1A/N: hi guys! I have been overtaken by Christmas spirit – specifically, Christmas rom-com spirit. Even more specifically, royal Christmas rom-com spirit. And since I'm a writer at heart, what's there to do but write a Christmas rom-com in a royalty setting for my two favourite Harry Potter pairings?
DISCLAIMER: seriously, if I owned Harry Potter, what on earth would I be doing writing fanfiction? It's not mine, guys.
DISCLAIMER #2 – and this is the important one: this is not the fanfic to read if you are looking for a really deep, thoughtful and high-quality work. I mean, honestly, it's a Christmas rom-com – fluffy, funny, cringey at times and most importantly, fun.
If you're still here (there are others who have also gone Christmas rom-com crazy, yay!) then I do hope you enjoy the first chapter of A Christmas Wish!
"Sirius, what do you know about Lady Marlene of Ravenclaw?" James asked his man-at-arms, flopping down stomach-first on his large four-poster bed.
Sirius looked up from his writing, surprised. "Er. Well, as far as I can recall, she's the second daughter of the Grand Duke."
"I know that," James said impatiently. "But what's she like as a person?"
"No idea, mate," Sirius replied, tipping his head to one side to study James curiously. "What I can tell you is this: she's a Ravenclaw, so she's bound to be smart, and probably not at all bad to look at, if she resembles her mother in any way. But why the sudden interest in the Ravenclaws?"
"Marriage," James said glumly, deciding it was best to just spit it out and be done with.
Sirius blinked, then understanding dawned. "Oh, dear Merlin. You've got to marry her?!"
"Afraid so," James said with a sigh. "As Mum put it, she and Dad aren't getting any younger, and I've conveniently failed to choose a bride of my own."
His best friend whistled through his teeth. "Well. This changes things."
"You don't need to tell me," James said, burying his face in his pillows.
"It's not all bad," Sirius said wryly, crossing the room to sit on the bed next to James. "I mean, it could have been a lot worse."
James sat up and glared at him. "Easy for you to say! You're not getting married in a month's time."
"Thank Merlin, no," Sirius agreed. "But think of it this way. She's smart, she's pretty, and she's an excellent flyer, if I remember my rumours correctly."
James perked up a little at that. "She flies?"
"Really well, according to Mary," Sirius said. "There's this story that when the Ravenclaws' national Quidditch team lost their Seeker right before a match, Lady Marlene stepped in for him, despite everyone's doubts and protests. And they won the game. They were playing Slytherin, too."
"Impressive," James said with a grin. But his brief burst of happiness faded as quickly as it had come, and he flopped back onto his pillows, staring morosely up at the ceiling.
"What's wrong?" Sirius asked, genuine concern etching lines into his handsome face.
"She sounds awesome, Sirius, she really does," James said, raising his hands into the air and then dropping them back onto his chest with a dull thud. "I just wish that I could have chosen her."
Sirius's expression was sympathetic – unusual for him, but in this case genuinely sincere. "I'm sorry, James," he said quietly.
James smiled in a vain attempt to lighten the mood. "At least I'll still have you and the boys," he said.
"Just you try to keep us away," Sirius said, blinking fiercely all of a sudden.
James patted his back, and Sirius seemed to regain himself. "We can always make her life a living hell," he said with a roguish smirk.
James grinned right back. Nostalgia really didn't suit Sirius.
"Thanks, mate," he said. "I'll keep that in mind. But my mum signed me up for this thing, and I'm jolly well going to see it through. I'm going to give Lady Marlene a fair chance, in every possible way."
Lily hummed softly to herself as she folded Marlene's dresses with graceful swishes of her wand. Blue, purple, silver, gold. Each beautiful, each unique – much like their owner, she thought wryly.
"Lily!" Marlene's voice cut into her daydreams, and she jumped, accidentally dropping a pretty teal-coloured dress on the floor.
