Disclaimer: I don't own any thing you recognize, as not mine...
A/N I have it all planned!! Each chapter and the epilogue! Go Sierra! She's finally organized--something she's never been before!! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! *Sierra Parties*
Here ya go! Merry Christmas!!
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Mr. Grinch
James Vs. Christmas. Will James Potter Finally Get In the Christmas Spirit?
By
Sierra Sitruc
Miss You Most
The fire is burning
The room's all aglow
Outside the December wind blows
Away in the distance the carolers sing in the snow
Everybody's laughing
The world is celebrating
And everyone's so happy
Except for me tonight
Because I miss you
Most at Christmas time
And I can't get you
Get you off my mind
Every other season comes along
And I'm all right
But then I miss you, most at Christmas time
I gaze out the window
This cold winter's night
At all of the twinkling lights
Alone in the darkness
Remembering when you were mine
Everybody's smiling
The whole world is rejoicing
And everyone's embracing
Except for you and I
Baby I miss you
Most at Christmas time
And I can't get you
Get you off my mind
Every other season comes along
And I'm all right
But then I miss you, most at Christmas time
In the springtime those memories start to fade
With the April rain
Through the summer days
Till autumn's leaves are gone
I get by without you
Till the snow begins to fall
And then I miss you
Most at Christmas time
And I can't get you
Get you off my mind
Every other season comes along
And I'm all right...
But then I miss you, most at Christmas time
--Mariah Carey
Chapter 4
9 Days Until Christmas
It was not a pleasant morning, as Lily Evans woke up to four calling birds--all around the room the four birds squawked and sung about her dorm. "Urgh! Who ever is doing this--is insane!" Lily yelped, she was angry--so angry in fact, that she got tangled in the bed sheets and fell with a 'bam' on the ground.
"Crap! On the 4th day of Christmas... My True Love Gave to me..." She said grumpily under her breath, as she stumbled about trying to catch the birds. "And James didn't even feel a tinge of Christmas spirit with the snowman..." she growled, thinking back to the night before.
She was feeling very irritated about whoever sent her these--even if they did have a crush on her or something, it was no excuse.
Lily used the same charm James had used a few days before and captured them...The three French hens had mysteriously disappeared, but Sirius' cat was looking suspiciously plump. She's have to have a talk with Herman Waterston about not eating other people's French hens. Stupid cat. Herman was Sirius's cat's name.
She went to her dresser, and tied on the bells in her hair once more, this time pulling her hair half down, half up. The bells hung down, and bounced against her head in a comforting way.
~*~
"I'm having a bad day," Lily announced to the three Marauders sitting in the Great Hall.
"We don't care," Sirius said nonchalantly.
"Sirius! It's Christmas, and we--all four of us --are calling a truce--of sorts," Lily informed him. (A/N Remember, Peter is gone! Yes...Sometimes, even *I* can't stand having him in the plot...)
"Thanks, Boss," Remus said, with a nod.
"You're welcome; that means no Christmas Prank on me--I already have some annoying person--sending me things to the twelve days of Christmas song," Lily told them, then a look of suspicion crossed her face. "You didn't..."
"No, we haven't done anything to you yet, Lils," James said, poking at his eggnog. "Ugh, this stuff is gross!"
"It's Christmas food--what, do you hate foods for Christmas as well!?" Lily demanded.
"Maybe..." James said nervously, tensing for the rant he knew was coming.
"James! That is so unreasonable! You like my Christmas cookies!"
"So? I don't care, I can be as unreasonable, and immature as I want."
"Erm..." Was all Lily said, and then of course, an owl has to take that moment to fly onto her plate and drop a letter. "Oh no," she moaned, "Every year..."
"What?" The three boys chorused, eyeing the letter interestedly.
"It's my business, and it doesn't concern you," she snapped, getting up from the table without eating and marching out of the Great Hall to read the letter. Every year she got the same letter...From her Grandma Ruthy, trying to make it up to her that her mother and sister couldn't have her home.
