A Marauder's Christmas
Chapter Three
December 25th Part One
Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me
Woo! It's Christmas Day! Merry Christmas to everybody. Hope everybody got what they wanted and are enjoying themselves! You know, I wonder how many people actually come on fanfiction on Christmas Day! This is part one of December 25th and part 2 will be up very shortly- as in about 5 minutes!
A pillow thrown at him woke James the next morning.
"Oi!" he roared, "I was having a nice dream there!"
"About Lily Evans, I bet!" said Sirius, retrieving his pillow,
"Wouldn't you like to know!" grinned James, sitting up, "Oh! It's Christmas Day. Merry Christmas, boys!"
"Merry Christmas," chorused Remus and Sirius,
"OK, present time!" said Sirius, "I hope I find my presents from you too in this pile!"
"You'll see," said Remus, attacking his own pile.
James crawled to the end of his bed and started opening his presents.
"Thanks, Padfoot!" he said holding up the Broomstick Servicing Kit,
"Not at all, Prongs," said Sirius, opening a present, containing a box of potion ingredients, "Oh goody, my annual supply of dark potion ingredients that I'll never use,"
"Never mind, Padfoot," said Remus, soothingly. "Just open the rest of your presents!"
In half an hour, all presents were unwrapped. Sirius had got a Sneakascope from James and a bag that hides all the contents from Remus.
"Thanks Moony," said Sirius, "I just have to add an invisibility spell onto the bag and I'll be laughing! Do you like my present?" he added, grinning,
"Love it," said Remus, "A book on how to recognise the werewolf and what to do if you get attacked by one. This will be very useful!"
The dormitory exploded with laughter.
James, Remus and Sirius had a leisurely breakfast and wished everybody else a merry Christmas. Everybody was jolly except for one person. James was the only one to notice this though.
"Come on, let's play snowball Quidditch!" said Sirius, enthusiastically,
"Yeah!" cried Remus, "Wanna play James?"
"Of course," replied James, "I'll go and get our broomsticks, while you two finish your breakfast!"
He hurried out of the Great Hall and up to the Gryffindor tower.
"Merry Christmas!" he beamed at the Fat Lady, "Mistletoe!"
"Merry Christmas!" called the Fat Lady, in a cheery voice, as the portrait swung open.
James clambered inside and raced to the dormitory where he collected the broomsticks. Then he scurried back down to the common room.
"Dang it!" he muttered, noticing his lace was undone. He bent down to retie it. The portrait swung open and somebody dashed in, making sobbing sounds. James looked up. It was Lily and she was clearly crying.
"Lily? Are you alright?" he asked, quietly, moving closer to her,
"Does it look like I'm alright?" she choked through her tears,
"I suppose not. Dumb question," said James. He perched on the arm of her chair and looked down at her.
"So, what's up?" he asked,
"Like you'd care!" snapped Lily, turning away from him,
"Yeah, but I do care. I don't like to see you upset. Wanna tell me what's wrong?" said James.
Lily sniffed and said quietly, "I just got my present from my family. Look at the card!"
James took the card from Lily and looked at it. There was a Muggle photograph of a man, a woman and a girl glued to a card.
"Is that your family?" he asked,
"Yes. Turn it over!"
James did as she instructed. Scrawled in black ink were the words 'Bitchy Witch!' James looked at it.
"Who did that?" he asked, genuinely shocked,
"My sister Petunia. She's jealous of me. I don't think my parents know she did that," sobbed Lily, "She's perfectly awful to me. It just gets worse every year! Now she's meet this bloke called Vernon and she told him about me and every time I go home, both of them always call me horrible names and bully me!"
"Awww Lily," said James, "Does anyone at Hogwarts know?"
"No," came the reply,
"Do your parents know?"
"No. I don't want to tell them either!" said Lily, fiercely,
"Aww Lily!" said James; again, slipping his arm around Lily's shoulder, "It's best to get things out in the open. You should have told one of your close friends or maybe McGonagall,"
"I know but I thought it would just go away!" said Lily, standing up and fumbling in her pocket for a tissue.
James took out one and handed it to her.
"Thanks," she muttered, blowing her nose, "You know when you're not with Sirius and the others, you're alright,"
"Thanks," grinned James. He wiped away Lily's tears with his finger. "You feeling better now or do you want Jamsie to give you a hug?"
Lily didn't answer so James stepped forward and put his arms around her. She didn't protest and even put her arms around his middle. They rocked slowly from side to side. At last they drew apart.
"You know, if you ever want to talk, tell the other Marauder's to get lost and just talk to me. We'll get something done about your bullying sister, OK?" James said,
"OK," nodded Lily, managing a watery smile,
"Anyway, I'm about to go and play snowball Quidditch with Sirius and Remus. Do you want to play? We need a foursome!" asked James,
"I... I don't have a broom. My sister broke it during the summer holidays," stammered Lily,
"No way! I'm sure if we ask nicely McGonagall will lend you a school broom or you could borrow my spare one! OK?" suggested James,
"Yes, please," said Lily,
"OK. Let's go!"
Lily and James hurried quickly down to the Entrance Hall where Sirius and Remus were impatiently waiting.
"There you are!" said Sirius, "We thought you'd got lost!"
"Hi Lily," said Remus. Sirius caught James' eye and winked. James grinned but shook his head slightly.
"Hello," said Lily, faintly,
"Lily's playing snowball Quidditch with us, guys. OK?" said James, heading out into the snowy grounds,
"No problem," said Sirius, "God, its cold out here!"
