The Best Christmas Gift

A/N: Okay, so not exactly That Summer, but it’s still a little something to hold you over until I update!-- as the message states below, this was written for the UR.org FicExchange.

A little different than what I normally write as I was assigned this prompt-- definitely a challenge as I usually focus around the L/J relationship but I’m proud of myself for how it turned out. J

Special thanks to Dona for looking over this in it’s preliminary stages and dedicated, of course, to Ash for whom this story was written.

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A Christmas gift to Ash (worstangel) for the 2007

unknowableroom.org FicExchange

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“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.”

~Burton Hillis

The Best Christmas Gift:

December 22^nd, three days until Christmas…

Andromeda walked quickly down the corridor, a piece of crumpled parchment in her hand. It was silly, she thought, that an ordinary thing such as a letter could reduce her to tears, but then again, words could be more powerful than even the hardest of punches if strung together correctly…

She stopped at the first door that wasn’t labelled as a patient’s room and making sure no one was watching, slipped in , closing the door behind her. Figures it would be a closet…Andromeda though bitterly. She scanned Ted’s letter once more and the act brought a fresh bout of tears when the words sunk in…

She stood facing the wall for what seemed like hours, lost in her thoughts and letting the tears roll freely from her eyes, until the sound of the door opening and shutting behind her startled her back into reality.

“So, this is where you go when you want to get away from work for a bit? And here I thought what with that rather large donation Uncle Alphard made to the hospital when you first told him you wanted to be a healer they’d have at LEAST put a small amount of it into sprucing up the break room a bit,”

Andromeda froze-- she’d know that voice anywhere. She turned on the spot, taking care to rub her eyes fiercely, wiping all traces of possible tears away beforehand.

“Sirius!” She smiled weakly, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

“Then again,” Sirius said, finishing off his previous thought while glancing around the room before leaning casually on the nearest shelf. “the break room must be bad if you feel the need to duck in here-- Hello, Andy.”

“How many times am I going to have to tell you that you look like a prat when you do that?” She asked, trying to look stern as well as distract him from noticing she was not exactly at her best.

“What, this?” Sirius tossed his head back so that his hair flipped and landed gracefully into place once more before relaxing into his previous leaning position.

“Yes, THAT.-- you’re almost as bad as James with his hair rumpling.”

“Lies! I’m not nearly as bad as Prongs. Besides, if I stopped flipping my hair, what would all the ladies have to look forward to as they walk down the hallway to their next class?”

Andromeda rolled her eyes-- Sirius was hopeless sometimes but even so, she would be the first to admit that no one could look as handsome as Sirius could without even trying….

“How’d you find me, anyway?” She asked, changing the subject.

“You’re a lot more predictable than you think, you know.”

“I resent that.” She said, dryly.

“Don’t, it probably means I spend too much time watching you.”

“So, whenever I’m nowhere to be found, you automatically think, ‘Gee, now, where did Andy

go?-- Oh, I know! She must be in a closet again!’ ?”

“No, it’s just that I know where you like to hide when you’re a bit under the weather, he said seriously.

“I’m fine, Sirius.” Andromeda said, emphasising the word.

“Come on, Andy, we’ve BOTH spent our fair share of time in closets…”

His words hit her as if she had been forcefully pushed face first into a pensieve, and Andromeda was involuntarily lost in a whirl of her own memories…

Sirius was five, sitting on a cardboard box amidst the cloaks and jumpers. His grey eyes all the more magnified by his tears because his mother had done away with the stray kitten he had found stuck in a tree.

‘No member of the noble and most ancient house of Black would ever stoop so low as to have a stray Muggle cat for a pet,’

Andromeda had heard her aunt say…

…Herself at age seventeen, hidden in the Quidditch supply closet. The robes of silver and green were cold and slightly damp from an earlier practice out in the foggy air of that cool November morning. Ted was unconscious in the hospital wing and she couldn’t bare to see him like that-- bruised and mangled because of her. Because SHE, a pureblood witch was dating a ‘filthy muggle’ as her so-called family liked to claim…it had only taken Sirius ten minutes to find her that time, but she suspected that was only because he had stopped to take care of Bellatrix’s wretched boyfriend and his crew of goons for cursing Ted so badly in the first place…

…Sirius at age sixteen, two years later…

“Did you know Voldemort’s started recruiting door-to-door?” he said bitterly, fingering a corner of a large bath towel. He had given her quite a fright, when she’d opened the linen closet to put away the laundered sheets only to find Sirius sitting among the towels and spare linens.

