Chapter 24: Its Christmas!

The first day of the holidays saw many students wake up feeling most definitely the worse for wear. The party they had planned for after the ball had gone fabulously, though that was about the most anyone could remember about it. A few of them remembered the beginnings of a game of Truth or Dare, but exactly what had happened in it was a mystery to most of them.

Harry woke to the sun shining in on him, which in his current state he did not really appreciate and so hauled his covers over his head, nestling into their warmth and feeling his body drift back to sleep. In the bliss that was slumber it seemed as though only seconds passed, though in reality it was around an hour, before something was launched towards Harry's bed in an attempt to stir him.

It seemed that the other members of the tower were rather more eager to be going home for Christmas than Harry, not that he wasn't keen, just that they knew what to expect and were excited by the prospect, where Harry, who had never been part of a true celebration – though last year was close, Arthur Weasley being attacked had put a dampener on things – was unsure of quite what to expect.

"Come on Harry!" yelled Ron, obviously the one to launch the pillow assault, "the train's leaving soon!"

"It is?" Harry asked sleepily sitting up and blinking, testing his eyes,

"Yeah, it's already eleven" added Dean who had just appeared back from the common room, "the girls are looking for you two" he continued, glancing at Ron who was busy throwing things at his trunk.

He paused and looked up, "they are?"

"Uh huh" Dean muttered as he picked up his trunk and headed back downstairs, "I'll tell them you're on your way will I?"


"Yeah thanks" called Harry as he clambered to his feet and began a search for some clothes, Ron grunted something undistinguishable mid throw.

"Ron!" exclaimed Harry with an incredulous look, "You bloody idiot! You've managed to put all of my things in your trunk too"

Ron looked over at him sheepishly, "Sorry mate, got a bit into the packing there"

"Right" said Harry, "can I get them back then?"

Instead of replying Ron delved into his trunk and removed most-if not all- of Harry's belongings from it.

"Thanks" said Harry, and he began to transfer the mounting pile into his own trunk.

In the common room

"So, d'you think Harry suspects anything?" asked Ali concernedly,

"He knows something's going on, but he has no idea what it is" said Hermione,

"Isn't it easy to guess though? I mean we all worked it out" asked Ginny worriedly,

"Could you ever imagine Harry guessing that?" asked Hermione,

"Well, no, I suppose not," replied Ginny as all three girls started laughing,

"He's never even going to believe it even when he's told, when he's shown" added Ali thoughtfully, "he, I don't understand it really, but I don't think he believes he deserves it"

That remark killed the laughter and the girls' expressions darkened,

"I know," said Hermione, "like in third year when Sirius offered Harry a home, Harry was ecstatic, but then when it never worked out…Harry wasn't even surprised, it was like he expected it to go wrong…"

"Can you blame him?" asked Ginny quietly, "look at the way his life's gone"

"Mmm" an air of silent contemplation befell the group before they were interrupted by the man himself. Harry made his way down the stairs slowly; he had quickly discovered that too much movement was not the best thing for the headache that he was nursing. Ali greeted him with a quick kiss and a hug, and he looked at her in disbelief.

"How can you bear so much movement?" he asked exasperatedly,

"What do you mean?" she replied confused,

"Don't you have a headache too?" he asked, and his expression only grew more confused as she burst out laughing

"Nope" she said with a grin,

"But…how? You drank just as much as me!" he demanded,

"Yeah" added Ron, "how can you not be ill too?"

"Stupid boys" said Ali as she reached up and flicked Harry's head,

"Ouch!" he exclaimed, "that pain was amplified like ten times"

"What makes us stupid?" demanded Ron, looking indignant,

"Never heard of a headache charm, brother dear?" called Ginny from the couch, stifling a laugh, which caused both Ron and Harry to blush furiously,

"Guari" said Ali pointing her wand at each of them in turn, "better now?" she asked innocently,

"Much" replied Harry, as he moved over towards her, delighting in the fact that it was no longer painful to move, he was determined to thank her for her help, and he did so in the most fun way he could think of, he kissed her, warmly and passionately. As he did so he heard her moan against his lips as her hands made their way into his hair. That was their favourite resting spot, and Harry couldn't say he complained about it.

