REVIEW. please. it's the giving christmas season. pleeeeease. All i want for christmas are reviews!
thanks
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Just as James had promised, Sirius woke everyone up early the next morning to the sound of him vomiting over the side of his bed into a nearby trashcan. Remus and James both got to work brewing a hangover remedy they had spent years perfecting, using Sirius as their test subject as he was usually the one in need of it. Harry tried to get his godfather some water but he took a few sips of it before groaning and clutching his stomach and head.
"Never again," Sirius mumbled as he leaned over the toilet.
"Yeah, we've never heard that one before." Remus said rolling his eyes and handing Sirius a mug of what looked like brown sludge. Harry wrinkled his nose at the substance, but Sirius immediately downed it without question.
"No, I'm a changed man," Sirius said, accepting a glass of water from Harry to wash down the foul taste.
"Uh huh, I'll try to remind you that you said that on Christmas." Remus said smirking, taking the mug and rinsing it out.
"I'm hungry," James said, exiting the bathroom. "Want to get breakfast?"
After everyone had showered and gotten dressed, the group left for breakfast. The hangover potion seemed to have helped a great deal because although Sirius didn't eat as much as usually did, he didn't seem to be overcome with nausea anymore.
As they ate breakfast, they talked about their plans for the day. Remus talked about how they all really should be studying for the midterms while Sirius kept talking about how they shouldn't waste the fresh snow that had fallen the night before.
"C'mon James, let's go outside." Sirius encouraged.
"I have to meet up with Lily to work on the Christmas ball plans," James responded.
"Harry?" Sirius said hopefully.
"I'd love to but I'm meeting with Remus, he's helping me with some studying." Harry said. Sirius looked down sadly.
"But I mean, we could go out for a bit." Harry suggested. Sirius perked up with excitement.
"Yeah, guys, it'll be really fun, c'mon!" Sirius said excitedly, barely able to stay in his seat.
"Well I would but…" James said trailing off. It was clear that he too would rather be outside than in the library missing out on the fun.
"Lily could come with us," Harry added.
"Hm.." James thought for a second. "Alright, I'll ask her whenever she gets down for breakfast."
"Yes!" Sirius said jumping up.
"Wait, Sirius, let's finish breakfast first!" Remus said laughing. Sirius sat back down and began eating as quickly as he could. Before they knew it Sirius had rushed them quickly back up to the dormitory to put on their winter cloaks and boots and gloves. Halfway to Gryffindor tower they ran into Lily and Maria and talked them into coming with them.
Soon, the group was outside, chasing after Sirius who immediately jumped into a snowbank. Everyone joined him and began rolling snowballs to start building a snowman.
Harry and Lily got down on their knees and packed small balls of snow together and began pushing them to make them larger. When they had made a fairly large snowball as a base and torso, they turned to look at the rest of the group who were all highly amused. Harry and Lily both did a double take in surprise when they realized that everyone else had already completely finished their snowmen.
"Guys, you know you can do magic right?" James said laughing, waving his wand at a heap of snow which magically packed itself together.
"Ours will come out better, we're making it with love and care." Lily responded, pretending to be angry. "Yours are all wonky and poorly shaped."
"What are you talking about? They're perfect." James said crossing his arms. "You're just jealous."
"Of those things? Not at all." Lily retorted with a playful glare.
"There's only one way to settle this." James said ominously.
"SNOWBALL FIGHT!" Sirius yelled at the top of his lungs from behind a bank of snow. He waved his wand above his head and a shower of snowballs shot across the sky and hit Lily, James, and Harry, also destroying their snowmen.
"No Sirius, I was going to say a snowman competition," James began but Lily put her hand on his shoulder.
"No James, there are more important things at hand now." Lily said as she levitated a snowball in front of James. He grinned.
"Battle stations!" James cried, waving his wand a creating a bank of snow to hide behind.
"Quick, Remus, take shelter!" Sirius shouted from behind his snowbank.
