Chapter 11
"Damn it," Sirius cursed as he riffled through his bedside table, searching for his chocolate frogs. He couldn't find a single one although he was sure there had still been ten left when he had looked last time. Frustrated he tore down to the common room.
"My chocolate frogs have gone missing," Sirius complained to James who was sitting in the Gryffindor common room trying to do his potions homework and failing miserably.
"Are you sure you haven't eaten them?" the older boy asked sighing in frustration at his inability to understand potions.
"I think I would remember eating ten chocolate frogs at once," Sirius snorted angrily. "And last week one of my sugar quills disappeared from my bedside table."
"You think someone is stealing your sweets?" James asked, finally giving up on his homework.
"I doubt they have run away on their own," the younger boy scoffed.
"So what are you going to do about it?" James questioned him, relaxing on the couch he was sitting on.
Sirius grinned wickedly. "I still have some Liquorice Wands and the Acid Pops. I'm going to hollow out the Liquorice Wands and fill them with Acid Pops. Whoever is stealing my sweets will think twice about it next time."
A large grin spread across James' face. "Brilliant idea. I wish I could see their face when they try to eat them."
"Maybe we will, if we are lucky. See you later!" the younger boy waved and disappeared back up the stairs to his dorm room to execute his plan.
Sighing heavily James returned to his potions essay but was interrupted once again. Julia was standing in front of him, blushing brightly.
"Hi James, do you need help?" she asked shyly.
"Oh, hi Julia. Help would be great," he admitted and gave her a lopsided grin.
"Alright, let's see what you have," she said, grabbed his potions essay and sat down next to him on the couch. Then she proceeded to explain to him what was wrong with his essay and helped him rewrite it.
It took them two hours and a lot of questions from James but eventually he finished his essay and even felt like he understood what he had written thanks to her explanations.
One week later the four friends were discussing their plans for the Christmas holidays in the common room when they heard pain filled howls from another corner of the Gryffindor common room. They turned around and saw Devlin McLaggen and Ian Towler with Liquorice Wands in their hands and holes in their tongues, crying in pain.
"So they are the ones who took my sweets. Serves them right," Sirius remarked with satisfaction that his trick had worked.
They watched the two thieving third years bolting out of the common room, probably to run to the Hospital Wing. On their way out they threw hateful looks at Sirius, promising revenge. Sirius wasn't too bothered though. They weren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed.
"You are all going home for Christmas, right?" Frank asked his friends, returning to their previous conversation.
"Yes, Grandma Molly would never forgive us if we didn't turn up for her Christmas dinner," James said only half joking. Molly Weasley always invited all of her children with their families on Christmas Day. It was a tradition she insisted on and not even Charlie, who still lived and worked in Romania, dared to deny her.
"I still don't know how she fits us all into the Burrow every year," Fred remarked with a shake of his head.
"Extension charms, probably," Frank stated.
"Your whole family will be there?" Sirius asked with wide eyes. The Potter/Weasley family was huge as he knew from previous birthday parties.
"Our family. You're part of it now," James grinned. "And yes, everyone will be there. Even Uncle Charlie will come from Romania."
"The one who works with dragons?"
"Yep, that's Uncle Charlie," James confirmed.
A few days later, most of the Hogwarts students were sitting on the Hogwarts Express to go home for Christmas. Only a few students stayed behind in the now nearly empty castle. Neville couldn't leave the castle for more than a few days because he was the headmaster, so Frank and Alice belonged to those who stayed behind. Their mother would close the Leaky Cauldron on Christmas and visit Hogwarts to celebrate the holiday with them.
Sirius, James, Albus and Lily were greeted by Harry and Ginny at King's Cross. Harry had apparated home from Hogsmeade earlier that morning, after the students had boarded the train.
When they arrived home, the first thing they noticed were the Christmas decorations. Ginny had hung up fir sprigs and mistletoe and a tall fir tree stood in one corner of the living room. It wasn't decorated yet.
"We all decorate it together on Christmas Eve. It's tradition," James explained to Sirius.
Sirius nodded in understanding and thought that it was a nice tradition. His family had never done things like that. Their Christmas tree had always been decorated by their old house elf – Kreacher – during the night when everyone else was asleep.
At dinner Ginny asked her children about school and in turn told them about her travels to France, Germany and Bulgaria for her job. She had gotten to watch a lot of Quidditch games and interviewed the players afterwards to write articles about it.
