A/N: wow, I actually have nothing to say if you guys read the last author's note…the first one on the last chapter. If you didn't read that, go read it please.
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That morning, the ship pulled into the harbor and there was a black limousine waiting around the corner. James knew his mother would be waiting for them there. The six of them grabbed their suitcases and stepped off of the boat, meeting Mrs. Potter at the foot of the stairwell. She kissed Lily on the cheek for no apparent reason and stepped back, examining them.
"Tut, tut, tut," she said softly. "Look at you six, you're skin and bones, you need some meat on those bones, come, come on now, we mustn't keep the aurors in the ministry lime waiting." Lily laughed to herself at the mispronunciation of limo, but dared not do it openly. Mrs. Potter had dark brown, wavy hair and hazel eyes. She was slightly plump and a bit short. She wasn't what would be called fat though, but hearty. She had a sweet-looking face and a smile as wide as the Grand Canyon. She seemed like one of the sweetest people Lily had ever met. Mrs. Potter had levitated their trunks and Lily was holding Moonstone in her arms as they followed her to the limousine. They scrambled into the back and the aurors up front loaded their gear into the trunk.
"How do they know how to drive?" Lily asked James.
"They don't," he said softly. "The cars drive themselves." He was about to kiss her when Lily took a glance at his mother. Then, James thought better of it himself. This week might end up being harder than they'd expected…having parents around them all of the time.
"So, darlings, introduce me, please," suggested Mrs. Potter to her son and the other two boys.
"Oh, uh…Mum, this is Lily…she's my, um…girlfriend," said James, sounding unsure of the wording himself. Lily had never really considered James her boyfriend ever since they fell in love, but there was no term for that really.
"Mrs. Potter, this is Clara Martin, but she goes by Claire, said Sirius, recovering after a glare from Claire. (Hey, I just rhymed.)
"This is Tanya Bolanos, but just call her Tanya," introduced Remus.
"It's great to finally meet you all. Now, Claire, you say you're from the Martin family, purebloods, yes?" Claire nodded, feeling a pang of guilt and sadness for not being able to admit to the home she came from. True, they had money and plenty of it, but she was ill-treated, and she would give all the gold and all the pureblood she had to have a real family.
"Well, we're not ones for blood purity in our family, right, Sirius?" asked Mrs. Potter.
"Yeah," said Sirius, looking to Claire with a meaningful expression on his face. He was holding Claire's hand on the seat and their fingers were intertwining themselves. Claire whispered something in his ear and he nodded, looking back to his adopted mother.
"And, Lily, my son tells me he's taken quite a fancy to you." Lily had to stop herself from laughing.
"I should hope so," she said, looking to James with a grin spread across her face. James had his arm around her and they were smiling to each other. Lily hadn't even told Tanya and Claire what happened the previous night…the new level of a relationship they'd come to, and James hadn't told Sirius and Remus either.
"Yes, yes," said Mrs. Potter, now looking to Tanya. "So, Tanya, may I ask your heritage, you look…well, like our family doesn't come here and I detect a small hint of an accent in your voice."
"Well, ma'am, my father was from Spain and my mother was British and they married. My father was a juggle and my mum was a witch, she went to Hogwarts as well in her youth. She met my father because he owned the restaurant next to her dance studio in Spain and they've been in love ever since."
"What a lovely story," gushed Mrs. Potter. Tanya smiled up at Remus, who also had his arm over her shoulders. The girls had decided a long time ago that they liked Mrs. Potter; she was a very nice lady. They pulled up to a small house in the countryside and got out. Lily took one look and fell in love. It wasn't quite a mansion, but a beautiful Victorian house surrounded by forests and a lake in the back. Everything was covered in snow and the lake was frozen.
"It's great huh, Godric's Hollow?" asked James, walking past Lily and pulling her suitcase out of the trunk. He grabbed his own, the cat still in Lily's hands as James carried both suitcases into the house. Claire and Sirius were carrying their own and Tanya and Remus followed. When they got inside, James's hand immediately found Lily's and they were in contact once again, a shiver melted both of their spines. Claire and Sirius were holding hands as well and Remus's arm was draped over Claire's shoulders.
"This house is beautiful," said Lily in an awestruck voice.
"You think so?" asked Mrs. Potter. "We're leaving it to James when he comes of age and is out of school…he gets the house and we'll be moving further out into the country to grow old…we're too old to be fighting Dark Wizards anymore, the two of us." Lily looked Mrs. Potter over once more, she was probably in her mid to late forties, small flecks of gray hair in her brown waves. Then James's father appeared from the kitchen. He had black hair and hazel eyes; of course, his hair was neat and trimmed, unlike James's. He was wearing a good-natured smile and looked to be very content and in his mid to late forties as well. Lily took her hand and placed it into James's hair, messing it up even more just for show.
"Hello, girls!" said Mr. Potter happily. He looked like he'd just been cooking, for he was wearing an apron.
"Hi, Mr. Potter," said Sirius with a wave of his free hand. "This is Tanya, Claire, and Lily." He gestured to each of the girls with his free hand.
"So, I see, how are you six doing, was the cruise fun, did you behave yourselves?" asked Mr. Potter.
