Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is probably not mine for I am a poor college student just trying to make it through my classes without going mad by writing about someone else's characters. (The characters and other magical elements belong to J.K. Rowling)
It was early one Saturday afternoon when James and Sirius came up with one of their best ideas ever. They were innocently sitting in the Gryffindor common room with Remus and Peter when Professor McGonagall entered with a piece of parchment.
"Quiet!" she called out and the entire common room instantly stopped talking. The Transfiguration professor looked around at the students for a moment before conjuring a quill. "I need to know which of you will be staying at Hogwarts over winter holiday."
Like the last six years, only a couple of students raised their hands aside from the Marauders. What was surprising was that one of them was the Head Girl. James arched an eyebrow when he noticed, wondering why she hadn't told him before seeing as they'd been spending a lot of time together.
When McGonagall had finished writing down the six names, she thanked her students and exited the common room. As soon as the portrait was closed behind her, everyone started talking and laughing again, as if she hadn't been there.
James was about to get up when Remus grabbed his arm. "You do not want to ask her, Prongs," he warned without looking up from his book. "Her sister and her fiancé are visiting for Christmas."
"Oh," James said in full understanding. Even before he'd gotten close to Lily he'd known that the sisters' relationship was bad and that the red head couldn't stand Petunia's fiancé. "That's bollocks."
"Eloquently put, Prongs," Remus said with a chuckle, finally looking at his friend. "Just…don't make a big deal about it, alright?"
Peter chuckled from his spot on the floor by the fire and cried out when James hit the back of his head with a perfectly aimed charm. He turned around and attempted to glare at the taller boy but the oversized Muggle Santa hat blocked his sight.
Quickly, Remus sprung out of his seat beside James just before the shorter Gryffindor jumped at him in retaliation. As they wrestled around on the couch – and then the floor after they fell off – Remus sat on the arm rest of the chair Sirius was sitting in to watch. "Sometimes I forget they have the mentality of young children."
Sirius chuckled then pulled the smaller seventh year into his lap and wrapped his arms around his waist so he could hold him close to his chest. "I thought we agreed to stop giving them sweets," he joked, resting his chin on Remus's shoulder.
"They must have gotten it from someone else," he replied and turned to kiss his boyfriend's temple lightly. "How long do you think they'll go?"
"James Potter!" Lily cried out once she realized what was going on by the sofa.
Instantly, the tall teen stopped wrestling and looked in the general direction of where Lily had been. "What?"
The red head walked over to them with her arms crossed over his chest. Once she was close enough for him to see, she just stood there until James untangled himself from Peter and got up. "Can't you behave for one afternoon?" she asked but had a fond smile on her face.
Ever since the beginning of the year, James had been on his best behavior so everyone knew she was joking. But, James being James, acted like she'd hurt him and clutched at his chest dramatically. "You wound me, Lily," he said which got an eye roll and a slightly bigger smile in response before she turned and walked back over to her friend. "I wish I could give her the best Christmas present ever," he said sounding wistful.
"Maybe we can," Sirius suddenly said and after a moment added, "Maybe we can give everyone staying behind the best present ever."
{~}
Their plan didn't take effect until Christmas morning. As soon as Remus deemed it the right time, the Marauders set off little alarms at the entrance of the three other Houses. James was in the middle of the Gryffindor common room, Peter waited patiently outside the Hufflepuff entrance, Sirius was forced to climb the stairs to the Ravenclaw common room, and Remus headed down to the dungeons to wake the lone Slytherin.
The alarms were creations of Remus's which would only work once – and he had no intention of making any more – and would wake up any living person close by. After each of teens had set them off, they were to convince the student to go to the grounds.
It wasn't hard to get the Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, or the young Gryffindor boy to head outside with them. Remus had no luck convincing the sixth year Slytherin to go and gave up with he was threatened with a rather nasty hex.
The only reason why Lily even went was to keep an eye on everyone – or so she said.
When everyone was finally outside in their winter clothes, James created a stool out of snow and ice so everyone could see him. "Happy Christmas, everyone!" he said enthusiastically from his perch. "I bet you're all wondering why we called you here today."
"To yell at us?" the fifth year Hufflepuff girl said with a laugh which earned her a chuckle from her Housemate.
James, knowing she was just being silly, gave her a mock glare but ignored what she had said. "Now, as most of you may know, this is the Marauder's last year at Hogwarts. I know, it's sad, but don't cry!" Remus saw Lily shaking her head but also caught a glimpse at the smile she had. "And, as our final present from us to you, we're giving you…the best Christmas ever!"
