Notes: I know this isn't my best work, but I really want to do the hpendurance challenge which is based on tumblr, and the deadline was today, so I needed to get this story uploaded. Just to clarify, this is AU, and nothing previously has happened with Voldemort. Thank you to anyone who's reading!
Disclaimer: All rights of the world and the characters go to JK Rowling.
"Mummy!"
Lily's eyes flickered opened as her four year old son came blundering into her room. Harry's face was red with excitement and he had a large smile plastered on his face. She pushed herself up onto her elbows as he clambered on the bed and squeezed in between his parents.
"Mummy, Daddy, wake up! It's Christmas!"
James let out a groan and turned to face his son with sleepy eyes and hair even messier than Harry's.
"Come on, come on, come on! Father Christmas has been!" Harry squealed excitedly.
"How do you know?" James asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Because there's presents under the tree. Lots and lots of presents." Harry replied with giddiness in his voice.
"Don't tell me you've been downstairs already!" James said, sitting up and looking at Harry with a look of mocking shock on his face. Harry stayed silent but couldn't hold the smile from emerging onto his lips. As soon as James saw his own signature smirk form on his son's face, he tackled him onto his back and began tickling him.
"You cheeky little monkey!" he said as Harry giggled loudly. "I can't believe you went downstairs without us!" He continued to tickle Harry as he squirmed and shouted for help from his mother, but then stopped suddenly.
"Wait," James said, looking right at Harry. "Are there any presents for me?"
"I think so," Harry replied.
"Well, why didn't you tell me? Let's go!" James jumped up off the bed, taking Harry up in his arms and hurried out the room. The sound of both her husband and son's laughter filled the Potter's hallway, and Lily couldn't stop herself from smiling.
She knew James has always been an early riser when they'd been at Hogwarts; he'd have been up, out running on the grounds and showered before half seven almost every day, but since training to be an Auror, he'd began to love sleeping in more and more, and so being woken up before six would surely kill him off before even nine o'clock that night.
Lily shook her head slightly, smiling to herself. She swung her legs out of the bed and stood to leave the room, grabbing one of James' sweaters on the way out. She began to descend down the stairs when she heard James shout.
"Lily, come down!" he said, and it sounded like his voice was coming from their front room.
"Coming!" Lily shouted in reply.
"Mummy, quick come look!" Harry shouted as Lily reached the bottom of the stairs. She entered the living room to see James and Harry stood in front of the closed curtains that covered their front window.
"What?" she said, looking at both of them with confusion.
"Look outside, Mummy!"
Lily walked cryptically to the window and pulled back the curtains to see an odd sight; snow, which must have been at least five feet deep, was blocking the view of Godric's Hollow and there was only a small strip of space at the top of the window out of which she could see through the early morning darkness that there was more heavy snow settling on top.
"It's snowing!" Harry said as danced around in circles punching his little arms in the air. Lily turned and looked at James, who was smiling as he watched Harry's excitement.
"I thought it wasn't meant to snow overnight," she commented as she sat herself on one of the sofas, James following her. Harry threw himself in front of the presents under the tree.
"I know. I'll mirror Sirius later and tell him to tell Moony, Wormtail and everyone that they'll have to floo over for Christmas Dinner." James replied as Harry handed him a present wrapped very badly with silver wrapping paper and odd pieces of scrunched up cellotape stuck all over it. " Wow, is this for me?"
Harry grinned. "Yeah, Mummy yours is there. Can we open them all together?"
"Of course," Lily told him, picking up her present that was wrapped in paper patterned with reindeer silhouettes, and with the same messy balls of cellotape randomly stuck on it.
James counted to three and everyone opened their presents. James received a large woolen navy jumper with a white stag on the front, Lily found a long thick scarf patterned with small white flowers, and Harry pulled his wrapping paper off to find a plain cardboard box.
"What is it?" he asked, confused.
"Well," James said as he pulled on his jumper. "Why don't you open it and find out?"
