Chapter 56

Christmas Shopping

The Saturday before Christmas found the two Marauders in Hogsmeade searching for Christmas presents.

"This is a lot easier than trying to find stuff at the castle." Sirius said looking though a section of a small candy shop.

"I'll bet. Look at this." Remus ran over, holding a box of every flavored jelly beans.

"Those have been out for ever. You really need to get out in the real world more, Moony." Remus ignored his teasing.

"How do they have every flavor? Is that even possible?"

"I've gotten a wood flavored one before."

"You're kidding." Remus looked at him incredulously. Sirius just shook his head. Remus stared at the box. "That's not sane."

"You know, I've never really thought about it before, but you're right."

"Wizards are crazy." Remus deduced. "Acid pops. I mean really, why?" Sirius laughed.

"Revenge, pranks, you know stuff like that." He shrugged. "Though I would much rather use my own skills in a prank: I'm not going to rely on something someone else made for my pranks."

"If you can't rely on your own skills in magic then there's no point in pranking someone in the first place." Remus agreed; he walked up to the counter and paid for what he had. He was getting Peter sweets this year: now that he knew what his favorites were.

They left the shop trying to block out the cold winter air. It was freezing outside and yet there was no snow. Sirius was glad, but Remus missed seeing the landscape painted white.

"Where too next?" Sirius asked hugging his coat. He'd never been outside during the winter as many times as he was this year. He usually stayed inside: last year all his Christmas gifts had been found inside the castle. He'd never been Christmas shopping before that, and what other reason would you have to go outside in the freezing winter. It's not like he'd ever been allowed to play outside anyway, no matter what the weather was like. There was too many muggles in Grimmauld Place for that.

They never minded letting Bella, Andy, or Cissy outside, and Regulus could if he was with one of the others. Sirius had only been out of the house maybe five times without one of the adults there with him. Two of those times he'd snuck out-out of spite mostly-and the other three Andy was with him, those three had only been for a half an hour.

They were always aloud to be alone in town though; it was often even encouraged now that they were old enough to be trusted to behave themselves.

"You've been kind of quite, Sirius. What's up?" Remus asked as they stepped inside the Three Broomsticks to warm up.

"I think my mother suspected that I wasn't going to turn out the way they wanted." He said, voicing his thoughts. Remus chuckled.

"Where'd that come from?"

"I was thinking about why I was rarely ever outside during the winter, and it made me realize I hardly ever went outside: period." Sirius ordered butterbeers for them and paid for Remus' before he could protest.

"Why? I spent most of my life outside." Remus smiled thinking about home.

"We live in a muggle town. I wasn't allowed outside without her, though the others were able too. Even Regulus didn't have as many restrictions as I did, and he's younger. At first I thought it was just because I'm the heir, but I'm not too sure that's right anymore."

Remus thought about this for a while. "Did you give them any reason to think that?"

"Not that I know of."

"You might be reading too much into their actions. It is entirely possible it could just be because you're the heir."

"Why would they need to protect me so much if they thought I wasn't going to need it?"

"Paranoia: my parents get that way sometimes too. I'm not allowed outside after dark anymore, even though nothing in its right mind would attack a werewolf. Parents get over protective, even if there is no rational explanation for their fears."

"Yes, because she defiantly was feeling over protective at the beginning of last year." Sirius replied sarcastically.

"Maybe she was." Remus said quietly.

"What?"

"I'm not trying to justify it, but each person has their own definition of what's dangerous. Maybe she believes that the path you've chosen is dangerous. She's wrong, but still. She didn't start trying to kick you out immediately did she?"

"Well she hasn't exactly tried to kick me out, but there's been a lot of yelling."

"See, it's not that she doesn't care at all. She's trying to protect you in her own way. She's doing it extremely wrong, but considering your family line, that may be the only way she's equipped to deal with it." Remus suggested, not looking at Sirius. When Sirius didn't answer he peeked at him.

"If she cared then she wouldn't have called me a useless waist of space."

"That's probably how she was raised."

"And that makes it okay?"

"No, I said I wasn't trying to justify it. But still…"

"Ya, whatever"

"You're mad at me aren't you?"

"Not really."

"It's different for me of course. I'm not directly involved, so it's easier for me to understand."

"And you don't have as short of a fuse."

"Very true"

They finished their drinks without much more chatter and continued their Christmas shopping.

By the time they went back Sirius had gotten James an a book on professional level quidditch plays and he'd gotten Peter a wide variety of special quills, such as spell checking and one really cool one that even told you if you were answering the question wrong. Remus had gotten James an advanced potion set, and for Peter he got candy.

They both planned on sneaking to Hogsmeade later to get each others presents. This, of course, was never discussed between the two.

It didn't have to be though, they knew each other well enough to know exactly what the other was planning.

Okay, I need to make one thing very clear. I know James isn't perfect, alright. This is how I think they would think. How many reviews have I gotten saying. "I don't think James is perfect." or something like that. Thank you for the reviews but I know that already. I don't think James is perfect either. He's spoiled and egotistical. If there was someone at your school who got perfect grades, was the star of a sports team, and was insainly popular, you wouldn't see many flaws in him either.

Sorry, don't mean to sound rude, but it's really getting annoying.

Hey guess what! I think my fanfiction is longer than many published books! Woooo! ^_^