Things had really kicked off the moment that the girls denied the boys access to their Christmas presents. Peter had led the charge up to the girls’ dorms, armed with a plentiful supply of sofa cushions, and he was soon followed by James and Remus, who brandished two rolls of wrapping paper mercilessly before him. Sirius came next, supplied with copious amounts of ribbon, though Sam wasn’t sure what this was supposed to achieve. Lastly, Sam himself took Kirsty’s magically-enchanted school bag, which had been left sprawled on the common room floor and had gathered even more scribbles since the time Sam had been given the privilege of writing on it, up with him as a form of shielding.
The fight had been fierce. James’ broom, which he had been flailing around as if it were some sort of sword, had been discarded almost immediately as Lily pounced on him, wrestling him determinedly to the ground (Sam suspected that James hadn’t minded this so much). Peter and Hayley engaged in a ferocious pillow fight, in which feathers had literally been flying. Remus and Kirsty busied themselves in a wrapping paper battle, whilst Sam shielded himself against Emma’s onslaught of soft toys, and, when Sam tried to sweeten her with a kiss, she denied all access (the cruellest punishment possible). Sirius stood on the sidelines using his wand to fire strings of ribbon at all the girls, therefore getting them humorously tangled up; the ribbons were obviously more effective than Sam had given them credit for.
The fun had ended when Kirsty, in a very unsportsmanlike fashion, had vanished all of the Christmas presents. It was safe to say that she had soon been chased out of her own dormitory by five unimpressed boys. Sam had never laughed so hard in his life, and he was sure that Kirsty’s squeals could have been heard right through the castle. Unfortunately for Sam, he had soon become captured by the other three girls, who had followed their progress, and he was then exposed to death by ribbons.
It had been half an hour later that Sam had heard of his fellows’ progress, when they returned to the common room, a gleeful Kirsty indeed in tow. The guys had outrun Sam owing to their knowledge of the castle’s secret passageways, but surprisingly, Kirsty, for once in her life, had surpassed even the Marauders’ expertise and lost them behind a well-hidden tapestry. This had left the guys to get told off spectacularly by Professor McGonagall, but some Christmas spirit must have been upon her as she only gave them all one detention each, even though she had them on three counts of rule breaking: disturbing the peace; running around after hours; and vandalising the castle with sparkly gold ribbon.
The rest of the evening had passed without any more antics, and Sam had taken the chance to snuggle up on the sofa with Emma, just revelling in her closeness, but Sirius, not being one to sustain a silence, had decided once again to declare the common room a chaos-inhabited zone. The ruckus had come at the very end of the evening, when they had all been about to go up to bed. James had moved over to Lily to give her a kiss goodnight only to find that his lips had been momentarily stuck together. It had not taken them long to find the culprit as Sirius had not been doing a very good job of stifling his laughter. James had lunged at him, and Sirius had pelted for the safety of his dormitory. He never quite made it, as James grabbed him by the ankles and brought his shins crashing down onto the staircase. Sam had no doubt that Sirius would have cried out in pain if he weren’t too busy laughing. Eventually, James had pressured Sirius into surrender, and Sirius undid his spell. James had then been free to kiss Lily as much as his heart desired much to Sirius’ disgust.
Sam had lain in bed that night, looking back on the evening with fondness. He really hoped that there would be many more such evenings to come as that night, for the first time, he had truly felt a part of the group. He knew he would never infiltrate the closeness that they all shared, and part of him did not even want to, they were brilliant as they were. In his opinion, the fact that the group had willingly accepted him was enough.
On Christmas morning, Peter was subjected to a rude awakening by a gaggle of extremely hyperactive girls.
“Merry Christmas!” they squealed, diving on top of various beds. Lily and Emma of course went to awaken their boyfriends, and for once, James and Sam were not happy to see them. Hayley went to sit beside Remus, who was the only one showing remote signs of getting up, and Peter was subjected to Kirsty bouncing up and down happily on the foot of his bed, so he covered his head with his duvet, hoping that he would somehow manage to gain a few more minutes in bed. This left poor, old Sirius all by himself. Peter had to admit to being surprised that Kirsty hadn’t immediately dived on Sirius’ bed (to repay the favour if nothing else), but he was also slightly pleased with the fact that he had a girl on his bed and Sirius Black didn’t.
Lily was now kissing James all over his face in order to make him get up, and Peter was surprised at how well James was resisting. Emma, however, was playfully tugging Sam’s duvet away from him, singing ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas!’ as she did so. Eventually, Sam span around and grabbed her, pulling her down on the bed next to him and kissing her roughly on the mouth simply to shut her up.
Peter sat up, knowing full well that all opportunity of obtaining a lie-in had been lost. He pulled a sickened face at all the kissing noises (deciding that he couldn’t actually bear to look upon the activity), and looked over to Kirsty who was also looking disgusted. They shared an understanding smile.