“My mother almost wet herself from excitement-- practically dislocated my arm as she pulled it forward so he could brand me with The Mark…”

Andromeda gasped. Sirius’ sleeves were rolled up and she instinctively looked at the forearm where the Mark should have been.

“I told him I would rather die than join him…”Sirius paused, inhaling shakily. “you don’t know what it’s like, Andy.-- To be inches away from death -- to stare HIM straight in the eye… Do you know what he did next? He laughed, Andy. He laughed and told me I was too proud-- that I was foolish to try and resist because ‘all us Blacks are the same.’ and that sooner or later I’d be no different than the rest of my family….I-I’ve been thinking. Maybe, maybe he’s right, Andy-- maybe…maybe I am bad…”

“Don’t say that!” Andromeda said vehemently. “You’re not a bad person, Sirius, no matter what he says-- you’ve got too much light in you to be bad-- you care too much about other people.”

Sirius mumbled something incoherently, but Andromeda pushed on, “We can’t pick and choose our families, Sirius but that doesn’t mean we can’t choose our own paths.”

They were both crying now, but Andromeda didn’t notice until Sirius reached up to brush the tears away from HER cheeks. She felt ridiculous that here he was, comforting HER when it should have been the other way around….

“Well, don’t we make quite the pair, eh?” Sirius said, breaking the ice.

Andromeda laughed thickly through a scratchy throat and Sirius cracked a watery smile, wiping the rest of his tears away.

“I can’t go back there, Andy-- I’ve had enough.” Sirius said, his features going grave.

“Then don’t!” Andromeda cried. “Stay here-- move in with us!”

“You know I wouldn’t do that to you, Andy-- or Ted. You’ve just gotten married-- it would be…intruding…on your newly-wed bliss if I took you up on your offer.”

“But…” another tear escaped from her eye and her voice came out in a snuffle from her running nose. “where will you go?”

“I’ll go to Prongs’ house ,” Sirius cracked a smile, in thought. “besides, James’ mum has been looking for an excuse to get me to call her ‘mum’ for AGES--”

Andromeda laughed, interrupting Sirius’ thought momentarily.

“--moving in with them sort of makes it official, doesn’t’ it?”

“They HAVE always said you were always more of a surrogate son than James’ best mate,” Andromeda said, sniffing.

“Exactly! See? You don’t have to worry about me-- I’ll be fine, Andy.”

She threw herself at him then, causing Sirius to brace himself against the shelves behind him before he returned the hug just as fiercely.

“You’ll write to me?” she asked, childishly.

“Every week…” Sirius promised.

“And, you’ll come visit?”

“Of course.” Sirius nodded.

“And…you, you won’t hesitate to let me know if you need ANY help at all, right?”

“Yes, I promise,” Sirius said, pulling away so he could look her in the eye. “Please don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine-- just fine, Andy…Andy…? Andy?”

"Andy? Yoo-hoo…" Sirius waved his palm back and forth in front of her face and Andromeda's eyes focused, losing their fogged over expression and following his hand as it moved from left to right.

"Hmm…? Sorry, Sirius," She mumbled, shaking her head so as to rid her mind of the memories. "What was it you were saying?"

"Are you ready to tell me what's wrong--for real this time?"

Andromeda opened her mouth to tell him she was fine once more but closed it quickly. Instead, she reached into the pocket of her healer's robe and extracted a slightly crumpled piece of parchment and handed it over to Sirius silently.

"Dora, um…she walked today-- took her first steps all by herself…" Andromeda spoke as though each word was physically painful to say.

Sirius looked up from the letter she had just handed him and grinned, "Andy, that's wonderful!"

"Yeah…and I--I missed it." a bitter laugh cut through the beginnings of her sentence and she could feel the traitorous tears stinging the backs of her eyes.

