The House of Potter
Between the Halloween Feast and exams, Lily didn't have time to dwell on what was bothering James Potter. End of term exams had nearly ended Lily's last thread of sanity and after three nights of no sleep and extreme testing, Lily found herself so grateful that she was getting a break. She sat on the train back to London, alone for the moment, surprised that James had actually managed to keep up his end of the bargain. The envelope had not been breeched and James certainly hadn't asked her out. In all honesty, James hadn't spent much time with her since the day she learned to fly.
Lily had tried to get him to spend time with her alone; it just never worked out for Lily. He was always so busy, be it Quidditch practice or matches, of which Lily was there cheering with the other Gryffindors. He was missing patrol for the full moon and for Remus, though he would never admit that was the reason. Lily had figured that one out on her own, and had overheard the Marauders talking about being anamagi. She wasn't stupid, no. Even now, they were heading to London to spend three long Christmas Holiday weeks together but they weren't together. James was hanging out with Sirius and Remus, Peter having remained back at Hogwarts.
"Why doesn't he want to spend time with me?" Lily whined quietly to Alice who was caught up in her own drama. Frank would be waiting for her when the train arrived and Alice still hadn't cut Sirius off from their fling. She worried about what Frank would say if he found out what Alice had been doing at Hogwarts behind his back.
"Maybe because you kept pulling him close then pushing him away," Alice mumbled as she flipped angrily through her Witches Weekly. "Guys like a chase, but they don't want to be toyed with."
Lily fell silent and wondered if she had gone about things wrong way. She dozed off after a while, the quiet rocking, and humming of the train as it rushed toward London. Lily didn't often dream, but this was one of those unfortunate dreams that haunted her. Though she had not been there, she imagined a cloaked man entering her parents' house and with a voice that sounded suspiciously like Severus' voice, her parents were slain. Lily jerked awake to find Alice, Sirius, and James standing in the compartment looking at her with concern.
"Are you ok?" James asked as he put his hand on her shoulder. Lily brushed him off.
"I am fine, just nodded off," Lily said as she joined them standing. The train had stopped, as it had arrived in London. One by one, they exited the compartment and the train. Alice and Lily embraced for a long time on the platform before Lily left with Sirius and James and Alice left to find Frank.
"Are you nervous?" James asked as he noticed Lily fidgeting with her wand. The Potter family house elves had already retrieved the luggage the three had brought home for Christmas holiday.
"A little," Lily admitted. "To be honest, I haven't been in a fully magical household before, certainly not on a long term basis."
"Mr. and Mrs. Potter are great. You are going to love them," Sirius assured Lily as the three headed through the barrier and to the muggle part of the station.
"I told my parents about your parents," James told her quietly as the three made their way to the outside.
"It's not a secret," Lily said flatly. Sirius glanced at them uncertainly. At this rate, the two would hate each other by the end of the holiday.
"Where in the world is the driver?" James asked after ten minutes of tapping his foot on the front pavement.
"I do have my car here," Lily offered as she gestured generically at the parking lot. "I had to drive myself here when it was time for me to return to school."
"You drive?" James asked forgetting that he was trying to be distant and aloof.
"Yes, don't you?" Lily asked as she sized him up.
"No, none of us learned how to drive muggle transportation," James said. Lily grinned, ecstatic that she knew how to do something he didn't know how to do. "I do ride motorcycles with Sirius, though, and that is pretty fun."
"Yeah," Sirius agreed nodding.
"That is more like riding a big, clumsy broom, though," James said as the three headed toward the parking lot.
"Now, my car isn't much. My sister got the good car when my parents died," Lily said as the headed toward a little silver car.
"A car is a car," Sirius offered. He looked up at the sky. "Do you think it will snow?"
"I hope so," Lily murmured as she looked up as well. A car came tearing around the bend and James jerked them both back, the three falling backwards into an icy water puddle.
"Jerk!" Lily screamed at the other driver. She pulled herself up off the ground and reached out to help both James and Sirius up.
