His Boy
Chapter Twenty-Four: Snitches
"Paddy, that doesn't go on you head!" Harry giggled as Sirius attempted to untangle the tinsel from his body. Remus had lovingly dropped it on him from the stairs and then dashed back up to get the last box of ornaments for the tree which they'd set up in the corner of the sitting room opposite the fire place.
"But don't I look pretty, Prongslet?" Sirius smiled and managed to release himself from the grasp of the tinsel. Harry gathered it up off of the floor and dashed into the sitting room where the tree sat, already adorned with its lights.
"Can you help me?" He asked, smiling and holding the tinsel up above his head with a bit grin on his face. Sirius smiled and took part of the tinsel.
"Follow me." He went round and round the tree, Harry trailing behind him as they laid the tinsel upon the branches, making sure it was pretty as they did so.
"Oh, that looks great guys!" Remus smiled as he set the last box down on the chair nearest the tree and pulled it open. Dust flew into the air and he sneezed, digging into the box. "Harry, these are special ornaments I saved from your house when you were a baby. Look see?" He extracted a tiny box made of carefully folded paper and opened it. "This was your very first ornament."
"A snitch! And it has my name!" Harry's eyes went wide as he gently took the golden blown glass ball with delicately crafted glass wings from Remus. Someone had added bits of blue into the glass and then, most likely using magic, spelt out 'Harry James Potter 1980'. "Oh, it's so pretty!"
"Mhm, so let's be very careful with it. Here, we can set it up here." Remus pointed to a spot about Harry's height and Harry (with a little help) got it safely onto a branch. Harry stepped back, beaming with pride as he looked at his ornament before he dashed over to the box and peeked inside.
"Were these my Mummy and Daddy's too?"
"Yep. This one was your mum's special, most favorite ornament." Remus smiled and pulled out a tiny fairy standing on an old fashioned phonograph. He winded it up and music began to tinkle out of it, the Nutcracker song. "She had it since she was a very small little girl, probably about your age."
"Wow." Harry smiled, eyeing the fairy with bright eyes. "But Moony, it dun't got no string."
"That's because it goes on the mantle." Remus smiled and place it up on top of the fireplace and then dug into the box again. They took out baubles in all different designs, some classically round, others depicting teddy bears or horses, there was even a tiny little red metal tricycle that Harry thought would have been nice for his mother's fairy.
"Paddy, can we put that one on the mantle too? In case the fairy wants to ride it?"
"Sure Harry." Sirius laughed and set the tiny tricycle down on the mantle next to the neat little music maker. They continued placing the ornaments up on the tree, most of them ending up more towards to bottom due to a certain four year old's inability to reach very high, but he thought it looked very nice whenever he added a new one.
Once the boxes were empty, the three boys stepped back to admire their work. Harry smiled wide, so very happy to have such a wonderful tree. He'd only ever had the fake kind of tree, Aunt Petunia wanting absolutely nothing to do with pine needles on her nice sitting room carpet. But Harry thought this real tree was much, much better. It smelled wonderful every time he came downstairs, all piney and warm.
"Only one more thing." Remus stated, reaching into the box from Harry's very first house and pulling out something wrapped very delicately in paper. He pulled the paper off, revealing a metal framed golden snitch with about a thousand different little panes of colored glass all over it and wings that looked like they could have been made of the most delicate of spider webs all spun together to form a fairly solid mass of gorgeousness. Harry's jaw dropped and he reached his hands out, grasping for a moment at the air before something in his brain clicked.
"I remember that." He said after a moment. "That goes on top!"
"You remember it?" Said Sirius, surprised. "Your dad had it specially made for your mum. I had to hide it at my place for a week."
"Colors everywhere." Harry stated simply and Remus handed him the magnificent rainbow of a snitch. Lifting him up from his waist, Sirius hoisted Harry high and the little boy placed the topper on the very topmost of the tree. Sirius set Harry down and then hooked the topper into the strand of lights. It lit up, light shining out through it and causing thousands of colorful spots to erupt all over the sitting room. Harry laughed, clapping his hands. "Told you!"
