Famous Last Words
Sacred Dreams
For Ginny 3
And in thanks to Trinity Day, whose review came at the right moment to get me off my lazy butt!
"Out the window, quick Sirius?" James snorted, furiously scrubbing at the grimy dungeon floor. "We're not stupid enough to use names when we're trying to run away!"
Sirius sat up, flinging his scrubbing brush into the bucket of soap, splashing Remus in the face. "We have to clean the potions floor without magic because those of those stupid girls!" He fumed. "I say that this requires for a special official condemnation by MARABE. This is taking forever!"
"No magic," James scorned. "We should practice our cleaning magic. We're not Muggles!"
"Would they really know if we didn't use magic?" Remus questioned, using his sleeve to wipe Sirius' splash of soap off his face. "They might just think we did a really good job."
Sirius jumped to his feet, accidentally overturning the bucket into Remus' lap. "Brilliant!" He crowed. "We use magic and then just sit around talking and making motions with our scrub brushes!"
"Brilliant," Remus said, looking dismally at his wet robes.
"Know any cleaning charms, Remmie, ol' buddy, ol' pal?" James asked, feeling suddenly quite chipper.
"Well, I know one my mum uses all the time," Remus furrowed his brow, thinking. "I think I know it, anyway."
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Sirius asked excitedly. "McGonagall didn't take our wands!"
Remus stood and fished around in his robes for his wand, giving the dreary dungeon a last look. The dungeon floor was coated with a layer of countless drops of spilled potion and dirt students tracked in from the grounds on the bottom of their shoes. Even the bottles of unnamable objects floating in liquid were smudged by dirty fingerprints.
Mum would be proud, Remus thought, as he cast the spell. "Scourgilfy!"
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, suddenly, Remus' wand began to violently shake, and a green sludge spewed from the end. With a sinister globbing sound, the sludge clung to every surface Remus' wand sprayed it toward—the jars on the shelves, the stone on the walls, the stained glass windows, the desks moved against the walls, the stone floor…even the spaces in between the stones were filled with the foul smelling substance.
"Remus," Sirius moaned, aghast. "Your mother cleans like this?"
Remus stared, shocked, as the sludge coming from his wand slowed to a trickle, and then, as if a magical faucet was turning, stopped.
"Whoops," He said, unable to form an intelligent thought.
Just then the loud footsteps of Professor McGonagall rang along the corridor leading the dungeon.
"No point in it now," Sirius said glumly, kicking his now green scrubbing brush.
"Those girls," James gritted his teeth as the door opened. "Will pay."
"And regular detentions for two weeks!" Lexi gasped, barely getting the words out between peals of laughter. "Every other night after dinner!"
Lily tried to muster up all of the sympathy she possessed for them. And failed. "It's not like they don't deserve it," She said. "I'm sure they've put enough people into sticky situations to deserve one of their own!"
"The potions room smells so bad we have to take classes in Dungeon 5," Lizzie said, wrinkling her nose as she imagined the smell. "What charm did they use anyways?"
"Who knows," Lily said airily. "Knowing them, they probably just tried to make one up."
"Probably," Lizzie agreed, holding the portrait open for Lizzie and Lily. "I heard it took 3 hours for Madame Pomfrey to try and get the smell out."
"I heard she didn't," Lexi said. "Celina Cestral was in the hospital wing when they were, and she heard the whole story and heard—or rather, smelled—everything. She said Madame Pomfrey couldn't even get the smell out!"
The three walked into the Great Hall and sat at the end of the Gryffindor table for breakfast. Everybody was sitting very close together, almost leaving Lily to hang off the end of the bench.
"Why is it so crowded?" Lily asked semi-crossly, shoving Lizzie over a little so she could have more room.
Lexi craned her neck and saw the problem. James, Sirius, and Remus sat in the middle of the table, scowling. The rest of the table had given them a wide berth—at least three feet on either side.
Lexi couldn't blame the Gryffindors—she could smell them even from the end of the table!
"Let's go to Charms early," Lizzie suggested, holding her nose with her hand.
