Oh, gosh.

I'm so sorry! I know, almost a week, blahdy blah blah. Etc. But truly, my excuse would bore you to death.

Thank you to Dalonega Noquisi, Gurl5678 (x2…), xSiriusly Insanex (x4!), bassetboy244, Guest, HT188, EmerC, caring16, another Guest and Charlyxx.

Right, for the helpful Guest review that I got, that told me that Selene was a little Mary-sue. Well, she is (it's hard to write someone who completely isn't) but she isn't. Yes, she's weak, but that's because she's used to being so. I am trying to make her have more faults, but one of them is that she doesn't really stand up for herself much. More will crop up soon; I really listened to your advice. She does stand up for herself in this chapter, but I had to make her in character, so it might not be what you really wanted.

Please review, and look at my new stories as well! Expect new ones soon!


"Oh, all the lights are shining, so brightly everywhere." - All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey [Getting in the Christmassy mood, in October!]


Chapter 52: Ghosts Of Christmas

"HI HERMIONE!" Lily yelled, right into Hermione's ear. "HOW ARE YOU?!"

"I'm fine Lily." Hermione laughed, peeling her woollen hat off her head. Professor McGonagall had told the pair of them the good news that Mr Weasley would pull through the day before, and now the pair of them was eager to get to Grimmauld Place. Hermione was missing Ron, Harry and Selene especially, and Lily wanted to meet Sirius. "Just because I'm wearing a hat doesn't mean I'm deaf."

Lily grinned, and shook her head. "I know that, I'm just excited." She admitted. "Who's meeting us? Do you know?"

"I think Professor McGonagall's taking us to the Knight Bus, and then Kingsley's taking us from there." Hermione guessed, looking at her watch. "There're only a couple of minutes."

"Kingsley?" Lily enquired. "As in the Auror that Dora works with? He's one of them too?"

Hermione laughed again, and nodded. "Moody - the real Moody, I mean - as well."

Lily nodded. She looked around the Entrance Hall, and grinned toothily as Professor McGonagall walked up to the pair of them. "Hey Professor." She said cheerily. "How are you?"

"I'm quite alright thank you Miss Tonks." Professor McGonagall said briskly. "You are both ready, I presume?"

Hermione opened her mouth to answer, but Lily got there first. "Yes!" She said eagerly. "And Hermione is too!"

Professor McGonagall bit back a smile at Lily's excitement. "That's good." She said, in the sternest voice she could, which wasn't very stern. Nymphadora Tonks had been a handful all on her own, but Lily tripled the legacy. She was a massive mixture of her mother's sarcasm and temper, and her father's strangeness.

She sometimes thought that Lily had given her more grey hairs than the Weasley twins had altogether. Quite the impressive feat. It was a marvel how Andromeda managed to stay sane at all, let alone sane and keep the Black attribute of aging like a very expensive cheese – very well.

And now Liliana Tonks was about to meet her previously estranged cousin, and they would probably get along like a house on fire, maybe even actually setting the house literally on fire.

Professor McGonagall severely hoped that they wouldn't actually set the house on fire, as that would be a hassle to explain to the Muggle authorities and leave the Order without a meeting place.

Making a mental note to remind Kingsley to keep an eye on Lily and Sirius, Professor McGonagall nodded briskly, taking Hermione and Lily's trunks and shrinking them with a simple wave of her wand. "I'll see you to the gates." She said, setting off at a pace that made both girls run to catch up.

The three of them walked in silence to the gates, Lily waving at a few of her friends, but not doing much else, having said goodbye to them the night before. "Decided what you're getting Ron and Harry then 'Mione?" Lily asked, after a little while, waving to a cheery Hagrid.

"Homework diaries." Hermione said decisively. "Got them last week, in fact. OWLs are coming up, you know."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Well I got Harry a book on '101 Ways To Annoy Teachers'." She envisioned, grinning like a lunatic. "Beautiful piece of literature. Great tips, I hope he'll use it against Umbitch."

