DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING RECOGNISABLE!

I also want to thank my reviewers and anyone else who has read this so far.

ITALICS- Thoughts

Bold Italics- Darren signing

Bold- Lily signing

Bold Underlined – Lily's notes

Just so you know

Chapter 6: First Year/ Christmas

Lily and Remus tore down the corridors and stairs, eager to make it to the entrance hall so that they could see Mr and Mrs Lupin, and Darren again.

The last remaining people in the school dodged out of the way of the two, crowding back into the corridor when they were gone, only to be forced against the walls again as another 7 people sprinted after them.

As Lily and Remus reached the top of the main staircase Lily became tired of running, seeing as they had run six of the seven flights to the entrance hall she decided that a ride on the banister would be faster and involved less effort.

Remus, having seen the look in her eye as she glanced towards the banister, reached out a hand to stop her.

"Lil-"

He was to late, Lily had grasped the banister with both hands before vaulting on and slipping down so fast she saw nothing but blurs of colour.

"LILY!" Remus sprinted down the stairs after her as fast as his small, 11 year old legs could carry him.

James, Sirius, Peter, Arthur, Alice, Molly and Marlene arrived at the top of the main staircase in time to see Lily flying off of the end of the banister and Remus rushing down the last of the stairs after her.

"LILY!" they all screamed, panicked by the impact of the fall she was about to endure.

Lily closed her eyes, unafraid of falling, just dizzy from the swirling colours.

As she felt herself leave the banister and fly through the air she imagined herself on her broom and let a smile spread on her face, right before...

SMACK!

She landed safely in someone's arms. She opened her eyes, Mr. Lupin's arms to be exact.

Mr. Lupin she spelled out, using the alphabet to spell his name as there wasn't a specific sign for the name.

"Dad!" Remus had made it downstairs and, after seeing Lily safe, ran to embrace his father.

"Mum!" Lily looked around Mr. Lupin to see Remus hugging his mum.

As Lily waved at Mrs. Lupin she saw a small figure step out from behind her.

Lily ran as fast as she could and pounced on her younger brother, knocking them both to the floor, in a tangled hug.

Breathing in the scent of Darren made Lily feel homesick for the first time in months, it was then that she realised she had tears rolling down her face into Darren's hair.

Darren pulled away, and seeing the tears on her cheeks, brushed the tears away.

It's okay Lil, I love you!

I love you too Dar! As they once again wrapped their arms around each other they heard numerous people clearing their throats and coughing, attempting to gain the brother and sister's attention.

Lily and Darren turned to see the large group of remaining Gryffindors behind them, looking between the embracing siblings and the mother and father that were smothering their son with kisses. Smiles were on everyone's faces.

The Lupin's, having also heard the coughing and throat clearing, turned to face the group.

"Let's all talk over a nice cup of tea in the great hall shall we dears?" Mrs. Lupin began to lead them all into the great hall and walked straight towards the Gryffindor table, giving a brief wave to the few remaining professors and students.

Once everyone was seated, Mr. Lupin suggested that they all introduce themselves.

"We'll start with me then go clockwise from there, across to Remus, and so on. So I'm John Lupin, and I work as a potioneer for St. Mungo's."

"I'm Remus Lupin, I like reading about defensive spells, and my favourite subject is Defence."

"My name is Peter P-Pettigrew and I l-like Herbology."

"I am the one and only Sirius Black, I am excellent at Astronomy." ( A/N: Ironic no ;D )

"I'm James Potter and I like Transfiguration and Flying."

"Arthur Weasley, pleasure to meet you all! I love Muggle studies! Fascinating really..."

"Molly Prewitt, and for some reason I am dating Arthur here-"

"God knows why..."

"Thank you Alice! Anyway, I enjoy Potions."

The introductions once again moved across the table.

"Alice Prewitt, I also like Herbology! Plants are kind of my forte."

"My name is Marlene McKinnon, and I'm interested to find out about care of magical creatures, but I'll just have to wait two more years for that won't I?!"

...

Go on Darren! They won't say anything, Remus can translate, right Remmy? Remus nodded at Lily and Darren.

My name is Darren, I'm ten years old, and I'm deaf.Darren looked at his lap, when he chanced a glance up he saw everyone smiling and waving at him, showing him that they didn't care and were happy to meet him.

It was now Lily's go.

Do I have to? Everyone already knows who I am! And if you HAVE to know my favourite subject, it's charms!

