C if for Christmas
By Mrs Grim


It was a nice, beautiful and clear night at Hogwarts. The moon shone on the castle and the lake's water sparkled. And through the tranquil scene you could hear-

-a female voice shrieking?!

"James Potter, you give that back or so help me God I'll-"

"Don't give in, James!" a male voice urged. "She can't hurt you. She weighs, what, 100lbs?" There was a loud smack.

"Ouch," the previous voice said reproachfully.

The voices came from the one room in the castle with its lights on. The Marauders were spending their very last night at Hogwarts reading their old diary entries. Or at least that's what they would have been doing if they weren't fighting.

Sirius rubbed his head, "Did you have to throw a shoe?! And James' nonetheless! He has huge feet-"

"Precisely why I chose his to throw," Dara informed him sweetly. Sirius gave her a mournful look.

"I'm hurt. You have wounded me deeply-"

"Good. Now give us the diary…"

Sirius glanced at his friends for help.

"Remus-" Remus, however, threw up his hands with a grin.

"Nope. No way. I know better than to get into the middle of this! I'm not suicidal."

Lily gave him a calculating look, "What, exactly, are you saying?"

"That girls are very often underestimated by guys."

"Actually," Sirius said loudly, "He means that he's scared of you."

"Not scared, terrified."

Peter added to the conversation, "Absolutely terrified."

"Horribly-"

"Shut up!" Dara demanded. "Book." She held out her hand. James sighed and dropped it in.

"Please," he pleaded. "Enough torture!"

"Don't worry, Jamesie!" She assured him. "We'll pick a new writer this time." She looked around the room and smiled rather evilly. The boys (except James) cringed in horrified anticipation.

Lily and Dara pored over the diary for a few moments. Lily stood up.

"We've chosen!" They all groaned.

The word appeared onto the screen and the title read 'Christmas (Year 6)'.


Dear Diary,

James is making me write in this. He went off with Lily and probably won't be back for a while-

James: Haha! Sirius is writing! I can tell by the complaining!

Sirius *complaining* I don't complain!

Remus: James went off with Lily to…?

Lily *turns red*

Remus: Ah. I see. This is nothing new for those two. They were like Siamese twins once they got together…

Dara: It was so cute.

Peter *makes a face*

-so he made me write. They say that I haven't written much yet, so here I sit.

It was Christmas again. Whooppee! Our 6th year at Hogwarts. However, this one would be even better than all the ones before. Yes, it was the best Christmas ever. Spending it with all my best friends

Lily: Awww!!!

Dara *hugs Sirius* How sweet!

and getting presents from them was the best part!

Lily: Materialistic jerk!

Dara: Only in it for the presents, huh? *edges away*

Sirius: I didn't mean it! I was bitter about having to write!

James: Uh, huh…

Sirius: Well, I did get a new broomstick that year-

All *throw things at him*

Sirius: The abuse is not appreciated.

Christmas is always a time full of joy and, of course, pranks!

Lily: We should have known…

Dara: Is that the only thing you think about?

Sirius *leering at her* Not the ONLY thing…

Dara: He looks so cute when he tries to look rakish! *laughs*

Lily: Are you giving in?

Dara: Nope.

Sirius: Damn.

We always have a very good time playing pranks on the Slytherins, but now that most of them were gone for the holidays, we needed a new target. James, however, didn't show for a couple of hours and me, Remus and Peter were left to do all the planning. I did most of it.


Peter: Hey! Stop making ME seem like the idiot!

James: It's okay, Peter, we all know who's the REAL idiot of the gang.

Sirius: Yeah, the one who goes and makes out with his girlfriend while the INTELLIGENT ones do all the planning…

James: I dunno about you, but MY way of spending my time seems a lot more fun…

So we targeted the meanest, most horribly strict teacher of all time: Professor McGonagall.

She was the meanest, toughest teacher of them all. And, though they hated to admit it, they were terrified of her. I however, had not the least fear.

James: Yep…you had the greatest fear! We've all heard your nightmares…

Remus: Yes, your screaming woke us up many a night.

Sirius: For Christ's sake the woman is the devil!

So, we decided to play a trick on her that she would never forget. It would be quite wonderful to pay her back for all of the wrongs she had done to us. Like the time she refused to give me a detention. The spiteful wench knew that I was about to break the record of detentions in a day and didn't give me one.

Snape wasn't happy, since she left my setting his hair on fire go without comment.

Lily *starts laughing* OH! I remember that! He was MAD!

Dara: I still have pictures! It was classic!

Sirius: I am hurt. You seem to be forgetting that I was suffering agonizingly throughout that incident.

We sent her a letter purportedly from the attractive (or so I've been told)

Dara: Yep.

Lily: Very.

James: More attractive than me?!

Lily: Let me think about that. Yes.

Professor Nickelwhite. I thought that it was a rather good idea and it was all going quite well. We figured that she would storm into his room and give him a piece of her mind, but-well- we were wrong about one little thing.

She liked him.

A lot.


And, well, once we saw her emerge from her room with flimsy purple robes and reeking of perfume we knew that we were so dead.

Remus: It was rather mean of us.

Peter: *choking* It was AMAZING! The LOOK on her face!

Well, it turned out that he opened the door and, of course, was very puzzled to see her standing at it. And, uhm, there was the little matter of his previous guest.

So once professor McGonagall saw him and his er- friend without a whole lot of clothes on she did give him a piece of her mind. She said something like "You're fired, you jerk!" but added in some words that I had never thought I would hear come out of her mouth.

James: She was great! I wrote some of them down…

Sirius: Yeah. I sure don't think that you could do that with a broomstick…

And then she stopped. And she slowly turned and faced the exact tapestry that we were hiding behind. And a great enlightenment transformed her face. And then her face turned brick red and than purple and she shouted at the top of her lungs that she'd get us if it was the last thing she ever did.

And then she refused to give us detentions that year because it would break the record of detentions set in a year. She instead volunteered us help the Hufflepuff first years with their flying lessons.


Remus: Oh, that was bad.

James: Hufflepuffs trying to fly on brooms.

Lily: Say no more. My heart goes out to you.

Needless to say, I was a little miffed.

Dara: You were a little miffed?!

James: You cried for days!

Lily *giggling* Oh yes, we could hear you all the way over at the girl's dorms.

Remus: You cried harder than Peter when the Slytherins cursed his er- you-know-what off of him.

Peter *turns red* Did you HAVE to mention that?

Through all of that, I'll have to admit that that was one of the best Christmases ever. And I would never choose to spend a Christmas away from Hogwarts and my friends.

Dara and Lily: AWWW!!!

Sirius: Shucks. I was in a sentimental mood…

Lily: James could take a few lessons from you!

James: Really?

Lily: Yes. Peter has more of a poetic soul.

Peter: Why do I get the feeling that I am being put down again?

Remus: Because you are.

Sirius: What's next? *runs to the door and catches Dara*

Dara: Shoot! I know, I know…it's our turn.

Lily: YOUR turn. We read one of my entries last time.

Dara *mumbles*

Remus *shocked* What was that?

James: Don't mind him. He prefers to think that ladies don't use language like that.

Sirius *takes diary* Okay. Next…

A/N: Sorry for the delay! Comments?

Mrs Grim