Hey all Pupparoux here, so what does everyone think of the latest Harry Potter book? I really enjoyed it. Though I don't think it was totally up to par with JKR's previous works, but hey that's just me. OMG I cannot believe this! This chapter is SOOO LONG! 50 pages! I think it must just be the spacing. lol

This is a message to my friend Strange Stef. Hey Strange One! How're classes going? Sorry I couldn't get together with you and Wacki and Looney on the fourth. I was in Italy. But when you review be sure to make it a long one to tell me about your summer. Kk? 3 The Mad One

P.s I don not own anything related to The Harry Potter franchise. Well duh, why would I be writing here if I did right? All hail the genius that is J. K. Rowling.

Right onward! ;) Pupparoux

Here we go, I hope you like it.

Chapter Six: Snowball Fights

The next few days passed uneventfully in the Evans' household. James and Lily settled themselves in and prepared themselves for their much-needed two-week holiday.

Lily's cousins had relaxed somewhat toward James, though they still kept popping up unexpectedly when James and Lily had been absent for more than an hour.

Petunia and Vernon had also moved into the house and were looking quite cozy. In fact, the other night James had accidentally walked in on them snogging in the kitchen. He had tried not to make any noise and quickly backed out of the kitchen without them noticing and went back up the stairs, not wanting another confrontation. He kept noticing how Lily and Petunia had a certain animosity between them and he was resolved to find out what it was.

Every night Lily went and sat with her grandmother for a couple of hours. James had yet to meet Lily's grandmother or her parents, which he found strange, though he said nothing. He believed that Lily would introduce him in due time. Occasionally when Lily visited her grandmother, James could hear gentle piano music drift up to him. He assumed that Lily played a cd or something of that nature to help her gran relax. He found it very soothing, anyway.

On the third morning after arriving at the Evans household, James awoke to find snow drifting gently past the window beside Lily's bed, which he only saw because the dividing curtain was not completely closed. He looked at Lily's peaceful sleeping form and a small smile stole across his face. He still couldn't believe he was here, with her; though, he guessed, they weren't technically "together." But he didn't care. He looked back out the window and continued to watch the snow.

After sometime, when he couldn't lie still any longer he flung back his covers and threw his legs over the side. He stretched, yawned, got up and walked to the bathroom. After he had brushed his teeth and attempted to comb his hair, which he quickly gave up, he went back out into the room and looked at his wristwatch. It was eight-thirty in the morning.

James walked silently over to the divider between his and Lily's beds and whipped it open. The he sat on the edge of Lily's bed, put his hand on her back, and leaned down so that his face was close to hers.

"Lily…" he began softly, moving his hand up and down her back in order to wake her up in a soothing fashion; he had always believed that unless the day started early it was wasted. She moaned softly.

"Lily… it's time to wake..."

But he never finished his sentence. Lily's right arm had flown up and hit him square in the face. He jerked upright, his hand over his nose, which was stinging smartly.

"OW!" he exclaimed.

Lily sat bolt-upright knocking James off her bed and onto the floor.

"WHAT!" asked Lily, looking around wildly. She looked at James on the floor. "What're you doing?" she asked.

"I was trying to wake you up," said James, taking his hand away from his nose to check for blood. "And you smacked me and then pushed me off the bed."

"Ohh, James I'm sorry!" cried Lily. "I didn't do it consciously, really. I just don't get woken up well. That's how I always react, I actually gave Petunia a black eye once." She said. Though she didn't look sad about it.

She sat up in bed and looked down at James, tilting her head to one side.

He looked quizzically up at her.

"Are you…um…ok?" she asked

James touched his nose again. "I guess. You have one strong backhand. Is my nose bleeding?"

Lily smiled. "No. So why were you waking me up? What time is it, anyway." Asked Lily looking around for her clock, which had gotten knocked off the nightstand in the commotion.

"It's eight-thirty," said James.

