Author's note:
Happy Holidays!
Written for Andromeda2000 as a Christmas present!
Thank you to ThisVioletofMine for assisting! :D
Harry woke up to the bed shifting; his eyes fluttered open and it took him a few seconds to work out that the purple was the hair of his godson. "Teddy."
"It's Christmas! C'mon!" The young boy exclaimed with glee.
He sat up and glanced around to realise his wife wasn't anywhere to be seen. "What's the time?"
"Christmas time! C'mon!" Teddy cried, jumping off of the bed and running out of the room.
Harry sat up, slipped on some bottoms and followed the boy out, entering the lounge to see Ginny attempting to feed an overexcited 18-month-old. "Morning," he greeted, kissing her shoulder from behind as his eyes followed the six-year-old.
"Morning," She replied happily, taking a moment to kiss his cheek before returning to the child she was trying to feed. "James, you need to eat! It's good for you!"
"Pressie! Pressie!" James exclaimed, kicking his feet and pointing to the tree, which had presents surrounding it- maybe they had gone a bit overboard.
Harry backed away, running and catching Teddy. "Hey, you- I think you need some breakfast, too."
"But Da-ad! The presents!" Teddy cried indignantly, crossing his arms. "I can't wait any longer!"
"Teddy, you can wait a few extra minutes. I will not deal with your whining about being hungry later." Ginny scolded from the kitchen. Teddy ducked his head and nodded.
"No presents until you've eaten all of your breakfast," Harry added, walking over to the cupboard and opening it. "Cereal?"
"Mama! Pressies!" James complained.
"James," She replied in a similar tone to the one she had just used on their godson, "if you don't eat this right now, you won't be opening any presents until dinner."
"You don't mean it, do you?" Teddy asked, horrified at the prospect of waiting so long.
"Try me." Ginny said.
James whimpered before crying hysterically.
Harry looked at his godson. "Cereal? Banana? Full English Breakfast? Choose or I will."
The boy was thoughtful for a moment before deciding, "Cereal, please." Ginny nodded her approval and continued trying to shove food into the crying baby's mouth.
James' wails became louder as he kicked his feet and waved his arms around in protest.
"Good choice," Harry said, sitting Teddy on the counter and getting out a bowl, filling it halfway with cereal and getting out the milk.
Teddy insisted on pouring the milk himself, considering he was both a big boy AND and good boy on Santa's nice list; he then proceeded to miss the bowl and pour half of the gallon onto the counter.
"Teddy! Look at this mess!" Ginny scolded again, eyelid twitching when another shriek emitted from her infant son. "James, please be quiet." The infant did not listen.
"Sorry." Teddy apologised before getting some napkins.
"Don't worry about it- it's just a little mess," Harry said with a smile as he grabbed a cloth. "Be careful, I don't want you slipping." He added as he helped to clear the mess; he noted Teddy's clothes and knew which present he'd get to open first.
"I know, I know…" Teddy replied tiredly, taking his cereal to the table and allowing his father to pour the milk this time. He ate mostly in silence, staring at his little brother who seemed insistent upon making their mother burst a blood vessel. "James, you should really eat that so we can open presents faster." He suggested.
"No," James whimpered, pushing the food away from him.
"Ginny, try the aeroplane," Harry advised; he knew his wife didn't like mixing fun with eating, but it was one of the only ways to get them to eat sometimes, especially when they're that young.
She sighed, and, willing to try just about anything to make the baby stop crying, obliged. "Look, James! Here comes the plane!" She made lots of sound effects for good measure, sending the spoon towards the boy's mouth.
James watched the spoon with wonder, opening his mouth as it got closer. Harry smiled triumphantly as he made Ginny and himself some jam on toast.
After that success, breakfast flew by much more easily, and soon the boys were both squirming to leave the kitchen.
"C'mon, Mom! C'mon, Dad! Presents!" Teddy called, racing from the room. He jumped over the coffee table before landing on his knees and digging into the large mountain of gifts.
"Theodore! What have I told you about jumping over that table?" Ginny called after him, pulling her younger son from his highchair and struggling to keep the wiggly baby in her arms.
"I won't do it again!" The boy called back distractedly, starting to separate the boxes into two piles: ones for him and ones for James.
Harry picked Teddy up. "Come on, sit down on the couch and I'll pass you them one by one." He said, placing the boy on the couch. He smiled at Ginny. "You sit down, too."
She smiled and joined Teddy on the couch, placing James on her lap.
Harry glanced over the presents, picking up three gifts- all clothes. He handed them out to the respective people and he couldn't wait to take pictures with them all dressed nicely. He knew he also got too excited at Christmas; he wasn't really able to celebrate it when he was a child, and was now living through his children. He just hoped he didn't spoil them like Vernon had done with Dudley.
James clapped his hands before pulling off small pieces of wrapping paper at a time.
"Oh, look at that, James!" Ginny said to the boy, bouncing him on her lap. "Such nice clothes!"
Teddy was next, tearing into the paper with reckless abandon. "I got… clothes!" He seemed slightly less excited about it, but was still politely happy all the same. "We match, James!"
Ginny waited until they were done before opening her present, smiling happily as she slid the lid from the box. "Look, I got clothes too, boys! We all match!" She made a silly face and the boys giggled.
"How about you three get changed as I work out what to give you next," Harry suggested with a smile and turned his back to look like he was thinking intently. Before he turned, he noticed James pulling off one of his socks.
"James, dear, leave the socks on." Ginny said, peeling his drooly pajama shirt off of him. Teddy made quick work of changing and then held his little brother while their mother went to change in the bathroom.
