Chapter Twenty-Three
Harry bounced up and down on the couch excitedly, "you mean it? A real Christmas? With presents and everything?"
Sirius ruffled Harry's hair, or tried to at least, as Harry was bouncing too much, "of coarse pup! And you have to help us pick out a tree and some decorations."
"Yay!" exclaimed Harry, "I can't wait! When are we going?"
Sirius smiled, "tomorrow,"
"Are we going to use Polyjuice like last time when we went shopping for my school?" Harry asked with a giggle.
Sirius made a face, which only made Harry giggle harder. So Sirius did the mature thing and stuck his tounge out at his godson. Harry almost fell over laughing and Remus smiled.
"You're funny," said Harry, still laughing.
Sirius grabbed him and started tickling him mercilessly, "funny huh? I'll show you funny."
"Stop! Stop!" Harry screamed through his laughter, squirming around until he reached a throw pillow. Grabbing the pillow, he smacked Sirius with it until Sirius stopped tickling him. Sirius retaliated by conjuring a pillow and throwing it at Harry. It hit Remus instead, causing him to conjure a hail of pillows that were banished at the two still hitting each other with the couch pillows. Then the war was on.
When it was over, they all lay in a laughing heap on the floor, and the room (including them) was COVERED in feathers and half empty pillows.
Remus laughed and waved his wand, causing the room to clean itself. All the pillows plumped up and stacked themselves in a corner, with the originals settling back on the couches.
Harry's eyes went wide, "I love magic," he said, "I can't wait 'til I can do that!"
The two Marauders grinned at Harry's wide-eyed wonder, "it'll be a few years yet, cub," said Remus, ruffling Harry's hair.
"Awww," Harry pouted, "I can already do some stuff."
Sirius smiled, thinking Harry would tell them about his accidental magic, "like what pup?" he asked.
"I can open the door to my cupboard," he said proudly.
Both men were shocked. Remus asked, "on purpose?" At the same time Sirius said, "without a wand?"
Harry nodded yes to both questions, "i-is that bad?" he asked.
Sirius and Remus were quick to reassure him.
"Of course not pup," he said.
"It's actually very good," said Remus, "and very rare."
"Rare means not too many people can do it, right?" Harry asked, eyes lighting up.
"That's right cub," said Remus, ruffling Harry's already messy hair again.
"Very few wizards can do wandless magic," said Sirius.
"That you can do it so young is a sign that you'll be a very powerful wizard when you grow up," said Remus.
"Wow really?" exclaimed Harry excitedly.
"Really," said Sirius, "we'll have to train you up when you're a bit older."
"Wow when?" asked Harry.
"When you're a bit older," said Remus, at Harry's pouting look he amended, "we can help you practice a few things now but you have to be careful not to do too much while your core is still growing."
"OK," said Harry.
"Now it's time for you to get to bed," said Sirius.
"Awww," whined Harry, "just a little longer?"
"Don't you want to be awake for shopping tomorrow?" asked Remus, "if you don't want to go….."
"I want to! I want to!" exclaimed Harry as he scrambled for his bedroom.
….
Harry was awake very early the next day. Much too early for Sirius' liking. Remus, having anticipated this, had set up the coffee maker the night before. As soon as Harry jumped on their bed that morning, Remus got up and pressed the button to start it immediately.
Sirius groaned as Harry gave a great big jump, landing practically on top of him.
"Whattimeisit?" Sirius grunted as he looked blearily in the direction he could hear Remus moving.
"6:17 am," said Remus with a yawn, "might as well get up, Padfoot. I'll have breakfast on in a minute."
"Coffee?" mumbled Sirius as he grabbed a still bouncing Harry and tickled him.
"Already started," said Remus as he shuffled around the kitchen making breakfast.
Sirius groaned again, "alright pup what do you want to play this morning?"
"Lego!" yelled Harry, causing Sirius to wince at the assault on his sensitive hearing.
"Go set up the while I get dressed," answered Sirius, ruffling his hair and pushing him off the bed.
Remus laughed and dodged a running Harry as he came in with a cup of steaming coffee.
"You know I love you, right?" he gave his now standard line on mornings like this.
Remus answered with the now standard joke response, "are you talking to me or the coffee?"
Sirius came over and pulled him into a hug, "you Moony. Always you."
Remus kissed him, "I love you too, Padfoot. Now get dressed or the cub will come in and bounce on you again."
"All right, all right," said Siriu with another groan.
Remus chuckled as he took the empty coffee cup to the kitchen, "I did warn you."
…..
After breakfast, the Apparated to Remus' cottage, where Sirius enlarged his new car and piled in. They drove to London and had a blast picking out the different decorations for their home.
Harry loved all the sparkly balls and other shapes. Especially the ones that depicted Muggle versions of magical creatures. Sirius was surprised at soe of them, but Remus, having had to work in the Muggle world, wasn't as surprised.
"How do they know about these?" whispered Sirius as Harry looked at a display featuring unicorns and fairies.
"To them, it's just fantasy, something someone made up." murmured Remus in reply.
"Oh," said Sirius.
Just then, Harry bounced over with clutching a beautiful unicorn hanging ornament and a cascade of fairies with the largest on top, and spreading downward in smaller and smaller sizes.
"Can we get these?" he asked.
"Sure, pup," said Sirius, "let's bring them up to the register then."
"OK," said Harry, running up to the register.
"No running," Remus admonished.
"Sorry" said Harry, looking down.
"That's OK pup," said Sirius, coming up and ruffling Harry's hair, "just, you shouldn't run in stores, OK?"
"Why?" asked Harry.
"Because," said Remus, "can run into things and either get hurt or break them."
The cashier smiled at the little family, "and if you break something in the store, you have to pay for it," sh said gently.
"Really?" asked Harry, Remus nodded.
…..
When they finally got home, the little family (even Harry) were exhausted. Since everyone was tired they had picked up a couple pizzas and some chips. Sirius carried the food to the kitchen and put it on the Copier, as it had come to be called. Once copied, he put one set on the counter, and the other in the "warmer," a stasis chamber that was meant to keep food just as it was when put in.
"Let's eat!" Sirius called.
The thundering of a thousand horses sounded as Harry charged toward the kitchen. Remus followed at a more sedate pace.
Sirius passed out paper plates and they all dug in.
