Chapter 7: Fun Times.
Lily dropped onto her bed and sighed. She couldn't believe all that happened this night. James, her best friend, loved her! Could Christmas get any better? Lily rolled on to her side and looked outside. The moon was shining in through her window, they stars littered the sky and the reflection of the lake could be seen shining silvery in the light. Lily smiled to herself and closed her eyes, her thoughts on the certain messy haired, brown-eyed boy, who she loved so much.
It took a lot of effort for James to actually get up the stairs. He had watched as Lily disappeared into her dorm room, and a grin had been planted on his face. He didn't want to go to sleep, now, his day just seemed to be beginning, he was just starting to live a new life. He walked up to the windowsill and gazed outside. It was calm, peaceful and it held a certain serenity to it. James stayed there for a few hours, re-living all the moments that happened that day. All his moments with the red haired girl with the magnificent green eyes came to him. He loved that girl, his first true love.
The next morning, James woke up and walked into the common room, in an exceptionally good mood. Most of the students were in the Great Hall for breakfast, but there were a few in the common room. James sat down on the couch and yawned, running a hand through his hair, but his smile could be seen behind his tiredness. Sirius and Remus sat beside him.
"Hey Prongs. Coming down for breakfast?" Sirius asked.
"I'll wait for Lily first, you go on ahead." James replied.
"We'll wait with you, but firstly, fill us in, are you and Lily a couple?" Remus asked, a small smile planted on his face.
"What?" James asked wide-eyed.
"Lily only danced with you in slow dances, she refused all the other guys, and when you came up last night, it was like you were on cloud nine!" Remus commented.
"I was that obvious?" James asked again.
"Yeah. Dammit James! You beat me to her!" Sirius grinned, nudging him.
"Ha!" James grinned.
"This is a first, we're actually up before Lily, she's sleeping like a rock!" said a girl walking out of the girls dorm. James heard and grinned.
"Wait here!" he said and shot up the corridor for the girl's dorm. The other two just nodded and started on a game of Exploding Snap.
James peered up and down the corridor, to make sure no prefects were coming. He slipped into the girl's dorms and saw the almost empty room for the 5th Year girls. He walked over to Lily's bed by the window. He pulled the drapes that covered her four poster bed and peered at the sleeping girl, she squinted a little as the sunlight shone onto her. She moaned a little and muttered something like 'Not now…too early!' she turned around and stuffed her face into her pillow, blocking out the light. He hair was all messy and static. Her skin looked pale, but that added to her beauty. James grinned. 'She's so cute like that!' James thought.
"Lily," he whispered into her ear.
"Go away Gwen!" she moaned. James grinned more and shook his head, his hair flopping over his eyes.
James felt evil. He pulled the covers off her and started to tickle her. Lily started to laugh a lot and turned to see James grinning mischievously at her.
"JJJJJAAAAMMMMMEEEESSSSS!!!!!!" she managed to say between her laughter, tears coming to her eyes.
"Apologise for calling me Gwen, and I might just stop!" James said still tickling her relentlessly.
"SORRY!!!!" Lily gasped between laughter. James gradually stopped tickling her. Lily threw her pillow at him.
"I hate you!" she said, while pulling stray strands behind her ears, but her smile hid what she truly thought.
"Well I love you!" James grinned and pulled in to kiss her. Lily kissed him back sweetly. They parted slowly and couldn't stop smiling.
"Um…nice pyjamas!" James stated. Lily blushed and grabbed a bathrobe. She wore a loose white T-shirt and loose pyjama trousers with silver moons and rabbits on it.
"Thanks, but you really shouldn't be in here, you'll get into trouble." Lily said, sorting her bed.
"I'm always in trouble, this is nothing compared to other stuff I've done!" James stated grinning.
"True, but still. I don't want you in trouble during Christmas. You go downstairs and I'll be there in a minute." Lily said smiling sweetly and starting to tie her hair up in its usual loose bun.
"Ok, but promise you'll leave your hair down. I like it like that, makes you look prettier than you already are." James smiled and walked towards the door and exited. As he walked downstairs Sirius' and Remus' curious faces met him.
"James, what did you do the poor girl? We heard her yelling!" Remus started.
"I just woke her up," he said innocently and sat down, waiting for her.
