Always By Your Side

Chapter 4: Christmastide

A/N: I don't have much to say here, except that the next chapter will be introducing a new character – a female. Romance, you ask? Perhaps, but of course it's not going to be as simple as that…

November slowly melted into December, and the next few weeks flashed by fairly quickly. Remus and Sirius started to teach in place of the stand-in instructors who had been taking their stead – while Dumbledore had been on the look for teachers to fill the vacant spots – during the couple months after term had begun. Gradually, they fell into a steady rhythm of correcting papers, teaching classes, and of course, watching and taking more delight in Harry by the passing day.

Every day, they'd bring Harry into one of the classroom while they taught; he would sit calmly and watch interestedly as one of two of his favorite people instructed young students on Care of Magical Creatures and Defense Against the Dark Arts.

However, on the occasion, Harry's natural curiosity led to…ah…more exciting events occurring within the classrooms. This day – the last day before term was discontinued in favor of the holiday vacations – was destined to be one of them.

Harry was sitting in his rocking carrier atop Remus' desk, which was placed at the side wall of the D.A.D.A. room. He watched intently as Remus waved his wand at the blackboard at the front of the room, sending what looked like (to Harry, anyway) meaningless squiggles crawling over the swinging board. The students seemed to understand these insignificant symbols though, and copied the aforementioned scribbles. They occasionally glanced up to regard the moving picture of some kind of wild beast that Harry definitely did not recognize, an animal that was half hidden in the shadows, its glowing unblinking eyes staring unnervingly.

Harry's attention began to wander after a few boring minutes of watching students write. Remus always had a few interesting creatures hanging around the room, used to demonstrate during classes. While Harry was looking around, he noticed a cage full to bursting of tiny blue people, each miniscule with fluttering wings. The cage happened to be sitting right next to Harry, within his short arm's reach. He wondered why these blue, miniature people were jabbering so much. They were waving their arms furiously, and pounded at the cage that barred them from freedom. Harry felt bad for the tiny things, so he reached over and plucked off the top of the metal cage.

Havoc reigned.

The small Cornish pixies immediately zoomed around the room, cackling madly. They plucked books off of desks and ripped out the pages in front of the horrified students' eyes, delighting in the dismay they were causing. They flipped the board on its side, so it smashed to the floor with a mighty crash. The pixies also took off a poor boy's glasses from his face, and tantalizingly waved them in front of his face, laughing at the pathetic student who, squinting, tried to get his spectacles back. They smashed the windows with enough force that shards of broken glass showered down on those unfortunate enough to be caught within a five foot diameter. One of the pixies also let off a small bomb, making the whole classroom fill with swirling smoke for an instant, also causing half the ceiling to fall.

Remus – who had been turned around, digging through files at the time of the pixies' release – had been alerted by sound of the smashed windows and looked up. Once he had registered what had happened, he came to his senses in an instant and locked the door. Then, he used a few Freezing Charms to freeze the pixies for a long enough time to stuff them back into their cages. Seeing as the top had somehow gone missing, he conjured another, and replaced it. While he was at it, he placed a Silencing Charm on the cage, to hush up the pixies' non-stop chatter. He gave back the almost-blind boy his glasses, and repaired the students' books and things.

Remus dismissed his class shortly after and assigned them an essay to complete over the holidays. Then, he repaired more of the damage the pixies had done, cleaning up all the window-glass, repairing the windows, levitating the bits of ceiling that had fallen from the small bomb that had been let off – all from the comfort of his desk, of course, only moving his wand arm.

Sighing, Remus rubbed his temples tiredly, his ears still ringing from all the noise, particularly that of the small bomb. Idly, he wondered how the mess had all started…

A small clang was heard, and Remus looked to his left to see that Harry had dropped something on the oak desk…the cage top?! Remus looked sternly at Harry, secretly laughing to himself. Harry innocently smiled his million-watt smile in return, his green eyes dancing with mirth. Remus then let his grin slip onto his face in spite of himself. Well, you can't say that wasn't an interesting lesson, he thought wryly.

