A/N: Happy Impending Holidays all! Here be Version 2.0 for your viewing pleasure this evening, updated for Canon continuity and hopefully improvement in writing style. This story is using Spacemonkey0941's lyrics so go check out her stuff.
God rest ye merry, Hippogriffs,
Let nothing you dismay!
Remember that the whiskey
Saved us all on Christmas day!
And our young Harry Potter is
A wizard now today!
Oh, tidings of owls and newts,
Owls and newts!
Oh, tidings of owls and newts!
The usually dismal and gloomy living room of number twelve Grimmauld Place was bursting, for once, with light and laughter. There was a fire blazing cheerily in the fireplace and the furniture had all been pushed to the walls in preparation for the party which temporarily pushed back the ever-present shadows of the old house. The verdant Christmas tree sat in one corner and lent it's crisp scent to the warmth of the air and mingled with the smells of hot apple cider, eggnog, and Mrs. Weasley's famous gingerbread cookies. Teenagers surrounded the tree, decorating it under the loose supervision of Emmeline Vance and a very drunk Mundungus Fletcher.
Along the far wall, sat a table covered in pastries of every shape and flavour, savory finger foods and multiple (non-alcoholic) beverages. Several people stood around the table, sampling Mrs. Weasely's excellent food and and watching the mayhem that had sprung up in the center of the room, which had become a dance floor by default of being the only clear space available.
The source of the mayhem was none other then Sirius Black, Remus observed from his cozy spot on a couch close to the fire. Sirius was whirling a flushed and laughing Ginny Weasley around the dance floor in a sloppy waltz as he happily mangled the popular Christmas carol. Remus smiled, he hadn't seen Sirius this happy in a very long time and it made him glad to see that his old friend's exuberant inner child hadn't been completely annihilated by the Dementors.
"Penny for your thoughts." Nymphadora Tonks interrupted his reverie, having wandered over from the buffet and plopped down beside him on the couch.
"Nothing much." He responded with a warm smile. "Just thinking how nice it is to see Sirius so cheerful again."
"Mm, it's nice to see him sober eh?" Remus felt a pang of guilt at the comment along with a sad sort of acknowledgement that she was right, the sight of his friend sober was far too foreign.
"It is." They sat for a bit, an island of silence watching the boisterous group on the dance floor.
"So anyways," She broke the silence with a laugh at the antics of the dancers. "I was just wondering why you were sitting over here all by yourself in the middle of a party. You looked rather lonesome, so I thought I'd come join you to cheer you up." She pulled her feet up underneath her so that she was facing him, her knees lightly touching his thighs. Remus looked at her. Her hair, tonight, was candy cane red and white and she was dressed casually in a violet t-shirt and patchy jeans. She cradled a mug of cider in her hands and took a sip out of it as he watched her.
"You know," He said speculatively. "I'm reasonably sure that the twins spiked the cider."
"I thought it tasted funny." She wrinkled her nose at the offending beverage then shrugged and took another sip.
"I saw them earlier, standing around the cider pot looking conspicuously innocent." Remus moved his head in a mock imitation of a wise nod. Tonks snorted into her spiked cider and rolled her eyes.
"Is there a way to look inconspicuously innocent?" She asked.
"Not for those two, there isn't." He shook his head.
"Poor them!" She exclaimed with a laugh, while setting her mug down on the floor by the foot of the couch. "Doomed to be forever guilty."
"Indeed."
"Come on, Remus." She got up and tugged at his hand. "Stop being such a party pooper and dance with me."
"Only if you promise to step on my toes at least twice." He teased.
"Only twice? I do believe, at your request, I could even beat my all time record of thirty-eight!"
"Well then! How could I refuse?"
In Hogsmeade's happy avenues
This wondrous tree was grown!
And that's where we went yesterday
This tree here for to own!
Oh what a pretty Christmas tree
To put in our old home!
Oh, tidings of Douglass Pines and Firs,
Pinetrees and Firs!