After breakfast, they headed towards Hagrid's hut, he was the gamekeeper at Hogwarts, and they had not seen him in a long time. He was a bit surprised that popular James and quiet Lily had finally become an item, but he was happy for them all the same. He always thought 'opposites attract.' They headed up for lunch and then they took their secret passage to Hogmeade. It looked like one of those traditional villages on Christmas Cards. They warmed up with Butterbeer, and then headed for Zonko's to load up on supplies. They spent any other money on sweets and headed back to the Hogwarts. They had fun that evening, playing different pranks on students in the common room, and even getting the strictest of prefects laughing along. They shared their sweets from Honeydukes and even took a few pictures for memories sake. The news of Lily and James being a couple were thought of as rumours, but most of the Gryffindor's were happy for them. They looked the perfect couple, but that didn't mean that some were a bit envious of Lily. They sat on the long couch, James having his arm around Lily and she leaned up against them. They had been teased relentlessly but they just took it as a joke, and then maybe hex them in their sleep. Sirius was playing a heated match of chess with Remus, he was always determined to beat Remus, but Remus always seem to have the upperhand at the end of the match. Lily took a picture of the seriousness on Sirius' face. This was probably be the only time she'd see him serious about something as this. She'd had to show it to the Professor McGonagall afterwards, just to remind her that Sirius could live up to his name. Remus would always have a grin on his face as he played chess with Sirius as he always won. Peter was working on his toothpick structure of Noah's arc. Whereas, James listened as Lily told him of another muggle fairytale, 'The Wind in the Willows.' James listened smiling at the thought of plain animals being dressed up in rich clothing and driving cars. To his pleasure, Lily left her hair down, which left him free to run his fingers through her hair as she read to him. It felt soothing to her, and she loved that feeling.
"Checkmate." Remus said triumphantly!
"WHAT!" Sirius shouted and stared wide eyed at the chess board as his king was knocked down.
"I've told you before, I'm unbeatable!" he said grinning.
"You must've cheated!" Sirius moaned.
"Don't be a sore loser, I never cheat, in chess anyway!" Remus stated.
"Next time Moony, next time," he muttered under his breath. Remus just grinned and tidied up all the pieces.
"Well, anyone up for a game of Exploding Snap?" Remus asked.
"Count me in." James said shuffling the cards.
"Sure." Sirius replied.
"I'll play too," Lily said putting her book down.
"I won't, I want to finish this." Peter said and moved it so the explosions wouldn't make it breakdown.
They started to play the game; Lily silently placed a charm so that whenever it was time to explode, it would explode big time! The cards exploded on Sirius, and as some of the smoke disappeared, his ponytail had become all pointed and black patches could be seen on his face. They burst out laughing at the sight of him, he just grinned and chased Lily around the room, swearing to kill her before the New Year. The Marauder's just watched and laughed at the two.
Lily yawned and woke up, she heard the squeals of the other girls opening their presents. Lily pulled the curtains back and headed for her pile of presents, which seemed slightly bigger than it had been last year. She opened her parcel from home. Her mother and father had bought her some new dress robes and cookies from home. She was slightly happy that Petunia had actually signed the card this time. She then opened her gifts from Sirius, he had bought her the special addition of Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans, and a novelty lily flower which squirted ink at people she didn't like. Peter had bought her a diary for the New Year, with a few photo's of them. Remus had bought her a fancy bronze quill, with ink that would change colour with it. He also bought her a feathery bookmark. Hagrid had made some home made fudge for her. The last present was from James. She opened it and inside was a hardback book, The pages were golden and in the front were pictures from different fairytales. Both muggle and magical fairytales. She opened the first page, and inside there was message in it.
-Dear Lily,
I hope you enjoy this compilation of stories and that you thank me later on today! Get the hint? Well Merry Christmas and remember that I love you lots and lots and lots. I couldn't live without you and this has been the best Christmas I have ever had, because you were here with me.
With love and dungbombs,
James!
xxx-
Lily giggled and noticed another small package in the package, she opened it and found a clover shaped locket, with a picture of both of them. She smiled and put on the locket.
Meanwhile, in the boy's dorms, James opened his presents. Sirius had bought him loads of supplies from Zonko's practically one of everything that they sold there, Remus bought him a Broomstick Servicing Kit, for Quidditch, and Peter had bought him a book of pranks. He then reached over for Lily's present; he opened the small parcel and revealed a silver comb with the initials J.H.P on it. James laughed a little at the irony. Also inside the parcel were different pieces of parchment. On each was a drawing of the entire Marauder's as both humans and animals, and a few of Lily. Lily had drawn these pictures through out the whole year as you could see the different dates. James grinned as he saw a picture she had drawn of herself with her hair down, in her dress robes for the Cedilla. These presents held deep meanings or him.
He got dressed and headed down to the common room, he saw Lily and her face brightened. He started to walk up to her and she hugged him tightly.
"Thank you so much James! This has been such a good Christmas!" Lily said hugging him tightly.
"Yeah, thanks for the pictures and the comb, and I did use it!" he said, he heard her giggle and they parted. She looked at his hair.
"Are you sure?" Lily asked eyeing his hair and grinning.
"Yeah! This is the neatest my hair has been all year!" He said pointing at the mass of messy hair on his head. She laughed a little more.
"Hey you two, carry on with the tradition, look what you're standing under!" Sirius said from one side of the common room. They looked up to see mistletoe above them. They both grinned with raise eyebrows. James met Lily's soft tender lips in a kiss. It was sweet and cute. From the other side of the common room, cat calls and whistling could be heard.
