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December 25, 1980
The opening bars of Blue Hawaii warbled out from the record player on the table. The faint outline of falling snow could be seen through their thin gingham curtains, mismatched colours from the decked out tree washing the scene in nostalgia. Lily smiled at her boys, her near five month old giggling on the ground the spitting image of her husband who was currently making faces at him from above. She laughed when he stuck his tongue out, and he turned at the sound, picking up Harry and popping him on his lap.
“Look Harry,” James said, leaning down and using his little baby hands to point at her, “Look at your Mum. How on earth did a sod like me ever end up with such a goddess?”
Lily scoffed, rolling her eyes just as the timer went off for the cookies. She ruffled his hair affectionately on her way to the kitchen. The other boys would be arriving soon, then Mary, and then they were all off to the Prewetts-now the Weasleys?-for Christmas dinner. Lily was making an apple pie, and they’d be leaving Harry with Bathilda down the road.
The tiled kitchen floor was freezing on her bare feet, so she stepped into James’s slippers where he’d left them in the corner. She turned the oven off with a flick of her wand and went to wash her hands before pulling the cookies out, the scent of lemon dish soap reminding her of home. It had been years since her parents died, but still she felt that pang of emptiness, that reminder that they’d never even met James, let alone Harry. She saw two little girls running down the lane and wondered what Petunia was doing. She had a little boy too, Dudley, about Harry’s age.
A waft of heat hit her as she pulled the cookies out of the oven, shaking them out a bit to prevent sticking before sliding them onto the cooling rack, leaving the pan to cool on the empty stove. She slipped the oven mitts back into their drawer beside the sink, kicked off the slippers, and, when she saw Harry now safe in his little high chair with a cookie James had somehow already acquired, tucked herself into her husband's warm arms. He was wearing the white sweater she’d knitted him for that first Christmas they’d been married, Christmas 1979. Between then and now Remus and James had both lost their mothers, Sirius his brother, and all of them had lost Marlene.
James must have felt the shift in her body. He tucked her hair behind her ear and tilted her chin up to him.
One fond embrace ahoea ea
Until we meet again
Until we meet again
“Knut for your thoughts?” He asked softly, those warm hazel eyes searching.
She sighed, tucking her head into his shoulder. Her refuge from the world, just for a little while.
“Marlene,” she whispered. There was no need for further explanation. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, and she melted into him.
She heard a knock, Sirius’s telltale bark of a laugh as he opened it with ease.
Remus’s nervous chiding echoed from the hallway, and Lily turned her head to see them come in.
“..really shouldn’t leave their door unlocked, we are in a bloody war…”
“Don’t I know it,” Sirius muttered as he entered the room, stopping short when he saw them. “Honestly, it’s no wonder they didn’t beat teen pregnancy if this is how they spend all their time. Bloody lovebirds.”
Lily stuck out her tongue at him, and when James laughed she felt it echo through her body.
Remus came into view behind Sirius and she got up to give him a hug. Every time she’d seen him recently he’d been a little worse for wear, though she supposed that was the case for all of them. Since they’d graduated they’d all grown up, for better or for worse.
He may have looked haggard, but he still smelled the way he always had, of tobacco and chocolate and books. She smiled at him, and he ruffled her hair.
“What, no hug for me?” Sirius mocked playfully, Harry already in his arms. She rolled her eyes and smacked him lightly.
James summoned cookies into their hands and they suited up Harry in his little red snowsuit, strapping him to Sirius’s chest using the baby carrier.
“Promise not to convert him to a Cannons fan while you’re out?” James joked.
“I’ll promise nothing of the sort. Ta!” Sirius shouted, shutting the door behind him.
James locked it, leaning back against it for a moment. The last few bars of No More faded out, and then came a song she would know in her sleep. For better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish. That’s what they’d said, and they’d meant it, and this was the song that had played at their wedding for their first dance. She looked in his eyes, the light dancing across his glasses, and she knew he was thinking about it too.
Wise men say
Only fools rush in
But I can’t help, falling in love, with, you.
He walked towards her slowly, a smile playing at his lips, delicately wrapping his hands around her waist. She wrapped her arms around his neck and they swayed softly to the music.
Shall I stay?
Would it be a sin?
If I can’t help falling in love with you.
At the beginning of all this, when they’d first joined the Order, she’d wondered if they would survive. It was moments like this that gave her hope, swaying with her James on Christmas morning, Harry safe with his godfather.
Like a river flows
Surely to the sea
Darling, so it goes
Some things, you know, are meant to be
If they could have these shining moments in the middle of a war, they could pull through together. If Harry would someday be allowed to fall in love and grow old in a world free from hate and fear, it would be all worth it. Lily hoped her and James would be lucky enough to watch it happen.
Take my hand
Take my whole life too
For I can’t help falling in love with you
For I can’t help….
“I love you, Lily.” He whispered, just as the song ended.
“I love you too, James.”
Falling in love with you.