Hot chocolate- Marylily
Anyone who knows Lily Evans knows two main things about her. 1- she studies like her life depends on it and 2- she gets especially stressed out around Christmas, having to balance her studies for mock exams and keep her magic hidden from her family enough that it doesn’t upset her sister and baffle her parents.
This means it’s even more common to find her holed up in a corner of the library, a pile of books as tall as Gryffindor tower next to her, glaring at a pile of notes she’s trying to memorise. It’s also common for her to be a frazzled mess, beautiful and stunningly brilliant, but a mess all the same.
“You should take a break,” Mary leans into Lily’s view, dragging a pile of notes from under her nose. Lily groans, dropping her head down on the table,
“Mary, you know I love you but if you don’t put those notes back I will scream,” Mary laughs, something else she knows about Lily is that she will never disrespect the rules of the library, she could be getting murdered in there and still wouldn’t yell.
“We go home tomorrow, and I have so much to do.” She tries to grab the notes out of Mary’s hand but Mary just tricks her into leaning closer so she can kiss her.
“Come on, come and take a break with me and then I’ll help you with all of this all afternoon, how about it.” Mary bargains, knowing that otherwise, even if she agreed to take a break Lily would be planning essays and recalling notes the entire time.
“Okay, thank you.” Lily breathes a sigh of relief, her shoulders relaxing and a smile creeping onto her face, “I really love you,”
“I know,” Mary smiles back softly, “I love you.”
Mary helps pack up the notes and place books back on the shelves, the task taking much longer than it would for anyone else, but Mary doesn’t want anyone else, and she’s more than happy to spend any number of hours sorting this if it means she gets to spend even a moment with the girl she loves.
“What are we going to do?” Lily grabs her hand as they walk out of the library.
“I thought we’d walk down to Hogsmeade, while the weather is calm, see the Christmas stuff for the last time this year.” Lily nods, agreeing to go, and they walk down slowly. There's a cold breeze and the temperature is below zero but it’s not too bad compared to how it has been, just last week the main doors had frozen shut.
Hogsmeade, as it is every Christmas, is decorated extensively. Garlands and twinkling lights leave little of the sky visible when you look up, there are trees outside nearly every store, with peppermint and cinnamon and orange-themed drinks and food scents drifting out the swinging doors. Gift sets and decorations line the windows while music plays softly.
Mary leads them into a small cafe that embodies everything that they love about the holidays and leads them over to a table, pulling out the chair for Lily to sit,
“Why thank you,” Lily giggles as Mary moves to sit on the other side. Their clasped hands rest on the table and they talk softly until a short, friendly-looking, older woman comes over.
“Are you two ready to order?” Lily looks at Mary and confirms her order,
“We’ll get two hot chocolates please, all the toppings, thank you.” The lady smiles at them gently and moves back behind the counter.
“I’m going to miss you, we won’t see each other for three weeks, it’s torture.” Lily laments, pouting at her girlfriend, who smiles back.
“I’ll write to you every day, and as soon as we get back we can spend a full 48 hours together before classes start.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.” Mary beams and Lily can’t help but mirror her.