Christmas had arrived, and with it, the promised potion regime. It felt like James had to take more potions than there were hours in the day, and unfortunately, pain repressants seemed out of the question. As Healer Flint had predicted, Lily's comfort had to be sought in the progress that was being made in healing him.

The curse had hit his chest, and it was clear that the pain was mostly centred around his upper body. Being able to narrow down that much had in itself been progress. While Lily had seen some improvement to James each of the subsequent three days from when she met Healer Flint, it had been slow, and she could tell that the constant pain and otherwise lack of activity was wearing James down mentally.

On Christmas morning, Sirius, Peter, Remus and Lily decided to collectively visit James. Usually, they tried to limit the visits to one or two people, but they had talked among themselves in the days leading up to Christmas. They had agreed to speak slowly, make sure nobody talked over, or interrupted, each other, and they had agreed that they would limit the visit to a maximum of one hour. All of this meant that Lily was about to see the Marauders more quiet and well-behaved than she had ever before.

When they had arrived, James insisted on wanting to sit up and Lily could understand his desire not to lie looking up at them all. But it was not going to be easy. James was by no means strong enough to sit up on his own, even with the help of some meagre pillows. In the end, they decided to prop him up as best they could, Sirius having disappeared for some minutes and returning with a few more pillows, refusing to explain where he got them. ('I might have conjured them, mightn't I, Moony?' 'And you had to step out to do that?' 'Maybe I don't perform well under pressure.' 'Yeah, right, you never did like performing to an audience'.)

Sirius and Remus fell quiet, however, as they tried to help James sit up while Lily sorted the pillows. However gently the two supported their friend, though, James was hissing in pain, his body tense and his breathing laboured.

'Just give me a moment,' James mumbled weakly once they were done, his eyes closed, and his pale face damp from the exertion.

'You're alright, mate,' Sirius said, but taking advantage of his friend's closed eyes, he exchanged a quick look with the rest. He, like Lily - and Peter and Remus judging by their expressions - seemed to suddenly worry that they had already pushed James too far. Maybe an hour was going to be too much.

A non-verbal conversation followed, where the conclusion, as far as Lily could tell, was to play it by ear. That agreed (sort of), Lily was searching for something to talk about. Sirius, however, beat her to it.

'D'you know, this reminds me of our first Christmas at Hogwarts,' Sirius said, lightly.

'It does... share certain similarities,' Remus agreed.

'I wish I had stayed,' Peter said, and there was a slightly wistful look on his face.

'Don't be daft, it was a shit Christmas, and it was all Prong's fault,' Sirius said, shooting an affectionate look over at James, who seemed to have recovered somewhat.

A small smile played across James' face: 'I seem to remember... you thought it was quite... genius... at the time.'

'I think I said I'd kill you,' Sirius corrected, grinning.

'So...' Lily looked from her husband, to Remus, to Sirius, 'what happened?'

James grimaced at her question.

'Don't be like that, Prongs, it's a great story,' Peter said, admiringly.

'One of your better, in fact. You don't come out looking too badly,' Remus agreed.

'That's not saying much,' Lily muttered, and Sirius, Peter and Remus laughed.

James squeezed her hand, and she winked at him.

'Well, nobody got hexed,' Remus offered.

'No, instead there was poison,' Sirius scowled at James.

'True... but it was a... victimless crime.' James' voice was strained, but his hazel eyes were alight with pleasure as he looked over at his best friend.

'Victimless?!' Sirius said, so loudly that James winced. 'What am I to you, a flobberworm?'

'A benefactor, if I remember correctly,' Remus shot in. While his voice was even, Lily suspected that he, like she, had noticed how the two best friends were riling each other up.

Sirius seemed to take the hint. He leaned back in his chair and said nonchalantly: 'why don't you tell the story, Moony.'

'Alright,' Remus said, turning to Lily. 'I doubt I'll get far before Padfoot will want to take over, but I'll give it a go.'

Sirius scoffed. Remus raised an eyebrow, but satisfied that his friend would at least let him start, Remus cleared his throat.

'Well, it was our first year at Hogwarts, and we were all going home for Christmas. Most of us were looking forward to it, I think, except Padfoot, who had tried to get permission to stay behind, without success.'

'Despicable old hag, my mother,' Sirius muttered.

'Quite,' Remus agreed, seeming to be amused at the small interruption. 'As Padfoot's sentiments towards his family has remained unchanged, I hardly need tell you how much this affected his mood, leading up to the break.'

Even just reliving the story, Sirius' face was darkening. Though, Remus hadn't been entirely right in asserting that Sirius' feelings towards his family had been unchanged since childhood. Sirius had always been open about his dislike for his mother, but after Regulus' disappearance, and presumed death, a few months earlier, hostility had turned to outright hatred.

The news that his brother had died had shaken Sirius, and despite his many assertions that Regulus had it coming - that he deserved nothing better - Sirius had thrown himself into trying to find out what had happened to his younger brother. Learning that Regulus had wanted out, that he had panicked at what he was being asked to do, Sirius had been devastated, blaming himself for not having been able to save his brother - but even more so, blaming his parents.

Lily was probably the only one who could truly understand the emotional turmoil Sirius had gone through those weeks, and not only because she alone had a sibling, but because she knew so well what it was like to worry about someone on the other side. The Order was about defeating Lord Voldemort and his followers - his followers who attacked and killed muggles, muggle-borns, blood traitors and Order members - everyone and everything Lily cared about; who had attacked and nearly killed James - and yet, his followers were sometimes also family... or former friends.

