The first rays of sunlight came in through the cracked and broken shutters. It was barely 5:00 AM, and Sirius was out of bed and in a Christmas jumper practically within 3 seconds. He meant to let Remus sleep in, he really did, but after about 5 minutes of excitedly bouncing, he decided that no more could Christmas morning be wasted. After so many Christmases dreaded and barely acknowledged at Grimmauld, he had years of pure Sirius Black energy to devote to this specific Christmas. He could barely contain his excitement and transformed into the giant black dog with a much simpler thought process. The world for Sirius was now a mash of Excited, Charge, and Remus. Bounding over to where Remus still slept, he let out a massive resounding bark.
Remus bolted upright and immediately looked around for Harry. Seeing him fine and somehow still sleeping, he turned to look at the one guilty for disturbing the peace. Seeing the large, wagging dog he groaned and flopped back into his pillow, closing his eyes. "Sirius….." he groaned. "What time is it? It feels like death o'clock. What time did we finish Christmas wrapping last night anyways? Last time I let you convince me to start wrapping them the night before."
He sat up suddenly. "Wait. Last night. It's Christmas morning!"
"It's going to be Christmas afternoon if you don't get up soon!" Sirius was still bouncing in place, but had re-transformed from Padfoot to Sirius while Remus had been speaking. "Its Harry's second Christmas! Come on! Hurry and get up! I'll go put the coffee on!" Sirius began practically running out of the room, transforming to a blurry black mass of fur along the way.
Remus got up and went to get Harry, who was already awake, from his crib. He pulled a red and yellow striped hat on Harry's head (Sirius had already bought him everything he could possibly find in Gryffindor colors) and carried him into the living room. The room was decorated with golden tinsel, and half of the room was filled with what was quite possibly the fattest Christmas tree Remus had ever seen before. It had taken them nearly an hour (and quite a bit of magic) to make it fit in the apartment, much less through the door. But it was worth it, and it looked amazing, if a bit messy. The bottom was covered in very badly wrapped presents, some of which looked like the wrapping paper had gone through the shredder beforehand.
Sirius was in the kitchen, with coffee running and a waffle maker which was just starting to steam. He never cooked anything the magical way if he could help it. The muggle way of cooking just seemed to have its own sort of magic to it. The Christmas tree in the living room was Sirius's pride and joy. It had been found in the park outside of their apartment and they had to do some very creative spellwork to get it into their house. All of the ornaments they owned, and a few things that weren't ornaments, like mugs, scarves, and cassettes, adorned the tree. Sirius bounded over to Remus and Harry. "Good morning, Harry! Happy Christmas! Isn't it exciting?!"
Remus hugged Sirius with one arm, the other still holding Harry, and smiled. "Very exciting."
He looked around. "One thing is missing though. Hold Harry, will you?"
After handing off Harry, who promptly started pulling Sirius' hair, he looked through the presents at the bottom of the tree. He pulled out one of the nicer-wrapped gifts and held it out to Sirius."Here."
While holding Harry, Sirius reached out and took the package. He excitedly opened the package, pulling out AC/DC's Back In Black album, which had come out earlier that year. He had been looking to faind a copy of it, but with apartment rent and his unsteady job, he had never had the money to make it happen. "Remus, thank you! When did you get this!? I didnt see you wrapping it!" Sirius moved to give Remus a fast kiss, and then went to the record player to put on the album.
Remus smiled at Sirius' reaction and at the music. Much as he loved his own mellower music, which was great for calming Harry, and just silence in general (of which there was a great lack in his life), this really was a very good album. Even Harry seemed to like it, and was dancing around to it, if his spastic arm movements could really be described as dancing.
The music successfully on at a comfortable rock Christmas volume, Sirius handed Harry to Remus. "Hold on, I've got to get your present, it was a bit obnoxious to hide." He enthusiastically bounced off back to his room, where there immediately came a great deal of shuffling, a loud thump, and a string of curses that were only quiet by Sirius's standards. Before long, Sirius walked out into the living room, carrying the tiniest jet black kitten in his arms.
"Sirius Orion Black," said Remus in a stunned voice.
"I don't have a middle-" started Sirius, but was interrupted by Remus. "You got me a cat?!"
Sirius frowned as the cat began to squirm around, and at Remus' reaction. He started rambling. "You don't want it? I mean, I know you have a ton of work already taking care of Harry, and me too if I have to be honest, but I saw you looking at cats in the petstore with Harry a few weeks ago and I just thought that you would like-"
He was promptly interrupted by Remus jumping up, taking the cat, putting it on the ground and tackle-hugged Sirius to the ground, almost knocking down the tree.
"Remus, you can't just knock over the tree, you could hurt Harry! Or the kitten!" Sirius laughed, not really bothered at all. With everything that had happened, they both deserved the happiness, and if what it took was a kitten to make Remus happy, then it was well worth the added costs. "And hopefully the kitten, whatever we decide to name it, will play well with Harry. They're about the same age, relatively, I think. What are you going to name it?" They still had not gotten up from the floor, and were by this time sitting comfortably on the floor, with Harry on the couch above them, and the kitten crawling around, exploring both them and the room.
Remus laughed, and ran through his hair. "Sorry about that. But Sirius, you got me a cat! A cat!"
