Lesson Fourteen: A Fairly Traditional Christmas

Once Remus had recovered from his injuries he returned to his classes. The weeks then slowly began to creep along. His friends had continued to study the Anamagus transformations when they had the time to but with the holidays approaching, they were finding it harder to find such time. Despite the setback of many last-minute essays before the students would leave, Remus was glad to see that his friends were still as gung-ho about the idea as they were when they first began to do it.

Aside from the few transformation study times the boys had done, they did indeed spend most of their time studying for last minute tests. For the vast majority of the teachers had opted to give their students exams before the winter break had began. Which, in essence, provided many headaches for the young pupils within the school.

In between the tests and Anamagi studying, the four had, surprisingly for them, eventually found the time to pack up their stuff so that they could leave because they were all actually going to go home for the holiday. So, whilst they fixed up their trunks so that they could go home, the excitement grew within most of them. Only Sirius was left complaining about leaving the castle. He would mutter foul words every so often to himself, as they packed, about how horrid the Black's were. All the while he would throw his shirts, pants, and socks haphazardly into his trunk for his two-week stay at home. Or rather "in hell" as he so compassionately put it.

Other than Sirius' bitter thoughts about going home, everyone else in the school was busy with talk of family and presents as the day that they would be leaving rapidly approached. Then, before too long, they found themselves aboard the Hogwarts Express heading for the countless said destinations that had been uttered through the hall continuously during the previous week.

When the train arrived at King's Cross the boys quickly piled out and set out looking for their parents. James found his father first and quickly introduced him to Remus and Peter before his father looked down at his watch and stated that they had to go if they were going to catch the portkey to Dresden because James and his family were going to visit his aunt in Germany rather than staying in London for the holiday, like James would have preferred.

Sirius didn't stay to wish his mates a farewell when he got off of the train. He merely spotted his parents and walked his funeral march over to them. Most likely in a bizarre form of self-defense so that he could protect himself from any foul comments from his parents while he was at home, because Remus was pretty sure, as he watched his friend walk off, that his parents would have made sure to do some damage, either emotionally or physically, to him if they had seen him with James or any of his mates for that matter.

Remus was then dragged over to Peter's parents and was instantly introduced excitedly to the two adults. Peter's parents were friendly enough, Remus noted as they spoke of how nice he and his other mates were to Peter. Remus smiled as he noted to himself that Peter's mother was particularly short and rather average looking in most respects, whereas his father was short and thin and was a fairly, overall, mousy looking man. Remus stayed polite during the brief encounter, putting his mother's manners to work before he bid them farewell and met up with his own family who were gathered at the other end of the platform.

His mother hugged him tightly when he joined up with them, "I was beginning to worry that you'd forgotten to get on the train."

He heard a snort come from his cousin but ignored it.

"Just saying goodbye to my mates."

Again he heard a small chortle from his cousin as his father stated that they should probably start heading home.

When they finally arrived home all Remus could do was smile. Lupin lodge was just as he had left it. It was still as cozy as ever, and smelled of his mother's baking. Everything was exactly as he remembered it, he thought absentmindedly to himself as if he'd expected everything to change whilst he was gone. But as he had found last year during Christmas break, and also when he'd gotten home for the summer holiday, it was a silly idea. This was his home and things wouldn't have changed so drastically by him just leaving it.

He'd spent the first few days catching up with his family, bothering his father in his study as he worked out some of the papers he had stacked up from work. Or he would help his mum in the kitchen, and when he wasn't doing either of those things he would play countless games (mainly exploding snap) with Kara. When he needed some alone time he'd go up to his room and read or play his guitar. He discovered that these were aspects of life that he'd missed while being wrapped up in the busy world of school.

Then on Christmas Eve, the Lupin's went out in search of a tree. They cut it down the traditional way and used magic to carry it home. Remus laughed openly once they had reached the house when they had discovered that the tree was a little too big to be able to fit through their front door. The family often joked that this too was a tradition.

"Shrink it, dad." Remus called out from the back of the tree as he pushed its end a bit to try and shove it through the door.

"Shrink it! But it's far too nice to shrink."

Remus smiled widely and stopped pushing on the trunk, "Then you get it in the house."

He heard his mother laugh and Edmund slowly pulled out his wand before he finally did as his son had asked. The tree shrunk to the size of a small fur tree. Edmund then picked it up with one hand and dragged it inside.

"Get the tree stand."

