Mirrors and Mistletoe— ch. 7

Lily spent the next few hours in her room making lists. Lots of lists. Lists of needed decorations. Lists of possible meal options. Lists of activities, music selections, gift ideas. Finally, she put down her pen to admire the sheets of paper spread all around her on the bed.

"There," she announced proudly. "That should be enough to get started."

She gathered up her prized lists and started down to the dining hall to hopefully round up a few helpers. As she got closer to the bottom of the stairs, she heard a commotion coming from inside the dining hall. Several younger year students were carrying boxes inside and she followed them curiously. What she saw stopped her in her tracks and rendered her speechless.

"Yeah, over here with that box, mate." It was James standing beside an enormous evergreen tree in the corner of the dining hall, a virtual army of younger students swarming around, some unpacking boxes of Christmas decorations, others arranging them on the tree, on tops of tables, on the walls.

"Does this look all right, James?" asked a cute little first year girl as she positioned a wreath on the wall and anxiously awaited his approval. He walked over, calmly perused her work for a moment, and then nodded his head and offered the girl one of his most winning smiles.

"It looks great, Gwynnie! I knew you were the one for the job," he added, bringing a grin to her face that stretched from ear to ear. As he turned to walk back to the tree, he spotted Lily standing shell-shocked in the doorway. She noticed, with dismay, the satisfied grin on his face as he sauntered over to her. She took a deep breath and braced herself for whatever might come out of his mouth— a mouth, she was now painfully much too aware of thanks to their earlier kiss.

"Well, what do you think?" he asked.

"What's going on?" she replied. "What is all this?"

"This, my darling Lily, is progress," he answered proudly. "While you were reading or napping or whatever it is you do, I sprang into action. I gathered all our fellow holiday comrades together and explained our desire to make a wonderful Christmas for us all. I told them we'd need their help to make it happen, and they all leaped at the opportunity."

She narrowed her eyes and studied him for any signs of possible malarkey. "What did you promise them? An autographed snitch? Or a ride on your Quidditch broom?" she said snidely.

James looked at her in mock outrage. "No! I didn't promise them anything. They truly wanted to help. Really, Evans, you underestimate the goodness of your fellow man. You should work on that. It is Christmas, you know." With that, he gave her an infuriating smile and a wink and returned to the fray, supervising, she noted, to perfection.

After a long moment spent watching, she looked at the lists in her hand. "But I made a list," she muttered lamely to herself. Leafing through the stack, she found the one titled 'decorations' and crumpled it up. "Guess I won't be needing that one." She tossed it up into the air and quietly said, "Deletrius." The wad of paper immediately disintegrated in mid-air, and she stuffed the remaining pages into her pocket. For now she would help finish the decorating and mark that task off her master list. She laughed out loud. "I have lists for my lists."

James could not keep his eyes off her as she worked. Once she had conceded defeat and joined in the decorating, she loosened up and enjoyed herself. He could tell by the lovely smile that never seemed to leave her face. She was so kind to all the others around her, laughing with them, praising them, making them want to do a good job. He knew because it was the same effect she had on him. He wanted to be better than he was— for her.

More than once she noticed him looking, and their eyes would lock for just a moment. The first time took them both by surprise and they quickly looked away. The second time he smiled and she shyly averted her gaze. By the third time, Lily smiled too— just a tiny smile, but one James knew was just for him. After that he tried to catch her eyes every chance he could get. It became a game between them, one he enjoyed much more than decorating.

Unfortunately, he was not the only one watching her. Severus Snape lurked from a chair in the corner, not helping the least bit with decorating, but thoroughly engrossed with the happenings swirling around him. James noticed him and snarled.

"Creep," he mumbled under his breath.

Just then Snape realized James was looking at him. After his initial surprise at having been caught watching the object of his affections, he quickly recovered. With his typical disdain, he nodded his head to the side and grinned with satisfaction. James glanced in the direction Snape indicated and instantly felt his heart drop. Howard stood behind Lily helping her hang an ornament on a branch just slightly out of her reach. She turned in his arms and looked up shyly at the tall, muscular blonde who seemed to dwarf her petite frame. He quickly dropped his arms and stepped back, both of them instantly turning red. Lily glanced up and caught James' eyes on her. His lips tightened, his jaw clenched, and he stalked off to the other side of the hall to assist in some decorating far away from the tree.

