Forever and a Day ~ James Potter

Going Home for Christmas

Chapter Sixteen

Tuesday 23rd December 1975 ~ 11:06 ~ waning moon

It had been a few days since the last full moon now, so Remus was pretty much back to his usual self – witty, sarcastic and just a little bit moody. Rosie noticed he had no more visible scars on him and he was no longer pasty, so she was satisfied that he would have a happy Christmas this year.

Everyone was spending the morning packing their bags with the things they wanted to take home for Christmas since the Hogwarts Express would be leaving from Hogsmeade Station at precisely twelve o'clock – 'not a minute sooner and not a minute later', as they were often reminded by Professor McGonagall. Packing for Christmas was never as frantic as the end of term, but there was always someone that made it stressful...

There was still an hour until the train was going to leave, but Marlene hadn't even woken up yet since she was exhausted from staying up late to finish her final Potions essay of the year, which was three days late already.

"Marlene!" Lily shouted, shaking the girl harshly. "If you don't get up now, you'll have to spend Christmas here all by yourself!"

Marlene yawned and stretched then, sitting up and looking around at her friends, "What time is it?"

"It's six minutes past eleven," Mary replied calmly, smirking while Lily folded her arms.

"What!?" Marlene exclaimed, throwing her duvet covers almost onto the floor. "But I haven't packed! I need to-"

"Calm down," Mary said with a chukle, placing a hand on Marlene's shoulder and pushing her back into a sitting position.

"I've already packed everything you'll want. And I charmed your trunk so the presents won't weigh it down too much."

Marlene sighed in relief, leaning back against her pillow, "I suppose I should get dressed, then."

"Yes, I suppose you should," Lily rolled her eyes, then turned to Rosie. "Are you nearly ready at least?"

Rosie had placed her trunk on the bed and was currently sitting on the leather case, squashing down on it, trying to get it closed. Alice was trying to help by pulling the buckle strap as far down as possible to buckle the brasses.

"Nearly!" she huffed, cheering as Alice finally managed to strap the top down, then turned to Lily. "Yes, why?"

"If we go down to the station now, we can save a compartment for the others since it takes fifteen minutes to get there anyway."

"Right, okay," Rosie nodded, jumping down and dragging her trunk onto the floor. She groaned at the weight of it, saying to herself, "How is it so full? I've left half my stuff here."

The two girls charmed their trunks so that they were light enough to carry in one hand and walked down into the common room, where they saw Remus and Peter waiting by the fire.

"Are you two heading down to the train soon?" Lily asked.

Remus put down the book he was reading and sighed, "Prongs and Pads are taking forever to pack, and I told them we'd wait until they were ready. But if they don't come down soon, it'll take too long to get to the train."

Rosie shook her head, put down her trunk and silently headed up to the boys' dormitory, hopping up the stairs two at a time. She reached the fifth year dormitory and banged on the door. She usually had to do things like this at home when her brothers refused to come down and eat dinner on time.

"Hurry the bloody hell up!" she shouted, but there was no response, so she smirked to herself and said in a chirpy voice, "Well, I suppose I could use the chance to wait for you on Remus's lap on the train..."