I'm a terrible author, really I am. I'm incredibly sorry for not updating in a gazillion years, I just don't have as much time anymore. This story is something I starting working on a long time ago and reciently found it again. At this point it's not quite finished yet, but it's a fairly shorter story so there isn't much left to really write, just basically remembering what I had planned for this story.
Also, sorry if there are any name confusions, I ended up changing the names of several characters to names i like better.
Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter, got it? Good.
Full Summery- With nowhere to go for Christmas, Lily Evans is forced to accept the help of James Potter and go home with him for the holidays. Lily's determined to hate him, but she just might learn something about Potter she's never seen before, and learn that Christmas is truly a time for miracles.
Enjoy!
'Lily,
Don't bother coming home for the holidays. I'm going to Vernon's house and mom and dad went to Paris for Christmas.
Petunia'
Lily sighed as she reread the letter from her sister. Apparently she was spending the holidays at Hogwarts this year.
Lily glanced towards the window, where it could be seen snowing heavily outside, Luckily, it was nice and warm inside the cozy Gryffindor common room.
The portrait hole swung open and one of Lily's best friends Emma stepped through, her school bag over her shoulder. She spotted Lily sitting in front of the fire and headed towards her, dropping her bag next to the couch and plopping into the seat next to Lily.
"Hey Lily." She said. Lily smiles at her friend. Emma had thick, blonde/brown hair and light brown eyes. She wore a pair of black glasses and was almost always reading a book. She was, in Lily's opinion, Remus's soul mate.
"Hello Emma." Emma smiled at Lily and glanced down at the paper in Lily's hand. "What's that?" Lily handed it to her.
"A letter from my sister. Apparently I'm staying here for Christmas." Emma read the letter before handing it back to Lily.
"That stinks. I'd offer to let you come home with me for Christmas, but my parents and I are going to visit Hannah in Italy." Emma's older sister and her husband lived in Italy.
Lily smiled gratefully at Emma.
"Thanks for the offer anyway." She said. At that moment, the portrait hole swung open and several loud voices could be heard, followed seconds later by Lily's other best friend Bridget, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and the perpetual prat of Lily's existence, James Potter.
Bridget Jones, (or Bree, and she preferred to be called) was tall, blonde and athletic. She had long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a killer body from playing Quidditch.
"-Give it up Black, you can't beat me." Bree said, Sirius grinned.
"Oh but I will B, I will." Bree rolled her eyes and spotted her two best friends sitting on the couch.
"Emma! Lily!" She shouted before racing towards them and leaping on the couch next to them, causing Emma to jump.
"Don't scare me like that B!" Emma complained, her hand over her heart.
"Sorry," Bree replied, sitting calmly next to them on the couch. It didn't take long for her to notice the paper in Lily's hands.
"What's that Lils?" She asked. Out of the corner of her eye, Lily noticed James immediately perk up at the mention of her name.
"It's a letter from my sister." Lily handed Bree the letter and explained the situation.
"-And so now I'm stuck here for Christmas." Lily said. Bree handed Lily the paper back.
"Um, Lils, you do know that everyone has to go home for the holidays?" Lily shook her head.
"No, I didn't hear that." Bree and Emma looked surprised. "You didn't get Professor McGonagall's notice?" Lily shook her head. "What notice?"
"Everyone has to go home for Christmas because they have to do some major cleaning charm on the castle or something." Bree said. Emma nodded.
"Yeah, there's some weird fungi growing in the dungeons and the teachers need to perform some spell to get it all out. So apparently no one's allowed to stay for Christmas." Lily groaned.
"What am I going to do? There's no one at my house, Bree is having all her relatives over, and Emma's going to Italy."
"What about Alice?" Emma suggested. Lily shook her head. "She went to Frank's for Christmas." Bree patted Lily on the shoulder. "You're screwed, that's for sure Lils.
Lily groaned again and buried her face in her hands. Then, a voice she dreaded hearing spoke.
"Did I just hear that Lily Evans has no where to go for Christmas?" Lily groaned again, her face still buried in her hands. "Go away Potter."
"Only if you come with me, Lily Flower."
"Over my dead body." Lily retorted.
"You know Lily Flower, I do have a solution to your problem." James said, leaning against the back of the sofa behind Bree.
Lily glanced up at him, feeling slightly hopeful. "And what would that be?" James grinned at her,
"Why, come home with me for Christmas of course." Lily glared at him.
"In your dreams Potter."
