Author's Notes: I wanted to let you all know that I split all the my oneshots up so they are individual stories now instead of one story. I also put up a new one, very sad, about James, Lily and Harry that I hope you all go read. Also, I think I am giving up on my Beta. I never meant to post the chapter this late but she has yet to get back to me so… please excuse any minor grammar mistakes. If you notice any big mistake, please let me know.

Merdarkandtwisty: It's not that Rose inherited her father's skill on a broom. It's more like she has Hermione's stubbornness. When she was young and the boys said she couldn't play Quidditch cause she was a girl, well, she had to prove them wrong, didn't she?

Gome949: Lily felt guilty for ruining the entire date; she only meant to embarrass James, not for the girl to completely walk out on him. She assumed that James' being there with all his disinterest in the girl in front of him meant he was there to spy on Frank and Race, and she was already getting the feeling that James liked her. So to make James feel a bit better, she tried to ruin Race and Frank's date, knowing that one more incident would turn Race OFF from Frank and perhaps on to James?

PassionatelyFeline: Thank you. But… GASP. You think Hugo is quiet and well behaved? Oh, no! I'm clearly not doing a very good job at including him; he's very much like his father in personality. That's the problem with these next generation fics. There are so many characters, it's hard to have Lily interact and develop a genuine relationship with all of them, not even including the characters I created! I seemed to have dropped Hugo in order to develop Lily's relationship with Emily and Olivia… hm… perhaps I need to add some cousin bonding time.

Also thanks to ISNAS, angelsea, and juliagoolia!

Chapter 8: Christmas at Godric's Hollow

The final few days before Christmas went by in a hazy red and green blur. Some teaches, such as McGonagall and Robards, had them working until the very last minute. Others let the students have a bit more fun. The first years spent one very enjoyable lesson trying to make the toy soldiers Flitwick provided march and dance. No one had been able to, as Flitwick predicted, but they all still had fun, especially since they got to keep their toy soldier.

Lily was about to enter the Great Hall for dinner, nearly late because she had been discussing her latest Defense Against the Dark Arts paper with Professor Robards when Lorcan left the Great Hall. The two literally bumped into each other, swaying on the spot. Lily almost fell but was caught by the small hand that wrapped around her wrist. She grinned at Lorcan.

"Thanks,"

"No problem," Lorcan replied, a faint blush rising in his cheeks.

"Where are you going?" She asked, although Lily had a feeling she already knew the answer.

"Library." He responded as Lily thought. He shrugged. "I wasn't very hungry."

"You're so peaky," Lily teased, grabbing at his small waist. Lorcan laughed breathlessly with her, his eyes suddenly shining. Lily drew her hands back slowly, oddly feeling as if something had suddenly changed between them. Two glanced around, slightly uncomfortable, Lily's eyes looking up the same time Lorcan's did.

There, above them, was a small twig of mistletoe, glittering harmlessly in the light. Lily flushed deep red and glanced at Lorcan. He glanced back at her, questioningly, and Lily replied with a squeak and began staring determinedly at her shoes.

"Lily?" He said softly. "You know what this means."

Lily looked up slowly, nodding. Wondering whether she wanted her first kiss to be with the shy, awkward friend in front of her or the cool, suave-- well, she wouldn't call them friends—Slytherin, but Lily had no time to decide. Lorcan had leaned forward slowly.

Lily leaned forward as well, closing her eyes as their lips met.

It was an innocent kiss, as all kisses at that age were, but even so, as Lily and Lorcan drew apart quickly, she couldn't help but flush as she realized she had her first kiss, the first of all her friends to do so—well, except Lorcan. He smiled shyly at her before hurrying off towards the library without another word. Lily followed his example and took off into the Great Hall so quickly that she stumbled over her robes.

Ignoring the snickers from the Ravenclaws as she stood and dust herself off, she practically ran to the Gryffindor table, threw herself down between Olivia and Emily and with a huff, let her head flop down onto to the table with a resolute thunk.

"Hello, sunshine!" Olivia said brightly. Lily glowered at her.

