In preparation for Mr and Mrs Granger's arrival, Hermione moved back into the room she used to share with Ginny, in order to free up a bedroom for her parents. Ron became considerably more nervous as the days rolled by and by the night before their arrival was practically in pieces, he couldn't even form proper words and his mumbling became more pronounced. On the morning of Christmas Eve he was to be found pacing his bedroom floor in his smartest robes, he had been in the shower, brushed his teeth and done something a little bit odd with his hair. He looked so apprehensive that not even Fred and George had the gall to tease him; they merely shook their heads as he stalked past them in the hallway. The surest sign that the nerves were getting the better of him came at breakfast when he didn't touch a single thing. Harry and Ginny did the best they could to not laugh at him but it was difficult, every now and then one of them would snort and they would have to pretend that the other had tickled them or told a joke. Hermione, however, knew this wasn't the case and gave them frightening looks that made them feel deeply ashamed. When the sounds of the front door opening reached them at five minutes past twelve he sat bolt upright in his seat and looked as if he'd just been told he had to go and ask Aragog if he was hungry. He rushed out into the hall to greet them, with the other two gone from the kitchen Harry and Ginny no longer held the laughter in.

When Mr and Mrs Granger, Hermione and Ron came back in to the kitchen a little bit of colour had seeped back in to his pale features. Ellie was the first to rise from the table and greet their new houseguests.

"You remember Professor Potter, Elizabeth," Hermione motioned her mother towards Ellie.

"Hello Mr and Mrs Granger, welcome to Grimmauld Place," she heartily shook both their hands and smiled at them warm and welcomingly.

"Thank you. It's very good of you to have us over Christmas, I hope we're not putting you to too much trouble," Mrs Granger replied in soft, educated tones.

"Not at all, we operate a strict 'the more the merrier' policy in this house, as you can probably tell," she indicated the kitchen which was almost full. "Besides the world is a dangerous place just now, and as my grandfather said at the Yule ball Christmas is a time for family and it's probably for the best that we're all here."

"Hermione has told us all about you of course, we were hoping that you might be able to tell us a bit more about this… what's his name again Hermione?" Mr Granger asked.

"Lord Voldemort," Hermione answered with her voice wavering slightly.

"This Voldemort, Hermione was a little bit vague with what she told us," he looked at Hermione reproachfully; she immediately glanced at the floor, somewhat ashamed that her parents had been able to tell she was lying.

"I'd be happy to tell you what I can, although I warn you that it won't be pleasant to hear… Have you had anything to eat?"

"Not yet no, we were busy packing this morning," Mrs. Granger answered.

"Well we can't have you going hungry. Dobby?" she called. With a small pop the elf appeared at her side. Hermione's parents took a small step backwards.

"Mistress called for Dobby?" he asked her squeakily.

"Yes I did. Dobby this is Mr and Mrs Granger, they're Hermione's parents," she gestured to the couple who looked as though they had recovered somewhat.

"Dobby is honoured to meet the parents of Ms Hermione, she is a gentle witch who is always telling Dobby that he is worthy of feelings and respect," Dobby bowed steeply at Mr Granger's shoes. Hermione's cheeks burned red at the compliments.

"Dobby helps us with the running of the house, he's been our saviour this past few days," Ellie patted Dobby on the shoulder gently. "Dobby could you possibly get some lunch on the go? Mr and Mrs Granger haven't eaten yet."

"Of course Miss. Will everyone be eating?"

"Not everyone but I daresay that some people will be hungry," she eyed Ron carefully, aware that he hadn't eaten yet. Dobby then set about making lunch; Hermione then introduced everyone in the room to her parents again.

The rest of the day was a fairly quiet affair, the four teenagers gave Hermione's parents a guided tour of the house and then Ron talked Mr Granger through wizard's chess. It turned out that he had quite a talent for muggle chess and so found that, although the wizard version was a little bit violent for his taste, he was rather good at it. Harry had lent his set of chessmen to the older man and watched dismayed as they praised his efforts, they usually just shouted abuse at him. After dinner Elizabeth, Remus, Mr and Mrs Granger all retreated to the sitting room to talk about Voldemort, when they returned Hermione's mum looked as though she had been crying, and her dad looked very pale. The second they saw Hermione they pulled her in to a hug and held her for a very long time. Just before bedtime everyone retreated to the sitting room with mugs of hot chocolate, a fire roared in the grate basking everything in a flickering golden light. Everyone chatted merrily and the last thing they did was sing some Christmas carols, there was a wonderful atmosphere of warmth accompanied by love. Everyone went to bed contented and very much looking forward to the next day.

