A/N: Hey all, I know it's been forever since my last update, but I finally have it here for you all, and I'm not even gonna bother trying to bore you all with why it's so late (psst: it involves a computer glitch). So here it is. It hasn't been looked over by my beta so if you see any errors, let me know.

Chapter Dedications: Nobody reads these anyway, so I'm just gonna stop, unless anyone objects.

Chapter Twenty-Four

"But why can't I have it right now?"

It was Christmas morning and Rain had refused to give Dustin his Christmas present until they were at the Potters' house.

"I told you already," Rain explained patiently. "The gift is from all of us so they should see you open it, too."

"Fine," Dustin said crossing his arms. "In that case, you can't have your present either."

"What?" Rain cried. "Why not?"

"Because I'm going to give it to you when we get to James' when you give me mine. Besides, I have gifts for them too."

"Really? What did you get them?"

"It's sort of a gag gift. I think they'll get a kick out of it."

So instead of exchanging gifts, Rain and Dustin opened the presents their parents gave them and the letters their family in Canada and the States sent them.

From her mother, Rain received a package of mechanical pencils and a new notebook.

"Dustin told me you don't like writing with quills and that you broke your last pencil," Tammy said. "I couldn't figure out what else to get you."

"This is great, mum, thank you," said Rain hugging her.

From John, Rain received a new cell phone (mobile phone, Rain corrected herself).

"Oh, er, thanks, John," Rain said awkwardly.

"It's okay," said John. "You don't have to pay the bill, your mom and I will do that. It's so that you can call us on your off hours. It's faster than letters."

"Oh, that's great," Rain said, trying to sound excited and failing.

"What's wrong?"

"Dad," Dustin said. "Muggle electronics don't work at Hogwarts, they go haywire from all the magic in the air."

"Really?" John asked looking at Rain.

"Yeah, John. It's in Hogwarts; A History. I thought you read it?"

"I...uh..." John said rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I might have...uh...skipped a few chapters. So, Rain, you don't like your present?"

"It's not that I don't like it. It's just that I'll only be able to use it while I'm on holiday."

"Oh, okay."

Dustin received a new skateboard from Tammy and also a mobile from John.

After that, they all ate lunch and then sat in the living room, waiting for someone to come show them how to get to the Potters' home. Rain and Dustin were entertaining themselves by texting each other from the same room.

At one o'clock precisely, the empty fireplace in the living room burst into flames, scaring everyone in the room, including Rain. A moment later a familiar figure appeared, spinning in place, before toppling out onto the hearth.

"Prongs!" Rain cried. "You nearly scared us half to death!"

James got up and dusted himself off, grinning brightly.

"Floo powder!" he exclaimed happily. "Padfoot should be here any second."

As if on queue the fireplace roared to life once more and Sirius stumbled out.

"Not my favourite way to travel," he muttered, brushing himself off.

James and Sirius stood side by side and grinned at their friend and her family brightly.

"So who's ready for a Christmas party?" they said in unison.

Dustin and Rain had already recovered from their shock and both let out whoops of excitement. Tammy and John, however, continued to gape in astonishment.

...

Rain found out, very quickly, that she quite agreed with Sirius in that Floo Powder was definitely not her favourite way to travel.

When she stepped into the fire and shouted "Potter Manor" everything started spinning out of control. And then she fell out onto an extremely plush carpet, dumping ash everywhere.

"Come, dear. Out of the way for the next person," said a familiar voice.

Rain looked up to see Mrs. Potter holding out a hand to help her up. Rain accepted the hand and was pulled off to the side just as Dustin flew out of the fireplace, yelling his head off.

He was covered head to foot in ash and his hair was in disarray. Rain figured she couldn't look much better.

Soon, their parents were standing there, too, looking like they had been Petrified. James and Sirius, however, hadn't returned through the fire.

"Where are Pr—I mean James and Sirius?" Rain asked Mrs. Potter.

"They've gone to collect the Evans'," she explained. "They'll be along soon. Tergeo," she added, waving her wand. With one sweep, all of the ash not in the fireplace was siphoned away.

Five minutes later, the fireplace roared to life once more and Lily fell out. Mrs. Potter helped her to her feet and ushered her out of the way as Mrs. Evans came through, soon followed by James and Sirius.

Once Mrs. Potter siphoned off the rest of the ash, everyone started greeting each other properly.

"Hi, Lily," Dustin muttered shyly.

James scowled at him and Rain, seeing a confrontation coming interrupted her brother.

"So, Lily, where's your dad?"

"Oh, well Petunia pitched a fit and said she didn't want to go so dad decided to stay at home with her."

"Well that's too bad for her, isn't it?" said Sirius snidely.

"Padfoot, that's not a very nice thing to say," Rain chastised. "That's Lily's sister."

"But Talon, you didn't hear the rubbish that was coming out of her mouth," Sirius countered.

"Yeah, don't worry about it, Rain," said Lily.

