"Mm, what should I get for Lily?" James asked hm-ing softly at all the trinkets and knick-knacks on display.

"You're going get her jewelry?" Peter and Remus both asked flatly.

"What? You think she won't like it?" He asked as they stared at him disbelievingly.

"Well, Lily is anything but the typical girl—" Remus began simply, enunciating clearly so that James could understand, "for whom you have very little chance of giving said gift successfully."

"She probably wouldn't be too keen on it, huh?" James asked morosely, turning away from the offending items with a sigh.

"Probably," Peter replied with a shrug.

"But what can I get her then?"

"You're the boyfriend, Prongs, you figure it out." Remus said, slinging an arm around his black haired friend.

"Oh some help you lot are." James replied sourly as the other two chuckled.

"Well I still have a few items to pick up, so good luck!" Remus chuckled good-naturedly as he left the other two.

"Oh yeah, I have to get your presents too," Peter exclaimed before coughing, "I mean, I have to get stuff. Right. It's nothing serious, Prongs, so don't follow." Peter tried to cover up before walking off in an arbitrary direction. And then there was one.

Now normally James would follow his friends in hopes of getting an early glimpse of his Christmas presents, however, there was something more important to be done.

"So what do I get her?" He asked helplessly. The wind merely howled in reply. James sighed. "Too bad Sirius isn't here; he probably would have had an idea…"

-

Yumi moaned as she tugged impatiently on Lily's arm. "How I hate Christmas shopping! How I hate Christmas!"

The red head wrinkled her nose and laughed at her friend's histrionics, "Aren't you over exaggerating just a little?"

"No," she replied sulkily, "you're just under exaggerating too much."

"And you're just jealous that I was intelligent enough to get all my Christmas shopping done beforehand." Lily teased. Yumi grumbled, indicating a correct response.

"I still don't understand how you did it!" Yumi exclaimed, "Me and Bella were usually with you at every Hogsmeade weekend and we never saw you buy any presents."

"It's a talent," Lily replied with mock conceit.

Yumi chortled, "I know, it's like magic! Blimely—you're a—a witch, aren't you, Lily Evans?" Yumi proceeded to feign shock and Lily laughed.

"So what did you get me?" Yumi asked impishly, moments later, peering up at Lily through shining blue eyes.

"A lump of coal for falsely accusing me of witchcraft."

Yumi gaped, "Well fine! I'm not getting you that book you wanted!" Lily's eyes widened and Yumi clamped her hands over her lips. "You didn't hear that!" She squeaked.

"You're getting me—"

"So what are you getting for James?" Yumi asked glibly, changing the subject.

Lily blinked, "James?"

Yumi blinked, "Yes James. James Potter. Your boyfriend?"

At Lily's look of sheer horror, Yumi at least tried not to laugh—very much, "I apologize for calling you a witch, Lily Evans." She snickered again, "You're just as human as the rest of us."

Lily moaned, "How I hate Christmas."

-

"A little to the left." Arabella mumbled into her hand as she watched Sirius move the banner back and forth across the wall. He turned to her, a dry smile on his face as his whole body bobbed up and down from the levitation spell.

"We won't ever finish if I can't hear your directions."

She coughed politely and replied, in a louder voice, "A little to the left."

She had been on edge for the whole of the afternoon, constantly mumbling her directions to him as if she were afraid to actually dictate—direct him. She would meet his gaze every once in a while, open her mouth to say something, and then fail. She was also constantly pulling her hair behind her ear in a nervous fashion and her fingers kept twitching over her wand.

"Why am I doing this again?" He sighed, feeling just as uncomfortable as she probably did. It was strange, really, that she would administer him a punishment that seemed to be punishing her just as much. It was stranger still that he had agreed to such a punishment—why had he agreed?

"Because decorating the Great Hall is better then cleaning all the trophies in the trophy room without magic." She replied without looking at him, eyes on the other decorations that still had yet to be put up.

Ah yes, so that was why.

"Right, then let me ask another: Why are we decorating the Great Hall by hand when we can easily finish the task with a wave of a wand?"

"You are decorating the Great Hall for coming into the girl's dorm without authorization." She replied briskly and he was at least pleased her voice did not drop down to a whisper at the end of the sentence. He decided to test the waters.

"Then why are we decorating it the day before Christmas when everyone will just see it at breakfast and spoil the surprise?"

"We need to make sure nothing is out of place or dangerous and Dumbledore can put a powerful cloaking charm over the Hall so that no one will get a peek until the ball."

He blinked, although he shouldn't have been surprised at her reasonable answer to such a question; though it still did seem as if there was some alternate being controlling his life and trying to make him as uneasy and miserable as possible.

"Are you quite done with the questions then," Arabella drawled, "because the Great Hall can't decorate itself."

"Well it can," he replied with a shrug, "it just won't without a little incentive."

She blinked and shook her head, still not sure if she could trust the new old Sirius Black. "We should hang these mistletoes now," Bella announced, digging through a small box labeled as such, voice drawn up to full volume.

"Mistletoes?" He repeated after her, staring inquisitively into the box at the little green stems with pointed leaves and bright red berries.