Meanwhile, Scorpius sat stock still, staring into the entrance of the Great Hall. Apparently, Lily hadn't realized that everyone in the hall could see her snog her little boyfriend. He frowned, looking about. Only a few other people seemed to have notice the kiss, and had already moved on. Well, fine. Mumbling angrily to himself, he began to stab at his food with such a vengeance that Newt frowned.

"What's that pork chop ever done to you?" He whispered dramatically as their fellow sixth years around them laughed. Daisy Parkinson gave a particularly high shrill that sent a shudders through Scorpius' spine. Silencing them all with a glare, he refused to look back over his shoulder but continued to moodily eat his food.

"What's wrong?" Emily was asking. Always the concerned one, she forced Lily to sit up, made her a plate with far too much hearty food, and sat it down in front of her. "Eat before it gets cold. Tell us, what's wrong?"

Hugo and Lysander, sitting across from the three girls, were listening in. Lily just shook her head and said, "I just tripped in front of the whole Ravenclaw table and went sprawling to the floor."

As predicted, Olivia and Hugo laughed loudly while Emily tutted and Lysander reached across the table and patted her on the hand.

"It's really no big deal," Lysander said, returning to his own plate of food. "You probably just got tripped by a Jinglespur Wraxley. They're all over the place,"

Olivia, who still was not used to Lysander's strange imagination, asked the question they were all wondering, "What's a Junglespur Wraxley?"

"Jinglespur Wraxley. It's a long, thin animal, almost like a snake, only it has two legs, one on each end of it. It's brown and they like to live in crowded places, often causing people to trip over their body as they tend to blend into wood flooring. They love to live in Hogwarts. I tripped over one on the way to Charms the other day,"

"Lysander, your trainer was untied, you tripped over the lace," Olivia pointed out but Lysander seemed not to hear her and continued to eat his salad.

Lily nodded absentmindedly as she stared at Emily, giving her the look, meaning that they needed to talk later—without the boys.

Lily had tried to make the girls leave before the boys in hopes of talking to them on the walk back but Olivia insisted on waiting. The five walked back together and every time they rounded the corner, Lily practically jumped.

"Lily, what is wrong with you?" Olivia asked as they climbed through the portrait.

"N-nothing," she replied, immediately heading to their usual chairs by the fireplace but upon seeing Lorcan already sitting there, turned sharply in the other direction and crashed into Lysander.

"Where are you going? Lorcan's got our seats," He gestured towards his brother. As the twins met eyes, Lorcan shook his head vigorously. "Oh, um—"

"That's fine!" Lily squeaked in a high-pitched voice, grabbing a hold of Olivia and Emily's robes. "We'll just sit over here! Bye!"

And with that, she dragged the two girls to the completely opposite side of the common and squished into the corner.

"Lily Potter, what is going on?" Olivia exclaimed. "Explain."

"Okay," Lily sat on the edge of her seat and glanced over at the boys. Hugo and Lysander were seated around Lorcan, who also seemed to be sitting nervously in his chair. "It's Lorcan,"

"What about him?"

"We kind of sort maybe could have kissed," The words tumbled out of Lily's mouth, and she hoped that perhaps her friends wouldn't understand but already Olivia and Emily's mouth dropped open and their eyes widened.

"What?!"

"You're joking,"

"Lorcan?!"

Stealing a quick glance at the boys, Lysander's mouth was completely open, and his blue eyes were wider than usual. Hugo's face was a mix between astonishment, admiration and disgust. It would have been amusing if Lily didn't know they were discussing her.

"There was mistletoe," Lily said quietly, staring at her feet. "I didn't know what to do! One second we were just standing there talking, like normal, and next he kissed me!"

"Wow," Emily breathed. "How romantic. What was it like?"

Olivia snorted and answered before Lily could, "Awkward. It's Lorcan."

"Lorcan is very nice!" Lily said shrilly and much louder than intended. The boys glanced at them. She blushed, lowering her voice, "And you're supposed to be his friend."

"What? I was just being honest!"

"Well, it wasn't very nice," Emily poked Olivia who mumbled something that sounded like an apology. "That's quite alright. Now, Lily, do you like him?"

Emily stared at Lily, a knowing look in her kind, brown eyes.

"No, I don't think so," She replied. "I mean, I'm only eleven!"

