What is love anymore?

Christmas

James' pov

December 25th, Christmas Day. A time for family and a time for joy. I awoke at the ungodly time of 5am, I really wasn't sure why but I did. I did however proceed to spend the next hour laying awake staring at the ceiling before dragging myself from the bed, careful not to wake Lily. she didn't like being woken before 7am..

I slowly and silently walked through the halls of Malfoy manor heading to the Kitchen. It was still too early to wake anyone so I made myself a cup of tea. 20 minutes after this the Tonks trio of Andromeda, Ted and Teddy arrived

"Andy, Ted, good to see you again, hello Teddy. You guys are early it's only 6:20am and no one else is up yet"

Andromeda smiled softly "we didn't want to be there when they got up so we came early. Why are you up so early?"

"I was woken by nothing at 5am. So I'm guessing last night didn't go well?" I asked, making them some tea.

"No, no it did not go well" Ted murmured "Dora was demanding that we cancel today's plans for her. Which by the way we weren't going to do, Andy and Teddy always spend Christmas with everyone"

"Did Andy go off about traditions and how Teddy isn't missing out on spending time with his true family who was always there because of her?"

"Of course I did, I refuse to only accommodate her when my cousins are back and along with every other returner they need as much support from their loved ones as they can. Now how about we make a nice large Breakfast for everyone?" Andromeda smiled

I nod and together we start on a nice large breakfast that wouldn't be too heavy so that when it was time for the large Christmas dinner people would be hungry. While we were cooking Sirius came in groggily. Though he soon woke up completely when he saw Andromeda and hugged her happily.

"Andy! You're here. I missed You so much. How did last night go?"

Andromeda hugged him back "Not well but you don't need to worry about that. It'll just cause you pain which you don't need right now. Today is about joy and happiness and family. Is Reg still asleep?"

"Yeah, he is, I'll make coffee and tea to go with breakfast. Ted, could you go wake everyone for breakfast?"

Ted smiled "sure, of course" with that he left to go wake the rest of the manor.

Teddy was listening to everything intently as he was collecting things to set the table. I could tell he was wanting to speak up but resisting in case he upset Sirius.

By 7am, we were all sat around the large dining table and began to eat the large light breakfast we had prepared. We ate in a comforting silence. No pressures of the world outside of the manor's walls, no war waging on around up tearing us apart or even loss just comfort in each other's presence. Andromeda kept glancing between her cousins and grandkid, likely worried about how today could go wrong.

An hour later when breakfast had been had and cleaned up after, we all gathered into the living room for gift giving. Most family units had already shared gifts so it was mostly just gifts for Teddy, gifts from Sirius and Molly for everyone and of course Secret Santa. Molly gifted everyone one of her Weasley Jumpers. Teddy enjoyed his gifts.

Sirius' gifts had a lot of thought put into them Especially Teddy's. Teddy received an old wizard photo. Smiling up at him were us marauders as well as Andromeda, Ted, Baby Sophia, Narcissa, Lily, Marlene and Dorcas. Peter's face had been destroyed by the photo being folded in half for a long time. I had almost forgotten about it, I saw Teddy's eyes begin to water.

"How old is this? You guys look so young"

"Late November 1979. Lily and Narcissa were pregnant though we didn't know that yet. Seraphina was due the next month, so we had a small get together that wasn't quite a baby shower but also was. It was just a select few who we considered family. Regulus was invited but never got my letter because of our mother. It was our last get together before the war tore us apart and took up all our time. Dorcas and Marlene died mid 1981, there's been no sign of them yet. I started carrying it around as a reminder of happier times. I realised you probably didn't have many photos from before you were born, I thought you would like it."