Hey! Here's some, um, Christmas cheer for you during February! YES! BUT THE MAIN THING IS THAT I'VE CHANGED SIRIUS' EYE COLOR! They are gray, not brown. I just discovered this at J.K. Rowling's website! So now he has magically transformed and has gray eyes…wait…he does transform… ANYWAYS! Enjoy!

And once again, James is a chaser! J.K. said so (this mssg if for someone who insisted that James is a seeker) And I'm not talking to the girl with whom I had a conversation about the comin word "y'all."

Oh, and I owe two of my friends some credit for embellishing some of my ideas. Actually, one of the ideas was completely her own, but she isn't writing a fic w/ Sirius so I'm allowed to use it. It has to do with being hungry…-PhoenixPlume

Disclaimer: The "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" song is not mine. It is by John Rox. Of course, all other familiar things owned by J.K. Rowling.

Ch. 7 Christmas Ding-Dongs

"I wouldn't do that if I were you—" cautioned James nervously as Lily sat down on the floor of the common room because all the chairs and sofas were filled, despite the fact that it was Christmas holiday.

"Honestly, Potter, it's not like it's dangerous to sit on the floor," scoffed Lily, rolling her eyes, but feeling like she had rolled them a little too high, because for some reason, she felt like she was rising, then "POTTERRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"

"EVANS! I TOLD YOU NOT TO SIT THERE!" James exclaimed in exasperation. Lily was zooming through the air on a magic carpet! Sirius was laughing uncontrollably, Peter was staring blankly at where Lily had been a second before, and oh no! Remus opened the portrait hole, looking exhausted, and the magic carpet nearly knocked him down unconscious. But it appeared he was alright.

Poor Lily, on the other hand, was screaming like a banshee as all the Gryffindors watched in horror as she flew out the portrait hole into the hallway. They all turned to James, and were surprised to see him turning to Remus and asking, "What do I do now?" Remus rolled his eyes at his friend, and then his jaw dropped in fear when he saw Alice and Emmeline running down the stairs, arguing.

"Honestly, Alice. I'm sure that wasn't Lily screaming. RIGHT?" Emmeline demanded as she turned to face the abashed Gryffindors.

Sirius was the first to recover from his convulsions (of laughter), and faced her with, "That was Evans all right. You should have seen—seen—seen her face! It was hilarious!" He looked down when his gray eyes met Emmeline's blue eyed glare.

"Why?" she said in a stern, gray voice, not unlike Professor McGonagall.

"Uh…" sputtered James, trying to explain that Lily could be anywhere, "Evans accidentally sat on a magic carpet and—"

Alice looked furious and demanded, "Accidentally, Potter? Let me guess, it's your magic carpet! And let me guess again? You bought it from a smuggler! It's illegal to possess magic carpets, they're technically muggle artifacts charmed to fly! If Lily isn't back on the ground in five minutes, I will personally make sure you never fly on a broom again." Her brown eyes flashed at the dumb-founded James. As with the Slytherins, Alice's outbursts were so rare, that they always brought results where others failed.

"Um, yeah, but that's," began James, stuttering at Alice and Emmeline's anger.

"Impossible," finished Sirius.

"No, it's fine," Remus pronounced suddenly. "We'll be right back."

"But—" James and Sirius said together, but before they could finish, Remus pulled them into a huddle.

"We have the map," he hissed. "Which one of you has it?"

"I do," offered Sirius, pulling the folded sheet of parchment from his pocket.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," muttered James; he needed to hurry so that no one saw what they were doing. The map showed Lily to be floating, at a quick pace, above the stairway to the dungeons. James slapped himself. Anything could happen to her—that was Slytherin territory. They had to hurry… "C'mon!" he commanded.

The three boys, (Peter was still staring at where Lily had been a few minutes before) ran towards the stairway leading to the dungeons. All they had to do was follow Lily's screaming and the many students who were hurrying towards the source of the noise, curious of why anyone should scream so loudly and for such a long time.