"So?" And again, Emily had this look on her face and Lily couldn't help but think of Scorpius and what Emily thought was going on there. Lily wasn't even sure of that herself.

"No, definitely not. I'm not interested in boys yet," Lily sat up straighter, crossing her arms "And Scorpius and I are just friends!"

"Wait, I'm confused. Who said anything about Scorpius?" Olivia asked, glancing between Lily and Emily who were still engaged in their staring match.

"I didn't mention him," Emily's eyes twinkled mischievously.

"Em, you are pure evil," Lily responded.

---

Lily thought she was lucky for the kiss happening the last day before break but that was before the train ride home. The boys and girls hadn't run into each other at breakfast nor had they been in the same carriage on the way to Hogsmeade station. However, once they began to board the train, Olivia followed the boys, who had exited the carriage in front of them.

"Olivia!" Lily hissed, grabbing her robes and jerking her head towards Hugo, Lorcan and Lysander. Olivia rolled her eyes while Emily grabbed Lily's arm and began to drag her towards where the three boys were sitting.

"Lily, you two are going to have to face each other at some point. We're all friends. You can't avoid him forever. You kissed, you'll just have to get over it," She said, marching the sullen Lily down the corridor of the train. Olivia opened the door to the compartment while Emily shoved Lily in.

"Hi," She squeaked out. Emily poked her in the back and Lily stumbled in, taking a cautious seat next to Hugo.

Hugo waved, Lysander merely nodded and Lorcan made a face that was a cross between a smile and a grimace. As Olivia and Emily settled in, Olivia already picking a fight with Hugo over something, Lily pulled out her Charms textbook to read ahead. She glanced up before settling in to read and noticed Lorcan doing the exact same thing. The two smiled slightly, blushing, before hastily shoving their noses into their large books. The two remained silent as the rest of their friends kept the conversation flowing. There was an awkward tension in the car, but it was so small that Lily thought she could ignore it easily for the ride and began to relax until Hugo decided to open his mouth.

"Lils, you've been awfully quiet this whole ride," He said through a mouthful of chocolate frog. Lily jumped, having been completely engrossed in the Summoning Charm.

"Oh. Yeah, I guess I have been," she mumbled, staring at her book in hopes of Hugo getting the hint.

"Why?"

"I'm reading, dingbat," She pointed to her book. "And I'd like to get back to reading, if you don't mind."

"Is it because you and Lorcan kissed?" All of a sudden that miniscule tension that had existed increased a tenfold, exploding into the compartment and laying in the air heavily. Emily was glaring at Hugo, Olivia was shaking her head. Lysander was looking back and forth between Lorcan and Lily so quickly that he was sure to get a crick in his neck. Lorcan was blushing so furiously that he matched Lily's hair. Lily's mouth was opening and closing as she tried to say something but nothing came out. Finally, her cheeks turning red, she jumped out from her seat.

"Bathroom," she mumbled and practically ran out of her seat and into the corridor, slamming the door behind her.

Stupid, stupid Hugo! Fuming and cursing him, she had no choice now but to wander the train as she absolutely refused to go back to her compartment until the very last second. Aimlessly, she headed towards the bathroom. As she approached the door, it opened and a friendly figure appeared.

"Ah! Miss Lily! What a pleasure," Newt jumped upon seeing her, bowing grandly. Lily couldn't help but smiling despite wanting to continue moping.

"'Lo, Newt."

"Bathroom?" He stepped out of her way, holding the door open for her but Lily shook her head. "Oh. Just here to admire the view, then?"

"No," Lily shook her head again. "I was sitting with my friends, but my cousin is an idiot and –" Newt put his hand up, silencing her.

"Say no more," He said, putting an arm around her shoulder and leading her farther down the corridor. "We all have a stupid cousin. Mine personally is Wanda." He shuddered. "Granted, she's only ten, but man, she is nasty,"

Lily giggled against her will, her mood already lifting. It was hard to stay upset around Newt; his upbeat quirkiness was contagious. He stopped in front of a door to a compartment and Lily had a split second to realize where he had taken her before he slid open the door.

"Tada! You can sit with us instead!"