"You're right, Prongslet." Sirius smiled and scooped him up, their faces bathed in the colorful light. "Colors everywhere."
"Oh, that looks simply stunning boys!" Lexie beamed, coming into the room carrying a tray of sandwiches and milk and setting it down on the coffee table. "Well, I think you lot deserve a lunch break. And maybe after we'll finish up decorating the rest of the house."
"Where did you come from?" Remus asked, looking surprised at Lexie's sudden appearance.
"Oh you know… just around." Lexie said, looking from him to Sirius and then to Harry. "Ready to eat, sweetheart?"
"Okay!" Harry laughed, wriggling down out of Sirius's arms and dashing over to grab up the peanutbutter and jelly sandwich that he knew was his because all the grownups had weird stuff in their's… like lettuce or tomatoes.
….
"Ooooh, you better not cry, you better not pout…" Remus sang out as he took a strand of lights from Harry and (after glancing around for Muggles) began using his wand to peg them up along the roof of the house.
"You better scream, you better not shout, Santa Clause is comin' to toooown!" Harry laughed, jumping up and down in his boots. He slipped and fell backwards into the snow, but kept laughing, not the least bit hurt in his fluffy snowsuit. Remus had offered to do the outside of the house while Sirius and Lexie did the inside. Harry had volunteered his services outside, wanting to get out and play in the snow for a bit today.
"He's making a list."
"He's checkin' it twice!"
"He's gonna find out who's naughty or nice!" Harry jumped as the third voice joined them and turned around to see two figures coming across the snowy lane, both clad in slightly worn jackets and boots with knitted hats on their heads. One was Harry sized, the other was a fairly tall boy with plenty of freckles and a kind smile.
"Ronnie!" Harry laughed, running to the front gate to greet him. "Me and Moony are making the house pretty."
"Fun!" Ronnie smiled as Charlie helped the two smaller boys unlatch the gate.
"Alright Ronnie. You be good now, and I'll be back for you before dinner, ok?"
"Okay." Ronnie nodded.
"Thanks a lot, Charlie!" Remus called with a wave as Charlie waved back.
"If he's any trouble, Mum said to just give us a Floo!"
"No worries!"
"Ronnie, d'you wanna help me help Moony?"
"Sure." Ronnie smiled and the two boys grabbed up the strings of lights that were on the front porch. They carried them over to Remus so he could string them up, all around the windows. Once that was done with, they helped him stick a bunch of big plastic candy canes in the ground along the front walk.
"It looks really good." Harry beamed, admiring their work. He flopped down on the ground and began digging, making a nice solid pile for the beginnings of a snowman.
"Mhm! I bet Ginny and 'mione would like it too." Ronnie nodded in agreement, starting to dig so as to help Harry. "I made 'mione a present but my Mummy said we'll haveta get her address and mail it to her the Muggle way 'cause Errol might scare her."
"Errol?"
"Our owl."
"Woah, you have an owl?" Harry asked, very impressed. Ronnie had so many brothers and a sister and a mum and dad AND an owl!
"Yeah. He's pretty good at getting letters and packages where they gotta go." Ronnie nodded with a smile. "Bill's got a pet toad and Charlie has a salamander that he got from the gamekeeper at Hogwarts. It's really cool. It's orange, and likes to play in our fireplace."
"Neat!" Harry beamed, kind of wishing he had a pet to brag about. Padfoot could turn into a dog, but he wasn't really a dog. Hmm, maybe Santa would bring him a pet? He'd have to remember to ask Padfoot or Moony or Lexie to help him put it in his letter. He'd already started it, but he hadn't been entirely sure what to ask for yet.
"I hafta wee, can'I use your bathroom?" Ronnie asked after they'd spent a couple more minutes digging in the snow.