The 7 students stared at him for a moment before the young Gryffindor spoke up. "What do you mean?"
"You'll have to wait and see what we're going to do for the rest of the day," Remus said, interrupting James with the knowledge that he was going to make a show out of his answer. "But, for right now, we're going to just play in the snow." He gestured around them and that's when the enchantment he and the others had cast earlier vanished.
Standing around them were different structures made out of snow. Some of them were snow castles, others resembled Muggle jungle gyms, and the final thing was an ice rink made of snow. All of the snow configurations had taken Remus a while to figure out the mechanics but he got it with help from Peter. Also something they wouldn't tell James or Sirius how to do.
"Have at it!" Remus exclaimed and laughed when James and Sirius hurried over to one of the larger jungle gyms. The others only hesitated a moment before chasing after them to play on the snow structures.
Remus hung back a moment to just watch everyone, glad to see that they were having fun. "Who's idea was this?" Lily asked as she moved to stand next to him.
"Honest answer?"
"Honest answer," she confirmed, laughing when James fell in the snow.
"It was Sirius's idea, but he was inspired by something that Prongs had said," he replied, making sure to not give away what James had said exactly.
Lily nodded her head; she must have had an idea. "There aren't any 'presents' that will cause any damage, are there?"
The only answer Remus gave her was a small smirk and walked over to where Sirius was now attempting to ice skate – the Pureblood had never had the chance to learn and was spending more time on his bum than standing.
{~}
The students didn't play outside that long. After all, there was still breakfast to be had and presents to be opened. Since they'd been outside so long, everyone ended up wanting to eat first. As soon as they entered the Great Hall, they were met with their second 'present.'
Whenever a student walked into the large hall, a small, floating Christmas companion followed them to their seats. Some of them were snowmen, a few were snowflakes with faces, and there were a couple of gingerbread men. At first, everyone was a little wary of them; it was the Marauders and even first years knew the things they were capable of.
But, to everyone's surprise – including the professors that stayed behind – the floating Christmas decorations didn't do anything. Well, actually, they didn't do anything bad.
Once everyone was seated and had food on their plates, the little floating things started to quietly sing Muggle Christmas carols. They were just loud enough for the words to be made out but soft enough that it didn't intrude on any of the conversations.
When they first started singing, everyone had stopped what they were doing and looked up at the companion by them. Some of the Muggle born students started to sing along with them, including Lily.
It was quite obvious that they weren't going to stop singing anytime soon, so everyone started to talk again. "10 points to Gryffindor," Professor Flitwick whispered to Remus whom he was sitting next to. "For excellent charms work."
"Thank you, professor," Remus replied with a flush and smiled a little when Sirius squeezed his hand. "It was actually fun to figure out."
While the two of them discussed the different charms that Remus had cast on the small figures, everyone continued with their meals and conversations.
"Who's idea was this?" Lily asked, gently nudging the foot of the gingerbread man floating over her shoulder.
James puffed up his chest before he opened his mouth to reply but Peter cut him off. "Mine," he answered, blushing when Lily and a few of the other students praised him for them. "Th-they were my idea but Remus and James picked when charms to use."
"But if you hadn't thought of the little things in the first place, they might not be here," Lily replied, smiling at him sweetly. She knew that Peter wasn't used to getting individual praise from the students and she wanted to make sure he got all that he deserved. "What made you think of these?"
Still blushing, Peter explained to everyone who was listening that his mum had little paper cut outs of Christmas things hanging in front of the windows. He had suggested something like that and that they would sing since caroling was one of his favorite things to do.
"Why don't you sing for us, Wormy?" Sirius proposed with a small smirk, teasing his short friend. When his hand was squeezed at the jab he winced and started to retract the suggestion but stopped when Peter started to quietly sing a song.
He only sang alone for a moment before a few of the other students started to join him. Quickly, all the students and professors that knew the songs sang along with them. And those that didn't, quietly listened with smiles on their faces – the Slytherin included.
{~}
Sirius was keeping an eye on everyone at the table, making sure to stand before anyone could leave. The next part of their present was meant to be given out right after breakfast and he wanted to make sure everyone knew whose idea this was.
So, when he noticed that the third year Ravenclaw boy was about to get up, he jumped to his feet and onto the seat. "Present time!" he exclaimed and was grateful for Dumbledore when the headmaster gently grabbed McGonagall's arm before she could complain.
Once everyone was giving him their full attention, he pulled something out of his pocket with a huge grin. "Who wants a candy cane?"
