Chapter Text
SONG: CHRISTMAS (BABY PLEASE COME HOME) BY DARLENE LOVE
“ JAAAMES .”
“Bloody hell, Padfoot, it’s two in the morning! It’s not even morning,”
“Let’s check to see if the presents are down there yet.”
“Mum probably put the shields up again,” James grumbled, turning onto his side and covering his ear with his pillow.
“What shields?” Sirius asked, crawling over and sitting besides James, grabbing the pillow and yanking it off of him.
“Last time I tried coming down this early, there was a shield right there,” James explained, attempting to pull the pillow back.
Sirius didn’t budge, but his face fell with disappointment. He sighed and laid down, using James’ pillow for his feet and the other pillows he stole from James throughout the night for the rest of his body.
“Not even gonna bother turning the lights off?” James moaned, slowly sitting up and patting the ground for his glasses.
Sirius already dozed off, snores coming from his side of the floor.
──── ⋆⁺₊❅. ────
“ SIIIIRIUS! ”
James hit the boy with another pillow. “Get up, wanker,”
Sirius growled eerily like a dog before snatching up another pillow lying on the floor and using it to replace the pillow James took and hit him over the head with.
“It’s not two anymore,” James said happily. “It’s four fifty-nine,”
Sirius sat up and before James even knew it, the boy had stuffed his slippers on and ran out of the doorway. James giggled and chased after his best mate, closely following behind the boy as they both stumbled down the stairs.
“CHRISTMAS!” Sirius roared, tumbling down the rest of the stairs and quickly recovering, running towards the Christmas tree with open arms. As he hugged the tree, James arrived after him and hugged Sirius hugging the tree.
They both laughed and fell over before James shrieked, causing Sirius to look over.
Sirius’ eyes widened. Before he could say anything, James was tearing his present apart, which was oddly shaped like a broom.
Sirius looked around and his eyes landed on his area of presents, which he could easily tell were his, considering they were wrapped with paper that had dogs and the initial S all over it.
He also had a present that was—oddly enough—shaped like a broom.
Sirius screamed and nearly jumped over to his present, ripping it open as if it contained the secret of life inside.
“The Nimbus 1001!?” James yelped, holding it up into the air before jumping upwards, delicately placing it down on the ground and pumping his fist in the air.
Sirius paused and stared down at his matching Nimbus 1001. His last broom had been getting rather old, considering all of Walburga’s savings were starting to get pushed towards Regulus increasingly more as every year passed. While it was true that he had been considering stealing some of Walburga’s money to buy himself a broom, he’d gotten increasingly fed up with Walburga as every year passed and ran away before he could buy one.
And– Merlin , Sirius didn’t realize how shabby his broomstick was until he saw his new one. His old one’s wood was scraped and cut up, but the wood on his Nimbus 1001 was so smooth that he was sure it’d feel like baby’s skin if he touched it. The brush on his former broomstick was so tough that it would leave marks on his hands every time he grazed it, whilst by just looking at his new one, he was sure it was as lustrous, sleek and fine as horse hair.
Sirius couldn’t believe his own eyes, looking at the broomstick. He hadn’t felt that sudden rush of adrenaline mixed with joy ever since winter break began, and the pleasant surprise of people that just took him in being so thoughtful and considerate for his presents was almost overwhelming.
It was true that Santa Clause wasn’t real. Walburga always lectured her sons about it every time Christmas rolled around, saying they should thank her instead of an imaginary man that everybody acted was Merlin himself.
But, Sirius never wanted to ruin the fun for James, so he believed in it for his mates. The only thing he was concerned about was how Christmas would play out for James’ kids when they grew up.
Carefully, he picked the broom up and just stared at it, a thousand thoughts racing through his head about how he could use the broom and how much farther it’d take him than the broom he was stuck with for the past few years.
“Merlin, Sirius! D’you wanna go try it out later?” James asked, standing besides Sirius and looking down at him. “It’s so cool, I’ve been waiting for this for ages,”
“Yes,” Sirius immediately said. James pumped his fist again before continuing to run around, armed with his new broomstick and a fifteen year old boy’s strength. Sirius admired his lovely broomstick before standing up and holding it ever so softly, watching his best mate prance around while yelling about all of the new updates he had compared to the last Nimbus.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Effie and Monty walk down the stairs in their pajamas, groggily yawning and rubbing their eyes. Sirius’ face split into a big grin and he gingerly placed his new broomstick down before jumping over James’ wrapping paper lying everywhere on the ground and running towards the two.
Before they could comprehend the fact that Sirius was running towards them, the boy tackled the two into a hug, causing all of them to fall over. James let out a loud laugh before scrambling over to join the pile in their large hug.
“Oh my , Sirius,” Fleamont chortled, hugging the boy back. “What are you hugging us for?”
“Thank you,” Sirius whispered, pushing James’ head out of earshot.
Surprised at how vulnerable and genuine the boy sounded, Fleamont turned to look down at Sirius, who was looking at both him and Euphemia with tender appreciation sitting in the brim of his eyes.
“Oh, Sirius,” Euphemia murmured, running one hand through the boy’s hair. “James was always talking about how you desperately were in need of a broom, and this is just a gift to you for bringing your gift of joy to our family,”
Sirius let out a choked sound before burying his face into Euphemia’s shoulder, who hugged him closer. Fleamont smiled at them before slowly turning to see what James was doing.
“Move out of the way, Siri,” James pushed his best friend in the exact way his best friend did to him and pulled both of his parents into a suffocating embrace. Euphemia began spluttering as Fleamont ruffled James’ hair, holding back his wheezing cough.
“Thank you, Mum,” James kissed Euphemia on the cheek before turning to kiss his father on the cheek. “Thanks, Dad. I knew Santa would come back, and you told me I was wrong!”
