A/N: Hey guys! I'm sick. . And I'm writing my own story right now that I hope, when I'm finished, gets published. So, I'm a bit busy. (Yeah. Busy being sick and writing a story. What do you think you're doing here? YOU'RE BEING SICK AND WRITING A STORY!) And I'm writing this story listening to The Ready Set. Letting you know. So, thank you Jordan for making such wonderful music I can write to!
Chapter 23
McKinnon Sister, Matilda, DEAD
Matilda McKinnon, who is the older sister of the recently deceased Grace McKinnon, has recently died. Matilda was a muggleborn witch that worked in the Ministry of Magic. Another one dead. It could only be the works of He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Mentioned. They died within ten days of each other. Condolences to the family. (Read more on page 20).
I put down the paper and just looked at Lily. They had a black and white picture of Grace and Matilda smiling and laughing at each other. It moved, replaying Grace and Matilda falling on each other laughing, their curls bouncing over each other, their eyes that mirrored in each other's faces showed glints of life. But now both their lives were both over. Lily's green eyes looked sad.
"I just got here…" I said.
"I know. But I thought you should know…" She said. I shook my head and then I realized she was holding a fishbowl with a flower floating on the surface of the water.
"What's that?" I asked pointing at the fishbowl without the fish. She smiled.
"It's for Professor Slughorn… It's his Christmas present."
"But… There isn't a fish…"
"The flower is going to float down into the water and turn into a fish. Magic!" she said.
"Why Professor Slughorn? Is it because he invites you to all those parties? Is it because he gave me detention earlier in the year?" I asked, remembering that. Hmph. I was still upset although it felt like ages ago. I mean, I love Potions. I excel at it. It's just that for some reason Professor Slughorn has always hated me. I think it's 'cause Sirius and I are friends. Go figure. It seems like a lot of people hate me because I'm friends with Sirius. Professor Slughorn, Carley the evil Hufflepuff, and now his cousin, Bellatrix. Yay me.
"Noo! It's because he's a good teacher and I'm going to miss him when we graduate out this place," said Lily.
"Yeah, and become a journalist for the Daily Prophet," I pointed out. She smiled.
"Hopefully!"
"Definitely." Her smile got bigger.
"So…" I said, wondering if she got a present for her ever so colorful best friend.
"I also got James something, but you mustn't tell him," she said, her eyes glowing. I nodded my head, encouraging her to tell me.
"First, I got him socks, just because he told me not to get him something lame like socks… And then see if he'll lie to me and say he 'loves' it. And then, I got him a new broom! It was a lot of money," she said. I smiled; James was going to love her more than ever. She blushed.
"Well, he was complaining to me in a letter about how he really needed a new broom… But that's not it," she said, her eyes twinkling, "I also got him this." She held up what looked like a sparkly egg.
"Uh…" I said dumbfounded, "What is it…?"
"It's a decorative egg," she said proudly.
"Well, I can see that…" It was painted in a velvet color with a gold, shimmering griffin in the front. On the bottom of it, to hold it up, was a gold stand. She shook her head and smiled. Then she waved her wand over it. The egg opened up revealing a hologram of what looked like Lily and James dancing in a sparkling field. My jaw dropped.
"It's so…beautiful!" I exclaimed watching as the hologram Lily threw back her head and laughed at something James had said as he twirled her around. You could see the love in both of their eyes. The real Lily blushed.
"It's… It's my favorite memory so far…" she said, blushing.
"James would love this…" I said smiling at her. She smiled back.
"And, he could put any memory he wants to put in it," she said, "It's all just an enchantment anyway… Except for the decorative egg…"
"Did you make it?"
"Well… Sort of…" I looked at her confused.
"I sort of also used magic to decorate the egg…"
I laughed at her.
Sirius' POV
"Did you see the Daily Prophet?" I asked James handing it to him. He read over it and collapsed on the couch.
"I just hope my dad's going to be safe…" sighed James. His dad was the Minister of magic.
"Of course he would be. Voldemort is only targeting muggleborns and half-bloods. Your dad is a pure-blood," I pointed out.
"Well, yeah, but people might get mad at him. Because he can't do anything to stop it," said James.
"Didn't know you cared so much about your dad," I smiled at him. He rolled his eyes and pushed me off the arm of the couch. I laughed as I landed on the floor. Remus and Peter came up then.