Sirius let his last class go half an hour early the last day before break, as a holiday treat, and the students yelled and fairly leapt for joy. This was understandable, as Care of Magical Creatures was their last class.

Sirius sat down in his office at his desk, and pulled the enormous stack of essays toward him, groaning all the while. This is definitely the downer on being a teacher, he thought.

When he was about halfway through the pile, Remus entered, holding Harry in his arms. Sirius smiled at the two, and invited them to sit down and keep him company until he finished.

"So Moony, what kinds of mischief have you been up to today?" asked Sirius, flashing a grin toward Remus.

"I'll have you know, Padfoot, that Harry here was the one causing mischief today," Remus countered. At Sirius' inquiring raised eyebrow, he continued, and proceeded to tell Sirius all about the highly eventful D.A.D.A. lesson. Sirius roared in laughter, holding his sides.

The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoyably, with Remus and Sirius bantering back and forth, and Harry putting in his gurgling two cents every time he deemed necessary.

Christmas Eve morning dawned as a beautiful day. The sun shone, making the fresh snowfall glitter outside the frosted windows. The trees were heavily laden with snow, and a crisp breeze was blowing.

After breakfast, all the teachers went around the school, decorating. When they were done, Remus looked around at the spectacular job the teachers had done. Professor Flitwick had placed live, twinkling fairies around the Hall. Hagrid had hauled in six gigantic Christmas trees, which were decorated with the usual sparkling tinsel that flashed different colors, some of the fairies, and assorted enchanted ornaments. The ceiling of the Great Hall was sprinkling snow down onto the students that had stayed over the break that year. The suits of armor in the hallway were even charmed to sing Christmas carols to passerby, and mistletoe, wreaths, and decorations were hung up everywhere.

Remus and Sirius decided to go Christmas shopping in Hogsmeade that day, and left Harry in the care of Professor McGonagall, who was fast becoming one of Harry's favorite people. Remus bought a tartan handkerchief with beautiful embroidery for Professor McGonagall, an enchanted snowglobe for Professor Flitwick, a small moving model of a Hungarian Horntail for Hagrid, a pair of enchanted woolen mittens for Professor Dumbledore, a twinkling brooch for Madam Hooch, a nice crystal ball stand for Professor Trelawney, a nice set of folding stirring spoons for potion ingredients for Severus (Remus was on much better terms with Severus than Sirius), a lovely pin for Madam Pomfrey, and a silver model of the galaxy for Professor Sinistra. Lastly, he bought something for Sirius, and had it wrapped at the store.

Remus met up with Sirius at the Three Broomsticks at three, just as they had arranged, and they showed each other their purchases.

"What did you buy?" asked Remus, while sipping his tall glass of butterbeer.

"Let's see…a hairnet and pin for Professor McGonagall; a set of enchanted bells to hang on the door for Professor Flitwick; a pair of huge snowshoes for Hagrid – I had to pre-order that one because they didn't stock sizes big enough; some charmed earmuffs for Professor Dumbledore; a silver pin for Madam Hooch; a book on palmistry for Professor Trelawney – I figured she could use the help on predictions, because she keeps telling me I should have died yesterday by the indication of my lifeline; a set of unbreakable glass bottles and long-lasting healing salves for Madam Pomfrey; a brooch for Professor Sinistra; and something for you, of course," reported Sirius, digging through his bags.

"What about Severus?" said Remus, with a reproving look on his face.

"Ah, yes, I almost forgot. I did buy a little something for Snape as well. I bought him a folding cauldron, complete with a metal stand," replied Sirius dutifully. Then he added, "But I see no point in buying him something; he'll think you made me buy it for him – which you did, actually. Snape knows I wouldn't just get him something for Christmas; we're not exactly buddy-buddy, in case you haven't noticed." 

To this, Remus just sighed and didn't answer. Instead, he changed the subject, "Should we buy Harry's presents now?" Sirius agreed.

They went to various shops and picked out some small things to put in his stocking, but also many huge and expensive presents to put under their tree. 

