Seasons' Greetings 2011 ♥ Stocking-Fillers
Main posting for the fest is over, but we'd like to encourage some Lily/James-themed holiday spirit while we've still got a few days more to Christmas proper. Thus, we present:
☃ STOCKING FILLERS ☃
We invite all fans of Lily/James to peruse our participants' WISH LISTS for Seasons' Greetings' 2011, and to submit stories/art/mixed media for any ( ( Read more... )
☃ STOCKING FILLERS ☃
We invite all fans of Lily/James to peruse our participants' WISH LISTS for Seasons' Greetings' 2011, and to submit stories/art/mixed media for any ( ( Read more... )
Lily nodded a little too wildly, thankful for the easy cover story. She did actually need to pick something for Remus, anyway. “I ought to introduce him to my sister. She might actually believe in magic if she saw how much chocolate he could eat without getting a single pimple, the git.”
Sirius just cocked an eyebrow in response. “Do not tell him I told you this, but he’s been conducting secret skincare deals with Gilderoy Lockhart. Remus gets to look like Witch Weekly heartthrob material, and that barmy iidiot gets to look like he can actually tell a Flobberworm from a piece of macaroni.”
The smile playing at his lips was just bright enough for Lily to know that he was teasing, though, and she laughed loudly, much to the chagrin of the elderly witch who was studying the chocolate frog collection behind her. “The scandal,” she gasped, playing along, “everyone knows that Flobberworms look more like chipotle. How could he?”
“Obviously he doesn’t have the same moral scruples that we do, good friend.”
“Or the ability to appear self-centered and arrogant whilst being anything but,” Lily replied, mouth falling open as she realised what she’d said. She quickly clamped her hands over it, willing herself to think quickly, when Sirius just smiled at her, a little softly.
“Being self-centered is a little overrated,” Sirius agreed, reaching past her to grab a box off the shelf and tossing it from hand to hand; Lily could hear the contents sloshing about inside. It reminded her, suddenly, of James and all the times he’d sat beside the lake throwing a Snitch into the air and catching it again, and she wondered, suddenly, if it had been a ploy for attention or simply him appeasing the restless nature she knew he’d always had.
Given the way that Sirius is still watching her, head tilted a little to the side, she thinks it might have been a little bit of both.
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She could always order something for James by mail, if it came to it - and then she’d have time to think of a not too saccharine but appropriate seasonal way of writing I love you, please snog my brains out.
“Like I said, I’m not much for presents myself, Lily,” and she smiled a little despite herself at the use of her first name. She’d always known what a high regard James Potter held his friends’ opinions in, and maybe, just maybe -
Who was she kidding? The fact that he’d never claimed to be anything but irrevocably in love with her, at the very least, was what made her so determined to get this right, and at least a little surer that she could, really. Lily had seen the way he’d taken to helping the first year students with their assignments, quietly assuaging their giggly eleven year old crushes without a single flip of his hair or smirk in her directions, accepting even the most inane of questions aimed at him as though he had nothing better to do than demonstrate how to turn a feather into a piece of ribbon, time and time again. It was the same patience she’d seen him display with his friends in the common room, time and time again. In fact, James had done what her friend Cecilia called ‘maturing’, over the last few months, but Lily couldn’t help but wonder if, underneath the arrogant facade, this was who he’d always been.
Either way - it was unlikely he’d turn down a gift, even if the thought of finding him something that said everything she needed it to made her stomach churn.
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“Better than the lump of coal I’ll be getting,” Sirius replied, just shrugging when she looked over her shoulder long enough to catch a glimpse of the way his mouth turned upwards just a little too quickly for the smile to be real. “What? All those Muggle stories about how the naughty children get coal in their stockings instead of presents. If I’m going to be scorched from the family tree like one of Baggins’ potions going up again, I might as well have learnt something from it.”
Oh.
“I’m sorry,” Lily said, shifting a little awkwardly from foot to foot as she turned around to face him. “I feel so awful now, complaining about Petunia, when -”
“What kind of a ruddy name is Petunia?” Sirius asked, his laugh harsh like a bark. “I mean, the lily flower jokes we use on Prongs are pathetic, but that’s taking it to a whole new level of potential embarrassment.”
“What kind of a name is Prongs?” she countered back, “sounds a little like a bad innuendo. I will never understand your crazy rituals of supposed brotherhood.” Lily let out a laugh of her own, burying her face in her hands as she considered the implications of a question like that about James, before glancing up through her fingers to see Sirius frowning a little, soft and unsure.
Lily thought about it for a moment, wondering if maybe that friendship between James and Sirius meant more than she’d ever imagined, all things considered, and it sent a funny spike of realisation through her, one that shouldn’t be shocking any more - James Potter was a good person, and she was kind of a little in love with him.
“Sorry,” she said again, for lack of anything else to say.
“Don’t be,” Sirius replied, and the bitterness in his voice shocked her, just a little. “I’m just saying, those barmy old codgers I used to call a family get it - it’s about what the presents represent. In my case, clearly that’s nothing.”
Lily was about to respond when Sirius stepped away from her, beginning to push through the crowd of people in the aisle. “Places to be, Evans,” he said, in response to her raised eyebrow, “you can’t haven’t spent six Christmases at Hogwarts and still think that Peeves performs the Christmas Carol skit willingly.”
She just shook her head, laughing despite herself, when he added, “but seriously, think about it. A hearty snog under the mistletoe would mean as much to James as anything else you could give him, but otherwise - he’s quite partial to peppermint.”
Of course he knew, Lily thought to herself, as she turned back to the shelf, bypassing the myriad of fruity flavoured treats, but she couldn’t bring herself to mind quite as much as she’d thought she would.
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