“Moony, get rid of them!” pleaded Sirius, his voice muffled from underneath the pillow he had placed over his head to drown out the excessive noise.
“No way. Presents!” exclaimed Remus excitedly, jumping up and putting on his dressing gown and slippers, before looking expectantly at them all to follow suit. Peter gazed at him in awe. For someone with the maturity of a thirty-year-old man Remus got really over-excited about Christmas.
Sirius groaned. It seemed to Peter as if he were weighing up the pros and cons. After all, they had all spent most of the previous night trying to steal said presents.
“Fine,” grumbled Sirius, slowly poking his head out from under the pillow.
“Yay!” squealed Hayley, running over to his bed and playfully ruffling his hair. “We’ll get you into the Christmas spirit yet, Sirius!”
Peter watched Kirsty carefully, growing increasingly more suspicious at her lack of contact with Sirius; usually, they were very close with each other. Therefore, the very fact that she wasn’t the one over there ruffling his hair and trying to persuade him to get up was conspicuous by its absence.
Everybody made a move to get up, and James and Remus dug out their presents from their hiding place, having to fight off Lily and Hayley, who were now trying to sneak a peek. Sirius was the last to part with his bed. Stifling a yawn, he asked, “What time is it anyway?”
“Seven o’clock,” Kirsty informed him jovially, initiating contact for the first time that morning.
Sirius stopped still and stared at her aghast. He glanced longingly at his bed one last time before declaring, “I hate you all!”
Sam watched with a loving smile on his face as Emma bobbed up and down on the balls of her feet with excitement. Her childlike impatience was one of the things he loved about her. She hollered upstairs to one tardy Sirius Black, “Bloody well hurry up, Black; I want my presents!”
Sirius dragged himself downstairs grumbling inaudibly with his duvet wrapped protectively around himself, and his presents, which had been bundled into a bag hanging off his wrist. He went and sat down next to Kirsty, who offered him a sympathetic look, but to Sam, her longing for Sirius was undeniably present in her eyes. She would have to watch that in future, otherwise it might just be her downfall, he mused.
“Presents!” exclaimed Emma, making to dart forwards towards the Christmas tree, but Sam grabbed her elbow and held her back, much like a stern parent. Emma looked uncomprehendingly up at him, but he held her firm.
“Be patient,” he commanded, teasing her.
Emma harrumphed.
When Sam felt he had let her suffer enough, he released her. She was like a Hippogriff in Gringotts. Wrapping paper went flying as it was viciously ripped off. Emma was only allowed to open her presents from home though as the group were all to give each other their presents afterwards.
Sam received a bottle of nice smelling aftershave from his parents, which he hoped Emma would approve of, as well as some brand new Quidditch gloves (his other ones had been getting a bit tatty).
Excitement was abundant when they finally did come around to opening the presents from each other. Sam received a rather nice picture from Kirsty and James, which depicted him getting knocked out during their Quidditch match, and he had a sneaking suspicion that the rest of the team had also contributed. The picture showed the progression of that day’s game in stick figure form. The first drawing (if you could call it that) was of Sam mounting his broom rather spectacularly and contained the caption ‘Northy jump’. The second drawing showed Sam whizzing around on his broomstick with the title ‘Northy fly’. The next one was of the moment that Sam and the Bludger had been introduced and was called ‘Northy splat’. The final picture of Sam sprawled on the ground, with X’s for eyes and drool escaping his gormless-looking mouth, was nicely captioned ‘Northy die’. Sam laughed raucously upon receiving this and only had the slightest urge to kill the perpetrators. He received many sweets and joke products as well as a mound of makeup from Kirsty (who wasn’t as funny as she thought she was). From Emma, he received what looked like some very expensive dress robes and a Keeper’s handbook. Sam suspected that this had been bought more for Emma’s benefit than his own - probably so she could learn more about what being a Keeper actually entailed.
Sam had bought Emma some wizard art supplies that she had been eyeing up during their last visit to Hogsmeade. Amongst other things, this included some magically enhanced watercolours that would make her drawings move, much like a wizarding photograph. Emma had been ecstatic to say the least, and Sam found himself wondering what picture she would produce first with them.
All in all, Sam sensed that everyone was immensely pleased with their gifts. Emma and Kirsty had combined their creativity and given James a tiny moving model of himself on his broomstick, Quidditch robes and all. James had gleefully let it go, and it was still zooming complacently around their heads. Sirius received something similar from the two girls, but his model was of a small, fully-working flying motorbike, and as soon as he opened it, his face lit up and he enveloped them both in a rib-crushing bear hug. As well as this, they had bought him a studded dog collar, but Sirius was less enthused about this particular gift.
