Loralei and Remus started cooking in the morning, slowly the number of people working in the kitchen greatened. Lily joined them around noon. James and Sirius were given the job of setting the table and that is all. Loralei knew that if they were allowed near the food before it was time to eat something bad would happen, so the two ended up playing chess, arguing the whole way through it about how it was a "cheap shot" or "against the rules."

Katie and Colin showed up with the wine around three o'clock, as well as presents.

"Where do you want to put these?" Katie asked, her arms full of presents, as were Colin's right next to her.

"Under the tree." Loralei told her. "Follow the sounds of yelling. James and Sirius are playing chess."

Katie laughed. "I wouldn't expect anything less." She followed the sound of yelling to the back of the mansion, Colin followed her, trusting her to get them there.

After Katie and Colin finished putting the presents under the tree, and the wine in the fridge. Well, all but one bottle of red wine that Remus opened.

"We're cooking, we deserve it." He had announced when he pulled out the cork.

The two girls went to Charles Potter's old office. A layer of dust covered everything and swirled in the air as they let walked through the room. Disturbing the air for the first time in a very long time. This room had not been opened since his passing. It still smelled like him. It still had a moving picture of James and Loralei wrestling as children-Loralei was winning-and a picture of him and Cordelia on their wedding day.

"Sorry it's not..." Loralei started.

Katie shook her head and raised a hand to stop her. "Don't worry about it. I get it." She pulled up her sweater and pulled a cream colored folder out from where it was placed in the waistband of her jeans. "I didn't know if you wanted anyone to know." Katie shrugged. "I copied most of these the best I could."

Loralei smiled. "Thank you."

"I'm going to go over it with you, and then leave it for you to keep going over, just so I can explain some things." Katie told her as she put it on the desk and opened it. "I got everything from the orphanage to your time at Hogwarts, that was all too easy to find. I had to dig more for before that. "You were given to the orphanage on your first birthday with the name Snow Vale."

"Snow Vale?" Loralei sighed. "At least I moved up the alphabet when I was adopted."

Katie laughed, as she kept going through the file, looking for something specific. "That was my exact thought. And when you get married to Sirius you move up even more."

Loralei laughed lightly, looking at a picture of her as a small child that Katie had recovered from the records.

"Your parents didn't drop you off at the orphanage, though." Katie said, taking a few pieces of paper and hugging it to her chest.

"Then who did?"

"I don't know, but along with you and a few belongings, I have your birth records." Katie smiled slightly, tearing up. "Along with a letter and your mother's name." She held out the pieces of paper. "It wasn't addressed to you, but the orphanage. I have a few things on your mother as well."

Owner of the orphanage,

Please take care of my daughter. I wish nothing more than that. Give her to a good home and try to give her the best life that is possible for a part-human. That is all I ask for my daughter.

Rayna Vale

"Rayna Vale?" Loralei asked. "Who is she?"

"A part of an ancient Veela tribe. The chief's daughter." Katie told her. "This is where it starts getting interesting."

Katie told her of what she found on the tribe. It dates so far back that the Ministry doesn't know when for sure it came to be. It was the tribe of all tribes and other tribes would bow to them. They were the most powerful. They lived in Norway's mountains. Rayna would rule after her father since she was the only child of the Vale line. She disappeared two years before Loralei was born, and she was found dead a year after.

The chief knew that Rayna had a child, because she had told him so on her deathbed. Since she was the only blood of his blood, her child would take her place in the ruling of the tribe. The chief, Atli Vale, had been looking for his grandchild for nineteen years.

"So, for everything that I found. You are a lost princess, Loralei." Katie told her. "You're a princess."

"Could that be why Voldemort wants me?" Loralei asked, she looked a little in shock.

Katie licked the corner of her mouth. "Or because your mother was able to see the future, but unlike you she could control it. She could focus and see what was in her or someone else's future."

"How do you know that?" Loralei asked.

Katie pulled a flier out of the folder. "She travelled with a carnival after she left her tribe. She was known as Madame Vale. She was what everyone went to see as they traveled throughout Europe twenty years ago."

Loralei fell back into her father's chair, sending more dust into the air. "This is insane, Katie. I thought I was going to find out that they didn't want me. Why can't you find out who my father is?"

Katie smiled timidly. "Just so you know, I don't know for sure who he is, but he could be the owner of the carnival. There were rumors of it in the tabloids."