'What Padfoot didn't know, however, was that Prongs here had already started formulating a plan that would allow them both to stay at Hogwarts over the Christmas break,' Remus continued, pulling Lily back to the present moment.

'And that plan involved poison?' Lily asked in disbelief, though she shouldn't be surprised. She had known James since their first year at Hogwarts.

'Thank you,' Sirius said with feeling, 'a terrible plan!'

'The evening before the holidays started, Prongs... erm...' Remus seemed to hesitate.

'The git drugged my pumpkin juice at dinner. Like the trusting idiot I was, I fell for it, even though I could tell my drink tasted a little differently... 'Really Sirius'' Sirius imitated a young James Potter: ''Let me have a sip. No, that tastes normal to me - maybe you're coming down with a cold... If you want, you can have mine instead... see, it tastes exactly the same...' Very clever...'

But Sirius' grey eyes shone proudly.

'I thought I was... rather brilliant,' James grinned.

'What Padfoot didn't know, of course,' Remus explained to a confused Lily, 'was that Prongs had poisoned his own goblet too.'

'What did you do that for?' Lily asked in surprise.

'Well Prongs was also down for leaving, remember?' Sirius said, saving his friend the need to answer.

'In fact,' Peter added, 'Prongs was so sure his parents would just come and take him home despite his poor health, that he drank more poison than he gave to Padfoot.'

'Fleamont was an excellent potioneer,' Remus said fairly, 'James wasn't about to leave anything to chance.'

They all fell silent for a bit. Fleamont and Euphemia Potter had passed away earlier this year too. In fact, Lily thought, 1979 had been a terrible year.

A terrible year, with a hopeful end. Lily's free hand fell to her stomach.

'To give you some credit, Prongs,' Sirius said, the first to break the silence. Lily knew Sirius missed James' parents almost as much as James did. 'You knew what you were doing. I was cleared to leave Christmas Eve, which suited me perfectly. Such a shame Moony insisted we had to keep you company.'

'Madam Pomfrey wasn't going to let Prongs go until Boxing Day. So Padfoot and I found ourselves spending Christmas in the Hospital Wing,' Remus explained.

'Although,' Sirius added, 'you were a lot more fun that time, Prongs.'

'But wait,' Lily suddenly realised something, 'weren't you meant to go home too, Moony?'

'I was, but,' Remus shrugged, 'I suppose I admired Prong's efforts... I felt like I would have been a terrible friend if I left them.'

'More like you didn't trust us alone,' Sirius said.

'I confess I was worried that had I left you, Wormtail and I would have come back to a destroyed dormitory - possibly a destroyed common room.'

'I am grateful you didn't risk it,' Lily laughed, but she squeezed James hand as she did so.

'So there you have it,' Remus concluded. 'Peter had to go home to his mother, who had been widowed earlier that year, and the rest of us spent Christmas in the Hospital Wing.'

'Did you never wonder about how Gryffindor lost 50 points over that Christmas?' Sirius asked.

'I never wondered why professors took points from our house - you four were usually the reason.'

'Which,' Remus said with a smile, 'was certainly true this time.'

'Slughorn was furious - as was McGonagall,' Peter said with a face that plainly told Lily he wasn't exaggerating.

'Prongs couldn't confess to self-poisoning, so he lied and said he had attempted to brew a hair-raising potion,' Remus started to explain.

Sirius barked out a laughter: 'I forgot that was your excuse. I can't believe any professor believed you would want - or need - a hair-raising potion.'

'I don't know... it would have saved him from ruffling up his hair,' Lily said.

'Yeah, right,' Sirius said, in disbelief, 'do you know Prongs at all?'

'Because the professors all thought it was an accident, they were worried about how much worse the incident could have been. That was why they took so many points,' Peter continued for Remus.

'We didn't usually lose 50 points in one go, not in our first year.' Sirius said, then he added thoughtfully: 'Prongs managed to escape detention, though.'

Peter laughed: 'Yeah, they agreed being poisoned was punishment enough, coupled with the points.'

'Speaking of punishment enough,' Remus said, glancing over at James, 'we have probably punished Prongs enough with this story.'

'You're right, let's move on to presents before we forget,' Sirius said. Eyeing his friend, he seemed to hesitate: 'Or...'

James seemed to have trouble keeping his eyes open, and Lily cursed inwardly at having gotten so caught up in the story she had stopped paying attention to James. They had also done an abysmal job at following their own ground rules for the visit.

'Or we could wait?' Lily suggested.

When James made no reply, they knew the answer. Carefully, they removed some of the pillows and helped him lay down more comfortably. James wouldn't sleep, the pain kept him from drifting off unaided, but he had shut himself down, and it was better to leave him to rest.

'Merry Christmas, Prongs,' Remus said.

'Merry Christmas,' Peter echoed.

'Get some rest, mate,' Sirius murmured, gently taking James' hand in his and squeezing it, before turning to leave with Remus and Peter.

'Merry Christmas, love,' Lily whispered, as she kissed James on the cheek, and removed his glasses. 'I love you very much.'

Then she added: 'We all do.'

A/N:

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for all the comments and PMs. I treasure each one!