"Yeah." Harry nodded and continued digging and piling as Ronnie got up and headed into the house. Harry pondered his pile and then added some more snow, patting it down. Maybe he'd make snow castle instead of a snowman. It looked like it'd be a pretty awesome castle…
"Harry! Harry!" Ronnie came running off of the porch and down the front walk, his blue eyes wide. "Harry, you'll never guess what I just saw!"
"What?" Harry asked, looking up in excitement. Whatever it was that had gotten Ronnie all worked up like this had to be good.
"They're snogging!"
"What?"
"Mr. Black and Lexie! I went to go wee, and they were sitting on the couch, snogging!" Ronnie flailed his arms in the air. "SNOGGING!"
"What's snogging?" Harry asked after a moment of confusion. Ronnie stared at him.
"Well, Bill says it's like kissing, only kissing a LOT. And you only do it with someone you really like a lot, like how my dad likes my mum a lot only I've never seen them snogging."
"What's this I hear you boys discussing?" Remus asked, looking slightly amused as he came around the corner of the house carrying a metal, light up deer he'd gotten out of the garage. He placed it into the ground near the porch and hooked it into one strand of lights.
"Snogging." Ronnie said simply.
"And why, might I ask, are we discussing that particular subject?"
"Because Ronnie says he saw Paddy and Lexie doing it." Harry explained, his green eyes wide behind his slightly snow flecked glasses.
"Well, that would explain a few things…" Remus muttered to himself before bursting out laughing. "Harry, Ronnie, let's not mention this to Padfoot or Lexie for now, ok? Let's keep it a secret."
"Ok." Harry smiled and dug deeper into the snow. "Hey, Moony? Does that mean Lexie is gonna be my new mummy?"
"I dunno, Harry. Oh what're you building here?" Remus asked, quickly changing the subject but making a mental note to speak to the other adults at the very next opportunity he got.
…..
"Sooooo…. Padfoot." Remus said, entering the kitchen where Sirius was washing up the dinner dishes. He had just left Harry and Lexie upstairs finishing up Harry's list to Santa. Appearently he had quite a few things to add to it after spending an afternoon with Ronnie. They were fairly simple four year old wishes, such as a tricycle and candy.
"Yeah?" Sirius looked up from the sink where he was waving his wand to make the sponge scrub hard at a particularly tough spot on one of their cast iron pans.
"While we were outside this afternoon, Ronnie came over to play." Remus leaned up against the counter.
"I am aware of this." Sirius nodded. "He did nail me in the face with a snowball."
"Yeah. Well, before you came out to play, it seems he came inside to have a wee."
"Did he make a mess in the bathroom? Because I can clean it up, sometimes little boys miss."
"No, nothing like that. But mate, there really isn't any other way to ask this, but were you and Lexie snogging?"
The cast iron pan splooshed into the water and hit the bottom of the sink with a clang. Sirius got a face full of bubbles and Remus laughed, tossing a towel at him. "I'll take that as a yes." Sirius sighed and sat down.
"You're not angry?"
"Why the hell would I be angry?" Remus asked curiously, looking a bit shocked.
"Well, I just… I mean… you guys used to date and…"
"We had one study date that was strictly so she would be able to pass her Charms O.W.L nine years ago." Remus corrected him, laughing again and clapping him on the back. "I'm happy for you mate. Oh, but let's not get Harry's hopes up in case it goes sour… He's already asked if Lexie is gonna be his new mum."
Sirius choked slightly and then laughed. "Well, I dunno 'bout that. But she is quite brilliant."
….
"Hey Lexie, how do I spell 'bubbles'?" Harry asked after a moment, his red crayon poised in his hand above the sheet of parchment he was using to write his letter to Santa. He had to get it finished as quickly as possible and send it out because Christmas was the day after tomorrow and he didn't want to be skipped just because he hadn't gotten his letter out in time. Padfoot had said that Santa was a special kind of magic though, so he'd get Harry's letter. And it wasn't like Muggle post that took days anyway. They were sending it the wizard way.