"Erg," sighed Lily. "No wonder I'm tired! On second thought I'm not sorry that I hit you, you deserve it for trying to wake me up!" She glowered at him.

"Hey now!" said James getting up from the floor. "I thought you would've wanted to be woken up."

"And why on earth would you think that?" asked Lily and she lay back down on her pillow and closed her eyes.

"Because," started James, flopping onto the bed again. "It's snowing."

Lily's eyes popped open; she was looking straight into James infinite brown eyes, which were filled with excitement and the hope of adventure.

"Really?" she asked.

James held Lily's gaze for a minute longer then glanced over her head out of the window.

"See for yourself."

Lily turned her head and looked out of the window. She was immediately greeted with the sight of thick, white flakes falling fast passed her window.

She smiled and looked back at James, who was gazing at her with a glazed expression.

"James, snap out of it." She said as she snapped her fingers in his face. James blinked and blushed.

"Right well," said Lily, looking at James. "Get off my covers so I can get up."

James stretched out a little more, making himself comfortable.
"And what if I don't want to?" he asked, placing his hands behind his head and looking sideways back at Lily.

Lily sighed. "You're the one who wanted to get up and woke me up."

"So…"

"So, get up so we can go have breakfast."

"I'm not that hungry, actually." James lied as his stomach growled most unhelpfully. "So I'm not moving."

"You will," said Lily.

"Won't. And you can't make me." Said James simply.

"Really?" asked Lily.

"Yup," said James, as he fell off the bed onto the floor. Lily had shoved him.

She grinned. "OK. You might want to eat something if you keep falling off beds." She said seriously to a stunned looking James as she got up and walked into the bathroom.

When both Lily and James had dressed, they descended the staircase and entered the kitchen. Terrie was in a heavy dressing gown and standing over the stove, cooking something that smelled wonderful. All of Lily's aunts made food well up to par with that of Hogwarts, James was pleased to say. He was not worried of going hungry during this vacation. Lily's four cousins were seated at the breakfast table, looking bleary eyed and still wearing their pajamas.

"Morning Terrie," called James. "Hullo Ben, Ryan, Joe, Luke." He continued, nodding to each of the boys in turn.

"Morning," came the unenthusiastic and sleepy reply from the boys.

Lily and James each grabbed a chair and sat down. Soon everyone at the table was tucking in to scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and jam, and fruit. For the first five minutes, the only sound in the kitchen was the crunch of toast and the scrape of forks on plates.

After a time James looked up from his plate.

"Terrie," he began. "I have got to say, you make food that rivals Hogwarts."

"Why thank you, sweetheart." Said Terrie, beaming at him. Then she looked at Lily and winked.

"So boys," said Lily. "Did you know it's snowing?"

"What!" asked Joe.

"Wicked!" said Ben.

"YAY!" said Ryan and Luke together.

"How about after breakfast we take James outside?" asked Lily innocently.

The four younger boys looked at James from over their pieces of toast.

"Excellent," they said, grinning.

"Ok." Said Lily, looking at James who still looked remarkable calm. This is going to be fun, thought Lily.

James just smiled

So, once they had all finished breakfast and washed their plates, Lily, James, Ryan, Joe, Ben, and Luke bundled up and walked out of the house and into the silent, winter wonderland.

The snow swirled past their faces as it drifted slowly to the ground. It had already reached above their ankles and it was showing no signs of letting up anytime soon.

Lily had walked a little way away from the boys and was looking around at the snow-covered yard. It was, in Lily's opinion, absolutely beautiful. The leaf-bare trees had a gentle frosting of ice that made them glitter and look as though they were made of glass, and since her grandmother owned a lot of land, it stretched out in front of Lily like a vast white blanket.

She turned to see the boys all huddled together whispering and occasionally stealing glances over at her. James was in the center, the ringleader. The boys had taken a liking to him, even though he was seemingly "going out" with their strange, girl cousin.

Her eyes narrowed. Being a prefect gave Lily the unnatural ability to detect mischief. Luke looked up from the circle, saw Lily watching and elbowed Ben in the ribs.

