Christmas Day Part 1

Lily woke from a dream about snowball fights and mistletoe to find her room decorated from ceiling to floor in Christmas decorations. Tinsel and holly lined the walls, fake snowflakes were falling from the ceiling, golden stars shined in the sunlight, there was mistletoe hanging in the door way and on the door itself sat a wreath. Lily pushed back the covers, slid out of bed and went out into the common room.

The common room itself looked like a Christmas card. The picture rails were lined with tinsel, the carpet was completely white due to the fake snow, stockings hung over the fireplace, a large fir tree stood in the corner covered in an assortment of decorations, tiny angel figurines floated just above Lily's head and "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" was playing in the background. Underneath the tree lay mountains of presents.

Lily made her way to the Christmas tree to sort the presents. She always had, when she was given the chance. Every Christmas, she would race down stairs to the tree to look at all the presents and sort them into four separate piles. But Petunia would always try to get there first and hide all Lily's presents before she got down stairs. Lily would always burst into tears when she couldn't find any with her name on them. Then her father would come to the rescue, bringing forth the pile of hidden gifts.

As Lily knelt down in front of the Christmas tree, James appeared from his bedroom, hair ruffled and pyjamas still on. "Merry Christmas," he said groggily sitting down beside her.

"Merry Christmas," she said brightly.

"I didn't think you were looking forward to Christmas."

"I wasn't, but I've got the Christmas spirit in me now," she said smiling. She handed him a large package. "This one's yours."

"Thanks," James said ripping the wrapping paper. "Wow, it's huge!" he exclaimed. He had just opened Charlotte and Sophie's present, the Honeydukes hamper.

"Yeah, they thought it would keep you going for a while," Lily said picking up a present addressed to her. It was a tinny package wrapped in gold paper with an elaborate red bow. Carefully, she slipped the bow off and un-wrapped the paper. A small red velvet box was left in her hands. Opening the box, Lily found herself looking at one of the most beautiful jewels she had ever seen. A glimmering emerald, set into a sliver pendant was starring her in the face. In shock, Lily picked the emerald up and pulled the necklace out of the box. Turning the pendant over, she saw an inscription on the back: Love always Sophie and Charlotte.

"Oh my God, they didn't," she said to herself, still in shock.

"What is it?" James asked, looking up from his sweets.

"Sophie and Charlotte got me this," she replied showing James the necklace.

"It's nice; do you want me to help you put it on?"

"Umm, ok thanks," Lily said carefully passing him the necklace and then pulling her hair back and holding it up against her skull. James unhooked the latch and brought the necklace up over Lily's head and onto her upper chest. Doing the chain up, he pulled his hands away as he watched Lily's vibrant hair cascade down her back. It sent shivers through his body.

"Thank you," she said standing to find a mirror. "What did you get from Sirius?"

"I don't know, let's see," he said searching under the tree for a present with Sirius' handwriting on it. "Oh, it's a bunch of gag stuff from Zonko's."

"Oh cool," Lily said coming back to the tree. She picked up another small package with her name on it. "What the fuck!" she said looking inside.

"What?"

"Is this from you?" Lily asked, pulling out the most hideous piece of lingerie she had ever seen. There were holes in inappropriate places and fur trimmings everywhere.

James burst out laughing. "I swear that wasn't me," he said in between laughs.

"Then who's it from?" Lily asked. She looked inside the wrapping paper for a note of some sort. "It's got to be a joke," she said trying to convince herself that no one seriously wanted her to wear it.

James picked up the discarded nightie. "Classy, very classy."

"I should have known," Lily said picking up a tinny slip of paper. "Enjoy yourself tonight, Soph and Charlie," Lily read aloud.

"I like their sense of humour," James said. "So, what are you going to do with it?"

"Don't get any funny ideas."

"What!" James asked with an innocent look on his face.

"I know what you were thinking, this is going away," she said picking it up and flicking it away from her.

"Don't worry; I didn't get you anything like that, although if you want something like that just let me know for next time."

"I'll be right. So what did you get me then?"

"It's here," he said picking up a package and handing it to her. She took it from him anxiously. She wasn't sure what type of present he had bought for her. He said he hadn't got her anything cheeky which she was glad of, but was this an indicator of how he felt about her? Did he not want to 'be with her'? 'Stop it,' she thought to herself. 'You analyse things way too much.' She opened it to find a bottle of Anna Sui, Sui Love perfume (A/N: I am aware this was not around at this time but just pretend it is). "Oh my god, James," she said excitedly.

"I thought you'd like it."

