A/N: Okay so this is a bit of a long one! I do like it though, and it all fits together nicely so I hope you like it!

Thank you to everyone who's reviewed so far! I love getting reviews, they make such a difference!

Christmas Day lived up to all it promised to be. When Harry woke up that morning and saw his chocolate frog card collection, which he and Ron had been expertly appraising the previous night, he was reminded that this day was the day he'd been looking forward to for 365 days. He allowed himself the nostalgic smile that came to his face every Christmas morning before he leapt out of bed. He tore across the landing, his excitement intensified as the sounds and smells of a bustly kitchen wafted up the stairs. He barged into the guest bedroom where Ron had made himself at home; his clothes and belongings were everywhere.

"Wake up, Ron! It's Christmas!" he beamed, shaking Ron's shoulder. Ron made a noise which sounded a lot like "Merblerfler". At that moment, a fresh-faced Alice Potter bounded into the room and leapt onto Ron. He wheezed and rolled over, fully awake now.

"Yeah, Ron, wake up! We've got presents to open!"

At that, Ron scrambled to his feet, knocking Alice off the bed.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" he bellowed, practically jumping with excitement. Harry and Alice followed Ron back out of the guest bedroom and down the hallway. Lily and James emerged from the kitchen, giggling at the herd of elephants that were bounding down the stairs.

"Merry Christmas, everyone!" James cheered. Everyone exchanged good-wishes, but Alice was practically scratching the living room door open.

"Like a cat locked out of the kitchen at dinner time," said James, rolling his eyes. Lily, who was wrapped in her old fluffy blue dressing down, acknowledged the signal from James with a nod and opened the living room door slowly. There was no need for teasing theatrics: the three children charged through the door and into the living room. They were greeted with a crackling fire, plates of mince pies, twinkling lights, a gentle ceiling-snow charm and bulging stockings. Presents of all shapes were placed higgledy-piggledy around the small glittery Christmas tree.

"This is magical!" exclaimed Alice, whirling around the coffee table.

"That's the whole point, Alice," Ron grinned. He and Alice had bonded late that previous evening when Harry had forced him to go and explain to her that Hogwarts was the safest place in the wizarding world. Now, though Harry had no reason to be jealous, he could see the bonds of brother and sister forming between Alice and his best friend.

By the time Harry was finished emptying his stocking, Ron had almost finished eating the contents of his. The presents were generous. Mrs Weasley had sent her presents for Ron over to the Potters' house the previous evening, and so Ron was not left out of the festivities. He was surprised, however, to find that he'd received two extra presents than he'd expected to receive: A box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans from Hermione Granger of all people... and a squishy parcel from Lily and James Potter.

"This is from us, Ron," smiled Lily, passing the gift over to him. "Happy Christmas."

Ron tore open the gold paper and his eyes bulged as he pulled out a shiny new leather jacket.

"Whoa... this is for me?!" he exclaimed, twisting the jacket around in his hands. He got to his feet and pulled it on, zipping it up and standing a little taller than usual.

"Very handsome indeed!" giggled Lily. "Though we can refund it if you want. I've still got the receipt..."

"It's brilliant!" Ron nearly shouted, admiring himself in the mirror above the mantelpiece. "I never get new clothes! Fred and George will go green when they see this!"

"I hope Mrs Weasley doesn't think we've been too flashy..." fretted Lily, but her husband didn't seem to see any problem.

"You'll get a lot of attention in that thing, Ron!" James laughed, taking a sip of his tea. "You might even impress a girl! Someone like... oh, I dunno... Hermione Granger?" James gestured to the box of sweets she'd sent him.

"EURGH!" Ron snorted. "Not likely! That girl's mental! And Harry got something from her too, not just me!"

James and Lily laughed as Harry searched frantically for even more sweets that he'd been bought. Ron quickly encouraged Harry and Alice to open more presents, lest the conversation about Hermione continue. Pretty soon, the whole family were shredding the wrapping paper of their final presents.

"Here, Harry," said Lily, pulling a rather large, heavy box out from round the side of the Christmas tree where it had been concealed. "This is your last one, I think."

Harry stared at the box curiously. He couldn't think of anything that big that he'd hinted at over the past few weeks... what on earth could it be?