She really didn't want to read this letter in front of the three remaining Marauders. She cried too easily...Actually she cried every time she got one of these letters from Grandma Ruthy. She didn't know why exactly, it was just...It reminded her of another letter, from first year...
She found a nice place by Professor McGonagall's office, and plopped down.
Dear Lily
Happy Christmas! I hope everything is going well for you at school. Your mother and sister send greetings to you. (Lily laughed humorlessly at that) They are doing fine, and the neighborhood is wonderful this time of year, Christmas decorations everywhere! You'd love it here, since I know how much you enjoy those kinds of things, you still do right?
It's too bad you couldn't come around this year, you look so much like your farther, it'd be like having him around again. You do take after him in your enjoyment of Christmas... Too bad Petunia and your mother can't appreciate it like I can. I enclosed some money, and a picture of us all here at Christmas.
I know you love school dear, but next year take a break and visit us here! I know you think you're doing your mother and sister a favor by not coming home, but they miss you too. All Petunia whines about is why Lily doesn't like her anymore and never visits! She's only a year older, but sometimes I do believe that child acts like she's the younger one!
Anyway, I just wanted to wish you a Happy Christmas.
Love,
Grandma Ruthy
Lily sighed and sniffled letting the memories wash over her, of past Christmases of similar letters and happier feelings. Every year was the same, but none had been more fun, then when she was eight years old...
Christmas Eve 1968 in the Evans Home
"Daddy! Let me put the star up on the tree!" 8 year old Lily Evans volunteered herself, as her and her father set about OVER decorating their small Christmas tree. Their living room was thick with decorations, all over the place almost everything had some Christmas object on it or near it. It was almost cluttered it was so cheery.
"Sure thing, kiddo." Mr. Evans lifted his daughter up by the arms and she stuck the star on the top of their tree.
"Yes! I reached it, Daddy!" Lily turned around and snuggled under her father's chin. Her father was a tall man, with a large smile and kind heart, and fiery red hair that matched his fierce love of Christmas, that had all been handed down to his youngest daughter.
"I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas" was playing the background, and Lily leapt from her father's arms and started singing along with the record and her father joined in. The two started dancing around and her father picked up a pair of stringed bells and tied them to his daughter's pony tail...who'd have known it'd become such a tradition.
Lily and her father joined Petunia and her mother in the dining room. Petunia and her mom took care of dinner, while Lily and her dad, all the decorations and present sorting.
9 year old Petunia was dancing around licking her fingers clean from playing with the cranberry sauce. The two sisters both had a bad habit of sticking their fingers in the sauce, and her parents had long ago, stopped caring to scold them about it.
"Daddy! Dad! Watch THIS!" Petunia had been taking ballet recently, and she pulled an odd twirl that made Lily giggle, but everyone else clapped for young Petunia and the girl blushed. "Thank you, thank you." Petunia curtsied.
"That was really pretty 'Tunia," Lily said politely, while squeezing her dad's hand.
"Thank you!" Petunia beamed.
"Girls, let's eat," Mrs. Evans said, gesturing to their table. The family always had Christmas Eve dinner at their house first and then on Christmas Day they went to Grandma Ruthy's, who's house was only a mile away...Which was a good thing or a bad thing, depending on who you were.
The family of four sat down in their usual places. Mr. Evans at the head of the table, Mrs. Evans on his right, Petunia on his left, and Lily beside Petunia.
The table was set with all her father's favorite foods, turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, eggnog and of course--his favorite all time pie; pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top.
They all ate quietly for a few minutes before Lily finally asked, "Dad, can I open my presents?"
"No Lils--well..." Mr. Evans wavered.
"Stanley--no way are you letting those girls open their presents! Santa hasn't even come yet!" Mrs. Evans argued immediately.
"But, Greta--just one?" Mr. Evans pleaded, he did love to spoil the girls.
Mrs. Evans sighed, "I guess so--just one, and I get to choose which ones they open."
Lily, Petunia and Mr. Evans all cheered, and after that Lily and Petunia talked actively on which present they might open and wondering what Santa might bring them. It would be the last year they still had faith in the bearded man.
