A/N: "bold" french, "normal" english

Christmas Surprises

The busy time of last minute changes to the law books and Christmas-time debates was over. Almost everyone was at home, though the rare few were neatening up their offices before going home to celebrate Christmas. Mr. Black and Remus were two such people. As Remus shredded various scraps of paper and old memos, Mr. Black was cleaning up his desk. Mr. Black was on his way out when he remembered something.

"Remus," he said. "Sirius called to say he would meet you on the front steps. Said something about last minute shopping…"

"Alright. Thank you, sir," said Remus.

"Well, see you next year, m'boy. Have a happy Christmas!" Mr. Black called over his shoulder.

"Au revoir, monsieur Black! Joyeux Noël !" Remus called back.

Five minutes later, Remus was grabbing his tweed sweater and, after locking the office, hurried to the elevator. The front doors were directly in front of the bank of elevators. (1) The hunched figure of Sirius standing at the top of the front steps brought a brilliant smile to Remus' face.

Sirius turned to him as he walked out, looking adorable with his wind swept hair and cold, pink nose.

"Hey," he said.

"Hello," Remus replied.

"I know you'd probably prefer to go home but I'd really like your help choosing a gift for someone," Sirius said as they walked down the front steps down to the sidewalk.

"It's alright," Remus said, already starting to shiver in his holey sweater.

"Remus," Sirius stated in a concerned, yet annoyed tone. "Are you sick in the head?"

Remus looked at him hurt and already a bit ashamed of whatever it was he had done. (2) Sirius, seeing this look, instantly clarified.

"Honestly, Rem. You're wearing a holey sweater in the middle of a London December. I mean, I'm wearing two sweaters and a coat and I'm still freezing my nuts off!" He looked over as Remus let out a particularly violent shiver. "Oh, come here you."

He pulled Remus to him, wrapping him up in his coat—a two-for-one deal: get warm and get a hug.

Standing there with Remus pressed to his chest, carolers singing down the street, and a light snow starting to fall, Sirius knew that this was one of those few, perfect moments in life.

Remus mumbled something into Sirius' chest.

"What was that?" Sirius asked.

"I said," stated Remus after pulling back, "is there any particular shop you wanted to go to?"

"Oh, right. There's a lovely little store over by Heathrow that I wanted to check out."

"Well, let's get going before I turn into a human icicle."

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The shop had turned out to be a little novelty shop across the street from the airport parking lot. Sirius had left Remus in the book section while he looked at various figurines and keepsakes, occasionally asking him what he thought of certain items.

Remus had fallen into a content lull, reading a book on the history of the Tower of London. Therefore, he was easily shaken when a pair of arms grasped him tightly around the waist. He gasped, heart racing, when a voice he feared more than anything hissed in his ear.

"Did you really think you could run away from me? Did you honestly think you could hide?" Jimmy hissed in his ear. "Well guess what, you were stupid as always. You ran to a place where you are all alone. There's no one here to help you."

In that time of blind panic, Remus had a moment of lucidity. He wasn't alone…

"Sirius!" he screamed.

The dark haired man on the other side of the shop spun around.

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At Remus' cry, Sirius assumed he had found the perfect gift or had a question so he spun around excitedly. At the sight of his Remus in the arms of a nasty looking man, he saw red. As he stalked over he could hear Remus pleading silently with the man in French, but when the name "Jimmy" left his lips the entire situation changed. This was the man that had forced Remus to come here, the man who had beat him and sold him to his friends. However, instead of becoming even more livid like most would expect, Sirius realized this was a delicate situation that needed to be handled carefully. Suddenly, an ingenious plan came to him.

He came up and tapped Jimmy on the shoulder.

"Excuse me sir, but I'm going to have to ask that you refrain from engaging in PDA, it's upsetting some of the customers," he informed the man, assuming the false identity of a salesman. When Jimmy turned to glare at him Sirius, Sirius, felt true fear. The Frenchman (Is he French? Sirius wondered silently) dropped his arms to turn to face him.

"Why don't you and your customers fuck off?" the man said, his accent giving him away as a New York Italian.

"Even better, how 'bout I kick you out?" Sirius shot back, no longer scared but annoyed. The guy was just like his mother's little dog: all bark and no bite. He intimidated people, he didn't hit them.

"How 'bout I blow your fuckin' brains out?"

"Sorry, but you have to be at least semi-good looking to blow me and you don't fall under that category."

In the corner of his mind, Sirius cheered Remus on as he snuck out while Jimmy was distracted by their argument.

"Actually, you know what? Why don't we go talk to the manager? I'm sure she can handle this much better than I can," Sirius said, steering the shorter man towards the back of the shop.

The man growled but allowed Sirius to lead him away, apparently having his primary reason for coming into the shop. Sirius left him in the manager's office saying "I'll go get her for you." As soon as the door shut he raced out of the shop after Remus, hoping Jimmy didn't notice that the manager was a man, not a woman. He stood looking up and down the crowded sidewalk for the tell-tale blond hair. Just as he spotted Remus, the sound of a door banging open and cussing came from within the shop. He took off towards Remus. The shop door opened seconds after he pulled Remus into an alley.

Remus dropped to the ground into a little ball and sobbed when he grabbed his arm, but calmed down a bit when he saw that it was Sirius.

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Having Sirius lead him through the back alleys of London, never letting go of his hand, gave Remus an odd sense of security. Sirius wasn't going to let him get hurt, Sirius was going to keep him safe. This was what true friendship, even love, was like, he realized. He was never going to let go of him, ever. Let Jimmy come, he thought to himself. I'd like to see him get past Sirius.

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A/N: Soo...were they horrible? I think the whole scene with Jimmy was badly written but...oh, well. If you have any suggestions or requests for the next chapter, please let me know in your reviews. I also have a series of vingettes about Tom M. Riddle's wife getting revenge on him using Mugglenet's 101 (yes, I know they've updated the list) Ways to Annoy Voldemort on the way. If you review, I'll give you a general time frame for when it will be uploaded. Don't forget to reivew (in case you haven't noticed the several hints thus far in my author's note).