CHAPTER 14

Sirius' eyes widened as he looked around, "Are we where I think we are?"

Harry grinned, "Black Manor. A.k.a.: The Hideaway."

"And wait 'til you meet the other residents," Remus said with a chuckle. They gave Sirius a grand tour and were amused by his many reactions. Remus and Sirius were both surprised on the second floor.

While waiting for Moony to return from Sirius' rescue, Harry had teleported to The Hideaway and created two other master bedrooms. Lupin sighed and told Harry that he'd said during the summer he didn't need a bigger room, but thanked Harry too. Sirius whistled and said he liked 'this place better than Grimmauld Place.'

Seeing as how it was only the eighteenth, they decided to put the decorating off for two days; instead, they sat in the living room and talked, practiced in the dueling room, played quidditch, or explored the woods around The Hideaway.

To say Sirius was surprised when the four founders retained human form would be an understatement. Harry had told him that it would happen, and how it had happened, but that didn't do much to lessen the shock. When Harry introduced Sirius to the founders, it was Salazar who spoke first. "So you were the only one in the family not to be Sorted in my house?"

Sirius lifted his chin slightly, "That was me, and I'm happy it was." Godric smiled.

On the twenty-first, Harry, Remus, Sirius and the founders began to decorate the mansion. They first put a red rug on the staircase and decorated its banisters with holly. They put up enchanted Christmas lights on all the windows and outside on the sides of the house, that alone took up most of the day. They had snow fights outside, in both magical and muggle fashion. Salazar was victorious in many of them, knocking all of the others down.

The next day they finished putting up wreaths, which each of them decorated, and tinsel in the rooms, then went outside and got a good, twelve-foot Christmas tree from a muggle that was selling them a little ways outside London. They put the tree in the living room, which they'd enlarged somewhat. They first frosted the tree, and then put candles on it, which they would light on Christmas Eve. The seven of them then made ornaments; it took over 100 to fully decorate the tree. Harry made an ornament of each of his animagus forms, and those of Ron, Hermione and Ginny. He also created snitch ornaments. Remus made a wolf ornament and several suns, crescent moons and stars in gold, silver and copper colors.

Sirius made an ornament of his own animgaus form, as well as one of Prongs, and a lily. The founders made ornaments of their house mascots, the ghosts in Hogwarts, and castles. They all animated each of the animal ornaments, so that they would move about the branches of the tree, and make actual animal noises when someone touched them or spoke to them. After those, they created ornaments of various shapes and sizes; they made some clear, some colored, some flashed different patterns, other displayed messages. One of Godric's said: 'Gryffindor rules all!' Harry had to stop Salazar from changing it. The last thing they did was put a star on top of the tree.

That night, Harry fell asleep smiling.

Harry woke with the realization that he still had to get Christmas presents. After breakfast and his morning routine, Harry let Sirius and Remus know where he was going, then teleported to Diagon Alley. He was quick to hide his scar and changed his eye color to brown. He left his hair loose, trimmed it a bit, and then went shopping.

His first stop was at Quality Quidditch Supplies, were he bought a Chudley Cannons robe, and had 'Weasley' printed in black on the back of it, for Ron. He then went to a lesser known bookstore for Hermione, and purchased a book on the history of house elves, written by a house elf. For Ginny, he found a book on famous pranksters and bought that, plus a box of Berttie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. He bought Alex a necklace with a silver crescent moon pendant and had her name and the Christmas date of that year engraved on the back. He bought Remus a watch, thinking of adding a few extras to it on his own. He picked out a ring for Sirius, having his own plans for it too. The last thing he did was buy a book on dragons, complete with moving illustrations, for Hagrid. Satisfied, Harry ducked into an alley and teleported home to work on his presents.

On Christmas Eve, Harry finished creating and wrapping his presents. Sirius and Remus were extremely curious, but Harry just grinned evilly and said that they had to wait one more day. They then started to make the lunch and dinner for the next day. With Helga's help, while she was in her frame, they managed to make roast beef, mashed potatoes, chicken dumplings, stew, and a garden salad for dinner. She also told them about a charm that would keep everything they made as fresh as if it'd just been cooked.

They took a break and ate some lunch, then went on to making lunch for Christmas. They prepared sandwiches, a turkey, more salad, and—as Harry's idea—pizza. Having no idea what the last one was, Sirius and Remus let Harry take care of it.

The three also thought about which beverages to serve. Butterbeer was a natural choice, and Remus told Sirius about the Halloween Masquerade Incident—Sirius fell to the floor laughing.

After they ate their own dinner, they put the presents under the tree, lit a fire, and talked about random things. At eleven fifty, Harry realized something. "We've got to light the candles!"

Sirius looked at the clock. "Oh yeah, right you are." As Padfoot got out his wand, Harry grinned and produced a box of matches.

"We're going to do it the muggle way." Moony laughed at the confused look on Padfoot's face and they lit the candles on the tree.

Harry lit the last one just as the clock struck midnight. He turned with a smile to look at Remus and Sirius. "Merry Christmas."

Coming Up:

Christmas Day

Surprises

Then:

Moonlight walk

School Again

(A/N: Sorry that this chapter was so short, and that there weren't any major events, but I think it's a good stopping point for the moment)