Chapter 31: A Christmas Morning and the Right Thing
"James," Lily said cautiously, staring at him worriedly, "d'you-are you feeling alright?"
James looked up, startled. The Firewhiskey from the night before still seemed to have an affect on him; for the past minute or so he had been staring with fascination at the shining baubles that decorated Sirius's pathetic, wilting Christmas tree. Lily sighed, and got up from her cross-legged position on the floor.
"James," she said, "if you just want to go to bed, I can always-"
"No," James said loudly. "Give me my present, Girl."
"Ho, ho," she said, a smirk appearing on her face. "That's all I get for brewing you potion while you and Sirius get properly smashed? I haven't forgotten that you wanted me to work at a bar. Thanks for that."
"You know I didn't mean it," James said, distractedly eyeing a large, red box that he hoped very much was his. "You're first rate. You don't need to give out alcohol for me to know that. And-er-you're much more attractive than most bartenders. Is that mine?" He pointed at the box.
Lily stared at him.
"I don't think I've seen anybody over the age of five use such blatant lies to get their prezzies. And no, that's for Sirius."
James was sure she could see the disappointment on his face.
"Ugh," she said, and she went around behind the tree.
"Lily," James said worriedly, "what're you doing?"
"Getting you your present. What did you think?"
"I dunno."
Lily came out again, holding a blue box that was significantly smaller than the red one.
"I believe," she said, "that that Firewhiskey has permanently addled your brain, my lovely. You're making less sense than I usually do."
"You always make sense. Sometimes you make too much sense. Why is my present so small?"
"Because I like Sirius better," Lily said flatly. When James looked up at her sharply, she rolled her eyes.
"Oh, you must be joking," she said. "You can't tell me you believed it?"
"Well, aren't you snarky?"
Lily put the present in his lap and sat down. He was surprised by how heavy it was.
"If it makes you feel any better, yours cost more. Not that it should matter."
James frowned a little. For some reason there seemed to be a bit of tension, and he wondered if she really was resentful about his having gotten drunk on Christmas Eve. Not that he could really blame her; after all, he didn't know what was traditionally done in her house for Christmas Eve. Though it wasn't really a big event in his home, perhaps it was in the Evans household. If it was, he reflected with not a little guilt, then tending to two drunks was probably not her idea of a good holiday.
"Of course it does," James joked, but he planted a kiss on her nose to show that he was willing to make peace. She smiled and touched his cheek tenderly, and he concluded that everything was fine.
When he ripped the paper from the gift, he found himself staring down at a large, silver box.
"Open it," she encouraged him. He lifted the lid, and he found himself looking down at a large black circle with a long, thin stick lying next to it.
"Er-it's lovely." He touched it hesitantly and wondered why such an ugly contraption looked faintly familiar to him.
Lily gave him a knowing look.
"You didn't pay attention in Muggle studies at all, did you?"
"What? How d'you know I didn't-"
"Otherwise you'd know what this was."
"I-I do," James lied, looking down at it and trying to bring up the memory of what it was. "It's-it's-you said it was a Muggle thing?"
"It's a record player."
"Right, record player, I knew that." He had no idea what she was talking about.
"I thought that Sirius said you dated a singer?"
"For a week," he said, feeling a little hostile. Why was she able to talk about his ex girlfriend so easily?
"Well, I-never mind, I won't get snotty right now. I'll show you." She stood up and began to go back around the tree again.
"That's a good lass," James said fondly. Lily stiffened.
"James, you just sounded like my grandfather."
"Oh. Sorry."
Coming back around the tree, she held a black velvet box.
"This is the second part of the present, and you need it to make the record player work."
James lifted the lid, and pulled out a thick paper square. Looking inside the open end, he saw a black circle, similar to the one on the record player.
"Are you serious?" Lily asked, "You've never seen a record?"
"Is that what this is?"