It was safe to say that Remus had received many bucket loads of chocolate as well as numerous books, and from Hayley he had received a pristine peacock quill, which was immensely elegant. In return, Remus had given Hayley a limited edition of her favourite book: Pride and Prejudice. Hayley was speechless, and had been hugging the book close to her chest all morning.
They had all clubbed together and bought Peter a very expensive set of wizard chess pieces, since Peter was currently the undefeated champion of the Gryffindor common room, and his old set was becoming a bit battered and bruised due to so many people challenging him.
Sirius jokingly got James a set of Christmas lights for his antlers (Sam was by now well aware that the Marauders were illegal Animagi and Remus a werewolf, as Emma had taken him into her confidence, not that he hadn’t had his suspicions about Remus beforehand) and a red flashing nose. Sirius had roared with laughter whilst giving it to him and James’ mouth had continuously twitched as he opened it, though he seemed to be trying to give off the air of being unimpressed.
Another joke present had been Emma’s present to Kirsty, which had consisted of a love potion and a book entitled: Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Wizards. Sam had been stood next to the two girls when this present was given, and Kirsty had responded cheerfully with ‘Ha-di-bloody-ha!’ To make up for this, Emma then gave her her true present, which turned out to be a beautiful Celtic ring.
Emma’s present to Lily was decidedly nicer than her one to Kirsty. Nervously, Emma had presented her with a drawing she had done of Lily and James together. Sam was definitely impressed (this being the first time he had seen it as Emma had an annoying habit of not wanting to show other people her artwork) and Lily absolutely adored it, as did James.
One of the final presents to be given was James’ to Lily. He was more nervous than Emma had been when handing hers over, and he warily scanned Lily’s face as she unwrapped it. Lily ripped off the wrapping paper and a delicate silver bracelet dropped out onto her hand. It wasn’t until Sam approached for a closer look a little bit later on that he found out that it was a charm bracelet, and a special one at that. It was obviously specially made with Lily in mind as each little charm depicted something that she held dear: the Gryffindor lion, a stag and a doe, a wand, a cauldron and tiny charms that were representative of each of her friends. Lily was on cloud nine upon receiving this, and James was exuberantly thanked “ with many soppy kisses.
Sam and Emma were sat cosily in front of the common room’s Christmas tree when Sirius finally ventured over to Kirsty to hand her his present. Sam watched the proceedings out of the corner of his eye, and even though Lily and James were all snuggled up on the sofa, Sam could see James doing the same thing. The package was rather small and had been wrapped in snowman-covered paper. Kirsty opened it eagerly, despite the air of tension that Sam thought was evident between the two of them. The wrapping paper came off to reveal a square, flat jewellery box, and Kirsty, looking amazed, carefully opened it. Sam had to wait until Kirsty held the piece of jewellery up to examine it, and when he finally did see it, he couldn’t believe his eyes.
Sirius had given her a necklace and a goddamned expensive looking necklace at that. It was silver, and the pendant that was looped onto the end of the necklace was in the shape of a Scottish thistle. Also, to set the piece off, an amethyst had been placed where the head of the thistle should be to represent the purple flower.
As Kirsty continued to hold the necklace up and stare at it in awe, Sam heard James give a low groan. Instantly, he, Emma and Lily all turned to survey James.
“What’s wrong?” asked Lily with concern.
James looked rather startled, but replied, “Nothing. Just a bit of a bad stomach ache.”
“Aw, you poor thing,” sympathised Lily, “and on Christmas Day too.” And with that James was subjected to many healing kisses.
Sam turned his attention back to Sirius and Kirsty. How could Sirius have bought her something so obviously expensive? Sam surveyed Sirius closely, and for the first time, he noticed the loving way that he continued to gaze at Kirsty. Sam’s suspicions rose to an alarming height.
After Kirsty’s many awed gasps, profuse thanks and many grateful hugs, she moved away from Sirius to show Remus, Hayley and Peter her new necklace.
James immediately rushed over to take her place. He grabbed Sirius roughly by the upper arm and marched him over to stand by the entrance of the common room, away from prying eyes and ears. However, Sam was not going to be beaten this way and so he focused hard on straining his ears as much as possible.
“You’re a glutton for punishment, you know that?” reprimanded James in a furious whisper. “Why the hell did you go and buy her something that expensive?”
“Because I knew she’d like it,” replied Sirius, obviously on the defensive.
“And you wonder why you can’t get her out of your head!” hissed James.
Sam heard no more, he didn’t need to. He stiffened in shock and was surprised when Emma didn’t sense the sudden tensing of his body. All of his suspicions had just been spectacularly confirmed “ Sirius liked Kirsty back.
