A/N: Holy Crap over 100 follows! Thank you so much guys! You are all fantastic. And although it is March, here is a Christmas themed chapter for you! I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 13: James

"I'll see you on Christmas," James waved to Aiden.

"Yeah, see you James," his best friend responded back.

They stood on the crowded platform as wizards and witches moved from here to there trying to find their families and get home for the holidays. Aiden soon disappeared into the crowd to find his mother while James stood planted on the platform scanning for his dad.

"Do you see him?" Lily asked.

James answered in a heartbeat, "Yeah Lil, that's why we're still standing here."

Albus appeared from behind the two of them, "Oi, dad's been looking all over for you."

"Where is he?" James asked.

Albus motioned in a general direction towards the back of the platform, "Get Emma and meet us near the barrier."

James nodded. He turned to search for the witch, on the platform, his sight finally setting on a large black bow pinned to the back of a girl's hair. Currently, that girl had her hands strung around someone's neck, and her lips were—occupied. James wondered how exactly he managed to find the snogging couples all the time, he decided it was a gift he had.

He headed towards the couple and stood just within earshot. James once again used the protocol that he had developed well over the years during the many times he was required to be around a snogging Teddy and Victoire. He turned his back towards them, hands folded, standing in front of them as if he were the couple's body guard. He stood just close enough to them that he could hear what they were saying—not that they were saying anything at the moment.

Over the voices in the crowd James eventually heard and "I'll see you next term," and turned towards Emma.

"Oi! Wood!"

The smile from her face suddenly faltered, "I am so sorry Potter—how long were you there were you-,"

James felt the blood rush to the back of his neck and his ears turn warm, "here while you were snogging? Yes. Did I turn away and stare at a barrier for a good five minutes, yes. Yes again."

James noted Emma's face now turned a shade of pale pink as well. He grabbed her luggage and made ushered her foward, "Come on Wood, dad's waiting outside the platform."

The two of them weaved their way expertly through the crowd before catching sight of Lily's red hair. "They're here James," Emma called out to him.

James followed as the two of them met up with the rest of the family and headed towards a place that he'd been missing. Home.

The first few days of break had been quite uneventful, Emma had assimilated quite nicely into the family. The first conversation that Emma'd had with the parents went something like:

"Thank you for having me over," Emma said to Harry and Ginny Potter.

"Not a problem at all dear," said Ginny. "Though it was quite a surprise when James said he was bringing you home."

"I am not bringing her home," groaned James, "I said that this was better than the alternative while her parents were away."

"Of course Jamesie," Ginny hugged her son. "You're welcome here anytime Emma."

Emma stifled a laugh but the two of them noted a significant feeling of discomfort in the foyer as James felt the blood rush to the back of his neck.

James immediately cleared his throat and grabbed Emma's luggage to carry to the guest bedroom. He dropped it right inside the door against the wall and sighed. He flexed his back before walking to his own room. He met Emma at the area where the stairs met a platform, "If you need anything Wood, let me know, your room is across from Lily's," he told her.

"Yeah, don't mind me if you need anything Emma," Lily echoed. "Our house is yours."

"Thanks Potters," she addressed them both. Emma hadn't made eye contact with James yet. In fact she avoided making eye contact with him at all.

James crossed them, as the girls walked to the opposite side of the floor James and Emma brushed shoulders. "Sorry," he muttered to her.

She nodded stiffly. James felt a sharp pang shoot down his spine. He hadn't the faintest idea why, so he brushed off the feeling and went to his room.

By the time supper rolled around that day, the events of the day had gone back to normal, in fact Emma fit into the family a little too well. Over the next few days, she would have discussions with Al, do girly things that James couldn't wrap his head around with Lily, in fact she kept so busy, James barely had time to make conversation with her at all. Maybe for an hour or so each day did he actually converse with the witch.

However, it was the day before Christmas, the family rushed about to the Burrow. The travelled via portkey seeing as there were six of them. From on top of a hill not too far away James was greeted by the snowy sight of his familiar childhood play place. He loved the Burrow, and everything that came with it. The busyness, the lack of personal space, and the family which he truly loved. Not to mention grandmum Weasley's perfect treacle tart.

"Watch your step Wood," James warned her, grabbing her bag.

"Yeah, it gets awfully hard to judge depth with all this snow," Albus added referring to the good foot of snow under their feet.

