Cassie Potter - Lady Gryffindor

Chapter twenty nine

Chapter Twenty Nine

When they arrived home from the Burrow, Harry was pacing in front of the fireplace and Hermione was trying to get him to relax. Sirius took the twins to their room, he asked if they wanted individual rooms but they said they wanted to stick together. Cassie decided to tackle whatever was going on with Harry.

"Haz? Why are you pacing?" she inquired.

"You were gone a while, we thought maybe something had happened."

"Nothing happened, we- I got into it with Molly Weasley. The twins will be living with us from now on. Now it is technically Christmas Day but we decided to postpone until after the ball and we had you all home. So it is Christmas eve, I am going to help Tippy prepare the Hot Chocolate and we are going to listen to 'My baby gave me a hippogriff at Christmas.' We will be doing this in our Christmas Pj's which are laid on your beds. I am going to go get into mine as are you two. Off you go." She finished.

Harry and Hermione left to get changed whilst Cassie went to find Sirius.

She heard Sirius chatting to the twins in their room about Christmas.

"We really appreciate you taking us in Mr Black, we didn't have much to get you and Ms Potter a present for Christmas-"

"Listen boys, you don't need to thank us and you don't need to get us a gift. That is our job from now on. You will be treated just the same as Harry. Now my hopefully soon to be wife, has decided we are having Christmas eve tonight, so pop on the PJ's she has left on your bed and meet us in the lounge for hot chocolate."

He met her in the hall, and pulled her in for a kiss. She leaned into his touch. It had been a stressful evening, and she needed him to hold her. They went into their bedroom and lay down on the bed. He held her close. He knew Christmas had always been her favourite time of year. He also knew it would remind her of Prongs. She let him hold her for 5 minutes before getting up to get changed into her PJ's and then they headed out to join the children. Regulus had returned and was also wearing his Pjs. They gathered around the tree on the sofa whilst the music played out from the radio.

Cassie snuggled into Sirius, whilst Fred sat down next to Hermione. This caused George to wiggle his eyebrows at his brother, who in turn flipped him off. Harry went with Reg to collect the family portraits to put up in the room with them.

"Guy's this is my parents and grandparents." Harry announced to the room.

Hermione and the twins glanced at each other in confusion before Harry put them out their misery by turning the portraits round.

"Moonlight! It's christmas!" Shouted the familiar tone of her brothers voice. The tears filled her eyes immediately but she brushed them away, put a smile on her face and attempted to remember the joy of the season.

"Sunshine! Merry Christmas you two! Harry introduce your parents and grandparents."

"Oh sorry, Mum, Dad, Gran and Grandpa this is Fred and George Weasley, they found your map dad! This is Hermione Granger and she is known as the brightest witch of our age. Guys, meet my parents and grandparents." Harry excitedly rushed out.

"Sorry, sorry your map?" The twins exclaimed at simultaneously.

"Oops!" Harry said laughing.

Cassie shared a glance at Sirius and found him laughing alongside Harry. She shook her head and smiled.

When no one seemed to want to put the twins out of their misery, Cassie shoved Sirius' arm and nodded her head in their direction.

"Harry get the map." Sirius said.

Harry took off to his bedroom and came back holding the map.

"Lay it out." Sirius took out his wand and placed it over the map. "I solemnly swear I am Padfoot." The parchment changed and the words 'Prongs would like to say hello to his friend Padfoot. Moony would like to say that it's been a while. Wormtail wonder where he has been.' When Sirius looked up again the twins were staring at him with complete adoration.

"You are-

"Padfoot!"

"Then who is-"

"the others?"

Cassie laughed. "Jeez you remind me of your uncles. Alright Jamie here is Prongs because his animagus was a stag, Moony is Remus Lupin for obvious reasons and Padfoot is Sirius because he a big black dog and Wormtail was Peter Pettigrew a snivelling little traiterous rat but we won't discuss him."

The twins fell to their knees and began bowing at Sirius and James portraits. Harry laughed and Hermione just shook her head.

They continued laughing and joking around the tree. Occasionally Charlus or Dorea would tell a tale of their childhood and Tippy would pop in to top up the hot chocolate. It felt nice and reminded her of before everything had gone wrong.

When it was really late, she ushered them all off to bed. She then set about gathering the presents of each of the children. She placed a stocking on each chair with each child's name on it. Sirius joined her placing the presents with the matching stockings. Once everything felt completed, they went to bed. Cassie had spent weeks, taking notes of things each child would appreciate as a gift by practically interrogating Harry for her ideas. She combed shops muggle and magical alike, she then decided to co-ordinate the wrapping for each child's gifts just like her parents had done for her and Jamie. She felt at peace with a full house of children to take care of. She fell asleep snuggled into Sirius.