Professor McGonagall choked slightly when she heard the nickname for her colleague up close and personally, but otherwise didn't say anything. If she was being honest it suited Dolores rather well.

"You shouldn't encourage him." Hermione scolded gently. "My present will greatly help the pair of them, especially Ronald. He leaves his until the last minute."

"Well, what did you get Selene then?" Lily asked, crossing her arms somewhat childishly. "I bet my present is better than yours."

"Lily, wait and see." Hermione said wisely, biting back a little smile. "I'm sure mine will be better than yours."

"Don't be childish." Lily said, in a tone that mimicked that of her mother. "I think Mum and Dad are coming over for Christmas Day, as Sellie's spending Christmas Eve down at our end."

Hermione said nothing, although she wanted to retort with something. You could never win with Liliana Tonks, she reminded herself. It would take a great man or woman to beat her in a pissing contest, or any other type of contest.

"Okay." She compromised on, sighing with relief when Lily shut up. Hermione didn't think that she could cope with the full-on Lily for much longer, and now she was facing a whole holiday in the same room as the girl.

Thank the Holy Hippogriffs for her knitting.


"MUDBLOODS! VILE BY-PRODUCTS OF DIRT AND SCUM, THE CANKER OF OUR TREE ROTTING AWAY THE PUREST HOUSE OF BLACK-"

"Shut IT!" Sirius yelled, slamming the curtains shut with the help of Remus. "Tonks, was that you?"

"Sorry!" Tonks yelled up the stairs. "I miscalculated the gap between that bloody hat stand and me again! And then the front door opened onto me!"

Sirius rolled his eyes, smiling inwardly. He had missed everything, even this. Sure, it was fun with just him, Remus and Tonks, but only the 'kids' made the house seem light again. Hopefully Albus would be true to his word and get him a trial, and then get him freed and pardoned. Then he could get out of this miserable hole.

"You're such a klutz Dora." A new, younger voice said, and Remus winced. He certainly remembered that voice. After all, the owner had once knocked him clean over (he never actually found out why and how that happened). "Nice place."

"Lily." Hermione chastised, and Remus could hear her rolling her eyes from where they were standing. "We've been working very hard to get this place cleaned up, you know."

"Yeah, it's still a gloomy hovel though." Lily groaned, and Sirius chuckled.

"That's my cousin, I take it?" He asked, smirking when Remus nodded cautiously. "She seems like a laugh. Mind if I…?"

Remus tried to protest, but Sirius was already out of his reach. "Hello!" Sirius greeted, his voice booming through the house, and Remus reached for the curtains out of habit. "Do I hear one Liliana Tonks?"

"DON'T CALL ME LILIANA!" Lily yelled, looking rather pleased with herself as Remus had to forcefully hold the curtains closed. She turned to Sirius with a grin on her face, and extended her hand almost innocently. "Yes, I'm Lily Tonks. My sister goes by Tonks, I go by Lily. One 'L'. I take it you are my escaped-criminal-who's-actually-innocent cousin, Sirius Black?"

Sirius took Lily's hand, somewhat stupidly. He jumped backwards when he touched her hand, like he'd been jolted, and in unison, he and his younger cousin burst into helpless peals of laughter.

"What's the matter?" Mrs Weasley asked, coming running from the kitchen. "I heard shouting, and laughter… Oh, Lily! It's nice to see you dear!"

Lily nodded at Mrs Weasley, before submerging into giggles again. "I have a new apprentice Remus!" Sirius called.

Remus face palmed.


Harry stuck his head around the door to the drawing room, and swallowed. Hermione gave him a little push, which made the door creak.

Everyone turned to stare at the doorway, Fred standing up when he saw whom it was. Ever since going to see Mr Weasley, Harry had been subject to a kind of boycott from the others, except the adults, who were determined not to take a side.

"You've-" Fred began, but Selene pushed him back down. "Oi, come o-"

"Silencio." Selene said quickly, waving her wand at her boyfriend, leaving him gulping like a goldfish. She walked up to Harry with a slightly pale face, and then squared her shoulders.