"Of course, dad," said James with a smirk to Lily.
"Undoubtedly," said Sirius with a grin at Claire.
"We always do," said Remus, raising his eyebrows.
"Indeed," said Mr. Potter sarcastically. He knew his son and his friends better than that.
"Now, girls, I've been making dinner all day for Christmas Eve, and I hope you like our cooking. He gestured to the Dining Room where a large turkey, ham, and pork roast occupied the center of the table with a white tablecloth draped over it. Around it were peas, green beans, corn, broccoli, and asparagus (Eww!). Them there was fig pudding, chocolate pudding, cauldron cakes, pumpkin pasties, and other delicious looking desserts. Their mouths began to water.
"That's amazing," said Sirius, drawn immediately to the food. Mrs. Potter grabbed his hand to keep him from devouring the entire dining room.
"It's not time yet, dear," she said, patting his hand and turning back to the rest of them. "I'm sure you have your own traditions for Christmas, girls, do share. We do this every year. Sirius shares a tradition, James a tradition from his childhood, Harold from his childhood and one from mine. So, now that we have guests, we should definitely get started right away because there are so many people this year. Remus, dear, how about you go first."
"Um…well, every year we go and play around in the snow for hours or until we freeze," he said unsurely. Mrs. Potter nodded and gestured to coats that had just appeared on their coat rack, six of them.
"We are far too busy with dinner right now, dears, we may join you in a bit have fun though," said Mrs. Potter softly. James looked at the coats, each had a name on the sleeve. James's was red with gold trimming on it. He put it on and it was amazingly warm. All of the sudden, his pants changed into snow pants and were the same colors as the coat.
"Thanks, mum!" said James happily.
"It was no trouble dear," she said, waving her wand in the air. Lily grabbed the coat with her name on it. It was an emerald green that brought out her eyes amazingly with a turquoise trim. Her shoes changed to turquoise boots and her skirt became pants. Claire looked on the rack and picked up the baby blue one with the navy trim and her clothes changed to match as well. Sirius grabbed his, a dark blue with black trim and his clothes changed. Remus's was a forest green with ivy green and Tanya's was purple with pink. They grabbed sleds that were sitting out at the door and a pair of ice skates for each. The boys refused to use ice-skating skates and grabbed the thicker hockey skates.
"Mrs. potter, my cat…" began Lily.
"We'll take her up to your room if you just leave her here, dear," said Mrs. Potter kindly. Lily dropped Moonstone to the floor and she began to canter over to the dining room, but she stopped short, something was stopping her from going in there. She hissed at the invisible barrier and walked to Lily's suitcase, sitting on top of it and purring softly, going to sleep immediately. Lily rolled her eyes at her cat's laziness and then went back to James's side. When they went out the back door, it was snowing again.
"This is beautiful," Claire gasped.
"It's never like this in Spain," said Tanya.
"James I love your house," said Lily, looking up at the sky.
"So, when we get married you won't mind living here?" he joked. Lily looked at him with a playful grin and pushed him, making him fall to the ground, but he grabbed her arm and she fell on top of him, their lips just inches from each other. It seemed much warmer than it had been a second ago. She kissed him, making shivers travel the lengths of their spines and then got up. James got up too. Claire kissed Sirius and Tanya kissed Remus. Wow, they'd started a trend, huh?
"I say we go ice skating," said Claire happily.
"Okay," came four agreements. The only one who didn't say okay was Lily.
"I'll just stay here," she said.
"Oh no you don't," said James, grabbing her arm and towing her towards the lake. He tapped her feet with his wand and the skates appeared there. (Shh…I know he's an underage wizard at the moment, but we'll just pretend otherwise). He tapped his own feet and the skates appeared and then everyone else did the same thing. (We're still pretending here, okay).
"James, I can't skate," said Lily in a distressed tone.
"Then I'll teach you," he said with a grin. Lily knew that grin, it was mischievous and she didn't trust it. He picked her up and carried her over to the ice, letting her down on her feet when he hit it, He grabbed her hand so she wouldn't fall and told her how to place her feet. She did what he said and slipped, falling on her butt despite James's attempt to keep her on her feet. He heaved her to her feet and made sure she was okay. James turned to face her, both of his hands in hers. He was going to skate backwards and she forwards. Maybe this would work better. He began backing away and lily's feet glided over the ice. She was biting her lip and looking nervously down at her feet every five seconds.
"Look at me," coaxed James. "Don't look at your feet, that's how you fall." Lily lifted her head with much difficulty and kept her eyes locked to James's so that she wouldn't look down. She felt strangely at ease every time she looked into those eyes. Claire and Sirius were getting along oppositely. Claire was trying to teach Sirius how to skate and he caught on very quickly. Tanya and Remus were perfectly fine, holding hands and skating with more ease than professionals. Tanya could even do the jumps and the spins. It seemed like Lily was the only one having trouble. After about an hour, she was doing it on her own and James only had to hold her hand. She had stopped falling and she was fine.
After skating, and turning their skates in for boots, Lily rolled up a piled of snow and hit James smack in the face with it.
