✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
"Anna wake up right now," Genevieve whispered into her sisters ear.
"No."
"You do realise it's Christmas, right?" Gen huffed, diving on top of her sister.
"Get off me you git," Anna gasped, struggling to get from under Genevieve and the thick blanket wrapped around her.
"Don't call your sister that, Anastasia Lewis," Their mother scolded from the doorway, hands on hips.
"9 year olds shouldn't be using language like that," Gen tutted, removing herself from off Anna and prodding a finger at her nose.
"9 year olds get mad when it feels like a pile of bricks is landing on them," the youngest muttered, climbing out of bed.
"Stop your bickering girls and join your dad downstairs," Mary chuckled, making her own way down so she could get breakfast started.
Genevieve and Anna made their way to the living room but before they opened the door Gen stopped them both from entering.
"By the way there's an extra present from me," she grinned manically.
"Is it a bomb?" Anna asks, concern evident in her voice due to her sisters expression.
"You could say that," she snorted and opened the door.
They both walked in to see Sirius dancing around merrily to an ABBA song her mum had bought on vinyl a few years ago with tinsel around his neck.
"Dancing Queen gets the best of us all," Thomas mused, holding his cup of morning tea to his face so he could take a sip.
Genevieve cleared her throat to signal their presence and the look of pride on Sirius' face was enough to make anyone laugh. He loved ABBA and he was far from ashamed of it.
"Genny, Mini Genny," he greets them, dropping into a bow.
"Sirius!" Anna shrieked ecstatically, racing to him and jumping just in time for him to catch her.
During their time spent here last summer, Anna had got rather attached to the boys. James and Sirius had left the biggest impact on her and (much to her parents dismay) they had also turned her into a prankster within past few days. James said something along the lines of 'passing on the legacy'.
No matter how much time spent with James and Sirius though, Remus was Anna's personal favourite Marauder. Genevieve had her suspicions that it was because Remus would give her free chocolate whenever he saw her though.
Sirius hoisted her up onto his shoulders and tilted his head back to grin at her. "How are we doing, Mini Genny?" he asks.
Anna tugged on a lock of his hair and pulled a face at him. "Stop calling me that," she grumbled, her lips turning downwards.
"If the wind changes your face will stay like that," Mr Lewis hummed, raising an eyebrow in an all to familiar way, mainly because Gen did it way too often.
"Pancakes are ready!" Mrs Lewis announced from the kitchen.
"Can't we open presents first?" Anna whines while tugging Sirius overgrown hair into a ponytail so it didn't get in her face.
"And let my good cooking go cold? You would have to be mad!" Mary called back.
Mr Lewis chuckled at his wife's theatrics but rose from his armchair anyway and guided everyone into the kitchen. The three younger ones scoffed down their food ravenously, barely taking any breaks in between ramming food into their mouth.
Soon enough, everyone was sat in the living room and Mary had arranged the presents into piles. Upon creating a fifth pile of presents, Sirius looked a little baffled and Genevieve couldn't help but notice.
"I sent an owl to everyone last night before I went to sleep telling them you were here," she explained.
"You're a legend, Genny." He sent her a smile, signaling he was grateful and started unwrapping his presents, starting with hers. She had gotten him the Redbone record he was asking about not so long ago and new leather jacket that said "Marauder" on the back in all capitals.
He tackled her into a hug, squeezing her to the point where she could barely breath.
"I know I'm lovely Sirius, but in order for me to keep being lovely I need air," she gasped, wriggling out of his grip.
"I love it," Sirius told her before going back to his other presents.
Genevieve started unwrapping her own presents, opening Lily and Marlene's joint gift first. They had gotten her a new red dress that they thought would suit her and she made note to get changed into it later, Peter had gotten her a wide range of Honeydukes chocolates, James had bought her a broomstick servicing kit (which was very well needed) and Sirius had given her some new records.
For some reason she waited until last to open Remus' gift. Genevieve didn't know how, but she knew something wonderful was wrapped up inside of it.
She peeled the wrapping paper away with steady hands and from it emerged two boxes and a note on top. Gen picked up the note first, her eager eyes trailing over the words.
Dear Genevieve,
I hope you have a nice Christmas. I know this present isn't a lot but I really hope you like it. My dad put a charm on the cookies so they would stay warm though, just how you like them.
Yours,
Remus.
P.S - I made all of the gingerbread cookies by myself so I'm really sorry if they taste awful.
Upon reading the note, Genevieve found herself smiling like a fool, her dimples on display to all the others in the room.
She placed down the note and took the lid from off the top of one of the boxes. Inside there was indeed a fresh batch of gingerbread cookies, making Genevieve's smile widen even more.
She grabbed one and took a bite out of it, wondering how Remus could ever doubt his baking skills. These cookies were godly in her opinion.
Once finished, she put the lid back on top of the box and looked into the other one. Inside there were photographs. So, so many photographs. Some moved, some didn't but either way they were treasurable.
She picked up a few and inspected them, remembering every event like they had happened yesterday. They ranged from her playing quidditch, to her hugging Lily and Marlene and there were even a couple of her play fighting with the boys.
One of them stood out to her among the rest for no particular reason though. It was a moving photograph taken in the library during 4th year, and Genevieve was pulling faces at Remus while he was studying. He was trying his hardest not to crack a smile and kept his head down, but in the photo it was clear he wanted to.