"Look, Sel-" Harry began, but Selene cut him off with a swift silencing charm too

"Harry, I understand what you're going through." She said, pushing past the almost insurmountable tension in the room. "And I totally understand why you yelled at me, but don't you think comparing me to my father is a little too far?"

Harry opened his mouth to say that he did, but then he remembered the silencing charm and swallowed. "Look." Selene continued, turning around momentarily to glare at George, who was silently communicating to his twin. "You know I hate saying things like this, but what you said…"

"You shouldn't have walked out, then-" Ginny began to supplement, but shrank backwards when Selene glared at her too.

"Yeah, what she said." Selene admitted, running a hand through her loose hair. "But okay. Harry, I'm sick of being walked over." She directed this comment at Fred, who shrugged, still looking put out. "So… um, that's it."

"Well that was anti-climatic." George cut in, standing up and stretching. With the merest flick of his wand, he undid the silencing charm that was affecting George, and Hermione wordlessly helped Harry. "Now that's over and done with, what were we discussing?"

"Something about Sirius's idea." Ginny piped up, grinning at Harry. "I still think we should bowl for it."

Harry pulled Selene out of the firing range of the rest of the group before any of them could protest. "Selene, I'm sorry." He finally finished. "You're right, I was out of order."

"It's fine." Selene said quickly, reaching a hand out to carefully brush her fingers against the nasty coloured bruise on Harry's cheek. He flinched, but didn't flinch away. "Give me a second."

She ducked out of the room, and then reappeared a few moments later holding a tub of what looked like strange yellow paste in the palm of her hand. "Oh, it's just Bruise Paste." She said, in answer to Harry's curious glance. "Fred and George decided (rather foolishly) to produce Punching Telescopes a couple of weeks ago, and they needed a fast-working serum for it, or they'd be walking around with at least two black eyes all the time."

"Mrs Weasley already helped it." Harry protested. "It'll just take a few days to heal, that's what she said."

"I did the research for this, I think it should work." Selene bit her lip, and then passed the tub to Harry. "Um, you do it."

Harry looked for the little tub, to Selene, back to the tub, and then back to Selene. "You?" He said hoarsely. "With all of your NEWT work, and your tutoring, you developed this?"

Selene went rather pink, but nodded. "Go on." She said quickly, before she could get too awkward. "I'm sorry too Harry, but I assumed Sirius had told you, and I haven't really talked about Uncle Reg to anyone in years."

"It's fine!" Harry blurted. "It's fine, really, it's fine. It's understandable, seriously. At least now we're even. Unless you're secretly my sister."

Selene laughed and shook her head. "I'm not." She determined. "But I think I'm fine as I am Harold."

"It's Harry, Whatever." Harry retorted.

"OI!" Fred yelled, and Selene jumped. "You two just going to stand there and gossip all day? Lily has the best ideas!"

Lily flicked her hair back and smirked widely. "Right." She said, in a stage whisper, as Harry and Selene took seats among the group. "I had this idea, all I need is a large shipping order of Muggle Santa Hats and Christmas Ties."

"Sorted." The twins grinned, high-fiving each other.

"Great." Lily leaned backwards and tented her fingers somewhat pensively. "I think the Order need to loosen up a bit, am I right? What better way then a shipment of Firewhiskey, and a mixture of absurdness and craziness on Christmas Eve?"

Selene looked at Lily strangely. "We're not here for Christmas Eve, remember Lily?" She reminded her cousin.

"Where are you then?" Fred asked curiously, snaking an arm around Selene's waist.

"Oh, with Uncle Ted and Aunty Andy." Selene explained quickly. "They invited me over in September, and I think Uncle Ted wants to take us to see the Muggle Christmas Lights in the Town Centre!" She said eagerly.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Honestly, you're just as bad as Dad." He complained. "What is it with Muggles and you, really?"

Hermione elbowed him. "Honestly Ronald." She groaned. "I think it's lovely that Selene's interested in Muggle culture."

