Chapter 14

Christmas Break

The next month and couple weeks until Christmas break flew by rather quickly. The other marauders had to get Remus through two more bouts of turning into a werewolf, but that was pretty much par for the course, and Lily helped make sure that James was able to attend classes without feeling drowsy. She really was a fantastic girlfriend, and the potions were not the only reason.

Quidditch practices had gotten less intense, since Ravenclaw had beaten Hufflepuff, which meant that Gryffindor's next game would be in March, and it would be against Hufflepuff. Then, they would play Ravenclaw at the end of May, and by the way things were looking so far, the outcome of that game would determine the destiny of the cup for the year.

But all in all, it seemed almost no time, in spite of 300 times walking together hand in hand, 250 hugs, about 200 kisses, and 20 protracted snogging sessions, until James and Lily were walking onto the Hogwarts express.

"First time we've ever shared a compartment," said Lily, as she and James led Sirius, Peter, Remus, Marietta, and Chloe into an empty compartment.

"Hey, for us, too," said Chloe.

"And us!" pointed out Marietta.

"Yeah. Just because you're the first through the door doesn't mean you get all the attention. Chloe and Remus are dating, just like me and Sirius," said Marietta.

"Bet you wouldn't have even mentioned it if you knew it would get you in this much trouble," opined James.

"With my friends, I'm always bound to be in some sort of trouble. You should know the feeling. You and your friends are always getting into trouble," said Lily.

"Not as much this year, though," pointed out Chloe.

"Yeah, the only real prank we pulled was that one where we made the dungeons and Slytherin's common area all slippery," said Remus.

"It was fun, but we didn't even get caught, so it doesn't count as 'getting into trouble,' really," pondered Sirius.

"I don't mind not getting into trouble," said Peter.

"And I don't mind you not being in detention, Sirius," said Marietta with a wink.

Sirius smiled. It was evident to James, and probably everyone else in the compartment, that more time not in detention essentially translated into more time to snog. Time not being in detention for James meant more time to sit in the Common Room with Remus, Chloe, and Lily and study his ass off. This did mean less time for snogging, but it would also mean he'd be able to become an auror. Having Lily there beside him somehow motivated him more than seemed natural. Peter only wanted to get a desk job in the Ministry of Magic, so all he needed were passes in 4 subjects.

The compartment door opened, and oddly James' first reflex was to reach for his wand. He must have thought it was Flint and some other Slytherins. But luckily it was just Andrea and Christine.

"So what's going on here, is everyone welcome, or is this seventh years only?" asked Andrea.

"Or is it about to turn into some kind of orgy?" asked Christine, with a wink.

"Trust me, if it was going to be an orgy you two would be more than welcome," said Sirius.

Marietta slapped him playfully on the arm.

Lily wondered how serious Marietta and Sirius were. If James had said something like that, she would have done more than slap him playfully on the arm... But then again she'd know James would be joking... unless James was into orgies. Maybe they'd have to discuss that alone sometime. In private. Because Lily was not into orgies. Sometimes she wished she didn't think so much.

"You two are welcome, but no orgy, so don't get your hopes up," said Chloe.

"Win some, lose some," said Christine, taking a seat.

"Er... I'm going to go ahead and say we just out and out won," said Andrea.

The nine of them spent a pleasant train-ride eating food from the cart, playing exploding snap, and getting through several different games of wizard chess in (both James and Marietta had a set).

"Oh, hey," said James, as the train was nearing the station. "Before we all go: My family has an annual day-after-Christmas celebration. We invite all the witches and wizards in Godric's Hollow. Not all of them come, but we invite them. And some family friends, and my closest friends. 'Til now that's just been the Marauders but... Do you think you girls would want to come?"

"Of course!" said Marietta enthusiastically. "I've always wanted to visit Godric's Hollow!... Er..., and your house on the day after Christmas. But, no, seriously, I can't think of any other group of people I'd want to spend a day with."

Andrea and Christine nodded vigorously in agreement.

Lily and Chloe, however, said, almost simultaneously, "Are you sure we wouldn't be a burden?"

"Are you two sure you're not related?" joked James.

"Yeah, I'm pure-blood," said Chloe.

"Ah, the great muggle-born wonder, Lily Evans, a pure-blood all along!" said James. "Must've been adopted or something."

"James, when you meet my parents, you'll know exactly what kind of rubbish you talk," Lily said.

