The journey back on the Hogwarts Express was much more fun than the first journey there had been. For starters, Remus's compartment was full this time. Sirius, Peter and Owain were there with him (James had left a few days early for his trip to India with his parents), and Lily showed up halfway through, with Snape tagging along beside her. He looked as if he'd rather be anywhere else than a compartment filled with Lily's other friends. Everyone introduced themselves, however, but Snape mainly kept to himself, his nose in a book and only really speaking to Lily; although he did show some interest in Sirius, attempting to draw him into a conversation. Weirdly, Sirius wasn't being very engaging, which wasn't like him at all. Snape eventually gave up and went back to talking solely with Lily, but he at least accepted Owain's offer of a Bertie Bott Every Flavoured Bean. Luckily for him, it turned out to be marmalade flavoured.

As the journey neared its end a few hours later, and the train started to slow down, everyone turned their attention to the train window, craning to see their parents and family. Remus noticed that Sirius didn't even move from his seat, or bother to search like everyone else, but didn't have long to ponder this, because at that moment he spotted his own parents. He waved excitedly to them and they, equally as excited, waved back.

"Remus, sweetheart, how are you?" Remus had barely taken two steps out of the train carriage before he was engulfed by his mother's arms.

"Muuuum, I'm fine, you're squeezing me." But Remus was happy to be able to hug her again.

"Oh it's mum now, is it?" She joked. "I hope that school isn't turning you into an Englishman."

"And what's wrong with an Englishman?" Lyall interrupted, joining in with the joke. Hope finally let go of Remus long enough to give Lyall a chance to hug him as well.

"Nice to have you back, Remus," he said, ruffling his hair. Before Remus could respond, Owain ran up to him to say goodbye.

"Write to me, yeah?" He said.

"Of course! Mam, dad, this is Owain."

"Good afternoon," greeted Owain to Lyall, and "Prynhawn da," to Hope, which made her beam at him.

"S'mae, cariad, we've heard a lot about you!" Remus blushed red.

"All good I hope!" replied Owain, just as his parents walked up behind him with his twin sister Anwen, who, throughout the term, had spent more time with her friends in the Ravenclaw house than her own house, so Remus hadn't had much of a chance to get to know her. He said goodbye nonetheless, and she politely waved back in acknowledgement.

Remus also spotted Peter, being greeted with hugs from assorted family members, and Lily as well was in a similar position, although a very sour-faced girl stood next to her, whom Remus took to be her older sister. She certainly didn't seem happy to see Lily, which Remus thought was odd. What was more noticeable to him, however, was Sirius, who was standing next to two adults— his parents— and a boy who looked strikingly similar to him, but with much shorter hair. That must have been his brother, Regulus, the only member of the Black family that Sirius was actually close to. But even so, there were no smiles and hugs between Sirius and his family, and Remus once again felt slightly guilty that Sirius had to spend his whole Christmas with them, while Remus could do nothing to help. He managed to catch Sirius's eye and he waved at him. Sirius plastered a smile on his face and waved back, out of sight from his parents.

"Shall we go then?" said Hope from behind him, which shook him from his thoughts and he turned away from where Sirius had left. "We've got the Christmas tree up, but we haven't decorated it yet." Remus loved decorating the tree. His mother had done it once without him years ago and Remus had been upset for the entire rest of the day because of it. She hadn't made the same mistake since.

"Great!" He replied. He was excited to get home. Now that he'd had time away from it, he was eager to go back. He missed his bedroom, and his house and his garden. He missed Wales.

Remus didn't fall asleep on the drive back this time, though he wouldn't have been able to anyway. His parents had a lot of questions to ask and he had a lot of stories to tell. He told them all about the last three months at Hogwarts, about the full moon and Madam Pomfrey, but he mainly focused on his friends, telling his parents anything he hadn't already written to them in his letters, and even then, he still repeated a few things here and there, like James teaching him how to fly, or Lily liking Doctor Who—

"Oh, that reminds me," he said, cutting himself off. "You taped Doctor Who for me, right?"

