Harry Potter One-Shots

Christmas With The Potters (Harry Potter)

WORD COUNT: 1118

I was having a nice, peaceful dream about something completely mundane, when suddenly I felt three small bodies jump onto the end of my bed.

"Mummy, daddy wake up, it's Christmas! Wake up!"

"Can we open presents now? Oh please, can we?"

"James already opened one of his presents!"

"Did not!

"Did too, I saw you! You got a new toy broomstick!"

I stifled a groan and rubbed my face as my three children accosted me with joy. It was much, much too early for this level of energy, but then again, it was Christmas, after all. I sat up and looked over to Harry's side of the bed, where he was rubbing his eyes and reaching for his glasses. He had a little bit of morning stubble and his eyes were puffy from sleep, but he was still just as handsome as the day I married him. I smiled at the fond memory, but my flashback was short-lived as I was jolted back to reality by the children.

"Give mummy and dad a few minutes to get up and we'll open presents, okay? How about you go back to your rooms and brush your teeth first," I suggested, shooing them away from us. As they sprinted out of the room, I crashed my head back down to the pillow, groaning.

"Why are they so excited, it's too early," I griped, pulling the pillow over my head. Next to me, Harry chuckled and wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him.

"I wonder where they get all that energy from?" he mused, pressing a small kiss to my lips. I couldn't help but smile.

"Certainly not from me." This was probably a lie. I may not be much of a morning person, but I could be quite energetic once I had had my morning coffee.

We allowed ourselves a precious few minutes to ourselves to lay in bed together and enjoy the silence before dealing with all the chaos of Christmas morning, but once Lily came rushing back into our room to berate us for still being in bed, we accepted that our lazy morning was over and climbed out of bed. I threw on my bathrobe over my pajamas, and Harry slipped his feet into a pair of warm slippers I had given him for our last anniversary. Together we made our way out into the living room, where we had spent nearly three silent hours wrapping presents and filling stockings the night before so the children could have a nice surprise for Christmas Day. Harry sat down on the couch to get the kids started on gifts while I made my way to the kitchen to pour us some coffee. I added a bit of milk and sugar to mine but kept his black, the way he liked it. "It's more effective that way," he always said. Personally, I couldn't stand the taste, but at least we never confused whose coffee was whose while we were rushing around trying to get the family ready for the day.

From the living room, I could hear the children shouting with excitement about all their presents, and Harry feigning surprise at seeing all the presents that had mysteriously appeared overnight. He was so good with the children, sometimes I thought he was born to be a dad. Ever since the first night we took James home from the hospital, he had been the most devoted, caring, hands-on father I could've hoped for my children to have. It made my heart swell just watching him with them.

I brought the two mugs into the living room, which was already a mess of wrapping paper and new toys. James had indeed already opened his new toy broomstick, as Lily had informed us this morning, but it appeared that the younger two had already caught up on present-unwrapping. Albus was flipping through the new Encyclopaedia of Magical Creatures I had picked up for him, and Lily was in the process of unwrapping a new outfit for her doll.

The rest of the morning was spent acting shocked to see all the wonderful new things the children had received, and then, once they were finished with their presents and had begun to disperse to play with their new toys, I produced the small package I had gotten for Harry. He, too, brought out his present to me.

"I want you to open yours first," I insisted, pushing the package into his hands. He obliged, and ripped the wrapping paper off of the stack of old photos of us I had found from our last few years at Hogwarts.

"Y/N, where did you get these?" he asked incredulously, looking at each and every photo.

"Remember when Hermione and I wanted to see if disposable cameras would still work at Hogwarts since electronics and technology didn't? I found the camera one day when I was cleaning out the attic and decided to develop the film... Muggle-style, of course." There were photos of us laying out on the lawn in the sun, making silly faces in the common room, studying with our heads together over the same book when we didn't know Ron had stolen the camera and was trying to figure out how it worked. There were even a few with our other friends, and I could tell the memories were flooding back for Harry the same way they had for me when I got the film developed. We looked through them together for a bit, then it was time for me to open Harry's present.

It was a small box, just large enough to fit in the palm of my hand, and inside it was a ring with a small cluster of sparkling diamonds in the center surrounded by a silver band.

"It was my mother's," Harry explained. "My aunt Petunia sent it to me a few months ago, she had some story about borrowing it from my mother and never getting to give it back and having no use for it now..." he trailed off. I was speechless. Not only was it the most beautiful ring I had ever seen, but it meant so much to him, and he was giving it to me...

"Harry, I... I don't know what to say! It's amazing. Thank you so much," I breathed as I slipped it onto my finger. It fit perfectly, like it had been made for me.

"This is the BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER!" we heard James yell from the other room, and burst out laughing.

"I couldn't have said it better myself," I smiled. "Now, how about we get started making some breakfast for those hungry little gremlins, yeah?"