Christmas Up In Flames

This is a response to The Forgotten Family Ties Challenge set by Morning Lilies on Fanfiction.net. Go and have a look at some of the other fics (as well as this one) as they are all really good. The two people that I had to use were Molly Weasley 2nd and James Sirius Potter. Hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER: Unless I've aged about 30 years, I don't own Harry Potter.

It was the first day of Christmas and, in the Potter home, everyone was asleep, all except James Potter. An exhausted James Sirius Potter walked into the living room and collapsed onto the couch, he had just come home from his first term in the Auror training camp and was feeling dead on his feet. He knew that if he put the Television on his Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron would kill him as they were sleeping in the room next to the living room. Every year Harry Potter, James' father, would hold an annual party on the 12th day of Christmas (Christmas day). The party was always a high point in the calendar for all of the Potters and the Weasleys as it meant a chance to get drunk (James), blow things up without getting told off (Albus, George and George's family) and find out who their children were going out with (all the parents).

James was about to fall asleep when there was a noise from upstairs, a loud BANG. James just thought that Albus was up and trying some of George's experiments. Well, at least he did until he heard a girl scream. He ran out of his room and up the Potter Manor staircases. As he reached the middle of the stairs he was suddenly caught in a blaze of orange light "SHIT," he cursed. It was coming out of one of the topmost doors in the manor. James wasn't sure if anyone was in that part of the manor, wasn't that where Percy's kids were meant to stay, and they weren't due till Saturday.

The fire alarm hadn't gone off but he was going to have to get everyone out. James raised his wand to his throat and yelled "SONORUS!" as soon as he had done that he yelled "EVERYBODY, FIRE IN THE MANOR. FIRE IN THE MANOR. EVERYBODY OUT!" He heard the sound of people running. Soon what looked like the entire family was out running down the stairs. James looked around for a second before following everyone out the door. He was just about to get out the door when he felt his Dad's hand on his shoulder.

"James!" yelled his Dad, "Where the blazes is the fire?" just as his Dad said this the fire, which had been creeping down the stairs spread to the living room, cutting off the exit. "Never mind!" said his Dad as they both ran to the door only to find that the fire had cut them off. "Where did the fire start?" yelled Harry.

"Top floor!" yelled James as they headed to the stairs down to the house elves chambers. They paused as Harry found the right key, in that pause they heard something that made their hearts seem to stop in their chests. Another scream came from upstairs. A young girls scream of terror. James and Harry wheeled around and looked at each other. "I thought that Molly and Lucy weren't meant to be here until later on in the week?"

"Molly came ahead; she came straight from the Hogwarts Express. Lucy was meant to but she forgot some things and is coming with her parents," explained Harry as they made their ways up to the second floor of the manor "Well, she might be coming with her parents if there's a manor to come to."

The fire was on all sides of them as they ran up the stairs Molly's screams where getting louder now. However, as they came to the third lading James ran up faster than Harry did. The part of the floor fell away in-between them. "You run and get her out of there!" commanded Harry to his son "I'll go out the house-elves way and get help!"

"See you in a minute!" screamed James as more floor falling made him back away from his dad "I hope," he muttered under his breath so that his dad didn't hear. James raced up the stairs taking them two at a time. Running through walls of flames, jumping across gaps in the stairway he reached the fifth and final floor and tried the door, it crumpled beneath his hand as soon as it made contact with the door.