"Oh no, I'm not going to get involved — " Remus began, but was interrupted as James hit him in the back with a snowball.
"James!" Remus shouted indignantly.
"We need even teams, you and Maria can go on Sirius's team!" James responded, levitating another snowball. "I would take cover sooner rather that later, Moony - Team Potter is ready to strike!"
"I really don't want to — UGH JAMES!" Remus cried as he was hit with another snowball. "That's it!"
Remus waved his wand a tree branch above Team Potter shook and the snow that had previously been resting on it fell with a heavy thud on the players. As they tried to dig themselves out of the snow, Remus ran to Sirius's fort.
"Welcome to Team Snow Dog," Sirius said saluting Remus. Remus rolled his eyes as Maria giggled.
"Wait, that's a cooler name than Team Potter, quick what's another idea?" James said hurriedly.
"I'm bad at coming up with things on the spot," Harry admitted nervously.
"We should be Team Lily since we know who's the real leader here," Lily laughed.
"No, c'mon, think of something cool!" James said as another wave of snowballs flew over their heads.
"Uhm, Team Avalanche? That sounds threatening." Lily suggested.
"No wait I've got it, Team Abominable Snowmen!" James cried triumphantly.
"Uh, I don't think so," Lily said crossing her arms. "There is a snow woman on this team as well."
"But its perfect, Abominable Snowmen are terrifying!"
From across the battlefield, Team Snow Dogs could hear a fair amount of bickering as well as some intermediate snickering from Harry.
"Oi, are you lot going to battle or not?" Sirius called.
"Uh yes," Harry shouted back. "We are Team uhm… Abominable Avalanche?"
"Team Yet-To-Be-Determined and we're going to kick your ass!" Lily interrupted.
"CHARGE!" James yelled, and the three waved their wands together sending almost a hundred snowballs across. Harry quickly realized wizard snowball fights were far more fun than muggle ones. When a team flung snowballs through the air, the opposite team would send either more snowballs to deflect them or cast spells to destroy them. They also began bewitching them, turning some into snowball versions of bludgers to help destroy in coming snowballs and turning others into enchanted snow creatures that would tunnels, scamper, and zoom through the air to attack other snowballs and attempt to tear down the opponents fort.
They spent several hours out in the snow, until finally Team Yet-to-Be-Determined (which had come to be shorted to Yeti) enchanted an army of mini snowmen who shot across the field and began clawing at the remaining fort until Sirius called a surrender. The groups shook hands and agreed it had been a close game.
Everyone unanimously agreed they were starving as they had missed lunch due to the snowball fight. The sun was setting as they walked back into the castle. In the Great Hall, they drank hot chocolate with candy canes as stirrers and ate a wonderfully prepared meal by the house elves.
Afterwards, the groups broke up, James and Lily heading to the Library to work on their Christmas ball, the details of which they wouldn't reveal to anyone. Everyone else decided to go back to the common room, where they all relaxed and casually reviewed for their transfiguration finals, which ended in great fits of laughter from Sirius's stories of his first year attempts at some impossibly difficult spells.
"Only one week mate, and we will be done with finals, enjoying the Christmas ball, and then finally we will be at home with Mr. and Mrs. Potter." Sirius said grinning as they climbed the stairs to head to bed.
"I can't wait," Harry said grinning.
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Finals came and went in one sweeping motion. It was a relatively stress-free even for Harry as he had already covered some of the material before and Remus had spent a large amount of time tutoring him. He felt a little guilty that Remus had spent so much of his time tutoring him, but at the same time he had got to bond a lot with his former professor. He had also gotten to spend a lot more time with Sirius who hung around them despite not being very interested in learning.
"But this is so boring, Remus." Sirius had complained, doodling aimlessly on a piece of parchment. Remus had taken to ignoring Sirius's comments as it had become obvious that he couldn't pay enough attention to sit through Harry and his several hour study sessions.