'What am I doing?' Lily asked herself as she continued to hang ornaments without paying attention to their placement. 'I don't even like James Potter. He's spoiled, arrogant, lazy—.' Here she stopped. No, she could not call him lazy any longer. While she had wasted hours making lists of what to do, he had actually got right to work organizing everyone to get the job finished. What he had accomplished was actually rather admirable, she admitted grudgingly.

Not long after, the decorating was complete and they paused to admire the results. Lily walked over to where James stood, unsure of how to approach him. They had reached a kind of truce with their little game of catching glances, but once he saw her with Howard, he did not look at her for the remainder of the afternoon. Even as she drew near, he stiffened, his arms crossed and mouth set grimly, refusing to look at her.

"It looks wonderful," she ventured hesitantly.

He just grunted at her in response.

'Just do it, Lily,' she ordered herself. "I'm sorry, James," she stated plainly. That got his attention. Now he was looking straight at her, trying, she knew, to figure her out. She had been running rather hot and cold today. It was surprising even herself. "I shouldn't have flown off the handle at you earlier." Still no response, so she continued. "I apologize for calling you lazy. You obviously are not…lazy… seeing as you orchestrated all of this," she gestured to the hall decked out in Christmas splendor. "The way you made all of them feel a part of it was…brilliant."

A tiny smiled tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Why, Lily Evans, are you… dare I say, complimenting me? James Potter? The person you detest above all others?" His arms loosened and lowered to his sides as he bent to look her in the eyes.

"I don't detest you," she admitted softly.

"Excuse me, I couldn't quite hear you," he said. "Could you repeat that?"

She could not help but smile back at him. He could be quite charming. "I said I don't detest you. You just…you always seem to push my buttons."

A satisfactory grin spread across his face, now so close to hers. "I like pushing your buttons, Lily," he whispered softly in her ear, causing a shiver to run pleasurably down her spine.

"Hey! It's mistletoe!" exclaimed a third year named Gareth. All eyes seemed to suddenly focus on Lily and James.

"Yeah! And you know what that means!" added another boy with a laugh.

Lily and James glanced above to see a sprig of mistletoe hanging in mid-air directly over their heads.

"Did you—?" she asked.

"Wasn't me. My wand is still in my pocket," he replied.

"You two have to kiss!" squealed a girl over by the tree, which incited additional squeals and catcalls from the others in the hall. Chants of "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" filled the air as Lily's face turned as red as her hair.

James leaned in closer. "It is tradition, you know," he muttered quietly. "And you wouldn't want to break tradition. Brings bad luck."

"Is that so?"

"Absolutely," he answered, his lips moving ever closer to hers. "So, pucker up, Evans."

Before she had a chance to protest his insistence on using her last name, he was kissing her. And she was kissing him back. And liking it. All too soon he pulled away leaving her a little unsteady on her feet. When she opened her eyes, she expected to see a gloating grin on his face. Instead he looked as off-kilter as she felt. She glanced down and realized her hand was pressed against his chest. Jerking it away as if she'd been burned, she cleared her throat and stepped back.

"Well…I'm just going to…um…go freshen up…before dinner… in my room…upstairs," she pointed as she backed out of the room nearly tripping over a box in the process.

James watched her leave, unable to move or say a word. That kiss had been…pure magic. That was the only way to describe it. He heard the titters and giggles all around him, but ignored them. Where had that mistletoe come from? Surely most of the younger kids had not acquired the ability to conjure it out of thin air yet. And no way would Snape or Howard do anything to assist James in his attempt to sweep Lily off her feet. No, but who would do such a thing?

He glanced around the dining hall and was startled to see Professor Dumbledore standing by the faculty tables up front. The man was gently tapping something on his palm. James squinted. It was a wand. James stared in shock. Dumbledore offered one of his enigmatic smiles and tapped his wand lightly against his nose before turning to exit back the way he had apparently entered, unseen by anyone but James.

"Noooo," James uttered in disbelief. "No way."