This was written as a Christmas present for Feli! I haven't written anything HP in a long time(as you can tell by looking at my profile) but I thought I'd share this because I think it turned out pretty cute. :-)
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“James, it's too cold.” I tried to deflect him before he even suggested dragging me outside. We were almost finished with our rounds and the cold from outside was seeping in through the glass panes to chill me even in my coat and scarf.
“Please, Lily,” he begged and looked at me sideways with a teasing grin. I rolled my eyes at his eagerness and determinedly shook my head. I would not let him charm me into freezing to death tonight.
He allowed the subject to drop and for once, I was a bit disappointed at his lack of talking. Usually, even the sound of his voice would grate on my nerves but lately, James and I had been slowly learning to be on better terms with each other. It had taken us almost our full seven years together at Hogwarts to get there, but I was pretty sure one might even go so far as to say James Potter and I were friends. We had finally figured out that it made rounds much more pleasant when you weren't constantly at each other's throats.
“We could use warming spells,” James suggested suddenly, breaking his silence.
“James,” I admonished. “You know that's not allowed.”
He smiled a little wider and shrugged.
“I was just saying we could,” he muttered, looking down at his scuffed shoes. I felt an unfamiliar squeeze inside my chest when I noticed he looked genuinely disappointed. I felt myself soften a little and sighed.
“What do you even want to do?” I asked, defeated in my curiosity.
“I want you to teach me how to make a snowman,” he answered definitely, as if he had spent some time thinking about it beforehand.
Taken aback, I blinked at him before saying, “But you know how to make snowmen. You and Sirius make them all the time.”
“Not with magic, Lily,” he countered, grabbing my arm to halt our progress down the hallway. I shifted uncomfortably at the odd sensation that radiated up my arm from where his hand still rested lightly. “I want to learn how to make them by hand.”
“Oh.” I bit my lip nervously. It had been years since I'd even attempted to make a snowman with magic, much less my hands. “I'm not sure I even remember how to,” I confessed.
“Yes, you do,” he encouraged. I barely contained myself from jumping when he squeezed my arm lightly and let his hand drop to continue pacing down the hallway, now in the direction of the grounds.
“James, I really don't,” I insisted, trying to keep up with his brisk pace and now truly nervous. James may have been infamous in school for flouting thee rules, but I rarely even violated uniform code and I was pretty sure making snowmen at one in the morning on the grounds was considered against the rules. Not to mention we were Head students and expected to be patrolling for another thirty minutes at least.
By the time I fully caught up with him, he was waiting impatiently for me in front of a tapestry that hung in an otherwise deserted hallway. I nearly groaned in frustration at the sight of it. If it's one thing I hated most about James' incessant rule-breaking escapades, it was the secret tunnels he insisted on using even when we were allowed to use the actual doors.
“Do we have to?” I asked, almost in a whine.
“It's part of the fun,” he answered, obviously putting on a show of being miffed as pulled aside the tapestry. I narrowed my eyes at the stone tunnel's entrance and nearly refused the hand he offered to me to help me step in. Reluctantly, I took it and stepped inside the tunnel, waiting for him to join me. He ducked in a moment later, carefully pulling the tapestry closed behind us, casting us into the dark. I shivered involuntary from the cold.
“Lumos!” he whispered lowly and the tunnel flickered in the sudden light emanating from the tip of his wand. I followed suit, adding my light to his and following him as he led the way sure-footedly along the tunnel.
After stumbling along for a few minutes behind him, I was caught off guard when he suddenly stopped sharp in front of me and I knocked into him with a surprised cry. I caught myself against the wall as he quickly steadied me with his hands.
“Sorry,” he apologized with a nervous laugh. He ran a hand through his hair, a habit which I used to detest, and then seemed to catch himself mid-way through and took to rubbing his neck instead. Trying to hide my smile at his badly disguised habit, I shrugged and gestured silently for him to continue. To be honest, I wasn't sure I was capable of words at the moment. I was too busy struggling for coherency after feeling his warm hands rest on my hips even for the smallest fraction of a minute. I closed my eyes and counted to three silently as I listed to him mutter a password to open up the passage that would let us out of this tunnel.
The stone groaned as it gave way and I blinked at the dark glow of snow that met us as the grounds opened us before us. A fog was just beginning to swirl around the deserted yard which seemed eerie in the cold winter light.
“Merlin, it's even colder than I thought it would be,” I swore as we stepped outside. James, who was just climbing out of the tunnel, came up behind me suddenly and swung me around playfully, laughing at my bewildered expression. As he let me go, he said lowly, “Don't worry, I'll keep you warm.”
“Oh, and how do you plan on doing that?” I challenged, wrapping my arms around myself to demonstrate exactly how cold I was. As I stole a glance at him, I was surprised at the calculating expression that I found.
He quickly replaced it with his trademark playful grin and quipped, “I can think of a couple ways.” He quirked an eyebrow suggestively and I shoved him with friendly reproach. He really never would give up on flirting.
“Why don't we concentrate on what our actual mission is?” I asked, trying to sidestep the issue.
“I really never thought of making a snowman as such a serious mission before,” James said as he led the way towards a more open part of the grounds where the snow was the thickest.
“Well, you're the one who thought it was important enough to shirk our jobs and come out here to do it,” I shot back.
“I honestly didn't really think you'd come out here with me,” James admitted, not meeting my eyes as he began to pack some snow together with his gloved hands. I knelt down to help him, choosing not to comment immediately on the fact that he seemed to know exactly how to go about making a snowman by hand. I waited until we were almost finished with the base to say anything in response.
“Well, now that you've got me out here, will you tell me the real reason behind dragging me out into the cold to teach you something which you obviously already know how to do?”