His mother came back a few seconds later with the item. She placed it on the floor and his father put the tree in the stand. Edmund then told his wife to hold onto the small tree, and for Remus and Kara to help her and do the same, before he could cast the reverse spell and let the tree grow in size until it was just shy enough from the ceiling to fit the star cozily on top. He then relieved his wife and kids from their duties and let Gwen screw the hooks on the stand into the base of the tree so that they would hold it up.

He smiled at the tree and cast a small warming charm on it so that the branches would fall in less time and they could decorate it later that night. After this small task was done the family scattered to their own areas of the house and bid their time in whatever way they felt fit.

Remus retreated to his room after he had refused to go to Diagon Alley with his mum and cousin, who were going to get the last few gifts for the next day. He had told them simply that he just wanted to stay home and left his mum a small note with the items he had wanted to get his mates for Christmas, along with the addresses to owl the assorted items too. His mother had laughed when she'd looked over the short list and soon after left with Kara, leaving Remus to his own activities.

Up in his room his found that everything was in order, aside from some of the stray textbooks he'd left out from the night before, his bookshelf had a few new additions he had put away when he'd first gotten back home, that his father had sent him over the periods that he had been sick at school. All of which had already been read a few times. He sighed deeply to himself before he walked over to the other side of his room and collected the second hand guitar and tuned it. He carefully gained the feel of the familiar strings and slowly began to strum random cords before he found a set that he liked together and set it to repeat, only playing variations of the cords every few measures or so.

It didn't take long after that for words to start to filter in as the music danced within his loft. He stayed like that for a long while, as he lost track of time, only stopping every so often to write down something that had come to mind while he played.

"That's beautiful."

Remus jumped at the sound of Kara's voice. He looked at her only to find a solemn face. He set his guitar back into its stand and looked back at his cousin expecting her to say something else.

"I wish I could play like that."

"Lock yourself in your room with it and you'll probably get it down." Remus stated with his typical melancholy humor.

"Right, I don't have the patience for that. And besides, Uncle Edmund helped."

Remus nodded. It was true; his father had taught him how to play. But since then the years had opted to play devil's advocate on the elder Lupin's hands and he rarely touched the old guitar now.

"Your mum wants you to go downstairs. We're decorating the tree now."

Remus smiled widely and the two raced down the stairs without another word being uttered. The ornaments were strewn across the living room as Gwen told them which boxes she wanted on the tree. The two set to work as their parents watched more from the sidelines enjoying themselves as they watched the kids work.

When they had finished with the brightly colored bulbs Edmund took the honor of placing the star on the top. They stood back and looked at the tree, a true tribute to the past, for nothing on it dated past 1940.

Gwen then told the children to get ready for bed. They did as they were told leaving to get their pajamas on and then rushed up the stairs. They disappeared into Remus' bedroom where they situated themselves on his bed. His mother, soon after, came up with "The Night Before Christmas" held firmly in her hands and sat down beside the two children and read. It seemed that no matter how old they got this would always be a part of the tradition as well.

When she had finished the story she kissed each of them on the forehead and left them to their own devices. They were quiet for only a few minutes as they fidgeted a bit on the bed trying their best to get comfortable as they lounged against the pillows.

"So," Remus stated suddenly becoming a little uncomfortable with the silence.

"So what?"

Remus grinned a bit to himself at the expected reply, only to find that he really had everything and nothing to "so" at all at the same time. For despite the fact that they had spent a lot of time together as of late he really hadn't gotten the proper time to catch up with her.

"How's school?"

"Cool."

He groaned slightly, "Anything in particular that you like."

"The castle's cool." Remus chuckled, "Defense is easy and Professor Pike is wicked. He covers everything really well even though I could probably zone out with most of the stuff he talks about and still pass with a high grade." She smiled proudly to herself before she looked over at Remus, "You?"

"It's the same as last year. Pranks, homework…" he stopped briefly before he continued, "friends."

Kara smiled gloomily knowing what he wanted to avoid, "Yeah, well that's good considering you loved it last year. It's good that it didn't change this year. And I'll have you know that you described everything to me perfectly. It's exactly how I imagined it would be."

"Is it now?"

She nodded and rested her head on his pillow, "Yeah, and I've got friends too. Alexial's really nice even though she's a year older than me and spends most of her time reading than talking, that is unless she gets too stocked up on caffeine, then she's real talkative." She smiled, "Aunt Gwen said that she could stay over this summer like Sirius did, if it'd be okay with her parents."

