Chapter Thirty-one;

Sirius – before he went to bed – debated on pushing his ear to the door and listening, but quickly decided against it and instead just crawled into bed – after doing his nightly rituals – and falling into a slumber.

When he awoke, it was from Severus who was getting ready for the day. Sirius let out a yawn and stretched his arms out, wiping his eyes out. "What time is it?" he asked in a sleepy tone.

"About 5:40" Severus answered as he buttoned up his robe.

"In the morning?" Sirius asked, groaning. "It's hols, you don't /need/ to be up this early."

"I do now, Lucius offered me a job and I accepted." Severus answered as he walked into the bathroom.

Sirius quirked his eyebrow, pushing to sit on the bed with his legs crossed. "Well, what's the job?" he asked, staring at the bathroom door.

"I'm actually working for both the Ministry and Malfoy Apothecary. I'll be brewing some potions to get the Apothecary back off the ground – as it was mostly turned into a wine dealer – and for the Ministry I will be making certain potions such as Veritaserum, and also experimenting with a few potions to see if I can perfect a few things…" Severus explained as he emerged from the bathroom.

"How long will this take?" Sirius asked.

"Not sure, it could vary. I figure a few months I'll be working on things."

"A few months…"

"Yes, a few months, problem?" Severus asked, turning to look at Sirius with his eyebrow quirked.

"I take it you'll be working with Malfoy a lot?" Sirius asked, his head still turned towards the bathroom door.

"On a daily or weekly basis, yes, I figure he'll check in and be the one to pick up the potions."

"Ah."

"Ah?"

"Yes. Ah."

"I take it you have a problem with Lucius?"

"Possibly."

"Why? If I may ask."

Sirius shrugged his shoulders. "I just… something's' off with him, if that makes sense."

"It doesn't."

"I see."

"Well is that all? If so I'm going to head towards the potions lab."

"Yeah, okay" Sirius said, lying back down.

"See you later on today then" Severus said before turning on his heel and walking out.

Sirius didn't see Severus at all that day, despite it being Christmas. Everyone in the school was happy and cheerful, and Sirius – in response to anything would just scowl. He was now in his chambers, and it was 7PM at night, he had been there for the past hour wrapping all the presents he had neglected with the help of Whisper so he could hand them out at dinner. When he finished the final present, he heard a knock at the door and frowned. He stood up from sitting on the floor and walked over to open the door, Harry and Remus both smiling widely and pushing themselves in without waiting for an invitation. "Yes?" Sirius asked as he closed the door.

"We're worried about you" Harry said as he ran over towards a few of presents sitting on the table and looking at their names.

"Why?" Sirius asked as he crossed the room and fell into an arm chair.

"You've been in a horrible mood all day, Padfoot." Remus commented as he took a seat on the couch.

"And?" Sirius asked, sighing.

"Well! Tell us what's wrong… did you fight with Professor Snape again?" Harry asked, frowning and taking the seat next to Remus.

"No. We're not fighting" Sirius confessed.

"Well… tell us what's wrong then" Harry said, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring over his glasses.

Sirius debated in his head for a moment if he should tell them or not, figuring he couldn't hide anything from them for too long, and they could give him their opinions. "Fine… Malfoy came by last night."

"Yes, he came to the party with Narcissa and Draco just after you and Severus left, said they were at a Ministry party and couldn't escape until then." Remus explained.

"Yes… well… /Lucius/" Sirius spat "Came by and offered a proposal to Severus, apparently he's trying to get his family apothecary off the ground and turned into an actual apothecary, and the Ministry wants Severus to make them some potions…"

"Well that's good, right? Is he getting paid?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I figure he is…" Sirius responded.

"Then what's wrong?" Remus asked.

"Well… come on! Don't you guys get… odd vibes around Malfoy?" Sirius said in a hateful tone.

"I haven't spoken to him much, but I figure he's not bad… he did switch to our side of the War with his family…" Remus said.

"Yeah, and Draco is loads better. He actually had a conversation with Hermione for like an hour over Potions and didn't insult her at all before break. We even chatted a bit last night. He's a nice bloke." Harry said, smiling.

"Yes well… I get vibes from Lucius, I'm telling you – he's planning something!" Sirius said, sighing.

"Padfoot, you're just being a bit paranoid…"

"I am not being paranoid, Remus! I'm telling you… I can smell it on him…" Sirius responded.