"There aren't really any other options, are there?" Lily mentally groaned, he had a point; she had nowhere else to go. Lily sighed.
"I guess I have no choice." James face broke out in a grin. "I knew you'd see it my way." He stood up straight.
"See you later Lily Flower." Lily groaned as he left.
"What have I gotten myself into?"
1 week later, 3 days before Christmas…
Why am I putting myself through this? Lily wondered. It was three days before Christmas, and the Hogwarts express had just taken the rest of the student's to kings cross. Lily's trunk, of course, was stuck and refused to come out of the train, no matter how hard Lily pulled. Of course, having a stuck trunk wasn't as bad as who she was going home with for Christmas.
Lily had somehow gotten herself stuck going home with Potter for Christmas. Her parents and sister weren't home, and all her other friends were busy. Lily mentally groaned.
A whole holiday with Potter? Lily would rather be eaten by the giant squid.
"Hey Evans!" Lily paused from her pulling and saw Potter headed towards her, a grin on his face. Lily rolled her eyes and returned to trying to get her trunk out. Potter frowned as he stopped next to her.
"Need some help Evans?" Before Lily could protest, James had grabbed her trunk and easily pulled it off the train. Lily blinked in surprise, but before she could thank him, Sirius came running through the crowd towards them.
"Oi! Prongs!" he said, stopping next to them. James grinned at him. "Ready to go Padfoot?" Sirius nodded.
"Yeah, but guess what! I was just talking to that cute Ravenclaw 6th year…" Lily rolled her eyes and ignored them, loading her trunk on a trolley and pushing it towards the barrier, leaving Potter and Black behind.
"Hey Evans! Wait up!" Lily ignored them and continued to the barrier, stopping next to it. Potter and Black ran over and stopped next to her a minute later.
"Geese thanks for waiting Evans." Black grumbled as he and Potter used their wands to summon their trunks. Lily placed her hands on her hips.
"Alright you two, how are we getting there? I'm assuming you don't drive." Black shook his head.
"Nah, we're Apparating." Lily nodded. "That's what I thought."
James and Sirius each put a hand on their trunks. "Alright," James said, "on the count of three. One." Lily's eyes widened. "Wait-"
"Two."
"I don't-"
"Three!"
There was small flash of light, and they were gone. Lily groaned, crossing her arms and sitting on her trunk. Potter and Black had forgotten to tell here where they were going, forcing Lily to wait for them to come back for her.
Sure enough, a minute later, Potter Apparated next to her.
"Sorry Evans." He said, Lily sighed and stood up. James grinned at her.
"You're gonna have to hold on to me so I can Apparate us both." He said smugly. Lily closed her eyes and groaned, opening them as Potter wrapped an arm around her shoulder. He reached his other hand down to touch her trunk.
"Hold on tight." He joked. There was a flash of light, and suddenly Lily was standing in what appeared to be the main hall of a house.
Lily's jaw almost dropped open in surprise. Potter's house was huge! To Lily's left was a large door that Lily had a feeling led to a kitchen, and on Lily's right was a fireplace Lily was certain could fit at least 8 people, and directly in front of her was a double staircase that lead to a balcony hallway. Lily could see at least four doors on both sides.
"Wow…" she muttered, still taking everything in.
"I CALL THE BEDROOM NEXT TO THE BATHROOM!!!!" Sirius raced up the steps to claim his room, using his wand to float his trunk up after him. Lily rolled her eyes, but couldn't keep herself from grinning. Behind her, Potter was busy rummaging through his trunk for something.
"HEY PRONGS! WHO'S THIS PICTURE OF?"
"SIRIUS!" Potter jumped up and raced up the stairs towards his room faster than a snitch, and that was saying something.
Lily rolled her eyes and busied herself by studying the room, waiting for the two immature 17 year olds to stop acting like 2 year olds.
As Lily glanced around, she noticed several pictures hanging on the wall. Curious, she walked closer to take a closer look.
In the first photo, she noticed a much younger James Potter standing with what looked like his parents. They were smiling, and James was sitting on the man's shoulder.
In the second, James was sitting on a broom, his father helping him and his mother standing by proudly holding Quidditch souvenirs.
There were several more pictures, some with just James, some with him and his parents, some with only him and his mother or him and his father, and one or two of just his parents. A few of them even had Sirius in them.
The one Lily liked the most was the family photo. They were all dressed up in fancy clothes, even Sirius, and were all sitting together, smiling and happy…
"SIRIUS!!!" Lily jumped and turned around just in time to see Sirius come tearing out of his room and slid down the banister before running to the kitchen, Potter hot on his heels. Lily stared after them, sighing and shaking her head.
