Written for rechargeable-smile on tumblr. I feel like I've failed her, the prompt was: "Lily's stuck with James on Christmas eve and he's doing his best to woo her, but Lily has a secret that might just wreck Christmas for all of them". I suppose I filled the prompt well enough, but... probably not how she wanted. I'm terrible with Lily/James. Sorry.

Happy Together

"I hate you," Lily Evans groaned, falling into a large chair by the fire.

"Aww, love, you know that isn't true," James Potter grinned back at her, closing the front door. Just moments before, Lily had been prepared to leave his home (she hadn't even wanted to be there in the first place!) and when James finally was prepared to let her leave, they found that they were snowed in.

"Remind me to never, never, ever help Marissa again," Lily said. "And don't call me love."

The only reason Lily had gone to James' home was because Marissa had left her purse there at the party the evening before and she had talked Lily into picking it up for her. Seeing that Lily only lived a block away from the Potter residence, while Marissa had left for Paris early in that morning, she had agreed to do the favor for her friend.

Never again.

This all had to have been planned out by James, she thought as she pouted in the fluffy chair. There was no way this had all happened by chance. She couldn't even find Marissa's purse, which meant one of two things: she had been really drunk last night and left it somewhere really strange, or she was in on the plan with James. She was willing to bet it was the latter.

After much searching for the purse, Lily tried to leave (and ended up arguing with James for half an hour before finally reaching the front door), and found that there was a thick layer of snow blocking every exit. There must have been a downpour of snow during their argument…

Her first reaction was panic. She could not be trapped alone with James Potter on Christmas Eve. This quickly faded into calm when she remembered she was a legal witch and could easily use magic to get out. Calm turned back into panic when she realized her wand was missing. James' had disappeared as well.

"I don't understand how they can just be gone," she huffed.

James shrugged. "The house takes things sometimes. It seems to really like wands lately. Sirius' has been taking twice in the last week. Don't worry though, it'll turn up by morning."

Lily groaned and slammed her head into the wall.

"Come on now," James said, offering her his hand. "Let's get some tea. It's quite cold."

She glared at him, but took his hand. She was rather cold and a hot cup of tea sounded fantastic.

It wasn't five minutes before she started to regret accepting the tea. James was, as always, taking every opportunity to flirt.

"Did you hear something?" Lily asked suddenly.

"Is this your way of telling me to shut up?" James asked, eyebrow raised.

"No. I mean, yes, I would like you to shut up, but I really did hear something. It sounded like something crashing upstairs."

"Shall we investigate?" James asked.

Lily rolled her eyes, but rose from her chair and moved toward the stairs.

"See, you hear it now?" Lily asked as they reached the second floor.

"Yep," he said, heading up to the third floor where the sound was clearly coming from. They entered the library (Lily's favorite part of the house), which looked like it had been attacked by pixies. Books, tables, and shelves had been overturned. Two books came flying at them, and they ducked just in time to avoid bloody noses.

"Hello?" James called out. "Who's there?"

A face appeared from within the stacks of books.

"Sirius?" James said. "What are you doing here?"

"Hiya, Jamesy. Hello Lily. Fancy seeing the two of you here."

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, this?" Sirius asked, motioning to the mess of books. "I had a book stashed in here, and I can't seem to find it."

"Sirius Black can read?" Lily couldn't help but ask. Sirius stuck his tongue out at her.

"What book?" James asked.

Sirius blinked. "I can't remember."

"What do you mean, you can't remember?" James asked, while Lily looked at him as if he must have been the stupidest man to walk the earth.

"I mean, I remember what it is, I just can't remember the title. I'll know it when I see it."

James rolled his eyes.

"This is fantastic!" Lily suddenly exclaimed. "This means I can get out of here!"

"Huh?" Sirius asked.

They quickly explained their predicament to him.

"Oh. I left my wand sitting on the table over there. Feel free to us it. Just make sure I get it back."

"Of course," Lily nodded, walking over to the table in question. But there was no wand.

"This table?" she asked, to be sure.

"What other table would I be talking about?"

Lily sighed. "Then the house ate your wand too."

"Again? That's getting old."

"How did you get here anyway? Surely you didn't apparate?" James asked as Lily threw herself at a pile of books, wishing to be anywhere but there.