"I bet she's jealous," Dustin piped up.

"She is," Lily confirmed. "She wanted to be a witch too, and because she's not, she pretends that she hates everything to do with magic."

"Too much drama for my tastes," Rain replied. "Where are Moony and Wormtail?"

"In the parlour," James answered, leading the way.

"Who are Moony and Wormtail?" Dustin asked.

"Their real names are Remus and Peter," Rain replied. "You haven't met them yet."

They entered the parlour then and were greeted with the sight of the hugest Christmas tree Rain had ever seen indoors. Around which there were armchairs and sofas, and under which was a large pile of presents and a large rump.

"Wormtail, get out of there," James called to the rump. "You're supposed to wait until we're all here to open the presents."

"I was getting impatient," came Peter's muffled voice from under the tree as he crawled back out.

"Merlin, Wormtail," came Remus' voice from the door way. "I leave for one minute and you're already trying to open everyone's gifts?"

"Not everyone's," Peter whined. "Just the ones for me."

"Rain, Dustin, you forgot your presents," Tammy called from the other room.

"I'll go get them," Dustin said and scurried out of the room.

While he went to collect the parcels, everyone found seats around the tree, and James started passing around gifts.

"Don't open them yet," he said, glaring pointedly at Peter.

"I'm back!" Dustin had reappeared with an armload of soot-stained gifts. "The Floo got them messy, just try not to touch the paper too much."

"That's not a problem," James said pulling out his wand and looking shiftily towards the parlour door. "Tergeo," he whispered and the ash was no more.

Dustin gasped. "I thought you weren't supposed to do magic outside school!"

"Hush, kid, do you want me to get in trouble with my parents?"

"He's right, Potter," said Lily with a hint of a glare. "You can actually get expelled for that you know. What about the Trace?"

"My dear Evans, the Trace is nothing if the underaged wizard in question lives with other wizards," James said smoothly, lowering his voice slightly. "It is neither reliable nor accurate."

"Is there something the matter with your voice, Potter? You sound like a bullfrog."

Rain, Sirius and Remus all choked back a laugh while Peter looked concerned and Dustin looked confused. James cleared his throat, looking only slightly put out, and clapped his hands together, changing the subject.

"So, to presents. Who opens first?"

"Ooh! Me! Me!" Peter cried, bouncing in his seat.

"Oh let Wormtail go first," said Sirius. "Before he wets himself."

"Yay!" Peter cried, and started opening presents.

He got a stuffed rat from Sirius that was about the size of a small dog: "I heard there are sewer rats that size in the Muggle underground."

A new dressing gown from James: "Thanks! My old one was on it's last legs."

A book on self confidence from Remus: "A book, Moony, really?"

A huge bar of chocolate from Rain: "Great, Talon! I love hazelnuts!"

And a Whoopy cushion from Dustin.

"Er... thanks?" he said looking confused at the flat bit of rubber.

"It's a Whoopy Cushion," Dustin looked disappointed that his gift wasn't appreciated.

"What do you do with it?" Sirius asked.

"You blow air into it and then you put it on someone's chair when they go to sit down, and then it sounds like they farted," Dustin explained.

"Oh, Merlin, no," Lily muttered.

Peter got an excited look in his eyes and quickly blew up the cushion. Then he got up, placed it on his chair and then sat on it. The resulting sound had every boy Marauder cracking up.

"Boys and their farts," Rain commented with a smile.

Lily just rolled her eyes.

After Peter, they decided to go clockwise around the circle. That meant leaving Rain, who was sitting on his left for last. Next was Remus who received books from James, Lily, and Dustin. Sirius gave him a stuffed wolf, and Rain gave him a large bar of chocolate, this time with toffee in it.

"I'm sensing a pattern here, Talon," Sirius commented, holding up a present of his own that looked suspiciously like a chocolate bar.

"I'm tapped out fellas," she shrugged. "It was all I could afford. I had to get Lily's present in Muggle London with borrowed money from my parents."

"You didn't have to get me anything, Rain," Lily said gently.

"But I wanted to."

"Uh, Dustin?" Remus said suddenly, holding the book he gave him. "'Magic for Dummies'?"

James and Sirius burst out laughing at that.

"It's full of tricks you can do that look like magic but aren't," Dustin explained. "It's mostly card tricks, but there are some other things in there, too."

"Interesting," he said pondering the table of contents. "Thank you."

Next was Sirius who received chocolate from Rain, a bag of dungbombs from James—Lily was unimpressed—a book about the Chudley Cannons Quidditch team from Remus, and two packs of playing cards from Dustin.

"Do these do anything special?" Sirius asked Dustin, holding the cards.

"One of them is just an ordinary deck but this one," he took one of the packs from Sirius and opened it, "is a trick pack."

He then flipped through the deck to show an ordinary deck of cards, then flipped it over to see the bottom card—eight of hearts—and flipped through the deck again to show that all of the cards were now eight of hearts.

