"Lily's mad at me!" James cried miserably.

"What for?" Remus asked.

"Probably because he's a useless git," Sirius said knowingly.

James didn't reply, he just looked forlornly at the snow-covered path they were following. Looking worried Sirius said hurriedly, "I was only joking, mate!"

"Why's Lily mad at you, James?" Remus asked again.

"I don't know!" James wailed piteously, "I wasn't paying attention! I was too worried about her arguing with me to notice what she was arguing about!"

"And he's had such an improvement since Lily started liking him!" Sirius complained, "All that progress gone! Right down the toilet! Whoosh!"

"This is horrible!" James moaned, apparently not hearing Sirius.

"You're complaining? What about me? Now I'll have to hear you whining about Lily again and I've had a good seven years of that! I don't need anymore!"

"Look, James, I'm sure if you just apologize Lily will get over it!" Remus said comfortingly.

"No," James sighed, "Not Lily. I must have done something awful!"

"Yeah, you're being punished for torturing us with seven years of Lily-gossip!" Sirius informed James.

"Yeah, I probably am," James said distantly as he shuffled despondently toward the Order headquarters. Remus and Sirius stopped and gaped at each other.

"Wow. He must be really depressed!" Sirius exclaimed, suddenly somber.

"Come on, let's go!" Remus said, grabbing Sirius's arm and pulling him after James. When they got to the door, they found it blocked by a massive Christmas tree. Muffled voices sounded behind it.

"Ouch! Frank, would you watch out?"

"That's Gideon! He's trying to levitate it upstairs!"

"Well it's not working! Bring it to the left, it's blocking the door."

"Oh, sorry, I'll move it."

"To the left, bring it to the left. The left! I said left! Not right, left!"

The tree shot out through the door, knocking Sirius to the ground and showering pine needles across the snow.

"Woops."

"Your left. My right."

"Sorry."

The tree had landed in a snow bank several feet away. Remus, who had ducked just in time, glanced first at it, then at an apparently unconscious Sirius on the ground, and finally to the two identical heads of the Prewett brothers peering apologetically out from behind the doorframe.

"Sorry, Remus, mate," Fabian said.

"We've had a bit of an accident."

"No kidding," Frank said, appearing in the door way.

"Is that Sirius?" Joanna asked suddenly, pointing at the collapsed heap at the foot of the steps.

"Er… yeah. It is," Remus said, bending over to inspect his friend.

"Is he drunk or something?" asked Joanna.

"No. They got him with a Christmas tree," Remus said.

Fabian and Gideon exchanged rueful glances before bounding down the steps and heaving Sirius to his feet. "Alright there Sirius?"

"Whoa. What happened?" Sirius asked dizzily.

"Bit of a mishap…"

"More like a disaster, really," Joanna said, taking Sirius's other arm. "It's a good thing you're here, though! We're going to need more decorators as Fabian and Gideon have just failed miserably."

"Oh, come on now!" Gideon exclaimed, "That's a bit harsh, isn't it?"

"We can levitate Christmas baubles just fine! It's the trees we've got a problem with!"

"Well at least you can't knock anyone out with an ornament," Remus said.

Joanna laughed, "Oh, trust me, Gideon and Fabian will find a way!"

"Here Sirius, since I can't seem to trust anyone to levitate it, I need someone tall to put the star on top of this tree," Alice said, gesturing to the only already decorated tree sitting in the kitchen. Enchanted icicles hung from its bows and little fairies darted amongst the branches.

"Wha…?" Sirius asked dazedly.

"Wait a second, where'd the star go?" Alice demanded.

Gideon and Fabian blushed shamefully. "What did you do?" Joanna ordered.

"Well…" Gideon explained, "We made it hover over the door so it would stick to the next person's head who came in."

"But now it's gone…" Fabian said, glancing worriedly outside.

"Maybe it stuck to the tree?" Frank suggested.

"No, someone must have come in before. It's not on Sirius or Remus…"

"James!" Remus exclaimed. "He came in before us!"

"Where is he?" Alice asked, glancing into kitchen.

"Is Lily here?" Remus asked, "That's where he'll be."

"Yes, she was in the den, reading," Joanna said, leading them over to the door.

Lily was laughing hysterically at James who was half-smiling as if he wasn't sure what was going on.

Perched on James's head was the star. "You're not mad at James?" Remus asked, staring perplexedly at the two.

"How can I be mad at someone who comes in and begs me for forgiveness while he's got a Christmas star on his head?" Lily asked, finally controlling her laughter.

"You're not mad?" James asked as if he didn't believe his ears.

"Of course not! I was just upset that you weren't listening to me earlier when I was trying to talk to you."

"Oh! I'll never do it again!" James exclaimed happily, throwing his arms around Lily.

"How did you do that? You had that thing on your head but you looked so serious!" Lily laughed.

"On my head?" James asked, reaching up. "What the…?"

Remus reached over to take star. He tugged sharply, but only managed to nearly pull James off the floor. "It won't come off!"