"Ted wrote me to let me know-- he always writes to tell me what I'm missing…first laughs, first crawls, first Halloweens…he-- he always jokes that I probably would have missed little Dora’s birth if it weren't for the fact that I kind of had to be the there."

The tears were falling freely now and Andromeda made no moves to hide them…

"I-I know he doesn't mean to, but he just makes me feel so…so…guilty. Like I'm a bad mother for working too much-- I'm here because I want to make our world a better place…does that really make me a bad mother, Sirius?"

"What a stupid question, Andy, of course you’re not a bad mother!" Sirius let the letter fall from his grasp and enveloped her into a big hug. "You're a wonderful mum, and Dora adores you!-- Ted, too! And I'm sure they both understand why you work so much.-- you said it yourself, you're trying to make the world a better place."

"But at what cost, Sirius?-- my family's?" Andromeda cut him off. "Ted's right, what else am I going to miss? Her first words? The first time she shows magic ability outside of morphing? Her first birthday? Her first day at Hogwarts?-- Dora's first Christmas is coming up, you know, and if I get called in, I'll miss that, too…I just wish…I wish it were all over,-- what's it going to take for this war to end? For innocent people to stop getting hurt?"

“I wish I knew…but I do know one thing…" Sirius said. "I know that even though we're going through dark times, it's knowing there are still good people like you out there working for the better that makes everything seem just a bit brighter."

Andromeda scoffed in a friendly way and pushed him away from her, a watery grin spreading across her face.

"You have got to be the cheesiest little bugger on the face of the earth, you know that?"

"It's quite possible…" Sirius grinned. "But at least my cheesiness got you to crack a real smile."

Andromeda laughed.

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Andy—you're a great mum and one day when Dora's older, she'll understand why you had to miss all her firsts and I can guarantee you she'll understand."

Andromeda kissed Sirius on the cheek and ruffled his hair to which Sirius shrieked in protest, "Oy, watch it! It takes a lot to make my hair look this good!"

Andromeda laughed lightly before sighing, "So what can I do you for? I know you didn't come all this way and sneak out of Hogwarts just so you could stop me from wallowing in self pity."

"You're right—saving you from yourself was simply an added bonus…actually, I need a bit of help," Sirius whispered the last bit as they ducked out of the supply closet and started down the hall. “Remus’ ah…Furry Little Problem got a bit out of hand.”

"Oh god—how bad is James this time?—It is James, right?—Oh god—it's not you is it?!" she reached for his shirt and pulled it upward scanning his abdominal area for any signs of broken ribs or worst of all, internal bleeding.

"Settle down, Andy—it's Peter." Sirius said, pulling his shirt down. "And I would appreciate it if you wouldn't undress me in the middle of a public corridor thank you very much!"

Andromeda laughed under her breath and Sirius could have sworn he heard her say something along the lines of ‘I never knew Sirius Black had a timid side…’

They reached the entrance to the Emergency registration ward and Andromeda followed Sirius through the doorway.

She spotted the watery eyed, slightly plump boy instantly, seated in the corner. Sirius must have told Peter to blend in and act inconspicuous and though Peter was cunning in his own way, the fact that he kept shooting nervous glances at Barb, the welcome witch at the front desk was a dead giveaway to the fact that he was obviously not supposed to be here.

“Wotcher, Pete.” Andromeda grinned.

“Hi, Andy.” Peter said.

She ushered them over to a cubicle and had Peter sit on a white cot. Barb the welcome witch eyed the two boys beadily and seeing this, Andromeda quickly closed the pale green drapes around the cot so as to give them more privacy before turning to face her charges.

"You know, I don't think I've ever had to fix you up, Pete—it's nice to know some people are at least a bit responsible when they run around with—well…around…" Andromeda caught herself before she had said 'run around with a full grown werewolf.' And instead cleared her throat. "So…what seems to be the problem?"

"Go on. Show her, Pete."

With Sirius' encouragement, Peter pulled the sleeve of his jacket to reveal his left hand, the fingers of which were badly bruised and mangled—his index finger in particular, was a sickly blue colour and looked as though it may burst from sheer swollenness any second.

"How in the world did Remus manage to do that?—I can't even begin to imagine…I thought you said he was the smallest of you three, Sirius."

