Elder Brothers

“Hey! Lily! Over here!”

I turned to see my oldest brother waving at me from across the street. I rolled my eyes, standing up from the table, and walked over to the waving Idiot.

“What is it?” I asked him, pretending to be impatient.

“You. Mine and Al’s Christmas Party. Next Saturday. Be there.”

“A Christmas Party?” I asked dumbly.

“Yeah,” said James, grinning. “We’re having this huge party at Al’s place. Invite a few friends and come hang with us!”

“Sure,” I said, shrugging and ignoring the fact that he’d already practically ordered me to.

“Bring Luke along!” James told me, holding the hand of his five year old daughter as she tugged him toward Uncle George’s shop. “He’s like part of the family, as much as you two hang out. And as much as you fancy hi --”

“Shut up, James!” I said loudly, turning and walking back to Rose, who I’d met for tea.

*---*

I sipped my punch, watching the others ‘getting down’ at the party my brothers were throwing. Luke had wandered off to talk to a few friends, and I had talked to Rose and Scorpius for a while before they’d disappeared to a corner to snog for a while. Victoire and Teddy were slow dancing, even to the fast paced music that was playing at that moment, and Grandma Molly was watching their two kids and the one little Malfoy child, as well, for the evening.

Letting my eyes roam around the room, I snorted at Fred and Hugo, who were promoting the newest line of Headless Hats for Uncle George, and also the new and improved Puking Pastilles. Oh, what I would never have seen were I not a Potter. I returned to glancing around the roomful of party-goers.

I rolled my eyes at James’ company - three girls were dancing with him. One of them I could label as a slut instantly, just remembering how many different guys she dated at Hogwarts (even though she was a few years my elder), another I recognized as one of his exes, and the other was his current girlfriend. It would be a good show if she got jealous and went psycho on the other two…I needed some entertainment.

“Lily!” My friend Samantha came over, grinning and smelling lightly of firewhisky. “How’s it going?”

“Good,” I said. It was okay, really. I just wasn’t pushing myself to enjoy it, or trying really hard to hate it because my brothers were hosting it, so it was okay.

It was over Samantha’s shoulder that I noticed James and Al conversing in low tones, and I knew whatever was coming next couldn’t be good. They both had grins plastered across their features, and the feeling that the bottom of my stomach had dropped out hit suddenly.

“What are they up to?” Sam asked, following my gaze.

“Most likely no good,” I replied, eyeing them for a moment longer before letting myself fall into a casual conversation with the girl I was talking to.

She convinced me to dance for a bit, Luke joining us with his sisters Lucinda and Miranda and his friends Tom and Carlos. I was actually really having a blast with them. All of them were great people and I, of course, had fancied the pants off of Luke for the longest time - and James had noticed. That couldn’t be good, but I didn’t dwell on it. He’d noticed years ago and he hadn’t done anything about it. At least not that I’d noticed.

After a while, I left them, apologizing, but saying I needed a break and a drink. As I finished that second glass of punch, I heard the music lower by a fraction, and then do so again, and I saw Al stand up on a chair.

“Now it’s time for our annual Mistletoe Event!” Said Al loudly, the music already turned down. I groaned slightly - how could I have forgotten that Al and James do this at every Christmas party we have? The only stipulations were that it wouldn’t allow family members to kiss. It was jinxed mistletoe that Uncle George developed - with, although I don’t like to admit it - the help of my brothers.

“For those of you who are new to this,” James’ voice came, “We turn out the lights --” the lights went off, “-- and the mistletoe will pick two people. It spotlights them, and if they’re not together, they have to walk across the room to each other within fifteen seconds, or the mistletoe does it for them. Nifty, eh?”

“Except for the fact that you can’t get out unless you kiss them!” came Hugo’s voice, and then he laughed, the partygoers joining in.

“Anywho,” Al said, “tonight’s lucky couple is…I dunno, should we allow this one, Jamesie?”

I groaned as the lights came on. There was a silver glow encircling me.

“I dunno, Al. She is our little sister.”

“I don’t know that she even knows who the other person is yet,” Al said, and I could just hear the laughter in his voice.

“Ah, but he’s turning red.”

“Lils, you’ll find out soon enough.”

“Yeah, ten seconds are already up.”

“Although you don’t have very far to go - does she, James?”

“Nope, not very - and there they go!”

“Ouch!” I said softly, more as a reaction out of shock than from actual pain. I had been suddenly jerked backwards by about six feet. Taking a deep breath, knowing I’d have to face whoever he was sooner or later, I turned around to face him just as he turned to face me.

“James was right,” I said, smiling, “your face is red.”

“Ah, well, er…” Luke said, nervously scratching the back of his head.

“Kiss her!” I distinctly heard Al’s voice, although he made it sound deeper than his really was, and the room picked up the chant.

“Kiss her, kiss her, kiss her!”

I laughed, feeling my ears going red. “Well?” I asked, feeling my neck go red when I said that.

“Yeah, er,” he said, and smiled slightly. We still just stood there and looked at each other.

“Oh, Merlin,” came James’ voice from nearby, and a second later, Luke stumbled forward a few steps and his lips came crashing down on mine.

It ended rather quickly, due to his need to apologize, but I silenced him with another, and this time he readily complied.

If that was what I’d been missing when my brothers had scared him off the first time…I might have to make them understand that it wasn’t a smart thing for them to have done. Might…sometime in the near future.

For the time being, there is a corner just vacated by Rose and Scorpius with our names on it, where we can catch up on all the lost time caused by my brothers and his crazy ex-girlfriend - okay, maybe Maria didn’t have anything to do with it, but I like to think that she did.

*---*

So, I guess having two elder brothers isn’t all bad. They scared away all the bad seeds - I never did mention that Maria’s two accomplices were guys I’d had ruined dates with, did I? - and let the good one stay around. Not that I wasn’t still mad at the Idiots, because I was, but they weren’t all bad. I don’t guess.

And Rose had been right, all those years ago - Lucas Weston was different. He’d come back even after The Idiots had scared him off…although he did go pale the first time Teddy threatened him, after we’d been dating a month…but that’s a story for another time and place.