Friday 2nd December 1977

Head Girl and Boy Suite, 16:00

Had Lily mentioned how crazy and, ahem, enthusiastic James got on Hallowe'en? Because that was nothing compared how he got for Christmas. It was worse. Far worse. Or was it better? Either way, he was like some sort of hyperactive squirrel hyped up on coffee with the way he was darting about their Suite.

She had never seen him like this before. Ever. Sure, he always got excited around the holidays - you would have to be blind not to notice that. But this went way beyond excited. This was almost manic, she was convinced. And he had been like this since what had to be the crack of dawn yesterday. Apparently, once it was December then it was time to celebrate Christmas according to James.

Which was all well and good, most people got their decorations out during the first week. Heck, her family was one of them. But James didn't slowly ease himself into Christmas. Oh no, he went at it at full tilt. Everything happened. Decorations, music, singing, gift wrapping, everything. It was constant. How did it not exhaust him?

Though there was something about his enthusiasm that was both endearing and catching. Lily didn't think that she had felt so excited for Christmas since she believed in Santa.

James rushed past her; arms completely full of tinsel. Where did one even get so much tinsel? He made her head spin. Could he not sit down for even one minute?

"James. James!" she tried to catch his attention and failed.

He was still going around, pushing boxes around the room. Apparently, each box had a certain type of decorations in them. Tree decorations in one, wall ones in another and so on. Where did he even keep these? Did he really bring them to school with him? There were so many.

"Do you have any ideas for decorating?" He asked, finally coming to a stop.

Though, just because his feet stopped didn't mean that the rest of him didn't stay still. His head was bobbing as he looked around the main room - probably planning where decorations should go. Also, he was twisting tinsel in between his hands, shedding shiny pieces everywhere. They were probably still going to be finding bits of it at Easter if he kept that up.

"Garland around the fireplace and the stairways."

The stairs to their bedrooms, not that they were much of a stairway- just a handful of steps. They still had bannisters though, which was enough to wrap garlands around.

"That's a great idea! The bannisters, why didn't I think of it. All of ours at home have garlands!"

And then he was sitting down and pulling lengths of garlands out of the, you guessed it, the garland box.

"All?" Lily repeated but James didn't hear her.

All meant that his house had more than one staircase, right? What sort of house had more than one staircase? Did he live in one of those grand houses that had a back set of stairs? She would have to ask Marlene; her family had been in his house from what she gathered.

"Yeah, we like to decorate everywhere we can for Christmas," James explained. "Dad even managed to get those muggle electric lights working in our house so now we can have those everywhere too."

"Really?" That was one thing that Lily missed on the Christmas Trees at Hogwarts. Candles didn't have the same effect as a string of multicoloured lights to her. "Would they work in Hogwarts?"

James shook his head. "Too much magic in the air. They only just work in our house and even then, the magic kind of makes them burn out. Dad has to replace them every year."

Well, that was disappointing. Especially after she got her hopes up. Well, no point in dwelling on it. She would be able to see her own lights when she went home.

"Wait, what's in this box?" Lily asked, noticing that one box had been completely pushed to the side, into a far corner.

"Oh, that one? That's nothing. I brought it down by accident." James said quickly.

Too quickly. Lily narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Of course, now she wanted to know what was in the box.

"Anything interesting in it?"

"Probably not."

"I'll kiss check then," she said, walking over to it.

James tried to stop her. "Wait, I know. I mean, it's just full of some junk. Nothing Christmassy, I'm sure."

"Well, it will be good to just double check, won't it?"

"I already did."

Lily sighed. "James, you're contradicting yourself."

"I'm not!"

She ignored him and lunged for the box. Surprisingly, she was too quick for him and managed to grabbed it and pull it out of his reach. Quite easily, actually, as the box was surprising light.

"Please don't op-" He began, reaching for it but she ignored him and opened it.

And was very, very surprised by its contents. Whatever she had been expecting, it certainly hadn't been this.

"Mistletoe? You have a whole bag of Mistletoe?"

Rather raggedy looking mistletoe at that. Who even needed a full bag of the stuff anyway? There had to be enough in here to grace every doorway in Hogwarts. Wait, was that a scorched one? Huh...

"Yes..." James said nervously.

