Jily one shots

very merry love

disclaimer: written by ClaudiaWrites

When she wakes up on the morning of Christmas Eve, Lily Evans is in considerably high spirits.

There's a glow on her face, a secretive smile on her pink lips, and a jaunty bounce to her steps, all of which is immediately noticed by her best friend, Mary MacDonald, as she accompanies Lily down to breakfast from the head's dormitory.

This is followed by countless speculations as to the reason behind Lily's good mood, of course, all of which are promptly denied by the red-haired witch in question, much to Mary's chagrin.

Once the pair of them reach the great hall, and Mary puts forth another two guesses, Lily sighs in exasperation, defeat, and clarifies that no, it's not because the house-elves have gifted them with chocolate truffle cake at breakfast, not because Hogwarts smells completely Christmas-like-one of Lily's favorite smells, incidentally-and not even because she finds herself free of her head girl duties, which are off to vacation along with the majority of the Hogwarts student body.

"Then why?" Mary hisses, stabbing the innocent wooden table with a fork, as if it has been treacherously privy to Lily's secret instead of her.

"No reason!" Lily clarifies for the hundredth time, throwing her hands up. And though she rolls her eyes for good measure, it does little to dim the excited spark in them. "It just feels like it's going to be a good day."

"Huh," Mary grumbles, finally looking away and readying herself to massacre some cake. "Maybe you finally grew a pair and snogged James."

This particular speculation is met with silence. A very telling sort of silence.

"Oh, Merlin!" Mary's eyes widen comically as she looks up at Lily's burning red cheeks. "You didn't actually-?"

"No!" Lily yelps, eternally grateful that Hogwarts was all but empty at this time of the year, and that there weren't any witnesses to this conversation.

Mary, however, doesn't see the need to be even mildly subtle as she narrows her eyes and points an accusatory finger at the head girl. "Lily Evans, you're hiding something from me and I demand to know what it is right now."

"Oh, quit the drama-"

"So your sickeningly chirpy mood and giddy smiles have nothing to do with one six-foot tall raven-haired Adonis with honey brown eyes who's been absolutely smitten with you since the tender age of thirteen?"

"I-" Lily stops short, raising an eyebrow, "you know, by the way you talk about him, some would definitely think you're the smitten one."

Mary waves this logical observation off with a scoff. "Those people aren't my best friend, and my best friend should know that I can very well appreciate the opposite gender, even if this particular specimen is off-limits due to my unfailing loyalty towards said best friend."

"Mhm," Lily chews around her spoonful of cake, "understood perfectly, thanks."

"Don't change the topic, Lily!" Mary huffs again, this time rattling the cutlery as she bangs a fist on the table. Lily glares at her, an action which is pointedly ignored. "What aren't you telling me? Why aren't you-"

"Okay, fine!" Lily gives in, and Mary's petulance all but disappears. She leans forward eagerly, encouraging her friend with vigorous nodding, even though it does little to dissipate the rising blush Lily can feel taking over her face. "I'm not-we did not do anything."

"But-"

"No, listen, we didn't. James and I-we've been such good friends, and this year has been wonderful, working with him. He's changed so much, nothing like the idiot I used to know. Well, no, actually that's not true-he's still an idiot, but-"