The three girls quickly abandoned their seats, grabbing toast and hurrying out of the hall. As soon as the doors swung shut behind them, Lily gasped in a few breaths.
"I can breathe again," She said.
The girls ran, giggling, to the Charms classroom, but skidded to a halt as they entered. Written on the board in large, swirling script was "Surprise Exam." To Professor Flitwick's credit, the letters were sparkly and changed colors every few minutes.
"You're early!" Professor Flitwick squeaked, erasing the words with a wave of his wand.
"Does that mean the exam isn't for our class?" Lexi asked hopefully. Lizzie smiled her biggest and brightest smile to try and deter the Professor from assigning it.
"I'm afraid it is," The Professor said. "But don't worry—it's a partner exam! I'll be reading off the partners when class starts." Professor Flitwick gave a pointed glace at the clock. "In 20 minutes."
Lily, Lexi, and Lizzie walked outside and leaned against the wall. "A surprise exam?" Lexi moaned.
"I don't even remember all the charms we've learned!" Lizzie complained.
"At least it will be easy," Lily said. "It's only Charms."
The other two girls glared at her.
"And we have a chance of being paired with them," Lexi said. "And knowing our luck, one of us probably will!"
"Not me," Lizzie said happily. "I was paired with Sirius in Herbology once, remember? I've got my turn out of the way."
Lily made a worried expression. She had been paired with only of the boys—James—and only one time. Lexi and Lizzie had both been paired with the boys twice each. Logically, that meant Lily would be the one who was paired with them next!
"Oh no," Lily said, feeling as if she might be sick. "It'll be me. I know it."
Lily wasn't feeling any better as she sat in Charms class.
"Don't worry!" Professor Flitwick chirped after the students' groans died away. "The exam is quite simple! In your partner paris, you will select one of the charms we have studied this term, research its origins and practical uses, and present to the class. It will be due on Friday."
Lily swallowed. Prepare a presentation? And research? With one of them? She cast a dark look at the three boys, who sat in the back corner of the classroom. They were talking amongst each other, probably not even hearing a word the Professor was saying. Working with them would be hell!
"Hyacinth Brown and Lexi Bell," Flitwick called, beginning his partner list. Lily listened anxiously for her name.
"Bertha Betyl and Simi Rogers. Elizabeth Han and Patricia Morgan. Sam Wyseman and Virgina Lo. Ben Ringle and Amanda Smith…"
Lily gulped. Her name hadn't been called yet, and neither had any of theirs.
"Sirius Black and Samantha Godall."
Sirius smirked across the room at the pretty brunette in the corner. She was easily one of the prettiest in the class. Samantha winked back at him before facing front.
"Kendra Killigan and Kelly Grene. Stacy Donohugh and Keenan Reece. Ryan McLaughlin and Shane Connors. Bridget Sheldon and Remus Lupin."
Two down and only one more to go! Lily thought, feeling hopeful for the first time in twenty minutes.
"Ruth Baker and Lily Evans."
Lily shot Ruth a grateful smile. Ruth was nice, if a little shy. No boys! No boys! Lily sang inside of her head.
Professor Flitwick read off the last few names of his list, and then put the list down. "Well, now that you have all been partnered off-"
He was interrupted as Lizzie's hand waved in the air.
"Yes?" the Professor asked.
"Professor, you didn't call my name," Lizzie said.
Professor Flitwick frowned. "Oh dear," He said. "But this class is even numbered. There must be one other person whose name I didn't call."
A hand lazily rose from the back of the classroom. Lizzie turned around and her heart fell out of her chest.
James Potter grinned at her before she turned around to face Lily and Lexi.
"I'm so sorry," Lily said miserably. "It should have been me."
Lizzie couldn't find it in herself to tell Lily it was okay, so instead she just walked woodenly to where James sat.
"What charm do you want to do?" Lizzie asked, deciding she would simply try to get it over with as quickly as possible.
"I dunno," James drawled. "Why don't you choose?"
Lizzie threw him an exasperated look. "It's a partner project!"
"How about the engorgio charm?" James suggested innocently, remembering all too well the spider incident on the train. Apparently, Lizzie did too, as her eyes narrowed.
