"Come on, Red," Sirius laughs lying on his back. "Open my present."
"You got me something?" Lily asks, lifting her head from my shoulder. Her eyes are still rimmed red from all of her crying, but a small sparkle has appeared in the green orbs at Sirius' comment. My teeth clamp together for what feels like the thousandth time today because her sister is pissing me off more and more these days.
A bright, silver doe jumps straight through the front window arriving in our family room. My mum lets out an audible gasp, clutching a hand to her chest at the unexpected arrival. "Fuck!" Sirius cries, clearly just as surprised as mum.
"Sirius!" Mum yells sharply. "Language."
"Sorry, Mum," Sirius mutters sheepishly, pressing his lips together firmly, shielding a grin.
"Lily," I murmur knowing there is only one person who could produce that patronus. I turn quickly on the spot appearing just outside our front gate.
I can't keep the smile from my face as I take in the view of my favorite redhead. She wasn't supposed to come until later, but I guess they finished Christmas early at her house.
"Lily!" I exclaim, outstretching my arms towards her. "What are you doing here?"
I stops in my tracks, lowering my arms, when I take in her face- swollen eyes, tear streaks, and a red nose. She wipes at her face under my gaze. "What happened?" I asks, taking her in my arms, tucking her under my chin.
She shakes her head. "It's a long story. I know it's Christmas, but I didn't know where else to go. I can get a room at the Leaky Cauldron if that's better. I'm sorry," her voice cracks. My heart breaks at the sound.
I shift her until I have my arm around her shoulders."Nonsense!" I peck her on the cheek, forcing my voice into a false happiness. "Come on! Sirius is already over, and Pete and Remus will be over later!"
When Lily showed up this morning, I thought maybe she wanted to come over earlier or something along those lines. I never dreamed Petunia screamed that she hated her; I mean, isn't calling your little sister a freak on a regular basis enough? And on Christmas of all days.
"Of course I did," Sirius scoffs, bringing me back to the present. His grey eyes shine as he looks at Lily.
Lily smiles. "Good," she says triumphantly. "Because I got you one too."
Sirius hands Lily a large box wrapped in shiny, gold paper. She smiles down at him, snatching it from his hands. She quickly rips through the paper to reveal a box overflowing with books. Her face lights up, as she pours over all of the titles, running her fingers delicately over the covers. Taking the books out one at a time studying the titles and running her thumb over the spines.
"Only you could get so excited over a box of books," Sirius rolls his eyes, but I see his smile, obviously very pleased with himself and his gift.
"I don't know," I add. "Moony could give her a run for her money." Sirius laughs; Lily frowns.
"What's wrong, Lils?" I ask, nudging her with my elbow.
She looks down at the books, then back up to Sirius' curious face. "These are very pricey, Sirius." Her nose wrinkles in discomfort and embarrassment.
He rolls his eyes. "Merlin, Lilikins, it's not a big deal."
"I didn't spend this much on yours..." She trails off, lifting her green eyes to the window.
"I don't care," he laughs. "You got me something. So, gimme, gimme, gimme!" I bury my face in Lily's hair to hide my smile.
Lily turns to look at me. "It's upstairs?"
"Disly," I say calmly. "Will you bring down whatever presents Lily brought?" It doesn't take Disly a minute to send a loud crack echoing through the room, four presents overflowing from her tiny, fragile arms. Lily rushes forward to take the gifts from the struggling elf's grip.
"Thank you, Disly," I smile at our kind house elf.
"No problem at all," she answers with a triumphant smile. There's another loud crack, and Disly has once again disappeared.
Lily bends forward wading through the gifts. She settles on a thin one wrapped in purple paper and slides it to Sirius. Sirius rips through the paper as if his life depends on it, leaving the pretty, shiny paper in a pile of shreds. He lifts off the lid of a white box to reveal a rather thick magazine. It looks like a muggle magazine that is named after somebody named Harley. A large shiny object adorns the cover looking like some sort of death trap.
I turn to Lily in confusion, but her gaze is locked on Sirius. His eyes are shining with joy and a large grin splits his face. "Is this what I think it is?" He whispers.
"They're the motorcycles I've been telling you about," she informs him with a smile, crossing her arms proudly over her chest. "I thought once we graduate I could take you shopping."
Sirius drops the magazine and lunges across the floor, tackling Lily. I watch in amusement as Lily tries to shove him away, but he is too busy peppering kisses all over her hair. "Black!"