Harry grinned up at his father before opening the top of the box and tipping it upside down. Out fell some leather gloves, almost identical to the ones James owned but much smaller in size, two pairs of miniscule shoulder and knee pads, and a complete set of Chudley Cannons quidditch robes.
"Mummy, daddy! I've got quidditch robes!" he squealed with excitement.
"You sure do," James said with a smile. "Want to put them on?"
"Yes!" Harry jumped up immediately and began to pull his Chudley Cannons pajama top over his head. Lily helped him undress himself and James slipped the robes over his head. They then put on his shoulder and knee pads and he slipped his hands into his gloves.
"I look like the big men on the brooms!" Harry shouted as he stood in the middle of living room, waiting for admiration from his parents.
"Of course you do," James told him, laughing. They opened up the rest of the presents before all digging into the mountain of chocolate they'd acquired. By the time they'd stuffed themselves silly and Lily and James got ready for the day (Harry stayed in his quidditch robes) it was almost ten o'clock, and everyone was sat in the kitchen while Lily prepared for Christmas Dinner.
"IT'S CHRISTMAS!"
Both Lily and James' heads shot up to look at each other as Harry stood quickly from his seat and looked at his parents. Scuffling could be heard from the Potter's front room, and everyone rushed from the kitchen to see, inevitably, who had arrived.
"Prongs, my friend!" Sirius bellowed as James turned into the room, followed by Lily and Harry. "Mrs. Prongs and Prongs Jr! Merry Christmas one and all!"
"Merry Christmas, you daft git," James said as he pulled his best friend into a hug. Stood behind Sirius was Marlene, Remus, Mary, Peter and Dorcas, all of whom had just dropped the multiple bags they were holding. Greetings were made and within ten minutes everyone was sat down and comfortable.
"Uncle Paddy," Harry asked in a voice almost too innocent. "Are those presents in them bags?"
"Ah, yes they are," Sirius told him as he reach passed Marlene to pick up one of the bags. "But none of them are yours."
The smile that had began to form on Harry's face immediately dropped. Sirius then smirked his way before picking him up and sitting him on his knee. With the help of Remus and Marlene, he pulled out a long, large box, wrapped in paper with flying robins on it, and sat it in front of himself and Harry on the floor.
"I'm joking, silly," Sirius told Harry. "Go on, open it."
Harry lunged forward at the box and began ripping the paper off.
"God help me, Sirius, tell me it's sensible," Lily said as Remus and James joined in helping Harry unwrap.
"Lily," Sirius said, looking her straight in the eye with sincerity. "When have I ever been sensible?"
Lily's hands found her face and she sighed into them. "Oh, Merlin."
Sirius smirked and returned his attention to Harry, who'd managed to unwrap the large box. His tiny hands then pulled up the lid to find a beautifully smooth, mahogany handle attached to perfectly groomed twigs forming the end of an almost full sized broomstick.
"I HAVE A BROOMSTICK!" Harry jumped up and threw his arms around Sirius.
"It's not just from me," Sirius said laughing into Harry mass of hair. "It's from Marlene too."
Harry then threw his arms around Marlene. "I hope you like it!" she said before Harry ran over to his parents, his happiness clearly painted on his face.
"Mummy, Daddy, I got a broomstick!"
"I know, you lucky bugger," James said as he picked Harry up into a hug. "If you ask Mummy nicely," he almost whispered into Harry's ear. "She might let you have a practice upstairs, then you can show us all how good you are later."
"James!" Lily cried before sighing again. "If I think for even half a second," she said, narrowing her eyes, "that you've left him to have a go on his own, I'll murder you." James immediately jumped up and kissed Lily on the lips before running out the room with the broomstick under one arm and Harry gripping his other hand.
"I cannot believe you, Sirius," she said as she turned back to the rest of the room.
"Hey, it wasn't as bad as it could've been!"
"I didn't mean that!" Lily said. "I mean, that must've cost you loads. Are you two mental?"
