Title: Glass Hearts

Rating: PG-13

Summary (for chapter): Lily sends James a letter, which thoroughly ruins James's Christmas break. Frank thinks about a certain girl named Alice.

--

The smell of bacon stirred Lily awake. She lay in her bed for a moment, rubbing her eyes. She smiled when she realized it was Christmas Day. Even at sixteen, with less presents and less excitement, there was a thrill about the holiday.

Lily climbed out of her bed and walked downstairs. There was a small bundle of presents underneath the tree, and her dad was cooking breakfast. Petunia walked past her to sit on the living room couch. Lily paused before joining her. Petunia looked annoyed for a moment, then put a blank expression on her face.

"Good morning, girls," their dad called from the stove.

The rest of the day went surprisingly well. She was used to holidays being tense and her and Petunia usually arguing. Petunia had gotten her a cute purse and had instantly changed into the outfit Lily had gotten her.

A few owls came in throughout the day. Petunia swatted at one. "Damned things," she said as Lily shot her a nasty look. "Can't your friends just use the postal service?"

Lily rolled her eyes, opening a package from Paul. She found a ring with a lily on it. "How cute," she said.

"Very original," Rose said, smirking. Lily hadn't brought herself to tell her mother about her kiss with James Potter yet. She didn't know what she would think, and could barely accept it herself. Telling someone about it would make it all too real.

Mary, Marlene and Melissa had sent her gifts as well. Smiling, she opened them eagerly and read their letters. She had just started writing them back to thank for the letters and tell them about her break when her dad tossed a package at her. "This came in the post yesterday," he said. "I forgot to give it to you."

Lily sat up, taking the package in her lap. In the post – who had sent this? Perhaps someone else who was Muggleborn or half-blood?

"Look, one of your friends did it," Petunia said. "Can't the rest of them catch on?"

Lily pulled a wrapped box out of the one box, and saw that it had no labeling. She pulled off the silver wrapping paper and opened up a small black box. Inside, on top of a thin cotton sheet, was a small, red, glass heart. She stared at it for a moment, then picked it up and turned it over. On the back, the words 'you have my heart' were engraved into the glass. Lily searched for the sender, but didn't find it. She hoped this wasn't from Potter, and felt a guilty feeling stirring the bottom of her stomach.

Lily wrote Potter first, a lengthy letter explaining that she still felt nothing for him, and that it had only been a kiss in the Christmas spirit. She started and tore up the letter what seemed thousands of times, but finally wrote it all out over a full piece of paper. She felt like she was writing his death penalty.

After her family made a luscious Christmas feast, however, her feelings of guilt fled with her feelings of hunger.

--

At the Potter house, the four boys were lounging around the living room, full of food and Christmas spirit and sleepy. "I was going to go see Jewel tonight," Sirius said sleepily on the couch. "Surprise her, you know . . . but I think we had too long of a snowball fight."

"It was so funny when you got my dad," James said, grinning. He was sprawled across the ground, in front of the fireplace. Remus was wearing a jumper his mother had sent him and munching on some chocolate Peter had given him.

"What a nice day," Peter said. He was curled up in the armchair, underneath a cushy blanket. "So nice . . . "

"Very, very nice," Remus added. "Sirius, just visit her tonight, at two in the morning."

"I w-w-will," Sirius said through a huge yawn. "I still can't feel my fingers."

"Hell, mate, we came inside an hour ago!" James exclaimed.

"Nah, Remus and I went back out there," Sirius said. "For your mum, getting firewood or something. I told her that it would be wet, but she insisted on it."

Remus never remembered James's mum telling them they needed to go outside for firewood, but he did remember Sirius begging him to come outside with him and keep watch so he could run around as a dog. The things he did for his friends . . . they even had played catch.

"I think I'm in love with Sophie," Peter said from his armchair.

James started laughing on the ground, his laugh held back by the fact that he was on his stomach. His laugh got louder, and Sirius and Remus joined in. "Sophie?" James asked. He laughed louder, rolling unto his back and clutching his stomach.