"Will do," Emma said. "Potter, I can take it."

"It's fine," James insisted.

The family walked hesitantly to the burrow, luckily the snow had subsided and it was calm and bright in the early evening.

James sighed, he knew what we would encounter when he got into the burrow, he mentally braced himself. "A word?" he directed to Emma.

The rest of the family walked on and as Lily passed the both of them she shot James a rather smug look. And James glared at her in return.

"Fair warning," he sighed, "For when you get inside."

"In reference to...?" Emma asked searchingly.

"Remember when you came home from the platform, it's going to be just like that but far worse."

Emma had the audacity to chuckle and James felt nothing but dread. "I'll be fine Jamsie," she teased.

"You say that now," he said seriously. She had no idea what his family was capable of. Endless ridicule was about to overwhelm them both.

They walked the rest of the hill to the burrow as Emma teased James about the family pet name. He insisted that she should shut up about it, but she was a persistent witch who of course, hadn't let up. The tables had turned this time. Typically James enjoyed pressing Emma's buttons, but as of now he was not in the mood.

The rest of the family had already made it inside the Burrow and James silently cursed as he and Emma walked through the threshold.

He was met with the instantaneous hug and an atypical greeting of "James has brought home a witch!" a plump old witch exclaimed.

"No grandmum," James muttered. "It's Wood."

Emma supresssed an initial snort and James simply groaned. This wasn't even going to be the half of it.

"Oh lovely, take a look everyone, our little Jamesie has brought home a witch."

Ginny and Harry stifled laughs as the family assembled and stared the pair down. About a dozen or so adults crowded the doorway, the two of them hadn't even made it in properly. James set down his bag and Emma's on the floor.

"Bloody hell," his Uncle Ron exclaimed, "James has finally caught himself one hell of a bird!"

"Ronald!" James' Aunt Hermione exclaimed while slapping his shoulder.

"What?!"Uncle Ron insisted, "It's not like any one of us thought he would ever go steady."

The family roared with laughter. "Well done Jamesie," Uncle George said slapping him on the back, "Although Freddie didn't mention you were with Ravenclaw's captain."

"Oh you're Wood's daughter," said his Aunt Angelina, "you've grown up so much."

James said nothing, he was met with comments from the entire family and he stood rigidly turning a bright red. He felt Emma's breath on his neck, "Potter, do something, they're just looking at us," she whispered harshly. "And we are most definitely-,"

"We are not together!" James exclaimed, "Wood has a boyfriend. She's staying with us over break while her family is away!" he insisted.

"Leave the poor kids alone," his mum said to the family

Harry, this entire time had refrained from laughing out loud, "Yeah much thanks to you mum and dad, could've bothered to save us from about ten minutes worth of humiliation."

"We love you son," Harry called out to him as he grabbed the luggage, motioned to Emma to follow and got the hell out of there.

The two of them silently climbed the stairs James felt his ears cooling and he glanced towards Emma who had returned to her normal tone, "I'm sorry about that."

"I think it's rather cute, they take such an interest in your love life."

"Cute," James grunted, "is a subjective term."

Emma smiled warily.

"You'll be sharing a room with Rose and Lils I take it," said James, "This is their room." He said stopping outside of a door on the third floor. "It used to be mum's room."

Emma thanked James, "Alright."

"Bathroom's right here, door over, and I'm upstairs with Al if you need anything. On the topmost. Come on, you can meet the cousins!" James exclaimed with excitement.

They climbed a few flights of stairs before reaching one particular room. James opened the door to find a handful of readheads sitting everywhere from beds, to the floor, to the windowsill. They slipped in between everyone met by a chorus of hellos and how are you's.

Not soon after Aiden arrived along with his mum. James went down to greet his best friend and his friend's mother who he adored. She spoiled James and everyone knew it. He was like her second son.

"You might as well be me," Aiden muttered to him.

"Oh sod off, you're just bitter because she loves me more than you," James teased.

"I can't even deny it," replied Aiden. The two of them entered the room with the rest of the family and Aiden greeted Emma with a hug.

"How are you!" she exclaimed!

Aiden smiled, "This is your first time at the Potter's and Weasley's for the holidays yeah? I'm fantastic.

Emma nodded but their conversation was soon cut short by the sound of an explosion. A rather intense of exploding snap had begun, and the Potter and Weasley cousin's took the game extremely seriously, courtesy of Albus, they had it seeded down to the match. They all played for hours on end, those who had lost proceeded to start a game of wizard's chess.

