-Today, Lily Evans does not like snow.

-Normally, she loves the stuff- white, fluffy, crisp and Christmas-y and cold, clinging to her eyelashes and cheeks. The first snowfall of the year, she always goes out and lies on the ground, greeting the glorious winter weather, letting the snow kiss her face. But today is the Saturday before midterm examinations. And so today, Lily Evans being Lily Evans, is in the abandoned Gryffindor common room, poring over her books and trying to ignore the glorious, wonderful, mystical miracle that is snow gently falling outside the window. Of course, it's not helping that some of that snow is being packed into snowballs and magicked to rap on the common room windows for an interminable length of time. She's getting a headache, both from studying too hard and the stupid snowballs slamming against the window time after time after time, growing smaller and smaller until nothing is left but individual snowflakes, trying their absolute best to drive her bonkers by plinking as hard as they can against the glass. When one snowball dissolves, though, there's always another one right up, thumping to add to the plinking and the tinking. After half an hour, she decides she's had enough, and marches over to the window. She throws the glass open and is immediately pelted with snowflakes, bits of not-quite-broken-up snowballs, and one huge snowball that apparently was just sent up. Lucky her.

"POTTER!" the voice screams across the school grounds.

James looks up from his current mission of creating another monster snowball. Lily is hanging out the window above him, looking very white, very cold, and very angry.

"Hey, Evans!" he grins casually, running his hand through his hair.

"Whoa, Snowbeast! Where'd you come from?" Beside him, Sirius laughs at the sight of Lily.

"What? Snowbeast?" Peter looks up from the igloo he and Remus are half-way finished. Sirius points. "Gah! Snowbeast in the common room! Come on, guys! We have to-"

"Calm down, Pete," Remus soothes as he stands up, adding another perfect block of snow to the igloo. "There's no such thing as-" his voice trails off as he spies Lily. "Holy crap, snowbeast," he finishes. He and Peter look at each other, then start running for the common room.

"Protect the common room!" Peter shouts as he and Remus disappear inside the castle.

"So, Evans, wanna come down and play?" James smiles invitingly.

A slammed window is his response. He chuckles and turns back to snowball-making.

A few minutes later, Lily arrives at the school grounds, huffing, puffing, and in her jacket. "POTTER!" she bellows, and he waves his hand.

"Right here, darling," he calls.

"You- insufferable- I've never-" she marches over to him and sticks her wand in his face. "If you ever do anything like that again, Potter, I'll hex you into oblivion."

"Anything like what?" he smiles and leans back against a snow-chair, clearly enjoying the confrontation.

"You know very well-" she looks at the snow-chair. "Is that a chair made of snow?" He nods. "You made a chair out of snow? You're too lazy to do half the work the teachers assign you in school, but you made a chair out of snow specifically so you could laze around in it?"

"Yup, sounds about right."

She throws her hands in the air. "Why didn't you just stay in the common room? There's armchairs there!"

"Not as much fun", he shrugs, then looks up at her, smirk on his face. "Why, Evans? Miss me that much?"

She scoffs. "As if that would ever happen."

"You never know. There are worse things."

She faces him, glaring, and enunciates clearly. "When. Pigs. Fly. Potter."

"Well, you know, there's this thing called magic, don't know if you've heard about it. It can make some pretty cool stuff happen, like, say, pigs flying… I'm pretty sure it's happened sometime in the past, Evans."

"It's a cliché, Potter."

"Well, it's a stupid one if it doesn't mean what it's supposed to."

"That's beside the point!" Lily frowns at him, frustrated.

"Then what is the point?"

"That I will never. Ever. Ever. Miss you."

"Oh, Lily," he groans, hand over his heart, the picture of exaggerated agony. "How could you be so cruel?"

SPLAT.

Lily shrieks at the feel of the wet coldcoldCOLD wet slowly slinking in rivulets down her hair and under her jacket. She turns around, eyes murderous, to find Sirius grinning a mile wide.

"You were being mean to James, Lily," he laughs. "Got to protect my best friend from evil villainesses like you, you know."

"Gee, Sirius, I'm impressed," she seethes, eyes on his throat. "Didn't know you knew the word villainess. They're going to have to promote you from first year now."

"Ooooh, tetchy," James laughs behind her. "Careful, Sirius, I think she's in a bad mood. Might be PM-" but he doesn't get to finish his thought, because she whirls around and tackles him back onto his carefully crafted snow-chair, which collapses with a fwump.

"Sirius! Sirius, mate! I'm being attacked! Help me!" he cries out between snickers as the red-head attempts to pummel him into the ground. He manages to grab one of her fists, but the other one gets him in the stomach, winding him. He gasps, eyes wide. She notices and jumps back a little, looking shocked.

"Potter, are you ok? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, you were just being such an idiot; I mean, you're normally an idiot and an arrogant prat and full of yourself besides, and you really do deserve a good punch half the time, but I didn't mean to, I'm so sorry, are you ok?" she babbles on as he tries to regain his breath. He groans.

"Merlin, Evans, that was one hell of a sucker-punch." He rolls onto his back and gazes up at the sky.

She buries her face in her hands. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" she chants.

Now that he's got his air back, he looks at her and laughs. "Don't be. I deserved it."

She stops and looks up from her hands. "That doesn't make it right."

He pulls her down beside him by her arm, of which he somehow still has a hold. "Sure it does," he grins down at her, and she smiles tentatively back at him. "But if you want to make it up to me…" Hazel eyes glint wickedly behind his glasses.

