Natalie was released from the Hospital Wing only a few days before the Christmas holiday was set to start. Her teachers had been given slightly vague details of her sick leave from the headmaster, and they were all very sympathetic and understanding. With a promise from all of them that she would be able to finish the work she missed over the holiday, she allowed herself to relax and recover in the castle before the holiday started instead of driving herself crazy trying to work on the load of homework she had waiting for her.
The snow had started finally, as the students had been expecting it for days before it made its appearance on the Friday afternoon before half of the castle went back to their homes to enjoy the holidays with their families. Natalie was sitting in the Great Hall, a plate full of delicious steak and bread in front of her, accompanied by a steaming hot bowl of creamy chicken soup, set in front of her. As she dipped a piece of crispy bread into the soup, chewing slowly, she stared up at the enchanted ceiling and gazed at the snow falling over the table, the thick snowflakes floating dreamily just over the student's plates and then disappearing.
When she looked back down from the ceiling, intending to take another bite of food, she saw James sitting next to her, watching her patiently. Slightly startled, she scolded him for scaring her in her fragile state.
Apologizing, he said, "How's the healing coming along?"
"I'm a bit sore," she said, pushing around some crumbs on her emptying plate, "but alright otherwise."
"Going home for the holidays?" he asked, making friendly conversation while stealing a piece of steak from in front of her.
"Yes," she responded, stealing it back from him right before he put it in his mouth, and eating it herself
"Got any plans?" he asked again, taking another piece of food and eating it quickly before Natalie could stop him.
"No," she answered truthfully. "I'll most likely be catching up on all the homework I owe. Perhaps eat a frozen dinner."
"Your mum doesn't cook?"
"My mum won't be home," she said.
James stopped moving and stared at her as if she were crazy. "You'll be home alone on Christmas?"
"Most of the holiday I will be, actually. It's a very busy time for Muggles; my mother usually works as much as she possibly can."
For the past few years, once Natalie's mother landed the factory job, she had indeed spent her Christmas holidays alone, for the exception of Jason's few visits. This year, though, she wouldn't have that to rely on. She would spend the days doing homework and reading through textbooks, starting her studying early for finals; the nights she would spend scrounging for food and watching the television, laughing at the Muggle programs and their stupidity. It was lonesome, and she longed to go back to the castle by the end of the holiday, but she didn't mind it too much.
"You can't be alone on Christmas," James said, as if he was stating the obvious.
"I'd rather be alone in my own home than alone here," she told him, fact-like.
He was silent for a moment, thinking things inside his own mind that Natalie couldn't see, though she would admit that she was interested. When he spoke again, it was plain that he had already made a decision on the matter, and that he would not accept any thoughts from Natalie unless they agreed with his own.
"You'll spend Christmas with me and my family, then."
Though she was touched by his act of friendship, as she had never really experienced anything of that nature before, she immediately turned his offer down. "No, no, really I'll be fine on my own. I do it every year."
"Come on," he pleaded, "its loads of fun. My parents can tell you all sorts of embarrassing stories about me. And there's always a ton of food, my mum's a great cook."
"I don't want to be a bother to your parents," she started, but James cut her off.
"You wouldn't be a bother. My dad wouldn't let my mum have any more kids after they'd seen what I was like, so they love having people over. My dad plays exploding snap with all of us, it's quite fun."
Even though James hadn't said it directly, Natalie was good enough at reading between the lines to realize that the rest of the Marauders were more than likely to be spending the day at the Potter's house. If Natalie went as well, with Sirius in the same room the entire night, she knew it would be the most awkward thing for everyone in the situation.
"I can't," she told James.
"Why?" he asked, quite saddened by her refusal.
Natalie sighed, already exhausted with the conversation. "Sirius will be there, won't he?"
"Nat," he started, "if you'd just let me tell him-"
"No, James. I've told you before, I don't want him knowing," she said, her voice stern. "And your house is his, too, so it would be rude if I was there while he was."
"He won't be!" James almost yelled. "He won't be back to our house until late that night. He's going to try and make contact with his brother, though I don't see how it'll be much help. The little bugger's already ruined."
Natalie was still hesitant. James saw this and pleaded again, assuring her that it wouldn't be awkward at all, that it would only be fun and that he really wanted her to come.
"Alright, I'll go," she said, exasperated at his attempts and finally giving in.
