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On the morning of Christmas Day Harry awoke around eight. He was surprised to see a bunch of Christmas presents at the foot of his bed. It looked like all his classmates and his friendly acquaintances had all given him a little present. He had done the same. For those he wasn't that close to he had got some sweets. For the boys mostly a box with five chocolate frogs and for the girls he got a small box of Honeydukes' finest filled chocolate. For those closer to him, like Rick, Terry, Tony, Lisa, Sylveena, Neville, Hermione, Miranda, Susan and Hannah, he had got a bit more personal presents. He also had sent a bigger box of Honeydukes chocolate to Remus Lupin, having heard that he was a chocoholic from Sirius and he had got Sirius and Hagrid presents. He was busy opening his presents from his acquaintances first, completely awed that he had got so many presents. He never had any proper Christmas presents before.

He got some chocolate frogs, some liquorice wands; some Bertie Bott's every flavour beans, and some self-made biscuits in his collection. The biscuits were really good when he tried one. He looked at the card, the Patil twins had sent them. Just when he was about to open the bigger presents, it knocked at the door.

"Come in." Harry called, assuming that it was probably Sirius. He had said he would come by this morning.

"Hey, Harry. Merry Christmas." Sirius cried happily.

"Merry Christmas, Sirius." Harry replied cheerily.

"I see you already started unpacking your presents. What did you get so far? This looks like a really good haul." Sirius commented.

"Yes. Well until now I only unwrapped the small tokens. You know from people who I'm friendly with, but not close to. I also sent quite a few of those out. Mostly chocolate frogs for the boys and filled chocolate for the girls." Harry answered.

"Nice, it never hurts to be on good terms with people and if a bit of chocolate lets them know you have at least thought of them, all the better." Sirius said. "Come on; let's see what's in the bigger ones."

Sirius seemed as excited as Harry was. Harry nodded and unwrapped the next package. It was a hand-carved wooden flute from Hagrid. Harry tested blowing into it and it sounded like and owl. Remembering an easy Christmas song, he played it on the flute, thinking amused what Hedwig would think about it.

"Nice, I didn't know you could play flute." Sirius said.

"We all had to learn playing flute in music class when I was six. I liked it as it was something nobody minded if I did it well, because they wanted to spare their ears from intentional torture." Harry said. "Sadly I couldn't learn another instrument. That would have required lessons and for those I didn't have the money."

"Do you still want to learn it?" Sirius asked.

"Perhaps later. At the moment with Quidditch and my studies taking so much time, I don't know when I would get it between. Perhaps during the summer. I like music." Harry said.

Sirius nodded. Harry continued to unpack his presents. Hermione had given him a book on famous chasers, Miranda a leather-bound notebook with a fountain pen, Neville a subscription on a potions magazine for a year. From Susan and Hannah he got a combined present of new chaser gloves, Terry and Anthony had also got him a combined present of a broom service kit. Rick had sent an assortment of sweets he knew Harry liked best and Sylveena and Lisa each sent a big box of different homemade biscuits.

Then Harry continued with the biggest presents. He found a three part set of books on the Potter family history from Remus Lupin. He had wanted for some time to find out more about his family so this was a fantastic present. The next one was from Sirius and contained a full set of protective Quidditch gear.

"Thank you, Sirius." Harry said happily.

"You're welcome. I'm glad you like it." Sirius answered.

Now only one present was left. Harry took it and unwrapped it. Inside he found a shimmering piece of cloth.

"I don't believe it, James' invisibility cloak." Sirius exclaimed.

"An invisibility cloak? And it belonged to Dad?" Harry asked shocked.

"Yes. I had wondered where it had gone. Was there a card or something?" Sirius asked.

Harry looked for it. Finally he found it inside the folded cloak.

"Your father left this in my possession. I thought it was about time that it was returned to you, use it well." Harry read out and held the card out to Sirius.

"That's Professor Dumbledore's writing. Curious that James would have lent the cloak to Dumbledore. Especially as he was in hiding." Sirius pondered. "Well, let me tell you, there is as good as nothing in Hogwarts that is out of your reach with this cloak being in your hands. I know we used it quite often to get a midnight snack from the kitchen when we felt like it." Sirius informed Harry.

"Or set up pranks." Harry teased.

"That as well." Sirius confirmed proudly.

"By the way, how did you find the kitchen and how did you get in? I thought that the teachers wouldn't give up that knowledge." Harry asked.

"Ah, what a true marauder is, doesn't know the restriction of rules that are only meant to find ways around them. We wanted to know as much as we could about the castle and so we explored quite a bit. Finding the kitchens was a bit of a coincidence when it happened. We wondered why a still-life type of portrait was hanging in a part of the lower floors, so we tested if there were hidden mechanisms. When Peter sneezed, his hand slipped down the pear, it giggled and tuned into a knob which is the entrance to the kitchen. The house elves were always really helpful. Couldn't be more pleased to give students additional food." Sirius told the story.

"So to get into the kitchen you only have to tickle the pear?" Harry asked.

"Indeed. Why don't you try the cloak on?" Sirius asked.

Harry nodded eagerly and disappeared under the cloak. Only his head was still visible until he pulled the hood up.

"Hey this is great." Harry's voice sounded.

"Indeed it is, but you still are tangible. So be careful where you walk with it. And Mrs Norris can smell you under it, so if you want to stay clear of her, learn a scent erasing charm." Sirius advised.

