the honorary marauder | james potter

twenty five

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"that's james' owl."

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the generic and cheesy christmas music rang through the house that christmas afternoon as alana and her dad, sam, started the process of making their christmas dinner.

sam twirled alana around in the kitchen when he passed her, both singing the christmas songs they swore were cringe but they both secretly loved them. they both wore christmas jumpers, alana wore a pair of plastic antlers on her head as a headband while her dad wore a santa hat.

alana was glad that it was just the two of them, she never spoke to her distant family so it would just be awkward with them here anyway. especially her mum's side of the family.

alana's mum, ruby, wasn't necessarily the best mum. before alana's letter from hogwarts, ruby was mediocre, she wasn't exactly the maternal type which was fine because sam took care of alana like any parent should and honestly, he made up for her mum's absence. despite the fact the three lived together, alana counted ruby as an absent parent.

it all took a turn for the worst when alana received a peculiar letter that sam was sure was some sort of weird prank. however, when it was proven right, alana did have an element of magic running through her veins, ruby seemed even more repulsed by her daughter and disgusted that her husband was ecstatic about the news that ruby up and left that very day.

in a matter of minutes, alana's mum was both emotionally and physically, an absentee parent.

alana did see her mother again, she lived just thirty minutes away, with a new man. no children and alana was positive that wouldn't be in the cards for her as cold as ice mum. alana wasn't sure why her dad wanted her to make an effort with her mum, given ruby hadn't with alana since she was born. the only effort her mum had made with her was pushing her out into the world and that was just about it.

alana had popped in to see her mum only two times.

alana visited the summer after first year when she was twelve, the winter break during fifth year when she was fifteen. she spoke about the four friends she'd made. ruby didn't understand why she only hung out with boys, her mum insisted she just wanted male attention. after her misogynistic comment, alana kicked the vase on the coffee table over then walked out and she vowed to never see her mum again.

alana's dad agreed and gave ruby a phone call as to never speak to his daughter like that ever again. she didn't. well, maybe she spoke about her but alana wasn't there to listen and she didn't care all that much anyway. she had her dad, and that's all she'd ever need.

"well, i'm stuffed," said alana as she put her hands on her stomach, lazily sitting on the sofa as it's a wonderful life was playing on the television.

"we did good with the cooking, didn't we?" asked sam with a victorious smile and offered alana a high five which she lazily complied to.

"we did," agreed alana, "i actually can't breathe."

alana undid the top button of her jeans and gave an over-the-top sigh of relief as now her stomach had some leeway.

"what is that?" questioned sam as he peered at the window.

"that's james' owl," concluded alana who shot straight up from the sofa and over to the window to open it and allow the owl access to the house.

"let me read it first," said sam who attempted to get up but the christmas dinner he just devoured prevented him from doing so.

"if you can get it," laughed alana, she turned to the owl that was perched on the arm of the sofa and she scratched the top of his head lovingly, "you just wait there."

alana threw herself on her bed and hurriedly opened the envelope and pulled the parchment out.

hi lana

i hope you've had a good christmas and i hope you liked the book i got you.

sirius says merry christmas, he's a little busy because he's trying to figure out what kind of plant peter got him. which reminds me, it's a fake one and we want to see how long it'll take him to realise so don't say anything when we get back to hogwarts.

i miss you a lot, i always do but this year it feels like there's something missing because you're not here.

anyway, i can't wait to see you when we get back and i need to talk to you about something important. it's been bugging me for a while now and i just want to tell you.

mum and dad say merry christmas too!

tell sam i said merry christmas and i'll get round to learning about football soon so we can watch a game during summer.

again, merry christmas, lana.

love from james xx

alana was grinning that an idiot, as reread the letter, making sure it was real. he really said he wanted to talk to her, it must be something good because he seemed happy. you know when you read someone's letter and you can tell they're smiling as they wrote it? she wondered if james could tell she was smiling as she wrote a reply.

hi james!

i've had a good christmas so far and i hope you have too. dad is currently stuck on the sofa because he ate so much and something tells me fleamont will be as well.

don't worry, i won't spill to sirius and it's an amazing prank on peter's part. i wager he won't notice until his 19th birthday when he finally realises it hasn't died yet.

dad and i miss you too, he said to send you his best wishes.

i'm excited to see you when we get back to hogwarts in the new year and the other boys too, obviously.

also, whatever you want to tell me, you can. sorry i wasn't up for talking at the dance, i was just upset after dylan and i's fight. i feel a lot better now and we can talk when we get back about whatever it is that's on your mind.

all my love
lana xx

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a/n

this is kind of short but yeah. hope you enjoyed anyway x