"No, it would not be a burden," said James.

"Yeah, seriously," said Sirius. "His house is huge, and his parents always get tons of extra food."

"Okay, sounds good, then," said Lily, and Chloe agreed.

Cool. Everybody be there at noon on the 26th.

"Oh, hey!" said Lily, "What's the dress code?"

"We mostly wear muggle clothes, 'cause we find them more comfortable. But, we men usually wear at least a tie, sometimes jackets," said James. "Don't know what that means for women..."

"A nice dress and maybe a matching sweater," said Chloe. Then, as an afterthought, added, "You girls want to go shopping in muggle London this week?"

"Us too?" aked Andrea, surprised.

"Of course! I'll give you my address and then we can all floo over there and take a train over to London."

"Cool!" said Christine. All the girls, as it turned out, were in.

Christmas of 1976 was a good one for both Sirius and James.

Sirius got a new broom; he'd been using the same one for years. Since James had gotten a broom two Christmases ago, he instead got a bunch of pranking accessories and a lot of candy.

"Just no using the pranking supplies on fellow Gryffindors, boys. Wouldn't want any pranking supplies acquired in Godric's Hollow to be used against Godrics' own," said Mr. Potter.

"Of course not," said James.

"Do you like your broom, Sirius? I was never a Quidditch player myself, of course, but James' father was a beater like you, and he said this broom would be top-knotch," said Mrs. Potter.

"Of course I like the broom!" said Sirius. "I'm really starting to think you two like me better than my own parents. Actually... Yeah, I don't think there's any argument that they liked me at all, so..."

"It is a nice broom. Cutting edge and all that," said James. "Too bad you've only got two Quidditch games left to use it in."

"I'm going to be a professional Quidditch player," said Sirius. "We've discussed this."

"Even after our new, er... extra-curricular, this term?" asked James tentatively.

"Come on, dear, why don't we let the boys have this conversation on their own?" asked Mr. Potter.

"Well, okay, I just hope that whatever they're discussing isn't dangerous," said Mrs. Potter.

"I'm sure it's not," said Mr. Potter, leading Mrs. Potter out of the room, giving the boys a wink over his should before he left the room. In James' view, his father was a good one, who knew that James would do whatever he had to do. Some people would call it a coddling attitude, but James thought it was more like allowing him to be an individual. And his mother went along with the attitude.

"So you think you can be a professional quidditch player even if you're going to be a member of some kind of army created by Dumbledore?" asked James, more candidly this time.

"Why not? You think you're going to train to be an auror. There's just as much downtime as a member of a Quidditch team as there is being an auror. Dumbledore will find a way, or he'll give me something else to do. But for now, I'm going to assume I'm going to be on a professional Quidditch team. I mean, I don't think there's any debating I'm the best beater Hogwarts has seen in years..."

"Your resume will look a bit better if we win the cup this year," said James.

"Too true, James, too true."

Peter and Remus were the first to arrive, at about 11:59. James, Sirius, and Remus all looked particularly good, each with different color jackets (black for James, gray for Sirius, and brown for Sirius). Peter wasn't wearing a jacket, but was wearing a button-down shirt and his Gryffindor tie.

"Oh, you boys all look so nice," twittered Mrs. Potter.

"Merry day after Christmas, boys!" said Mr. Potter, slapping both Peter and Remus on the shoulders at once.

At this point, there was a knock on the door, and when it was opened, old Bathilda Bagshot walked in.

"Hi Mrs. Bagshot," said James, and gave her a quick hug. Bathilda Bagshot had been James' old babysitter when he was young, before his parents had retired.

Other guests began to arrive, but none of the girls that James had invited had shown up yet. He was beginning to wonder whether they had forgotten the time.

"So, would it be presumptuous of us to show up on time?" asked Lily.

"Er... yeah, maybe a little bit," said Andrea. "You know, want to let those closest to the family get there first, maybe?"

"Oh, Hell, let's just go," said Marietta.

"No, let's wait a couple minutes. One more check in the mirror for each of us couldn't hurt, right?" said Chloe.

"Maybe for you three," said Christine. "I'm not looking to impress anyone."

"You don't know, maybe one of the 'family friends' has a kid our age," said Chloe.

"Right. Well, unless it's Leonard Maxwell, I don't care," said Christine.

"Yeah, or Neville Chamberlain," said Andrea.