"I've met Viktor at the game England against Bulgaria. He's the coach of the Bulgarian team now," Ginny stated.
"Really? How is he?" Harry asked, remembering the famous Bulgarian seeker and Durmstrang's champion during the Triwizard Tournament in his fourth year at Hogwarts.
"Good. He's got some offers from British teams and is thinking of moving here," she answered flatly. "As you would know if you bothered to read my articles once in a while," she added sharply.
The atmosphere at the table suddenly became tense. The children shifted uncomfortably in their seats, wishing to be anywhere else right now. Ginny and Harry both had a temper and their arguments often escalated into shouting matches. They both had strong personalities and opinions and neither of them wanted to give in.
"You know I don't read The Prophet on principle," Harry said with a tired sigh. They had had this argument a thousand times already.
"I know. But I'm not saying you have to read all the articles in the newspaper. I'm just saying it would be nice if my husband would take an interest in my work every now and then!" Ginny's voice had risen with every word until she was nearly shouting.
"I am taking an interest in your work. I just don't see why I have to subscribe to that rag to prove it," Harry replied angrily.
The couple was so preoccupied with their argument that they didn't notice the children quickly making themselves scarce. They went up to their rooms and out of the line of fire. They definitely didn't want to be dragged into their parents' fight.
Sirius followed James into his room. They sat in awkward silence on James' bed, listening to the voices of Harry and Ginny becoming steadily louder.
"Sooo...want to play exploding snap?" James asked and ran his fingers through his black, shaggy hair, trying to ignore the elephant in the room.
Sirius eagerly agreed to escape the awkward silence between them. They were on their third round when the shouting downstairs finally stopped. Shortly afterwards they heard footsteps on the stairs and then the slamming of a door down the floor.
"Do they often fight like this?" Sirius eventually asked, not looking at his friend.
"Sometimes," the older teen sighed. "It's getting more and more often though."
They heard heavier footsteps on the stairs that continued up to the attic. Apparently Harry would be sleeping in one of the guest rooms tonight.
The two teenagers played until they both fell asleep on James' bed, still in their clothes.
The next few days were tense. Harry and Ginny were giving each other the silent treatment but otherwise acted as if nothing had happened. The children didn't know what to make of it and treaded carefully around the two as not to upset them further.
As promised they all decorated the Christmas tree together on Christmas Eve. They adorned it with everlasting candles, red and golden ornaments and golden tinsel. The finishing touch was a large golden star that Harry put at the top of the tree.
"That was fun," Sirius grinned mischievously. "But something's missing." He produced some of WWW's special sparklers and added them to the tree when Harry and Ginny weren't looking. "Now it's perfect."
Afterwards they were sent straight to bed because Harry and Ginny knew they would be up at an ungodly hour in the morning to unwrap their presents. Sirius was so excited he couldn't sleep though and once again crept into James' room.
"Sirius? What are you doing here – again?" James asked sleepily.
"I can't sleep and I'm bored," Sirius whined and threw himself on James' bed.
James groaned. Whether it was out of pain because Sirius had landed on his legs or out of annoyance Sirius couldn't tell, maybe both.
"Then go read a book or count sheep or whatever," James grumbled and tried to shove the younger boy off of his bed. "I need my sleep."
Sirius stubbornly stayed where he was and grabbed one of James' pillows. Then he proceeded to hit James over the head with it.
"Oh no, you didn't," James growled and grabbed the pillow he had rested his head on. He retaliated and soon it escalated into a full blown pillow fight, all thoughts of sleep forgotten.
After nearly an hour they dropped in exhaustion, lying laughing and panting on the bed. Their eyes started to droop as they slowly calmed down and soon they entered the world of dreams.
The next morning they were woken by Lily's excited screams. "It's Christmas, it's Christmas, it's Christmas!"
James opened his eyes and groaned when he saw Sirius sleeping in his bed – again. He prodded his friend until he woke up.
"Sirius, you need to stop crawling into my bed. We are getting too old for this," James complained as he got up.
"Sorry, I just thought...James never complained when I did...but we were younger then...I guess," Sirius stuttered and looked away in embarrassment.
"You know I'm not him, right? No matter how much I might look and act like him, I'll never be him," James said and gave Sirius a piercing look.