"It wasn't too much," Marlene answered, smiling as they heard Harry giggling from upstairs. "Seems like it was worth it, anyway."
Hours later, and everyone was sat around the table in the kitchen having just finished their Christmas Dinner. Using her wand, Lily stacked up everyone's plates and sat them next to the sink, waiting to be washed later.
"That was excellent, Lily," Remus praised as Sirius let out a large burp, making both Marlene and Dorcas snicker under their breath, just as it always had done.
"He's right," Peter added, smiling her way. "Thank you for having us all over."
"It was our pleasure," Lily beamed.
"What do you reckon we should do now?" James asked, lifting Harry from his own chair so he was sat on his father's lap. "I was going to suggest we go outside in the snow, but there's no chance we'll be able to get out there."
"Let's have a Gobstones Tournament!" Sirius replied.
Mary scoffed, holding in a small laugh. "Sirius, we haven't played Gobstones since seventh year."
"Exactly! It'll be brilliant. It's the perfect day for it."
"Hmmm," James contemplated the idea. "How about we get all the old games out? We could play Gobstones, and Exploding Snap and Wizard's Chess; it'll be just like Christmas at Hogwarts."
"I second that idea," Sirius said, holding his hand up.
"Me too," Marlene and Mary said in unison, copying Sirius and raising their arms.
"Right then," Lily said, standing up. "I'll go fish them out. Get yourselves into the front room."
Lily then ran from the kitchen up the stairs and into her and James' bedroom and opened their wardrobe. Stacked up in the bottom corner, right at the back, were all James' old games. Smiling, she picked them up and made her way back downstairs.
For the next few hours, everyone played all their old school games. Remus won four out of six rounds of Gobstones, resulting in Sirius stropping around muttering something about a "stupid cheating git". He was then beaten at Wizard's Chess by Peter, and claimed to whoever would listen that he was never playing with them ever again.
"I cannot believe this," Sirius muttered as he sat himself on the floor next to James, who was trying to teach Harry how to play Gobstones.
"You know you've always been terrible at Chess, Padfoot," James said as he dodged a shot of smelly green liquid that was squirted his way. Harry giggled quietly.
"I'm brilliant at Chess!" Sirius exclaimed, offended.
"Don't lie, you know you're awful, and Moony is a genius when it comes to Gobstones, so there was no way you were going to beat him."
"Yeah, okay, just kick a man while he's down, why don't you," Sirius huffed. Another green squirt of liquid shot James' way, but this time he wasn't fast enough to move out the way, and it landed on the front of his jumper.
"HA!" Sirius cheered as Harry laughed at James' disgusted face. He wiped the gooey blob from his jumper with his hand and then, with a mischievous grin, he smeared it on Sirius' face.
"How dare you!" Sirius shouted as he shot up to look in the mirror. "Do you know how long it takes to get me looking this perfect?"
"About twenty minutes?" James replied.
"Ten minutes this morning," Marlene told him. "He wasn't even up when Remus and Mary arrived, the lazy sod."
Around half an hour later, Peter and Dorcas bid everyone goodbye on account of having to visit his mother, and Remus and Mary left within the hour after that, leaving Lily, James and Harry playing Exploding Snap against Sirius and Marlene. With a tournament out of five, Harry, Lily and James won narrowly, and to Sirius' dismay at losing again, they danced around the room in celebration.
"Oh, stop sulking, Padfoot," said James, smacking him on the shoulder.
"Uncle Paddy!" Harry threw himself down on Sirius. "We won, Uncle Paddy!"
"Well done, kid," Sirius said, grabbing Harry and lifting him above his head like an aeroplane. "Listen, Uncle Paddy and Auntie Mar are going to have to go soon."
"No!" Harry said, his face dropping. "Please stay."
"I can't, we really have to go."
Sirius pulled Harry in and hugged him tightly. Marlene then did the same before they both stood and walked over to James and Lily.
