Jily Oneshots (pt2)

The First and Last Christmas

"No, no, Harry, wrapping paper isn't for babies," Lily chided gently, prying her son's fingers away from the paper and divesting the slimy bits from his mouth.

"It's what's inside that's important, pup," Remus added, unwrapping the package for Harry. It revealed a stuffed wolf and when the man pressed a button on the wolf's underside, began to gambol around on the wrapping paper, now and then giving a miniature yip. Harry giggled and clapped his tiny hands in delight.

"Moo-ey, moo-ey!" he crowed. Lily smiled, glad that the uncomfortable silence had been breached.

"What do you say, Harry?" she asked.

"Thank-oo, Moo-ey!" Harry said, throwing his arms around Remus, and giving him a slobbery baby kiss.

"Never too early to teach a kid manners, is it, Lily?" Sirius teased.

"It's easier to teach him than it is to teach you, Sirius," Lily returned.

Remus chuckled appreciatively while James said, "Oh, she got you, Padfoot."

"You're just as bad, Prongs," said Sirius, hitting his friend playfully on the back of the head.

"Well, at least I've mastered the skill of chewing with my mouth closed."

"Oh, really?" said Sirius, doing an exaggerated impression of it with a cracker from the coffee table.

"Yeah!" said James teasingly, throwing a walnut at his friend. Sirius returned with a deviled egg and soon a vicious food-fight was underway.

"I'm going to check on the ham. Can you watch Harry for a moment, Remus? It seems that those two kids are busy," Lily said, gesturing at James and Sirius (who were both covered in some residue of food), placing the one-year-old in the werewolf's lap, and walking into the kitchen (where tantalizing scents were issuing from), without waiting for a reply.

"They are crazy, aren't they, Harry?" Remus commented. The baby looked up at him, his eyes leaving the toy wolf (dubbed "Moony" or "Moo-ey"), for an instant. "Then again, you are James's son and Sirius's godson, so you'll probably be just like them when you're older," he added, casting a quick Scourgify on the couch to get rid of a mess of food that Harry had been reaching toward.

"Moo-ey!" Harry said, lifting up the toy wolf which seemed to have run down. Remus pressed the button on it again and it began to run around once Remus placed it back on the couch.

"Or maybe it'll be me or your mother coming out in you, eh, Harry?" he mused. "You have her eyes, you know."

Remus's musings were cut short by a comment Sirius made. "Why do you talk to him like that, Moony? He doesn't understand a word you're saying."

"How do you know?" James asked. "He's a very intelligent baby."

"If he has your genes in him, then he's definitely not intelligent," Sirius teased.

"Excuse me, who got an O in our Transfiguration NEWT and who got an E?"

"Hey, I would have gotten an O if that stupid examiner hadn't jinxed me!"

"The examiner didn't jinx you. That's just your stupidity at work, Padfoot."

"Oh, yeah, let's see my 'stupidity' shove this walnut up your. . . ."

"Excuse me, gentlemen, but shouldn't we be keeping this conversation G-rated?" Remus asked, gesturing at Harry who had been watching his father and godfather's conversation as the watcher of a tennis match might, his head swinging to each speaker.

Sirius sighed. "There you go with the kid understanding what we're saying, Moony," Sirius sighed. "Right, Harry, you don't understand do you? Do you?"

"Pah-foo stipidy!" Harry said, giggling at Sirius's surprised expression.