"Yes, I know, Jamie. I know you are not James," Sirius assured him, his grey eyes shining with honesty.
"Alright, then let's go down. Lily has probably unpacked all of her presents by now," James smiled hesitantly and turned to leave the room, Sirius following him excitedly.
It was still dark outside and only a few candles lit their way to the living room. The others were already waiting for them. Lily was sitting on the floor, right in front of the presents lying underneath the Christmas tree, Harry and Ginny were sitting in separate armchairs and Albus was dozing on the large couch.
"Finally, I thought you had gone back to sleep," Lily cried and turned her big, brown, pleading eyes on Harry.
Harry smiled at his impatient daughter and cast "Incendio". Immediately the candles on the tree lit up and the room was bathed in warm candlelight. The candles weren't the only things that were lit though. The sparklers Sirius had placed on the tree started to burn, too and red, blue, green and golden sparks began to fly all around the room, fortunately without setting anything on fire.
"James?" Harry turned to his oldest son.
"It wasn't me!" James immediately defended himself.
"Sirius," Harry sighed and shook his head in exasperation.
"Can we open our presents now?" Lily interrupted before the raven-haired man could tell his charge off.
"Yes, yes open them before you die from excitement," Harry said and watched in amusement as she tore the paper off of her first present. It was a new blue dress robe with a pattern of white lilies that she wanted to put on immediately.
The piles of presents were relatively small because they only contained their presents to each other. They would receive all their other presents later at the Burrow.
James, Albus, Sirius and Harry all got new dress robes from Ginny as well but they were a lot less enthusiastic about it. Lily also got a matching silver necklace and barrettes to complete the ensemble. The boys on the other hand got mostly Quidditch supplies, since they were all playing on their House teams.
Lily gave her three brothers chocolate from Honeydukes. Albus got them all books, Charms for Young Witches for Lily, Quidditch through the Ages for James and Popular Pranking Hexes of the last 100 Years for Sirius. Sirius also gave his foster siblings various sweets from Honeydukes and James presented them with sneakoscopes.
Harry got a new phoenix feather quill and a bottle of red ink from the four children. Ginny got a quick quotes quill for her interviews from the children and a golden necklace from Harry.
After a rich breakfast they got ready to floo over to the Burrow. Lily still insisted on wearing her new dress robes, necklace and barrettes and Harry and Ginny finally relented under the condition that she took some other clothes with her in case she wanted to go outside with her cousins to play. Fortunately the Potters had three bathrooms, so it didn't take too long for them to get ready. Harry and Ginny shared the bathroom on the first floor, James, Albus and Sirius had to fight over the one in the attic, while Lily got the small bathroom on the ground floor all to herself.
"James, hurry up! I need to use the loo!" Albus frantically knocked at the locked bathroom door.
"But I'm not ready yet. Can't you use one of the others?" James replied irritated.
"NO! They are all occupied! Now please let me in before I piss myself!" Albus pleaded desperately.
"Come on Jamie, let him in! You don't really want Al to piss himself, do you," Sirius called, who was already washed, dressed and ready to go.
"Fine," James grumbled as he opened the door. He barely made it out of the room before Albus ran past and the door slammed shut behind him.
James was only wearing his boxer shorts, holding his clothes in his hands. For the first time Sirius noticed how muscular his friend was. He wasn't brawny, but slim and athletic with the hint of a developing six-pack. Sirius had to admit that he understood now what all the girls saw in James – besides the fact that he was the son of the famous Harry Potter.
"Uhm, Ginny said to hurry up or we're going to be late," Sirius relayed the massage he'd been sent to deliver.
"Ok, I just need to get dressed, then I'm ready," James said and walked down the stairs to his room. Sirius went to the living room, where Harry was already waiting.
Lily was the next to emerge from the bathroom, a little overdressed for Christmas dinner at the Burrow in her new dress robes but very pretty. Only a minute later James stumbled into the living room, looking for his mother and sighing in relieve when he saw she wasn't there, yet. He had decided to wear simple black trousers and a red shirt, his hair was as messy as always and Sirius couldn't tell if he had actually bothered to comb it or not.
Surprisingly it was Albus who joined them next. He had also chosen to wear black trousers, like his brother, but with a green shirt that accentuated his emerald green eyes. Sirius himself was wearing casual blue robes that brought out his own grey eyes. Harry was similarly dressed to his sons, black trousers and a cream shirt.