Lily was flying pell-mell through the hallways. "DARN YOU, POTTER! AND YOUR BLOODY CARPET! WHEN I—IF I EVER GET OFF THIS CARPET, I'M GOING TO—" she stopped, because she had to duck under a doorway. She could not believe him. Number one, magic carpets were illegal. Number two, if he possessed one, shouldn't be hide it? What part of prison didn't Potter understand? She was going to kick him, slap him, and most likely kill him. That was her plan of the moment…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" She had just avoided being knocked over by a changing staircase. She noticed many wide-eyed first and second years—and yes, older students gawking at her in disbelief. A few nasty Slytherins were smirking at "MUDBLOOD IN THE AIR!" She'd get them too…but none of them as much as Potter. As she hurtled downwards above the staircase to the dungeons, she did the smartest thing she could think of: she grabbed the ridge over-hanging the dim stairs, desperately clinging to the slippery ledge. She didn't think she could take any more of that haywire ride. She heard a stifled cry from below.

"Help!" she shouted hopefully. "I'm stuck up here!" Much to her dismay, it was definitely not one of her favorite people that came climbing up the stairs, carpet in tow.

"What are you doing up there?" Severus Snape inquired, holding the delinquent magic carpet ('which must have fallen on him,' thought Lily) He was quite curious about why anyone would be hanging from that ledge, and just why a carpet had fallen on his head.

"What do you mean," Lily said breathlessly (her arms were getting tired), "Do you think I'm here for fun? Help me get down!"

"Fine," he grumbled, "I better get an explanation afterwards. Just let go, and I'll catch you."

Lily looked unsurely at the round-shouldered, wormy boy, but, she wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing. She let go, clenching her eyes shut. Snape caught her as he made a grasp for the railing of the stairs. Lily steadied herself and stepped away, so that Snape (who had been holding his breath) could also become stable (if he ever was, she thought). When they were both relatively balanced, Lily said with relief, "Thanks. I owe you one."

Snape shrugged. "I'd do it for anyone, Mudblood. Except for Potter and Black." He sneered; he couldn't possibly let her think he liked someone like her, a Gryffindor and Mudblood to boot. She just smiled sincerely, and started to climb the stairs, when she realized she was face to face with her least favorite person as well as his friends, and a crowd of curious students behind them. After James Potter realized that Lily wasn't dead or worse, he visibly relaxed and asked, "So, where's my carpet?"

"Stay. Away from. Me," she stated, her voice rising as she went on, "You are so dead. Do you realize that now, I'll be traumatized for life?" A few girls nodded sympathetically.

At this, James smirked, "Oh, give me a break, Evans. You should be honored. Most girls would give anything to have been on my carpet." Lily heard a girl, who suspiciously sounded like Marlene, giggle at the thought.

James heard a voice, "Well, it's quite refreshing to see someone who isn't, Potter." James glanced towards the side, and noticed Snape.

"I'm sure you wish you could ride it, Snivellus," spat James, "You probably will never get to fly. You suck as a Quidditch player, and you probably won't ever get your greasy hands on a real magic carpet. So it really shouldn't come as big surprise that I don't care what you think."

Instead of following Snape's and Potter's conversation, Lily persisted, and turned towards Remus and Sirius, "No one even bothers to ask me how I'm doing! I'm the one bloody flying on bloody Potter's bloody carpet at a bloody 200 bloody kilometers an hour!"

Remus looked guilty. "Sorry, Lily. We were all really worried, it's just, well…" he trailed off as he noticed Sirius focusing intently on James and Snape. Lily swiveled around to see to what everyone else was paying so much attention.

"Give me my carpet!" commanded James imperiously.

"I don't think I will, Potter," Snape replied, his lip curling, "I think I'll show this to the headmaster. I'm sure he will agree that it's a perfectly good reason to expel you."

Sirius whipped his wand out, and pointed it at Snape, "Give it, Snivelly."

Unfortunately for Snape, he hadn't brought his wand. He had only planned to go to the potions classroom, down in the dungeons. He reluctantly dropped the carpet and walked angrily away, cursing under his breath.

James picked up the carpet possessively, and turned to Sirius. "Thanks, Padfoot old man. I think we taught Snivelly a lesson."

"As usual," added Sirius with an arrogant smile. Lily showered disgusted looks at them, and turned to Remus.

"I don't know how you can put up with them. They're horrible!"

"Well, they're great friends," he shrugged. "You don't look too good, Lily."

"You could probably use some Pepperup Potion," suggest Sirius, who really was trying to be considerate, since he realized that Evans couldn't have been happy by being forced to fly off on a magic carpet she didn't even know was a magic carpet. Instead of being grateful, however, Lily glared at him.