After his Christmas breakfast of a full English fry-up, Sam grabbed his broom and went up to the girls’ dorms in search of Emma. Thankfully, Emma was the only one in there (the others were either still down at breakfast or sitting down in the common room playing with their presents like little children).
When Sam entered the dormitory, Emma was busy packing her presents into her trunk. She saw him standing behind her and started slightly, before greeting him with a warm smile. “Hey. Good breakfast?” she asked, having left him to his mounted plate after finishing her own breakfast of a simple bowl of porridge.
“Delicious thanks,” replied Sam, patting his stomach. Emma merely looked at him in exasperation before continuing with her self-appointed task.
Sam wasn’t quite sure how to bring up the subject of Kirsty and Sirius, but he did know that he wanted Emma to confirm the theory if possible. Deciding that he just had to come straight out with it, Sam probed, “Did you ever actually find out what Kirsty said to Sirius when he asked her if she still fancied him?”
Emma straightened up from putting a pair of Christmas socks neatly into her trunk and looked at him in extreme puzzlement. “Yeah, she told him she didn’t fancy him anymore.”
“So, she practically rejected him?” pressed Sam eagerly.
“Yeah, I suppose you could say that,” agreed Emma. Sam guessed though that she must have glimpsed the shock on his face, because she then asked, “Sam, what’s this got to do with anything?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just curious.” He fobbed her off, trying to digest the whole thing.
“Sam, what’s going on?”
Should I tell her? wondered Sam. He took a deep breath, deciding that Emma had more right to know than he did, and announced, “I think that there is a strong possibility that Sirius may also fancy Kirsty.”
Emma’s eyes grew wide; her jaw dropped open; and from the gaping hole came a high pitched squeal. Sam rushed towards her, beseeching her to keep the noise down. “Oh my God! Are you serious?” she asked, lowering her voice.
“Deadly serious,” he confirmed, unable to suppress the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“But how do you know?” breathed Emma.
“I overheard Sirius and James talking before, and come on, who’d buy a girl a present that expensive if he didn’t feel for her in some way?”
“So he likes her back?” confirmed Emma. “This is brilliant news!” She started leaping around the room; she was practically bouncing off the dormitory walls.
“Listen, Emma,” began Sam hurriedly. “I absolutely forbid you to say anything to either of them.”
“Why would I say anything?” asked Emma, feigning innocence. “When two of our friends could start the greatest love affair of their lives, and they would have me to thank!” Emma trailed off, staring wistfully into space.
“I’m not going to let you say anything,” he informed her sternly.
“How come I’m not allowed to tell either of them?” challenged Emma, a determined look glimmering in her eyes.
“Because Kirsty said she didn’t want anything to happen between them,”
“Yes, but that was before we knew Sirius fancied her too,” explained Emma with the air of someone talking to a difficult child. “They’d make a great couple,” Emma sighed dreamily.
“Or they’d kill each other,” countered Sam matter-of-factly. Emma threw him a filthy look for bursting her happy bubble. “Look, as of yet we have no firm proof, and I just think we should keep things quiet until we know the lay of the land. Kirsty would never forgive us if all this turned out to be false. Let’s at least wait until after the New Year, and if he still shows feelings for her, then we’ll act.”
“I hate that you’re so sensible,” grumbled Emma.
Sam moved towards her and slinked his arm around her shoulder in a one armed hug. “We compliment each other beautifully then.”
“Was that a dig?” Emma turned her head sharply upwards to survey him.
“Never!” replied Sam sarcastically. Emma jabbed him playfully in the ribs, and he countered with a small chuckle and a kiss on her forehead. Bring on the Hogwarts festivities, he thought jovially.
Remus surveyed the Great Hall, entranced. They were about halfway through their Christmas Dinner and Remus had stopped to take a breather; Christmas food was very rich after all. He stared at Sirius and James with incredulity as they continued to plough through their meal, piling on more mash potatoes, chipolatas, stuffing, turkey and another Yorkshire pudding each for good measure. It seemed that the pair’s stomachs were bottomless pits when it came to Christmas food.
Not many students had deigned to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas this year with the majority wishing to go home and spend time with their families, especially with the war going on around them. However, Remus did spot many of their fellow seventh years during his study of the room. He guessed that, much like him, they wished to be present for their last Christmas at Hogwarts.
The usual twelve Christmas trees that adorned the hall stood tall and proud, decorated with live, glowing fairies and twittering robin redbreasts. Remus had already been serenaded several times that morning by merry suits of armour, and once he had even been lucky enough to be serenaded by the Sirius Black himself, a privilege many would kill to receive. Well, that wasn’t strictly true; Remus hadn’t been personally serenaded, more like Sirius had serenaded all those present in the Great Hall with his rendition of ‘God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs’ at the start of the Christmas feast. He had stood on top of the table as soon as the starters had been cleared and burst into song, with annoying overconfidence. At the end, he had received an enthusiastic round of applause, even from MacIntosh.