"Right, so... Looking over our make-up then?" asked Lily.

After a few minutes, Lily started getting anxious again. "Are we okay to go now do you think?"

"I don't know," said Chloe. "Don't want to be the first ones there."

"And there's such a thing as fashionably late," Andrea.

"Okay, how about this," asked Christine. "I floo over there, see how many people are there, then you wait a minute. If I haven't come back, you come over. If there's not enough people over there, I'll say I forgot something at the house... my sweater, here, Andrea, take my sweater and bring it with you if I don't come back."

"That's brilliant!" said Lily.

"Yeah. I'm not a Ravenclaw for nothing," said Christine.

Christine went through the fireplace.

The other four girls waited for a minute, and then went through the fireplace themselves, one at a time, starting with Lily.

"I was wondering when you lot would show up," said James.

"You all look fantastic," said Peter, and he wasn't lying. Lily was wearing a green dress that complemented her eyes, but wore a red sweater over top. Chloe, with her blond hair, wore a blue dress and yellow sweater, while Marietta with her curly brown hair wore a red dress and black sweater. Andrea, who had black hair, had decided on a yellow dress and green sweater, while Chloe who had brown hair wore a pink dress with a white sweater.

"Here, have some butter-beer and something to eat!" said James to Lily.

"Butter-beer, eh? Trying to get me drunk?" asked Lily.

"You know it's only muggle-borns who ever think that joke is funny, right?" asked James. "The rest of us just think of some house-elf drunk off his ass."

"Don't use such language when your parents are-" Lily looked around, "-I assume somewhere in this house." Lily had noticed that she and James were the only ones left in the room which held the fire-place, which also had a door to the outside. Off of this entrance room was another room where people were bustling around, eating, laughing, and just generally making noise. "And second of all," said Lily, who was now confident that she wasn't in earshot of James' parents, "isn't the image of a drunk house-elf at least a little bit funny?"

"Sure," said James, who wasn't in the mood to quibble. "Anyway, merry day after Christmas!" He gave Lily a big hug and a deep kiss.

"Well it's merry now," said Lily, after she finished enjoying the kiss. "Did you like your present, by the way?"

"Of course!" said James. He had mentioned once offhand the three chocolate frog cards out so far that he was missing. She had somehow managed to find them all, even though one was really rare, and had given them to him.

"And did you like yours?" asked James.

"Wouldn't be wearing it if I didn't," said Lily, gesturing with a smile to the locket around her neck.

"Gold's ok? We never really had that conversation," said James.

"Yeah, I never wear silver. With my skin-tone you wouldn't be able to tell. You did great, it's beautiful, really," said Lily.

"Good-o," said James. "Ready to go join the party, then?"

"Sure," said Lily. "Should I be nervous about meeting your parents? 'Cause I kind of am."

"Don't worry they've heard so much good stuff about you over the past couple years they couldn't help but love you," said James.

"Yeah, but do I look all right?" asked Lily.

"First off, you look perfect. Secondly, if my parents cared how people looked would they have kept Sirius?" James asked. Lily giggled. "Or me for that matter?" James pondered. Lily laughed louder now. She liked that James could make fun of himself.

"Anyway, come on," said James, putting a hand on Lily's back to guide her. It felt good to Lily to have James guide her, even though she could have found her way alone.

James had shown her to some butter-beer and a couple of her favorite foods before her parents came into the room, since there were other guests spread throughout sitting rooms in the house.

Lily said, "James, are those-?"

But her question was answered when Mr. and Mrs. Potter came directly over.

"Mum, Dad, this is Lily," said James.

"Hmmm... your descriptions of how beautiful she was almost did her justice," said Mr. Potter. He was trying to embarrass his son, by drawing attention to the fact that he fawned over her even behind her back, but he had forgotten that his son was almost incapable of being embarrassed, so he only really embarrassed Lily. When he saw her face redden, Mr. Potter got a bit red and flustered himself and said, "Er, sorry about that."

"Right, well, dear, do you mind if I do a hovering charm on your plate and your silverware and glass there so that I can give you a proper hug?" asked Mrs. Potter.

"Always the problem-solver, my Mum," said James, who said it as a joke but was still legitimately grateful that his mother had broken an awkward conversation.

"Sure, Mrs. Potter," said Lily, with a laugh. Her cheeks were softening from red to pink. James watched the process, almost transfixed, finding it beautiful.