"I was thinking more along the lines of the Indosa Charm," Lizzie said, pretending that she didn't hear James' suggestion.
"Indosa Charm?" James asked, not feeling up to searching his memory.
"For removing stains from clothing," Lizzie prompted. "We studied that a few weeks ago."
James vaguely remembered. "Sure," He said. "Sounds…fascinating."
Lizzie gave him a disbelieving look, but said nothing. "Let's bring some research materials tomorrow, then," She said, as the class ended.
Accordingly, Lizzie arrived to class the next day with a bagful of library books.
"Where are your research materials?" She asked James.
"Oh, right! Just a moment," James said, fishing around in his book bag. A moment later, he set a few objects on his desk.
"A quill and paper?" Lizzie asked.
"For writing down research," James said, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.
Lizzie closed her eyes and let out an exasperated breath. She was going to end up doing all the work, it was plain now!
"Hey, no nap time!" James protested, poking her with his quill. "We have to get to work."
Lizzie cracked open a book and removed her page marker. "Practical Charms for Practical Uses says-"
"Oh, hold on," James interrupted, noticing Sirius waving his arms around at him. "Be right back."
James ran across the room to Sirius' desk. "Yes?" He asked.
"You look like you're doing work," Sirius said, looking disgusted.
James laughed. "Not much, my friend."
Across the room, Lizzie glared at James' back. She grabbed his parchment and quill and began scribbling down notes. If he was going to do no research, she would just have to find something else for him to do.
The whole week, as she researched and wrote and drafted a presentation, James chatted with Sirius about Quidditch. Both were annoyed that first years were not allowed to join the House team, although they conceded it was due to the poor skill of most of the first years. At this point, Sirius cast a pointed glance at Lizzie, but she was too busy working to notice.
"Poor girl," Sirius said. "You've got her doing that all by herself?"
"Not like you haven't abandoned your partner, either," James retorted, giving a glance towards Samantha Godall, who did not look to be very happy as she dipped her quill into some ink.
"Oh well," Sirius said. "She's too good for me anyways."
As class ended, Lizzie stopped ignoring James' presence. "James," She said as he was about to leave. "Since I'm doing the research part, you wouldn't mind doing the practical bit, would you?"
Lizzie looked so worried that James found it hard not to reassure her. "Yeah sure," He answered nonchalantly.
"Great! All you have to do is perform the spell in front of the class. I'll prepare everything," Lizzie promised.
"Thanks," James said. "See you Friday."
"Friday," Lizzie repeated before turning away to hide her smile. "I can't wait."
When Friday morning rolled around, James appeared to class completely confident. "Ready?" He asked Lizzie.
"Ready," She answered, displaying a white towel with a big splotch of ink spilled on it.
James was so confident that he volunteered himself and Lizzie to go first. She was a good student, after all, and he could do a simple little charm. This was going to be the easiest Charms test of his Hogwarts career.
"The Indora Charm was created by Qian Wang," Lizzie read from her parchment. "She lived in China in the 6th century in the Emperor's Court. When her child spilled ink on her dress a little while before she was to meet the Emperor. Without time to change, she had to find another way to make the stain disappear. She was very talented in Charms, and had no problem. At first, she simply found a way to make the ink invisible. After practice and experimentation, however, she was able to take the ink out completely, and even put it back in the jar. This is a very useful spell, especially when you spill ink in the library. Simply swish your wand, say 'Indorrra,' and the stain will disappear."
Lizzie put down the parchment and held up the stained cloth. "I brought this towel so that James could demonstrate how the charm works."
James flashed a smile at his classmates. "It's quite simple," He said in an authoritative manner. "All you have to do is wave your wand to the right, then the left, and say 'Indorrra!'
The cloth stayed stained.
"Now that you know the procedure," James said, feeling uncertain. "I'll demonstrate. Indorra!" He said loudly, swishing his wand.
The ink began to move, much to James' relief. Unfortunately, it simply spread among the cloth, making the stain even bigger and darker.
