Contrary to the rain, Remus hated the snow.

It wasn't very long before it become dangerous ice on the ground. The cold air was setting his lungs on fire, burning up his nostrils, slowing numbing his ears and face. There wasn't anything elegant or serene about constantly having his nose constantly sniffle or furiously shivering beneath his coat. It was just bitterly cold everywhere he went. He had to steal another blanket from Sirius because even his bedroom was intolerably cold.

Tonight wasn't a regular meeting. Arthur had been attacked at the Ministry and was just recently allowed to come back to Grimmauld. The kids were home. They were finally getting to have a small celebration. Sirius had finally unlocked the wine cabinet and was scouring it.

"Happy Christmas!" Tonks exclaimed as she came through the door, throwing her arms around Remus's neck.

"He's Jewish." Sirius pointed out.

"I don't think I've had any sort of proper holiday in years, so I think Christmas is okay." Remus murmured, burying his face in her neck. She had chin length curls, part of them pulled on top of her head with an elastic tie.

"Oops." She grumbled. "Sorry."

"Stop it." Remus shook his head, running his fingers through her hair. "I like you're hair, by the way."

"Thanks! I wanted to be festive." Tonks giggled.

"What colour is it?"

"Red. Bright red." Her voice said enthusiastically. "And I made the ends green." Her fingers rustled her curls. "How are you?"

"I'm good! Great, thanks." Remus chuckled. Her energy was immediately contagious. "How's work?"

"Oh, it's... exactly how it always is." Her voice was elusive. "You know how it is."

"Of course." Remus nodded, trying to keep from bringing it up and upsetting her. She must have been stressed beyond belief, but she deserved to be cheerful tonight. She had to be one of the ones to find Arthur's body, dead or alive, and stay with him in an area in a life-threatening situation until help arrived. It was a hard night on everyone. All Remus could do that night was sit with the Weasley children and wait for news to trickle back to headquarters.

"I got you something." Tonks told him. "It's just to, you know, help you out a bit, but you've got to let me explain it first."

Remus was very hesitant. "Oh... kay..."

"It's a watch." Her voice said plainly.

"I'm sorry, a watch?" He was suddenly very miffed.

"Yes, okay, so I found it when I was out at an antique store. They were selling it because it was broken, here, you can hold it. The face got busted and fell out. And it didn't have a battery." He opened up his hand to her and with two hands, she placed what felt like a regular leather watch. "So I asked if that was all that was wrong with it, and they said yes. So I went ahead and bought it. But I also charmed the arms on it to... sort of stay in place, but not really. You following so far?"

"Um-" Remus tilted his head. "You... glued the hands on a watch to the face of the watch because...?"

"They'll still move around it and tell time and all. But you can touch it with your fingertips and you won't slide them around at all. Unfortunately this means that in the summertime, you'll need to do some maths to figure out what time it is. Oh, and also, I put little knotches on the outside at every hour if that helps. Here, can you feel the little notched around the edge?" Tonks explained. "It's kind of complicated, but if you can learn which hand is which and get to know the hours, you'll learn to tell time."

Remus let this soak into his mind. "So... I guess this means no more sleeping all day then, yes?"

"No, see, now you have to get up and be productive like the rest of us." She said lightly. "I hope it helps. It might take some getting used to though."

"It's wonderful. It's very thoughtful of you."

"Thanks. I hoped... maybe it would make your life a little easier." Tonks explained. "If it doesn't, if it was a stupid gift, then just throw it away. I'm sorry."

Remus shook his head. "I can't know if I don't try." He struggled, wrapping it around his wrist.

"Here, it's upside down." She giggled, her hand grabbing ahold of his wrist. "Come here, I'll flip it over for you."

"You've been in such a good mood." He said pointedly. "I'm glad. I know we've both been very... busy lately."

"Yeah... busy." She nodded. "Can you tell me what time it is?"

Remus touched the hollow face of the watch. He tried to remember the layout of an analog clock. "It's about... a quarter until six, I think. Is that right?"

"Good job!" Tonks laughed. She kissed the side of his cheek. There was something about it that felt innocent and platonic. She was quickly trying to wipe off some smudged lipstick from his face. "I bet Molly's almost done with dinner. I'm gonna go catch up with Fleur. See you in a bit?"

Sirius wrapped his arm around Remus's neck. "Hey, you're looking a bit glum."

"Oh. Am I?" Remus asked.

"You're thinking about her, aren't you?" He asked quietly.

"Here, come look at this." Remus held out his wrist to show his friend the watch. "Isn't that nice?"

"Yeah." Sirius agreed. "So... are you two...?"

"What?" Remus shook his head. "We're friends. We're friends, but it's... complicated."

"Are you okay?" Sirius asked. His voice sounded earnest and geniunely curious.

"I wish I had gotten something for her." Remus mentioned. "Or for you, or for Harry. I wish we could've had a more... normal holiday."

"I got a book from Aurthur on quidditch that I think Harry'll like. And I don't need anything." Sirius replied. "Don't worry about it, alright?"

