"James?" Lily asked, terrified that it would just be another dream.
"Me." James smiled slightly, look like he was waiting on her reaction.
Lily walked over to him, her light frame made no noise on the thick carpet. She gingerly reached out her left hand, the white tips of her trimmed fingernails barely grazing the contrasting grimey, woolen fabric of his robes. Lily frowned as her hand ran down his arm, subconsciously skipping over the gash hed had spoken about in her dreams, waiting to wake up from her dream, asleep in the window seat. Her absent-minded perusalcoming to halt at his wrist, where she picked up his hand, studying the cuts and places where his fingernails had been torn to the quick. She looked up at his face, to see he had been watching her closely.
"It's your turn to say something."
"But when the dreamer speaks, that's when they wake up." Lily gently put her hand on the cut on his face. "But what the hell, happy Christmas, my darling, I missed you."
Lily was expecting to jerk awake any minute, thoroughly disappointed.
"I seriously doubt that you're dreaming, unless I'm having the same dream, or for that matter, I could be the one dreaming, but I thing it's safe to say we're both awake." James decided for them, still waiting for Lily's reaction on his not-so-clean-and-not-entirely-healthy appearance.
"But you look exactly like you did in my other dreams." Lily looked quite puzzled. "Now how is that possible?"
"Do we have to look into that right now? I promise, you're not dreaming, I'm here." James smiled, which Lily returned with a face-splitting grin as she hurled herself into his arms, making him stumble backwards.
"You're home for Christmas! I missed you so very much! Oh no, now I'm crying." Lily hastily wiped the offending tears with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. "Are you hungry? Do you just want to sleep? Maybe you should go to the doctor first, that looks like a bad cut. Or I could shut up."
"Are you okay? You're acting a little...overwrought" James looked worried, unconsciously running a hand through her hair.
"Of course I'm overwrought! You actually made it home for Christmas, which was looking highly doubtful, more so by the hour, and you look half-starved, and tired, and generally like a train-wreck! I'm just a tiny bit concerned!"
As she hugged him, James inhaled the scent of gingerbread, a very welcome change from the filth of his recent surroundings. "I just want to be clean again, and then I'll eat something, and we'll take it from there."
Lily smiled at him again as they separated. It was a nice change to be smiled at, rather than cursed. "Okay." She started off in the direction of the kitchen, and James assumed she was going to cook him something.
"Lily?"
"Yes?" The way she tilted her head to one side inquiringly enchanted James all over again. He noticed that he was picking up on all the little things he had missed during his absence.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
James was shuffling out of the bedroom, nice and clean again, a feeling of exhaustion weighing him down, as Harry and Ron were walking sleepily down the halls, presents in hand.
"Dad?" Harry asked, adjusting his glasses. "Ron, I told you eating that ice cream before bed would make me have a crazy dream."
"Why does my entire family assume they're stuck in a fantasy dreamland?" James muttered to nobody in particular.
"You look like you were trampled by a hippogriff." Ron observed bluntly.
"Why thank you, arrogant people like myself absolutely love to be told that they looked like hell."
"I didn't say that!"
"It was implied."
"So I'm awake?" Harry asked.
"Next time Lily's on her soapbox about you being like me, bring this up, got it?"
"How'd you get that cut?" Ron inquired.
"Right now, my thinking capacities aren't able to carry on two conversations, so you'll have to excuse me." James said, now in a rather bad mood. He decided that the chicken soup he could smell was calling his name, and made a bee-line for the kitchen.
A short while after James was settled into the kitchen, eating some soup and crackers, which Lily insisted was all he should eat after not having food for a week, Harry came busting in the kitchen. "So are you really home, Dad?"
"Yes."
"Harry, your father has had a very trying week, and he's in a real bear of a mood. Why don't you wait until tomorrow when he's had some sleep to talk to him?" Lily suggested, moving the bowl just has James's forehead hit the table with a loud thump.
"Wow." Harry observed.