The foursome hurried quickly to the deserted Quidditch pitch.
"Hang on, I'll just go and get my spare broom for Lily," said James, heading towards the changing room,
"I'll come with you mate," said Sirius.
They entered the changing rooms and quickly located Madam Hooch's office.
"So what happened, Prongs?" said Sirius, smirking,
"She was upset and I comforted her and invited her to play snowball Quidditch with us. Alright?" said James, sharply,
"Ouch! OK, mate. Is she alright now?" said Sirius,
"I think so. Come on!" Together Sirius and James headed back out to where Lily and Remus were waiting.
The three Marauders' and Lily spent a happy few hours playing Snowball Quidditch that frosty Christmas morning. The object of the game was similar to real Quidditch except only snowballs were used. Sirius and James enchanted two large snowballs to fly around and act like bludgers. Then, Remus charmed a tiny snowball to act as the snitch. Finally, James made a medium sized snowball act as the Quaffle. The foursome split into pairs: Remus and Sirius were on one team and James and Lily were on the other.
"OK, Lily. You ready? We're gonna knock those idiots of their broomsticks," growled James.
Lily laughed. "Those idiots are your best friends," she smiled. James looked taken aback for a minute, and then he grinned.
"Come on Lily. Let's beat em to a pulp!"
"You never learn, do you?" asked Lily, as they slowly rose,
"Learn what?" asked James, innocently,
"Oi! Horn head! Ready to be smashed?" yelled Sirius, from the other side of the pitch,
"You wish, dog breath!" yelled back James,
"Horn head? Dog breath?" asked Lily, raising her eye brows,
"Tell you later," mumbled James, "Let the games begin!"
Remus released the snowball snitch, Quaffle and bludgers and then grabbed his broom. He pushed off the ground and rose to flying level.
"Yeah!" roared James and Sirius, both streaking forward to grab the Quaffle. James managed to get it and he flew towards his chosen goal.
"On your left!" yelled Lily, entering into the spirit of the game.
James chucked the snowball which Lily caught neatly. Immediately, Remus swooped down on Lily. She threw the Quaffle back to James, who hurled it straight towards the goal. It went through the middle hoop with a loud ding!
Lily and James cheered as the scoreboard magically changed to Prongs/Lily 10: Padfoot/Moony 0.
Remus managed to grab the Quaffle and he tossed it to Sirius who was waiting. Sirius turned tail and flew quickly towards the opposite goal post.
"Come on, Padfoot!" cheered on Remus, who was tailing Sirius closely. Sirius managed to score making the score 10:10.
Twenty minutes later, Sirius and Remus had pulled ahead with a score of 50:70.
"Haha!" jeered Sirius, in James' direction,
"Go eat dog food!" yelled back James, expertly avoiding a frozen bludger heading in his direction,
"Here James!" shrieked Lily, throwing the Quaffle at him. He immediately threw it back when an enraged Sirius came haring after him.
"Score, Lily!" said James, as he streaked away from Sirius, "Me and Padfoot are just having a game of Cat and Mouse, although it's more like Stag and Dog!"
Remus laughed and gently tailed Lily. He had decided to give her a chance as she didn't play Quidditch as well. However he was mistaken.
Lily quickly dodged Remus and threw the Quaffle towards the goal. There came a loud ding as the scoreboard acknowledged the goal, but Lily wasn't finished. She swerved away from the goal post and avoided James' and Sirius' mad chasing.
"Look at Lily go!" said Remus, suddenly. She had dived almost to the ground and was speeding along the ground with her hand outstretched.
"She's seen the snitch!" said Sirius,
"Go girl!" cheered James, as Sirius took off after Lily. But it was too late. Lily's cold hand closed over the frozen snitch and the scoreboard began flashing Prongs/Lily 210: Padfoot/Moony 70.
"Lily! You angel!" yelled James, flying down to Lily and enveloping Lily in a massive bear hug. She smiled at him.
"Yeah, well done," said Remus. Sirius said nothing. He just scowled.
"Padfoot!" said Remus, in shock, "Since when have you been such a bad loser?"
"Since he was beaten by a girl!" said James,
"Oh shut up, Prongs," said Sirius, "Me and you have unfinished business!" He suddenly grinned again and pulled Lily into a hug. "Oh my God, Lily! Why don't you get on the house team? We'd easily win with you on!"
"It already looks as if you will easily win with you and James on it," said Lily,
"What a charmer!" said Sirius, "Anyway, excuse me Lily, Moony. I have unfinished business with our friend Prongs here!" He suddenly ran at the patiently waiting James, bending down to scoop up a snowball.
"This is for telling me to eat dog food!" he said, chucking a snowball right into James' face. James wiped snow out of his face. He slowly bent down and scooped up a handful of snow and moulded it into a ball.
"Well, this, is for calling me horn head!" he said, flinging the snowball at Sirius.
"This is war!" yelled Sirius, as James ran away. He chased after him throwing balls of snow at James.
Lily laughed. "Are they always that mad?"
"Always," said Remus, smiling, "Shall we go back to the castle? Lunch should be ready by now,"
"OK," agreed Lily, "So what's up with the names you call each other?"
Remus looked uncomfortable for a minute. "Well, promise you'll keep it a secret. I know you're trustworthy,"
"OK," said Lily, curiously,
"Well," whispered Remus, "Prongs and Padfoot are both animangus,"
"Oh," said Lily, "I take it they're illegal?"
"Well, yeah," said Remus, "Don't tell anyone, please!"
"I won't, I promise," said Lily.
They said no more until they reached the Great Hall for lunch.