"Merlin, no," he replied, still shifting through books. "It's absolutely dreadful outside. I used the fireplace upstairs."

"THERE IS A FIREPLACE UPSTAIRS AND YOU DIDN'T MENTION IT!" Lily cried as she jumped up and threw a book at James.

"Ah! Yes, well, we don't have any floo powder. I didn't even think that fireplace was still connected to the network."

"Arrgh!" she cried, throwing herself into the books again.

"You don't have to be so angry," James said. "The two of you will just have to stay the night. You'll have your pick of guest rooms."

"Which is the furthest from your room?" Lily asked immediately.

"Fourth floor, third door on the left."

Eventually, they all retired to their rooms. Lily curled up in the absurdly comfy bed and closed her eyes. But rather than sleep, her mind began to race. There were so many thoughts running around, and she had no idea where to even begin.

There was a knock at the door. With a sigh, she reluctantly rose from the bed and opened the door.

"Oh, Sirius, hi," she smiled at the man on the others.

"May I come in, my lady?"

Lily rolled her eyes, but gave him an amused smile as she stepped aside to let him in. She closed the door and locked it behind him.

"How are you this fine evening?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Confused," she answered honestly, resting her head against his chest.

"Care to share?" he asked.

"Not particularly," she said, tugging him toward the bed.

"You're being quite suggestive," he grinned.

"No, this bed is just too comfy to waist. I'm too exhausted to any funny business."

Sirius smiled still as they crawled under the warm blankets.

"Am I a terrible person?" she asked after a while.

"What? Why would you even ask that?"

She turned and looked at him. "Don't," she said. "Don't act like you don't know. You're far too smart for that."

He gave her a half smile and kissed her. "James," he said, pulling back. She nodded. They were silent for a few moments.

"God, I hate myself."

"Don't say that."

"No," she said. "I do. I'm a terrible person. What is wrong with me?"

"There is nothing wrong with you. You're prefect."

"Don't say that," she said, slamming her head into the pillow. "That makes me feel even worse."

"Look at me," he said, taking her face in his hands and turning her face to meet his. "Don't beat yourself up over this. I knew, all along, that it would be like this. I should never have convinced myself that it could end any other way."

"Don't," she said. "Don't you dare blame yourself. This is all my fault. I'm a jerk. I'm terrible."

"You're beautiful, and wonderful, and brilliant, and I'm so grateful for these last few months with you. But you deserve to be really, really happy, and you'll be a thousand times happier with him than you ever were with me."

She sighed. "I hate it when you say things like that. You're so wonderful, and I really wish I could love you. I wish…"

"The heart wants what the heart wants," he shrugged.

"Right now my heart wishes it was all easier. It wishes it could just be with you and stop being in love with him."

"That's your head thinking," he reminded her.

"Then I don't know what my heart wants anymore."

"It wants him, and you know it."

She sighed again.

"Yes. But it also wants you. But it's different. I don't know."

"I've told you," he said. "You don't have to choose one of us. I see how you look at him. I'm telling you, you're better off with him."

"Maybe you're right," she said, resting her head against his chest and closing her eyes. "But right now, can I just have you? Just for a little bit longer? Then I'll stop being an attention seeking whore in the morning."

"You're not an attention seeking whore," Sirius said. "You're just a pretty girl who got stuck between a boy and his best friend."

"What the hell am I supposed to say to him. I mean… about us… how do I tell him that I love him, but that I've been dating you? He'll be so angry with you. And with me."

"You tell him whatever you think is best."

After a moment of thought, she spoke again. "I don't think I will tell him. I think… I think its better if he doesn't know."

"Oooh, starting your relationship off on a lie, that's always good," he said.

"Stop it," she said. "You know I'm right. He'd be devastated if he knew. Let's just have this be a happy Christmas. With as little pain and suffering as possible."

Sirius, of course, knew that would be next to impossible, because he would certainly suffer, but it was for the best. He could never make her happy. Not like James would.

Two years later, he watched from the position of Best Man as Lily walked down the aisle to marry his best friend. They were beautiful together. They were happy. They were perfect.

And for the first time in two years, he regretted pushing her to be with James.