Us was a compartment of third year Slytherins, including none other than Scorpius. Lily groaned. All three of them looked up at Newt's dramatic entrance, wearing identical skeptical, haughty looks as they glanced at Lily. Newt seemed to not notice this as he pushed Lily inside the compartment and into the seat next to Scorpius as he sat across from her.

"Guys, this is Lily. She's gonna be sitting with us for a bit,"

"Why?" asked the girl with a pug nose wrinkled in disgust on the other side of Scorpius. Newt leaned forward and put his hand up as if to whisper behind it.

"She's got a stupid cousin," he whispered dramatically. The girl rolled her eyes and mumbled, "Obviously,"

Lily sat up straight, her hand diving into her pockets for her wand. Scorpius seemed to realize what she was going to do as he grabbed her wrist while he shot the girl a glare.

"Daisy," he said warningly. The girl blinked back at him innocently, a look of absolutely adoration on her face. Lily wanted to puke.

"Lily," Newt began, ignoring the exchange that had just happened, "This is Daisy Parkinson," He pointed to the girl with the pug nose, who scowled back at her, "Jace Zabini," Newt gestured to the tall, handsome, stoic boy wearing the haughtiest expression, who regarded Lily with the tiniest of nods. "And Lael Luikin," The final girl, Lily noticed, was astoundingly beautiful already, despite her young. She reminded Lily of her cousin Victoire, with the silvery blonde hair (although Lael's was cut into a bob) and the small, perfect features. Lael made no acknowledgement of Lily's presence and continued to sit there, painting her nails a pastel pink color that made Lily want to puke almost as much as Daisy Parkinson did.

Lily nodded at them and sat in her seat, feeling out of place and wondering why someone as nice as Newt would want to spend his time with people who were clear believers of blood purity. With a start, she wondered whether Newt, despite his kindness, was also a pure blood fanatic, but she had no way of finding out in current company. The tension in this compartment was almost as bad as the one Lily just left and she was debating which one was the worst one to be in.

"So," Scorpius drawled, looking about the compartment. "What were you saying, Jace?"

"Something not worthy of her ears, surely," He raised his eyebrows at Scorpius as if he was shocked to see a Malfoy letting Lily sit there next to him.

"Worthy?" Lily repeated.

"Yes, worthy, you little half-blood," he replied scathingly.

"Blood status is of no importance!"

"To you, maybe," Daisy scoffed. "But it never matters to the lower dregs of society. You care more about Muggles than your own kind,"

"My own kind?" Lily replied, standing up from her seat, her wand held tightly in her left hand. "We're all humans, dingbat." She let her eyes roll over Daisy. "Well, except maybe you, you bare closer resemblance to a troll. . ."

Daisy glared as she stood up, drawing her wand.

"Say that again, Mudblood,"

"I'll have you know I'm a pureblood, three generations back on both side!"

"All of them blood traitors and Muggle lovers, the lot," Jace added.

"As for the lower dregs of society," she stepped closed to Daisy, who eyed Lily suspiciously. "You can only dream of the money my family has, the grandeur and the fame. You wish,"

With that, Lily turned, her hair flouncing over her shoulder, and left.

"Spoiled little brat," Daisy spat as she sat back down. Scorpius stared at her. "What?"

He shook his head, stood up, and left the compartment.

"Oh, you are not chasing after her! Scorpius!" Daisy called after him. When he didn't come back, she looked around the compartment for support. Jace shook his head, Lael remained impassive as she painted her nails, and Newt was staring in the opposite direction, trying to stifle his sniggers.

Scorpius spotted the fiery red head in the next cart of the train.

"Potter! Hey, Potter!" She whirled around so fast that it caught Scorpius off-guard.

"What, Malfoy? Come to tell me more about how useless and disgusting I am, what a terrible name I give to wizards and witches everywhere? Because I really don't want to hear it," She drew her wand. "I dare you, go ahead, say one more thing about my blood or my family and I will curse you so badly, you'll have to crawl back to your Slytherins,"

"I actually came to tell you that Daisy is an idiot and that you shouldn't believer her words to be the views of everyone in that compartment," he said coolly. "But if you don't want to hear it, I'll go."

