Fic: So This is Christmas
Dec. 15th, 2004 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinitydayThis was written for the "Be Timely" challenge over at FAP, but the 600 word limit was too limiting (give me a break -- I'm half asleep). This is the expanded version. If you want to see the original, check it out, but personally I prefer the longer version.
TITLE: So This is Christmas
AUTHOR: Trinity Day
PAIRINGS: Lily/James
WORD COUNT: 900
AUTHOR'S NOTES: For the challenge I needed to use a line from the lyrics of a song released in the year the story took place. 1980 The English Beat came out with Mirror in the Bathroom. In 1980 John Lennon's Happy Xmas (War is Over) was also rereleased, but I don't actually use the lyrics in the story.
The Borders is a concept I stole from another fic writer, but I don't know who. I'm using the magical defintion of the word instead of the Muggle/British one.
~*~
James woke his wife with a kiss, dangling mistletoe above her head. She had fallen asleep on the couch while he was putting Harry to bed and although he had let her sleep for a bit since she was obviously exhausted, he was now waking her rather than let her sleep on the couch all night and get a crick in her neck by sleeping there all night.
"Happy Christmas, Lily," he said softly as soon as she had opened her eyes
She blinked at him, sleepily, stifling a yawn. "It's Christmas?"
"Two minutes past midnight. It's time to open your gift."
"Shouldn't we wait for morning? Harry--?" It was his first Christmas, after all.
"Is asleep. And it's just one gift. The rest can wait until morning."
Lily allowed herself to be pulled up and waited by the couch while James ran to the tree to grab her gift. She took her time opening it, driving James crazy with the impatience that she wasn't showing. But it was worth it to see her face light up just as he'd hoped it would when she saw the album inside.
"The Sex Pistols? Oh, James, I love it!"
"I asked your sister what was the worst band she could think of, then bought you their record."
Lily paid him no attention, instead running over to her record player. She had to blow some dust off the cover; she'd been listening to Christmas carols on the Wireless instead of playing her Muggle music lately. She put the record on-
But no music came out.
Lily's brows furrowed slightly as she tried again. James went over to see if he could do anything to help even though he didn't understand the first thing about that he understood the first thing about her Muggle gadgets. They tried again but still nothing happened. James realized what was wrong a second after Lily did.
"The shields," she said dully. "Our shields-- There's too much interference. I haven’t used the record player since we put up the new shields. We can't use electricity any more. Our shields are too heavy. There's too much magic in the air."
She looked so upset that James spoke without thinking. "We can move. We'll find a house in the Borders-"
"That won't matter," Lily said, sounding more broken than James had ever heard her sound before. She sunk to the ground, not even having enough energy to return to the couch. James knelt down beside her. "It won't matter if we move to the borders between the magical world and the Muggle or even if we move directly into a Muggle neighbourhood. We'll have to have shields wherever we go and that'll just lead back to the same problem again."
"I'm sorry, Lil," James said, recognizing the truth in her words. It didn't matter what they did now. If they wanted to have shields strong enough to (hopefully) protect themselves from Voldemort then they weren't going to be able to have Muggle gadgets that worked on electricity any more. He tried to explain that to her. "It's better than not having the shields at all and not being protected."
Lily wasn't listening, but then he didn't blame her; his words weren't very comforting. They were true, but not comforting. "It's recompense," she said absently.
"What?" James asked, not sure what she was getting at.
"For all my crimes."
He realized what she was referring to. "Of self defense!" he insisted, vehemently. "They weren't crimes, it was self defense! You know that, Lily."
But Lily was having none of that. "Probably not recompense, either. It doesn't really make up for what I did, after all."
"You did nothing!" James swore. "Nothing that isn't perfectly understandable, under the circumstances."
"It's more than others have done," Lily said, coolly. She wasn't willing to listen to her husband dismiss her sins, whether he considered them to be reasonable or not. "But I suppose it really isn't recompense."
James hoped for a minute that she was being reasonable. He almost held his breath thinking that she was finally accepting it instead of making herself feel guiltier than she ought to considering they were at war. His fears, however, were not soothed, as he quickly found out when she continued.
"No, not recompense," she said, scrunching up her face as she always did when she was in deep concentration. The look had gotten James in trouble more than once when he was caught staring at her instead of writing an exam. "Revenge. It's revenge. But not enough. Not being able to play my records doesn't make up for the fact that they're not alive."
"You wouldn't be, either, if you had acted differently," James said fiercely. "It's not revenge. It's not recompense. It's war. It's war, Lily, and you did what you had to do. Nothing more."
The words didn't sooth her, but then James didn't see how they could. She started to cry softly, tears slipping down her face, her mouth screwed up to keep from crying out.
"Happy Christmas, James," she said bitterly.
