Lily rolled over in her bed; she heard the soft hum of voices downstairs. She couldn't move and her eyes were sore and puffy from days of crying. She wanted to wake up from this horrible nightmare and find herself back in Hogwarts where none of this had happened.
Slowly she pulled the quilt from her body and placed her feet into her slippers, pulling her dressing gown around her body. Lily decided to ignore her curtains as she edged towards the door and heard the voices downstairs.
The air carried a welcoming smell, Lily felt her mouth water she could smell some sort of meat cooking it smelt tender as if it had been cooking for hours.
Lily let her foot touch the carpet at the bottom of the stairs and walked into the living room to join her family. She found her father sitting on the sofa with Pa Evans' watching The Sound of Music.
Lily looked around the room and found her Uncle Tony sitting on the floor with her cousins Ginger and Oliver. The twins had arrived two days earlier with her Aunt Charlene. Lily had always loved her cousins they were only five and a handful.
"Lily look what Father Christmas brought us."
Lily smiled at Oliver as he dragged her over to their corner, she had forgotten that it was Christmas but smiled when she saw him sitting there with a racing set, his sister with dolls.
"Daddy said that Santa left most of our presents at home, but when he brought yours he left a few for us."
She smiled at Ginger as she played with the dolls while watching Oliver and her father race the cars. Lily looked up as Pa Evans' placed his hands on her shoulders.
"Your presents are over there Lily."
He pointed to the opposite corner. She smiled but didn't make to move she didn't want to celebrate. She felt a hand slid into hers and saw the smiling green eyes of Oliver. She had never told anyone but she liked Oliver better than Ginger.
Lily remembered taking them to the park with Petunia the year before, everyone had said how much Oliver looked like her, they had the same green eyes that sparkled when they were having fun and the same red hair, although Oliver's always looked messier.
"Lily come look at your presents one is moving."
Lily gasped as she allowed Oliver to drag her into the corner. On the small table were a small pile of gifts, she could see what Oliver meant, there was one present that had holes in the box and was moving around.
Carefully Lily lifted this box off the table and felt a heavy weight from inside and gently she placed it on the floor. There was a small tag on the box, which Lily pulled off to look at quickly she read through it.
Lily, I hope you have a merry Christmas, my love to you and your family at this time, I hope you like this present I thought you could use it at school.
Love Ginny
Lily looked at the present wondering if it was safe to open in front of Oliver, after all if it was something magical she'd have a hard time explaining it. She was about to put it back on the table when she heard a nose she recognised.
Quickly Lily ripped the paper off and looked inside the box, her breath caught in her throat as she saw the green eyes stare up at her. She reached her hand into the box and stroked the animal carefully.
Oliver leaned over and squealed as he put his hand in the box, carefully Lily lifted the kitten out of the box and smiled as she purred gently at her. Oliver smiled widely as he rubbed the top of the kitten's head. He turned slightly to look at his sister
"Ginger look a cat!"
The girl giggled and ran over to look at the small kitten that was curled up on Lily's lap, it was an ordinary looking cat, it had ginger fur with white patches on her feet looking like little socks, and the greenest eyes Lily had ever seen in an animal.
The kitten yawned and the twins both sighed. Carefully it stretched and jumped from Lily's lap landing lightly next to her where she looked around before rolling up into a ball and going to sleep purring lightly.
Lily pulled another sheet from inside the box recognising the scribbles of Ginny's handwriting.
Lily I hope you like her, she's beautiful isn't she. My cat Loki had six kittens back in November I've been planning to give them for Christmas presents for a while. I thought that you would like this one she reminded me of you the red fur and green eyes. You may name her whatever you like, and bring her to Hogwarts were she can play with her brothers (I've given them to Branwen and Remus)
I hope that you are okay, although I guess you're having a hard time, and I will see you soon, don't worry about any homework we've already sorted it all out.
Love GinnyLily smiled as she again looked down at the cat, she laughed when she heard Oliver
"It's a little lion."
Lily smiled and then a thought came to her, a little lion, Gryffindor, no Leo. She'd call the cat Leo after the constellation. She smiled at her cousins as she whispered the name to them, they smiled widely and tickled Leo's ears, however soon they became bored and went back to their own toys.
Lily looked at her small pile of presents and wondered which one to open next, there was a small packet from Alice that Lily thought should be safe to open.
Carefully she removed the paper and found a box, when she opened it she found lots of small pots containing different colour ink, there were red, gold, lilac, yellow, pink, silver, blue and many more including a multicoloured one.
She smiled as she read another note
Lily Merry Christmas I thought you'd like this so you could write pretty letters to your father and grandpa.
Love Alice
Lily looked at a large wrapped present that was next in her eye line, there was a large tag shaped like a lion on it, she looked at it and couldn't help but smile
Lily We thought that you would need cheering up when you come back so we thought that maybe you can join us in a few pranks, so we hope you like this, our love to you and your family (Mand wrote that!)
Love Amanda
Not quite love just lo James & Sirius
Lily couldn't help but smile, she quickly opened the parcel and found a prank kit she laughed hard at this she couldn't imagine herself using this.
The next present was from Peter and she opened it to find a mixture of sweets in it, from Remus she had a book about self confidence, and from Branwen was a special bracelet, it said something in welsh and Lily had to look at the letter to find out what it said
"Luck be with you forever"
Lily looked up as her sister came in and looked around the room
"Dinner's ready"
The group went into the dinning room and enjoyed their Christmas dinner knowing that the next event to take place would be the funeral