Harry woke up in Grimmauld on Christmas Eve and couldn’t help the reluctant smile spreading across his face. Despite his life continuing to find new ways to get worse at least he’d had today to look forward to the past few months.
Harry honestly didn’t know how he would’ve gotten through the shock of having his name pulled from the cup nor the subsequent First Task without his godfather, Sirius. He’d been outraged when he found out what had happened Halloween night and with a fervor reminiscent of Hermione, immediately delved into preparing Harry for anything that could possibly happen during these three tasks.
Today though was a break from it all, Harry was trying to push everything having to do with the tournament out of his mind so he could enjoy his last day with Sirius before going back to Hogwarts tomorrow for the Yule Ball. Sirius had told him he had a surprise planned for today and Harry honestly didn’t think he’d ever been as excited for Christmas as he was now.
Attempting to reach for his glasses without yet leaving the warmth of his blankets, Harry didn’t hear the door to his bedroom creak open until it was too late and suddenly he had 60 pounds of dog suffocating him.
“Padfoot!” Harry laughed attempting to try and push away the squirming dog who was dead set on covering his face in slobber.
Sirius shifted as he rolled over and pulled Harry into his side. Harry relaxed and melted into the cuddle and the two of them laid there while they caught their breath. Suddenly though, Harry was being pushed out of the bed and herded through the door, “Come on, pup! It’s Christmas! You can’t sleep in on Christmas.”
“It’s Christmas Eve, Siri, I don’t think it counts.”
Sirius turned to him in mock outrage, “It most certainly does! And I’ve declared today Christmas which means it is so!”
Sirius turned around with his head held high and nose pointed upward, and Harry couldn’t stop the giggles pouring out of his mouth. He was still giggling when they made their way into the kitchen and Remus looked up fondly from where he was standing by the stove.
“Good morning, Harry. Did you sleep well?”
“Well enough.” Harry hummed and ignored the vague memory of his nightmare last night. Today was meant to be happy, there was no room for his increasingly nightmare riddled dreams.
Remus smiled gently and finished placing the mugs of what looked like hot chocolate on the tray. “This is a tradition we all started during Hogwarts, you know. Your dad had managed to convince the Hogwarts’ elves to make us hot chocolate and we’d have it as soon as we woke up while opening presents. I thought it’d be nice to pass this tradition down onto you.”
Harry’s eyes welled up at the idea of being able to participate in something his parents had created when they were his age and he melted into Remus’ side when he put his arm around his shoulder to lead him to the sitting room, tray of hot chocolate floating behind and Sirius leading the way.
“Thanks, Moony,” Harry whispered quietly and soaked in the comfort of the answering squeeze.
All three of them made themselves comfortable on the couch with a mug before Sirius levitated the presents out. Harry could barely keep his mouth closed as gift after gift landed in front of him, enough to put even Dudley to shame he was sure.
“Go on, prongslet. It’s all for you.”
After getting the go ahead, Harry went through his stack of presents carefully, thinking maybe he could save a bit of wrapping from them all to remember this day. He’d gotten gifts from Hermione, the Weasleys, his dorm mates, Luna, and even Cedric but a majority of presents were signed Padfoot & Moony.
Harry had an inkling that most of those presents were just from Sirius.
Harry slowly but surely made his way through the mountain of gifts and sat back with a pleased smile when all was said and done, already mentally planing out the number of thank you letters he’d need to send.
“That’s not all there is. We’ve saved one gift for last.” Remus was smiling at him and Sirius could barely sit still from excitement.
“Close your eyes and do not open them, Harry.”
Harry obediently listened and wondered how on earth there could be more presents. He heard rustling as things seemed to be moved around before Sirius loudly said, “Open your eyes!”
Harry did and stared confused at the scene in front of him. Sirius and Remus were standing next to what looked like a really old projector with excited smiles on their faces. Harry couldn’t even see any movie film and he wondered if the two of them knew how projectors worked.
“Uh, what- I mean thank you?” Harry didn’t want to be rude and ungrateful but he really couldn’t figure out what was going on.
Sirius laughed at his awkward fumbling before jumping into an explanation, “It’s a muggle projexted-“
“Projector.”
“Yeah what Moony said. We jury-rigged it together so we could use it sort of like a pensieve.”
“Pensieve?”
“It’s a runic basin that helps wixen view their memories when poured in,” Remus explained.
“Sorry I’m still confused.” Harry said sheepishly, hand nervously rubbing the back of his neck.
“Remus and I figured out how to use the potejer-
“Projector.”
“-so that we could play memories of your mum and dad like on a muggle telekevison.”
“Sirius, I swear to Merlin you do this on purpose.”
Sirius turned to Remus with an innocent look on his face but Harry was no longer paying attention. He was more focused on the fact that they had gone to all this trouble just so Harry could learn more about his parents.
Jumping up off the couch, Harry tackled Sirius and Remus into a hug and choked out his gratitude while he tried to stop the tears from coming. They hugged back just as tightly and the three of them stayed like that for a while, soaking in the comfort of each other's arms.
“Come on pup. Let’s watch your father make a fool of himself to Lily.”
Harry cuddled in between Sirius and Remus once they sat on the couch and watched in awe as the memories started playing out in front of him. This was better than any pictures he had, being able to witness his parents living as if they had never died, as if Harry was able to grow up alongside them.
They all spent the rest of the day like that, curled into the couch around each other and captivated by the projection. Harry didn’t think he could have had a better Christmas.