The class snickered, and Lizzie bit her lip to hold back a giggle.
"Well, good try, good try!"
Professor Flitwick said, waving them back to their seats. "Next!"
James slouched in his chair and felt his ears turn red as his classmates giggled. He had never looked so stupid before in his life! And in front of the whole class. James sunk lower and sent a glare towards Lizzie's back.
After class, Lizzie grabbed Lily and Lexi and managed to make it out the door before bursting out laughing.
"How did he mess it up?" Lily asked. "He looked like he was doing it right."
"The Indora Charm only works on writing ink," Lizzie explained, pleased with her work. "I used acrylic paint from the Art Magic supply closet."
The three girls walked down the hall, giggling.
Behind them, James sent a murderous glare their way. "First detention, now this," He said menacingly. "Payback is overdue."
They walked down the hall in silence before Sirius' face lit. "I have just the thing," He promised, racing on to Gryffindor Tower. "This is gonna be good!"
"What is it?" Remus panted, trying to catch up with Sirius.
James, who had known Sirius long enough to know that Sirius wouldn't answer, didn't waste his breath asking. Instead, he flung himself over Sirius' shoulder when Sirius grabbed a catalogue from his nightstand.
"Read," He instructed, pointing at a picture. "And thank me for my brilliance."
Remus and James read, smiles creeping up onto their faces.
"Brilliant," James grinned. "Sirius, you are brilliant.
"You're sure about this?" Lily asked Lexi and Lizzie uncertainly.
"Positive," Lexi assured Lily.
"It's one of the most popular Wizarding games of all time!" Lizzie said. "Everybody likes it."
"Well, if you say so…" Lily slipped the package into the pocket of her robes and took another bite of her Pumpkin Pasty.
The Hogwarts Express sped on to its destination: Platform 9 ¾ of Kingscross Station. For the Winter Break, Lily, Lexi, and Lizzie were traveling home. Much to their relief, James and Sirius were staying at Hogwarts—guaranteeing that there would be no unpleasant surprises on this train ride.
"I'm so excited to see my parents!" Lily exclaimed, for the near-thousandth time. "Mum will love the self-warming teacup I bought! And Dad can read the Daily Prophet and keep up with the Wizarding world, instead of just the boring old Muggle one!"
Lily gripped the edge of her seat in excitement. Going home was going to be the best ever! She had loads of news to tell her parents, and to show off her perfect grade in Charms.
"We're here!" She squealed, nearly leaving Lexi and Lizzie in the dust in her hurry to exit the train. "Come meet them, won't you?" Lily asked, dodging other students to be near the front of the line waiting to cross the magical barrier.
The moment Lily saw her parents, she abandoned her trolley to throw herself in their arms.
"I got you the best presents!" She exclaimed excitedly, almost being suffocated by her mother's hug.
"Mum, stop it, you have to meet my friends!" Lily stepped back to introduce her friends. "Mum, Dad, this is Lexi and this is Lizzie."
"How do you do?" The twins said politely.
"Are you spending the holiday in London?" Mrs. Evans asked. "Why don't you hope a ferry and come over?"
"Our mother is French, so we're spending Christmas with her family outside Paris," Lizzie explained.
"Ooh, have fun!" Lily said brightly. "Send me a postcard!"
"Of course," Lexi said, smiling hollowly. Who would want a postcard from that little town? She wondered. It was the most boring place on earth!
When Lily arrived home, her enthusiasm had not yet dimmed. The first thing she did was drag her trunk upstairs to take out all her presents and put them under the Christmas tree. Surveying her room, Lily did a doubletake of the family photo on the wall. Why weren't they moving? Lily wondered, poking the frame with her wand. Lily began to run downstairs to tell her mother the picture was broken when she remembered: Muggle pictures don't move.
Shrugging the memory lapse off, she continued sprinting downstairs.
"Mum, Dad, Petunia!" She called. "I want to give you your presents right now!" She handed her parents the presents, beaming.