"Look." She took the black thing away from him and placed it over the black circle on the box. She smiled and balanced the thin stick over the record using the needle attached to it.
"Now, here's the good part." She pulled her wand out of her pocket and tapped the box once. The black circle began turning, and a man's singing voice began to fill the room. Lily smiled.
"The Beatles," she said, "and it's run by magic, so you can listen to it at school!"
"Oh," James said, "so it's like the wizarding wireless?"
"Sort of," she said, looking at the record player fondly, "except the music comes from the records, and it's Muggle music, so you've probably never heard any of it before."
"Oh." He began to listen to the song, and was faintly surprised to find that he'd heard the song before.
"Who is this again?"
"The Beatles. Have you-oh, do they know about The Beatles in the wizarding world?"
"I-oh, yeah, they do!" James had had to think about it for a moment, but he knew that he'd heard this song before. Then he remembered how Sirius had called Lily Yoko and wondered how he'd ever forgotten.
"That's great!" Lily laughed. "I'm glad that the worlds-I mean the wizarding and Muggle ones-I'm glad that they're not completely separate."
"So I suppose that The Beatles are one of the few things that can transcend the worlds."
"I suppose they do, don't they?" For a long time, neither of them said a word, the record making the only sound. Finally, James got up and grabbed a familiar present from under the tree.
"You're going to open my present. Do it." He shoved the present, which had been placed under the wretched tree, at her. She picked up the box that was wrapped in green foil without hesitation. She grinned widely and began to carefully tear the foil off the box.
"What the hell are you doing?"
She looked up, surprised.
"I'm unwrapping my present."
"You're bloody acting like it's wrapped in paper money. Rip it!"
"No!" she laughed. "It's too pretty, I want to save it!"
"What, so you can plaster your bedroom walls in it?"
"I certainly don't want to throw it away."
James took the paper that she'd carefully put on the ground and purposefully crinkled and ripped it.
"I've got more, Evans," he said. "It's bloody fucking Christmas, just open it!"
Lily cocked her head at him.
"That's funny. You sounded just like Sirius then."
James didn't know what he was to make of that. He still wasn't completely sure how Lily felt about Sirius. Lily turned back to her present, and she began to rip it open. After the paper was pulled away, a cardboard box was revealed, and when she opened it, there was a small stack of papers.
"What is-oh my goodness, James!" Seeing what the papers said, she pulled them out and began reading them eagerly.
James had been extremely pleased to find that Arabella Figg had not only heard of the show Coronation Street, but happened to be a huge fan of it. He also found her to be a very kind and accommodating woman who was more than willing to write weekly to his girlfriend to tell her everything that had happened.
Lily, after a moment, began to laugh.
"Where did you get this? James, did you make this up? It's brilliant!"
James shook his head, amused that she would think that he would ever be able to write anything worth reading.
"I found a lady who watches Coronation Street," he said, "and she said she'd write everything since-since you stopped getting it written to you, and that she'll send you a new one every week."
"It's fabulous," Lily said, looking down at the pages before her and flipping through them. "She leaves in all of the funny bits. Petty never thought to write those down." Lily looked back up at James, her eyes shining strangely.
"I can't believe you even thought of it."
"Well…I mean…I knew that you-that you liked it when your sister wrote it to you, and that maybe you'd like to keep getting it. I mean, there's-I liked it when you read it to me, too. It was cute."
Lily laughed, though it sounded funny.
"Did you just call something I did cute? I never thought I'd hear you use that word."
"I-wha-" Before James could think of anything to reply, Lily buried her head in his arm, and realized that she was crying.
"Oh, God," she said. "I told myself I wasn't going to-I-" She pulled away from him and began to rub at her eyes furiously.
"I'm sorry," James said helplessly, and Lily shook her head vigorously.
"Don't you dare," she said. She kissed him on the mouth fiercely, then looked up at him. He couldn't help thinking how striking her green eyes looked, standing out brightly from the rest of her face.