"Marls?" she called back, hastily folding the dress and dropping it onto the pile before hurrying out into the bedroom.
"What's the matter, Marly?" she asked, stopping dead at the sight of her friend, who was slumped on her favourite settee in front of the window.
Marlene never slumped.
Something was very wrong.
"Marls?" she repeated, walking over to sit next to her friend.
"It's my father," Marlene said bitterly, glaring out of the window and at the mountains as if they were somehow at fault.
Lily sucked in a sharp breath. "Are you all right? Did he –"
"I'm fine," Marlene said with a reassuring smile, which disappeared again almost as soon as she had seen it. "We didn't duel like last time, don't worry."
Her voice turned bitter again as she went on. "I almost wish we had duelled. That, at least, might have changed his mind."
"What –" Lily began, but was cut off as Marlene slammed her hands onto her knees, her face a mask of fury.
"He's gone and arranged a marriage for me, Lily. Mum always told him we had the right to choose our own partners, and I always thought he would honour that, but I guess I was wrong. He's so full of his grief for Mum that he can't see he's going against everything she ever believed in."
Despite her obvious anger, Marlene's eyes were sparkling with tears. She wiped them away fiercely, scowling.
"Oh, Marlene," was all Lily could say, drawing her friend into a hug.
Marlene sniffed, and gave a laugh that was half angry and half desperate. "He's so unreasonable nowadays," she said, and her voice was full of desperate sadness. "He's not the Daddy I know and love anymore."
"That's not true," Lily said, but the words range hollow, even to her. She didn't really know the Grand Duke, but the bitter, cold man she saw each day was a far cry from the stories she had heard as a child – of a kind, merry ruler with his laughing, beautiful wife by his side.
"He still loves you," Lily said, with much more certainty.
Marlene barked a laugh. "He has a funny way of showing it."
"It's that snake of a Malfoy," Lily said spiritedly. "It's him who keeps putting these ideas in your father's head."
"Mum wouldn't have stood for it," Marlene said glumly. "But Dad… he always was weaker."
Lily's hand flew to her mouth, and she sat bolt upright as a horrific possibility occurred to her. "Marlene," she breathed. "You don't think Malfoy arranged this marriage to get you out of the way?"
Marlene looked angrier, but also wearier, than ever. "I'm sure he did. With Michelle and Simon away at the mountain lodge raising Charles, and my dad… well… I'm the only person in the way of him having total control over the kingdom."
"That bastard," Lily said emphatically.
Marlene sighed deeply. "And the problem is, we can't do a thing about it without openly defying my father. Malfoy's a slimy, prejudiced git, but he's not stupid."
"Bastard," Lily said again, with feeling.
Marlene chuckled tiredly. "What would I do without you, Lil?"
"Blow up Malfoy, I'm sure," Lily answered dryly. "Although, come to think of it… Shall I take a few weeks' leave?"
Marlene laughed, genuinely this time. "Please don't. I'll need you more than ever if I'm going to Gryffindor."
"I'll be there for you, Marly," Lily promised. "Always."
A/N: right, there we are! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, which I see as a sort of introduction to the characters and their situation. The Christmassy spirit will start showing through a lot more in later chapters, I promise.
A quick note about the layout of this story: as you saw in today's chapter, I have two points of view in each chapter, either James's and Lily's or Sirius's and Marlene's. Points of view shift every chapter, which means we'll be seeing things through Sirius and Marlene's eyes for the next chapter. If that annoys you – well, I would say sorry, but my mind's made up already, so too bad.
Oh! I almost forgot a rather important thing: if you don't ship Jily and Blackinnon, kindly leave this fic at once or forever hold your peace. While I completely understand that not everybody ships what I do, I'm writing this fic, which means that it will be featuring both Jily and Blackinnon.
If you enjoyed this chapter, please do leave me a review! There's nothing quite like them for putting a smile on my face at the start of a new day of writing.
See you guys soon with the next chapter!