He turned to leave but a small hand reached out and grabbed his arm.

"No, no, you don't have to go," she said in a small voice, putting her wand in her pocket. "I'm sorry,"

"It's quite alright," He replied stiffly. The two stood awkwardly in the empty corridor.

"So you don't believe all that stuff?" Lily asked. "The blood purity and Muggle lovers?"

"I believe in what you said," He replied. "We're all humans, living on the same earth. There's enough bad in the world, why do we need to add to it with the hatred of Muggles and Muggleborns?"

Lily beamed at him; he shifted uncomfortably under her smile. "What were you doing with Newt anyway? Surely you realized the kind of company we keep may not exactly be the kind of company for you,"

"We ran into each other at the bathroom. I was fighting with my cousin so he invited me to sit with you guys," She said. Scorpius nodded thoughtfully.

"Are you guys still fighting?"

"Who?"

"You and your cousin,"

"Oh. Yeah, I guess,"

"So you wouldn't want to go back and sit with him?"

"Not really, but it doesn't look like I have a choice,"

"Come sit with me," he asked.

"Uh, did you hit your head or something?" Lily stared at him, incredulous. "Do you not remember what just happened when I tried to sit with you?"

"No, don't with them. Come sit with me," He smiled at her. "We'll find our own compartment. Newt can join us, he'll be pissed at me if I left him behind in there, anyway,"

The two shared a tentative smile but the moment was broken by heavy footsteps. The two jumped and turned to the approaching person.

"Get away from her, you stupid git!" James roared as he came running down the corridor. Rose was behind him. Both of them had their wands drawn and pointed at Scorpius.

"No, you don't understand," Lily pleaded. Scorpius drew his wand as well. Noticing this, Lily turned to him. "Scorpius, don't."

"Leave us alone, Potter." Scorpius said to James. James narrowed his eyes as he came to a stop a few feet away from Scorpius. Rose was on his immediate right.

"Lily, come on," He said, not taking his eyes of Malfoy. Rose held out her hand to Lily.

"No, I don't want to," She crossed her arms. "Drop your wand, James."

"Yeah, Potter, drop your wand," Scorpius mocked.

"Lily," Rose pleaded. "Please, let's just get out of here."

"I said no!"

"Lily,"

"James, I don't—"

"LILY, LET'S GO!" He roared. Rose stepped forward and grabbed Lily's hand. This seemed to be the moment Scorpius was waiting for as he flicked his wand and shouted,
"Tarantallegra!"

Rose shrieked and jumped back, the red jet of lighting hitting the floor harmlessly. James roared in angered, and sent a red jet of light back at him. Scorpius dodged as well. He had just pulled back his wand to retaliate when Lily jumped in between them.

"STOP, STOP!" She yelled. "Stop this right now!" She grabbed James' hand and began pulling him away. "We're leaving, just calm down,"

James made a rude hand gesture at Scorpius before yanking his hand out of Lily's grasp and stalked away. Lily followed suddenly. Rose stood where she was, cautiously, glaring at Scorpius. He raised his hands in defeat, pocketed his wand, before turning and leaving.

"James—" Lily began.

"Shut up, Lily," James muttered. "For once, just shut up,"

"Don't be mean, James," Rose scolded, placing an arm around Lily's shoulder. She shrugged it off angrily.

"I forbid you to talk to him, Lily," James mattered angrily.

"You're not my father, you can't forbid me to do anything!" She replied, puffed up with anger.

"Oh yeah? Wait until I talk to Dad about this!"

"Fine," Lily said coolly. "Daddy won't care, he's always talking about being open minded,"

"He'll care when it's his only daughter, his little girl, talking to his enemy's older son!" Lily crossed her arms defiantly but a small corner of her brain was nagging her; if James put it like that, Harry would probably take his side.

The three stopped outside Lily's compartment. Rose smiled sympathetically and hugged Lily.

"Don't worry, James' calm down," She whispered into Lily's ear.

Lily nodded, glared at James, and entered her compartment.

"Lily, where have you been?"

Sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose, Lily sat down. The boys were gone; it was just Olivia, Emily and Lily sitting there. Both of them were staring at Lily were curious expressions.

