You wish Potter : A Jily Fanfiction

The Roaring Monster

James was in the Hospital Wing for five days. The whole quidditch team came to celebrate the victory around his bed on the first night, and to tell him that Christopher Rickett was so distraught that he had put James Potter in the infirmary, that he'd told the Hufflepuff captain he would never play quidditch again. After that, Sirius and Peter came in the evenings to fill James in, and to try and persuade Madame Pomfrey that his bones had healed; Remus came with homework and odd scraps of scrawled notes; and every time James woke up, someone had left a bar of Honeyduke's finest or a bag of cockroach clusters on his bedside table.

The hours James most looked forward to however, were the ones he spent with Lily. The first time she visited, she came with an assignment for History of Magic, and was persuaded to stay for a game of Gobstones, but after that, she didn't always have an excuse. She found James was a very good listener, and talked and talked until Madame Pomfrey told her it was time James got some rest, and she blushed, realising how late it was.

Lily had been so distracted after the match, that she completely forgot to speak to Mary about the Jason Wottring incident. It was nearly Christmas before the topic arose again.

"I have been asked to complete a register for the Christmas holidays," Professor McGonagall announced to the common room. "Please write next to your name whether you will be staying at Hogwarts, or returning home, and pass it along."

Marlene handed the scroll to Lily and went back to painting her toes a new shade of cherry red.

"Are you going home this year, Lils?" she asked.

"Yeah," Lily sighed. She wrote 'home' next to her name and passed it on to Mary.

"I thought you loved Christmas? The tree, and the turkey, and fa la la la la and all that."

"I do! It's just...Vernon is coming this year- my sister's boyfriend."

Beefy and neckless, Vernon Dursley was a narrow-minded, ignorant, bigoted bully. He despised people who wore brown shoes with black suits, so Lily could only dream about how purple his face would turn if he found out she spent most of her time in long robes, and occasionally donned a pointy hat. The last time they had met, she had honestly and truly tried to like her sister's boyfriend, but had failed miserably. She was dreading another week of the Daily Mail's opinions muddled with brandy, and talk of big promotions and flashy cars.

"I'll swap you," Mary groaned from the floor, reading the register in horror.

"Are you staying at Hogwarts?"

Mary nodded. "And it looks like I'm the only one."

Lily grabbed the list and skimmed it. "There has to be someone else." But Mary was right- it appeared all the Gryffindor sixth-years were spending Christmas with their families.

"I don't mean to make the situation worse," Marlene said timidly, blowing on her freshly painted toes, "but I heard Jason's parents are in Istanbul this Christmas, so he's staying at Hogwarts too."

Mary groaned, and lay her head miserably on the sofa. "Bloody Hogwarts, bloody Istanbul, bloody Jason Wottring's parents."

"Don't worry...I'm guessing he'll be quite preoccupied with Jackie Prince," Marlene mumbled.

"What?" Mary cried. "My company this Christmas is Jason Wottring and his insufferable tart!"

"I'd argue that it's Jason who's the tart, Mary," Dorcas said rather tentatively. "He was the one with the girlfriend after all."

"Boys can't be tarts!"

"But I have arithmancy with Jackie Prince, and she's actually really sweet. She said Jason told her-"