"Are they safe?" Lily asked when some of the younger students raised their hands in excitement.
"I highly doubt Mr. Black would offer dangerous sweets to his professors, Miss. Evans," Professor Dumbledore said with a small wink.
The head girl blushed lightly but held her ground. "You're right, professor," she said, turning so she was looking at Sirius now – who was still standing on his seat. "I just want to make sure Black hasn't cast a charm on them like the last sweets he gave out."
Sirius arched an eyebrow but smiled a big more as he accepted the unspoken challenge. Without saying a word, he unwrapped one of the candy canes and stuck it in his mouth. The rest of the Marauders came to his defense and each took one from his hands and started sucking on their own.
Now that everyone was satisfied, Sirius handed out the treats to everyone at the table who wanted one. As soon as the last one was out of his hand, Sirius decided to tell them what was so special about them.
"Now, don't be so hard on yourself, Evans," he said, taking his seat once again. "There is something special about these. Just…not what you were thinking." He gave her a playful wink before looking around the table at its occupants. "These candy canes come from a small little candy store in France and they'll last all day. They're kind of like that Wonka fellow's chocolate."
Remus chuckled beside him and leaned in to whisper, "You're thinking of Everlasting Gobstoppers, Padfoot."
Sirius just shrugged and after that all of the students and professors left to do whatever they wanted for the day. Most of the students headed back to their respective common rooms.
The six remaining Gryffindor students headed back to the tower and opened their gifts together. When Rory, the young Gryffindor, finished opening his presents, he headed back to his dorm to write his mum a letter, thanking her for the gifts.
Lily had stayed in the common room to read the book her own mother had given her as a gift, but Remus knew it was too keep an eye on the Marauders.
Like every year before, they waited until the very end to give each other their gifts. Remus sat with Sirius on the couch as everyone exchanged gifts and watched as James was the first to open them.
Remus had gotten him a miniaturized set of Quidditch balls that actually flew around. It had taken him a while to figure out how to make them work similarly to the real balls. Peter had gotten him a couple of his favorite Muggle whiskey which James promised to crack open later that night. And Sirius had given him a set of Puddlemere United Quidditch robes. "Bloody hell, Padfoot!" he exclaimed, staring at his friend in shock. Ever since he'd left his family home Sirius had been cautious of his spending.
"You're welcome," he said and didn't give James a chance to say anything else before tearing at the wrapping paper on his own gift from Peter. Like James, Peter had given him a couple of bottles of his favorite Muggle rum. James had gotten him some new tires for the Muggle motorbike which he was rebuilding. And from Remus he got a new flea collar as a joke and Muggle records from his favorite bands.
Peter was the next to open his gifts. Remus had gotten him a new Wizard's chess board. Their last game had abruptly ended when a cat of one of the younger student's bumped into their table and 5 pieces landed in the fireplace. James had remembered that Peter wasn't fond of being cold and had bought him a Blizzard Cloak. And, as he did every year, Sirius had gotten him a variety of sweets and Peter opened the Glacial Snow Flakes for everyone to share. He also got him a more personal gift but had told him to open it later. "You know, when we're alone."
Remus rolled his eyes at that and gave Lily – who was glaring at the back of Sirius's head – a small, 'ignore him' smile before he was poked in the side by Sirius. "Come on, hurry up, Moony."
"You're pushy today," he said and ignored when James laughed loudly at the accidental innuendo. The first gift he opened was from Peter which, unsurprisingly, was more alcohol. But, what was surprising was something he'd never heard of: Baileys Irish Cream. James had gotten him sweets (like always) and a glass ball filled with light grey smoke. It resembled a Rememberall but small and different carvings. James explained that the item was called a Dream Keeper and was a miniaturized version of a Pensieve but for dreams.
"Thanks," Remus said with a small laugh and set the ball aside before turning to Sirius. The other boy had suddenly gotten very serious as he gently nudged the box that was resting on his leg. Slowly, Remus lifted the lid and stared down at the key that was placed inside. "Sirius…"
"It's a key," he said sounding uncharastically nervous. "To the flat I bought with the money that uncle Alphard left me. There's enough room for two, if you're interested…"
Remus stared at him for a moment as what he'd just said sunk it. As the other boy opened his mouth to say something else, Remus lunged forward to kiss him.
"That's a yes," Lily said quietly in a bored tone but, if anyone had heard her or looked over, they would have seen that she was smiling.
While Sirius and Remus talked about them moving on together, James and Peter started to get things ready for the next parts of "Give Hogwarts the best Christmas ever" plan."
