Here's chapter three! A lot of this came from randomconversations with my friends, so I hope you enjoy it. This one has a little of that loser Peter in it, since I realize that I can't ignore him completely or my story won't work. Poo on a stick.

Disclaimer: I do not, obviously, own Harry Potter. I do, however, wish I did. Then I could have my way with him and all of his hot British buddies.

Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.

Socrates

Sam yelped as she tripped out of the bathroom while trying to pull on a boot. She landed on her back, staring up at the upside-down grin of Sirius Black.

"Good-morning, love."

"Oh," she snapped. "Is it? Let's see, we're going to be late for Christmas, my hair is soaking wet, and, oh yeah, I'm on the floor."

He pointed his wand at her hair and it was instantly dry. He pocketed his wand.

"Thanks."

He lifted her from the ground and pulled her close. He kissed her gently and rested his forehead against hers.

"It is a good morning. You look stunning."

"Meh," she replied, pulling away. As she poured some coffee, she asked, "Out of curiousity, what colour is my hair right now?"

"Blue."

"Fix it."

Laughing, he muttered a spell. She checked in a mirror to make sure her hair had been restored to its original colour. It had.

As soon as she finished her coffee, he tossed her a helmet. She caught it on instinct.

"No, Sirius, no."

"Oh, c'mon, Sam! It'll be fun! And you need an excuse for showing up late. If you apparate, they'll know you were just slow. Besides, it's only two itty bitty miles." He looked at her pleadingly. It was those big sad puppy eyes that were irresistible.

"I hate you," she told him, grabbing her coat. His face lit up instantly. He yanked her out the door in his excitement. "And it's never just two miles with you."

He jumped on his gleaming black motorcycle and pulled her on behind him. As she wrapped her arms around his waist, he revved the engine.

And they were off.

Sam and Sirius stopped in front of James and Sam's flat thirty minutes later. Thrusting the helmet at his chest, Sam sent Sirius a death glare.

"You are the only man alive who could manage to take half an hour to go two miles."

"It's a gift."

He took her hand and they entered the flat. They saw Saige and Remus sitting on the floor playing with Mister Cat. Lily and James were still asleep on the couch. Upon seeing Sam, Mister Cat left Remus and Saige and pawed at Sam. She picked him up and he leapt onto her shoulder.

Saige looked up and said, "You know, you take Christmas decorations to a whole new level."

"It looks like Christmas threw up in here," Sirius agreed.

Sam hit him in the stomach. Scratching Mister Cat's head, she gestured towards Lily and James. Remus shrugged.

"We decided not to wake them. I like James best when he is asleep, so I wanted to enjoy it while it lasted."

"Mwa ha ha," Sam cackled, handing Mister Cat to Sirius. "Revenge is sweet."

She tiptoed dramatically to the wireless and turned the volume all the way up. After pausing for dramatic effect, she pushed the ON button.

"-INGLE BELL JINGLE BELL JINGLE BELL ROCK! JINGLE BELL-"

"AARGH!" James yelped amid crashing to the floor. Lily sat rubbing her head as James looked around wildly. Spotting Sam by the wireless, he glared.

"Not cool."

"I beg to differ," she replied while Sirius helped Lily up from the ground.

There was a sudden sharp pop of air. Saige screamed and clutched at Remus who jumped as a result.

"What?" Peter asked innocently.

"Ugh," Saige groaned, letting go of Remus who was looking at her extremely amused. "I hate apparation. It catches people off guard and it's loud and dangerous and makes you feel weird. Floo Powder is much better."

"Because being consumed by flames doesn't feel weird at all."

She hit Remus with a pillow.

"It's a zillion times better! The roaring fire warns people that someone's coming so they don't just instantly appear and scare the crap out of you. And if you end up in the wrong fireplace, hey, so what? It's still a portal so you can turn around and go somewhere else. And the flames tickle."

"But if you ended up in the fireplace of, oh, let's just say a Death Eater, you could be killed. Or worse, you could be-"

"Okay!" Sam interrupted. "Let's open presents, shall we?"

"Or worse? What's worse than losing your life?"

"You could be tortured into giving valuable information to the Dark Lord! You could help him kill! Or worse-"

"Hey! Presents! Today!" Sirius yelled.

"There's another worse?"

"You could become a Death Eater yourself! Floo Powder is just as dangerous as, if not more than Apparation."

"Ouch!" Saige yelped as she was hit in the head by a box. "Oh, candy!" she cried, ripping the candy cane off the box and, forgetting her anger, sticking it in her mouth. She proceeded to take it back out, remove the plastic, and put it back in.

Sam tossed a box to Lily and caught another thrown by Saige. Saige opened her box and lifted a charm of a corset, much like the one she had worn the previous night.

"You are just jealous of how amazingly sexy I was last night," she informed Lily, attaching the charm to her bracelet and shaking it around. "I'm just luck I had a hot date because who knows what drunken bastard I would have gone home with otherwise."

Sirius briefly wondered if anyone else caught the blush creep across Remus' face. Shaking away the thought, he watched Lily open her gift. She unwrapped a small pair of frilly underwear and squealed in delight.

"Party Panties!"

Sam and Saige had gotten Lily a ton of lacy, frilly, polka-dotty, fun underwear for her last birthday. They told her it was time for her to trade her good girl underwear for Party Panties. It was one of the many ways they had corrupted innocent Lily Evans.

James made a suggestive noise and inquired as to what kind of underwear she was wearing at that moment.

"That," she replied, "is for me to know and for you to wish you could find out."

"That sounds like a challenge."

"Quick, Sam," Saige pleaded. "Open your before Lames reveals Lily's panties."

