Author's Note: Sadly, I do not own Harry Potter or its characters.

Chapter 9

James woke up to the sound of Sirius shouting "PRESENTS!" James groaned and rolled over. He looked at his watch on the bedside table, it read six in the morning.

"Sirius!" came the muffled voice of Remus, who must have pulled the blankets over his head. "I know this is very hard for you, but please, SHUT UP!"

"I know you don't mean that Moony, its Christmas morning…presents…the girls are coming in half an hour.

That got them all up. There was a mad dash to the bathroom, James shoving Frank out of the way, while Remus and Peter watched, smirking as Frank fell to the floor, banging on the bathroom door. Sirius laughed and sat next to Remus.

"You aren't in a rush?"

"Elizabeth and Alana always spend Christmas with their parents. She probably left early this morning," he said, realizing she hadn't said good-bye.

There was a knock on the door and Peter got up to get it. Lily, Alice, Alana, and, to Remus immense surprise, Elizabeth were standing there, using their wands to levitate the presents into the room.

"Oh, by the way Remus, I forgot to tell you, Liz is coming over to open gifts," said Sirius, trying unsuccessfully to keep a straight face.

"Liz, Al, what are you doing here?" Frank asked surprised.

"Our parents decided to go to Italy for Christmas, to visit family," said Elizabeth, looking upset.

"But why didn't you go?" asked Peter, tilting his head.

"Because we weren't invited!" said Alana angrily.

There was silence. Alana sighed.

"Sorry Peter, I didn't mean to flare up like that," she apologized, "It's just that we only found out last night, except not from our parents. We got a letter from our step-grandma, the one who's a witch but technically not related to us, asking us where we were. She said our parents told the family we were not allowed to leave school because we received too many detentions but she knew better and wrote to us.

"Ever since we got our letter, our parents have stopped doing things with us," she paused, her eyes wet, "Over the summer, we just stay home while our parents fly to Timbuktu or whatever, leaving us to look after the house. They look at us differently, talk to us like we don't speak English, and yell at us every time something goes wrong. If we didn't have each other and you all to talk to, we'd probably go insane. They were even thinking of sending us to a Muggle boarding school in America instead of here, but we talked them out of it."

She looked up at the others and continued, "While they were away last summer, my sister and I found an apartment for cheap rent. Once we leave school, that's where we're going to live. We can't stand to be under the same roof as them anymore."

Silence filled the room again, but there was an air of sadness as well. Sirius was the first to break the silence.

"Guys, I'm sorry, but now you're going to have the best Christmas ever with us, right guys?" he turned to the others.

"Of course!" they shouted.

And so, everyone started opening gifts, laughing and talking to each other as they tried to cheer the twins up. One thing they all noticed was there were no gifts from Peter. Finally, Alana said something.

"Um, Peter, I don't mean to be rude, but did you get us anything?" she asked.

"I was hoping you would ask," he said smiling, "I've been working on a surprise project for all you guys. Follow me."

He grabbed his cloak and opened the door, everyone else followed. They came to the corridor where Alana saw the door appear and watched as Peter paced the corridor three times. Once again a door appeared, and they followed Peter in. There on the floor were eight gifts, all in different boxes.

"Each one of you has to open a box and guess who the gift is for," said Peter, smiling, "Just a fun way to spread the holiday cheer."

Each person ran towards a box and started to open it. Lily opened a bookshelf with "Starry Night" painted on it.

"This must be for Remus!" said Lily.

Remus looked at the bookshelf in amazement. "Peter, did you paint this?" he asked.

"Yeah, and it expands to fit all your books on it. Now you'll never have to put you books on the ground."

Next, Alana opened a Nimbus 1000. "Wow, James I think this is yours!" she cried.

James was speechless. "How…when…?" he stuttered.

"My cousin works at the manufacturing company. He gave this to me, but I thought you'd use it more that I would," said Peter.

Elizabeth opened a full length mirror with funny quotes about dating all around the mirror. "Al, this is definitely for you."

Alana stood in front of the mirror, but jumped back as it spoke to her.

"Dear, fix your hair, you look like you just rolled out of bed." it said.

"It…It talks," Alana said.

"Yep, my mom showed me how to do it. It gives advice about how you look, just to have another person's opinion," said Peter.