"B-U-B-B-L-E-S." Lexie stated slowly, giving Harry time to write down each letter and smiling as he somehow managed to make as backwards 's' at the end.
"Thanks." Harry smiled and continued writing, Lexie peeking over his shoulder.
"A mummy? Like the kind all wrapped up in toilet paper?"
"Noooo, silly. A mummy, cause I dun has one. 'cept, not my real mummy, cause Paddy says even Santa can't bring her backs, but a new mummy cause I have sorta a new daddy already, cept he isn't my real daddy so his name isn't Daddy but he's like a daddy."
"Oh. Well, I dunno if Santa can bring you a mum-figure but I suppose it can't hurt to ask."
"Mhm!" Harry beamed and continued writing out a few more things on his list. He held it up for Lexie to go over and she smiled.
"Let's see… Dear Santa,
My Paddy says I have been a good boy this year so I can write to say what I want for Christmas this year. You do not know me much because I have not write you a letter before because I just learned but Paddy says you do know me because you know all boys and girls. So this is my list and if you can bring these I will be happy. You do not have to bring all of them, maybe just one or two.
Pet
Tricycle Dinoswars
Snitch
Candy
Bubbles
Mummy Train book
Kwidith pajamahs
Love,Harry Potter
Oh this looks wonderful, Harry." Lexie smiled and handed the letter back to Harry who rolled it up and let Lexie tie it together with a bit of string. "There. Now all we need to do is Floo it to the north pole so Santa can get it."
"Yay!" Harry grabbed his letter and ran down the stairs, heading for the sitting room where Sirius was getting a fire going in the hearth. "Paddy, I have my letter!"
"Alright!" Sirius smiled and reached up onto the fireplace for the glass jar where they kept the floo powder. "Are you ready Harry?"
"Yep." Harry nodded, letter poised in his hand. Sirius threw a handful of floo powder into the fireplace and Harry followed with his letter. Sirius shoved his head into the fireplace and shouted.
"Santa's Workshop!" The letter disappeared in a whirl of green flames and Harry clapped, looking fantastically fascinated by this special method of letter sending. It was even better than an owl!
"Santa's gonna get it in time, right Paddy?" Harry asked, staring at the fireplace, his little face still a bit worried about his precious letter. Sirius nodded and scooped him up.
"Harry, Santa is probably already reading your letter right at this very moment. That's why we used Floo powder to get it to him."
"Oh, yay!" Harry smiled, feeling even better now and he wriggled until Sirius set him back down upon the floor. He ran from the living room and into the kitchen were Remus was and bouncing up and down, announced. "Moony! I flooed my letter to Santa!"
"That's awesome, Harry." Remus smiled and held out a cookie which Harry took happily and ran off, happily munching away at his cookie. He was so very excited for Christmas!
…...
"What're we gonna get?" Harry asked, looking around at all the shops as he held on tightly to Padfoot's hand.
"Presents, of course." Sirius laughed, ignoring the staring eyes all around them. He'd finally decided to take Harry into Diagon Alley for today's shopping trip and the people around them clearly recognized Sirius, and if they had read the newspapers at all, they knew just who the little boy with him was. However, Sirius was keeping a tight hold upon Harry and only nodding to a familiar face every now and then, hurrying along so as not to present an opportunity to anyone for stopping them. Harry didn't need that. "We're running a bit late because we were all so sick, but that's alright."
"Presents for who?"
"Our family and friends. For Christmas."
"Oooooh." Harry nodded in understanding and then gave a little skip. His red boot hit ice and he slid, but Sirius tightened his grip on the little boy's hand and tugged upwards, keeping Harry from crashing to the sidewalk. Harry laughed, glad to have been caught just in time. He wasn't too fond of falling, though he wasn't scared of it either. "So we're gonna get presents for Moony and Lexie, and Ronnie, and 'mione, and Ginny, and Luna, and…"
"Yes yes yes, Harry. We're going to get presents for all of our family and all of our friends."