"Lily, have I ever told you, you're my favorite person?" He demands, hugging her to his chest.
"I thought James was your favorite person?" Lily arches an eyebrow, leaning on her elbow as she pushes him of her.
Sirius seems to ponder this for a second. "We don't count James; It's not fair."
Lily snorts, and I wiggle my eyebrows at Sirius. "Oh!" Lily exclaims. "And bonus, a motorcycle will go great with your leather jacket."
Sirius strokes said jacket, as I groan. "What, Prongs?" Sirius demands. "Have something against my jacket?"
"Oh, nothing, Pads," I say innocently. "But did you really have to wear it over your pajamas?" Lily giggles, as I gesture to the black, leather jacket thrown over a white t-shirt paired with plaid, blue pajama bottoms.
"I love this jacket," he defends.
"You haven't taken it off since you got," I give him a pointed look.
"So?" He raises his eyebrows.
"That was two months ago."
"So?" He repeats.
"Prongs, Prongs, Prongs," Sirius yells running down the Great Hall not caring that he's disrupting people's breakfast time. Professor McGonagall throws him a dirty look that he pointedly ignores. "Look what Evans got me for my birthday." He plops down onto a bench across from me and lays something black and wrinkly looking on the table for all of us to see.
"What's that?" I asked, appraising it cautiously. Growing up with Sirius will teach you to be careful putting your face too close to anything he shows you.
Lily quickly occupies the seat next to me, pecking me on the cheek. "It's a leather jacket." I turn to give her a proper kiss on the lips, not caring how many groans I'll receive from my friends.
"Prongs!" Sirius demands my attention.
I reluctantly turn to face my best friend. "What?" I snap
Sirius quickly snatches the jacket from the table and swings it around, placing it on his shoulders and shoving his arms through the sleeves. "Ah!" He sighs, straightening the collar.
"How do I look?" He asks arrogantly, striking different poses.
"Like a git," I say through a mouthful of cereal. "What else is new?" Sirius frowns at me in return.
"You look dashing, Sirius," Lily compliments, throwing me a pointed look.
Sirius throws me a smirk and wiggles his eyebrows. "I look dashing."
"She says dashing; I say dreadful," I say. "Besides, of course she likes it. She bloody got it for you."
"Lily said these are very in with the muggles," he says excitedly. "You know being a member of the Black family, I never had much interaction with muggles, but Lily talked about these really cool things they have called cotormycles."
Lily laughs. "Motorcycles!"
"Same thing!"
The rest is history. Sirius has yet to part with his beloved leather jacket. I place a kiss on Lily's hair just as an excuse to touch her. She shifts herself to lean against my chest, sitting in between my legs.
"Sure you're okay?" I lean against her, whispering in her ear. She had reassured myself and Sirius several times that she was okay after explaining what had happened, but the worry had yet to leave the back of my brain.
She leans her head back to look at me upside down, a grin arranged on her pink lips. "I'm fine, James," she breathes. "I promise."
I nod, the worry still persisting, but I don't want to be a annoyance. I see Sirius roll his eyes as I have become the worried boyfriend, and I will probably endure teasing later. However, he too has been worried about Lily- throwing her worried glances and locking his jaw anytime her sister is mentioned.
Pop! Our small house elf appears in the middle of the room causing Lily to jump. Disly stoops low into a bow. I shake my head at the poor elf considering my whole family had told her time and time again the bowing was unnecessary, but house elves tend to be set in their ways.
"Masters Remus and Peter are here," she announces. She disappears again with a snap of her fingers, just as Pete and Remus walk through the door.
Sirius and I make no move to get up, but Lily jumps from her position to throw her arms around both of them. "Presents!" Lily announces excitedly, clapping her hands together.
She leads them to their gifts, placing herself on the floor. Sirius and I scoot closer to our friends. I feel that peculiar feeling in the pit of my chest; a feeling that has become more and more common with the last year at Hogwarts growing ever so closer to an end. That feeling a person tends to get when they know this is a memory that will forever stick out as a completely and immutable happy moment.
A/N*
Hello all! I know it's been a bit, but I should be able to update rather soon because I have a small break! Yay! I hope you liked this; it's a bit of a filler chapter but I kind of like it. (Even if it's not my best)
Anyways, I hope everyone is well. Also, did anybody watch the oscars? I don't usually, but I did this year and DAMN. Low-key the highlight was Seth Rogen and Michael J Fox singing Hamilton, I mean lets be honest. LOL
Love you guys! Comment and Vote and Keep reading!!!!