Chapter 61 Christmas

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Remus Lupin pov:

"Oscar, are you ready? We have to leave now or we will be late." Remus yelled from the door but didn't get any response from his son.

So he went to Oscar's room. After opening the door Remus found his son properly dressed and ready but just sitting silently on his bed.

Remus slowly made his way to his son and sat right next to him. He gently patted his son's back in hopes of comforting him.

"Oscar it's just a small Christmas dinner. We will eat food and we will exchange some gifts, that's it. But if you don't want to go then we won't go."

"No dad, I want to go. But it just feels weird. They always invited me and you always asked me to go with you for years but I never did. I just feel bad about going there now after years of mostly avoiding these things." Oscar slowly said never raising his head.

"Son, you never have to worry about such things, they are my closest friends. The most important people in my life alongside you, we are practically family. They don't even care about this, they just want to meet you and get to know you better." Remus explained but his son stayed silent.

"Come on, don't you want to give Harry his gift? After all, you did spend hours looking for the perfect gift for him." Remus continued.

"I didn't spend hours! Just took me a little longer to find a good gift for him and Harry told me he doesn't even like gifts." Oscar started strong but by the end, his voice was just barely more than a whisper.

"Nonsense! Harry will be happy to get a gift from you. I have been giving Harry gifts from when he was just in diapers. I still remember the time when I gave the triplets a wolf plushie and Harry was obsessed with it, he was just about two but he took the wolf everywhere while dragging it by its tail."

Hearing that Oscar finally smiled and after a few moments, his son nodded and got up from his bed ready to go to the Christmas dinner.

Harry pov:

After a delightful dinner and exchanging a lot of gifts the night finally started to die down. Little Lily and the twins are already sent to their rooms because it's past their bedtime, his grandparents also went to their room because the 90-year-olds wake up at 5 in the morning every day for some reason.

Now the remaining adults and children have separated, the adults have taken up one side of the room as they are drinking and talking about whatever people their age with kids talk about. Rose and Oscar are sitting next to the tree talking about something, but with Rose, Harry is sure it is something to do with books or their school essays, etc.

Harry is happy to see Oscar breaking out of his shell, while the boy is not shy but the werewolf curse doesn't make it easy for him to connect with others. While Harry was standing alone just watching the two of them Tonks came and joined him.

"Nymphadora, how lovely to see you." Harry greeted his cousin with a smile, he also didn't miss the twitch on her face when he called her by her first name.

Harry loves to mess with Tonks but it is always just playful teasing between cousins.

"Harry I see you are still the same loser who stands alone in the corner at every party." Tonks retorted with a smirk.

"I recall someone else standing right next to me at every single one of those parties. Now if I am the loser then what would you call that person?"

Instead of getting angry Tonks just laughed and gave him a hug "I missed you, Harry. Without you, these things are so dull and I also can't drink in front of your parents and uncle Sirius."

"Well, you are the one who gave your NEWTs a year early just so you can join the Auror training program in your last year. I mean what was the big hurry? Now even though we are supposed to be attending Hogwarts together you are barely attending school. I hardly saw you these last four months."

Tonks nodded "I know, but I wanted to be an Auror for so long, so when the opportunity presented itself I just jumped right in without thinking about it. I was so done with school anyway."

Harry sighed "while I miss talking to you but I am happy that you finally get to achieve your dream. How is that going by the way? My dad is your mentor for the program right?"

"Your dad was supposed to be my mentor but Moody suddenly took over." Tonks answered.

"What! The same Moody who during my tenth birthday gave a lecture to the kids about how to spot if someone is following you, all the while scaring them by randomly yelling 'Constant Vigilance' in between."

Tonks laughed "Yeah the same one but he is also the one who mentored your father and my uncle Sirius, now they are the best of the best in the entire department."

Harry just nodded. At least Moody in this timeline is a lot better than the last one. He didn't lose his leg and half of his nose this time and he also has lot fewer scars. While the Auror is still paranoid but with Harry's father and uncle Sirius having his back it never reached that insane level where Moody was forced to retire. This Moody is somewhat mentally stable no matter how insane that sounds.

"I am happy for you Tonks and I hope you don't go crazy with whatever Moody considers as teaching. I also have my mirror with me in school so you can call me whenever you have the time."