"I do, I love it," she said. She put the bottle down and crawled over to where he was sitting to give him a hug. She threw her arms around his neck. "Thank you so much," Lily said before kissing him gently.

"That's quite alright," he said, pleased with the reaction his gift got from Lily.

"Ok, open mine now," Lily said crawling back and picking up the present she had bought for James. She passed it to him and waited to see his response. He ripped the wrapping paper off and pulled the silver watch off the packaging. "Wow, this is really nice," he said handling it, checking out all sides.

"I wasn't really sure what to get you, but I figured seeing as you didn't have one, and everybody needs a watch, so yeah."

"No, no, I really like it," he said undoing the clasp and slipping it onto his wrist.

Lily smiled with pleasure; it felt good to make him happy. She turned back to the tree and picked up another gift addressed to her. It was from Remus. She ripped the paper off excitedly; Remus always got her something she would love. It was a diary with a beautiful flowery embroidery design on the front. She opened the diary to see a handwritten message on the inside cover, opposite the scented pages. The message read:

Merry Christmas Lily,

I know you'll find some beautiful words to fill these pages with.

Remus

Lily set aside the diary and picked up the last package which was from Sirius. Originally she had thought the lingerie might have been from him as a joke but felt relieved when she discovered it was from Charlotte and Sophie. She hoped he had grown out of that stage.

It was lingerie. Almost identical to the disgusting piece she had received from her best friends. It was black and frilly and looked like it should be worn by a prostitute. There was a note inside the paper. 'Isn't it great! My present for you is in turn a present for Prongs; killing two birds with one stone, hey! Just kidding, you're real present is in the Gryffindor common room, come and get it later. Love you in a non sexual way, Sirius.' "Oh my god, I can't believe him," Lily said chucking the lingerie to James.

"What the hell is this?" he asked untangling the ball of a nightie. "Oohh, Sirius gave you this?"

"Yes, but he said there's a proper present in Gryffindor Tower. Do you want to go over there before breakfast?"

"Yeah, I was going to head that way anyway."

"Alright, just give me a few minutes to get dressed," Lily said, picking up all her presents and standing. Back in her bedroom, she pulled an emerald green sweater out of her wardrobe and a pair of black skinny jeans. She shook the snowflakes from her hair, pulled it up into a lazy ponytail and sprayed some of her new perfume on her neck and wrists. She re-entered the common room where James was standing by the Christmas tree again. Lily made her away across the room towards the portrait hole. She was just about to go through the hole, when James held out his arm and pulled her back into the room. "What is it?" she asked.

James pointed to the ceiling. Looking up, Lily saw mistletoe just above their heads. So unlike Lily, she pulled his head in towards him and let her lips collide with his. They remained together just inside the common room. Finally after what felt like months, the two separated and exited the head's quarters. They walked across the school, where it appeared everyone else was still asleep, hand in hand.

In Sophie and Charlotte's dormitory there was dead silence. Sophie was dreaming about herself and Sirius doing fun 'things' when she felt something furry on her face. "Sirius, get your hair out of my face," she mumbled with her eyes still closed. When she heard no response, she opened her eyes to find a black ball of fluff just under her chin. Starting to freak out, she screamed "AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!"

By this stage, she had woken an angry Charlotte. "What the fuck had possessed you to make a sound that loud at 8:30 on a weekend?" Charlotte looked over to see Sophie tossing about a small, black, fluffy ball. When she realised the small, black, fluffy ball was alive, she started to panic. "Oh God, Sophie it's alive, you're going to hurt it," she cried. But it was too late; she'd already flung open the window and thrown it over the edge. Now both girls were screaming. "SOPHIE THAT WAS ALIVE!" Charlotte shouted.

"OH MY GOD, EWW, IT TOUCHED ME," Sophie screamed.

At that moment Lily walked into the room. "Oh good, you're both up," she said brightly. Then she noticed that they were both at the window, screaming, Sophie making brushing off actions. "What's up?" she asked.

All Charlotte could manage to get out was "Sophie, kitten, window, die!"

Surprisingly, Lily understood perfectly what Charlotte was trying to communicate to her and with a flick of her wand; the kitten came soaring back through the window into her arms. Still shocked, both girls stopped screaming. "I wish I'd thought of that," Charlotte said.

"What in God's name is that thing doing in my room?" Sophie asked, still erratically swiping at her pyjamas trying to get whatever fur may have remained on her.

"Aww, Soph, you've got to admit it's kind of cute," said Lily.

"It's gorgeous!" exclaimed Charlotte walking over to pat the petrified kitten.

"Gorgeous, yeah right, that thing could have killed me, somebody call an ambulance, I might have a disease," said a distressed Sophie.