"And I am Christina Lupin, and I work at a small bookstore in the muggle world! Now, let us drink tea, I'm parched."

And so everyone sat to drink tea and eat biscuits. Molly and Alice argued over which biscuit was better, Arthur and Christina talked about Muggle culture and legends, Mr. Lupin spoke to Remus about something no one could hear, Sirius and Marlene talked about quidditch and Lily and Darren caught up with each other, James decided not to participate in any conversation, preferring to watch in fascination as the two siblings discussed things he didn't know of using signs he couldn't understand. He found it beautiful.

That evening everyone sat in the common room around the fire.

Mr and Mrs Lupin sat on the floor playing exploding snap with Peter, Sirius, Alice and Darren.

Remus was talking with Arthur about muggle studies whilst Molly was sleeping with her Head on Arthurs lap.

James was talking to Marlene about quidditch.

Everyone had slowly drifted off to bed, Mr and Mrs Lupin were staying in one of the vacated boys dorms, Molly and Alice had gone up to the girls' dorm shortly after, Alice supporting her sleepy sister on the way, Arthur went up with Sirius and Peter, leaving James, Remus, Marlene and Darren awake.

Remus looked up from a book he was reading and glanced around the room, across from him it seemed Darren was trying to teach James and Marlene sign language.

But something didn't seem right...

"Guys, did you see Lily go to bed?" He asked as he placed his book down.

James and Marlene looked at him shaking their heads. Darren, who had seen James and Marlene look up, also looked at Remus, What's wrong?

"Lily didn't go to bed" Remus signed, Darren looked around, his eyes widening in realisation and panic.

"Guys! Just because we didn't see her go up doesn't mean she didn't! Now I'll go check the Dorm and see!" Marlene got up and went upstairs as Remus translated what she had said to Darren, James rested a comforting hand on the younger boys shoulder.

Marlene came running down the stairs, Alice running after her, their eyes were wide and scared, "She's not there..." breathed Marlene.

James sprung into action!

"Remus go wake your parents and tell them what's happened! Marlene go get Sirius and the others! Alice stay with Darren, tell him what's happened and keep him calm. When everyones down here discuss the best thing to do, I'm going to look for her!"

"You can't go alone James!"

"I have to Remus, and I am!" with that he sprinted out of the portrait hole, the others quickly getting to do what he had asked them to do.

James sprinted down corridors and stairs, throwing open doors in search of the red head. He was racing across the entrance hall when he noticed that the door to the grounds was slightly ajar.

"Nooo..." He breathed, hoping it wasn't what he thought it was.

Lily raced across the quidditch pitch, Heading toward one of the sets of goal posts. Once Lily reached the posts she flicked her wand at the quaffle, charming it to try to get through the hoops whilst she defended them.

Lily had been practicing her quidditch skills since Novembe and had practiced all of the different quidditch positions, tricks and moves. She had found that being a keeper felt more comfortable to her than any of the other positions.

As Lily was practicing the 'Double Eight loop' she heard shouting coming from just outside the pitch., she froze, listening.

"LILY! LILY ARE YOU OUT HERE? LILY!" It was James' voice, and it was coming closer.

Lily began to panic, no one knew about her nightly practices, she quickly raced towards the stands and hid the broom under a bench. She sat down quickly and assumed a sleeping position on the bench.

She closed her eyes and listened to James.

James entered the pitch, hoping she was here as he had searched everywhere else. His eyes scanned the pitch then moved on to the benches.

Just as he was giving up he spotted a flash of red on the farthest bench from him, behind the opposite goal posts on the highest bench lay a small figure.

James raced across the pitch and up the stand stairs, running along the top bench before slowing down as he got to Lily.

James sat next to Lily's head and placed a hand on her shoulder, he gently shook her until her eyes flickered open.

James stared into forest green pools, becoming lost in their depths.

James snapped back to reality when a hand was waved in his face.

"Lily what are you doing out here! You scared everyone!"

Sorry

"It's ok, lets get you inside!"

James and Lily entered the common room to a lot of shouting.

"Anything could have happened mum!"

"Calm down son, I'm sure she's-"

"Fine? You don't know that Mr. Lupin!"

Sirius and Remus were arguing with Mr and Mrs Lupin whilst Alice sat in Marlene's arms, silent tears pouring down her face, she was holding Darren's hand as he trembled with his sobs.

Arthur and Molly were standing by the entrance, poised to leave the room.