Petunia warily accepted hers from Lily. On first inspection, there was nothing weird about it. It was rectangular and wrapped in yellow tissue paper. Even so, Petunia waited until her mother and father had unwrapped their gifts before unwrapping her own. Finding her parents' gifts to be satisfactorily semi-normal, Petunia ripped the tissue off.
BANG!
The present exploded! Petunia screamed and dropped the package. Soot covered her face and her new white blouse!
"Lily Evans!" She screeched, trying to wipe the powder off. "You tried to kill me!"
"I did not!" Lily protested, picking the cards up. "It's Exploding Snap! It's just a game, the wizard version of Snap! See?" She offered the deck to Petunia again.
Petunia knocked the cards out of her hand. "Well now we can play a new game," She snarled. "52 Card Pick-up!"
"Oh, dear," Mrs. Evans said, rushing down the hallway after Petunia.
Lower lip trembling, Lily bent to pick up the cards. A few exploded in her hands, sending soot flying over the carpet.
Lily felt completely opposite than she had anticipated. She wanted to go back to Hogwarts right away. For the first time, she felt out of place in the Muggle world.
It was snowing when Lexi and Lizzie arrived at the family house. Their mother was waiting in the parlor for them.
"Alexia! Elizabeth!" She exclaimed, kissing them with overly made-up lips. "You've arrived at the perfect time! I'm throwing a Christmas Ball tonight! It will be lovely. I've bought new dresses for both of you; they're upstairs in your room. Go try them on!"
The twins gave each other looks before following their mother's orders. Their mother was not known by the twins to have the best in taste, especially when picking out clothes for them.
Lexi and Lizzie opened their boxes simultaneously, shaking out two poofy dresses. Lexi held a large, crimson dress in her hands. Underneath the dress in the box were matching gloves.
"What is this?" Lexi asked, horrified.
Lizzie regarded her matching dress. "We'll look like cream puffs in these," She complained. "Except I'll look like a burnt one. Is this dress black or blue?" Lizzie gave it a puzzled look.
"This is going to be the stupidest party yet," Lexi promised. "Just wait and see."
Eager for the party to be over with and the time to open presents to arrive, the twins changed into their dresses as the chime of the doorbell sounded.
Downstairs, they found the party to be, as expected, excruciatingly boring. All of the guests were adults with wine glasses in hand.
Lexi and Lizzie soon fled to their rooms, where they were unable to block out the music drifting up from the story below.
"We should've stayed at Hogwarts," Lizzie complained. "This is no fun."
"They're only having fun because they're getting drunk," Lexi grumbled.
The only two who didn't seem to have any holiday regrets were James Potter and Sirius Black. Both had stayed at Hogwarts, expecting the delivery of a certain joke product to their dorm room sometime during the week.
"This is the life," Sirius sighed, propping his feet on the Gryffindor Common Room coffee table. "No other students to bother us, House Elves to clean up after us, no homework or teachers to monitor us. James, we should stay for every break!"
"Fine by me," James said, rubbing his stomach uncomfortably. He wished he hadn't eaten so much of the House Elves' treacle tart.
"It's just too bad Remus couldn't have stayed," Sirius said regretfully, stretching out along the couch. "We could've taught him our secret handshake."
"What's wrong with his mum?" James asked, trying to remember himself.
"She's sick."
"I know, dummie, but with what?" James cuffed Sirius on the side of the head.
"Hey!" Sirius cried, grabbing a pillow and smacking James in the face. "Who are you calling a dummie?"
"You!" James shoved Sirius off the couch and ran up to the dorm. A wrestling match erupted into a pillow fight that only ended when James realized that the loss of feathers made his pillow rather flat.
"Look at this!" James said, holding his limp pillow up. "How am I supposed to sleep on it? It's got no more feathers!"
"Should've thought of that before," Sirius snorted, grabbing the pillow off the extra bed in the room.
James reached for Remus', but was rebuked by Sirius. "Hey—he's coming back in two days you know! He'll need a proper pillow."
"We'd better go find one then," James said, getting up. "We can exchange pillows with another dorm."
"We? Don't you mean you?" Sirius asked innocently, pulling the covers on the extra bed over his flat pillow.