"It is not diseased, look it's got a ribbon around its neck, oh and a card," Lily said. As she opened the card, she read: "Dear Charlie, this is a little something to keep you company, love Alice."

"Oh my God, it's for me, it's so beautiful," Charlotte screamed.

"No, no, no, no and NO, that thing is NOT, I repeat, is NOT staying here," said Sophie, now using a wet towel to wipe the cat germs off her.

"Yes it is," Charlotte said, now cuddling the gorgeous bundle of fluff. "What am I going to call you?"

"How about Road Kill?" Sophie suggested.

"No, what about Ash?"

"Fugly?" Sophie said.

"No, I like Pippa," Charlotte said.

"Eww, if you ask me the best thing you can do with it is turn it into a coat and sell it," Sophie said with a look of disgust on her face.

"Sophie, that's awful," Lily said with a frown on her face.

Charlotte was now talking to the kitten in baby talk. "Oh, aren't you the most gorgeous thing ever," she said as Sophie put her finger in her mouth and made vomiting motions. Lily couldn't help but laugh.

"Ok, fine, you can keep the thing seeing as you like it so much. But if it comes within two meters of me or any of my stuff, so help me God, I'll make a hat out of it," Sophie said with a dead serious look on her face.

"Fine, did you hear that Pippa, you stay away from that mean Sophie, ok, cos she's a big bully," Charlotte said to Pippa before resigning to baby talk again.

"Alright, let's open our presents," Sophie said, clearly disgusted by Charlotte's behaviour.

"Yes, please do. I want to see what you guys get," Lily said sitting down on Sophie's bed.

"Oh yeah, I noticed you're wearing our necklace," Sophie said picking up her pile of gifts and dumping them on her bed.

"Yeah, I wanted to thank you for it, I love it!"

"Good," Sophie said picking up a small present. Un-wrapping the paper, she was left with a small red box. Fingers trembling, she pulled out the gorgeous white gold ring. It had tinny diamonds set into the band and an engraving on the inside: loving you always.

"Oh my God, oh my God," Lily said when she spied the ring in Sophie's clutches.

"Don't hyperventilate, it's a commitment ring," Sophie said slipping it onto her ring finger. "We decided on buying each other one when we were in Hogsmeade, but I had no idea which one he would pick."

"It's beautiful," Lily said taking Sophie's hand and inspecting the ring.

"Remus better have bought me something as good as that, otherwise I'm not going to take him back," Charlotte said picking up one of her own presents. "This looks like his handwriting." She opened it and pulled out a ring of her own. It was rose gold (looks bronze not pink or red) with three diamonds in the band. It too was engraved but with a different message: forever faithful. It matched Charlotte perfectly as she often wore bronze type jewellery and was very into vintage clothing.

At first inspection, Charlotte frowned, thinking that the band was bronze or some sort of tin. Taking a closer look, she realised it was rose gold.

"Ok, he is forgiven," Charlotte said slipping it onto her finger and holding it up to show Lily and Sophie.

"Aww, it's so pretty," Lily said.

"Mine's prettier," said Sophie.

"Is not," said Charlotte.

"Is too."

"How about we agree that they are different styles but are both equally pretty," Lily said, as always trying to be the mediator.

"Ok," Charlotte said.

"But mine's prettier," Sophie added.

Charlotte was about to open her mouth to retaliate but Lily cut her off. "Why don't you open another present? Open mine," she said finding the gifts she had picked out and handing them to Sophie and Charlotte.

Simultaneously, they ripped the wrapping paper open and pulled out silver plated flasks. They were engraved with each of their names. "You did not!" Sophie said in shock.

"Well, I figured I may as well embrace your drinking seeing as I'm never going to get you to stop," Lily explained.

"I love it!" Charlotte said.

"Same."

"Good, but look at the other part," Lily said pointing to the paper on the beds. They both pulled out the other part of the gift. "Aww, Lily," Charlotte said standing up and giving Lily a big bear hug.

"Aww," Sophie said as well, coming and adding herself to the hug. "Group hug!" What had created this reaction was the other part of Lily's gift. She had given both Sophie and Charlotte a silver plated frame engraved with a lily and the words love Lily on one of the sides. The photo inside was a Muggle photo of the three of them together.

"So, what other presents haven't you opened yet?" Lily asked when she had been released.

"I haven't got anything from you yet, Charlotte," Sophie said.

"Don't worry, I did buy you something, you better like it by the way because it was very expensive," Charlotte said sifting through the remaining presents on her bed to find Sophie's.

"Charlotte, you don't tell people that," Lily said.

"Yeah well, I'm just making sure she appreciates it."