"Guys? GUYS!" James yelled, getting everyone's attention.

They all turned to the portrait hole to see Lily climbing through.

Many things happened at once.

Darren and Alice ran at Lily and wrapped her in a tight hug, closely followed by Marlene and Molly.

Arthur clapped James on the back, silently approving what the younger boy had done.

Sirius and Remus sagged in relief before walking over to join the group hug around Lily.

And Mr and Mrs Lupin shot 'I-told-you-so' looks at everyone before also joining the hug.

Once everyone had calmed down, people started to go back to bed, leaving only Lily, James, Remus, Darren, Alice and Marlene downstairs.

"Lily you know you really scared us right?"

"Leave her alone Alice."

~THUMP~

"Did you just throw a pillow at me?"

"Yes."

This started a full blown pillow war between Marlene and Alice, the others dived behind a sofa to stay out of the way, especially when the pillows began to move closer to them than they were comfortable with.

Soon Marlene and Alice also went up to bed, claiming to be tired from their pillow fight and excited for the morning.

Remus soon followed, leaving the other three on the sofa's.

Lily began to get up to go to bed, when she realised something. If she went up now she would be breaking a Christmas tradition.

Darren what are we going to do about the tradition?

Darren looked at her for what seemed like forever before he replied, Could we just sleep down here?

We could but it wouldn't be comfortable on one sofa!

We could stay in the boys dorms?

"Sorry, what is going on?" James interrupted the siblings, reminding them that he was still there.

Lily grabbed a pad and paper from the table beside her and wrote him a note telling him about a Christmas tradition that she and her brother shared.

"So you both sleep in the same room on Christmas eve? Is there a reason why this tradition started?"

We woke our parents up because we were to noisy waking each other up on Christmas morning because we would slam open doors and run across the hall so they put us in the same room from then on.

"So...you want to share a room tonight?" James was tentative when he asked, unsure of whether he was correct in his assumptions or not.

Lily and Darren nodded.

"Well, why don't you both just share Darren's bed tonight? There are curtains and you can place charms and stuff on it if you need to!"

Lily and Darren agreed, and they all walked up to the boys' dorm together.

Christmas morning dawned to snowy grounds and chilly air. Lily and Darren woke up almost simultaneously, looking at each other before wrestling each other to see who fell off the bed first, another Christmas morning tradition of theirs.

Lily remained champion of this match, and all previous matches, when she managed to roll Darren from one side of her to the other, which was coincidentally the floor seeing as she had been about to fall off of the edge of the bed herself.

Once they had finished their match they both looked at the clock and saw that it was 6:30am, and then on a further sweep of the room they noted that they were the first people up.

Exchanging mischievous smiles they signalled to each other who would take who. Lily got James, Sirius and Peter whilst Darren got Remus and Arthur.

Lily snuck up to Peter first, grabbing the corner of the sheet he had cocooned himself in, she gave a sharp tug which unravelled the bed sheet and sent Peter spiralling off of the other side of the bed. When Lily crept around to look at him she saw him staring dazedly up at the ceiling.

Lily signalled for Peter to stay still and be quiet before turning around to see Darren holding a book above Remus's abdomen, he sent her a wink before dropping the book on the sleeping boy, causing him to jolt awake and then curl into a ball wheezing as he attempted to catch his breath. Lily and Peter hid their laughter behind their hands as Darren sent the glaring Remus an innocent expression that was not believed one bit.

Once Remus was sitting quietly with Peter, Lily moved on to her next victim, Sirius. She walked up to his bedside table and picked up a glass of water that was sitting there. She place her thump and forefinger over his nose, forcing him to open him mouth so he could breathe, then she carefully poured the water into his mouth and waited for the inevitable coughing and spluttering that were about to arrive.

Sirius sat up, choking on the water as it dribbled down his chin and covered his pyjama top. Sirius was then deposited to sit with the other two before Darren moved on to Arthur Weasley.

Arthur Weasley was sleeping on his front, with his face buried deep in his pillow and his covers tossed over his head and torso. Darren picked a discarded quill off of the floor promptly trailing it along Arthur's feet. At first there was no reaction, then the slight twitch of a foot, then his whole body began to quiver with laughter, before he laughed so hard he managed to fall off of his bed in a pile of sheets.

And then only one person remained asleep, everyone crowded around his bed, waiting for Lily to wake him, and she tried. She threw pillows at him, she dumped ice water on his head, she tickled him and poked him, she even tried slapping him, nothing worked.

