The Marauders' Memories

Christmas!

Chapter 9- Christmas!

Remus sat up and looked at Peter, sitting on his bed looking excited and slightly impatient.

"C"mon! Let"s go downstairs!" He groaned as Remus groggily woke up. They got ready, both of them finished with pulling a Christmas jumper on and putting a Christmas hat on his head. They then raced downstairs, and the Lupins had a delicious breakfast ready. They tucked in, with warm waffles covered in rich maple syrup, piping hot pies, and boiled potatoes and carrots. Both boys completely enjoyed themselves. Then, they got around to presents. Peter, at the request of the Lupin"s opened his present first. He unwrapped it to find a neat little Wizard"s hat, with a red sash on the middle, which bore the picture of a little lion. Delighted, he put the hat on his head. There was a poof of smoke, and the hat had transformed into a red bow. Peter gave a shriek, and everyone started laughing. Lupin"s father quickly removed the hat, and flicked a switch, hidden in the depths of the bow. It turned back into the hat.

"Hope gave me the idea." He said pointing to his wife, "The switch changes the mode, permanent, where it remains on the hat mode, or the changing, where, whenever it makes contact with anyone"s head, it"ll change. Like it?"

"It"s awesome! James and Sirius would go mad for it!" Lupin nodded in total agreement. Peter continued, "What spell did you use?"

"Oh, I discovered it in one of my many experiments". Peter didn"t see Lupin shift uncomfortably behind him.

"Cool!" The doorbell rang. Peter"s mother was let inside. She had short brown hair in a bob, and light blue eyes covered by a pair of glasses. She was very small, so it was weird to see her wrapped up thickly, looking like she may drown in the slightly large garments. She was holding a bag that Lupin believed was full of presents. She smiled warmly and timidly walked into the house. They then opened the rest of the presents. Remus had received several books, and began reading an excellent muggle novel he received from Grace the moment he read the blurb, before being forced to part from it by his mother. He opened the next present, in which he found a cute looking, toy puffin. He made to pick it up, however, when he touched the puffin it turned into a little lion toy and bit him. However the lion was the one to swear, before turning back into a puffin.

"Three guesses who that"s from..." Petter muttered as Remus rolled his eyes. The adults looked at them, and both boys said at the same time,

"Sirius and James!" Remus then ripped open his present from the two, based on the same, bad wrapping. He had received a pair of innocent looking stones, one bright pink, the other crystal clear. He picked then up cautiously, but nothing happened. Except around five seconds later there was a puff of smoke, and Remus was engulfed in it. He closed his eyes, and felt a slight tingling in them, and in his hair. When the smoke had cleared, everyone gasped, his hair and iris were both the same colour as the pink stone. Remus dashed to a mirror, and nearly choked at what he saw. He ran back, and held the clear stone, hoping it was that simple. It was. With a puff of pink smoke, Remus was restored. It was silent for a second, before Peter started sniggering, everyone quickly joining in, it was hilarious. Unfortunately, Peter nudged his Puffin-Lion thingy, which roared, turned into a lion, and ran around the house swearing. Once the ...er, toy?...had been obtained, they continued, finishing with Mr Lupin and Mrs Lupin exchanging gifts. Mrs Lupin had given her husband a silver watch, while he gave his wife a pretty dress, saying "Together we are strong. Together we are happy. Together we can beat boggarts" on the left sleeve. Every year, there was some sort of boggart joke. However the Pettigrew"s were confused, and so Hope and Lyall, Remus"s parents, told their story again, which, despite the many times he was told it, never failed to make him laugh.

Then they all enjoyed a Christmas Lunch, before there was another ring at the doorbell, and Remus" aunt, uncle, and cousin Grace came in, followed by another two of Remus"s cousins, and their parents. and the room was a lot more crowded. Peter was at a complete loss, and ended up dragging Remus away to explain it all, especially upon realising all traces of magic had somewhat disappeared. Lupin pointed at Grace at her parents first, who were talking to Lyall.

