Meeting the Potters…
"Sirius and Dani eh?" Lily pondered aloud, as she and James walked the path back to Hogwarts, a path very unfamiliar to James, as he was too used to visiting the village secretly. James laughed.
"You still can't believe that it actually happened, can you?"
"It's not that, it's just that, I don't know, they are the strangest couple that I know! One minute they hate each other, and are screaming curses from a broomstick, and the next they're snogging in the hospital wing!" She exclaimed, chortling. James put his arm around her shoulders, to protect them from the gasping cold of the air.
"Well Lily, we're not that ordinary ourselves." He said smiling.
The smile didn't leave his face, not as he watched Lily frantically pack that night, not as he observed Sirius and Dani subtle flirting by the fire, even through their attempted mask, playfully arguing end throwing things at one another. The smile didn't disappear as he, Sirius and Lily walked back to Hogsmeade and caught the knight Bus the very next morning, and of course, it was still there as he stepped of the bus, and he and his friends were greeted warmly by his family.
"James! Kindly stop growing or I shall have to perform a shrinking spell on you!" James' mother, Tracy Potter exclaimed, embracing her son warmly. James' dad, Mark, cuffed Sirius warmly on the shoulder, and Sirius grinned.
"How you going Padfoot old pal?" Mark Potter said brightly. Little Maggie Potter, James' little sister, practically ignored her brother and Sirius, and instead skipped right up to Lily and wrapped her little arms around her waist. Lily looked shocked, and patted the small girl on the head, amazed.
"You must be Lily! I've been looking forward to meeting you so so much! When James said that he was bringing a girl home I didn't know that he meant a real girl I thought that he was joking, because what silly girl would want to spend a whole bus trip with Sirius and my stinky brother, but then I saw you and you are a real girl! And that's so cool, because now we can play games and paint nails, and play dolls be friends forever!" The six year old said the very fast, peering happily up at Lily, beaming, her little hand grasped in Lily's.
"Well that's great! I've been looking forward to meeting you too Maggie!" Lily smiled at James, who winked at her.
"Maggie, leave Lily alone for a moment sweetie, give her a chance to breathe." Tracy laughed, and smiled at Lily.
"Yes Lily, we have heard a lot about you. I have to say that you're something of a legend around here…not that I ever thought we'd meet you…Sirius tells us that James can be a tad arrogant-"
"Mum!" said James sternly, and Tracy smiled.
"Kidding honey, god, she came didn't she! Now lets get inside! You three must be exhausted! Come around the fire, we'll have some eggnog."
It was only then that Lily noticed the house that they were standing before. The size of a mansion, yet much, much better, the Potter's house was more like a castle than a house. Built with what Lily though looked a little like the bricks that formed Hogwarts, it was clearly very old, but roomy and homely at the same time. A large mahogany tree stood out the front of the house, framing the door way perfectly, and Tracy was obviously a keen gardener, the manicured lawn ornamented with a magical swing set and wonderful tree house which Lily supposed that Maggie would have a lot of fun in, as well as, she suspected, Sirius and James.
As beautiful as the house was, though, she could still see the signs that two, or practically three, children had grown up here. A tree by the side of the house had been carved into with inscriptions of names, and the walls of the tree house looked as though a small child had finger-painted the interior. The broom shed by the side of the house had a slightly broken roof, where Lily suspected that James had tried to sneak out by, and a skipping rope lay abandoned on the grass.
"What do you think?" James whispered nervously to Lily, as everyone else forwarded inside. Lily beamed at him.
"It's…magic." She gushed, and James relaxed.
"I'm glad that you like it." He smiled, walking her up to the house slowly, taking her bags, as his father had swept his away. "It's so strange coming back here though!"
Lily grinned as he scanned the area, his eyes glittering as he thought of the past.
"See over there for example?" he asked her, gesturing to a spot on front pathway were a few bricks seemed to be out of place, "That was were Sirius and I crashed out broomsticks in the summer after first year, when we were determined that we would make it onto that years Quidditch team!"
Lily giggled, but James didn't seem to notice, and he looked over to a small tree, small enough to peer over yet large enough to hide behind if you wanted to.
