Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Finally the day came that James would come home to spend a week with his family, Lily made sure that all of the necessary preparations were made for his homecoming. She even converted the study that was on the first floor into a bedroom in order to make it easier for him to get around in. The kids were excited that their daddy was going to spend Christmas with them for the first time since they could remember. Harry wouldn't remember his first Christmas, which was the only Christmas that James had spent with them as a family and Jamie hadn't even been born yet. Lily wondered how James would even notice Severus spending Christmas day with them, though she doubted that he would. She was glad though that James could have a temporary leave from his nursing home in order to spend Christmas with his family, which she pointed out to both Remus and Sirius that he wouldn't be able to do if he was still at St. Mungo's. Remus was still concerned about having Sirius and Severus in the same house for Christmas and Lily had to admit that she was worried about them being together too, but of course maybe Sirius will be distracted with James around. She just felt sorry for Severus with no family to spend Christmas with; she thought Sirius could identify with that. Of course he was going to spend Christmas Eve with Andromedea and her family. When Lily went by to pick up the van that she would use to pick up James from the nursing home she only hoped that everything would be prepared for his return. While she was gone to pick up James, Sirius who had taken the day off from work, along with Remus and the kids who planned on surprising James and Lily when they returned from the nursing home. Molly was planning on coming by later with her younger children, to play with Harry and Jamie so that she could learn James's medication schedule for the next week. Besides it would give Harry and Jamie a chance to spend time with their friends and for them to introduce them to their father. Remus helped the kids to set up the welcome home banner that they had made for their father, after both he and Lily had explained to them that he was only going to be home for a week and after that he was returning to the nursing home, which was his home now. Lily wasn't sure if the kids understood that James wasn't going home to live with them, he was only going to visit with them for a week. When Lily brought James home, she was surprised to find out that the kids had put up a welcome home banner for his return with the help of Remus and Sirius. As soon as the two of them entered the house, his two best friends greeted him energetically. His two children ran up to him to give him hugs, before Lily could even get him settled in the house. While Remus, Sirius, Harry and Jamie were with James, Lily placed his bags into the first floor study that had been converted into a bedroom for James for the week. When she returned to the living room she saw that Jamie was telling him about what they had planned for the week and all that went on since they saw him last on their weekly visit to the nursing home. While she was in James room putting away his clothes and medicine that he would need for the next week she couldn't help but wonder if James wanted to be kept alive like this or if he wanted to die. She couldn't think too long about those things because a few minutes after she entered James's room Jamie entered it wondering when she was going to go out and spend time with daddy. After she was done putting away all of his things the muggle way, since their way could help her to think about all that James had been through these past few years. Only looking at his family from a distance, not really being a part of them because of his injuries, she only hoped that this week that they would be able to feel like a family again if only for the next week. When she returned to the living room with the medication that James was supposed to be scheduled to take, according to the directions from the nursing home, she found him sitting by the window just staring out of it, taking in the sights around him. Lily wondered if he even remembered any of this, since he had once lived here too even though the decorations and the surroundings have changed over the years. A few minutes later Molly arrived just after Lily had returned with a glass of water for James, she quickly showed her how to administer his pills to him, even letting her giving him a couple of them. While the two women where giving James his medicine, everyone else was in the kitchen getting a snack. Of course the kids were excited about having their father home for a while, though Remus and Sirius had their reservations about James's homecoming. Remus hoped that both Harry and Jamie wouldn't be too upset when James had to return to the nursing home. A few minutes later both Harry and Jamie wanted to know if they could go to the Burrow with Molly so that they could play with their friends.
"Don't you want to stay here with daddy, since he'll only be with us for a week?" Lily asked her kids trying to persuade them to stay and spend more time with their dad.
"No, since we'll get to see him later and we want to play with our friends, while we don't have to go to school," Harry answered his mother.
"That's fine, but do you mind coming back before dark, since we can spend some family time together since I don't have to go in to work at all today."
"Sure, I'm sure that Mrs. Weasley will probably send us home anyway. Besides I'm sure that everyone else would like to hear about our dad coming home for Christmas," Harry reassured his mum.
"That's right I'll send them straight home as soon as it gets dark outside anyway, besides I know that Ginny and Ron would love to see the kids," Molly reassured Lily that she would send both Harry and Jamie home when it started to get dark outside. Lily finally agreed to let the kids go with Molly after she was done showing her what her duties would be for the next week. Harry and Jamie agreed to wait until Mrs. Weasley was done, since it wouldn't hurt them to wait a few more minutes to see their friends. While they were waiting, Remus suggested that they play a game while they wait for Molly to get finished, in order to make the wait to see their friends more bearable. When they did get to go with Molly to their friend's house, they immediately told their father that they would be back and to reassure him that they weren't abandoning him. James just turned his head to look at them without showing them any emotion at all. When Harry and Jamie arrived at The Burrow, Ron and Ginny wanted to know what it was like to have their father in their house again with the knowledge that he was going to spend the entire week with them.
