Only Time

Chapter Sixteen

"Oi, Prongs, wake up! Presents!" James, who had just been about to tell Sirius to sod off, immediately sat up at the word "presents". As Sirius laughed at him, he rubbed his eyes, then groped for his glasses and slid them onto his face to see the large pile of presents at the foot of his bed.

"You get Moony and Wormtail up yet?" James asked as he slid off his bed and knelt next to his pile of presents.

Sirius, who was laying on his stomach on his own bed with wrapping paper strewed all around him, rolled his eyes and grinned. "They've already gotten up and opened their presents. It's just you who was being such a lazy arse as to not want to get up on Christmas morning."

James snorted. "So you decided to wake me up at..." he looked at his watch "...nine o'clock just so I could open presents? I'm touched, Padfoot. I suppose you've already opened yours?"

Sirius nodded, grinning, then stood up and stretched. "I'm down to breakfast with Moony and Worms. You might want to hurry up with opening those, though. A certain flower is waiting for you in the common room. Says she wants to give you your present personally." Sirius walked over to James and affectionately mussed his hair and knocked his glasses off, then danced away when James took a swipe at him. Laughing, he left the room as James shoved his glasses on his face again.

Several bags of dungbombs, Honeydukes chocolates, Quidditch posters of his favorite team, the Montrose Magpies, and clothes from his parents, later, James finally shrugged into a pair of Muggle trousers and a shirt, and walked down to the common room, the box that held his gift for Lily in hand.

When he got to the common room, Lily stood up from the chair she had been sitting in, then crossed the room and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Merry Christmas, James," she said as she pulled away, then took his hand and drew him over to the sofa in front of the fire.

"Merry Christmas, Lily," he said warmly as he sat down. She'd been a bit cold to him for the past couple weeks, ever since he'd refused to tell her what he had been doing on the night of the full moon. He was glad that she'd given that up for Christmas at least.

"Here," she said, pressing a neatly wrapped present in his hands. "Open this first." She sat back and waited as he tore off the paper, and drew out a book. James blinked. Why'd she get me a book?

"Ah--thank you, Lily," he said, looking down at the bound book lying in his hands. But she laughed, and he raised an eyebrow.

"Open it," she commanded him, so James, an eyebrow still raised quizzically, turned to the first page. His fingers ran over the page, then he looked up at her and smiled. She grinned back at him, a mischievous look in her green eyes.

"You like?" she teased, and James chuckled, turning the pages. It was a photo album with pictures of him after all that pranks that had been played on him over the past seven years...James with green hair and silver skin from third year, James with elephant ears from fourth, even James with miniature deer horns and a tufted tail--that one was a legacy of one of their first attempts at the Animagus transformation, though they'd told everyone it had been a prank gone wrong.

"You've really been collecting over the years..." he replied, turning pages and seeing picture after picture of him with oddly colored hair or skin, and various other things they'd been pranked with. He wondered where she'd gotten all the pictures. Though he did remember some pictures being taken after a humiliating prank gone wrong, but this many?

"Anytime you became unbearable, I'd console myself with these," she said, her eyes dancing wickedly. "But now that I need them no longer, I bequeath them to you. Just remember, I have the negatives."

Startled, James looked up from the photo album, and started chuckling. "Where'd you get them all?" he asked.

Now Lily couldn't hold her own laughter in. She broke into giggles. "S-sirius," she choked out. "He'd always got a picture of you after someone got you. Remember?"

James groaned. He did remember--Sirius always insisted on getting pictures of any of them when something went wrong, so he could laugh over them; though to be fair, they'd done the same for him. "He gave them to you?" James asked. Lily nodded, still giggling, and James narrowed his eyes. "So that's why he was so eager for me to get down here...well. This means I must dig out all my old pictures of him in embarrassing positions. I wonder if he'd like to see them posted all over the common room..."

But Lily playfully shook a finger at him. "Nuh-uh-uh," she said. "No retaliating against my partner-in-crime. Or me, because how would that look to people? You pranking your girlfriend because of a Christmas present?"

James smiled, all thoughts of revenge against Sirius forgotten at the warmth he felt when Lily referred to herself as his girlfriend. What he'd have given to hear her call herself that years ago...with a jolt, he remembered his own present for her, laying on the sofa next to him. He picked it up and pressed it into her hands, mumbling, "I hope you like it..."

Lily, still giggling a bit, unwrapped the paper and opened the small box, and gasped. She carefully lifted out the gold chain with the ivory lily bordered in gold, and held it up in front of her. "James," she breathed, looking more closely at the flower, then turning it over, where To Lily, the brightest flower in my life, from James was engraved in tiny cursive handwriting.

"Do you like it?" James asked awkwardly, as she looked at him, her emerald eyes wide. Then, unexpectedly, she threw her arms around his neck, the chain still clutched tightly in her fist. Then she drew back slightly, and kissed him soundly on the mouth, while he sat still in surprise at her enthusiastic reaction.

