Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything recognisable is property of J.K Rowling. (Except the ridiculous Christmas hats and the sparkly tinsel!!)
Author's Notes: Eheh. Well here's my proper attempt at a Christmas Fic. Well I'm not sure about the proper attempt thing, this is a bit of a crazy fic. But it is the silly season, after all. I knew I could write one! I wrote this only today, and I'm happy that I did. I hope you enjoy this. Please read and review. Merry Christmas to all!
"God rest yeeeeee merry Hippogriffffssss!!" Sang Sirius Black from the top of his lungs, much to the annoyance of the occupants of the Gryffindor Common Room. It was a regular occurance (and annoyance) to hear the handsome 7th Year boy singing Christmas carols at the top of his voice whenever Christmas time had come. It was just one of the insanities one would hear on Christmas day at Hogwarts.
Every year, without fail, Sirius would go into a joyous mood, singing carols and trying to decorate the Common Room with tinsel and fairy lights and whatever other decorations he could get his hands on. He even tried, or rather, forced, the occupants of the Common Room to wear Santa hats or dress up with a bit of tinsel. Most of the 1st Years obeyed because they were scared of what Sirius would do to them if they didn't. Others, such as many of the girls, wore them just because Sirius told them to. The rest of the Gryffindors however, shook their heads and refused to wear them. But this year he had no one except his friends to force Christmas hats onto because most of the Gryffindors had gone home for Christmas, leaving behind them a very empty Common Room.
"Here, put this on!" Sirius said to Remus Lupin, throwing a particularly ridiculous looking hat at him.
Remus looked down at the hat that Sirius had thrown in his lap. It was a santa hat with a picture of an elf and a red sparkly pom pom that flashed magically at the top. "I won't be caught dead in that," Remus replied, throwing the hat back in Sirius' general direction.
"Come on Remus! I'm sure it'd look great on you!" Sirius replied with a grin.
"You know where it'd look even better?"
"Where?"
"In the bin."
"Scrooge"
"Prat"
"Come on Remus! James and Peter are wearing one! Even Lily is! You're the only one that needs one now," Sirius said as he fixed the bright red hat on his head up.
Remus considered Sirius for a moment. He looked ridiculous. As he always did at Christmas time. He was wearing a bright red santa hat with a fluffy, sparkly pompom on the top. He was also wearing a red top with fluffly trimmings, reminiscent of Santa's suit, and black pants with long black boots. He topped off the whole ensemble by adorning himself with sparkly red tinsel, which he had wrapped around every part of his body possible.
Neither James, nor Peter, and definitely not Remus, could understand why Sirius seemed to go into a Christmas frenzy every year, acting as if he was Hogwarts resident Christmas elf. James' theory was that he never enjoyed Christmas time at Grimmauld Place with his family so he was making up for it in his Hogwarts years, where he got to celebrate Christmas with his real family. Peter and Lily however just thought it was because he was a nutcase. Remus tended to agree with the latter theory. Although James' theory was very probable as well. It was most definitely a mixture of the two, thought Remus as Sirius fixed him with his infamous puppy-dog-eyes look, in hopes of getting Remus to wear the hat.
"I'm not wearing it Sirius." Remus didn't feel particularly like looking like a clown today.
"But it'll look good on you. I picked this one just for you!" Sirius said, shoving the hat in front of his face.
"If it looks anything like your hat then its never going to look good on me."
Sirius pouted. "What's wrong with my hat? I like it." Sirius said as he pulled at his own hat.
"Yes, but your a nutcase Black." Remus replied, with a grin.
"Aw come on Rem. Enjoy it while it lasts! This is our last Christmas at Hogwarts, you won't have the chance again. Please put on the hat? For me?" Sirius said, fixing him with another puppy dog stare, which was quite hard to ignore.
Sometimes, you had to sacrifice your dignity for the happiness of others. And this, Remus thought as he fixed the ridiculous flashing hat atop of his head, was definitely one of those times.
"There. Happy now?" Remus asked the dark-haired boy standing in front of him. Remus couldn't help but feel like a cheap flashing Christmas tree. The ones he saw in Muggle shop windows in the Christmas season.
