Ok, here it is. I just want to say thanks again for everyone who has reviewed, favorited, or followed this. So, THANKS! As usual, I'm not JK Rowling, I don't own Harry Potter and I'm not the queen.

Winter

The grounds of Hogwarts were a startling white when Lily Evans woke up on the first morning of the winter holiday. The sun was out and the snow-covered ground glinted in the sunlight. Lily smiled as she slipped her feet into a pair of slippers. She had always loved the snow and the winter time, especially at Hogwarts. It made the place look even more beautiful and magical. She loved wearing thick wool sweaters and sipping cocoa by the fire and playing in the snow and going ice skating and absolutely everything that winter had to offer.

It was strange not being at home for Christmas. Her mother was spending the holidays with Petunia and Vernon and his family and she had advised Lily that her Christmas would be much more pleasant spent at school.

And so far, it had been a very pleasant holiday. She and Marlene were the only ones left in their dorm- Marlene's parents had gone to visit her brother in the States- and it was unusually quiet without Mary's constant chatter and Alice's tinkling laugh.

"Morning Lils." Lily smiled at the small blonde girl stretching beneath her covers.

"Morning Marlene."

Lily showered before the two girls dressed and went down to breakfast. When they arrived, the tables in the Great Hall were sparsely occupied as most students had gone home for Christmas so the girls had their pick of seats.

"Oi! Evans, McKinnon- snowball fight in twenty minutes!"

Lily looked at James Potter with narrowed eyes. It was true that their previous animosity had turned into a surprisingly easy friendship and Lily may or may not have been trying to keep the butterflies in her stomach in check as he smirked at her and he may not be the same arrogant prat he had been when they were thirteen, but he was still James Potter. And James Potter still loved to pull pranks and do silly, stupid things.

"All right. We'll meet you out there." Marlene agreed easily. Lily sighed and finished her breakfast- she really needed the butterflies to stop fluttering around her stomach so that she didn't vomit all over the table.

They hurried upstairs and bundled up in heavy jackets and layers of socks and warm mittens and hats and boots- Lily went so far as to put a pair of flannel pants on under her jeans.

"Oh Merlin, we look like Oompa Loompas." Lily laughed at Marlene's confused expression. "Never mind, let's just go."

Lily enjoyed the crunch of the snow as she stepped onto the grounds. The chilly air bit at her face and the wind blew her hair around and she couldn't be happier.

"Glad you could join us, ladies." Sirius was grinning at them from one side of an empty stretch of snow behind a packed snow fort. "We've already decided- Evans you'll be with Prongs, Wormtail, and Reynolds and McKinnon's with me, Moony, and Goose."

"Wait, Goose? You let them call you Goose, Greg?" Lily chuckled at Marlene's reddening cheeks- it was common knowledge that Marlene fancied Greg Marling like crazy. Greg just shrugged and beckoned Marlene to join them and Lily joined her team on the opposite side of the 'battlefield' and crouched down in front of the three of them.

"So what's our strategy boys?"

James gave her that cocky grin of his and dove into an explanation of offensive and defensive strategies- she should have known better than to ask the Quidditch captain about strategy.

Lily ducked and dove through the pelting of snowballs and slapped high fives with her teammates when she made a particularly good throw. The fight was only over when Marlene hit James right in the face with a rather large snowball and Marlene started complaining that her clothes were all wet and cold.
They left Greg and Thomas Reynolds as they went to their common room and went back upstairs to Gryffindor tower. Lily and Marlene changed into warm, dry clothes and by the time they went back down to the common room, the boys were waiting with a tray of cocoa and biscuits.

"How'd you lot manage to sneak all the way down there and get back so quickly? And you changed!"

All four boys just smirked in a superior way that made Lily want to slap the lot of them, but she refrained and took the steaming mug of cocoa from Remus instead.

As she settled in on the couch next to Marlene Lily sighed contentedly. That day was the perfect example of why she loved the winter time. Warm sweaters, snowball fights, cocoa and friends- yes, spending the winter holidays at Hogwarts was the best idea she'd had in ages.

There you go- please let me know what you guys think! I love my readers and I love reviews!