Seasonal

A/N: More stories from my life. ;) My mom puts up six trees, not ten, and I have two. Yes, I'm in the process of setting up right now, I should be done by Sunday. Then my kids and husband and I, along with the rest of the family, are helping my parents set up all next week. You don't have to like it, but there is something so very magical about turning a home into a Christmas wonderland and I love it!

James had never thought much about it. As a child, he figured it was just a part of what his family did. As a teenager, he never thought of it until Sirius moved in, but when Sirius came home with him for Christmas he loved it and James didn't think on it again.

Until today.

You see, Mia Potter loved Christmas. She loved Christmas more than any other holiday in the calendar year. And she loved Christmas decorations, Christmas trees most of all.

Mia Potter put up ten Christmas trees - every year.

And as she explained to the neighbors, when you put up and decorate ten trees along with dozens of individual decor pieces around the big house, you start early, November 1st early.

Every year prior to this, James didn't worry about it. As a kid, he loved helping clean up the few items of cutesy Halloween decor and then his mum always had some amazing story to tell him as they cleaned together or a fun reward for helping her deep clean the house over the first few days of November. Once the house was clean, all the boxes of Christmas decorations could be brought down from the attic and the trees could be purchased. James used to live for picking their trees with his parents, finding all the right sizes for each area, and he knew the spells to keep the trees fresh for more than two months at the ripe age of seven.

The excitement of preparing for Christmas was one of the biggest things he missed while at Hogwarts.

But this year, James was done with Hogwarts, and this year, Lily was practically living with them. And well, Lily had opinions.

As James understood it, Muggle stores put up Christmas decor to sell "far too soon," and Lily was not a fan of the Christmas decorations being ready for purchase before the Halloween decorations had even been marked down.

So this year, rather than the excitement he normally felt on November 1st, James found himself incredibly nervous.

"Good morning dear," his mum came swooping into the kitchen, her working clothes on and her long hair tied back in a kerchief. "Are you ready? I've missed having you around to help."

James felt that childhood excitement fighting with his anxiety over what Lily may think of the transformation that was about to take place in the Potter home.

"I am," he finally smiled, "It'll go faster this year since I can use magic."

"Is Lily coming over today?"

James swallowed and nodded, "She should be here in about thirty minutes."

"I'm so excited to bring her into our traditions!" His mum pulled him into a hug.

"Mum," James felt his face grow hot, and he moved to the bread box, cutting a thick slice, "We haven't made any decisions like that."

His mum raised her eyebrows at him, "Your father told me how you lingered at the jewelry store windows while the two of you were out last week."

"Er, well, I, we haven't, I mean…"

"Don't worry dear," his mum laughed at him, "I won't say a word."

James didn't believe that for one second but chose to eat his breakfast rather than comment on it.

Mia put him to work in the sitting room, mostly so he could be at the front door when Lily arrived, and James was quite pleased with how quickly cleaning went with magic. He had completely finished the sitting room and the kitchen when Lily arrived.

"Did you do something to be punished for?" Lily giggled as James sent the cleaning cloths back into their bucket.

James chuckled, "No, just helping Mum with some late Autumn cleaning. Would you be inclined to lend your wand?"

Lily grinned and James tried to make himself feel better by telling himself again and again that every word he said had been completely true.

With Sirius and Marlene on assignment, it left just Mia, Monty, Lily, and James to clean the whole house, but with four wands to help, they had the big house sparkling by lunchtime.

"Do you always clean in late Autumn?" Lily asked as the four sat down to lunch.

"Of course dear, it makes no sense to put everything out for Christmas if I'm not putting it up in a clean house."

Lily paused, "For Christmas?"

James held his breath.

"Oh yes," Mia pulled her drink to her lips, "Ten trees and the rest of this house take a couple of weeks to decorate."

"So," Lily spoke slowly, still looking at James, "you'll have all of your decorations up by the second week of November?"

"Probably sooner this year," Monty smiled. "You two made the cleaning go much faster than it normally does. I don't think we've ever been able to go pick up the trees on the first day of November before."

"We're buying ten trees today?" Lily's wide eyes were still looking right at James and he swallowed before straining for a smile.

"I meant it to be a surprise."

