Lumiere | s. black

Ten

"Thank god you guys are back!" James shouted dramatically as the trio came into the Gryffindor Common Room through the portrait of the Fat Lady. She'd nearly talked their ears off and Vidalia finally had the sense to tell her how majestically beautiful she was. Between flattered gasps, she barely heard Peter tell her the new password to allow them entrance.

"You act like you had the worst time with me," said Sirius, sounding genuinely offended.

"Remus, we've been so bored!" James exclaimed, completely ignoring the fifth member of their group. "You can only prank Snivellus so many times before it gets dull."

"I told you to leave him alone," Vidalia said, shaking her head disapprovingly.

"Oh, 'Dalia!" James said, throwing his arms around the smaller girl. Vidalia squeaked out a gasp as James' affection winded her. Vidalia managed to escape Potter's grip and she nearly fell back into Remus.

"What is with you?" she giggled. "Too many sweets?"

"Perhaps," said James.

"Definitely," said Sirius, with an expression that resembled that of a worn out mother. "He's been driving me bonkers all day waiting on you guys to get back."

"Well, I have presents," said Vidalia and she sent a smile to Sirius and James. James grinned widely and Sirius gave her a smile.

"You didn't have to get us anything, ole Owl Eyes!" said James.

"What kind of nickname is that?" Remus laughed.

"Yeah, I think I like 'Dalia better."

"It's 'cause you got, y'know, crazy yellow eyes."

"James, you're digging yourself deeper into a hole, mate," Sirius said.

Vidalia ignored any further comments from James and turned to her trunk to rifle through it for the remaining two Christmas presents. She pulled out the wrapped box for James and the flat parcel for Sirius and handed them out. The group shoved their way over toward the plush sofas and sat down. James dug into his first and immediately got riled up again as he took in the sight of the miniature quidditch pitch.

Vidalia had even done some last minute alterations to give it the Gryffindor colors.

"Oh, this is awesome," James said. "Mini Gryffindors are gonna crush mini Slytherins!"

"Glad you like it," said Vidalia.

She turned so she could watch Sirius open his. He smiled as he pulled the record out.

"It's a music plate!" said Vidalia excitedly. "It's actually called a 'record'. The Muggle in the shop I went to had no idea what I was talking about."

"Oh, wow," he said, grinning as he read all the songs on the back of the record cover. "Fleetwood Mac. Never heard of them."

Vidalia shrugged. "I haven't either, but apparently they're groovy."

Sirius let out a sort of giggle. "I'm excited to listen to it."

•

Life seemingly got back to normal as classes started up again. Vidalia kept a close eye on Remus, worried he has some sort of enemy at Hogwarts that no one else knew about.

January fell into February and February fell into March. With March came slightly warmer weather, causing the snow around the grounds of Hogwarts turn into a slick mush.

James found this absolutely amazing, as he was able to lob mud balls at Slytherins, most particularly Severus Snape. Lily Evans tried her hardest to get James to back off, but nothing was going to persuade James to leave the kid alone.