Harry was woken on Christmas morning by Ron barging through his bedroom door in a state of panic. "Where are our presents?"

"Merry Christmas to you too," he mumbled sleepily.

"Yeah, Merry Christmas. D'you think the twins are playing a trick on us?" he paced the floor making Harry feel slightly dizzy.

"I don't know."

"Maybe we aren't getting any this year…" he trailed away with disappointment.

"Do you honestly think that your mum wouldn't get you anything at all for Christmas?"

"I suppose you've got a point. So where are they then?"

"Ron why don't you go and bother Hermione?" Harry rolled over and snuggled further down into his bed sheets.

"Hermione doesn't care about presents, besides I don't think that she's awake yet." Ron plonked himself down in the chair at Harry's desk.

"It didn't bother you when you decided to burst in here," Harry snapped, desperate to get back to his peaceful sleep.

"Merry Christmas you two," Ellie's head appeared in the doorway.

"Merry Christmaaaaaaaaaas," Harry yawned, resigning himself to getting up.

"Ellie, where are our presents?" Ron snapped his attention to her.

"They're down stairs in the sitting room, we decided that we would open them together this year," she laughed at Harry's sleepiness and Ron's distress. Ron jumped from the chair, raced past her and shot down the stairs. "Are you coming Harry?"

"I'll just be a minute," his hand was searching his bedside cabinet for his glasses. He pulled a jumper on over his pyjamas and followed his cousin down the stairs to the sitting room.

Ron had been wrong about Hermione, she was indeed up, her and Ginny were already there when Harry entered the sitting room. Ginny immediately rose to greet him with a kiss, "Happy Christmas Harry."

"You too," he blushed.

"Is it normal for couples to wear cheeks and hair in matching colours?" George asked Charlie mockingly.

"I wouldn't know it's been a long time since I've blushed," Charlie answered him as he eyed Harry's glowing red cheeks. Harry sat on the floor next to Ginny; the other teens were also sitting on the floor around the tree. They were shortly joined by Remus, who grinned from ear to ear, as he tugged Tonks along behind him; she was yawning widely and watching the group with dismay.

"Why are you lot up so early?" she muttered, putting her hand over her mouth to stifle yet another yawn.

"It is almost noon," Remus informed her.

"Really?" she pulled the wrist bearing his watch towards her. "Look at that, what time did I go to bed at?" she asked him, Remus coloured ever so slightly.

"Around three."

"No wonder I'm so tired," she huffed throwing herself backwards so violently the cushions behind her shot out in all directions, one knocked over the light that was sat on the table beside her. "Oops," she cringed.

"Right, since we're all here everyone can open their presents." Molly said from a couch near the window.

There was a lot of confusion as thirty arms reached for the mountain of presents stacked neatly under the tree. For several minutes nothing could be heard over the rampant tearing of wrapping paper, and then there was a chorus of oohs, awws and wows. The increase of galleons in the Weasley vault had not stopped Mrs Weasley from knitting them all jumpers and providing her usual supply of mince pies, Ron complained but Harry was more than happy with that, as far as he was concerned nothing said I love you quite like a tenderly knitted jumper and a batch of mince pies that had been slaved over for hours. Ellie had bought him a new cage for Hedwig, she commented that his current one was looking rather battered and when he thought about the things that his poor cage had been through, often with Hedwig in it, he realised that she was right. Hermione had given everyone a set of sugar-free sweets, much to her parents delight, and Ron's disgust. Ron had given him a book called "The Best Quidditch Plays of All Time' and reminded him that they needed to discuss the upcoming match with Hufflepuff. Remus also gave him a book, this one was entitled 'Anamagi: The Animal Within' Harry was eager to start reading but his guardian mysteriously encouraged him to put the book down and continue opening his presents.

