I'd like to thank all of my loyal fans who urged me to continue this story. Don't worry, I'll keep the chapters coming as fast as I can now that my vacation's over!
Thanks to Jessie for always reading my work and helping me out.
XX
The months flew by for Lily, October slowly drifted into November, and before she knew it, Christmas was less than a week away. With all of her studying and extra O.W.L. work, she hardly had any free time anymore. She wasn't sure how Chase and Alice managed to keep up with their schoolwork and still make room in their schedules for quidditch. But, every Tuesday and Thursday, they left Lily at exactly six o' clock, and headed down to the quidditch field to train.
Their absences two nights a week left the common room deserted for the most part, since all of the younger Gryffindors would watch the quidditch practices obsessively and the older Gryffindors were always in the library or out on dates. These quiet sessions gave Lily two or more hours to study for her O.W.L.'s, since they were quickly approaching and she didn't want to be caught off guard during any of her exams.
That particular Tuesday however, Lily wasn't too keen on the prospect of being left alone for three hours. She tried with much difficulty to study, but her mind just wasn't on star charts and what house Pluto would be in next month. She walked sulkily to the window and watched enviously as Chase and Alice chased each other on their brooms. Lily wished she had some way to escape from the pressures of school. She supposed that was what quidditch was to Chase and Alice, an escape rope. For a few precious hours, they wouldn't have a care in the world, and Lily was insanely jealous that they were able to be free of life's tyranny, if only for some time.
"Lil!" Alice called, dangling on her thin broomstick, a mere three feet from the window.
Lily grinned at Alice and waved. "Hey!" she called.
"You want to come out here?" she asked.
Lily shook her head. "I've got to study!"
"Oh come on, Lil!" Alice yelled. "It's nearly Christmas and we'll all be leaving soon!"
"Well, I…" Lily paused. Alice did have a point. The holidays were just a few days away and everyone would be leaving on Friday. She might not have much time left to spend with her friends before the break. Alice was going with her parents to visit her grandmother in Germany and would be there for the rest of the holiday. She assumed Chase would be staying home with her aunt. Remus was going home to his older brother Jerald. Lily was never entirely sure what happened to his parents, but she dared not ask. Sirius and James, naturally, would do what they did every year. They'd stay with James's parents until Christmas day, visit Sirius's parents on Christmas, then rent a room at the Leaky Cauldron for the remainder of the holiday. That left Lily by herself for the first time in her five years at Hogwarts. Usually she would be going home, but as her parents were taking a skiing trip in the Alps and only Petunia would be at the house, Lily much preferred the cheeriness of the Hogwarts castle as opposed to the coldness she could expect to receive from Petunia. Alice, being the good-natured person that she was, had offered to stay behind with Lily, but Lily wouldn't allow it. She knew how much spending Christmas with her family meant to Alice, and she refused to take that away from Alice. She'd just have to bear the holidays alone. It couldn't be too terrible.
Lily seriously pondered going outside with her friends. It would be most unlike her, but then again, it was Christmastime. Surely she could hold off studying for another time.
"All right!" Lily agreed at last. Alice grinned. "I'll be right down!"
Lily smiled at Alice before turning and running up the stairs. She grabbed her warmest cloak and threw it on, not bothering to fret over her wild curls, as she usually did before going anywhere. But, she decided, she was just going outside to have fun with her friends, and her hair was too much of a bother to deal with. Without another thought about the matter, Lily raced out of the Gryffindor Tower and hurried out into the frosty winter air.
"Alice! Alice!" she called, rushing over to the snow-covered quidditch field. The snow was only about an inch deep, so Lily didn't find it that hard to walk in.
"Lily!" Alice called, waving her over. Her cheeks were particularly rosy in the cold weather.
"Lil!" Chase remarked, surprised. She seemed exceptionally happy to see her.
"Hi," Lily said, stopping to catch her breath. "I thought you had quidditch practice."
"We cancelled it," Jenina McAfferty said. "I figure, we've already got the best team there is, so losing one practice can't hurt."
"Trust me, that took a lot of encouragement on our part," Jeffery Hayes, one of the beaters joked. "Jenina's all work and no fun."
"I am not!" Jenina insisted. "I just want the best team possible, and in order to become the best, we have to practice, practice, practice! And don't say one more thing Mr. Hayes, or I'll call this practice back on."
Jeffery shut his mouth quickly, causing everyone to burst out in laughter.
"Where's Malkia?" Lily asked, not spotting her anywhere.
A tall girl with toffee colored hair smiled at Lily. "You don't watch quidditch a lot do you?"
Lily shook her head. "Sorry, it's just…not my thing."
"My name's Carmen," the girl said. "I'm the new Chaser. Malkia quit about a month ago, and I was the reserve Chaser."
"Why'd she quit?" Lily asked curiously.
Jenina shrugged. "She was never really that good in the first place."
"Plus I think she finally realized everyone hated her," James laughed.
"I don't think she could handle the wind messing her hair up while she was flying," Sirius joked.
