Llef ylil yhw

-By Yo-yo

Disclaimer:C chappie #1.

A/N:Gosh, took all summer and a lot long to write, but I got it out. Sorry these are taking so much time, but don't worry they'll be coming until the story's either done or I say I'm done with it. I have a lot of fun writing these. This one I especially liked writing Susan, she's a fun mom, and I wished my mom was like her. And there wasn't much of her Dad in this one, but he's a fun character too. And hopefully this ends the feuds of the group… but it probably wont. What's life without conflict? I think that's called a coma. Well anyways. Read and review please. I hope I haven't lost all of my readers to my slow output. I know I lost my Linda, I'm sorry Linda, u were loyal and I failed you. Same goes for everyone who read me. I loved your reviews and I loved to hear what you had to say. I'm sorry this took so long. R&R Please. ULTIMATE ROWING!

Chapter 18- Meeting Santa:

"Hi Nan-ta! Santa!"

Her eyes dances as the larger than life character stood in her doorway, his eyes twinkling down at her as she grinned up at him.

"I knew you were real! Mum and Tuny tried to convince me, but I never stopped believing in you. Put coal in Mum's stocking, she's a liar!"

"Ho, ho, ho!" His round belly shook.

"This is so cool!" She jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Being significantly taller than she, when he embraced her, her feet lifted off the ground. Settling her back down, he leaned to her height and asked,

"What do you want for Christmas little girl? You're on my good list, you know?"

"Can I please have…" her eyes began to twinkle and her long red eyelashes batted innocently, "Joe Perry in nothing except a bow tie strategically placed around his… neck?"

Santa's eyes grew wide as he pulled himself upright, a pained look on his face.

"Well little girl, I dunno-"

"Mum, Douggie's here!"

Lily's voice called through the house, ushering him in and shutting the door.

"Wait?" Douggie threw off the red stocking cap and itchy beard. "How'd you know it was me?"

"Well, firstly, Santa's eyes are blue, not green. Secondly, you're my best friend; I think I'd know you from Chris. Thirdly… well I can play a better Santa than you. You've got the whole 'ho, ho, ho' thing all wrong. It should be guttural, deep from within the diaphragm. And you should put some feeling into-"

"Douggie," Susan wrapped her arms around him, not before thrusting her apron at her daughter. "What are you doing here so early? And dressed like that?"

"I'm going to surprise my Mum and Dad at the hospital with dinner. So I was wondering, is the traditional Christmas dinner already done?" he gave her one of those classic Douggie expressions… where those brilliant green eyes of his goes wide and the pouty frown mars his handsome face. One of the expressions that Lily knew her Mum- nor any woman really- could deny.

"Yea, in fact we're starting on the mini-quiches. I'll go pack up a dinner for them both." She gave a watery smile, and then turned to Lily to grab her apron and pinch her arm.

"Ow Mum, what was that for!"

"You guys would never do something like that for me."

"That's because you're always here!" she pinched her mother back. "If you'd just leave for awhile we could feel the aching need for our Mum and we'd do something special for you. It's your fault really."

"See how they treat me… I'm getting new children tomorrow," she stuck her tongue at Lily. "See who's gunna feel an 'aching need' for their Mum when they're sitting on their bums I the bloody cold on Christmas day?" Susan stalked into the kitchen, leaving them behind.

"She's gunna be 'aching' when she finds out she can only get hungry orphans on Christmas day," Lily rolled her eyes and pushed back her hair. "She'll get bloody Oliver Twist, 'I want some 'ore.' She'll go hungry feeding that one. Go ahead, get new kids," she mumbled.

"Oh, and Lily," Susan stuck her head through the door. "Did you remind Mrs. Pettigrew to bring the baby?"

"Why, you trying to take her?"

As if she were struck, realization took over her body and a sudden feeling of cool tingled down her spine and she remembered what she had meant to tell her Mum.

"Mum, I…" However, Susan was already back in the kitchen, the door separating them flapping.

"You forgot to ask about the baby, didn't you?"

Douggie settled onto the couch, watching her facial expression as she stared longingly at the closed door.

"Worse," tears brimmed in her eyes, looking away and sighing. "I didn't invite anyone."

"What are you talking about?"

Her eyes feel on the scarlet bracelet that wrapped around her wrist. The large red beads winked, catching the light. The infamous James Potter gave it to her for her sixteenth birthday.

