Chapter Twenty Three

Because I'll never let this go

Light spilled through the windows, it shined into the room brightening it a great deal. Outside, the white and fluffy snow was glistening brilliantly. Evangeline lay in her bed, asleep. After she had retired to the dormitories the night before, she found had it very hard to get to sleep. She had tossed and turned, tried to get comfortable, but she had too many things on her mind. Eventually, as time passed well into the morning, she fell asleep. The bright sunlight shone in her face, she stirred and screwed up her face. But still, her eyes remained closed.

'Angel,' a voice whispered in her ear. The softness of the voice tickled her and she jerked her head away. 'Angel, it's Christmas morning, you have presents,' the voice encouraged her.

Evangeline sighed and peeped one eye open. Sirius was kneeling beside the bed smiling at her. 'Did you know that you look incredibly beautiful when you're asleep? So peaceful and calm,' he said.

'Pity I'm not like that all the time then,' Evangeline laughed lightly, but then she scrunched up her face in pain and lifted her hand to her head. 'Aoww, headache,' she explained, 'I'm never drinking again! Ever.'

'Don't be silly,' Sirius said as he got up and sat on the bed beside where she lay. 'Soon you'll feel as fit as a fiddle,' he smiled.

'How come you don't have a headache?' Evangeline asked him curiously.

Sirius smiled cheekily, 'I just don't get as effected by the drink as what you do.'

Evangeline raised her eyebrows suspiciously. Sirius rolled his eyes, 'Fine, James and I have a potion that'll cure hangovers,' he said, he reached out his hand and gently pushed a strand of hair out of Evangeline's face. He laughed and said, 'I just can't lie to you.'

'That's a good thing! And you wouldn't be my hero and go and get me some of that potion, would you? I don't really want to spend my Christmas with a massive headache,' Evangeline said, hoisting herself up to a sitting position.

'Sure, but I'm your hero already,' Sirius said winking at her, 'Everyone else is in the Common Room, you should go down and see them. I'll see you down there,' he said and he cupped Evangeline's face in his hands and softly kissed her forehead.

Evangeline smiled tenderly and watched as Sirius backed out of the dormitories not taking his eyes off of her until he turned and walked down the spiral stairs. Evangeline sighed heavily and swung her legs around until they were dangling off the bed. She yawned loudly and stretched her arms up towards the ceiling. She glanced at the clock above the door of the bathroom, it read six minutes past ten. 'So much for getting up early,' Evangeline muttered to herself. She slowly stumbled across the dormitory towards the bathroom, she pushed open the door and walked over to the sink. She let the water run for a while before putting her hands under the gushing water and splashing some on her face. She reached over to the shelves, grabbed a blue towel and dabbed her face dry. Evangeline turned to walk out the door, she grabbed Sirius' quidditch jumper that was hanging on the back of the door and walked out of the bathroom. She slipped the red and gold jumper over her head as she walked through the dormitory. It was too big on her, but yet she adored it. The fluffiness on the inside, it was so warm and comfortable and the fact that Sirius' scent was permanently lingering on it. She skipped down the spiral stairs, her head still throbbing from her hangover, but even that could not dampen her spirits.

Christmas was her favourite time of year, the way everyone spent time together and enjoyed themselves, the giving of presents and the excitement of opening them. When she reached the bottom of the stairs she could hear laughter coming from the Common Room. She peered around the corner to find Lily, Izzy and the Marauder's sitting on the couches surrounding the fire. She smiled when she noticed that James and Lily were sitting beside each other, their differences set aside. Well, maybe Lily had just found out that he wasn't as big a jerk as what she thought he was. But still, it was an improvement. Evangeline skipped around the corner, eager to greet her friends a Happy Christmas and open her presents.

'Well look who it is. Finally decide to get out of your pit, sis?' James asked her mockingly. He was wearing a yellow and black London Wasps jersey, presumably Sirius had got him it for Christmas.

'I was tired, James. Anyway, where's my presents?' Evangeline asked excitedly as she bounded over to the sitting area, 'And Merry Christmas, everybody,' she smiled, 'I hope you all like my presents I got you.'