"Where is it?" Sophie asked, "I can't see one from you."

"Oh that's right, I forgot, I left it in my wardrobe," she said getting up off her bed and moving to the wardrobe. She busied herself looking for several minutes before she produced a small brown box with small air holes in the top.

"Oh God, it's living," Sophie said.

"Don't worry, it's something you're sure to love, I bought it cos it reminded me of you," said Charlotte handing over the box to Sophie. Cautiously she lifted the lid and screamed. "What kind of a joke is this!" she shouted at Charlotte.

"What is it?" Lily asked moving closer to peer into the box. Inside the brown box sat a large green frog. Lily burst out laughing.

"Relax Soph, it's just a joke, this is your real present," she said pulling a smaller box from under her pillow.

"Speaking of jokes," Lily said, "thanks for the lingerie, it went down a treat with James."

"Oh that's good, we thought it might," Sophie said opening the smaller box. She withdrew a slinky, silver watch.

"It's Versace," Charlotte said putting the frog in the box away.

"Wow, it's gorgeous."

"And, is this from you?" Charlotte asked waving a small package in front of her.

"Yeah."

"Oh cool," Charlotte said when she saw the charm bracelet from Sophie.

"You can buy yourself any other charms you want," said Sophie referring to the fact that there were only four charms hanging from the bracelet.

"Is that it then?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, I think so, why?"

"I just want to go to the common room," Lily said. "I'll meet you down there."

In the common room, Sirius and Remus were sitting in armchairs with their open gifts and James was standing by the fire. Lily went over and wrapped her arms around James' waist. "Merry Christmas," she said at large to the room.

"Merry Christmas, Lily," Remus said happily.

"Merry Christmas Lily flower," Sirius said. "Did you like your present?"

"Yes, it was quite funny, thank you for that."

"Here's your real gift," he said as he passed Lily a large book. She opened the cover and found her face starring back at her. Flicking through the pages, she saw photos from many different events over the past six years. "Sirius, I had no idea you sentimental!"

"Shhh, we don't want everyone finding out," he said grinning.

Sophie and Charlotte appeared at the foot of the stairs. Sophie strode over to the chair Sirius was sitting in and positioned herself on his lap. "Merry Christmas," she said before kissing him.

"Merry Christmas," he said in return.

"I nearly died this morning," she said putting her arms around his neck.

"How?"

"This cat attacked me"

"You didn't let it touch you, did you?" he asked.

"Actually," Charlotte interrupted, "It was just sleeping on you and you nearly killed it when you threw it out the window."

"You threw it out the window? Good job!" Sirius praised Sophie.

"No, not good, when it's my Christmas present from Alice," Charlotte said walking over to Remus. "Thank you for the present," she said, "and I forgive you," she added.

"I'm glad, you know I love you," he said.

"Yeah, I do, just don't go and show me by making out with Gwen Landers next time," she said as he kissed her on the cheek. "Can we get food now, I'm starving!"

"Always thinking about food," Sirius said lifting Sophie off his lap and standing. "I suppose we had better go and have breakfast, otherwise we'll have her complaining all morning."

The party of six left Gryffindor tower for the Great Hall. This year, as unusual, there were barely any students staying at Hogwarts for Christmas. When they reached the hall, they found that most of the students that were staying were already in there. The Great Hall, like the rest of the school was elaborately decorated, with huge pine trees lining the walls and shinning baubles in every space available.

As Sophie was passing through the door way, Sam Perkins was leaving. He pulled Sophie over to him and, before she could protest, kissed her. Sophie having quick reactions, punched him in the stomach and kicked him in the groin. "Piss off dick head, don't ever touch me like that again, mistletoe or not," she said leaving him in a stunned yet excruciatingly painful position.

A/N: i remember what it is i kept forgetting to put in my a/n. i wanted to inform you all that even though i said previously there would be a yule ball, there will not be one in this story. sorry about that.

i made this part 1 because i realised it was going to be excruciatingly long if i didn't break it up and i wanted to be kind to you all and update as soon as possible.

brie would like me to write that just in case it isn't clear, the fashion that is described in this story is meant to be that of the fashion in Australia 2006.

also, thanks to those lovely people who review, the character poll left Sophie and Lily tied ( sorry brie) and James winning the male side by two.

lastly, we were really excited about this chapter and all the presents and stuff and i hope you liked it. if you realised the amount of time and effort we (me, nic, brie) spent planning this then you would probably nominate us for australian of the year award (just kidding) (for those of you who don't know what that is, its not very important so just forget you ever read it).

enjoy, anie oxox

ps. i love semi colons ;