"OW! What'd you do that…" started Ben, but he soon stopped.

James lent a little closer to the boys and finished speaking and the circle broke up. Ben and Ryan went off to the right, Luke and Joe to the left and James walked straight toward Lily.

"So," he began innocently, looking around. "Is this all your Gram's land?"

"Yes," said Lily, eyeing James suspiciously. "What were you just plotting with my cousins?" she asked.

"Plotting!" asked James scandalized. "ME! Oh Lily how could you think such a thing?" He looked at her and smiled a roguish smile. "All in due time, my dear Lily, all in due time."

Lily gave up and just shook her head. "Right well I'll show you around then, shall I?"

"Lead the way, oh Capitan."

Lily and James walked off through the snow and Lily showed him all the land that her grandmother owned; from the forest behind the house, to the wide-open, rolling, snow-covered fields on the sides.

"Lily," breathed James. "This is…this is." He swallowed. "Wow." He looked at her.

"Yeah, well, this was my Grandmother's family's house. When she and my grandfather married, they moved in here and started the family."

James stopped walking and just looked at her.

"What?" asked Lily, stopping too.

"Oh nothing." Said James shaking his head. He raised his arm in the air as though stretching and then let it fall to this side.

Lily looked around. She suddenly found it odd that her cousins were nowhere to be found…and that everything was silent. Lily sidestepped to the right a second later as four snowballs came hurtling at her from behind a large bush.

She looked around for James and found that he was just standing up from making a snowball, which he held threateningly.

"Oh Lily," he called sweetly.

She started to back away.

"Come' ere."

"Never," she squealed, smiling. "You'll never take me without a fight!" and she sprinted away, dodging snowballs as she went.

She quickly stockpiled some snowballs, with the aid of some magic. She was, after all, of age. She grinned wickedly to herself. Let them come… she thought as she found a suitable hiding place.

Ben and Ryan walked by, looking for her. Lily let fly two snowballs. They hit their mark and she ducked back down.

"Hey," said Ryan. "I'm on your side."

"I know. So stop hitting me with snowballs."

"I didn't hit you." Said Ryan confusedly. "You hit me…didn't you?"

"Uh…no." They peered around, looking for Lily.

"OI!" called Ryan. "James! She's in this vicinity."

Lily crouched, still lower in her hiding spot, a hollowed out trunk of a still standing tree. She looked out and saw James come striding over to Ryan and Ben, Joe and Luke coming up behind him as the rear guard.

"Report." Said James.

Lily had to smile. Her cousins loved army games. She usually played with them, ducking and rolling, avoiding imaginary bullets. She secretly felt it was fun, and good practice for avoiding unfriendly spells from He-who-must-not-be-named and his followers.

"Suh, we were searching diligently around for the enemy, when we were hit from behind. I don't think she could've gotten very far."

"No…"said James thoughtfully. "Well, fan out. We'll find her. Ben and Ryan, you take the left. Luke and Joe, you take right. I'll search here. Any trouble and you know what to do."

The boys all started to go off in their separate directions. It was then that Lily let fly her barrage of stored snowballs, mostly at James.

"HaHA! Take that!" she yelled, giggling as she ducked out of the hollow in the tree and ran.

All five boys ran after her, but James whose legs were the longest by far, was the only one gaining on her. He pelted after her and soon he was right behind her. He reached out a hand to grab her shoulder.

"James." The boys called. "We forgot to warn you…"

Lily felt the hand on her shoulder and dropped to the ground, doing a roll and landing back on her feet in a crouched position. James over-balanced and fell. Lily got up, tossed a snowball at James' stomach, and disappeared into the trees.

The other boys reached James, who was still lying on the ground.

"You forgot to tell me what?" asked James from his sitting position on the ground.

"That Lily rocks at these army games." Said Joe.

"Yeah, she's pulled that trick on all of us at least once. Welcome to the club of Being Thwarted By Lily." continued Ryan.