'You're presents are over there,' Remus said pointing over to the pile of neatly wrapped presents sitting beside the fireplace. 'And thank you so much for the present, Evie. It was perfect, I've needed a new pair of keeping gloves for ages!'

'Thanks Remy,' Evangeline said as she walked over to collect her presents, 'And I'm glad you liked them. I thought they were pretty cool, the salesman said they had a permanent cushioning spell on them so I thought that would be useful.'

'Angel, here's the potion,' Sirius said when he noticed Evangeline as he entered the Common . There was a large grey bottle held in his hand. 'Just to warn you, it tastes revolting,' he said, handing her the bottle. 'We just use the lid to drink it, fill it to the top and you should be feeling better straight away,' Sirius said.

'Thanks, Sirius,' Evangeline said smiling appreciatively at him. She unscrewed the lid and poured the gloopy grey potion into the lid. She sniffed it cautiously, 'It smells disgusting,' she said, screwing up her face in disgust. Her head was still throbbing, so she decided that it would probably be best to just drink the potion and get it over and done with. She reached the lid up to her mouth and emptied the entire content in seconds. She coughed and spluttered at the potion made it's way down her throat, 'It tastes like sick! Where on earth did you get it?' she asked Sirius who had made himself comfortable in the armchair closest to the fire.

'Same place I got the Firewhiskey,' Sirius smirked.

'Right, well here you go. Hopefully I won't need it again,' Evangeline said, handing it back to him. 'Now, time to open my presents,' she smiled, grabbing the first present on top of the pile. It was neatly wrapped in blue and turquoise paper; it was from Lily. Evangeline ripped open the paper to reveal four books; Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Sense and Sensibility and Romeo and Juliet. 'Oh, Lily, you really didn't!' Evangeline cried, 'I've wanted to read these books for ages! Thank you so much!' she said an hugged Lily gratefully.

'I'm glad you like them. I remembered you saying how you wished to read Pride and Prejudice and I didn't want to get you just one book, so I bought those other books as well,' Lily informed her, 'And if I must say, my favourite is probably Sense and Sensibility, it's brilliant.'

'Thanks again, Lily. I haven't properly read a book in ages, I've been so busy,' Evangeline said. She reached out and grabbed the second present in the pile. It was wrapped in bright red paper, but there was no name tag on it. 'Who is this one from?' she asked, holding it up.

'It's from me,' Remus said, grinning broadly.

Evangeline smiled back and began to rip the paper to uncover a box, she mumbled the title to herself, 'CD Player,' she mumbled to herself, opened the box and pulled out a cylindrical shaped object, 'What is it?' she asked him, baffled by this unusual object.

As Evangeline fumbled about with the CD player fascinated by it, Remus chuckled at her expression, 'It plays music, so only you can listen to it,' he explained to her.

'Cool, how does it do that then?' She asked him, randomly pressing the buttons. She gasped and threw it down when the lid popped open, 'Ah! What's it doing?' she asked him as she edged away from the curious object.

Remus laughed, 'It opened so that you can put a CD in it,' Remus explained, he walked over and sat down beside Evangeline, he picked up the CD player and showed it to her. 'This button – that one there, that plays the music, it also pauses it. That one there, the little square, stops the music. This one forwards onto the next song, and that one plays the previous one.'

'But why did it pop open like that? And what's a CD?' Evangeline asked him, staring inquisitively at the CD player. 'Muggles make such strange objects,' she concluded, taking the CD player out of Remus' hand. She began to examine the CD player again, experimenting with the button that opened it.

'A CD is a disc that contains music. When you put it in a CD player, you can listen to the music through these earphones,' Remus said, pulling a length of black string with funny looking black bobbles on the end out from the box.

'I'm going to listen to music by sticking bobbles in my ears. And why is it made of string?' Evangeline asked him confusedly.

'You really should have done Muggle Studies for your OWL's,' Remus laughed at Evangeline's conclusion. 'It's made of wire. You know like … for electric. And they are called earphones. You put the buds – I think that's what they're called – in your ears,' he said, sticking one in each of Evangeline's ears. 'Then you press the play button and the music plays.'

