His Boy
Chapter Twenty-Five: Memories
"Paaaaddy! Paddy? Padfoot, Padfoot!" Harry's voice echoed through the house like a elephant trumpeting. He ran from the living room where he was working on wrapping presents and into the kitchen. But there was no Padfoot in here either. Where could he have gone too?
"Harry, Sirius had to go out for a bit this afternoon, remember?" Remus said, poking his head out of his study as Harry went from the kitchen, to the dining room, and then to the hallway, his eyes looking and scanning the house.
"Oh yeah." Harry nodded, before frowning and holding up his hands. They were covered in wrapping paper and tape. "I'm stuck, Moony." Remus laughed and reached out to help him, prying the tape away from Harry's skin gently, so as not to hurt him.
"How on earth did you manage that, Harry?"
"Well, I was wrapping presents for my friends, but then the tape wouldn't break and I kept pulling but it still wouldn't break." Harry admitted, wriggling his now free fingers as Remus pulled bits of tape and paper out of his unruly jet-black hair.
"Do you want some help?"
"Yes, please." Harry nodded and bolted back into the living room once he was tape and paper free. The floor was scattered with bits of wrapping paper, tape rolls, a pair of safety scissors, and of course, all of the presents Harry had gotten for his friends that morning. Sirius had helped him wrap his present for Moony before he'd left and placed it safely under the tree.
Remus sighed, eyeing the mess. Ever since he'd started living with Harry, he was beginning to get used to a bit more mess, but he still wasn't fond of it very much. He'd always gotten on the other Marauders' cases when they're dorm room at Hogwarts had gotten a bit out of hand. It was one thing to fling your dirty underwear on the floor. It was a complete other to find someone else's beneath your pillow.
"See, you've just got to be a little more careful with the tape, Harry, like this. Watch." Remus took the tape despenser off of the floor and pulled one small strand of tape outwards, and then pulled it down so that it hit the sharpened edge and tore off easily. "You don't need very much to seal the paper, just enough to keep it from popping open."
"Okay." Harry nodded and let Moony help him cut some paper for Hermione's present and then folded it up. It was easiest putting the paper on flat things because it folded over them easily. Things like Ronnie's cap were much harder to work with.
"Have you wrapped Padfoot's yet?"
"Mhm." Harry nodded and pointed to the tree where a severely tapped and misshapen present lay. He and Remus had gotten it when Sirius had still been sick in bed but with Lexie to look after him. Harry had thought it very smart and very sneaky of Moony to think of getting Sirius a present when he least expected it.
"Good. It looks nice." Moony smiled and together, he and Harry finished getting the rest of Harry's presents for his friends wrapped up all pretty with ribbon bows on top.
"Paddy said Santa might bring me a Snitch, Moony." Harry announced when they had finished wrapping the last of the gifts. "We saw one at the toy store, but he said we couldn't get it 'cause then if Santa brought me one, someone else wouldn't have one and would be sad."
"That they would be. But I bet you'll get a Snitch, Harry. And if Santa doesn't bring you one, then we'll get you one another time, so don't worry."
"Well, mostly I just want one for my mummy."
"Hmmm?" Remus blinked, looking up from where he was labeling Ginny's present to where Harry sat, twirling a piece of ribbon around his finger.
"'cause she liked them a lot and I dunno if she got one." Harry frowned, stopping his twirling and letting the ribbon drop to the floor.
"Oh Harry, you don't need to worry about that. Your mummy had lots of Snitches."
Harry blinked, perking up. "She did?"
"Mhm. Your daddy gave her plenty of Snitches because he knew she loved them a lot. Let me see… I believe she had Snitch socks, and a t-shirt, and hair clips, and a necklace, and of course the tree topper. And she did have a real Snitch she used to let you play with. I've probably got some of her Snitches in one of my boxes somewhere. I saved quite a few things from your old house after it exploded, but just the important ones." Remus frowned. He'd been meaning to pull the boxes out and go through them again to see what was in there. He couldn't remember exactly what it was he had saved, but he'd been so busy lately with Harry that it kept slipping his mind.
