Universe: Canon, at the end of chapter 17 of Half-Blood Prince, during Christmas break.

Followup to: God rest ye merry, Hippogriffs. Read that first.

Author's Note: Christmas traditions are important, the Quibbler is never completely wrong, and Sirius Black is awesome.

I Saw The Snidgets On Christmas Day

Three days after Christmas, in the afternoon, Harry was playing pickup Quidditch with everyone else, but as that didn't have a Snitch, he'd ended up as a Chaser, and had managed to collide with the tree being used as the other side's goal while trying to score, falling off his broom into a snowbank.

He felt fine, but Mrs. Weasley had sent him inside to warm up. As he drank some cocoa and watched the game through the kitchen window, Mr. Weasley came in and handed him another Christmas present, a very flat one wrapped in silver paper.

Mr. Weasley said it had been waiting at the edge of the wards when he apparated back for lunch, and he'd had it checked by Mad-Eye. But it was safe. He handed it to Harry and then ran off outside where everyone else was. There was a note attached to it.

Harry

Sorry this is a late present, but it took me a while to find another copy. Records have a copyright charm on them so I couldn't duplicate mine.

Thank you for helping me dance again. I danced with my father Christmas day.

Happy Christmas.

Really your friend,

Luna

Harry smiled, and tore open the paper.

It was what he expected, a record with a cover that said:

Stubby Boardman and the Hobgoblins

I Saw The Snidgets On Christmas Day

And below there a man, presumably Stubby Boardman, who looked like a clean-cut, carefree version of Sirius. He was strumming a guitar and staring at a bird that Harry assumed was a Golden Snidget, which was slowly rotating its wings in front of him, in what appeared to be slow motion. He knew the Golden Snidget was the origin of the Snitch in Quidditch, and it did look almost exactly like one, with a round body and tiny wings.

Harry looked closely at Stubby. His nose was too pointed, his face was too narrow, and his eyes were all wrong, but Harry could see how someone could mistake Sirius for him.

He flipped it over to the back, and realized that Luna had also included a copy of the September 1995 Quibbler, which was apparently the one he'd seen on the Hogwart's Express that asked 'Sirius Black: Villain or Victim?' on the cover. He wondered if she had stacks of back-issues at her house, or she'd had her father run off another copy. Maybe she even helped print them. He made a note to ask her how all that worked.

He smiled, and set the Quibbler down on the kitchen table. Then he looked down the list of songs until he saw track #5, God Rest Ye Merry, Hippogriffs. Looking around, he realized the Weasley's didn't seem to have a record player. All their music was from listening to the Wizarding Wireless.

His heart fell for a second. Did Wizards even use record players? Maybe Luna's family was just strange. No, obviously Wizards had some way to buy music, or they wouldn't sell Wizarding records. Come to think of it, he remembered Lee making a comment about 'spinning records' at someone's wedding, and Lee was a pureblood, so clearly Wizards had used records at some time.

And they probably still used records, as it was unlikely Wizards had upgraded to CDs yet. Surely wizards were at least a decade behind Muggles. So they would still sell magical record players, and he had enough wizard money, he could buy one. Except, he recalled, he wasn't supposed to leave the Burrow.

Then he remembered that he'd seen a record player while cleaning Grimmauld Place, which they didn't throw out because it still appeared to work. Harry had thought it was just a narrow wooden cabinet until he'd seen Mr. Weasley open the top and poke inside, checking to make sure had its Muggle Artefacts license because it was charmed to work without cranking. Mr. Weasley had called it a 'Victrola'. And Harry now owned that.

He'd bring it here, the Weasleys could use it after he left if they wanted. It certainly wasn't doing anyone any good sitting at Grimmauld Place. But Harry had promised Dumbledore he wouldn't leave the Burrow, so someone else would have to go get it. And he wasn't sure he was ready to visit Grimmauld Place yet anyway. He hadn't been there since Sirius' death, and didn't look forward to it.

Holding the record, Harry went around looking for someone who was allowed to leave. He walked outside, and immediately ran across Lupin and Mrs. Weasley outside the kitchen door, standing in the snow. Mrs. Weasley was saying, "-can't keep this up, have you seen her? You need to talk-" and then noticed Harry and stopped talking. Harry had no idea who Mrs. Weasley was talking about, but suspected she wouldn't tell him, so didn't bother to ask.

Lupin seemed to be immensely relieved that Harry had interrupted. Harry thought it rather funny that even Lupin could get lectured by Mrs. Weasley. "What is it, Harry?"

Harry said, "I was wondering if someone could go get something from Grimmauld Place for me. I'm not supposed to leave."

Lupin ducked back inside the house, with Harry following him. Harry was sure he was attempting to try to escape Mrs. Weasley. She, meanwhile, had spotted something outside at the Quidditch game, and hurried off towards it.

"Certainly.", said Lupin. "That's your property, after all. What did you want?"

Harry held up the record. "The record player in the parlor. I got this for Christmas, and I-" but stopped, because Lupin's face had gotten the strangest look on it.

"Someone gave...gave you this?" Lupin asked in disbelief. "No one else even knows but...I don't...how did they..."