With an almighty effort, Remus picked up his knife and fork again and delved back into his dinner. He supposed that in the long run it would do him good to get as much energy into him as possible; after all, it was a full moon tonight. He couldn’t help but curse his bad luck, what a night to undergo one of his transformations. He had been feeling ill all day, but he seemed not to be looking it, as no one, as of yet, had passed comment, which was good where Hayley was concerned. His fellow Marauders would of course be spending the night with him, which wasn’t so bad; at least he wouldn’t have to be alone on Christmas night.
As he looked across the table a guffaw escaped him, and he nearly choked on his turkey. Kirsty and James were caught up in an endless tussle over the last remaining Christmas cracker, and it was refusing to break. No matter how hard they pulled, it remained as intact as ever. In the end, they resorted to getting some of the others in to help so that it ended up being a mini tug-of-war. James’ team (consisting of Sirius, Lily and Sam) were eventually victorious and got showered with handfuls of little candy mice. Remus smiled warmly at all his friends, there was no doubting that this was the best Christmas that he had ever had, and he couldn’t help but wonder where they would all be this time next year.
Two hours later, they were all to be found out in the snowy grounds. Hayley, Emma, Sam, James, Lily and Sirius were all skating (or in James’ case attempting to) on the frozen Hogwarts lake, whilst Remus and Peter engaged in proper snow activities such as making snow angels and having numerous snowball fights. Remus had to admit to finding this a little weird as he would have put Sirius and James down for such activities too, not something as dainty as ice-skating. Although James’ reason for partaking in such an activity became obvious when Lily skated past him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Sirius’ reasoning was not so easily figured out, though Remus had the sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with wanting to stay away from Kirsty, who was busy building a snowman close to where Peter and Remus were engaging in fierce snowball fights.
James was surprisingly atrocious at ice-skating; he could barely even stand on the ice. Sirius, on the other hand, was exceptionally good, to James’ obvious annoyance, and kept on spraying James with small ice shavings every time he skidded impressively to a halt.
Suddenly, out of nowhere a clod of ice-cold snow hit Remus squarely on the side of his face. He swung around and caught a glimpse of Peter’s orange scarf as the other boy took cover behind the large oak tree. Remus scooped up a large handful of snow and dived after him; it looked as if this were going to be the snowball fight to end all snowball fights. Stealthy as a cat, Remus pounced on Peter sending the snowball rocketing straight into his chest. They chased each other around for what seemed like hours after that, their raucous laughter reverberating throughout the whole grounds.
Just when Remus was tiptoeing around the sidewall of the castle, trying to avoid catching Peter’s attention, James showed an interest in wanting to join in on their snowball fight of the century. The following few seconds provided Remus with the funniest scene he had witnessed in many a year. James, seeming to momentarily forget that he was still wearing ice-skates, ran forwards in a huge burst of speed to join in the fun. As soon as he set off, his toe-pick became caught in the ice and he fell over in spectacular fashion. He came down like a tonne of bricks, his head flinging forwards and thudding against the ice.
Even though Remus knew that this must have been a highly painful experience, he couldn’t control the howl of laughter that escaped him, and he knew that the image of James flailing uncontrollably on the ice would be one that stayed ingrained on his brain forever.
Remus was not the only one laughing; the rest of the group were too. The only problem with Remus laughing so hard was that it immediately alerted Peter to his current position, and he was then assaulted by a stream of gigantic snowballs.
When James had finally got his skates off and had had the small cut on his head patched up by Lily, he ran over and joined in the onslaught against Remus.
Then something happened that none of them could account for; each one of them had ice cold snow dropped down the back of his jumper in succession. All three boys squealed in a most unmanly way and proceeded to try to shake it out, which only resulted in increasing the coldness and wetness of their backs. Remus spun around helplessly trying to find the culprit, as did Peter. However, it was James who made the deduction, and he threw out his arms to halt the other two in mid search.
“Good afternoon, Padfoot,” he growled, reaching out with his hand and apparently grabbing hold of thin air.
The Invisibility Cloak slithered effortlessly to the ground, leaving an exposed Sirius in its wake. Sirius didn’t even go as far as to offer the three boys a sheepish grin; he simply burst into unrestrained laughter. Remus shared a conspiring look with James and Peter, and as one, they all lunged at Sirius in the form of a group rugby tackle.