"This euphoria has obviously made you delirious," Sirius said. "She's a second year, mate." He howled with laughter, nearly falling off of the couch.

After a few minutes, the three of them had calmed down and settled into silence again. Remus looked at Peter from the loveseat, but he was half-asleep and seemed to be a part of the huge armchair himself. "I mean, that long blonde hair," Peter mumbled, and the three of them burst out laughing again. It was a while before they got to sleep, and even longer before Peter lived that down.

--

Juniper told Jewel repeatedly Sirius was going to come see her, was going to visit and their father would give him that look, the look that the two sisters had already dubbed, 'The Sirius Look.' Jewel was convinced Juniper wanted him to visit more than Jewel herself.

It had been a wonderful Christmas. Her grandparents had visited, and she had gotten a beautiful hair clip from Sirius last night. She had bought him a set of quills. She had a new set of dress robes, and two new pairs of pants. After eating too much turkey, she had taken a long nap, then went caroling with her family.

Sirius did not visit, and Juniper seemed more disappointed than Jewel was. She knew he wouldn't, he was wrapped up in boy things and his friends and his new family and turkey and pudding. Warming her fingers by the fire, laughing with Juniper about Bertram Aubrey, Jewel didn't mind in the least.

--

The silence in her house was deafening. Narcissa had moved into Malfoy Manor six months ago after marrying Lucius, and she still hadn't gotten used to the silence. She waved her wand to start up some Christmas carols. She tossed her cloak to the nearest house-elf. "Start a fire up," she told him.

The house wasn't only silent, but lonely. Lucius wasn't an ideal housemate; his conversations were quite boring. She busied herself at her mum's house, shopping, and visiting Bellatrix. Lately, her husband and her sister hadn't been around. She knew where they were. She didn't like it; it was too dangerous, but she wasn't about to tell them that.

It had been the fifth Christmas she hadn't spent with Andromeda, but the first she had spent without Sirius. Sirius had always been a pain, especially lately since all he did was fight with his parents, but he brought a lightness to the Black gatherings. He had a sense of humor while the rest of her relatives had sticks up their arses.

Narcissa sighed, sitting down in one of the armchairs. A letter from Andromeda lay on the stand next to her. She picked it up tenderly, looking at her sister's familiar handwriting. Narcissa couldn't understand why Andromeda didn't understand yet that Narcissa didn't care about her any longer, and had no desire to learn about half-bloods and Mudbloods.

She scoffed, tossing the letter back unto the stand. She cared, whether she liked it or not. She had reveled in the letter and laughed at the jokes and nearly cried at the end when she wrote, 'Love, Your Big Sister Andri.'

It was six o'clock, and Christmas had been exhausting. First her parent's, then Lucius's parent's. Now Lucius wasn't even there to enjoy the feast she had had the servants prepare. Christmas Day, and he was off serving his precious Voldemort. She should have told him that he was going to regret it. But no, Narcissa wasn't the wife to offer advice or concern, she was the trophy wife, the pureblooded beauty.

Another Christmas, come and gone. Narcissa wished more than ever that she could just run away as Sirius had.

--

The day after Christmas was just about the most horrible day James had ever had. And all because of a letter he had received from an annoying, familiar, small owl. The owl pecked him on the face as he slept and he heard Sirius yelling, "Oi, Prongs, you've got an owl!" He was then swiftly kicked in the side and that woke him up much more than the owl.

He now sat in his room, on his bed, reading Lily's letter again. Peter, Remus and Sirius were having breakfast, being loud downstairs. Remus had caught him reading a letter, but had not said anything.

James,

I hope you're having a good Christmas break. We all needed a break from school, right?

Anyway, I just wanted to apologize about the kiss under the mistletoe. It meant nothing, really, I was just caught up in the moment. I didn't want to be late to class, and I know you would never let me live it down if I didn't kiss you. But I also know now you'll never let me live it down that I did kiss you. That's not the point, though. I'm still going out with Paul, who I'm sure you know, as he is on your Quidditch team. I still don't have any feelings for you, James. I'm sorry I kissed you at all and that I lead you on with it, but it was just some fun and games. Just the Christmas spirit, you know?