Remus opened a camera, complete with a stack of photo albums. "Liz, look!" he said.

Liz, who loved photography, let out a shriek. "This is a Nikon! Where did you get it?"

"Um, I didn't know it was that great, my grandmother bought it for my grandfather last year, but he never used it, so he let me have it."

James opened a book that read How to Get the Girl of Your Dreams. "Um, Frank, this is for you," said James.

Frank took it, read the cover, and turned a light shade of brick red.

"Thought it might come in handy," said Peter, "Be sure to read chapter five, it tells you how to deal with, er, interruptions."

Frank turned to his gift and opened a beautiful bracelet with animal charms all over it, both magical and Muggle ones alike.

"Alice, this one is yours," said Frank.

Alice smiled as Frank put it on, looking at all the charms. She then opened her gift. Inside was a plaque that had an engraving of a cauldron and words on top of it. They were To Lily, the True Potions Master.

Alice laughed at all the times Lily had to correct Professor Slughorn about the ingredients in Potions and handed the plaque to Lily.

"Don't let Professor Slughorn see this," James said to Lily.

"It's true though," said Peter, "You could definitely give him a run for his money."

Finally Sirius opened his own gift, which was the largest. He had to put the box on its side so he could see inside. There he saw a motorcycle. He pulled it out and swung his leg over its side. He stared at it, then at Peter.

"Thank you Wormtail," was all he could say.

"It flies you know," said Peter, "My uncle is an engineer, he designed it and I just added some magical touches to it to make it fly."

Everyone went and thanked Peter for their gifts saying this was the best Christmas ever. They walked back to the common room with their gifts, except for Sirius', which they decided to leave there until they thought of a better place to hide it.

Alice went to her dormitory to relax. While her friends were talking, she grabbed her ice skates and went to the lake. It was bitter cold out, but Alice didn't mind, she enjoyed ice skating in that weather. No wind, but still cold enough for the ice to be nice and hard. She had been out there for a while and started doing some tricks. She had just slowed down, when she heard clapping to her left. She turned in shock, but saw Frank and smiled, skating over to him.

"I give that a 10," he said.

"Please, that was terrible, I was just practicing," she said, her cheeks red, and not completely from the cold.

"Well, I can't even skate," Frank said.

"Oh really?" asked Alice, taking out her wand and making a pair of skates appear, "Then I'm just going to have to teach you."

Frank slipped the skates on and walked onto the ice, trying not to lose his balance.

"Here, grab my arm," said Alice.

They skated around the lake a few times, then Alice let go and watched as Frank skated by himself. She laughed as he performed antics and skated over to him, stopping so ice would spray him.

"You said you couldn't skate," said Alice, putting her hands on her hips and laughing as Frank rubbed bits of ice out off his face.

"I can't roller skate, not ice skate," said Frank, teasingly.

Alice slapped his arm and they continued skating around the lake, laughing and talking. Finally, they took off their skates and put on their snow boots. As they stood up, Frank saw Alice leaning against the tree, smiling at him, her hair wet from snow and sweat, cheeks red from the cold. An odd feeling ran through Frank, all he wanted to do was push her up against the tree and kiss her. He could do it now; there was no one else around.

"Frank?" said Alice, calling him out of his thoughts.

"Yes Alice?" he asked, looking at her and trying to control himself.

"I had a good time," she said, "I always have a good time when I'm with you."

That was all Frank needed. He took two steps toward her, grabbing her waist, and pushing her up against the tree. He leaned in and kissed her, waiting for her reaction. At first, she did nothing, but then when she realized what was happening, she returned it passionately. Finally Frank could let Alice know how he felt without any interruptions. How long they were there, they didn't know. All they knew was they were with each other and that was all that mattered.

Author's Note: Okay, well no one has told me to stop this story so I'm just going to keep on going because I hate having to end stories. I was away for a while so now I'm back and updates will be quicker. I know the last few chapters have been overly fluffy but there is a reason for it, I promise. Later on, you'll see why. Now that almost all the characters are paired up, I'm planning on showing how each one deals with the trials they have to face ahead. For those of you out there who have stuck with this story, thank you so much! A huge shout out to Lone Fairytale for your review, this chapter is for you. Reviews are greatly appreciated, as always, so tell me exactly what you think. CC is also welcomed! Thank you! :)