Potter Manor was a place meant for the holidays. Euphemia Potter had taken it upon herself to fill the home with love from the very beginning, and nobody could say she hadn't succeeded. The halls were decorated with magic and muggle decor alike, but perhaps, the best part was seeing the Potter family interact over the holidays.

It had taken some time, yet the Potter family had grown quite a bit. Fleamont and Euphemia had gotten married some time ago, and since then, they had two sons bestowed upon them.

"James! Sirius! Come down here to get fitted!" Euphemia yelled from downstairs.

She greeted the tailor, who had been to their house multiple times before for other events. Every year, Potter Manor held a ball for the Potter's family and friends on Boxing Day.

Sirius and James bounded down the steps rather noisily and without apologies. Euphemia rolled her eyes at them as they stood beside her with large grins upon their faces.

"I don't even want to know what you've been up to," Euphemia sighed and the tailor laughed as she got set up.

"You two have grown to be such handsome young men." I rolled my eyes at my mum.

"Whatever do you mean?" Sirius asked innocently.

"You know exactly what I mean," she replied laughing. "As long as it doesn't interfere with the ball, I'll ask no questions."

"Now, Mum-"

"So, how was first term?" My mum asked, interrupting James.

The tailor got to work, taking measurements with her magical tape measure. She wrote down the numbers so quickly, Sirius had hardly enough time to process he was being measured.

"It was alright," James answered. "We made amortentia in potions."

From time to time, James would ask about what his parents smelt in their amortentia the first time they saw the potion, but neither had known the other at the time, so when James was expecting some big love declaration, he didn't get one.

"What did you two smell?" Euphemia asked, sipping tea from a cup that quite literally flew into the room.

"Leather, lavender, and fire whiskey," Sirius said first, seemingly proud of himself.

James desperately wanted to know where the lavender part came from, but Sirius had zipped his lips about it since potions that day.

"Sirius," Euphemia shook her head at him, then she turned to look at her other son. "What about you, dear?"

"Your treacle tart," James said, making Euphemia grin proudly. "My broom polish and Lily's perfume."

Euphemia shared an excited look with Sirius, who awed.

"The same Lily that's coming to our house for the ball?" Euphemia asked, the grin not coming from her face.

"I only know one Lily, Mum," James groaned, wanting to put his blushing face into his hands, but had to refrain from doing so because the tailor's tape measure had moved onto him.

Euphemia laughed once again at this remark and got up from the couch when the tailor announced she had finished. Sirius and James stayed behind to toss around a stray quaffle. As soon as their makeshift tossing game had started, it had ended because it flew out of the room.

"Boys! Come in here!"

They followed their mother's voice to see her holding the quaffle that had mysteriously flown away.

"Okay, I need to lay down some ground rules for the ball," Euphemia said sternly. "First, I need you both to understand how important this is for your father and I. Many important people will be there, so none of your usual shenanigans."

"Mum, we go to this every year. Has the guest list changed that much?" James asked, clearly bored.

He sobered up immediately after his mother gave him a pointed look.

"Connections are necessary in times like these, James," Euphemia stressed her point. "They are also very fragile, so we cannot mess around with them."

Sirius and James shared a concerned look.

"What are the other rules?" Sirius asked, surprising everyone in the room, including the house elves.

"Please keep your suit jacket on the whole night," Euphemia asked him, laughing lightly once again. "That means no swapping it out for your leather jacket."

"I'll do my best," Sirius promised, giving Euphemia a wink.

"And absolutely no pranks from you and your friends," Euphemia said, making direct eye contact with them both.

"You really don't have to worry about our friends. We are usually the bad influences," Sirius said, making James glare at him for a moment.

"That reassures me," Euphemia sighed.

...

Adoring the holidays since she could remember, Lily was disappointed with what greeted her when she traveled home. For the third day in a row, she had spent it completing various tasks around the house whenever her mother or Petunia asked. She felt a bit like Cinderella.

Petunia had left the house a little while ago to pick up Vernon for dinner. Her latest lecture still rang in Lily's ears. "You better act normal! I can't have you ruin this too!" It was not a bombshell that those words had flown out of Petunia's mouth without a second thought.

However, how her mother was acting was, indeed, a bombshell. Apparently, Rose Evans had been planning on telling Lily at some point, but had never gotten around to telling her about her new boyfriend. How someone could forget something that big, Lily had no idea.

The news did not thrill Lily in the slightest. Her father had died less than a year ago, and her parents had been married for over twenty years! How did someone grieve something like that so quickly?

Henry annoyed Lily everytime she was in the same room as her. He constantly asked her questions about the boarding school she attended, which made Lily miss Hogwarts even more.

