A/N: This is just a one shot I came up with one boring Saturday. All characters (except Eliza, she's mine), places, etc. are property of J K Rowling, I'm simply borrowin them for a bit. As always, reviews are welcome. Share and Enjoy!
"… Jingle bells, Slytherins smell, Severus laid an egg!" The twins sung loudly at the kitchen table. "…Take it Sirius!" George shouted. It was the night before Christmas Eve and Sirius's high spirits were more than a little contagious.
Sirius and Remus looked at each other before singing in chorus "Oh what fun it is to try and prank those slimy gits all day, hey!" Everyone at the table (all being Gryffindors of course) exploded in laughter. Hermione had the sense to look slightly ashamed at the profiling but couldn't help at least smiling. As a prefect she had to set a decent example, but she was still a Gryffindor. "God rest ye merry Hippogryphs…" Sirius soon started in on another carol. Remus had missed this side of his best friend, and had feared that Azkaban had managed to steal it away forever. Sirius had always been the playful one of the bunch, often having been the instigator of many of there adventures simply because he was bored, not to mention always being able to lighten everyone's mood when they needed it the most. This quality was needed especially when the first war had gotten into full swing soon after their graduation. Christmas had always been Sirius's favourite holiday, even back in Hogwarts, where he almost always stayed at one of the other boys' houses; and Christmas with Sirius was never dull, although occasionally it did hurt the ears.
"Pads, you old mutt, has anyone ever told you that you can not sing?" Remus interrupted Sirius's third rendition of this particular song.
"I am not a mutt, I'm a show quality pure bred thank you very much! And I do believe you told me that, Mr. Moony, in our first year." Sirius said with a grin. It took a minute for exactly what he'd said to sink in for everyone.
The reactions varied among those present at the table. Ron leaned over to Harry and whispered "Did he just say that pure bred, as in a dog."
"I think so." Harry whispered back before he, Ron, and Bill broke out in laughter.
On the other side of the table Fred and George looked at each other, "Moony?" "Pads?" before both turning to look at the two men in front of them, and accusing "You're the Marauders!"
"Took you long enough!" Remus smiled at the boys who had idolized their group of friends.
"Sirius!" Hermione cried, having misconstrued his statement to be slanted against non purebloods.
"Hermione!" Sirius mimicked, knowing what she was thinking, "Over half of the people I care about most are either Half-bloods or Muggle-borns and there were plenty of times I wanted to be one myself, but we're talking about dogs here." He quietly explained, before boasting aloud "Besides I'm too handsome to be a mangy mutt!" This got everyone laughing again.
"WHAT?" Sirius shouted innocently.
"Sorry to break it to you, Sirius mate, but you definitely could use a little work, a bath for example." Fred said, leaning back to emphasize his point.
"Hey, I bathe regularly … at least lately." Sirius defended with a smile.
"…And that hair, I mean it's just all wrong for your facial bone structure." George continued where his brother had left off.
"I have to agree, Sirius, you've kinda lost something from the days when you had a gaggle of girls following your every step."
"I never …"
Remus rolled his eyes at his friend, "You always were thick."
"Hey! I thought you were supposed to be on my side." Sirius said feigning hurt. It was clear to everyone at the table though that Sirius was taking the criticism in good fun. "Harry?"
"Fred and George are correct, you do look a little mangy." Harry said with a grin.
"Ginny, you're a girl, am I ruggedly handsome?"
"Uh …"
"Remus there's a package for you." Ginny was saved from answering the question, thanks to the appearance of her mother coming into the basement kitchen.
The atmosphere sobered up almost immediately when Remus said "I didn't order any packages."
After a few seconds Sirius spoke up, "Oh yeah, I forgot I'd ordered a few things. Sorry, I meant to tell you I'd used your name."
"I hope you didn't use my gold as well." Remus said with a smile.
"Nope, I had Tonks move some of my gold into your vault." Sirius said pulling off the slip attached to the wrapping to make sure that everything he'd ordered was in the package. After a moment, he banished the package to his bedroom before saying "So, who's up for dinner?"
The next morning Sirius was the first up in the house, although no one would have guessed that this'd be the case. The package he'd received the previous night, had contained, as many of his guests suspected, Remus's Christmas present (a book on spells from Merlin's time) considering Sirius had had to have Remus do the rest of his Christmas shopping for him. But it also contained a few other items that Sirius had decided he needed.