"Knock it off will ya?" called Ginny from the couch, screwing up her face in mock disgust.

Ali waved her off and pushed Harry into the stairwell, out of the way of any jeering, she smiled up at him after several more minutes of making out, "I going to miss you" she whispered, resting against his chest,

"What do you mean?" he asked, "Aren't you going to your aunts?"

"What? Oh, yeah,"

"Well when will you miss me? The Burrow's right next door"

"Oh yeah, I don't know what I'm talking about…" she trailed off praying that Harry wouldn't ask more, not wanting to ruin the surprise, "maybe you should just shut me up" she muttered slyly,

Harry grinned, "My pleasure," and he kissed her again.

The train journey was rather mundane and mostly uneventful, except for one spat between Ron and Hermione, though they were the only ones aware of what it was regarding, the others had learnt by now, that they should keep their distance rather than try and get involved. After all, the last time Harry had tried to settle one of their 'heated debates' he had ended up being assaulted by a book on one side (Hermione) and a pillow, which luckily had been the only thing Ron could find to throw, on the other. It was then that he decided to leave them to it, sometimes he thought they even enjoyed it, though he couldn't begin to fathom why, most likely he didn't really want to know.

When they were about halfway through the journey the witch with the food trolley began her rounds, but seeing as it was Christmas she had a small present for each compartment. Harry immediately accepted theirs; having never gotten the train at Christmas he assumed it was normal. Hermione looked slightly puzzled, but remembering that the last time she had gone home was in first year, she supposed they could easily have changed things since then. Neither Ali nor Ginny paid the small package much notice, after all, it was hardly likely to be anything that interesting, but Ron looked curiously over towards Harry,

"Are you going to open it then?" he asked eagerly,

Harry looked over at him and smiled when he saw the ill-disguised enthusiasm, "Here, you can if you like" he called as he threw the small parcel over to his friend.

Ron's face lit up, like the cat that got the cream, and Hermione smiled fondly at him, whilst shaking her head in resignation. Just as Ron was about to tear into the parcel an explosion was heard from further down the train, as well as some yelling and screaming. Immediately they jumped to their feet, wands drawn ready for action, and the parcel fell to the floor, forgotten, landing just under the edge of the seat.

The group banded together, forming a circle-like formation, Harry, instinctively leading the pack, as they made their way towards the noise. The shouting hadn't ceased, in fact, if anything it seemed to have gotten louder, and more frenzied, panic becoming more and more evident as they got closer.

The nearer they got the more worried Harry became. At the front of the group he had the best view of what was going on, and from what he could make out it wasn't good. It looked as though one of the carriages had blown up!

By the time they got to the disaster scene the Defence Team were already there, assessing the situation. Sirius was sifting through the debris that was once a carriage, Tonks was consoling the small group of terrified first years that had been in the carriage when it exploded whilst Trisana was questioning them, trying to get to the bottom of what had gone on. Remus and Charlie were kept busy trying to prevent other students from getting too close. Until they knew what had happened the area was still potentially dangerous.

Harry was dismayed to find that their group wasn't allowed access to the site either, but he didn't complain too much as they were at least permitted to stand at the doorway, much closer than anyone else had been. It was from that vantage point that they saw the first signs of activity; Trisana seemed to have found something out from the students, as she leapt into action and quickly explained the situation to the others. A frenzied debate then ensued, all of them eager to find a solution quickly.

The group split up and Trisana pointed her wand at her throat, presumably utilising the 'sonorus' charm, as when she spoke her voice was magnified to an almost deafening volume. "Everyone please pay attention. We have reason to believe there are explosives on the train. We request that everyone takes a seat and refrains from touching anything. There will be someone around shortly to examine your carriage. Please remain calm."

The last comment was lost among the frenzy of chatter that broke out all through the train.

"Harry?" It was Sirius, "can you lot come in here and watch over these first years for me? We got to go and check the rest of the train"


"Uh, yeah, that's fine" replied Harry as the group made their way into the carriage wands still drawn, and they watched the members of the Defence Team sprint down the train.

"What's going on?" queried one little girl, whom Harry recognised as one of the Griffindor twins he'd noticed at the sorting, as she bit her lip to keep it from trembling. The others in the group looked equally shocked and confused, but that was replaced somewhat by curiosity when she spoke.

