Harry Potter and the Next Generation

Chapter 15

"Al! Wake up! It's Christmas!!!" Lily Luna stormed into Albus's bedroom, running over Scorpius's foot in order to tug on her brother's sleeve until he woke up.

"Lil...why can't you do this to James instead?" he groaned.

"Because I already got him up! He's helping mum cook breakfast!" she said excitedly.

"And why can't you do that instead?" he grumbled, turning over again.

Lily proceeded to tug on his shirtsleeve again. "Because James told me to wake you!!"

"Ugh, I hate him!" Albus groaned but slowly sat up.

Lily scampered out of the room.

"Scorp...?" Albus inquired whether or not his friend was awake.

"I was awake before she even came into the room and stepped on me," he said. "No worries."

"I'm sorry about her," Al apologized.

"It must be nice having siblings, tho," Scorp said.

"More like disgusting!" Al said getting changed into presentable clothes--aka trousers and a sweater Grandma Molly had knitted him the previous Christmas. "You do NOT want to know what I find in the bathroom after they're done in there."

Scorp pulled a sweater over his head, "Sometimes I feel like we're kind of like brothers."

Al looked up at him, "Me too, dude."

"Christmaaaasss!!!" Lily ran up the stairs and screamed in Albus's doorway.

"She's gonna keep doing that until we go down to unwrap presents," Albus said.

Just as they were leaving his room they heard more footsteps and Scorpius almost ran into Rose, who had been climbing up the staircase to tell them to get their butts downstairs. Scorpius grabbed her arms to stop her from knocking him backwards.

"Hey!" Rose blushed.

"Hey, Rosie!" Scorpio and Albus said cheerily.

"I was coming up to tell you guys to come downstairs! I've been waiting for like a half hour!"

"Lily's been running all around the house screaming about how it's Christmas for basically about that long and it was driving us nuts," Albus said.

"Good! Come on! We have to open presents quick so we can talk about what we're going to do about that hat!" Rose waved the boys downstairs with her.

Albus greeted Hermione, Ron, and Hugo warmly. Lily liked to pretend she was too cool to play with Hugo anymore even though they were the same age.

Ginny was bringing in food from the kitchen when she saw the three kids standing in the living room. "Your brother STILL isn't down here? Lily!"

"Mom, she isn't an alarm clock," Albus defended his sister.

"She works as good as one," she said. "She sure got you two down here."

"Hugo, you should go with her to help wake up James," Harry jokingly said. "She could use the extra volume."

"Don't even dare," James said groggily from the top of the stairs. "I'm here, I guess." He walked down the stairs and plopped himself down on the couch.

They all opened up their presents together. The Malfoys had sent their presents over to the Potters so that Scorpius could open his gifts with them. Everyone related to the Weasleys received a new sweater with their initial knitted onto it.

"You know Mom has to spend all year knitting these now," Ginny said to Ron when she opened her sweater present. "She used to only have to start in November, but now she starts as soon as the new year begins."

Scorpius received a pair of silver cuff links from his grandfather that he said had been passed down for generations in their family, a very new and expensive dictation quill from his mother, and several other expensive gifts he tried to keep from everyone noticing; he knew the Potters were just as well-off as he was, but he also knew about the contempt between their families and did not want to add to it. Plus, Albus and Rose mostly only got handmade gifts anyway. Other than their sweaters, they had received macaroni necklaces from their younger siblings. Hermione had charmed various objects and gifted them because she was not very handy; Harry had provided everyone with souvenirs from his job as an Auror; and various other gifts Scorpius found himself nonetheless jealous of. He felt that what he had received had been impersonal. He wanted to make things for his friends, which he had not thought to do beforehand.

"Come on, let's go!" Rose nudged the boys as soon as they had opened all of their gifts. They raced up the stairs to discuss the very pressing matter of how they would get to the sorting hat.