"He is, Andy." Sirius said, just as Peter said, "I am."

"Remus didn't," Peter said, "I—um…kind of got my hand caught in the trap door."

The boy blushed lightly from embarrassment at such a silly mistake.

“Must’ve been some heavy door…” Andromeda said examining his fingers.

“Can you fix it?” Peter winced as she touched a particularly sensitive spot.

“Well, if you can feel that, at least we know your nerve endings aren’t shot-- and of course I can. We’ll have you fixed up good as new in no time at all, Peter.”

Peter sighed in relief.

“Hold still, now…” Andromeda said as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a tub of yellow salve which she rubbed carefully onto Peter’s fingers.

“You had me going-- for a minute there I was expecting one of you to be in a more critical condition,” Andromeda said conversationally. “but what I don’t get is why you didn’t think to go see Madam Pomfrey instead-- she could have fixed you up in a heartbeat.”

“And risk getting caught?” Protested Peter.

“Pete’s right-- Madam Pomfrey would have asked loads of questions!”

“And then she would have called Professor McGonagall-- I’m rubbish at lying to McGonagall-- she never would have believed I accidentally got my fingers caught in a classroom door.”

“How long have you been like this, Pete?” Andromeda asked as she waved her wand over Peter’s fingers, muttering a spell under her breath. A glow emitted from her wand which kept changing colours as though it couldn’t make up its mind on which to stay at.

“A couple of days…” Peter mumbled.

“A couple of--For Merlin’s sake! Do you realise how dangerous it was to wait a couple of

days?!-- How could you be so irresponsible? And Sirius! How could you have let him keep his hand like this for a couple of days?”

Andromeda had taken what Sirius referred to as her ‘motherly stance’ as though she was preparing to scold them even further.

“Now, now, Andy-- do you know how hard it is to get from Hogwarts to St. Mungo’s if you’re sneaking out of the castle? We couldn’t risk going during the week so we had to wait a couple of days, and besides, it’s not like Peter’s fingers fell off or anything.”

Peter nodded in agreement. “It wasn’t that bad, honest! Prongs cast a numbing charm and that worked okay…until it started to wear off…and it was kind of difficult taking notes in class…”

“Probably would have served you right to have lost a finger,” Andromeda sniffed. “A good scare would do you boys some good-- teach you to try and be more careful once a month, or at least, get your severe injuries looked at in a more timely manner…”

She waved her wand once more and the space around Peter’s fingers illuminated in a faint orange glow as they became less rigid and shrank back to their original size.

“See? What’d I tell ya, Pete-- good as new.” Sirius patted the boy on the back and Peter smiled, wiggling his fingers, cringing as he did so.

“It feels a bit funny…” he said.

“Like your hand’s fallen asleep?” Andromeda asked.

“Exactly!” Peter answered.

“Side affect of the healing spell,” Andromeda nodded. “It should start fading in about twenty four hours but it’s nothing to worry about-- unfortunately, I can’t fade the bruises-- you’ll have to wait for those to disappear naturally, but you will have to rub this on your fingers twice a day for four days, alright?”

Andromeda handed Peter a small tub of the same yellow salve she had used earlier.

“Twice a day for four days, right.” Peter repeated, pocketing the salve.

“Good boy,” Andromeda ruffled his hair and opened the partition once more, walking them to the exit.

“You boys take care of yourselves and your other two partners in crime, yeah?” Andromeda lectured. “I don’t want to see any of you back here anytime soon.”

“Not even to visit?” Sirius asked mischievously.

“Not if it means sneaking out of the castle again-- I won’t have you getting expelled for sneaking out on my account.”

Sirius pulled her in for one last hug.

“I’ll owl you soon, okay?”

“Sounds good, Sirius.”

He let go and Peter stumbled forward giving her a rather awkward hug before both boys walked out the door.

Andromeda sighed as she watched the door close but she had no time to dwell on what she was missing stuck at the hospital, for at that moment, the magical pendant she wore pinned to her robes glowed brightly, signaling that her assistance was needed in some other part of the hospital…

It was dark by the time Sirius and Peter reached Hogsmeade. Even so, Sirius pulled out James’ invisibility cloak and draped it over both Peter and himself, just in case any of the Hogwarts staff happened to be in the Three Broomsticks enjoying a drink after hours.

