Written for the Survivor Challenge - Tribal Council. Prompt: Christmas at Hogwarts.
Sirius stood in the Entrance hall watching as Professor Flitwick decorated the Christmas tree. He had told his friends he'd follow them up to the dorms.
Remus found him an hour later, standing in the same spot they had left him.
You really like Christmas Trees, huh?" Remus asked.
"It's strange," Sirius said. "It's such a muggle tradition, so why is Hogwarts doing it?" He didn't even turn to look at Remus, his eyes fixed on the tree.
Remus glanced at his new friend. He was still getting used to Sirius' confusion on a lot of matters. James had explained about how the extreme-pure-bloods acted, but he couldn't believe that Sirius didn't have a Christmas Tree. It threw him for a moment.
"It's not just Muggles that put up trees. Don't your parents..." he trailed off, not wanting to turn the conversation back to the Blacks when they had all but abandoned Sirius that holiday, suggesting that he would do better staying in school rather than returning home.
Sirius hadn't really been himself since that Howler had arrived at the table a week ago.
"We never had a tree. Mother said it was a Muggle tradition and we wouldn't lower ourselves to something like that." He paused. "But it's beautiful, isn't it?"
Remus looked at Sirius' awestruck expression at the sight of the giant tree covered with floating lights.
"Maybe we could get a tree from the greenhouse. You know, a small sapling and put a few lights on it?" he suggested. He smiled as he watched Sirius' face light up.
"Good idea," Sirius said.
...oOo...
The three boys walked into the dorm room and froze at the massive tree that was too big to stand upright.
"What...?" James said, gaping at the tree.
Sirius popped up from the other side of the tree, grinning widely. "It was Remus' idea," he said to them. "It was one of his best too."
Peter and James turned to Remus and Remus put his hands up defensively. "I said sapling," Remus quickly explained. "I didn't say the biggest tree in the whole forest."
"But that's because you don't think big, Remus," Sirius said. "Now, it won't stand up and I can't seem to do the charm to make the ceiling higher."
Remus sighed and shrunk the tree slightly, and Sirius began trying to stand it up.
"Let's use a -"
"No, we have to do this the muggle way," Sirius said firmly.
Finally the tree was upright and fit inside the room, though Sirius looked quite put out that it had to be shrunk even more. He opened a box of stones and looked around.
"Okay next task - lets get these transfigured into decorations."
The three boys stared at him.
"That's a large box," Peter pointed out. "It'll take hours."
"We'll have to do them one by one," James said.
Sirius' smile disappeared. "Don't worry, I'll just..." he took one of the stones and set it on his bedside table and began trying to tranfigure it.
Remus shot his friends a warning look and scooped up a handful of stones, James following suit.
After a moments hesitation, Peter took his own handful of stones and they retreated to their own beds.
...oOo...
The four boys stood looking up at the tree that was decorated with colourful enlarged stones and floating lights, though they weren't as good as the ones that Professor Flitwick had made.
James headed over to his trunk and pulled out presents and placed them under the tree, Remus and Peter following suit and Sirius followed James back to his bed.
"What is going on?" he whispered.
"Presents," James said.
"Yeah, but what presents?"
"Christmas presents," James replied, looking at Sirius strangely.
"But isn't that just a muggle tradition. Mother said that pure-bloods -"
"Everyone does it," James explained and Sirius nodded.
...oOo...
He waited until he heard them all snoring before he snuck from his bed and crouched down by the tree. "Lumos," he whispered, causing his wand to light up. He glanced at the tags and saw a present from each of his friends for him.
How was he going to get them presents in return? Why hadn't someone just told him that they were exchanging presents so he was aware and had time to plan this?
With a sigh, he slipped back under his covers.
...oOo...
"Mr Black?"
"Professor. I have a problem and I would like permission to go into Hogsmeade," Sirius said.
She stared at him for a moment. "Can I ask what the problem is?"
"It's just an emergancy," Sirius replied. He watched her hopefully before realising she wasn't going to accept just that. "My parents... we don't do trees and presents at home. Mother and father think they are muggle traditions and I realised that my friends got me presents. I only found out last night. I haven't got them anything. If I could just go to Honeydukes..."
"Mr Black, I'm afraid I'm unable to allow you out of school grounds for a visit to a sweetshop," Professor McGonagall said. She watched the hopeful expression on his face drop and she sighed, feeling sorry for him. She had heard the howler and it wasn't Sirius' fault that he didn't know these things.
"But I have planned to head into Hogsmeade," she added. "I will make one stop only, so write down what you would like." She pushed a quill and piece of parchment towards him and he eagerly noted what he wanted and pulled out a few Galleons and handed them over.
...oOo...
Sirius grinned as he watched Peter looking through the chocolate frog cards from his present from Sirius. James was sucking on a sugar quill and Remus was sniffing one of his Honeydukes chocolate bars.
It wasn't much, but his friends were happy with their presents and he glanced down at his own. From Peter he had a giftbox from Zonko's, from James he had a mirror so they could talk to each other during detention and Remus had bought him some chocolate.
"You can't go wrong with chocolate," Remus had said, in complete seriousness when Sirius had opened his present.
For the first time since the Howler had arrived from his parents forbidding him from coming home for the holiday, Sirius felt happy. In fact, this was the best Christmas ever.
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