Selene blushed, and then turned a cherry red colour when Fred pressed his lips to her cheek in a long, lingering kiss. "It's very interesting!" She said, in quite a high-pitched voice. Fred smirked triumphantly, but otherwise didn't do anything. "I wish I'd done Muggle Studies, but I doubt my parents would have liked that at all."

The group shared looks at large. That was the first time that Selene had willingly talked about her parents without stumbling over her words or trying to avoid the subject altogether. Hermione broke the silence by smiling and reaching across to squeeze her friend's hand. "I'm sure Professor Burbage would have liked to teach you Selene." She said, encouragingly. "We did a whole module on how Muggles live without magic in Third Year, and Fay said that I would have done film and TV culture if I'd kept it up."

"How do Muggles live without magic?" Selene asked eagerly, but George elbowed her in the side to shut her up.


Before you could really tell it, Christmas Eve was upon them, and it was snowing thickly outside, despite the sun of only a week previous. They had been to see Mr Weasley a few times since Hermione and Lily came, but the twins had always sneaked off mysteriously during the visits. Even Selene wasn't sure where they went, but she didn't find herself immediately wanting to know.

Not yet, anyway.

Lily had let Sirius in on the secret about the Santa hats and Christmas ties, and he had agreed to help them out. Sirius loved Lily, although he understood that he definitely couldn't be as protective with her as he was with Selene. Whereas Selene grinned and bared it, Lily would probably just try to murder him. Maybe Lily could be a Miniature Marauder, like James had once wanted Harry to be?

Mrs Weasley had roped Selene, Hermione and Ginny in to help with cooking for the Christmas dinner, which apparently needed to be started two days before that actual date. This included keeping Dora away from the food at all times, as she was either going to burn it or drop it, and keep the twins, Sirius and Lily out of the kitchen altogether.

"Selene, dear, could you go and check on the twins please?" Mrs Weasley asked Selene wearily. "Its just there hasn't been much noise from their room for a while, I think they might be up to something."

Selene nodded. "Sure Mrs Weasley." She said politely, untying the apron that she had on and hanging it on the back of one of the old kitchen chairs.

"How many times have I told you?" Mrs Weasley laughed, turning away from the roast potatoes and smothering Selene in a hug. "Call me Molly dear. How many times do I have to ask you?"

"More than that Mrs Weasley." Selene laughed too, as Mrs Weasley let her go. "I'll be back soon Mrs- Molly."

Mrs Weasley was right; Grimmauld Place was uncommonly quiet, especially for this time of day. Granted, Dora was at Uncle Ted's and Aunty Andy's, waiting for Remus to drop Lily and Selene off after lunch, and Kreacher had retired to his boiler room to have some quality time with his Black Family Heirlooms, and Sirius was probably off with Buckbeak or Remus, but still. Any house that included Lily, Sirius and the Weasley twins should be much louder than this silence.

"Hello?" Selene called, half-expecting Fred to leap out and tackle her to the ground. "Fred? Lily? George?"

She craned her head up to the floor where the twins' room was, but there was still only silence. With a crack, Selene apparated to the floor she was previously looking at, and heard a door slam shut at the end of the corridor.

"Fred?" Selene called again, raising her voice. "Your Mum was wondering what you two were up to, that's all."

She didn't get a verbal response, but there was a slight creaking. Then, Selene was submerged in blackness.

She vaguely remembered trying to find the light, but then felt someone grab onto her arm and apparate them back downstairs, leaving the blackness behind.

"Sorry about that." George said, grinning broadly. "Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, we got our first shipment last night."

"Wow." Selene said, still a little discombobulated. "Please, try not to test that out on me again, I thought Fred was still opposed to everything of that kind anyway?"

George shrugged, in a way that made him seem all the guiltier. "Well, desperate times call for desperate measures!" He said cryptically, smiling broadly. "No other alternative, not this time. Just tell Mum we're showing Sirius some of our ideas for Umbridge, okay?"

"What are you actually doing?" Selene said curiously, peering around George like the answer might be behind him.

"Don't worry, my dear Cheesecake!" George said brightly. He turned on the spit and disapparated, leaving Selene even more confused than she had been to begin with.

