Author's Note: Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

Dedication: To Mama Bird!

Warnings: Canon character deaths

Home For Christmas

I remember a Christmas long ago

I remember hanging mistletoe

I remember love, lights of red and blue

How I remember you

Every time it's Christmas Eve

Something happens inside

Seems like the love we had

Never, never died

-A Christmas Long Ago, The Echelons

"Harry," Remus said, poking his head into the living room, where he'd been playing chess with Ron. It would be more accurate to say that he'd been getting horribly beaten at chess by Ron, but it was Christmas so Harry had resolved not to complain about it.

"Can I borrow you a moment?" Remus asked.

"Yeah," Harry said, pushing himself off the floor and getting up.

Remus nodded and didn't say much as he led Harry to another one of Grimmauld Place's many rooms.

"Sirius and I weren't sure what to get you for Christmas," Remus said.

"I really loved those books you got me—I read a few pages after lunch," Harry said.

"We were going to give you those anyways," Remus said, waving his hand. "Your mother, she used to say that the best Christmas presents should feed the mind and the heart. She and James were both excellent gift givers, and Sirius and I were wondering how in the world we could possibly replicate that."

Harry's stomach tightened. Remus held open the door to one of the empty studies that nobody used. Inside, Harry saw something he'd never have expected to see in a place as pretentious and cold as Grimmauld Place: a television, hooked to a VCR player.

"That doesn't belong here," Harry said immediately.

Sirius, who'd been fiddling with the wires, laughed.

"No, not at all," he agreed with a grin. "Arthur helped us locate the appropriate machine and set it up. You should have heard my mother's portrait when she saw us bring it in…"

"Yes, she was particularly verbose that day," Remus said. "Invented a few new words, I think."

"She was always a very talented woman," Sirius said. He popped a cassette in the VCR machine and the machine hummed to life. He took a few steps back from the machine and sat on the floor, leaning back and stretching his legs.

"What did you bring it in for?" Harry asked.

"Your Christmas present," Remus said. "You see, your grandfather's actually the one who gave James what he described as the best Christmas present of his life: this enormous Muggle video camera."

"Oh wow," Harry said. "And… wait… that tape you just put in…"

"As it turns out, we found a few of the tapes tucked away for safekeeping in the Black family Gringotts safe," Sirius said with a smile. He patted the spot next to him. "Come watch…"

Harry didn't know what to say. Remus patted his shoulder which prompted Harry to join Sirius. Remus pushed the play button on the machine before joining them, and Harry's heart jumped in his throat as the screen came to life. Grainy as the image was and clumsy as the camerawork was, the scene caught his eye.

The living room was absolutely littered with wrapping paper, tissue paper, and pieces of ribbon. Cups of tea had been precariously left on the floor. Stray socks and bundled blankets also gave signs of a house well lived-in. A fire crackled and a tree glowed in the background, but Harry's eyes immediately went to the woman sitting on the floor. She was wearing a pair of flannel men's pajama pants and a dark green sweater, her hair tumbling loose down her shoulders though she had a branch of holly tucked behind her ear. She was laughing as she attempted to put a present bow on the baby that a younger, tanner, healthier-looking Sirius was holding. The baby's windmilling arms kept getting in her way.

"Harry, let Mum have a go at it," a voice off-camera said. "You'll look so handsome…"

"He already looks so handsome Prongs, look at these Christmas pajamas and these tiny, tiny shoes," Sirius said.

"That he does," Lily said, putting the bow down to scoop up the baby—who immediately proceeded to grab a fistful of her hair. It was hard for Harry to associate that green-eyed baby with himself, even if it was obviously him. More than the missing lightning scar, the baby looked… well, Harry had trouble picturing himself in this kind of environment, that was all.

"Thank goodness you have uncles with such fashionable taste…" Lily said before blowing a raspberry on the baby's cheek. He laughed profusely.

The camera swung wildly to focus on someone curled on the couch with a book and a blanket thrown over their shoulders. It took Harry a second to realize that this much younger-looking man with darker, chestnut hair and fewer scars was Remus.

"Moony, were the reindeer pajamas your doing?" James asked.

"Naturally. I pick out all his best outfits," Remus said.

"I take offense to that!" Sirius called just as Lily laughed. Her laughter was light and airy, and if Harry hadn't been in quite this state of shock he reckoned that it would be contagious. Next to him, he saw Remus crack a smile and Sirius chuckled.

There was the sound of babbling and the camera turned back to focus on the baby, who was now ripping apart wrapping paper. When he tried to eat a piece, Lily swiftly intervened and lifted him up in the air. The baby giggled as she made faces at him.

"Let's try not to eat wrapping paper on your first Christmas, sweet bean," Lily said. "Yes… Yes, let's try not to do that…"

"You have to save some fun for all the Christmases left to come," James said. Lily gave the cameraman a look.

"Shall I boil another kettle?" Remus asked offscreen.

"Yes please," Lily said turning back. As she looked away the baby grabbed her hair again and giggled with pride.

"See, this is why I keep saying he'll be a Seeker," James said.

"You said he'd be a Beater, first," Sirius said.

"That's because he wasn't born yet—all we knew about him was how much he kicked," James explained. "I'm allowed to make more educated guess as new information trickles in."

"Right, of course," Lily said. "And if he doesn't play Quidditch?"

