Christmas 1995
Grimmauld Place
Christmases at the Dursley's were the same every year. He would open the few presents they brought him (usually socks and soap from his aunt and uncle and a handful of hard boiled sweets from Old Mrs. Figg.) then whilst Dudley opens all his presents Harry would be banished off the the kitchen to start peeling carrots and parsnips. Although, once when he was passing the front door he swore he saw an envelope with his name written in bright emerald ink but it swiftly disappeared and he never saw another one, but this year was different
It was the best Christmas Harry could remember, narrowly beating the first Christmas he had spent at Hogwarts with Ron. The day started with a bang, quite literally, as the twins had decided that the best way of waking everyone up was by sending their new and extremely experimental miniature fire works into their rooms. After some rather explicit words from Molly and mumbled complaints from Kreature the rest of the day progressed normally, swapping presents, Tonks catching Sirius up on all the family gossip and stuffing themselves with more food than Hagrid could eat.
Later in the evening Remus, probably out of youthful nostalgia from being around Sirius, had managed drink 3 large pints of butterbeer, half a bottle of fire whiskey and had decided to start trading insults with Walburga's portrait. Harry tried to sneakily listen in but could only make out the words "vile", "pompous" and a couple of muggle swear words he had often heard Vernon use whilst driving. He was soon dragged up the stairs by a rather embarrassed, yet proud Tonks claiming that it was probably best they had an early night or "he'll regret it in the morning", they were then slowly but surely followed by the Hermione and the the Weasleys, until it was just Harry and Sirius left.
At first they had sat not speaking only Christmas playing faintly in the background , Harry reading a book Hermione had got him and Sirius gazing a big maroon leather bound book, when suddenly a familiar song began to play in the background. Harry found himself humming along causing Sirius to look up at him. "Sorry" Harry said, realising he had disturbed him "It's just this has been my favorite Christmas song for as long as I can remember, although I can't think why", but Sirius didn't complain, he simply patted the space next to him and said " I think I might know why." Curiously, Harry moved next to him and saw that Sirius hadn't reading a book but looking at a photo album.
The page was full of photos the the point where they were dangerously close to overlapping and at the top of the page in neat cursive writing the words 'Harry's First Christmas 1980'. Harry speechlessly scanned the pictures. His parents kissing under mistletoe, Remus helping a chubby baby put a star on the top of a tree, Sirius and his mother waltzing in a tiny living room, Peter bouncing Harry up and down on his knee. "I think James was a bit trigger happy with the camera" Sirius pulled Harry from his thoughts " but then again he always was very sentimental" he explained with a sad yet nostalgic smile. "Anyway this is what I wanted to show you". He pointed to a small photo in the top corner of the page. It was a picture of Lily carefully rocking Harry in her arms, she was singing something to him. "This song was Lily's favorite too, she used to make us listen to it every Christmas." Sirius said sounded as if he was holding back tears. "I took this photo you know. The others had gone to sleep and we were trying to get you to settle, this song was the only thing that worked."
Harry smiled turning to his Godfather "Can I see some more?"