"Let me try!" said Sirius, suddenly revived at the opportunity to tug on James's head. Sirius placed a muddy, booted, foot on James's shoulder and yanked on the star.

"Ouch! I think you've pulled something in my neck!" James whined, rubbing his neck.

Gideon and Fabian meanwhile, were trying to cover up their obvious amusement by looking apologetic and tip toeing toward the door.

"What did you do to that star?" Joanna asked in a deadly whisper.

"Uh… Weeeellll… I think…"

"Um… I… can't quite remember!" Gideon exclaimed. "Do you remember, Fabian?"

"No, definitely not! You know, so much to do, so much to see… you lose track sometimes!"

"Tell me what you used to stick that star to James's head!"

"Well, technically we didn't actually directly stick it to James's head…"

"James just happened to walk through the door and-"

"Why is there a bloody Christmas star stuck to my head?" James shouted at the Prewetts, getting fed up.

"That, James, is a very good question that I was just about to ask, myself," Dumbledore said, suddenly appearing at the door. "I'd come to check up on the Christmas preparations and I found the door open and a Christmas tree in the snow! I thought you had all been attacked until I luckily heard James shouting just now."

"It won't come off!" James exclaimed desperately. "They did it," he pointed an accusing finger at the Prewetts, "and now they won't tell me how they got it to stick on in the first place!"

"Well! We'll just have to ask them again to tell us why the Christmas star refuses to be parted with James's head!" Dumbledore looked as though he was very much enjoying himself as he turned to the Prewett brothers. "Now Fabian, Gideon, a good prank is often quite enjoyable and amusing. I like a little fun myself every now and then." Sirius snorted audibly.

"But, when the time comes for the effects of the practical joke to be reversed, it is generally considered common courtesy for the jokers to tell the jokee how the joke was originally played."

"Well… We might have used a permanent sticking charm…"

"And we might not have!"

But Fabian quickly gave in under the penetrating gaze of Joanna who was glaring over Dumbledore's shoulder.

"We were just doing a bit of experimenting!"

"What? Trying to see what would happen when someone walks round with a Christmas star on his head all day, were you?" James said in a threatening whisper.

"No! Not at all! No harm intended! We can get it off!"

"No harm- but you, you-"

"I think the best solution at this point," Dumbledore intervened, "would be if the Prewett brothers kindly removed the star from James's head so that Alice could put it on the top of the only tree you've managed to decorate so far. I presume that is what you initially intended?"

Alice nodded. "I'd also suggest we get decorating if you hope to be finished by tomorrow. Thus far it appears you've only finished one tree, albeit a very beautiful one."

"We can blame Gideon and Fabian for that one as well," put in Frank.

"Regardless," Dumbledore said, "we'd better hurry and finish up. I think Alastor Moody and Emmeline Vance, among others, mean to join you for Christmas and I do hope that we can provide at least two well-decorated Christmas trees and some enchanted snow flakes."

Fabian and Gideon forlornly held out the newly detached star to Alice. "Thank you," Joanna said, rolling her eyes.

When everyone had trouped back into the great room, they found that Dumbledore had conjured another Christmas tree. Joanna, Remus, and Sirius were assigned to decorating it, while Alice, Frank, James and Lily were sent to the second floor landing to put up another tree. Dumbledore, meanwhile, wandered merrily about the house, whistling to himself as he strung up icicles and enlarged snowflakes.

Gideon and Fabian were demoted to baking gingerbread cookies.

That evening everyone sat in the great room, worn out but satisfied with their work. Great pine branches adorned the banisters and snowflakes the size of dinner plates that would never melt floated lazily down from the ceiling, vanishing upon contact with the floor and appearing once more near the roof.

The cookies had surprisingly turned out quite well, though Fabian and Gideon hadn't been able to resist charming them to try and run away whenever you reached for one. At any rate, everyone was glad to be able to relax with a cup of tea after the busy day. Dumbledore dissaparated with the promise of returning to spend a few hours of Christmas with everyone the next day. As the fire died and began to splutter out, the exhausted Order members all wandered slowly off to bed.

Sirius resignedly flicked his wand at the last of the gifts he had for his friends, instructing them to 'wrap'. Carefully supervising a bow that was curling itself around a new box of chocolate frogs for Remus, he thought about what a wonderful Christmas he was having. He hadn't spent Christmas anywhere but Hogwarts for the past seven years. Before that, Christmas had been a dismal affair and he'd thought nothing would ever compare to the experience he had at Hogwarts every December. However, this holiday season was coming awfully close. Despite being knocked out by a Christmas tree earlier, he really had had one of the best Christmas Eves he'd ever experienced, and, he thought as he captured and bit into the last of the struggling gingerbread men, he expected Christmas day to be at least as good, if not better.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Show some appreciation and review! Review even if you're not showing appreciation and you think it totally sucks! Thanks to Evenstar, who's loyally reviewed every single chapter, whether or not she's got something nice to say, lol.