Chapter 38

(A/N: )

December 31, 1995

"Happy New Years Eve, Sirius!" Tonks shouted across the kitchen at her cousin.

"Hmph, replied Sirius. His jolly Christmas spirit had gradually been decreasing as he realized that the holidays wouldn't last forever, and soon Harry would go back to school.

"Oh, come off it. You've got till Wednesday," Tonks reminded him.

"Wednesday. What kind of day is that to go back? They'd have to start term on Thursday, when the week is almost over! Would it really hurt that much to give them a few more days off?" he muttered. "Honestly."

"I'm sorry, Sirius," said Tonks, knowing that nothing she could say would prevent what happened next.

"Stupid! Merlin, it's just so stupid! Me not being allowed out, the stupid Ministry not doing anything—WHY IS THE WORLD SO UNHELPFUL?! And furthermore, why is Harry not allowed to spend more time with his handsome, wonderful, adoring—"

"Is he at it again?" Remus asked, walking into the kitchen.

"Yeah," replied Tonks.

"—intelligent, amazing, beautiful,-"

"Not arrogant one bit, is he?"

"—fabulous, witty, funny, extraordinary godfather?" he finished. "I mean, I'm so awesome that-

"Shall we go upstairs?" asked Remus, who was getting very tired of his friend's conceited way of thinking.

"—idiotic, mentally retarded, hell of a Ministry should go shove their—"

"Sure," said Tonks.

Up in the library, they continued with what was now a daily routine of together time, with the doors locked, and the locks magically reinforced. The way this usually went was Remus started off reading a book to Tonks, but eventually they both got distracted, and the book was cast aside.

"It snowing," murmured Tonks, as Remus lifted her onto his lap.

"It's been snowing, haven't you noticed? We've been in a huge blizzard for the past few days," he informed her.

"Really?" asked Tonks. She'd been blissfully ignorant to the weather recently as the Ministry had given her some days off in exchange for forcing her to work on Christmas.

"Mm," was all he said, as was rather busy kissing along her jaw, gradually making his way to her mouth.

"Mew."

"Wha...? Oh—Bubbles!"

"How is it I am always interrupted?" Remus muttered.

"Oh, but Remus... she's such a cute kitty, just look at her face," Tonks said. Bubbles hissed at Remus, which annoyed him nearly as much as the fact that she sometimes got more attention than he did.

"Bubbles! Bad kitty, don't hiss at Remus," Tonks cooed.

"Stop talking to it like it's an innocent little child," Remus told her. "She's truly evil."

"Well, to you maybe, but only because you're so mean—" she was cut off by a noise that sounded as if a heard of buffalo was running down the stairs. "What the...?"

The two of them apparated downstairs to find Arthur, back from St. Mungos and standing in the kitchen. Although Molly could be... well... kind of aggressive sometimes, it was obvious that he'd missed her cooking. "... Terrible stuff they had in the hospital, looked like dirt and didn't taste much better..." he said between mouthfuls.

"Oh, Arthur, you're back just in time for New Years..."

"Dad, Fred and George keep trying their experiments on me... go tell them off..."

Later on that evening, as it was beginning to get dark, Sirius came in to the library, his only goal, it seemed to annoy Remus.

"Moony..."

Remus ignored him.

"Moony. Moooooooooonnnnnnnny. Moony! MOONY!"

"For Merlin's sake, Sirius! WHAT?"

"Hi..." Sirius said timidly. "Where's Tonks?"

"I don't know. Why is it any business of yours, anyway?" Remus asked.

"Because, she's doing to get drunk with me, and you are, too," Sirius informed him.

"Not very likely," muttered Remus.

An hour later, Tonks, Sirius, and Remus were all sitting in the living room."Why did you agree to this again?" Remus asked Tonks.

"I did tell him when I first moved in that I'd get drunk with him sometime," Tonks told him. "Stop acting so negative, Remus. It's New Year's Eve; we should all have fun!"

"Like that'll happen," he grumbled.

"Oh, come off it, Remus. Once you get nice and pissed—"

"I'm not drinking. It's a bad example to those who are underage, and, being a werewolf, it takes quite a lot to get me 'nice and pissed' as you call it," he said.

"But Remus! It's New Year's Eve! You can't just sit around all night, reading!" Sirius whined.

"I'm not going to sit around reading all night," Remus snapped. "Unlike you two, I'm actually going to get some sleep."

10:07 pm

"Why, why, did I agree to this?" Remus moaned.

"Because, you're my best friend, and you want me to be happy, Moony," Sirius answered. "Now, here, take this..."