I'll Follow You Anywhere
Ch.10: Ruled By The Mistletoe
“Ah, this is the best Christmas ever!” said Lora as she leaned into me and rested her head on my chest while Jack stepped onto my stomach.
-10-
"LILY!"
"LORA!"
I awoke once again on the common room floor to Lora and Lily shouting cheerfully at each other. I blinked open my eyes a few times to get adjusted to the bright sunlight that shown through the stone-arched windows. James, Remus, Lora and I had once again camped out in the plush, red and gold room.
Lor would complain that she got lonely in the girls dormitory all by herself. When we tried to convince her that we were really not that far away, she would make up tales about how an ancient ghost haunted the girl's dormitory. Each time we mentioned the room, her stories would get more and more elaborate and at the same time more and more far-fetched. Apparently the ghost-ette (who Lora explained was named Punky) had a grudge against Lora ever since she danced around in her Surly Cyclops (only one of the best bands ever) underwear. Lora then explained that Punky hates the Surly Cyclops because she used to date one and then he killed her with his drum stick when she missed a show. So yes, Lora won't sleep in her room because a make believe ghost named Punky doesn’t like her ninnies.
She tried sleeping in Peter's bed one night but that didn't last long. She complained that it smelled funny and that the sheets were damp about halfway down the bed. We stayed away from that side of the room after that. So then she decided to sleep in my bed, but I kicked her out when she kicked me off (according to Lor, she kicks in her sleep every fourth Monday of the month). She went to James bed but he kept grabbing at her arse (supposedly in his sleep) so she abandoned James' bed. After that she tried bunking with Remus but he freaked her out one night when he growled at her. And that's how we ended up in the common room.
"I've missed you Lily!" Lora said, rushing toward her red-headed friend. The embraced in a hug and then took another step back.
"I've missed you too, Lor. Christmas was a total bust! Petunia brought her new boyfriend, Vernon, who looks like and acts like a troll. Ugh, if only she had some sense," said Lily, taking in a deep breath and then gagging all of the air back out and covering up her nose.
"What's that wretched smell!?" She asked, pinching her nose shut tight.
"Oh, that's just Jack and his cute little stinky butt!" Lor replied cheerfully while scooping the small dog up with one hand and cuddling him against her shoulder. She rubbed his back while Lily awed at the brown terrier.
"Lily, baby, I missed you!" James said as he rushed over to embrace her in a hug.
"Hey James" Lily said, surprising everyone in the room, even James. He stopped dead in his tracks with shock as Lily just rolled her eyes and took her luggage up to the (supposedly haunted) girls dormitory.
"So what are you doing back so soon, Evans?" I asked as she came back down the spiraling, metal staircase. She glanced over at me and let out a small smile.
"I got bored there and I missed everyone here," she replied as she sat down next to Lora in a red, velvet armchair near the crackling and warm fireplace. The flames inside danced around, as if chasing after each other. One ran after the other in chase, though the flame ahead of him would not slow down. Sadly enough, it reminded me somewhat of how my relationship was with Lora. If only she would slow down-
"Sirius! Stop staring at the fire!" She shouted at me from a few feet away. Everyone laughed as I threw a pillow at her head. She blocked it and it went tumbling quickly into the fireplace flames.
"Ohhhh! Minerva's going to be mad at you, Lor!" James shouted at her, still keeping a curious eye on Lily. I noticed her look over at him and give him a smile before turning back to Lora.
"Siri did it, not me!" she replied defiantly. Laughter echoed around the room as Jack pranced around in front of the fire. His shadow ran along the red carpeting and moved around swiftly. I glanced back at the pillow and saw it burnt and black, it's tassels and fabric reduced to ash in the scalding fire pit.
"Whatever, let's go play in the snow," I said, getting up from my comfortable seat on the plush floor against the arm of the sofa. Everyone followed suit and we all dismissed from the common room momentarily to go and get our winter robes, gloves, scarves and hats on. We all met up a few minutes later and I snatched up Jack as we exited the warm and inviting common.
The corridors were icy and bright with the winter sun's light. Our lone footsteps echoed through out the vast stone walls and rebounded off of the high ceilings above us. All of the people in the portraits on the walls were still asleep. The occasional snore would come from a picture at a random time and it was also echoed through out our long hall. The tapestries that hung on the walls would flutter softly when a gentle breeze would waft by. I felt Jack shiver in my arm and I murmured a spell to keep him warm when we went outside.
Our footsteps crunched against the hard, white snow as we emerged from the grey, stone walls of Hogwarts into its vast scenery of a campus. The trees of the Forbidden Forest were coated with a fresh layer of snow and the Womping Willow would shake violently whenever the occasional snowflake would fall upon one of its branches. A lone bird would sometimes come too close and the flutter away at the last minute, almost hit by one of the Willow's mighty branches.