"Well, we're not too sure ourselves" replied Harry distractedly as he strained to see what was going on further down the train.

The small girl didn't take this news too well at all, and looked as though she was ready to break down into tears.


"Hey," Ginny comforted her softly as she moved over towards the group, "there is nothing to worry about, any of you, the Defence Team are in control now and they know what they're doing"

The children sniffed back tears and a few even attempted half-hearted smiles. "So," continued Ginny, smiling warmly at them all, what're your names? Mine's Ginny, and this is Ali, Hermione, Luna, Neville, Dean, Ron and Harry"


"Harry…Harry Potter?" asked the little girl in awe,

Harry looked round reluctantly, grimacing, "Yeah, that's me"

She looked at him oddly for a few seconds, and muttered "wow" under her breath,

"So" prompted Ginny again, "What's everyone's names?"

"Well, I'm Sarah" replied the girl, "and this is my twin brother Jamie, we're both in Griffindor" she continued proudly, eyes gleaming,

"That's right" added Harry, "I remember seeing you at the sorting"

"You remember me?" she asked shyly,


"Yeah" he replied, with a sly grin "you looked like trouble"

At this her brother grinned, finally showing some sign of life, "we are, 'specially in Potions"

Harry grinned, "Good on you"

"Harry" muttered Hermione, "I really don't think that's the best impression to be setting the younger students"

"But…they're terrified; I'm just trying to relax them a bit"

"But, I, oh, just try to do so some other way will you?" she conceded

"So what about the rest of you?" prodded Ginny, "are you Griffindor's too?"

They shook their heads furiously, "We're in Ravenclaw" replied one boy with spiky dark hair, "I'm Calum and this is Emma" he said pointing to the girl next to her,

"and we're in Hufflepuff," piped up one girl, whom none of them had noticed until then as she was extremely small and was well hidden by the others, "I'm Krista, and they're Alex" another girl, "and Darryl" a tall, friendly looking boy,

"And we're Slytherin's" added a pretty fair haired girl next to Sarah, "I'm Alicia, and that's Blake, and this is Liam"

Ron visibly started at the mention of Slytherins, and looked disbelievingly at the children, "And you're all friends?"

"Yes" replied Alicia coolly, "shouldn't we be?"

"Of course you should" replied Hermione nudging Ron harshly in the side, "I think it's marvellous that there's such unity between the houses, maybe you two could learn something from them" she continued directing her gaze at Ron and Harry,

"Hermione!" started Ron indignantly, "you can't honestly think that we should just march up to Malfoy and give him a big old hug and ask how he's been! The boy's evil"

Harry stifled a laugh at the mental image that comment induced before coming to Ron's aid, "he's right Hermione, I mean, almost all of the Slytherin's in our year hate us more than we hate them, we couldn't befriend them even if we wanted to."

"I know," she said quietly, "It's just…don't you ever wish that this was over? That you didn't have to be enemies with Slytherin, that you didn't have to be ready to fight a war at any time, that you didn't have to be ready to lose your friends at any time…"

"Every day" said Harry quietly, his green eyes flashing intensely as lost himself in thought,

"And Hermione?" added Ron with an encouraging smile, "Don't feel as though you have to be ready to lose us…you're not getting off that easily"

This was enough to draw a small smile from Hermione and she reached out to hug her best friends, pulling them close to her, "I know" she repeated, "Don't listen to me, I'm just babbling, we'll all be fine"

The three friends sighed as one, all of them wishing without hope that they could believe that, but theirs minds heavy with the knowledge that they couldn't.

Luckily Ali, Ginny, Neville, Dean and Luna had been chatting to the first years keeping them calm and relaxed, so none of them had noticed the scene unfolding between the trio. Just then the members of the Defence team began filtering back into the ruined carriage, checking that everyone there was alright. Tonks was the first to return and Harry, Ron and Hermione pounced on her at once, desperate for answers.

"What is going on?" Harry demanded, "What happened here? Is everyone else alright?"