Sirius beamed. "See? Doesn't it look great on you!?" Sirius said, grinning at Remus. Remus grinned back. It made him happy to see Sirius happy, and if he had to wear a ridiculous looking hat for Sirius to be happy, then so be it.
Ever since the first year when Sirius confided in Remus that his Christmas' at Number 12 Grimmauld Place were far from joyous, Remus had wanted to make Sirius' every Christmas time he spent with his friends a joyous one for him, where he was surrounded by his real family, James, Peter and himself. He wanted his friend to be happy on Christmas, as everyone should be, and so, he wore the silly hat. As he had worn many silly hats in his time at Hogwarts.
Sirius held up a mirror for Remus to look at the hat, "It looks brilliant," Sirius said as Remus inspected it. It looked far from brilliant, Remus thought, as he looked at the pompom flashing merrily atop his head. He looked stupid.
"Yes Sirius. Its great."
"I know!" Sirius replied, then he pulled Remus over to where James, Lily and Peter were sitting around the common room fire, all adorned with their own seperate yuletide hats.
"The madness is spreading, I see." Peter said, as he regarded Remus' hat and tried not to laugh.
Lily flashed a grin at Remus. "Sexy hat Rem."
"Thanks Lily." Remus replied, sitting down in his usual comfy chair.
"Hey, you never said mine was sexy," James said, mock-scowling at Lily.
"Yours is sexy as well James," Lily said, rolling her eyes.
"Ah. Now that all my friends are together, and wearing their hats, I want to take a photo," Sirius said as he held up his camera.
"Oh no you don't. I'm not having a photo with this thing on," Remus said, dreading the thought of photographic evidence of his crime against fashion. Not that he really cared about fashion. But he did know when things looked ridiculous on him. And this hat fell into the category of the top 10 Most Ridiculous Things He'd Ever Worn. It even beat those pair of leather pants Sirius had made him wear to a dress up party in the 5th year.
"Moony! We've got to make sure the memories last," Sirius said.
"I'm sure this memory will last quite a long time without a photo," Peter said.
"Oh come on guys. Just one little photo?" Sirius said.
Finally, groaning, they all consented.
"Hey John!" Sirius called a 5th Year boy over to take the photo, "Can you take a photo of us please?" Sirius asked the brown haired boy who had just made his way over to them.
While Sirius instructed John on how to use the camera the four of them squashed together on the couch to make space for Sirius, who hastily sat in the middle of the foursome.
"Ready?" John held the camera up.
"Yes." They all said, and then the flash went off and the photo was taken.
"All right, now one of me and Remus," Sirius told John, and pushed everyone who was not Remus off the couch, much to their annoyance. A later inspection of the photo would reveal photo-Remus rolling his eyes, but a small grin could be seen on his face, and photo-Sirius beaming, with his arm around the werewolf. They both looked ridiculous in their respective hats.
When John had handed the camera back to Sirius and departed through the portrait hole (no doubt to get away from Sirius), Remus deemed that it was safe to sit down so he returned to his usual chair as Sirius took seperate photo's of James and Lily together, and then Peter.
"You know what," Sirius said as he finally sat down in the chair next to Remus, "I think we should have a little celebration," Sirius said.
"Celebrating what exactly? Besides Christmas?" Lily asked.
"Celebrating our last Christmas at Hogwarts of course!" Sirius said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Good idea," James agreed.
"Right, I'll go down to the kitchens and get some stuff. Who's coming with me?" Sirius asked, as he stood up.
In Sirius' language a celebration usually meant two things: alcohol and food. Both of which could be found in the kitchens and obtained from house elves if you were smart about it.
"I will," Peter replied, looking very glad about having something to do.
"Right lets go now then, we'll need a fair bit of stuff," Sirius replied, and then the two retreated without another word.
"He's mental," Lily said, shaking her head after the retreating figure Sirius Black.
"Sure is," James replied.
He sure is, thought Remus as he watched the portrait hole close after Sirius and Peter.
Remus, despite his obvious objections to wearing silly hats, liked seeing Sirius so happy at Christmas time. He liked seeing his friend happy, after all, Remus thought, everyone deserved to be happy. And this was the last chance to celebrate Christmas at Hogwarts.
