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The Holiday Reflections of an Unwritten Bad Company
Mei Queen
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Authoress' Note: Here's a special treat to all of you that have been missing my L/J fics (which I know I don't update much of). This one-shot is aimed to splice together (hopefully with as least awkwardness as possible) all the elements of my old fics you liked: the humour of Reflections, the sweetness and love of Bad Company, and the frustrating realism of Unwritten. All your fav characters will be back as well- Sophie, Emia & Avia, and Eduina. Happy (day after) Christmas!
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Disclaimer: The authoress does not own Harry Potter…otherwise, she'd have gotten a whole lot more than a Wii for Christmas, haha (j/k, I love my gift and have the best boyfriend in the world, but moving on…)
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Mood Music: "No One" -Alicia Keys (hell, the whole CD is wonderful)
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"Ah, presents, presents, presents," James Potter sang out loudly as he descended the stairs two at a time from the 7th Year Gryffindor boys' dorm. It was Christmas 1977, and James Potter was absolutely thrilled. Though he hadn't gone home for Christmas (his parents were on vacation in Majorca), they'd promised to make up for the lost family time via even increased numbers of gifts this year.
"I love Chrimbo, Padfoot," the bespectacled boy smirked, grinning at his three best friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, otherwise known as 'The Marauders.'
Peter yawned, apparently unimpressed by James' antics. Remus examined his fingernails in disinterest, obviously not willing to egg James on.
Sirius, however, decided to bite on the question. Rolling his eyes, he turned to James, muttering, "I'm probably going to regret asking this, but why do you love Chrimbo, Prongs?"
James grinned wider, his smiling spreading like the cat that got the cream. "It's just another day dedicated to the glory of me!"
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"Are you sure? I rather thought Christmas was a celebration of that Christ fellow," a voice interjected coldly from the girls' stairwell, a voice that could only belong to one very serious, very attractive, and very James-loathing redhead-Lily Evans, Gryffindor 7th Year and Head Girl, flanked by her usual crowd- Sophia Lestrange, Emia and Avia Valmont, and Eduina Azevedo.
James looked back at the redhead cockily. "Of course I'm sure, Evans. Unlike you, I'm actually decisive-in life and on exams. I don't sit there for hours muttering, 'is it A or B?' Because Merlin knows the entire fate of the wizarding world hangs in one missed question on your Charms exams…"
The Marauders chuckled loudly, though at least Remus had the decency to hide his laugh behind his hand, choosing instead to fake a rather bad coughing fit. Sirius, meanwhile, rolled on the floor laughing, tears forming in the corners of his chocolate eyes.
"Charming," Sophia spat, eyeing Sirius with obvious distaste, her nose upturned as high in the air as she could get it. Brushing a stray blonde lock away from her face, Sophia turned to Lily. "That's it. I'm leaving. It's bad enough I'm stuck at school over break, but it's the least we could do to get the hell away from these lunatics. I'd much rather not have to deal with Black any more than necessary."
"Agreed," Emia and Avia said in unison, looking back at each other with amusement as they did. They were identical twins, and were always very entertained when they said the same thing at the same time (and they often did just that).
Eduina grinned. "Oh, I'm sure we could find something to do," she murmured mischievously, a glint in her eye that wasn't there a moment ago.
Sighing, Lily nodded. "Yeah, let's get out of here. Ugh, I'd rather not watch James open that pile of shite."
As she looked glumly back into the common room, she eyed James' stack of presents resentfully. The bloody thing was huge. It must have taken house-elves upon house-elves to cart up that many gifts, and it sickened Lily to watch him just go through the gifts, barely eyeing any for more than a few moments. "Materialistic bastard," she whispered. Gulping down an emotion that felt awfully like sadness, Lily Evans left the common room, hoping her friends could make her forget what she'd just seen.
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"What's up with Evans?" Sirius asked confusedly as he watched the girls exit the portrait hole. "She seemed brassed off about summat."
Remus shrugged. "It's hard to tell with her, but I think it might have something to do with Christmas."