They snuck into Honeydukes’ with practiced ease, cutting it close only once when a woman with a rather large gift basket of sweets walked so close, the two boys had to press themselves against a bucket of Cockroach Clusters to avoid bumping into her. After that, it was a half hours trudge up the cellar’s secret passage.

They emerged from the One-Eyed Witch’s hump well past curfew and walked bleary eyed up the staircases and into the Gryffindor boy’s dormitory.

Though Peter and Sirius had taken care not to make a sound, as soon as the door shut behind them, they heard a mutter of a spell before a light flickered on in the room to reveal a rather rumple-haired James sitting in the middle of his four poster bed looking adamantly relieved.

“There you two are!-- I was beginning to worry,” he said as quietly as he could. “How’d it go?-- have any trouble sneaking back in?”

“Nah,” Sirius said, as he stretched out onto his own bed. “told you it’d be a cinch,”

James watched as Sirius’ eyes did their familiar sweep over to Remus’ empty bed.

“Moony’s not back yet.” James said, laying back onto his pillows.

“How’s he doing?” Sirius asked.

“Fine, but you know Madam Pomfrey, she likes to keep him overnight every now and then.” He propped his head up so he had a clear view of Peter’s bed which was situated across from his. “How’s the hand, Pete?”

Peter had already changed and burrowed himself into the warm blankets of his bed.

“S’fine…” Peter dragged out through a yawn as he raised his injured hand and wiggled his fingers in James’ direction. “See? Good as new, just like Sirius said it’d be.”

James chuckled good-naturedly as Peter slurred his words sleepily.

“I’m glad, Wormtail-- get some sleep and you can tell me all about it tomorrow, yeah?”

“Okay,” Peter sighed. “G’night, Prongs…”

“You should get some sleep too, Padfoot-- you’re probably exhausted.” James said as he put out the light with a wave of his wand.

“Yeah…sleep sounds nice.” Sirius muttered.

But Sirius couldn’t sleep, though his eyes were longing for him to shut them. He lay awake looking up at the curtains of his four poster bed long after James and Peter’s snoring had died down. There just had to be something he could do to liven up Andromeda’s spirits for Christmas, but the fact that he could think of absolutely nothing that would help was haunting him. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Sirius rolled over and allowed sleep to overtake him. He’d tell Moony and Prongs and Wormtail about Andromeda tomorrow and between the four of them, he was sure they could think of something…

December 23^rd, two days until Christmas…

Sirius woke the next morning to find that someone (presumably James) had taken care to close the drapes around his bed so as to keep the sun from waking him too early. He took a moment to stretch before hopping out of bed and busying himself with his usual morning routine before bounding down the stairs.

He spotted Remus, Peter, and James seated in their favourite corner by the window. Remus was scribbling furiously, probably trying to finish any work he had missed due to his longer than usual stay in the hospital wing and James and Peter were involved in what looked like a rather intense game of Exploding Snap.

Sirius hung back, waiting for James to lay his card carefully upon the pile before pulling up a chair and sitting down.

“Ah, so you’ve finally decided to wake, have you?” James teased.

“Come on, I didn’t sleep in that late, did I?” Sirius asked.

“Define, late,” James said, looking at his watch. “It’s half past noon-- late for you-- even Peter woke up before you did, and that’s usually unheard of.”

“Sunday’s the only day the housel elves make cream of wheat for breakfast…” Peter said as he placed his card on the table. “You know I like cream of wheat.”

“Of course…” Sirius chuckled. “So Madam Pomfrey finally let you out, eh, Moony? How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine-- I told Madam Pomfrey she couldn’t keep me if there was nothing wrong,” Remus said, looking up from his essay. “she couldn’t really argue her way out of that one. Anyway, Prongs was just telling us about his Lily problems.”

“ Lily, problems?” Sirius echoed. “What? Is there trouble in paradise, Prongs? I thought you said you were making progress.”

