Something Old, Something New

Christmas morning always followed the same routine with the Marauders.

Since second year, they had all tried their very best to stay at the castle for the holidays. Armed with their best excuses, Peter, Remus and Sirius had convinced their parents to let them stay - Peter had needed to study more, Remus had played the 'but my friends…' card and Sirius had persuaded his mother that he'd only disrupt the Christmas Ball if he were there anyway.

James had never needed to make excuses, of course.

Gradually, the others joined him in this category.

Since Remus had written so enthusiastically about his first Hogwarts Christmas, his dad took for granted that he would be staying there every year, unless otherwise informed.

Once OWLs hit, Peter was struggling to manage all his work so much that he did, actually, need to study over the holidays and, likewise, his parents took that for granted by now.

And Sirius. Well, Sirius didn't have a parent to ask, anymore. Not technically. And since the people he did consider his guardians were James' indulgent parents anyway, no permission needed.

So one tradition was gone, excess to requirements now. But there was still a routine, made up of little traditions. Most of them were silly, little things that had just stuck. Remus rather liked that they were close enough to have those quirks, the in-jokes. He thought Christmas epitomised that connection between them.

Christmas morning was the only one in the whole school year that did not fall the day after a full moon that all four Marauders were up before anyone else in the castle.

Mainly because, in first year, Peter awoke with the dawn and squealed, ' Happy Christmas,' at the top of his lungs. They had all grumbled about it, and James had hexed him to have a Father Christmas beard, and then tried to go back to sleep. Peter had been undeterred though, and bounced on their beds one at a time until they arose, then informed them that if they didn't want waking up thus every Christmas, they would have to get up before him. So they did.

Breakfast was a nonentity on Christmas Day, forsaken for a frolic out on the snowy grounds before anybody else got up to sully it.

They wrapped up warm and played about in the snow most of the morning, and sometimes some of the afternoon too, because of Sirius' strange obsession with the floating little flakes. Remus assumed it must be something to do with his family, because he hadn't been told and James seemed to have guessed, which is how they came to know almost everything they knew about Sirius' childhood.

Every year, James had found some inventive way of manipulating the castle mistletoe.

In the early years it'd been just for the laughs - catching the quiet little hufflepuffs with the biggest Slytherins they could find; pairing Snape up with professors. That sort of thing. It was only later, when James had finally looked up from the dungbombs long enough to notice that Lily Evans was a very strong, beautiful girl and not just a whiney, irritating swot, that he diverted his attentions elsewhere.

She hadn't taken to the idea thus far, and Remus was inclined to doubt the chances of this year's success.

No. This year, Remus was going to start his own tradition.

So what if it wasn't particularly original - Christmas kisses - it would still be something he had never really done before. Not properly.

And even if Sirius did always pinch a sprig of James's mistletoe each year and spread the Christmas Spirit, well, Remus would just have to make it something special.

It was nearing midday and, as per tradition, the four of them were out in the grounds. They were sodden, every one of them.

Remus could feel the damp on his skin, even through a vest, two t-shirts, a jumper, a jacket and a coat, complete with Sirius' Gryffindor scarf that he had never returned last year. Then again, they had been running about like utter fools all morning, so it cold be sweat.

It didn't matter really because, whatever it was, it was drying on his skin - freezing - and the cold seeped into his bones.

Peter, too, was shivering rather violently by the time he finally declared, ' Right, I need warming up.'

' You can't leave!' Sirius cried.

' Sorry, Pads,' Pete placated, ' But we've been out her for hours and I rather like my fingers attached to my hands. I'll see you later.'

' Yeah, That's right,' Sirius called after Peter's shrinking figure, sounding angry but grinning. ' Abandon us for the fucking Kitchens!'

' I hope the House Elves kick you out!' James put in, the added as an afterthought, ' Turncoat!'

Remus raised his eyebrows at the frankly peculiar insult. Sirius, too, cast a strange look at his best friend.

James swallowed. Too loudly. Sirius understood in an instant.

' Oh, no. Prongs, come on! You can't -'

' You know the drill, Pads,' James said, looking resigned. ' I've got to try.'

' But she'll say no! She always says no!'

' Thanks, mate. Really,' James said, a note of genuine annoyance in his voice as he turned away.

' No worries, Padfoot,' Remus said, trying not to sound too excited. ' Just the two of us, now.'