"What do you mean?" James asked indignantly, obviously upset that anyone could have anything against his favourite holiday. "How could anyone be brassed off about Christmas? It's bloody Christmas!"
Peter shook his head. "Well, not everybody gets the Leaning Tower of Pisa gift pile, Prongs."
Something occurred to Remus, and his jaw dropped in shock. "Mates…have any of you ever seen her open a gift?"
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Lily leaned against the cool stone wall, watching her breath come out in puffs in the chilly morning air.
"Don't let it get to you, babe," Eduina murmured, eyeing her best friend nervously. She knew how Lily was about Christmas, and she knew that if someone didn't stop Lily's rage early, things would only get worse as the holiday went on.
"How can I not, Ed?" Lily asked indignantly, stomping her feet in the wet snow irritably. "He's up there thoughtlessly thinking of himself when there are so many people out there who don't have presents, or have big Christmas celebrations, or have…"
Lily's voice choked up, and for a moment or two, she seemed unable to speak. She tried again, stumbling over the words as she did so. "Or have…families. I just don't feel like he thinks even for a moment about what he has- he's just so ungrateful, Ed. I don't see how anyone could be so bloody ungrateful. The sad thing is; he's a decent bloke. I'd get alone marvellously with him if it weren't for the ungrateful bit. That bit just irks me to pieces."
The redhead took a deep breath, exhaling slowly.
Eduina, meanwhile, chanced a question. "Is that…is that why you always tell him no when he tries to get you to go to Hogsmeade with him?"
Lily looked out at the icy lake where Sophia, Emia, and Avia were all ice-skating. "Yeah. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up."
Eduina looked at her, grinning. "Hey, you got presents from us three, are you telling me you didn't like them?"
Lily looked back at her with a small smile. "You know I love anything you guys get me. It's just hard…not having something to open from my parents."
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Eduina went to join Sophia, Emia and Avia where they were ice-skating. Lily had decided to go back into the castle, muttering something about going the kitchens and getting the house-elves to give her "all the bloody sugar cookies they've ever made." Eduina watched her friend trek through the snow back up to the castle, obvious concern reflecting in her almond eyes.
Emia landed a delicate pirouette, skating expertly to where Eduina unsteadily stood. "I think it's time we do something-"
"-before she comes back weighing five hundred pounds," Avia said, finishing her twin's sentence as she skated by in a beautiful figure eight.
Sophia skidded to a stop, eyes on the castle in the distance. "What do you girls want to do?"
Eduina shrugged. "She's still pretty furious about Potter."
"Is Potter the whole problem?" Avia asked irritably, fussing with a scarf that was threatening to strangle her in the blustery winds.
The girls all shrugged in unison.
"He seems to be a pretty bloody big part of it at least," Emia muttered crossly.
Sophia cocked her head to the side, considering their options. "Well, I've always been told to go to the root of problems. It's quicker and less messy. So when my leopard-print pumps didn't come out in the right size at Louboutin, I just had a quick word with Christian and it was all cleared right up," she finished brightly, obviously fondly thinking of her favourite shoes.
"Oh, no way," Eduina muttered, looking at Sophia like the blonde had sprouted an extra head. "I'm not going to the Marauders!"
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"What choice do we have?" Sophia asked irritably, following the other three girls on their trek back up to Gryffindor Tower. "Believe me, the last person I'd ever want to go to for advice is Black, but since the situation is such utter shite, I'm mature enough to deal with it. It's the least you lot could do to deal too."
"What, like you're special?" Emia shot back crankily. "Just because he basically proposed to you in the middle of the start of term feast is no reason to get all uncomfortable around our Mr. Black, Sophie."
"That's what I keep telling her," Eduina replied with amusement. Then, coming face-to-face with the Fat Lady, Eduina turned to face the other three. "Okay, girls, we'll just ask them a few questions, give Potter a few…friendly words of wisdom, and we'll be on our way. No dawdling with Remus, Avie. No hair-pulling fights with Sirius, Soph. In and out."