"I got it," James mumbled as he ignored her hand. Lily frowned and pulled her hand back slowly. Sirius dried himself off with his wand and the others followed suit. Lily unlocked the silver car and climbed into the driver's seat. James took the passenger seat and Sirius squeezed into the back.
"You are going to have to give me directions," Lily told him as she pulled the car out into traffic and started driving. While Lily was a sweet person most of the time, she had real anger issues when she was behind the wheel, James decided. Lily was constantly yelling at or cursing at other drivers.
"Jeeze, Lily, you swear more than a sailor," Sirius piped up from the back seat. Lily shot him a scathing look in the mirror.
"Driving here is stressful," Lily countered as she finally pulled into the drive way of Potter Estates. Lily couldn't help but gasp at the house. It was lovely and huge. It was covered in evergreen moss and winter roses. Lily about jumped out of the car once it stopped. There was so much to take in at once, she felt a little overwhelmed.
Mrs. and Mr. Potter were waiting at the door to welcome their only son home for the Christmas Holiday. James stepped into his parents' warm and loving embrace, receiving kisses from both of them before he was released and the same was repeated on Sirius, who seemed to blush at the attention. Never having had a loving or proper family, Sirius had come to cherish the Potters as his own.
"Mom, Dad, this is Lily Evans. I am sure I must have mentioned her," James said quietly as he introduced them. "Lily, these are my parents."
"Mr. and Mrs. Potter, thank you for allowing me into your home," Lily said politely as she curtsied slightly. Sirius snickered causing Lily to shoot a glare in his direction. Mrs. Potter smiled and pulled her into an embrace that was added to by Mr. Potter. They both hugged her firmly and kissed her cheeks.
"Lily, please. Call us Ryan and Beth," Mrs. Potter said as she released Lily enough to get a good look at her. "Jamie, why didn't you tell us that Lily was such a pretty girl?"
"Jamie talked of you all these years and never did he mention your beauty," Mr. Potter added. Lily, blushed, glanced over at James with a skeptically raised eyebrow but James refused to meet her gaze; his face beet red with embarrassment. Sirius laughed.
"Thank you," Lily said as James' parents reluctantly released her. Mrs. Potter looked at her son.
"Jamie, Sirius is bunking up with you and Lily's sleeping in your room, Sirius," Mrs. Potter told them. She waved her hand at the grand staircase there in the receiving room. "Why don't you show Lily where she will be staying, and Lily, you and I must go shopping in the next couple of days for a dress for the Christmas Ball. All of the Potters attend, and like Sirius, you are now considered family."
"Thank you, Mrs. Potter, I mean Beth," Lily said blushing.
"It is my honor, really, Lily," Mrs. Potter said smiling. She turned to her son who now looked terribly uncomfortable. "Go on, Jamie; show Lily where she will be calling home."
James was silent the entire time he lead Lily and Sirius up the stairs. Sirius was shaking silently with laughter, tears running down his face. The minute they were out of earshot of James' parents, Sirius roared with laughter. Lily smiled, amused, but didn't know what Sirius had found so funny.
"Your mom and dad still call you Jamie, and in front of Lily, no less. That is too damn funny," Sirius cried laughing. James was embarrassed by his parents' loving term for him.
"God, I know," James groaned. "I have told them time and time again not to call me Jamie."
"It's not so bad," Lily said absent-mindedly as she looked at the various things that decorated the Potter Estates. "It's sweet, actually. All parents have endearing names for their children."
"Did your parents?" James asked curiously as they continued down the hall. She glanced up at him and nodded once before returning her attention to a portrait of James when he was a baby. He looked very much like he did at seventeen, wild brown hair, and intensely mischievous eyes.
"Well?" Sirius prodded curiously. Lily looked at him and scrunched up her nose.
"Uh-uh, I am not telling," Lily laughed. "It is mortifying."
"Come on!" James begged as he gave her an intensely sweet look. Lily rolled her eyes.
"My dad was an avid duck hunter, even when I was a baby. When I was like almost one, my first word was, oh god, I can't believe I am telling you this, ugh… my first word was `Quack', you know, the sound a duck makes," Lily said blushing slightly. "My dad called me Ducky and it kind of stuck."