The lake was completely iced over, as if a wind had come in the night and just stopped the lake in its tracks and then glazed it completely over. I had to cover my eyes with the back of my dragon-skin gloves to keep the reflection of the sun overhead that was hitting the frozen lake from hitting my eyes. I saw a shadow pass underneath of the untouched ice and guessed that it was just the Giant Squid swimming by the waters edge.
I inhaled the chilly air and felt it burn the back of my neck. I breathed out as I let Jack, who was struggling to get down, onto the deep snow. It was a few inches over his head but he trekked onward to a big hill of snow near the edge of the lake. We all followed him, laughing with each other along the way, and made our way towards the hill.
For the next few hours, we messed around in the snow. We had an intense snowball fight were it was me and James and Lor, Lily and Remus. After that, we rolled down the snow hill onto the ice and had a contest to see who was able to slide the farthest along the smooth and slick surface of the lake (Jack won). We then slid around the top of the lake as if we were ice-skating, only without ice skates. We built a few snowmen after that. Lily and Lora worked on building a snowman that looked like a girl dog so that Jack would have someone to flirt with. While they did that, James, Remus and I created a snowman that closely resembled Professor Slughorn when we were done. After making a few dozen snow angels and then rolling down the snow hill, we retired from our games and went inside to eat some lunch.
When we entered the Great Hall, James grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her under the grand archway of the open doors. We all stopped curiously to see what he was doing.
"Potter, what are you doing?" Lily asked, just as surprised as the rest of us.
"Look up," he replied with a mischievous grin on his face. We all glanced upwards toward the top of the archway and saw-
"Mistletoe?" Lily asked, surprised, but there was a hint of playfulness in her voice when she said it.
"Yep, and you know the rules of mistletoe, Lily. It means that you've got to-"
James was cut off by Lily, who kissed him passionately on the lips. We all inhaled a breath of shock and when she parted away from him, we were all speechless with surprise.
"Are we going to stand here gawking or are we going to sit down and eat whatever's left of the Christmas feast?" she asked us, with a hint of a smirk on her face. I exchanged surprised glances with Lora and walked over to James. Remus was already patting him on the back with a congratulations and I noticed a smile on James that I had never seen before.
We then walked over to the Gryffindor table and joined our lady friends (and Jack) to eat the remains of the feast.
-10-
"LILY!"
"LORA!"
I awoke once again on the common room floor to Lora and Lily shouting cheerfully at each other. I blinked open my eyes a few times to get adjusted to the bright sunlight that shown through the stone-arched windows. James, Remus, Lora and I had once again camped out in the plush, red and gold room.
Lor would complain that she got lonely in the girls dormitory all by herself. When we tried to convince her that we were really not that far away, she would make up tales about how an ancient ghost haunted the girl's dormitory. Each time we mentioned the room, her stories would get more and more elaborate and at the same time more and more far-fetched. Apparently the ghost-ette (who Lora explained was named Punky) had a grudge against Lora ever since she danced around in her Surly Cyclops (only one of the best bands ever) underwear. Lora then explained that Punky hates the Surly Cyclops because she used to date one and then he killed her with his drum stick when she missed a show. So yes, Lora won't sleep in her room because a make believe ghost named Punky doesn’t like her ninnies.
She tried sleeping in Peter's bed one night but that didn't last long. She complained that it smelled funny and that the sheets were damp about halfway down the bed. We stayed away from that side of the room after that. So then she decided to sleep in my bed, but I kicked her out when she kicked me off (according to Lor, she kicks in her sleep every fourth Monday of the month). She went to James bed but he kept grabbing at her arse (supposedly in his sleep) so she abandoned James' bed. After that she tried bunking with Remus but he freaked her out one night when he growled at her. And that's how we ended up in the common room.
"I've missed you Lily!" Lora said, rushing toward her red-headed friend. The embraced in a hug and then took another step back.
"I've missed you too, Lor. Christmas was a total bust! Petunia brought her new boyfriend, Vernon, who looks like and acts like a troll. Ugh, if only she had some sense," said Lily, taking in a deep breath and then gagging all of the air back out and covering up her nose.
"What's that wretched smell!?" She asked, pinching her nose shut tight.
"Oh, that's just Jack and his cute little stinky butt!" Lor replied cheerfully while scooping the small dog up with one hand and cuddling him against her shoulder. She rubbed his back while Lily awed at the brown terrier.
"Lily, baby, I missed you!" James said as he rushed over to embrace her in a hug.