Remus picked up a clod of snow and brought it crashing down on Sirius’ gleeful face. James and Peter immediately followed his lead, and Sirius was soon pelted by make-shift snowballs from top to toe. In the midst of his gurgles of laughter he called to the girls for help. Remus glanced up to see if they would indeed heed his calls. Kirsty was doing a very good job of seeming oblivious to his cries as she was too busy concentrating on fitting a perfect smile on her snowman with small lumps of coal; she had her tongue stuck out the corner of her mouth and everything. Lily, Hayley, Emma and Sam, however, were all hastily pulling off their ice-skates in order to run over to the group of boys. Although whether they were coming over to help Sirius defend himself, or to help the other three Marauders give him his comeuppance Remus couldn’t tell.
Footsteps crunched hurriedly over the snow, and Remus lifted his head up once again, refraining from shoving snow down the front of Sirius’ jumper for just a second, to watch their progress. Emma, Lily and Hayley were all sprinting manically towards them, but there was no Sam in sight. Remus looked over to the lake to find Sam furiously tugging at his skates, looking to Remus as if he were swearing profusely. It was indeed horrible to be momentarily halted from joining in the fun, but Remus had no doubt that Sam would make up for it in a minute by throwing and dodging many snowballs.
The crunching stopped, and Remus moved his gaze away from Sam to see all three girls stood menacingly before them - a mere two feet away. Sirius, looking at them upside down from his position on the floor, threw them all a beseeching look. The girls arched their eyebrows as if mocking them and started to throw their snowballs up and down dishearteningly. Remus had a feeling that he wasn’t going to like what was coming.
Before Remus and the other three Marauders knew what had hit them (quite literally), snowballs had mercilessly been launched their way, and because of the small distance between them and the girls, the snowballs really stung on impact. Remus rolled to the side of Sirius, no longer needing to loom menacingly over his friend, and he saw James do the same before crouching low to the snow, looking ready to pounce.
Right, this means war, thought Remus fiercely. He and James pounced at the same time, roughly grabbing a handful of snow as they chased after the three troublesome girls. Peter followed in their wake, grabbing Sirius hurriedly by the hand and pulling him to his feet. After all, quarrels were often forgotten in times of war.
Sam joined them eventually, and the snowball fight inevitably turned into boys against girls. Although the girls would argue that this was highly unfair as it was only three against five. Kirsty, who probably would have made a decent contribution to the girls’ team, was refusing point-blank to play as she was still adding the finishing touches to her endearing Muggle made snowman.
The fight reached its pinnacle at the moment that Kirsty placed a woolly hat on the top of the snowman’s head and stood back to admire her handiwork. Sirius, destructive force that he was, came running in Kirsty’s direction when Lily careered after him, a pile of snowballs cradled in her arms. Remus closed his eyes against the disaster that was about to occur. Sirius, looking over his shoulder and laughing at Lily’s disastrous aim, turned back around too late to see the snowman looming before him. The look of devastation on Kirsty’s face had been almost heartbreaking.
“Big bullies!” Kirsty sulked, looking to Sirius, surrounded by a pile of snow remains, and to Lily, who had just skidded to a halt beside Kirsty looking sheepish.
“Kirst, I’m so sorry!” announced Sirius. “Take a free shot!” he instructed her, nodding his head over to Lily’s handful of snowballs.
A mischievous grin spread over Kirsty’s face, all thoughts of her lost snowman dissipating. “You’re going to regret ever saying that.” She pulled her wand out of her coat pocket and pointed it towards the mound of snowballs. In a gigantic cluster they all zoomed at maximum speed towards a helpless Sirius. One by one they attacked him, and Sirius spluttered for breath.
When the onslaught had ended, Sirius jumped to his feet, drenched from head to foot and said menacingly, “Right.” Kirsty fled, squealing with laughter, Lily hot on her heels. And so it was that snowball fest ’77 truly took flight.
The sun was seen setting over the top of the mountains when the fight finally met its close, and a spectacular close it ended up being too. The boys managed to corner the girls after hours of pointlessly chasing them around the grounds, and the girls had been captured unarmed.
The boys naturally took advantage of this and came within three feet of the defenceless girls, snowballs in hand. Remus produced a devilish grin along with his comrades and the snowballs were prepared for launch. However, to the boys’ dismay, the girls had eagerly whipped their wands out and pointed them at the large oak tree behind them.
Remus tentatively turned his head to look behind him as the tree’s thickset branches gave an ominous groan. Nothing happened. Remus, feeling that it was all rather anticlimactic, turned back to face the girls, who were all looking incomprehensibly smug.
“Beg for mercy,” Peter advised them in his best horror film voice.
Giddy grins were now plastered over all four girls’ faces, and Remus started to feel a little unnerved. Before Remus even had chance to dwell on what they might be planning, there came a noise from high above him that sounded like the shifting of a large amount of material. He looked up, and all he could see was white. Then, the avalanche struck. Remus cried out, but his cry was muffled by the blanket of disturbed snow that enveloped him and the other boys. He was crushed to the floor and received rather an unpleasant mouthful of slush-like snow.