"Can'I see?"
"I suppose now is a good a time as ever. Come on, we'll have an easier time getting all of them if we go up to my room."
Harry beamed brightly and chased after Moony now, heading up to first the second floor, and then onto the third floor where Moony's bedroom, the guest room, and two other bathrooms were.
Harry didn't go into Moony's room very often, rarely needing to since Moony was usually downstairs with him or in his study anyway, but he liked the room nonetheless. It was mostly light blue with honey colored wooden furniture, and surrounded by bookshelves that held the books that didn't fit down in Remus's study.
Harry climbed up onto Remus's freshly made bed and watched as his second favorite guardian went into his closet. He returned, carrying a large box, then another, and finally, one last one. He set the first one on the bed and the other two on the floor.
"Ah, let's see. This first one was your dad's." Moony smiled and tugged the box open. Dust flew from it and Harry coughed a little, leaning forward on the bed to get a better look inside but alol he could see was a lot of scarlet fabric. Moony grinned and tugged the fabric out. "These were your dad's Quidditch robes. See? Potter, number two. The Keeper is always number one. The Chasers are two, three, and four. The Beaters are five and six, and the Seeker is number seven. Here."
Remus held out the robes and then tugged them down over Harry's head. They were much too large for the little boy, but the grin that erupted upon Harry's face said he didn't care about that at all. These robes had belonged to his daddy and he would wear them with pride.
A pair of Chaser's gloves followed by a broken bit of wood with the words 'Silver Arrow' embossed upon it came out of the box next. Harry donned the gloves for a moment before taking them off and examining the bit of wood.
"That's a piece of your dad's first broomstick. It got torn to shreds during a match against Slytherin in our fifth year when a Bludger hit it straight on. Couldn't be repaired. Ah, and of course." Remus held up a beaten to hell Quaffle with a smiley face drawn on it in permanent ink. "This is named Anna Lucia. Your mum actually gave it to your dad as a sort of wedding present. If I remember correctly she took it after the championship game at the end of seventh year, which we won by the way, drew a face on it, and named it."
"Anna Lucia." Harry smiled, hugging the Quaffle tightly to his chest. Remus pawed through the rest of the box, but it was mostly old bits of parchment with notes on them from their Marauder days and a few exchanged between James and Lily over the years. He'd share those with Harry when he was a bit older.
"Alright, now, let's see…. This box has your mum's stuff in it." Remus put the first box on the floor and pulled the second one up. He tugged it open and dug inside, Harry looking on with more anticipation than he had before.
"Ah, see? Snitch socks." Remus held up a pair of worn out socks covered in fluttering golden snitches and Harry beamed, glad to see them. Out came the other snitch item Remus had mentioned earlier, shortly followed by a jar of perfume, a small jewelry box containing Prefect and Head Girl badges, along with a couple of other trinkets. Remus had been right. Harry's mummy did have quite a few Snitchy things.
"Here, Harry. Smell this." Remus offering up the perfume bottle and Harry gave the nozzle a sniff. He melted, his little body relaxing at the very familiar old smell. He closed his eyes, a familiar flash of red and softness filling his memory.
"That's Mummy." He said after a moment, eye opening, smile on his face.
"Yes. That's your mum. Essence of lilacs and vanilla with a hint of ginger. A strange combination, but it suited her."
Harry grinned, hugging the perfume bottle. He wasn't ever going to let this go back into a box. Not something that smelt like his mummy. He watched as Remus put the box back on the floor and lifted the last one up onto the bed.
"Well, Harry. This last box is very special, and I really should have gotten it out sooner, know why?"
"Why?" Harry asked curiously, leaning forward, trying to see the name Remus had written on top.
"Because, everything in here is yours." Remus pulled the top of the box open and Harry dropped the perfume bottle down onto the bed, leaning forward and grabbing at the box with both hands.