Laughing, Sam tore the paper off her own box and took of the lid. She held up a miniature lacy bra.

"Is this a joke?"

Saige shrugged and responded around the candy cane protruding from her mouth, "Think of it as a push-up bra for you complete lack of boobs."

"I wouldn't say she completely lacked in that area," Sirius protested.

This earned him a hard smack with a pillow, and the couple were on the receiving end of more than one questioning stare.

"So!" Sam said uncomfortably.

"Did anyone else notice," Peter asked, "that they all got each other underwear?"

They all looked around and burst out laughing. It was true. It was an extremely strange coincidence. It proved that they maybe knew each other too well.

Other less provocative gifts were given. Saige gave everyone sketched she had done. Lily had short stories she had written and Remus had bought bizarre chocolates for everyone. They were odd looking, but they had all learned to trust Remus' taste in chocolates.

A few hours later, the girls were in the kitchen making a late lunch. It was going to serve as their Christmas dinner, so there was a lot of food. Turkey and stuffing, potatoes and carrots, cranberry sauce and gravy, and Christmas pudding were being prepared.

"So you and James looked pretty cozy this morning," Sam said suggestively.

"Shut up," Lily retorted, wielding the knife she was using to slice potatoes. "Everything was nice and perfect so don't even try to make it sound dirty. You know it was nothing compared to what you and Sirius must have been doing last night."

"Fine," Saige conceded before Sam could respond. "So what did he get you for Christmas?"

Lily held up her hand and smiled as Sam and Saige began exclaiming over it. Lily laughed and briefly recounted how he gave it to her.

"That is so sweet!" Sam told her. "And really pretty! And sweet! And pretty! And did I mention sweet? And pretty?"

Ah," Saige began, looking at Sam, "but is it as pretty as what Sirius gave you?"

"You knew?" Sam gaped at her.

"Of course I knew! He didn't trust himself, so he picked it out and had me approve it. I thought he did extremely well."

Sam pulled a gold locker out from underneath her sweater. A simple flower was carved into the front of it. She opened it and exposed a picture of Sirius and Sam with their arms around each other, smiling and laughing, their hair blowing. On the back of the cover piece were the words "I love you".

"I was so proud of my roomie for picking out such a pretty necklace," Saige told them. "But I got the feeling that I should be glad I didn't go home last night."

"Yea, let's just say that there wasn't much talking happening."

Lily coughed and hastily changed the subject. "So what did you and Remus do last night?"

"Oh, you know, we talked and drank coffee and talked and drank coffee and talked and drank coffee and talked and drank coffee and talked…" she trailed off.

"Aw, babe," Sam moaned sympathetically.

"Don't get me wrong, I love talking to him. It's just that I want to do more than talk. Don't make that dirty, Sam. But he's not making a move and I'm not making a move and we are officially going no where and it's absolutely infuriating!"

"He'll get there eventually. He's never been good with that whole friends to couple transition," Lily reminded her. "Don't give up yet."

She sighed. "Well I wish he'd hurry up. I don't have forever. I guess I'll just have to focus on finding a place to intern for now. They're sending me out on my own at the end of May."

"Really? Got any places in mind" Lily asked curiously.

"A couple. But I'm still looking for the perfect place. St. Mungo's is good, but that's where everyone is going and I want someplace different, someplace that I'm not familiar with. I've been to St. Mungo's too much. I want someplace without any memories."

The oven door slammed. "Everything is cooking and there's nothing else to do in here," Sam announced gleefully.

Running her hand through her hair, Lily left the kitchen smiling, the other two following. She curled up on the couch and snuggled against James who was watching Quidditch on the television. Sam sank over the arm of an armchair and on top of Sirius. He wrapped his arms around her waist and gently stroked her side. Saige lay in front of Remus on the floor, using his crossed legs as a pillow. He unconsciously started running his fingers though her hair, thoroughly engrossed in the Quidditch match. Sam and Lily exchanged a look, but said nothing.

"He shouldn't have done that. Should've passed to-"

"Murphy," Saige finished for Remus. "He was wide open and had a perfect shot of the goal."

"Not a clear shot. Haiker would have hit him with a bludger," Remus responded.

"He could've dodged it," Saige defended. Remus raised and eyebrow at her and she looked up at his upside down face. "Maybe."

The game went on for a while, Remus and Saige bantering about what should have happened. Sam got into a discussion with herself about how the Snitch must have been tampered with by the grumpy goblins at Gringotts. According to her, the goblins hated Quidditch, which Sirius thought was inhuman. Sam replied that that was okay because they weren't human and thought that Quidditch was a noisy nasty sport. So they cursed this particular snitch to be able to apparate along with flying so no one could ever catch it. The goblins found it terribly amusing to see the ridiculous humans flounder after an unattainable goal.

Suddenly, Peter jumped with a yelp, pulling t his left sleeve.

"Oh, would you look at the time?" he squeaked. "I must be going. Business meeting. You understand."

"What?" Sam cried. "On Christmas? But we haven't even had dinner!"

"So sorry. Thank for the thought though. Must be off. Happy Christmas!"

And with that, he was gone.

Saige lay back down, frowning while Sam mumbled about Christmas spirit. Saige chewed on a fingernail, thinking. When Peter reached for his left arm, it was as if something had alarmed him. And he mentioned the time. But he hadn't been wearing a watch.

Okay, there it is. Now, please review! I have a lot of hits and no reviews to show for it! What's a girl to do? Even if you hate it, leave a comment please!

Last update's Latin: Don't let the bastards get you down!

New Latin: non compos mentis

If you can translate that (and tell me in a review!), you win 50 points for the House of your choice! And a cookie if I'm feeling nice.