Though unwilling to have the three boys in her house together after 'The Treacle And Turkey Debacle', Mrs Lupin had finally allowed Remus to have his friends over before they returned to Hogwarts for their second term of the year. As it was the seventh of January, she had been busy taking down the decorations all day and naturally was leaving the tree to last; hoping to have everything breakable, flammable, or explosive out of sight before the boys came over. However, luck wasn't in her favour.

Just as she had plopped into one of the sunken armchairs with a steaming mug of tea, the fire flames turned green. Her husband's head appeared in the fireplace, and he looked like he'd swallowed an entire bowl of lemons.

"Anything the matter, John?"

Her husband made an irritated grunting noise. "One of them Inspectors is coming round to check on us this afternoon – more like to check if we've any new Resistance tattoos – and Frank left without a word. I'm swamped and up to my eyeballs in work, darling. I won't be able to pick up dinner as usual, Lord knows when they'll let me out. I'll be home as soon as I can but you'll have to go out for the dinner tonight."

Mrs Lupin sighed. "Well I'd best be off now then, I'd rather not be out late these day if I can help it. Oh, do be careful with those snakes John! You know them better than I do. See you soon. Love you."

The man's tense expression softened a bit. "Love you too. Bye."

With that, his head disappeared from the fireplace. Mrs Lupin tapped her mug on the edge of the armchair and glanced at the Christmas tree, which stood tall beside the fireplace. She really, really, didn't want to leave those boys alone with her tree; full of breakable baubles and fragile glass ornaments. But she had no choice. Resigned, she grabbed her coat off the makeshift hook, her purse off the table, and shouted into Remus' room to "Go wait for the boys in the living room, it isn't polite to have your nose stuck in a book when your friends are over!" Setting out, she hoped the house would still be standing when she came back.


"Remus, why do you have a tree in your living room?" was one of the first questions to come out of Sirius' mouth after he stepped out of the fireplace.

"We're not that late at taking them down. Everyone around here waits until the sixth. I live in a muggle village, remember?" said Remus.

Sirius looked at him like he had two heads. "So it's normal for muggles to keep trees in their houses?"

The penny dropped with Remus and he snorted. "It's a Christmas tree, I thought you would have known.. Anyway, at Christmas it's tradition for muggles to have a tree and decorate it with tinsel," he pointed to the silver and gold lengths, "baubles," he pointed to the sparkling balls, "and any ornaments or whatever you want really. Oh, and then you put a star on top."

Sirius glanced up. "Cool."

Then Peter stumbled out of the fireplace awkwardly and knocked into the subject of conversation. Hard. The tree swayed dangerously.

"Remus it's going to -"

"Hey guys, hope I'm not -"

CRASH.

The green tree lay haphazardly on the floor, split at the top. Baubles rolled from it, while others simply smashed on hitting the stone flooring. Tiny glittering crystal angels shattered, and shards predictably flew everywhere. A tinny sounding musical ornament started up with an ear splitting rendition of 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas'.

"Shit."

A/N: I am the worst at keeping my resolutions. I am also a terrible author who lost her mojo, but it's back!:) If anyone still remembers this, or got this far, thanks for reading! You are awesome. But (there's always a 'but', isn't there?) don't expect updates often, because I'm still probably failing school...Oh joy:D

Love you guys more than cookies (almost),

Poppi:)