Sirius tilted his head and raised one eyebrow in a decidedly canine way, then grinned such a stupidly bright grin Remus thought for a moment that he actually felt warmer.

Then it passed and he added, with a shiver, ' But it can be the two of us, inside. Don't want you getting sick again.'

The castle was quiet in the absence of most of the students, and even some of the staff, and they walked all the way back to the common room before they saw another soul, and even then it was only Dorcas and her friend.

She rolled her eyes in their direction as Mary mumbled something about Lily and the library. Remus exchanged a look with Sirius, before the pureblood shook his head at the girl and held his fingers to his head in a strange imitation of what Remus supposed were meant to be antlers.

' C'mon,' he said, finally, grabbing Remus by the arm and dragging him in the general direction of the boys dorms. ' Let's get you out of those wet clothes, Moony.'

Choosing to ignore the strange expression of amusement on Dorcas' pretty face, Remus let Sirius lead him up the stairs and into their room.

Before Sirius had even closed the door, Remus grabbed him by the collar of his cloak. The fabric was sodden, and Remus untied it and let it fall to the floor with a wat slap before practically slamming the door shut himself.

' Whoa -' Sirius started to say, but Remus cut him off before he could ruin the moment.

He pressed his lips to Sirius' slightly parted ones, gently at first. This was becoming increasingly familiar, and Remus ran his hand across Sirius pale throat and up the back of his neck to tangle his fingers in his damp hair without hesitation.

He pulled them closer to each other, chests and stomachs touching, at the same time trying to navigate towards the wall. It was clumsy and awkward, but Remus didn't care much and, from the appreciative little groans, he surmised Sirius didn't either.

They finally hit the wall - though which one was anybody's guess - and Sirius managed a breathless little chuckle before Remus kissed him again. It was rougher now, more urgent, and Remus noticed how chapped both their lips were. He thought it probably shouldn't feel as nice as it did, but he wasn't going to complain.

Making use of his free hand Remus started unfastening the many layers of Sirius' sodden clothing. He just about managed to reach the cool skin of his stomach before Sirius pulled Remus' wandering fingers up to his neck like the first hand.

Sirius tried to take control of the kiss, plunging his tongue into Remus' mouth. Remus didn't let him. He nipped at Sirius' bottom lip, and pressed his knee against the wall between Sirius' legs to pin him there.

Sirius fought for a minute, arching away from the stones at his back, before submitting with a groan and pulling the werewolf closer still.

When Remus eventually pulled away to breathe, he caught sight of Sirius' bewildered face.

' What?' he asked, feeling oddly scrutinised.

' Err…' Sirius started. ' I just… Umm. Wasn't expecting - Oh, fuck. Do that again.'

Remus did, and his lungs were burning when he pulled back a second time.

' Wow.' Sirius swallowed, still staring a bit. Then he said, a bit dumbly, ' You have snowflakes in your hair.'

Before Remus could reach up to brush away to offending crystals, the door slammed open and James traipsed in clinking an armful of glass bottles.

Sirius literally jumped back a pace, or at least tried to, slamming his elbow into the wall.

' Alright, I got the - What are you doing, Padfoot?'

' Remus had snow in his hair.'

James raised his eyebrows, ' Course he did.'

There was something far too knowledgeable in the tone of his voice.

Remus blinked. Sirius coughed.

' Ehm. Right. Bit early for the drink, isn't it Prongs?' he said, gesturing at James' cradled arms.

' Hah. It isn't drink, Pads,' laughed James, flittering onto the new subject thankfully quickly. ' Don't know how pissed you'd get on ink.'

' Fairly intoxicated, I should think,' Remus mused, belatedly running a hand through his hair to shake out the melted droplets of snow. ' Or possibly just ink poisoned.'

' Same difference,' Sirius insisted. ' Now, Doe-eyes. Would you care to explain why - exactly - we need a cupboard's worth of ink?'

' The Map.'

' Urgh!' Sirius groaned, throwing himself dramatically onto the nearest bed.

' What?' James said, disapprovingly.

' It's Christmas Day!'

' Well done.'

' Can't we go a sodding day without mentioning this thing?'

' Not if we want to get it done.'

' We can take one day off!'

' Actually, he's sort of right,' Remus chipped in, a little apologetically. ' We haven't even started drafting the plans, or checking the spells work together.'

' Thank you, Remus.'

' It's Christmas fucking Day!' Sirius shouted.

