Disclaimer: I don't have the money to buy HP yet, when i do, i'll change the story so Sirius is back and so are James and Lily.
AN: ENJOY! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Christmas with the Potters
Christmas time has been called the most Holly and fulfilling time of the year. Where you can spend you days on end with family and friends that you love more then anything else you could think of.
Until he was 11, Harry had never known real love from anyone. He didn't know till he came to Hogwarts what it was like to have fun filled Christmas and actual presents for him under the tree. But now, this year, the 16-year-old would not only get to know what it was like to spend Christmas, wrapped in his parent's love for him, but he would experience the fun of a Christmas with an extended family. He didn't know what it was life for a family to be with him, but know he was getting the rare pleasure of the extended family. Ok, fine, it wasn't necessarily a real extended family with all the generations and stuff, but it still was extended as in, most were friends, like Sirius, who were like family to the Potters.
The day the term ended that Wednesday after Harry found about his mother's unfortunate and grim condition. He couldn't be more thankful for it ending since the things that Auror NEWT classes put him through were enough to make him scream his head off. He could swear that his brain actually hurt from so much thinking and studying, but his parents, both being Aurors, had told him to anticipate more work.
"Harry! Ron! You ready?" he heard Ginny yelling from the common room.
He smiled slightly as he got his trunk and made his way down the stairs followed by Ron, who was equally ecstatic at the prospect of Christmas with James and Lily Potter. Hermione smiled shyly as Harry looked at her. Their relationship was still a secret, and they liked the way things were going so they weren't very anxious on telling the world just yet. Harry had commented on the fact that Rita Skeeter would have a field day if she found out.
"Finally!" said James as the four Gryffindors came down the stairs to the entrance hall.
Harry smiled sheepishly for keeping his parents waiting. "Ok, we have yet to make up our mind on where we're spending Christmas," said Lily, "so naturally we thought we would let you guys decided where we should go. We could go to the Potter Manor in Plymouth, the Castle in Vigo, Spain, or the mansion in Helsinki or US."
James quickly answered the raised eyebrows, "aside the Dumbeldores, the Potters are the wealthiest family, they have castles all over the world."
"Really?" Harry asked astonished.
"Yeah!" James smiled with a wink, "so where do we go? Finland, Spain, England and America."
"What about Godrics Hollow?" Harry asked suddenly. He knew the question was out of nowhere and that it sounded like he pulled it out of his ass, but he couldn't resist.
Lily gave him a slight smile, "the place was destroyed Harry."
"I know, but I've always wanted to visit it," he said.
"Visiting it yes, but staying there no," James said, "we'll go one of these days, as soon as we figure out where to go."
"You wouldn't have a home in Malta by any chance would you?" Hermione asked.
Lily smiled, "of course we do, but its not exactly suitable for such amount of people sweetie."
"Ok, c'mon guys, where do we spend Christmas?" James asked clapping his hands together.
"Helsinki," Ginny voted.
"US." her brother selected.
"Helsinki sounds cool," Harry shrugged ((AN: the guy I'm in love with, his ancestry comes from Helsinki.))
"Yeah," Hermione agreed with a glance at Harry.
"Finland it is!" James said, "we have to walk out to Hogsmade, I have to Dissaparate to Helsinki, arrange the Portkeys ready and then come back and we can go, k?" he asked the others.
With the young Gryffindors in front, James and Lily let the down the driveway of the castle to the outside gates. Giving Lily a kiss on the cheek James disappeared.
"So," Lily said hating silence of any form, "you guys excited?"
"Yeah," Ron answered with a twinkling smile.
"What's the manor like anyway?" Harry asked.
"It's a castle actually," Lily said thoughtfully, "it's pretty normal actually, its surrounded by a Magical Forest and the Baltic Sea. It's a pretty cool place, James and I stayed there for a week when I was pregnant with you Harry."
He smiled, "why didn't you guys hide out in the mansions?"
"It would be an obvious place, we thought of staying up in Sweden or Morocco or even Russia, but thought better of it, so we decided US," Lily answered, she looked at her son, "don't worry, we'll show you all the Potter mansions sweetie, after all, how can I not show you my three favorites?"
"Which are?"
"Malta, Italy and the one in Greece is wonderful," she smiled.
There was a loud pop and James returned carrying a leather glove, "it was the only two way thing I could fine," he said answering Lily small frown.
In a second they had all experienced the familiar tug and then a second later felt their feet hit the ground again. "Welcome all to Manor de Potter!!" James announced as the teenagers looked around. They were standing in the entrance with hand painted marble floors, with equally magnificent drawings on them. The spiral staircase and the chandelier wasn't something you could dismiss either. The hall itself could really be as big as Gryffindor tower.