"Yay! Can'I pick them out?"
"Of course you can. Here, we'll start with the easy ones." Sirius smiled and led Harry into a promising looking toy shop. It was full of people moving every which way and Harry laughed, watching one boy chase after a ball. It looked like fun! "What do you think your friends would like?"
"Hmmm…" Harry looked around, his eyes trailing over the toys with curiosity. They were different than the Muggle toys he'd seen most of his life so far. They were really neat. He wanted to get his friends something really cool, something he knew they'd really like. "Paddy… I dunno…."
"Well… let's think. What are your friends favorite things? Start with… Ronnie."
Harry frowned for a moment before brightening up. "Ronnie likes orange and Quidditch and comic books and his bear."
"Alright then, keep those things in mind while you look around and maybe we'll find the perfect gift for Ronnie." Harry nodded and they started to wander along the shop, keeping their eyes out.
"Oh! Paddy, look! Chudley Cannons." Harry pointed up and Sirius turned his gaze to a hat tree that sat, holding all sorts of different play hats. There were pirate hats and owl hats and princess hats, and an orange cap that had a pair of cannon balls on it that looked as though it'd been sitting on the stand for quite some time. "You're right Harry, that is a Chudley Cannons cap." Sirius pulled it down off of the hat stand and Harry smiled, holding it tightly to his chest.
"It's Ronnie's Quidditch team, he'd like it a lot."
"Good choice! Here, put it in the basket." Sirius held out the basket he'd grabbed at the door and Harry set the hat down into it with a smile. "Now, what about Hermione?"
"'mione likes books a lot." Harry said after a minute before frowning. "But I dunno what book she needs."
"Well, let's go look at the books, I bet we can find something here for her." Harry smiled and followed Sirius through the shop toward the book section. Bright colors and moving pictures on covers met their eyes and Sirius frowned. Hermione's parents couldn't see a moving picture book, that wouldn't work.
"Oh! Paddy, what's this?" Harry asked, grabbing up a packet next to the books. He held it up and Sirius grinned.
"Those are bookmarks. You put them inside of a book to help you remember the page you were on last without bending the corner."
"Ooooh, I bet 'mione likes bookmarks. She dun like bent pages." Harry grinned and looked through them. There were lots of different book marks. There were paper ones with pretty pictures on them, bendy plastic ones in a rainbow of colors and metal ones with different colored designs on them with long dangling ribbons that had little beads on the end in all different shapes.
"How about these, Harry?" Sirius suggested, picking up a packet of five metal ones. "Look, they have sea creatures on them, there's even an otter." Harry took the packet and smiled, admiring the pretty bookmarks, all lined up in plastic so he could see what they had on them.
"'mione likes otters and books." Harry nodded and set the bookmarks in the basket next to Ronnie's hat. He was having so much fun picking out special presents for his friends. "Oh, look Paddy!"
Harry pointed and ran along to the corner of the shop where there were about a thousand different art supplies. His mouth dropped in awe. This, he knew, was where he'd find the perfect present for his Luna-sissy. There were colored pencils, all sorts of inks, quills, pens, papers, crayons, paint, markers, and other things Harry didn't recognize. But if there was one thing Harry knew for certain about Luna, it was that her absolute favorite thing to do was paint and get as messy as she could please.
"Let's get paints for Luna." He said, kneeling on the floor and looking at all the different paint sets. There were water colors, something called tempre, another called acrylic. There were even paints for your clothes. "Hmmm… oh! Lookit, Paddy! This one says… color… ch-chan…what's that word there?"
"Changing. Looks like they change all different colors of the rainbow."
