Ch. 43

A/N: Sorry it's been awhile since posting. I was having trouble using my computer, let alone to publish anything. Luckily, I got it fixed!

Monday 21 December 1998

The next day was a flurry of activity. After breakfast, the women sent the men out to cut down a Christmas tree on the property. When Sirius and Dan began to whine about going out in the cold, Jaime's retort was, "It's either the tree or cooking today. Which would you prefer?"

The comical look on their faces as they simultaneously shouted, "Tree!" made all the women laugh. As the men moved outdoors, Sarah and Dora looked at Dobby.

"Dobby, could you look after the kids this morning?" Dora asked.

"Of course, Mistress Dora. Both Teddy and Jordan?" He asked.

"Yes please, Dobby." Sarah smiled as she got up to hand the baby to him. He simply levitated Jordan out of her arms as she began to babble excitedly. As she landed in Dobby's arms, she sighed "Ahhhhh" as she settled in. Dobby did the same with Teddy and he just giggled.

"Thanks Dobby." Both mums said.

"You're welcome." He left the kitchen.

"Okay ladies." Augusta said in her stern voice. "Everyone, pick two items off the list on the board. Put your name next to them and start cooking." Then she went on in a less stern voice. "Hermione, Dora and Luna. I will need you in the drawing room in 10 minutes. We need to set up the Yule Altar." She smiled as she called "Mitzy! Please!" With a pop, Mitzy appeared. "Do we have everything we'll need for the altar prepared?"

"Yes Mistress. I'll bring it over now if it pleases you?"

"Yes please." Mitzy popped out.

"Sounds like you three will be busy?" Sarah commented as she began getting items together.

"Shouldn't take more than half an hour." Augusta smiled as she heard Mitzy pop into the drawing room. She followed the pop.

Mione looked at Dora and Jaime. "Do you think Sirius will ever be able to celebrate Halloween?"

Jaime sighed. "I don't know. I know he still has a lot of guilt for James' death. Like he always tells me, they were brothers in every way but blood. Quite frankly, the idea of Yule without him or Remus terrifies him. That's why he's so interested in bringing Potter traditions back to the family. He wants Harry to get to know his family rituals."She sighed. "Honestly, I don't know about Halloween though. That may be asking too much."

"Well, that sucks." Luna sighed. Everyone laughed at the way she said it. "I want him to enjoy it again."

At that moment, Augusta glided her way into the kitchen. "May I have Hermione, Dora, Luna and Jaime in the drawing room please?" she asked as she slipped her way out. Those four immediately left their meal preparation and obediently followed Augusta into the drawing room like good little lemmings.

She had the same table they had used for Lammas set up under a window in between the seating area and the play area. The table already had a red cloth laid on it. The little ottoman next to the table had a chest with all of the accoutrements they would need for the Yule altar. "So, today we are going to learn about how to set up the altar for Yule. Yule is all about rebirth. Tonight is the longest night of the year. After that, the sun will make its journey back to our lands or so we hope. In the old tradition, this meant that spring, with all its greenery, was not far behind. That is why you see a lot of green this time of year. Red is the color of prosperity; therefore, you will see a lot of red associated with the coming of spring. These are the reasons that Christianity adopted them as well for their winter holiday. Now the main candle we will place on the altar is this gold one." She picked up a tall, fat, gold candle and set it in the middle of the altar. "This represents the sun's journey back to us." She gestured at the other candles on the ottoman. "Since this is winter, you will place blue and white candles on the altar." She stepped back as they all silently decorated the altar with several shapes, sizes and colours of candles.

Hermione found a big silver one in the chest that didn't seem to have been used in a long time. "What does silver mean in Yule?" She asked as she handed the candle to Augusta.

She took it, almost reverently, "Silver is the colour of the Goddess. It has protective and restorative powers" She explained as she set it on the altar next to the gold candle. "This is usually placed by the matriarch of the family as a sign of respect to the Goddess, so the Goddess knows she wants her entire family protected." As the candles were finished being placed, Augusta found an iron cross in the chest. "This is a Solar Cross. The four arms represent the four seasons and the sun's place at the centre of them." She looked at how attentive they were all being. "Do you all understand this? Are there any questions?" The four of them looked at each other and shook their heads. She smiled "Now onto everything else. Our family has always put pine and fir branches on our altar as well. This is again for protection in the coming year." She said as she gathered up the greenery from a bag and placed it on the altar. She then dug into a different bag and pulled out a Yule Log. "Luna, dear. Can you put this on the kitchen table as the centerpiece?"

"Of course." Luna smiled as she took the log.

"Now, I have here plenty of snowflakes and sundials to represent purity and the coming of the sun. I want each of you to decorate this room, the kitchen, the game room and the floo room with these items. In that way, we will be protecting all of our common areas from negative energies, which the snowflakes do. The sun dials represent our connection to the sun." When everyone just stood there, she laughed. "Go on. Shoo."

"Okay, Luna and I will do this room and the entry, you two do the kitchen and game room." Mione said in her bossy know-it-all voice as she gathered up her stuff. She handed some of it to Luna; as she went around the drawing room levitating snowflakes and sundials Luna started to the floo room.

"I guess the game room is ours, huh?" Dora laughed with Jaime as they headed up.

"Is Mione always this bossy?" Jaime asked as she headed upstairs.

"I am not bossy!" was heard as Dora laughed and said, "According to Harry, the answer's yes."

HP

A little while later, all the women were in the kitchen working on the feast they would have later in the day. Around 2.00, Mione looked up through the window to the back garden and saw a huge tree being levitated along. "It looks like they're bringing home a large tree and several smaller ones." She laughed as she pointed out the window. It was raining heavily and Harry looked like a drowned rat to her.