"James loves all this," Mia grinned, "He wrote me every week his first year of Hogwarts asking for updates about what we'd managed to get done."

James almost groaned but he caught Lily's eye and saw her fight a smile.

That smile gave him a bit of hope.

"Hal's tree farm only opens early for Mum," he gave Lily a grin, "Everyone else has to wait till mid-November to get their trees."

"Hal badgers me about it every year too," Mia laughed as she began clearing the table, "Tells me he's going to add twenty percent to the price. Hasn't yet, but I think he's just doing it for show, make it look like I'm forcing his hand."

Mia winked at Lily before speaking in a faux whisper, "I really am, but I'm too short and too sweet looking for him to realize it."

Lily laughed and James felt the anxiety easing away. He'd probably just caught Lily on a bad day when she went on a tirade about Christmas decorations before December.

"Alright kids," Monty stood and summoned his coat, "let's head up to Hal's farm and get these trees here. I'd like to at least get lights on them all before bed tonight."

James had the momentary thought of tracking down a horse-drawn sleigh and a horse and a warm blanket and taking Lily up to Hal's in wintery splendor, but then he remembered that it was November 1st and to simply be grateful it wasn't raining.

James side-long Apparated Lily to the tree farm and smiled as she took a deep breath in before sighing happily.

"This is lovely!"

"Yes," James kissed the back of her hand, "you are."

Lily blushed but his mum laughed.

"Monty he's your spitting image."

His dad chuckled before grabbing Mia's hand and pulling her into him. "It's a requirement to teach our posterity how to surround themselves with the best people."

Mia beamed.

"You've got to be kidding me!"

James looked up to see old Hal walking down from his porch.

"There's no way, Euphemia! There's absolutely no way you're ready for your trees today!"

"Oh, Hal," Mia laughed and gestured to James and Lily, "Of course there is. I had extra help this year. James and his girlfriend, Lily, have been at it with Monty and I all morning and I'm here for my trees."

Hal groaned, "I'm not open yet."

"Don't be like that Hal," Mia patted Hal's arm and James bit his cheek to keep from reciting this exchange from memory.

"I'm going to add twenty percent to the price," Hal objected again.

Mia smiled and nodded, "You always say that Hal, but even if you do, I'll still bring you your box of my homemade caramels." Her smile went sly, "But I can't start on those until the house is done."

"Fine," Hal grumbled, "pick your ten hundred trees."

Mia patted his cheek, "See, this is why you get a big box."

Lily stifled her laugh behind her coat collar and grinned up at James.

It took the better part of two hours for Mia to find exactly what she wanted and as James helped his dad translocate them all home, he couldn't help but feel excited.

"The one thing I wish I could figure out is how to get the lights on the trees without so much fuss." Monty chuckled.

"It's easier with magic," James furrowed his brow, "right?"

"Oh heavens yes," Monty nodded, "but it's still a hassle. I'll teach you how to do it this year."

Once home, James was feeling confident that everything was fine. Lily was laughing with his mum as they levitated boxes from the attic and Mia told stories while Christmas carols played on the phonograph.

"Always make the men work on the lights," Mia directed the boxes of decorations to their different locations around the house.

"I do the lights because you don't have the patience for it," Monty called back from behind the tree he was stringing lights around.

"That tree spontaneously combusted!" Mia glared, "I did not set it on fire!"

James smirked. His mum definitely set it on fire.

"James, why don't you take the big tree to the sitting room and start stringing it." Monty winked at James. "Take Lily with you and get her started on the Christmas village."

James nodded, his emotions swinging between being grossed out by the way his dad was looking at his mum, and being very glad to have an excuse to be alone with Lily. Especially now that she seemed quite pleased to be in the swing of Christmas decorating.

"I'm so glad you're having fun," James kissed Lily's cheek as they got settled into their decorating assignments.

"It's definitely something," Lily chuckled as she pulled another building out of the box.

"I think I'll only do two trees for the first bit when I move out." James commented absently as he worked to get the lights perfectly arranged on the twelve-foot tall tree, "A regular size one and then a small one.

"You want to do this sort of thing?" Lily's voice was cautious, and James looked up to see her very carefully turning the little Santa's Workshop around and around in her hands.