"It's beautiful, James," she said, and kissed him again to show her appreciation. "It's beautiful. Thank you..."

"Ah, you're welcome," he replied fuzzily, still a bit taken aback. "Here, let me put it on you--" He reached for the necklace, and she turned around so he could put it on. Once he did, she faced him again, then looked fondly down at it.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before James asked, "Have you eaten breakfast yet?" Lily shook her head, so James stood up and offered her his hand, which she took with a smile, and they left the common room.

Once they got to the Gryffindor table, Lily broke away from James to go sit with her friends, and James went to go sit with his. He found Sirius inhaling his breakfast, as usual, Peter reading the newspaper, and Remus reading a book. Both Remus and Peter said "Merry Christmas" without looking up, so James rolled his eyes and returned the greeting before sitting down and turning to Sirius as he grabbed a plate and shoved food on it.

"Sirius," he said, and Sirius swallowed, then grinned at him.

"James?" he returned, still grinning madly. Remus and Peter put down what they were reading to watch the events with interest.

"You've been collaborating with my girlfriend," he said, trying to be stern.

"Have I, Jamsie?" Sirius asked, the very picture of innocence, which James knew was all an act, as he had seen the same thing often before with their teachers.

"You have," James said gravely. "And for that, you must pay."

"But what crime am I charged with?" Sirius protested, gazing at James with big blue eyes. James snorted. Puppy eyes may work on girls, but it wouldn't work on him.

"Conspiracy to embarrass me," James replied primly, and Remus and Peter, who had been watching the proceedings with interest, let out twin snorts of laughter.

"Do tell," Remus said. "Sirius embarrassed James again?"

"Lies, all lies, I tell you!" Sirius exclaimed, but his grin betrayed him.

"How did Sirius embarrass James again?" Peter asked, raising an eyebrow. James felt like groaning. This conversation was not going the way he'd wanted it to.

"I don't know what James is talking about, Pete," Sirius said, sniffing. "I'm hurt at his unsolicited accusations. I don't recall anything that I've done lately that would embarrass him. Unless..."

"Unless...?" Remus prompted, grinning himself.

Now Sirius looked wide-eyed and horrified, as if he hadn't meant to do whatever he'd done. "Unless our dear Prongs is talking about Lily's Christmas present for him."

Remus gasped melodramatically. "James," he said, "Lily's Christmas present? It embarrassed you? Oh, poor Jamsie!" Peter and Sirius snickered, and James really wished he hadn't brought it up now. Oh well. Too late to save what dignity he had left. At least he'd take Sirius down with him.

So he said, "Don't forget, Sirius," and fixed him with a stern hazel eye. "I've got embarrassing pictures of you too, and I'd be perfectly willing to donate a few to the décor of our common room."

But Sirius just waved his threat off. "Go ahead," he dismissed. "It's nothing nobody's seen before."

Peter's eyes widened, and James realized that Remus and Peter didn't know what he and Sirius were talking about. For all they knew, James and Sirius were talking about pictures of each other naked or something. James briefly debated letting Peter embarrass himself by asking them, but decided not to. Lily wouldn't approve.

"Lily gave me a photo album full of pictures of me after someone's played a prank on me, most of which she got from Sirius," James said kindly to Peter, and Peter relaxed, just as Remus laughed.

"You will let us see this photo album, won't you, James?" Remus asked innocently. James groaned and put his head in his hands.

"I can't exactly stop you, can I?" he asked, already knowing the answer as Remus shook his head, grinning.

"Well," Sirius said brightly, "now that James is done accusing me, is there anything else we can do? Like, say, a snowball fight?"

Remus and Peter immediately stood up, but James said, "I'll be out later; I have to eat first."

Sirius pouted. "You're no fun! Ignore the food! Hear the call of the snow. It's calling you, James. Listen to its call..."

James hit Sirius lightly on the shoulder. "Stop that. It's disturbing. And I can't believe that you are telling me to ignore food. Which I won't, or otherwise I won't be up to my full potential during the snowball fight and I'll embarrass you and we'll lose to the Slytherins, and how will you feel then?"

Sirius sniffed primly. "Fine, eat your food. We wouldn't want ickle Prongs to faint from hunger, after all. Come along, Moony, Wormtail!" And Sirius stood up and strode away, Remus and Peter following him and muffling laughter.

James ate his breakfast, resolving to shove snow down Sirius's shirt and bewitch snowballs to continually hit him. He'd probably think it was the Slytherins who'd done it, too. He quickly finished his breakfast and was about to leave the table when he decided to ask Lily to join the fight. She never had before, but maybe she would today...

So he walked up to where she was sitting with her friends and tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned around and smiled at him, he said, "There's the big inter-house snowball fight going on right now, Lily. Would you like to join us and fight for the honor of Gryffindor?"

Lily shook her head, smiling amusedly now. "No, you go on. I don't feel the need to bash people with snow to feel like a Gryffindor. Just tell me how it went, after you're done freezing."