You have improved since last year. You don't follow me to all of my classes or ask me out whenever it's humanly possibly. At first, it was rather flattering. But really, it's just frightening now. I appreciate all you do for me, like sticking up for me when I get insulted by Slytherins and such, but I am sixteen years old (almost seventeen) and I can handle myself. I just don't feel the same way about you that you feel about me, or even close. I think we've gotten to know each other a bit more since the beginning of sixth year, and I think it would be fine if we just stayed acquaintances.

There are lots of fish in the sea, James. There are a lot of girls that really like you at Hogwarts. I think it's just time for you to move on. I know I've said this to you before, but I still mean it, just as much as I said it before. I don't want you to hurt yourself by still liking me, because there's really nothing on this side of our relationship, if you want to call it that. You really ought to think about Juniper Mufflet, I hear she sort of fancies you. You and Sirius could go on double dates and all, you know?

Well, I suppose I'd better go. Have good holiday, and I'll see you at school.

Lily

James flopped down back unto his bed. Could his life get any worse?

The door burst open and Sirius, Remus and Peter came in. Sirius trudged through all of the things on the ground. The room was filthy, due to four boys staying in the house. Sirius had a bedroom of his own, what used to be the spare bedroom, but over break, the four of them had stayed in this room for the most part. Sirius jumped on the bed next to James, his face and hands covered in chocolate pudding.

"What's all over your face?" James asked, sitting up cautiously.

Sirius saw the letter in James's hand and grabbed it. "Hey!" James yelled.

"Ooh, what's this?" Sirius asked. "It's a love letter, isn't it? From Evans, isn't it?"

"Give that back!" James said, chasing Sirius around the room. "Get your chocolate-y fingers off of it!"

"James," Sirius said in a high-pitched voice. "Dearest James, I have only just decided my undying love for you, and I'm coming over so that we can make passionate love and have thousands of little James!"

"Give it back!" James yelled. He tackled him down, stumbling over Remus's cot and the two of them started wrestling and pounding each other.

"A bit sensitive, aren't we?" Sirius asked, laughing as he pinned James down. James had chocolate all over his clothes and his face and it was on his letter, the only letter Lily Evans had ever sent him, despite the thousands he had written to her, but never sent – well, he had sent about a hundred of them.

A string of swear words emitted from James's mouth and he tackled Sirius down again. Curse the gods who had brought Sirius Black into his life. Curse the gods who had brought chocolate into the world. He didn't even know where the letter was, and he was going to pummel his smug little face in . . .

"Boys!" Mrs. Potter yelled from the doorway. She had her hands on her hips and looked stern. "This room is a mess, and you're not helping! There's chocolate everywhere! What are you fighting about?"

"He stole my letter and got chocolate pudding all over it!" James said in a tattling voice.

"Shove off, I did not!" Sirius exclaimed. "Martha, I swear I didn't! You know James, he's a compulsive liar –"

James fumbled through clothes and books for his letter, and he found . . . the first half of it. The parchment was ripped through the word flattering. He found two other parts of it and turned to look at Sirius. "You ripped it!" he yelled.

"If you hadn't attacked me –" Sirius began, but he never got to finish. James had tackled him down again and they were wrestling, right in front of his mother and he didn't care. The only letter she had ever sent him, the only time she had probably ever called him by his first name, with her straight handwriting and her name at the bottom of it.

"James!" Martha yelled. She separated them with a charm, looking sternly from one to the other.

"Mum, you always take his side!" James exclaimed.

"Sirius, Remus, I want you two to clean Sirius's room, it's a mess in there," Martha said. "James and Peter, I want this room cleaned by the time I have breakfast ready."

"But –" Sirius began.

"No buts," Martha said firmly. "You two are acting like children. Go on, Sirius! You, too, Remus!"

The two boys left as though Martha had suddenly become their Headmaster. James picked up the remnants of his letter and sat on the bed. Martha walked in the room as best as she could and sat on the bed next to him. "Peter, will you run and clean yourself up?" she asked. Peter also had chocolate on him and on his clothes.