Mrs. Potter hugged Lily, then Lily, in a spirit of reconciliation and mutual recovery from embarrassment, hugged Mr. Potter as well.

After the parental introductions were over, and James and Lily finished fixing their plates, they found the room where the kids their age were eating and talking.

As it turned out, Neville Chamberlain was there, as the Chamberlains were a family friend of the Potters, sharing a cousin and a love for the Glasgow Gulls Quidditch team. The only other student who was there, aside from those who James had invited, was a fifth year named Bruce Wittgenstein, who was in Ravenclaw.

The other girls were trying to force Andrea into situations where she would have to talk to Neville Chamberlain, who was a Seventh Year on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.

Finally, after having been harassed by whispers for several minutes, Andrea finally said, "Boy, you guys really walloped us last Quidditch match," said Andrea.

Neville looked around, as if hoping someone else would answer the question.

"Er, yes, I suppose so... I'm sorry?" he asked.

"Yeah, I mean, we could have at least let you score 30 more points before we caught the Snitch," said Christine with a roll of her eyes. "She wasn't looking for an apology, she was looking for a conversation!"

"Er, thanks," said Andrea, who looked as if she wasn't sure whether to laugh, or to cry from embarrassment.

"Well, you played well," said Neville. Then, getting progressively more confident, said, "I mean, you personally. Most of the rest of the team was atrocious." He looked around the room. "You know, you lot can feel free to have your own conversations."

And so they did, and it was a pleasant party, with much conversation, food, butter-beer, and a few semi-snuck sips of fire-whiskey for the guys and Marietta, with the other girls politely declining.

Neville and Bruce left around 4:30, by which time most of the rest of the party-guests had left as well.

"You lot want to go for a walk and see more of Godric's Hollow, before it gets dark?" asked James.

All the girls voiced their excited assent, with the boys just kind of nodding, given that they'd all seen Godric's Hollow several times before.

"Right, well, there's plenty to show," said James, after he had told his parents where he was going. "We actually have to go through a bit of a forest before we get to where most of the rest of the wizarding houses are. There are a couple in its clearings. There it is," he said, pointing.

They made their way through. The forest was already beginning to get shadowy and cool. The girls were beginning to wish they'd brought something heavier than their sweaters, and James finally cottoned onto that fact.

"Hey Lily, would you like to take-" but before he got a chance to say, 'my sweater,' Chloe screamed. Through a hole in the foliage, above the clearing, which they were almost to, Chloe had spotted a Dark Mark in the air.

"That means they've-" Andrea couldn't finish the sentence.

"They could still be there," said James. "Might not have finished up. We've got to see!"

James began to run through the rest of the forest. Sirius and Lupin were right behind him, as was Lily and Marietta and Christine. The rest ended up getting caught up in the tide of James' leadership and peer-pressure and followed on as well.

James was still the first to get a clear view of the scene. There were four death-eaters generally making merry and creating a raucous underneath a boy who looked to be about 8 years old who they were hovering up in the air and torturing. His parents were already no doubt dead.

James thought quickly. "Okay," he said to his eight friends, "we've got to act fast, because they could kill the kid at any moment. We don't want them to retreat, we want to capture them, because if they retreat they could be off torturing some other kid in five minutes. That means put four of us against them. I think it should be me, Lily, Sirius and Marietta, because couples will look out better for each other. The rest of you stay in the forest unless we call for back up. We've got a sure-fire way to make them retreat, if we want to. Everyone in?"
Lily nodded enthusiastically. She would have objected had James wanted to go into battle without her, and he knew it. James was right. They were a pair and they should protect each other. Sirius and Marietta nodded, too. Remus wanted to object that he should go into the battle, but he knew Chloe didn't want to, plus Sirius and James were both better duelers than him. If they were going by the couples system, he was out. All the reinforcements nodded.

The house was the only one in the clearing. James, Lily, Sirius, and Marietta began running at it at full speed, wanting to make the death-eaters stop torturing the child. James knew the hous was the Lunken house, and he vaguely recognized the boy.

Lily shouted, "Oy, you lot! Stop that!"

Lily was disappointed that the masks the death-eaters wore blocked her from seeing their facial expressions as they let the child drop to the ground (likely causing him less pain than a moment more of the torture would have done) and turned to the approaching teenagers. The boy didn't get up. Likely he was unconscious.