Tonks looked around for support but all the other members of the team were otherwise engaged, and she was surrounded by three determined teenagers. "The Christmas presents, they were bombs set to go off when they were unwrapped. Luckily these kids were practicing their magic, and used charms to open, so none were close enough to it to be hurt. It could so easily have been different."

Ron paled considerably at this news realising just how close he had been to setting off a bomb, "But how…who?"

"The witch with the food trolley was under the Imperius curse, she didn't have a clue what she was giving out."

The three fell silent, retreating back into their own thoughts.

"Now come on," Tonks urged in an attempt to cheer them up, "we can handle things here, everything's fine, the danger has passed, go back to your compartment and enjoy yourselves"

They nodded sullenly and turned to go.

The rest of the journey was quiet. No-one had much to say, and none felt much like playing any games. They reached King's Cross in a rather sombre mood, though that was soon to be alleviated. For awaiting their arrival on platform 93/4, were Fred and George Weasley, and they had something of a spectacle prepared both to welcome home their siblings, and to advertise for business.

When the first student disembarked the train they triggered a charm that set off some astounding fireworks, when the fireworks were over another charm activated causing everyone to flash the colours of their (in some cases former) house for several minutes. When the flashing was over they had manifestations of each of the house mascots sing the Hogwarts school song. When they were finished a large banner appeared over the platform reading, "Merry Christmas Everyone! Display courtesy of Weasley's Wizardly Wheezes."

The gathered crowd burst into applause and Fred and George were instantly surrounded, people firing compliments and questions at them from all angles.

"Well really!" Molly Weasley was muttering, "Imagine, taking this as an opportunity to advertise that infernal joke shop. Of all the brash ideas…"

"Oh mum leave it out" muttered Charlie who had just reached his family, "Everyone loved it, why can't you just be happy for them?"

"Oh I am, and you know it, I'd just prefer if they'd do something more…more respectable" she continued beseechingly, "Oh Ron, Ginny!" she called out, spotting her children amongst the crowd, "and Harry and Hermione!"

Ron heard his mother's eager shouts about the same time as he noticed her pushing her way through the crowd to get to them, "Oh bloody hell" he muttered under his breath, "you'd think she never expected to see us again!" But just then Molly reached them and he was cut off as she encompassed him in a hug, muttering about how good it was to see him, and how much she'd missed him, before she promptly moved onto the others and repeated the procedure each time, much to the discomfort of Hermione, who was trying to make it to her own parents.

"You going Hermione?" Ron called, seeing her attempts to greet her parents, "Without saying goodbye?"

At which point she turned back and moved off to the side to bid him farewell properly, they moved back to the group soon and she said the rest of her goodbyes before moving off to her parents, who looked delighted to see her again.

Mrs Weasley then set about finding Fred and George who seemed to have got lost in the crowd, wishing to be heading home soon.

Ali was also preparing to go, Caighlynne getting rather impatient so she came to say goodbye to Harry. They exchanged goodbyes, but nothing to formal, after all they were going to be living next door to each other, and Ali followed after her aunt, looking back to Harry every so often with a broad smile on her face. Harry was also grinning stupidly as he watched her walk away.

"Harry!" a voice came from behind him, causing Harry to start, he relaxed at once though, seeing it was only Sirius,

"Sirius, hey…are you coming to the Burrow too?"

"No"


"Oh" Harry was a bit put out by the unexpected response.

"But, you're not going either…"

"What?" Harry was definitely confused now,

"Well…I have a surprise for you…if you want to see it that is" Sirius babbled, suddenly nervous, in all his planning he had never considered Harry not wanting to go.

"Um, yeah, okay, sure"

"Right, let's go then" replied Sirius eagerly, a grin lighting up his once carefree face,

"I'll just tell the Weasley's…"

"Nah, it's alright, they know"

Harry looked at Sirius warily; the situation was rather odd after all, "Sirius…"

Sirius was concerned; he didn't understand why Harry was acting so oddly, "What's wrong?"

"I just…why won't you let me talk to the Weasley's?"