What should I do? He won't wake up!

She addressed the whole group but only two of them understood her. Remus was the one who answered.

"I think I have an idea..." he stated hesitantly, trailing off as though he had changed his mind about telling everyone.

What is it?

"You won't like it!" Remus tried to backtrack out of the situation, and failed miserably.

Lily just glared at him. He looked at everyone else, they all gave him encouraging and curious nods, even Darren, who didn't know what was happening, only that it would be interesting to find out.

"Well, we could never wake him up so we sent a letter to his mother, she said that she only ever found two ways of getting him up, the first was to put marmalade just under his nose, so we've been doing that-"

So give me some marmalade!

"We can't!" stated Sirius "We ran out last week!" He discreetly slid a jar under the bed, hoping she wouldn't notice, he sent a silent smirk at Remus.

So what was the other option? Lily was getting frustrated now, she wanted to wake James up so she and Darren could wake everyone else up and open their presents.

"Well, Mrs Potter said that once, James had been taking a nap and their next door neighbours dog had licked him and that woke him up-"

I have to LICK him! Lily's face twisted in disgust.

"Well, kind of, the dog licked him...on the lips and so Mrs Potter said that she thinks that being kissed would wake him up..."

WHAT! So someone has to kiss him?!

"Well, not just someone, because, well you're the only girl in the room soooo..."

I have to kiss him?! EWWWWW Lily began to back away from the bed only to find her path blocked by Sirius and Peter, they both wore amused smirks as they began to force her back towards James's bed. Arthur had retreated to a corner where he was laughing so hard he had tears running down his crimson cheeks. Remus was standing in the same spot beside the bed he had been in before, looking both guilty and amused. And Darren looked confused. Lily sighed, there was no way out of this.

Lily moved to stand next to the bed and tried to lean over to peck James on the lips, only to realise he was to far from the edge so she had to crawl onto the bed and kneel next to the sleeping form, she could see all of the boys laughing at her through the corner of her eye.

As she once again tried to peck James he began to wriggle, so much that she ended up straddling him, using one hand to pin both his arms above his head and the other to hold his face still. Just as her lips got to within an inch of his face James opened his eyes, and screamed.

Lily toppled off the bed and landed with a THUD on the floor. The other boys were rolling around the floor as they laughed and James was looking at Lily with wide eyes. Not knowing what to do she pointed an accusing finger at Sirius before darting out of the room to the girls' dorms.

The boys had reached the bottom of the stairs when they heard high pitched screeching and saw Lily dart down the stairs quickly followed by a hairbrush, a stuffed rabbit and three other girls. Lily quickly hid behind Arthur as the three other girls slid to a halt, completely soaking wet.

The boys looked between the wet girls and Lily, who was smiling sheepishly at them before she darted up the boys staircase once more, closely followed by the rest of the remaining students and her brother.

They came to a stop outside of the door to the dorm that Mr and Mrs Lupin were sleeping in before quietly pushing open the door and slipping into the room, only to find Mr and Mrs Lupin standing in front of them with badly held stern expressions.

"Just what do you think you are doing?" Mr Lupin asked them, trying hard not to let his smile show through.

The children all adopted innocent faces, hoping to get away with the noise they had made.

Soon enough everyone was downstairs sitting around the tree and exchanging presents.

The marauders all received sweets and things for pranks.

Alice and Marlene got sweets from the marauders and clothes and books from everyone else.

Arthur got given muggle artefacts which he sat fiddling with for the rest of the morning.

The Lupin's got sweets and books.

Darren got books, wizarding sweets and a scarf that would change colours (from Lily).

Lily received books from almost everyone, for which she was grateful. But what was surprising was James' gift to her, it was a silver necklace with a small dove pendant on it, the dove was in mid-flight, a note was attached to it, it said This dove has spread its wings so it can soar, spread your wings and fly free.

Lily didn't fully understand the message, but it touched her all the same.
Lastly, Darren had given her two things, the first was the teddy bear she had left at home, she had had it since she was born and was glad to have it with her. The second was a picture in a frame, but the picture was a beautiful drawing of Lily and Darren together, a picture that he had drawn himself. That picture meant more to her than almost anything.

That Christmas was the best of her life. She was surrounded by people who loved her, and she had fun.

That Christmas was full of snowball fights and hot cups of tea. Friends and Family. Love and Laughter. And most importantly, her brother was there for it.

Next Chapter:

The last of first year