Sirius and Remus had helped Harry hang up his little stocking in front of the fireplace that morning, and after he had gone to bed, they filled it with Honeydukes' finest sweets, and tons of trinkets and toys. Sirius had magically expanded the stocking to about three times its size to accommodate all the things stuffed into it. Then, they wrapped up all the gifts they were planning on giving to people. Of course, the ones they were exchanging themselves were already wrapped and placed under the tree. Sitting by the rug in front of the fireplace, talking and wrapping, the atmosphere was warm and homey.

Sirius appreciated the mood of the moment – even though he knew deep down that it was only lulling him into a sense of false security. He knew the facts. A war was brewing, and his instinct born of Auror training told him that soon, it would hit home.

Harry's delighted little voice made the first sound of Christmas morning. Remus cracked open his eyes enough to check the clock for the time – it was eight in the morning. He felt lucky that Harry had lasted that long; he remembered an exhausted James telling him that Harry had woken up at four o' clock in the morning last Christmas. Remus dragged himself out of bed and threw a robe on.

On the way down the hallway, he knocked on Sirius' bedroom to wake him up, and heard a muffled "Go 'way… five more minutes…", which signaled that Sirius would be down in approximately two hours, unless Remus did something about it…. Suddenly, Remus was struck with the mood for a little mischief. Going downstairs, he scooped up Harry and put him down in the doorway of Sirius' bedroom. Whispering something in his little ear, Remus nudged him into the room. Whistling, Remus went down to the living room couch and waited. Hearing a heaving groan, Remus smiled to himself. It wouldn't be long now. Five…four…three…two…one… Sirius let out a strangled yell.

Once Sirius and Harry got downstairs, they sat down together in the living room and started opening gifts. Of course, Sirius and Remus had to help Harry tear a few, but Harry was nonetheless delighted at the presents his 'uncles' had given him. Soon, the whole room was strewn with wrapping paper and ribbons. After Harry had zoomed elatedly around the room on his little toy broomstick, he promptly fell asleep on the couch, too tired from being too excited to sleep all last night.

Remus and Sirius then started to open their own gifts, from each other and from the other teachers. Remus received from Sirius a new set of nice, black robes and a black suitcase with his name stamped on it: Professor R. J. Lupin.

"Thanks for the robes, Padfoot. Merlin knows I need new ones. My old ones were starting to rip," said Remus, inspecting the robes.

"Mm-hmm. No problem." From Remus, Sirius opened a package that turned out to be a bathrobe with a heating charm, and a pair of warm slippers. "Thanks for the bathrobe and slippers. My old slippers were so old that I had three huge holes in the bottom. Normally, I didn't bother wearing them," chuckled Sirius, trying on his new pair.

After a few minutes, a silence fell, and neither said anything.

"I miss them," said Sirius quietly, out of the blue. But Remus knew what he was referring to, as he was thinking much along the same lines; it was times like these when you were really reminded of lost loved ones.

"I do too," came the soft reply.

There was silence for a few more minutes, and sensing what Sirius was feeling, Remus placed a comforting arm around Sirius' shoulders. "It wasn't your fault, Sirius. You couldn't have done anything to stop Pettigrew from betraying Lily and James. It was his choice."

"I know that. But I can't help feeling like there was something I should have done," said Sirius heavily, bowing his head. The two of them sat on the couch for a few minutes, each mourning the loss of their friends. After all, Christmas is a time for family, and both had lost a part of theirs.

Suddenly, Dumbledore's head appeared in the flames, with a small pop! Remus and Sirius immediately jumped to their feet.

"Sirius, Remus, I'm terribly sorry. I need you to come to the staff room. Something very urgent has come to my attention," the Headmaster said in grave tones.

Sirius and Remus could tell that Professor Dumbledore was very concerned, and came as soon as they could. Since all the staff was in the meeting, they just brought Harry with them.

A/N: Sorry, everyone! This chapter was kind of lousy…. The next will be better. Anyway, tell me what you thought in a review! By the way, the more recent your reviews are, the more towards the bottom they'll be. If you reviewed more than once, then, I just move your name to the bottom and write a fresh response. REVIEW! Thank you!

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