"Oh, that's neat." Harry smiled and blinked as another box caught his eye. "Oh! Fairy paints. Look! Fairy paints!" He grabbed up the set of paints and held it up for Sirius to see. A rainbow of colors that would glow in the dark just like the fairies Harry remembered catching over the summer. His Luna-sissy would be sure to like those! He dropped it into the basket.
"You're doing so well Harry." Sirius smiled proudly, quite astounded truth be told. It wasn't every day you could take a four year old into a toy shop and ask him to pick out things for everyone but himself. Harry, who had never really had the opportunity to do these sorts of things, possessed a truly Christmasy spirit right now.
"Oh Paddy… lookit!" Harry moaned slightly, his eyes trailing upwards as he pointed. Or maybe he just had been too distracted to notice yet…
Sirius looked up. A Golden Snitch was fluttering it's way around near one of the ceiling lights, obviously charmed with a spell that made it much slower and more of a proper toy than a true Snitch that one used to play a real game of Quidditch. It was probably made of another metal just painted gold instead of real gold too. He looked down at his godson, green eyes wide behind his wire rim glasses. A Snitch. That had been one of the things on Harry's list, Lexie had said later in the evening last night after Harry was in bed.
The longing on Harry's face made Sirius's heart ache, but he smiled. "Yes, it's very nice Harry. Perhaps Santa will bring you one just like it."
"Oh, but Paddy, we could save him some work if we just got it now." Harry stated quite slyly, his eyes still trained on the Snitch. Sirius shook his head.
"We're not here to get things for ourselves, Harry. Christmas is more about the giving than the getting. You still need to find something for Ginny."
"But I neeeeed it. I'll never be a good Quidditch player without a Snitch!" Harry pouted, his whole being deflating.
"You've only one and a half more days until Christmas. If Santa doesn't bring you a Snitch, then maybe we'll think about getting one ourselves, but for now, just be patient."
"It's very hard." Harry admitted, heaving a sigh and tearing his eyes away from the Snitch too look up at Sirius. "Are you sure we gotta wait for Santa?"
"Yep. Otherwise he'll be sad if he brings you a Snitch but you already have one." Sirius took Harry's hand and led him off in another direction, away from the Snitch.
"I wouldn't mind two Snitches."
"Yeah, but I'm sure there's another kid out there who'd like a Snitch as well, and if you have two, that means he doesn't get one."
"Oooh… okay then." Harry nodded, feeling sad that he couldn't have the Snitch today, but excited that Santa might bring him one. He'd feel bad if he had two Snitches and someone else didn't get one because of it. He remembered how it'd been when Dudley had gotten tons of presents and he, Harry, had usually only gotten an old pair of pajamas or a paper clip.
Turning his attention back to the quest at hand, Harry and Sirius finally found a really good presents for Ginny and Neville. Ginny was getting a stuffed cat that really meowed and purred, and Neville was getting a set of blocks that would restack themselves if you knocked them over by accident. Harry was pleased with his choices and they finally left the toy shop, needing to find present for Moony and Lexie too.
Hey guys! Sorry about the big delay, I really didn't mean for it to take so long. In my last AN I told y'all that my s key was broken. Well, my spacebar followed shortly after that and then my laptop began acting like it was possessed. Let me tell you, it gets quite annoying when your computer types a bunch of random letters every time you hit the space key. And then it decides that it wants to log you off or restart itself... and no, it wasn't even a virus, it was an actual physical oddity. Thankfully, everything important was backed up onto a pretty little usb drive and my boyfriend has strange computery hoardingish tendencies wherein I got lucky because he has an awesome desktop he rarely used and is letting me er... 'borrow'. Sad news is, no more Word 07. Good news is, it has a similar, if not as awesome, Word program, so we are back in writing business! I do, however, miss having it not correct words like 'Quidditch' and 'Dumbledore' because I write them so often I added them to my dictionary.
ANYWAY, I hopoe you enjoyed this chapter, and I'm sorry for the rather longish AN again. Please lemme know what you thought, because I always appreciate it when you do.
Love always,
S.Q.O.