"I love the fact that dad's home, but I'm going to hate it when he has to leave again. We get to see him once a week in the home, but its not the same as having him live with us," Harry answered them.
"Though its going to be fun to see how Uncle Sirius and Uncle Severus are going to get along at Christmas dinner since mom invited both of them over," Jamie replied with Ron looking interested at the potential for fireworks in the Potter household.
"That should be interesting, what do you want to do?" Ginny asked the group.
"Why don't we go outside and play out in the snow," Ron suggested.
"That's a great idea, though Fred and George will probably want to start a snowball fight though." Just as Ginny finished saying that the group of four friends where immediately bombarded by snowballs from Ron and Ginny's older brothers, not just the twins. For the next few hours they were involved in a snowball fight with Ron's and Ginny's older brothers, even including Neville and Luna when they came over.
After almost an hour of their snowball fight, Mrs. Weasley invited the kids inside for cookies and hot chocolate before the Potters, Luna and Neville had to go back home. "So, what's it like having your dad home for Christmas? Do you think that he'll be able to stay home for good?" Luna asked Harry and Jamie.
"I don't know yet since he just got home a few hours ago, but he needs to have someone with him all of the time, just like a baby. Mrs. Weasley is going to stay with him during the day while mum's at work, but I think that he'll be going back to the nursing home after Christmas though," Harry answered her with Jamie nodding with him in agreement. "What happened to the Creevy brothers anyway, since they haven't been here all day?" Ginny asked curious to find out if her father did scare away the muggleborn brothers.
"I think they said that they were going to visit their grandparents in Canada and that they would be unable to visit us for a while, but they can't wait until they return," Luna answered since she'd been keeping up with Colin since art camp had ended.
The other kids were disappointed that the young muggleborns wouldn't be joining them, but understood that they had to visit relatives over their school holidays. After finishing their hot chocolate, the children immediately went back outside to play again in the snow, much to Mrs. Weasley's dismay since she was so sure that one of them would catch cold. The kids played out in the snow until it was time for dinner and for the Potters to return home. When Harry and Jamie returned home, they found their mother finishing preparing that evening's dinner, while James was sitting near the wireless, so that he could listen to the latest shows on the wizarding wireless. They decided to spend time with James, since they only get to see their father once a week normally, though sometimes either Remus or Sirius brought them to see him during the week while Lily was at work. During dinner Lily fed James his dinner before she even started to eat hers, she did put a warming charm on the food though so it wouldn't get cold when she actually got a chance to eat her dinner. After dinner she pushed James back into the living room where the kids joined them while she was finally able to sit down and eat her own dinner. Harry was reading a story to both James and Jamie when Lily saw them after finishing her dinner. James looked like he was listening to the story, though Lily didn't know if it was because he liked listening to Harry's voice or if he really could understand what he was saying. After Harry finished with his story, Jamie wanted to read to daddy so Lily let her pick out a book to read to daddy. While she was reading to him, Lily noticed that James started to show signs of being tired which meant that he was ready for bed, but Lily let her continue reading to him since she knew that it meant so much to Jamie. Lily then decided that she would have Harry and Jamie both read to their father at night before bedtime, but start earlier in the evening. After Jamie finished reading to James, Lily immediately took him to his room to get him ready for bed. After she had gotten James to bed, she realized that it was Jamie's bed time and she had her go to bed also, since Harry was older he was able to stay up an hour later, which he used during that time to listen to his favorite show on the wireless. As soon as Harry went to bed, Lily immediately went to bed also since she had to get up early the next morning to go to work and she had the monitoring charm set up in James's room so that she could be alerted in case he needed anything. After thirty minutes or so after she went to bed and turned out all of the lights in the house, she heard James making a crying sound through the monitoring charm. She left him alone for a few minutes but he continued to make the same noise. She immediately went downstairs to see what he needed and as soon as she went to his room she found that he was awake but he seemed to have a bad dream. Lily went over to him and comforted him like she did the children when they were younger and they had bad dreams after which he immediately went back to sleep. Almost as soon as Lily had gone back to her room, she heard James waking up again and she went back downstairs to comfort him again. The third time that she did go to his room, she decided that she would give him one of the sleeping pills that he got from the nursing home. After giving him the pill she waited until it took full effect before she went back up to her room, hoping that Harry and Jamie didn't hear any of his night cries. That night she lay awake wondering if she did the right thing for James by bringing him back home for Christmas, the place where he was taken from.