Harry turned around and began pulling faces at the two boys, making them both laugh. He looked around dramatically and took James, handing Teddy a present while Ginny wasn't there and setting James on his lap to also unwrap another one. James didn't hesitate to start ripping into it.
"This is so cool!" Teddy exclaimed, holding up a box of miniature cars. He admired each and every one with wide eyes.
Harry grinned at him, loving the happy face, and was almost blinded as James discovered that his recently opened ball could be lit up with bright lights when he shook it. He held it up and shoved it into Harry's face. "Dada! Wook!"
"Wow, that's amazing!" He replied, his smile somehow growing. He looked up sheepishly as he noticed Ginny re enter the room.
"James, do you have a ball?" Ginny asked, kneeling down in front of the baby. "And Teddy- those are some nice cars!" He nodded and grinned from ear to ear.
"Are there any more presents?" He asked impatiently, eying the tree and trying to see past his godfather.
James threw the ball towards Ginny. "Yeah, ball!" He shimmied off of Harry's lap and ran to get the ball.
"Be patient, Teddy, we have all day to open them," Harry replied with a laugh. He wanted them to appreciate the presents they got; he remembered Dudley ripping open all of his presents within the first hour and then complaining about not getting enough. Which is why he preferred a slower paced Christmas. James seemed happy enough.
"Yeah, but… We're not gonna actually drag this on all day, are we? Because… I really wanna see what's in them." Teddy continued in a drawl. Ginny laughed and tickled his unprotected ribs, making him squawk and scoot away from her.
"Teddy, just enjoy today. It's Christmas!" She advised. He nodded meekly and looked at Harry, expectantly awaiting his next present.
"How about we let Mum open a present?" Harry suggested. "Do you want to pick one out for her?" He asked Teddy.
"Yeah!" He exclaimed, diving into the sea of presents and selecting a fair-sized one in red wrapping paper. He presented it to her with much exaggeration, bowing after she took it from him and scooting back to watch her open it.
"I wonder what it could be…" She mused, lightly shaking the box and making more funny faces for her boys' amusement. She then slowly peeled the paper away to reveal a package of fuzzy socks. "Oh, I've been wanting some of these!" She exclaimed. She loved wearing fuzzy socks during the winter months.
"That's from James- he picked them and everything," Harry provided.
James was too preoccupied with his ball to even notice they were talking about him.
"Well, thank you, James." Ginny said happily. "And thank you, Teddy, for picking this present for me." He nodded and looked to Harry expectantly.
Teddy nodded. "Can I choose one for me now?"
"Going on, then," Harry said- he couldn't say no anymore. He loved seeing the happy faces of his children; even though Teddy was only his godson, he would never treat him any differently than his own son. He was his family and deserved the best possible upbringing. For the first few years of Teddy's life, he spent half of his time with Andromeda. But since Harry and Ginny got married and Andromeda got older, it became more preminant. He looked over at the boy, whose hair was currently green- like the Christmas colors- as he selected the the longest box.
"Can I have this one?" He asked, bouncing with excitement.
"Hmm, I'm not sure," Harry teased, looking at Ginny.
"Hmm… well, I suppose," She agreed after a long moment of pretending to think.
Teddy squealed with delight and instantly began opening the present, placing the wrapping paper into one pile. He looked at the plain white box, turning it over several times before concluding that there was no indication what the present was before opening it. He shrieked with utter glee as he pulled out the broom; it was a child's broom, nearly full-sized, but wouldn't go higher than ten feet. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! It's just what I wanted!" He squealed, jumping up and climbing on it.
"Not in the house," Ginny quickly said. Teddy halted and looked at her; he was obviously still tempted to ride it.
"We'll go out and ride later, I promise." Harry told him, which was enough to convince him to slowly get off of the broom, but not let go of it.
"Bwoon, fwoon!" James exclaimed, pointing at the broom, no longer interested in his ball. "Fwoon, bwoon!"
Ginny grabbed James as he ran past her; she glanced at Harry and he quickly threw a present to her, which she easily caught. "Want another pressie?" She asked the 18-month-old.
"Yeah!" James responded, planting his butt on the ground as he ripped into the paper until he managed to pull out a hand-knitted jumper from his grandmother. "Jumper!" He noted and attempted to put it on himself, Ginny helping him.
Harry looked at Teddy, who was looking between his broom and the unwrapped presents. "You promise we'll go riding?" The boy questioned.
"I promise; come here and we can open some more presents," Harry replied, opening his arms. Teddy placed his broom down carefully before running over and jumping on him, excited.
The next few hours were spent opening presents- the more presents laying around, the more the young boys got distracted; this worked well as it meant the presents lasted until mid-afternoon, in time for Christmas dinner.
It was afterwards that they went flying, but it was only for about ten minutes, as Teddy had tired himself out.
Harry and Ginny were curled up together on the couch, a traditional muggle movie playing, although neither of them were focused on it.
"This was definitely the best Christmas so far," Ginny whispered, breaking the silence gently.
"That it was- last year James slept through most of it," Harry commented.
"He's growing up so quickly," Ginny commented with a happy sigh. "And Teddy is, too. Before we know it, they'll both be going off to Hogwarts."
"Don't remind me; I want them both to stay here forever," Harry replied.
"Well, when they do go, we won't be alone."
Harry looked at her, confused, for a second before smiling. "Because we'll have each other?"
Ginny smiled at him, slightly sheepishly. "Because, I'm pregnant."
His eyes widened with surprise, a large smile on his face as he looked down at her stomach. He looked back up at her. "Best Christmas present ever." He decided before leaning forward and capturing her lips with his.
Hope you enjoyed it!