"How can you even mention Pepperup Potion to me right now, Black?" she hissed, her green eyes flashing indignantly.

James laughed, "Oh yeah! You were actually rendered speechless when you took that, uh, stuff you called Pepperup Potion!" He stopped laughing when a livid Lily (she had been through quite a lot that day already) smacked him hard on the face.

"And I hope that hurt as much as I did when I was flying on that bloody carpet!" With that, Lily stomped off, hoping to find her friends soon.

James called out, "We'll go on our date later, Evans dear!" Several guys guffawed, but Lily did not deign him a response. She would not let him ruin her Christmas holiday, even if he was ruining her day. Unfortunately, Lily didn't come upon her friends until she was half-way to the common room.

"Oh, Lily!" cried Alice, in tears, "You're all right!" She embraced Lily in her usual motherly way. Lily nodded; she was exhausted.

"We were ready to kick James' arse if we didn't find you. They took much longer than those five minutes, Alice," Emmeline stated, in a righteous rage.

"Well, it's no thanks to Potter or his friends!" Lily said with fury.

"Who helped you then?" inquired Emmeline.

"Severus Snape."

"But he's a Slytherin!" exclaimed Alice.

"Well, he did. Don't ask me why. But he said he'd do it for anyone except Potter and Black."

"How odd," murmured Emmeline, trying to figure out why Snape had helped Lily. Alice decided to change the subject.

"How exactly did you get onto the carpet, Lil?" asked Alice with concern, wondering if it was another one of Potter's strange attempts to get Lily to go out with him.

"The carpet was on the floor, and all other seats were full so I sat on the floor, where it was lying," answered Lily, "and Potter even told me not to sit there. But how was I to know that that was the reason?"

"Potter is an arsehole," pronounced Emmeline, the girls nodded unanimously.

At dinner that night, the whole school was a-buzz with Lily's trip on the magic carpet. Word had gotten around that it was Potter's, and more girls than ever were gathered around him in awe of how he managed to get "one of those magic carpets."

Lily was disgusted. Unfortunately for her, she also was sharing some of the fame, ('or infamy, more like,' she thought to herself). Several boys were telling her how brave she was and how they wished they had been there to help her. She told them that she wished she hadn't had to have been brave, and that none of this had ever happened. One particularly annoying boy by the name of Gilderoy Lockhart had actually patted her on the head. He was in the hospital wing for a week. But the worst moment had to have been when Potter came strutting up to Lily and had asked his favorite question.

"So, Evans—will you go out with me?" He said this in the most deep and charming voice he could muster, but instead of what he wanted to hear, she smacked him again.

"Look, I know you want to touch me, Evans," he laughed forcefully, "But really, you shouldn't be so aggressive." The boys around erupted in laughter at his gibe and Lily's face. It was flickering between anger and trying to control herself. Then, a strange thing happened, and Lily thought it was a very wonderful thing. It certainly saved her the trouble of getting back at the Slytherins.

All the Slytherins were burping like there was no tomorrow. They simply could not stop. Lily found herself laughing along with the rest of the school. She particularly noticed some of the Slytherins who had made fun of her while she was flying on the magic carpet burping. Vengeance was sweet. Then she realized Potter was staring at her with a self-satisfied expression on his face.

"I think that earns me a kiss, Evans. That was a Marauder's prank," James said smugly.

"No, that earns you nothing, which is a lot better than you deserve," Lily replied, her green eyes flashing dangerously. "Because now, I don't have to get back at them." She, along with her friends, stood up and walked towards the doors of the Great Hall as they had finished dinner quickly in order to end Lily's misery. Naturally, James thought it fitting to follow her.

"Stop stalking me, Potter," Lily commanded, "Or I will do something to you. Like—" But Lily never got to finish her sentence, because James took her face in his hands and kissed her. Not kissing him back, Lily pushed him away, livid with rage, and slapped him several times.

"Kiss me," he finished weakly, rubbing the sore spot on his face.

"Darn you Potter!" she screamed. "How dare you!"

He looked at her with disbelief. No girl had ever turned him down after he had kissed her. Then, he shrugged, "You're standing under mistletoe. You couldn't possibly expect me not to take full advantage of that."

