The First Time Back

Bells are ringing
It's time to scream and shout (Scream and shout)
And everybody's playin' cuz schools out
Celebrating the special times we share
Happiness cuz love is in the air
-"Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" N SYNC

Adrianne and her grandfather returned to the house in London to a dinner that had been prepared by the part-time cook Mr. Laverte employed. Over dinner, Adrianne told her grandfather stories of Hogwarts, and of classes and her friends. She explained the subjects in depth, and gave a complete description of all the students in her year, even those she barely knew.

Mr. Laverte was so glad to have Adrianne back with him that he didn't mind her rambling on and on about things he didn't understand.

After dinner, Adrianne took her trunk upstairs to her bedroom and unpacked. Waiting on her bed was a small silver box with a red ribbon tied around it. Adrianne picked it up and read the tag.

To: Princesse Adrianne
From: Grand-père
Welcome Home!

Adrianne opened the box carefully to find a note written in Grand-père's handwriting.

Look in the wardrobe.

Adrianne set the note down on her bed and headed over to her wardrobe. She slowly opened the doors to find another note taped to the inside of the left door.

Open the window, let some air in.

Adrianne thought this was unusual as it was December, but followed her Grandfather's orders anyway. She opened the window closest to the wardrobe first, but nothing extraordinary happened, so she went to the window on the other side of her bed. This time, Adrianne found another note from Grand-père.

Come to the parlor and have some tea.

Again, Adrianne thought this was a strange message for after dinner, but she went downstairs anyway. When she opened the parlor door, she was expecting to find another note, but all that was in the room was an old tea set. Adrianne walked over to the tray, wondering if the clue was hidden within the tea set. Upon further inspection, Adrianne found nothing, except the intricate pattern on the old fashioned tea set. She decided to sit and wait, maybe Grand-père would come in and explain the wild goose chase.

Ten minutes later, Adrianne was tired of waiting, so she got up to leave. As she was reaching for the door, it opened and Grand-père entered.

"Good, you are still here. I am sorry it took me so long to meet you here, I had planned on me waiting not you, but I received an urgent call from France." Mr. Laverte explained to his granddaughter.

"An urgent call from France, is everything alright at Le Petit Chateau?" Adrianne asked.

"Oui, yes, Adrianne. Just a small problem with something I was planning there for you on Christmas. Everything is alright. Now, onto the tea set. I was cleaning the attic while you were away and I cam across this beautiful tea set you see in front of you. I had never seen it before, so I assumed it belonged to your mother at one time. I took it to a pawn shop to see if they could estimate how old it was, and with the date they gave me I would guess this tea set belonged to a grandparent or great-grandparent on you mother's side. I thought you would like to have it."

"Oh Grand-père, its lovely!" Adrianne said as she gave her grandfather a hug.

The week leading up to Christmas went by pretty quickly. On the morning of Christmas Eve, Adrianne and Mr. Laverte packed their suitcases and met the private jet that would take them to France.

The surprise Mr. Laverte had been planning for his granddaughter was a private holiday ball. He had decorated the ballroom of the chateau with tinsel, large Christmas trees, holiday lights, and green and red ribbons. At the center of the room was a box wrapped in green with a big red bow on top.

"Go on Princesse Adrianne, open it." Grand-père said, indicating the box.

Adrianne went over to the box and carefully opened it. Inside the box was a red dress and a matching red ribbon for her hair. "Merci Grand-père, merci!" Adrianne said running back to her grandfather and hugging the old man.

Adrianne changed into the dress her grandfather had given her, and once she was ready she went back downstairs to the ballroom. Grand-père had changed into a formal tuxedo and was waiting for her on the dance floor. Christmas music was playing from the old fashioned record player.

Adrianne and her grandfather twisted and twirled until they were dizzy and out of breath. They laid on the floor, panting until the ballroom stopped spinning.

It was getting late, so Grand-père made Adrianne go to bed. When she woke up the next day, it was Christmas.

