Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter!

A.N- Hmmm, I think I should mention that although all 25 of these chapters are set in different timeframes, they are all in the same Universe. So this chapter is set in Lily and Snape's 3rd year. It's not as happy as the first two or the last one, but that's just because, in this Harry Potter Universe, Lily has to end up with James. Just thought I should make that clear before you get confused by my double pairing of Lily!

25 Days of December

Chapter Five- Stockings
Pairing: Snape/Lily

5th December 1973

Lily was sitting at the kitchen table, with a roll of parchment in front of her surrounded by ink, quills and textbooks. She wanted to get all of her homework finished early on in the holidays. She was about a foot into her first essay, when Petunia came into the room, having just slept in. She looked at Lily's work in distaste before turning away and silently making herself some toast.

Lily rolled her eyes at her sister's extremely obvious silent treatment and continued working. Their mother, however (who was sitting at the table, watching Lily work with interest), wasn't having it.

"Oh, good Morning, Petunia." She brightly. Petunia glowered.

"Morning." She muttered.

"You slept late." Her mother pressed. Petunia shrugged, keeping her eyes trained on the toaster in front of her. Her mother sighed, giving up. Lily smiled sympathetically. She wrote down a few more sentences of her essay before the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it." Lily said, jumping up and heading out the room to the front door. She opened it to find her best friend, Severus, standing there with an old bag slung over one shoulder. "Oh, hey Sev!" She said cheerfully. Sev grinned at her.

"Hi Lily. I thought I'd bring over some of my holiday homework, since I figured you'd be doing it early." He said somewhat shyly. Lily beamed at him.

"Actually I was doing my potions essay now! I was going to ask you for some help; you're great at potions." She said, letting him in. Sev laughed.

"You're ten times better at it than I am." He told her. Lily blushed.

"Maybe." She said modestly. "My work is in the kitchen." She led him to the kitchen but paused at the doorway when she saw that her mother was no longer sitting in there. Petunia was sitting at the table in a dressing gown, glaring at Lily and Sev. "…Um, maybe we should move to the sitting room." She suggested feebly.

"No, don't worry, we'll be fine here!" Sev insisted, narrowing his eyes at Petunia. Lily bit her lip.

"No, no. I really think the sitting room would be better." She said, gathering up her things and leading Sev into the sitting room. Sev followed reluctantly, scowling at Petunia as he did so.

Sev had never been in the Evans's sitting room during the Christmas holidays. He blinked at the muggle decorations that hung around the room, on the Christmas tree and around the fireplace. Lily laughed at his expression.

"Sorry about all the tinsel. Our family goes a little bit overboard at Christmastime." She said, setting her homework down on the table. Sev smiled at her and went to the fireplace to look closer at the Christmas ornaments that sat there. He frowned as his gaze fell on two huge, fluffy, red socks that hung from hooks on either side of the fire. They were both quite old and tatty looking. One had the name "LILY" embroidered across it, and the other read "PETUNIA".

"Um, Lily. Why do you have giant socks as decorations?" He asked uncertainly, looking slightly disturbed. Lily laughed.

"They're stockings!" She explained. Sev turned to frown questioningly at her. "Don't witches and wizards have them?" She asked. Sev shook his head. "Oh. Well, kids put them up before Christmas and then on Christmas Eve 'Santa' comes and puts presents in them for you."

"Santa?"

"Oh. He's a character that muggles tell their children about. He comes around every Christmas and gives you presents- but only if you've been very good. He's not real though. Parents put the presents there, really." Lily grinned. "It's kind of silly, really."

"That's odd." Sev agreed. He looked at the stockings and frowned. "What sort of presents do you get?"

"Oh, just little things in the stockings. You know, jewelry, pens, notepads. Me and Petunia normally get girly things in the stockings." Lily smiled as Sev frowned to himself.

"Anyway… do you want to get on with the homework?" Lily asked.

"What? Oh… yeah… sure." Sev smiled vaguely, turning away from the stockings. Lily gave him a strange look, but Sev just smiled.

~-5-~

"Hey Lily, what do you want for Christmas?" Sev asked, about an hour later. They'd both almost finished their essays and Sev was looking at Lily curiously.

"You don't have to get me anything, Sev." Lily said, smiling at him. Sev knew she was saying that because she knew he didn't have much money. But he'd saved up, and he wanted to get her something.

"So? You can still want stuff." He pressed. Lily frowned.

"Well… I dunno, really." She said thoughtfully. "Something simple." She smiled, absent-mindedly drawing a flower on the corner of her essay.

The door of the sitting room opened and Mrs. Evans's poked her head in.

"Hey kids! Want some lunch?" She asked.

"Yes, please! Sev? Hungry?" Lily said. Sev bit his lip. He didn't like to intrude…

"Umm, actually I think I'd better be getting home…" He said uncertainly. Lily's face fell.

"Oh… Ok." She said.

"You are welcome, if you'd like to stay, Severus." Mrs. Evans said kindly.

"No, it's Ok." Sev said with a small smile. "I'll see you later, Lily."

Lily reluctantly said goodbye and Sev left. Of course, he wasn't really going home. But he'd saved up, and he wanted to get her something. So he grabbed the money out of his bag and headed for the nearest bus stop…

"Something simple…"

~-5-~

That evening, Lily was just setting the table for dinner, when the doorbell rang. She frowned, wondering who would be visiting now, and went to open the door.

It was Sev, with snow falling around him, wearing the same, thin clothes he that morning. He was smiling triumphantly, and held a brand new, fluffy red stocking in one hand. A white lily was visible, sticking out of the top of it.

"Sev!" Lily cried, bewildered. "I- what are doing there out in the cold! Get in here!" Sev smiled and stepped inside. He held the stocking out to Lily and she took it and brushed a few snowflakes off of it. "What's this?" She asked, shocked.

"It's a stocking." Sev said smugly. "With a Lily." He added. "I couldn't find one with your name on it so…"

"Sev, you didn't need to get me-"

"But I wanted to!" Sev cut her off. Lily smiled in disbelief.

"You couldn't even wait till Christmas?" She asked teasingly.

"Well if I waited till Christmas, Santa wouldn't get the chance to put any presents in there, would he?" Sev asked, grinning. Lily laughed.

"Oh, Sev." She giggled, hugging him tightly. "You're such a great friend." She whispered happily. Sev stiffened and smiled tightly… friend.. Why was it always just friends? Lily didn't notice his sudden discomfort. "Would you like to stay for dinner? I'm sure Mum won't mind; she always makes extra food." She said cheerfully. Sev bit his lip, just like earlier that day.

"I don't think I should. I've been away all day." He said. Lily looked unconvinced. "My mum will be worried." Sev lied. Lily frowned, but saw that she wouldn't be able to convince him.

"Well, thank you so much for the present. It's so sweet." She grinned at him and he half-heartedly grinned back. "Will I see you tomorrow?" She asked hopefully.

"Maybe." Sev mumbled. Lily's face fell for the second time that day and Sev winced. "Seeya." He muttered, turning to leave.

"Bye." Lily said quietly.

Then Snape left, trudging through the snow… alone. He wasn't sure why he'd said no to the offer of dinner; they were friends after all… Just friends. Sev sighed.

Something simple… Or not.

.

.

A.N- Aw, I love Snape/Lily, but I just love James/Lily so much more, so I never have the heart to actually give them a happy ending :(

Poor Sev. Anyways, the next pairing is Andromeda/Ted. One of my favourites!

Review! Toff.x