The blast that had sent Voldemort reeling and Harry's house exploding half of it's top floor had destroyed most of Harry's baby things, but Remus had been able to scour through the rubble after the Aurors were done examining the place.
Right on the very top of the box sat a ragged looking stuffed dog. It was black with very chewed ears and a tail, but it looked just like…
"Padfoot." Harry said, picking up the dog and hugging it. It felt right on his fingers, the fur squishing between them.
"Exactly. Well, actually, this guy is called Snuffles, but he does look an awful lot like Padfoot." Remus laughed and pulled other things out of the box as well. A slightly chewed pacifier, rattle keys, a ball that jingled when you shook it, a teething ring shaped like a dragon, and a box of cassette tapes and a walkman. "These were all your mum's favorites, but some of these were yours too. Children's songs. Lullabies." Remus picked through the cassettes with labels before reaching ones with sticker labels. "These ones your mum probably recorded songs on from the radio."
"Can we listen to em?" Harry asked, curiously, reaching into the box to retrieve a tape and holding it out to Remus.
"Well, I've got some other things I need to be getting to, but you can take this box… here…" Remus took the tape Harry had offered him and opened the walkman. "You put it in like this, then close it, and press play, that's this triangle here. Then the stop button is the square. Once it finishes the first side, you can flip it over and listen to the second side, ok? They're probably all already rewound because your mum was crazy about making sure they were always back at the beginning once she'd finished playing them."
"Okay, but Moony, I know what button does what." Harry laughed, having watched Dudley work the VCR many times before. He put the walkman back into the box and carried it and Snuffles down to his room. Remus followed after him, carting the Quaffle, perfume bottle, and box of baby things they hadn't finished going through yet. He then left Harry to his own devices, heading downstairs and back into his study.
Harry climbed up onto his bed, the scarlet Chaser's robes trailing behind him very much like a king's cape would have. He pushed the sleeves up on his arms, needing to have better use of his hands before he dumped the box of cassettes out onto his bed and began looking through them. He could read most of the words on the fronts.
Five minutes later, Harry pushed his way into Moony's study, walkman in hand. "Moony? Who's Jude and what did he make bad?"
Remus burt out laughing at Harry's innocence and patted his lap. Harry trailed over to him, headphones around his neck. He climbed into Remus's lap with a little help.
"Harry, the song is about a man called Jude who is very much in love with a lady, but he's scared of telling her so and his friends are telling him to tell the lady that he loves her, otherwise he'll regret it later." Remus said after a few moments deliberation. It was the simplest explanation he could think of that Harry would be able to at least understand a bit.
"Oh. Did he tell her?"
"Yes, I think he did. It would be sad if he hadn't right?"
"Yeah. I dunno why he'd be scared to tell the lady he loves her. All he had to say was 'I love you.' I say that all the time. It's not hard at all."
"No, it isn't hard." Remus smiled, patting Harry on the head and shifting him back onto the floor. "You go and finish listening to your music for now. I'm almost done with my work and Padfoot should be home soon for dinner.
"Ok." Harry smiled and traiped his way back upstairs to his cassette tapes. He really liked his Mummy's old music player.
…...
"Paddy, look what Moony gave me!" Harry exclaimed delightfully at dinner, holding up the walkman. "It has lotsa tapes too."
"Oh hey, I remember that. That was Lily's." Sirius smiled, taking the walkman and examining it with a smile. "The things Muggles think of, huh? It's pretty neat actually. She had a bigger one two without the head thingamajig… what was it called?"
"A boom box." Remus provided, twirling his spaghetti onto a fork. "I looked for that too, but it didn't survive the blast."
"Well, maybe we'll have to get one for the living room. Then we can all listen at once."
"Yeah! And dance!" Harry nodded, eyes bright with happiness at the idea of a boom box. There was one at his school that his teachers played very fun songs on. Like Pop Goes the Weasel and Ring Around the Rosy. He'd found some of the same songs on his mummy's old tapes.
"You know, Harry. I bet there are probably some Christmas songs on those tapes of yours. How about, tomorrow you and I look through them and see?"