"Good," he said, smiling at his win. "You can't apparate yet, can you?"
"I'll be able to on the 21st."
She knew how, of course, she was one of the very first people to be able to apparate during their lessons, but it was not legal for her to do so until a few days into the holiday, when her birthday would be taking place.
"Well I know where you live, Sirius took me past your house once last summer," he said, ignoring the look of utter surprise on Natalie's face, "so I'll come get you since you don't know where I live and then you can apparate back yourself whenever you want."
Satisfied with himself, he strode out of the Great Hall leaving Natalie sitting alone at the Ravenclaw table wondering what she had just gotten herself into.
The streets of London were covered in a thick covering of the whitest snow; pure like a newly hatched dove, and as quiet. It glistened in the places untouched by human interference, almost glittering in the rays of dying sunlight. Acting as a blanket, it kept the world from suffering from the below freezing temperatures and cast a peaceful silence upon the houses it surrounded. Drifting slowly, it covered everything from park benches to people's homes, making them look dream-like, as if they were just plucked out of a children's Christmas tale.
Natalie was standing on her front porch, having discretely removed the wet snow with her wand. Her birthday was a few days prior, and she found a whole new world of magic having turned the legalizing age of 17. Bundled in several layers of socks, shirts, pants, and her thickest sweater, she held a cold hand up to her nose, attempting to lessen the numbness spreading across her face. She was staring out into the distance, listening for the ever familiar pop of someone apparating close by and waiting for her friend to come collect her.
She was concentrating so intently that she hardly noticed someone walking up her drive until she saw them out of the corner of her eye when they appeared at the step below her. Jumping slightly from surprise, Natalie made eye contact with someone she was quite hoping to avoid during her holiday home.
"Natalie," came a cold voice from a face with sandy blonde hair and plain brown eyes. "It's been too long."
Jason had clearly just come from his warm home because Natalie noticed his face was not pink from cold as hers surely was. Feeling marginally self-conscious, mostly from embarrassment at the way she had ended things with him, she pulled her sweater tighter across her body, doing nothing to shield her presence from him.
"What are you doing here, Jason?" she asked, hoping he would take the hint that she didn't want him there and leave.
"Well, I saw you standing here alone and thought I'd come say hello. We do usually see each other over the holiday," he said, as if he was stating something completely obvious.
"Yes, when we were together," Natalie retorted in the same tone of voice, becoming irritated.
Jason looked at her for a moment, his mouth shut tight in a straight line that indicated the anger brewing beneath his annoyingly pale brown turtleneck. "I was hoping we'd forget about that little indiscretion on your part. But if you insist on bringing it up, I suppose we may talk about it."
Natalie was infuriated. Was Jason pretending they were still a couple? She took a lot of mistreatment from him at times, but now that he was not part of her present life anymore, she didn't feel the need to keep her thoughts to herself. She was no longer attached to him; she no longer needed to listen to his lectures about her behavior or anything else he felt the need to comment on.
"Indiscretion?" she asked, taking a step toward him, just barely a head taller as she stood on the stoop above him. "I broke it off with you. You can't just choose to ignore it. I've ended our relationship, and I did it a while ago."
"It is a mistake on your part to make such a rash decision on what will only be a temporary feeling," he said stuffily, overlooking everything Natalie had just said.
"Well it is my mistake to make, you have no choice in the matter," she told him forcefully.
Jason reached out and grabbed her wrist tightly, cutting off circulation almost immediately. Natalie tried to take a step back, attempting to pull her wrist from his grip but he was too strong. "You will do as I say, Natalie," he threatened, and was about to say something else before he was cut off by someone at the end of the driveway.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Natalie turned her head quickly and looked over Jason's shoulder to see James and Remus coming up the walkway toward her. Remus looked furious, his lightly colored brown eyes narrowed at Jason, an intense concentration on his face that reminded her of the wolf hiding inside him. James looked, if at all possible, angrier than the ferociousness seen on Remus' face. However, his eyes were on Natalie instead of the man holding her still. The two stopped a few paces before reaching Jason, both sliding their hands into their pockets where Natalie knew their wands were stored, waiting at the ready to use them if the circumstance called for it.
"Let her go," James said, his voice calm and contrasting shockingly with the viscous anger in his eyes.
