Chapter 29

Christmas time rolled around much like it had the year before. Sirius decided that he wanted to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas and, while James wanted to go home, he decided that it would be better if he just stayed with Sirius rather than regret it later. Plus, Lily and Remus were staying for the holidays and James figured the more the merrier.

So, while most residents of Hogwarts were preparing to go home, Sirius was rocking Anastasia to sleep in the Gryffindor common room while Lily watched James and Remus play chess. It was very peaceful among the four Gryffindors.

"Ah, crud muffin!" exclaimed Remus as James's bishop killed his queen. James grinned and sat back looking smug.

"Beat that, Lupin," he teased. Remus sneered at him and then grinned. Lily got off of her seat and went to go sit next to Remus.

"I'll help," she said and directed his castle to go kill James's bishop.

"Hey, I didn't even…oh well," James stammered and Sirius decided that if Lily could help Remus, he could help James. In the end it became more of a game between Lily and Sirius.

"I see your move," Sirius whispered to James and then began pointing everywhere. Then Lily interjected and pointed out why that wouldn't work. So Sirius ended up telling James's bishop to slide to the end of the board.

Then Remus got to his move, and his castle was in danger no matter where he moved it. "You're going to die, Moony," said Sirius. "You can, however, take that guy and at least you'll go out in style."

"Hey, I thought you were helping me," an indignant James cried out. Sirius shrugged and returned his attention back to the game. James rolled his eyes and tried to regain his control over the game.

The game continued on the same way and eventually, Remus ended the game. However he had prolonged it so that he could kill all of James's pieces, so he had an unpleasant surprise waiting for him. "Yes!" he exclaimed happily. "I won. Finally!"

Sirius examined the board and then shook his head in amusement. "No you didn't, Moony," he said, still staring at the board.

Remus stopped his celebration and looked at the board. "What do you mean, no I didn't?"

James also looked at the game and burst into uncontrollable laughter. Even Lily had a smile on her face. "Well, you're in a stalemate," explained Sirius as he pointed out why."

At those words, Remus's smile fell and Sirius and Lily burst into laughter and James fell over. "I…stalemate? Nah, it's a check mate," he muttered.

"No," Sirius replied through his laughter, "you can't kill James where you are right now, but it's his move and if he moved anywhere else, you could kill him. So he has to stay there, but you still can't kill him."

"You…ha-ha…couldn't even kill me…ha-ha….properly. Stalemate!" James laughed.

"Ha-ha," Remus laughed sarcastically and began collecting his pieces. "I challenge you to a rematch."

"You're on!" he exclaimed and so began another game, with Lily and Sirius throwing in random, but helpful, comments. It was never quite clear who they were helping out though…

"Merry Christmas!" exclaimed James, waking Sirius up. He blinked his eyes open and gazed up at James's face.

"James," he groaned, rolling over and away from him, "I want to sleep. It's to bloody early."

Anastasia started crying and he rolled his eyes as he got up. "This is a set up, I know it," he grumbled as he walked to her bed to pick her up. "You two got together and decided, 'hey let's get Sirius up early today simply because it's Christmas and we actually have a decent excuse, unlike the other 364 days of the year'."

James watched Sirius rant and smiled. Sirius used to be a morning person, but after Anastasia had been born, something had changed. Now Sirius preferred to just stay in bed, even if he was awake, and he could stay in bed for hours. Unless, of course, they had class, which was basically every day except for weekends.

"Come on Siri, cheer up," urged James. "It's her first Christmas and don't ruin it by complaining about absolutely nothing!"

Sirius turned to look at James with raised eyebrows. "Sorry, senor bossy."

James rolled his eyes and went to go find some food for his daughter. He came back and found Sirius playing with Anastasia and one of the toys that they had gotten her for Christmas.

"I can't leave you alone for ten minutes and you're already playing with her toys," he teased as he sat next to his boyfriend. After sharing a kiss, James opened the food container and began to feed the nine month old baby.

The rest of the morning was spent opening presents, showing Anastasia what to do with her gifts and one rousing game of chess, in which Sirius won because he "saw all of the moves".

Remus and Lily came by around noon, knocking on the door and came in. Remus and James started another chess game, much to Lily's dismay (she feared that they were to violent, which they were), and Lily and Sirius played with Anastasia.

"She's getting so big," Lily said as she watched Ana crawl to one of her toys which lit up and danced when she touched it. "And she looks so much like you."

"Die pawn, die!" exclaimed Remus from behind them. "Crush them all!" Lily and Sirius turned around to look at the two teenagers playing chess. They didn't pay any attention to the other two.

"She is getting big," agreed Sirius, sounding somewhat disturbed by his usually calm friend. "She was trying to walk the other day. With my assistance," he admitted sheepishly.

Lily smiled and James suddenly yelled out, "HA! Beat that you scum bag! My pawn just crushed your horsy. What now? Ooh…wait, ouch."

"HA-HA-HA!" shouted Remus. "My pawn just destroyed your queen! Now who's the tough guy?"

"I see your move," James said softly, "so don't get cocky yet."

"At least I still have my queen."

"Not for long!"

Lily laughed and turned back to Anastasia. "I swear that game brings out the monsters in those two."

"Poker's a dangerous game to play too, with James anyways," added Sirius. At those words Lily's eyes lit up.

"Poker, now that's a good idea," she whispered. Sirius rolled his eyes and pushed a button on one of Anastasia's toys.

An hour later, after Remus smashed at their chess game, Lily convinced them to set up a poker table and they started playing.

"I'm gonna bet…um, this many chips," Sirius said, pushing out enough to approximate to $400.

Lily looked at the pile and then her hand. She pushed out that much. Remus and James did as well, grumbling about how stupid Sirius was.

"Well, show your cards," Lily said as she set her hand down. She had a three of a kind in fours. James had a pair of twos and Remus had nothing. Sirius lay his down with a straight.

A smile flashed upon his face and he said, "Who said I didn't have a poker face?"

A.N. yep, there you go. I based that entire chapter on personal experience. My cousins play chess exactly like that and my mum is crazy when it comes to poker. Please review, and thanks a lot for reviewing.