After dinner, they retired to the newly decorated living room. Lily and Petunia both dived for their biggest present--but Mothers never did let kids open the ones they *wanted* to.
"Open Grandma Ruthy's presents." Mrs. Evans told them, all the while, Mr. Evans stood beside her with his arm around her waist grinning.
"But Ma! It'll be knitted sweaters or something!" Petunia whined.
"She's right," Mr. Evans whispered in his wife's ear.
"Stan! No! I'm not being persuaded otherwise..." Mrs. Evans looked at her husband and daughter's pleading faces. "Oh...Don't look at me like that!" She covered her face. "Fine, fine--open Aunt Rachel's."
"Yes!" Lily and Petunia whooped jumping towards the medium sized presents behind the tree; decorated in too many ribbons and bright colors. Aunt Rachel always, and I mean ALWAYS gave them cool gifts. Aunt Rachel traveled to different countries for a living and always sent them something foreign. Last year, Lily got a fat Buddha mug, for a seven year old--it was brilliant fun. Of course, fat Buddha married Barbie tea cup in January after a short romance but...That's another story.
Lily and Petunia opened their presents and Lily got a very suspicious looking voodoo doll from the Caribbean Islands somewhere, and Petunia got a fortune telling globe, ("Mommy, if this says--beware of the big red man with a mustache, does it mean I should look out for Daddy?") that seemed eerily true. ("I don't know any boys with black hair and glasses..." "Well, if you meet one, be sure to kiss him!" "Eww! Mommy! That's gross!")
The evening was very fun, and at 9pm the girls got ready for bed, Lily was in her pink bunny pajamas with matching slippers talking to Petunia in her ducky pajamas and matching slippers. The two girls shared a room, and were whispering to each other secrets and imagining what Santa looked like.
"I think, Santa's beard is red like Daddy's." Lily said confidently.
"Why?" Petunia asked.
"Because, know one loves Christmas as much as Daddy and so Daddy must be exactly like him." Lily said logically.
"Yeah, but Daddy's not fat."
"Well, maybe he's not exactly like him."
"Yeah."
The two soon fell asleep, and were awoken a few hours later to a thump. "What was THAT!?" Lily yelped in her young high pitched voice, at the same time Petunia squealed, "SANTA CLAUS!"
The two girls leaped out of their beds, and raced down the steps only to come face to face with old St. Nick himself.
Lily and Petunia, were needless to say speechless, but Santa wasn't. "Ho, ho, ho." The man said weakly. Scratching his white beard.
"Wait a second!" Lily exclaimed, catching site of a red moustache. "Daddy!?" She said, her voice going really high towards the end.
"No, no, I'm Santa Claus." The main chuckled.
"No, Daddy," Lily said, Petunia agreeing right along with her. Lily reached up, and tugged on the beard, and watched as it pulled away from his chin, only to snap right back on. "Elastic..." Lily shook her head. "Really Dad, you could have done better."
"I know," he said taking off his fake beard, feeling uncomfortable in his entire Santa outfit.
Lily giggled, "I guess we have to go to bed then, and wait for the REAL Santa to come." Lily and Petunia then skipped off to bed. Happy to have caught their dad doing something he shouldn't.
That was a good memory, bittersweet as some would say. Lily found it heartbreaking, she couldn't stand to think of her father anymore. It was just too painful.
Lily felt tears glistening her eyes as the next memory hit her smack in the face...It hadn't taken long for her to go from being wanted to being resented by her own family.
Christmas 1971 at Hogwarts
Lily had just gotten away from James's teasing, they got along for the most part--but he liked to play silly pranks on her that she never understood. Her grandma said it was because he liked her--but she didn't believe that.
She was holding her letter that her mother had sent to her, it would tell her whether or not she could go home for Christmas that year (meaning, if they could afford it).
She opened it quickly, and instead of a letter from her mother, it was from her Grandma Ruthy. Lily only grasped a few lines before bursting into tears.