Just as a deck of cards exploded, James heard the familiar ringing in his ears, "Dinner kids!"

A stampede of adolescent children thundered their way down for family dinner. They took a seat at a long table. Long is not even an appropriate term because the table had taken up most of the house so that the whole family could sit together. Grandmum had outdone herself, James thought. There were all of his favourite foods, a turkey in the middle, pasties, potatoes, the whole nine yards.

"Do you need any help Mrs. Weasley," James heard Emma ask grandmum.

"Could you be a dear and bring the treacle tart to the table?"

"Of course!"

"You're such a sweetheart, I can see why our James is so taken with you," he overheard.

James felt himself turn red.

"You alright mate?" Aiden asked over Emma's chuckle.

"Yeah," James said absent mindedly, he shook his head. He watched Emma's figure disappear behind the kitchen wall.

"I forgot the ladle, James would you?" he heard, the sound of his mum's voice grounding him back to reality.

"Sure mum," he walked backwards in order to face her.

"I should have left it right by the-," James, obviously, didn't hear where his mother had left the soup ladle because he had unfortunately walked into something soft that should not have been there.

"Damn it!" he heard Emma exclaim, his hand darted outwards instinctively.

One of the two tarts that Emma had been carrying landed rather ungracefully on the floor, the other, by whatever quick stroke of luck, James had managed to catch on the palm of his hand.

"I got it," James shouted! Unfortunately, the other tart tray clanged discordantly on the floor.

"Nice, Potter," Emma said picking the pieces of tart off of her shoes. "Next time watch in front of you, there's a reason your eyes aren't on the back of your head."

"Let me help you," James insisted. He slid the composed treacle tart onto the counter and reached for the fallen tray. Unfortunately Emma had the same idea, this resulted in two of them grabbing hold at the same time.

James, from his crouched position on the floor, studied Emma. She was wearing a loose fitting knitted sweater with leggings, knitted leg warmers and brown lace up boots. Her hair fell in soft curls in front of her face, hiding her eyes. She glanced up slowly. Her eyes were like dark amber, they held life in them, but her laughter was lost. The two of them remained, crouched on the floor of the kitchen, hands on the tray between them, feet covered in treacle tart. Her eyes drew him in; they intrigued him, he found them mesmerizing, more than he could say for most other people.

Emma didn't say a word and neither of them broke eye contact either until James was taken out of his daze by an intrusive clearing of the throat.

"We're waiting," said the redhead impatiently. Lily had a smug grin on her face as if she knew something that James didn't. "Not to interrupt your little love fest—or whatever it is."

Emma turned a little bit pink, James noticed that she'd been doing that a lot since she got here, "Hey Lily?"

"Yeah?" the young witch answered.

"Your brother is an arse," Emma said standing up with the tray. James quickly followed in suit.

"I take offense to that Wood!" he protested.

Emma handed Lily the proper treacle tart, "Could you take this to the table, I'll clean up. And by clean up I'll make sure he cleans up."

Lily's hair was out of sight and James smirked, "You know, treacle tart is my favourite dessert."

"Your grandmum might have mentioned it," she retorted cheekily.

James scratched the back of his neck.

"Well don't just stand there Potter, help!"

The two of them quickly swept the mess in the kitchen before returning to the table. They all gathered around for a family meal, James sat between Aiden and Emma.

Unfortunately, this little incident had been the cause of many whispers and stares. James was certain everyone was speaking about the two of them and as if to confirm Aiden muttered under his breath, so low that only James could hear, "They've been raving about you two for the past ten minutes Potter."

James sighed and shot his friend a look.

The rest of dinner went along swimmingly, come time for dessert James made a beeline for the treacle tart, as no one could make it better than his grandmum.

The night went on long, and late, Christmas wishes were spread as Aiden and his mother departed for the night. The children soon enough retreated to their own respective bedrooms for the night.

The Potter's returned to their own home next day and James, Albus, Lily, and Emma found a way to keep themselves occupied for the following couple of days. One particular evening, Mrs. Potter had come back from Diagon Alley with a new pair of quidditch gloves for James.

The entire family was helping in bringing everything inside. James was currently in the process of bringing in some of the groceries for his mum when she approached him.

"James dear, I left your new gloves in your room, I believe Emma put them away."