Evangeline pressed the play button, her brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed, 'I don't hear anything,' she told Remus.

'That's because there is no CD in the player,' Remus said, pressing the open button. This caused Evangeline to jump in surprise. 'It's not going to hurt you,' Remus reassured her, as he tried not to laugh at her amazed expression.

'Where do I get … CDs?' Evangeline asked him.

'In a muggle shop,' Remus said.

'So I've got a CD player, but no CDs. That's not very useful,' Evangeline complained, setting the CD player down gently on the coffee table beside her books.

'Open the rest of your presents,' Remus grinned, nodding towards Evangeline's pile of presents.

Evangeline picked up a squishy present that was wrapped in brown paper with a red sticker stuck to it; Merry Christmas Evangeline, From Peter. She smiled towards Peter who was sitting quietly on the couch beside James. She quickly opened it to reveal a red and gold mittens that could also be fingerless gloves and a red and gold hat with flaps that covered the ears and tassels that dangled down from the ends of the flaps. 'Thanks, Peter. They'll be perfect for our annual snowball fight,' Evangeline said, glancing eagerly towards James. She saw his eyes light up when she mentioned 'snowball fight'.

'I'm glad you like them, Evangeline,' Peter squeaked.

There were three presents left in the pile, Evangeline picked up the smallest one. It was box shaped and it was wrapped in silver paper. She carefully ripped the paper off to reveal a tattered crimson box with the name Peverell written on the lid in golden writing. She opened the box, there was a letter addressed to her;

Dear Evangeline,

Your mother and I have kept this in our possession since the day you were born. It was a gift for you from your late grandmother who passed away a couple of days after your birth. This has been passed down through the generations of our family and we, your mother and I, have decided that now is the time that it should be given to it's rightful owner.

Treasure it well.

Love,

Dad

Evangeline furrowed her brow, a family heirloom, it was certainly strange that she should get such a valuable possession, normally James received all of them. She looked on the inside of the lid, there was a message;

To my beautiful wife,

Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love thee

Below this message were the names of women, presumably the women who had kept this gift in their possession before herself. Her grandmother's name was the last on the list. Evangeline returned her attention to what was in the crimson box hidden beneath the red velvet. She gently and slowly pulled away the red velvet cloth to reveal a silver tiara, a large red ruby was set in the middle of the tiara with smaller rubies surrounding it. Evangeline gasped in astonishment and brought her hands to her mouth, covering her surprised expression. 'It's … beautiful,' she said, tracing her finger over the edge of the sparkling silver tiara.

'What is it?' James asked her. He got up off the couch and knelt down beside her,' Wow! Who got you that?!' he asked her and reached out his hands to grab the tiara.

Evangeline slapped his hand away, 'Don't touch it!' she snapped, 'Dad sent me it, it's a family heirloom,' Evangeline grinned, 'It was a gift for me from gran, she gave mum and dad it the day we were born, but sadly she passed away a couple of days afterwards. It's all in the letter,' she said, reaching James the letter her father had sent her.

Everyone had got off their seats to come and look at Evangeline's gift. She was silently regretting opening it in their presence as she felt it should have been something that should have been kept quiet. She would hate to have it stolen from her, even if she trusted her friends with her life.

'Maybe you should take it to your dormitory,' Sirius whispered in her ear, 'Put it somewhere safe.'

'Since when could you read minds?' Evangeline asked him, chuckling at his suggestion.

Sirius raised his eyebrows, 'Where you really thinking that? I was just suggesting it … Peter has gone a bit starry eyes and I'm sort of wary. I don't want him stealing your family heirloom,' he said, glancing over at Peter, who was watching the tiara like a hawk. 'I'll keep everyone preoccupied while you're gone,' Sirius smiled.