Lily gave him a long look before plucking out the scorched plant and holding it between them (between them, not above them - she wasn't stupid).

"Is this the one I set on fire in Fifth year?"

"Maybe."

Lily looked closer at it - not that there had to be much scorched mistletoe about.

"It is! You kept this?"

"Um..."

"Why did you keep this?"

He looked away. Lily wondered if she should make him tell her but then she decided not to. She didn't want to be the type of girlfriend who was all demanding. And this was just something silly.

"Why do you even have so much of it?" She asked instead.

And the embarrassed look didn't go away but there was a sheepish element to it this time.

"Um, well, I was trying to maximise my chances of getting you to kiss me in fifth year."

Yeah, that hadn't lasted long even if James had put them over every doorway of the castle, which she didn't one hundred percent believe he did but she wouldn't put it past him. Anyway, the mistletoe hadn't lasted long between her setting the one he had actually caught her under on fire and McGonagall vanishing the rest because it was causing holdups in the school. It turned out that teenagers took any chance they could to snog. It wasn't a pretty sight.

"Well, you don't need mistletoe to kiss me now."

"No. Um that's why it was away off to the side."

He looked so cute and awkward about it. There was even a blush on his cheeks. Aw. Who would think that the confident James Potter could get like this? Definitely not her. She wouldn't mind seeing more of this side of him. A warm feeling spread through her when she realised that she would.

"You're adorable, you know that?" she asked rhetorically.

His blush deepened. "I am?"

"You are."

Then she made an impulsive decision. He frowned at the scorched leaves and berries that suddenly appeared in front of his face. He definitely hadn't been expecting that, had he? Lily grinned at him.

"Just because you don't need mistletoe to give you a reason to kiss me doesn't mean it's still fun."

That got her a shocked look that soon transformed into a grin.

The mistletoe soon fell to the floor but Lily and James didn't notice. Uh, they were engaged in... other things.

Monday 5th December 1977

Auror Academy, 17:30

Kingsley pinched his nose in an effort to make it stop bleeding.

"You're meant to holding your head back and do that," Callum advised.

"No," Scrimgeour, another recruit, shook his head. "You're supposed to tilt your head forwards."

"That will just make all the blood drip out!"

"Exactly!"

"That makes no sense whatsoever."

"Yes, it does! You get rid of the blood rather than it all going back into your head!"

"That's where your blood is supposed to be!"

"Not like that!"

"The tilting your head back is a tried a true method that everyone does."

"Well, they're doing it wrong."

"As if. Someone would have said something by now."

"I am!"

"You don't count."

"It makes sense!"

"No, it doesn't!"

"It does!"

"Doesn't!"

"Just because you're too stupid to realise-"

"Can one of you please cast a Episky on me?" Kingsley interrupted them in a muffled voiced, still holding a cloth over his nose.

"Oh, yeah, sure." Scrimgeour said, pulling put his wand. "Move your hand."

He did so and blood immediately started freely flowing down his face. Yuck. Why did noses have to bleed so much? It was really unnecessarily dramatic.

The spell was soon cast and the flow thankfully stopped. All that was left was a slightly tender nose and a bloodstained shirt. One of many. Kingsley gingerly touched it and winced. Yep, felt like he had one massive bruise. It matched the one on his chest. You would get bruises, after all, if you fell flat on your face thanks to a tripping hex. Why was the ground so hard? And why did he get caught in that hex every time? He would almost prefer the tickling one. Though, maybe not considering someone had managed to crack their head open in their efforts to avoid it.

This week was dedicated to showing them how even simple hexes and jinxes could cause a lot of damage. His body could definitely attest to that. There was far too much damage done to him. At least now they'd progressed to actually shooting spells back at their instructors. Not that that did any good except maybe make him feel a bit better.

One of his spells didn't exactly hit the instructor but it did make his casting veer off course which meant oneness hit to his body. Kingsley would take it.

"I'm starved." Scrimgeour said as his stomach rumbled.

"Same!" Kingsley and Dawlish chorused.

All this dodging and getting beat up by the ground really made him work up an appetite.

"Last one to the canteen is a snot-nosed chicken!" Kingsley exclaimed, jumping up with a wince.