Oh, tidings of Douglass Pines and Firs!
Harry grinned and shook his head at the antics of the people waltzing wildly around the center of the room and turned to place yet another one of the Weasleys numerous ornaments, a glitter coated foam snitch, on the tree. Across from him, on the other side of the tree, his two best friends, Ron and Hermione, were arguing over what was the best branch to place the rather hideous angel ornament that Hermione's parents had sent to her to remind her of home and her family over the holidays (or as she put it, to guilt trip her).
"That thing looks like a troll, not an angel!" Ron exclaimed heatedly.
Hermione clutched the demented creature to her chest and protested, "It does not! I have had it since I was a baby, it was my first ornament, we used to put it on the top of the tree."
Harry eyed the thing dubiously and personally thought it belonged in a box somewhere deep in the attic along with any and all of the other things Hermione's parents might have kept from her infancy, but he knew better then to voice his opinion in the midst of a Ron/ Hermione debate.
The so called "angel" had a doll's plastic head whose filthy blond hair had been cropped cruelly short, no doubt by a toddler Hermione, and a silver cone in place of a body with natty felt wings which were in danger of falling off. It was a dirt encrusted, armless monstrosity and Hermione was completely devoted to it and determined that it find a home on the tree.
"I made that one you know."
"What?" Harry turned to find Ginny standing on his other side looking flushed having obviously just escaped from Sirius' jubilance. Harry looked around and saw that Sirius was now dancing with a rather drunk Hestia Jones and that Fred and George had wandered off from hanging Ginny's paper chains around the room and started waltzing with each other.
"The ornament," She nodded towards the snitch ornament in his hands. "I made it."
"Oh," He laughed. "I thought for a second that you where talking about Hermione's angel."
"No!" She held up her hands in mock horror as she laughed and shook her head. "That thing really is hideous isn't it?"
"Yea," He agreed. "I think the only reason she's defending it so much is because she'll feel disloyal if she doesn't."
She gave him a look that clearly said that she thought he was nuts. "Disloyal to who? The demented angel?"
"Errrrr…." He'd meant to her parents, but he found he wanted to keep the foolish grin on her face. So he tried a joke. "Yeah. She'll hurt the angel's feelings if she doesn't defend it."
Ginny struck a pose, one hand on her brow and the other flung out to the side, and spoke in a pompous, nasally voice that Harry supposed was supposed to be the angels', "I have been abandoned! No one cares about me any more! How dare they demote me, me, to the back of the tree? I have proudly topped more trees then they have hairs on their tiny skulls. I shall never forgive such disloyalty."
Any response that might have been given was forgotten in the spate of laughter that followed.
This house we're in is mine all mine
But you can have it free!
For my old mother's painting, it
Will never let me be!
Oh would you please help get her down
So I'll be finally free!
Oh, tidings of shrieks from in the hall,
Out in the hall!
Oh, tidings of shrieks from in the hall!
Severus Snape sat and brooded over a mug of hot mulled cider as the he sat hunched in a secluded corner of the room where the light and warmth of the party hadn't penetrated the gloom of the house. He scowled into his mug as the laughter and music washed over him, leaving him feeling far more isolated then he ever would have sitting alone in his house with a good book. That was something Albus simply didn't seem to understand, when the old Headmaster had insisted that Severus stay to enjoy the party.
He couldn't even enjoy himself by baiting Black since the man was so imperviously bloody happy about having the company of his beloved godson over the holiday.
Severus took a sip of his cider, confirming that the Weasley twins had indeed spiked it with alcohol of some sort, and glared at the happy couples dancing around the room. It wasn't right, that he was here in the midst of such happiness when it was his own fault she, and so many others, were dead. He had no right to be there.
He took a large gulp of his cider fully intending to get utterly pissed in an attempt to forget the guilt and longing that was roiling within him and twisting his insides into knots every time he looked at the two teenagers laughing over Quiddich ornaments seeming so much like his ghost of Christmas Past.