"Oh come on, Sirius," James wheedled. "You'll get your present early if you do!"
Sirius jumped off the bed and dragged James to the next dorm up.
True to his word, James presented Sirius with his gift that night, amidst the house elves darting underfoot to pick up small white pillow feathers.
"Ta-daaa!" James sang, bowing and sliding Sirius' present to his feet.
Sirius made a big show of shaking the box before he avidly ripped open the wrapping paper, which displayed snowmen who alternately stuck out their tongues and winked their eyes.
Inside was an important looking, leather-bound brown novel. Sirius gasped. "Oh James, you shouldn't have!" He exclaimed in a high falsetto.
Grabbing the book, he took in the title excitedly. Curses and Countercurses (Betwich your Friends and Befuddle your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying, and Much, Much More).
Sirius let out a great deal of laughter in anticipation for all of the pranks he would pull.
Not to be outdone, Sirius rummaged underneath his bed and reappeared holding an ornately decorated box.
The paper was shiny gold, and the ribbon a deep maroon. James ripped open the box to find a tray of chocolates.
Unsure if they were poisoned—after all, they had been under Sirius' bed—James looked to Sirius for an explanation.
"Only Vanilbino's finest Gourmet Chocolates!" Sirius exclaimed, looking insulted.
James selected the biggest one and ate it in one bite. Surprisingly, they didn't taste poisoned at all! James opened his mouth to thank Sirius, but the thought must've been stopped halfway. Instead, James let out a giant belch.
Sirius, who had been waiting with anticipation, nearly fell on the floor laughing.
"They're Belch Bons!" Sirius roared.
James grinned and stuffed one in Sirius' mouth, who burped even louder than James.
"With these, we're as good as Guy Maynars!" James laughed, naming the General European Champion Belcher, currently reigning from France.
"Just wait until we start giving them away!" Sirius said, displaying an order form. "I even prepared to get extras, just in case."
"You think Remus got us something?" James asked, eager to open more presents. Sirius and James got on their hands and knees and slid under Remus' bed.
"What a neat freak," Sirius grumbled at the lack of even a single dust bunny.
"Where else would you keep a present?" James mused, tapping his chin. He looked over the room, his eyes settling on Remus' trunk.
"There!" He said, opening the lid and beginning to dig through it.
Sirius joined in and they had almost reached the bottom when a puzzled voice startled them.
"What are you doing?"
James nearly fell in the trunk, actually falling in when Sirius used James' back as a lever to stand up.
"Hi Remus," Sirius said smoothly. "You wouldn't happen to have any presents for us, would you?"
Remus smiled. "Where have you looked so far?"
"Well, under your bed and in the trunk," Sirius admitted.
"I keep all the important things in the wardrobe," Remus said, pointing to the mahogany colored piece of furniture. "Considering neither of you use it."
Sirius didn't wait for Remus to finish to fling open the wardrobe door.
There, sitting on the middle shelf, were two wrapped gifts.
Sirius chucked the present that said "James" on the front into the trunk where his friend had just emerged from, and tore the wrapping off of his own.
"I know you collect them," Remus said.
Sirius quickly opened the package of Chocolate Frogs and left the frogs sitting on the wardrobe shelf.
"Andros the Invincible," He muttered, shuffling through them. "Bridget Wenlock, Gregory the Smarmy, Agrippa—I must have about 80 of him—and-"
Sirius stopped short and his eyes grew wide. "Godric GRYFFINDOR!"
"Let me see that!" James demanded, forgetting his own gift. He held the card reverently. "How did you get this with your luck?"
Sirius gazed at Remus with adoration. "It wasn't my luck, it was his!" Sirius said, grabbing Remus' hand and pumping it enthusiastically. "Remus, chum, you are my hero."
Sirius turned back to the wardrobe. "Hey!" He cried. "Where'd the frogs go?" As Sirius chased his chocolate frogs around the room (one melted on the radiator), James opened his own gift. He carefully opened the box and immediately ducked as something flew through the air toward his head. It zipped around his head several times before landing on his shoulder.
"I've caught the Snitch, I've caught the Snitch!" It cried in a tiny voice.