Everyone was silent after that until the clock chimed 7:30PM. "I suppose I ought to get ready for dinner… you two want to help me carry these presents to the Great Hall?" Sirius asked. Both of them nodded in response and Sirius leaped up to change into a nicer robe as he knew the dinner would be a bit formal – being Christmas and all. When he finished, Sirius asked shrunk all of Teddy's presents and requested Whisper deliver them to Tonks' house, he also shrunk most of Harry's presents and asked Whisper to put them under Harry's head for him to open later, only taking a few to the Great Hall for him to open with everyone else.

Upon arriving at the Great Hall, Sirius was a bit let down when he saw Severus wasn't there, but he refused to let that get him down, he would just see him later that night. He spent the whole meal chatting with everyone, and handing their presents out, telling jokes with the other professors and students. He sat at the table next to the lone Slytherin student there – knowing since Severus was in his potions lab the student would be the odd one out, so he casually made conversation with the kid, not wanting him to feel left out or anything.

After dinner, Sirius roamed to Severus' chambers, giving Salazar the password and gaining immediate entrance as Severus specifically told Salazar to stop locking Sirius out because – and he quotes 'The mutt doesn't shut up when you do'. Sirius snickered to himself, walking to into the bedroom to find the lights off and a figure in bed. He looked down at his watch and saw it was just a bit after 11pm and decided he wanted to give Severus his gift /on/ Christmas day. He walked over and climbed into the bed, moving Severus' hair away from his neck and placing chaste kisses on the back of his neck and slowly moving down to his shoulders.

Severus stirred and shrugged his shoulders to push Sirius away. "'M trying to sleep, mutt" Severus said in a groggy tone.

"Well too bad, wake up; I need to give you your Christmas present."

"Gimme it tomorrow…" Severus replied, snuggling into his sleeping spot.

"It's not a Christmas present unless it's given on Christmas, so get your snarky arse up!" Sirius said, running his hand to Severus' waist and tickling his side.

Severus jumped up and pushed Sirius out of the bed. "Damn it!" he yelled, glaring down at him.

"C'mon, get up! I want to gi-"

"Fine!" Severus huffed, pushing himself out of bed and wiping his eyes out. "Where is the bloody present?"

"You have to follow me…" Sirius said as he pushed himself to stand and walked out of the bedroom.

Severus groaned and wanted to bitch and moan but decided to keep quiet and follow Sirius straight out of his chambers and towards Sirius' chambers. "I want to sleep. Can we hurry this up?" Severus asked in an impatient tone.

"Yeah, yeah…" Sirius replied, rolling his eyes and pushing his chambers doors open.

When they walked inside, Sirius turned and grinned at Severus. "Ready?"

"Yes, yes. Come on, where is it?" Severus asked, tapping his foot.

Sirius' grin widened which scared Severus a bit as he couldn't figure out what he was planning. Sirius turned on his heel and walked into the bedroom, closing the door and then making some racket as he shuffled around the room. "Okay! Come in!" he called out.

Severus sighed and walked into the bedroom, staring at Sirius' bed – which held more presents than he could count, all of various sizes. Severus blinked and looked over at Sirius who was now smirking. "Wha… why the hell are there so many?"

"Because… in Hogsmeade everything I saw… I wanted to buy you, so I did." Sirius confessed.

"You're insane…"

"Oh come on. I got Teddy and Harry twice as many."

Severus rolled his eyes. "Am I supposed to open all these tonight? This will take an hour or more!"

"Better get started now then, love." Sirius said cheekily.

Severus shot him a glare and obeyed, walking over to the bed and opening each present as fast as he could so he could get back to bed.

Sirius stood aside, his arms crossed over his chest, watching as Severus opened them all – he loved how every time he opened one he saw a childish shine in his eye, which Severus tried to brush off as just being merely curious of the present. When he was finally down to the last one, Sirius stared at the present, quirking his eyebrow, trying to figure out why that one seemed so… odd. When Severus opened the box, his eyes widened. "What… what the hell is this, Sirius?" Severus asked as he pulled the two bonding bracelets out.

"Oh shit…" Sirius cursed aloud, frowning and mentally thinking he was going to kill Whisper – who had been ordered to move all the presents into his bedroom for Severus.