Peter just nodded, bustling out of the room. Martha pointed her wand at James's letter and said, "Reparo."

James was silent for a moment, then said, "Thanks. I wish I could do magic on break."

"Next summer you can," Martha reminded him. "Is this from Lily?"

James only nodded. He couldn't bear to look at his mother, with her look of pity, as she usually looked when she mentioned Lily.

"What did she say?" Martha asked.

James shrugged. "Nothing important," he said, staring at the chocolate stains over Paul's name. "Mum, I should get to cleaning and all . . ."

Martha ruffled up James's hair, standing up. "Yes, you better," she said. She reached the door. "I'll have breakfast ready in about thirty minutes." She paused, and James finally looked up at his mum. The look on her face was not one of pity, but she was smiling at him.

"What?" James asked grumpily.

"You and Sirius," Martha said. "One would think you've been brothers all your life."

"I'm glad we weren't," James said, kicking one of Sirius's magazines away from him. "Stupid prat."

Martha let out a cheerful chuckle, then started to leave the room. "Get to work, young man," she called back at him.

--

Frank watched the snow fall lazily outside of his window. It was a few days after Christmas, but he couldn't stop thinking about seeing Alice at the party.

"Frank, did you clean the family room?" he heard his mum yell up at him.

"Yeah," Frank bellowed back.

He heard her footsteps up the steps and he groaned. She knocked on the door, but opened it before he responded, as she always did. "It doesn't look clean," she said.

"Mum, it's clean," Frank said. "I spent twenty minutes on it."

Augusta Longbottom raised her eyebrows. She paused, scrutinizing Frank's response. "All right," she said. "I want you to look at it after dinner."

"Okay," Frank said.

August left the room, closing the door behind her. He sighed. He loved his parents, but he couldn't wait to get out of here. On the other hand, it meant he had to become a responsible adult. The admittance for Auror training started mid-August, then he had three more years after that. He wanted to be fighting now.

And that only made him think about Alice more.

It was a sunny day in Diagon Alley. Frank walked around the cafes, looking for something he felt like eating. He saw a familiar girl bent over a book. He walked over to her. "Hey, Alice Hodge," he said.

Alice looked up, her hair pulled back into a ponytail. "Hi, Frank," she said with a bright smile. "Sit down."

Frank sat down next to her. "How are you?" he asked.

"I came to work with my mum today," Alice said with a roll of her eyes. "And I'm bored, so I decided to get some fresh air."

"Yeah, me too," Frank said. Their parents had been friends for years; they worked in adjacent shops. His mum was an assistant in Madam Malkin's and her parents were the owners of Flourish & Blotts. He remembered little Alice Hodge hiding behind her mum, and then becoming a little less shy after knowing the Longbottoms for years.

"How are you enjoying your holidays?" Alice asked.

"They're great," Frank said. "Hey, hold on a minute, I'm going to get something to eat."

Although the two of them didn't usually talk much at school, they sat there for hours. Frank ate two hamburgers and three orders of chips. He bought Alice and himself milkshakes. They talked about school, Quidditch, the war. He had never gotten along with a girl so well. Alice was usually quiet and shy. When he passed her in the halls at school, she met his eyes for a moment with a small smile on her face, and she hung out with her Hufflepuff friends. Now, though, she was friendlier and more easy-going.

"Hey, you should come back tomorrow," Frank said.

"Should I?" Alice asked.

Frank nodded. "I know it's really boring, but maybe we can do this again," he said.

Alice smiled, looking down at her lap. "Okay," she said. "I think that'll work."

They met at the cafes every day for the rest of the week, eating lunch together and then talking for an hour or so afterwards. On Saturday, Frank came to the cafes with empty pockets. "I'm out of money," he confessed. "But my dad did get tickets to the Arrows-Wasps game tomorrow. Maybe you can come with us."

A look of shock came unto Alice's face. "Seriously?" she asked.

"Seriously," Frank repeated.

