OKAY SO MY LAST TWO VERSIONS OF THIS STORY HAVE POSTED INCORRECTLY. PLEASE READ THIS ONE, AND I AM SO SORRY FOR WASTING YOUR TIME.
Hello, lads and ladies, and I am happy to say that I am back! I just got back from vacation, and I am ready to write in full force. I start band today, too, though, so that will take away some of my evening writing time. But I promise I'll write a little bit every day, and I'll have chapters out in a more timely manner.
I really am sorry for the wait, guys. I'm going to try really hard from now on to keep the wait between chapters less than a week or week and a half.
Thanks to my dearest darling honorary-marauder-1, who is the best beta in the entire world. She's writing an excellent Jily fic called How To Move On 101 and I would highly recommend it, because it is beautiful.
Anyways, on to the chapter. Thanks for sticking around, guys. Love you all, and please, please, please review.
"Hey, you ready to go?"
James' head poked through Lily's door, finding her in the corner of the room. After church, Mr. Evans had somberly shut himself in his music studio, from whence the trickling notes of "Stardust" floated up two flights of stairs. James had found out from Lily why he hated Christmas Day so much- it was his wife's favorite day on earth, and it was the day his sister had been killed by a drunk driver. After all he had been through, James admired his chipper outlook the rest of the year.
Lily smiled back at him, leaning her head against the papered wall. "Yeah, I'll be right out. This is the last track on the Bach record."
He walked over to the wall she was leaning on and sat down beside her. "You might want to bring a spare set of clothes. We live on the coast and it's already late in the day, and the weather's sort of unpredictable this time of year. We might have to stick the night out there."
"Yeah, sure. Get out of my room and let me listen to my lord and savior in peace. I'll meet you by Bertha in ten."
"Aye aye, captain."
-x-x-x-
Lily started to get suspicious halfway through the first hour.
"Potter, you had better not be taking me on one of your hairbrained adventures again, or I swear-"
"Why, my dearest Lily-flower, whatever would lead you to that assumption?"
"Um, how about the fact that we've been driving for over an hour when you told me you lived near Exeter."
"I told you I lived near the coast."
"Yeah. Exmouth. At the beginning of the trip, you told me you lived near Exeter, and Exmouth is near the sea, and Exeter."
"Actually, what I told you was that Exeter was on my way home."
"So you led me on."
"I may have exaggerated a tiny bit."
"A tiny bit."
"An infinitesimal bit. Anyways, I live in St. Ives."
"That's not near here! It's more than two hours away!"
"Ah, Exeter is on the way. So I wasn't lying."
"You're ridiculous."
"You flatter me."
"Can we cut the flirting?"Sirius's bored voice rang out from the backseat. "You guys don't have to pretend to be dating anymore."
Lily and James blushed, looking away from each other. "We weren't flirting," Lily protested weakly.
"Sure you weren't. Now cut the romantic bullcrap and let a man listen to Van Halen in peace."
-x-x-x-
"Um, Lily?"
"Yes, James?"
"Before we get to my house, I'd like to tell you something."
She looked at him sharply. "You didn't bring me here so we could hide a body, did you?"
"No, I did not."
"A pity, that, because I'd be pretty good at it."
"I have no doubt. But-"
Lily waved him aside. "Holy shit, James, look at that."
Before them, a large, stone, almost castle-like building had risen out of the horizon. Situated on the sandy coast of the Atlantic ocean, the house was built out of enormous stone blocks, piled on each other until the house reached four stories. The roof had windows jutting out every few feet, and the Union Jack flew from a flagpole as tall as the building itself.
"How has enough money to live there?" Lily wondered in amazement.
"Er, I do," James said, shifting uncomfortably.
Lily turned to look at him, eyes wide and mouth slightly parted. For one awful moment, James thought that Lily was going to laugh at him- but instead, she turned around to look at Sirius. "Black, is this one of Potter's pranks?"
"No, ma'am."
Lily turned around and sat silently for a minute as James parked the van in front of the enormous house. When she finally spoke, it was the opposite of what James expected.
"Why do you drive this hunk of junk if you've got enough money to buy a Maserati?"
"Be nice to Bertha! And I don't need a flashy car."
"That contradicts everything I know about you."
He shrugged. "I got Bertha when I was eighteen and heading out to university. School was fine because I went to a private one, and everyone who goes there was loaded. So being rich wasn't a big deal there. But most people are normal, middle-class folks, and I didn't want to stand out because I was rich; I wanted to stand out because I was me."
She smiled and got out of the car, looking up in wonderment at the house. "Well, I think you've done a pretty good job."
-x-x-x-
A little more than an hour later, Lily had settled into the room James had showed her to, a guest room of a pale blue with white-finished furniture and a balcony. Treading lightly around, she took in the opulent settings around her. A terrible thought struck her, hitting her so hard she stopped walking altogether.