"Hey James" Lily said, surprising everyone in the room, even James. He stopped dead in his tracks with shock as Lily just rolled her eyes and took her luggage up to the (supposedly haunted) girls dormitory.
"So what are you doing back so soon, Evans?" I asked as she came back down the spiraling, metal staircase. She glanced over at me and let out a small smile.
"I got bored there and I missed everyone here," she replied as she sat down next to Lora in a red, velvet armchair near the crackling and warm fireplace. The flames inside danced around, as if chasing after each other. One ran after the other in chase, though the flame ahead of him would not slow down. Sadly enough, it reminded me somewhat of how my relationship was with Lora. If only she would slow down-
"Sirius! Stop staring at the fire!" She shouted at me from a few feet away. Everyone laughed as I threw a pillow at her head. She blocked it and it went tumbling quickly into the fireplace flames.
"Ohhhh! Minerva's going to be mad at you, Lor!" James shouted at her, still keeping a curious eye on Lily. I noticed her look over at him and give him a smile before turning back to Lora.
"Siri did it, not me!" she replied defiantly. Laughter echoed around the room as Jack pranced around in front of the fire. His shadow ran along the red carpeting and moved around swiftly. I glanced back at the pillow and saw it burnt and black, it's tassels and fabric reduced to ash in the scalding fire pit.
"Whatever, let's go play in the snow," I said, getting up from my comfortable seat on the plush floor against the arm of the sofa. Everyone followed suit and we all dismissed from the common room momentarily to go and get our winter robes, gloves, scarves and hats on. We all met up a few minutes later and I snatched up Jack as we exited the warm and inviting common.
The corridors were icy and bright with the winter sun's light. Our lone footsteps echoed through out the vast stone walls and rebounded off of the high ceilings above us. All of the people in the portraits on the walls were still asleep. The occasional snore would come from a picture at a random time and it was also echoed through out our long hall. The tapestries that hung on the walls would flutter softly when a gentle breeze would waft by. I felt Jack shiver in my arm and I murmured a spell to keep him warm when we went outside.
Our footsteps crunched against the hard, white snow as we emerged from the grey, stone walls of Hogwarts into its vast scenery of a campus. The trees of the Forbidden Forest were coated with a fresh layer of snow and the Womping Willow would shake violently whenever the occasional snowflake would fall upon one of its branches. A lone bird would sometimes come too close and the flutter away at the last minute, almost hit by one of the Willow's mighty branches.
The lake was completely iced over, as if a wind had come in the night and just stopped the lake in its tracks and then glazed it completely over. I had to cover my eyes with the back of my dragon-skin gloves to keep the reflection of the sun overhead that was hitting the frozen lake from hitting my eyes. I saw a shadow pass underneath of the untouched ice and guessed that it was just the Giant Squid swimming by the waters edge.
I inhaled the chilly air and felt it burn the back of my neck. I breathed out as I let Jack, who was struggling to get down, onto the deep snow. It was a few inches over his head but he trekked onward to a big hill of snow near the edge of the lake. We all followed him, laughing with each other along the way, and made our way towards the hill.
For the next few hours, we messed around in the snow. We had an intense snowball fight were it was me and James and Lor, Lily and Remus. After that, we rolled down the snow hill onto the ice and had a contest to see who was able to slide the farthest along the smooth and slick surface of the lake (Jack won). We then slid around the top of the lake as if we were ice-skating, only without ice skates. We built a few snowmen after that. Lily and Lora worked on building a snowman that looked like a girl dog so that Jack would have someone to flirt with. While they did that, James, Remus and I created a snowman that closely resembled Professor Slughorn when we were done. After making a few dozen snow angels and then rolling down the snow hill, we retired from our games and went inside to eat some lunch.
When we entered the Great Hall, James grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her under the grand archway of the open doors. We all stopped curiously to see what he was doing.
"Potter, what are you doing?" Lily asked, just as surprised as the rest of us.
"Look up," he replied with a mischievous grin on his face. We all glanced upwards toward the top of the archway and saw-
"Mistletoe?" Lily asked, surprised, but there was a hint of playfulness in her voice when she said it.
"Yep, and you know the rules of mistletoe, Lily. It means that you've got to-"
James was cut off by Lily, who kissed him passionately on the lips. We all inhaled a breath of shock and when she parted away from him, we were all speechless with surprise.
"Are we going to stand here gawking or are we going to sit down and eat whatever's left of the Christmas feast?" she asked us, with a hint of a smirk on her face. I exchanged surprised glances with Lora and walked over to James. Remus was already patting him on the back with a congratulations and I noticed a smile on James that I had never seen before.
We then walked over to the Gryffindor table and joined our lady friends (and Jack) to eat the remains of the feast.