“I was--I AM making progress!” James corrected himself. “But Lily got a bit suspicious when both you AND Peter mysteriously disappeared for a full twenty four hours-”

“Wait, Peter and me? What about Remus?”

“Remus was off the hook-- apparently Lily saw him at the hospital wing on Saturday when she took some little first year girl to get a Pepper- up potion.” James explained. “But the point is, I spent my entire weekend avoiding the love of my life because avoiding her was easier than making up excuses for your sudden disappearance.”

“Oh, that’s hilarious,” Sirius chuckled, “You’re telling me the self-proclaimed Silver-Tongued marauder of Hogwarts couldn’t even tell a little white lie?”

“You know I can’t lie to her,” James said, giving Sirius a pointed look. “it’s just something about those--”

“Eyes,” Remus, Sirius, and Peter said in unison, having heard James say this countless times.

“Yes, we know…” Sirius finished.

“Anyway, now you’re back so you can think up your own excuse when Lily asks you where you were yesterday…”
“Speaking of yesterday…how’d it go with Andromeda?” Remus asked.

“Fixed me up good as new.” Peter grinned.

“No surprise-- she graduated top in her class, right Sirius?”

Sirius nodded, looking out the window.

“How’s Andy doing, anyway? I forgot to ask you last night when you came in.” James said.

“Oh, she’s…” Sirius trailed off. “Actually, she’s not doing so great.”

“She looked like she was being overworked, actually.” Peter said, the Exploding Snap game having been abandoned for now. “But that’s to be expected, isn’t it? I mean, the holidays are the busiest time of the year for St. Mungo’s.”

“Well, that is part of it, I guess,” Sirius began. “But, well, she got this letter from Ted yesterday…”

“From Ted?” James echoed. “Is everything alright?”

“No, no,” Sirius said quickly. “Everything’s fine, it’s just…she’s not feeling like the best mother because she’s been working extra shifts at the hospital, and then, Ted owled her to say that Dora took her first steps, so now she’s feeling guilty for not being able to watch Dora grow up and experience all her ‘firsts’ and since she’ll probably be working the Christmas shift, now she’s feeling guilty about having to miss Dora’s first Christmas.”

Sirius heaved a deep breath, feeling as though a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders simply by confessing his worries to his best friends.

“Wow.” James said lamely.

“I know…I just wish there was something I could do-- to bring them all together for Christmas-- that’s what she really needs, I just don’t know how, and it’s driving me insane!” Sirius said, running a hand through his hair. “I hate to see her sad-- it’s almost as bad as watching her cry.”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something, Sirius.” Remus assured. “We’ll help you-- I’m sure we could come up with something to cheer her up.”

Peter and James nodded in agreement.

The sound of the portrait hole opening caused all four boys’ heads to turn just in time to see Lily Evans enter, clutching a large manila envelope under one arm.

“Hello, gorgeous!” James muttered under his breath as a goofy smile spread across his face, receiving a rolling of eyes from Remus.

Lily’s head turned in their direction and her eyes widened slightly in recognition.

“Oh, Sirius, there you are! I haven’t seen you or Peter since Friday night-- it was so weird seeing James without you three, I swear sometimes you‘re all attached at the hip!” Lily said, walking over toward them. “Where have you two been, anyway?”

Sirius could hear the curious tone in her voice-- James was right, she had grown suspicious…

“Oh, I was helping Peter finish up some homework-- didn’t think it would take that long though, anyway, we got an early start and didn’t get back till just before curfew.” Sirius lied.

“Really?” Lily said curiously, raising an eyebrow. “Because I went to the library to return some books I borrowed and I didn’t see either of you there.”

“That’s because we were down in the dungeons--” Peter supplied.

“--with Slughorn.” Sirius added. “You know how he gets, Lily. When he’s sunk his claws into you he won’t let you go for hours! Especially since I’ve yet to show up to one of his sodding parties…”

“He’s really not that bad, you know,” Lily frowned. “you shouldn’t make him out to be so-- so--”

“Flashy? Greedy? Evil? Pompous?” Sirius supplied.

“Don’t be mean, Sirius.” Lily said, her brow furrowing further.

“Oh, come on, Lil-- you don’t like him much either!” Sirius accused.