"Yeah, we have jackets." Finished Ben.

"Hmm…well, this complicates things." Said James. "Luckily," he continued, "I have another plan." All the boys leaned together to listen eagerly to James.

The day continued in much the same fashion. Soon the younger boys, Luke and Ryan got to tired to play anymore so they went inside for hot chocolate. It was only Lily versus James, Ben and Joe. And though the odds were against her, Lily was never one to back down from a fight.

She was pelted many a time with snowballs from all of the boys, but she kept up a steady stream herself. The sun was nearing the west hills when it was only Lily and James left outside, though Lily didn't know it.

Lily wasn't cold; she had performed a Self-warming charm on her body and an impervious charm on her gloves to help them stay dry.

She held her last snowball in her left hand and was peering behind a tree looking for James. She heard a crunch behind her and whipped around. There was James, looking at her, a snowball in his hand, ready to be thrown.

They stared each other down. Lily's green eyes were defiant; James' eyes were full of laughter.

"Hmm…" said James, looking at Lily's left hand and then at his own hand. "We seem to be at a stale mate."

"Not if you put down your snowball…"said Lily

"You mean if WE put down Our snowballs."

"I didn't say that."

"Tricky tricky." Smiled James. "T..truce?" he asked.

Lily noticed he was shivering and that he had no gloves on.

"James where are your gloves?" she looked over him, noticing that his jacket was dark with water.

He just shrugged.

"Ok disarm. Ready. Three…two...one." They both dropped the snowballs on the ground. Lily walked over to James. "You should've told me you needed new gloves, I would've got you some."

"Ha…you…you wouldn'tve let m..me near you." Shivered James, smiling.

Lily took off her gloves and took James' hand. It was red with cold. She looked around, it was still snowing and she could see the house in the distance.

"C'mon," she said, dragging James in the direction of the house, still holding his hand. He could feel him shaking beside her.

"If you get sick…" she started, an empty threat.

James laughed weakly. "You wouldn't take care of me?"

Lily hesitated. "Here," she gave James her gloves.

"Those won't fit me." He said, sniffling.

"Well, I think I need to get you warm somehow."

They continued walking.

"We're almost there." Commented Lily, unnecessarily; she was worried, James was shivering more violently. She glanced over at him, the sun was setting just behind James' broad shoulders; it looked as though James had a halo. A funny thought, considering how much mischief he caused on a daily basis.

"Lily," started James.

"C'mon. We're almost at the house." She said, almost dragging him up the path. Lily pushed open the door and she and James walked through the kitchen and up the stairs to their room.

"All right James," began Lily. "Wet clothes off, now."

James looked at Lily, smiling. "Now th..there's something I never thought I'd here you t-tell me."

"Ohh, shut up Potter, you know I don't mean a word of it." Said Lily blushing. "Just do it so I don't have to stay up with you when you get sick."

James began to take off his sopping coat, but couldn't manage because of his numb fingers.

"Could you help me?" he asked Lily, not looking at her.

She sighed, but walked over nonetheless and began undoing the buttons to open his coat. Once she had done that she pulled it rather roughly off of James.

"Hey now," exclaimed James and he almost fell. "Easy."

"Your sweater is soaked." Commented Lily, turning away to light the fireplace in their room.

"T-thanks, captain obvious," said James plucking at his jumper that was clinging to his body. He pulled it over his head, revealing a wet t-shirt, which he pulled off also, exposing a perfect six-pack.

When Lily had lit the fire, she turned around and discovered James, and his perfect abs. She blushed, looking away.

James went to his trunk and rifled through it, looking for dry clothing. Lily stood watching him, not sure what to do with herself.

"I'll, um, make tea then shall I?" she asked.

"P..Please." stammered James from inside his new, dry jumper.

Lily put the kettle on the fire and looked back at James. He was unbuttoning his pants, which were also, apparently, wet.

Lily turned quickly back to face the fireplace, blushing furiously again.