Spluttering madly, Remus’ head broke through the surface of the snow. Heads popped up around him; an unimpressed Sirius’ arriving first. The girls shot them an innocent yet gloating look, and Remus struggled to manoeuvre his hand into the pocket of his robes. After minutes of trying to push his arm through what felt like a labyrinth of snow, Remus pulled his wand out from within his pocket, victorious.
Remus cast a hot air charm and brought his wand to the surface with ease. He soon found out that one advantage of living in close quarters with four people for seven years was that spookily you even started to think alike as James, Peter, Sirius and Sam’s wands were now also hovering above the surface of the snow. Wondering if they were indeed thinking along the same lines as him, Remus pointed his wand at the group of annoyingly smug girls and cast a Trip Jinx.
To Remus’ complete amusement, the other boys had indeed shared his mind-frame, since all four girls were soon tumbling helplessly down into the snow beside their victims. The minute their frozen bodies touched the ground, they were subjected to snowballs in the face. Squeals erupted throughout the grounds once more as they all scrambled around on the snow-ridden floor, lazily throwing clumps of snow at each other.
When all their energy had finally been spent, they collapsed back onto the snow gazing up at the pristine winter wonderland that surrounded them. Remus didn’t care that his limbs were numb from the extreme cold; he just wanted to lay and revel in their last Christmas together at Hogwarts. Plus, the fact that his right arm was lightly pressed against Hayley’s left arm helped quell his desire to return to the warmth. The couples were snuggled up in the snow, and Kirsty and Sirius kept throwing glances towards each other when they thought the other wasn’t looking. This wasn’t the first time that Remus had suspected that the feelings were completely mutual between the two of them, and he hoped (for Sirius’ sake mostly) that something would eventually progress between them.
Peter gave a huge yawn. “I suppose that signifies that it’s time we went back inside,” observed Hayley, sitting up. Remus instantly missed the company of her left arm.
“No!” wailed Kirsty. “Snow angels first!” she insisted.
Remus rolled his eyes, but any reprimanding of Kirsty was forgotten when Hayley heaved a weary sigh and lay back down beside him. So, as one, the group all flailed their arms and legs around in the snow, making their angels. That done, they all stood up, Remus’ shivering legs only just able to support his weight, and with a sickening jolt, he realised that it would be the full moon in a couple of hours.
They all gathered away from their snow angels, and Remus glanced back at where they had all just been laid as did everybody else. Nine snow angels spread in a concentric circle. Remus smiled. They truly had left their imprint on Hogwarts. And with that heart-warming thought, Remus turned on his heel and trundled up to the Entrance Hall, his friends by his side.
In the common room half an hour later, Remus could feel that his transformation was imminent, and he shot a meaningful glance over to Sirius, who was sat by the window. Hayley was currently up in the girls’ dorms trying on some of the clothes that her parents had got her, so now would be the perfect time to leave and break the news to the other girls.
“It’s time we were going,” announced Sirius as he stood up to look out of the window.
“Why? What’s going on?” asked Lily sounding concerned.
Remus stood up from the sofa as Peter and James also started getting ready to leave. “Tonight’s a full moon.”
Emma’s, Kirsty’s and Sam’s heads all swivelled around to glance out the window.
“Oh, Remus, that’s terrible!” cried Lily in distress.
“Tell me about it,” said Remus desolately.
Kirsty got up from the floor and gave him a huge hug. “Be careful,” she implored him. Remus smiled gratefully at her.
“We’re thinking of you, mate,” announced Sam. Remus had been surprised that he wasn’t as angry with Emma for telling Sam as he should have been. Sam, he felt, had earned the right to know. More than once, he had covered for the Marauders and put up with their lame excuses for their monthly disappearances.
Emma and Lily also offered him hugs, before turning their attentions to the other Marauders, since they were of course risking their lives every time they went out with Remus.
Just when they were in the midst of giving hugs, Hayley appeared downstairs. “What’s going on?” she asked, mildly confused.
Peter jumped in. “We were all thinking of going to bed, we’re shattered.”
Hayley seemed to mull this over for a second. “Yeah, I was just thinking that I was pretty tired myself. Probably best to have an early night. After all, we’ve got another week of Christmas festivities ahead of us.”
A collective sigh of relief punctuated the air. Remus was glad because this was so much easier than fobbing Hayley off with some story about where they were off to at this time of night.
“Would you like me to walk you back to your common room?” asked Remus politely before he could stop himself. Habit had ingrained this gentlemanly behaviour into his system. He received warning looks from every corner of the room; he was pushing it a bit fine after all.
“That would be lovely,” admitted Hayley with a dreamy smile.
