Despite the odd circumstances that had led her to be here, Lily found herself feeling rather at home at the Potters. Perhaps it was the cheerful holiday atmosphere or just a by-product of good food, wine and the warmth of the fire. Both older Potters made her feel at ease with their small talk over the course of their meal, enquiring as to where she was from, where she'd studied and her time at Phoenix law with their two sons. Filling in with their own little anecdotes so it didn't feel like she was being interviewed.
She'd learnt that Fleamont had been a research chemist prior to retirement, and had met Euphemia while studying as a post graduate student. Euphemia had been studying English literature at the time. The pair hadn't married until their early forties and James came about not long after that. Something which had been a delightful shock as they had previously been told they could not have children of their own. Sirius and James had become inseparable after meeting at boarding school and had started living with Potters in the summer months.
Lily had to admit watching the two young men that despite the lack of physical resemblance they did act like genuine siblings. Bantering and teasing one another affectionately. It was very much like the relationship Lily had once shared with her sister, before they had grown apart in their teenage years. From about age 14 or 15 it was a rare occurrence for anyone to assume that the Evans' were actually sisters. They differed so much in both looks, dress sense and personality. They were more like cousins than blood sisters.
"Such a shame to miss out on Christmas with your sister. France really is beautiful this time of year. Brilliant skiing as well. Will you endeavour to make the trip once the storm clears?" Fleamont questioned over dessert.
"I suppose it's up to Petunia really. She's very organised my sister. Everything has a time and a place. She organises her whole holiday period months in advance" Lily sighed, knowing full well she probably wouldn't see Petunia for a while. Most likely at the christening of the child she was currently carrying. Should Lily even receive an invitation.
"Made all the worse by those pregnancy hormones I should imagine" Euphemia soothed, "I remember how nutty I got from the second trimester onwards with this one" she waggled her dessert spoon at James.
James tried his best to look offended with his mouth stuffed full with trifle. Lily smiled at him, nursing her glass of crisp apple cider. She pictured what Petunia must look like right now, tottering around her kitchen with her growing belly. Petunia would be absolutely dismayed by the chance in her otherwise perfect appearance Lily knew. Perhaps Lily should have thought ahead and sent her something nice for Christmas, try bride the gap a little before the baby arrived. Though deep down she knew the effort wouldn't have meant much, she wasn't particularly liked by Petunia or her husband. No matter what she would have sent they would have found some fault with it.
Following desert Lily did indeed find herself on the verge of a very satisfying food coma. Food had been packed away in containers in the fridge, the dishwasher loaded and the group had retired to the sitting room. In various states of cosy food fatigue on soft sofas and recliner chairs. Toby had made himself right at home on the three-seater next to Lily who massaged his ears gently. He was a very large dog to be living in London. How Potter managed she had no idea, perhaps he paid a pet sitter or sent him off to doggy day care while at work. Lily had contemplated having a pet of her own for sometime now, make her house feel a little less empty. She was almost certain that Minerva her landlord would object to a her having a cat in the apartment.
"He really likes you" James remarked quietly from the recliner beside her.
"Good thing I really like him. He's a sweetheart" Lily replied.
"Takes after me" James smirked. "Just let me know when you want a ride home."
"Oh, you're most welcome to stay Lily dear, we have a spare room." Euphemia chimed in.
"Thank you for the offer, but I really wouldn't want to intrude. The longer I stay the more likely I am to get snowed in with you all."
"I'll grab my jacket. Wanna go for a car ride Toby?" James asked the dog, whose tail started to wag rather enthusiastically.
The Potters and Sirius bid goodbye to Lily on the doorstep, having stocked her up with several containers of leftovers to keep her going over the next few days at least. Toby was quite content to stare out of the car windows into the dark stormy night as James drove. He finally relented in telling Lily about how Sirius had officially come to become an honorary Potter, following his banishment from the home of his abusive family. It was a very bleak story as he had promised, certainly not something that would have made for pleasant conversation over Christmas dinner. Even if she'd had the forethought to stop herself from what she said next, Lily wasn't sure if she actually would have.
"I can imagine what it must be like for Sirius and Regulus. You were right, I'm not particularly close with my sister Petunia. Though not for the same reasons obviously. We just grew apart as we got older. Different personalities and priorities I suppose. I haven't actually spoken to her in months." Lily confessed.
"I figured you weren't really headed to France. I assumed if you had you would have let something slip at work a lot sooner."
"And yet you still went along with it?" Lily asked him bemused.
"Not my place to question or judge, is it? From what I've seen families are hard. I really lucked out with mine." He shrugged, though his hands drifted nervously over the steering wheel.
"Thank you. For not prying and not throwing me under the bus with your family. They really are lovely"
"Mum will be pleased to hear it. I think she really liked you too. I don't really have many female friends these days. It's kinda always been me, Sirius, Remus and Pete. Which I'm happy enough with. I don't need a mountain of friends. Just a few good ones." James smiled.
"I know the feeling. Except unlike you I don't get to see mine everyday at work. I've got Mar, she lives in Helsinki with her girlfriend. Then there's Mary, but she moved back to Cornwall after uni. And Dorcas is God knows where at the moment she travels for work that often. Last I heard from her she was in Singapore." Lily rattled off.
"Must get pretty lonely for you… not being close with family and your friends being so spread out." James commented.
"Sometimes. I guess I've just gotten used to being independent. I'm thinking about getting a cat. But then maybe I will turn into the crazy cat lady." She laughed.
"Nah, I don't think you'd become the crazy cat lady. You need to get into knitting for some obscure other spinster type hobby before that. You're welcome to steal the big lump from the backseat whenever you like. He loves the attention."