The girls all nodded mutely, acknowledging their assignments.
"Let's go, then."
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"What do you think I did to make her so mad?" James asked Remus quietly as the two sat in front of the fireplace in the empty Gryffindor Common Room. Sirius and Peter had left to raid the kitchens, and the Head Boy was left with the one friend with whom he always entrusted his innermost thoughts, Remus Lupin.
Remus shrugged, eyes focusing on the flickering embers of the dying fire. "I dunno, Prongs. Your guess is as good as mine, but I think a lot of it might have something to do with how you always get all those gifts. Mate, not to be mean, you know you're…well…you're my mate, but…"
"But what?" James asked irritably, turning to face Remus, eyes blazing with anger.
Remus continued cautiously, not allowing James' eyes on his face to deter him from saying what he needed to. "But…you have a tendency to tear through your gifts. You don't stop to look at them, to really think about the thought people put in to get them for you."
"I do with your gifts, and Padfoot's. And Wormtail's," James added as a slight afterthought.
"I know," Remus murmured, eyes still focused on the fireplace, "but all Lily ever sees you open is the ton from your parents, and you never spend a whole lot of time being grateful for those, do you?"
"Well, when they're not here to see me open them," James replied, shrugging, "what's the point in stopping and 'oohing and aahing' over every little thing?'"
"I don't know," Remus countered, reaching a hand up to run it through his sandy blonde hair, "but you should definitely explain that to Lily. Or, at least, if you want her to date you anytime this century, you should find a way to make her Christmas special."
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Though the boys had thought the common room was empty during the conversation, four girls were, in fact, pressed against the wall at the entrance, obviously eavesdropping on the two seventh year boys. Three blondes and one brunette huddled together, signalling with their hands that they should just go right back out the portrait hole.
Once safely outside, Eduina smiled slightly. "What do you know? That Remus actually has some sense after all."
"Of course he has some sense!" Avia shot defensively, looking at Eduina as if that much were positively obvious.
Sophia nodded. "He is the smartest of the four, that's for sure. They'd have gotten caught a hell of a lot more were it not for him."
The girls all nodded in agreement, acknowledging the point.
"So do you think Potter will actually follow Remus' advice? What could he do to make her Christmas special, anyway?" Emia asked, obviously confused.
"What could he do to make whose Christmas special?" a voice asked, cutting in on their conversation-three voices, to be exact.
The girls looked up to see who had caught them out. It was Lily, carrying a plate piled to the brim with sugar cookies. From the crumbs littering the redhead's clothes, the girls could tell she hadn't waited to break into her treats. Following her, rather close on her heels, were Sirius and Peter, carrying what might as well have been the entire Christmas feast.
"Oh, nobody," Eduina muttered, smiling broadly.
"Just Professor McGonagall," Emia and Avia chimed in. Sophia, meanwhile, just fervently nodded along, hoping Lily wouldn't catch them in their blatant lie.
Lily cocked an eyebrow upward at her friends' unusual behaviour. "Alright then, I think the three of you need a short trip to the madhouse, but I'm going upstairs. If you care for some cookies, you know where they all are."
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Lily walked into the portrait hole, allowing the entrance to swing shut behind her. Peter said the password, entering as well, but before Sirius could follow his friend, Sophia grabbed him tightly by the arm, pulling him to the side.
"Finally decided you want to marry me and have my babies, Soph?" Sirius asked cockily, grinning wide at the petite blonde.
Reaching up to smack him upside the head, Sophia muttered coldly, "I think I'd rather date the Giant Squid, thanks. But anyhoo. I need your help, Black."
Sirius held on to his head, uttering a stream of obscenities. Looking back up at her like she was crazy, he asked, "I should help you why?"
"Because," Sophia said simply, "you want James to get with Lily just as much as we want her to stop being so bloody cranky."
"News to me," Sirius announced. "I'd rather not have my best mate all hung up on a bird. 'Sides, that's not good incentive. Give me some incentive involving you, Sophie, darling."