"For the last month me and my friends have been at a disconnect. I haven't really spoken to them. And as a result, I never got to ask them about Christmas Eve dinner."

She never once removed her eyes from the speckled beads… afraid to meet his eyes. Afraid to see what she knew she deserved.

"What are you guys 'at a disconnect' about?"

"It doesn't matter, now. What matters is how I'm going to tell my Mum that six kids and their families will not be showing up for the dinner she's been preparing for a whole week now?"

A husky laugh escaped his throat.

"What?"

"I don't know how you girls do it. It's like you're genetically prone to fucking up."

"What the hell do you mean?" she crossed her arms and knit her brows.

"You and Tuny fuck up so much, and your parents have to deal with it every time. Remember last summer you made out with Daniel Chorizema and your parents had to see you being escorted back to your house by the wait staff?"

"I was drunk; hell, I didn't even know it was Danny 'til a week later."

"Yea, but your parents knew… they had to be woken up at two in the bloody morning!"

"I don't remember you being cold sober that night either mister Angel." She shot back.

"Last month Tuny hopped a train from Surrey to my house to cry to me about the breakup of a boyfriend and to tell me that she wasn't sure if they'd used protection the last time. You broke our window at the beginning of the summer because you were so mad at the Potter character that you decided to take your anger out on a lonely football aimed at the kitchen. There's so much more, too. Susan and Aaron have had to deal with a lot since you two hit puberty, and now, after all this sacrifice and preparation, you've got something to tell them."

"Gosh," she buried her face in her hands. "Thanks for making me feel better."

"No, don't you get it," he sighed. "You deserve to feel bad. This whole event… Christmas Eve with wizards wasn't about you; it isn't for you… not really. This is for your parents.

"Lils, Aaron and Susan have not properly been part of your life-"

"But-"

"…since you received that letter when you were eleven. Neither have Tuny nor I. Sure you're here for the holidays, but how often have you omitted to tell us everything? How many times do you leave information out because we're not magic? How many times have you gone to others because you feel we can't understand?

"Don't get me wrong, you're not doing anything wrong. But your parents miss you. They don't really know you anymore. They pay for your books and things, but they can't be a part of what you're learning and can't help you. The dinner was for them to experience for the first time what you do. They want an insight into your world. They want to have something significant with you… I think they feel as if they've lost all the special moments in your life. They feel as though they've lost you… why else would they let Tuny spend her first Christmas away from home with her friends?"

"And I fucked it up," tears tumbled down her cheeks. "God, I can't do anything about it… I wanted to… I really did," her voice cracked.

"Hey…"he pulled her into his stuffed arms, placing a kiss to her forehead. "Don't worry, they'll understand. They'll forgive and forget…"

"But that's what they always do," she pushed the tears from her face. "You're right, Mum's always there for me and Da never complains. I'm so stupid. I don't know how to fix it though."

"The damage is already done," he ran his fingers through her hair, "just tell them the truth, okay? Let them understand."

"Douggie, your meals are wrapped and ready to be delivered," Susan entered through the swinging door.

Lily looked up at her Mum from Douggie's arms,

"Mum, we've got to talk." She stood up. Her face was swollen and stained with still wet tears.

"I'll be back," Douggie tugged on his beard and hat. He placed a kiss on both women's cheeks and left.

"What's that?" Susan pried off the apron, something she'd been doing all day.

"I messed up," her eyes rolled up to the ceiling. The words were so hard to find… she could not look her mother in her face. How could she ruin her mother's night? Her mother looked so beautiful…

Her eyes traveled back to Susan… Gosh, she was gorgeous. Nana had named her after the little Black-eyed Susan's that grew in the family garden; her eyes had since lightened to dark brown. Her dark brown hair braided behind her with little wisps tickling her face. She wore gold earrings with little emerald stones that matched her beautiful cocktail dress. Aaron had given her the jewelry for their ten-year anniversary- emerald was her birthstone. Little freckles stippled her milky skin… the skin she'd given to both of her girls… the skin of cherubs, she'd told them when they were little.

"I didn't-"

The doorbell interjected them and Lily gave one woebegone look at her mother before placing her hand on the knob and swinging the door open.

"Merry Christmas!"

Faces… so many faces stood in the doorway, grinning at her and Susan. For a moment she didn't even recognize them until Fly gave her a shove and entered the sitting room without asking.