While Harry had been away at school, Sirius had plenty of time to think about his life. One day not too long ago, while looking at one of the albums that Remus had let him borrow, he'd seen a picture of himself with James, Remus, Lily, and Eliza (at the time Sirius's fiancé). In the picture they were all on the frozen pond behind the Potter mansion, everyone having gathered for the holidays at James's parent's house. Sirius had smiled as he'd remembered that day; they were all enjoying the rare brake from work and order business, completely oblivious of the hard times to come.
What had amazed him was how different he had looked in the picture. It wasn't just the fact that he was older now, or the fact that he was still on the skin and bones side after having spent those years in Azkaban followed by another two years living off scraps. There were two main differences between the dirty face that greeted him in the mirror and the young man in the photograph laughing and playfully swinging his friends around in dizzying circles: (1) the young man would never allow his self-pity to take over his entire being, and (2) he was not so foolishly idealistic to realize that to some extent the clothes do make the man. Back then he'd actually cared about his appearance: shaving daily, keeping his hair at a manageable length, wearing clean and well fitting robes, relatively small things that made such a difference in not only how he looked, but how he felt.
Sirius had smirked, thinking that James would have gone insane if he saw the state that his best friend had fallen into since his death. As he had sat there just staring at the picture taken so many years ago, he came to the conclusion that things had to change; if only for the memory of those he cared about. Since that day, he'd tried to work on his attitude, definitely the harder of the two, and had taken steps to fix the former of the two differences.
Christmas morning, as he gently unwrapped the package that had arrived the previous night, he smiled thinking that this was the key to his transformation. Since the day of the photo, Sirius had made an effort and succeeded in gaining back most of the weight that he'd lost over the last 14 years. A few weeks prior he had used Remus's name to order a brand new set of robes to be made to his old measurements. Grabbing the new robes as well as his wand, Sirius headed into his parent's luxuriant old bathroom that rivaled the prefects at Hogwarts.
When Harry and Ron came down to Christmas Lunch, he found that everyone but Sirius had already made their way to basement kitchen. Harry was surprised to see that the table didn't show any signs that there was about to be a feast for twelve people. They had come to the conclusion that they would have a traditional Christmas lunch; then go to visit Mr. Weasley in St. Mungo's for the afternoon. In order to prepare for the morning, Mrs. Weasley, knowing the boys penchant for sleeping in, had made them set the table the previous evening. "Happy Christmas, Harry, Ron" Remus said as he came up holding a glass of eggnog.
"Happy Christmas, um what happened to the table? And where's Sirius?"
"Oh, that, Sirius and I were talking last night after everyone went to be and we decided that we should have a proper Christmas lunch in the dining room. So we moved everything up there. As for where Sirius is, I heard the shower in his room still running when I came down a few minutes ago."
"Ah. Thanks for the books, I can't wait to start practicing some of that stuff…"
"Blimey, someone's done something to Sirius!" Fred shouted from across the room.
"Yeah, he's … clean shaven!" George responded.
"And someone stole his hair!" Fred continued in mock horror.
From somewhere in another corner Harry heard someone do a wolf whistle. Harry could have sworn that it came from Mrs. Weasley, but she seemed to be looking at the door quietly. He turned to see what all the commotion was about and was surprised to see a very different version of his godfather standing at the top of the stairs. As the twins had said, he was indeed clean shaven, in fact he was immaculately groomed. His hair had been cut short and styled similar to the picture Harry had of him at his parent's wedding. The clothes he was wearing showed off his build rather than hiding it like the overly large ones he'd been wearing up until the previous night. The shirt was a rich red satin done up most of the way, while the double breasted waist coat and slacks were made out of what looked like black silk. He had apparently decided against the outer robes, considering the fact that it was a lunch at home. The change in appearance alone was miraculous. He no longer looked older than his years, and he looked truly happy. At least for this moment he looked every bit as handsome as he had all those years ago.
"What are you lot milling about down here for, can't have my guests eating Christmas lunch in the kitchens, what kind of host would that make me?" Sirius said with a grin as he purposely ignored everyone's comments. He was enjoying the attention that they were giving him.
As everyone settled around the grand dining room table, Sirius looked over at Ginny with a wink. "Ginny … you're a girl, am I ruggedly handsome?"
Ginny smiled at the repeated question and this time had and answer, "Ruggedly handsome, hmmm, I don't think so…" Everyone laughed at Sirius's expression as she said this, "… more like gorgeous."
"Oh brother, we're never gonna deflate his ego now." Remus exclaimed as everyone at the table began to enjoy the lunch in earnest.