And all at once Sirius understood, Harry didn't trust him, and when he thought about it he didn't suppose he could blame him. This was rather bizarre, and things being how they were… "of course you can talk to them…" he said, looking slightly embarrassed, "I guess I'm just a bit eager about this surprise, that's all"

Harry smiled with relief, but just to be sure he looked for one of the Weasley clan, the closest one being Arthur, "Mr Weasley!" Harry called,

He turned round, "Harry? I thought you would've gone with Sirius by now"


"I'm just going, thought it would be best to tell someone first that's all"

Arthur smiled, why can't my own children be so responsible? "Okay, I'm sure we'll see you soon"

"Bye!" called Harry as Sirius dragged him outside to what could only be the infamous flying motorbike.

"Is this…"

"Yep this is her, the one that Hagrid rescued you on all those years ago, had to be restored of course, but…" Sirius eyes full of love when they looked at the bike, "God I missed her. Anyway, climb on, there's something I want to show you"

The flew for about 15 minutes, until they were at the outskirts of the town, above what looked to be a muggle suburb, when Harry noticed one particular street out of the corner of his eye that seemed to want to avoid notice, similarly to Diagon Alley.

Sirius touched down just in front of what appeared to be a row of trees and tapped his wand three times on a man-hole cover and once on a muggle post-box that stood on the corner of the pavement. The trees vanished and revealed a little Cul-de-Sac that could only be part of the magical community. Odd misshapen houses stood in no particular order around the road, and there was what looked to be a quidditch field at the end of the street.


"Sirius?" Harry asked hesitantly, "What are we doing here?"

"Well, that's simple Harry." He replied, barely suppressing a grin, "We live here!"

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It took some time for that revelation to sink in. In fact it took so long for Harry to react that Sirius began to panic, worried that his announcement had triggered a heart attack or something in his godson. Luckily just at that moment Harry turned and hugged him fiercely. He didn't say anything, but he didn't have to, Sirius understood, words just weren't necessary.

Harry was shocked, dumbfounded, he had never expected this, not in a million years. He blinked back tears as he held Sirius, not wanting him to see such emotion. "So…"Harry began, once he had collected himself, "Which house is ours?"

"This way," Sirius grabbed the motorbike and made his way to a house about half-way down the street. It was a reasonable size, neither particularly large nor particularly small. It had a small front garden – which consisted of a lawn with a path cutting through it- and a large back garden, also completely turfed. As they made their way up the path Harry noticed a small sign on the house, it was called The Nook. Weird thing to call a house, but whatever.

When they were inside Harry was again surprised, for the interior was much more spacious than he had thought. Must've been magically altered he surmised as they explored. Sirius had already furnished and decorated, and Harry was impressed, it was perfect.

"Want to see your room?" Sirius asked enthusiastically,

"Yeah" replied Harry with the same excitement, as Sirius bounded up the stairs. Harry quickly followed. He paused in the doorway of the room, he certainly hadn't expected what he saw; the room was decorated and furnished, there were even posters on the wall and an assortment of books and other miscellaneous belongings on some shelves. It looked like someone was living there already. "Sirius…I…uh…"

"Do you like it?" he asked anxiously, "You can change the decoration…and you can bring your own stuff…chuck all of that out if you want. I just picked what I thought you'd like…"

Harry looked at him in disbelief, "Chuck it out? Why the hell would I do that? It's brilliant! And as for my stuff, anything I want is right here in my trunk"

Sirius looked a little confused, "don't you have things at the Dursley's though? In your room?"

Harry stifled a sarcastic laugh, "have you ever listened when I've talked about them…Sirius, they grudged buying me food, they certainly never bought me gifts"

"I, but…" Sirius gaped at him, he had known things had never been great for Harry but he hadn't realised they were this bad. Though the more he thought about it the more he realised it was probably only because he didn't want to. His eyes flashed with anger as he thought about what Harry had been put through, Vernon Dursley, I swear if I ever get my hands on you…. A sadistic grin formed on Sirius face as he thought about all the things he'd love to do to Vernon Dursley. One day that man would get what was coming to him. One day…

"Sirius? Are you okay?"

Sirius banished the thoughts from his mind, not wanting anything to ruin the day, "I'm fine Harry, so you like it then?"


"It's brilliant…thank you…this is just…" he trailed off, not knowing how to articulate how much this had meant to him. He didn't need to.