"Where are the boys?" She asked wearily, ignoring their questions.

"After you left, Olivia kind of, er, reamed Hugo out quite a bit," Emily said as Olivia grinned. "He left to go sit with Rose. I think Lorcan and Lysander went to sit with Al."

"They're friends?"

"Al and Lorcan are both nerds, they probably bonded in the library over the newest edition of Hogwarts, A History," Olivia snickered and Lily and Emily couldn't help but giggle.

"So where have you been?"

Lily sighed as she settled in to tell the sorry tale.

---

Neither Hugo nor Lysander or Lorcan came back to the compartment for the rest of the train ride. Olivia and Emily chattered happily as Lily picked back up her Charms book; she was sure there was a good charm in here to use on James if he ever tried something like what just happened again…

The three girls exited the train together and searched for their parents. They found Emily and Lily's parents together with Weasleys

"You're coming to visit during break, right?" Lily asked Emily, pulling her closer.

"Of course," she replied.

"Hey girls," Neville said, pulling all three of them into a hug and kissing the top of their heads. "Good ride?"

"Yes," they all lied. Harry put his arm around Lily.

"Have you seen James or Al?" Lily shook her head.

"What about Hugh or Rosie?" Hermione asked, scanning the crowds for her kids.

"Uh, no," Lily mumbled, turning red. Hermione looked at her sharply.

Luckily she was saved from answering by the arrival of Olivia's parents and siblings, although Hermione continue to survey her.

"Susan!" Emily's mother, Hannah, cried.

"Hello, Hannah," Susan replied. Olivia's father put his arm around his wife, and shook hands with Neville and Harry.

"Neville, good to see you again. Harry, it's been way too long," He said gruffly.

"Good seeing you, Seamus," Harry replied, smiling. Olivia looked disgruntled to be standing with her two sisters, who were nine and four, respectively. All three of them had the same straight dark hair. The adults were catching up and their crowd grew larger with the arrival of James, Albus, Rose and Hugo. James still looked disgruntled while Hugo looked embarrassed, staying with his mother.

Lily looked around the platform and saw Lorcan and Lysander with their parents at the other end. With a quick glance at her own mother, she prayed that Ginny wouldn't look across and she her old school friend; she couldn't handle another encounter with Lorcan right now.

A few feet from the Scamanders were Scorpius and his family. Lily watched them eagerly. His father was tall, thin and blonde as well. Scorpius looked astonishingly like him but with small differences. His face wasn't as pointed, his hair wasn't as light. His mother stood next to them, small and curvy, with darker blonde hair that Scorpius seemed to inherit. She was pale as well, and when Scorpius walked up to them, she pulled him into a hug. He was already as tall as her. His father put his arm around his wife and steered his family off the platform and towards the parking lot.

"Ready, Lils?" Her father's voice brought her to her family. She tore her eyes away from the Malfoys, turned to her father and smiled. He smiled back and led her into the parking lot, just like Mr. Malfoy had done to his own family.

---

Christmas was a large affair at the Potter-Weasley house. It had to be with so many kids. As promised, Ginny and Hermione took Lily and Rosie out for a girls only shopping trip; shopping wasn't exactly Lily's cup of tea but she needed to buy some presents and spend some time with her mum.

The Potters went into the forest behind their house to pick out a Christmas tree. As the youngest, Lily had the final decision on which tree they brought home, and James, as the oldest, had the privilege of cutting the tree down with his father, the Muggle way.

Things were strained between Lily and James. The one time Ginny had sat down with Lily to discuss the matter, Lily had refused to say anything about it, except to say that James had completely embarrassed her and ruined a friendship within the span of five minutes, surely a record for him.

Later that night, Lily had snuck into Al's room, which was across the hall from hers, to confide in him about the incident. To her surprise, she found Al already aware of it.

"I know, James told me,"

"He what?!" She exclaimed. Al shushed her, pointing to the door to the bathroom that connected his room with James'.

"Be quiet! You want James to wake up and find us? He'll think we're conspiring against him and go completely berserk."

"Well, we are conspiring against him…"

"No, you're conspiring against him," he corrected. "I'm merely a neutral third party that has to listen to both of you whine," he sighed. "It's one of the many benefits of being the middle child,"

"Now who's whining?" Lily teased.