"See that tree there? That's the tree that we planted when Maggie was born. It's meant to protect her, grandpa put a charm on it." He shared. Lily's eyes grew wide. "And the tree house, god, I spend half my life in that thing. Especially when we were twelve, and Sirius and I decided that we'd try and live in it for the whole holidays so that he didn't have to go back home. They found us after a couple of days." He finished with a laugh. Lily laughed too, and the smile still didn't fade from her face when she had finished giggling. They had reached the front door.
"Ready?" James asked her, his hand on the doorknob, bracing himself before entering. Lily nodded, beaming, and James opened the door to his home.
Lily gasped. She had never seen a house so magnificently magic, yet so wonderfully homely at the same time. She had never seen a house as big as this, nor with as much movement within it's walls.
"James it's beautiful!" she exclaimed, eyeing the white marble staircase that the door opened into, and the moving marble swans that donned the end of each banister. The chandelier in the ceiling showered them with light, and made the air seem to shimmer with beauty and freshness. Lily thought that she could smell a cake baking, the enticing scent wafting in from the Potters kitchen and making her mouthy water, and it wasn't until she had drawn her eyes begrudgingly away from the extravagance of the house that she saw Sirius' head perched over the railing at the landing.
"You look impressed Evans!" he said, winking. Lily snorted.
"Impressed? I love this place!" she exclaimed, looking at the many pictures that cover the walls and mantle piece.
"Hey James, is this you?" she squealed, spotting a photograph of a small boy on a toy broomstick giggling happily at the camera. There was no mistaking the boy's messy hair and intriguing eyes, even though he was only a toddler. James went red.
"Lets go up to my room, shall we?" he said, steering Lily away from all of the photographs, waving and laughing up at them.
"Oh come on James, stop being such a party pooper!" an oil painting above the mantle teased, as they headed up the stairs.
"Shut up grandpa!" James said, and ran the rest of the way, Lily laughing.
"Wittle Jamie's embarrassed!" teased Sirius, joining them at the top of the stairs.
"Shut up Padfoot!" James said, and kept on walking, until they reached the last door at the end of the hallway.
The door opened to an explosion of colour and noise. James's room was painted with bright red walls and had posters of the England Quidditch team pinned above his bed. Another poster, signed by the Hobgoblins was hanging over his bookcase, and clinking and whirling was heard from the corner, emitting from a whirly contraption that Lily supposed was for making sweets. The room was surprisingly neat, though Lily suspected that Tracy had been in earlier that day and cleaned it in their honour.
Sirius flopped down on James bed with a sigh.
"Where's Lils sleeping James?" he yawned, watching the sunset outside James window.
"I guess down the hall, in the first guest room." James said.
"The first guest room?" Lily said, exasperated, "How many guest rooms does this place have?"
"Three." James said, modestly blushing. "But Sirius'll kip in one of them, seeing as it's snowing, and you've got one now, so for the moment, we only have one guest room."
Lily rolled her eyes humorously at the plainness in his voice, and looked through her things for something to wear to dinner.
"Lily, what the hell are you doing?" James asked when he saw her laying out her things and getting ready to go into the 'first guest room' and get changed.
"Getting changed for dinner," she said, a pink tinge creeping up into her face.
"Getting changed for dinner?" Sirius said, in a burst of laughter. "What the hell would you want to do that for?"
"Well, it's a pretty fancy house, I just figured…"
"No Lily, that's not how it works around here. Don't bother trying to make a good impression on my parents, just have fun. They already love you! You're gorgeous!"
"But aren't you two going to-"
"No!" the boys said at once, screwing up their nose in disgust at the idea of changing their attire for the meal. "Of course not! Mark and Tracy don't care what we wear! We once turned up in mud covered Quidditch robes and all they told us was to wash our hands!" Sirius commented.
Lily laughed, and began to repack, apprehensively.
