𓏲ּ marauders era oneshots

this is really serious . . . james potter.

— summary: in which alena catches her mummy kissing someone who very obviously wasn't her father.

— word count: 1198.

— lowercase intended . reader is written as a black girl 

a content smile overcame your face, covered in specks of flour as you pushed the fifth pan of cookies into the over. neither you or your husband were able to live with their disappointment when your kids found out that the baked goods were only made as treats for the man who would be coming down the chimney later that night to deliver presents, santa.

but seeing as james was a terrible cooker through and out, ruining the first few batters by constantly substituting the sugar for salt, scrunched faces and spats into the garbage coming from harry, zamora, and alena who had all collectively decided to split a cookie from each batch to test for quality. the end result being their father kicked out from the kitchen altogether.

so now, as he was dressed head to toe in a fluffy red and white costume to mimic the one responsible for most christmas cheer, you decided to go on and make some more on your own to spoil them in the morning as a small apology as he placed the rest of the presents under the tree which would be marked as 'from santa' instead of mummy and daddy.

you had to give it to him, his idea of dressing up as santa clause in the case that when you were both placing the rest of the gifts on top of the fake snow from the muggle store on the night before christmas day, and one of your children somehow woke with the huge glasses of warm milk mixed with cocoa they drank themselves to sleep with, you could let yourself off with the excuse of helping him out a little since he had so many more houses to get to.

it was mostly to now ruin it for the youngest living in the house who had believed in his existence in the most heart warningly way possible.

ah, but you had forgotten just who you had loved so dearly to start a life with so many years ago and how absolutely unbearable he could be.

"honey, c'mere already, i know it doesn't take that long !"

that was his fourth call in the same tone of voice, and it was known to all who heard it that he could only be up to some form of mischief. but you felt bad leaving him hanging in there, probably having a hard time breathing in the heavy suit. so you could only roll you eyes and shake your head to hide the small smirk on your face and make your way from the extravagant kitchen and to the living room decorated in just the same manner where he sat on the couch.

you both admired his setup, the string of lights on the fake tree being barely visible from how neither of you had any self control when it came to their happiness, looking at it proudly knowing the amount of excitement it would ignite in the three children asleep now in their rooms, especially little alena's as this was the first one she would probably remember, turning five only a few months ago.

looking away, you were met with his eyes now dripping in the look of 'i'm going to something that's gonna annoy you,' that had been there for as long as you knew him, nothing less of an unamused frown coming over your face as you allowed him to grab hold of your lower thigh with one firm hand and pull you into him with the free arm resting on your waist.

"oh don't look so down, i'm giving you one last chance to kiss me in this incredibly sweaty but mindblowingly sexy costume — don't you just find my white beard and mustache so attractive ?"

your face scrunched up in a grimace at his misaligned words, head tilting and a small shriek coming out as eyebrows wiggled and lips puckered to meet yours, the scratchy fake hair decorating his face not being a thing you wanted to touch yours.

both of you missed the small steps of the little girl who had jumped at the smell of melting chocolate chips due to you forgetting to cast the spell that would keep all of the fragrances to the room which they were made in.

all things becoming mere afterthoughts as you and james continued laughing at his poorly failed tries, pushing him away and giving false hope as you dodged him again.

they were laughs that would usually overjoy alena's little spirits, but as she moved to get a closer look at her parents, the wide grin that was once present fell, ducking down to be hidden and look in between the spaces in the rails instead.

she was witnessing her mommy act the same way she did with daddy but with ... santa clause ?"

"maybe that's the reason why the mommy made sure to tell us not to brag about the extra presents this year, because santa decided to 'be more gracious' ... was it because it was all in an exchange for kisses?"

she thought laughably, covering her mouth in surprise as you finally gave in and allowed him to overcome you, pulling you down into him by the fabric of your pajama shirt for a much needed kiss that lasted far too long to be a friendly greeting.

her little legs took her all the way upstairs where she made the plan to wake her older siblings to tell them the news, both of whom already knew of their parents' plans seeing as they were getting to the point where things like santa clause seemed less real than the actual magic they studied at hogwarts and there was also the fact they heard them talking about it two weeks ago.

she still made way of dragging the thirteen year old girl out of her bed, all the way to her brother's room which was across the house so that they could hear it all at the same time through their exhausted and drowsy demeanors.

"harry, zamora, this is really serious !" she exclaimed at the two, huffing as harry made a move to cut the lamp off that had rudely awakened him less than two minutes ago, coming to no avail as the frantic girl stepped in front of it.

"what's serious is the fact that you made my hair wrap fall off in one of the halls and we have dinner with extended family tomorrow, i'm not going looking like a troll," zamora sighed in annoyance, not much excited to have her hair straighten for the event anymore after having to endure a flat iron clipping at the tips of her ears at eleven in the morning.

and the thought of having to go through it again didn't appeal much either, giving up as she pushed the boy slightly to make way to lay at the foot of his bed.

"just come sleep here alena, there's space in the middle of us. we can talk about your dream or whatever the morning," harry insisted, letting his eyelids drop and mouth open to snore once again.

"this wasn't a dream 'or whatever,' i saw mommy kissing santa claus !"