"The castle is actually the same size as Hogwarts," said James who led them into a living room filled with grandiose furniture.
"Are you serious?" Hermione asked looking at the shelf lined with books.
"No, my best friend is," James smiled, "but I'm not joking."
"You have to stop that honey," smiled Lily taking off her long sweater to reveal an outfit of jeans and a red, pink, and white sweater underneath.
"I know," he laughed, he turned back to the room, surveying with utmost attention, "this wont do for you guys," he muttered putting his hands on his hips.
"I know," agreed Lily leaving the four puzzled Gryffindors in wonderment of what on earth they were talking about, "we could turn the room on the fourth floor into an amusement room for them."
"Good idea, but still, I hate this living room itself, I mean, its too….formal," he said the word as though it was ghastly.
"Well…no ones really lived in this place since what…the 17th century?" Lily asked looking around.
"So we bring it into the 21st with a welcoming bang!" James said.
"Ok…" said Lily eyeing him curiously, "well…go tell the other's were in Finland while I give the kids a grand tour!"
At seven o'clock the mansion was full noise and people, and with the help of the loyal Potter house-elves and Sirius, James transformed the house into a winter wonderland. The living room on the fourth floor had been transformed into a room full of the newest and coolest entertainment systems available, CD's, DVD's, games, whatever a teenager or even adult, could wish was in the room James and Lily had decided would be the kids' room. The house itself had been turned into less formal and more casual. All the Weasley's, including Bill and Charlie with the exception of Percy were there. Remus, Sirius and Hermione and her father, whom had been pried away from Mrs. Granger's bedside, and of course were there and the three Potters were the current occupant of the mansion.
News of Lily's condition hadn't been announced to the Wizarding world, but most of the Order had been informed for security and enlightenment reasons, the Wizarding world would find out soon enough. She had practically begged the occupants of the house to not mention the cancer, or even think about it. Lily had insisted that they forget about cancer until after Christmas, when she would start going into chemotherapy.
"Mom! Where do you want this?" Harry asked holding up tassels.
Lily smiled, she had decided that everybody would work on getting the house or mansion decorated. And they hadn't had any objection whatsoever and all seemed to have the time of their lives and laughing when Sirius and James decided to do something totally immature and amusing. Remus of course was the one that tried to keep them in line, and found that he personally preferred to see his assumed dead friend be himself rather then a serious father. No one had any objections, even Molly was enjoying their antics.
"Um…." Lily looked around the house, "over there, but the fireplace, what do you think?"
He looked to where she was looking and nodded, "good," he smiled.
"Good," she smiled.
After a few hours of James, Sirius and Remus throwing things at each other, the entire family decided to have a rest with a cup of hot chocolate by the fireplace in the grand living room on the main floor. Lily was sitting with a cup of hot cocoa curled up in her husbands arms, while Harry sat on the other side of his father talking to Hermione and Ron about the stuff that had been given to them on the fourth floor. Arthur and Molly were sitting in the love seat talking with the Potters. Remus and Sirius were sitting closest to the fire and were playing poker with the twins, all four were sitting on the floor in front of the blazing fires. Charlie and Bill both had brought their girlfriends with them, Charlie's was a charming young Romanian girl named Maia. And Bill's was a rebellious looking young women also from England named Diana. Lloyd was conversing with James and Arthur, with the occasional comment by Sirius, as they described the joy that was Quiddich, they had succeeded in convincing poor Lloyd into watching a game with them soon. Ginny was sitting at her mother's feet listening to Lily and Molly's conversation.
"So, when do we put up the tree Lily?" Molly asked.
"Potter tradition has it being put up two days before Christmas eve, so, I'm thinking the day after tomorrow," Lily explained, "is that cool?"
"Of course!" Molly exclaimed.
"So we can have a snow ball fight tomorrow?" asked Fred from the fireplace.
"Sure," Lily smiled.
"That's what I've been waiting for!" James exclaimed.
"Your
dead Potter," Sirius said, "you still have to pay for that time
you hit with the snow ball during 7th year,
my ear still hurts!"
James laughed, "well…we'll just have
to see Black."
"This should be interesting," Harry said smiling, fighting with all his will power not to touch Hermione, who was having the same problems.
"Can't
wait," Remus said sarcastically. There was a pause, "come to
think of it, you both owe me for that time you bombarded me with
those snowballs!"
"Which time?" Sirius asked with a laugh.
"Before or after Harry?" James asked, seeing the confused look Harry gave him, he said, "it's a weird timeline for us."
"Aha," was all Harry said.
"After
Harry, come to think of it, Harry actually managed to throw a snow
ball that day," Remus turned to face James and Harry, who looked
like twins, "you attacked me Harry! You're paying!"
