A/N: As previously stated, this chapter could go along with the previous chapter, but they don't need to be read together to make sense.

Decorating the tree was another special time for my family when I was growing up. We always spent an afternoon getting the tree set up and decorated.

Prompt: (plot theme/action) Decorating the Christmas Tree

Trim The Tree

Marlene set the last box down in the middle of the living room. "There. That should be it."

"Should be?" Sirius looked around in amazement. "There are six boxes here! How many Christmas decorations do you need?"

"Well, we have a box for the lights and garland, and two of these boxes are ornaments. The other three are decorations that aren't for the tree." Marlene pointed at each box as she listed them.

"Wait, I didn't sign up for anything other than tree decoration," Sirius protested. "Actually, come to think of it, I'm not sure I signed up for anything. You used your womanly charms to coerce me into it. Not fair."

"I did nothing of the sort." Marlene looked at him innocently, batting her eyelashes. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"You're doing it again!" Sirius exclaimed. "Ok, fine. Direct me, I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Didn't your family celebrate Christmas at all?" Marlene questioned as she opened the first box.

Sirius sneered. "My strait-laced, proudly pureblood parents, celebrate a Muggle holiday? I don't think so." His expression softened again. "I didn't really know much about it until I started Hogwarts, and then it was only the wizarding view of it. This is all new to me. I thought the house-elves did all the decorating, I didn't realize anybody ever did it themselves."

"Some wizards do it that way I'm sure, but we don't have a house-elf. Besides, it's actually quite fun to decorate the tree together." She pulled a neatly coiled string of lights out of the box. "We start with the lights."

"How do those things work anyway?" Sirius asked, looking at the lights curiously.

"They use electricity, just like the rest of the lights in this house," Marlene explained. "We just wrap them around the tree and plug them into the outlet behind it. They make the tree look beautiful." She plugged the lights into the outlet behind the tree and they gave off a warm white glow. "See?"

"They do look nice," Sirius admitted.

"I'll start on this side," Marlene said. "You go to the other side of the tree and I'll hand them off to you, and you hand them to me through the back of the tree." It took a little bit for Sirius to get the hang of it, but they finally got the lights on the tree perfectly.

"And now the garland." Marlene reached into the box again and pulled out a pile of scarlet and gold garland. "In Gryffindor colors, of course," she said, smiling. "This is done the same way as the lights."

Once the garland was on the tree, sparkling in the glow of the lights, Marlene opened both boxes of ornaments. "We'll each pick an ornament and hang it on the tree. Try to spread them out, so the whole tree gets covered. There are plenty here to choose from. Just pick a box."

They worked silently for the first few minutes, each taking turns hanging ornaments on different parts of the tree. "How do you know so much about Christmas anyway?" Sirius finally broke the silence as he hung a silver-colored ball on a lower branch. "I mean, I know you have Muggle ancestry, but most families with mixed blood end up becoming more magical than Muggle after a while."

"My grandparents were both Muggle-born," Marlene said as she looked through her box for the next ornament. "My father grew up knowing all about Muggles, how they lived, and how they celebrated their holidays. He went to a Muggle school until he got his letter, so he was surrounded by it all the time. He wanted to keep all of that knowledge of Muggle life alive in his children, so I grew up the same way. I have so many happy memories of Christmas because of it. It was always such a special time for us. I can't wait for you to see their house when we go there on Christmas day. They go crazier than I do with the decorations, there's barely a spot in the house that isn't decorated." She hung a gold-colored reindeer in the middle of the tree.

"If there were more people like your father in our world, we wouldn't be in the middle of a war," Sirius said. "Raising your children so they know both ways of life is a good way to teach tolerance." He looked down at his box. "That's the last of mine."

"Mine's empty too," Marlene said. "But I have one more ornament." She left the room and returned a few seconds later, a small red box in her hands. "I bought this last week. I thought it would be perfect to add to the tree." She opened the box and took out a silver ornament shaped like a heart, a red ribbon looped through a small hole at the top. A small banner across the top of the heart read "Our First Christmas." A picture of the two of them adorned the middle of the heart, both of them smiling and waving.

"This is the picture that Lily took of us on our last day at Hogwarts," Marlene said, smiling fondly as she looked at it. "Do you like it?"

"I love it," Sirius said, putting an arm around her and kissing her forehead. "Let's hang it up together." They each took one side of the ribbon and hung it close to the top of the tree.

"Now we just need to add the star to the top," Marlene said. She returned to the first box and took a glittering gold star out. "Will you do the honors? You're taller than I am." She handed the star to Sirius. He carefully placed it on the top branch before rejoining her in the middle of the living room.

They stared in silence at the tree, each with an arm around the other. "This is the best Christmas I've ever had," Sirius said. "And it's not even Christmas yet."

"I'm glad I could help with that," Marlene said, kissing him. "Merry Christmas, Sirius."

"Merry Christmas, Marlene."