Heading the School

Chapter Fifteen

"Lily darling, Petty wants us to come to her house for Christmas dinner, what do you think?" Mrs. Evans said, as they were decorating the Christmas tree two days before Christmas. Lily was knee deep in Christmas lights and trying to figure out which one was broken, so she could re- wrap it around the tree.

Lily sighed. "If she wants us there, I suppose I'll go."

"Oh excellent, Darling!" Mrs. Evans beams. "She was telling me that Vernon bought her some beautiful new furniture for an early Christmas present."

"I see," Lily nodded, glad that Vernon was at least giving her sister every and anything that she wanted. "And she's going to allow Oliver to come and bounce all over it?"

"Oh no, James invited Oliver for Christmas dinner at his house-"

"WHAT!?" Lily exploded, dropping the lights.James had invited her little brother and not his girlfriend. "Why that little-" Trying to untangle herself, she ended up tripping over the lights. With a frustrated sound, she Apparated with a pop to James' front hall, irate.

"POTTER!" Lily roared. She heard footsteps running towards her and settled her glare on the kitchen door, when the elder Mr. Potter came skidding into their front hall, face pale. He relaxed a bit when he saw it was just Lily.

"Hello Lily dear, I thought you were my wife," he said, putting his hand to his chest. "James is out back with Oliver and Sirius."

Lily stormed past them and into the backyard, where Oliver was practicing a tricky hair-color changing charm with a stick. Lily watched, her anger slowly growing quietly, as James congratulated him on his mastery of the technique.

"Excellent, excellent. You'll be just fine once we get your wand and really practice. Do you want to go over that wart hex again?" James asked, not even seeing Lily behind him. Oliver, however, was in plain view of Lily and began furiously shaking his head.

James frowned. "What? Well how about that Nose-Enlargement curse?"

Oliver shook his head fervently again, trying to tell James with his eyes to stop talking, before Lily got even madder.

"C'mon Oliver, how about that Tripping curse?"

"Is this what you have been doing for the past two weeks?" came Lily's calm voice. James stiffened and turned around slowly.

"H-Hey Lily," he said, nervously. "I didn't see you there..."

"Obviously," she responded sharply. "And here I thought that Sirius was the only one I had to worry about. I thought that you were above all this? You're Head Boy, for crying out loud!"

"I know," James said, putting his hands on Oliver's shoulders. "I'm just passing along my knowledge to Oliver here."

"Come with me," Lily said, walking over and grabbing him by the arm. She dragged him over to a corner in the yard, hidden by two trees.

"Lily, I promise that's not all-"

"Hush."

"Yes ma'am," James nodded.

"Look, first thing's first. Not that I care, but why did you invite Oliver to Christmas dinner and not your own girlfriend?"

"Erm...I thought you were going to Petunia's?" James said, scratching the back of his head. "Do you want to come to dinner?"

"Yes!" Lily snapped and James jumped back.

"All right," James said, stepping back a bit.

"Now, why are you teaching my brother horrible charms!?"

"You see..."

A few minutes later, Sirius walked outside, drawn by the screaming from earlier. He approached Oliver and put his arm on his shoulder, watching him stare at a point in the yard curiously but not following his gaze.

"What's going on?"

"Lily and James are arguing."

"Where?"

"Over there," Oliver said, pointing. Sirius squinted and then turned Oliver around, a smirk on his face.

"That's not fighting, Oliver, that's something you'll find out about in a few years."

"He's eating her face though," Oliver said. "Why's he eating her face?"

"I'm not the right one to explain that one, Oliver," Sirius snorted, walking him inside.

Christmas Eve came, and the Evans exchanged their Christmas presents. Lily was pleasantly surprised that Oliver's presents were all magical, and wondered exactly what else her brother and James had been up to, but as James had so passionately sucked the anger out of her the other day, she wasn't so mad about it.

When she awoke on Christmas Day, her parents had already left. Oliver was watching television on the couch, and was nibbling on one of the cookies her mother had set out for them.

"Hey kiddo," Lily grinned, plopping down on the couch with him. He grinned and crawled over into her lap, leaning against her neck.

"Happy Christmas, Lily," he said as she wrapped her arms around him. "Are you still mad at James?"

She sighed. "Oliver, you know I don't want you to use those spells on anyone, right?"

"James says that I should only use them on Slimies."

"Slimies?" Lily asked, looking at him.

"Yeah, he says that they're these snotty wizards who think they're better than everyone else."

Lily snorted. "Slytherins?"

"Oh yeah, that's them."

"Oliver, even if they are horrible to you, you can't retaliate the same way," Lily said. "You don't want to sink down to their level."

"James said that the reason why you never dated him is because he used to do these things to Slimies or whatever."

"Yes, that's true."

"James also said that if I ever wanted a girl like you, and he also said that you're the kind that I need to get, that I don't need to do this in front of her."

"No, you don't need to do it period," Lily corrected.

"Yeah, well, I only plan to do it whenever a Slimie is rude to someone." He was quiet for a moment. "Lily, are they mean to you?"

"Sometimes," she sighed. "But I don't let it get to me, because I know that I'm a better person than they are."

"Are they going to be mean to me?"

"The ones that matter won't be."

"What does that mean?" Oliver asked.

"If they are truly people worthy of your time, you won't have to make an effort to be friends with them."

"But what about James? It looks like you have to make a lot of effort to be friends with him."

She gave a little laugh. "Effort isn't the word."

"Do you love him?" Oliver asked. Lily was quiet for a moment.

"Oliver, love is such a strong word," she said. "But I do care for him deeply."