"Besides, her leaving was a good thing," Chase insisted, smiling at Lily.
"The best thing to happen to this team," Alice added.
"Except of course, for Jenina becoming captain," James said, flashing Jenina a cheesy smile.
"Oh stop sucking up!" Jenina remarked and turned to Lily. "He hopes when I leave I'll make him captain."
"But, I'm next in line!" Jeffrey insisted.
"Ah, but I have more experience!" James insisted.
"I have just as much experience as you," Chase challenged.
"You want to race for it?" James asked, turning to her.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do."
"You'll only embarrass yourself," James warned.
Chase laughed. "I'm faster than you could dream of being."
"She is fast James," Sirius said.
"Are you taking her side?" James asked, turning to face his best friend.
"Well, no…"
"So you're taking his side?" Chase asked incredulously.
"No!" Sirius remarked.
Lily laughed as the three argued over who would make the best captain. She turned to make a comment to Alice, but found her in a serious discussion with Jenina and Carmen about a new winning tactic Jenina had devised.
"Confused?" Jeffery asked Lily.
Lily nodded. "It's like they're speaking Greek, only I know Greek."
Jeffrey laughed. "It's not all that confusing. Do your parents not like quidditch?"
Lily shook her head. "Well, you see…they're uh…they're Muggles." She hesitated to tell him this, because she knew how cruel Purebloods could be towards Muggleborns.
"Ah, I see. I'm half and half myself. My mom's a witch, my dad's a Muggle. But they're divorced and I live with my mom, so I've been around magic all of my life."
"Quidditch too, I suppose?" Lily asked.
Jeffrey nodded. "I started playing with my cousins when I was only six. I loved it then, and I think I've grown to love it even more."
"So what exactly are the rules?" Lily asked. "No one's ever really explained the game to me. Perhaps that's why I'm not all that interested in it. I don't like knowing things, and not knowing about quidditch probably made me resent the sport."
Jeffrey smiled. "It's a pretty evil concept. You see, first, there's the keeper. That's Alice. See, her job is to keep the quaffle from going through any three of the gold hoops. If the quaffle gets hit into them, the other team scores."
"It's almost like soccer," Lily said nodding, then stopped. "Sorry, you wouldn't have any idea what soccer is would you?"
Jeffrey grinned. "I told you I was part Muggle."
"Oh, right," Lily said slowly, her cheeks flushing. "So the Keeper is like a goalie who tries to keep the quaffle out of the hoops…correct?"
"Correct," Jeffrey grinned. "The Chasers, Jenina, Chase, and Carmen, they pass the quaffle along and try to score in the opponents' hoops. It's ten points every time they score."
"Okay, I'm following so far," Lily said.
"Then there are the Beaters, Sirius and I," Jeffrey continued. "We carry clubs which we use to hit the Bludgers back and forth."
"Those black balls?" Lily asked.
"Right," Jeffrey said. "We hit them at the opposing team to try and knock them off their broom, or to distract or confuse them."
"Okay," Lily said nodding.
"Then there's James, the Seeker. His job is to catch the Golden Snitch. Once the Snitch is called, the game ends. Whichever team catches the Snitch wins an extra one hundred and fifty points. So, the Seeker cannot catch the Snitch if the other team's ahead by one hundred and fifty points or more. The Seeker usually has to think fast, and must divert the other Seeker's attention away from the Snitch if they don't want to catch it yet."
Lily nodded, soaking all of this new information in. "It sounds pretty basic to me."
"It's much harder when you're actually playing," Jeffrey insisted.
"I'm certain it would be," Lily agreed.
"Have you ever flown?" Jeffrey asked.
"Er…well, no actually," Lily admitted. "I didn't want to embarrass myself during Flying Lessons, so I'd always go to the Hospital Wing and pretend to be sick.
Jeffrey laughed. "You did all that just to get out of flying?"
Lily nodded shyly. "I didn't want to look like a fool."
"Do you want me to teach you how to fly?" Jeffrey asked, grinning.
"Oh, no!" Lily remarked. "You'll only make fun of me."
"I promise not to," Jeffrey swore.
"No…I don't think so," Lily said.
"Come on," Jeffrey insisted. "You know you want to."
Lily grinned. "All right, fine."
"Here," Jeffrey said, snatching up Chase's broom. "Chase won't mind."
Lily giggled as Jeffrey picked up his own broom.
"Now," Jeffrey started. "What you want to do is…"
But Lily never heard the rest of Jeffrey's sentence. Her broom shot up in the air before she even had a chance to get used to it. Gripping the handle tightly, Lily forced her eyes open and bit her cheek to keep from screaming. She was shooting straight up into the sky and couldn't figure out how to land the broom!
Grasping all the composure she could gather, Lily tried desperately to gain control of the broom. After a few seconds of no luck, she finally was able to lower the broom by tilting the front of it forward. She turned it around sharply, landing on the ground with a soft thud. Amazingly enough Lily had managed to land on her feet, and she was surprised by how easy flying had been.