He struggled to find somewhere to start ripping paper from. When he rolled the box over, something heavy clunked inside and James gulped. His hand twitched to the wand in his pocket just before Harry managed to tear through the paper. He and Ron both attacked the wrapping until a wooden box was revealed. It looked like a treasure chest.

"Whoa!" Ron gasped. Harry looked at his beaming parents blankly.

"Go on then, scar-head!" grinned Alice, bouncing on her knees. "Open it!"

Harry looked down at the unlocked latch at the front of the box. He flicked it open and heaved the lid open. Inside, fixed loosely in place, were a quaffle, two bludgers and a golden snitch.

"This is... this is..." Harry spluttered, unsure quite what to say.

"We thought that you and Ron could practice over the holidays," said James. Harry glanced up at Ron, who looked just as excited as he was.

"It's excellent!" he proclaimed, smiling widely at his parents. Then, Lily nudged James.

"Ah, and there's one more present for Alice,"

He got up from the floor and disappeared into the hallway. Alice sat up straighter, watching the door closely. Her father emerged moments later, carrying a cage with a linen cloth draped over it. Alice gasped.

"Is it an owl?!" she asked. James put the cage on the coffee table and dramatically whisked the cloth off the cage to reveal a huge black bird.

"It's a raven!" cried Alice, leaping up hurling herself onto the ground right by the cage. She peered in delightfully at the bird, who ruffled its feathers and nibbled one of the bars near Alice's face.

"Isn't she beautiful?" Lily grinned. Alice didn't hear her. She was already engrossed in her new pet's mannerisms.

While Ron and Harry argued over whether ravens ate fudge or not, Lily opened the last of her presents: a garden centre gift voucher from The Dursleys for £5.

"How kind of them," muttered James. Lily rolled her eyes at him.

"Right, everyone!" Lily said suddenly. "Clear up all this paper and take your presents upstairs and actually put them away, Harry, don't just dump them on your bed. We're going to The Blacks house this evening."

"Can I bring Morgana?" asked Alice. Her family stared at her.

"Who?" asked Harry.

"My raven..."

"Of course not, Alice, leave her in your room."

oOo

The Black Family's home was not as humble as The Potters' house. It was huge and gothic on the outside, but the inside shone with the glamour of every expensive splurge made by Isabelle Black. It was well-known in the wizarding community that Sirius Black was left destitute when his family gouged him from their hearts and the wills, as was the fact that Isabelle received a generous annual allowance from her muggle father that they added on top of Sirius' salary from his job as a wizarding sports columnist at The Quibbler. The snootier wizarding families considered Isabelle's circumstances to undermine Sirius' hardships that he'd faced in order to obtain a steady salary. Of course, this embarrassed Isabelle very much, however would never be persuaded to tone down her expensive shopping habits.

For Isabelle Black, Christmas was a time for entertaining. In her eyes, a person could not truly be 'merry' unless surrounded by merry people. Since marrying Sirius and buying Black Manor, she had made it tradition to hold a colossal party at their home. Isabelle always insisted that she kept the guest list to family and friends, but Isabelle had a lot of friends.

The house, aside from being practically a castle, was unostentatious on the outside. Once Elsie had opened the door for them, the Potters and Ron were hit with warmth, golden light and the sound of a brass band playing old carols in the grand entrance hall. Alice even squealed as she walked in. Ron, who had never attended a Black party on account of his mother insisting that Christmas was a time for family, was equally amazed.

Floating candles bobbed everywhere, illuminating the giant snowflakes which had been charmed to fall gently from the ceiling. Live growing mistletoe tangled around itself in the chandelier and witches and wizards in all manner of bright jolly robes were laughing and chatting happily all around the downstairs.

"Lily! James!" called a voice over the brass band. Isabelle sauntered towards them in a beautiful black gown. Lily no longer felt pale in Isabelle's shadow anymore. She knew that Isabelle would overdress for any occasion.

"Merry Christmas!" she embraced them both, then Harry and Alice. "And who's this?" she asked, looking down at Ron, who was staring up at her with his mouth wide open.

"This is my friend, Ron," said Harry in place of his friend, who seemed unable to speak. "He's staying with us for the holidays."