Jason took in James and Remus' appearances slowly, narrowing his eyes at the fact that they were hiding their hands and turning his nose up at Remus' shabby clothing and James' messy black hair. He turned back to Natalie and sneered. "Is that him, then? The handsome dark haired boy you were seeing all summer?"
"And what if I am?" James asked, stepping forward slowly, barely noticeable, not letting Natalie answer.
She stayed silent. Jason raised his eyebrow at James and turned to face him, not letting go of his strong grip on her arm. She could feel a bruise forming quickly. "Well, congratulations then. Not many people would have stayed with someone who cheated on them for so long. It certainly says something about your character…"
James stared unwaveringly at Jason, not letting his insults affect him in the slightest. He said again, "let her go."
Looking down at his hand clenched around Natalie's wrist, he let go and ran the hand through his slicked back hair. Natalie cradled her wrist and rubbed it vigorously, trying to get feeling back to her fingers.
"We will see each other again, no doubt," Jason said to her, using a tone of voice that Natalie knew was a threatening one.
"Don't count on it," Remus chimed in, still eyeing Jason with a look of pure loathing.
Jason smoothed his shirt by running both hands down his chest and locked his hands together behind his back. Starting to walk away, he looked at James and Remus with disgust. He had to push his way through the two men as they would not move to let him through, and he walked away irritated.
When Jason was out of sight the boys dropped their intimidating faces and rushed to see if Natalie was okay. Remus rubbed her shoulder comfortingly while James grabbed a handful of icy snow and held it to her wrist.
"I'm alright, really. It's just a bit red," she said, shooing them away from her hand and looking them both in the eyes. "Thank you."
The boys both knew she was referring to them handling the situation from before. They both nodded, not wanting to be invasive by asking her any questions. Instead, James simply took her hand and turned quickly on the spot, sending the two of them through a tight, oxygen depraved flight through space and landing on the other side right outside James' house, Remus appearing next to them a second later.
James' house was big and beautiful. Located on a lonely street somewhere outside London, Natalie could see the spacious yard under the blanket of snow and wondered what it was used for when it was warm and full of lush green grass. She could picture James and Sirius flying brooms in the backyard, running into the quaint green door in the front of the lightly colored house when they became too tired.
Upon entering, Natalie was immediately bathed in warmth. There was a large fireplace in the middle of a sitting area that filled the entire house in a sleepy comfort along with the wintery smell of burning logs. As she moved deeper into James' home she also smelled the unmistakable scent of warm cider and cinnamon, hopefully meaning that James' mother was baking some sort of deliciously warm dessert.
"Mum, Dad," James called as they entered the bright and welcoming kitchen, "we're back!"
James was an impressive mix of both of his parents. His mother, smiling a rosy cheeked smile from behind a set of pans boiling in midair with different foods splashing in and out, had most obviously given James her kind and caring eyes with the addition of the necessity for glasses. She bustled over to Natalie and gave her a tight hug, saying, "Hello, dear, we've heard so much about you!"
His father was the person James got his dark hair and glasses from, though his hair was neat and parted perfectly compared to his son's untidiness. He raised his head from behind a copy of the Daily Prophet and greeted Natalie just as warmly as his wife, though without the hugging.
"Please, have a seat children, supper is almost ready," Mrs. Potter ushered James, Remus and Natalie to a large and beautiful wooden table, with the grain creating interesting lines and curves that Natalie let her eyes follow for just a moment.
The food was remarkable, far better than any cooking Natalie had ever experienced, and there was so much. It was almost comparable to a Hogwarts feast as there were so many options. Natalie filled her plate and her stomach with lamb, sausages, potatoes, beans, leafy salads, delectable sauces, rolls that she promised herself she would only have one more of, and several different kinds of casseroles until she was certain that she could no longer fit one more morsel of food into her body.
She was enjoying herself, truly having a nice time, for the first time in what seemed like ages. Once dessert and tea was served, Mrs. Potter setting cakes, cookies and trifles down across the small table in the sitting room, she delighted in listening to James and Remus sharing stories of their first term at school, chiming in occasionally when she felt her opinion would be appreciated.
When the door in the front of the house opened, Natalie didn't even remember that she wasn't in her own home, that there was one other person who lived in the house that she knew wouldn't be happy with her company.
Sirius followed the voices into the sitting room, looking weather worn and tired. His face lightened when he saw the Potters and Remus and started taking off his heavy jacket before he noticed Natalie sitting in the arm chair beside him.