Ellie had bought Hermione a book about house-elves called "A life of Enslavement," Hermione was positively delighted. She was left speechless by the gold bracelet that Ron had bought her; it had her name carved into a small plate in the middle. Ginny was equally impressed by the locket that Harry had bought her, Ron had provided him with a picture of the family which Harry had then shrunk to the right size and inserted into the locket. Harry had then stolen one of Hermione's ideas and bought Ron a new broom servicing kit

By the time there was only one present left the living room was filled with remnants of the wrapping paper, the pieces were littering the floor like dead soldiers after a fierce battle. The last present was for Dobby.

"Dobby could you come here for a second?" Ellie called down the hallway to where the elf was presumably in the kitchen. Seconds later he came rushing through the doorway, he looked at the room, snapped his fingers and the discarded paper immediately disappeared.

"Is there anything else that Miss needs done?" he asked her with eyes as wide as saucers.

"Just the one thing, could you hand out the last present for me?"

"Certainly miss," he dashed over to the tree, picking the large package up he read the nametag attached to it. "To Dobby, Thank you for your help. Merry Christmas," each of them had then signed the little tag. Dobby's enormous eyes filled with tears. "The Masters and Misses have bought Dobby a present. Thank you," he whimpered.

"Don't thank us, you haven't seen what's in it yet," Ellie was sat on the arm of Remus's couch, bouncing slightly in the excitement. Dobby began to pull the wrapping paper tentatively, a small pile of clothing fell on to his lap, there were little robes of varying colours, t-shirts, trousers and an impressive number of socks, none which matched. Dobby then began to sob gently which panicked Elizabeth, "What's the matter Dobby? Don't you like them?" the deep concern was evident in her voice as she sat down opposite him.

"Dobby has never been so happy Miss. Dobby has never had such fine clothes and has never been given such a wonderful present before. Dobby likes working for the Potters and the Wheezy's more than any others. Thank you Miss," the small elf then launched himself on her for a hug. Harry was sure that when she pulled away she was batting tears out of her eyes. "Breakfast is ready," Dobby then disappeared.

All they did for the rest of the day was eat and play, Harry took his new possessions up to his room just after breakfast and sat down for a second to look at the book Remus had given him. He flicked to the first page where he found a hand written note.

'James would be thoroughly disappointed if I didn't at least point you in the right direction. I would insist that you to share this book with Ron. Have fun finding the animal within and perhaps one day you, Ron and I can have the kind of adventures that your dad, Sirius and I used to have. Happy Reading. Moony.'

He smiled to himself as he flipped each page, there was a step-by-step guide to becoming an animagus, he couldn't wait to start practicing and go on a nighttime stroll of the Hogwarts grounds like his dad once had.

Their Christmas dinner was more sumptuous than any other, Dobby, still overcome with emotion, had positively outdone himself. By the time he had finished desert Harry thought that he might explode, Ron had a fetching shade of green in his cheeks. Hermione and Ginny had the good sense to stop eating when they were full and spent the rest of dinner watching everyone else eating. Hermione looked closed to vomiting as she watched Ron piling plate after plate of food in to his mouth, Ellie just watched him with amazement. Halfway through the meal Fawkes materialized out of the thin air in front of Charlie; he deposited a letter in to Charlie's lap and disappeared in flash of fire. "What was that all about?" Elizabeth questioned.

"Nothing, your granddad wants me to do some stuff for the order," he replied.

Hours later Molly sent them all to bed, unusually no one complained. Instead they all made their way to the stairs without protest. Harry managed to grab Elizabeth just before she made her way up the next staircase, "It was a great day Ellie, the perfect first Potter family Christmas," he whispered to her. He saw her eyes light up in delight.

"I'm so glad; I wanted everything to be just right."

"I just wish that Sirius was here," he said rather glumly.

"He is Harry, he's right here," she placed one hand above his heart and the other above hers. "All of them are and always will be. Goodnight Harry, sleep well," she kissed him on the top of the head and climbed the staircase to bed.

If only he had slept well.

A/N: Duh, duh, duh! Sorry for the evil cliffy…actually that's a lie I'm not sorry at all, hehe!

The next chapter for your reading pleasure will be…Surprises.