"It explains the little rubber duck," James said quickly as he turned his head away from her. Lily rolled her eyes.
"I know you are laughing, so you might as well as let me enjoy seeing the pleasure of my humiliation on your face," Lily offered. James shook his head, and signaled that he just needed a minute. Sirius hid his laughter from no one.
"Anyways," James said loudly as he continued down the hall. "This is your room."
Lily stood in the doorway of a large room with a big, beautiful bed. The room was the size of the entire dorm room back at Hogwarts. Lily couldn't believe the furniture that was provided, and she was mesmerized by the television with the player to watch movies on, complete with everything she could ever hope to watch. James watched with warm pleasure at Lily exclamation of the different benefits her room had. She peeked into the bathroom to see the large bathroom with garden tub.
"The room was never this nice when I stayed in it," Sirius teased.
"Mom doesn't trust you with nice furniture," James said guardedly. Sirius nodded, thinking of how much he used to like to chew those first two years after he became an anamagi. "Through this door, though, is our room."
"We share a bathroom?" Lily asked as she made a mental note. She knew she would need to remember that should she want privacy when she showered.
"Yup, and the locks don't work right, so I recommend knocking or something," James rambled. "We can figure it out later."
"What is that?" Lily asked as James tried to hurry up and close the bedroom door. James held the door as she tried to push through. James would not relent.
"It's nothing," James replied.
"No, it's not," Sirius laughed as he pushed through James. Lily walked to his bedside table and picked up a framed picture. It was of the two of them that first year, accidentally in the same picture. Lily looked at James before she sat down on his bed and studied the picture. It was taken just moments before the two of them boarded the train, right before James tripped her. In the old picture, James was looking at Lily with love struck eyes.
"Why did you trip me that first day?" Lily asked as she looked at James.
"Dude, that was so my fault," Sirius piped up. "I told James to rush ahead and hold the door open for you, but…"
"My feet got into the way and I tripped you," James said as he looked at her. She bit her bottom lip as she looked back at the picture.
"Before Christmas Holiday is over, you and I should take an actual picture of us together," Lily suggested as she placed the frame picture back down on the dresser. She stood and stretched. "Do you mind if I go lay down for a little while?"
"Do you want us to join you?" Sirius offered wiggling his eyebrows at her. Lily laughed.
"Nah, I think I should be able to make it fine," Lily said smiling. She patted James' right cheek and kissed the left one lightly as she passed him. She closed the door between her room and their shared bathroom, blocking out the sounds of Sirius and James' room.
"She so likes you!" Sirius cried out laughing.
"Shh!" James hissed as he shut their door.
"Well, she does," Sirius said as he threw himself onto the bed, his arm tucked behind his head. "I think that things are looking up for you, man. You proved to her that you weren't willing to risk loosing her to read those three pages, which I am sure are just so full of deeds she and Severus did."
"Man, gross. I don't want to hear about that," James said as he threw himself next to Sirius.
"I bet she is good in bed," Sirius said. James made a face at Sirius, one of warning. "Well, I do. Those goody-goody girls are usually full of pent up sexual energy."
"Awe, man, why do you say crap like that?" James groaned as he shook his head. "Now isn't exactly the time I need to be wondering what she is like in bed."
"You are such a chicken-shit, Jamie," teased Sirius. James nodded and laughed before the two of them began wrestling around like a bunch of crazy, testosterone driven teenage boys.
Well after a delicious dinner, the Potter family turned in for the night. Mr. and Mrs. Potter headed to their bedroom, Sirius and James headed to their shared room, and Lily headed to her own room. The house was dark and silent, as the hour was getting late. James and Sirius both had changed into their pajama bottoms but decided that the heat of the room was well enough not to need their tee shirts.
"So," Sirius said as they arranged the pillows on the bed that they were sharing. James was readying the movie player so they could watch a horror flick. "When are you going to start seducing Lily?"
"I want something more long term and permanent with Lily than a one-night stand," James confessed as he queued up the movie up to be watched. The two headed to the bathroom to brush their teeth. They opened the door and froze.