James paused suddenly, his hands stilling, and then to my shock, his face flushed a deep red. This time both of his hands went to tug through his unruly dark hair and almost unconsciously my eyes followed the movement, but I was far from annoyed by the act like I always had been before. In fact, it suddenly seemed very endearing. I wondered fleetingly what it would be like to run my fingers through his hair myself…
Shaking myself back to reality, I snapped my eyes back to meet his embarrassed hazel ones and I smiled softly, trying to tell him silently he was forgiven.
When I caught sight of his uncertain expression, I flicked some snow from our base over to him and he smiled gently, stripped of his usual mischievousness, as he brushed away the powder from his coat. He seemed to come to himself as he brushed it away and a new light entered his eyes as he looked back at me with renewed vigor.
“Maybe I just really wanted to know what it was like to make a snowman with Lily Evans.” He shrugged and grabbed a handful of snow to pack onto our quickly forming snowman.
The absurd confession lay in the air between us for a suspended moment and then, not being able to help myself, I laughed. The sound burst from my lips loudly and shook my head at the bizarre boy standing across from me with a half-built snowman separating us.
“You're so strange sometimes, James,” I finally managed to say as I packed some more snow into a new ball to place on our base. His hands joined mine in packing on snow and we worked together to round out our new ball.
“Is that a bad thing?” he asked as we lifted it up. I took a moment to study first our snowman and then him. He looked uncharacteristically flushed and I wondered if it was merely from the cold or something else. I scrunched my nose at the reminder of the cold and snuggled a little deeper in my coat.
“No, it's not a bad thing,” I answered quietly. For some reason, I couldn't quite meet his eyes as I said it though I didn't miss the smile that tugged on his lips as he set to work on the last and final ball of our snowman. I began to look around us for things to decorate him with, picking up a few pebbles and twigs before heading back just as he was placing the head on top.
I stuck the twigs in unceremoniously and he grabbed the pebbles to design a smile for our snowman. I giggled as the final product came to completion and I shook my head in disbelief at the absurdity of the entire situation.
“Are you satisfied?” I asked dryly as we admired our work. I was trying my hardest to keep of the appearance of being annoyed with him, but he was making it increasingly difficult with his jocular attitude and constant grin.
“Very,” he concluded, sounding satisfied indeed.
“Can we go back inside now?” I questioned, even more eagerly. I bounced up and down on my toes in an attempt to get some feeling back into them after trudging around in the snow for so long. He snickered softly at my attempt and nodded.
“We can even go in the normal way if you want,” he offered as we took one last appraisal of our handiwork and headed back for the castle.
“Nah,” I declined, shoving him playfully with my shoulder. “We might as well make a night out of our delinquency and go back in through your illegal secret tunnel.”
He accepted my teasing readily and grabbed my hand unexpectedly, leading me in a brisk jog back to where the tunnel was that would take us back nearby the Gryffindor tower. When we reached the entrance, it took us both a long moment to catch our breath both from our blissful laughter and from being winded from our run.
James tapped the wall dutifully and said the password to force the stones to make way for us. We made our way through the tunnel, tripping and laughing over ourselves all the way through, until we finally had to somber ourselves up to make our way quietly back through the halls and to our tower.
When we reached the Fat Lady's portrait, James had to do some prodding to convince her to wake up from her very loud and deep slumber, but when she saw it was us, she swung open for us, not without some complaint though. Luckily, she was so busy muttering quietly to herself that she didn't even notice James and I were both partially soaked with melted snow and very probably partially frozen…or at least I felt like it.
James yawned widely as he shrugged off his coat and began to trudge across the Common Room. He leaned lazily against one of the arm chairs and swung his wet coat over the back of another to dry by the fire. I followed suit and tried my best to soak up a little of the fire's heat before heading upstairs.
“Thanks for teaching me how to make a snowman, Lily,” James said softly and when I looked up at him to counter with a sarcastic comment, I found him to be staring absentmindedly out the window where you could just see a new snowfall beginning.
“I don't know how much I actually taught you,” I joked lightly, abandoning my original caustic remark I had at ready. Then, as an afterthought, I added softly, “But I had a lot of fun.”
“Me too,” he agreed in the same hushed tone and he suddenly broke his gaze away from the window to meet mine. For a moment, it looked like he was going to say something more but then his face fell slightly and he seemed to settle on a small smile before he bid me a soft, “Goodnight, Lily.”
I watched curiously as he crossed the Common Room slowly and I felt an involuntary shiver course through me when I saw him run his long fingers through his hair for the millionth time tonight. I hugged myself and threw a glance at the fire before I made up my mind and took a step in his direction.
“James,” I called after him just as he started up the stairs towards his room. He turned back to me almost immediately, re-adjusting his glasses as he rubbed his eyes tiredly.
“Yeah, Lily?” he answered as he visibly bit back a yawn.
I rocked back on my heels as I struggled with the sudden idea that struck me as I took him, sleepy and all. He had never looked more handsome to me than he did in that moment, all disheveled and confused. Then impulsively and before I could change my mind, I launched myself forward into his surprised arms and planted my lips firmly on his.
It took him several moments to process what was happening and I could tell the exact second when he did because his arms wound suddenly around me and his lips softened against mine. His lips gently explored my own and I didn't even try to fight the urge to melt completely into his arms. When I finally pulled away, his face was more than worth my impulsive decision.
“What was that for?” James asked, sounding amazed as he allowed me to loose myself from his arms, albeit a bit reluctantly.
“Just…trying to warm myself up,” I replied, echoing his words from earlier back to him with a smirk, before spinning away and running up the stairs to my own dorm.
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