Thursday 8th December 1977

Gryffindor Common Room, 19:00

Lily couldn't help but giggle as she and James returned to their Suite. She wasn't sure why she went along with it but she did and she didn't regret it at all. In fact, she couldn't wait until tomorrow when chaos would hopefully reign.

"That was fun," James said with a grin.

"Yeah."

"Nice work on those timed charms," he complimented. "I didn't know you could do them on invisibility spells."

"It's a bit trickier," she admitted. "But if you fiddle with the spell a bit it works like it should."

"Learn that in spell crafting?"

"Yes."

"Cool."

She presented under his praise. It was nice. The Marauders were always so good at, well, everything they did that it was nice to be able to do something for them. Well, one of them.

"Are they all set to go off at the right time?"

James really liked going over the details of his pranks, she was finding. Which was kind of cute. Lily didn't think that he would be the type of person to stress over these sorts of things. She would have thought that was more Remus' forte.

"Yes, tomorrow Hogwarts will wake up to mistletoe appearing when someone walks under it."

"Yes!"

He gave her a high five. Lily grinned as she did so. She hadn't realised how fun this would be. Yes, it was odd that she was pulling a prank with mistletoe of all things and that she was pulling a prank at all but she had never said she had disliked pranks. She just never had the urge to do one. But since James had all this mistletoe lying around and they really didn't need their rooms covered in it... well, it was a shame to just put it all away. It was festive. And, hey, the two of them made a pretty good team.

They each could bring something to the table. Her with her timed invisibility charms and him with whatever spell he used to literally entrap people under it until they kissed.

"You better not have been planning that for me," she said with narrowed eyes.

"Of course not!"

Hmm, that wasn't a believable voice at all.

'And it doesn't even have to be a kiss on the lips," James continued. "The spell picks up any kiss. Cheek, forehead, head, chin, mouth..."

"Are you just going to keep listing parts of the body you can kiss?" she asked in exasperation.

"Well, I'm not now."

Friday 9th December 1977

Head Girl and Boy Suite, 21:00

Severus wasn't entirely sure how it happened but for the past few weeks he had found himself getting involved in these inane game nights Lily and, of all people, Black had started. It really was insane, yet, strangely enjoyable. Not that he was going to admit that. Not when grumbling it was so fun.

And the grumbles had been genuine, at first anyway. Because who honestly thought that silly board games were fun? The Marauders apparently but they were always easily amused so that shouldn't have surprised him. But he found it fun as well so what did that make him?

'Knock knock'

"I'll get it," Lily said, picking herself up from the sofa.

Severus wondered who would be knocking of the Head Boy and Girl Suite this late. A professor? Another Prefect?

"Oh, hi, Tonks, isn't it?" Lily greeted, swinging the door open.

"Yeah, sorry for interrupting but I just wanted to give Remus back his book and some people in Gryffindor said that he would be here?"

A shocking pink head came into view as Lily fully opened the door. Severus raised his eyebrows at the bright colour. The younger Hufflepuff had been experimenting with very bright colours for her hair recently. Yesterday, she had been sporting fluorescent orange. Severus was pretty sure that that colour had actually glowed in the dark.

"Come on in," she invited. "He's over there."

"Uh, thanks."

He didn't think he had ever seen Tonks so unsure of herself. Sure, he didn't exactly interact with her but she always came across as rather confident in herself.

"Here you go," he heard her say to Lupin, handing over a particularly heavy looking book.

"Oh, thanks," Lupin said happily. "What did you think of it?"

"It was really interesting. Some of the ideas in there I never would have thought of to use in a duel."

"He's definitely am ideas man," Lupin agreed.

"Would any of those work in a duel though?"

"Maybe we could give them a try sometime?"

"Oh! That would be good!"

Was Lupin... flirting with Tonks? Or was she with him? Or were they just really into Defence? It was hard to tell. Severus wasn't exactly good at picking that sort of thing up. Whatever. It was really none of his business.

Something Black did not share his opinion with if the other boy's far too big grin and the slight lean forwards was anything to go by.

He leaned backwards and picked up his discarded book. May as well get back to it if they weren't going to play a game any time soon. His fingers brushed against a discarded bit of mistletoe- one of the many sprigs that Potter and Lily had apparently festooned the castle with. And yes, he used words like festooned. The other Marauders had made it their mission to remove all of them and dump them back in this suite in protest of not being involved in this prank. Whatever. They were all children. Lily included now. Potter had corrupted her. That was why he was here. They all needed some sort of adult supervision.