"Wicked!" Sirius cried and grabbed the deck to examine every card to figure out how the trick was done.

Next was James, who received chocolate from Rain, a stuffed stag from Sirius, a book on broomstick care from Remus, new Quidditch gloves from Peter, and a box labeled "The Big Box Of Ultimate Pranks" from Dustin. James' eyes widened with glee at the box, which he opened immediately and started rummaging through, finding the instruction book and burying his face in it.

"Wow, good job, Dustin," Rain said to her little brother. "I've never seen Prongs so eager to read a book."

Next was Lily, who had only three small presents in front of her. The first one she opened was from James, who had given her a green hair band with silver sparkles in it.

"Er... thanks, Potter, this is really nice," she said, putting it in her hair. James beamed.

"You're welcome, Evans. It looks good on you," he returned.

The second gift she opened was from Dustin. It was just a simple greeting card in an envelope that said "Have a magical Christmas!" and sang "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" when you opened it, with the lyrics written inside the card.

"I sense you have a slight fixation on magic, Dustin," James said with a professional air.

"Well, even though I don't have magic, I'm surrounded by it all the time," Dustin explained. "It's especially exciting whenever I hear an owl tapping at my bedroom window with a letter from Rain."

Lily then opened her third present from Rain. Inside was a silver bracelet with a charm hanging from it. The charm was a silver doe with emeralds for eyes.

"I saw it and I thought of you, Lily," Rain said. "I absolutely had to get it for you."

"I've never seen a deer with green eyes before," Lily said, smiling fondly at the little charm. Rain noticed James was staring at it also and she wondered what was going through his head. "How did you know my Patronus was a doe?" she asked suddenly.

James' eyes snapped up to her face in surprise, he seemed to have made a connection that Rain couldn't fathom.

"I didn't even know you could cast one," Rain said, surprised.

"Well, when Potter and Black asked me if I could cast one, I couldn't then. After that, I decided to learn. It's a doe."

"Wow," said Rain. "You're brilliant!"

Lily just smiled.

Next was Dustin, who had just one present. He read the label.

" 'To Dustin, from the Marauders'," he then proceeded to tear open the parcel.

After figuring out how to work the robes Rain and the boys had gotten him, he paraded around the parlour in various garments, all of which James, Sirius, and Peter thought looked hilarious, but which Lily, Remus and Rain thought looked very stylish.

When he was done, he sat down next to Rain, muttering something about "purebloods" while said purebloods were still laughing hysterically.

Finally, it was Rain's turn to open presents and found only one parcel in front of her. It was from Sirius, and, true to form, it was a stuffed hawk.

"Thanks, Padfoot, it's cute," she said.

"It's not your only gift, though," he said, getting up and going to the tree.

He then pulled a long, thin rectangular package from under it, and presented it to Rain. She grabbed it eagerly, tore off the paper and opened the box inside to reveal a Nimbus 1000 broomstick. It seemed very familiar to her.

"Padfoot, this is your broomstick, I can't take this from you," she said.

"Yes you can. My uncle Alphard got me a new one for Christmas and since you obviously love this one, I decided to give it to you."

"You've got more presents too," Dustin said handing over his.

Rain opened it to find Keeper's gloves.

"They're for soccer goalies, but I figured they'd work for Quidditch just the same," he explained.

"What's a 'soccer goalie'?" James asked.

"In Canada and the States, football is called soccer," Rain explained. "And a goalie is a keeper."

"What's football?" Sirius asked.

Rain grinned and exchanged a look with her brother and the Muggleborn on his other side.

"We'll have to have a game and show them, won't we?" she asked them.

Dustin and Lily nodded enthusiastically in response.

"Wait, Talon," said James. "Before we go play football, we have more presents to give you."

At that, he whistled once and something came swooping into the room. It was a jet black owl, carrying something in it's beak. It landed on his shoulder and chirped happily.

"Happy Christmas, Talon," he said smiling. "She's for you. Moony, Wormtail and I pooled together to get her for you. We haven't given her a name yet, I thought you might like to do that."

The happy owl chirped again and took flight, landing on Rain's shoulder and dropping the small parcel in her lap.

"That came for you today," said James. "She wanted to deliver it to you personally."

"Thank you, she's beautiful," she said happily. Rain turned to the owl and smiled. "Thank you, too. I think I'll call you Night."

The owl chirped happily again. It was such a small sound to come out of an owl, and Rain found it really cute. She then turned her attention to the parcel in her lap.

"It's from Regulus!" she announced.

She tore it open to reveal a silver necklace with a heart shaped locket on it. There was no image inside but she decided to put one in as soon as she had one.

"Aww isn't that cute?" Sirius teased.

Rain rolled her eyes and changed the subject while putting on the necklace. "So who wants to play football?"

A/N: In case some of you are wondering why all the British-talk is being crammed in your face, it's because a little culture is good for the soul. Anyway, hope you liked it! R&R!