Presents were exchanged, and then Adrianne and Grand-père had Christmas tea. After eating, Grand-père surprised Adrianne yet again. Waiting in the ballroom was Miss Burr, holding a large box for Adrianne.

"Happy Christmas, Adrianne." She said with a smile on her face.

"Happy Christmas Miss Burr."

"Here, I got something for you." Miss Burr handed Adrianne the box, which Adrianne set on the floor and opened carefully.

Inside the box was a beautiful, hand knitted scarf in the Gryffindor colors.

"Oh, Miss Burr, it's beautiful. Thank you so much."

"When we were in school, your mother and I taught ourselves to knit by magic. We both had matching scarves just like this, and I thought maybe you would want one too."

"Was my mother in Gryffindor then too?"

"Yes she was."

Adrianne and Miss Burr continued to talk about Miss Burr and Adrianne's mother's school days while Grand-père looked on.

Miss Burr came to visit a few times before Adrianne and Grand-père returned to London on New Year's Day.

Soon it was time for Adrianne to return to Hogwarts for the rest of the school term. Miss Burr stopped by the day before she had to get back to King's Cross to say goodbye, and wish her a good term.

Adrianne was glad to be getting back to Hogwarts, but she was also upset to be leaving her grandfather. He seemed so happy to have her home again, and so sad to see her leave.

--

Sirius's parents didn't pick him up from the train station. He found a cab that took him to Number 13 Grimmauld Place because the cab driver would never find number 12.

He made it all the way into his bedroom before anyone noticed him being home. When he opened his door, a loud creak came from it and his mother started screaming. He was barely home five minutes and already getting yelled at, but that was no surprise.

Sirius went downstairs to see what his mother wanted. To Sirius's unpleasant surprise, his aunt, uncle and two cousins were in the drawing room along with his mother, father, and brother.

Sirius let out a silent groan when his eyes met those of Narcissa's. Obviously she hadn't forgotten about the prank.

He tried to avoid eye contact with anyone in the room from then on, only looking up when directly spoken to. It was clear in the look on Mrs. Black's face that Sirius would have to sit this out.

After a few minutes a house elf came in to announce dinner. Sirius silently followed his family into the dinning room, staying a few steps behind the pack. He took his seat next to Regulus at the table, directly across from Narcissa. Great, he though. Have to remember to be nice to her the last week of term.

Dinner was very unpleasant. Sirius was never addressed directly, and he never spoke. Anytime he caught Narcissa or Bellatrix's eyes, he was met with a horrible glare, the sort of glare only a Black could produce.

As soon as Sirius was allowed to leave the dinner table, he darted upstairs and into his room. He didn't want to risk Narcissa or Bellatrix, or even Regulus following him upstairs, and cornering him. He just wanted to be alone or at least away from his horrible family.

He sat down on his bed, and stared at the wall. He wondered what James was doing right now, and if he was having fun.

Christmas was an unpleasant affair in the Black household. Sirius had to get all dressed up, and then together the family went to Aunt Elladora and Uncle Aidan's house.

Sirius sat off to the side, counting down the minutes until they would be leaving. Presents were exchanged, and Sirius was forced to be appreciative.

Drinks were served, and the parents got pretty drunk. Narcissa took this as an opportunity to confront Sirius. He tried to run for it, but being away from home, he had nowhere to go.

"Cute little trick you boys played at dinner the other day." Narcissa said in a tone of mock sweetness.

"Cute? It was bloody brilliant." Sirius said, figuring he was going to get yelled at anyway, why not make it all worth it.

"You watch yourself Sirius, you're going to find yourself in quite a bit of trouble with one of your pranks, and you won't have me to bail you out on it."

"Oh yes, because you have always been such a help before."

