Contrary to what James had thought, he did fall asleep again: the library book still open and resting on his face. Sirius ungraciously woke him up by snapping the book shut on his nose at the ungodly hour of five Am. James was not amused to say the least. Remus, Sirius and Peter, however, were rather entertained by his glowing red nose.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" Sirius chirruped.
"Ah damn, now I look like Rudolph." James grumbled while he looked in the mirror. He gently rubbed his wounded nose.
"…Who?" Sirius looked confusedly at Peter who was busily scoffing down a chocolate frog that someone had given him for Christmas; Remus was reading a newly opened book
"Rudolph the red nosed reindeer." James stated, still pining in the mirror for his normal nose. "It's in the book." He waved a hand vaguely in the direction of the offending library book. It was the last time he'd think of doing any late night reading.
Sirius flicked through the book: skim reading each page. "Aha!" He stopped about mid-way through the book and read the song lyrics, chuckling as he did so. James was going to regret his flippant reference to Rudolph for the rest of the day.
"Rudolph the red nose reindeer. Had a very shiny nose! And if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows…" Sirius sang loudly all the way down to breakfast that morning. Suffice to say that they got quite a few odd looks from the other students.
James had forgotten about his present for Lily by the time that they had reached breakfast; he had been far too busy trying to ignore Sirius and subtly cover up his nose at the same time. Seeing her sat at the Gryffindor table however, had reminded him. Though seeing her at the Gryffindor table surrounded by girls giggling over a singing partridge was not something he had expected.
Not wanting to draw attention to himself, James led his fellow marauders to the opposite end of the table, hoping that they wouldn't get noticed. This plan completely flew out of the window when Sirius proceeded to treat everyone to an encore of Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. How he wished he hadn't borrowed that book.
Sirius' little performance drew all eyes: Gryffindor and non-Gryffindor alike, to the four boys. But there was only one set of eyes that James was focused on; the emerald green eyes of Lily. She looked away when she saw him staring at her. It was enough to distract him from the comments people were making about his nose.
At the end of breakfast James had mustered enough courage to talk to Lily. Luckily she was on her own.
"Merry Christmas Lil."
"Merry Christmas. Thanks for the present, it's really cute." She said smiling and turning to the tweeting bird.
"Oh good. So you like birds then?"
"Yes, very much."
"Even better." James replied in slightly hushed tones.
"What?"
"Nevermind. Anyway, would you like to go for a walk or something later? Just the two of us?" He smiled what he thought was a winning smile.
"Um. I'm kind of busy later, sorry. Maybe another time." Lily stood up and picked up her present. "Thanks again for the present." She called as she walked away.
Sirius was soon by James' side wrapping a comforting arm around his friend. "Never mind mate, plenty more fish and all that. Though I'm not sure why women are compared to fish, I mean fish smell and well, women…mmm…"
"You okay?" Remus asked simply, interrupting Sirius' babble.
"She said 'maybe some other time'…that's as good as a yes! Score!"
"Oh dear." Remus, although not quite as lucky with the ladies as Sirius and James, could quite easily read the signals that Lily was giving, however James was not one to be easily swayed. Besides, Remus didn't want to be the one to ruin his Christmas. "So, where you getting these turtle doves from then?"
Four hours, and a lot of charming later James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were sitting in the boys' dorm amongst forty or so pigeons.
"I don't know if I've said this yet but…I don't think this is going to work." Sirius sighed trying to wipe off a bit of bird poo that had just landed on his shoulder.
"You have, about ten times already. Now shush, we need to concentrate." James replied testily. Transfiguration had never been James' strong point, and he was swiftly running out of white socks.
"Oh got one!" Remus called from somewhere beneath a few pigeons.
"Finally." James sighed "Just one more to go." He impatiently flicked his want at one of his odd striped socks, the result was a navy and white striped dove. "I suppose that's close enough." James looks somewhat proud of himself while Sirius laughed, that is, until a pigeon sat on his head and left him a present of his own.
"Ah crap."
"You can say that again." James laughed.