Remus sighed. He'd miss this. He'd miss waking up every morning to hear Peter's snoring, James' deep breathing, and sometimes Sirius babbling absurdly in his sleep. He'd miss the afternoons where he would watch Sirius and James toss a Quaffle around in the air for fun. He'd miss having snowball fights and falling asleep near the fire after an exhausting day. He'd miss seeing James' spectacular plays on the Quidditch Pitch, he'd miss Peter's snoring even, and he'd miss the way Sirius cursed in the morning when he couldn't find his shoes because James had hidden them the night before. He'd miss all of it. Hogwarts had been his home for the past seven years and he was finding it hard to let it go. Of course he'd always see Sirius, James and Peter outside of school but they'd never share the same room, or closeness they had at Hogwarts...
"Earth to Remus," James waved a hand in front of Remus' face, distracting him from his thoughts.
"What?" Remus asked as he shook himself out of his contemplations.
"I was just asking you if you would let me borrow your notes for Defence tomorrow," James replied.
"Oh, yeah, sure thing," Remus replied. He'd even miss James, Sirius and Peter asking for his notes every second day because they were too lazy to make their own.
"Great." James replied as the portrait hole opened again to reveal Sirius and Peter who both looked very lumpy and fat. Obviously they had smuggled quite a lot from the kitchens. Which wasn't hard, mused Remus, as the house-elves were very happy to give out their food freely to anyone who happened to pass by the kitchen. And Sirius, James, Remus and Peter were regular visitors to the Hogwarts kitchens. Remus even knew quite a lot of them by name.
"Well I think we've got everything we need." Sirius replied, as he began pulling out random things from under his robes. Peter began doing the same thing.
"There's only five of us, how much do you think we'll eat Sirius?" Lily replied, looking at the mountains of food Sirius and Peter had gathered from the kitchens with disbelief.
"Well, six actually. Pete saw Alinda on the way to the kitchens and invited her up here," Sirius replied. Alinda was a nice blonde Hufflepuff girl whom Peter had a crush on for quite some time but hadn't done anything about it until now. Alinda was good friends with Lily and tended to be on the clumsy side.
"Wow, Pete, you finally made a move," James said as he slapped Peter on the back.
"Well... actually, Sirius invited her," Peter said, blushing and glaring at Sirius.
"Well if I didn't invite her you wouldn't have, so stop complaining." Sirius replied. Peter blushed even more. "You're in Pete, you should be thanking me," Sirius said as he opened a bottle of Firewhisky and pulled some glasses out of his robes.
"What else do you have in there? A spare bed?" Remus joked.
"Nah couldn't fit one of those," Sirius grinned as he poured out some Firewhisky shots and handed out the glasses to each of his friends.
Then the portrait hole opened and Alinda climbed through it and made her way over to where James, Lily, Peter, Remus and Sirius were gathered. Sirius must have given her the password, thought Remus, as he greeted her. Alinda sat next to Peter and Sirius handed her a glass of Firewhisky.
"Right, on three, whoever skulls their whole glass first, gets to um, wear this bit of tinsel," Sirius pointed to a particularly sparkly bit of tinsel tied around his waist, which made Remus want to sip his Firewhisky very slowly.
"One, two, three!" All of a sudden the six of them started to skull their drinks. The quickest was Lily who banged her glass down on the table and instantly poured some more. This had surprised all of them, even James, who liked to think he knew everything about his girlfriend.
"What?" Lily said as five sets of eyes stared at her in disbelief, "You think I've never drunk Firewhisky before?" She grinned particularly deviously, which made James' heart melt completely.
"Now that is some talent," Sirius said as he handed over his sparkly tinsel to Lily, who wrapped it around her head, making her look like an angel- in James' opinion. "This one's a keeper, James."
James grinned, "Definitely a keeper," he said as he kissed her lightly atop the head.
Six shots and lots of tinsel sharing later, James and Lily were snogging, Peter was declaring his undying love to Alinda, Sirius was dancing around the common room and singing Christmas carols like a madman (well, actually he was a madman) and Remus was giggling at things that weren't even remotely funny.
"Hey- me, I have an idea!" Sirius said suddenly, "Let's play I never!" Sirius said, as he rushed back over to the table the six were occupying and shakily poured out more drinks.