"What are they up to dear?" Mrs Weasley asked, as Selene re-entered the kitchen.

Selene sighed, picking up her apron and re-tying it around her waist. "I'm sorry, they weren't telling me." She admitted rather sheepishly. "They didn't want me to know, whatever it was."

Ginny giggled somewhat nervously, and Selene blinked owlishly, before shaking her head and turning back to the carrots she had been peeling, with the help of some cooking spells that Mrs Weasley had taught her. "Oh, that's okay dear." Mrs Weasley insisted. "They can't be doing anything too dangerous."

Remembering the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, Selene didn't have any faith in Mrs Weasley's statement.


The house that belonged to Selene's Aunty Andy and Uncle Ted was exactly the same as when she had visited before, except for the snow covered roof and garden and the Muggle fairy lights adorning the roof. Selene couldn't help it; she gaped openly, looking across the street to where a Muggle family had put an inflatable Santa in their front garden.

Remus chuckled, looking around in something akin to awe himself. "I know." He said simply. "The Muggles love to put on a show for Christmas, I remember my mother always had an inflatable Santa too."

His voice trailed off, and Selene bit her lip. "Um…" She began, not knowing how to approach the subject. "Remus?"

"Hmmm?" Remus murmured, taking his gaze off the inflatable Santa and smiling. "What is it?"

"Your parents…" Selene said quietly, flicking her eyes towards the inflatable Santa. "Are they…?"

Remus nodded, then held up one finger. "My mother died during the first War." He said sadly. "She was called Hope Lupin, she was a Muggle. My Dad met her when he defeated a Boggart for her. Dad's alive." He added, his voice a little brighter. "He's almost seventy now, although he doesn't like to admit it. I'm spending Christmas Day with him."

Selene smiled, and closed her eyes for the fraction of a second. "Um… Remus?" She said hesitantly. "Could you tell him Merry Christmas? From an admirer, I've heard and read so much about his time with Experimental Charms."

Remus blinked, but then he smiled and nodded. "I'll make sure to tell him so." He ascertained. "Now, Lily, Selene, we'd better get you two inside. These are dangerous times to be outside too long. We don't want to draw attention to ourselves."

Lily saluted him, then ran towards the house, yelling: "YES SIR!" behind her.

"Lily-flower!" Uncle Ted called, as Lily ran into him. "Oi, careful there, try not to assault my pudgy-ness. Where's my favourite niece?"

Selene smiled, tingling at the nickname her uncle had given her at the end of her last visit. "I'm here Uncle Ted." She said, walking closer as Lily let go of her father. "Um, do you remember Remus Lupin?"

Ted nodded, looking a little wary but largely keeping it under wraps. "Yes." He said, walking forward and shaking Remus's hand. "I need to apologise Remus, Andromeda and me shouldn't have been so quick-"

"It's okay." Remus insisted, dropping her uncle's hand quite quickly. "I'm sorry, I have to go. Molly will kill me if I take more than a few minutes about this."

"Okay." Ted nodded at Remus, not sounding wholly upset, and turned back to Selene. "Hello there Sellie."

Selene rolled her eyes at the nickname birthed by Dora, but used by pretty much everyone now. "Hello Uncle Ted, Merry Christmas."

Ted ruffled her hair, and pushed Selene and Lily into the inviting entrance of their home. "Andromeda?" He called.

"Oh, hello Liliana!" Andromeda greeted gently, hugging her youngest daughter. Selene was vaguely reminded of her mother, but only in the loosest possible fashion. They carried themselves in a similar way, never slouched, and always seemed graceful.

Lily scowled at the use of her full name, but returned the sentiment to her mother, who then let her go and turned to Selene. "It's lovely to see you again Selene." Andromeda said kindly, scooping Selene into a hug that was almost the opposite of Mrs Weasley's, warm and loving as well but less smothering. "Do you like the fairy lights? Ted almost broke his back trying to put them up."