"Maybe next year we can properly go Christmas shopping together. We can have a real holiday like we used to with James and Lily and all. If you want, we can decorate a tree with Harry. Do all of those cliche traditions." Remus said thoughtfully. "I could dust off some of my mum's recipes, not that I think I can make challah without my eyes..."

"And you can invite Tonks." Sirius said lightly.

"You say that like all your charges are going to be dropped in a year. We don't know where any of us are going to be in a year."

"Exactly! Who knows where we'll be in a year, mate? Or the next year, or the year after? We've got to take chances while we can." Remus took a deep breath to say something before being cut off. "Next year, you, me, and Harry, and we'll have a proper family Christmas. Except... not really. Christmas in the name of aestheticism. Promise. We'll do it."

The mental image was amusing, but that only seemed to make it more sad. He couldn't put it above Sirius not to completely trash the place with decorations, but what was the point? A new realization struck him when they set up an old, makeshift tree in the drawing room that he couldn't see any of it. Part of him must have assumed a sort of mental picture of what Christmas lights would look like, but it never occurred to him until he was sitting in the floor, his head tilting up at them, that he realized that all lights were considered equal, that every light he saw was exactly the same. Tonks spent a good hour untangling a string of Christmas lights that only half worked and said that they were coloured lights. Remus knew this should've been common sense. He had never been able to see the orange glow of a fire or the blue glow of a stove top. In his mind, he pictured what it had been like looking at a bunch of coloured lights with his eyelids shut: he could be able see red and green colours glowing even if he couldn't see the lights. Now after his accident, the Christmas tree was just a very large, overly-glorified lamp. There wasn't exactly anything lovely about it.

"Hey, Sirius?" Remus swiftly grabbed his arm. "I just wanted to say thank you."

"For what?"

"This has been a really hard year for all of us, and I know it's not been easy being patient with me. And I've still got a long way to go, but you've done a lot for me."

Sirius didn't know how to express his emotions all that well. He wasn't the hugging type, so to speak. "I really haven't done all that much."

"You helped me take showers. That's quite a lot to ask of someone."

"Well just know that you still owe me one for that." Sirius chuckled.

"Thanks." Remus said.

Arthur was in much better spirits, though Remus knew he must've still looked pretty bad, considering how awkward people were acting around him. The twins were up to something, leading to a lecture from their mother, but Remus didn't know what. He was pleasantly surprised when Sirius gave Harry his gift with both of their names on it. And of course, Remus got a sweater from Molly.

He hadn't been much use in preparing dinner, but he tried to at least help with the dishes afterwards.

"Hey," Tonks breathed, her head right behind his ear. He could feel her lips brush against him, her hand resting in the small of his back. "Let's sneak out tonight."

"Hmm?" Remus raised his eyebrows, trying to keep his expression calm.

"Let's sneak out. When the kids go upstairs and when Molly and Arthur go to bed." She whispered.

"Where to?" He asked, turning his head to whisper quieter.

"There are a bunch of Christmas lights downtown. I say we take Sirius with us."

"He'll like that." Remus agreed. He shut off the water and shook off his hands, reaching out for the towel to dry his hands. "But yes, we will need to wait."

"So I guess we've got some time to kill then." Tonks sighed. He heard her jump up onto the counter. He balled up the hand towel and threw it at her lap. "That wasn't very nice of you, Remus." He took back the dish rag and hung it back up on its rack.

"Are you getting plenty of good photos for your scrapbook?"

"Oh sure. Can I take one of you?"

"I-" Remus laughed. She had taken his picture several times before, but never with warning. She always caught him in the middle of something. He didn't know how he should've posed for the picture. "What?"

"Here, look up here," her hand touched his chin. "Smile!"

"Ah, um-" Remus tried to put on a decent smile. He felt utterly ridiculous.

He heard the shutter of her camera. "Very handsome. I've already developed half of the film I've got upstairs, but it seems like I never have any time."

"You better get down before Molly spots you-"

"Tonks, dear, could you-"

Tonks jumped down from her seat. "So is that a yes then?"

"Of course." Remus smiled.

"Do you want something to drink while we wait?" Tonks offered, already digging for a glass in the cupboard. She almost dropped one, before Remus managed to catch it. It was incredible how much being around her had him on guard to catch things. The two sat in their secluded corner of the kitchen with their fire whiskey as people tapered off to bed.

It was hard trying to sneak all three of them out at once, especially with Sirius as a dog. Between Tonks and Remus's collective clumsiness, they had multiple instances of almost falling flat on patches of ice that froze to the sidewalk. Tonks was chipper and too busy talking to watch her feet until she eventually fell flat on her backside. Remus felt bad for laughing. Tonks probably filled up an entire roll of film taking pictures of the Christmas lights. It was starting to get pretty late, but there were still people out walking and there were voices singing Christmas carols somewhere down the street. The lights weren't that pretty to Remus, but he knew it wasn't meant to be about that.

It was the best they felt in a while.