Disclaimer: I disclaim that I claim them.
A/N I only took a few lines from the song this time, because a lot of them messed with my story too much...But I love the song, so I just couldn't help but stick it in...I took out all the funny parts...
"Bloody muddy hell" was an apparent favorite from last chapter. *shrugs* it just came to me...
Thanks for going 40 reviews over what I asked for!!! It really, really, positively absolutely made my day!!!
SORRY for the long delay, but first--my beta-reader never answered me back (WHERE ARE YOU Y. Kuang?)--I haven't been able to get a hold of her, but when I do...Well, I'll feel bad for posting this before she got to check all the mistakes...It's going to be a wreck!
Second reason for it being late--I'm sick. Tuesday, I felt like barfing my guts out all over the place for most of the morning, and I don't believe I'll be going to school Wednesday either--my mom's not letting me! And I can't get this silly speech done yet because my head is killing me, and typing this probably isn't helping the headache along.
Why do I always get sick around CHRISTMAS? I don't know, but it's very annoying to be sick around your birthday.
It's very much un beta-ed, so look out for the mistakes...I TRIED to fix them all, but the likeliness of it coming out well is low. So, be happy this even came out! Maybe I'll feel well enough to type on Chapter 9 tomorrow...Good lord-y I feel sick...My stomach is burning...Evil grilled cheese...
THANKS AGAIN for all the reviews...I wish I could thank you all--I mean really--that was about...60 reviews altogether! Now I feel like crying...And not just because of the pain either!
Thanks for making me feel better, and feeling like an appreciated author!
I LOVE YOU ALL!
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Mr. Grinch
James Vs. Christmas. Will James Potter Finally Get In the Christmas Spirit?
By
Sierra Sitruc
I Won't Be Home For Christmas
Outside the carolers start to sing
I can't describe the joy they bring
cause joy is something they don't bring me
their whiny voices get irritating
It's Christmas time again
So I stand with a dead smile on my face
wondering how much of my time they'll waste
oh God, I hate these Satan's helpers
And then I guess I must have snapped
because I grabbed the baseball bat
and made them all run for shelter
It's Christmas time, again
It's time to be nice to the people you can't stand, all year
I'm growing tired of all this Christmas cheer
You people scare me
please stay away from my home
If you don't want to get beat down
just leave the presents and then leave me alone
It's Christmas time, again
It's time to be nice to the people you can't stand, all year
I'm growing tired of all this Christmas cheer
You people scare me
please stay away from my home
If you don't want to get beat down
just leave the presents and then leave me alone
I won't be home, I won't be home for Christmas....I won't be home...
--Blink182
Chapter 8
5 Days Until Christmas
"Ahh! Ahh! Ahh! AHH!" Lily Evans screamed as she woke up to her dorm--filled with 8 cows and 8 unknown girls milking them. "OUT! OUT! OUT!" She screeched, her bed was surrounded and she couldn't very well get out, the maids didn't seem to hear her. It was like they were in some sort of trance...
"Lily?!" She heard from across the crowded dorm.
"James?" Lily called out.
"Yeah--where are you?" James yelled.
"On my bed." Lily said flatly.
"OKAY!" James said. "I'm coming!"
"Thank MERLIN!" Lily added, watching the cows carefully.
"Holy Cow!" Lily heard James exclaim, as he fought the cows.
After a few minutes of dodging cows, James and his messy pajamas came into view. It was still dark, but Lily could make out his same blue pajamas she's seen a few days ago.
"James, thank Merlin's beard you're here!" Lily cried, tugging James on her bed and hugging him tightly.
"Um...You alright Lils?" James asked, looking down at her head, currently resting on his chest.
"I have...a phobia of cows." Lily mumbled into his night shirt. It was then James noticed how hard Lily was breathing and that he could feel her heart pounding.
"Cows are harmless--unless of course one kicks you or falls on you..."
"James!" Lily cried.
"Sorry, but they won't hurt you. Don't worry." James soothed stroking her hair. They sat that way for a few moments, before Lily muttered.
"I feel really stupid now."
"Ah, well--imagine how stupid I feel? I just barged through a bunch of cows in my pajamas, and you are too annoying to bother with anyway." James grinned sitting back away from her.
"Thanks for rescuing me James." Lily said, while rolling her eyes in exasperation at the comment on her being annoying, when HE was the annoying one most times anyway.
"Don't even mention it. It was a pleasure, nothing like fighting cows at 3 in the morning." James said.