This is where James lives. Our home must have seemed so small and insignificant to him. Nothing I could ever do or have can measure up to this- I am only a low middle-class girl who got into the university on scholarship.
Don't be ridiculous, said a small but strong voice in the back of her mind. You were with James the whole time, and he seemed absolutely delighted with my home and my father and Cokeworth altogether. Just because he's rich doesn't mean he looks down on others; that's not James' style. At least I grew up with warm parents, his are gone so often. Imagine growing up in this place taking care of yourself.
With a shiver, Lily trod on to find James.
-x-x-x-
She found Sirius in the second floor library, poring over some architecture tome on the sofa. She collapsed next to him, letting out a sigh of exhaustion.
"Jeez, this place gives you a workout. James put me on some room on the fourth floor, and I checked every single room from there to here looking for one of you."
Sirius laughed, looking up from his book. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Pete and Remus and James and I have been playing hide-and-go seek here for years, and it's a nightmare trying to find anyone."
"Didn't you guys meet when you were eleven?"
Sirius looked hurt. "Are you saying that we're too old to play hide-and-seek? I would say you are wrong. It is one of the joys of this world and fun has no age limit."
Lily laughed along with him. "Sure, Sirius. Whatever you say." She looked around. "Are you sure Mr. And Mrs. Potter would be okay with my being here?"
"Are you kidding? They've heard so much about you, they feel like you're family already."
"What?"
"Nothing, never mind. Anyways, the Potter home is always open to anyone, they want James to have folks around while they're not."
"Where is James, anyways?"
Sirius wrinkled his nose distastefully and started flipping through his book again. "Up there."
Up there, as it turned out, was up two flights of stairs and one fold-out ladder to the Potter's expansive attic, where Lily found James rooting around a corner full of boxes. Before she could even ask what he was doing, he shoved a large stack of cardboard containers unceremoniously into her arms. Peeking around the teetering tower and coughing from the layer of dust that had rested on the surface of each box, Lily looked at James confusedly.
"Um, James?"
"Yes, Lily?"
"May I ask what the hell is going on? You've been missing for two hours, and when I finally find you you're covered in a half-inch of dust and surrounded by a sea of boxes a mile wide. What's going on?"
He let out a puff of air and ran his fingers through his already disheveled hair. "Well, Remus has been in Australia since the beginning of December, right? He undoubtedly did not have a good Christmas, since he had a surgery and is now on a twenty-four hour flight to London- with a layover in America, of all places. So we are going to throw his a kick-ass Christmas, complete with gifts, singing, and Christmas dinner, and exquisite decorations. So, I'm looking for the garland that usually goes on the grand staircase, and in the process, I found a bunch of old decorations we can use to make this place look really holiday-y." He noticed the half-smile that had curled Lily's mouth slightly upwards. "What?"
"Nothing. It's just… really sweet the way you four care for each other."
He grinned cheerily. "They're my family. I'd do anything to make any of them happy. So, what do you say? I know you guys don't really do Christmas past Christmas Eve, but would you help me make Remus's holiday season?"
"I wish you had told me sooner," Lily said reproachfully.
James frowned worriedly, biting his lip. "I'm sorry, you don't have to do this if you don't want to, I can give you Bertha's keys and you can spend Christmas with your family, I'm so sorry, I didn't think this through and I should have realized that I can't just drag you places without warning-"
Lily laughed, cutting him off. "No, it's just that I didn't bring any of my Christmas sweaters."
James' rich laughter joined hers. "I think we can scare something up. Now, I'll take these and also get Sirius- he hates the attic but he loves Christmas. He'll help decorate."
James left Lily in the middle of a dusty old attic, surrounded by boxes and decorations and the scent of Christmas and James.
Lily thought she had never been happier.
-x-x-x-
Four hours later brought a house bedecked within an inch of its life and three very tired students. The staircases were draped with garland, candles shone in every window, and wherever wreaths, holly, and, at the insistence of Sirius, mistletoe, could be hung, they were.
But the crowning glory were the trees.
James had left about halfway through and came back with no less than ten Christmas trees. There was one in the entrance, the library, the kitchen, the living room, the game room, and one in each of their own rooms, including Lily and Remus'. Sirius had even put a small artificial tree in each of the bathrooms.
At James' insistence, a great deal of care had been lavished on each of these trees, the personal ones in particular. James spent a significant amount of time long after the other two holiday decorators had moved on to adorning the hallways.
After their holiday decorations had been strewn in every nook, cranny, and crevice of the house, the three Christmas elves had split. Lily, however, was restless, and set out to find James.
