Who would have thought that it'd

Come as such a show

A pink and silver day

Who was to know?

Even as we go

Sing us a song; Sing us a song

To hum through the hours of dying…

Chapter Eight: Stille Nacht

A fast intake of breath resounds through utter silence. A scream echoes in the distance, in reply to the sudden breath. Footsteps running purposefully in the hall. A door opens, more footsteps over carpet. Sounds of crying carry like whispers through the darkness. "Harry." A hand touches his shoulder. His body shakes slightly from the unwanted pressure of the hand. More crying, "Harry."

"Harry, please."

Harry opened his eyes unable to focus on anything. He reached over to the end table and retrieved his glasses, placing them on his nose and ears. He then looked up to the person that had woken him. Reign. He stared at her, ready to scold her for waking him but then noticed her face.

Her cheeks were stained with tears, and her eyes were lit with nothing short of fear as they glanced just over his shoulder at something else. "We have to go." Her voice was urgent and business-like showing no hint of the fear her eyes so easily betrayed her with.

At the urgent words Harry glanced around his room, seeing the blue walls dripped with a luminous green light. He felt his stomach sink abruptly before he followed Reign's gaze to the window. He felt his eyes grow wide at the sight.

Though the mark was far off in the distance it glowed brightly so one could see every aspect of the skull with the snake protruding eerily from its mouth. Harry felt a shiver run down his spine as he gazed at the mark he'd seen only a few times before. Though now he knew what it meant and that it actually applied here, and was beginning to apply in his own home.

Someone, perhaps a whole family, was dead.

Before he could concentrate much longer on this thought his mother came into his room. "Harry, we have to go."

Then Reign quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hallway, down the spiral stairwell, and through the living room. She stopped in front of an oak door and opened it. There, there were only stairs leading to what Harry assumed was the basement.

He walked down the stairs into the dark room where he could vaguely make out the shapes of Sirius and his father sitting on the floor in a corner of the room.

The last bit of light flickered out behind him as his mother shut the door behind her. As she, too, walked down the stairs and situated herself next to her husband and their only friend, Harry felt a tug on his hand once again. He looked over at Reign and smiled as best as he could at her. She only nodded at the gesture and led him to the other side of the room. She then put her back against the cement wall and slid down until she was sitting on the floor. Harry followed suit as another shiver went down his spine as the feeling of the cold cement floor registered in his body.

He sat in silence looking over at his parents talking in murmurs, seeing only their outline in green like most of the distant memories he had of them so often were, and felt a tear trickle down his cheek. He could hear soft worried cries from Reign beside him as he thought of the World Cup game and how the old death eaters had been joking horribly by levitating those poor muggles and then how they had run away in fear at the sight of the dark mark.

But this was different than that incident. This was real, and someone was dead. Someone was dead and they were getting closer to Godric's Hollow. Another shiver ran down his spine at the thought.

But they were safe. As long as Sirius kept their address to only the members of this small group, they would be safe.

"In theory yes."

Harry jumped at the sound of the soft voice. He turned to Reign and merely stared at her. How did she do that? She smiled softly at him and continued, "Sirius will never give out the address to anyone. Even Pettigrew, who up until today was still his friend. Let's just say Peter's frustrated with that fact."

She sighed slightly at the words before she continued, "And even if he did give him permission to come here, dear old Voldie couldn't come in. So, yes, we're safe."

Harry's brow furrowed at the news he had mostly heard before. As if understanding his thoughts she continued, "We hide down here, not because we have to, but because, I guess, in a way, it gives us an extra sense of security. That's all."

Harry nodded and glanced at his parents once more, who were still talking softly to one another. He noticed Sirius fidgeting at their side as he looked over at the small window above Harry and Reign's head seeing only the light coming from the window and not the children that were sitting beneath it.

Harry watched the scene, as Sirius interjected statements between his parents conversation, finding that despite the situation outside their surroundings it was rather comforting being in the dark room with all of the family together. It seemed to send an "everything's going to be okay" sign and Harry clung onto it, knowing that this too would become only a memory when he was sent back home.

The occupants of the basement slowly fell into silence. Harry continued to observe as Sirius glanced down at this watch. The man let out a soft laugh as the time registered in his head. "Happy Christmas," he mumbled.

Harry's brow contorted at the comment and glanced down at his own watch.

12:01. 12/25/05

"Happy Christmas," he whispered back.

Sirius looked up from the floor across to Harry and smiled slightly. Harry knew that he was most likely brooding over the unfortunate-ness of spending Christmas morning like this. But as Harry looked around the room he didn't much mind it. Unfortunate and morbid, yes, but he was with his family, one he now knew he wouldn't have for much longer.

Silence stirred in the room as Harry thought. He wanted to go home. He wanted to spend his Christmas with Hermione and Ron. Yet, at the same time he also wanted to stay here with this incredibly unstable, yet somehow, stable family. He looked at his parents snuggling in the corner. How he would miss not seeing that. He wanted to keep it. Memories wouldn't be enough.

Yes, there were still people at home. The Weasley's, particularly Ron, and then there was Hermione, and Remus, Tonks, Mad-eye, and others surely would miss him also. Others that would fall if he didn't get home and step up to the plate, so to say, and play out the final act of "savior."

Was he ready for that?

He'd convinced himself up until that point that he was, but as he looked over at the green light touching those he had lost once, he wasn't so sure. He glanced up at the window above him that was lined with the luminous green light. This was coming to his world. This fear and pain was coming, and no one but him could stop it.

He shut his eyes, before he reopened them and looked straight at his parents and then to Sirius, taking in every bit of it.

He had to let go, if not for himself then for his friends. So that everything would be all right, he'd have to move on. He closed his eyes once more and rested his head against the cement wall and willed himself to let go. For one cannot move on unless they let the past go, and now Harry knew this all too well.

He felt a small tear sneak out of his closed eyes as he thought: I'll miss you.

He then felt a soft hand on his knee rest there in comfort, and despite the tears that wished to fall, he smiled sincerely as it softly patted the area. From the outer regions of his mind he could hear the soft voice of Sirius begin to sing in the darkness.

"Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!
Alles schläft, einsam wacht
nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,
schlaf in himmlischer Ruh',
schlaf in himmlischer Ruh'."

Shortly after he had begun Harry heard Reign join the chorus of the Christmas song being sung in its original format. Harry opened his eyes one last time, only to see Sirius sing the best song to sing, under the circumstances, and also his parents listening with their own eyes shut to the musical whims of the broken man Harry had loved.

Harry felt another tear escape from his eyes before he shut them for the night. Thinking only of the people he had met in this world and the ones he needed to get back to in his, as the soft duet filtered through his ears, willing him to sleep all the while letting his thoughts drift further and further away from his parents, Reign, and Sirius.