"Merry Christmas to the both of you," Sirius said as he pulled both of them in for a hug simultaneously. They laughed into his shoulders before hugging Marlene too.
"Thank you for having us today," she said as she slipped her bag onto her shoulder.
"You know you're always welcome," Lily replied. "We'll see you soon."
"You certainly will," said Sirius. He turned to Harry and bent down so as to look straight at him. "Promise me you'll practice riding your broom so you can show me the next time we're round. We'll go outside next time and have a fly around the garden, yeah?"
"Yeah!" Harry said, grinning. Sirius lightly kissed his head, ruffled his hair and then took Marlene's hand. She threw floo powder into the fire place, illuminating the room in green light, and they stepped into the flames together.
"I think it's time for bed," Lily said as Harry yawned into his hands. "Go and get your pjs."
"Can I not stay in my robes?" Harry asked, clutching the material that hung around his body as if his life depended on them.
"No," Lily laughed. "You can wear them tomorrow though. If you hurry and go get your pjs, Daddy might show you his special fireworks trick."
"Oooooh!" Harry said with excitement as he blundered out the room and began making his way up the stairs.
"Come on," James said, pulling his wife's arm as he stood up. "We might as well go and get ready for bed too."
"James, it's half past seven."
"Well, we can go and get changed and then we'll be nice and comfy. I've got a little present still to give you anyway."
Lily looked at him cryptically before shrugging her shoulders and following her son up the stairs. She changed into her pajama bottoms and pulled another one of James' jumpers over her head before heading into Harry's room. As she entered the doorway, she saw Harry, who was snuggled up in his duvet, watching his father sprout words and pictures that appeared to be made from tiny fireworks from his wand, the awe and fatigue both plastered on the little boy's face.
"Have you had a good day?" James asked as he settled his wand on the bedside table, not noticing Lily who stood watching them.
"It's been my favourite day," Harry replied with a sleepy smile. "Happy Christmas, Daddy."
"Happy Christmas, son," James said softly. "I love you."
"I love you, too. And Mummy. Night night, Mummy."
James turned round as Lily walked over. She leant over James and kissed Harry on the head.
"I love you, sweetie," she said as Harry's eyes closed. Her and James quietly made their way out of his room and turned off the light, before making their way back downstairs.
"I'm going to go make us hot chocolate," James announced as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "Go get yourself comfortable and I'll bring them in, then you can open your last present."
"Hmmm, that sounds good to me."
Ten minutes later, Lily found herself curled up next to James, a large cup of hot chocolate next to her and a box in her hand.
"It's not much, but I think you might like it," said James as Lily pulled off the lid to see a stack of video tapes.
Lily's face lit up as she pulled them out the box and laid them out in front of her. She insisted when they moved into their house together that they should own a television as she loved watching it when she was home, and she knew James would love the idea of a little box that played videos, but they never spent much time with it on, and she didn't own many of her favourite films, until now.
"I thought we could get a bit more use out of the telly-box, and I knew you didn't have any of these films because I checked through your collection, so I thought I might as well get you them. We can watch one now if you want?"
Leaning forward, Lily placed her hands on either side on James' face kissed him. She then took her favourite video, The Wizard Of Oz, out of the case and put it in the video player before cuddling back up next to James. They sat up for hours playing each of the videos, with Lily explaining some of the muggle things James didn't understand and James laughing at some of the ridiculous things muggles did, which obviously would've been made much easier by the use of magic.
Time passed quickly and before they knew it, it was gone midnight and they were still curled up on the sofa, the television now off, with Lily's head resting on James' chest and he ran his fingers through her hair. They had been unknowingly silent for some time, but there had been no need for words as they lay comfortably with each other, just enjoying each other's simple company.
"I love you, Lily," James said softly, his hands still trailing through her red waves of hair. "And I loved today."
Lily's heart swelled and she sighed contently. "I love you too, James," she replied, "I love you and Harry more than anything." And she knew she'd never meant anything more.