Her mother had yet to ask her about her first term. When Lily first arrived home, she was about to burst at the seam from the amount of excitement she felt from the anticipation of sharing all that had happened. Now, she wished to curl up in a ball and apparate herself away. Of course, the first problem with this was she couldn't apparate, not legally anyway.

"What did you ask for this year?" Henry asked, startling Lilly.

She almost dropped the plate she had been scrubbing when she heard the voice behind her. Lily turned around to see Henry with his hands on one of the chairs at their table.

"How did you meet my mum, Henry?" Lily countered.

"I met Rose at the flower festival we both attended. She was a speaker, as you know, and I just had to talk to her," Henry answered, seeming happy to. "What did you ask for this year?"

"Peace and quiet.," Lily replied, turning back around to finish the dishes.

This couldn't get any worse.

...

It definitely got worse. Lily reflected back as she wiped the mascara that was running down her face onto her hand. She sat sadly on the sidewalk with her trunk.

Flashback...

Rose had made them pancakes. It had become a tradition on Christmas morning. Petunia ate blueberry pancakes and Lily always had chocolate chip.

Rose seemed very happy about something and when Lily asked her, she said that she would tell them later. Henry walked down the stairs with that same beaming smile he had every morning. Ew, a morning person. Lily winced when he kissed her mum on the cheek. They were discussing something in whispers.

Oh Merlin, another surprise it seemed like.

"Are you girls ready for your presents?" Rose asked.

"Alright, Lily, here is yours!" Henry handed her a box.

She took it with trepidation. Opening it slowly, when she finally saw what was inside, she got extremely confused. She saw in front of her a bundle of papers. Upon further investigation, Lily found that they were acceptance papers for getting into a university. Her heart dropped.

She wasn't going to university. Perhaps she would find herself at healing school, but university was for muggles. Lily wasn't a muggle.

"Mum, what is this?" Lily asked. 

"Well, I enrolled you into one of the best programs I could find. University degrees can get you far in life. Henry pulled many strings to get you into this elite program," her mother answered happily.

Lily looked over at Petunia who was beaming and wondered if she had anything to do with this.

"There is something else that I have to tell you two," Rose began, getting Petunia on the edge of her seat. "I've decided to move in with Henry!"

Petunia jumped up from the couch to embrace their mother while Lily sat back on the couch, clearly stunned. With her heart in her throat, she decided to speak up.

"Mum, are you sure this isn't too fast?" Lily asked, holding back tears of her own.

My mum frowned at me.

"I thought you'd be happy for me, Lily," Rose said, offended.

"You know how she is, Mum, always ruining happy things for other people," Petunia spoke up, glaring at Lily.

Deciding she had had enough of whatever this was, Lily got up from the couch and stormed up the stairs. It might've turned out to be a good thing Lily didn't have enough time to unpack her trunk, that was she could just turn around and leave with it.

"Where do you think you're going?" Rose asked angrily as Lily stormed past them towards the front door.

"Somewhere that isn't here!" Lily yelled as she opened the door and slammed it behind her.

All these changes. Lily had spent nearly her entired Christmas on the sidewalk in a nearby neighborhood. The happy families haunted her with the making of their own cheerful memories.

All day she had wondered how the hell she was supposed to get to Marlene's house, when suddenly, the Knight Bus pulled up in front of her. Standing up, she collected herself as best as she could, and prepared herself for the questions she would have to answer at the McKinnon household.

...

Lily put the tip of my wand into the gate lock. When the gate lurched open, she breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment, she thought she would have to return to her own house if it didn't open.

She walked the short path to their front door. Knocking on the door timidly, Lily wondered if someone had even heard her. Thankfully, Marlene's mother showed up at the door with her usual warm smile that Lily had seen on multiple other occasions before this.

"Hey, honey, c'mon in," she greeted Lily immediately, probably sensing something was off.

"Sorry I came here early I just-"

"No need for apologies or explanations," she said, hugging Lily briefly. "If you need anything, let me know."

"Okay, thank you, Mrs. McKinnon," Lily thanked her gratefully.

"No problem, dear, and Marlene is at the Potter's at the moment, so after you wash up, you can join me down here for a cup of tea if you want," she offered.

Lily nodded in thanks once again and made her way to Marlene's bathroom upstairs. She wasn't surprised to see the person in the mirror did not look like her. The usual glimmer in her green eyes was gone and replaced with a look of utter despair. Hopefully, she would be able to return to normal by the time she went to the Potter Ball tomorrow.

...

Author's Note:
I decided to do Marlene's POV at the end just because. The next chapter will take place the next day. I know I usually skip through the months instead of doing day by day, but I'm trying something different for their holiday break. I originally did not have any of the Lily family drama planned, but I didn't want it to be boring, so I spiced it up a bit. Why do you think Lily gets bad vibes from Henry?

Lmao anyways thanks for reading

-teddy😚

**edited January 2022