"Reeeeemus," Sirius called softly, still doodling. "Reeeeeeeeemus. Remus. Remus. Remus, Remus, Remus, Remus, Remus — "
"Can you please stop, Sirius, we're trying to study and you're just being a distraction." Remus sighed, turning the page of his book.
"I'm a distraction?" Sirius said, looking up. He began tapping his quill.
"I'm a distraction," Sirius sung softly, slowly getting louder.
"Look at me!" He leaned over and flicked his quill in front of Remus's book. "You can't see what you want to see!"
"Stopping you from doing what you want to do, it's fun for me, but not for you!" Sirius ended, standing up with his arms spread wide and belting the last note. Neither Remus or Harry looked up. Sirius had paused before sitting down dejectedly and resuming his doodling.
"I'M FREE," Sirius sang was they walked out of their potions final, flinging papers into the air.
"Sirius, you need these for next semester," Remus pointed out.
"Oh, goddamnnit," Sirius muttered before dropping to his knees and picking everything up again.
"How do you think you did, Harry?" James asked as he helped Sirius pick up his paper.
"Er, alright, I've never been good at potions, but Remus really helped me learn the material." Harry said with a grin.
"I'm sure you did great," Remus said warmly. "Slughorn chose one of the potions we'd reviewed as well, so we were lucky."
"I didn't recognize it," Sirius said. "But I don't care because we're done! Time to head home and get some of Mrs. Potter's good cooking!"
"Not quite yet," James said. "We still have the ball this evening. Speaking of which, I've got a lot to do before then. I'll see you guys later, I've got to get ready and set everything up."
"What to you guys want to do for the time being?" Remus asked.
"We're free men," Sirius said with a laugh and thew his arm over Harry's shoulders. "We can do anything we'd like!"
Harry stiffened a little as Remus and Sirius continued to discuss what they should do next. Hearing Sirius talking about being a 'free man' and not knowing what that would mean to him in only a few years time. It was painful to know the future, it was almost like being cursed. It sent Harry spiraling into depression that he had only recently been trying to drag himself out of.
"What's wrong, Harry?" Remus asked.
"Oh, nothing, just tired." Harry answered honestly. "It's been a long week."
"How about we go relax, maybe play some wizard's chess." Remus suggested with a smile. Harry nodded, fondly remembering Christmas time games of chess with Ron. They played for a few hours in the common room by the fire and talked about what they were getting everyone for Christmas.
"I haven't been able to go get anything yet," Harry admitted. This was partially because he had skipped all the other opportunities to go to Hogsmeade, but also because he had very little money of his own.
"We could all go to Hogsmeade before we leave," Remus suggested.
"I, er… I actually haven't got any money." Harry said awkwardly. "But, it's ok, you guys don't have to get me anything, I'll get you something later on if I can."
"Don't worry about it Harry," Remus said kindly, holding up a hand to dismiss Harry's awkward rambling. "I don't need a gift in return, and neither does anyone else. We'd love to get you something anyways. We all understand your position."
"Yeah," Sirius said nodding. Harry met Sirius's eyes and he knew what he was thinking about. Sirius had run away from home and been disowned by his family. The Potter's were the one's supporting him now, but Harry doubted Sirius had much money that he considered his own.
"I'll figure out something to get you guys," Harry said. "I'd feel too bad having only you guys get me things and me having nothing. Especially for James's parents, I mean, I've never even met them before and they're opening their home to me. It would be rude of me not to bring anything…"
"They'll understand," Remus reassured him. "The Potter's are the kindest family I've ever met."
"They let me into their house permanently, they have to have a kind heart to do that," Sirius laughed.
"I think it's about time to get ready for the ball," Remus said glancing at his watch. "We picked up some dress robes for you by the way, so don't give us excuses at to why you can't come."
Harry smiled shyly.
"You guys shouldn't have done that," he muttered.
"Like we said before, it wouldn't be Christmas without you, Har." Sirius said ruffling his hair.