Study Date | James Potter

Chapter 8 - "Aren't You Meant To Get Your Girlfriend Jewellery?"

Rose woke up, not for the first time, in the Marauders' dormitory. She could tell though that today, something was different...

She blinked a few times, before her eyes suddenly snapped open, face lighting up. She opened her mouth to shout, but then thought of a better idea: none of the boys had woken up yet so she crept over to James, (who hung half off of his bed,) tapped her wand on her throat, whispering a spell, then bent down until her mouth was by his ear. Finally, with a huge grin, she let her excitement loose.

"IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!"

James yelled and fell onto the floor at her shout, as did Peter, who had been in a similar position. Sirius and Remus were also shocked awake at her magically magnified voice, but luckily for them, they were respectively on the floor already, and securely in bed.

Remus yawned and rubbed his eyes, then looked at his watch. "Merlin Rose. It's five in the morning!"

"EXACTLY!" Rose shouted again, this time by accident. She tapped her wand to her throat again and ended the spell, before she jumped up from where she'd been crouching by James. "Time for presents!"

"Well actually, we tend to do presents after dinner." Said James, as he got to his feet behind her. He laughed at the look on her face - one of complete and utter shock - as she whipped round to look at him.

Rose opened her mouth but no sound came out. She couldn't even contemplate an existence where she had to wait all day to open her Christmas presents.

"It's true." Chimed in Sirius, the picture of innocence. "The cranky bastard makes us wait." He nodded over at Remus, who was well known for not being a morning person.

Rose now turned to him. Barely awake, the boy glared at his friends. "Really, guys?"

Sirius and James smirked, Peter staying conspicuously silent, and as Rose looked from one to the other, her eyes narrowed. The smirks on their faces soon faded and were replaced by looks of fear as she raised her wand and whispered one word:

"Run."

They certainly did.

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A few hours later, they were finally unwrapping presents in the Gryffindor common room. Of course the boys had been joking when they had tried to pretend they waited till after dinner - Sirius and James had almost as little patience as Rose did - but they all (Rose begrudgingly) agreed on having breakfast first, along with copious amounts of coffee in Remus's case, to help them properly wake up before they exchanged gifts.

Although Rose's spirits had picked up somewhat since the beginning of the month, she still felt an ever-present loneliness despite the Marauders' company. It was as if there was a hole inside her, that could only be filled by Tina and Matthew's friendship. Unfortunately, they still wouldn't speak to her, and so the gifts that she'd bought for them lay carefully wrapped at the bottom of her trunk.

Her presents for the Marauders, however, she had taken to the Gryffindor common room and slipped beneath the tree there, before they had gone up to the dormitory on Christmas Eve.

For Peter, she had bought some sherbert saucers - his favourite muggle sweets, along with a new wizard chess set, since his old one had multiple pieces missing.

For Sirius, Rose had got some Queen and Abba records. She had noticed that he'd enjoyed the music when she had introduced him and James to it, and she also bought him and James both broom servicing kits.

Remus was confused by his present at first, when he unwrapped the paper to reveal a relatively heavy, medium sized bag full of what felt like small pebbles.