After a few lazy weeks of doing nothing but useless, winter-related relaxation activities, Christmas morning rolls around; when I awake this morning, Ainsley is already ripping open her presents, wild as anything.

"Calm down Ainsley," I say, yawning and rubbing my eyes. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Lily!" Ainsley jumps up and hugs me tightly before going back to her gifts.

Ainsley is always sugar-high on Christmas because she wakes up at four in the morning every year and steals as many Christmas cookies and cakes as she can from the kitchens; her behavior tells me that this year is no different.

However, opening presents sounds like fun – I go ahead and begin on my pile as well. I get a few books I'd been wanting from my parents and even a card from Petunia, which contained five pence. It's an improvement from last year – last year, she sent me an old hairbrush. However, there is a package I don't recognize in the middle of my heap; who can it be from? I open it curiously, full of wonderment, and when I get to the gift, I yelp.

It's a perfume that I saw in a shop once for more than a hundred pounds.

How on earth had the buyer afforded it? How on earth did he/she know I'd been dreaming about it since I saw it?

I went straight for the card, hoping to see who it was from, and I want to die when I see it's from James Potter – he had included a cheerful, brightly colored card that just screamed his name out to me. I can't believe it; I don't know how on earth I'm supposed to thank him.

Ainsley peers over and squeals. "It's that perfume!" she hollers, snatching it from me. "Let me see!"

I have no choice but to let her look it over, admiring it. "Who gave it to you?" she demands.

"James," I say, my tone expressing the bewilderment I am feeling.

"He's so in love with you!" Ainsley nearly explodes into a million pieces upon saying this.

I sigh. "I don't know how I'm going to live this on down. How did he know?"

"Because he loves you," Ainsley clarifies.

"Why did he spend so much?" I speculate aloud, ignoring her.

"Because he loves you," Ainsley tells me again, a little more forcefully.

"I don't even know why he does these things," I say, now aggravated. "He annoys me incessantly when he's in school, and then he sends me things like this! Does he live to confuse me or something?"

"It's because he loves you!" Ainsley bellows into my face. "Get it into your thick skull, Lily – he loves you, and you love him back. Secretly."

I roll my eyes, trying to act flippant as I put away the perfume. "Did you send Sirius your present?"

"Yes, I did." Ainsley cackles. "Let's see what I got back." She takes out a small cardboard box that I know Sirius must have sent to her. She opens it carefully so that it doesn't fall apart, and she looks inside. I look inside with her, and we both stare in silence for a moment.

In the box are a single red rose, and a white card.

Ainsley reads the card, and when she's done, she gives it to me. I find two words written in Sirius's dreadful scrawl.

I'm sorry.

I look into Ainsley's face to see her reaction. Her face is tender and exposed for a second, and I can see she's sorry too, for sending such a mean gift. For the first time, I see confusion on her face, as she struggles to decide how to respond; I'm glad to see it, purely for the reason that it shows that underneath the tough-girl act, Ainsley has a heart.

But, all this is only for a second.

When she sees me watching her, her face turns defiant, and she bursts out angrily, "Damn you, Sirius Black, why do you perplex me so bloody much?!"

I have an answer – one she gives me without fail when I ask such questions – but I don't say it. I just smirk; the moment had been nice while it lasted.