'Thank you,' Evangeline said, she grabbed the box with the tiara in it, quickly kissed Sirius on the lips, hoisted herself up off of the floor and ran towards the spiral stairs. She skipped up the stairs and into the dormitory. When she got into the dormitory, she ran over to her bed, knelt down and reached under it. She felt around for a while until she grabbed a wooden box. She pulled it out from under the bed, stroked the golden furnishings on the mahogany jewellery box and slowly lifted up the lid. Inside was a letter, some photographs, a seashell necklace and large golden key on a long golden chain, she took the chain in her hands and clasped it around her neck. She placed the crimson box containing the tiara inside the mahogany box and snapped the lid shut. Using the key she locked the box and gently placed it under the bed. Evangeline got up and began to walk out of the dormitory, she stopped at the door and glanced back towards her bed. Would it be safe there? She asked herself.

She ran down the stairs again to find everyone yet again, sitting around the fire conversing with each other. 'Did I miss anything?' Evangeline asked as she sat down beside Sirius on the floor.

'Nothing special really. We were just saying that if we win all of our games in hand, we have a great chance of winning the quidditch cup and possibly the house cup,' Sirius answered her.

'That's great, I couldn't stand it if Slytherin won the house cup. They're only a couple of points behind us,' Evangeline said as she grabbed one of the two presents that were left in the pile. It was from James and surprisingly he had wrapped it quite elegantly for his ability. She pulled the silver ribbon that was tied around it and ripped away the paper to uncover a twilight blue box, she opened it and inside was a silver furnished hand mirror. 'James? Why did you get me a mirror?' she asked him curiously.

'It's not just a mirror, Eva,' James said, 'It's part of a two way system. Padfoot and me have one each, we thought that if we got this one that it would connect with them. It means we can talk to each other face to face when we're apart,' he explained.

'Oh, that's brilliant, James. Thank you so much!' Evangeline said as she examined the mirror, 'It'll come in really useful.'

'I know, it also means we can cause more trouble,' James grinned.

Sirius leaned over and whispered in her ear, 'Now we have a way of seeing each other when we're apart,' he said and put his arm around her affectionately. 'You just say my name to the mirror and it should connect automatically and vice versa. It gets warmer when someone wants to talk to you,' he told her and handed her the last present in the pile, 'It's from Izzy,' Sirius told her.

'Thanks, 'Evangeline said, taking the present wrapped in bright pink paper from his grip. She felt slightly disheartened, that was the last of the presents; Sirius hadn't got her one. Either that or he just didn't want to give it to her yet. She quickly tore open the present, two medium sized boxes fell out along with a small beaded bracelet with a charm on it. She began to look at the boxes, 'AC/DC! What is this?! Remus? Is this a CD?' Evangeline asked him excitedly.

'Yes, Evie. It is,' Remus laughed, her exited expression was enough to make anyone chuckle. 'It was Izzy's idea to get you the CD player and CD's so we decided to split the present,' he said.

'Thank you ever so much, Izzy! Well the both of you,' Evangeline said gratefully, she got up and walked over to where Izzy was sitting and hugged her thankfully.

'We knew you'd like it. I remembered you complaining how you couldn't listen to your records in school because there was nothing that would play them. Then I saw this portable music player in a muggle shop and bought it for you. I went and asked Professor McGonagall if she would put a spell on it so that it would work inside the castle and she did,' Izzy told her.

'Aw, that was so nice of you, Izzy. You went through so much trouble for it. I hope you liked my present,' Evangeline smiled.

'I loved it, Evie! The teddy bear reminded me so much of Sooty, but I especially loved the make up set,' Izzy said, smiling brightly.

Evangeline smiled then went and sat down beside Sirius, 'Where's your present for me then?' she asked him teasingly and buried her head in his chest.

'I do have it if that's what you mean,' Sirius smiled cheekily, 'Are you really that eager to see it?' he asked her.

'Yes, I am! Please, please can I have it now?' Evangeline pleaded him, tugging on his arm.

Sirius sighed, 'Okay then,' he said and rolled his eyes, 'You're just so easy to give in to,' he laughed and got up from the floor, he held out his hand for Evangeline.

'Aw, yes! But where are we going?' Evangeline asked him eagerly.

Sirius winked, 'You'll just have to wait and see,' he said and gently pulled her along by the hand, 'We'll see you guys later. I have to give Angel her Christmas present,' he smiled. 'Well, come on then, Angel. I'm sure you'll love it,' Sirius said, putting his arm around her waist and leading her towards the portrait hole.