Gen was right: something wonderful did come from Remus' gift.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
"I'm pretty sure your mums trying to make me fat," Sirius complained, rubbing a hand over his belly.
"And then she'll trap you in a cage to eat you," Genevieve smirked evilly but it faltered when she saw Sirius look genuinely scared.
"Come again?" he gawked.
"Hansel and Gretel? Doesn't ring any bells?" she pestered on, hoping to get at least some reaction out of him other than terror. When she realised that he wouldn't know any muggle stories she sighed and went into details out the story of Hansel and Gretel.
"And you tell this story to children?" Sirius spluttered, bug eyed.
"Yep," Genevieve replied.
"She's a cannibalistic maniac," he shrieked, waving his hands around in the air to add emphasis.
Genevieve hummed in agreement, "I've never thought of it like that."
They were sat on the old, wooden swing set in Gen's back garden, talking about whatever came to mind. It wasn't awkward, how could it be? There was something they was putting off talking about though.
Before Genevieve could open her mouth to speak, Sirius had already rushed out the words "I'm sorry."
"What for?" she asked even though she already knew.
"Kissing you," he looked away from her, "I really shouldn't have. It was stupid of me to do that."
Genevieve let out a shaky breath she didn't know she was holding in and started fiddling with her necklace. It had became quite the habit.
"I'm not mad at you. You were upset and I was there, it was just a spur of the moment kind of thing," she explained, causing him to turn back to her.
They sat in comfortable silence for a few seconds before Sirius broke it.
"Just... out of curiosity, did you feel anything from that kiss?" he teased, wiggling his eyebrows.
Genevieve shook her head, "Nothing."
"Me neither."
The pair shared a look before bursting into fits of laughter, Sirius falling off his swing making them laugh even more.
"You didn't even move!" he said between breathes, clutching his stomach with tears forming in his eyes.
"How could I? It was like kissing my brother!" she retorted, causing them to laugh even louder.
"Stop your cackling you two, we have a guest!" Mary called, walking over to them. "Came right out of our fireplace n'all."
Behind her trailed a grinning James, his hair as messy as ever and his glasses slightly crooked.
As soon as Sirius and Genevieve saw him they sprinted from the swing set and wrapped him in a group hug, all wearing identical smiles.
"What are you doing here?!" Gen asked joyfully once they had all disentangled themselves from each other.
"Can't I come and see my dear friends?" James dramatised, putting on a frown.
"No, you can't," Genevieve taunted, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
He mockingly scowled at her before turning his attention to Sirius.
"I'm coming to whisk you away, Padfoot. You're living with me from now on," James announced cheerfully, making jazz hands.
Sirius stood with his jaw hanging and eyes wide open, much resembling fish. "You what?" he asked, choking on his words because he was so stunned.
"You're coming to live with me," James repeated, now jumping up and down enthusiastically.
Sirius' open mouth turned into the widest smile he could possibly manage and he joined in with James, jumping up and down.
Genevieve watched them as they pranced around together in joy and couldn't help but laugh at their excitement. They were brothers in nearly every way possible except by blood, and now with them living together even she was giddy. In other words, she was more than happy for them.
Mary wrapped an arm around her daughters shoulder and began leading them into the house, away from the boys. "We should give them their privacy," she stated with a smile.
Genevieve nodded in response and headed towards Sirius' room to pack up all the things he had brought.
Sirius and James walked in shortly after she had finished and strangely enough Anna was wrapped around one of James' legs.
"Want to get rid of me that badly?" Sirius smirked, gesturing to bags that were sat on the bed.
"Course I do, one night of you staying here was awful enough," Gen monotoned.
"I'm awful? I could hear your snoring from down the hall!"
Genevieve held her middle finger up to him, making Anna gasp from where she was still clinging onto James' leg. "Mum said that you're not allowed to do that."
"Dad said what mum doesn't know won't hurt her," Genevieve replied, "Why are you clinging onto James' leg like you married it?"
"I'm not married to James leg, I'm just lazy so he carried me by foot," Anna scoffed, turning her nose up at the thought of marrying someone's leg.
"What's wrong with my leg?" James asked, clearly offended.
Anna didn't answer him, she just gave him a pointed look to which James nodded in acceptance.
"When are you two going?"
James looked at his watch and answered, "Around now."
They all trailed downstairs and into the living room where the fireplace was.
Mary was the first to give Sirius and James a hug, saying they were welcome any time. Thomas hugged them both as well, saying something along the same lines as his wife.
Anna gave them extremely long hugs and thanked them for giving her more pranking advice before letting them go.
Genevieve brought both the boys into a hug last, smiling during the embrace.
"I'm really happy for you both," she murmured to them both.
"You should be more scared then happy, this means more mischief," James cackled lowly, making Genevieve's eyes widen in realisation.
"You two should get going before Euphemia has a panic attack," she chuckled, pulling away from the hug.
The two boys nodded and grabbed some floo powder that was in a pot above the fireplace.
"Goodbye Lovely Lewis'," James yelled chivalrously, earning a wave back from everyone.
"Potter Mansion," They both shouted at the same time before being engulfed by vibrant green flames.