Somehow, she knew he would be on the roof. To her, he seemed like such an open-air person- and he loved flying so much, she knew he would want to be as near to the sky as he could be. So she stood hesitantly outside his bedroom door to find his balcony- she knew he would have a way up there. With a final click, James' bedroom door swung open, and Lily went inside.
It was just as she thought it would look like- NOT that she'd spent time imagining what James' bedroom would look like, of course- but it looked like he did. The walls were a deep forest green, but were covered almost completely in posters of rock bands, so you could hardly tell. In a corner sat a drumset, as well as a marimba and vibraphone, much to her surprise. In another corner an enormous plush armchair was nestled between two large bookshelves, all stuffed with books. Large windows lined one wall, and a large bed was positioned to one side. Over the bed, pictures of James and his friends were taped up. Lily moved closer to see. One was of James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter, all much younger, in front of their school. Another was of their band, the Marauders, during the end-of-school concert series the year before. All four boys had looks of concentration on their faces, but were clearly enjoying themselves and the energy from the excited crowd.
Another picture was of James and two adults Lily didn't recognize, but who looked enough like James that she knew they were his parents. Another was a photo of James with a large, goofy grin, holding up a sign in front of an airplane that said, "First Solo Flight Completed!".
Then Lily saw herself.
There was a picture that a kind old lady had taken of them in front of York Minster- with both boys' arms slung around her shoulder and shot mid-laugh. Another was a picture James had snapped while she was giving out Christmas gifts, with her smiling and pointing finger guns at the camera. With a chuckle, she saw the picture James had taken of her with a milkshake mustache in front of Exeter Cathedral.
Lily walked out the sliding glass doors to the balcony, smirking when she saw a swinging rope ladder scaling the sides of the house. And to her immense satisfaction, a pair of gangly legs swung rhythmically over the side of the roof.
She climbed up and laid down on the roof next to James, not saying anything, but just looking up at the stars. After about ten minutes, James spoke.
"Lily, why are you doing this?"
Lily looked over, confused. "What?"
"Why are you studying to do something with your life that isn't your dream?"
She scowled. "Education is a perfectly acceptable field."
"Of course it is, but is it right for you?"
She looked over at him. His face was morose and melancholy, and his hazel eyes were fixed on Lily from behind his square-framed glasses.
"You could still honor your mom- teach music, Lily. You're a wonderful musician, and your sister isn't a good reason to do something you don't love. And really, will your sister ever be satisfied with what you do?"
Lily felt herself getting irrationally angry. "You don't know what's going on in our family," she snapped.
"I never said-"
"Who are you to tell me what I should be doing with my life, jeez? You spend your days pranking and goofing off- at least I have a goal."
"Lily, I-"
"No! Spending a couple of days with my family is not enough to tell me what I want and what my sister wants and you can shut your face. I am going into education, and you don't know me well enough to tell me otherwise."
"Lily, please-"
"I don't want to be here right now."
"Lily, wait, please-"
Lily climbed down the rope ladder and ran out of James' room- past the pictures of him and his family and his friends and her- past the bed and the book case and his stupid drumset. She could hear him trying to get down the ladder, and she veered to the right, hoping against hope it was the way to her room.
Lily stomped into her room, slamming the door behind her. She threw herself onto the large bed, pressed a pillow to her face and screamed.
She kept it there long after she was done screaming. She didn't want to face the world, or James, or her sister, or the thought of giving up music to be a teacher. Breathing deeply, she eased her face up and caught sight of the softly glowing Christmas tree James had lavished such attention on. She got up from the bed and padded over to the tree.
It was a tall, sort of thin Christmas tree- Lily had picked it out from the ten James got because it was a little strangely shaped, but had beautiful, soft, full needles. Jsmes had wrapped the tree in small, yellowish-gold lights, with small, star-like garland around it.
What was the best, however, was the ornaments.
When she had first seen James sit down by the entrance hall tree with a stack of scrapbooking paper and scissors, she had laughed at him. However, he had just wiggled his eyebrows and responded, "I couldn't find the ornaments and this is all I can do. Give a man a break."
Lily's was covered in music notes and cars, candy canes- and to her amusement, origami lilies. She touched the paper French horn James had carefully folded and creased and hung on her tree. She rubbed the paper gently, looking at the tree James had spent close to an hour on just for her.
Was I too hard on him? He was probably just trying to help after all- but I guess that after all those years of fighting left me with an overreaction trigger when it comes to James. I should probably go apologize.
No, he's probably angry at me, too. Maybe I should just let it rest overnight and apologize in the morning. Yeah, I'll do that.
Although Lily went to bed, she spent hours gazing at the tree in the corner of the blue room, wondering how she could take all the things she said back.
In the other wing of the house, there was a sad young man wondering the exact same thing.