Deer to Me

Chapter Seven

With the coming of December, came the excited whispering of the break and the next Hogsmeade visit. Though Lily always went on the visits, she especially enjoyed the Christmas visit because it was when she got all of her Christmas shopping done (except for Petunia, who would never accept anything magical). The rest of her family always loved her assortment of magical gifts, from the wizard chess set to the giant bags of Honeyduke's sweets.

Which was why she was standing in front of a giant rack of chocolates of every magical size and shape and was looking at each bucket before moving onto the next. She always tried to bring some that she had never brought before, and old favorites.

"Try a slice of the thrice dipped honey chocolate pie," a voice behind her said. Lily shook her head, not recognizing the heavy voice.

"None of my family likes honey."

"Well, they are just muggles," Bellatrix Black slid into her line of vision and leaned up against the tiers of chocolates.

"Hullo Bellatrix," Lily said, attempting to be pleasant. She could still remember the evil girl dangling her precious notebook over flames earler.

"Lovely day, isn't it Lily?" Bellatrix let the 'l's roll off of her tongue and Lily cringed a little.

"Yes, quite."

"Going home to the muggles next week?" Her eyes flashed and Lily felt a shiver run up her back. She lifted her chin and gave her a determined glance.

"Yes. I am."

"Have fun, then," Bellatrix sauntered away to terrorize more people. Lily watched her go and went back to her chocolate choosing.

She was worried that maybe Bellatrix was hinting to something, because she had that look in her eyes. But, then again, Bellatrix was completely mad. And she could have just been 'making conversation' in that odd way that she did....

But even so, she quickly chose out her assorted sweets for her family and hurried out of the shop. Taking a few minutes to look for Bellatrix Black, Lily sauntered into the Three Broomsticks for a quick warm-up butterbeer before she continued with her Christmas shopping. She still needed to find something besides sweets for a few close people, and for her muggle friend, and-

The sound of high-pitched laughter brought her away from her thoughts. Sirius and James apparently were entertaining the entire bar with some sort of prank or story of a prank, Lily didn't care enough to find out which it was. Not really clamoring for another unneeded personal encounter, she slipped into the back of the bar where she could go over her Christmas list privately.

"Did you think you could come in here without me noticing?"

So much for privacy.

"Go away, Potter," Lily sighed, not looking up at him. Uninvited, he peered over her shoulder (thus, entering into her personal bubble, and making her quite uncomfortable), to see her list. She quickly stuffed it into her bag and scooted away from him.

"That's not very nice, now is it?" James took this as an invitation to sit next to her. Lily grimaced; she was trapped between Potter and the wall. "'Tis the season, after all..."

"None of the four seasons would make me want to be nice to you, Potter," Lily growled, agitated. James cleared his throat, blushing slightly, and pushed a crudely wrapped box towards her.

Lily also felt heat rise to her face. "What...is this?"

"I think it's generally known as a Christmas present..."

She blinked again. He had bought her a Christmas present?

"O-oh..." she said, quietly, pulling it close to her.

"Are you going to open it?" he asked, looking at her hopefully. She nodded slowly and began unwrapping the present gently.

All feelings of flattery fell away when she pulled out a notebook.

"Thanks..." Lily blinked. It was the thought that counts, but...how boring was a notebook?

"See, only you can write in it," he demonstrated by trying a writing spell on the paper. The ink just spattered off onto the table. "And you'll never reach the last page because it always keeps another there for you. And it's tear proof and stain proof" He pointed his wand at the pages. "And best of all, it's fireproof." He shot flames at the book and they repelled off, the same as the ink.

Lily was taken aback.

"I figured," James continued shakily, handing her the book back, "that if you had a fireproof notebook that the Slytherins couldn't ruin your notebooks again."

Lily could see that he was still concerned from the Slytherin episode a few weeks ago. She cleared her throat and slipped the book into her bag.

"Well, if people would get over this whole 'pure-blood' nonsense, I wouldn't need to have this notebook, now would I?" She picked up her list again. "I suppose that I'll have to add your name down."

"You don't have to," James said, concerned at why she took so badly to the gift.

"Ah, James," The barmaid sauntered up to the two and placed a butterbeer in front of James. "On the house, for your wonderful storytelling." She took a look at Lily and gave James a wink. "James, who is this lovely date of yours?"

Before he could answer, Lily replied, "He most certainly not my date. He invited himself to the table."