"Did you see me?" she asked Jeffrey, who raced towards her on his own broom.
"You were great!" he shouted. "Are you sure you never flew before?"
"Positive!" she called, hopping onto her broom once more. "Come on. I'll race you!"
XXX
James watched Jeffery enviously as he and Lily soared through the sky, laughing and chasing each other. He wished he was the one up there with Lily, making her giggle and smile.
"So did you hear James?" Jenina asked, snapping James out of his fantasy.
"Hear what?" he asked, stretching out across the stadium benches.
"About Jewlie," Carmen said.
"What about Jewlie?" James asked, frustrated by the very mention of her name.
"She's dating Jeremy Fisher, the Ravenclaw Keeper."
"Huh," James said, not pained in the slightest by this information. "Well, good for her."
"You don't care?" Carmen asked incredulously. As she was a fourth year, one who didn't pine over James, she didn't know much of his crush for Lily. She knew he had liked her, but figured that he was over that phase in his life.
"Not really," James said. "I barely knew the girl."
"Nice," Sirius laughed, patting James on the back. "Less you know about her, the less of a mess you leave when you cut her loose."
"Oh really?" Chase asked, glaring at Sirius.
"No, hon, I meant…" Sirius began, looking rather frightened at the anger in Chase's eyes.
"And, if I'm not mistaken, didn't she break up with you?" Jenina remarked.
"Hey, watch it!" James remarked. "So, she broke up with me, no big deal. Do I look devastated?"
"Nope," Alice said. "It's just that no one breaks up with the mighty James Potter and lives to tell about it."
"That's not true!" James insisted.
"Chase!" Sirius remarked as Chase stood up to leave. "Chase, I didn't mean it! You know I didn't!"
"Chase watch out!" Alice shrieked as Lily dropped a snowball on Chase's head. Lily flew away from her, landing twenty feet away, dropping the broom to her side. Jeffery landed not far from her.
The anger on Chase's face quickly washed away with the snow and she grinned. "You'll pay for that one!" she yelled, running after Lily, a wad of snow in her hand.
"You can't catch me!" Lily teased, running in the opposite direction.
No sooner had Chase taken off in pursuit of Lily, then Alice hit James square in the face with a snowball. Within minutes the eight were running around wildly, pelting one another with snowballs whenever the opportunity arose. In fact, it was nearly nine o' clock before the returned to the Common Room, cold and wet with snow.
The girls hurried upstairs, quickly changing into warm robes. Malkia was fast asleep in the bed behind theirs, and they made no effort to keep quiet. But, knowing that they had classes in the morning, Lily, Alice, and Chase finally stopped talking and went into their beds, none of them falling asleep until very late, for they were still much to excited from the fun they had in the snow.
XX
The week passed too quickly for Lily's liking and Friday finally came, a great gloom filling Lily's heart. All of her friends would be leaving for Christmas and she would be left behind, completely alone.
Her goodbyes were bitter and filled with resentment no matter how hard she tried to be happy for her friends. She nearly cried when Alice left, not wanting her friend to leave her side. She hugged her tightly and kissed her cheek, and Alice promised to owl her every day.
One by one her friends left, and Lily, although she would never admit it, was even sad to see James go. After all, at least he was a familiar face to keep her company. Besides, she discovered that he was entirely cruel, since he did comfort her after the Yule Ball.
Finally, Lily was alone, and she reluctantly made her way up to the Common Room, which, she presumed, would be empty.
However, once she got upstairs, she noticed a familiar boy sitting in an easy chair reading "Quidditch: The Beginnings".
"Jeffrey?" she asked quietly, not wanting to disturb him.
Jeffrey looked up at Lily, then smiled. "What are you doing here? Forget your luggage?"
Lily shook her head. "No, I'm not going home. I thought I'd be the only one here."
Jeffrey shook his head. "No, there's me, and two seconds year girls. Don't know where they went though…" he began, looking around.
"Why aren't you going home?" Lily asked.
"My mom already made plans to visit my grandparents, so I was supposed to go with my dad," Jeffrey said. "He cancelled."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Lily began.
Jeffrey shrugged. "It's nothing new. I think he resents me for being a wizard. He hoped that I would never go to Hogwarts. He wanted me to be normal, I guess."
Lily nodded. "I know what you mean. My sister Petunia…well, she's always been the pride of the family. She's not that pretty, but she's very smart. But once I got my Hogwarts letter, my parents couldn't have been prouder. I think she resents me for that. But it's nothing I could help."
Jeffrey nodded and grinned. "At least we won't be alone, right?"
Lily nodded as well. "Yes, I'm glad you're here. At least I'll have someone to talk to." Lily grinned and sat down across from him. They immediately began talking about past Christmases and their families. Lily couldn't have been happier. Perhaps this Christmas wouldn't be as terrible as she had thought.
XX
Coming Soon: An unexpected visitor drops in for the Holidays and Lily gets a New Year's kiss.