by xNiche



When the first snowflake fell and the next morning the entire landscape around Hogwarts was wrapped in powdered sugar, Christmas couldn't be too far away. It was always December. Over the past few days, the gamekeeper Hagrid has been seen bringing huge fir trees from the grounds into the castle, where they were set up in the Great Hall and adorned by Professor Flitwick, the little magic teacher. In general, Hogwarts seemed to have become more Christmassy overnight, because the hallways were also decorated with fir and mistletoe branches and other Christmas decorations. The fact that especially the female students were near the green branches decorated with red bows with the white berries was not surprising at this time of year, because who would not like to catch a kiss from the swarm? The male students therefore increasingly avoided areas where too many girls cavorted in one place, whereby not everyone was successful and a kiss was stolen from one or the other.
The sun shone happily down on the white splendor that distinguished this day from the previous rather dreary autumn days. Actually it would have been one of those Saturdays on which the opinions of the students split, because some wanted to sit in their cozy bed or in front of the warm fireplace, while the others immediately ran outside and wanted to have a snowball fight. But the whole castle already seemed to be on its feet, even though the hour hadn't even struck nine. This might be due to the fact that there was another long-awaited trip to the little wizarding village of Hogsmeade, not far from the school. Which student was not happy to spend his long-saved pocket money in the honey pot, at Zonkos or one of the numerous other magical shops? Especially since this was the last outing before Christmas, most of them wanted to use this day to get gifts for friends and family. If otherwise many students decided not to go to Hogsmeade at all or only for a very short time, today certainly ninety percent, if not even more, of the students from the third grade onwards were on their way to there.

"James! Peter! Remuuuuuuus!" One could hear the screaming from afar, which was accompanied by quick steps on the stairs to the dormitories.
James opened his eyes, blinked in confusion at the glaring sunlight that came in through the dormitory windows, while Peter just pulled the covers over his head, gave a low grumble and tried to go back to sleep, after all it was Saturday, whereas Remus turned to the door, as he was already up and getting dressed when the wooden door of her dormitory collided with the stone wall next to her, as someone had entered the room rather stormily.
"People! Have you already looked out of the window? Isn't it great?", The boy immediately blabbered and stepped over to a window to open it, pulled on Peter's ceiling so that he could finally get up and went to the other windows to open it as well.
"Good morning, Sirius," Remus said quietly as he closed his school robe and Sirius was less interrupted by his torrent of talk about the freshly fallen snow and today's trip to Hogsmeade. Peter just let out another grumble as Sirius tried to pull the blanket off him and finally managed to do it.
"What time is it?" Came from James, who had sat up tired and fished for the glasses on his bedside table, which he immediately placed on his nose."Almost half past eight!", Sirius replied cheerfully and quickly tossed clothes from his closet over the head of his best friend.
"It's Saturday," came mumbling from the direction in which Peter's bed was, whereupon you could only hear a loud rum and a loud groan from the boy.
"It's snowing and today is Hogsmead time!", Sirius replied and also threw Peter, who was just slowly getting up from the floor, clothes from his closet.
In the meantime, Remus had preferred to sit on his bed in silence and watch the spectacle grinning. "Sirius is afraid that all the good things will be gone if you don't hurry," he stated and slowly got up from his bed again. "I bet all the coffee is gone by the time you're downstairs."
As if on command, all you could hear was the door of the sheep-room opening and closing. Quick steps on the stairs and outraged shouts from classmates told them exactly when James had passed the stairs, reached the common room and finally ran out of the portrait hole. Remus and Sirius exchanged meaningful looks while Peter had already started to hide in his bed again.

