Summary – Harry, Remus and Sirius share a small family Christmas.
Disclaimer - I do not own. It all belongs to other people. I alos make no money...geee....where is a killer-rabbit when you need one!
A/N – Staged in an AU of GOF.
I'll be Home for Christmas
Part 1 – smashing acting and Killer-Rabbits!!!
___
Roses are reddish
Violets are bluish
If it weren't for Christmas,
We'd all be Jewish
~Benny Hill~
___
December was upon the castle faster than Harry James Potter would have liked, he still hadn't found a date for the Yule Ball and he wondered why he had to go in the first place. Thoughts of blowing it off entered his mind, and of course, why would he want to go to some stupid ball with some stupid girl who only went with him because of his fame when he could verily spend it with family?
"Is that a letter from Sirius?" Ron asked, bringing Harry out of his thoughts.
"Yeah, he wants to know if I can go home for Christmas," Harry replied. Hermione yelped happily and hugged him briefly.
"That would be wonderful, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah, but what about that stupid Yule Ball?" Harry wondered.
"McGonagall would let you go, after all, the Yule Ball is a week before Christmas and you wouldn't really miss it," Hermione reminded them all.
"Right, and now I have to find someone to go with still," Harry groaned in apparent pain.
"Did Cho say no or what?" Ron reached for more eggs.
"She did, she's going with Cedric," Harry sighed.
"Who else are you going to ask?" this from Hermione.
"I have no clue, girls travel in flocks, it's impossible to get any one of them alone to ask," Harry explained.
"Just go up and do it," Hermione clicked her tongue before she gathered up her school books and bounced away from the table. Neither Harry nor Ron saw Hermione being followed by Victor Krum, intently.
"Well," Harry sighed, "I suppose that there ain't nothing for it,"
___
Remus pulled his light blue hat lower over his ears. He was cold and wanted to find a nice warm place to read, and mostly just stay by any fire he could find. However, Sirius Black had had other plans and since this was basically one Christmas that Sirius could actually participate in rightly, he wasn't leaving anything to chance. In fact, the only reason as to why Remus John Lupin was freezing his arse off right at that moment was because Sirius had decided that instead of buying a tree, they were going to go to Waltham Forest and get their own tree.
Every year, Waltham Forest would sell trees from their tree farm to raise money for the poor, it just so happened that this had been a Potter tradition and Sirius had liked it so much that every year he had went with James and his parents to find the perfect tree, cut it down, drag it to the car and drive on home with it and decorate. Remus' family had a different tradition, his mother was the most patient in the world, and so she preferred a plastic tree of which could be set up and taken down within moments, though the other decorating was fine by her.
Remus, however, had heard of this tradition and this was his first time and so Sirius was trying to make it fun, though he did wish that Harry were with him. But, if they were to have Christmas together, then they would need a tree.
"Sirius, if I stay out here any longer, I shall become Frost the Snow-wolf," Remus muttered, his teeth were clacking violently. Sirius took one look at his friend and nodded. Remus wasn't made for the blind, chilly English day.
"Let's go to a café and warm up," Sirius suggested. Across the street from the huge tree farm, of which they had all ready spent three hours trudging through, was a café that served hot chocolate and other fine goodies. Sirius went all out and got the goodies that he new Remus would enjoy the best.
They sat down at a table by the window; it was richly decorated with strands of icicle lights and fake snow that had been sprayed among the edges. Caroler's braved the cold them selves and stood in their 17th century costumes, the women in maroon dresses and white fur, the men in black trousers, white button down shirts, a maroon vest and black over coat with a plaid scarf and a top hat. All had mittens and song books.
We three Kings of Orient are,
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star…
O star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to Thy perfect light…
Sirius sighed as he listened to the Muggles version of the carol; "Christmas was the best time, even with my family, Mother and Father tried so hard to include me,"
"Really?"
"Yeah," Sirius smiled slightly, "It started after first year, Mother wrote and asked me, nicely, to join them for Christmas. So, I did, I actually got as many presents as my brother, Regulus, and Mother even let me change the colors of my room, sure, she wasn't too thrilled that it was Gryffindor colors, but she did it for me anyway," Sirius explained.
"It was nice that she tried," Remus said.
"Yeah," Sirius sipped at his coffee, "She was awesome during Christmas, but the rest of the year…sheesh, if there was one woman who needs Christmas every day, it was my Mum!" Sirius joked.
"My Mum was kinda weird, she never listened to carols till two weeks before, that's when she even started decorating, we had a plastic tree, everything was mostly purple because that was her favorite color, and she would help me make cookies for Santa Christmas eve, it was always after that we would make the Gingerbread House," Remus grinned, he got a refill on his hot chocolate.
"What do you think Harry did for Christmas, when he was with the muggles?" Sirius asked.
"I don't know, Dumbledore didn't tell a soul where Harry was and even Hagrid was hush on that note, though, if you had to get it out of him, I bet you could have done it," Remus replied.
"Yeah? I probably would have gotten the location, stolen Harry back and made sure he was loved!" Sirius dropped his head onto the table, the loud 'thunk" made the muggles look at them strangely, and made Remus blink.
"What if he doesn't want to spend Christmas with us?" Sirius asked, suddenly.
"Harry would want to spend it with us, but with the Yule Ball a week before, he'd fill his obligation as being a Champion of Hogwarts and also be able to come home," Remus explained.
"Really? Cool!" Sirius forgot his random moment of distress and with stars in his eyes, he started to bounce in his chair; "We're going to have so much fun!"
"Yes, are you on a sugar high? Did you put sugar in the coffee?" Remus blinked, not knowing what to do and hoping that no one was going to try and get them thrown out of the café.
"No way, sugar in coffee? Are you crazy?" Sirius gave Remus a look as if to say Remus was the crazy one here.
"Well, what do you say to wrapping the rest of this stuff up and getting that tree, I swear, I want to go home and sleep for a while," Remus said.
"Yeah, your furry little problem will be rearing if fuzzy head in a day or two," Sirius shrugged. Remus shook his head, a picture of random, foaming at the mouth; killer-rabbits filled his head.
"I'll need a hand grenade to get rid of your killer-rabbits," Remus commented.
"You'll need the Hand grenade of Antioch!" Sirius replied with a grin.
"And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.(1)" Remus quoted dead panned. Sirius gave him a look before he started to laugh crazily.
"You must have had a muggle in the family," Sirius giggled manly(2).
"Yeah, it was my Aunt, she showed me the movie," Remus shrugged.
"Lily showed it to me and James; we went around quoting it forever!" Sirius replied.
"Hehehehe, now, if only that gets rid of Death Eaters, we'd be made," Remus shook his head.
"And now onto scene 24, a smashing scene with wonderful acting(3)!" Sirius said. They gathered up their coats, scarves and other wintry-things to wear in the snow, before they paid their tab and once again wondered out into the frosty noon day for their tree.
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel…
And ransom captive Israel,
That morns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appeasr…
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel…
Shall come to thee, or Israel…!
___
1 – A Passage from Monty Python and the Quest for the Holey Grail. Everything in italics is a direct quote.
2 – can Sirius Giggle Manly? That is so weird…but he probably could.
3 – Another line from MPatQftHG. I love this one especially.
4 – O Come, O come Emmanuel is by an unknown dude, but the tune we know today is French the Translation for this is by John Mason Neal (1851).
5 – We Three Kings of Orient are – written by a minister, John Henry Hopkins in 1857.
a/n – I will finish this, this will be short. This is a side story to a Cold Room, Can I Call You Dad? And A Family Summer. Enjoy!