"Er...I see," she said. "Would you like anything?"

"Butterbeer, please," Lily stated, matter-of-factly. James pushed his over to her and got up.

"You can have mine," he grumbled, looking much like a kicked puppy. Lily felt a pull in her heart and moved the butterbeer towards a more accessible spot.

Over on the other side of the Three Broomsticks, James plopped down next to Sirius who was currently turning a fork into a papaya and back again for some blonde 3rd year. James nudged Sirius who kicked him for interrupting his flirting time.

"Fine, I'll go find Moony," James growled, standing up and walking out of the bar. He pulled his coat closer around him and walked up the road to the Shrieking Shack. There he found Remus, staring at the house wistfully, leaning on the fence. This was where he spent a good deal of his Hogsmeade visits. James leaned up next to him.

"Did you need something, James?" Remus asked softly.

"She hated her gift," James blurted out. He knew that Remus was probably concerned about the upcoming full moon, but he couldn't concentrate on anything but Lily at the moment.

"What did you get her?" Remus asked.

"A notebook."

Remus shot him a dry look. "Quite romantic, James."

"It wasn't just any notebook," James glared at him. "It had a bunch of protective spells. I figured that if the Slytherins got a hold of her notebook again that she'd need one that could be as resilient as she is."

"I see. And she didn't like it?"

"No. Remus, I'm getting really confused," James whined. "You know her the best, could you go talk to her?"

"I suppose," Remus stood up. "After all, it is Christmas. 'Tis the season."

"Remus, I could kiss you."

"Please don't."

Remus found Lily outside of a tobacco shop. She was checking something off of a piece of parchment and stuffed it back into her bag, continuing on down the street. He hurried over to her before she ran into another shop.

"Hey Lily!"

"Remus, hello," Lily seemed mildly surprised, but her smile didn't reach her eyes.

"What are you up to?" Remus asked. "I didn't know you smoked."

Lily blushed a little and held up a box of Reynold's Tricolor Tobacco. The sides read 'Shape- shifting smoke!' and 'Smoke comes out a different color every time!'

"It's for my father," she clarified. "What are you up to?"

"Shopping for Christmas," he nodded. "You?"

"The same."

"Do you mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," Lily shook her head.

"Who do you shop for?" Remus asked.

"Oh, the usual. Mom, Dad, little brother."

Remus raised his eyebrow at that statement but continued on. "You have a little brother, I didn't know that?"

"Yeah, little brother and older sister," Lily said the latter with a sarcastic tone.

"You didn't mention her either, but from your tone I can tell that you don't like her very much."

"Not at all," Lily said. "She's jealous because I'm a witch and she's just a muggle."

"What about your little brother, is he muggle, too?"

Remus noted that the secretive smile that played on her face reached her eyes. "Well, maybe, maybe not. He's turning 11 next April. So I'm keeping an eye out for the owl post."

"I see," Remus continued walking.

"What about you? Brothers, sisters?" Lily asked.

"No, just me," he smiled. She shifted her bag on her shoulder as they passed Zonko's.

"I need to go get something for my little brother." Lily looked at her list. "What does a 10-year- old want?"

"You might ask James that."

"Why?" Lily's eyes narrowed at the mention of his name.

"He certainly acts 10-years-old," his eyes sparkled and Lily laughed.

"Oh, speaking of which, I have to get him something. So maybe I can get him and my brother the same thing at the same time."

Remus leaped at his chance. "Er-Why are you getting him a present?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "He gave me one. A notebook that's indestructable."

"You don't seem too enthralled by it."

"Well, honestly, the reasons for him giving it are rather dumb, don't you think?" Lily motioned to Zonko's and they stepped inside.

"Why?"

"I don't want things to be protected from Slytherins nor do I want to be protected," she sighed and picked up a self-reloading sling shot. "I want them to leave me alone."

"Understandable. But I think you should have given James credit for giving you the next best thing."

"But it's not," Lily protested, and the trick pen she was holding squirted out onto the table and then back into the pen again. "I knew that he sent you."

Remus only smiled back. "He told me that he wanted to give you something as resilient as you were."

Lily put down the pen and looked like she was milling over that thought. She looked back at him with a reluctant expression.

"Well, I guess."

"By the way, James told me that he was running out of his secret stash of cocoanut blizzard bites."

With that, Remus left Lily smiling thoughtfully, holding a rubber chicken that was popping back and forth from a pair of scissors.