"Oh, hey guys," Lily said brightly with a mouthful of toothpaste. She spat in the sink, her hand holding her towel tightly around her. It was apparent that she had just taken a shower and was in the process of brushing her teeth.
"We can come back," James mumbled as he tried to back up. Sirius blocked him from escaping.
"Do you want to watch the Christmas Zombies with us?" Sirius asked as he forced James to the sink next to the one Lily was standing. James flushed pink at the sight of Lily's reflection covered only in a plush towel.
"Oh, I haven't seen that," Lily said excited. "I'd love to." She continued to brush her teeth, but was unable to keep from looking at James. He had that athletic Quidditch player's body, strong muscles in the arms, legs, and chest. She felt the heat rising to her face when he looked up and made eye contact with her in the mirror, his own tooth brush in his mouth. Sirius grinned at how obvious it was that James and Lily really liked each other.
"So, you will watch, great," Sirius said grinning.
"I am going to head on and get some clothes on," Lily said as she smiled at James playfully. "I doubt that a towel would make good movie watching clothes."
"Not unless you are watching porn," Sirius called as Lily closed the between door.
"Why did you invite her and why do you say stuff like that?" James groaned as he rinsed his mouth and put his toothbrush in the holder.
"I invited her because I knew you wouldn't, and I say crap like that to make you sound more dignified, when we both know you were thinking along those lines," Sirius said seriously.
"I was not," James defended. Sirius smiled and nodded.
"Were to, don't lie," Sirius said with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, maybe just a little," James confessed laughing. Lily had reappeared in the bathroom with them.
"It is good to see you laughing," Lily tossed back at him as she walked through to James' room. She took up residence in the middle of the bed.
"You can't watch the movie from between us," James said. Lily shrugged.
"Never had a threesome?" Lily asked. James' mouth dropped and Lily laughed. "I am only kidding. C'mon, Jamie, quit being a stick in the mud."
"Ok, Ducky," James teased as he climbed into the bed on one side, Sirius taking the other.
"Hope you don't mind my wearing shorts and a tank top," Lily said. "The house is so cozy, it is too warm."
"I know," Sirius said. "We complain about it all of the time."
The movie, Christmas Zombies, was gross and wholly terrifying for Lily, who jumped so many times she eventually just had to turn away and stop watching it. She knew she should have left, since she wasn't enjoying it, but wanted to hang in there and spend time with James. In addition, when she got too scared, he would wrap and arm around her or let her bury her head into his chest.
The next movie they watched was a long, slow war movie that Sirius and James loved to watch. Unfortunately for Lily, it wasn't something she enjoyed and she actually nodded off half way through. Sirius looked at her, dead asleep with her face turned to James.
"Hey, she's asleep," Sirius whispered. James looked down and thought he had never seen a more beautiful sight. He momentarily felt a lump in his throat. He decided then that he loved her more than he had ever loved anyone else in his entire life combined.
"Well, I guess we could go sleep in her room," James whispered.
"Or we can all just stay put, I am comfortable, and anyways, it isn't like we are doing anything," Sirius said.
So, the three of them remained in the bed, the boys watching the remainder of the movie and Lily asleep. When the movie was over with, they turned off the set and readied for sleep. James felt awkward sleeping next to Lily in his bed. It wasn't that he didn't want to, because he did even though Sirius was there. James didn't want her thinking ill of him for not waking her and sending her off to her own bed. James watched her sleep in the flickering glow of the fireplace that warmed each room.
`She is so perfect,' James thought sleepily as he placed his head down next to hers. He would have watched her all night, but sleep consumed him and he nodded off almost immediately. He hadn't even thought to threaten Sirius about messing with her, but he knew that for all of Sirius' faults, Sirius wasn't going to hurt either of them. He loved James, and James loved Lily, so by default Sirius loved Lily.
Sirius was the first to wake the next morning. He rolled to his side and looked at how cozy Lily and James looked together. James was on his back, his arm tucked under Lily. Her face was on his arm, probably cutting off circulation to it, but her arm was draped across James' chest. Sirius smiled at the sight, knowing all too well that one day in the not too distant future they would be like this every night.
