Fun Fact: Zander and Rose were officially married on Christmas Day 1971. It was a small ceremony with just them, Xayla and Rose's family. Both of them prefer the cold because they like to cuddle in front of a warm fire.


(Rose POV)

When Sirius and Xayla came downstairs, hand in hand, and I noticed that my sister-in-law was absolutely glowing, I beamed at her. I'd known Sirius would get her feeling better again.

"What are you guys up to?" Sirius looked around and I shrugged. Before going and cleaning up after Christmas dinner, I'd allowed the kids to go off for about a half hour and just hang out, while Zander, Remus and I talked quietly in the living room. Ron had gone back home to his family, since they'd been able to pay to bring their oldest two home for the holidays and since their jobs gave them the time off in honor of their families fame. So our only guest was currently Urie and the twelve year old had really seemed to take a liking to Amber and Sam, who were currently outside and building a snowman, while Jade and Sapphire had gone off, ice skating, the boys played a game on Tobys new Super Nintendo and Relena lay in her fathers lap, taking a nap.

"It's about time to clean up." I looked at Xayla, who nodded.

"I should finish eating, hm?"

I nodded, then. "Zander made you a fresh plate since yours sat out for a bit."

She looked at her brother and smiled, "thanks."

He looked up from a letter he'd gotten and had been reading when Xayla had come in and nodded. "Yeah, sure, no problem." Then with a grin. "What's say you guys if we do something a bit different this Christmas Eve?"

"Oh?" Sirius looked at Zander as he sat down and I reached for the letter to glance over it.

"It's from Mr. Skyknight." As he explained, I looked over the letter, which made my veins fill with adrenaline. "He's got a son at school who's friends with Harry and Henry — Jaedon I think is his name — anyway, his family owns part of and helps run the Santa North Foundation and he's invited our family to come 'round in a couple hours." The Santa North Foundation was a company I knew well as Zander had told me all about it when we'd first got married.

Inspired by muggles and the tale of Santa Claus, a group of Wizards had put together the brilliant idea of doing just what Santa Claus was supposed to do and deliver presents to kids. It was a beautiful thing they did and Zander told me that they had a few Dozen Santa Clauses that apperated to neighborhoods, then flew in on flying sleds to the houses of children. They were always careful to be subtle and not break the statute of secrecy, but honestly, having real Santa Clauses for kids would be worth breaking the statute if you asked me, it sucked that most of the kids they delivered to were magical.

The Santa North Foundation was located in the North Pole and hidden behind a lot of magical barriers, but it was apparently a real workshop replica, with lots of magic in it and around Christmas time, kids could go in and have a tour. Mr. Skyknight was inviting us to go from six to ten, so we could get the kids home and asleep in bed, just in time for Santa to come.

With our house being hidden with the Fidelius Charm, we'd never been able to work with the foundation, but Zander often came in as Santa and delivered the presents, so our little kids still believed and I thought it would be a really nice thing to do for the kids this Christmas.

"Yes!" Sirius said and Xayla laughed as she came back in with her plate of food and just plopped herself right on Sirius' lap. "A couple hours, you say? If we're going, you should write back to him immediately and in about thirty minutes, we need to start getting everyone ready. You know how it is when we wait until the last minute."

"That's what happens when you have a big family." Zander pointed out and I smiled and leaned on him.

"I love our big family."

"Me too."

(Zander POV)

By the time I'd written back to Jaedon Skyknight and had all the kids gathered together, and dressed to leave, it was just about five, and so making sure everyone was ready and had all their things, we finally headed out.

One thing I loved about the Santa North Foundation was that getting there was simple, yet ingenious. We would Apparate to Diagon Ally, where there was a little shop hidden away, that was only open in December and when we got there, we would take the floo to a train station, where we would get on a train that would take us to Santa's workshop.

"When are we gonna be there!?" Relena wiggled in her fathers arms and he laughed, nuzzling her nose with his.