Fleamont chuckled. “You’re a troublemaker, son,”
“You definitely almost got coal,” Euphemia added, although there was a twinkle in her eye.
“Oi! What about Sirius?” James pointed accusingly at his best mate, who held his hands up.
“I didn’t do anything wrong, Mum, Dad,” Sirius said quickly. James’ face split into a grin as both Fleamont and Euphemia held a hand to their hearts.
“You finally called them Mum and Dad, Padfoot,” James beamed, reaching over to pull Sirius into their huge family hug.
You could hear the grin in Sirius’ voice. “Well, I just realized it,”
“Oh, Effie,” Fleamont sighed.
Slowly, James peeked up at his dad.
“Are you crying ?” He asked, flabbergasted. James then turned to look at his mother, who was dabbing her eyes with her free hand, then looked at Sirius, who was freely sobbing with his head now on Fleamont’s shoulder.
James’ eyes started welling up, as well. “Come on, guys,”
Before they knew it, James and Sirius were hugging each other whilst wailing as their two–politely crying–parents held them in a tight, warm embrace.
──── 🎅 ────
“Here they go again,” Fleamont rolled his eyes overdramatically, one of his hands on his hips, which were jutted out quite sassily.
Euphemia was leaning against the wall with her legs crossed, holding a bucket of salty popcorn and a bucket of caramel popcorn. “Boys, if you don’t choose a movie right now, your father’s choosing,”
Their bickering abruptly ceased as the two boys eyed each other, starting to shake their heads.
“No way , Effie,” Sirius slowly said.
“What if he puts on a Christmas horror movie by accident again?” James asked.
“In August, mind you,” Sirius added. James nodded along to this fact.
“Exactly,” Euphemia said, popping a piece of popcorn into her mouth. “Hurry and choose,”
As the boys got to sucking on their candy-canes and flicking through the muggle cassettes Hope and Lyall lended to the family, Euphemia wore a pleased look on her face, although her husband did not seem nearly as satisfied as she did.
“You poked fun at me so they’d get on with it,” Fleamont complained.
Euphemia shook the salty popcorn bucket before holding it out to Fleamont, who reached to take the bucket before she snatched it back. “Only take one,”
Fleamont eyed her. There was a tiny moment and then Euphemia shrieked before it happened.
Both Sirius and James swivelled around and watched Fleamont tackle Euphemia and down her to the ground in a merciless tickling fit, two popcorn buckets floating calmly in the air.
Sirius glanced back at James, who glanced at him, and they both giggled before Sirius reached to pick a cassette up at the same time James swiped it up off of the ground.
“Never saw that before,” Sirius commented, watching as James lazily flipped the cassette around in his hands.
“I think this is ‘A Christmas Carol’,” James declared, holding it out for Sirius, who took it and also studied the cassette.
“Never heard of that before,” Sirius shrugged and held it back out for James to take, who took it and began sliding it into the cassette player.
“Effie! Monty! It’s about to start,” Sirius called.
“Right, yes,” Fleamont cleared his throat professionally as Sirius watched the man help his wife up before grabbing both of the buckets and walking towards the boys. Fleamont was stopped, though, as his wife reached for the salty popcorn bucket and he didn’t try holding it away from her.
Sirius shook his head before sitting down and propping his body up with pillows, throwing a blanket over himself. James bounded over after placing the cassette inside incorrectly and pulled the blanket up, scooting next to Sirius and placing the blanket over both of them.
Fleamont sat down next to Sirius, using a pillow to lay his head against. Euphemia peered at the cassette player and walked over to fix it.
“What’s wrong with it?” Fleamont asked, standing back up and walking over to help his wife.
“I think Jamie put it in wrong,” Euphemia murmured, taking the cassette back out.
Sirius eyed James as James burst into laughter without even looking over at his mate.
Sirius started giggling. “What–what are you laughing about?”
“I felt your eyes on me!” James wheezed, slapping Sirius’ shoulder.
“Yeah, ‘cause you put it in wrong,”
“Hey, you two,” Euphemia sighed. Promptly, they both shut up.
“Fixed it,” Fleamont announced, walking back over to his spot on the ground. “That was easy,”
“That’s plain rubbish,” James snorted. “I swear I put it in right,”
Sirius’ eyed James.
“Stop looking at me, you,” James turned and pointed at Sirius seriously. “That’s very inappropriate,”
“Well, I know somebody that can put things in right!” Fleamont proudly pointed at himself. James and Sirius seemed to have taken that the entirely wrong way as James bleh’ed and Sirius made a weird face.
“You two are getting coal next Christmas,” Euphemia warned.
Again, both Sirius and James were silenced. Euphemia shot Fleamont a look, who shook his head and patted the spot beside him.
Euphemia walked over and laid down next to Fleamont, placing her head underneath the crook of his chin. Fleamont slung his arm around his wife and pulled part of his sons’ blanket over both him and Euphemia.
As the movie began to play out in front of them, slowly but surely–James began snoring first, then came Euphemia, then came Fleamont, and last was Sirius, who tried hard to stay awake.
He did everything he could–got up to take bathroom and drink breaks, nibbled on popcorn crumbs, and even took a stretch break in the midst of the movie, but eventually, in that dim light and the air a heavy blanket of love, sleep overtook his body as a sleepy and fulfilled smile rested on Sirius’ face.
That night, he dreamt of the smell of cinnamon, a flickering screen in front of him, and a home he had found in a family.
A/N : five days until christmas! i woke up just to revise & edit, so i’m sorry if it’s sloppy — but what does it matter!? we’re all in the christmas spirit!!
Q&A : what’s your favourite food to have on christmas?