"Urgh." Ted groaned, rubbing his back, making Lily laugh. "You're the one who wanted them Dromeda, I just submitted after the first ten minutes of arguing."

"Mum, Dad." Dora appeared in the hall, looking exasperated. "I wanted the fairy lights, and you two did too, remember? Seriously, I don't understand."

She turned to walk into the living room, and walked into the wall right behind herself. "OW!" She exclaimed, rubbing her leg and scowling at the offending wall. "Who put that wall there?"

Andromeda rolled her eyes fondly, and beckoned Selene and Lily into the living room.

It was the stuff of her wildest dreams for Selene. It was like all of those quaint Muggle postcards in the Hogwarts Library catalogues, except without all the sculptures of the sheep and babies. There was a WWN wireless in the corner, quietly playing a little Celestina Warbeck. But that wasn't what captured Selene's true attention; it was the seemingly huge tree right in the middle of the living room, with massive piles of presents underneath its lower branches.

"Never seen a Christmas tree before?" Aunty Andy didn't seem surprised, and Selene had just opened her mouth to ask when she realised that her Aunt had grown up in the same sterile environment as she had, with no 'Muggle' celebrations and decorations.

Selene nodded silently, gawping around at the tree, and the presents, and the paper chains. Dora chuckled from the corner armchair, her hair a festive red and green colour for the occasion. "That boyfriend of yours is still treating you right?" Ted cut in, flopping down in the armchair next to his eldest daughter, grabbing one of the massive amounts of Christmas hats and pulling it down over his balding head.

"Of course he is." Selene said, sitting down next to Lily on the sofa. "You're going to meet him tomorrow though, aren't you?"

Ted waved his hand airily. "Just finding out whether he needs a bit of a push." He said nonchalantly, grabbing a nearby wine glass and pouring wine from his wand into it. Andromeda made a grab for the glass, but Ted held it out of her reach.

"Nah, Dromeda, this one's mine." He said, before realising that he was no longer holding the wine glass anyway. "Oi, Dora!"

"What Dad?" Dora asked nonchalantly, running her finger along the rim of the now empty wine glass, making a high-pitched 'singing' noise. "Mum's right, the wine doesn't help your figure."

Ted stuck his tongue out at his daughter, and poured some more wine into the glass from the end of his wand. "Dromeda, why must we listen to this rubbish?" He complained, pointing at the wireless.

"I happen to like it." Aunty Andy said slightly snootily, but Selene detected the irony in her voice. "Oh, okay then. Selene, I suppose you've never heard Muggle Christmas music, have you?"

"Oh, it's amazing!" Lily cut in eagerly, before Selene could say a single word. "You have the one by that band that sounds like the thing Santa pulls but-"

Andromeda shot her a look, and Lily quietened. "No, I haven't." Selene said slowly, realising that her uncle had disappeared. "Sorry, but what exactly is-"

"Here we are!" Ted said loudly, tripping into the room, sending his gigantic pile of Muggle CDs everywhere. "Ooops."

The room burst into laughter, and Lily dropped the few CDs that she had managed to catch. "Seriously!" She said, her voice rising above her sisters, her mothers and Selene's laughter. "You trip into a room, and all you can say is 'oops'?"

Ted grumbled, and Andromeda rolled her eyes. Dora took the CDs from her Dad, and pushed one into the Muggle CD Player that Selene vaguely realised from a diagram in a book she had once read. Lily smirked as the song began, and pulled her sister up, ignoring her many protests, to dance with her.

And Selene looked around; hardly daring to believe that this was what she was a part of now. And that, all the years that she'd been shut up in a large, cold Manor house at the most magical time of the year, some of her closest family members were living this life.

Selene looked around, and pinched herself.

It wasn't a dream.

So…

What do you think the twins are up to?

Does Ginny know?

Why was Mrs Weasley so distracted?

Why does Ted not shut up about Fred?

What do you think about Selene standing up for herself?

Look forward for more Christmassy fluff when I next update (which might be a while… my sister's birthday's on Sunday, and then I have other stuff on top of that).

Eleanor xxx