"We haven't even left yet, baby." She wiggled from his arms and ran ahead, falling over when she sank too deep into the snow on the ground.

"Iannagoow!" She said, her face planted in the snow before she allowed her father to pick her up once more, bouncing all the while in his arms.

"Are you guys excited?" I asked everyone else and immediately, they all started talking at once about what they couldn't wait to do.

"Alright, Jade, Sapphire with me." Xayla said, "Urie, you can come with me, too." Nodding, she came over with the two, dark haired twins to stand beside Xayla, "Ha— James and Henry, you go with Sirius."

"I still can't believe you're actually Sirius Black." Urie shook her head and I laughed. Little did she know who one of her best friends were

"I'll take Toby and Reyrey." Remus said and I nodded.

"I'll take Amber, Sam and Rose."

With everyone grouped off, we all prepared for and then apperated just outside the brick wall that would take us into Diagon Ally.

It wasn't as snowy here as it was up where we lived so Remus let Relena down and as soon as he did, she ran at the wall and placed her hands on it in excitement, as if she were trying to push it. "Let's go!" She jumped up and down. "Lesgolesgolesgo!" Laughing, I tapped my wand on the wall on the appropriate brick and immediately, the wall opened up. Remus had to call Relena back several times when she tried to run ahead and on the third time, I smiled when he knelt down to her eye level.

"Reyrey, if you can't stay near Daddy, I'm going to pick you up and you won't be allowed to walk ahead. Is that what you want?" When she shook her head, he nodded. "Okay, then what can we do so you can walk ahead?"

She thought for a moment, then in a quiet tone, she said. "I can walk a little slower, so you don't lose me in the crowd?" Her father nodded and stood back up.

"Remus, I can't believe there was a time when you didn't think you'd have any kids." Rose said, "You're a wonderful father and Relena is turning out to be such a polite, smart and beautiful young lady. I wouldn't be surprised if she's gryffindor."

Remus thanked her with a smile as he watched his daughter bounce around the bigger girls. Being the youngest and smallest, she idolized the older kids, but more specifically, she'd seemed to take a liking to Urie, who was a wild child, it seemed though also wise beyond her years.

"Mum! Dad! I see it!" Henry called and with all of the kids breaking out into a run toward the little shop that was nestled between all the other shops that were currently covered in so many Christmas lights and decorations, it made our house seem rather underdone.

When I reached the kids with the other adults, they were entering the small shop, which had in it only two fireplaces, one on the right wall and one on the left and with a little receptionist's desk being on the wall in the shop across from the door. Other than the size of the place, it was warm, smelled of peppermint and ginger, mixed with a bit of pine and all around were decorations and tinkering little fairies.

Relena's little brown eyes went wide when she saw the fairies and ever so slowly walking in, she squeaked in delight when several flew at and began tittering about her, making her look as though she were standing in the middle of a sparkling dust storm.

"Daddy, look!" She giggled and smiling, Remus went to her, causing the fairies to go away, while I went to the desk and pulled out the letter. There was no one at the desk, but there was a little box and tapping my wand to it, it opened for me to place the paper after which I did, the box closed and sparkled for a moment before opening back up to reveal little golden tickets for all of us to take onto the train. Upon further inspection, I also noticed that the tickets were also sat on a bunch of floo powder, that was softly waiting for us to take.

Taking up the tickets, I grabbed some powder and walked over to my family so we could split in half to take the two fireplaces.

I took Rose through the floo last, as Xayla and Sirius went through the other. When I arrived, I noticed that this little building was a mirror of the other in appearance, but outside now was nothing but lots of snow and some train tracks that glowed brightly in the night light.

"I wonder how—" I closed my mouth upon hearing the train whistle.

Everyone was gathered outside in seconds, as the train came towards and then stopped right in front of us.