She was avoiding everyone's eye contact, a wave of blood rushing up to her cheeks, thoroughly embarrassed. Certainly Sirius was close enough with James' parents to have told them all about their relationship. What were they thinking at that moment? She thought she had made a nice impression on them, but of course they would be more protective over someone they thought of as their own son. Natalie put down her half empty glass of tea quietly and got out of her chair, making her way towards the coat closet to retrieve her things.
There was whispering from the other room. She heard scuffling of shoes and Sirius saying, "What is she doing here?" It was almost a guarantee that James would try to get her to stay. Wanting to avoid an awkward confrontation, she exited the house quietly, pulling the door closed behind her and disapparated on the front porch.
The snow under her feet muffled the sound of her hitting the ground, sending some of it flying up into the air. It created a dream-like look of glistening air around Natalie, but she did not stay in one spot to watch it fall back to the ground again.
Natalie had apparated a block from her home, knowing full well that Jason would be looking for any sign of her. She started walking in the direction of her house, her feet pounding the snow under her into flat piles of what would become ice in a few hours' time. The wind was picking up, sending her long locks of blonde hair flying in every direction. As she tried to pull it all back into one place to attempt to get her hood up she heard someone behind her.
"Hey!"
It was hard to hear over the oncoming blizzard, but the noise was unmistakably another human. Natalie turned around and, to her great surprise, saw Sirius' dark head bounding toward her, his curls matted down under the wet snow falling ever harder over both of their heads.
He stopped at arm's length in front of her, his brows furrowed in an emotion that Natalie found hard to pinpoint. She had her arms wrapped tightly around herself, sheltering her as much as she could from the thick snowflakes falling around her. Sirius stood with his hands at his sides, not caring for even a second about the cold.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he said loudly, making sure he was heard over the whistling wind.
Natalie was taken aback. It took her a moment to get her vocal cords to work, but when she did, she retorted, "James promised he wouldn't say anything."
"Well I'm glad he did. You should have told me," Sirius yelled, leaving his sentence without a real ending.
Not knowing what to say, her mind reeling, she could do nothing more than turn around and continue walking in the direction of her home, her hair whipping her face in the wild winds. She felt a hand on her wrist turning her around, the same one that Jason had harassed earlier. Sirius' touch was gentle, however, and Natalie could feel the warmth of his fingers despite the bitter cold that was introducing itself into the atmosphere. She looked up into his eyes, the eyes she constantly wished she could dive into and feel safe and loved forever.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, desperation on his face, wanting to know the answer to everything he was questioning in his mind.
"You made your decision without me telling you anything."
Sirius looked at her, taking in everything about her appearance at that moment. Her blonde hair flying around her face, almost ethereal but still beautiful, her skin, pale and flushed from the cold, her blue eyes boring into his own. He wanted to hold her in his arms, to keep her warm and to feel her heart beat in time with his. Before he had formulated a sentence in his mind, his lips said, "I made the wrong one."
Natalie's breath caught in her throat. Though her skin was cold, her insides were boiling. She wasted no time, not bothering to give Sirius any answer to his words. She stepped close to him and hoisted herself onto her toes, giving her enough height to wrap her hand around the back of his neck and pull his lips onto hers. She could feel him smile and kiss her back eagerly, the both of them realizing how much they missed the other's touch.
They ran back to Natalie's empty house, not bothering to hide themselves from the potential of Jason's prying eyes. As she locked the door behind them, Sirius pulled her into his arms, not wanting to waste one moment without her close to him. They were a sight to see, damp from the falling snow, bundled in a hodgepodge of their warmest clothing, but neither of them could spare a moment to care about their appearances.
They wanted nothing more than to be in each other's embrace. Natalie's hands found Sirius' hair, his cheeks, the zipper of his jacket. Soon enough the two of them were in their normal clothing, drenched in sweat from the heat of the house mixed with the heat from their layers mixed with the heat from each other. Their embrace was rough, Sirius holding Natalie to him by the small of her back, his hand pressing hard into her skin and Natalie making sure Sirius wasn't able to leave her lips by holding his head in place with her hand on the back of his neck. Rough, but adoring.
Natalie and Sirius were lost in each other, the white wonderland of the outside world an unimportant detail of their time together. Not even when they found the staircase and climbed their way to the second floor did they break contact with each other. The latch catching as a door was locked, the creak of a bedspring, and two became one for the first time.