"You've never seen a mistletoe?" Arabella asked, perplexed. He idly scratched his ear as she handed him the box. "Well, basically, when two people stand under one of these things, they kiss."

He blinked, "Why?"

"It's tradition."

Another blink.

"Because in olden days mistletoes were made of horse dung and if the two people refused to kiss, the dung would fall on them and they would be cursed with bad luck forever."

"What kind of—is that true?"

"No."

Sirius gaped as Arabella tried to fight the oncomings of a smile, "Did Arabella Figg just make a funny?"

"No." It was much harder to for her to fight the urge to smile but she eventually prevailed, if only by turning so her back was to him. As he began to hang the mistletoes and various other ornaments, Sirius suddenly paused.

"So what if it's two guys?"

She shrugged easily, "Just don't get caught."

He finally decided to stay quiet after that statement. It was only a few hours later that the decorations for the Great Hall were finally finished, though not without some help from Arabella out of sheer pity and boredom.

"It's done, it's finally done!" Sirius cried, throwing his arms up in celebration.

"It really is rather lovely," Bella mused as she took in the sight, "you did good, Sirius."

He blanched, "Did Arabella Figg just compliment me—with incorrect grammar? What is the world coming too?" She rolled her eyes.

"It's just a shame that this was the last Hogsmeade opportunity before Christmas, my supplies are running low and it'll be harder to get—er, I mean—"

But Bella didn't catch his slipup, having heard nothing after the words 'Hogsmeade' and 'Christmas'. She let out a high-pitched squeak. "Oh Merlin—"

He glanced at her in confusion before realization dawned and a large smile found a near permanent home on his lips, "You didn't do your Christmas shopping did you?" At her wide eyed stare, he could only chortle further, "Oh this is too rich! Perfect prefect Bella Figg forgot to do her Christmas shopping!"

"No! It isn't my fault! There was just always something to do or something going on and then you had to bloody go into our room and stop laughing will you?" She screeched as Sirius continued to cackle with glee. Her eyes twitched and her breathing suddenly hitched irregularly. Sirius paused as she continued with her mental breakdown; she was now sitting on the floor with her arms propped against her legs and her head swaying back and forth pathetically. Sirius felt an uncomfortable shift in his stomach and groaned—really, of all the times to grow a conscience. But, Sirius had to admit, it was sort of kind of maybe slightly possibly his fault that she was here at this moment.

"Hey," Sirius deadpanned as he came up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. The contact seemed to draw her from her daze slightly as she peered up at him with glazed eyes. But in an instant, she could see nothing save a sudden pick blackness.

"Sirius! What in the world—why can't I see?" She bellowed in what she hoped was his general direction. As he was currently hefting her over his shoulder like a sack of cauldrons, she was quite on target.

He swore, "Christ, Bells, now I know where they got your name!"

"If you don't like it then put me down!" She yelled, wriggling in his grasp and trying to find her wand so that she could hex him—or something else that would be justifiable in a court of prefects.

"Sirius!" He paid her no attention as she screeched—painfully—into his ears once again. She did, however,manage to hear him mutter, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good" through her own cries of frustration.

"I should say so!" She snorted, crossing her arms over her chest as she dried to keep her head up—lest the blood rush to her head. He chuckled slightly but showed no other signs of listening to her, or stopping.

"For the love of Hogwarts, Sirius, will you please let me see again?" She pleaded as she heard a strange creaking. She suddenly got the notion that they were now traveling…up?

"Sirius—" The spell was taken off and in an instant, Arabella found herself face to face with a snow covered, "Hogsmeade," she breathed. "But what—how did—when did—forget it, I don't want to know." She sighed, knowing that she wouldn't receive any answers anyway, judging by the look on his face.

"Think of it this way, now you have plausible deniability." He replied with a shrug as he stuck his thumbs into his pockets. He was in a state of shock himself, mortified that he had actually taken her through one of the Marauder's secret tunnels. He composed himself and leaned against the wall of Honeydukes, "Go on, get to it now."

She furrowed her brow, "Get to what?"

"Shopping," the word rolled slowly off his tongue as if to also say, "What else you daft fool?"

"Well there's only a slight problem with that." Arabella said, arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently, as if to also say, "You forget something important you bloody twit."

"Which is?"

"I didn't exactly bring my money." She sighed exasperatedly. Sirius blinked before sliding flat on his bum.

-

A/N: Lucky for you newcomers, there's a whole extra scene added for your enjoyment—sort of. I don't think the Lily and Yumi scene amounted to much. But the Arabella and Sirius scene also became much longer. Though the chapter is still on the short side, it was around three pages long without the A/N and the reader responses in the first one.

Now there's just one little problem: the Ball chapter, which is the next one, is giving me an awful time right now. There's lots to add, lots to take out, and so many things to fix that I need to take a deep breath and some time away from it in order to see what is important to the chapter and what isn't. So I decided it might be nicer for you guys to just upload these three chapters and wait until the Ball chapter is finished and upload that separately, since the Ball chapter is becoming the length of four chapters, anyway. In the mean time, enjoy these chapters and a few oneshots I've written in the past few days.

Also, just found out I can switch the chapters around on will and am a bit peeved at that. But oh well.