"Merry Christmas!" cried Peter, his watery black eyes glowing.
"What's up with you, Peter?" asked James.
"Yeah. You look…happy…" I said slowly trying to put a name to this emotion Peter was having. Peter scowled.
"What's wrong with being happy?" he asked crossing his arms. Remus laughed, his gold eyes twinkling.
"Bethany Clearwater from Ravenclaw said 'hi' to him as we came into the castle," said Remus, revealing Peter's secret.
"Clearwater eh?" I asked. I knew her. She had shiny brown hair, but dull brown eyes. Peter blushed, his face turning the color of Arthur Weasley's hair.
"It's just rare for a girl to say hi to me…" he mumbled.
"Oh we know, Wormy," I laughed. James laughed along with me. Remus just smiled, amused.
"You did say hi back right?" asked James after a little while of us calming down. Peter blushed and started mumbling to himself.
"She said 'Hi Peter!' and then his face turned the color red his face is now and he said 'Bethany Clearwater hi! Was how Christmas your?' And she sort of stared at him and halfway smiled and said 'what?' And Peter ran away yelling 'NEVER MIND!'" said Remus for Peter. That just started another chorus of laughter. James and I sort of fell on top of each other and Peter just stood there looking angry.
"If all you're going to do is laugh at me, I'm just going to leave. I have homework to be done," said Peter hotly. There were a series of "Aw! C'mon Pete!" "We didn't mean it!" "She probably thought it was cute anyway!" "Yeah! Girls are into the whole mumbling stumbling thing!" "Don't be mad!" "WE LOVE YOU!" "Like Bethany Clearwater," whispered James. Then we all started laughing again. Peter shook his head angrily and walked to the other side of the common room. But we knew he forgave us already, because there was a slight smile tugging on the edges of his lips.
"So, Sirius, tell me if this is a good enough present to give Lily," said James, looking nervous…for once.
"You got her a present?"
"Well, we've been going out for about a month… So, I figured I had to get her a Christmas present. I mean, I've always given her Christmas presents anyway, but those presents were meant to annoy her…" I laughed.
"Like the flower that squirted slime in her face… Oh, she HATED you after that because it got into her hair!" I laughed, remembering. James smiled, also remembering.
"Then she only referred to me as that 'bloody git' for over a month…"
"Anyway, you got her a present? A real present this time?" I asked.
"Yeah. Here, let me show you," said James. He held up an egg. A decorative egg. I just stared at it.
"It's a decorative egg…"
"I can see that," I said slowly. It was white with two eyes on it. The eyes were lined with dark lashes and there were emeralds for the irises.
"Are those real?" I asked pointing at the eyes.
"The emeralds? Yeah," answered James. I whistled low.
"Going all out aren't ya?" I teased.
"Shut up. There's more," said James. He waved his wand over it and the egg opened up revealing a hologram of Lily grabbing James angrily and then smiling. And then…kissing. James was blushing like crazy as he closed the egg and the hologram disappeared.
"There are more memories than that. It's like a slide show… But, I don't want you to see them."
"Was that your first kiss?" I teased some more, pretending to go starry eyed.
"Shut up! Just tell me if she'll like it or not," he asked, his hazel eyes narrowing angrily. I laughed.
"I don't know. Ask a bird*," I said. (*Bird is sometimes referred to as a girl.) I got up and grabbed the nearest girl, which was Claudia.
"Will Lily like this?" I asked. I motioned James to open up the egg.
"It's just an- OOH! AWWW! That's adorable! Of course Lily would like it!" exclaimed Claudia going all starry eyed.
"'Kay, thanks," I said sort of pushing Claudia back over to her group of friends. She started gushing about what James got Lily.
"You know, I don't think it was a good idea to tell Claudia what I got Lily… Lily's going to know before I even give it to her!" James exclaimed. I motioned for him to stop talking.
"What am I going to know?" asked Lily, standing behind James, smiling.
Fayre's POV
"…Lily's going to know before I even give it to her!" we heard James exclaim. Lily and I looked at each other quizzically.
"What am I going to know?" asked Lily.
"LILY!" shouted James. He started to breathe hard, "Merlin! You scared me!"
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" she cried throwing her arms around him, her eyes twinkling like a little girl on Christmas day.