"Is everything alright?" James frowned.

"I, I guess, I thought, James it's November 1st…" She sighed and went back to setting up the Christmas village.

"I thought you were enjoying this," he fisted a hand in his hair as he berated himself for misreading the situation.

"I am, it's just, do you really want to do this?" She gestured around them at the boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations.

James moved to her, gently pulling the Christmas village piece from her hands and setting it down.

"Tell me you don't feel the magic," he moved his hands to her waist. "Set aside your cynicism and your misgivings about what the date is and tell me truly you don't feel it, and if you don't feel it I'll drop it and we don't have to do anything like this."

Lily stared up at him and her eyes went wide.

"We?"

James felt his heart drop to his shoes, "Er…"

"Honey, I'm home!" Sirius called out as he and Marlene walked in the front door. "Has Dad started on the outside lights, James?"

James blinked before shaking his head at his brother. "He's still stringing trees."

"Good," Marlene grinned, "because we want to set up the house lights. Sirius and I came up with something we think your mum is going to love."

"How was the assignment?" Lily asked as she stepped back from James.

"Boring," Sirius grinned, "good and boring."

"Those are the best," Lily smiled and picked up another piece of the ceramic village.

Sirius and Marlene went to retrieve the exterior lights and James was left to stare dumbly at Lily's back.

He'd meant it, what he said. He meant "we" even if it scared him to say it out loud. But it occurred to James that if he didn't clarify that now, it would most definitely come back to haunt him.

"We."

That was what he managed to blurt out, but his voice was sure, calm even.

Lily stopped setting up the Christmas village but didn't turn towards him. So James pushed his hand into his hair and pressed on.

"When we have our own place, I think I'd like two trees. I don't really care for the Christmas village. I love the exterior lights, though, so I'd like to have some sort of display."

He moved closer, placing a tentative hand on the small of her back. "What do you want, Lil's, when it's our place?"

"When, when we have our own place?" Her voice shook with the question.

"We," James said again.

"I want mistletoe in our home," she was quiet, "Petunia always complained about having mistletoe up so my parents have stopped using it."

James felt relief wash over him like floodwaters. He slipped his wand from his pocket and transfigured one of the pieces of crumpled newspaper from the Christmas village packing into a ball of mistletoe with a red ribbon. Then he levitated it above their heads.

"How's that?"

Finally, Lily turned towards him, her smile bright and there were unshed tears standing in her eyes.

"It's perfect."

And she kissed him.

James pulled her close, pressing her against him, deepening the kiss and grinning when he heard Lily's breath catch.

"You have work to do!" Sirius yelled as Marlene laughed and they moved to the front door, boxes of exterior lights trailing along behind them.

James shook his head as Lily pulled back to laugh.

"I hate you, Sirius," he flipped off his brother.

"You love me and you know it!" Sirius' shout drifted back in mixed with Marlene's laughter.

Lily let her fingers start to play with the hair at the nape of his neck as she looked up at him.

"James, how attached are you to decorating on the day after Halloween?"

"I rather like the idea of having everything ready mid-November." James smiled down at her. "We don't need to start on November 1st to make that happen. I don't want ten trees."

"I can live with that," Lily smiled, "I rather like the idea of being able to pull you under the mistletoe for half of November and all of December."

"Let's not waste time then," James chuckled before bringing this lips back to hers.

It was at the end of the day when James walked Lily outside to Apparate home and Lily paused to look at the exterior lights Sirius and Marlene spent the better part of the day and evening putting up.

"You're right," she smiled up at him, "there is something magical about all this."

James pulled her close as he looked at the home he'd grown up in. The lights seemed to pull every good memory forward, not just the Christmas ones, but all the good memories, including the ones with Lily.

"A lot of that magic comes from surrounding yourself with the best people." He brushed her hair behind her ear.

Lily pushed up and kissed him.

"I am the best," she whispered against him with a smirk.

"Cocky much?" James chuckled as he moved to kiss her neck.

"I learned for the best."

Lily's voice was full of teasing and James responded by moving his lips to kiss just behind her ear, smirking at the moan he pulled from her lips.

She did call him the best, after all, he might as well live up to the title.