"Okay, what do we have to do?" Alinda asked, her cheeks very red (from the alcohol or from blushing, Remus couldn't tell)
"Well you say something like, 'I've never kissed a goats bum' and whoever has has to drink something," Sirius explained. Remus didn't even want to know where he had got that particularly disturbing example from.
"Okay," Alinda agreed to the game and Lily and James stopped playing tonsil hockey to play.
"Rightio, me first!" Sirius said, holding up his drink, "I've never, fantasised about Lily." James instantly took a sip of his drink, which Remus found to be very amusing indeed.
"Right James, your turn," Sirius said.
"Um, I've never thought my mum was 'hot'," James shuddered and then grinned at Sirius, who took a large sip of his drink.
"Hey, I only said she wasn't bad for an old person!"
"My mum's not old!" James retorted.
"Righ. Remus, you can go," Sirius said.
"Okay. I've never stared in the mirror for more than half an hour," Remus said, and then James, Lily, Alinda, Peter and Sirius all took a sip of their drink.
By the time they got sick of the game James and Lily were snogging again and Peter and Alinda had 'dissapeared' somewhere.
The feelings of how much he'd miss Hogwarts and his friends when they were gone only intensified with more alcohol that Remus drunk, and by now he was feeling quite gloomy.
"Hey Reeeeeeemmmm. Whassa matter?" Sirius asked as he peered at Remus.
"Nothin'." Remus replied.
"Oh commme onnnn Rem. I know you better than you think Rem. What's wrong?" Sirius asked, as he pushed Remus over so he could settle in beside him.
"It's just... I'm going to miss all this. Hogwarts, I mean. And you guys." Remus said as he flicked at a piece of tinsel tied around Sirius' waist. By now Remus had also been adorned with bright purple flashing tinsel.
"Yeahh. Me too. I'll miss everything I reckon. But we're gonna see each other when we finish. It's not like our friendship will finish." Sirius said as he gazed at the werewolf.
"Yeah I know. But it's not the same. We won't be living together exactly." Remus replied.
"Hey! Thas' a great idea!!" Sirius said, lying down on Remus' lap. By now, Remus was too drunk to notice or care.
"What is?"
"Let's move in together!" Sirius replied. "You could live with mee! Won't that be soooo much fun, Moony? Won't it?"
"I don't know Sirius. What about my transformations," Remus said. Though the idea seemed like a good one.
"We could work something out for that.. And I'll be with ya, so it will be better anyway. Good old Padfooty ere will be with Moooony!" Sirius said, pointing to himself.
"Okay." Remus said.
"Okay?! So you're gonna move in?! Oh that's so great Rem! I'm so happy! I've always wanted a flatmate! And flatmate Moony sounds great! Oh this is so cooooool!" Sirius replied. Remus grinned at Sirius' enthusiasm.
"Yeah... It is pretty cool." Remus said. He thought about the idea for a while, and decided it was a good one. Sirius needed a flatmate and Remus needed a flat. After all, he couldn't live with his parents forever, Remus thought. And living with Sirius, even if it did have its certain disadvantages, would make both of them happy. Remus wouldn't get lonely because he'd have Sirius there, and Moony would have Padfoot. He wondered why he had never thought of it before. It seemed so logical.
"Rem. When you get lonely, you just rememmber, you have me, you have Sirius. Okay? I'm here for ya." Sirius replied, looking at Remus. Remus stared back at him, and felt the bond that had seen them through their seven years at Hogwarts. A bond that not even the Voldemort could break. They were friends, and yet, something more was there. They were brothers. And Remus, even if he had had a little too much to drink, felt that that bond was at its strongest, as he looked Sirius in the eye, he felt their bond of true friendship would never be broken.
Because they were brothers. Family. Every one of them shared this sacred bond, as if they shared blood, and each one of them felt it. And each one of them were glad to have it.
And it was moments like these, on their last Christmas at Hogwarts, that Remus didn't care about anything else except for the friendships he shared with James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black.
For that, was the most important thing about Christmas. Family and friendships. And at that moment Remus Lupin considered himself extremely lucky to have both.
And he'd keep on wearing ridiculous Christmas hats for however long Sirius wanted him to just to keep it that way.
THE END