Alice let out a laugh. "Cool!" she exclaimed. "I'd love to go!"

The Quidditch game was so much fun. Frank's dad had bought popcorn and candy for them, and they all cheered for the Arrows. They made up their own victory dance after they caught the snitch and won 300-200. Afterwards, Alice and Frank went to Paul Brendell's house. They sat around and played games and listened to the Weird Sisters and complained about school.

It was two weeks later when they were in Alice's backyard, looking up at the stars. "And that's Draco," Alice said. She was leaning towards him, her hair tickling his neck, her flowery scent filling his nostrils. "You see it?"

"Yeah," Frank said.

He propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at Alice. "How do you know all these?" he asked.

"My mum taught me most of them," Alice said. "We used to come out here all the time. My mum had this tent with an enchanted ceiling, like the Great Hall, and you could see all the stars."

"You don't do it anymore?" he asked.

Alice shrugged, looking up at the dark sky. "She's busy with work," she said. "Business isn't what it was before the war started, and dad's working a lot, too."

"What does your dad do again?" Frank asked.

"He works in the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures," Alice said. "But with veelas and dementors on You-Know-Who's side, he's always stressed..."

"I know what you mean," Frank said. His dad was on the Magical Law Enforcement Squad, and he worked long hours.

Alice paused. "It's freaky," she said. "This war. I mean...just the other week, my cousin was killed in a vampire attack."

"Your cousin?" Frank repeated. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Alice shrugged, avoiding his eyes. "I sometimes...reconsider becoming an Auror," she said.

"Why?" Frank said. "You'd be an amazing Auror."

"You're just saying that," Alice said.

"No, I'm not," Frank said. He touched her hand, and chills went up his spine. "You're...you're brave and smart. You'd do great."

Alice paused. "What if I mess up?" she asked.

"Alice," Frank said with a serious tone. "I'll be an Auror, too, so I'll make sure nothing happens to you."

There was a moment of silence. The summer breeze blew past them, her hair nearly getting in his mouth. He could hear his heart trying to escape his throat. She wrapped her hand around his, their fingers entwining. "You promise?" she said quietly.

"I promise," Frank replied. He leaned down a little bit. She turned her head to look into his eyes, and he kissed her.

There was a banging on Frank's door, interrupting his thoughts. "What?" he said. Of course his family had to come when he was thinking about one of the greatest nights of his life.

Augusta swung the door open. "There's a girl downstairs," she said. "I think it's that one you're dating."

"Mary?" Frank asked, getting off of his bed.

In his living room downstairs, Mary sat on the couch, petting his mum's cat. She looked out of place in his house. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

Mary stood up with a big smile on her face. "I wanted to see you," she said. "I thought I'd surprise you."

Frank stared at her as though she had grown an extra head. His mother walked into the room, a disapproving look on her face. "Mum, this is Mary," he said. "Mary, meet my mother, Augusta Longbottom."

"Hi," Mary said brightly. "Happy Christmas!"

Augusta nodded curtly. She gave Frank a look that clearly said, 'Get her out of here.'

"I was actually wondering if you wanted to come to a New Year's party at my house tonight," she said.

"It's New Year's Eve?" Frank asked. "Oh, hell, it is. Mum, can I go?"

"You're of age," Augusta said shortly. "Just be back by one."

"Cool!" Mary exclaimed. "Well, it starts at ten. Do you want to go get some dinner beforehand?"

Frank paused. He hated how Mary sprung things like this on him all the time. He really enjoyed her company, but he was starting to think she was too much for him. "Let's go up to my room, and I'll see if I have any money," he said.

"Okay," Mary said.

The two of them walked upstairs, and Frank still couldn't get Alice out of his head.

--

A/N: Sorry that took me a while to post! Thank you for the reviews! Keep reviewing, please, I love the feedback :)

Next chapter (which I'll post before I go to Europe in July woot) our characters trek through Mary's New Years Eve party. James copes with being in the same house with Lily, we find out a few dark secrets about Mary's family, Frank and Alice talk, but the party does not end well when the war rears its ugly head shortly after midnight.