'Sorry Lily...Too many memories...So much like your father...Mother can't stand Christmas...Petunia cried just thinking about you and how you look like him...None could bear to see his smile that shines through you...You can't come home'
To deal with it and cheer herself up, Lily began singing Christmas Carols, and concentrating with all her might on Christmas--to keep away the pain. She'd never been away from home for Christmas before, and she didn't think she could handle it. But she did, despite James Potter trying to ruin her moods by making fun of how much she enthused Christmas.
It had been awkward, waking up alone in her dorm. Her best-friend had a family who wanted her, so it was just Lily and the Marauders, that stayed home in the first year group of Gryffindors. Everyone else in the year had some place they had to be.
Everything seemed so much colder without your family there to surround you with love.
She'd woken up, gone down the stairs to the presents in the common room, ignoring the Marauders who looked half dead anyway and went to her small pile of presents.
The present from her mother--was a doll. Lily decided to hide it in the bottom of her trunk. Her dad had always been the better one to pick out presents...
Lily shook her head out of those thoughts and went to her sister's present. Worse, a plastic necklace. Really, how old did they think she was?
Lily bit her lip, hoping for the best with her present from Grandma Ruthy... A pair of knitted socks...Great. She grumbled, she shouldn't have expected a miracle, her Grandma always knitted things for presents.
Lily's eyes turned to the Marauders. They had huge piles of presents, at LEAST 20 presents for each of them. They didn't look as happy as she thought they would be, maybe they were just tired.
She didn't like the lot of them. They'd snowed in her room! Opening all the windows...It was freezing still in her room and puddles of snow were all around.
She'd absolutely hated the prank, but she'd made it look like she'd enjoyed having the snow in her room; just to spite them. She'd even managed to build a snow--figure. She knew she probably could have gotten them in trouble for it, but why bother? They'd just get her back for getting them in trouble.
Lily sighed, and gave the four dejected boys a weak smile--and they GLARED at her. Really...
Remus looked really sick, she noticed. He was lying down on the couch covered up by a blanket--he had a bandage over his head. The wound, was enough to peak Lily's interest. Glaring wasn't going to weaken her curiosity.
Lily put her best smile on, and walked hesitantly over to the four eleven year olds.
"Hello, how are you?" Lily asked Remus, referring to his bandage with a swift flick of her hand.
"Fine," Remus said flatly.
"What happened to your head?" Lily asked.
"He fell," James growled, and Lily whirled around to find that the other three Marauders had gathered around her. She tried not to let them see her being unsure of herself. With confidence, the battle was half won.
"On what?"
"The stairs," James, Sirius and Peter said at exactly the same time.
"How?" Lily questioned, not knowing why she cared.
"Tripped on his robes." Sirius said with an air of authority. It made sense that Remus would fall, his robes were always a bit too big for himself.
"Which stairs?" Lily asked.
"The one beside the portrait of Clara the Clumsy." Peter supplied, when Sirius and James failed to answer.
"Okay, then." Their story checked out. Lily didn't know why she'd been asking anyway--maybe because she'd felt intimidated or maybe she was curious on what they got so defensive about it...Like there was something more to it.
"Go away Evans, Christmas is bad enough without YOU around." James snapped viciously.
"Sorry for being nice!" Lily refuted and stormed off, not noticing their change in the thoughts of Christmas.
She picked up the few presents from her friends and opened them. They were cheap things, because 11 year olds didn't get much money to spend. A new quill from Olivia was probably the best present she'd got.
Her day hadn't improved from there.
At lunch, she'd spilled apple cider down her front--and James and the other Marauders had laughed themselves silly. Lily blew it off, not thinking about how much it hurt.
That afternoon, to entertain themselves, the Marauders teased Lily about how she hadn't gotten as many presents as them--she spouted off something in return about presents 'not mattering'. That it was 'family and friends' that counted...And she couldn't help but add to herself that her friends and family weren't there.
Her family didn't want her around...
Lily escaped the Marauders endless teasing after dinner, and went up to her room--where she cast small charms all over the place trying to warm it up.
It was about that time, she really began to miss her father. She thought back to their last Christmas together and how much she'd loved being home--and how now she was shunned because of her traits that she couldn't change anyway...
