow me around waiting for me to step under some mistletoe? No, I think sleeping is much more fun."

"Gosh Lil, you're such a spoil sport. Why are you so grumpy? Do you know what any other girl would give to have an early Christmas present from James Potter waiting for her in the common room?"

"A what?"

"You know Lily, you can be just a little bit selfish sometimes. You have the second hottest guy in the school at your whim and all you do is complain about it!"

"Second hottest? Who's first?"

"Sirius Black," the other girl said with a dreamy sigh.

"Merlin," muttered Lily as she got dressed and left the swooning girl by herself in the dorm. What early Christmas present? Why hadn't anyone told her? Ugh, it was from Potter, it was probably a bag of snakes and a note threatening her unless she went out with him.

When she reached the common room she was greeted by curious looks and hushed whispers of anticipation. In front of the fireplace was a rectangular box about as tall as she was wrapped in red wrapping paper with a gold ribbon around it. She approached it cautiously and read the card attached.

My dearest Lily Flower,

I hope you don't mind that I skipped to number twelve, I would have done it properly but Sirius didn't give me enough time. Please don't be put off by that sentence.

Hugs and kisses,

Your True Love,

James Potter.

She let go of the card and looked at the present suspiciously, she heard a faint urgent sounding cheeping coming from inside and gasped. Was there a bird in there? There didn't seem to be any air holes? That stupid moron. She reached up and undid the ribbon; the four sides of the box fell down to reveal a pear tree with what appeared to be an oxygen deprived partridge. She could feel the gazes of disbelief from the other inhabitants of the Gryffindor common room.

The bird seemed to catch its breath and cleared its throat audibly.

"Ahem, this is a song for Dear Miss Lily Evans." The bird announced and then broke into song;

"On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!"

As each gift was announced in song it appeared in reality evoking a rather mixed reaction. Some cheered, some ran some just sat and gaped as twelve drummers drumming appeared and started to march about the room followed by eleven pipers piping, ten lords a-leaping and nine ladies dancing. The eight maids a-milking weren't too much trouble as they were a little preoccupied with the eight cows that had also appeared as that line had been sung. However anyone who hadn't decided to run away or take cover in the now crowded common room did so as the onslaught of seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, four calling birds, three French hens and two turtle doves appeared and started rampaging around the room. This seemed to upset the cows some and they proceeded to panic, kicking the buckets of milk and stampeding over the furniture as the maids tried in vain to catch them and calm them down.

"POTTER!" Lily screeched as one of the two turtle doves settled in her hair.

"Yes Evans-- Oh bloody hell." James said as he came down the stairs Peter following close behind, somewhat using him as a human shield.

"YOU ARE SO DEAD POTTER!" Cried Lily in a deranged fashion causing the turtle dove to escape the clutches of her firey locks in favour of one of the twelve drummers. She lifted her wand pointing it straight at James' face.

"Bloody hell!" James said again with feeling, ducking as a spell went soaring over his head.

Peter however was not so lucky.


A/N: Hello there! Thankyou for reading! Now please leave a review :). Last chapter was a little short so I decided to make this one longer. Actually that's a bit of a lie, I didn't decide to make this longer. It just turned out that way. This is my favourite chapter of this so far, it was so much fun to write! I hope you all liked it too!

(Edit: I found a few mistakes in this chapter that made me cringe and flinch and weep like a child so I decided to fix them up and re-post this. I'm sure there are many more mistakes so if you see any point them out to me and I will stab them with a fork. Thankyou that is all.)