"Yeah!" Harry nodded with his excitement at the idea of having Christmas songs on his tapes. He loved Christmas songs. "And maybe we can find a boom box too?"
"I'll look into it." Sirius smiled, reaching across the table to ruffle Harry's hair. The little boy giggled and continue to eat away at his pasta.
…...
"Here Harry, this one has Christmas songs on it. See?' Sirius held up a red colored tape and Harry smiled. He placed it into the walkman and grinning, pressed the play button. He laughed, and held out the headphones to Sirius who pressed his ear against one, letting the other stay against Harry's ear. "Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, had a very shiny nose… I knew it wouldn't be Christmas songs."
Sirius let go of the headphone and Harry replaced them over his head, watching as Padfoot dug through the tapes, sorting them out. Lily had organized them by genra and alphabetical order, and whether they were something she had recorded from the radio or not. He picked through the recorded ones, more interested in them than the ones she had bought.
"Hey, Harry… let me see that a minute." Sirius said after a moment, having extracted a tape from the box. He stared down at it, his eyes re-reading the word 'Baby's' on the label. Harry handed over the walkman with a frown.
"But the tape isn't done, Paddy."
"That's ok. I want to just see what this one has on it first. You can listen to the Christmas one after." Sirius opened the walkman and exchanged the tapes. He placed the headphones over his own ears and pressed the play button. The headphones filled with static for a moment.
"Is it on?"
"Yeah, I think so… is that what this little red light means?"
"Yes, James, that's what the red light means. Here, stop it and start over."
"Ok, I think I've got it this time. Hi baby, this is your dad."
"And your mum."
"And we're making this tape for you because you aren't here yet, but you will be soon so your mum wanted to make sure you had plenty of lullabies for when you are here, but we're too tired to sing them to you, so we're just going to record them for backup so you never have to go without."
"What're you guys doing?"
"Recording lullabies for the baby."
Sirius felt his heart ache and his eyes water as the voices of two of his dearest friends filled his ears, soon followed by himself. He had completely forgotten about the tape. The image of a black box, similar to the walkman, sitting on Lily's chest while she laid on the couch, very pregnant with her head in James's lap filled his mind. He paused the tape and rewound it before placing the headphones back over Harry's ears.
"You're going to like this so much more than just plain old Christmas songs, Prongslet."
Harry watched as Padfoot hit the play button and he blinked a bit, confused as spoken words filled his ears instead of music. And then, as the words continued, he looked up at Padfoot, his green eyes getting wider and wider behind his glasses until they looked about ready to pop out of his head. He plopped his bottom down on the floor, holding the headphones tightly over his ears, pressing them closer so as to be able to not miss a single word that was being said. These were his parents voices, and his Paddy's. His mother began singing, a lullaby that felt like it was older than time itself and Harry listened, his heart soaring. They had made this tape for him. Especially for him and for no one else.
…...
"I don't think he's turned it off since." Sirius told Remus at lunchtime, both of them peering into the living room. Harry was sitting on the floor with his back to them, headphones large on his small head, staring up at the Christmas tree while he pushed his firetruck back and forth across the carpet, slowly, as though distracted. He had donned his mother's old Snitch t-shirt over the scarlet Quidditch robes that were way too big for him. Remus had had to pin the sleeves back and the bottom up to keep Harry from tripping. Shrinking the robes had been suggested, but Harry had said no to that. He wanted to be able to wear them when he got big too.
Harry removed his hand from the firetruck and grabbed the Quaffle from beside him. He pushed it across the floor, making it bounce off of the wall and back to him.
"He's very quiet for a kid on Christmas Eve." Remus noted, frowning as he watched Harry bounce the Quaffle back and forth without so much as a giggle.
"Yeah… well, we still need to bake cookies for Santa." Sirius nodded and entered the living room. He sat down beside Harry and caught the ball at it returned. "Hey, prongs let."
Harry startled slightly, looking up at Sirius as though having just noticed his presence in the room. He paused the walkman and pulled the headphones down so he could hear him better. "Hi."