{~}
Since the alarms that Remus had created would only work once, the Marauders had to figure out another way to get the students attention. James figured something out quickly: the singing companions could do it. Each of them was to find the student they'd been 'assigned' to that morning and deliver a message:
A snowball fight has been declared and will take place at 3 this afternoon
The teens weren't really expecting a lot of the students to show up for that present. After all, why would they want to come back outside after being in the nice, warm castle? So, when all of the remaining students showed up around three, the Marauders were a bit shocked.
Since there were 12 students outside, they decided to split up into two teams with James and Lily being team captains. Lily's team consisted of Remus, the Slytherin, the Ravenclaws, and the sixth year Hufflepuff girl. James's team was Peter, Sirius, the other two Hufflepuffs, and Rory.
"But how will we know who's on our team?" the Slytherin, whose name was Gabriel, asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he stood with his teammates.
The Marauders hadn't thought that through so James and Sirius started to whisper ideas to each other. Remus rolled his eyes and quickly waved his wand which resulted in his team's black robes to change to white. "There," he said, straightening his own robes before flicking his wand again quickly, this time sending a snowball straight at Sirius.
And then the snowball fight began.
Each team raced off as they ducked snowballs flying at them and easily constructed snow forts. Remus, Lily, and the Hufflepuff girl built up their defenses while the other students threw snowballs at the other team.
"How do we know who wins?" Gabriel asked after only a few minutes of war.
"Whichever team gives up first," Remus explained, recalling the original terms that the Marauders had come up with a few days ago.
When they had first come up with this idea, they hadn't exactly thought all of the students would want to participate. So, they had planned on explaining that anyone could just leave when they wanted to and the last student still willing to fight would win. Remus believed that was still the plan and told the rest of his team that.
Miraculously, Peter managed to come up with the same idea on the other team and made sure everyone he was fighting with knew it, including James and Sirius.
"What if no one gives up?" James asked, moving just before a snowball made it over their wall and onto his head.
"Then it'll be a truce?" Peter guessed and cried out when multiple snowballs hit the other side of the wall where he was sitting.
Sirius had stayed silent as he listened and finally spoke up. "Snowball fight to the last man standing!" he called out excitedly and heard someone laugh from the other team's fort.
A fight that the Marauders had thought would only last a half hour made it to two before anyone noticed that Dumbledore was standing by the front door.
After the declaration, the snowball fight became more about tactics than brute force. Well, most of the time. An unspoken rule had been made that no advanced spells were used for defense or for trickery. Although, one technique that both teams used was a charm to distract the other while a few of the students would sneak around the other side and attack.
When Dumbledore was finally noticed, all fighting instantly stopped and he announced that both teams had won and that they needed to head inside before they became icicles. The two teams met in the middle of the battlefield to congratulate the other before heading inside.
And, as soon as the last student was standing in the Entrance Hall, the next 'gift' showed up.
{~}
"I thought we agreed to not do this one," Remus whispered as he watched the small cluster of mistletoe sway above the heads of himself and Lily. The red head was glaring at him and the other three Marauders and didn't seem to be moving anytime soon.
It was a Marauder Christmas tradition to have mistletoe to bother the other students. It usually started a week before the winter holiday and would last for a week after. The magical mistletoe would follow one student around until someone else got close enough to trap. The two wouldn't be magically bound on the spot, but, if they tried to move away from each other, the evil plant would emit this loud and glass breaking (or nearly) sound until the two students would kiss.
Now, the Marauders weren't evil. It didn't have to be a kiss on the lips or a certain length of time. A little peck on the cheek would suffice, but it was still annoying and embarrassing to be forced to kiss someone in front of what felt like the entire school.
And this year, James and Sirius had promised not to do it.
"We lied," Peter said and was the only one of the four of them to laugh.
James had completely forgotten about the mistletoe or else he would have made sure to walk into the school beside Lily. And, Sirius had only been a few seconds faster than the other two and he didn't know that this part was happening right after the snowball fight.
"Just kiss her cheek, Lupin," the Hufflepuff girl said, sounding bored.
Everyone in the school knew how close Lily and Remus were so this wasn't as exciting if it had been any of the other Marauders.
Remus rolled his eye and smiled apologetically to Lily before leaning forward and gently kissing her cold cheek. "Sorry," he mumbled as the mistletoe sought out its newest victim.
As soon as the students realized what it was doing, they instantly scattered. It must have had a mind of its own because it instantly chased after Gabriel but the Slytherin was too quick for it. Finally, it caught James and Sirius and everybody instantly stopped running to see what they would do.