"What?"

"I don't know if any of it is for sure." Katie held her hands up. "It could always be just a rumor that doesn't mean anything."

Loralei took a deep breath. "Who is he?"

"Niklaus Eichmann." Katie told her. "He lives in Germany now. Retired but wealthy."

Loralei was quiet for a long moment. "It looks like I'm going on a trip then."

"When?" Katie asked.

"The first moment I get."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You both were gone a while." Remus mentioned.

Loralei pointed at the empty bottle of wine. "Enough time for you to finish a bottle of wine you lush."

"He's nervous about seeing Tessa again." Colin told them. "He accidently ran into her a couple days ago and spilled coffee on her."

Loralei shrugged. "That's not too bad. She's already forgotten about it, or at least smiles about it. Don't worry."

Katie smiled. "Colin stuffed snow down the back of my jacket in school. I forgave him."

"Feel better now?" Loralei asked Remus.

"Immensely." He replied, rolling his eyes.

"How's Helen doing?" Loralei asked, as she looked into the little window in the oven.

"Helen?" Katie asked.

"We named the duck we're roasting." Remus told her.

Colin held up his hands. "Were you drinking before we arrived?"

"No, last night." Remus told him. "I wanted to name it Dinner, but that's just too straightforward." Remus sighed, and rolled his eyes again.

"It looks like a Helen to me." Loralei told him simply. "And I bought it so I get to name it."

"So we're eating a girl duck?" Lily asked, staring off into space.

"You're not finding this weird at all?" Colin asked her.

Lily shook her head. "Nope. I'm not too surprised. I've known her for almost half my life."

"So you're saying we're going to get used to this?" Katie asked.

"And take part in it." Remus told her.

"So being normal will be impossible." Colin nodded, smiling. "Perfect."

"Normalcy is overrated anyway." Remus agreed.

"Why can't we come in, everyone else is in the kitchen but us!" Sirius whined, standing on the other side of the bar that separated the kitchen from the breakfast room.

"You're fine there." Loralei told him.

Sirius pouted.

"Aaaaaand you're whipped." Remus told him.

"Yeah, and I wonder what you're going to be like when little Tessa Grey gets here." Lily teased. "I saw you bringing her coffee all last week."

"I hate you all. Smug couples everywhere. I can see why Peter is never around." Remus groaned, rubbing his face with both hands.

"No, that's because he's whipped by his parents." Sirius stated. "You get that you have to live your own life, and finally get a lady friend."

"Oh merlin. I should have never invited her."

That thought lasted until Tessa rang the doorbell two hours later right when dinner was being served.

She was a very small woman as tall as Katie, but much thinner, and did not have the muscles that Katie had to maintain with her job. She had olive skin and large blue eyes. Dark hair that hung to her shoulders. She was quiet and a bit shy. Loralei was definitely one of the friends that were like a protective mother bear. She didn't want Tessa to hurt Remus if she found out about his furry little problem. She was friendly, but she made sure to watch how she reacted.

"So Tessa, you're a healer, right?" Loralei asked from across the dinner table. "I get stories all the time, but please tell me, who is the troublemaker in St. Mungo's?"

Tessa smiled shyly. "Oh, no one's a troublemaker. Everyone's nice."

Lily laughed. "You don't say a bad word against anyone!"

"Well, no one does anything dangerous. That I could never forgive." Tessa said. "Putting people's lives in danger...I could never forgive that." She looked at Loralei and Katie, who were sitting next to each other with their boyfriends on either side. Tessa was sitting between Lily and Remus so she knew who was next to her. Loralei didn't want her to be too uncomfortable. "You both are aurors, right?"

The two girls looked at each other and grinned. "The youngest aurors around." Loralei said as they high fived before laughing. "Yes, but we haven't been in the field so much."

"I think they're going to send us back to Hogwarts after Christmas, though." Katie frowned before taking a bite of her potatoes.

"You don't want to go back to Hogwarts?" Tessa asked, smiling slightly. "It's like revisiting your childhood."

Loralei nodded. "That's true, but it's hard, we're trying to build up our lives here and we have our families and everything. It's hard to be away from everyone. Especially with the war and all."

"Colin and I have been together for years, and I can't tell you how hard it is only seeing him on the weekends he isn't on call." Katie told her. "We have practically been a five minute walk from each other since we started dating in Hogwarts, and even before that when we were just friends."

