Devoted
Chapter 10
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Lily was asleep in her room. It was nice and quiet and she was comfortably warm in the goose feather comforters. She was having a lovely dream…it didn't make a lot of sense, but it was lovely.
Little did our sleeping beauty know that 5:30 AM was drawing near and that James was not exaggerating on what time Sirius would be up.
The clock hanging on the wall ticked off the seconds lazily. 5:29 and 45 seconds. Lily turned onto her right side and sighed. 50 seconds. Lily smiled in her sleep; it was a wonderful dream. The Grandfather Clock in the front hall chimed once to announce 5:30 and also signaled an enormous bang. Lily sat straight up, fully awake.
"EVERYONE…IT IS TIME TO OPEN PRESENTS!" Sirius screamed very loudly from downstairs. "WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP!"
Lily glanced at her clock and groaned. She had definitely not taken James seriously. Cursing, she slid out of bed and traipsed into the bathroom. Well, a more accurate description would be that she stumbled into the loo because she was so tired that her eyes would not open properly.
Finally, Lily managed to see well enough to pull on a white sweater and jeans, brush her hair, and go down to the family room where Diane and James were sitting patiently on the couch and Sirius was standing next to the tree looking especially angry.
"Lily, do you realize that it is," Sirius paused, looking at his watch. "5:36 right now?"
She glanced around the room. Diane smiled sympathetically and took a sip of her coffee. James blushed and shrugged. "Um…I didn't know there was a time limit," she answered warily.
Sirius sighed dramatically. "It's ok, you're new to this." He started passing out everyone's presents. Lily was pleased to see that she actually had quite a few.
She was a very neat gift-opener; instead of tearing the ribbon and paper like Sirius and James were currently doing, she carefully pulled each flap of wrapping from the one it was taped to and then folding everything in a neat pile before examining the gift. "Where's…Mr. Potter?" Lily asked as she folded up the paper from Colleen's gift. It was an Advanced Charms book that she had been pining for since summer.
Diane sighed, holding up a chenille sweater that she'd just unwrapped. "He's at the ministry; not many people will come in on Christmas day and obviously, someone needs to be there. Henry takes his job very seriously."
James frowned, throwing a pair of socks behind him. "Yes, well, it wouldn't kill him to be home for Christmas at least once."
"James…" Diane warned, pushing a strand of her grey hair behind her ear. "You're father's a very serious person."
"It wouldn't kill him to home at all," he continued, ignoring his mother.
Diane's eyes were flashing and her words were dripping with ice. "James Harold Potter. We'll talk about this later."
Lily glanced at Sirius, who was carefully avoiding looking at James or Diane. She decided to follow this example and started opening the last of her presents.
She picked up James's first. It was rather small and rattled when she pulled the paper off. Underneath the first layer there was a small box labeled Jenning's Inc. Curiously, Lily pulled the lid off and practically dropped the box from shock. Inside was a silver ID bracelet. Her name was written in moving, curly script and the dot of the 'i' was a shimmering diamond. "James…" She whispered in a strangled voice.
He smiled as he looked over at her. "Do you like it? Does it fit?"
"Of course I like it…but I don't deserve it! This is really beautiful and I didn't even get you anything and…"
James shook his head, "And I don't care. Listen, you don't need to feel bad. Some poor bloke had it made for his fiancée but they broke up before he could give it to her. So, I saw it and figured you'd like it. Besides, I got it at half price because it was just an extra." This was a lie, of course. James had gone to Jenning's Inc. and paid quite a bit for the bracelet which he ordered himself...but Lily needn't know that.
She hesitated for a second before hanging it over her wrist and clasping the ends. "Thank you, "she murmured, kissing his cheek and smiling slyly.
Who do I want more?
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On New Years Eve, James suggested that Lily invite her friends over to his house for a small party; he had invited Remus and Peter. The latter, unfortunately, couldn't make it. Then they snuck into a deserted area of the house and started snogging.
Eventually, she did take him up on the offer and sent owls to Colleen and Tina. And she would definitely welcome the female company after being stuck in a house with two boys, because no matter how much you like them, boys are boys. She almost regretted getting Sirius a large bag of Zonko's pranks because he and James had been setting them off around the house endlessly.
Finally, Colleen and Tina arrived at the house by floo powder, each stumbling out of the fire place and cursing the spinning sensation.
"I'm so glad you're here!" Lily smiled, giving them both hugs. "It's been murder."