James simply held his wife, wondering what had happened to the merry Christmases he remembered from his youth, why they had been replaced with a war that never seemed to cease, not even for the holidays. It just went on and on without an end in sight. They couldn't escape it, not even tonight.
So this was Christmas.
TITLE: So This is Christmas
AUTHOR: Trinity Day
PAIRINGS: Lily/James
WORD COUNT: 900
AUTHOR'S NOTES: For the challenge I needed to use a line from the lyrics of a song released in the year the story took place. 1980 The English Beat came out with Mirror in the Bathroom. In 1980 John Lennon's Happy Xmas (War is Over) was also rereleased, but I don't actually use the lyrics in the story.
The Borders is a concept I stole from another fic writer, but I don't know who. I'm using the magical defintion of the word instead of the Muggle/British one.
James woke his wife with a kiss, dangling mistletoe above her head. She had fallen asleep on the couch while he was putting Harry to bed and although he had let her sleep for a bit since she was obviously exhausted, he was now waking her rather than let her sleep on the couch all night and get a crick in her neck by sleeping there all night.
"Happy Christmas, Lily," he said softly as soon as she had opened her eyes
She blinked at him, sleepily, stifling a yawn. "It's Christmas?"
"Two minutes past midnight. It's time to open your gift."
"Shouldn't we wait for morning? Harry--?" It was his first Christmas, after all.
"Is asleep. And it's just one gift. The rest can wait until morning."
Lily allowed herself to be pulled up and waited by the couch while James ran to the tree to grab her gift. She took her time opening it, driving James crazy with the impatience that she wasn't showing. But it was worth it to see her face light up just as he'd hoped it would when she saw the album inside.
"The Sex Pistols? Oh, James, I love it!"
"I asked your sister what was the worst band she could think of, then bought you their record."
Lily paid him no attention, instead running over to her record player. She had to blow some dust off the cover; she'd been listening to Christmas carols on the Wireless instead of playing her Muggle music lately. She put the record on-
But no music came out.
Lily's brows furrowed slightly as she tried again. James went over to see if he could do anything to help even though he didn't understand the first thing about that he understood the first thing about her Muggle gadgets. They tried again but still nothing happened. James realized what was wrong a second after Lily did.
"The shields," she said dully. "Our shields-- There's too much interference. I haven’t used the record player since we put up the new shields. We can't use electricity any more. Our shields are too heavy. There's too much magic in the air."
She looked so upset that James spoke without thinking. "We can move. We'll find a house in the Borders-"
"That won't matter," Lily said, sounding more broken than James had ever heard her sound before. She sunk to the ground, not even having enough energy to return to the couch. James knelt down beside her. "It won't matter if we move to the borders between the magical world and the Muggle or even if we move directly into a Muggle neighbourhood. We'll have to have shields wherever we go and that'll just lead back to the same problem again."
"I'm sorry, Lil," James said, recognizing the truth in her words. It didn't matter what they did now. If they wanted to have shields strong enough to (hopefully) protect themselves from Voldemort then they weren't going to be able to have Muggle gadgets that worked on electricity any more. He tried to explain that to her. "It's better than not having the shields at all and not being protected."
Lily wasn't listening, but then he didn't blame her; his words weren't very comforting. They were true, but not comforting. "It's recompense," she said absently.
"What?" James asked, not sure what she was getting at.
"For all my crimes."
He realized what she was referring to. "Of self defense!" he insisted, vehemently. "They weren't crimes, it was self defense! You know that, Lily."
But Lily was having none of that. "Probably not recompense, either. It doesn't really make up for what I did, after all."
"You did nothing!" James swore. "Nothing that isn't perfectly understandable, under the circumstances."
"It's more than others have done," Lily said, coolly. She wasn't willing to listen to her husband dismiss her sins, whether he considered them to be reasonable or not. "But I suppose it really isn't recompense."
James hoped for a minute that she was being reasonable. He almost held his breath thinking that she was finally accepting it instead of making herself feel guiltier than she ought to considering they were at war. His fears, however, were not soothed, as he quickly found out when she continued.
"No, not recompense," she said, scrunching up her face as she always did when she was in deep concentration. The look had gotten James in trouble more than once when he was caught staring at her instead of writing an exam. "Revenge. It's revenge. But not enough. Not being able to play my records doesn't make up for the fact that they're not alive."
"You wouldn't be, either, if you had acted differently," James said fiercely. "It's not revenge. It's not recompense. It's war. It's war, Lily, and you did what you had to do. Nothing more."
The words didn't sooth her, but then James didn't see how they could. She started to cry softly, tears slipping down her face, her mouth screwed up to keep from crying out.
"Happy Christmas, James," she said bitterly.
James simply held his wife, wondering what had happened to the merry Christmases he remembered from his youth, why they had been replaced with a war that never seemed to cease, not even for the holidays. It just went on and on without an end in sight. They couldn't escape it, not even tonight.
So this was Christmas.