She knows that look. She's spent three years knowing that look, and, more importantly, avoiding that look. That look meant trouble for whoever involved- usually her. She sits up and brushes herself off. "Whatever it is, Potter, the answer is no."

"Come on, Evans!" he whines, eyes pleading- he can never quite do the puppy-dog eye trick as well as Sirius. Seriously. "You haven't even heard what it is yet!"

"No, Potter."

"Why not?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Because it's against my principles to say yes to you."

"It's against your principles?"

"Yes."

"You said yes to me!"

"…oh, shut up, Potter."

She stands up to leave, but is suddenly pelted with a tremendous volley of snowballs. She looks frantically for cover, but there's nowhere to hide except behind James.

"AIEEE!" Sirius shouts from within the half-built igloo- which, he's discovered while they've been talking, is a very good fort for snowball-making and –fighting. "You'll never escape now, my pretties!"

"You wanna bet?" James bellows, and suddenly Lily finds her hand inextricably trapped in his as he plows through the snowball barrage.

"Potter!" she shouts, frustrated, as she tries to detach herself from him. He glances back at her, grinning, and gets pelted in the back of the head. He shakes his head to rid himself of the snow. She glares pointedly at their hands. "Do you mind?"

"Oh." He grins cheekily. "No, I really don't." And with that, he throws himself into the igloo, dragging her along. Sirius grabs her, then looks at her, confused.

"You're not James," he says.

"No, I'm not," she replies, slightly amused by his expression.

"Mind pointing me in the right direction?" He grins.

"Right here, you big- fluffy- monster!" James roars as he lunges at his friend's back. Tussling ensues, as the boys destroy the igloo Remus and Peter had spent half the morning on. Lily quietly sneaks behind them, unnoticed, then turns around and throws a few snowballs at the two for good measure. They break apart, screeching like cats at the feel of wet coldcoldCOLD wet, and see Lily at the base of the stairs, smiling.

"See ya, Sirius!" she waves, then disappears inside the castle. James looks at Sirius, slightly disappointed.

"How come she didn't say goodbye to me?" he whines, glasses askew.

Sirius chuckles. "It's got to be the hair, mate," he says, clapping James on the back. "Girls just go crazy for my hair. Don't know why, but whatever works." He shrugs. James frowns.

"But I'll never get my hair to look like yours."

"Duh. It's my hair. You don't get my kind of hair without being me."

"And she says I'm full of myself…"

They laugh, then look around at the mess they've made of the igloo. James looks at Sirius and sighs. "When they come back, they're going to kill us…"

o.O.o

Lily stands outside the Gryffindor tower, getting more and more irritated at the two barricading the door, Quidditch helmets on their heads and armed with beater bats. "The password is Qui audit adipiscitur, now let me in, you idiots!"

"How do we know you're not the snowbeast?" Remus' voice is muffled through the door.

"Because we've lived in the same house for three years! You know me, Remus! We sit in Herbology together! Your best mate's mission in life is to make my life miserable! Now, open the door!" She shouts. There's silence on the other side.

Then, "She sounds as angry as a snowbeast would be." Peter pipes up.

"How do you know how angry a snowbeast would be?"

"Well, they're a snowbeast. They've got to be cold. And when I'm cold too long, I always get really annoyed."

"That's true…"

"WILL YOU OPEN THE DAMN DOOR?" She explodes.

"NO!" They shout back, just as vehemently at her. She sighs and sits back against the wall. She's still sitting there, along with half of Gryffindor house, when James and Sirius come in.

"What's up?" James smiles at the clearly frustrated group.

"Your friends-" "Snowbeast-" "Stupid gits-" "Snowbeast!" "Locked us out-" "Snowbeast!" "Need to study-" "SNOWBEAST!" "Exams!"

James strides up to the painting. "Remus? Pete?" he calls.

"…yeah?" Two voices answer warily.

"Mind explaining to me what you're doing with half of Gryffindor house ready to murder you?"

"There's a snowbeast!" Peter shouts.

"In Gryffindor tower?"

"…no…"

"Then let us in."

"But what if-"

"Now, you wankers!"

"One second, one second…" Strange scufflings and bangings are heard, as furniture is pushed away from the portrait. The portrait door swings open to reveal two glaring Third Years, helmets firmly fastened and beater bats at the ready. The Gryffindors halt their mad stampede for the portrait hole and stare, open-mouthed, then burst into gut-wrenching laughter.

"Come on, Remus, Pete", Sirius chuckles, draping one arm over each of their shoulders as the rest of the hall pours in through the portrait-hole, still laughing. "Forget the snowbeast- let's go search for your dignity."

o.O.o

-You guys! I am so very sorry for leaving you for so long- will you ever forgive me? I promise I will work on the chapter stories tomorrow. It's just... college. *sigh* If I could write all day, I would, but I can't. Seriously, this is a complete bummer. But anyways, in case you hadn't noticed, this is from Lily and James' third year. More a friendship piece than anything, but I thought it was cute. I do not like writing in present-tense, so it was interesting for me. Oh, and btw, I own nothing. Still. You'd think, with it being so near Christmas and all, my college would give me my soul back- just to visit and pretend it's mine again- but no. Alas, I remain possessionless. Especially of that which belongs to JKR. Drat it all. Anyways, thank you so much for reading! Reviews are welcome. Really ridiculously welcome. I'd put out an electronic welcome mat for your reviews if I knew how.