"I
was a baby! I don't even remember that!" Harry said somewhat
panicking at the prospect of having one of the Marauders on his tail.
"Don't worry, we'll help you defend yourself," said Ron reassuringly.
"I think we're a brink on a vengeful war here," Lily said.
James looked at her with a glint in his eyes she'd recognize in the dark, "you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"You thinking of war?" she asked.
They both smiled as Sirius caught on, "Lily! I'm proud of you! You actually had a Marauder idea!!"
She smiled, "well.." she pretended to blush, "so, this is what I'm thinking, we get into teams, Remus and Harry are the captains basically."
"Why me?" the two asked in unison.
"'Cause you seem to be enemies," James said, "so, whose on who's team?"
"It depends on whose side you're on," Remus said with a smile.
"OK, so, Sirius, whose side are you on? Your Godson or best friend?" James asked.
"You or Remus?"
"Remus."
Sirius looked thoughtful for a second, "well…I'm going with my Godson, sorry Remmy."
Remus glared at him playfully.
"Ok, Arthur?" James asked.
"I'll have to go with Remus," he smiled.
"THANK YOU!" Remus laughed.
"Molly?"
To make a long story short this is the what happened in the end:
RemusHarry
ArthurSirius
CharlieRon
GeorgeFred
LloydBill
MaiaGinny
Hermione((Remus WAS a professor!)) Diana
Molly
The last people to choose sides were Mr. And Mrs. Potter themselves. The two looked each other. Should they go with the son or the best friend??
"C'mon," Sirius said impatiently, "we don't have all day!"
"Shut up," James said annoyed, "well Emeralds?"
"One of us can be on Remus's team, and to even it out, one of us on Harry's," Lily suggested.
"Ok," James said, "that's reasonable…"
"Well James?" asked Lily looking at James.
"Well Lil?" he smiled.
"Ok…this is gonna be fun," James said sarcastically.
After much deliberation, it was decided that James was going to be on his best friends team because the teams would be uneven if he hadn't, and Lily would remain a double spy to keep the teams balanced. The spy was of course Bill's idea. But everyone was happy.
"Oh my God! It's 11:30!" exclaimed Molly looking at her watch, then she looked at Lily who was standing next to Bill as they recalled fond memories of school since when Bill was a First Year, Lily, and the Marauders had been 7th years. "Lily, shouldn't the kids be off to bed?"
"Er…sure," Lily said and felt extremely guilty at the looks all the teenagers were giving her, "oh come on!!! You're gonna be up really early tomorrow! Don't give me that look!"
"Fine," Harry smiled, he walked over to Lily and kissed her on the cheek, "g'night mum."
"Night sweetie," she smiled.
"Now why couldn't Ron do that?" Molly asked as she watched the kids march up the castle stairs to their designated rooms.
Lily laughed and decided that it would be better not to talk since she would more then likely say something that Molly would make her regret for the rest of her life. She looked to the rest of the people who were up, Molly and Arthur, herself and the Marauders, needless to say. "Come on kids," she called, "bedtime."
Sirius laughed and yawned widely, "didn't realize I was so sleepy," he said, "well, good night ya'll and see you at the battle grounds," he said and walked up to the stairs followed by Remus and the remaining Weasleys, leaving James and Lily downstairs.
A house elf walked up to the two, "do master and mistress need anything else from kitchen?" the female house elf asked. The Potters themselves were different, so why would their house elves be any different? Instead of wearing ragged tea bags and whatnot, they wore respectable and untorn clothing.
"No thanks Trixy," smiled James, "we'll be ok till morning time, you can close the kitchens."
Trixy bowed and head back to the kitchen.
Lily looked at James who walked over to her, "well, I had a lot of fun," she said as he pulled her towards himself, she rested her head on his chest as her arms wrapped themselves around his waist.
"Same here," he smiled, "honestly, since tailing Harry for so long, I've never seen him happier."
"I haven't seen you this happy in a while too babe," she said, "guess it's in the water or something."
James laughed, "c'mon Lil, lets get some sleep, we have a lot of stuff to do tomorrow."
She nodded and the two, still holding each other's hands, made their way to the west wing, where their bedroom lay. Their bedroom would make the Queen of England herself blush. It was grand, almost as big as the Great Hall of Hogwarts. The bed was a four poster canopy with red, black and gold threaded sheets bearing the Potter crest, a lion with a snake in its mouth, "cupitor impossibilium" English translation, ones who desire the incredible. They shed their clothes and put on their pajamas, and went to sleep on their comfy and cozy bed. The two never changed positions the entire night, Lily was on her side, one arm on her side, the other resting on James chest just like her head while her beloved husband was on his back, one hand holding that of Lily's on his chest, the other wrapped around her shoulders. If someone walked in, they would think that there was one person on the bed, it was quite a site to see.