Before Ron could embarrass himself further by not answering any more questions that Isabelle put to him, he dragged him away in search of anyone he knew. Isabelle's younger children, Henry and Aida, were easy to spot. They were chasing each other through and around the legs of the guests, their matching hazel curls bouncing wildly as they ran. Isabelle had dressed them both in matching outfits of black: Henry in a suit and his twin sister in a black skirt and cardigan. Even their older sister Elsie was dressed in a black velvet dress. Isabelle had never gone to this much trouble to play on the family name before! Maybe the twins weren't wrestling her when she dressed them, now that they were eight years old... Harry dismissed these jovial thoughts as the twins lead Harry, Alice, Elsie and Ron to where Neville and Cedric were listen with forced interest to Luna's tales of her and her father's recent excursion to Belarus.

Lily watched her children fondly, glad that they were friendly enough to always engage their odd and eccentric playmates at these sorts of events. It was a perfect picture. Only, Lily could picture Hermione Granger somewhere in the French Alps, trying to read a book while her mother wagged her finger at Mr Granger. Lily sighed. It would've been rude of her to insist on Hermione visiting. Although she probably would've had a much better time here, with company of her own age...

Thoughts of loneliness made something catch Lily's eye. In the corner of the hallway by the kitchen door, Remus Lupin leaned against the wall, staring glumly into a glass of firewhisky. Without hesitating, she slalomed through the bustling witches and wizards towards him.

"Moony?"

He looked up and smiles half-heartedly at her. "Happy Christmas, Lily."

"Why are you moping over here, all by yourself? How come you're not with James and Sirius?"

Remus shrugged and took another sip of his drink. "They've got plenty of people to be talking to as it is. They don't need me."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I wish you weren't so self-deprecating, Moony. Go and enjoy the party!"

"If I do, what about you?"

"Oh, I'm sure Isabelle will need someone to hand out drinks."

"That doesn't seem fair."

"I don't mind. I had my Christmas this morning. The children loved the sweets you sent them, by the way. Thank you. You're very generous."

Remus smiled kindly. "They're good kids." He sighed. "You know, this morning I woke up as excited as I used to be on Christmas morning when I was a boy. It was all very nice, watching Padfoot's family opening their presents, but..." he trailed off. He didn't need to continue either. Lily knew how he was feeling.

"You need a woman, Remus," she grinned, taking his glass from him and sipping. Remus barked a laugh.

"Ha! No chance! You know what'll happen."

"Oh come on, Moony, you never know! You don't give yourself enough credit. Take... take Nymphadora Tonks, for example!" Lily pointed to a girl standing alone, just as awkwardly as Remus had been, with bubble-gum pink hair and dress. "She's got more balls than a quidditch game! Why don't you ask her to dance?"

At that exact moment, the brass band ceased their rendition of "O come all ye faithful" and sank into a slow song. Lily looked over at the band. In front of them, her husband giving them the thumbs-up. He turned and winked at Lily. She giggled.

"Right, I'm off for a dance with the husband. And I'd better see you on that dance floor, Remus, or I'll pair you up with Augusta Longbottom!"

He laughed uncomfortably as she skipped away to her husband, who swiftly took her in his arms. They joined the other couples who were now swaying together around the hall.

"What's Moony's problem?" asked James as they began slowly turning on the spot.

"Empty bed syndrome, I guess," sighed Lily sympathetically. James laughed loudly.

"Oh, James, please don't tease him! He's suffering!" she cried.

James looked around the room and raised an eyebrow at a fixed point. "Well it doesn't bloody well look like he's suffering!"

Baffled, Lily looked over her shoulder to see what he was looking at. Sure enough, Remus Lupin was standing with Nymphadora Tonks, both of them laughing comfortably together. Lily was delighted.

"Jammy sod..." mumbled James with a smirk. Lily stamped on his foot playfully.

"You're a horrible friend, James Potter," she told him. She and James slipped into a pleasant silence, enjoying the last minutes of the dance. Not long later, they were both laughing at the sight of Neville Longbottom's terrified face as Luna Lovegood engaged him in a very lively dance.

A/N: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!

So, what do we think? I hope I did Lily and James' relationship justice in this one. There's just a little reflection of their banter at Hogwarts at the end there. Also, what do you think about the Lily/Remus dynamics? Are they okay?

LET ME KNOW.

And also, are there any other scenes you'd like to see? When Alice goes to Hogwarts (which is soon!) there will be plenty of new faces. Voldemort's demise affected the lives of the Death Eaters as well as The Order...

Stay tuned!

Nel X