'Well, to be honest, I couldn't care less what you got me. Even a simple card would suffice,' Evangeline smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. 'I hope we don't have to walk up about a thousand flight of stairs for this, because I'm pretty sure my legs wouldn't be able to cope,' she said.

'It's not that far, I promise,' Sirius smiled and kissed the top of her head.

At the top of the Astronomy Tower …

'Sirius … You know what happened here last time. I-I hope it's not …' Evangeline began but couldn't bring herself to finish. She avoided looking into Sirius' eyes completely.

'Oh Angel, it's nothing like that. I would never do that to you,' Sirius said, turning her so that he was looking into her eyes, he cupped her face reassuringly, 'I promise,' he said and kissed her gently on the lips. He let go of her face, took one of her hands and with his other he opened the large oak door of the Astronomy Tower. Inside the room was empty, Sirius led Evangeline in and gently pulled her towards the balcony.

'There's such a beautiful view from here,' Evangeline sighed as she leaned on the balcony and gazed out at the Black Lake and the Forbidden Forest.

'I thought it would be the perfect place to give you your present,' Sirius shrugged, he put his arms around Evangeline's waist, rested his chin on her shoulder and gazed out at the scenery with her.

'You were right,' Evangeline said and kissed his cheek.

'Do you want your present now?' Sirius asked her, his breath tickling against her neck and his chin nudging against her shoulder as he spoke.

'If you don't mind,' Evangeline said, smiling. Personally she couldn't wait to see what he had got her. Anything with any thought put into it whatsoever would have Evangeline fall even further for him. It was a good thing that now she knew for certain that she was in love with him and that they were finally together.

She watched him as he pulled two small boxes out of his pocket. He held them out in front of him, 'Pick one to open first,' he said, smiling eagerly at her.

Evangeline took a small green velvet box out of his right hand and reluctantly opened it, she gasped, 'Sirius! You shouldn't have!' she said and took the heart-shaped golden locket out of it. 'It's beautiful,' she mumbled quietly, she gazed up at him and kissed him deeply. She broke away and said, 'Really, you shouldn't have spent that much money on me.'

'Trust me, you're worth it,' Sirius grinned, 'Do you want to open this one now?'

'I'm not sure, this better not have cost a lot, Sirius,' Evangeline warned him as she took the larger red mahogany box out of his hand, she slowly opened the box and squealed once it's contents where revealed, 'No! Sirius! That must have cost a fortune! Take it back,' she said handing him the box.

'You can't take personally made items back, Evangeline. You're going to have to keep it,' Sirius smiled, 'It opens, you can put things in it,' he told her and handed her back the box.

Evangeline took the box, opened it again and took out the diamond encrusted snitch in her hands. She held it between her fingers, 'How do you open it?' she asked Sirius.

'It opens when the owner whispers what they love most,' Sirius said, studying her as she examined the snitch.

'That won't be hard for me to figure out then,' Evangeline smiled, she could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks. She reached the snitch up towards her lips, closed her eyes and whispered, 'Sirius Black.' The beating wings of the snitch disappeared and the snitch began to part in half to reveal a small photograph. Evangeline felt her breath catching in her throat, 'W-Where did you get that photo?' she gasped when she remembered, 'That was last night,' she said quietly, watching the two figures in the photo.

'Remus took it when we weren't looking and he gave it to me this morning,' Sirius told her. 'Do you like it?'

'I don't like it, Sirius. I love it,' Evangeline said and wrapped her arms around his neck, the snitch still grasped in her hands, 'It's the best Christmas present I've ever received,' she smiled and kissed him on the lips.

Hope you liked the chapter!!! REVIEWS!! They just make me feel all happy and excited, I'm so grateful that people take the time to tell me what they think of my story. Constructive criticism is brilliant too, it's really helpful if people tell me where I need to improve my story. BIG HUGS TO ALL REVIEWERS WHO CONSTANTLY REVIEW MY STORY! (: Tori xo