"Aunt Faye is dad"s sister. She"s a witch, and Uncle Mathias is a wizard. Grace is also a witch." He then pointed to his other relatives in turn, all helping themselves to food. "Aunt Faith is mum"s sister, Uncle Eddie is her husband and my cousins, Tiffany and Frankie are their kids. They"re all muggles, like mum. Aunt Faith and Uncle Eddie know, but Tiff and Frank don"t know yet, so magic stuff has been placed in the shed." Peter still didn"t understand but didn"t push on it much, and just said,

"Wow, my family tree is much simpler. Mum, dad and all my grandparents were only childs. Now, the only Pettigrews alive other than distant family, is me and mother. Dragon pox took dad." He had gone further than expected, and suddenly felt extremely sad. Remus tutted.

"Can"t have you sad at Christmas. Wait here." He ran upstairs and returned with a big wooden box. There was a squeal behind him, and he turned to see Tiffany looking at the box excitedly and shouting,

"Franko! Gracey! Come, Come, look, Cousin Remus has his toys!" The 4 year old toddled over, while Grace and Frankie, both joined them. Remus beamed.

"Snap? Twister? Fiddlesticks? Come up and choose a game!"

"Snap! Snap! I"ve been practicing!" Tiffany cried happily. Frankie rolled his eyes. They all sat in a circle, before Peter whispered "Is this like exploding snap?"

"Yes, except less noisy, less mucky, and you have to shout snap if they match" and so they began. At the point where the fifth card was put down, there were two kings.

"SNAP SNAP SSNNAAPPPP!" Tiffany cried happily.

And they continued playing different muggle games for most the afternoon, which everyone enjoyed, as the adults got to talk. As it struck six, Tiffany pulled a box out saying,

"Now let"s play twister." Remus looked at Peter with slight concern. Peter wasn"t very...flexible...

"How about Christmas dinner? Should we eat?"

And they enjoyed a tradition Christmas dinner, and pulled a few Christmas crackers, in true muggle style.

In Godric"s Hollow, in the Potter"s household, it was the complete opposite. Sirius was woken by a huge bang. A yell from the other bed told them that he wasn"t the only one. The ran to window. Mr Potter was there, bewitching snowballs to zoom right at their window, well, at them as they had opened the window. Both boys looked at each other in horror as the realised it, before their faces were splattered with snow. They fought over who went to the bathroom, James won, and Sirius sat impatiently on his bed. When James had finished, Sirius dashed in. When he emerged, James was gone. Sirius threw on some black jeans, a t-shirt, a green wool jumper, his Gryffindor scarf, a multi-coloured hat. He slipped on some starry socks and thick boots and then ran down the stairs. Mrs Potter was waiting at the bottom, with a still steaming Pie in a tissue. She was wearing thick leggings with penguins on it, and a jumper that was changing colours. She has fluffy red earmuffs on.

"Don"t drop it!" She shouted after him. He ran out into the garden where he immediately was hit in the head. He spotted James laughing, in his red hat, red scarf, red gloves, red jumper, red trousers, red socks and brown shoes. Sirius took a second to adjust to the red. In that time, he was hit by a snowball by Mr. Potter, who was wearing a blue jumper with a shining yellow star on it, with black trousers. Sirius then grabbed some snow, and chucked it back at him. He then chucked one at James, who dodged it. However James didn"t dodge the one his father sent at him. James there one back while being hit by Sirius. Mrs Potter than joined it and there was a full on snowball fight, while Henry just sat, eating his pie, looking out the window with a slight smile, that actually creeped out Sirius and James a bit. Eventually, when Mr Potter got hurt by a rock within a snowball, did Mrs Potter command them all to get in, after one-and-a-half hours. They started with stockings. Sirius was expecting very little, except he got more than James, the extra being from his brother and father, though he didn"t like them- a little green notebook with the Black crest, and a tiny packet of sweets Regulus knew he disliked immensely. the rest, all from the Potters, were much nicer. He even got a little toy snake, which made him laugh a lot, unlike James at the time, who had just unwrapped a toy bean pod. The stockings were soon empty and Mrs Potter was clearing up all the wrapping paper from the floor. Then Mrs Potter got out som Christmas crackers, which were new to Sirius; his Christmases usually were a tense family dinner. The Potters forced him to go first. He pulled a silver one with James and it produced a huge bang. Sirius found himself with a a large flowery sun cap, and a colour changing bracelet, depending on his mood. He put it on. He pulled several crackers and soon had an assortment of hats, a sweets hamper and a gift for his mother, a "perfume" meant to make you smell wonderful. Obviously, it didn"t mention that it smelt like rotten egg, as the note was removed. As Sirius wondered how he were to send it, his solution appeared in front of him.