Case in point, Black was giving the plant a thoughtful look, his eyes drifting over to Lupin and Tonks and then he grinned. That was never a good thing.

Severus also looked across the room and saw them enthusiastically talking to one another. Should he warn them? Then again, Black had that look on his face and for once it wasn't directed at him...

He shook his head, a small smile tugging at the corner of the lips. No, Black could go ahead with this one, he wouldn't be ruining it. In fact, ...

"Go around them and then up," he whispered to the Gryffindor.

"Huh?" Black blinked at him in surprise.

"Bring it around them and then go up," he repeated himself. "That way there's less chance of them seeing it."

Black gave him a thoughtful look before his eyes lit up.

"That's a pretty good idea, Snape," he complemented before he did as suggested.

It worked too. Neither noticed it until it was literally in front of their noses. Of course, it helped that Black made the plant gently tap each of them on the nose.

"Padfoot, stop that," Lupin said irritably, reaching up to swat at the mistletoe.

Black just levitated it higher, out of the way.

"Ah, ah, ah, Moony. You can't do that."

"Of course, I can, get it out of our faces."

"Not until you exchange a kiss with each other."

"Padfoot."

"Hey, I'm not the one who makes the rules. I'm just following them."

"And you follow the rules now, do you?" Lupin asked, folding his arms.

"Of course! I'm a paragon of virtue, Moony!"

Okay, even Severus couldn't help laugh at that. It was just such a ridiculous statement. Unfortunately, that brought attention to himself asking narrowed his eyes at him.

"Find something amusement, Severus?"

"I'm not involved in this."

"You gave me the idea to sneak it around them," Black gave him away.

"Severus!" Lily said in a mock scandalised voice.

Severus just shook his head. How did he get involved in this ridiculousness again?

"He was going to get himself caught," he tried to explain himself.

See? He was just trying to help Black be sneaky.

"He got caught anyway," Tonks pointed out.

"It is pretty hard to miss," Pettigrew agreed.

"The whole point of it is to be noticed," Lupin grumbled.

"Oh, just give her a kiss, Lupin," Severus said with a roll of his eyes.

He hadn't been aware it was possible for Tonks to blush any deeper. Her face and hair were almost purple. Huh.

Also, did Lupin have to make such odd noises when he stuttered? He sounded like je was choking rather than trying to form words. It was all rather ridiculous.

"Yeah, Moony!" Black cheered. "Kiss her!"

"You can't force him!" Tonks tried to tell him off but it came out as an embraced squeak. "I mean, you can't force us."

Severus noticed her hurried correction and a very gleeful Black did as well.

"Ha! See, Moony, the lady wants it! You can't let her down!"

"Oh, for Merlin's sake," Tonks rolled her eyes and leaned 8n, giving Lupin a peck on the cheek.

Though, it was a part of his cheek that was close to his mouth which made him blush furiously.

"Now, it's your turn," she instructed him.

He obliged, though his was properly on her cheek, much to the heckles of the Marauders.

"I thought you would be against anyone kissing your cousin," Severus said quietly.

Black shrugged. "I trust Moony and with the way those two have been making eyes at each other? I don't think anyone could have stopped them."

"It was just a kiss on the cheek."

Black gave him a look. "Did you see those blushes and awkward looks?"

Severus nodded; those had been very obvious.

"That was a lot more than simple kisses on the cheeks to those two."

Severus still didn't see what was so exciting about this.

"It's a step in the right direction," Black answered his unspoken question. "Now, do you think it's possible for someone's face to exode from embarrassment?"

Severus couldn't help himself, he snorted.

Sunday 11th December 1977

Fourth Floor Corridor, 22:30

"I've asked him, James. He always refuses." Lily said in exasperation as they made their way around the castle on their rounds.

They had been talking about their plans for over Christmas and it looked like all the rumours were true - Black (Sirius now!) really was living with the Potters.

But that hadn't been what they were discussing. James had asked about Sev, which was still weird to her but no matter. Lily had just finished telling him about his ornery stubbornness about the holidays. If she heard that he was going to be a burden on her family one more time...