"Are you gonna marry him?" Oliver asked, grinning. "I've always wanted a brother."

"What about Vernon?" Lily asked, a bit amused at this conversation.

"Vernon's too old and stuffy. I want James for a brother more."

"Oliver, I'm really young."

"I know, but I still think you should marry him, he'd treat you really well. Besides, he said that he bought you something with gold and a diamond in it for Christmas."

Lily's heart stopped beating for a moment. "What?"

"He came home the other day, with his mum, and they both had big smiles on their faces and James had a bag from a jewelry store."

"Oh my God..." Lily said, her eyes wide. Oliver continued on as if he hadn't said anything weird.

Instead of Christmas dinner, the Potters were having Christmas lunch. Once Lily saw Remus, with his pale complexion and half-asleep demeanor, she realized that the full moon was that evening. Of course, she was more concerned with the fact that James didn't seem any different, any more nervous or anything of the like, and that made her even more nervous, because James never acted cool in the face of this sort of thing.

Then again, he'd never proposed marriage before.

After lunch, all four of the boys came over to Lily's to watch the Wizard of Oz with Oliver, which was playing continuously on the local television station. Before the movie had even begun, Remus was out like a light, and Peter confessed that his mum wanted him home. So that left Sirius, who, from the first five minutes was glued to the television with an identical expression as Oliver.

Lily sat primly, mostly because she was rather light-headed from worry that any moment now, James was going to pop the question on her. She nearly threw up when he snuck his hand around her and whispered in her ear that he wanted to give her his gift.

So they left Siris and Oliver, who were both watching Dorothy be swept away in the tornado without blinking, and went upstairs to await her fate.

"Are you ok?" James asked, calmly walking her over to her bed.

"Y-Yeah, fine," Lily said, quietly. "So...presents."

"You go first," he smiled at her. Lily went over to her desk and pulled out a wrapped box. James opened it and his eyes lit up, pulling out a book that said Quidditch Strategies, Edition Three Hundred and Ninety-Nine.

"Wow! When did this come out?!"

"Last week," Lily said, relieved that he was so happy. "I preordered it weeks ago, when I found out."

"I appreciate it!" James leaned over and gave her a hug and a kiss. "Now, for your present."

Lily held her breath. James pulled out a tiny box wrapped in beautiful red paper. He fumbled with it and it fell on the ground. He slid off the bed and picked it up, looking at her from one knee and Lily felt tears coming on.

"Here," he handed it to her and watched as she opened it.

"Oh thank God," Lily breathed out. Inside was a golden heart with a cubic zirconium encrested in it.

"What?" James said, grinning.

"I thought it was...nevermind, I love it," she said, picking it up and examining it.

"See, look, on the back," James said, gently, turning it over. The back had an intertwined ‘L' and a ‘J' engraved on the back. Lily looked up at him and grinned happily.

"It's so beautiful. And it looks so real."

James cleared his throat. "That's because it is real."

"What?" Lily said, quietly, pushing the necklace away. "It must have...It must have cost a fortune!"

"Yeah, well," James grinned, blushing a bit. "It also counts for our 6 month anniversary."

"Take it back," she said, quietly.

"What?" he said, confused. "I thought you liked it?"

"You can't spend this much money on me," Lily said. "Not when I can't afford to do the same for you."

"For crying out loud, Lily," James said, running his hand through his hair. "I can't please you!"

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Lily stood up. James stood up next to her.

"I mean, it seems as though I can't prove myself to you! There's always something holding you back, isn't there?! I can't do anything right!"

"James, I'm just your girlfriend, you shouldn't be buying me things like that!" Lily exclaimed.

"Just my girlfriend?" James sputtered. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I happen to love you!"

And then there was silence. Lily stared at him, incredulous.

"W-What?"

"Lily, I love you," James lowered his voice as he walked closer to her. "And all I ask of you is for you to love me back the way I love you."

"I have to sit down," Lily said, quietly.

"Are you ok?" he said, sitting down next to her.

"Nobody's ever told me that they loved me before," Lily sighed. "Except my family, of course."

"I do though," he said, taking her chin in his hand. "And I just wanted to show everyone how much you mean to me."

Lily nodded and he put the necklace on her. "James...I'm sorry I'm so difficult."

"You aren't difficult, you're fun," James said.

"And you're just...perfect sometimes," she whispered. "I love you, too."

"Hm...since that's out of the way, how about we get down to some business, then," he grinned. Lily looked up at him and hit him in the stomach, indignantly.

"You bloody little horndog! Did you only buy this for me so that you'd get me to sleep with you?!"

"Well, no, not entirely," James defended. "I honestly do love you, and I would like to not only show it in tokens of my esteem, but also physically."

"James, I'm not ready yet," Lily sighed. James fell back on the bed.

"Why!?" he groaned. "I'm not going to leave you afterwards, you know?"

"Its not that," Lily said, quietly. "I'm not...comfortable yet."

"What dya mean?"

"I mean, I don't feel comfortable being...naked....in front of you yet," she fumbled with her hands. James let out a sigh.

"Well, you know, there are other means to the end."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lily gave him a sideways glance. James winked at her and had a sly grin on his face.

"Wanna find out?"

"And there really is no place like home!" Sirius bit the nub of his thumb in concentration as the movie ended. He finally realized that James and Lily were not around, but did not have to wait long for their return, as they came down the stairs.

"Lily, this is the most amazing movie-what's wrong?" he asked, seeing the blank expression on her face. Then he saw the expression on James' face and smiled knowingly.

"So, I take it you enjoyed your presents?"

"Huh?" Lily said.

"I'll take that as a yes."