"Merry Christmas," he said warmly. She kissed his cheek and then walked around and sat between Sirius and James.
"I got you three presents," she said. James gulped as I sat down on the floor next to Remus.
"You got me…three?" he asked. Remus chuckled silently beside me.
"He only got her one present," he whispered into my ear. I started giggling then. Lily nodded her head.
"Mhmm. Me first," she said. She handed him the first present, taking it out of her enchanted bag. James unwrapped it and just looked at it.
"Socks…" he said slowly. We all started to laugh. Lily had a straight face.
"Do you love them?" she asked. He looked into her emerald eyes and gulped.
"Uhh… Well… Uhh… They're very…uh…nice socks…"
"But do you love them?" He sighed.
"Oh yes! I love white socks! They're so- No, I can't. I hate them. This is the worst present you have ever given me, sunshine," said James shaking his head and running a hand through his messy black hair.
"What did you call me?" asked Lily.
"I'm sorry! It just slipped out! It's just that you're like sunshine to me. Warm and comfortable. Bright. Happy. You make me happy. Like sunshine. So it just sort of slipped out… I'm sorry… I'll call you Evans…"
"No! I love it! That's the cutest thing you have ever said to me!" cried Lily throwing her arms around his neck. He looked surprised and just hugged her back.
"So, uh, Lily… Was this my actual present?" asked James. She laughed and shook her head.
"No, that was a test present," she said.
"Did I pass?"
"No. You failed horribly," she said seriously.
"But-I-but-"
"You were supposed to lie and tell me what I wanted to hear," she said crossing her arms, a slight smile appearing on her lips as she watched James all flustered.
"But, I thought it'd be bad to lie. Relationships are based on trust…"
"That's true. But I bought you this. So, you should be happy. Because it was a thoughtful present."
"But, it wasn't REALLY a thoughtful present. It was a test present. So, technically I passed," said James, a twinkle in his eye. Lily just opened her mouth and closed it. She didn't know what to say. So she just took out the next present from her enchanted bag.
"A broom!" cried James, his eyes glowing.
"You love it?" she asked.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! I love you!" he said hugging the broom. Lily just shook her head and looked over at me mouthing 'boys'.
"There's one more," she said.
"I have a present for you too."
"Then let's give to each other at the same time. Okay? One."
"Two."
"THREE!" they both shouted. Then they handed each other the gift. When the unwrapped them, they both stared at their gifts.
They were both holding decorative eggs. Then they looked up at each other and laughed.
They were so cute it hurt.
While they were off in their little world looking at all the memories the other put into their decorative eggs, Sirius handed me a velvet box. Is he proposing? Of course he's not you idiot. I wish he were… Don't we all?
"Open it. It's your Christmas present," said Sirius. I took it from him and opened the velvet box. Inside was a necklace and on the necklace was an ebony wolf that would look at me and then smile goofily. It's eyes were silver grey. I think I started to cry because then Sirius looked worried.
"Are you okay? I'm sorry! Do you not like it? Why are you crying?" he asked not knowing what to do.
"This is the best gift you have ever given me, Sirius," I said sniffling. I clasped the necklace around me neck and the big ebony wolf that kept turning and smiling goofily rested on the hollow of my neck.
"I got you a present too," I said. I handed it to him. It was a white flower at the moment.
"It's enchanted. It can turn into any object you want it to turn into. Besides weapons of destruction though, and the color changes to whatever color my hair is that day… So, when you don't see me, we can still be connected," I said slowly. He smiled looking at the flower, and then engulfed me into a tight hug.
"Thanks," he whispered. Then he turned the flower into a griffin pin. It was a white griffin and he stuck it to his black robes. It shimmered.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews by the way! I really love reading them. MissHaleyBlack's was beautiful. It made me feel so loved. I'm not going to answer any of them right now though because I think I'm going to puke… Too much information I know. I hoped you liked this chapter. It was sort of a cutesy chapter wasn't it?
REVIEW BECAUSE YOU LOVE CUTESY THINGS!
REVIEW BECAUSE YOU WANT ME TO FEEL BETTER!
REVIEW BECAUSE YOU JUST LOVE THIS STORY!
Review because you want cake right now...
XOXOXO,
Innocently Beautiful