Narcissa looked for a second like she was going to slap him, but changed her mind. "Next time I'll let Lucius deal with you on his own terms." Narcissa left Sirius to think about what she had said. Sirius had never really considered it, that Narcissa was keeping Lucius in line, but what was he going to do, beat him up? The thought seemed almost laughable. But then, Lucius was a sixth year, and if he was anything like Sirius family, he probably knew a load of dark curses to throw at him. Sirius made a mental note to try and stay clear of Narcissa and Lucius, but not the rest of the Slytherins.

Sirius managed to stay clear of his family the rest of the night. And the rest of the holiday. In fact, Sirius rarely saw or heard from his family for the remainder of his time at 12 Grimmauld Place. Soon enough, it was time to catch the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross station.

--

Petunia was less than welcoming to Lily when she arrived home. The sisters didn't exchange more than two words with each other before Christmas Day arrived. Mr. and Mrs. Evans tried everything, but something about their bond had broken.

Two nights before Christmas, Mrs. Evans came upstairs only to hear her youngest daughter crying. She knocked softly on Lily's door, and then opened it.

"Lily, sweetie, what's wrong?" She asked her youngest daughter.

"No-nothing, Mum." Lily said, trying to cover up her tears. Mrs. Evans didn't believer her, and came over to sit next to Lily on the bed. She put her arm around the young girl, and held her until Lily started to cry again. Mrs. Evans rubbed Lily's back and held her in her arms until the tears stopped flowing.

When Lily had stopped crying, Mrs. Evans again asked her, "What's wrong?"

Lily sighed and started to explain how she didn't understand Petunia's change in attitude toward her since getting her Hogwarts letter, and wished she could have her sister back. After she had exhausted the subject of Petunia she started to tell her mother about Adrianne, and how she was the best friend a girl could ever want, and how much she missed her. When she was one talking, Lily felt much better. It seemed she just needed to get her thoughts out into words, and her mother was the perfect outlet for that. Together, the Evans girls went downstairs to bake cookies.

On Christmas Eve, the Evans family went caroling with a few of their neighbors. It was a tradition that the same few families had been doing for years, and Lily was glad to be doing it once more. At least some things hadn't changed in the past few months. Alexia's family was one of the families caroling, so Lily got to catch up with her old friend. Of course she couldn't be entirely truthful, but she still shared stories slightly edited to Alicia's Muggle ears.

After the carolers had made their rounds, they went back to Alexia's house for hot chocolate and desserts. The families shared holiday blessings and at the end of the night returned to their own homes for the night.

Christmas morning in the Evans family is usually a very family oriented time, but with the two girls not on speaking terms, that was difficult to do. Mr. and Mrs. Evans did everything they could to untie their daughters, even if it was only for one day. Lily was all for dropping the grudge held between herself and Petunia, but the eldest Evans girl would not budge. She could barely stand to be in the same room as Lily, and refused to look at her sister when she was forced into the same room. It was as if Petunia was afraid of catching some horrible disease from her sister, and to Petunia, witchcraft was a horrible disease.

The family made it through Christmas Tea without any major mishaps. Petunia made a few snide remarks at Lily, but to her parent's surprise, Lily didn't seem to react to these comments.

By the end of the holiday, Lily felt more isolated from her family than she had ever imagined was possible. She almost felt relieved to be going back to Hogwarts, almost. When it came time to catch the train, Lily said goodbye to Petunia (which was met with a grunt and her leaving the room) and then got into her dad's car. Along with her parents, Lily made her way to London, where she would meet the train that would take her back to the place that had become a second home to her the past few months.

--

Most of James's holiday was spent cleaning the house with his mother for the big party. Everytime James saw an opening, he would try to sneak away, but his mum was too quick for him. She would just pile five or six more jobs on him so that he was busy the rest of the afternoon.

Finally it was the day of the big party. Mrs. Potter sent her son upstairs to take a bath. James meandered in his bedroom for a while, until his mother yelled at him up the stairs.

"I don't hear any water running James!"

