A/N: sorry this one's so short.
* * *
James and Sirius spent their vacation exploring the castle looking for more secret passages, and sneaking out to Hogsmeade at every opportunity. They bought so many things from Zonko's and Honeydukes that they were running out of room under their beds to store it, and they hadn't even gotten anything they could eat themselves. It was all Acid Pops and Cockroach Clusters and other joke sweets.
They still needed to get Christmas gifts for Remus and Peter and they hardly had any money left. They snuck out to Hogsmeade under the Invisibility Cloak looking for gifts a few days before Christmas to find that all the usual presents were picked over. After wandering around the town for a few hours, they decided on a Quidditch Through the Ages book for Peter along with huge amounts of candy and a few Cockroach Clusters thrown in for good measure. For Remus they found a model of the moon from an astronomy shop, a book titled Potions for Dummies, and a bunch of Zonko's products.
It took them much longer than usual to get back to the school because they were weighed down by their gifts, but they were in high spirits looking forward to Christmas.
Two days later James woke to find the foot of his bed filled with presents. His owl Hooters was sleeping with his head under his wing perched on top of the pile of gifts, but he woke up with a disgruntled hoot when James jumped out of bed. A sleepy murmur came from Sirius's direction, and a wicked glint appeared in James's eyes. He tiptoed over to his friend's bed, pulled back the curtains, and tackled Sirius who let out a surprised sound as his breath was knocked out of him. The two rolled off the bed still wrestling, eventually Sirius managed to pin James with his superior weight, and suddenly noticed the gifts on his own bed.
"Hey look!" he shouted.
James laughed. "Merry Christmas, you git."
Sirius stuck his tongue out as he began ripping into his presents. James returned to his bed and did the same; the first gift he grabbed was from his parents. It was a huge box of chocolates and a Pocket Sneakscope that was supposed to go off whenever there was someone untrustworthy around. The note attached to it read:
James,
Hope you're having a wonderful year. The Sneakscope might have been a better gift for one of your friends, as it will probably be going off constantly around you. Enjoy the chocolates and have a Merry Christmas. Love always, Mom and Dad
The next box was from Remus; an automatic quill and some joke shop products that James had never seen before. There were mints that caused your tongue to catch fire, soap made you itch, a powder that, when sprinkled over food, caused the consumer to burst into song uncontrollably, lollipops that turned who ever ate them the same color as the candy, and many other things.
Merry Christmas, James. Hope you two are enjoying yourselves and not getting into too much trouble (yeah right). I thought you might like the quill; it can take notes for you while you mess around in class. I was going to get one for Sirius too, but he doesn't study so I figured it would be useless. There's this really cool joke shop a few blocks from our house and I thought you'd like some variety. See you soon. Remus
Peter had given him more candy and Zonko's products, and Sirius's present was a huge box full of everything he could ever need to cause mischief and mayhem. James caught his best friend in a bear hug before jumping on his friend's bed and looking through Sirius's presents. He had gotten a book of hexes from Remus (for the next time Bella gets on your nerves.) and more of the unusual pranks, an expensive looking coat from one of his uncles, and more Zonko's products from everyone else. His cousin Andromeda had even sent him a Christmas pie that was leftover from their family dinner and a map of Hogwarts with a bunch of hidden passages on it. It was missing the passages out of the school that the Marauders had already found, though.
The two boys made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast, their pockets bulging with Dungbombs and Fire Mints and stomachs already full of candy. The staff and students all sat at the same table, with Dumbledore at the head wearing a huge yellow bonnet and passing out crackers to everybody. James and Sirius took theirs eagerly and pointed them at each other as they pulled the strings. They both got mouthfuls of confetti as the poppers exploded and silly hats were thrown out of them. Sirius got an enormous flowery pink hat that sat at an angle on his head, while James's was a red and white striped top hat with a Gryffindor lion head on top.
"What strong Christmas spirit we have here today!" he said, indicating the two boys in their wacky hats. They had a wonderful Christmas breakfast of ham, bacon, and eggs, and spent the rest of the day being chased around by Filch for pulling pranks and lighting off their new Dungbombs.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The two Marauders woke up early the morning that the other students were due to return to Hogwarts to leave little surprises for their fellow Gryffindors. They charmed packages of Filibuster's Fireworks to explode whenever they felt weight on them and hid them in the plush armchairs, they sprinkled itching powder in Remus and Peter's beds, and bewitched whipped cream cans and toilet paper rolls that Peter had sent them for Christmas to come alive and toilet paper the girls' dormitories without human help, since boys couldn't get into the girls' dorm.
They went down to meet their friends as the boats arrived. Remus and Peter were sharing their boat with Lily Evans and a cute blond named Lindy Moline. They seemed highly uncomfortable, but when they had landed and joined James and Sirius, the two black-haired boys noticed that Remus watched Lindy walk off until she turned and glanced back at him. He immediately turned back to his friends, his cheeks turning pink, and asked in a forced cheerful voice about their holiday.
"I think Remy has a crush on Lindy Moline." Sirius teased.
Remus turned a brilliant shade of red. "W-what are you talking about?" he spluttered.
Sirius turned to James for support, but found him staring at a certain redhead. Sirius sighed exasperatedly. "Not you, too!" he said, smacking James lightly to get his attention.
James flushed a shade scarlet to rival the one Remus had donned earlier. "What? I don't know what you're talking about." he said hurriedly. Sirius just rolled his eyes.
By the time they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower, most of the other Gryffindors were already there and judging by the shouts audible from the hall, not happy. The four boys climbed through the portrait hole and all eyes immediately turned toward them.
"It was you!" a furious fourth year girl screeched. Her hair was frizzy as though it had just been burnt and her robes were slightly scorched. James and Sirius immediately fell on the floor laughing, and even Peter and Remus who had no clue what had happened couldn't stop themselves from bursting into laughter at the girl's angry face.
"What did you do?" Remus managed to get as he calmed down slightly, but James and Sirius were still rolling on the floor with amusement and didn't bother to answer.
"They put fireworks in the chairs." Krissy Miller said, her face was serious, but amusement was glittering in her eyes. Her friends were standing around her, and Remus noticed with an odd sense of relief that although Lily Evans looked irritated, the other girls, Lindy included, were smiling.
"I swear I'll never understand how the professors thought it was a good idea to leave you two alone and unsupervised in Gryffindor Tower for the holidays." Remus informed his friends, shaking his head in mock exasperation.
James and Sirius had started to calm down and where now sitting up instead of rolling around on their sides. At the mention of the holidays their eyes lit up. "Oh we didn't spend much time in Gryffindor Tower." James said, his eyes gleaming impishly.
"You gotta hear what we did to the Slytherins!" Sirius added as he jumped to his feet and pulled Remus toward the stairs to their room. "See you guys later!" he called to the other Gryffindors who were looking either highly amused or irritated as Peter and James followed him.
Moments later they heard a furious shriek from the girls' dormitories and then the sound of someone stomping up the stairs toward their room. The dorm flew open to reveal Lily Evans, her face nearly as red as her hair. She marched up to James and slapped him on the cheek. All four Marauders watched in shocked apprehension as she leveled a finger at him and growled warningly.
"I don't know what you're life before Hogwarts was like to convince you that everyone else is your plaything, but let me assure you I will not lay down and let you use me for your own amusement just because you're cute or because of that flyboy attitude of yours. Next time you lay a hand, or a wand, on me, my things, or my room, I will go straight to McGonagall. You got that?"
James just stared as Lily turned on her heel and stomped out without waiting for a reply. As soon as she was out of earshot Sirius began to chuckle.
"Feisty, isn't she?"
"She's completely insane." James whined.