Why am I so addicted to posting?! AHH! Help me; I'm totally being sucked into the fanfiction realm. Would you believe that I was only going to post once a week, and now, here I am on my third posting of the day! I'm listening to Disney on Broadway right now, because I'm that cool… I know you're all jealous… okay, so you might not be, but I DID have cheesecake today, so if you're not jealous of my music selections, you REALLY should be jealous of that cheesecake, because it was damn good.

Anywho! On with Lily, since we all know that you don't care what I ate for dessert or my pathetic Disney obsessions…

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Chapter 13

Winter Wonderland

The day before Winter Break started, a ravenous snowstorm began. Icy sheets of snow whipped through the air, and dark, puffy clouds filled the skies.

It was with a heavy heart that Lily said goodbye to Madison and Belle as they headed home for the holidays after dinner. Lily always stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas, but didn't expect her friends to stay away from their caring families. Lily knew that her house would be empty and quiet all break, so she saw no point in going home.

Lily headed back up to the common room to find it entirely deserted. For a fleeting second, Lily thought she would be the only one staying for the holidays. But then the marauders came tromping down the boys' dormitory steps, laughing to themselves.

"I guess it's just us, again." Lily said pointedly.

"Just imagine all the fun we'll have!" Sirius exclaimed. "Hot cocoa and marshmallows… Strip-Snap every night… what a fine Christmas!"

"It sounded good up to the Strip-Snap part." James chuckled.

"Hey, Strip-Snap is an awesome game!" Sirius defended. "You're just jealous that I'm so good at it!"

"You? Please! You always lose!" James reminded.

"Did you ever consider that he might want to lose?" Lily laughed. "I'm going to bed. G'night."

"Nighty night, Lil-a-roo!" Sirius shouted after her.

When Lily entered her dormitory, it seemed strangely silent. She changed into her pajamas, and crossed to the window. The snow showed no sign of slowing, and Lily checked to be sure that the window was locked securely. She crawled into her bed, and closed the curtains.

A freezing cold draft of air made Lily shiver. She wiggled further down beneath her covers and tried to ignore it. She heard the creak of her door opening, but she overlooked it. Just when she thought she had fallen back to sleep, a thunk made her bed hangings quiver.

Lily reluctantly opened her eyes. To her total shock, her bed was covered in fresh, cold, white snow!

"What the-?" Lily muttered, as she shook snow out of her hair. She yanked back her curtains to see her room blanketed in the snowy powder. It looked as though someone had taken a snow-maker and blown snow every which way.

Then she noticed Sirius standing in the center of the room, making a snowman.

"Sirius Black, what the hell are you doing?" Lily asked, pulling her blankets closer to her.

"Making a snow-dude, what does it look like?" Sirius retorted.

"Do you realize that you're in the girls' dormitory? Shouldn't you be doing that somewhere else?" Lily said.

"Oh my gosh! You're right!" Sirius said, stunned. Lily watched as he made two snowballs, and jammed them on the snowman's chest. "There! Now it's a snowgirl."

Lily scooped up some snow off her quilt and flung it at Sirius.

"What? A snowgirl in a girls' dormitory! What's wrong with that?" Sirius defended.

"You're so stupid!" Lily chuckled. "How did all this get in my room, anyway?"

"I opened the window last night after you'd gone to bed."

"You what?!"

"Yeah. If we aren't allowed outside until the storm subsides, I thought I'd bring the snow to us." Sirius reasoned. "It's like a winter wonderland!"

Lily climbed out of her bed, and her toes immediately froze. She tried to pay no attention to the stinging numbness, and grabbed a handful of snow.

"What say we go wake James and Remus up?" She suggested mischievously.

"I like the way you think, Evans." Sirius said evilly, grabbing snow and leading the way to the boys' dormitories.

They cautiously opened the door, and crept inside. The snow in Lily's arms made her pajama sleeves wet and cold, but she shivered and tried to shift their weight.

Sirius pointed silently to one of the beds, while creeping over to another. Lily pulled back the bed hangings stealthily to reveal a sleeping James. She smiled to herself, and looked back at Sirius.

"On the count of three…" He whispered. "One… two… three!" Lily dropped her handful of snow right on James's sleeping face.

"OH GOD!" He hollered, snapping awake in a bolt of lightning, and wiping the ice off of him. Lily laughed as he groped for his glasses and placed them on his now pink nose.

"Sirius!" Remus yelled. "What are you doing!"

"Come on!" Sirius called to Lily as he bolted out the door.

"To my dormitory!" Lily ordered, mid-laughter.

She could hear James and Remus thundering after them, and she slammed the door when Sirius entered.

"Get ready, troops." Sirius chuckled, ducking behind a snow covered trunk, and gathering snow. Lily joined him just as Remus kicked open the door.

"Geeze! What happened in here?" He asked as James joined him, pulling on a robe.

"It snowed." Lily said innocently. James and Remus exchanged a look, then bent down to grab snow. Without question, Lily and Sirius fired snowballs at the two in the doorway.

"Hey! Wait just a minute…" James called, scooping up as much snow as he could while holding out his arm for defense. Then, Remus chucked snow at Sirius and Lily, leaving their faces wet and cold.

The war was on.

Sirius led Lily into battle, firing snowball after snowball. James catapulted tightly compacted snowballs towards them, and with the help of his Quidditch training, his aim was true.

"Time out! Time out!" Lily called helplessly, as James and Remus charged towards her. With an arm-full of snow, James dumped his load onto Lily's head. She trembled with cold, and tried to pull flakes of snow out of her hair as Sirius lobbed snow onto Remus.

"Wait! Stop!" Remus shouted, while Lily flung innumerable snowballs at him. She laughed, as he crouched behind her bed.

"Fall back!" James commanded to Remus, retreating slightly behind one of the beds. But, poor Remus was unable to get there through the heat of the battle.

And just as the fight was getting good, Peter knocked on the open door.

"Yes?" Lily shrieked, as James tackled her, trying to defend Remus.

"Could you lot hold it down? McGonagall's downstairs." He said with more jealously than disgust.

"She is? Uh oh…" James replied, pushing himself off of Lily, and brushing snow off his bathrobe. "You don't think she'll come up here, do you?"

"I sure hope not." Peter replied. "But you'd better get down there. She said she needed to see exactly how many people were still here…"

Lily got up off the now slushy floor, and tried to dry herself off. But it was no use. She grabbed her robe, and hoped Professor McGonagall wouldn't notice that her hair and pajama pants were sopping wet.

"So." McGonagall said as the group of five entered the room looking guilty. "There's only the five of you?"

"Hello, you sexy thang…" Sirius replied, eyeing McGonagall.

"Yes." James answered McGonagall shortly. She eyed Sirius suspiciously as he sneezed.

"Why are you all soaking wet? Remus! Look at your night clothes!" McGonagall scolded. "I do hope you're all behaving…" She said, watching the boys intently.

Sirius sneezed again.

"Perhaps I should check--"

"No!" The marauders and Lily shouted in unison as McGonagall took a step towards the dormitory stairs.

"That's really unnecessary." Lily said. "We'll, uh, check them later… for you, I mean."

"Check what?" Sirius whispered into Lily's ear. She nudged him as hard as she could in the ribs.

"All right…" McGonagall said skeptically. "I'll just go then…"

"See you around, Minerva." Sirius replied, batting his eyelashes.

"Mm hm." She replied, closing the common room door behind her.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"What if she'd checked Lily's dormitory?" Peter asked. "Imagine all the trouble we'd be in!"

"Trouble is our middle name." Sirius said stupidly. "Anyone up for Strip-Snap?"