"Look, I'm not saying he did the right thing but he was doing what he thought was right,"

"It was embarrassing,"

"Okay, so he definitely went about it the wrong way,"

"Obviously," Lily muttered darkly.

"Look at this from his point of view. Him and Scorpius hate each other—"

"For no reason!"

"Trust me, Lily, both of them are equally guilty in their relationship,"

Lily pouted, unwilling to believe Al, wanting to blame James for everything but that little voice in the back of her brain was nagging her again; Scorpius had fought back. In fact, he was the first person to use his wand on the train, and he attacked Rose, not James.

"Fine," Lily crossed her arms.

"His little sister was with Malfoy, which – wait, why were you with Malfoy?"

Lily glared at him.

"Never mind, then. Anyway, his little sister was with Malfoy, who he sees as mean and a bully. And James really took Mum's words to heart; he thinks it's his duty to watch over us as the eldest. So give him a break,"

From that night on, Lily became civil to James but cold; he adopted the same attitude, and Lily had a feeling it was because Al had spoken to him, too.

The Potters and the Weasleys had a tradition on Christmas. They would open their presents at their houses, then Hermione and Ron would come to Harry and Ginny's for brunch before they all went to Grandma Weasley's for a fabulous Christmas dinner.

Christmas morning arrived and Lily woke early to find a large pile of presents at the end of her bed. One benefit to having a very large family was that on holidays, you got a lot of gifts. Scrambling to the floor, Lily saw a note on the top box.

'Open mine first,

Dad'

Lifting the small square box wrapped in silver, she tore of the wrapping and gasped.

"Oh, wow, Dad," she breathed.

Inside the box was a silver bracelet, one small charm dangling off of it: a small, silver Snitch. Awkwardly clipping it on her wand arm, she held her hand up to admire the bracelet twinkling in the light. Looking back at the box, she saw a second note.

'Lily,

Each Christmas, I will give you one charm to represent the special memories we have shared, until you turn seventeen, at which point you are a legal witch and no longer my little girl (although, I will probably always consider you that – forgive me, it's a problem we fathers have.) Happy Christmas. I love you.

Dad'

Smiling softly, she continued to open her gifts. Albus had bought her a new Muggle book about a man who turned into a bug (she giggled as she read the back summary, what would Muggles think of next?) James had bought her a silver broomstick to go with her little Snitch on her bracelet; her heart melted upon seeing it and she knew she couldn't be mad at him anymore. She had a Weasley sweater in blue (to match her eyes, according to Grandma). Hermione and Ron provided a new book on Charms that Lily was actually excited for (usually, Aunt Hermione's books were shelved to collect dust), a large box of the newest Weasley Wizard Wheezes products, courtesy of Uncle George and Aunt Angie, not to mention all the presents from her cousins and her friends (Lily much preferred Emily's knitted white wool scarf to Victoire's flimsy sheer scarf made of some lacey material).

Soon the smell of pancakes lured Lily from her room. Al exited his room at the same time, sniffing hopefully, and the two bounded down the stairs together.

James was already seated at the table, waiting for his food. Lily marched right up to him and held out her hand. James looked down to see his present sitting in her palm. He looked up at her.

"Help me put it on?" She asked softly. James smiled and put the charm on her bracelet, all the while thinking that he was quite glad his sister wasn't mad at him anymore, and relieved he wasn't going have to speak to his father about the situation.

The family of five enjoyed their Christmas. They shared their brunch with Hermione, Ron, Hugo and Rose; Hugo had brought Lily a box of assorted chocolates, mumbling an apology as his ears turned red.

"Why chocolate?" Lily asked.

"Dad said whenever you get a girl mad, you should buy her chocolate or flowers," he mumbled.

The kids enjoyed an enormous snowball fight in the late afternoon, the forest behind Godric's Hollow providing an excellent landscape for the war. It was Hugo, Lily and Albus versus James and Rose. Lily tried not to feel too satisfied when she hit James with a particularly large snowball.