"James is already hung up," Eduina said, and, eyeing Sirius like she thought him extremely dense, added, "that's why he asks her out every bloody day."
Emia crossed her arms over her chest irritably, adding, "Or had you not noticed?"
Sophia sighed, releasing her grip on Sirius and thrusting her toward the portrait hole. "Forget it, girls. He's obviously not going to help us." Then, looking at Eduina and winking, the blonde added, "He's obviously not the man I thought he was. Pity. I thought I saw some mistletoe in the Great Hall…"
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"James," Sirius said to his mirror, practicing hard for this vital conversation. He was thrilled. If he did this one favour, he'd finally get to experience something he'd daydreamed about for at least the past year-a kiss with Sophie.
Clearing his throat, he looked at his mirror, practicing his best 'serious Sirius' expression. It looked mildly terrifying, actually.
"Mate, you need to work on that," Peter chimed in, snickering from where he sat on his bed.
"I know," Sirius muttered. "Gads, Wormtail, I have no idea how to convince Prongs to do this."
"Do what?" Peter asked, chomping on a turkey leg.
"Make the day special for Lily," he answered absently. "The girls didn't exactly give me instructions for what to tell him to do."
"Well," the blonde boy said, weighing the problem, "she wants presents, doesn't she? Why doesn't he just give her some bloody presents?"
Sirius grinned. "You're a genius, Wormtail."
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Lily walked down the stairs from the girls' dorm later that day, uncomfortably full from her sugar cookie binge. Looking to the brightly lit Christmas tree, she noticed the huge pile of James' presents was still there. Didn't even have the bloody decency to unwrap them all, sodding bastard, she thought irritably, brushing a lock of red hair out of her face. She looked down at the bottom of the staircase. A lot of presents were piled there, too. No doubt trying to trip me and get me to break my neck, Lily thought furiously, reaching down to grab a handful of the brightly wrapped gifts.
One of the gift tags flapped open.
To: Lily
The 'from' part of the tag was left blank.
Eyes narrowing curiously, she set the presents down, and began examining the other gift tags. They all had the same tag. To Lily, from (blank). Probably some stupid bloody prank from the Marauders, the redhead thought morosely, sitting down on the floor where she could stare at the presents. I wonder if I should even open the damn things. Knowing those boys, my head will probably blow up.
Finally, ten minutes later, the redhead could stand it no longer. I have to open one; I need to know what's in there.
A millisecond (or so it seemed) later, Lily Evans was met with her own personal set of…wizarding power tools.
What the hell? The redhead mentally asked, looking at the set with confusion. I have no idea why anyone would buy me these…
Next, a Quidditch broom-polishing set.
Wow, well, that'd be wonderful if I actually played Quidditch, she thought, obviously lost as to why someone would think she'd like it. Maybe I can give it to Eduina or something…
And so it went, on and on. Thirty presents later, Lily was the proud owner of, among other things, a boys' knitted jumper, wand holster (men's, naturally), assorted Quidditch supplies, a big pack of owl treats (she didn't own a bloody bird), and, much to her amusement, Sleekeazy's Hair Potion for Men: Guaranteed to Entice Witches.
Because Merlin knows I need help enticing those witches, the redhead thought bemusedly. Finally, the whole situation got to her. She had to chuckle slightly. That chuckle then turned into a laugh-the best kind: full-bodied, gut-wrenching, cheek-pinching laughter.
The sound roused the planners of this bizarre event from their hiding place-Sophia, Emia & Avia, Eduina, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and, of course, James all came down from the second year landing of the boys' staircase.
"Did you like it?" James asked cautiously, approaching the laughing redhead with timid steps. He'd never seen Lily ever lose control, so to see her just laughing like this was downright bizarre to him.
The sound of voices other than her own brought Lily back to earth. "Like what?"
"The gifts," Sophia elaborated, seating herself delicately on the arm of the couch.
Lily smiled in response. "You know, I think I did. Dunno what I'll use them for, but it was certainly a good laugh. Who were they from?"
