A/N: I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the readers and reviewers who have responded to these stories. Happy holidays everybody! Stay warm and safe out there! This is the final piece; enjoy!

Golden Days of Yore

Neville Longbottom sat at the dining table looking at his family. They had all gathered together for Christmas, and he was trying to enjoy it. Last year he'd been at Hogwarts, and unable to return home. It had been a very sad, very lonely, and very scary Christmas. Voldemort was trying to take over, the school was being run by Death Eaters, and terrible things were happening there. He had stayed behind to help protect the other children there. It hadn't been much of a Christmas, but he'd gotten through it. Now the war was over, and things were slowly getting back to normal.

The idea of a merry little Christmas had been so important a year ago, because he wasn't going to have one. Now that he was having one, it felt strange. Something had changed. Maybe it was him. He'd stared into the face of evil itself and had lived to speak of it. He had destroyed one of the horcuxes and had survived. He'd fought, long and hard, and now it was over. How could he go back to the way things had been when he'd been a child now that he'd been through so much?

His gran was working very hard to make the holiday a good one for him. His great Uncle Algie was staying with them, and had given him twice the presents since he'd not been there the year before. The food was delicious, as usual. The turkey was moister than it had ever been, the potatoes fluffier, and the buns flakier, but something still wasn't right.

When the meal was over, and everybody was sitting around sipping eggnog spiked with Firewhisky, Neville decided to take a walk. "I just need to get some of that fresh winter air," he explained to his gran before kissing her cheek and picking up his thick winter robes.

He didn't have a plan as to where to go, but he ended up in Diagon Alley. He walked into Muggle London and found the only shop that seemed to be open that day. There were still plenty of Christmas decorations, so he bought a couple bags-worth to take with him to his next stop. It only took a few minutes to walk to St. Mungo's hospital. With a quick glance over his shoulder, he stepped through the false shop window and into the hospital.

His parents smiled when they saw him walk into their room with the bags in his hands. "Merry Christmas!" he called out to them. "And look what I've brought you!" He set the bags down on a table and began unpacking them. There was a miniature Christmas tree and packages of small ornaments to put on it. He had gotten a holly garland to string around the room, and two red stockings to hang by their beds.

Alice hovered over him as Neville decorated the tree. He handed her one of the ornaments, and she grinned while placing it carefully on the tree. He handed her a small gold star for the top of the tree, and stood back as she hung it on the highest bough. She clapped her hands when she'd finished and stood back to look at her handiwork.

Frank helped him hang up the holly and the stockings. He rifled through the second bag Neville had brought, and took out all the bags of sweets and treats. "Oh, wait dad! I was going to fill the stockings with that!" He took the bags and divided them up between the two stockings. He placed a pack of his mum's favourite gum inside hers, and a bottle of Butterbeer inside his father's.

As Neville sat and watched his parents enjoy the things from their stockings, he was filled with the happiness of Christmas that he remembered from his childhood. Maybe giving Christmas to somebody else was more fulfilling than having it handed to you. It was the simple things, the things that were so easy for him, but meant so much to somebody else, that had made the day for him.

Neville hoped he'd be able to enjoy Christmas with his parents every year. If he was lucky, they'd recover enough for him to take them back home to live. He wished more than anything that they could be together all the time, not just on the days he visited. It might not happen for a while yet, but someday, maybe. Until then, he'd make sure to spend more time with them, not just during the holidays, but on good days and bad days, and nothing days.

When he returned to his house that night, he hugged his gran tight, and kissed her cheek. "Thank you, gran," he said.

"For what, Neville?" she asked.

"For making this a very Merry little Christmas," Neville replied before heading up to his room. As he changed into his pyjamas that night, he looked out the window and sighed happily to see snow beginning to fall.