Of Butterbeer and Snowflakes

The group of teenagers entered the Three Broomsticks in high spirits, bringing in a gust (or many) of cold air inside the room with them, along with a few stray flakes of gray snow. They were all bundled thickly up, scarves of green-silver, red-gold, and blue-bronze wound tightly (or loosely) about their necks.

One of the boys, the only one with a green-colored scarf, had his arm around a redheaded girl's shoulders, the only girl in the group. She was trying to shrug it off and remove her Gryffindor scarf at the same time, and was failing miserably. "Cut it out, Peter," she said, a joking tone in her voice, but her green eyes glaring.

One of the dark-haired boys glared at Peter. "Seriously, Peter. It was all over a long time ago, if it ever started at all."

"Whatever, Sirius." The Slytherin removed his arm rather grudgingly from the girl's shoulders. "You're jealous."

Madam Rosmerta glided quickly over before a fight could start out. "Hello, Lily." She smiled at the girl, then the four boys. "Brought some friends today? It's quite today- business has been picking up since the opening."

Lily smiled. "Sirius, Peter, James, and Remus," she gestured to each boy in turn. "Sirius and James are in my house, Remus is in Ravenclaw, and Peter's in Slytherin." She pronounced the last word very delicately, as if afraid to make it sound unclean. "Do you have any of that new brand of hot chocolate that never gets cold?"

Rosmerta nodded, Peter and James taking Lily's advice on the drink, while Remus and Sirius ordered butterbeers. The spat, Lily noticed thankfully, had been momentarily forgotten. "Who's leaving for the Christmas holidays?" she inquired of her four best friends, hoping that Sirius and Peter would not find a reason to argue over this, too. "I think I'm going to stay. Petunia'll be happy, if nothing else."

"I'm going home," Peter added promptly. "There's supposed to be some big family thing going on." He rolled his eyes, and then flashed a smile at Lily. "You're welcome to come, if you want."

James cast a quick glance at Sirius. "I'm leaving," he interjected quickly. "My parents said that I can stay next year, since it'll be our seventh year, but not until then. So I'll be leaving you three."

"Make that two. I'm leaving," Remus replied, taking his butterbeer from Madam Rosmerta. "Thank you, ma'am."

Rosmerta smiled, her experienced eyes taking in the homelier of the two dark-haired boys expression as he glanced at Lily. "Enjoy, dears."

"I'm staying," Sirius added after taking a long swallow of his drink. "I do want to go home, because the common room will be lonely. And I'll miss not being with my family, but they're going to my grandmother's for Christmas day, and she's still not too happy with me being a wizard."

Lily grinned at him. "Good, Sirius, you can keep me company. None of the other sixth-year Gryffindor girls are staying, so you'd better. I need somebody to talk to."

"I could always stay, I supp..." Peter was cut short by James elbowing him in the ribs with a warning glare. "But I wouldn't want to barge in on the two lovebirds over there."

Sirius scowled deeply, his fingers drumming on the table. Lily reddened slightly, but ignored the comment. "I'm hoping for one of those new Gold Comets," she said quickly. "But I've already got a Cleensweep from two years ago, and I don't really need a broom now that I'm not on the team."

James nodded sympathetically. "I've got one of those old Silver Arrows from way back, and it's one of the fastest brooms that I've seen."

"Then how come I can beat you on my 'Bolt?" Remus laughed. "Lucky for you, I'm too big to be a Seeker, Potter. A chaser's all I'll ever be."

Sirius and Lily joined in the conversation, glancing at each other from time to time. If Sirius ever caught Lily looking back at him, she would redden, then look away quickly.

Rosmerta smiled as the five stood up to leave, three of their number chatting gaily, and two Gryffindors deep in thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sirius smiled at Lily as he held the door to the Three Broomsticks open for her. It was Christmas break, and Remus, James, and Peter were gone. There had been an opportunity to go to Hogsmeade, and the two had jumped at the chance. Sirius knew that it was not a date by any standard, but he could feel a tension in the air that the two friends had never felt before.

