Imagine My Surprise
"Imagine my surprise," a cold voice started, "when the guest of honor neglected to show up to dinner!"
Peter flinched at his masters words knowing that there would be punishment for his failure. How was he supposed to know that the socks were a port key? How was he supposed to know he should have activated them to whisk Lily away to the Master's as soon as she made contact with them?
He kept his mouth shut, though, and looked at the cold, damp ground. The anger growing inside him at Tom for neglecting to tell him that vital information was slowly taking the place of the fear instilled in him from simply being in the presence of Voldemort.
Inside, Peter was glad that the socks had failed. He had gotten a wonderful gift from Lily the night before, and while he knew that it was wrong to base his well wishes for her on that, he did it anyway.
"It was all set up! Everything was ready. All you had to do was replace the real pair with the pair that was given to you." Voldemort was angry and Peter could tell. He knew that he was going to pay for this one.
Wait. Did he say everything was ready? The rage that had been building disappeared in a snap. It had been his fault. He couldn't find the original pair of socks! He was the one who ruined the plan after all.
The socks were still in the drawer; maybe she would find them and unthinkingly put them on. There was still hope for the plan's success, but there was no avoiding punishment for the delay.
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"We will we will rock you."
Lily opened one of her eyes and peeked out of her cocoon of blankets at the clock. It was seven in the morning.
She groaned and sat up. She didn't care if it was Christmas morning or not. Seven was too early to be up.
Seven was certainly too early to hear James Potter singing loudly.
She climbed out of bed and wrapped her blankets around herself. She shuffled into the hallway and started banging on the bathroom door.
"Potter! What are you doing?"
The door swung open and James stood in the doorway, dramatically flexing his biceps like a body builder.
"I'm getting pumped up."
Lily raised an eyebrow and observed her roommate.
He had his old Gryffindor quidditch robes on and black streaks under his eyes like a football player.
"Are you kidding me?" Lily shook her head and turned to leave.
'Nope! I put some old robes on your dresser. They should fit you. Hurry up and get dressed. We don't want to be late!
Lily stopped dead in the hall. She slowly turned to face James. "Late for what, exactly?"
"Quidditch."
"I've never played quidditch!" Lily said, throwing up her arms causing her blankets to fall to the ground.
"That's why you'll be on mine and Sirius' team. Hurry up, go get dressed."
Was he crazy, Quidditch on Christmas morning? Lily was sure that she was dreaming, but as she climbed back into bed something red on her dresser caught her eye.
She groaned. This was not going to be a good day.
----
Lily, clad in James' fourth year quidditch robes and carrying an old broom, walked between James and Sirius up the long snow covered driveway to the Potter's house.
"I can't believe you're making me do this!" Lily said, looking down at herself. The robes fit her a little too snugly around the chest for her liking, and the arms were way to long for her. She couldn't wait until she could change out of them.
"It's not about making a fashion statement," James began, "it's about kicking my uncle and his family's ass in quidditch."
"Don't throw me the ball, I can't catch."
"Don't worry, love, you will." Sirius winked when he said that, making Lily suddenly very afraid.
As they grew closer to the backyard, Lily saw that there were already people gathered around. A man that she assumed to be James' father was wearing the same scarlet robes as she, James and Sirius.
Across the lawn from him, there were four people Lily couldn't quite make out. She assumed that it was James' uncle and his family. They were wearing golden robes and had something on their heads that looked suspiciously like a crown.
A woman standing in the middle of the field shouted out to them. "Just in time. Hurry along now. I need to go baste the turkey or you'll have a ruined Christmas dinner."
To this, James' father replied. "As long as I'm wearing that crown, I don't care if we even have dinner."
The woman shook her head.
The three of them approached Mr. Potter who already hovering in the air. He looked at the three of them. "You guys ready to bring home to the goods?"
James and Sirius nodded and got on their brooms. Lily, who hadn't touched a broom since her fifth year of school, climbed on carefully and about fell off when they started to chant "Who's the man? We're the man," repeatedly, each time louder than the last until they were shouting as loud as they could.
James nodded at Lily to join in. She shrugged her shoulders, figured she had nothing to lose and as loud as joined in. It felt good, she discovered, to yell for no reason at all. It was almost invigorating.
Before she knew it, Lily was flying through the freezing air, her hair streaming behind her and her eyes stinging from the wind.
"What am I supposed to do?" She yelled to James, her words almost lost in the wind.
"It doesn't matter as long as we're wearing those crowns at the end of the game." Before she had a chance to ask what he meant, there was a huge red ball flying right to her face.
Just before it made contact with her nose, she caught it and looked around frantically. Two of James' cousin's were flying toward her, fast. She had to get rid of the ball or they were going to run into her.
"Lily!" She spun around and chucked the ball as hard as she could. Her aim was terrible. Sirius started chasing after the ball that had flown past his head, but then stopped and watched as it soared cleanly through the hoop.
"You did it! You scored a goal!" Lily turned to see James was hitting her on the back by way of congratulations.
"I know! Wow that was so amazing!" She felt like her face could crack open because of the huge smile that took it over.
Lily didn't make anymore goals, but she did make a few attempts. Even if she didn't do as well as everyone else, she still had a great time.
As they walked into the house sporting the coveted golden crowns, the symbol of victory, she turned to James and couldn't help but smile again.
Despite the freezing cold, he was covered in sweat. His hair, which on a good day stuck out in several places, was windblown and messier than usual. He too had a huge smile on his face.
"This could be the best Christmas I've ever had." Lily said, following him into the dinning room where the table was over flowing with food.
"Yeah?" James asked, pulling out a chair for her to sit. "I'm glad to hear that." He sat down next to her and leaned over and said so only she could hear, "don't eat all the potatoes tonight."
She laughed. "I would never,"
James rolled his eyes and handed her the bowl before reaching for the plate of turkey. Even though he had just had the exact meal the night before with his friends, it seemed to taste even better in the presence of family.
Lily smiled into her plate full of mashed potatoes and corn. James is being so nice to me today! Surely it isn't just because his parents are around. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that he had been that nice to her for a long time; she just failed to notice it.
The more she thought about it, the more she remembered coming home from late nights at work to find James sitting in the kitchen waiting for her to make sure she got home alright. She realized that she hadn't pulled out a chair or opened a door for herself in a month.
His family and their Christmas tradition obviously meant a lot to him. He didn't have to include her in it, but he did. He had almost seemed hurt when she wasn't very enthusiastic about the idea. As she got more into it he started to seem happier. He was almost as excited as she was when she made the goal in the game. She was getting the feeling that it wasn't because it meant they were winning, but because she was enjoying herself doing something that he loved.
What was going on with him?
And why couldn't she stop smiling when he looked at her?
Lily didn't want to think about it anymore. She wanted to eat her potatoes and laugh with James and his family while wearing a cheap plastic crown with chipped gold paint wearing James' old quidditch robes that didn't fit her right.
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I'm all excited. I talked to a lot of my friends from home today. Yay! So I celebrated by writing another chapter. Yay! Haha.