"Yes, it's all there waiting for you," replied Hope.

"Brilliant." And he launched straight back into what he was saying. When he got to Sirius, however, he saw his parents glance at each other in the wing mirror. A glance that always meant they were about to tell him something he wasn't going to like. Remus was very familiar with that glance. Lyall cleared his throat.

"Listen, Remus," he began. "This Sirius kid sounds great and all, but..."

"What?"

"Well, you know who his family are."

"Yeah, but he's not like them," insisted Remus, knowing instantly where this conversation was heading.

"At his age it's almost impossible not to be like them," replied his dad.

"But he's really not, he reads books on muggle stuff and he's really interested in learning about everything."

"So he isn't exactly like his family, but he knows what his family's views are, and you can't trust that he won't act on them."

"Dad, please—"

"It's for your own safety, love," interjected his mother. "Your father told me about that family, and I must admit, I'm not best pleased about you hanging around with their son."

"But—"

"Their views aren't just bad," continued Lyall. "They're dangerous. They're dangerous for anyone who isn't pureblood, but they're particularly dangerous for you."

"I know, and if I thought he was like that, I wouldn't hang out with him."

"But you're young, and you're excited about making friends. Your judgement may not be completely accurate." Remus sighed. He hated this conversation. They were all having a nice time, and then his parents had to go and ruin it. His father seemed to read his mind, though, as his voice grew calmer.

"Look," he said. "We're not going to ban you from being friends with Sirius. He probably is different from his family, and that's great. But he's still a significant risk to you, so if you notice any— any— kind of red flags regarding his views, you stay well away from him immediately, okay?"

"Fine." Remus knew full well that he'd probably ignore his parents, and he certainly wasn't going to tell them about the argument he'd had with Sirius over purebloods marrying wizards. It was easier just to agree with them and hope that the conversation wouldn't be brought up again.

Four hours after leaving the station, they finally arrived at home. It was the late afternoon now, but it was already starting to get dark. Their house was lit up from inside in preparation for their return and Remus could see the undecorated Christmas tree through the window. He forgot about any lasting anger he had from the conversation about Sirius, and was once again eager to get inside.

Lyall carried his trunk for him and Remus took Arianrhod, heading straight for his room as soon as he'd been let inside the front door. His room, he was glad to see, was unchanged. His newspaper clippings that had been stuck on the wall were still there, his shelves of books were still in their neat rows, and he looked around at the familiar posters stuck up on his wall: the Welsh Quidditch team and the Chudley Cannons, the Daleks of Doctor Who, the moon chart and the Beatles poster his mother had given him, along with her Beatles albums.

He let Arianrhod out of her cage and opened his window in case she wanted to fly off and hunt. His dad knocked on the door and brought his trunk in.

"You can unpack after dinner," he said, setting the trunk down with a light thump. "Mam's cooking your favourite."

His mother's family were showing up in a week, and his father's family a day later. They'd be staying until the day after Boxing Day, so Hope was rather frantic at preparing the house and the food, even with Lyall on hand to help with his magic. Remus decided to stay out of the way, not wanting to stress his mother out even more, so throughout the week, he spent most of his time in the garden, or catching up on taped episodes of Doctor Who, or writing letters to his friends.

He didn't write to Sirius. Sirius had asked him not to in the one letter he had sent since the holidays had started:

Dear Remus, I'm writing this at night so my mum doesn't catch me. If she saw me writing, she'd want to know who I'm writing to, and then she'd see that I'm talking to someone who isn't pureblood. She's really strict about this kind of stuff so I just can't risk it. I don't know why I didn't realise this when we were talking about writing to each other, I guess I just got caught up in the moment. I can talk to James, but no one else. I hope you don't hate me for this. I can write to you at night, and I'll try and send you a Christmas present, but you can't write to me because mother checks all my mail. Anyway, I hope you got home okay, and I can't wait to see you in January!

- Sirius

Remus was really beginning to hate Sirius's mother more and more, and once again he felt a pang of guilt that he couldn't do anything to help him, to stop him from being on his own.