A few minutes later, both boys emerged from the kitchen, Potter clutching something in his hand. He shot a glare at Sirius, and then smiled at Lily.
"Sorry about that Evans. Padfoot thought it was funny to steal an important picture of mine." Sirius stuck his tongue out at Potter before racing back up the steps to his room.
"Anyways, I've got to do something real fast, so you can head on up and pick a room if you want." Lily nodded.
"Ok," Potter disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Lily alone.
Lily decided to take James' advice and find a room, so she headed up the large staircase.
At the top of the staircase was a long hallway with several doors on both the left and right. Lily had no way of knowing which rooms were guest rooms and which were not, so she decided to guess. She decided to take her chances and go right. (After all, right is right, right?)
Lily turned and headed for the first door on the right, but she froze when she saw something through a crack in the door- more specifically, Sirius walking around only in a pair of Quidditch boxers. Lily shuddered and quickly headed for the next door, and the next one, and the next one.
One or two of the doors were locked, and the rest of them were either completely empty or had very few things in them. Finally, Lily came to a door that looked a bit fancier then the rest of them.
Curious, Lily grasped the handle and slowly pushed open the door.
To Lily's surprise, the room was unlike the others. It was painted red and gold, Gryffindor's colors. Posters of Quidditch players were posted on every wall. The huge double bed had a red comforter and silky gold pillows. Clothes littered the floor, and a couple of books were on a desk next to a wooden dresser in the corner. Realization hit Lily; this must be James' room.
Lily quickly closed the door, ignoring the weird feeling in her stomach in knowing this was James' room.
Lily headed for the room next to James', her mouth dropping open as she opened the door.
The room was painted two different shades of green. One a very light, calming green and the other a dark green that exactly matched Lily's eyes.
All the furniture in the room was white; the bed had a matching set of green comforters and pillows. There was a desk next to a window with a window seat that overlooked a garden below. Lily's mouth was still hanging open when she sensed that someone was behind her.
Lily quickly wheeled around, only to find Potter behind her. He smiled.
"My mother designed this room for you when she heard you were coming." He explained, taking a step towards her.
"Sirius and Remus each have their own rooms in this house too, but my mom said she loved doing you room. 'I hope her eyes are as green as you said' she told me." He took another step closer. Lily didn't know what to say. "I…" she took a deep breath and released it slowly.
"I-It's beautiful." James grinned. "I'm glad you like it." He gently took her hand in his and pulled her towards the door.
"Come on, there's someone I want you to meet." Lily pulled her hand from his, but followed him non-the less.
James led Lily to the kitchen, grabbing her hand again as they entered. Lily pulled her hand free, but could not ignore how warm her hand felt after being in his.
"Pepper!" James said. A house elf suddenly appeared in front of them with a crack!
"Yes young master?" James grinned down at the house elf and turned to a stunned Lily.
"There's someone here I want you to meet." He placed a hand on Lily's shoulder. (Which she shrugged off) "Lily, this is one of our house elves, Pepper. Pepper, this is a friend of mine, Lily." Pepper curtsied to Lily.
"Pleasures to meet you Master Potter's Lily. I am Pepper, Master Potter's house elf." Lily smiled slowly, still a little shocked. She smacked James in the chest.
"You own a house elf?" James nodded.
"A few, actually. We've tried setting them free, but they threaten to kill themselves if we do, so we just make sure they get time off instead." Pepper curtsied again.
"Masters and Mistress Potter insist on giving Pepper times off, but Pepper doesn't need time off! Pepper likes doing her work!" James smiled at Pepper.
"Everybody needs time off once in a while." Pepper shook her head. "Not house elves Master Potter. House elves are made for working!"
The clock on the wall began to chime 4 O' clock, causing Pepper to gasp in horror and start pulling her ears and smacking her head on the floor.
"Pepper is such a bad house elf! Pepper forgots to offer Master and Master's mistress lady tea! Bad Pepper!" James immediately seized Pepper in attempt to halt her self-punishment.
"Stop it Pepper!" he shouted, and Pepper immediately stopped, her big eyes filled with tears.
"Master is angry with Pepper." She wailed, James shook his head and set her back on the ground. "I'm not angry Pepper. But please stop hurting yourself." But this only made Pepper wail louder.