"Oh, Evans, don't you start that," he said, picking up his own snowball and throwing it at her. She ducked and hid behind one of the trees. "Come one, boys, what do you say we give these girls some snowball fighting mania?"
"After all, I am the champion," said Sirius.
"True, but we need all of us to beat them, they're faster," said Remus.
"We can disguise better, though," said James, referring to his stag form.
"Let's go," said Sirius, that mischievous grin planted on his face. Claire bolted towards the forest where Lily and Tanya had already fled. They each grabbed snowballs off the ground and the girls ran deeper into the forest, getting their own stock and hiding in a small gully where they were safe from all angles except up and behind. They stocked up the snowballs in a pile and conjured (still pretending here.) a bucket, malting about a pound of snow in the bucket and making ice water to dump on them. If they got hit with that, they were done for. Claire levitated the snowballs above her head and stepped from the ditch, looking for the boys. She saw a huge dog come out of nowhere.
"Aww, look a puppy who thinks I'm a total idiot," she said, the levitating snowballs throwing themselves at the dog's face. The dog turned back into Sirius and he fled, wiping snow from his eyes. "Ha, take that!" she yelled after Sirius. Then a snowball zoomed from nowhere, hitting her in the side of the face. "Who the…" She ducked; another snowball zoomed from her left. She dove back into the ditch.
"What's wrong, you had him I thought," said Lily, looking worried.
"They're coming from nowhere, someone was at my left throwing them from the darkness and I couldn't see them," said Claire, looking above her. Lily levitated her own snowballs and crept silently from the ditch, going to her right and circling around the point Claire was talking about. She heard sharp breaths from behind her and turned around to see a large, male deer not a foot away from her face, its breath visible in the cold. It looked so majestic.
"I'm not dumb you know," she said softly. The stag lowered its antlers at her. Something was wrong. "What're you doing, James?" she asked suddenly frightened. Then she saw the eyes, they were a dark brown, almost black, not hazel. She had just met a real, untamed, and inhuman stag in a forest she had never been in before. The stag scraped the ground with its hoof and looked like it was about to charge at her. Lily was immobilized with fear, too frightened to even reach for her wand. The stag snorted and a large breath came from its nostrils. Lily couldn't move, it was trying to make her leave, but she couldn't. Then, she heard another snort from a different direction. Another stag was standing behind her. Oh no she thought. I'm done for. She looked at the stag behind her and something was different about this one. It had a soft expression and hazel eyes. It wasn't as big as the other one though. Lily drew in a sharp breath.
The larger stag toed the ground again and snorted at the other. The hazel-eyes stag lowered its antlers and charge the other one, Lily jumping out of the way. The large stag, unprepared for this attack, didn't have a chance to ready itself. It moved to the side, James turned around and charged it again, the older deer lowering its rack of antlers and they connected. Lily could hear their antlers creaking as they fought. The hazel-eyed deer gave one snort and pushed with all its might and the older deer was thrown backwards and darted away into the darkness of the forest. The remaining stag shook its head as an indication for her to get onto its back. Lily grabbed the stag around the neck and pulled herself up with much difficulty, even with the stag bending down to the lowest it could go without being unable to get up. It stood up to full height again and Lily brushed her fingers along its neck as she sat on its back.
"Thank you," she whispered into its ear. She had known it was James from the moment she saw it, and he rescued her from dying for another time. He was her guardian angel. The stag snorted a happier sound and began running from the forest. Lily wrapped her arms around the stag's neck, as though hugging it. The feeling was exhilarating, the cold wind stung her face as she sped through the forest on the stag's back and the wind rushed past her, her red hair billowing behind her and flying into her face when he would turn sharply. They emerged from the forest and the stag bent down again, allowing her to get off. She jumped down and brushed the stag's snout as he changed back into James. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. He was a bit shocked at first, but then he placed his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. She had been frightened just then; more frightened than she might've ever been before, and he understood that.
"Lily, you're fine now," he whispered into her ear. She lifted her head and looked into his eyes, something was there, more than comfort and love, but concern for her safety…she realized that it was always there. She kissed him softly and he kissed her back. He grabbed her hand and walked her back up to the house where everyone was waiting. They all looked concerned.
"I'm fine," Lily said softly, smiling up at James who smiled back.
"You sure, Lils?" asked Remus.
"Yeah, I'm good," she said calmly.
"Ran into a real wild animal and mistook it for me and it nearly took her apart limb from limb," said James with a laugh.
"Good thing he showed up then, huh?" asked Lily. "Or that deer would've killed me."
"Come on, I'm starved," said Sirius, standing up and walking to the back door.
"You're always starved," said Claire with a roll of her eyes. They came inside and their clothes changed back to normal as soon as the jackets were taken off, they were even dry. It was nice to be inside with warm clothes on again.
"Time for dinner," called Mrs. Potter from downstairs as they sat in their upstairs living room playing BS. Lily had won most of the games with her glare. A few actually broke down and looked exactly like the liars.
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A/N: Yummy…dinner. That's where I'm going right now. Hey, would ya'll being awesome and go read the prequel I've been working on? You don't have to, but I thought it was pretty funny myself. Anyways, read, review, you know the bit!