"Oh, come on, Lily," he cajoled. "It'll be fun, I promise! Everyone else has fun." But Lily still shook her head, and James gave up. He sighed. "Fine. I'll see you later, then?" She nodded, and he kissed her on the cheek before he went outside.

As soon as he appeared on the front steps of the castle, he ducked an oncoming snowball, which hit the door behind him. Over by the rocks near the lake he could make out people wearing red-and-gold scarves, so he sprinted over to them, ducking snowballs on the way. Once he got there, he ducked behind a rock, and asked Sirius, who was crouching a couple feet away, "How is it going so far?"

"The Ravenclaws were nearly already gone when we got here," Sirius replied, "but not many of them showed up anyway. The Slytherins are out en masse and are building a fort between the school and the Willow. The Hufflepuffs are over by Hagrid's hut, and are doing pretty well. And we're still fine."

"You have someone making snowballs?" James asked.

"Pete's doing it, along with Jen," Sirius nodded over to where, behind another rock and a snow wall, Peter and his girlfriend Jennifer making a large pile of snowballs. Other Gryffindors were coming and going from Peter's little hideaway to get more snowballs.

"You said there were still a few Ravenclaws left?" James asked.

Sirius nodded, and gestured with his chin to a small snow-fort between the lake and Hogwarts. Grinning, James grabbed a few snowballs from Peter and went in to flush them out.

After the Ravenclaw fort had been demolished by James and a few other Gryffindors who were out in the middle of the fray, they retreated back to their own fort beside the lake to think up a strategy to take care of the rest of the houses. Sirius just wanted them all to charge in and take care of them once and for all, but Remus pointed out that if they did that, they'd be pelted with snowballs and so out of the game by both Slytherin and Hufflepuff before they could get fifty yards.

"We have to use magic," Remus explained, "only not on the snow, but on us. James, you know Disillusionment Charms, right?" James nodded, and Remus went on. "So let's get rid of the Hufflepuffs first--they're closer. What we can do is Disillusion some of us--leaving others behind to make sure our fort doesn't fall--and go around back behind the rocks, in the edges of the forest, and take them from behind. They won't even know what hit them."

"But Remus," a younger Gryffindor protested, one from third or fourth year, "aren't there monsters in the forest?"

Remus smiled kindly at the third or fourth year. "Don't worry," he said. "Anything scary is much deeper in the forest. The only things on the edges are things like fairies and Bowtruckles, things that will leave you alone if you leave them alone. So, who wants to mind the fort, and who wants to go in?"

For the most part, it was the younger set, fourth-year and below, who wanted to stay with the fort, though there were a few who wanted to go with the others. James, Remus, and Sirius performed the Disillusionment Charm on themselves and the others who volunteered, and, grabbing several snowballs each, they snuck out of their fort and into the edges of the forest.

A few times on the way, James and Remus had to cut off the giggling of some of the younger students, but they crept up behind the Hufflepuff fort--which actually didn't have a back--with no one seeing them. Most of the Hufflepuffs appeared to be there, though some were out combating the Slytherins, and probably the Gryffindors still back at the fort. Then, grinning, James sighted on one of the seventh year Hufflepuffs he knew, Adam Zeller, and fired. It hit him dead-on, which seemed to signal to the rest of the group that they should fire. Soon enough, the Hufflepuffs in the fort were decimated by the onslaught of snowballs, and had to give up as there was not a one of them who was not covered in snow. When the ones outside of the fort came running, the Gryffindors pelted them with snowballs too, and soon Hufflepuff was out of the fight. Best of all, though, was that they hadn't lost a single Gryffindor, as the Hufflepuffs were too disorganized to do anything but get hit, much less try hitting targets that they couldn't see. Flushed with victory, the Gryffindors returned triumphantly to their fort.

Once they got back, they started devising a battle plan for the Slytherins. The Slytherins seemed to be relying on the Whomping Willow getting too violent for anyone to get near their fort, and though the Marauders knew how to stop the Willow, doing so would open up the passage to the Shrieking Shack, and they didn't want any curious student to go down there.

"Let's just use the Disillusionment Charm again," Sirius suggested. "Only not all of us be Disillusioned. We can have some be decoys, and just start throwing snowballs at them. Then we draw them out, and the Disillusioned ones can take care of them. It's as simple as that."

They agreed to the plan, and soon implemented it. A grinning Sirius volunteered to be one of the decoys, because, as he said, "The Slytherins hate me more than nearly any other Gryffindor, so I'm the one who could most likely get them angry enough to come out. Then the rest of you can just pelt 'em with snowballs, and we win."

The plan was carried out just as Sirius had said. He got the Slytherins to come out, where the rest of the Gryffindors could begin to hit them with snowballs. The Slytherins, not knowing where the other snowballs were coming from, started throwing wildly in all directions, sometimes hitting a Disillusioned Gryffindor and sometimes not. But at the end of the battle, though both Sirius and Remus had been hit and were so out of the battle, Gryffindor prevailed, and everyone went into lunch. James went to bed with a smile that night, happy with the way the day had gone.