"You want me to prove it to you?' James said, looking through his wardrobe thoughtfully. "Here, now we'll see…" he drew out of his cupboard a full-length cowboy suit, and threw it to Sirius, who grinned. Then he pointed his wand at himself, and, in a cloud of smoke, he was revealed to be dressed as a luminous clown, complete with a bright red nose. James grinned at Lily, a grin which was magnified immensely by the bright red lips that surrounded his own. Lily cracked up laughing at once, rolling around on the bed in tears.
"You're kidding me!" She cried. "You're going down there, like that?"
"Only if you do, Lily m'dear." James said, and he and Sirius advanced on her with their wands.
"What?" she shrieked. "Oh no you don't! I don't want them thinking that I'm making the two of you crazy! They'll never invite me back!"
"If that's what you're worried about then you have nothing at al to worry about," said James, raising his wand, "Bellafuritio!" he cried, and when the smoke disappeared that shrouded Lily, her clothes had been transformed into those of a fairy princess, like the costumes that little muggle children wore. Lily grinned. "They will hate me!" she cried, laughing all the same, for Sirius seized her around the waist and ran out of James' room, shouting.
"I stole princess Lily! I stole Princess Lily!" James let out a roar of mock anger, and chased after him, sliding down the banisters and sending the marble swans at the end flying.
"Bring her back you villain!" James roared, and puled a flower out of the side of his clown outfit, thinking to be brandishing a sword. Sirius only laughed, and ran into the kitchen, squealing. Lily smiled, her head thrown over so that she was facing Sirius' back. It's like their kids again, she laughed to herself, as James' mum saw then, screamed with laughter, then joined in, flicking them with a tea towel that was in her hand as she baked dinner.
Lying on the kitchen floor in a heap, James, Lily, Sirius and Tracy laughed so hard that tears trickled down their red faces.
"So what brought this on?" Tracy asked, when they had all settled down. James let out one last snort of laughter.
"Lily thought that she had to get dressed up to come to dinner!" James roared, and Lily hit him in the arm as the kitchen yet again erupted with laughter.
A small figure appeared in the doorway, her bottom lip trembling slightly, a down cast look on her tiny face.
"What's wrong Mags?' asked James, opening his arms so that the six year old could come and give him a hug. As bad a time as the siblings gave each other, they were extremely close.
"You were all having fun and you didn't invite me to the party." Maggie said glumly. James tried to suppress a laugh, and Lily contorted her face into a sympathetic expression.
"Maggies, we weren't having a party without you! We were going to see if you wanted to play princess with us actually." Said Lily. Maggie face lit up a little at the word princess, and she eyed Lily's costume.
"Do I get to dress up and look pretty like you?" she asked. James smiled.
"Lily always looks pretty Mags, but then again, so do you, so here you are." He pulled out his wand and pointed it at Maggie. Instantly she was transformed into a pink fairy princess dress, with glitter shimmering from her brown ringlets. She wore a huge grin on her cheeky face.
"But if it's a princess party then why are Sirius and James dressed funny?" she asked, confused. Tracy and Lily turned on the boys, grinning mischievously.
"Yeah boys." Tracy said, pulling out her wand to point it at Sirius.
"Yeah, why aren't you dressed like princesses?" Lily added, in mock curiosity, and there was nothing that James and Sirius could do as Lily and Tracy drew their wands and changed their outfits in a puff of smoke.
"Bellafuritio!" they cried, and at once they were transformed into bright pink fairy princesses, smiling awkwardly at their attire.
"New picture for the mantle piece I think Wittle Jamesie!" Lily laughed.
"Shut up Lily!" James laughed, and at that moment, Mark Potter came walking casually into the kitchen. He stopped abruptly at the sight of Sirius and his son dressed as fairy princesses. His eyes grew wide in amused astonishment for a moment, before he smiled, pointed his wand at himself, and, in a puff of smoke, stood before them dressed in a very pink princess costume.
Lily had never known any one like the Potters before. They were so unlike her family that it wasn't funny. She could see now why Sirius liked it there so much. And she understood how they were so lenient about him staying there. It was like he was James' brother, and Lily had hardly seen him this happy since their meeting with Dumbledore. She went to sleep on Christmas Eve night, with a huge smile on her pretty face, little did she expect to be awoken during the night…