“Look,” Lily said, “I’ll admit, he can be a bit…over the top sometimes, but there’s a difference between disliking someone and being blatantly rude when speaking of them-- he is still a Hogwarts professor!”

Lily’s cheeks were tinting a faint pink colour and James noticed, she was doing that thing where she bunched her hands up at her sides and furrowed her brow slightly-- it was so easy to realise when Lily was getting frustrated once you knew which signs to look for.

“What’s that you’ve got there?” James asked, changing the subject, pointing to the folder under her arm.

“Oh, it’s a package my mum, sent-- sheet music.” Lily explained, opening the folder and pulling out four booklets, the outside of which were a deep wine red colour. There was something printed across the front in elegant gold script that neither James nor Sirius could make out from their seats on the couch.

“Sheet music?” Sirius asked.

“Mmhmm.” Lily nodded. “before I came to Hogwarts, we used to go caroling around the town a few days before Christmas-- I guess mum just thought it’d be nice to send some of our old carol pamphlets over just in case I wanted to start a caroling group here at school.”

“Can I see those?” James asked.

“Sure,” Lily said warily handing James the pamphlets. “But I don’t think you’ll find any familiar ones-- Muggle Christmas songs are different from Wizarding ones…”

James took one and passed the other three to the remaining marauders, leafing through his copy. He read the song titles to himself; Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, the Twelve Days of Christmas…

“Hey, Sirius…?” James asked, still leafing through the book.

“Yeah, James?”

“I think I know just the thing to make Andromeda feel better.”

“Wait, Andromeda your cousin? What’s wrong with her, Sirius?” Lily asked, concerned.

“She’s just been feeling a bit under the weather.” James explained. “But I think, I’ve just thought of the perfect thing to cheer her up….”

Sirius looked at his best friend who grinned back at him-- he knew that grin. It was James’ signature ‘I’ve just thought of the most wonderful idea’ look. The kind of look that usually never failed to deliver and all of a sudden, Sirius felt relieved, knowing Andromeda’s spirits were about to be lifted…

December 25^th, Christmas Day…

Andromeda shut the door to Mr. McWhorter’s room as she stepped out. Only then had she allowed herself to exhale deeply before continuing to walk down the hall.

She had not taken two steps when her Medi-witch supervisor, Miriam Strout, came bounding around the corner.

“Oh! Andromeda!” She said, her voice surprised. “Did Barbara page you? I told her to have you go up and--”

“--run that test on Mr. McWhorter?” Andromeda cut in.

“Yes!” Miriam sighed in relief at hearing she had gotten the message. “We’ve had the most difficult time trying to convince him that we weren’t going to harm him-- situations such as these is exactly why Muggle-wizard relations are disastrous!-- are you heading over to run the tests, now?”

“Actually, I’ve already done them-- I’ve got the results here” Andromeda said, holding up her clipboard. “and I’m running them down to the medi-nurses’ station so Healer Smethwyck can take a look at them when he gets back.”

“Oh, you’re a lifesaver, Andy!” Miriam said. “I dunno how you do it!-- Well, since you’re heading down to the station, would you mind filing these for me?”

“Not at all.” Andromeda said, forcing a smile.

“Great!-- You’ll save me an extra trip--” The pendant Miriam wore around her neck glowed a bright green. “Oh! I’ve got to dash-- see you later!”

Andromeda watched as Miriam scurried down the hall in the opposite direction before continuing on her way to the nurses’ station.

“Oh, and Andy?” Miriam called, poking her head from around the other end of the hall.

“Yes?” Andromeda asked, looking over your shoulder.

“When you’re done with that, I’ll need you to go and check on the children’s ward-- you don’t mind, do you? We’ve a rather interesting case going on in there that I’ll need you to take care of!-- Ta-at!”

Andromeda opened her mouth to ask what was so important that she needed to pay a visit to the children’s ward, but didn’t get the chance. Miriam was gone faster than you could say ‘Quidditch’ leaving her alone in the deserted hallway once more.

Miriam had already placed the patron records in separate folders and as a result, filing them didn’t take as long as Andromeda was dreading it would.

“Don’t forget, Miriam wants you to head straight to the children’s ward.” the medi-witch at the station said, in her slightly raspy voice.