An unpleasant treatment by Peter and a few cups of coffee for James later, the four teenagers were finally on their way to Hogsmeade. If it had been up to Sirius, they would have been there an hour ago, but by then James and Peter had been snoring in their beds and Remus had only just started to get up. But at least half of the gang had been allowed to go into the bathroom beforehand, because Sirius would have lynched James and Peter had they left later.
A popular destination for many Hogwarts students was the Honey Pot candy store, so it was not surprising that the store was already packed when the four of them got there.
Sirius sighed theatrically. "I told you we should have started earlier! Woe to me now, I can't get any syrup candies!" James laughed and Remus just rolled his eyes a little annoyed, but the two immediately followed Sirius through the door, Peter behind them, his hands deep in his pockets.
It was so warm and stuffy inside the shop that there were clearly too many people here that all four of them loosened their scarves to get a better breath. Actually, they were regular customers and were very familiar with the range, but getting to any of the shelves seemed hopeless. But they weren't the famous and notorious marauders if they just gave up and left immediately, after all, they wanted to replenish their dormitory candy supply.
Peter was the first to check out, but he didn't buy that much either. Perhaps it was, among other things, that he didn't get that much pocket money and preferred to buy something else instead of just spending everything on sweets. In contrast to Sirius, who stood next to Remus at the cash register and bought the place half empty, as it looked.
"Are you sure you want to buy all of this?" Remus asked as he put the money for his chocolate bars on the counter. "Don't you want to buy anything else?"
"Yes and no, Remus," the black-haired replied with a satisfied grin and left almost all of his pocket money in the shop. Outside they met James, who stepped out the door shortly after them, also with a large bag in hand, grinning. "For our Christmas party?" He asked, nudging Sirius with the shoulder, knowing that Sirius was very reluctant to share his candy with anyone other than his stomach.He only raised his eyebrows meaningfully.
The boys strolled slowly down the snow-covered street until the bookstore came within sight. "I'd like to stop by the bookstore for a moment," Remus said, halfway going.
"Okay, Remus, then I'll make a detour to the Quidditch shop," whistled James and not a moment later had disappeared into the named shop, because it was right next to the bookstore.
Peter and Sirius hesitated a moment, looking back and forth between the two shops. Sirius just shrugged and of course followed James into the Quidditch supply store. Even if Quidditch didn't interest him as much as James, it was always better than going to the bookstore with Remus. What was he supposed to do there? View books? So no.
Peter followed the two of them in silence, but kept closer to James inside, so that he might be able to help him choose something.
In contrast, Sirius wandered around the shop by himself, looked at the brooms and accessories that were available here. Rather uninterested. But when he saw something familiar out of the corner of his eye, he jerked his head and peered through one of the shelves. Was it any surprise that his little brother was in this shop? Probably not, after all, he was the new seeker on his house's Quidditch team.
Hiding in silence behind a few books about Quidditch, the older Black watched his brother look at something, pick it up and put it down again. And as fast as he had come, Regulus was gone again.
Creeping cautiously from behind the books and with a rather curious look, Sirius approached the place where his brother had just stood and examined something that apparently interested him. Why didn't he buy it? Didn't he have any money or was it because of her parents?
The Gryffindor was looking a little thoughtfully at the broom care kit that his brother had put back when suddenly a voice rang out next to him.
"How long have you been interested in brooms? Or is that for James?" Remus asked, raising an eyebrow at the Black and examining the broom care kit in his hands.
Sirius winced noticeably and threw the set half in the air, somehow caught it again and gave Remus a more than evil look. "Remus! What are you sneaking up on?" He yelped indignantly and put the set back where he'd taken it from. "Um, no, I-"
"Ahh, there you are!", James called from the other end of the corridor to the two of them and reached them in a few steps, followed by Peter. "Oh, great! I've been looking for that!" He fished up the broom care set, because Remus and Sirius were standing something in the way, and held it out to Peter. "What do you think Peter? Only the best of the best for the house team seeker," he said with a grin and was halfway to the till before he turned back to the others. “Are you coming or do you want to put down roots there?” With these words the Potter walked on to pay for his new broom care kit and some other utensils that he had given Peter earlier.

"So? What nice books did you buy this time?" Asked Peter as they left the Quidditch supply store and made their way to Zonko's joke shop.
Remus turned his gaze to his blonde friend next to him, unable to suppress a grin. "This is a surprise," was the curt reply,