Cold, shivering and excited, the children hurried home for some hot cocoa and a hot shower before rushing off to the Burrow for Christmas dinner, all in their signature Weasley sweaters; Hugo had received a maroon one again, much to his displeasure.

Christmas dinner was typical. Charlie had too much wine and challenged Bill to an arm wrestling match, breaking the table in the process; Fleur talked loudly over Celestina's Christmas special, causing Molly to give her dirty looks; Victoire complained of all the calories in the food while Teddy rolled his eyes at her, forcing her to eat another dessert; and Grandpa Weasley cornered Hermione and Percy to discuss their views on a law making Muggle education prior to Hogwarts compulsory.

Lily fell asleep on the car ride home on James' shoulder. Prodded awake, she sleepily stumbled her way to her room, where she was back asleep before her head hit the pillow.

---

The rest of Lily's break flew by in a blue of homework and snowball fights with Hugo. Emily would spending the last night of the holiday at the Potters and leaving for Kings Crossing the next morning together as Neville returned to Hogwarts early and Hannah couldn't leave the Leaky Cauldron unattended.

Lily was looking forward to Emily's visit. The morning of had her bouncing about the living room.

"Lily, calm down," her mother said, glancing at the clock. She's not coming for another twenty minutes,"

Still, Lily stayed in the living room until Neville and Emily stepped out from it half an hour later.

The two girls shared an enjoyable day together. Harry had created a portable fire for them that they took into the shed behind her hour. Albus joined them and three shared an invigorating conversation about James and his temper, Race and Frank's relationship (apparently, Frank had sent Race an elaborate gift consisting of a riddle to break the spell on a box to reveal a gaudy necklace; Frank had received a scrap of paper with happy Christmas scribbled on it) and Lily's problem with Lorcan. He had sent Lily a drawing he did of her for Christmas. It was a pretty decent picture of Lily on the lounging on the common room couch, reading a book, the window behind her showing the snow falling outside. Lily had no idea when he could have drawn it, or if he made the scenario up and drew Lily from memory. None of them knew he could draw. Both Albus and Emily agreed that if he asked Lily out, she needed to say no if she didn't like him like that.

At the end of the night, Lily and Emily went to shower before bed; Lily in her shower, and Emily used the boy's shared shower. Lily had just turned the water on when she heard a blood-curdling scream from across the hall. Hastily throwing on a robe, Lily dashed into the boy's bathroom.

In the bathroom was the funniest sight Lily had ever seen. Emily was standing in the shower, her head poking out form the curtain that she clutched tightly shut. Her cheeks were bright red, and her sopping hair was sticking out in places and clung to the curtain. James was holding a towel around his waist with both hands, his face brighter red than Emily's. Albus was standing the doorway, his eyes closed in a most pained expression.

"Em, are you okay?"

"Yes!" She squeaked shrilly. "Quite alright!"

Lily looked at James and Albus. "Get out, you're boys!"

James turned around and tried to leave so quickly that he walked into the doorframe by accident. Bouncing off the frame, clutching his towel to him even tighter, he full out ran into his bedroom and slammed the door. Al kept his eyes closed, still grimacing, and slowly backed out into his room. Emily reassured her once more before Lily exited into Albus' room.

"Al, what happened?" She asked, waving her hand in front of his face to get his attention.

"Emily was in the shower when James came in, wanting to shower. He thought I was in there, so he crept up to the curtain and ripped it open, hoping to scare me—"

"And terrifying poor Emily," Lily choked out, trying not to giggle.

"So Emily is screaming, and she scared James so badly that he jumped and ended up dropping his towel," Al shuddered. "I've seen more of James than I care to. So has Emily,"

For the sake of Emily, Lily made Al and James swear to never repeat what happened to anyone; both were adamant to agree. She also kept a straight face for the rest of the night, which was surprisingly hard to do whenever she was ran into James or Emily, both of them turning red.

Lily had thoroughly enjoyed her holiday, she thought as she climbed into bed that night, Emily's deep breathing already coming from her makeshift bed on the floor. But she couldn't wait to be back with her friends on the train tomorrow, even if that meant facing Lorcan, just as long as she wasn't constantly surrounded by her embarrassing brothers!

Authors Notes: Fourteen pages just for you guys. So please, review!