A/N- I don't own anything I didn't come up with myself. Does that make sense?

This chapter is dedicated to feeling5, for their confidence in me. I also love all my reviewers, there were five this time, (woot!): Mysterious Victoria (by the way she has a fabulous new story, and I suggest you check it out!), Twilight 4Evr/ gotta luv Jasper, Merino649, feeling5, and x_Clare_x! you guys rock! Most of you seem to be mad at Severus, and this chapter might make you a little more angry at him. You might hate him at the end of the story, but I think it makes for a good plot, so please don't eat me! :(

Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. It was the hardest chapter to brainstorm, but once I had an idea it practically wrote itself! It appears that I won't be able to finish this story by Christmas (it came so fast!) so sorry 'bout that, especially to Rino. I hope you will still enjoy the story anyway. If you want to you can just read it next year! (but I still will expect reviews in 2009!). I hope you stick with the story, though, because I'm not giving up on it, so neither should any of you! It will be worth it!


On the Eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: 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.

Lily woke up on the eighth morning to find a snow globe beneath her tree. It had eight dairy cows lined up head to tail in a heart formation, surrounding the red words: I still love you, which shown through the falling snow. It was a wizard's snow globe, so it never stopped snowing. It was a magical sight, but Lily was still too mad at Severus to appreciate it.

Lily still wasn't sure that Mr. Mysterious was Severus, but it seemed to be the most logical explanation. There were only a few problems with it:

First, it was Sirius that Lily had caught, supposedly delivering the gift. The day that Sirius did something for Severus was the day that pigs fly. That posed another question: if Sirius wasn't actually delivering the gift, what was he doing? If he was, why was he doing it for Snape? If Snape wasn't the mysterious gift-giver, who was? And, of course, the most logical explanation, which Lily didn't like to think about, was that it was all a joke. There was also the option of Amos Diggory, who Lily didn't like to think of either.

Second, how had Severus gotten in the dormitory? Lily supposed he must have flown, or bullied a first year into giving him the passwords. She also knew he was gifted in legillimens, so he could probably have found the password in someone else's head.

All these puzzled thoughts floated around in Lily's head as she walked down to breakfast, pretending to listen to Robbin's idle chatter about a dream she had been having. It wasn't very easy to pay attention to, as she was going on about she and Remus riding a kiddy bike with training wheels, escaping evil square dancers that had chopped down the several acres of wildflowers in Robbin's pool to make a large paper mache igloo, which they were going to trap her fish in once it grew legs*. Lily was so lost in the confusing dream and her own baffling thoughts that she forgot to watch where she was going. The result was that she ran into something very tall and solid.

Lily looked up to see the hazel eyes of James Potter, surprisingly cold and hard as he pushed her away. "Watch where you're going, Lily."

"Sorry," said Lily. She was perplexed by the coldness of his voice, and the way he looked at her, as if he was a puppy that had just had its tail trodden on. She brushed past him and hurried to sit next to Robbin. Unfortunately, she had chosen a seat across from Sirius. Robbin was usually a good friend and all, but she had a bad habit of doing things that really annoyed Lily sometimes. She didn't want to sit with Dorcas and her friends, though, so she took her seat rather huffily on the right side of Robbin. Lily was assuming that James would sit across from her, and it shocked her so much when he chose the seat on the other side of Robbin that she almost fell off her chair. No-one present could remember a time when James Potter had refused a perfectly open opportunity to flirt with Lily, excluding that time on the sofa.

What shocked Lily even more was that she did not feel relieved. She tried to re-assure herself by saying in her head calm down, Lily, he just didn't see you. If he did see you he would not be sitting next to Robbin. He does NOT like Robbin! He can't! Rather disturbed by those last few thoughts, she shook her head a few times and decided to let James know she was sitting there. Swallowing her bite of blueberry muffin, she cleared her throat loudly and said the first thing that popped into her head:

"The weathers nice today," Was this Lily Evans, attempting to flirt by commenting on the weather? Robbin gave her an odd look. Sirius gulped some pumpkin juice then said,

"Great weather for a snowball fight, maybe."