"I'm starting it right now, Mum." He yelled back. James was now forced to take a bath. He filled up the tub with steamy hot water, and climbed in. He splashed around and did anything but pick up the bar of soap laying nearby. Like mothers always seem to do, Mrs. Potter came up to check on her son, and saw he was taking a leisurely dip, she scolded him and then started to scrub him down. James tried to fight and cried out that he would wash himself, but Mrs. Potter wouldn't let him weasel out of it.

When James was cleaned to Mrs. Potter's liking, she sent him off to his bedroom to get dressed in the dress robes she had bought him. James looked at the fancy robes laying on his bed, and then longing at his wardrobe which was stuffed full of Quidditch robes, and plain robes, and Muggle clothes.

James reluctantly got dressed in the outfit his mother had picked out for him, and then went downstairs to see if any guests had arrived.

To James's great displeasure, Peter was there. For the rest of the night, James had to endure Peter's constant presence. At the food table, talking with the other guests, eating again, boasting about anything he could think of, dessert, and of course his lame attempts at dancing.

"Hey, Pete, why don't you go and grab us some, er, butterbeers?" James said, hoping to get rid of his schoolmate.

"Ok," Peter said cheerfully, and set off toward where the drinks were being served. As soon as James was out of his sight, James took off, and didn't look back. He was free, for a little while at least.

He found Frank Longbottom talking to another boy that James recognized from school, and went to join them. The two fourth year students tried to ignore James, but he wouldn't give up. Anything to break up the monotony of hanging around with Peter.

The two boys walked away while James was looking away, and he was left alone, but not for long.

"James! James! I got you a butterbeer!" Peter yelled from somewhere behind James. He turned around slowly to find Peter standing there with two bottles of butterbeer, one empty and one full.

James accepted the butterbeer, and his fate, and stuck with Peter the rest of the night. James was extremely happy when Mrs. Pettigrew arrived to take Peter away. Unfortunately, most of the party was already breaking up, so it was just James and his parents' most intimate friends, none of which had children or anything interesting to say to an 11-year-old boy. James decided there was nothing keeping him at the party, so he went upstairs to his bedroom and fell asleep, still wearing his dress robes.

James woke up the next morning to find a pile of presents waiting for him. He loved Christmas. It was the only day of the year his parents showered him with presents for no reason. At least on his birthday it was a personal milestone, but Christmas, it was just a present giving holiday.

Another great thing about Christmas is that his mother always goes above and beyond the normal meal for Christmas dinner. She cooks ham and roast chicken, and potatoes, and corn, and carrots, and peas and sprouts (not one of his favorites) and stews, and for dessert she makes trifle, and chocolate éclairs, and rice pudding, and custard tart, and cake.

James ate more food than he ever should have, and there were still plenty of leftovers. Mrs. Potter packed up a little bit of everything, and stored it in the ice box, and then prepared the rest for donation to a local homeless shelter. This was the part of Christmas that James hated. His mother and father always dragged him to the shelter with them, where he would have to watch all the starved and homeless people in their rags fight over his leftovers. The leftovers he wanted for himself. The one time James tried to tell his mother this, she scolded him for being so selfish. She said, "How could you dare be upset that I am giving away Christmas leftovers when your stomach is filled with delicious food? There are people who haven't had a Christmas dinner at all." James felt really horrible after his mother yelled at him that year.

After the family's charitable activity, they settle down in front of the fire with hot chocolate until James falls asleep.

After Christmas, the holidays fly by. Soon it is time for James to get back to school via the Hogwarts Express.

--

Remus wasn't exactly looking forward to Christmas. For one thing, the full moon happened to fall on December 24th this year, Christmas Eve. Unless by some Christmas miracle, Remus were to make it through the full moon with no injuries, the entire holiday would be ruined for him. His mother assured him that they would celebrate Christmas whenever he was feeling better, and even offered to allow him to invite his friends over. Remus didn't have the heart to tell her that all of his friends thought that she was on her deathbed and that it would look very strange for them to see her up and about and looking healthier than Remus.