He thought about getting Sirius a Christmas present, something to show him that he hadn't been forgotten, but Remus didn't know what to send that wouldn't get him into trouble. He spent all evening pondering it, and was only briefly distracted by a car pulling up to their driveway, flooding the windows with light from the headlamps, and his mother yelling "O Arglwydd, maent yn gynnar!" from the bottom of the stairs. Remus put aside his thoughts about Sirius and Christmas presents and left his room, jumping the stairs two at a time when he got to the staircase, ready to greet his family. Hope stopped him before he reached the door, flattening his hair and tucking in his jumper, which made him try and squirm out of his mother's grip.

"Stay still, Remus, you have to look tidy. You know how little we get to see them. We have to make a good impression."

"If they don't like me because my shirt is creased then why are they even coming?" he replied, just as the doorbell rang, and Remus finally escaped from the threat of his mother trying wash his face with an old handkerchief.

Remus opened the door, and was met with his uncle and grandparents carrying bags of what he hoped were presents, but he was most notably greeted by his grandparents' dog, Seren, a very excitable sheepdog. Seren leapt up at Remus, who wrapped his arms around the black and white thing.

"S'mae, Seren!" He laughed.

"He's been dying to see you, mate," said his uncle, stepping across the threshold, trying to get past the barking dog.

"Uncle Tom!" greeted Remus. "You've grown a beard!" He'd never seen his uncle with a beard before. It suited him.

"Aye, thought I'd try something new. What do you think?"

"It looks great!" Hope arrived at his side and more greetings were thrown around before everyone could finally get through into the hallway, and into the warmth.

"You've grown so tall, Remus!" remarked his grandmother in Welsh, putting her arms on his shoulders to get a good look at him. "Such a handsome young man," she continued, which made Remus beam at her. He loved it when his grandparents treated him like any other boy, because sometimes they slipped up, so when they did call him "young man" it immediately put him into a good mood.

Lyall came into the hallway then.

"Good journey?" he asked, switching to the Welsh he'd learnt years ago to talk to Hope's family.

"No traffic, that's why we're early," explained Remus's grandfather. "Tomorrow was going to be a nightmare apparently, so we decided to leave today."

"You should have called, I'll have to make more food for tonight," said Hope.

"Sorry, love, but the phone lines were down. Bloody strikes." Grandpa Dafydd was always complaining about the strikes. They were fine for Remus and his parents; when the power got cut off, they had magic to use, but his grandparents had to sit in their dark house with candles and do nothing. His grandfather was sick of it. "They're getting no money either way, might as well do the work." Remus let the adults continue talking, as Uncle Tom handed him the bags which— Remus was glad to see— did indeed contain presents, and he walked into the living room to deposit them underneath the tree. Christmas trees always looked better with presents underneath, Remus thought.

It was a nice evening, all bright and cheerful. Hope's family had plenty of stories to tell. They lived in the highlands, and Dafydd was a shepherd, a job he'd passed down to Tom. Remus had stayed at their house a number of times and he always enjoyed it, especially in the spring when the lambs were being born.

"So, Remus. How was school?" asked Tom. "You go to a... wizard school or? What's it called again?"

"Hogwarts."

"Who came up with that name?" Tom laughed. Hope's family knew about the Wizarding World of course. Hope and Lyall had told them just before they'd got married. It took Dafydd a while to believe it, being the sceptical, stubborn man that he was, but all in all, they were used to it by now, and if anything, they weren't even that interested. They were traditional in their way of life, fine with the Wizarding World as long as it didn't bother them. But Hogwarts was a good subject to talk about because there was so much to say.

"It was great! I made loads of friends, and I'm in the Gryffindor house, see because the school's divided into four houses—" and he was off. He left out any mention of his lycanthropy of course, and he also decided against talking about everything to do with the morfosis potion and his transition, because he didn't know if his parents wanted his family to know about it yet, in case they weren't okay with it. Since Remus didn't want to risk ruining the evening, he was happy to oblige, and there was still plenty to talk about. Dinner was over before he knew it.