"Hey Lils," Sunny wrapped her arms around her neck. "We understand," she breathed before moving away to take a hold of Susan.

The all filed in… so many of them. They dusted themselves off from the snow and couldn't help smiling instantly at the cozy calm the Evan's home always seemed to exude.

Her hand still grasped the knob and the last person had already entered. A state of shock had overtaken her… she could feel it… it was-

"Lily, please take their coats upstairs?" Susan called to her, breaking of her trance, and causing her to look around.

She knew all the faces… many of the faces she didn't even expect to show up. Sunny had arrived with her whole family: her sisters Pinkie, Skye and Faye and their Mum, Marie. Potter had brought his mother who was supposed to be working at the Daily Prophet for the holidays. Peter and his Mum did in fact bring baby April. Remus's Mum and Dad, Julia and Reuben had also come. Fly and Sirius both came alone… but it didn't matter… they were practically related to the Potter's and the Benoire's… they were with family.

She wordlessly stuck out her arm, accepting the myriad of coats people handed her, and after three, the pile began getting heavy and soon she stopped accepting them.

"I'll return," she looked away from the sea of faces. She'd caught the look Potter had given her when he'd spot the bracelet on her wrist… and she couldn't face that… not right now…

Up the stairs, into her room the coats seemed to grow heavier with each step she took. She threw them on the bed and collapsed under the weight of the emotion that had been building since her conversation with Douggie and was ready to explode when Potter's eyes flashed with recognition.

Fear, anger, any emotion that had been stirred within her in the last twenty-four hours rolled over her back, pushing her body further and further into the carpeted floor. The emotions were attaching her whole being, holding her in the painful position- the weight of it all too much for her to bear. Too heavy for her to break from.

Her hand wrapped itself around her lips as she barely managed to restrain a strangled cry. The waves of emotion pounded against her head, beating her whole body 'til she felt battered and bruised.

The feelings were overpowering her.

She couldn't get away from them.

She couldn't help the tears that flooded from her eyes. Neither the gasps her body made for more air. Nor the fetal position she'd been thrust into, her face pushing into the carpet and the pain her muscles endured in the awkward contortion.

She didn't even hear them at first… the blood pounding through her body was all she could hear. Her own agony was all she was allowed to feel…

"Lily?" a small voice finally entered the pain and she felt her body being pulled up, the weight not being lifted, but being distributed to the two other set of arms that wrapped around her and placed kisses on her cheeks and forehead.

"You don't have to do this to yourself. What we said, we meant… I'm sorry you felt you couldn't tell us yourself," Sunny's voice whispered. "We've forgiven you."

Sunny's words were all she needed because at that moment, the weight around them had dissipated.

"Gosh, I'm so sorry," she threw her arms around Fly. "I meant to invite you, I really did. But I got so afraid. And then you gave me the ring back… I just… I felt so horrible. How can you guys forgive me? I've been such a bitch lately."

"Easy," Fly said once released. "We've always known you're a bitch… you can't help it. Look who you have for a sister?"

Lily's tears subsided, and now it was laughter that consumed her.

The thickness they'd felt for weeks disappeared and they began talking as though they never existed.

"Girls," Lily's dad stuck his head through the door ten minutes later. "the party's downstairs."

"Oh, sorry," they'd all jumped from their seats and rushed into the sitting room where everyone else was congregated and laughing.

"Mum, lemme help," Lily moved towards her Mum who was leaning over offering finger foods to little Pinkie.

But the doorbell rang.

"Can you get that, Hun? It might be the pizza man."

She made her way through the sea of people, young and old radiating cheerfulness in her home.

"Ho, ho ho!" Santa roared, holding his massive belly as he entered the sitting room with her Aunt Jo and her Nana.

Closing the door she ran after him and jumped on his back catching him by surprise as she placed a kiss on his cheek.

"What was that for?" he whispered into her ear, noting the looks they were getting. Especially by a dishevel-haired boy.

"You really are Santa," she wrapped her arms around him again looking into his sparkling eyes. "Thanks so much, it's just what I wanted."

TBC…

P. A/N: Well I guess this is sorta me asking for forgiveness too, for taking so long. I can't say that things will come faster b/c my computer is taking forever to make and this computer is still getting over a virus, but I'm trying. Hoped u liked this chapter. I really did. Lily and James 4 ever!

-w/ luv, Yo-yo