"I know Harry…when I left home and James took me in…" his eyes clouded over slightly at the memories, "…I understand"

Harry nodded, smiling, "good"

The first week of the holidays passed marvellously, Harry and Sirius went to see the Dursley's, to tell them that Harry would never be back, and though Harry was delighted, he couldn't help but feel like he'd lost something. He had always hated the place, but he had grown up there after all, it was just strange to know that he'd never be going back. The feeling soon passed though. Harry settled into life at The Nook very well, and was glad that for the first time he had somewhere he could completely relax in. Relaxing had never been an option at Privet Drive, there were always chores to do, or even if there weren't Harry had to focus on keeping out of sight; things were just easier if he did. Even at the Burrow, where no-one would have objected to him relaxing, he was still in someone else's home, and that was always in the back of his mind. But here, it was great, he could lounge around all day, he could make a mess, he could do pretty much whatever he liked, and damn, it felt good.

It took some getting used to though. It was decided early on that Harry should do the majority of the cooking, due to the fact that he actually could cook. Hence by default Sirius was put in charge of housework. Luckily he had picked up a few charms that covered the majority of it; enough to keep the house presentable at least. Needless to say they were looking into getting a house elf. Sirius had also provided Harry with lots of new clothes, and Harry was still getting used to wearing clothes that fitted and looked good. It was also strange for Harry to be able to talk to his friends via Floo, well Ron, Ginny, and Ali anyway. Sirius had gotten a telephone so he could talk to Hermione easily too. Harry had even had his friends over. For the first time in his life he was able to invite them to his place. With the convenience of Floo powder he and Ron were frequently popping between their two houses.

 Harry was lying awake in his bed. He couldn't sleep. It was Christmas Eve and he was simply too excited. Not only because it was Christmas tomorrow, but because it was going to be a great Christmas. Sirius had invited hundreds of people, well maybe not quite hundreds but close. All of the Weasley's (excluding Percy who was still not talking to any of his family) were invited as were Hermione and her parents – who seemed delighted at the idea of a wizarding Christmas and the chance to meet the families of their daughters friends. Ali was coming, much to Harry's delight, as was her aunt. Remus was going to be there too, and so were Tonks and Trisana. It was going to be quite some day. Harry and Sirius had spent all of the evening getting the place ready, cleaning, tidying, setting the huge table, and arranging presents under the tree, though they took up much more space than that. They had decided that everyone should open all of their presents there so Sirius had collected them from the respective homes and brought them back to The Nook. Harry could barely believe just how many there were. Everyone was arriving early; 9/9.30 in fact, that had been Ron's idea, he couldn't wait 'till any later, secretly though Harry agreed with him. Eventually he did fall asleep, dreaming of what the next day would entail.

Harry was brusquely awakened at around 8.30 by a most awful, out of key version of Jingle Bells, which Sirius was singing at full volume, it seemed Sirius was even more enthusiastic about Christmas than Harry.

"Harry!" Sirius paused in his singing as he bounded into Harry's room to wake him up, "Come on, get up already, it's Christmas!"

Harry mumbled something incoherent in return and threw his covers over his head, Sirius however was not to be put off as he ran over and pulled them back off, hauling Harry up.

"Come on, they'll be here soon…" when there was still no response from Harry, Sirius grinned mischievously, "well, if you really want to look like that when Ali gets here…"

That was all it took, Harry was up and in the shower before Sirius even realised he'd moved. Sirius grinned happily and took up his carolling once again as he moved off to get himself dressed.

The guests began arriving shortly and in no time the living room was a sea of people, wrapping paper and presents, calls of "Thank-you!", "this is great", "who's this from?" and "hey, has anyone seen…" soon filled the air as complete mayhem descended. The unwrapping of presents took up a few hours and the revelling in the new gifts took even longer so before anyone realised it was one o'clock and time for dinner. Everyone hurried to the table and settled down to eat. Molly Weasley had been doing the cooking so everyone was satisfied that they'd be in for a treat and indeed they were. Molly had cooked enough to feed about five times their number but no-one was complaining, least of all Ron and Sirius, who both had seemingly bottomless stomachs.