James, exasperatingly, looked amused at this. Something she did not appreciate. Did he not understand how frustrating this was?

"It's not funny!"

"It kind of is."

"You don't understand, he won't do it. He can't see reason!"

James snorted. "And you think Sirius didn't? I dragged him home with me and dint let him argue."

That made Lily stop and stare at him.

"You did what?"

"I just dragged him home."

James didn't look like he saw anything wrong with doing that.

"And he let you?"

She didn't think she could do that to Severus. One, he could be awfully wriggly and two, he was stronger than her. And she'd really rather not spell him - that seemed to be worse than just dragging him somewhere somehow.

"I didn't give him much of a choice."

Lily could well imagine that. James was stubbornness when he dug his heels in about something. Especially if that something happened to be his friends.

"And this... worked?"

Sirius was pretty stubborn too. That's what made the pair of them infuriating sometimes.

"Yep," James agreed with a nod. "He's spent every Christmas since. Well, he kind of lives with me now so he kind of has to or my parents would probably storm the castle of something."

Lily couldn't help but smile at that. From what little anecdotes that James had shared, his parents really were the type of people to do just that."

"Huh."

Maybe giving Severus no option but hers would work after all.

"Tell me how it works out."

"I will."

Hopefully it would work out well. It would be great to have Severus over for the holidays.

"Oh, by the way," he stated in a far too causal a tone. He wanted to ask or tell her something. "What are you doing for New Years?"

"Just ringing it in with my family," she said slowly. "Like I usually do. We don't try and go to London for the countdown or anything."

Far too long a journey and for what? To stand around and get cold as her dad would say? No thank you, she'd rather count the seconds down curled up on the sofa, under a blanket with a small glass of champagne in her hand.

James was now rubbing the back of his head and running his hand through his hair. Gestures she now knew to be sign of nervousness.

"I don't suppose you'd like to come over to mine for it? We're having our normal party and I'm always allowed to invite friends."

Lily stopped and stared at him. Party? One of those fancy ones she'd heard James speak of? He was inviting her? She couldn't just do that! Could she?

"You were just trying to persuade me to drag Severus to mine for the holidays."

Yes, there was no way she could go if she had guests. Not that she didn't want to go. Going to a party with James as her date sounded wonderful. It was just, what did one do at that type of party? What if she made some sort of faux pas? Would she be the only muggleborn there? Would it matter?

James shrugged. "I'm inviting him too."

"What?"

"He's okay."

Lily raised her eyebrows. "Okay? Wow, high praise from James Potter."

He grinned. "I know. But seriously, of course I'd invite him. You don't get me without Sirius and you don't get Lily Evans without Severus Snape."

"We don't go everywhere together."

Especially in the last two years, though they did used to be joined practically at the hip.

"No," James agreed. "But you're best friends and, shockingly, he's sort of fun to be around."

Definitely high praise from James. Considering that Lily was pretty sure he hated Sev in earlier years.

"Let's see if he'll actually come home with me first."

Monday 12th December 1977

Entrance Hall, 08:00

"You're coming home with me and Chryssie for Christmas."

"Excuse me?"

That was an extremely blunt way to open a conversation. Especially first thing on a Monday morning.

"You heard me."

Severus sighed. So, he did. And he didn't like what she said.

"Lily, we've been over this."

"And I've decided that your excuses aren't good enough anymore."

"What?"

"Your excuses aren't good enough for me to leave the subject alone," Lily repeated. "Which means you have to come home with me."

"That's not how request work, Lily."

"Well, it's not a request."

His mouth dropped open as he gaped at her. There was that stubborn glint in her eyes that he was very familiar with. He'd just never thought it would be used against him. Well, he could be stubborn too.

And that's how Chryssie found them just standing and staring at each other as she came for breakfast about ten minutes later.

"What's going on here?"

Lily cursed in her head at her sister's interruption. She was pretty sire she was about to get Sev to agree just there and she had to go and ruin it.

"Nothing!" Severus said.

"Severus won't come home with us for the holidays."

"I'm fine here, I've always been fine here, he insisted."

"But you're going to be even better at our house."

"Yeah, Severus," Chryssie jumped in. "You should come home with us."

Ha! There was no way that he could resist the two of them, could he? He looked like he wasn't quite convinced. They needed a winning hit.