After a fairly good nights sleep, the house was alive again with the noise of its guests waking up and laughing and chatting excitedly at the prospect of the coming mock war. James and Lily awoke with laughter coming from the end of the hallway, that laughing belonged to Fred and George who seemed to be having the times of their lives. With a deep kiss and an exchanging of a good morning, they got dressed in usual attire and headed downstairs to find Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Ron and the rest of the Weasley's up and about.
"Remus and Sirius not up yet?" James asked sounding happy.
"Not that we know of," said Arthur cheerfully.
James laughed, "Harry, come here son," he said, "I want to show you a Potter tradition that I hope someday you will bestow on me and your children."
"Ok…" Harry said as James put his arm around Harry's shoulder and headed up the stairs to Sirius's bedroom, though Harry did not know this.
"What's going on?" Harry asked smiling at the glint in his father's eyes.
"Waking up my best friend, you should do this to Ron some day," he smiled. He slowly opened up the door to reveal Sirius sleep on his stomach, his arms and legs spread all over the bed, his snores were filling the air.
"Still hasn't stopped snoring," whispered James. He creped up in the room leaving Harry smiling at the door. James pounced on top of the bed and on top of Sirius who grunted.
"HOLY SHIT!" was what escaped Sirius's lips, "WHAT THE HELL?!" he yelled looking at horror struck at James who was laughing his butt off. The expression of surprise on Sirius's face was extremely priceless, he seemed horror struck. But he began laughing at James's stupid laughter. "Idiot, get off!" he laughed.
He turned on his back, and lay laughing on his back next to Sirius who was laughing just as hysterically as James. Harry smiled at the site of his father and his godfather bonding and being as immature as he could be at times.
"Re-re-remember when we started the tradition?" Sirius laughed, his body shaking as he laughed.
"Didn't we both jump on top of poor Remus or something?" James asked through laughter.
"Peter was with us, wasn't he?" Sirius asked no knowing what he had just said, "whoops," he said as their laughter immediately ceased.
"Yeah, he was," James said darkly. There was uncomfortable silence as minutes passed them. Soon they got over their frustrations and headed downstairs to the awaiting family. They were soon trying to swallow through screams of hysterical fits of laughter caused by the twins and the marauders. It hadn't been long when the elves cleared the table and everyone else got dressed and headed to the grounds behind the mansion in clumps. The large lake had frozen over of course, and snow was everywhere, a winter wonderland.
"Good luck sweetie," smiled Lily who was wearing a jacket with a red wool cap and matching scarf and gloves, she kissed James on the lips.
"Your son needs that kiss Lil, he needs ALL the luck in the world," he looked at Harry standing behind him engaged in a conversation with Bill and Charlie. He looked at his father at the mention of him, "your going DOWN!"
"Sure are you!" he laughed.
Soon the leaders were standing on either sides of the land, everyone behind their leader, Lily in the middle. Arthur, being the oldest, was given the honor of throwing the first snowball at his own son, George laughed a threw another one at Arthur, and everyone else divide into the game, Molly ran to the side with Lily and the watched white bombs flying from one end to the other end.
"DAD!!!" yelled Harry with a large amount of white, wet substance in his ear.
"Yeah?" James asked.
In answer, he saw Harry tossing a snowball towards him, James jumped behind Remus who took the well made snowball. "HEY!" yelled Remus half laughing half freezing with the numbing feeling protruding in his face.
"HAHA!" mocked James, it was his turn to throw a snowball at Harry, this time James ran behind Lily, who had decided to stay out of the war since she was exhausted, a side effect of cancer she'd been warned about. This time she took the white bomb instead of her husband, "HARRY JAMES POTTER!" she yelped as her husband fell behind him laughing. She looked behind her at James who had turned red, "don't be so happy James!"
"What did I do?" he asked.
"I'm on Harry's team babe," she said and bent down and made a snowball and threw it towards James who was attempting to run away from his wife's wrath. She began laughing as it hit him straight on his chest.
"IN YOUR EYE SWEATHEART!" laughed Lily high-fiving Harry as everyone else laughed their butts off.
Without another word, James ran towards Lily and picked her up and put her on her shoulder. Lily began kicking and laughing as he ran her towards a mound of untouched snow on the other side of the lake. "JAMES!" she laughed kicking his back, "put me down!"
"No!" he said and threw her into the pile of snow.
"JAMES!" she screamed as she felt the snow around her, "you're gonna pay!!" He helped her up and kissed her on the lips sweetly.
Harry just starred, all he ever wanted had been handed down to him with no strings attached, and no contract with the devil.
AN: Please Review!! Fan Fiction screwed me over!! REVIEW AND RECOMMEND!! LOL