Sirius laughed, and got up, helping Remus up afterwards. Remus immediately went to chase after the cat. A moment later, Remus and doing his best to hold both Harry and the cat. "We have a problem. What should we name it? Because the name has to be perfect. It just has to be. There is no other option." He lifted up the cat so that he could stare at its cute furry face. "What about Chad?"
Sirius laughed for a solid 30 seconds. "Chad. That's so suburban! I love it! That is brilliant. We're like a proper suburban family; we've got a toddler and a cat named Chad! That is wonderful." Chad was currently destroying the paper wrappings from Christmas, and Harry was watching and laughing. "And I've got a friend who works at a muggle pet shop, so we can get discounts on everything!" Suddenly Sirius sniffed, and sat up at attention. "Shit, we forgot the waffles!" He then got up very quickly and ran into the kitchen.
Remus picked up the cat and put him on the couch next to Harry, and then started picking up the shredded wrapping paper. As he was doing that, Harry looked suspiciously at the furry animal in front of him. He leaned in closer, until their noses almost touched, and his eyes widened. "CAT!" he yelled out, making the poor, terrified animal jump up into the air and promptly run and hide behind the tree, giving Remus a a dirty look as it did. "Sirius, you'd better come in here. Harry is antagonizing Chad already. And apparently knows the word cat."
The smell of smoke was coming out of the kitchen, and the faucet was running full blast. "Come put out the waffles! I'll get Harry to stop." Sirius walked into the living room, with a few wisps of burnt waffle smoke came along with him. He walked over to the couch where Harry was seated. "Harry we don't yell at the cat, it gets scared." The kitten peeked out from behind the tree, seeming to slowly calm down. "Come here, Chad! Oh!" He pitched up the volume of his voice a bit to reach Remus. "We should do Harry's presents next!"
Remus answered from inside the kitchen. "All right, give me a minute! I'm just putting out the cupboards!" A few minutes later he was back in the living room, holding a very badly wrapped, but very colorful, present. He crouched down so he would be closer to Harry's height, and handed it to him. "Sorry, Sirius wrapped it." Harry grabbed it and held it tight, but looked confused. "Sirius, you want to help him out?"
Sirius smiled and began unwrapping it, leaving it in Harry's hands, ensuring he knew it was his. From out of the box he pulled four plush toys, very well made, but also obviously home-made. One was a stag, another a dog almost as big as the stag, the third a wolf only slightly smaller than the dog, and the fourth a small grey rat. Each doll was almost half as large as Harry himself, and far bigger than Chad, except the rat of course. "See this Harry? These are yours now! This one's Prongs, that's your dad. These two are Padfoot and Moony, that's me and Remus. And this one is Wormtail. He was our friend." Harry took the dolls delightedly, clearly very pleased with his new toys.
Remus looked at the presents in slight surprise, but he turned away before Sirius could see his expression. He'd known what the presents were, they'd planned them months in advance, but seeing the rat… that was not something he had expected. He has been so sure that Sirius would have taken it out of the group that he hadn't even thought to ask. And even if he'd thought about it, he probably wouldn't have. They still didn't talk much about what had happened, even though the tracking spells Sirius had put out for Peter were still active and waiting. Still, he guessed it was better. He had been their friend, one of them, and it wouldn't be honest, it wouldn't be the reality, if he wasn't in the group. Still, he appreciated it a few moments later when Chad pounced on it.
Everything was calm as the morning settled. Remus drank his coffee, with Chad prancing about playing with the wrappings. Harry played with his new toys. Prongs seemed to be his favorite. Sirius saw how happy it made him, and he knew that James would have been absurdly proud, in his uniquely James way. It suddenly struck Sirius that he would never get another chance to see anything that would make him proud. This realization slammed into him like a muggle shipping truck. Everything that Sirius had considered normal, and every one of his automatic thoughts, were brought to nothing but memories. It was almost bittersweet, seeing Harry with the model Prongs. He looked just like the pictures of James as a child.
Remus smiled as he sipped his coffee. It was Christmas, and he was with Sirius and Harry, and he's just gotten a cat. Sure, the kitchen had almost burnt down, but it wasn't too charred. Well, it was fixable. Most of it, anyways. Seeing Harry with the deer made him feel nostalgic though. He missed James and Lily. They had been his best friends, his family, and nobody could ever replace them. Still, Remus felt more at peace than he had since that terrible Halloween night. Taking care of Harry, he felt like he was repaying Prongs for everything he had done for him. And he loved Harry, he really did. He smiled at Sirius, who seemed to be completely focused on what Harry was doing. He loved Sirius too. Sirius, with his dramatic flights of fancy, with his recklessness and impulsive cat-buying, Sirius, the person who cared too much. Remus loved Sirius.
This Christmas had been a lovely one. Every year since Hogwarts, Christmas had been a Marauder celebration, and even with all of that gone, Sirius still found himself with a familiar Christmas feeling. Somewhat colder with loss, but familiar all the same. Turning to Remus, he began to talk when suddenly it seemed the whole flat was lit up with flashing lights and a screeching sound. The sound had set Chad off howling, and Harry crying, and everything was in absolute chaos. Sirius started, and then went absolutely still. The light that had been in his eyes only moments before was gone into icy blue. It was terrifying, the potential horror in that expression. Only two words were needed. "It's Peter."