Jaime came up behind her and chuckled at the sight of Sirius levitating the huge tree. Then she saw Mark, Harry, Nev and her dad each levitating a "normal" sized tree. "I suppose the smaller trees are for our bedrooms?" she queried Mione.

"I guess." She shook her head as she went back to work.

Augusta looked outside and just chuckled. "Sirius hasn't changed all that much." She laughed as she went back to work.

"What does that mean?" Suzan asked.

"When he and his friends were teens, they had to have the biggest tree ever. Or the biggest of whatever it was they were talking about. My Frank always complained that our trees weren't nearly as big as the Potters'." She laughed nostalgically.

"So, your son and Sirius were good friends?"

"Yes. They went to school together. Sirius' last name may be Black but he could've easily taken the name Potter. They nearly adopted the boy." And she was off explaining all the family dynamics Jaime had learned over the last months.

When the men came in the front doors, because the big trees wouldn't fit through the back doors, the women had everything cooking or ready to put in.

"Look what we found!" Sirius yelled from the floo room.

Jaime came in first and giggled. "You had to get the biggest one on the property, right?" At Sirius' emphatic nod, she just laughed harder. "You're an idiot." She grinned at her brother. "You couldn't keep your friend in line, brother dear?"

"Have you tried to keep him from getting what he wants?" Mark grinned as everyone laughed. "Harry even tried but failed."

"C'mon guys, take your trees up to your suites and I'll put the big one up in the game room." Sirius shook his wet hair out of his face, like the dog he could become, and started up the stairs. Then he looked at Augusta. "Have you decided to stay here until Boxing Day?"

She just shook her head bemusedly at Suzan and said. "Yes dear. This is where my grandsons will be, so I'll be here. I don't want one of those in my room though." She pointed to the tree. She turned around and went back to the kitchen.

"See ya later, pretty ladies." Sirius grinned at the witches as he turned around. The rest of the witches went back to the kitchen.

"Why don't I watch the meal and you witches can go relax?" Dobby asked as he whirled around the room.

"Where are the littles?" Sarah asked.

"In bed. They should be up soon." Dobby smiled.

"Well, I haven't seen Jordan all morning so I'll take you up on that Dobby." Sarah responded as they all spread out.

Hermione looked at Luna. "We ought to check up on Sirius. The boys can manage themselves, it's Sirius I worry about."

Luna and Jaime just laughed as they made their way up to the game room. They heard Sirius saying "Shite that hurts!" as they came up.

"You okay?" Jaime asked as she hurried up the stairs.

Sirius looked up and his eyes lit when he saw Jaime. "I am now, love." He smiled as he moved over to the sofa. "Just a little trouble fitting the tree up here. I almost gave up and put it in the drawing room." He collapsed on the sofa as he motioned for Jaime to join him. "I found a bunch of Dorea's tree decorations in the Potter Vault this summer, so I thought we'd do the tree tonight." She plopped down on his lap. He looked at Mione. "So, how's my girl?" he asked.

"Tired. Luckily, I was able to sit a lot while preparing the meal." She smiled. "I'm glad to be past the 12 weeks so I can wander around and only see Healer Axel once a week."

"When is your next appointment?" Luna asked.

"Christmas Eve morning." She laughed.

Harry came upstairs then and sat down next to Mione. She cuddled a little into him as he chuckled. "Tired, love."

She just nodded as she curled herself into him more as her arms went around his waist. "Comfy Harry." She murmured as he laughed.

"Go to sleep, love." He whispered as he felt her breath even out.

"Should she be this tired Harry?" Sirius asked, concerned for his niece.

"The books say so. Especially with twins." Harry looked at his Godfather and smiled. "Don't worry, Pads. We'll make it through this."

"How are her nightmares doing?"

"Horrible. Constant." He looked down at his fiancée sadly. "It seems if I just turn and hold her, they go away pretty quickly but it is horrid to watch."

"She's told me the same about yours." Jaime sighed.

"Yeah. I know."

"You know," Augusta sat down. "Frank had nightmares all the time he was an auror. Sometimes, after Neville was born, he'd come over and nap before he went home. He said he didn't want to bring it home with him but Alice told me he had nightmares anyway. It wasn't a good time to be an auror."

"That's part of the reason I don't want to be one anymore." Harry grimaced.

"You wanted to be an auror?" Mark laughed as he came up.

"Yep."

"But you don't do rules. How would you have survived?" This made everyone familiar with Harry laugh.

"So, Adam." Sirius got a mischievous grin on his face. "Was Jaime as much of a daddy's girl as I think she was?"

"Daddy!" Jaime warned threateningly.

Adam just grinned. "Of course, she was. As you probably know, we own a ranch and I teach handicapped no-maj children how to ride. Well, Jaime was out every morning helping me feed and clean stalls before school and she was an excellent mentor to those kids." Adam laughed. "When she was very young, she helped me build and repair fences on the property. I used to call her my little nail girl because she held nails for me."

Jaime just glared at her dad as he said this. Mark piped up with "Jaime learned to go to Dad whenever we were arguing because Dad always took her side."

"Wait a minute Mark. She only ever told on you when you were doing things like dangling fake spiders into her bed." Suzan corrected.

Sirius laughed as he said, "You sound like me Mark. I remember putting itching powder in my brother's underwear."

Harry laughed. "Did you do that to Dad or Uncle Frank?"

Sirius grinned. "Of course. Remus' too."

"Frank came home, I think it was fourth year, and told me that the one thing he missed from home was that when he put on pants at home, he knew there was no itching powder in them." Augusta laughed.

And the bonding of this weirdly fabricated family went on.