James picked it up and moved it in front of his face to find it was an action figure of Frederick Keaton, the Seeker who had just the previous year caught the Snitch at the Quidditch Cup.
"Fantastic!" James explained, as Keaton took off again and got caught in James' bed's curtains.
Sirius, having caught all of his frogs, paused for a moment and noticed how tired Remus looked.
"Geez, Remus," Sirius said. "Been up all night?"
For a moment Remus looked like a deer in the headlights. "Well, you know, I was just taking care of my mum," He mumbled in the end.
"Well I have just the thing to cure it!"
Sirius rummaged around in his trunk and held up a huge bag with a large and fancy H stamped on the front.
"It came in this morning," Sirius said, sounding very satisfied with himself.
Remus heaved it up, using both hands. "I pity the owl who had to carry it," Remus commented.
"Come on, open it!" Sirius prompted.
Remus put the bag down again, and before he could open it, Sirius nearly shouted "1 Galleon's worth of Honeydukes' best candy, my friend! It'll wake you right up!"
Remus finished opening the bag and stared in wonder at the near-amazing array of colors.
Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Ice Mice, Sugar Quills (wrapped in tissue), Pepper Imps, Chocoballs, Droobles Best Blowing Gum, Jelly Slugs, and even Toothflossing Stringmints
"Eat a few Pepper Imps," Sirius advised. "You look like you need them."
The friends sat around the floor, passing around Remus' candy, when a grey owl burst in through the window. Looking surprised to see the boys awake at the late hour, the owl simply dropped a package onto the floor and flew away. The first owl was quickly followed by two more, who were lugging larger packages.
"Ha!" James crowed. "Mum and Dad thought we would be asleep by now!"
Looking at the name marked on each package, James passed the gifts around.
"My parents helped me buy your present," James admitted, handing Remus the largest package.
Remus opened his first, and out tumbled a magnificent set of Wizard Chess. The board was checkered a deep blue and gold, and the pieces stretched and waved at Remus excitedly.
"Hello, old chap!" The king called pleasantly.
"Look," James pointed out a little pawn. It crossed its arms and pouted. "My dad helped me give it vampire fangs!"
Sirius opened his gift next and revealed a huge, tapestry-sized poster of Beater Bartholomew Shockins, Sirius' favorite player.
"Your parents are the coolest adults I know," Sirius said, flying the poster onto the wall with his wand.
Finally, James opened a pair of silver binoculars, with every kind of knob on the sides. "Vinoculars!" James shouted. "I bet my parents recorded Quiddtich games on these."
"Let me have a go," Sirius said, reaching for them. "I haven't seen a single game of professional Quidditch since I've been to Hogwarts."
"It's only been a few months, Sirius," James reminded him.
"So? I live for it!" Sirius protested, grabbing the Vinoculars. "Did they record any Falcons?"
James and Sirius fought over the Vinoculars while Remus watched a game through them. James and Sirius were brought to this reality when a great Black owl flew majestically into the room, dropping a package onto Remus' head.
"Ouch!" Remus yelped, rubbing his head and putting down the Vinoculars long enough to glare.
The owl gave a disdainful glance, pruned a few feathers, and then flew away again.
"That was a family owl," Sirius said, regarding the package.
"So open it," James prompted.
Sirius carefully undid the wrapping and found himself holding an expensive-looking watch.
The watch was silver, except for an emerald rim around the clock face. Inside, the numbers were emerald and the hands two silver snakes.
For my Son,
The note with it read.
I planned to give this to you when you became a Slytherin. You didn't.
Love, Mum
"Slytherin colors," Sirius said, holding the watch as if it was poisonous.
"Give it to a Slytherin," James suggested.
"Sure," Sirius grinned. "After a few modifications…"
When James finally woke up, it was already past noon. Having had Christmas morning earlier that night, James was surprised to find one more package sitting on the middle of the floor.
Rolling out of bed to get it, James unwrapped the plain brown paper. When he saw what lay inside, James grinned.
"Sirius, Remus!" He shouted, shaking their beds. "It's here!"