She shook with anger and whispered as she looked up where the cursed mistletoe hung, "You stole my first kiss, Potter. I hope you're happy." Alice put a comforting arm around Lily's trembling shoulders, while Emmeline walked right up to James and slapped him again for good measure, with blue eyes ice cold with steely anger.

"You stay away from her, Potter. She doesn't need arrogant jerks like you messing up her life." After saying that, she joined a crying Lily and a motherly Alice as they made their way back to the common room.

The other Marauders walked up to an incredulous James, and Sirius patted him on the back saying, "That's a first." They began walking toward the common room as well, keeping a safe distance from the three girls.

James sighed and said with determination, "I'll get her to like me yet. I'm James Potter; no mere girl can resist me for long."

"But Evans isn't a mere girl," said Sirius, "She's more like fire."

"Mess with fire, you get burned," cautioned Remus.

Peter's eyes grew wide, "Really?"

"And you really shouldn't have kissed her either, Prongs," added Remus, glancing over at Peter like Peter was mental (which of course he was, and is).

"Well I guess I thought I could get some flames of passion," said James bitterly, knowing his pun was not misplaced. "The most unbelievable part of it is that was her first kiss."

"Are you serious?" asked Sirius, a mischievous grin creeping across his face.

"No," gibed James, "You are." Sirius mentally slapped himself for ever cracking that joke.

"You do realize that you got something priceless from her. Right, Prongs?" inquired Sirius. "Girls treasure their first kisses; they think they're special for some reason—some weird mental thing they all have."

"Makes sense—because I'm darn special," James replied with a conceited grin.

"But you're going to apologise, aren't you, James?" asked Remus, stressing the James, as if to remind James that he was becoming a man.

"Well, I really think she owes me an apology," James responded stubbornly.

"I would if I were you, Prongs," offered Sirius unexpectedly, "She might kill you otherwise."

"She's right good with hexes," Peter added solemnly. They all turned to him and looked at him with bewilderment.

"How would you know?" the other three asked curiously.

"Well," Peter began uncomfortably, biting his fingers, "She's a prefect."

"We know that," James said snappishly.

"Um, I saw her hex this Slytherin couple once who wouldn't go back to their dormitory after curfew. They were um…er…yes…" He drifted off with embarrassment.

"Making out?" offered James mischievously. Peter nodded self-consciously.

Sirius sensed embarrassment and jumped on his case, "Why were you there, Wormtail?"

"If you must know," Peter said heatedly, "I was serving remediary potions that night."

"Oh," they all said, deciding not to hurt Peter's feelings by commenting any more on that situation, since Peter wasn't as bright as they were.

They had arrived at the portrait hole, and after saying the password, (Munching Munchkins), the Marauders entered a deserted common room, since everyone else was still in the Great Hall eating. Sirius sighed, he hadn't finished eating when James had messed up. "I'm hungry." Just then, Dorcas Meadowes entered the room, looking quite pretty, Sirius thought. He looked her up and down, and then turned to an inattentive James, "I'm not hungry anymore." Remus snorted.

"Come on, James. Go knock on Lily's dormitory door." James grinned, because he knew something Remus didn't.

"Why don't you?" he asked Remus.

"You're the one who made her mad," Remus replied, smiling wryly because he thought the idea of James being scared was humorous.

"You can't go up the girls' dormitory stairs. They flatten out into a slide," Sirius declared, unwittingly messing up James' prank on Remus. James gave him the evil eye.

"Aaah. I see," Remus said, a devious smile on his face. "Trying to get me to fall down on my face, eh, Prongs?"

"It would have been terribly amusing, Moony," replied James, also grinning deviously.

"Oh, come off it,"Sirius said brusquely, watching Dorcas idly sit down on the sofa to read a Witch Weekly. "You know that to get to a girl's room you just use your broom."

"How do you know?" asked Peter in awe.

James snorted. "We all know what a reputation Sirius has with the ladies."

"I'm sure you've serenaded them from your broomstick," chuckled Remus. The vision of Sirius singing from his broomstick to some lucky girl was quite humorous.

"Get on with it!" barked Sirius, blushing as he met Dorcas' hazel eyes staring at them with amusement. Apparently James and Remus weren't the only ones who found the situation funny.

The Marauders filed up to their dorm to retrieve the broom for James. When they had all come back down, they saw that Dorcas wasn't on the sofa anymore, and that Lily was coming down the stairs with purpose. When she saw the broomstick she rolled her eyes.