Finally Ginny appeared in aubergine coloured robes. She herded them all over to the fireplace so they could floo to the Burrow. Ginny took the pot with the floo powder from the mantelpiece and offered it to Harry.
"You go first to make sure the children don't get lost," she said and Harry sighed, he still didn't like this form of transportation.
The oldest Potter grabbed some of the floo powder and stepped into the fireplace. He shouted "The Burrow," and was gone in a whirl of green flames.
"Now you, James," Ginny said and the oldest Potter child followed his father without hesitation.
"Albus."
After her second son had disappeared into the green flames, Ginny tuned to Sirius. He stepped forward confidently. Flooing wasn't new to him, although he had never been to the Burrow before. When he gracefully stepped out of the fireplace at the Burrow, he saw Molly Weasley hugging her grandsons to her ample bosom while remarking about how thin they were.
Sirius looked around the room and noticed that they had arrived in the kitchen. On the stove were various pots and pans bubbling and sizzling along, on the counter potatoes and carrots were peeling and cutting themselves and the air smelled like Christmas pudding and cookies. The kitchen was slightly chaotic but also very homely, the complete opposite of the old Black house where he had grown up. He liked it.
Mrs. Weasley had just finished hugging her two grandsons and was bustling over to greet Sirius, when the fire in the fireplace flared again and Lily stepped out, brushing off the soot that now stained her new clothes. Molly tutted and with a wave of her wand the soot was gone. Then she pulled Sirius into one of her bone breaking embraces.
"Merry Christmas, Sirius dear. It's so nice to have you here with us," she said and then took a step back to look at him, still holding on to his arms. "At least one of you boys looks properly fed," the elderly witch stated with an approving look.
"Merry Christmas Mrs. Weasley," Sirius replied but was immediately cut off by the witch.
"Call me Molly, dear. I have five daughters-in-law and you can't call us all Mrs. Weasley now, can you?" she stated.
Would be worth a try, Sirius thought with a grin. Molly didn't see it because she was already off greeting Lily and Ginny. James led Sirius into the living room where some of the family was already assembled.
Arthur was sitting on a couch, talking to another red-haired man Sirius had never seen before. He assumed that this was Charlie, the dragon tamer from Romania. Next to him sat Bill, unmistakeable due to the scars on his face. His wife Fleur was standing in a corner away from them, arguing in rapid French with her daughter Dominique. Victoire was nowhere to be seen but had to be somewhere around the house and wherever Victoire was Teddy was, too.
Percy was talking to George about one uninteresting thing or another, going by the younger brother's bored expression. Fred and Roxanne were talking with Louis while Audrey, Percy's wife, was making polite conversation with Angelina and Andromeda. Molly was sitting on her own, with a book in her hands and Lucy was quietly playing with a pet Sirius remembered was called a Pygmy Puff.
When Harry, James, Sirius and Albus entered the living room Fred's face lit up. He had been talking to Louis and Roxanne but left them to greet his two partners in crime. George sent Harry a look that screamed 'Help' but the raven-haired man ignored it and instead greeted the three women warmly and then started a conversation about Quidditch with Angelina that Ginny soon joined. Audrey left them to sit with her eldest daughter Molly since they both weren't interested in the sport and Andromeda went off in search of Teddy and Victoire.
Lily immediately made a bee line for Lucy and the two youngest girls started to chatter and giggle with each other.
Ron, Hermione, Hugo and Rose were the last to arrive as usual, despite Hermione's efforts to get them to the Burrow on time. Albus greeted Rose happily, glad to finally have someone to talk to, Hugo joined Lily and Lucy, Ron of course had to put in his two cents about Quidditch and Hermione was pulled into a conversation with Fleur who had stopped arguing with Dominique. They were quickly joined by Audrey who had been left by Molly in favour of talking to Dominique, Louis and Roxanne.
When the Weasley matriarch called them for dinner they all took a seat at the enlarged kitchen table. Sirius ended up between James and Percy with Louis sitting opposite of him. He came to regret that he hadn't avoided this particular uncle of James, who droned on and on about his work at the ministry's Department for International Magical Cooperation and the importance of O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s to get a good job like his.