"Hey," James yawned to Sirius as he looked at him. Sirius smiled and nodded at Lily. "Oh, that's right."
"Should we wake her?" Sirius asked as James brushed some of her hair out of her face.
"Probably would be a better idea than say Mom coming in here to find her in my bed the first night," James said as his fingers caressed her cheek. "Though, I could just lie here all morning and look at her."
"You probably should just wake her," Sirius warned as James' fingers touched Lily's lips. She didn't wake, but James hadn't done it to wake her. He was deep in thought, wondering what Lily would do to him should he decide to kiss her right then. He was tempted, and had Sirius not been there, he might have.
"Lily, wake up," James murmured with his mouth near her ear. His fingers touched her shoulder and he shook her gentle. She mumbled something and turned away from him, not willing to be woken.
"Come on, Lily," Sirius said from his side as Lily's other arm fell against him. He poked her roughly in the shoulder. "You are supposed to be an early bird."
"Tired," Lily groaned as she covered her head with the pillow and tried to bury her body in the covers. James laughed and pulled the covers back before removing the pillow.
"Come on, Lily. We only get one Christmas holiday together," James teased as he threw the pillow out of her reach.
"You are too much, Potter," Lily yawned as she sat up. Half asleep, she climbed over James and headed to the bath room.
"Well, she's back to calling you Potter," Sirius said shaking his head. "Not a good sign."
"Nah, its not is it," James remarked as he heard the sink turn on and then the shower. "She's got to be the cleanest person I have ever known. Why in the world do girls shower so much?"
"Probably so they don't smell like us," Sirius laughed as he smelled himself. "Though, I kind of smell like you right now and you kind of smell like her right now."
"Huh," James grunted as he took a whiff of himself. He did smell faintly as she did, though it was hard to tell over his own natural aroma.
"You should go take a shower with her," Sirius teased throwing his pillow at James' head. James caught it and swiftly returned the favor.
"Yeah, that'll go over really well," James laughed as he stood. He sniffed himself again and started getting dressed. "I don't need a shower, anyways."
James and Sirius headed down to the kitchen for breakfast, starved. The house elves were thrilled to have their young masters at home and brought out plates and plates of rich and indulgent foods. James and Sirius enjoyed the food at Hogwarts but it paled in comparison to the food the elves at James' house made. They were eating piles of thick pancakes, links of sausage, and mounds of fluffy eggs.
"Breakfast, missy?" The house elf asked as he turned his attention away from James and Sirius. Mouths full of food, they looked at Lily. She was wearing jeans and a tee shirt, her hair swept up and out of her face.
"Yes, thank you," Lily said as she sat down across from James and Sirius. She allowed the house elf to drape a linen napkin across her lap. She glanced at the sheer amount of food that the boys were eating.
"Do you have anything lighter, like cereal?" Lily asked suddenly self conscious about the boys were watching her. The elf shook his head and went to hit him in the head with the bowl. Lily snatched it away in horror.
"Wally must punish himself since Wally can't give missy what she desires for breakfast," Wally said as he struggled against Lily's grip.
"No! I want eggs. That is what I want." Lily demanded in a panic. She looked to James for help.
"Wally, do not hit yourself and get Lily some eggs," James told him firmly. Lily released the elf and it bowed deeply. He bustled and got Lily a plate of eggs. Mrs. Potter entered the kitchen as Lily bit into her breakfast.
"So what do you have planned for today?" Mrs. Potter asked as she sipped a cup of black coffee.
"Not much, just hang out," James said. Mrs. Potter smiled at her son.
"Do you mind if I take Lily then?" Mrs. Potter asked sweetly to her son. James hesitated and looked at her quizzically. "I promise I won't embarrass you Jamie."
"Ok, if you want to go with Mom, Lily," James said hesitantly. Lily nodded.
"Sure," Lily said as she took her last bite. She jumped up and put the plate in the sink. She looked back at James and Sirius, waving. "I guess I will see you later."
"Behave mom," James called as the two most important women to him disappeared from the kitchen. Sirius and James looked at each other shrugging and they continued eating their breakfast.
-->