"You ok?"
"Mhm… Paddy? I really like this tape." Harry held up the walkman, a huge smile bursting onto his face and Sirius breathed a sigh of relief. Harry wasn't sad, he was just entirely immersed in the tape, that's all that was going on.
"I like it too, but if you listen to it for too long, you're going to wear out the batteries and we won't be able to get any until after Christmas because all of the shops will be closed. So how about we put it away for now and you can listen again at bedtime?"
"Aw, Paddy… I dun wanna."
"Well, I guess maybe we'll just have to bake cookies for Santa without you then. Lexie will be very sad that you aren't helping us." Sirius sighed heavily, leaning his chin into a hand and Harry frowned. He looked between the walkman and Sirius before taking off the headphones. He carried the walkman over to the window seat and place it down there where it would be safe and then grinned.
"I dun want Lexie to be sad. I'll help." Harry pushed the sleeves on the scarlet robes up higher, but Sirius reached down and tugged them up, off of Harry.
"Let's not ruin these, mkay? But…" He extracted the snitch t-shirt from inside of the robes and brought it down over Harry's long sleeved grey shirt. "There."
"Yay!" Harry smiled, glad to still have one of his parents' things on. He watched as Sirius flung the robes over the back of a chair and a knocking came upon the door. Sirius went to answer it and Harry trailed after him, curious as to who it could be.
A woman stood outside the door, looking hurried. Her car was running in the driveway and she bounced from one foot and then the other before breathing a sigh of releif as the door finally opened.
"Hi, my name's Patricia Monroe, I'm Hermione Granger's teacher?"
"'mione?" Harry brightened excitedly, peering out around Sirius's leg, searching for any sign of his friend. He didn't see her.
"Oh good, you do know her. Well, the thing is… I promised to look after her for a couple of days while her parents went to France for the Prestigious Dental Conference, they go every year around this time. Only, there's been a terrible snow storm down there. Power outages and such, and they won't be able to make it back until it blows over. Unfortunately, I have to be at the airport by five tonight to get to Dublin by Christmas and I have no way of taking Hermione with me. She received a package from this address today and I called her parents and they said she's stayed here before and I'm just wondering if…"
"We would be more than happy to have Hermione. She's a very dear friend of my Harry." Sirius smiled, noticing the blue hat pressed against the window of the car's backseat.
"Oh thank goodness, I cannot thank you enough. My mother was going to murder me if I didn't go home this year… um.. Well, I've got all of her things in the boot."
"I'll give you a hand." Sirius shoved his feet into his boots and donned his jacket. "Harry, you wait here."
The back of the car opened and Hermione slid out, having seen him coming. She wore a pink snowsuit similar to the red one Harry had and looked rather unhappy as she trailed up the freshly magic-snow-melted front walk, her purple otter clutched to her chest by mittened hands.
"Hi 'mione!" Harry beamed, jumping up and down as she came into the house. He closed the door behind her and watched as she flopped down on the floor to remove her snow boots.
"Hello Harry." Hermione forced a bit of a smile, but then it brightened as she tugged off her hat. Her hair was a mess of static and snow. "My mum and daddy are stuck in France for Christmas. But at least I get to be here with you instead of with Mrs. Crady next door. She's ok, but she smells like cats and overcooked cabbage."
"We're gonna make cookies for Santa with Lexie, so it'll be fun." Harry smiled, wanting to cheer her up. He knew he would have hated to have to spend Christmas without his Padfoot and Moony.
"Ooooo, I like making cookies." Hermione nodded and tugged off her mittens followed by unzipping her snowsuit and working her way out of it. Harry grinned and they got her snow clothes to hang beside his on one of the shorter hooks in the hallway. "I just hope Santa is informed of my relocation."
"Santa knows everything, but we can ask Moony. C'mon." Harry reached out, taking his friend's hand and leading her into the kitchen where Moony was setting out bowls of soup for lunch. He looked a bit surprised when two children entered the room instead of just one.