"Anyway, we already told mum you'd be coming," Chryssie said blithely, then corrected herself at Lily's confused look. "Well, I did."

"You what?" Severus exclaimed.

"I told mum. That's the normal thing to do when you're bringing a friend home."

"But I haven't said yes yet?"

"Do you not want to come to our house?" Lily asked with an arched eyebrow.

Hey, she might not know what Chryssie was doing but she would quite happily support her if it meant tag teaming Severus.

"Of course, I do!"

"Then it's settled," Chryssie said calmly. "You're coming home with us."

Severus made a rather explosive noise and flung his hands up in the air as he stopped off. It was all rather dramatic.

"Don't forget to pack enough socks!" Lily cheekily called after him.

She was pretty sure that he swore at her in response. Shaking her head with a grin on her face, she turned to Chryssie.

"Did you actually tell mum?"

"Nope," Chryssie said cheerfully.

"So, you lied?"

"It got Severus to come, didn't it?"

Lily opened and closed her mouth and shook her head. It wasn't worth arguing over- even if she was pretty sure it was somewhat immoral. Like Chryssie said, it got Sev to come.

Friday 16th December 1977

Potter Manor, 17:00

Sirius couldn't help but feel actual excitement and happiness as he and James were side-apparated home. Because that what the Potter Manor was to him now. Home. Way more than Twelve Grimmauld Place ever was.

They were sent to wash up and soon they were all sitting down to a lovely dinner. A lovely dinner where conversation actually flowed and you were allowed to be a bit silly. It was brilliant.

Not that James was doing much conversing, what with that big smile on his face. A very familiar smile to Sirius. One that appeared whenever James was thinking about a one Lily Evans and the fact that she was his girlfriend. Which happened a lot. Mostly at meals. And now his parents were seeing it.

Fleamont and Euphemia exchanged knowing looks.

"What's gotten you all cheerful, Jimmy?" Euphemia asked.

"Cheerful? I'm not cheerful. Who said I was cheerful?"

Sirius tried very, very hard not to snort. He almost managed it. He couldn't help it; you would have to be blind not to see how dramatically happy James was. He had been like this for weeks now. Weeks. You would have thought James would have got used to it by now but apparently not.

Not that Sirius could blame him or anything. It wasn't every day that your crush of years asked you out and you were now a couple. It was basically James' dream. A dream that had come true. Something he apparently hadn't informed his parents of.

"You are practically singing," Fleamont told him.

"I'm just excited for the holidays."

"Uh huh."

Finally, Sirius couldn't bear it anymore. He just couldn't keep it to himself, not news like this.

"James has a girlfriend!" He burst out, almost vibrating in his excitement.

"What?"

Now those were two fantastic stunned looks. Actors couldn't have done it better.

"Padfoot," James complained. "You said you'd leave it to me!"

"If I left it to you, they wouldn't know until this summer!"

"Would not! I would have told them!"

"Well, it didn't look like you were."

"Hmpf." James crossed his arms and huffed.

Yeah, yeah, he had stolen his thunder and all that. It was hardly stealing it when James wasn't even going to say anything in the first place. Which he wasn't, no matter what James said. Sirius knew him too well.

"Should we have her over during the holidays?" Fleamont asked out loud.

What was with the Potters and grand gestures? Really? That sort of invitation so soon would be just the thing to scare Lily off. James had already invited her over for New Year's anyway.

"They've only been going out two months," Sirius said.

"Two months!" Euphemia exclaimed. "And you boys kept this to yourselves?"

"I'm not the one who suddenly has a girlfriend." Sirius protested; he was not at fault here.

"Girl of my dreams," James corrected.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Whatever. It wasn't my news to tell!"

"Sirius, Sirius, Sirius," Fleamont shook his head in mock disappointment. "We expect you to keep us up to date on our son's ridiculousness."

"To be honest, Monty, we're all still in shock that she said yes."

"I hope you didn't wear her down and she just said yes to get you to stop," Euphemia said reprovingly.

"I didn't!"

Though he definitely tried, Sirius privately thought.

"She asked him out," Sirius disclosed.

"Really!" both adult Potters exclaimed.

James groaned and let his head collide firmly with the table.

"Oh, this is a great start to the holidays," Euphemia said happily.