Tina laughed, "Yes, I imagine spending Christmas with two hot guys would be absolutely horrid. Oh! Lovely bracelet! Did you get that from Sirius?" She said quickly, hardly stopping for breath.
Lily fingered the silver wristlet nervously. "No," she started cautiously. "I got it from James."
Colleen's mouth fell open. "What'd he do that for?" She asked, grabbing Lily's wrist and examining the jewelry. "This must have cost him a fortune."
Lily shrugged, "He just said that it was an extra that someone had ordered and never picked up. So he got a discount."
Tina smiled and shook her head. "Wow that was very lucky. What did you get from Sirius, by the way?"
"He gave me a picture of the two of us… You know that one from the Halloween feast. It's in a beautiful frame and everything."
Colleen nodded thoughtfully, "That's kind of…upside-down, don't you think? Just sort of…I don't know, strange?"
Lily shrugged again. "Let me introduce you to James's mum and show you around the house."
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The stars were beginning to shine along the horizon. Mr. and Mrs. Potter were at a party, leaving the five teenagers plenty of opportunity to steal a couple bottles of champagne from the liquor cabinet.
They were sitting on the second floor balcony watching fireworks stream across the sky.
Sirius leaned back in his chair and checked his watch. "About 15 minutes until midnight!"
Lily grinned excitedly and grabbed the champagne bottle. "That's great! Oh, we're out of champagne," she muttered tipping the last drops into her glass. "I'll go get some more before twelve."
She stood up and opened the French doors leading into one the Potter's many rooms.
James jumped up as well. "I'll help you find it, Lily. I don't know if we have anymore upstairs."
They left the room, shutting the door behind them. Remus hid a smile behind his glass.
"I hope it doesn't take too long!" Tina exclaimed. "James's house is huge!"
Sirius laughed, "Luckily James knows his way around extremely well."
Five minutes passed in silence.
Tina gave a loud 'tut'. "They're going to miss it. I've got to go to the loo… I'll look for them along the way."
Remus made a funny noise. "No, no, no, you just go to the bathroom. I can go look for James and Lily," he practically yelped.
"Don't be silly," Tina giggled, pushing Remus back into his seat. "There's no need for all of us to leave." She left quickly before Remus could argue.
After a quick trip to the restroom, Tina made her way down the stairs and started to search the first floor.
"Where are you, Lily?" She whispered, opening a bedroom door. "And you, James…come out, come out wherever you are."
She opened the creaky kitchen door and received the shock of her life. Lily was sitting on the counter, completely engrossed with kissing James who was standing in front of her. His hand was up her shirt and her red curls were tangled.
"Oh my gosh…Lily!" Tina yelled.
James and Lily sprung apart, twin looks of horror on their faces.
"James," Lily groaned, slapping her head and turning red.
"Tina…" James bit his lip. "Um, this isn't…this isn't what it looks like."
She nodded, placing her fist on her hips. "Oh, of course, you're, uh, just getting some champagne, right?" Tina drawled sarcastically. "And I can't believe you Lily! I would never imagine you…" Suddenly a look of comprehension crossed her face. "This isn't the first time is it? Lily, you told us about it…that one night with the fire whiskey, didn't you?"
Lily mentally slapped herself again. "Well, I don't really remember…Oh, um, look it's almost midnight; we'd better go back up. I've got the champagne right here."
"No, you do remember. You were worried that Sirius would be mad at you. It's all coming back to me now."
Lily grabbed the bottle. "Listen, Tina… What you saw doesn't mean anything," she glanced at James who nodded. "Please, just forget it and don't tell Sirius. We've got five minutes, let's go back upstairs."
The trio ran through the first story and up the stairs, finally arriving on the balcony. Remus gave James a questioning look.
The Grandfather clock emitted twelve notes and everyone exchanged kisses and gulped down their sparkling wine.
Sirius grabbed Lily and muttered, "Happy New Year, my beautiful Lilybird," before kissing her. She opened her eyes and saw Tina gazing at her, disappointment evident in her eyes.
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Alright! So now two other people know…Will Tina tell Sirius? Or will she remain loyal to Lily? This was a very hard chapter to write, by the way. That's why it's so short, sorry… I don't even know why…it was just difficult. I hope you all enjoyed it though!!
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I'm completely watching the Olympics. That's all I did all day! LoL. It's great because I'm finally at an age where I can really appreciate the event and it's truly awe inspiring. Go USA!
Thank you all for the beautiful reviews!! I absolutely love them!!! Remember 15 reviews for a NEW chapter!!! Yay!