Lily hadn't even looked at the sky, now she realized that the illusional ceiling couldn't be seen through because of the downpour of snow: A blizzard. She could feel her blush coming on.

"No, thanks," responded Lily, "Umm, I'm going to just go to the library after breakfast, I think."

James muttered something incoherent under his breath, and Lily caught her name.

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"You're excused," said Sirius, motioning to the door. Lily bristled.

"What did you say about me?" she directed this question toward James.

"I asked if you were off to go snog Snivellous again!" responded an angry James. Lily was shocked, now she knew who had seen that disgusting bit of making out that Severus had forced her into. James got up and stormed away; Lily hastened to follow.

"It's not what you think!" shouted Lily at the entrance hall, unable to catch James as he sped up the stairs.

James whipped around, "Then what is it?"

"I would never go out with Severus!" said Lily, that was true. She liked Sev, not Severus, there was a difference. And Sev didn't exist anymore, so it was time she moved on. "He kissed me AGAINST MY WILL!"

"It looked pretty intentional to me!" thundered James.

"I don't care what it looked like to you!" Lily shouted, "I don't like Severus!"

"Why are you telling me? Why do I care?" asked James.

"Because you like me!" said an exasperated Lily, "Don't you?"

"I've decided it's about time I moved on," said James, "I could never go out with anyone who kissed Snivellous!"

And he stormed off, leaving Lily on the staircase.

0o0

"Lily?" questioned Robbin, rubbing a sobbing Lily's back. "Are you okay?"

"No!" said Lily, burying her face in her pillow. They were in the dormitory together, a sobbing Lily lying on her bed as a comforting but confused Robbin consoled her.

"Please tell me what's wrong, Lily," pleaded Robbin. She hadn't witnessed the scene between Lily and James, she had simply come to the dorm and found Lily coming to pieces on her bed.

"James… said… he doesn't… LIKE ME!!!" she cried.

"But… but I thought…" said an even more confused Robbin, "I thought you hated James."

"Do I really do such a good job at fooling everyone?" asked Lily, "I used to, but… after a few years, you know- I… I suppose I've been crushing on him all year, just when he seems to have given up. If he would have asked me out I would have said yes, but he hasn't. Not once. All year. Now that he isn't constantly bugging me, I can see how hot he is, and strong and-" she began to cry harder, "I could have had him! He's so brave and smart, and he liked me, and now he doesn't! And now that I don't like Severus, he likes me! My life is a horrible mess, Robbin! What can I do?"

"Just tell James," urged Robbin.

"I can't, I couldn't suffer the embarrassment of being turned down!" yelped Lily.

"He's done it an awful lot for you," nudged Robbin, "You don't have to do it right away. Just tell him before Christmas. He has a right to know, and if you don't tell him… well, he's not going to wait around forever."

"I think he's already given up," said Lily. And she began to cry once more. But Robbin had convinced her: she had to tell James. But she wasn't sure that she could do it before Christmas, that was only four days away.

0o0

Meanwhile, James and Sirius were having a similar discussion. James wasn't crying, but Sirius thought it would be better if he was, the cold, dead, depressed look on his face was quite disturbing him.

"I've finally moved on," announced James.

"Come on, Prongs, just hold out for a little bit longer. I really do think she likes you!"

"You've been telling me that all year. And all year I've sat back and watched her relationship with Snivellous grow even more."

"Maybe Snivellous did force her into it," suggested Sirius.

"Doubt it."

"Look, mate, you didn't see her expression when you sat down next to Robbin. That was pure jealousy."

"She was probably just upset that she couldn't sit by Snivellous."

"You're pathetic! All these years you haven't given up when we told you you should have, and now that I tell you she likes you, that you shouldn't give up, you do!"

James had no remark to that comment.

"Just give her until Christmas, mate. Those gifts you've been giving her have to make her like you."

"Well," compromised James, "I'll wait until Christmas. Not a day longer. But I will not tell her it's me that has been giving her all that stuff. Especially after that sappy cow thing I gave her last night."

"That's all I'm asking," said Sirius.


A/N- There's the ninth chapter! Review if you want the tenth!