' Exactly!' James shouted back.

' Of course,' Remus said.

' What?'

' Think about it, Padfoot! Half the school,' James said, illustrating by making a circle with his hands, ' Aren't here. And the other half,' he pulled the circle apart, moving one hand away from the other. Then, apparently for emphasis, repeated the motion. ' The other half, my dense canine friend, will be entering the Great Hall for the Christmas Feast in about fifteen minutes, leaving -'

' - the upstairs deserted,' Sirius caught on, finally.

' Yes,' James reiterated, like he was talking to a six-year-old. ' Yes it is. And Peter is already up there, scouting it out.'

With Sirius pacified, they headed up to meet him. They had barely reached the seventh floor when Wormtail-the-rat came scuttling along the corridor.

He spotted them, made a b-line and transformed mid-step which resulted in a very bizarre half-boy half-rat rolly-polly and ended with a winded Peter heaped by James' feet. He wheezed some unintelligible garble of words and gasps before launching into a fit of coughing.

' What was that?' James asked jovially.

Peter repeated the splutter of attempted syllables, adding in a few hurried pointing gestures back up the corridor.

' Someone's there? Who?'

Remus thought they might as well have been talking to Wormtail-the-rat for all the good Wormtail-the-winded-boy was doing them. He opened his mouth to attempt third time to speak, but was cut off by Sirius.

' Knox?'

Remus turned to look in the same direction and, amazingly, it was.

Their ex-professor looked very strange without the plain black faculty robes. She was sporting a muggle dress - A-line and made of dark denim that looked like it had been attacked by a bottle of bleach - and, to Sirius' delight Remus was sure, mid-calf length Doc's.

She stood, as she often had as a teacher, leaning on the inside of a door arch, her hand on her hip. Her blonde hair was tied back in the same scruffy knot and she had that familiar look of undisguised amusement on her pretty young face.

' Not interrupting any major plotting am I, fellas?'

' No,' Peter practically shouted, looking extremely panicked, while James tried to casually say, ' Of course not.'

' Just some mild scheming,' Remus smiled.

' What are you doing here?' Sirius asked, ignoring the preamble.

' Not glad to see me?' she pouted. ' I'm offended. I do pop back in every so often, y'know. Catch up with the girls.'

' The girls?'

' McGonagall,' she conceded, with only a slight grimace. ' So my social life could do with a spruce. Kill me.'

She shrugged, and moved on.

Remus didn't point out that she came from the direction of Dumbledore's office, or that McGonagall's was six floors down.

' What're you lot doing up here, then? Not like you,' she nodded at Sirius, ' to miss feeding time. Can't be that important can it?'

' It's not,' Sirius told her, folding his arms petulantly across his chest. ' But I was out-voted, apparently.'

' Ah, democracy, you cruel and unpredictable maiden.'

' You're really strange,' Peter mumbled, not looking up from the floor.

It was only when James and Remus laughed, that Pete realised he had spoken out loud. He spluttered for a minute at the smirking woman before Sirius put him out of his misery.

' Nice recovery, Wormtail.'

' Well then,' Knox said, clapping her hands for no reason. ' Shall we?'

' Ladies first,' James said in his mock regal voice, bowing dramatically.

' How ever does Miss Evans resist such charm?'

' I'll tell you when I've figured it out,' he muttered darkly.

Knox smiled back at Remus, who shook his head slightly. Out of the corner of his eye he caught Sirius mouthing something like Not a chance.

' I'm sure it's only a matter of time,' She smirked at Sirius, then flicked her gaze to Remus and back before adding, ' It always is.'

She headed away in the direction of the staircases, closely followed by a very embarrassed looking Peter and a bitter, almost resentful James.

Remus waited until they were safely out of earshot before turning to Sirius.

' I'm starting to think we aren't nearly as subtle as we like to think.'

Hey, hey, Update ahoy! And I didn't actually realise, but we're over 30 chapters now. Wow.

Hmm, I fear our pups are being a wee bit obvious.

Snogging, as promised. It was difficult fitting so many elements into one chapter, so let me know what you think, please.

Also, big thank you to everyone that added this to alerts and favs. There were a lot of you, and I can't remember you all, sorry, but Thanks all the same!

Anyway, as I am doped up on medication at the moment, that is all.

Thanks for reading, reviews make me feel less nauseous. Danke Schoen!