"Just like his dad then?" Lily teased.
"Me? Love the attention Evans? Never!" James proclaimed as they pulled up outside Lily's flat.
The snow had risen several inches since they had departed. Gentlemanly as ever James came round and opened her car door for her and escorted her to the front step. As Lily pressed her key into the lock he bid her goodnight and made his way back towards the car.
"James?" Lily called after him. He turned back to look at her.
"Do you want a night cap?" She asked him. "You can bring Toby in with you."
James looked back towards Toby who was fogging up the window of the back seat panting, and then back to Lily shrugging. Why not? He collected Toby from the car and the three of them filed their way into Lily's dark and empty apartment. Within seconds Toby had made himself at home on her sofa. James tried to scold him to get off, but Lily stopped him. She didn't mind Toby on the couch seeing as he was clean. James followed Lily into the kitchen where she pulled out two wine glasses from above the fridge. He seemed to shuffle his feet nervously from side to side as she poured each of them a glass.
"I'm not an axe murderer you know" Lily quipped. "You can take a seat" She gestured to the empty bar stools at the kitchen bench, which James took to sitting in gratefully.
"I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess you were my secret Santa?" Lily asked him.
"How do you figure that?" James asked, though his expression resembled a deer caught in headlights.
"Well for one your uncanny ability to remember things about me I don't even remember saying. And two the fact the hand writing on the card matches your hand writing in the Christmas card your mother had pinned to her fridge. Not the only one with an eye for detail Potter. The only thing I can't work out is if you knew the thing would have sentimental value or not." Lily mused.
"So, you did like it then? The snow globe?" He asked enthusiastically.
"It's sitting on my coffee table, isn't it? So did you know?" Lily asked.
"It was a risk, you'd either love it or hate it. Judging by how eager Snape was to keep a hold of it" James shrugged.
Severus Snape was someone the pair also worked with at Phoenix Law, whom had since moved on to working at another company. Though Lily had known him much longer than that. She had been friends with Severus since their early childhood and into their university years, until the relationship turned sour. This was hardly a secret and had in fact been office gossip at the time during her initial internship year.
Mary, one of Lily's closest friends and roommate at the time had been assaulted by one of Severus's friends, Mulciber, on a night out. It had wreaked havoc on Mary's life. She almost dropped out of university and had been too scared to even leave the flat for months. Lily had expected Severus to cut ties with Mulciber after this, but he hadn't. It had led to many arguments between Lily and him. One of which occurred at work. The final straw for Lily had been when Severus had insinuated that Mary had deserved what had happened to her. That all the girls should be more careful about what they wore out and if they were going to "dress like provocative sluts" then they should be accepting of the consequences. Lily had slapped him harshly across the face in front of others in the breakroom and had adamantly refused to engage with him since, though he did try several times before finally transferring out to another company.
"Snape, had it?" Lily questioned.
"Yeah. I remember you mentioned having lost a snow globe when you moved. Completely slipped my mind until I saw that one in the bottom of Snapes desk drawer months later when he was packing out his space. I confronted him about it at the time but I didn't really have a leg to stand on, couldn't prove it was yours and he had nicked it." James told. "But then a few months back he got himself into a bit of a jam and I got him out of it, so I asked for the globe to call it even. He didn't like it but eventually handed it over."
Lily slammed her wine glass down on the counter and went to retrieve the snow globe from its pride of place on the coffee table and returned to the kitchen with it. She took a seat beside James and turned the snow globe on its head and examined the bottom plate carefully. There was a discoloured patch on the bottom, where an engraving plate had once been attached. Her original missing globe had once been engraved with Lily's name on the bottom. Could this really be the same globe? Would Snape really have been so petty all those years ago to have taken it?
"What kind of jam?" Lily asked brashly.
"Oh… well, um. He did something reckless and stupid that could have got him into some trouble with Dumbledore. But I smoothed it over. It's not really my story to tell as it involves the personal details of someone else. It almost nearly cost Sirius his job too. Dumbledore was livid. Sirius is still on a probationary period over it. But I would appreciate it if you didn't let on to him that you know that." James explained.
"I'm not happy about it. But I guess I can accept that. I just don't know why he would take it in the first place." Lily huffed.
"I can think of several reasons. To have an excuse to talk to you, to 'find' it for you, just to be spiteful" James rattled off, counting the reasons on his fingers.
Lily did have to agree with him. Any of those things were certainly things that Severus was capable of. In the early days of their severed friendship, he had tried numerous times to talk to her under the guise of it being work related. It had taken Lily having a word with Horace Slughorn, Severus's manager, before he eventually had given up and left her alone.
"I guess I should just settle with a thank you, shouldn't I? For managing to return my stolen property"
"No thank you necessary Evans. But I am glad you like it. I figured it must have some sort of value for him to have taken it and kept it in the first place." James smiled. "I really should get a move on though, or Toby and I are gonna find ourselves stuck in a snowy lane."
The word slipped off Lily's tongue before she could even register when she said.
"Stay" She paused for a moment and then continued. "It would be irresponsible of me to let you leave now. Toby might freeze."
"Oh yeah? That's your concern, is it? Toby." James chuckled.
"I suppose you might be a slight concern too. But I would never forgive myself if something happened to that shaggy beast. Besides. He's quite content snoring on my sofa." Lily argued.
"Well, he's about to get a rude awakening when he's forced to share." James laughed.
"Oh, I figured you could bunk with me. My bed is big enough. So long as you make breakfast in the morning." Lily teased.
"I think that's fair" James agreed. He leaned in closer to her, and Lily met him half way. Capturing his bottom lip between her own.