"Pepper made Master sad! Bad Pepper!" Lily glared at James and smacked him in the arm. "You're just making it worse!" Potter's mouth dropped open in innocent confusion as Lily bent down to comfort the sobbing house elf.
"Don't cry Pepper! Potter's a jerk, he's not mad at you! He just doesn't want you to get hurt so that you can't help put up Christmas decorations!" Pepper stopped crying and stared up at Lily with big watery eyes. "Master is worried about Pepper?" Lily nodded, and Pepper turned to stare up at James with adoration.
"Master is so kind to Pepper! Pepper will not let Master down!" The clock chimed again, but this time Lily noticed it made a different sound. She, James and Pepper all glanced up at the clock, where the words, 'traveling' appeared above the numbers.
Pepper gasped, "Pepper and Sophie must make tea for Master and Mistress Potter!" She scurried off before either James or Lily could react.
James frowned at the clock, "Hmm, looks like Mum and Dad are coming home early tonight." He glanced at Lily.
"They must really want to meet you." Lily's heart fluttered as James grabbed her hands again and pulled her into the main hall and in front of the enormous fireplace.
"Hey Sirius! Mum and Dad are on their way home!" James shouted up the steps. There was a thud, and Sirius appeared from his room and slid down the banister until he landed in front of Lily and James. Fully clothed, Lily noticed.
"Why Sirius, nice to see you actually wearing pants." Sirius and James looked at her quiz idly before Sirius's face broke into a large grin.
"Why Lilykins, I didn't know you were interested." Both Lily and James scowled.
"I can assure you not. I happened to be walking by your room when your door was ajar. By the way, nice boxers. Though I am still suffering from the postmatic scaring." Sirius opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by the fireplace erupting in green flames.
The flames died down after a few seconds, and a man and woman stepped out of the enormous fireplace.
"Hey Mum, hey Dad, how was work?" James greeted. Mrs. Potter smiled at her son.
"It was the same as usual dear," she said cheerfully, leaning over to hug her son and kiss him on the forehead. She then reached over to give Sirius his own hug and kiss on the forehead. "Hello Sirius." Much to Lily's surprise, Sirius returned the hug.
"Hey Mum."
Mrs. Potter then turned her attention to Lily while Mr. Potter greeted the boys by ruffling their hair and hugging them each.
"And who might this beautiful young lady be?" James walked over to Lily and wrapped an arm around her shoulder (to which she shoved off.)
"Mum, Dad, this is Lily Evans." Mrs. Potter held out her hand to Lily.
"Nice to meet you Lily. I'm Evelyn Potter, James' mother, but please call me Evelyn." She shook Lily's hand.
"Nice to meet you Evelyn." Lily said. Evelyn Potter had light red hair and the same deep hazel eyes as James.
Mr. Potter held out his hand next. "Hello Miss Evans. I'm Harold Potter, James's father." Mr. Potter had the same thick black hair as James, but his eyes were a dark blue. He shared similar facial features to James- the two looked almost like twins.
Lily shook Mr. Potter's hand, feeling a little awe-struck. "Nice to meet you Mr. Potter."
Before anyone could say another word, there was a crack, and Pepper appeared.
"Welcomes home Master and Mistress Potter! Pepper and Sophie has prepared teas!" Mr. Potter smiled.
'Thank you Pepper, please take it into the dining room." Pepper nodded and curtsied before disappearing with a crack!
Mr. Potter gestured to the kitchen door.
"Shall we all go for tea in the dining room?" Lily, James and Sirius nodded, and they headed for the dining room. But before they had left, a large snowy owl came swooping in through and open window and landed on Lily's shoulder. Lily immediately recognized the bird as her snowy owl Juno.
"Juno," she said, a bit surprised. "What are you doing here? I thought I sent you home." Juno held out her leg, a note in her claws. Lily quickly took it.
'It's bad enough you own that flying rat. DON'T SEND IT HOME!!!'
-Petunia.
Lily rolled her eyes and sighed, glancing over at Mr. And Mrs. Potter.
"Would you mind if I kept my owl here? I forgot my sister doesn't like owls." Evelyn shook her head.
"Of course not, she can keep our owls company. Why don't you take her to your room for now? James can show where our owls stay later." Lily nodded, "Thank you," she said, letting Juno step onto her arm before heading up the steps to her room.
It's a little short, but it's only the first chapter, I promise they will get longer :) Emma originally used to be called Holly, and Mrs. Potter was originally Athena, so if you see those names anywhere, you'll know who they really are.
Thanks for reading!!