"James, you might consider warning a girl before you just up and off with your pants."

"N-none of the other g-girls have s-seemed to mind." He said, pulling on dry pajama pants.

"Well," said Lily, flustered and getting angry. "Fine POTTER! Then I'm sure you don't need anything from me." She stormed passed James, across the room to the door and wrenched it open.

James reached out and grabbed her arm. A chill ran up and down her back.

"No, Lily…" he said quietly. "I didn't mean it. Those girls were nothing compared to what you are."

Lily inwardly glowed, but she wouldn't show it.

"Please don't leave…I n-need you."

Lily could still feel him shivering, despite the heat of the room.

"Ok," Lily sighed. "Hop in bed, Potter."

James sighed a little at the mention of his surname but walked to the bed just the same. He walked over to the bed and climbed in.

Irresistible heat stole over him. He felt his eyes growing heavy. His body lost the chill that had come over it. It seemed to spread from his toes to the top of his unruly head.

James looked at Lily, standing by the large fireplace, and smiled. There was no other place in the whole world he would rather be. So with that thought James drifted off to sleep.

"I was thinking Pott… James," started Lily her back still turned to him. "That you could meet my gran today or tomorrow. Depending upon how you're feeling, of course. Well maybe not today…anyway." She grabbed a clean mug off the mantle, placed a tea bag in it and started to pour in the boiling water from the kettle. "That way, she can meet you, you can meet her, and we'll all be happy." Lily turned around and walked over James' bed with the mug of steaming tea. "So what do you…" Lily looked down at James. He was clearly asleep. His eyes were closed, glasses on, and he had a slight smile on his face. Lily caught herself smiling too.

She set the mug of hot tea down on the bedside table. The she sat on the bed and reached over James to remove his glasses. As she breathed in Lily caught a scent…now what was it? She couldn't tell. It was a combination of clean clothes, fresh cut grass, and what must have been James' cologne. Lily liked this smell, she breathed again. She had caught this smell before…during a potions lesson. Yes that was it, during potions…now what was the potion. Her fingers brushed James' hair and he gave a soft little moan.

Lily jumped back at the sound. Then she touched the side of James' face again; she just put her hand there. Well, Potter. Lily thought. I guess your growing on me. Even if you are an idiot sometimes…

She let her hand trail down James' cheek, down his neck and to where it lingered on his slowly rising and falling chest. James' hand came up and covered Lily's.

"Mnsgdgh ghjsgte, Lily." mumbled James, softly.

"Of course James." Lily replied, just as softly, while removing her hand. She pulled the covers up to James' chin and then looked down at his peacefully sleeping form.

James sighed deeply. Lily took out her wand and cast a warming spell on the tea to keep it warm in case James should wake up and then started to walk toward her side of the room.

"Wait…" called a sleepy James.

Lily stopped and turned to face him. "What James?"

"Don't leave me…"

"I'm not leaving you James, I'm just going to the other side of the room."

"I'm so cold…" James shivered.

Lily went to his side. "Well what do you want me to do? I made you tea."

James shook his head, looking away. "Just stay with me… please."

"Ok," Lily pulled up a squashy chair to the bedside and sat in it. "I'm here, James." She said softly.

James slid a hand out from under the sheets and took on of Lily's. His was warm and her's was cold. Then he closed his eyes and fell asleep again.

Lily was looked at James's handsome face and smiling again. She caught herself and looked away. There seemed to be a pulsing heat energy running through their hands. She felt it flowing through her entire body and into James' hand. Lily wondered it James felt it too.

Lily's eyelids were getting heavy and her head was nodding; without warning, she fell asleep, their hands still firmly intertwined…

Well, that's all for now. Tee hee. Sorry it took so long. I was on vaca and then my friend came home from N.C and I haven't been able to get on the computer.

So leave a nice loooooooonnnnnng review for me.

Thank you all so much, from the very bottom of my heart.

Until next time. Keep a sharp eye ;)

Pupparoux