Christmas

Amy came home from Hogwarts a week before Christmas. Lily and James had stuck with their decision on making Christmas extra special and already redecorated Amy's room and bought all her presents. They had decided to wait until she got home before decorating the house, but that hadn't stopped Lily from making the house smell like Christmas. James had gone to pick her up and when she got back, Lily had already baked a whole load of biscuits. Sirius and Marigold were sitting on the sofa, waiting for them.

"Hey Paddy," Amy walked slowly over to him and sat down. "Hello Marigold."

"What have you been up to at school? Play any tricks?"

"No," Amy looked around. "Aren't we having Christmas?"

"Of course we are," Lily appeared from the kitchen with a tray in her hands. "We just wanted to wait till you got home, so that we could decorate it together."

"Can I have a biscuit, Lily-Petal?" Sirius asked jumping up but grabbed one before Lily could answer. He dropped it almost immediately, "Ow!"

"They're hot, Sirius," Lily laughed as she tipped them onto a plate. "Hello Amy. How was school?"

"It was okay," Amy looked down. "I'm tired."

"Go upstairs and lie down," Lily smiled. "I'll call you down when we're ready to decorate."

"No, thanks," Amy stood up and left the room without another word.

Lily sighed and looked at James, "She doesn't seem happy."

"She'll get over it," James glanced after his sister. "This is the first Christmas without them."
"As it is for us, James."

"I know," James went over to his wife and gave her a quick hug. "But she is younger than us and we have to be strong for her even if it is killing us."

"When did you get so wise?" Lily asked, a small smile on her face.

"Since I've been married to you," James answered and kissed her. "Now let's start decorating and maybe she'll come down. Padfoot, put some music on."

James was right. The sound of music and laughter soon brought Amy down from her room. She stood at the doorway for a minute watching James, Sirius and Marigold messing about; Lily was sitting on the sofa watching. Lily saw her and waved her over. as she sat beside Lily, Amy lent towards her.

"Thank you for decorating my room."

"It was nothing," Lily smiled and put an arm around her. "Listen, Amy, I know it's going to be hard this year but just try and be happy, okay? Your mum and dad would have wanted you to be happy."

"But I don't want to be. I miss them."

"I miss my parents too," Lily spoke softly. "but we have to remember that we have people around us who love us and will always be there to help and look after us."

"But what if something happens to you? Where will I go?"

"Oh Sirius would look after you, you know that. But you don't have to worry, Amy," Lily pulled her closer. "nothing is going to happen to me or James, I promise."

Amy nodded and didn't say anymore. She stayed with Lily for a while and then stood up and went to help James and Sirius with the tree. Marigold joined Lily on the sofa.

"How is she now?"

"A bit better, I think," Lily kept her eyes on the girl. "It's taking time but hopefully by Christmas she'll be back to normal and will be able to enjoy the day."

Marigold nodded, "Good. Maybe you should invite her friend round at some point. They'd both like that."

"Yeah," Lily mused. "They would."

For the rest of the time leading up to Christmas, Lily and James tried to fill Amy's days as much as possible. They'd both taken the whole of the Christmas holidays off work so that they could devote themselves to Amy and slowly but surely, Amy did become happier. When Christmas did finally come, Amy was her old self, although she was quiet after the presents had been opened but Sirius soon changed that by proposing a snowball fight. Lily decided not to join in so that the teams would be equal. Instead she stood by the kitchen window and watched the fight and prepared hot chocolate for them. Frank, Alice, Remus and Peter arrived later that day after lunch and the group of friends and Amy sat down to dinner. In the evening they played games until midnight, which was when all the guests left. Lily, James and Amy however stayed up, all curled up next to each other on the sofa in front of the fire. The radio was on and playing Muggle Christmas music, which was lulling all of them to sleep. Lily and James were fighting to stay awake and Amy had already fallen asleep, when they decided to go up to bed. James carried Amy carefully up the stairs and into her bedroom. He'd just laid her on her bed when Amy stirred and looked up at him.

"Jamie?"

"Yes?"

"This was the best Christmas ever."

James smiled and bending down, kissed Amy's head, "I'm glad. Night, Amy."

Amy didn't answer; she was already asleep again.