"What do you mean?" James asked.

Lily smiled at him and gently eased the baby's grip on her hair, kissing his hand once he'd let go.

"Do you want to wave hi to the camera?" Lily asked the baby, repositioning him on her lap. "Yeah? Can we wave to the camera and say Happy Christmas?"

"Now that would be a great present, though perhaps ambitious," James said. "Harry, can I get a wave? Can you wave for me, little mate?"

Lily wrapped a hand around the baby's arm gently and waved it back and forth.

"Say hi daddy," she said. "And happy first Christmas…"

Somewhere in the house, a phone rang.

"Oh no, that must be my sister," Lily winced. "James, can you take the baby..?"

"Yes!" James said, putting the camera down but forgetting to turn it off. Harry saw his dad walk on screen and pick him up just as Lily ran off. James settled back down on the living room floor, grabbing a stuffed lion from a nearby gift pile and offering it to the baby in his arms. When he shook it, it rattled and James ooohed and aaahed.

"Wormtail's picking up Chinese food on his way here, yes?" Sirius asked. "I'm starved and I think we ate all the gingerbread."

"You could eat those dog biscuits I got you," James offered.

"Bring those out again and I'll throw them up on your pillow," Sirius said.

"Don't be rude, I got you the good stuff. Bacon and cheese flavoured."

"Hear that, Padfoot? Bacon and cheese," Remus said, reappearing onscreen with multiple cups of tea to distribute. He sat on the floor with them and blew on the baby's forehead, profoundly startling the little boy and sending his hair flying.

Sirius humphed and scooted backwards before transforming into the big black dog—the camera glitched for a second, as if struggling to capture the magic.

The baby giggled in delight and reached out wildly. He was interrupted by the dog licking his cheeks, which sent him into another fit of giggles. The dog curled up and settled down, at which point James leaned the baby against him. Happily, he chewed on his lion and babbled. While he was busy, James put the present bow on his head.

"Lily!" James called. "Lily, hang up on Petunia, we succeeded!"

At that point the film glitched and moved on to the next scene it had captured; a colourful kitchen with mismatched chairs and a cast of familiar characters fumbling around, making what appeared to be pancakes as the radio played. It was tuned in to a Muggle radio station, from what tunes Harry could recognize. Then the first few, incredibly recognizable, bars from Uptown Girl began playing and Lily looked away from her spot whisking pancake batter, a smile on her face.

"James!" she cried into the house. "James!"

There was the thundering sound of footsteps for the moment and then James appeared in sweatpants, bare-chested, with a toothbrush sticking out of his mouth just in time to grab Lily's hands and have her dancing as Billy Joel began singing.

At that point, Remus paused the film. Harry wanted to tell him not to; to keep it going. He wanted to see more.

But he held his peace. Remus turned back to look at Harry with a smile on his face whose emotions Harry couldn't quite tease out. There was some sadness to it, perhaps some nostalgia. Then again, that was a kind of sadness too.

Sirius had turned to look to Harry as well, and he had quite a similar look.

"I…" Harry said. He cleared his throat. He could tell they were waiting for a reaction from him but couldn't quite sort out his own tumbling mess of feelings. "That's the first time I hear his voice. And my mum's, other than when Dementors are around."

Remus nodded. Sirius took a deep breath before ruffling Harry's hair—like they'd all been messing with it in the video.

"Sometimes I can't believe the time that's passed between then and now," Sirius said. "Between your first Christmas and the Christmas we're spending together now, which may as well be our first together."

Harry nodded. "Do you think they'd be happy? With how I turned out? Like, when my parents were seeing me as a baby like that and I had a whole life ahead of me, do you think they would have been happy if I'd ended up like this?"

"Yes," Sirius said immediately. "They would have been so proud and so upset to have missed it."

Harry nodded again.

"This is the best Christmas present anyone's ever gotten me," Harry told the pair of them.

"There's more footage," Remus said, nodding his head towards a cardboard box by the television. "We'll let you watch the other ones alone, at your own pace, but we wanted to see the Christmas one as well."

Harry imagined that it must have been like going home for the holidays.

"Actually, can you stay?" Harry asked when he saw the two other men move to get up.

"Of course," Sirius said. "Did you want to keep watching?"

Harry nodded.

"Why did you pause this one?" Harry asked, pointing to the frozen image of his dancing parents on the screen. "Does anything else happen?"

"Oh, they probably just dance around and get in the way while Lupin's trying to cook," Sirius said.

"I want to finish watching that," Harry said.

"Of course," Remus said. "I'll unpause it."

"And can we turn off the lights?" Harry asked. "Like when you're watching a movie?"

"Yes," Sirius said, lowering the lights with a wave of his wand.

They settled back in and kept watching, going home for Christmas a little bit more with every video and peel of laughter it brought.

Stacked with: MC4A; Winter Bingo; Hogwarts

Individual Challenge(s): Gryffindor MC (x3); Marauders Tales; Bow Before the Blacks; Winter Wonderland; Seeds; Minerva's Migraine; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Family); Themes & Things B (Surprise); Ethnic & Present; Neurodivergent; True Colours; Rian-Russo Inversion; Real Family; In a Flash

Word Count: 2014

Winter Bingo

Space (Prompt): 3E (Gift)