Nem (Host)

Once the pudding was extinguished, served, and eaten, crackers pulled and terrible jokes read out, the party adjourned to the living room.

Mrs. Potter, Philomena, and Andromeda went upstairs to change into their party dresses.

Mr. Potter smoked his pipe, and Ted settled Dora down for a nap.

The boys settled into a game of snap, before Darius and Mr. Potter wrangled everyone into a round of charades.

Remus had never played charades before, let alone magical charades, which involved a lot of red and gold sparks, though that may just have been high spirits.

In the evening, more guests began to arrive, and the house was soon full of music, laughter, and pleasant chatter.

Andromeda and Sirius appointed themselves DJs, rifling through their combined record collections and alternating blasting Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody and I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day by Wizard.

And just listen to it.

Even Philomena forgot her melancholy for a few hours, getting up and moving to the music along with James, who was just about the same height as her and had no clue how to dance, but was pretty chuffed when she took his hand and showed him how to twist.

Quite sure he would not be missed, Remus slipped between the throngs of people in search of Darius.

There must have been a hundred witches and wizards in attendance, some of them teachers at Hogwarts, who Remus did everything to avoid.

He heard at least three people murmur that Dumbledore was there somewhere.

They're both blacks, you know, he heard one witch whispering to her friend as they watched Andromeda and Sirius giggling hysterically by the record player.

She's run off and had a baby with that Tonks chap, and the boy, well, he was the heir, but I've heard Orion is planning to contest it as soon as their younger boy is of age.

Quite the little Hellraiser from what I've heard.

He can't be any worse than Orion was.

I went to school with him.

Nasty, vicious kid.

Sirius is a ray of sunshine compared to Orion.

And don't get me started on that bitch Walpurga.