"Um, excuse me miss?" Lily asked, tapping the maid closest to her and was surprised when her hand went right through the woman's shoulder.
"Amazing--it's an illusion!" James exclaimed, seemingly shocked.
"It's brilliant." Lily breathed. "I wonder if the cows are too--." James reached out and smacked a cow and predictably he almost fell over when his hand went through it. "Cool! Now how to undo it..."
"Finite Incantetum!" James said, after pulling his wand out of his pajama pocket. The cow immediately disappeared.
Soon all the cows and maids were gone. "Thanks again for saving me James."
"Lily--really it wasn't anything. Anyway...I'd better be going." James said.
"Right, it'd be awful if McGonagall came by and found you in my room." Lily said, shoving him out the door.
"Yeah--yeah. I know you can never wait to get rid of me." James grumbled, as Lily slammed the door and crawled back to her bed for some nice, good sleep.
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"Stupid Aunt." James grumbled, as he entered the Great Hall for lunch. He had been saying that all morning, and Lily was fairly clueless as to why. He'd started at breakfast when he'd gotten a letter from them, and Lily's curiosity was at it's peak.
James held the letter clutched in his hand, suddenly a mist of ghosts entered caroling again--it seemed, that was the last straw for our wonderful James Potter. "I HATE CHRISTMAS!" He bellowed, his face had turned a brilliant shade of red and it seemed he might explode, it reminded Lily of the Howler she'd seen Frank Longbottom with--his mother was unhappy with his girl friend...Or something to that effect, but either way, Frank had decided not to open that particular Howler...An explosion the result.
James huffed and plopped in his seat beside Sirius and across from Lily. "James? Is there something you'd like to share with the group?" Lily inquired, Remus and Sirius nodding along with her.
"NO." James growled. Lily pouted, sticking up her nose.
"James Potter, you won't tell me anything!" Lily whined, emphasizing the anything, using her words to remind him gently about the touchy factor--that he still hadn't told her the specific reason he hated Christmas.
"With good reason, because then you go pitying me and--ick! Doing that--that--girly thing!" James stuttered, waving his hands wildly, trying to gesture the words together.
Lily sighed, and rolled her eyes in exasperation, "James, what girly thing?"
"You know, whenever someone tells you something, they don't particularly like about themselves or that it's pitiable, you--you just have that thing you do." James tried to explain, frustrated. His eyebrows knitted together in concentration. "You...Well--remember when Olivia's Owl died? You got all--motherly and stuff...It was--disturbing! Your known as the mother hen of Gryffindor!"
"Mother hen of Gryffindor!?" Lily demanded, she hadn't known about THIS particular nick name.
"Yes, that's what everyone calls you when you aren't around!" James snapped.
Lily thought this over for a moment. "There's nothing wrong with being concerned about your fellow house mates." Lily said, getting up, hands on her hips.
"Yes there is--like when you go that step too far!" James said, standing up as well, crossing his arms in defiance at her.
"Whatever Potter! See you in 5 minutes!" She barked, stalking out of the room.
"5 minutes...?" James wondered, taking his seat again, and starting to eat.
"Before you got here, Lily had said she was going to go to the bathroom terribly--but you showed up and she held it..." Remus explained, finally daring to speak. Whenever Lily and James conversed, everyone had a tendency for getting quiet. The tension between them, was so powerful you just had to watch.
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It wasn't much later that afternoon, when Lily was walking down the corridor in search of James that she heard voices. She quickly recognized them as Sirius and Remus', they were conversing quietly, and she was about to announce her presence, when she heard just what they were talking about, and decided it'd be useful if she listened, standing behind a rather fat statue.
"James and his stupid hatred of Christmas!" Sirius grumbled. "You know, Christmas isn't my favorite day of the year either , but don't you think he took it a bit too far?"
"I know...refusing to send his Aunt a Christmas card--even when she clearly hinted that she wanted one." Remus sighed unhappily. "James is one sorry sight."
"Yeah, almost getting killed on Christmas will do that to you." Sirius quipped.
Lily decided, that she'd heard enough and would feel like a felon if she didn't stop listening right then and there. She stepped back...So James had almost been killed on Christmas? And he was upset today because his Aunt wanted him to send her a Christmas Card? Now, that's just silly.
She snuck off away from the two speaking Marauders, and slipped away.
Her curiosity, had now reached a new level. She wanted desperately to know how James had almost been killed...She remembered all the Christmases with James--none had there seemed anything obvious of his just having a close contact with death.