James sat down the bags from his mother in the kitchen and ran up the stairs to break them in. "Thank's mum," called down to her.

James entered his room only to find something which didn't quite belong. "Wood?" James asked in reference to the brunette who was at the moment pouring over something which he had thrown on his desk.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, "Sorry Potter, I came to drop off your gloves, and I found this on your desk." She motioned to the large book filled with pieces of parchment marked with lines, x's and o's.

"You found your brother's playbook."

"I can't believe the bloody bastard gave it to you instead of me!" she exclaimed angrily, "he's my brother!"

James chuckled, "You know what they say, house before blood."

Emma grabbed a pillow from nearby and chucked it at James who was caught off guard. It hit him squarely in the face.

"How old are we?" he stated plainly.

"Yeah, well," Emma said bitterly, she turned back to the book, "these plays are utterly brilliant," she said flipping through the pages.

James walked over next to her and looked at the one which she was referring to. To James' surprise, it was towards the end of the book, meaning, "That's actually my play Wood."

"Is it?" she looked over to face him. He noticed her eyes searching his face, and he studied her. Her hair was up today, tied in a mint green ribbon pulling the hair out her eyes. Unfortunately, she had a few stray hairs that framed her face quite nicely, her amber eyes glowed brightly. She was leaning on the chair of his desk, and James too held the back of his chair to see what Emma was looking at.

James felt his throat go dry, "Yeah," he cleared his throat.

Their hands were inches away from each other and James felt the heat of her skin radiate. The beat of his heart increased for some unbeknownst reason. "It's just Wood" he repeated to himself over and over again.

But there was something off, "Well I guess then it's just alright," she said in a whisper.

Without breaking eye contact James responded, "I certainly do recall the words utterly brilliant being used."

"I just want to reiterate the fact that they are absolutely"

"Perfectly" James offered.

"Exceptionally" Emma countered, "Ordinary."

"Flawless," James said at the same time. With every word, the other had moved in slightly, Their bodies were close together and James could feel Emma's heart beating loudly against his own. Their eyes still watched each other closely. He had gotten lost in the molten amber of Emma's eyes which were now darkened. Their lips teased each other, James could feel the outline of Emma's delicate figure against himself, yet they hadn't once touched. Suddenly James wanted her; the room was silent and neither one of them pulled away. James suddenly didn't care that she was in a relationship or that she was opposing captain. He wanted nothing more than to kiss Emma Wood and he cursed himself silently for waiting this long to realize it.

He moved in a little so he could now feel her every breath, but what might have happened next was interrupted by a muffled "Kids! Dinner!"

James stepped back and arm's length away from Emma and yelled in frustration, "Coming mum!"

"James-," Emma began.

He caught her eye again, "Don't, it didn't happen. Nothing happened."

"I," she began, but James cut her off by leaving the room. At that moment he was more frustrated and confused than he'd ever really been. Dinner had been awkward, he and Emma wouldn't make eye contact and the air was stiff.

Emma excused herself early and went to her and Lily's room, James supposed. He himself retreated to his own room earlier than usual with a dirty stare from Lily. Unfortunately he had difficulty falling asleep and so he slipped on a sweatshirt, pulled up the hood, and changed into Holyhead Harpy sweatpants. He threw open his window and stepped out onto the flat incline of the roof by his room. He had discovered it when he was about seven or so, and it'd become his place, his place where he could shut out the rest of the world.

And so he sat there, the air was cold but it didn't bother him that day. The chilled air refreshed James down to his bones. He sat and contemplated where in the bloody six years he had realized he'd wanted to snog the daylights out of Emma Wood.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of footsteps on the rooftop with him. He didn't look behind, he just gazed at the sky, the stars, the snowy ground. She sat beside him, giving him silent company and he appreciated it.

"Em," he said minutes later, "I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"I like you," he said simply, "but you're my friend, my competitor, and you're damn good at it too. And I don't want to put you in a position where—,"

"Shut up," she said to him, "you didn't. I like you too James, hell, I couldn't be more grateful for you. You've given me such a lovely Christmas. But like you said, you're family."

And suddenly James felt a wave of relief, but something else along with that. He felt like something sharp had gone through his chest.

The sat quietly for hours and soon the clock chimed past midnight, he heard it muffled in his ears, "Happy new year Em."

"Happy new year Potter."