James' gift to Lily turned out to not actually be that bad. The first part was terrible: a plush love heart wearing a Santa hat with a moving face that spat out different cheesy Christmas related pickup lines every time you touched it.
"Aww, James that's so...sweet?" Abbey said, slightly confused.
Lily on the other hand was not amused. "Really, Potter? Why am I not surprised?"
The second part however, was much more up her alley.
"This is just going to explode or something when I open it, isn't it?" Lily asked, holding up the small box she had found inside the larger one.
It turned out to contain a small silver bracelet with a little lily pad shaped charm. She tried her hardest to keep back a smile. "Oh uh, thank you James."
And much to James' delight, she even put it on.
The rest of the gift giving then ensued. Everything from muggle trinkets to Quidditch guides and equipment – including a new pair of gloves for Grace who had somehow managed to loose both of hers – and plenty of books, socks, chocolate and other confectionary to go around.
Lily had given both Remus and Grace a pair of Sound Proof Earbuds that were charmed to not let any noise get through whatsoever, for them to "block the other three out whilst you're studying for your O.W.L.s".
On top of all of the chocolate, Grace had given Remus a small, fabric book mark depicting the moon behind some leafless trees. Being a magical book mark, however, it changed with the phases of the actual moon, providing an easy yet discreet method of checking how far away the next full moon was.
Ely had given Sirius a muggle encyclopaedia of motorbikes, an area that he was beginning to develop a bit of an interest in. He wasted no time in picking out his favourite one and announcing it to everyone.
Sirius' gift to Ely on the other hand was a little bit more extravagant. It came in a plain box with a few small misshapen holes cut in the top, although it was too dark inside to see anything through them. The whole room snapped their heads around when they heard Ely gasp.
"What? What is it?" Sam asked. "Is that a good gasp or-"
Ely reached inside the box and pulled out a tiny, sleeping kitten with sparkling black fur, as if the night sky covered its skin.
There was a chorus of "aww's" around the room.
"You got me a cat? Not even that, you-you got me a space cat?" Ely beamed, having wanted a cat since his early Hogwarts years. "That would've cost you so-"
"You're welcome. And don't worry about it, my aunt's given me money, the one that got disowned too, and you know my family. They're practically swimming in it."
The kitten was soon dubbed Nebula on account of the beautiful patterns on her fur and passed around the room for everyone to have a look at.
Once the gifting frenzy was over and they had all helped to clean up the mess they'd made, they moved into the living room for lunch where the Potters had put together an absolute feast. Fleamont Potter's potion making skills made him an excellent chef.
They spent the rest of the afternoon chatting, messing around with their new items and even playing a modified version of Quidditch in the backyard before setting up a small fire for them to all sit around as it began to get dark.
Grace and Remus were cuddled up beside each other with one of the Potters' old blankets wrapped around their shoulders, their faces lit up by the fire in front of them. They were playing truth or dare as a group, which never ended well.
"Sirius, truth or dare?"
"Dare."
"Okay, uh..." Abbey trailed off, thinking. "Go inside, stand in front of James' parents and without saying anything, do the Can-Can."
"The what?" James repeated.
"It's a muggle dance," Ely explained.
"I think I know it," Sirius said. "The one with the legs, yeah?"
They all huddled around the back door as Sirius went inside, listening as Fleamont and Euphemia greeted him. They then heard Fleamont's laugh rumble through the house, accompanied by a confused "That was... wonderful, Sirius," from Euphemia, who didn't want to offend the boy.
The others could barely contain their laughter as Sirius came running out of the house.
Next up was Sam, who had to tell everyone the first embarrassing story that he could think of which involved an interaction between him and his slightly less fancy and prejudiced parents and the rest of their family about a dress code misunderstanding.
Whilst he spoke, Remus decided to take it as an opportunity to go to the bathroom. Once he left, James immediately came over and sat next to her in his place.
"Merlin's beard, I thought he'd never leave," James whispered. "So Sirius, Peter and I have come up with a plan."
"No. Whatever it is, no," Grace said immediately. She had heard enough of their 'plans' to know that nothing good can come out of them.
"Come on, it's a way for you to tell Remus that you like him. So what's going to happen is you're going to get asked truth or dare, right? And then-"
"James, no, I've already-" Grace began, whispering over the top of him.
"And then I'll say 'Grace, do you by any chance happen to like anyone?' extremely nonchalantly and you'll turn to him and say 'Why yes, you, Remus-"
"James! That is a terrible idea! And I don't sound like that. Besides this doesn't even matter because I've literally already told-"
"And then we'll get out the rose petals and-"
"Rose petals!?"
"Yeah, we have a container of buttons to transfigure into petals."
"Oh my- look, James, I've already told him."
"And then- oh, you have?"
"Yeah, and it went well."
"You actually-" James began, turning to the group and announcing "She told him!"
Upon hearing the news, Peter immediately leapt up and began singing "Grace and Remus, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes-"
"So they know, I'm assuming," Remus said as he sat back down next to her. Grace hummed a response, leaning her head against his shoulder, watching as Peter danced around the fire and the others cheered him on.
"Wait, so are you two actually...?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Uh, yeah," Remus replied, glancing down at Grace. "Whatever that means."
"See? I told you so!" Lily cried, hitting Sam lightly on the arm.
"I thought they were just really good friends, I don't know," Sam said, trying to defend himself. "I suck at reading people."
"They've been giving each other heart eyes for the past two years! How could you miss that?!"
"Really?" Grace asked, embarrassed as her cheeks grew red.
"I suck at noticing things like that, okay?" Sam replied, glancing over at Abbey. "I didn't even notice..."
Grace smiled, remembering the conversation they had had in the owlery.
The group fell silent for a moment, the only noises being the crackling fire and the voices of Euphemia and Fleamont drifting out from inside.
One of them must have accidentally touched James' heart shaped cushion gift because it's smooth female voice could be heard saying "I must be a snowflake, because I've fallen for you" accompanied by a shrill scream.
"Merlin's beard, what is that monstrosity!?"
All nine of them broke out laughing.
---
Chapter 50 already? Dayum
Also thank you all so much for your patience with my lack of updating. Here have a photo of Sirius (my pup) curled up into a ball in the bed that he's chewed holes in:
- Grace