The food was delicious though and more than made up for the boring dinner conversation plus, George more than once teased his older brother about it and tried to get him to lighten up.
"I wonder why my parents chose him to be my godfather," Louis whispered to James and Sirius.
They shrugged. "Maybe you were a particularly naughty baby and they were trying to punish you," James joked.
"Doesn't seem to have worked, I hear he's still a naughty boy," Fred chimed in from James' other side, wearing a mischievous grin.
"Oh? What has our little prefect done now?" James asked curiously.
"Roxanne told me he's been caught snogging quite a few girls and boys these last few months at Hogwarts," Fred told them still grinning widely.
"Shut it, Fred," Louis hissed, but too late. Hugo and Lucy who had heard Fred were looking at him with wide eyes. Louis groaned.
"Oh, you haven't told them yet?" Fred asked with feigned innocence in his voice.
"No, I haven't," Louis ground out, looking nervously at his parents down the table. "And I would prefer it if I could tell them myself. In private."
"You should tell them soon, before someone else does," Fred advised him.
"Like you?" Louis asked angrily.
"No, like your sister. I bet Roxanne has told her already," Fred answered and calmly continued eating while Louis groaned again. Dominique was sitting right across his mother with Roxanne next to her. He would have banged his head against the table if it wasn't filled with food.
Sirius was amazed that no one seemed to mind Louis' bisexuality. In his family this subject had been a big taboo and a reason to be instantly disowned. Homosexual couples couldn't have children but the continuation of the blood line was something very important to purebloods, so it was largely ignored – if you still married a witch and had an heir - or condemned - if you didn't. Never would they have spoken so openly about it.
After dinner presents were handed out. It was chaotic because everyone was running around trying to find people to give them their presents and unwrap their own at the same time. Sirius didn't have a lot of presents to give since he didn't know most of the Weasley family that well. The only people he got a present for were Fred, George, Roxanne, Dominique, Andromeda, Teddy and Victoire.
It was quite crowded at the Burrow with the whole Weasley family crammed into two rooms, so the younger generation decided to head outside for a while. They bundled up in their Weasley sweaters that they had all gotten from their Grandma Molly, thick winter cloaks, scarves and gloves. Then they went outside into the snow covered garden.
Teddy and Victoire decided to take a short walk to enjoy some alone time, Lily, Hugo and Lucy wanted to build a snowman and James, Sirius, Fred and Louis started a snowball fight against Rose, Dominique, Roxanne and Albus. Molly had opted to stay inside, claiming it was too cold to go outside.
"Hey, that's unfair!" shouted Fred when Dominique started to charm their snow balls. The four boys had been close to winning but now the three girls and Albus were laughing as they tried to escape the charmed snowballs. Unfortunately they couldn't retaliate because none of them were of age yet and performing magic was forbidden during the holidays for underage wizards and witches.
"I'm for disqualifying Dom," exclaimed James, hiding quickly behind a tree to avoid the snowball coming his way.
"I agree!" Sirius called out from his hiding place.
"Damn it, Dom! You are a Gryffindor, not a Slytherin! We don't fight with underhanded methods!" Louis complained as one of his sister's charmed snowballs hit him right on his neck and some of the snow fell inside his sweater and trickled down his back.
"Do you give up?" Dominique asked the four boys.
"Never!" Fred cried and tackled her together with Louis while James and Sirius bombarded Roxanne, Rose and Albus with their own snowballs.
They only returned to the house when it became too dark to see. Cold and with flushed faces the teenagers entered the kitchen and were greeted by their grandmother Molly with hot chocolate and Christmas cookies. They dug into the cookies like they were close to starving and eagerly drank down the hot chocolate to warm them up.
The adults were drinking eggnog in the living room. Grandma Molly had turned on the radio to listen to the music of Celestina Warback, much to everyone's displeasure. No one dared to object though. Teddy and Victoire were sitting on one of the loveseats, snuggling and kissing every now and then, Fleur was actually sitting on Bill's lap, George was covertly groping Angelina and even Percy was holding hands with Audrey. Only Harry and Ginny were sitting on different ends of the room, Harry talking to a snuggling Ron and Hermione while Ginny was chatting with Charlie.
When it got late the families returned home one after another. Tired from the day's excitement, James, Albus, Lily and Sirius fell into their beds, asleep nearly as soon as their heads hit the pillows.