"We were never just friends." Colin disagreed.

"Oh yes, I remember when you used to 'accidently' bump into me in the library. Or walk towards me, but when I looked up you'd dart back the way you came." Katie laughed.

"You were very intimidating in school." Colin said. "All large breasts and blonde hair!"

Katie choked on the sip of wine she was taking as Colin said this. Everyone else laughed.

"Are you okay?" Loralei asked, clapping Katie on the back as she laughed.

Katie cleared her throat. "I just found out that my boyfriend started out liking me for my breasts, yeah I'm fine." She said sarcastically.

"I liked your hair too." He teased.

Katie closed her eyes and shook her head. "Let's stop talking about this now."

"No. I want to keep talking about this." Loralei stated. "What else did you find attractive about her physic?"

"I don't know if I still want to talk about this." Colin looked down at his plate.

"You're screwed now." Sirius told him. "She's not going to let it go."

"Okay, what first grabbed you on Loralei?" Colin replied.

"Oooh." Loralei turned slowly to face her fiancé. "Good question, Colin."

"No, the real question is why James was on Lily's hook for seven years." Sirius replied.

Loralei turned to her brother. "That is a better question."

The only married couple turned so they could look at each other, smiling for a moment.

"Well what was it, dear husband?" Lily asked.

"Unlike Colin I started liking you the moment you told me off the moment we met on the train." James told her. "It didn't start out with how beautiful you are, it's all because of that mouth of yours."

"Ugh." Loralei groaned. "Sickening couple is sickening."

"Back to focusing on Tessa, then." Katie turned to the girl in front of her. "What's your favorite color?"

Tessa smirked. "Grey. It is my last name after all."

"Ooh, the girl has a sense of humor." Loralei smiled. "What's your favorite part about being a healer?"

"I love helping people." Tessa told her. "I don't know how to put it in another way. I know I couldn't handle being an auror, but I could be of some use to helping people."

"Your kind are the ones that we call in when we need help." Katie smiled.

"Yeah, I know. When you were hurt we were the first non-aurors called to the scene." Colin muttered. "Not a pretty sight."

"Yeah, once we're knocked out we don't see the gore, you guys have to work in it." James said, shaking his head.

"People, it's Christmas, no more of that." Lily told them. "As far as I'm concerned tonight, everything is perfect and we have nothing and no one to worry about. Got it?"

"Mamma Lily has spoken!" Loralei smiled. "Everything is rainbows and sunshine for the next few hours."

Sirius nodded towards the window. "It's dark outside."

"Shut up."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tessa left after dessert since she was meeting her family in London the next morning. She thanked them all and told them the food was perfect. She was a quiet girl, but definitely a nice one as well. Remus walked her back while everyone else is cleaning up dinner.

"I say that if he isn't back in an hour we don't wait for him to open presents." Sirius said as he dried dishes, James was washing.

"I say we open another bottle of wine." Loralei replied.

"I say both of those are very good options." James agreed.

"Do you want some more lemonade, Lily?" Katie asked.

She shook her head. "I think I'm onto water now. Lemonade's too sweet."

An hour later, Remus had not returned and they were all sitting around the christmas tree opening presents and thanking each other for what they got. They laughed and had a wonderful Christmas. They ignored whatever was going on outside the just had fun, like they should.

Loralei offered to have them stay the night since it was really late and all but Lily had been drinking. They all accepted. It was safer than anything else. Even apparating.

Remus returned in the morning, and the boys had enough to say about them for them all. Making fun of him for spending the night with his girlfriend, though he didn't look like he cared too much.

Loralei had her family. At least for now, she had her family.

A/n: Christmas chapter! I will update again on the 27th of December. This is the last time you will be hearing from me, so I jut want to tell you all Happy Christmas and I hope you all have fun :)

I will be on Holiday all of next week-without the interwebs-so I may or may not have time to write! If I do I will make it a super long chapter! ...if not...no promises ;)

Cap92A: I know! I do that to get a reaction like that... I'm mean. I'm cruel. Thank you Cap!

koryandrs: Thank you!

C.B. Weasley: Hahahaha! Thank you! Yes, everything is about to go to hell. (Spoilers: this is the last chapter they're going to be all together for a while.)

Please review!

Kat