First year...That had been terrible, and 2nd hadn't been any better...but James hadn't liked Christmas even a bit since...
That's when she remembered...Her worst Christmas! First year! Oh she could still recall it so effortlessly!
The awful presents...Going to talk to the Marauders--and REMUS, Remus had been injured! It was all coming together...In that unorganized fashion, that all hypothesizes do.
If Remus had been injured...It probably had some involvement in James' scrape with death! It had to! They'd seemed so defensive! There must have been something behind it...Maybe James and Remus had been attacked? Or maybe Remus got there just in time to save James from some dangerous creature!
The endless possibilities began to fill her head as she walked down the corridor toward the Gryffindor Tower. It made sense too, James and Remus in a life or death situation on Christmas, equals none of the Marauders liking Christmas anymore...
She analyzed the situation some more. Remus, Sirius and Peter still fairly liked Christmas--they didn't hate it nearly as much as James--so whatever had happened, had probably hurt James more then the rest of them. It could have just been Remus and James--or just James, and Remus really had just fallen down the stairs like they'd said back then...
What could have happened? Lily thought to herself. There were so many things the Marauders were secretive about, they were such a tight knit group, nothing could get one of them to tell a secret of another in their group. No one really wants James dead but Snape or Malfoy...So, maybe it was an accident of sorts? A quidditch accident, I can almost see James falling off his broom--no, he's too good at flying to do that. Possibly a potions accident? The Marauders were always creating things, maybe once--something went wrong? Maybe James spent the whole night in the Hospital Wing?
Lily didn't know anything that had happened Christmas Eve or Christmas night--she's spent it in her room so, no information could be gathered from those parts of the day. Poor James though, almost getting killed on Christmas! I would just die if that was me! Oh--that's funny...
Lily was taken from her thoughts abruptly when she heard someone call her name, she turned and saw James standing with a sheepish grin on his face. "Lily, finally you answer! I've been calling you for a few moments now!"
"Sorry..." Lily said, a guilty expression on her face, her face heating up with embarrassment. She felt suddenly very uncomfortable talking to him, considering she had just been pondering his "death" for the past 10 minutes. "Um, what'd you need?" Lily inquired.
James stopped staring at her, and shook his head--clearing his thoughts Lily assumed. "Oh--well..." James squinted his eyes, taking off his glasses and cleaning them absentmindedly. "I forget."
Lily snorted with laughter, she wrung her arm through his, it was becoming a slight habit. "We're going to have to plan a new system of keeping out the cows!" She giggled and James chuckled along as well--turning a pinkish color. Because of her arm in his or her giggling, she wasn't sure.
She leaned her head on his shoulder as they walked down the corridor. "Maybe this time we should try an automatic transfiguration charm! I don't know anyone in our year who can get through it! They walk past your door and are automatically turned into a 'part something'. Half horse, half chicken..." James suggested.
"Half cow..." Lily added with a smirk on her face.
James shuddered, "Not a nice combination."
"Yeah." Lily nodded in agreement, and a thick silence fell over them, only their steps and breathing could be heard.
"Hey, I've decided I'll tell you why I was so ticked off earlier." James said off-handedly.
"Oh, what?" Lily asked, pretending to not already know from her experience with Remus and Sirius. For a second she thought James had caught on, because a curious look crossed his face, but it was gone in a moment.
"She was hinting at me to send her a Christmas Card! ME? Send HER a Christmas Card? It's laughable!" James said bitterly.
"Um...James? Why don't you just send her the card?" Lily asked tentatively.
"Would you send some rotten old lady a Christmas Card? She ignores me all year, and then suddenly owls me in request for a Card!" James was furious now, and was gripping her arm quite tightly.
"I don't know...I didn't know old ladies could be rotten!" Lily snapped, taking offense. She hated it when James got angry like this, and being on the receiving end of his anger--it scared her.
"Lily! You don't know anything about ME or my Aunt! So just stay out of it!" James growled. That comment struck a nerve in Lily, it hurt...
"Why'd you tell me if you didn't WANT me to know then!?" Lily shrieked, stepping as far away as possible from him. She rubbed her arm--he'd given her a bruise...
"Well--I was getting to another point!" James hissed, his eyes were filling with that same fire Lily had seen the other night with their encounter with Snape.
"What point was THAT?" Lily demanded, her hands balling into her fists. She was trying to keep her own anger under control at this point, but mixing her rage with curiosity, seemed to do the trick.