James' cheeks reddened. "They were mine, but I never see you open anything, and I wanted you to…"
"So this was out of pity?" the redhead asked sharply, her mood changing immediately.
James' eyes widened. He knew he was treading on some very dangerous territory with this. "No. It honestly was not. I just thought that you deserved something to open, and it's bloody Christmas Day, it's not like I can just go pop into a shop and get you a gift, and…"
He was babbling.
Lily, however, just smiled. Then, looking at James' eyes, which were focused intensely on the carpet, she whispered, "Thank you, James."
"I understand if you completely hate it and think I'm a sodding bastard; hell, you usually think that anyway, so it won't be much of a change, but…wait, what?"
He stopped ranting for a moment to look up.
Lily's cheeks turned a pleasant shade of pink, and her smile widened as James' eyes met her own. "Thank you."
James blushed clear up to his forehead. "You're welcome."
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That Christmas was one for the record books. Sophia Lestrange, notorious for her hatred of Sirius Black, kissed him under the mistletoe (and least until McGonagall found them and forced them to break apart, giving them an evil look the entire time. Bloody teenagers, she'd muttered). Soph and Siri didn't care; they simply decided to meet up later in some broom closet or another to continue. Sirius promised he could get her there and back without getting caught by Filch, something about a magical map. Sophia figured they'd probably get caught out anyway, but she didn't mind-so long as detention didn't ruin her shoes or her glossy hair and she got to spend the time with Sirius, she was perfectly fine with the whole thing.
Avia and Remus sat talking in the common room into the late hours of the night, something that was a bit unusual for the young werewolf. There were even rumours among the first years that the two first kissed that night. Either way, their wedding in summer certainly publicly displayed their feelings.
Don't feel too sorry for Eduina and Emia, though-they were perfectly fine. Eduina, already a Chaser on the Quidditch team, got Emia into the sport, and, before long, Emia had drug the House score down abysmally-she was intercepting the Quaffle from behind far less than she was scoping out Ravenclaw behinds. Eduina, however, decided to go into professional Quidditch after Hogwarts, signing with the Wasps.
James and Lily? Well, that should be easy enough for you to figure out. Santa brought Lily Evans a lot of Christmas miracles her 7th Year-her friends and even the Marauders banded together to make her holiday special. Even if St. Nick couldn't bring her back her family (or a sister that actually gave a damn), he'd still shown her something valuable: the people in her life that really, truly cared for her through thick and thin, no matter what (even if it was Potter).
No, she didn't kiss James that night, but Flitwick was a little lazy taking down the decorations, and sometime between Christmas and New Year, Lily and James had a sprig of mistletoe following them around for an hour. Finally taking it as a bloody sign from the founders, Lily reached over, tangling her fingers in the boy's messy hair, and kissed him firmly on the lips. When they finally broke apart (by that point, the mistletoe was long since gone), James' glasses were crooked, Lily's lips were swollen, and both of their hair looked like they'd survived a rather fierce windstorm. "Wow," James had murmured, looking at Lily with awe.
"I know," she'd replied, giggling. "So do you have anything you want to ask me?"
"Um…" he'd said, shrugging, "how was it for you?"
She laughed. "Not that."
Then, when a few minutes had passed and James hadn't said anything, she sighed in frustration. "You've asked me every five minutes for the past two years, and you can't remember what you bloody want to ask?"
"Oh!" James replied, realization finally dawning on the bespectacled boy. "Would you go with me to Hogsmeade?"
"I suppose," Lily answered, laughing. "Though I'm not sure I should date someone so dim."
Then she turned and started skipping the other direction, giggling loudly.
"Hey! Oi! Lily! That was mean! Hey, you better stop walking away from me! This is not boding well for our relationship. What am I going to tell our children? Hey, kids, your mom said yes to me but then just ran away, so it's frankly a miracle you lot ever came to be? Hey! Lily, I didn't mean that as an insult…"
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Authoress' Note *take two*: Happy Day After Christmas! Review!