Lily simply stayed in her room and pitied herself.
That was probably how it all started--it had been her escape from the pain of the memories Christmas brought. Her father's love for Christmas--and how he would never share another Christmas with her again...
She'd never asked to go home for Christmas again, and never planned to. She didn't want to upset her mother and sister...They were fine for most of the year, but around Christmas time, Grandma informed her that it was just unbearable to have her around.
It was probably the worst Christmas she'd ever had, not thanks to the Marauders...
Speaking of the Marauders, she caught James Potter staring at her--looking highly uncomfortable. "Err...You okay, Lily?" he asked nervously. Obviously, he'd followed her to see what was in the letter.
"Uh-huh, I'm fine, don't worry about it." Lily said nonchalantly as possible.
"Did that letter upset you that much?" He said, referring to her tears.
"It just brought back some unwanted memories, is all." Lily shrugged, getting off the floor and walking up to him, ready to put on an heir of ignorant carelessness act.
"Oh, I know how that is," James said, and awkwardly put an arm around her, in a half hug. "Do you...want to talk about it?" Lily would, under normal circumstances, say something rude to that, but since he was trying to be nice, she'd try and be nice in return.
"Maybe later...I need to--cheer up." What that really meant was, 'there is no way in bloody hell that I'm telling you'.
"I'll walk you back to Gryffindor Tower." James offered, and Lily accepted (she was going there anyway, she told herself). They walking in silence all the way up, but it wasn't awkward, because sometimes, silence is golden...
~*~
That afternoon, Lily found herself once again hanging out with the Marauders. They were all four lounging on the couch with a batch of her freshly made cookies in the center of them. Several people kept coming by to grab more, but this was a tradition, Lily made cookies and passed them out...They were, as Sirius said each year, "Heavenly Delights".
Lily was feeling better after making her cookies, and passing them out, lighting up people's day. It was probably one of her favorite things to do every Christmas.
"I'm...Dreaming...Of A White...Christmas!" Lily sang louder and louder--scaring the 2 first years who had stayed behind and had just grabbed a handful of cookies.
"Lily, don't scare the children." James muttered, leaning against Lily holding his stomach, "Did you poison those things?"
"No," Lily answered, pushing him away. "You ate too many, and I'm not scaring the children."
"Either way your scaring me." James said with a nod, "I'm going to go lie down--before I throw up." James shakily lifted himself up from the couch and headed up the stairs and Remus and Sirius soon followed up after, Sirius carrying a bag of cookies with him.
Lily giggled, she was starting to really warm up to the Marauders...Annoying they were, but entertaining too. And the fact that they made her laugh so much, cheered her...
James had to be getting in the Christmas spirit by now--the cookies had to of worked!
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
A/N Well, that took a while...I'm not happy with this chapter, but oh well!! Next chapter Lily finds out why James hates Christmas and they share a evening together--just the two of them and it's going to be sweet.
Funny something here though... You know how the Santa Claus 2 just came out along with Harry Potter and the COS? Well, I was looking at the movies listed on the sign outside of the movie theater, and they have one of those boards where you put black letters on...Well, so many movies were playing they had to shorten the titles and share lines, so as I looked up at it I saw "Santa Potter'" on it. I cracked up of course...No one else in the car got it.
PLEASE review!!! I know this story's not all that great...Especially this chapter but--I mean...It'd really make me happy if you all reviewed!! I love getting reviews!
Chapter 5:
Lily is quite funny in receiving five golden rings...I mean gold!! It's longer chapter...I don't think it's longer then this one, but I'm not sure. Lily tells James why she loves Christmas so much, and the deal is James would tell her why he hated Christmas, but he dodges the question and they fight :-(. Lily won't find out why James hates Christmas...They make a truce in chapter 6, and I'm thinking of Lily finding out at least *partially* why James hates Christmas in chapter 9 or 10...Maybe 11...Yeah 11 sounds good. Also...Dumbledore makes a brief appearance! :-)
REVIEW and I will--Wish You a Merry Christmas??
*~Sierra~*