But, much to the others students' dismay, James and Sirius just smirked before hugging each other.
"You cheated!" one Ravenclaw accused when they took steps away from each other to prove that hugging worked. "It must not work on you."
While the other students were asking for or demanding proof that hugging worked, the mistletoe found its next victim. This time it was Gabriel and Rory. When they realized that it was them, both boys jumped away from each other which just caused the mistletoe to let out the loud noise.
They were quickly pushed together and then everyone was staring at them just like James and Sirius before. Gabriel glared from Rory to the Marauders and back to him again. "Bloody hell," he mumbled before pulling the first year into a quick hug before stepping away again.
Just like it had done before, the mistletoe started to fly around the room but everyone quickly caught on and hurried away from the Entrance Hall before they could be caught. For the next hour, the mistletoe flew around in search of more students until it finally floated down to the ground and stayed still.
"You're horrible," Lily told James later that day when he brought it back to the common room to show her and the other Marauders that it was finished tormenting students.
James stared at her a moment before striding over and holding it above their heads. "Gimme a kiss?" he said jokingly and was surprised when Lily simply sighed before kissing his cheek lightly. Everyone in the room stared at her with wide eyes and she left the common room for dinner.
{~}
Dinner went by peacefully with not a single disturbance from the Marauders. Most of the students were still a little mad at their last gift but the others were in good moods. When everyone was done eating they headed their own ways once again.
The Marauders ended up back in the common room by the fire. Sirius and Peter were playing with his new chess set while James was working on an essay due a few days after they got back and Remus was dozing on the couch beside him.
"Are you lot done now?" Lily asked and only got a grunt from Sirius before James looked up from his essay. "Well?"
"That would ruin the surprise, Lily," he replied, smirking a little before going back to his essay. She stood there for a moment, waiting for someone to say something to her but she received no answer from them.
As she stormed off to the girls' dormitory, Sirius and Peter looked up from their game to James. "How long until we give out the gifts?" the shorter Gryffindor asked before telling his queen to move.
"A little bit longer," James said, nodding his head over to the still sleeping Remus. "He's been working hard trying to make everything perfect for this lot. And not even a thanks from them. See if we ever do this again."
Sirius rolled his eyes and watched as he lost the chess game (again) before shaking hands with Peter and moving to seat on the ground before Remus. "Have you got everything ready, James?" he asked, gently grabbing the other boy's hand where it was dangling off the armrest.
"Just about," he replied, finishing off his essay (Lily was such a bad influence in him). "We just need to take them up to the Owlery and let the owls loose!"
"Why don't you two go do that now?" Peter asked as he cleaned up his chess set. "That way, Remus'll be surprised like everyone else."
James and Sirius exchanged looks before turning to Peter. "You're not getting out of going up there, Pete," James said knowingly.
The blond boy huffed and slid a bit further down in his chair as he pouted. "But it smells so bad up there," he complained, crossing his arms over his chest. His friends just chuckled before they started to quietly talk about the last gift for the day.
{~}
About an hour later, Lily was sitting on her bed as she worked on an assignment that was due in the following weeks after the winter holiday. It was fairly simple but there was a lot of research that needed to be done and she wanted to get that out of the way as soon as possible. She had just finished a chapter of her book when she heard a light taping on her window.
Sitting on the window ledge when she opened the window was one of the school's owls. As soon as it was able, it flew into the room and perched on the headboard of her bed. "What are you doing here?" she asked and noticed that there was something tied to its leg when she got closer.
And, as soon as it was untied, the owl flew back out the window without waiting for a treat. In suspicion, Lily cast a few spells on the small bag to see if it was safe. When it was deemed safe, she carefully untied the ribbon and tilted it.
A small box of Wizochoc slipped out onto her hand and she stared at it in wonder. This was her favorite chocolate from Honeydukes and only a few people knew that. And two of them, she assumed, were currently sitting downstairs.
Holding the small gift close, Lily hurried to the common room but stopped when she reached the bottom of the stairs because Rory was excitedly talking with the Marauders about his own present.
"I've only had these a few times but they're my favorite!" he told them, waving around a bag of Peppermint Toads. "My mum got me some for my birthday last year. How did you guys know?"
"We're the Marauders, mate!" Sirius laughed and gladly took one of the Peppermint Toads that was offered to him.
Lily watched them for a few more minutes, just taking in the sight of the excited first year before heading back upstairs. She'd thank them in the morning, after her own sweet treat was consumed.
{~}
The end