Arthur Weasley found Hermione's parents absolutely fascinating, and took up most of their time questioning them about the Muggle world and its curiosities. Hermione was trying to read a new book she'd gotten, but she found herself distracted all too often by Fred and George's antics. They were randomly charming, transfiguring and hexing food, most often just as someone was about to eat it. Molly began to scold them, but in the end gave up as no-one really minded, little did she know that they were only responsible for around half the incidents, Sirius was just a lot more discreet about his involvement.

After the meal everyone retired to the living room, stomachs full, to enjoy their presents and each other's company. Ali, Ginny and Hermione had all gotten new clothes and decided to try them on, putting on something like a fashion show for the others – Hermione had taken a lot of persuading – much to the boys delight.

When everyone had had plenty of time for their food to settle, and to relax, Fred suggested a game of quidditch. Almost everyone was interested and in the end the whole group made their way to the pitch down the street. After considerable debating and arguing the teams were decided upon. On the first team, Harry was seeker, Fred and Sirius were beaters, Ali, Ginny and Bill were Chasers and Ron was Keeper. On the second team Charlie was seeker, George and Tonks were beaters, Caighlynne, Trisana, and Remus were Chasers and Arthur was Keeper.

Molly had never been a quidditch fan, like Hermione, so they sat on some conjured benches along with Hermione's parents who were eager to see the sport they'd heard about in action, cheering the others on.

The match was intense and exhilarating, Sirius and Tonks both making surprisingly formidable beaters – they revealed later they had both played that position at Hogwarts – just as Arthur had played Keeper, and managed to retain a good deal of skill. In the end Harry caught the snitch – no surprise there, eh? - And gave his team a victory of 270 – 110. It had been a close match. They returned to The Nook, both Sirius and Ron complaining of hunger, and settled down to a game of Monopoly, which Hermione had brought along. They played in teams, seeing as there were far too many to all play singly, and in the end Sirius and Remus won. Though Harry suspected the victory may not have been entirely honest, Sirius had that look in his eyes that Harry knew meant he was up to something, however he couldn't be bothered to make it an issue so he let it go.

People began to go home then, and soon it was just Harry and Sirius left,

"So…did you have a good day?" Sirius asked, as he sat picking at the leftovers, though how he could even think of eating was a mystery to Harry,

"It was the best" Harry replied with a contented grin,

Sirius grinned back, "Good"

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My lovely faithful readers,

Never fear, I have not deserted you! Though I wouldn't blame you if you thought I had. What can I say; Christmas is a busy season for me. Speaking of Christmas I hope you all had a good one and I wish you all the happiest of New Years!

I had wanted to get this story up to 100,000 words by the end of 2003 but alas I failed. Ah, well, life goes on, eh? This chapter did not want to come out. Not at all. But after some gentle coaxing, (and some rather frustrated outbursts) it's here! (And because of the delay it's extra long too!)

I was feeling somewhat disheartened with the story for a bit, the last few chapters have been a bit bland to say the least. There was a desperate need for some action, and I hope this rather meagre offering will suffice. I do have plans for more interesting storylines, but they are nearer the end. Ah, well, bear with me, please.

I would, as always like to thank those of you that reviewed the last chapter, it's very much appreciated. It brightens my day to no end when I read a nice review, and luckily that's almost all I get for this. I'm not going to bother responding individually to each and every one from now on, because well, that would mean this takes even longer to get to you, and there really is no pointing regurgitating almost the exact same thing to everyone individually. If anyone would really like me to, then by all means I will, I don't want you to feel under-appreciated. I will respond to any that I feel require an individual comment, but I will just issue a general thanks for the rest. As I said, if this offends anyone please let me know as that is most definitely not my intention.

Phoenix marauder() I felt I had to respond to your review as you picked up on the lack of action that has been bothering me about these last few chapters, and I felt the need to thank you for pointing it out, and to assure you that there is more planned for the future! Thank you for your continued support.

Anna L.Black I felt that you also deserved a response, because well, you guessed Sirius' surprise! Congratulations! I award you…*looks around for something to give, finds a slightly chewed pen* …this lovely pen, which was actually used in the creation of this chapter! Aah, don't you feel privileged now? Lol, anyway, as always thanks for the unwavering support!

And thanks to all the others who reviewed: jbfritz, athenakitty, dreamer43, Dumbledore Style, Sasinak, and legolasrulez.