Upon looking at it, I whistled, it was a beautifully built and warm looking train that glowed like the tracks it was on. As we approached the front, a young man stepped out, and greeted us. "Good evening, my name is Archute Tenaro and I will be helping you out as you make your journey to Santa's Shop." He bowed to us, then. "Tickets, please."

Pulling out the golden tickets I'd gotten from the box, I held them out to him. "How do they get them into the box like that?" Rose looked at me after glancing at Archute.

"It's like a miniature vanishing cabinet." I told her. "You put one thing in and someone can take it out on the other side. There's probably someone with an identical box somewhere that takes letters and other proof of allowed entrance and distributes the appropriate amount of tickets."

"Oh." I wrapped my arm around her as we were allowed onto the train, then shown which cart we would be in.

"We will be traveling for half an hour." Archute said as we all entered the cart, "I will have hot chocolate and cookies brought up for you, but other than that, I hope you guys enjoy your ride." We waved bye to him as he left and as soon as he was gone, the kids went wild, talking once more about everything they would see and how excited they were to see it.

Over the course of the next half hour, the kids drank their cocoa and ate their cookies, they became ever more restless and by the time twenty minutes had passed, they were all now belting out Christmas #ongs, which the exception of Toby, who on the third rendition of "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas!", looked as though he wanted nothing more than to jump ship.

"Five more minutes." Remus laughed as Toby leaned his head on his shoulder. As predicted it would be, the train stopped at the little station it was mean to at exactly six in the evening. Way out here, it was already dark outside and as we stepped out, I saw that there wasn't a building awaiting us, but a giant set of go,den gates, with two ticket stand like setups on either side.

Archute got off the train with us and handing our tickets to the teller, I was suddenly startled when I realized something.

The man at the teller was small with pointed ears and green clothes — it was an elf, or well, he was transfigured to look like the stereotypical depiction of an elf.

"Hello!" Squeaked the man as he stood on his stool to look at all of us after taking and counting our tickets. "I'd like to welcome you to Santa's Village! If you follow the Main Street in the middle, you will find his workshop, where you will be given a tour of all we do here!"

With that, he sat back down and we moved toward the. Upon reaching them, the gates opened for us and Relena and Sam ran ahead in their excitement.

(Rose POV)

It was like… like entering a winter wonderland but a million times better than anything I could've ever expected.

The first thing I saw was the sign that read the village name, and then a little map that showed the layout of the area, but the next thing I noticed was the lights, the elves, the animated snowmen in the streets, greeting us as we passed. The air sparkled, as if it's very composition included fairy dust and the homes we passed we all those taken right off Christmas cards, with their snow covered roofs and chimney that emitted smoke into the sparkling air. I was in awe of it all to much to even realize that the elves were loading bags of presents onto sled after sled.

What I did notice was that Relena seemed to sparkle in this place, the fairies and sparkling air surrounding her as if she were their princess. "Your daughter is something special, Mooney." Sirius wrapped an arm around his friend's shoulder, his other around Xayla's waist.

"Yeah." Remus said, quietly as he watched. I knew his love for her was so great and that though he was often plagued with sadness for her condition, she never seemed to mind it and now that she was getting older, was even starting to say that when she was big, she was going to "Adjivacote" for werewolves and make everyone love them just like we loved her and her daddy.

We walked down the gleaming road, following the lights that twinkled, lining both sides in two perfect rows. The kids ran ahead, admiring everything and pointing out whatever they found interesting, even fourteen year old Toby got into the spirit of it.

It took us about ten minutes to reach the workshop and when we did, I nearly fell over in shock. It was absolutely STUNNING. "It's prettier than Hogwarts." Zander said and the other adults nodded in agreement, even me, though I think I'd only seen the school once in my life, I couldn't imagine a more beautiful place than this, with tinsel, lights and trees everywhere and snowflakes and little ice sculptures giving the building depth, I took in a deep breath as Xander opened the door and we all entered.