"You are the most beautiful person I've ever met, James Potter, and I love you."
James raised his eyebrows, surprised.
"I love you, too."
"You don't understand," she said. "You can't know how-do you even realize how thoughtful you are? Nobody in the world could have thought of that but you, and I'm so-God, I'm so glad I have you." She kissed him on the lips again, and on the head, and then on the lips again. By the time she'd kissed him on the lips for the third time, he was mentally awake enough to respond. In a moment, they found themselves on the ground amid the ripped foil paper.
"Oh, for the love of Merlin," moaned a voice not far away, "don't make the babies in my living room."
James ignored him, and it was Lily who struggled to sit up. James groaned.
"You're a git, Black."
"Stuff it, you've had Pepperup potion."
James couldn't help letting out a reluctant laugh at the thought that Lily had been snogging him while he had the ridiculous steam pouring out of his ears.
Lily pulled herself into a standing position.
"Let me get you some Pepperup potion," she said.
"Fix your shirt, Evans. Potter seems to have gotten into it."
"He didn't do anything of the sort," Lily said, adjusting her shirt and turning beet red. Hurriedly she went into the other room, and came out a moment later with a vial of the potion.
"I hope that's enough," she said dryly. "From the amount of alcohol you were drinking last night, I was afraid one dose wouldn't do it."
In one fluid motion, Sirius drained the entire contents of the vial. He paused for a moment, then smiled when steam began coming out of his ears.
"Works great, Mother," he said teasingly. "Now let's have at the presents!"
"We've already opened ours, you dolt," James said. Sirius pulled a face.
"That's fine. That means I've missed all of the boring parts."
Lily made a face at James, and, sitting down next to him and snatching his hand in hers, they both pretended to watch while Sirius opened the two presents that they'd given him.
***
When James stepped through the front door, he found himself instantly being crushed.
"Jamie!"
"Hey, Mum."
His mother eventually let go of him, and he was relieved that she did not look like she had been crying. He didn't think he could handle dealing with two crying women in the same morning.
"Merry Christmas, my love," she cooed. "I'm so glad you're alright, I was so relieved when I got your owl…"
"Yeah, Lily told me to send it."
His mother barely missed a beat.
"How good of her." For a moment there was silence, then she said, hesitantly,
"I suppose that means she was alright. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named didn't get to her."
James took a good look at her to see if she was trying to imply something, but she was all innocence.
"She's fine," he said slowly.
"That's lovely," she said, and for some reason, James believed she meant it. He smiled at her, pleased.
"Where's Dad?"
His mother touched her perfectly structured hair nervously and didn't say a word. Slowly, James's smile faded.
"He's not here?"
"He-he had work to do. The ministry doesn't close on Christmas, after all!" She forced a smile, but James didn't do the same. They both knew that he wouldn't be at work if he hadn't wanted to be there. An awkward silence fell between them.
"I don't suppose you want us to start without him?" James asked quietly.
"It would be the right thing to wait," she said softly. He nodded, then set off upstairs to his room.
What he couldn't help thinking was that, even though he'd come to James and Lily's rescue a few days before, his father didn't often do the right thing for his family. More likely than not, he'd probably sided with them solely so that he could contradict his wife. This time it had been in James's favor, but it was hard to appreciate it when he knew that it really had very little to do with actually being on his side.
"Screw the right thing," James couldn't help muttering to himself.
Author's Note: Here's chapter 31-hopefully it turned out alright, because, even I'll admit, it's been a while. As far as the future of the story goes, there's only a few chapters left. If I had to guess, I'd say GoaYB will end up having 35 chapters (the last chapter taking place on Lily's eighteenth birthday), and then an epilogue. The epilogue will be a way of wrapping up everything that might not necessarily be resolved within the text of the story. I'm actually thinking that the epilogue might be told from the POV of a character besides James…I suppose everyone will just have to keep reading to find out! Moohaha.
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