Harry giggled. He felt a bit cheeky and tackled Sirius invisibly and began tickling him. It resulted in Sirius retaliating and both rolling around on the floor in a tickling match. Harry's cloak had slipped off a bit, taking away his advantage that Sirius couldn't see the most tickling places like his bare feet or his sides.

"I yield!" Harry cried out laughing.

After Harry had stored his presents in his cupboard, which was one of the improvements on his side of the room, he dressed in comfortable but still presentable clothes and both went down to the Great Hall for Christmas Breakfast.

On their way down to the Great Hall they met Peeves.

"Sirius!" Peeves cried in delight.

"Hey Peeves, still keeping this old castle on its toes?" Sirius greeted back.

"Yessir! Peevesy has kept Filch, the nosy cat, the strict teachers and the students busy, making sure nobody is bored." Peeves answered.

"Good to hear. Any remarkable pranksters coming up?"

"Aye. The Weasley twins are on a good way to follow the legacy of the infamous marauders." Peeves said.

"Great. By the way, don't give my godson here a hard time Peeves, would you?" Sirius asked.

"Ah, Harry, didn't see you behind Sirius. It's ready." Peeves said.

"Really? Great work Peeves. When will you start it?" Harry asked.

"After lunch is over. You said you didn't want to disrupt the feast." Peeves said cackling.

Harry nodded enthusiastically.

"Harry, are you collaborating with Peeves for a prank?" Sirius asked.

"Why would you say that?" Harry asked innocently.

"I'm so proud. I thought you didn't like pranking that much." Sirius said delightedly, putting his arm around Harry's shoulders.

"I don't like if it goes too far and if it is too disrupting over the school year. But a well-done prank that makes everybody laugh I like. And as a gag after the Christmas feast, I thought it was okay." Harry answered blushing slightly.

"What did you plan?" Sirius asked.

"Uh, uh!" Harry responded shaking his head. "That would be telling."

"Come on, I'm your godfather, you can tell me." Sirius tried to convince Harry.

"No, it's a surprise." Harry insisted.

No matter what Sirius tried, Harry wouldn't budge. In the end Sirius resigned to waiting after lunch.

After the breakfast Dumbledore insisted on singing a few Christmas carols. As this time they all sang to the right melody it was pretty nice. Neville and the twins invited Harry over to the Gryffindor common room to play a few games. Harry agreed and Sirius said he would meet him later for lunch. He wanted to catch up with his cousin Andromeda and her husband Ted, who had joined his wife for Christmas at Hogwarts. Normally Andromeda Tonks flooed home after she was done with her classes, but over Christmas with her daughter being stuck at the auror academy this year she and Ted had decided to celebrate at Hogwarts.

Harry had a fun morning in the Gryffindor common room. He found out that Percy already knew how to play 'Wizard' from Penny, so he and Harry explained the game to the other four. In the beginning Ron had grumbled about that a Ravenclaw being in the Gryffindor common room was not right, but his brothers and Neville had soon shut him down. It was Christmas; Harry was okay as long as you didn't cross him or his friends, so he was welcome to visit for a few games and the like. And once the new term started, the password would be changed again anyway, so there was no way it would be a problem.

They had a fun morning and soon the Gryffindor boys liked the game as much as the Ravenclaw students. They had some biscuits that the house elves had placed in all the common rooms for the students that stayed at Hogwarts over the holidays, coaxed Harry into singing again, the twins hit all of them with spells that had their hair change colours every thirty seconds and they had some fun in the beginning guessing the next colour. They then went down for lunch and were greeted by an opulent meal. Fat, roast turkeys, roasted and boiled potatoes, platters of chipolatas, buttered peas, gravy and cranberry sauce and stacks of wizard crackers everywhere.

Inside the crackers were fantastic presents for those that pulled them. Harry got a new wizard chess set and an admiral's hat. In the flaming Christmas puddings that followed the main course Sirius found a silver sickle. Then, when all the children and adults were stuffed, Harry knew it was soon time for the little gag he and Peeves had prepared.

Once everybody was filled to the rim, outside explosions and wheezing were going off. Everybody just started to run outside to see what the noise was about. When they reached the entrance doors, they saw they had been opened wide to have everybody look at the snowy grounds. There in the snow were glowing pictures of embarrassing scenes of each teacher. For each subject there was one thing that had gone wrong in their respective field. The pictures were drawn lines in the snow that were sizzling with sparks in different colours. There was an exploding cauldron with Snape looking surprised, McGonagall having bunny ears, a carrot in her paw and a bushy tail, Flitwick shooting sparks from his ears, Sprout being strangled by the vines of a plant, Tonks having a cloud of letters and numbers swirling around, Sinistra running away from a shooting star, Hagrid being grilled by a small dragon and Dumbledore running after a bag of lemon drops that hopped away.

The students were laughing hard at the scenes and even most of the teachers had to suppress a grin. This was a well-done act and while some scenes might have been embarrassing, it was obvious that it was all in good fun.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Quite a nice idea to end the feast with a bang." He commented.

Harry just grinned and said nothing. This had worked out well. Everybody got a good laugh, but nobody was humiliated or hurt. While Snape seemed to be a bit put off at the idea, he couldn't think it was a prank that targeted him specifically. He had made sure to portrait all the teachers during their classes to have the correct looks on their faces. He had drawn the images later with a special potion he had found in a third year book. While theoretically a third year potion, the process was easy enough. He had given the pictures to Peeves to place them in the grounds. With the poltergeist being able to float over the snow it was impossible to find out who had done it. No footprints, the portraits on paper burned up when the pictures were enlarged by a spell on the papers which he had set for a certain time to go off, and no magical signature to go by. The perfect prank