Title: For Harry (11/?)

Author: Wickedwitch

Disclaimer: Not mine. If they were, Sirius and Remus would spend all the books completely naked.

Rating: pg-13



Harry awoke the Christmas morning to see a fairly large pile of presents at the foot of his bed. Ron and Remus were already up, gathering their piles into their arms.

"Come on, Harry," Ron said once he noticed that Harry was awake. "We're all bringing our presents to the common room. That is if your godfather ever gets out of bed."

"Shut it, Ron," Sirius mumbled from under his pillow. Harry got dressed as Ron and Remus brought their presents down. Just as Harry was ready to follow them, Remus came back up.

"Not up yet?" he asked. Harry shook his head. "Well, that's certainly fixable," he commented and proceeded over to Sirius' bed to give him a long kiss. Needless to say, Sirius finished getting dressed less than five minutes later.

Harry and Sirius were the last two to arrive in the common. It was quite clear that it was good they had finally arrived, as George and Ginny looked like they were getting quite restless.

"Can we start now?" a very irritated Ginny asked. Hermione nodded and all eight started opening their presents. Most were tearing at the wrapping paper, like inside was the secret of defeating Voldemort, but Hermione and Harry both unwrapped theirs neatly.

"Oh, Hermione, I love them," cooed Ginny over a set of songbooks. Ginny's passion was for playing an old guitar her father had, but always lacked proper sheet music. George and Fred had immediately started playing with the new Quidditch balls Harry had bought them, nearly breaking every lamp down there with the Bludgers. Hermione was torn between browsing through the instruction manual for the pensive and opening the other gifts. Ron was inscribing his name in the Quidditch strategy book Hermione had bought for him. Remus and Sirius were experimenting with the set of dungbombs, given to Sirius by Ron, by transfiguring them into different shapes. But all this was stopped when Harry opened one gift.

"Sirius! This is awesome!" The gift was a watch, much like the one Hagrid had. But the gift itself wasn't what made everybody in the common room pause.

It was the mention of Sirius.

"Sirius?" Fred asked. "You're off your rocker Harry. There's no Sirius here."

Although Harry shrugged sheepishly, as if affirming Fred's statement, Ginny didn't buy it. "Who's Sirius, Harry?" she asked lightly.

"No one," he answered quickly. "The dungbomb's smell must me getting to my head."

Ginny narrowed her eyes at Harry. "Who's Sirius?" she repeated.

Harry glanced around desperately. Finally Ron spoke up. "Well we always did think that Pig was a pretty stupid name, so we renamed it."

"Bull," she said to Ron, without lifting her gaze off Harry. "One last time, who is Sirius?" Nobody answered. "Fine," she said frustrated. "If you guys can play dirty so can I." She directed her attention to Gerald. "Professor Lupin, how do you defeat a dementor?" Remus didn't flinch.

"Apparently Harry's not the only one going a bit mad," George whispered to Ron and Hermione. The younger two gave weak smiles in return.

Ginny glared at him, as George's whisper was obviously not soft enough. "Think I'm mad, do you?" Again no one answered. "Well if I'm mad then Gerald and Patrick won't mind drinking some of this Aging Potion I have." She reached into her pocket a brought out a vial of dark blue liquid. Everybody was completely still, as Ginny uncorked the vial and prepared to have Remus drink it.

"Stop." It was Harry. "Don't do it, Ginny."

Ginny smiled and placed the vial back in her pocket. "Why don't you want me to, Harry?" she asked with a false sweetness.

Harry was silent for a moment before answering. "Because de-aging potion takes over two weeks to make, at least according to Hermione," he added hastily, "and we have none left.

"And if they were restored to their actual ages, who would they look like?"

"My godfather and his best friend."

"Who are also...?"

"Sirius Black, wrongly convicted murderer, and Remus Lupin, werewolf and ex- Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"So Sirius would not actually be Pig," she glared at Ron with that comment, "but..."

"...Patrick."

"Precisely." Ginny sighed and sat down to continue opening her presents. After almost a minute of complete silence except for the sound of Ginny tearing off the wrapping paper, she looked up again. "Oh, and by the way, that wasn't an aging potion. That was water with blue dye."

She continued unwrapping her gifts. The twins were sitting there, mouths agape, while Harry, Hermione, Ron, Remus, and Sirius looked completely destroyed.

After a few more uncomfortable seconds, Remus spoke up. "How did you know it was us, Ginny?"

She shrugged. "Various clues, here and there."

"You won't tell anybody, right?" Sirius asked.

Ginny and Fred shook their heads, as Fred responded, "Of course not."

The room was engulfed in silence again. Finally Ginny spoke up again. "Honestly. If I had known you five would look like this was the end of the world, I might not have said anything."

"Well why did you?" Ron asked angrily.

"Because I hate all this secret nonsense. You never tell me anything. Not even you Hermione." She paused to take a deep breath before continuing. "And besides, I thought it would be funny to see Fred and George's reactions when they learned that they had been eating every meal with the legendary Padfoot and Moony."

Fred and George, who had just manage to close their mouths, were again gaping at Ginny.

"Padfoot and Moony," Fred said in wonder. Remus and Sirius grinned at him.

"See," Ginny said proudly. "Not all is lost."

Sirius chuckled at that, while Remus responded, "No, not at all."

Hermione squeezed Ginny's hand. "We should have told you," she said.

"No," Harry said firmly as he shook his head at her. "It was my secret to share," he continued, "not yours Hermione."

And silence prevailed again in the Gryffindor common room on Christmas morning.