He had been so full of bitterness and rage, so absorbed in his youthful need for vengeance, his need to repay years of teenage humiliation. Consumed by unrequited love and lust and blind to his own follies which had led him to that impasse. How could he have been so blind? How could she have chosen the pompous bully over her best friend, the boy who had introduced her to magic? What had he done wrong?
And more important then any of that, how could he have possibly believed that the Dark Lord would have let her live once she had gotten in his way?
Severus missed her. There was hardly a day that went by, even fourteen years later, when he didn't feel the pang of longing like a knife to the gut. It was pathetic, he knew. There were plenty of women out there who would go out with the likes of him, who would love him and try and 'fix' him. There were plenty of women who had tried to get close enough to attempt it, he simply hadn't let them. They simply weren't Lily.
He took another large gulp and finished off the mug, he stood up and swung his cloak around his shoulders. He set the mug down on the coffee table and strode out of the bright, cheery room into the dim and dank hallway and from there out into the cold night.
Once sure there where no witnesses he apparated with a sharp crack in search of something much stronger then whatever it was that the Weasley twins had been able to get their hands on.
Wingardium Leviosa
Will lift the star on high!
And if you want to clean the floor
Use mops and Scourgify!
But we're so happy to be here
No Cheering Charms need apply!
Oh, tidings of ribbons, knots, and bows
Boxes and bows!
Oh, tidings of ribbons and bows!
Molly fell breathlessly onto the recently vacated couch and waved her handkerchief at her bright red cheeks and damp forehead. And waved off George's entreaties as she tried to catch her breath. George gave up on his mum, laughing, and pulled the protesting Mrs. Vance onto the dance floor.
Molly sat smiling and watching her happy family and guests. The moment seemed so much more poignant coming as it did in the midst of such tension and fear. She knew that her husband was still in the hospital, with his recovery uncertain, and that there was still a war looming on the horizon, but the warmth and light of the room filled with laughter seemed like a forcefield protecting them all for one blessed night.
"Mum!" Fred caught her attention. "Will you hang the star?" She started, her sons had never before made a big deal out of placing a topper on the tree. Fred was holding up a tarnished, ornate silver star that had to come out of the Grimmauld attics. She smiled She looked around the room at Sirius twirling like a dervish around the makeshift dance floor and called out:
"Sirius!" The man in question ground to a wobbly halt and gave her his attention. "Will you do the honors?" She held out the temporary olive branch and indicated the star in Fred's hands.
"Of course." He grinned and bowed.
"OI! Everybody!" Fred yelled. "OI! Quiet!" Slowly the room quieted down and someone turned off the music. He cleared his throat and spoke in ringing, important tones: "It is time for the raising of the star!"
People gathered around the tree with Sirius front and center.
"Err...well having never done this before, please excuse any errors." He turned towards the tree as Ginny whispered something in his ear. "Oh noble tree!" Sirius threw a skeptical side glance at Ginny.
"With this star we honor thee and beg your humble service to this our mortal holiday of gift giving." Sirius' face cleared as he realized something and grinned, clearing his throat much as Fred had previously.
"We whimsically wish that your gift bearing girth may be bursting with joyful gifts come the morrow. And- " Ginny leaned in to whisper one last thing in Sirius' ear. He softened his voice.
"And may your cheerful leaves keep our families safe and healthy in the year to come."
"Cheers" "Here here!" There was clapping and whistling coming from the group as Sirius flicked his wand and lifted the star to the top of the glittering tree. Once the star was safely settled Sirius turned to the room and started singing.
Come wizards and fair witches,
To see this beauteous sight!
No Voldemort shall bother us
On this auspicious night!
And if he does we'll send him home
With fruitcakes and a fright!
Oh, tidings of sugarplums and wine!
Plumcakes and wine!
Oh, tidings of sugarplums and wine!