James took a deep breath, his chest heaving trying to keep his anger dominated. "Lily, when my Aunt wants a card, it means she wants my presence there as well! A card--it means she wants me to bring the card to her!"
"James!" Lily bellowed, she was finding herself at that place of anger--when everything around you is buzzing out of vision and all you can feel is this anger and the pounding of your heart in your ears. "Why do you overreact, just because your Aunt wants you to visit her?!"
"Because I hate her!" James said viciously, and Lily could see he was shaking with fury, not much different then herself.
"James! You are so THICK!" Lily gasped, in utter shock. "Whatever she's done to--hurt you or whatever! She's probably--trying to make it up to you! Why do you always push away any love someone gives you!?" She was hardly forming words she was getting so frustrated with this hard-headed boy.
"Why?! Why would she do that! She hasn't spoken to me since my parents were murdered! She let me go off to that stupid--Orphanage." James whispered that last part, and there was a hush after it.
Lily had had NO idea about James living in an Orphanage...That was terrible. Murdered parents? It was true, she really didn't know that much about him, but it wouldn't keep her away from him--helping him that is.
"Don't pity me." James said, his voice flat--but a deep fury was about to bubble out. She could see it trying to break out of it's cage. "I don't want your pity--or anyone else's!" He cried out, and stormed out of the the corridor.
Lily took a deep breath, too many things were getting thrown at her at once. She--she needed to think. Walking was probably the best way to get that done...But she knew that James did the exact same thing, so she went back to her dorm at the Gryffindor Tower, there she plopped on her bed and stared out the closest window, surprised to see James through it, pacing around the lake in a mad-man fashion. Probably trying to calm himself down too.
There was so much more about James then she'd thought. So many more problems...She couldn't fix them all, though she wanted to. She couldn't turn James life into a fairy tale. She didn't know what she could do. He was such a stupid git sometimes--really, that fight was useless...He was just taking all his hatred on his life out on her. It was unfair.
She had to admit though, even if James was a pain in the arse to be around sometimes, it always made her life a bit better, to know there was someone out there who's life was a hell of a lot worse then hers...
That's when an idea clicked into her mind.
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A/N OH, sorry, Lily and James had another argument--but, well...It got some information out of James, didn't it? Anger happens to make James spill the Bertie Bott's every flavored beans to Lily. I can't tell you the idea Lily's just had--but it's a unique...Kind of a funny one.
The next chapters, are fairly controversial. Their are many different versions of the song 'The 12 Days of Christmas', at the ending I've always been rather confused at what is what--12 drummers drumming, or 12 pipers piping, or 12 lords a leaping? Well, just warning you on that. 9 ladies dancing is next, either way.
That song didn't go very well with this chapter...But does it look like I care?? No. He-he-he.
Chapter 9:
We find out what the idea Lily had was. I'm thinking of something BIG happening between Lily and James...But I'm not positive yet. It might have to wait until chapter 11 or even possibly 12. Things are kind of iffy now, because before I'd had them previously typed and ready...But now, it's taking some time...Chapter 9 WILL have hints of L/J romance, more from Lily I'm hoping--since I think James' are more plainly obvious.
Thanks SO-O-O-O-O-o-o-o-o-o much for all the reviews! I could have cried! Just 20 more...that's...Around 270. I can't believe you guys gave me 40 more then I asked for! I was so shocked! I was all giddy and happy too! I can't believe you all like this story THAT much.
*Prances around delightedly* Well, I've got to go to bed, because--well that prance made me feel a bit sick AND I'm feeling weak and tired and grumpy-ish because my stomach hurts still (it burns it burns!) and well....Yeah, it's not nearly as bad as that one time I got that infection though and had to go the the emergency room. EEP! That sucked--err...I'm rambling, when I'm happy or hysterical I ramble...
I'm really ticked I got sick too! I was all happy and fine for awhile, until I ate that grilled cheese--that's all I ate today, and well--it was a bad idea, because now I feel awful!!! I HATE BEING SICK...Er...there's that rambling again.
270 reviews would really make me happy though...:-)
I love you all to death! I mean really...seriously--siriusly, lol--whoa...This illness is making me crazy!!
Merry Christmas! In...Well, if it was tomorrow, it'd be a week away!!!
~REVIEW~ EAT GINGER BREAD~ AND HAVE LOTS OF MISTLETOE ACTION!~
*~Sierra~*