"Two butterbeers, please," Sirius ordered, despite Lily's protests. "Think of it as a Christmas present," he told her. "Since what I got you isn't very big, because I couldn't go shopping."

The redhead laughed. "Oh, I see, you're being cheap and trying to make up for it at the same time!"

Sirius grinned across the table at her. "I suppose that if you wanted to be blunt, you could put it that way." He took a sip of the butterbeer that Rosmerta held out to him, and smiled a thanks at the lady.

Lily smiled, taking the tiniest sip from her mug. "Sure seems quiet in here without everybody," she commented after a prolonged, tense silence. "Quiet, but nice. No Peter hanging around like always, no James making cracks, no Remus jumping from quiet observations to joking with James. Just you and me."

Sirius' gaze drew to Lily's eyes, which he found were staring back at him, a smile on her face. "Sure is," he whispered, grinning. "Nice." The young man wanted to go hide as soon as he said that, because Lily lowered her head and looked pointedly away. How dense could he get- thinking that there was something going on other than two friends out to get a drink. Sirius had dated a rather fair number of girls (and although he didn't want to admit it, snogged with a few more), but Lily's only boyfriend had been Peter. That was not for a lack of admirers, of course. She could have easily had almost any boy in the school, and Sirius was not on the top of the "good looks" list.

"Sorry," Lily finally muttered, kicking the leg of the table in an effort to let out some emotion that Sirius could only guess at. She stood up quickly, her scarf half-on as she headed out of the door.

Sirius stared at her for a few moments, then down at his mug. Someone cleared their throat loudly as the door closed. He looked up, and saw that Madam Rosmerta was the only one left in the room other than him. "What?" he demanded of her, then lowering his head again.

The woman sighed. "I think that when a girl runs away from a young man that she's in love with, he's supposed to follow her. At least, that's how it's supposed to go. You have no sense of romance."

He snorted. "Lily's not in love with me," Sirius said defiantly. "She could have anyone, and besides, Peter still likes her. He's one of my best friends."

"But are you one of his?" Rosmerta asked. "And maybe she's not in love with you. But are you in love with her?"

Sirius was silenced by the questions. The answers were obvious, even in the state of mind he was currently in. Although his mind would answer "yes and no" to the questions, his heart was telling him the exact opposite. Especially about Lily.

He rushed out of the door, drawing his cloak about him in an attempt to keep out the snow. Lily was already halfway down the deserted street. It was Christmas Eve- no one was out and about at this time. "Wait!" he cried after her, his heart flipping and his stomach churning. Was he doing this? Admitting that he was in love with one of his best friends?

Lily paused, and he used the moment to rush up to her side, grabbing hold of one of her arms. "What do you mean by 'I'm sorry'?" he demanded. "What the hell are you sorry for? What have you ever done?" He realized suddenly that Lily was on the verge of tears. "Oh, my god, Lily, I'm sorry. Don't cry." Sirius wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. "Don't cry," he whispered into the top of her hair.

The redhead made no reply, except to wrap her arms around his neck, which was rather difficult- Sirius was close to a head taller than she was. Finally, she answered. "I'm sorry for doing this to you, when you're such a good friend."

She looked up at him, and Sirius recognized the emotion that Rosmerta must have seen there. Love. Could she see it in him? "Don't ever be sorry," he whispered, leaning his face down to hers, ever so slowly, so that she would have a chance to back away. Or, knowing Lily, slap him.

But she did neither, simply stood on her toes to rush the process, Sirius' lips brushing quickly against hers.

As they turned back to the Hogsmeade station to take the train back to Hogwarts, it seemed the most natural thing for Sirius to slip his arm around her shoulders, and in turn, she leaned against him.

Behind them, snowflakes fell softly, gently brushing against the ground before kissing it white.