"Kreacher had come with Master Sirius" present and card from his mother." Kreacher turned away.

"Kreacher!" He froze. Muttering he turned around and looked at Sirius with his bloodshot eyes.

"Yes, Master Sir..."

"Take this to mother. It is my Christmas gift for her." Kreacher couldn"t refuse a direct order. He snatched and disappeared not a second later. Sirius and the Potters laughed.

"Your mother will sure be pleased!" Henry wheezed through laughs. Sirius nodded and went on to his lunch. All they had had all day was a pie. Everyone marvelled at Mr and Mrs Potter"s cooking as they ate. Sirius didn"t want Lunch to end, but it did, and it wasn"t bad as he rushed to the large Christmas tree.

"Presents!" Mr Potter exclaimed, strolling behind him.

Sirius and James were ripping theirs open. James first opened a new broom from his mother. Sirius, spotting a similar present for him, grabbed it and found his very first broomstick. He gazed at it with awe.

"You"re not allowed them at a Hogwarts yet, but I didn"t know what to get you." She said. James and Sirius ran up to hug her. It wasn"t until much later did Sirius realised it had been the first time he had been embraced, actually feeling loved. But before then, he had more presents to open. All the others he received were equally as good. He got some pyjamas that changed into whatever design he wanted if he asked it to, a huge book on muggle machines, a second sweets hamper, including a few muggle treats, and a bottle of what looked like butter beer. Suddenly felling thirsty, he opened it up and began drinking, missing James" smug expression. He spat it out immediately. James laughed. Sirius poured the mysterious liquid over him. He saw James hadn"t opened his. He turned away with his own smug grin, that James saw. He cautiously reached for Sirius" present and opened it. It was a little box, saying "James". Nothing happened. He tapped the lid. He shakes it. Nothing happened. He eventually tried knocking again. After ten knocks, the box opened and all of a sudden, James found his head being hit by the little hammer in the box. James and Sirius made eye contact, and both bit back a laugh.

"So we tricked each other as well as all our fellow Gryffindors?" Sirius nodded, and they let out the laughs they were holding. Just as they were going to start dinner, Sirius remembered the only present he hadn"t opened. He looked at the badly wrapped gift from his parents. He opened it, expecting trash. It was a book. Old, wrapped and crumpled. Sirius read the faded gold writing on it.

"The Black"s journal of spells and potions." Sirius flicked through. It was full of spells that one of Sirius"s ancestors had invented or found useful. Knowing the Blacks, James was sure nothing in there could be good. However it wasn"t that bad...

Both boys were soon dissolved in the book.

"When we are more experienced, that potion would be great for Snivellus!"

"That hex could be pretty cool to use!" Were occasionally muttered.

"To think my mum could actually give me something useful" Sirius exclaimed. James gave a shout at a sound from the table. It turned out to be Mrs Potter putting the food on the table. James gave another shout when he saw the beans. Mrs Potter smirked and told them,

"I want the plates clean, or you"ll be in trouble" James groaned. Sirius laughed.

Soon basically everything was cleared, the turkey gone, the boiled vegetables eaten, sprouts reluctantly eaten, Yorkshire puddings devoured. All that was left was...

"Beans."

"James, finish them" Mrs Potter commanded. Everybody laughed as he slowly lifted up the beans, nibbled on them, gagged, and ten spot Mrs Potter"s glare and continue eating. After ten minutes, he finished one bean. Sirius motioned for all the Potters to go outside, grabbing his broom. James" eyes widened and he stuffed em in his mouth. He regretted it, and everyone saw James"s silent scream. He finished them, before angrily getting his broom, and joking everyone in the garden. He then proceeded to thrash everyone in sone Quidditch practice, which thoroughly lighted his mood. The sky was darkening, and the moon had come out. Soon they couldn"t see and all of them went inside and got changed into their night suits quickly.

"So you went for Gryffindor today" James muttered tiredly as Sirius lethargically stumbled out of the bathroom in his new pyjamas. Sirius didn"t say anything, and soon everyone was asleep.