It was when Remus was in bed that he finally figured out a good present for Sirius, that wouldn't get him into trouble at all. But it involved magic. Magic that Remus was by no means good enough at yet, and besides, he couldn't use magic outside of Hogwarts; Dumbledore had made that abundantly clear at the end of term feast. Remus didn't think he could ask his father either, so he was in a bit of a dilemma.

The other problem was that Remus had already done his Christmas shopping. Hope had taken him into town two days after he returned from school, with a budget of ten whole pounds to buy stuff for the family, and Lyall had done the same with Diagon Alley and a budget of ten galleons. Remus always bought a mix of muggle and wizarding presents, because he liked to give the muggle presents to the magical members of his family, and the magical gifts to the muggles. It was more interesting that way.

The point was, though, how was he going to get Sirius's present now? He wandered around his room, thinking. Did he have an empty notebook anywhere? Probably not. He was rather fond of writing, whether it was random lists or crude attempts at poems or little stories about animals or insects, and he tended to fill up any notebooks he had within weeks. But maybe he'd misplaced one, or forgot to write in one...

Perhaps his father had one. Lyall wrote a lot, mainly for work purposes, taking notes about poltergeists and boggarts. He was sure to have a notebook lying around somewhere.

Remus sneaked out of his room, checking the lights underneath all the inhabited bedroom doors were off before he crept down the hallway to his father's office. It was dark in there of course, but Remus had such good eyesight that he didn't even have to turn any lights on. However, he did risk turning on the small lamp on Lyall's desk, just to ensure that he didn't end up tripping over something. He rummaged around in the drawers, coming across a few notebooks— all having been written in already— and he was just about to give up when he spotted another bureau over by the window. Locked, but with the key still there. He opened it up, more books greeting him, and right there underneath the piles of books and papers, was a leather-bound notebook. And it was empty. Perfect.

He closed the bureau back up, turned off the lamp, and made the silent journey back to his room.

Now that he had the notebook, there wasn't much he could do except wait. He had to wait the two days until his aunt showed up, since she was the only one who could help him. Or at least, the only one who could help him without asking any questions. He just hoped what he had in mind was possible, because otherwise he'd be back to square one, and he'd have no choice but to send Sirius nothing, which to him wasn't even worth thinking about.

Two days later, a few arguments here and there, lots of walks along the hills with the dog, and his grandfather calling him the wrong name twice, Lyall's family finally arrived. Greetings were once again thrown around, drowned out by the incessant barking from Seren. Remus was very excited to see his aunt Selene, and likewise on her part.

"How's my favourite nephew doing?" she grinned, drawing him into a hug. Remus could always count on her to give him that much needed affirmation that he so loved to hear from his family.

"I'm your only nephew!" he replied.

"Lucky for you. It means you get all the presents." Remus's grandmother— Joyce Lupin— came over to hug him, with her usual remark of "still a boy then?" that she said every time she saw him. It didn't bother him too much, because he didn't think she meant it in a mean way, just out of genuine curiosity, because once he had confirmed to her that yes, he was still a boy, she treated him as such. Although, Lyall had once told his mother to stop asking Remus that, and Remus couldn't help but feel very happy at his father sticking up for him for once. Grandma Joyce didn't listen though. She was much more of a talker than a listener, and talk she did: by the end of the evening, Remus was certain that he wouldn't need to read the Daily Prophet for at least another two weeks, Joyce having just given them all an entire overview of everything happening in the Wizarding World, whether they knew about it or not. As well as some extra gossip about various neighbours and friends.

"Apparently," she would begin, leaning forward as if she was about to reveal to them the secrets of the universe, rather than just idle rumours. "Marian Calder— you know, member of the Wizengamot, highly respected, comes from a well-off family, well... turns out, she's having an affair on her husband with— get this— his brother." Half the adults in the room raised a sceptical eyebrow.