While they were still running toward the Death-Eaters to get into better dueling range, Lily's disappointment at not being able to see faces turned to shock as one of the masked and hooded figures yelled "Avada-" while pointing his wand at James, the one running furtherst in front.

Back in the forest, Remus made to run into the battle, but Christine held him back. She said, "From that far away, he can dodge, and he didn't yell."

Only about half that sentence was out of her mouth, however, before one of the other Death-Eaters said, "Wait, these are some of Dumbledore's lot. No killing curse. Take them captive, maybe the Dark Lord can provoke him into coming to save him."

The four teens were close to the four Death-Eaters now. They were within cursing range, but no one had made the first move since the Death-Eaters' strategy had been declared.

"Voldemort couln't beat Dumbledore if he did get him to come after us," said James.

It was odd to see the Death-Eaters cringe at the name of their own leader, but they did. And then, the one across from James yelled "Petrificus Totalus!"

Before the second syllable came out, however, James had said, "Protego, which made the spell bounce off without harm. Meanwhile, he began an "Expelliarmus!" of his own.

It went through, but he couldn't capitalize on his opponent's missing wand because at that moment, Lily got hit with a petrifying charm, and James reversed the curse.

His opponent had picked up his wand and had cast a Cruciatus curse which James needed to drop to the ground to avoid. In response, he cast a "Petrificus Totalus," which his opponent quickly countered.

Lily, having been petrified once, was determined to be quicker on her feet. She knew she didn't have those "Quidditch reflexes" that everyone was always on about when talking about what good duelers James and Sirius were, but she was sure she could duck and dodge with the best of them. Certainly quicker than her opponent, who sounded by his voice to be an old man.

Her opponent attempted Petrificus Totalus. She ducked it, and at the same time yelled "Accio wand!" She knew this charm was less powerful than the expelliarmus as far as actually getting the wand out of someone's hand, but James had told her he'd used it successfully on a fellow student once and it worked. If she was right about the man's age- Yes! The wand was whizzing toward her hand. Before the man had a chance to retreat, or likely even figure out what had just happened, she followed the spell with a Petrificus Totalus.

At almost exactly the same time, Marietta's opponent yelled, "Cruciatus!"

Marietta thought Hell no! and jumped away from the curse, while Sirius turned away from his opponent to yell "Petrificus Totalus!" at Marietta's opponent.

Marietta's opponent put up a Protego charm, but Marietta managed to get a Petrificus Totalus off on Sirius opponent just as Sirius himself was hit with the same spell.

James suddenly yelled, "Reinforcements!," figuring this would be the best odds they would get before the other side started being able to un-petrify their own troops, and the five of them ran out of the forest, the slightly-too-chubby Peter lagging a bit behind. As James had hoped, the two death-eaters who still could disapparated immediately, leaving the other two as captives.

"What loyalty," said James.

"What cowards," said Sirius, who Marietta had just un-petrified.

"Shall we find out who they are?" asked Lily.

Marietta nodded her assent.

When the other five of the friends got there, Chloe ran straight for the little boy, and immediately began performing healing charms on him. Remus went and knelt down beside the pair of them.

The others were embarrassed that they had forgotten about the little boy.

But the two captives would be valuable. They themselves would go to Azkaban, and this would take away two soldiers in Voldemorts army.

The one, they recognized as a boy they had watched play Quidditch for Slytherin back in their first couple years, Anthony Plinkett. The other, a man of about 60 who apparently still clung to his pure-blood supremacy ideals of his youth, none of them recognized.

Chloe had the boy up and walking in almost no time, although he was still clearly hurt, and moaning. He said, "They killed Mommy and Daddy."

Chloe hugged the boy. "I'm very sorry. But we have to get you to St. Mungo's. Will you let us take you?"

"You got rid of the scary men?" asked the boy.

"Yes," said Chloe.

"Okay," said the boy. "I'll come with you."

So they went back to the Potters' house, the nine teens, the two petrified death eaters floating behind, and the little boy, newly orphaned, holding Chloe's hand.

A/N: School's been really hectic lately. More reviews equals more reason to procrastinate from work. And remember: You are also strongly encouraged to donate rice for this story. You can win it at freerice dot com and then let me know (in a review) how much you've won for this story in particular. This is for the group fanfictioners against world hunger. if you want to join, let me know.