"Yeah. He's out like a like, I'd wager." Lily observed, flicking his neck as a test. When James didn't so much as twitch, she easily levitated him. "I would suggest you go to sleep. Tomorrow's Christmsas, afterall."
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Lily felt surprisingly rejuvenated, even though sleep failed to visit her. She sat on the sofa by a window for quite awhile, watching James sleep peacefully, not moving in the slightest. It was nearing seven in the morning, the sun rising in the horizon, when he stirred, giving the first sign of life in hours. Stretching languidly, James walked lightly over to the sofa, and sat next to Lily. "What's wrong?"
"I'm fine, why do you ask?"
"It takes a herd of stampeding elephants to get you out of bed in the mornings, and you're already awake." James observed.
"I didn't fell like sleeping is all." Lily smiled, lacing her fingers through his.
"How about a quick Christmas story, I'm loaded with them. It's sure to cure any form of insomnia."
"Alright, let's hear it."
James moved slightly so that Lily could lie down comfortably on the couch. "This is the legend of mistletoe. Way back when, Druids regarded it as a sacred plant, and dedicated it to the Goddess of love. That's why you kiss underneathe it. The kissing part originated that a little boy would have the plant, and each time he kissed a girl, he had to give her one of the berries. When the berries were gone, he didn't get anymore kisses. The end, short and sweet."
"How nice." Lily murmured with a small smile.
Lily leaned back in his arms, happy to feel his familiar touch again. "Harry will be even more happy with his present than originally planned. He and Sirius managed to break it yesterday."
"I couldn't imagine." James said dryly. "Sirius has an amazing talent for busting brooms, no matter how careful he tries to be."
"This coming from the same James who broke his broom when he lost a game?" Lily laughed softly, lightly flicking his knee.
"I was a little upset! We would've had the perfect season, which would have looked excellent on my application for the pro's, since I was captain. Excellent leadership ability."
"We were scared to lose."
"You know what they say, only champions are afraid to lose."
"Who says that?" Lily asked doubtfully, openly skeptical.
"Some muggle."
"I love they way you catch all the little details."
"It's one of my many, many, many, many appealing traits." James laughed as she pinched him.
"Modesty definitely isn't one of your not-so-many appealing traits."
Lily craned her neck to watch James's profile. He was looking out the window, eyes fastened firmly on the encroaching sunrise. She could tell that he wasn't really watching it, though. There was a grimness of his features that nobody wore while really watching the sunset, and he absently curled a lock of her hair around his index finger. Without thinking or speaking, Lily twisted in his arms so that she could place a hand over the long scratch on his face. James glanced down at her, and his lips curved in a semblance of a smile before he looked out at the sunrise again. Neither of them spoke until the sun had a firm hold in the morning sky.
"Guess what?" James asked, kissing her forehead as if she were a small child.
"What?"
"It's Christmas."
"It has been Christmas since you came home. You came in directly after midnight."
"Immaculate timing is one of my better traits." James grinned charmingly. "Now, what about presents?"
"Who said you have any?"
"Somebody probably took pity on poor me and got me a little something. And if not, I could always eat again."
"The House-Elves are make Christmas breakfast, you wouldn't want to ruin your appetite." Lily grimaced inwardly at how much like her mother she sounded. A sure sign of getting old.
"Think about that one, Lillian, how many times have I actually been full?" James asked as he walked lightly into the bathroom and began brushing his teeth.
"Excellent point. I marvel at your parents' ability to raise you." Lily kicked him lightly in the ankle as she playfully shoved him out of the way to get her own toothbrush. She sat on the blue tiled countertop. "And I marvel at my ability to live with you all this time. You are a slob of the first degree."
"If wuf tuff. And I am nof a sluf!" James gurgled through a mouthful of toothpaste.
"That my dear, is debatable." Lily slid off the counter, tossing her toothbrush in the jar. "Now what about breakfast, I'm starved?"
"Now that's a new tune." He declared after tossing his toothbrush carelessly by the sink, which Lily immediately put in the jar with a glare.
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