Chapter 10- Christmas, Part 1

The first thing that Harry heard when he walked in to his house was laughter.

The first thing he saw was splatters of paint across the walls.

When Harry had finally came across the scene of the crime in the lounge room, the battle of wills was almost finished. Uncle Sirius was threatening to drop a bucket of paint on… someone's head, he couldn't see because they were turned with their back to him, and the person was laughing almost evilly at him, threatening to throw another paint bomb. There were splatters of paint everywhere.

Harry chuckled in his head. Luckily he was used to this, and since he didn't want anyone getting in trouble for getting paint on the walls, he decided to defuse the situation now, before the entire house was blue, or something ridiculous like that.

"Alright. What are you two doing?"

Uncle Sirius almost chocked on his own spit as he suddenly realised there was a witness to this crime, and unbeknownst to Harry, the person he couldn't see was rolling his eyes at the dramatics.

Uncle Sirius threw his hands up in defeat. "Fine. I'll clean up. Remus, get off your lazy butt and help me, would you?"

Uncle Remus got up from where he was sitting with his back to Harry, and smiled at Harry. "Hope you're still in one piece after your first semester of Hogwarts. We'll talk about it later, but right now," He said, waving his wand as Sirius grumbled spells under his breath. "I have got to clean up before your mother busts me and Sirius."

Harry smiled sympathetically, knowing what it felt like to be under Lily Potter's glare. He turned his back on the mess that was lounge room, and went to go tell his Mum and Dad everything about Hogwarts.

A couple of stories later, in the Potters kitchen.

"And then the troll came around the corner, with Ron and Hermione running wildly in front of it, and we all just got down to the Hufflepuff common room before McGonagall and Snape came to stop it." Lily frowned at the end of the Harry's story. Violet was cheering with Daisy, and James was cheering alongside them, until Lily shot him a glare, and James cleared his throat, to signal he was going to speak.

"Well, uh, Harry, that was certainly an interesting story. But, just asking, why was there a troll in the school anyways?" Harry looked a bit uneasy about that. "Well, I don't think Fur- I mean McGonagall or Dumbledore knew why. They just seem kind of confused in the morning, when they told us which bits of the castle had been damaged."

Lily was now just slightly enraged. How dare they put her child in danger like that? She as going to march right up to Dumbledore and tell him-

"Lily." James' voice stopped her tirade in her own head. She furrowed her eyebrows slightly, and looked at him. "What?" "Well, since I know what you're thinking, I'm just going to say, you probably shouldn't do that."

A chuckle in the doorway caused them all to look. Sirius was looking at James with a funny look on his face. "Ah hah! He said, and then looked down to the three children, who were looking quite confused. "Your father is finally being a responsible human being! I thought this day would never come."

Harry laughed, and was shot a glare by James, who was barely managing to keep a stern look on his face himself. Sirius was still laughing, and James immediately whined, "Sirius! Shut up you idiot! You're making me look like an idiot in front of the kids!"

Remus rolled his eyes as he walked into the room, and sat down next to Lily. "Sometimes I want to just leave these gits." Lily scoffed. "At least you aren't married to one of them! I'm stuck with that idiot!" She gestured to James, who was still whining dramatically. Remus smiled, and Lily sighed, and said, "I really need to go and talk to Dumbledore about his teaching standards. Want to come?" Remus laughed. "Of course I will. Let's leave the entertainers to their business." He held out his arm. "Shall we go interrogate Dumbledore now?"

Lily nodded, and looped her arm through his. She called out to James. "Honey, I'm off to go yell at Dumbledore!" before they went off to the fireplace, to floo Dumbledore, and rip him a new one.

While Lily and Remus were yelling at a stunned Dumbledore, James, Sirius, Violet, Daisy and Harry were sitting in the kitchen again, waiting for Sirius' wife to come through the floo. "She's got an important work meeting." Sirius had said as a response to all the questions that the children (and James) had asked.

Although Harry was still puzzled over that. It was Christmas Eve, after all. Even though Uncle Sirius didn't have kids, it didn't seem fair.

James sighed. "So, what do you kids want from Santa?" He winked at Harry, who had been told last year that Santa was, in fact, not real.

Violet suddenly got very excited. "Oh! Oh! Did I tell you and Mummy about the Doll I wanted? Oh! And the book I wanted!"

James chuckled. "Yes honey, you've told me and Mum many times."

Daisy smiled at Violet, and then turned to her father. "I bet you remember that I wanted a new broomstick?"

James smiled widely at her. She seemed to be the only one in the family who was remotely interested in Quidditch. "Of course I did dear. And since you and Violet have been quite good this year, I'm sure you'll get what you want."

Violet turned to Harry. "What do you want Harry?"

Harry mulled over this for a second, and then answered. "I want, well I want a wand holster, since those seem kinda handy, or like, something to communicate with you guys." Harry's voice went slightly mumbled at this point. (He was only 11, after all.) "Since- well- I'm missing you guys, and letters- they don't feel the same as seeing you now."

Sirius smiled and put his arm around Harry's shoulders. "You're a good kid Harry. I'm sure Santa-" He winked at Harry again, "Will be able to find you something."

Harry looked up at Sirius, in all his leather-jacketed, dramatic, glory, and nodded.

When the next morning came, Harry was still fast asleep at 6 o'clock in the morning, when Daisy suddenly burst into his messy room, and dodged all the stuff on the floor, before shouting in his face, "HAPPY CHRISTMAS HARRY!"

Harry fell on the floor.

He grumbled, and then realised what day it was.

Harry rushed down the stairs from the bedrooms, hand-in-hand with Violet, to find the living room in such a Christmassy state, you would be hard pressed to see it as the same one they had yesterday.

Violet ran into the living room with Daisy, while Harry went to go see where his parents were. Lucky for him, they were only in the kitchen, so he took them both by the hand, and brought them into the lounge.

Violet opened up her gifts in the light of the fireplace. She squealed when she saw the doll she wanted, and squealed even more when she got the book she had wanted.

Daisy was led to a broom-shaped package, and almost reached screaming levels when she opened it to find a new broom.

Harry nervously ripped open the wrapping paper on his present. He nodded in approval when he saw the wand holster, and underneath the wand holster was… a mirror?

Harry looked towards his mother, who explained for him. "It's a communication mirror. Your father and I have one each, and so do Uncle Sirius and Remus. Any time you want to talk to any of us about something, you just say either of our names into it, and we will appear!"

Harry smiled widely at that, and gave his parents a hug.

Christmas dinner was always a big affair in the Potter house. James always seemed to find a new way to decorate the house, and Lily never failed to cook some delicious food.

This year, since Sirius was bringing along his new wife, it would be even bigger. (If only by one person)

Later, everybody had arrived and sat down at the table apart from a certain wife of Sirius'.

Sirius had frowned, and went to go get her through the floo. While they waited, Lily served the turkey and potatoes on to the table.

When Sirius returned with his wife, he introduced, "Amelia Bones- Black." Amelia was a tall woman with red hair. She smiled at everyone, and they sat back down at the table to have a meal for kings.

A/N

I'm planning to make a couple of Christmases, 1 for every person in the Marauding 4.

Also, a quick thank-you to JeanandBilius, for being generally lovely.