"Why hello there, Hermione! Where did you come from?"
"My parents are stuck in France because of a snowstorm and Miss Monroe is very nice but has other family obligations she must attend to and no extra plane ticket for taking me with her." Hermione explained, climbing into a chair where Remus had set the extra bowl of soup he'd just poured out for her. Harry sat beside her.
"Well, you know you're always welcome here. We love having you."
"Thank you, Mr. Lupin. I'm sorry if I've put you out at all."
"Never. We love you very much, Hermione." Remus smiled, stroking her hair as she brought a spoonful of soup to her mouth. She smiled, seeming to be feeling a bit better than she had been when she'd gotten here. "I love your dress."
"Thanks." Hermione beamed, patting her skirt. She was all red velvet, lace, and long sleeves, with a square collar in the front that had a picture of Rudolph on it. Her little white tighted legs swung back and forth, unable to touch the floor. "My mummy got it special for Christmas."
"Well, Hermione, I've put your things up in Harry's room for now. I figured you'd prefer to stay with him instead of in the big old guest room by yourself." Sirius smiled, coming into the kitchen still wearing his snow boots. He flopped down into a chair and began eating away at his soup.
"Sirius Black, you go take those boots off right now." A loud crack came from the living room and Lexie entered, hands on her hips. "You're tracking snow everywhere."
"Er, right." Sirius nodded, tugging off his boots and getting up to carry them back into the hallway where they belonged. Lexie grinned and reached out, hugging Harry from behind and kissing the top of his head.
"Who's ready to make some cookies?"
"Me me me me me!" The pre-schoolers chorus, bouncing in their seats excitedly. Lexie smiled and moved to hug Hermione as well.
"I wasn't aware that there would be two lovies to bake cookies with. It's wonderful to see you, Hermione! Will you be staying long?"
"My parents are stuck in France indefinitely."
"And Miss Monroe hasta go on a plane." Harry explained, slurping slightly at his soup. He beamed up at Lexie and then at Hermione, very glad to have two more people he loved here. "Are you staying all night, Lexie?"
"Of course. I wouldn't miss spending Christmas with my favorite men. I was thinking about going to my cousin's, but she's newly married and wants to spend it alone with her husband." Lexie smiled and doled herself out some soup, sitting down to eat away at.
"What about your parents?" Hermione asked curiously, eating her soup with a bit more dignity than Harry was.
"Oh, my parents have been gone for a long time now." Lexie sighed, but then smiled. "But you guys are just as much my family as anyone else could be. So it's ok."
They finished eating their soup fairly quickly, getting all giggles when Remus accidentally placed his hand down too hard, whacked his spoon, and sent it flying into Sirius's forehead as he reentered the room.
While Sirius was nursing his bruise, Lexie got out the ingredients for the sugar cookies and began mixing them together, with the help of four smaller hands that liked to pour and stir whenever they could. But in Harry's opinion, the funnest part came when they rolled the dough out on the kitchen table and got to pick Christmas shapes to make the cookies into. There were reindeer, Christmas trees, Santas, stars, snowflakes, and sleighs.
Harry had a little trouble working the cookie cutter at first, but once he got the hand of it, it wasn't bad at all. Hermione was pretty good at it already and she showed him how to press the shape down into the flattened dough and then wiggle it around to cute it all around before lifting the cutter. Sometimes the cookie stuck inside of it and they had to poke it out, but most of it time it stayed right where it had been cut and they could move it gently from the table to the cooking sheet Lexie had placed there as well.
"Look at my reindeer, 'mione!" Harry laughed, holding up the reindeer he had accidentally broken the head off of. Hermione giggled and they watched as Lexie reattached the head to the reindeer, using a bit of water and gentle hands.
"You know, you're really good at being a mummy." Hermione remarked, admiring the way Lexie was able to fix the cookie with ease, just like her mummy was always good at fixing her messed up cookies when she did this at home.