"That'd be cool. Alexial's nice."

Kara gave him a confused glance before she recalled what he'd said the last time they'd really talked, "Oh, Astronomy partner." She laughed a bit to herself.

"What?"

"Nothing." he cocked an eyebrow at her, "Okay, it's just that in a lot of ways she's like you. Shy, until you get her to open up, loves to read and write, is relatively good at school. Overall just nice to be around."

Remus smiled widely at the complement his cousin offered and yawned widely afterwards. He shut his eyes to give them some rest, "Thanks."

"No problem."

He heard a yawn come from beside him as his cousin slowly began to talk about some of the things she'd gotten into and the assorted things she talked about with her mates in Ravenclaw until the words slowly began to dissipate into grunts, which were transformed into soft sighs as the two gradually talked themselves into sleep.

Remus woke up and smiled at his cousin who was still asleep at his side. He carefully sat up from his bed so as to not wake Kara up and silently walked down the wooden stairs to the kitchen where his mum was making breakfast.

"Good morning, honey," she greeted as he walked over to her so that he could stand by her side.

"Can I help?"

His mother nodded and told him to man the frying pan that was full of eggs while she pre-panned the homemade rolls. They worked together until the remainder of the house awoke and soon breakfast was served. After they had finished the exquisite meal they moved into the living room where piles of presents were stacked up under the tree.

Remus smiled as he picked up a present and handed one to each member of the family before he sat back down on the couch. On the count of three they opened the items in unison. All with smiling faces, as they showed off their gifts to one another before they placed them on a pile beside them.

And so it went until only three packages remained. Remus, once again, handed out the presents until he had none left for himself. He sat down on the couch, mildly disappointed that he hadn't one extra gift to open like everyone else.

"Oh, wait. I have to get something." Kara quickly scrambled to her room.

Remus felt himself roll his eyes at her as she disappeared around the corner. When she returned he felt his mouth drop. He didn't have to open it to know what it was.

She set the item down on his lap and he felt his hands glide over the object. He looked up at her, "You shouldn't have."

Kara blushed slightly, "Open it."

Remus just stared at her like she was mad before he opened the case. It was perfect. He'd been eyeing it in the muggle music store for the last year or so. A new guitar, a Gibson, it was perfect in every way, and also rather expensive.

He felt tears come to his eyes, "You really shouldn't have."

Kara only smiled, "Well, it's not like I paid for it all by myself and besides I wanted to get it for you over the summer but Aunt Gwen said that it wasn't the right time."

"Play something," his mother prompted.

Remus looked up at his mum as his hands gently plucked the strings. He took the guitar out of its case, placed the case on the floor amongst the wrapping paper, and slowly played for her. He smiled as he changed to simple cords slowly playing whatever tickled his fancy until he stopped when he felt that the song should come to an end. He smiled widely at them, loving Kara more than anything else at that moment.

He then slipped the guitar back into its case. "Thank you," was all he could manage.

Kara nodded her head at him, "No problem."

He watched her as she played some of her new Magi-Music discs, softly singing with the songs that were being played through the WWW, vowing that he would try to be kinder to her in the future, providing that Sirius didn't somehow ambush his good intentions. He smiled slightly at the thought of his friend and all of the beliefs he had fabricated about his cousin over the time he had spent at Lupin Lodge. If only he really knew her, he'd understand some of her more colorful moments, Remus thought to himself.

There was a tap on the window that pulled Remus away from his thoughts. He stared for a while at the small being before it fully registered in his head what it was. He quickly stood from his seat and opened the window letting the little brown owl in. He promptly relieved the familiar bird of its burden as Kara stared at him somewhat confused by the sight of the owl.

Remus unrolled the parchment and scanned the small badly scrawled letter.

Remus,

I have something to tell you, but I can't really put it in this letter. I'll have to tell it to you on the train. But I will say this: Some really strange stuff is happening and I don't just think it's a fluke. I'll explain it later, I promise.

May dad's coming now. I've got to go.

Sincerely,

James Potter

Remus stared at the words of warning before he finally looked up at his cousin who appeared to be unsuccessfully reading his facial expression. He looked deep into her green eyes and felt a small shiver run down his spine at the memory of the newspaper article and James' first few words about the oddness that the general magical public knew nothing about, and knew somehow this note was also tied to that topic.

A sense of dread fell over him as he shoved the piece of parchment into his pocket and offered to play some chess with Kara, knowing, all the while as they set the board up for a game, that this was only the beginning.