On Christmas Eve, Remus prepared himself for the full moon in the same way he used to before Hogwarts. His mother locked him into the spare bedroom, where he could smash the furniture all he wanted, and then sat outside. Tonight, she had a whole list of Christmas carols to sing to her son, hoping the monster would be calmed by the holiday spirit.

Inside the locked bedroom, Remus tried to concentrate on his mother's voice. It had been so long since he had heard her singing that it came as a very welcoming sound. He was able to keep the wolf at bay, and be almost himself.

When morning arrived, Remus felt better than he ever had after a full moon. He enjoyed the holiday with his mother and father.

The Lupin family never had much money, so their Christmases were never very extravagant, but for them it was all about family. Mrs. Lupin would cook a delicious meal, and they would all exchange presents, and sing carols by the fire. At the end of the night, Remus went to bed, and fell asleep almost instantly, dreaming about all the things little boys dream about on Christmas.

For the remainder of the holiday, Mrs. Lupin kept trying to convince Remus to meet up with his friends. She would tell him that he needed to be more social, and that he would be sorry once he got back to school that he spent the entire holiday with his mother. Remus replied to that by saying that he sees his friends everyday at school, and only sees his mother on holidays. He still wasn't ready to say that they thought she was dying.

Finally came the day Remus was supposed to catch the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross station in London. His mother was, ironically, feeling ill that day so Mr. Lupin took Remus alone.

--

Chrissy's parents weren't at the train station. Of course she really didn't expect them to be, but it still hurt. She had been gone for three months, and her parents couldn't even meet her at the train station. Jena's parents took her home, but it was empty and locked up. Jena suggested that she come over for a while, and although her parents seemed a bit skeptical, they allowed it.

Chrissy didn't go home again until Christmas Eve. Her parents had come home, so Chrissy was able to get into the house. Jena came along with her, and the girls stayed until near midnight when Mr. Sinclair came to get Jena. Jena begged her father to bring Chrissy home too, and after checking with Chrissy's parents, he agreed.

That Christmas was the best Christmas the girls had ever had. They exchanged presents, told stories, roasted marshmallows, sang carols, and drank hot chocolate. Chrissy had never had a Christmas like this, surrounded by the closet thing to family she ever knew. She almost didn't want to go to sleep that night, afraid that she would wake up and it would all have been a dream.

Luckily, when Chrissy woke up the next morning, she realized it had not all been a dream. She was in Jena's room, sleeping on the spare bed, with Jena sleeping just a few feet away.

The girls spent the rest of the holiday together, something Jena's parents thought was funny because they were together at school. This didn't matter to the girls. They were best friends, and loved doing everything together.

Chrissy only went home once more before the holiday was over, and she brought Jena with her. As usual, Mr. and Mrs. Valwick didn't notice their daughter and her friend. Chrissy tried to let it nor bother her, but deep down it hurt. She didn't understand why her parents didn't care. Jena sensed this and tried to make it better, but she couldn't. Some things just can't be fixed by a friend.

They day arrived when the girls had to get back to school, and Chrissy was glad to be leaving.

--

The highlight of Peter's holiday was going to James's party. He couldn't wait for the night to come where he could escape Mrs. Hagsby's house. Not that he didn't like her house, because he did, it was just boring because there was no one his age to play with.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, Peter woke up extra early to get ready. He took a long bath and washed his hair and behind his ears. The he took extra care in brushing his hair and teeth, and picked out his nicest set of robes. He was ready to go about five hours before the party was set to start.

At 5:30, Mrs. Hagsby instructed Mrs. Pettigrew to call for her car to take them to the Potter's house. Mrs. Pettigrew accompanied her son on the short drive, which was made shorter by the magical nature of the driver and the car.

