The Rise of the Drackens: The Scaled Bits
It's a Wrap
24th December 2020
Nasta – 60 Years
Max – 54 Years
Blaise – 41 Years
Draco – 40 Years
Harry – 40 Years
Braiden – 23 Years
Quints – 22 Years
Eva and Ave – 21 Years
Taren – 20 Years
Lai – 20 Years
Xabiere – 18 Years
Mace and Evie – 18 Years
Mollie – 17 Years
Ceri, Jason, Ethan, and Saeth – 16 Years
Seren and Senan – 14 Years
Lian – 13 Years
Phoebe, Neave, and Lucine – 12 Years
Loren – 11 Years
Cyneric and Kallan – 10 Years
Gage – 8 Years
Rosalia, Nia, and Vanora – 7 Years
Sextuplets – 6 Years
Lyran – 2 Years
Caronwen – 19 Months
It’s a Wrap
Harry sighed as he was once again asked to hand out the Christmas Eve boxes. His babies rightfully pointed out that it was already Christmas Eve, but they had been asking since that morning, just after they’d had breakfast in fact, which was a new record for their family.
He was fed up of it. He’d already done a three hour stint wrapping presents. Every year he swore he would wrap them as he bought them, and every year things got out of hand and he ended up with a mountain of presents still to wrap on Christmas Eve. They’d had three deliveries so far today, all of last minute gifts, all of which needed to be wrapped.
Harry was glad that he was so organised and wrote everything down in a notebook so that he didn’t lose track of what he’d ordered, what had arrived, and what he’d already wrapped. Organisation was key when you had such a large family.
“Mummy, eve boxes now?” Emerus asked him, and Harry sighed.
The sextuplets knew their parents’ weaknesses alright, as they hid around the back of the settee and urged Emerus on. They had obviously told him what to say, and had sent him to get what they wanted.
Harry cocked his hands on his hips and made a point of looking at his watch. It was maybe a little too early still, but damn it, he was fed up of them asking. Maybe if they started their night routine early then they would be in bed earlier? Yeah, and maybe Fenrir Greyback would have made an excellent children’s care giver.
He snorted to himself.
“Please now, Mummy.” Emerus tried, after a bit of hand waving and urging from his sac-siblings.
Harry almost laughed at them. As if he couldn’t see them, as if he didn’t know what they were doing. He shook his head and sent a smirk to his equally amused mates.
“What do you think?” He asked them, giving them a little wink.
“I don’t know.” Max said, drawing out his words. “It is a little early.”
“They have been very good today though.” Draco pointed out, playing along.
“We have, Daddy! We really have!” Ellette came out of hiding to insist.
The five of them shared a look and a grin.
Harry hummed, and gained their attention again. “I suppose you could have your boxes a little early, but you have to be good for the rest of the day, and do as we tell you, okay?”
There was a loud, wordless cheer, and Harry rolled his eyes as all of the sextuplets came out of ‘hiding’ to swarm him.
They had all eaten, after ordering a massive takeaway that had been pre-ordered for almost a month, and everyone had had their fill. It was time for their kids to have a bit of a treat.
“Mummy, hurry, please!” Eris told him and Harry chuckled and went to the home gym, where they’d hidden the Christmas Eve boxes this year. He remembered a time when they could have kept them under the tree, but with the sneaky sextuplets, nothing was safe under the tree…hell, even the tree wasn’t safe, as he looked at the crooked angel on the top, and the ragged tinsel from where they kept tugging it off to play with it, and shaking the tree to get the angel off to play with that. At this rate they’d need a new tree next year.
He carried the several boxes into the living room, and his babies all cheered. Lyran, who didn’t really know what was happening, toddled over and Caronwen followed. They’d been too young last year to really remember this little family tradition.
“Present?” Lyran asked curiously.
“That’s right, Lye.” Harry said gently, as he found the box with Lyran’s name on it, handing it to his two year old. “This is a special present, for the day before Christmas.”
Lyran tugged the lid off and looked through the box, even has Harry handed out the boxes for the impatient sextuplets.
“Buttons!” Lyran cried out, finding the small pack of chocolate buttons in his box and Harry grinned widely to see how excited he was.
The sextuplets stripped their clothes where they were to get into their brand new pyjamas and Harry sent a look to his mates. Blaise rolled his eyes as he stood to collect the discarded clothes.
“This is the one day of the year we don’t struggle to get them into their pyjamas at night.” Blaise told him.
Harry snorted a laugh and turned to collect the new films they’d bought to entertain the kids while they tried desperately to finish off all the jobs they still had to do.
“Can I have my box too, Mum?” Gage asked pleadingly, as he came into the room to see the open boxes.
“Of course, sweetheart. We’re starting a little earlier this year as these monsters just couldn’t wait.”
“We are not monsters, Mummy!” Eris insisted.
“That’s debatable.” Max muttered, even as he helped Caronwen with her box.
Harry handed out other boxes, and settled himself down for a small break to just watch his kids with the boxes. They always had the same thing in their boxes. A new pair of pyjamas, a small clementine, a hot chocolate mix, a bag of popcorn, and their favourite treat.
It was tradition to change into their pyjamas, and then watch three films one after another, and when he and his mates had been overwhelmed by kids this tradition had become a lifeline to them, as they were able to sit the kids down and keep them distracted while they got on with the jobs that still needed doing.
It was still a tradition, but it wasn’t as much of a lifeline anymore, as they had older children to help in the kitchen with the meal prep, and to help clean up the house, which left them more free time for other things they needed to do, such as wrapping presents, laying the table, and then later, once all the kids were tired out and in bed, setting out the presents.
This was their longest day, and as Harry started the first DVD off, he left the living room to go and sort out the last of the wrapping, praying that no more deliveries came. Max had finally finished the meal prep, including roasting several joints of meat, and a whole turkey, so he was overdue a rest, thus he could stay on the settee and watch the films with the kids, and thus they circumvented the need for their babies to have some supervision because Max could do it.
Nasta was the one chosen to change all of the kids’ bedsheets, so that they had clean sheets for Christmas Eve, and that was no small task either. They usually staggered the bed change so that only a handful of kids were changed at any one time, but Christmas was special.
Harry closed the bedroom door, and ignored how inviting their own bed was looking, he felt like he could just crawl into it and sleep. Instead went to the walk-in wardrobe that they all shared. It was very large, and all the little alcoves built into it made the perfect hiding spot for their things.
Harry went to the back, and dug out all of the rolls of wrapping paper, and the bag of other things they needed, such as scissors, tape and tags. He took them out and laid them on the bedroom floor so that he had more room to work.
He went back in for the presents, which were warded to stop little eyes from seeing what gifts they were getting. Their kids had been terrible for that over the years too. They always seemed to try to get into everything, and they’d had some close calls over the years. Harry smiled to remember them.
He set himself to wrapping, hoping his babies stayed distracted by the films and their little treats. Caronwen and Lyran would be the problem, as they were so young, but Draco and Blaise were down with Max, so if they started having issues, his mates could deal with it.
He really did love this time of year…well, for the most part, he thought to himself wryly.
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A/N: We’ve reached day 11, lovelies. I’m almost done with these little bits for now. One more update, one more day. I hope you’ve enjoyed them thus far.
StarLight Massacre. X