"Thank you." Lexie smiled and kissed her floury cheek before picking up the full cookie sheet and placing it into the preheated oven. She added the second sheet next to it, and then a third on the bottom. They were going to have plenty of cookies to decorate in a couple of hours. First they needed to bake and cool.
"Wanna see the stuff Moony saved from my old old house when I was a baby?" Harry asked after a moment. Hermione nodded and the two hurried off up to Harry's room to play for a while.
…...
"I'm going to make mine have a red nose, just like Rudolph." Hermione announced, pinching a bit of red crystally sprinkles inbetween her fingers and letting them drop onto the nose of the reindeer she'd just covered in light brown maple frosting that Lexie had made from water, powdered sugar, and maple syrup. She'd made other colors as well, using food dyes and flavors. The yellow was lemon, the pink was peppermint, and the green was surprisingly orange flavored, which Harry and Hermione found to be hilarious when they tasted it. They also had white, blue, and purple, but those hadn't been flavored. They had all different sprinkles as well to help make the cookies even more beautiful.
"Do you like mine?" Lexie held up the plate shaped cookie she had made special for putting Santa's cookies out on. She'd decorated it with bits of white for snow flakes and blue trim. Harry and Hermione nodded.
"Ooooh, that's so pretty!"
"Did you make a cup for his milk too?"
"What do you take me for? Of course I did!" Lexie laughed, holding up the glass she had covered with dough and then baked. "But we have to keep the glass in it so that when we add the milk, it doesn't get all soggy before he gets here."
"Right!" Harry nodded his agreement. He always hated it when his cookies got too soggy and broke apart from being in the milk for too long. He liked to just dip them for a moment and eat them, otherwise he lost more cookie inside his milk than he got to eat.
"Alright, I think that's the last of them. Let's clear up for dinner and afterward, the frosting will be dry and we can eat some of these yummy cookies before bed."
"But not all of them 'cause Santa needs some too."
"Right."
…...
"…and merry Christmas to all and to all a good night." Remus finished, book in his lap, child on either side of him on the couch. They had decided to read tonight's bedtime story near the fireplace and the glowing tree. Santa's cookies were set out on the plate shaped cookie on the coffee table. Harry and Hermione had picked out their very best ones for him (after eating a few of their own of course).
Harry yawned and leaned against Remus's arm for a moment before Sirius scooped him up. "Ready for bed and sugar plums?"
"Mhm…" Harry nodded, yawning again and wrapping his arms around Sirius's neck. Remus lifted Hermione, half asleep, from the couch as well and they, followed by Lexie, carried them up to Harry's bedroom where Sirius had made up the bed.
Hermione, in her red and green plaid night gown went in first, snuggling down against her fairy tale covered pillow, otter's tail in one hand, thumb in her mouth. Harry followed, clutching onto his black Snuffles dog that he had taken to carrying around with him since he'd gotten it. He had an old kinship with it that made him feel very safe and even more so now, with his lion, dragon, and Hermione also in his bed.
Sirius tugged up the covers, Harry's lion blanket and Hermione's unzipped sleeping bag, to their chins, gave them each a kiss. They were out cold before Remus even finished winding the music box.
I really really like the way this one turned out. I wanted to incorporate each of the main adults and get that classic Christmas Eve feel that I love so much.
For those of you who are happy about Sirius and Lexie, yay! I really like them together to be honest, they're both bold and a little bit crazy. For anyone who doesn't like the idea of Sirius having found someone because they feel it'll take away from the Harry/Sirius dynamic base we've got going on now, don't worry so much. Do you think I'd let that happen? This is a story about Harry and Sirius (and Remus of course) getting the lives they've deserved and I honestly feel that denying Sirius a love interest would be an insult to his character. Lexie is here to add to the story, not take away from it.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoy how it came out. There's even a bit of an inside joke in here for you guys who have read The Future of the Past (see 'Quidditch').
And the cassette tape, oh Merlin the cassette tape... ANYWAY, thanks for reading and reveiw if you'd like, I always appreciate every single one I get.
Love ye alligators,
S.Q.O.