Peter arrived at the party shortly after many of the other guests had arrived. He found James immediately and stuck by his side the entire night. Peter wished that Remus and Sirius could have come too. He wasn't really that great of friends with James, and didn't want follow him around all night like a lost puppy. But he did, because James was the only person at the party that Peter knew.

The boys spent a lot of time at the food table, Peter piling as much food onto his plate as he could fit. James would laugh when he looked over at Peter's plate, but his own plate had some pretty hefty helpings on them as well.

After trying to dance for a little bit, Peter stepped aside to take a break. He wasn't really much of a dancer, and from the look of it, neither was James. The boys stood by the desserts for a while before deciding to eat again. While munching on an éclair, James turned to Peter and asked, "Hey, Pete, why don't you go and grab us some, er, butterbeers?"

Peter said "Ok" and then went off in search of some drinks. He weaved in and out of crowds to find where the butterbeers were. He found the drinks and picked out two bottles that looked very chilled. He opened his almost immediately, and took a big gulp. The liquid was delicious streaming down his throat.

Peter had finished his butterbeer and was considering going back for another when he spotted James.

"James! James! I got you a butterbeer!" He yelled at the back of his friend.

James turned around and smiled slightly. He took the butterbeer out of Peter's hand. For the rest of the night, the two boys kept each other entertained.

Soon the party started to clear out, and Peter's mother returned for him. He didn't want to go but knew that since the next day was Christmas, there was no use fighting. He said goodbye to James, and left with his mum.

For the remainder of the holiday, Peter was stuck helping his mother with her chores. He was thankful when it came time to return to Hogwarts.

--

A/N: How I wish it were Christmas now! Lucky me it is the holiday season (the few weeks from Thanksgiving to Christmas) Ok, first off, I'm American so writing a British Christmas was pretty difficult because I really don't know how things go over there, so bear with me! Please read and review…let me know how I'm doing! I love getting feedback! Another thing I would like to touch on. I have been working on this story since June, and I waited until I had a significant portion done before uploading this, because I wanted to make sure I could make regular updates. Unfortunately with the plethora of computer problems I have been facing, it's been almost two months where I have had very limiter computer access (which sucks but that is a whole new bag of worms). This means that as of right now (that is to say Thursday, December 1, 2005) this chapter (the one you just read) is my last completed chapter until somewhere after my characters leave Hogwarts. Actually that's a lie, I have one from 7th year also, but nonetheless it still does me no good. As it is now the holiday season, my life will be consumed by the evil thing that is holiday shopping so I don't know how far I will get from now until a few days after Christmas. I am kind of at a loss for things to make my story pass, so it is going very slowly. I apologize to anyone who reads this story, and I am trying my best to be as speedy as possible. I had really hoped to be much further in this story by this point, but circumstances change. Bear with me, I am writing as fast as my creative side will let me. In the meantime, try to think of ideas you may have for first and second year, and keep encouraging me to carry on through the stresses of working for the devil at Christmastime.

Oh, and I really need ideas on how to pass the time. I want to build the friendships and stuff now, but all my ideas are from about 5th year on. So if anyone has any suggestions for little things I can slip in it would be greatly appreciated, and I will put you name in the story somewhere. Thanks!

One last important note! I am putting this story on a holiday hiatus. I think this is a pretty fitting place to stop for now, and I need to play catch up (as was explained in my a/n). I would like to get through at least the summer of 1972 before I upload again, just because I like to have the next chapter completed, and as mentioed already, I have run out of my reserve of chapters. Have a great holiday and I will "see" you in January!

in the meanrime (and i aploagize for this abnormally long a/n, but i was creating a timeline and added info about birthdays to Sirius's and Remus's chapter (well actually I chaned Sirius's birthday from April to December, but I actually added a small bit to Remus's chapter).

DISCLAIMER: I do no own any of this nor am I making any profit, this is just my way to procrastinate on doing my homework. All names, places, ect. From the Harry Potter world belong to JK Rowling and the publishers ect. and the song quotes belong to their respective artists and the correct rights owners