"Dorcas said that you were coming to apologise to me, Potter. Something about serenading me on your broomstick." At this, she laughed convulsively. "To think Frank always said your singing was atrocious. Let's hear it then."

James looked at the other Marauders behind him, not knowing what to do. Dorcas was going to pay during Quidditch practice. He had only planned to fly up to her dorm, say sorry, and hope that she would snog him senseless. Now he had to serenade her? Sirius and Remus chortled uncontrollably behind him, having to give support to each other. Peter was staring dumbly at James, wondering why he would sing to Lily.

"Well?" asked Lily testily.

"I—um—I mean," James tried embarrassedly.

"You were saying?" Sirius said, a devilish grin pasted on his handsome face.

"Ah—yes! I'll sing…" he drifted off. "You decide." He thought letting her decide was brilliant. It would make her feel important. He saw her green eyes sparkling mischievously. 'Uh oh,' he thought, ruing the moment that had possessed him to kiss her.

You will sing "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas," she replied evilly. "But first, I want you to apologise loudly and sincerely, knees on the ground." Right then, all the Gryffindors were flooding back into the common room, and were watching the spectacle with delight.

James grudgingly got on his knees, trying to compose himself back to his usual level of nonchalance. "I am very sorry for kissing you." He didn't sound sorry, and she didn't seem satisfied.

"And?" she persisted.

"And for putting the magic carpet on the floor of the common room."

"And?"

"What else did I do?" he demanded, his irritation out-stripping his nonchalance.

"You have no idea," Lily said through gritted teeth. But then she sighed and said, "Alright. I accept that, although I'm still mad about all the other unfathomably horrible things you've done to me these past five years."

"So, Prongsie—how about serenading Lily?" suggested Remus, smiling in a way the Gryffindors didn't see to often on the most serious of the Marauders.

"Ah yes. I want a hippopotamus for—" Lily cut him off.

"I'm hurt, Potter. You're supposed to do it on your broom." James sighed in defeat. He would never live this down. Alice and Emmeline, hearing all the commotion, came down to see James mounting his broom, and then singing,

"I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
Don't want a doll, no dinky Tinker Toy
I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
I don't think Santa Claus will mind, do you?
He won't have to use our dirty chimney flue
Just bring him through the front door,
that's the easy thing to do

I can see me now on Christmas morning,
creeping down the stairs
Oh what joy and what surprise
when I open up my eyes
to see a hippo hero standing there

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
No crocodiles, no rhinoceroses
I only like hippopotamuses
And hippopotamuses like me too

Mom says the hippo would eat me up, but then
Teacher says a hippo is a vegetarian

There's lots of room for him in our two-car garage
I'd feed him there and wash him there and give him his massage

I can see me now on Christmas morning,
creeping down the stairs
Oh what joy and what surprise
when I open up my eyes
to see a hippo hero standing there

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
No crocodiles or rhinoceroses
I only like hippopotamuses
And hippopotamuses like me too!"

During this strange and rare episode, Emmeline, with great presence of mind, grabbed her video camera that her parents had given her for her birthday last year, and taped the entire thing, realizing that she now had the ultimate Christmas present for Lily.

James quickly got off the broom, and bowed to his applauding and laughing audience, some of whom were in tears (also known as the Marauders, Lily, Emmeline, and Alice). He escaped the crowd and scurried up to his room, throwing himself into the shower (maybe he would drown), whom he considered his only friend at that moment, although the other Marauders and Frank soon followed him and didn't really help at cheering him up, since Remus and Sirius kept saying "hippopotamus' or 'broomstick' which would cause them to go into fits of laughter.

Meanwhile, Lily, along with the rest of her dormitory, was laughing her head off. Never had she seen James so embarrassed. He always was so proud and loved any attention, because 'he's an arrogant, attention-seeking prat,' she thought to herself.

And as she fell asleep that night, Lily's last thought, before she began dreaming wonderful dreams of James's singing "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas," was: 'Potter ruined and made my day all at the same time. Who ever could have dreamed that up?' And she fell asleep, with a satisfied and happy smile on her fair, freckled face.

Y'all- can you please review? I love hearing what y'all think, and it really makes my day! Also, as you can see, I wrote this chapter more quickly than last time, thanks to your reviews. So anyways, review-PhoenixPlume