With what I'd seen on the outside, the inside was exactly as I expected. It was warm, beautifully crafted and filled to the brim with the Christmas spirit.

We were immediately greeted by two 'elves', who began by taking us into a room that resembled a nice, warm living room and in here, we were told the story of Santa Claus and how Saint Nicholas became legend as from a window, we watched a showing of the story. During the play and telling, the kids had their attention rapt on what was going on, not looking away, until the show was done.

After that, we were taken through the shops, where we all got to help the elves build toys for the kids and then to other rooms where we had more hot chocolate and got to pack bags full of presents that would go on the sled, and after we finished seeing the shop and the elves and getting to pet the reindeer, where Zander and I got a prize, when I was able to tell which one was which just by looking at them without any hints.

By the time we were ending our tour, our guides stopped outside a room and looked at the kids. "Are you ready to see Santa?" He asked and at once, they all cheered. With a flourish, he pulled open a large set of double doors and on a chair inside the room that looked like a candy throne room, was a man that I knew was 'Santa'.

Magically having turned his hair white and dawned a beard, he sat atop a chair of presents and when the kids entered, he let out a jolly laugh that even made me laugh in return, my toes warming at the bubbly feeling in my stomach.

"Alright guys! Let's line up to talk to Santa about how good we've been!" As the kids lined up, all seeming jittery with excitement, us adults lined up near the jolly man and when I got a good look at him, I couldn't help but giggle. "Jacob Skyknight?" I said, very softly, while the elves talked to the kids. "I thought you were a Phoenix tamer?" That's what Zander had once told me, at least I was sure.

"First." He said, his voice very soft as his blue eyes twinkled in the colorful lights around us. "The majestic Phoenix isn't something to be 'tamed' I just happen to be friends with them. Second, I like this much more, it's so much fun." With that, he turned back to the kids and laughed, causing me to giggle again, along with Xayla, who had looked this entire time, like she was having the time of her life.

Once all the kids had a turn sitting next to Santa and talking to him about what they wanted for Christmas, we were able to get a few pictures, then we were off and on our way out of the shop. "We get out on a sleigh ride?" I asked and the elves nodded.

"Just down this hill here, then follow the road back to the front, where the road will take you back to the train."

Nodding, we did as we were told and after the kids screamed our way down, we were allowed to play in the snow a bit, before finding the road and take it to make our way back home.

More singing, cocoa, laughter and fun later and we appeared in the forest in front of our own house, which we all dragged our feet into, every single one of us exhausted to our core.

Remembering that I still needed to help Zander and the others put presents out, I hurried off to help the kids ready and then into bed. After getting most of them into bed, I stopped when Urie called my name from the guest room.

Walking in, I sat on the bed as she sat up and looked at me, suddenly looking as if she wanted to cry. "I wanted to thank you Mrs. Darken… for everything."

"Hey, it has been so much fun having you." I set my hand on one of hers and she looked up at me with watery blue eyes.

"My dad, he doesn't like me very much." She whispered. "I'm the child he had behind his wife's back and was forced to take in. I've only ever really met him twice y'know?" My heart ached for this little girl, so deprived of so many things that I couldn't help but open my arms and invite her to hug me.

When she did so, she squeezed me so tightly, that briefly, I felt as though I couldn't breathe, but when I looked at her now, she was really crying. "Thank you… I've never really had a Christmas, I mean Chelsea— she's my house elf, she tries to help me have fun, but I've never really had anyone to celebrate with until now."

"You can come back any year." I hugged her and with a nod, she wiped her face before rubbing her tired eyes. "Get some sleep." I told her gently and nodding, she let go of me and laid down.

"Thank you. Goodnight."

"Sweet dreams." I stood with a smile.

The next morning, all the kids— even Urie, woke up to a mountain of presents for them. We opened them, then spent the rest of the day together, doing as we do every year, watching movies, listening to music and making the magic of the day last until we laid our heads down that night to sleep.