A Cup Affair

Extra 01 - First Christmas

And as Christmas is about to end, I come bearing gifts!

Hope you enjoy this small extra and Merry Christmas!!!!

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Lily sighed and looked at her watch. She was, once again, late for her date with James. Damn Moody and his long meetings. Last time she had been stuck in one of those, she had arrived more than half an hour late at Euphemia's and Fleamont's (who, of course, said they didn't mind, but even still!).

And she couldn't even send a Patronus or a letter to let her boyfriend know or Moody (and the whole Department) would see it. Since she had come back from her vacation, all of the Aurors were simply fascinated by the fact that she knew England's latest hero. At first, they didn't ask all that much, but with time, their questions became...weird. She would never forget when a newbie wondered what was the first thing James did after waking up.

James, on the other hand, didn't seem fazed at all with all the attention they were receiving. In every interview he had given someone asked him about Lily, and he always answered as lovingly as possible.

"It's hard to be succinct on this subject, Karen. I wake every day and I remember I'm with Lily Evans, the love of my life, and it seems so surreal. I could spend hours on end trying to describe how wonderful my girlfriend is, but I don't think that's what our listeners would want."

He was obviously wrong. They had been asked multiple times for a couples interview, and James always denied from the start.

"Lily's a more...private person, you know? She doesn't like interviews or this sort of thing. Besides, what she does is much more significant than being my girlfriend."

If James thought these declarations would be enough to fend his more direct fans, he was sorely mistaken. It only created the image of the perfect loving man they wanted so badly.

Lily smiled as she remembered the time she watched James running to get to her flat, fleeing from a few fans (she had laughed, trying and failing to hide the tiny spark of jealousy inside of her after seeing that scene).

"And lastly," Moody said, bringing Lily back to the present in the Ministry, "I'll be supervising the first mission lead by one of our new graduates. The mission will happen between December 20th to 25th, and its prime objective is to investigate suspicious objects in Muggle and Wizard mixed villages from where we received complaints about illicit activities against the Muggle community."

Lily raised her eyebrows. It was a longer mission than the usual, which might justify Moody's going – he didn't generally supervise these sort of activities.

"Which obviously means," Moody kept going, "that I will be absent in this period. Auror Evans will be responsible for the Department meanwhile, and I'm sure everything will run smoothly and with no complications."

Lily tried to held back her grin, but it was hard. The Department was filled with older, more experienced Aurors than her, but Moody still left her responsible for it. It was a sign of extreme confidence on her, and also a sign she was doing a brilliant job.

"Mr. Moody," she greeted him as she reached him after the meeting, "thanks for your trust."

Moody grunted.

"Don't be so cheery yet, you don't know what I got you into."

"As long as there're no celebrities, Sir, it's all fine."

"You know, Evans, I thought you'd overcome your aversion to celebrities after France," Moody said, his torn lips shaping in a disfigured smirk.

"Erm, actually, no. Sometimes I even forget," Lily replied with a flush.