"But here's the thing," Joyce continued, smug satisfaction on her face. "She's not exactly going to get into trouble because her husband's having an affair as well with her sister!" She let out a high pitched laugh as she ended her anecdote. Remus was still young enough to believe everything his grandma said, but the adults (minus his other grandparents who were having Tom translate to them what Joyce was saying) were less gullible. So while Remus sat there with his mouth open, Lyall sighed, exasperated.

"Mother, those are nothing but rumours," he said.

"Rumours always come from something," Joyce replied, wagging a finger at him. Lyall loved his mother, Remus knew that, but the two were so different that his father spent most of his time in her company either exhausted or irritated, though he didn't tend to argue with her; just let her say what she wanted until she got bored. Or everyone else got bored. Whichever came first.

After dinner, Remus was finally able to catch his aunt Selene on her own, on the swing chair outside the back, smoking a cigarette away from the judgemental clucks of her mother. Remus, on the other hand, found smoking to be rather comforting. He'd never done it himself of course, but he liked other people doing it. Perhaps he shouldn't have thought that way, since his mother was always telling him that smoking was bad for you, but he never really listened.

"Wotcher, Welsh boy," greeted Selene.

"Hi," replied Remus, sitting down next to her, the chair rocking slightly under his added weight. He had the leather-bound diary in his hands and he placed it onto his lap.

"What you got there?" she asked.

"A diary. It's empty. I need your help."

"Okay..." He fidgeted a little. Awkwardly.

"See, I have this friend..." he began, launching straight into what he wanted to ask. "And I want to send them a present, but their parents are really strict, and they might not approve. They're pureblood you see."

"This friend..." she leant down, smirking. "They a girl?"

"No!"

"A boy?" A raised eyebrow.

"Aunt Selene, focus!"

"Okay, okay," she laughed. "Carry on."

"Anyway. I was thinking I could send them this diary. It's just empty, so they can't exactly get into trouble for it. But like..." Remus tried to find his words, since he wasn't quite sure how to explain it. "Well, basically... is it possible to disguise a book as an empty notepad? And so, only if a certain person opens the notepad they can see the book, but with anyone else... it's still a notepad?" He hoped he was making sense. Selene took a drag on her cigarette and blew smoke out of her nose, which always made him laugh.

"So, you want to give your friend a book, but so their parents don't find out, you want it to be disguised as an empty notebook?" Remus nodded. "That's a lot of effort, who the bloody hell are their parents?" Remus looked down at his feet.

"They're... from the Black family..." he admitted.

"The Blacks? Merlin, Re, what are you doing hanging out with them? They're about as purist as you can get, except perhaps You-Know-Who, and they support that bastard!"

"He's not like them, honestly!" Remus defended. "He's different, and it's not fair that he has to spend the holidays on his own with them, I just... wanted to do something nice, I guess..." he trailed off, swinging his legs back and forth. Selene sighed and threw her cigarette onto the ground, pressing her shoe down upon it. With one wave of her wand, it disappeared.

"Your idea," she began. "It is possible, with a few different charms. I can do it for you."

"Really?"

"Yeah," she said, reluctantly conceding. She always struggled to say no to him, a flaw that Remus regularly took advantage of. "Just give me the book you want to give him and I'll see what I can do." Remus smiled excitedly at her.

"Brilliant!" He wasted no time in rushing back inside, leaving his aunt to light up a second cigarette and lean back in the swinging chair, staring up at the night sky.

Back upstairs, Remus quickly dug around in his room for the book he had decided to give to Sirius. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, specifically his own copy since he hadn't had a chance to buy it himself. He hoped his mother wouldn't notice it was missing, but he thought Sirius would love it. There were just so many different interesting characters and storylines, lots of which could easily be tied into magic that existed in the wizarding world. Sirius would surely be fascinated by the fact that it was written by a muggle.

Before everyone went to bed that night, and before his aunt left for the hotel she had booked, Remus handed her the book and the diary, and she told him she'd have it to him as soon as possible. Remus thanked her one more time, said goodbye, and contentedly got himself ready for bed.