“Right, I’m heading over there, now.” Andromeda said, tiredly as she walked to the elevator.

The children’s ward was down on the second floor and it was by far the most cheerfully decorated part of the hospital. Andromeda found it slightly ironic that even though strands of garlands had been hung here in attempts to make the ward have a warm, holiday feeling, nothing could take away from the cold and lonely feel of the St. Mungo’s corridors.

As she neared the ward, Andromeda thought she could detect the faint sound of music playing. She stopped, leaning against a wall for support and rubbed her eyes furiously.-- if she had started fabricating sounds in her head, Andromeda thought as she continued walking, it was probably a sure sign that she should at least be trying to squeeze in a few more hours of sleep.

And yet, the music seemed to be getting louder as she neared her destination…but there was no way-- they didn’t play music at St. Mungo’s…

She was at the front of the double doors now, and it took her a moment to realise that the music was loudest, here.

“That can’t be right…” Andromeda muttered out loud. “It almost sounds like-- but it couldn’t really be…sleigh bells?”
Andromeda pushed opened the double doors and walked in.

She must have been dreaming. Only then would the site before her had made any sense--

Remus, smiling happily though still looking slightly pale from his transformation just a few days ago… Peter at the foot of a little girls’ bed, helping her follow along on the sheet music he shared with her… Sirius and James in matching red and white Santa Claus hats orchestrating the entire ward of children in a happy rendition of We Wish You A Merry Christmas… Lily Evans, singing along though trying not to laugh at James and Sirius’ as they flourished their arms this way and that as they orchestrated the inhabitants of the ward…and her husband, Ted, smiling warmly at her with their little Dora in his arms, shaking a small strand of sleigh bells, emitting a gurgling laugh at the sound the made…

But it must have been real because even in the happiest of dreams, you never got to the part where the ones you loved swept you up in welcome and even through her clouded vision from the tears forming in her eyes, Andromeda could feel Ted sweeping her toward him as he captured her lips with his in a loving kiss.

Dora reached her arms out for her mother and Andromeda happily complied, scooping her in her arms and planting a kiss on her forehead.

“…we wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!” The song ended with Sirius holding the last note longer than necessary, gaining laughs from the children who clapped and cheered.

“Why are you crying, dear?” Ted asked, chuckling slightly as he brushed tears from under her eyes.

“I just can’t believe you’re all here!” Andromeda said. “That you did all of this for me.”

“Did you really think we’d let you be alone on Christmas?” Ted asked. “And, to be fair, it was really Sirius who made all the arrangements.”

“I should have known.” Andromeda said turning to grin at Sirius.

“Well, you said you weren’t going to be able to celebrate Christmas at home, so we thought we’d bring Christmas to you.” Sirius explained as he gave her a one armed hug.

Dora took advantage of Uncle Sirius’ close proximity and tugged at the end of his red and white hat.

“Red!” Dora exclaimed as she tugged the hat off Sirius’ head.

“Yes, that’s right, Dora.” Andromeda said, encouragingly. She watched as her baby scrunched up her face and in the blink of an eye, everyone watched as Dora’s hair changed from a violent shade of pink to a mixture of red and green to match the Christmas tree in the corner.

Everyone laughed and Dora wrapped her little arms around her mother’s neck.

Sirius leaned in closer so only Andromeda could hear him whisper, “See, what did I tell you? Not a bad mother at all.”

Andromeda’s face split into a silly grin and Sirius knew she actually believed him this time.

“Happy Christmas, Sirius.” she said brightly.

“Happy Christmas, Andy.” Sirius replied, before addressing the crowd as a whole. “So whaddaya say? Shall we sing another one?”

The question was met by enthusiastic cheers from the children.

“Only if we sing God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs.” Andromeda giggled.

“You read my mind, dear cousin,” Sirius grinned.

With a tap of Remus’ wand on the magical recording device, the music started up and everyone began to sing. Andromeda allowed herself to get swept away by the warmth of the moment, forgetting that in a few minutes time, she would have to get back to work. She focused on the present-- on the fact that right now, she was here, with those she loved and how even though she was technically on duty, this was by far the best Christmas she had ever had.