As Hayley turned away to grab some of her Christmas presents, James mouthed over to him, “Make it quick.”
“Night, guys,” announced Hayley as she and Remus departed. Remus smiled over his shoulder at his friends, but all he received back was worried looks.
Sirius came up to him just before the reached the portrait hole and whispered in his ear, “We’ll meet you down by the Whomping Willow. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t.” Sirius offered him a wink and clapped him on the shoulder before leaving his side once again.
The walk back to Hayley’s common room had been a serene one. Remus found both himself and Hayley making pointless conversation, the palpable chemistry between them going unmentioned. Sometimes Remus wondered what it would be like if he and Hayley were a couple. Would it all still be as easy and comfortable as it was now but with added spice? Or would they simply crash and burn, having mistaken their feelings for each other and torn their relationship apart?
Every fibre of his being yearned for him to make the leap and damn the consequences, and if he had been any other man he would have done it, but he was no ordinary man as the looming full moon kept on reminding him.
Hayley continued to chat effortlessly, and Remus found himself growing anxious about tonight’s transformation. He was cutting it extremely fine, after all. Was this what Hayley did to him? Made him reckless enough to want to risk the lives of others just to spend ten minutes of quality time alone with her? Yes, he answered, because maybe, just maybe, she was worth it. All the same, if he didn’t hurry he’d be in danger of actually putting Hayley at risk, and that was the last thing he wanted.
He made a conscious effort to quicken his pace, praying that Hayley would fall into step beside him “ she didn’t disappoint. Remus had to admit to being mildly curious as to what Hayley would actually do if he ground to a halt and just suddenly admitted his condition to her. Would she be revolted? Would she hate him for keeping her in the dark? Would she sympathise? Could she still love him? But he knew he could never do it, could never stand to see her face as he divulged it all to her. Watching the one he loved look at him in fear was definitely not something that he was longing to experience.
Thankfully, they reached the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room in record time. Remus and Hayley stood nervously, unsure how to proceed. “I really can’t stay long,” Remus admitted, growing anxious.
“Oh,” said Hayley, looking extremely disappointed. A heavy silence ensued. Hayley stretched her hand out towards the side of Remus’ face and involuntarily he flinched. He always hated physical contact on the night of the full moon. A hurt look flashed over Hayley’s face, and guilt burned painfully inside Remus’ chest. Her hand landed on his shoulder. “There’s something stuck to you,” she informed him politely. She retracted her hand, and presented the object in front of his face. “Oh, mistletoe,” she announced, her cheeks giving off an embarrassed tint.
Remus coughed to hide his sudden nervousness. Bloody Padfoot! The air between them was charged with electricity and the anticipation of what might happen. Remus carefully took the mistletoe out of her hand, and moving forward slightly whilst simultaneously trying to wipe his sweaty hand on his trousers, he held it up above her head.
He could see in her eyes how much she wanted him to kiss her. He had heard from Sirius that his feelings were reciprocated, but until that moment, he had never let himself believe it. Looking into Hayley’s eyes was like looking into clear pools of turquoise blue where he could see his own thoughts and longings reflected.
He leant in towards her, mini-fireworks flaring inside his chest and his stomach a tight knot of fear. “Merry Christmas, Hayley,” he breathed, his eyes flitting up to meet hers for the briefest of seconds. And with that, he went in for the kiss.
Pain lurched through his body, and it took him all his strength to stop himself from reeling. It looked as if he had less time than he initially thought; his transformation was imminent.
Determined to finish the job, he hastily closed the distance between Hayley and himself, and longingly kissed her cheek, just managing to capture the corner of her mouth under his trembling lips.
He pulled away as another tearing pain wracked his body. He could barely bring himself to look Hayley in the eyes, and when he did, he instantly regretted it. Confusion and hurt swam beneath their depths, and Remus hated himself. “I’m sorry, Hayley, but I really have to go.” He willed her to understand, willed her to believe that he wanted this every bit as much as she did.
He brought his left hand up to softly stroke her lips, his right hand still clutching desperately onto the sprig of mistletoe, in a way that he hoped would convey the promise of a proper kiss. She sighed at his touch, and it took every effort for him to remove his hand. “I’m sorry,” he whispered again, and he turned on his heel and walked away from her, dropping the mistletoe bitterly to the floor as he did so. Not once did he dare to look back, he couldn’t bear to.
As soon as he was sure that he was out of Hayley’s sight, he ran, his hammering heart matching the hammering of his footsteps as they pounded against the stone floor. He held back his tears as he passed the window to see the moon beginning its ascent to its position in the sky, and pain struck at his insides again, knocking him sideways.
Recovering as best he could, he ran for dear life, not once letting his speed relent. Eventually, gasping for breath, he reached the Entrance Hall. The Whomping Willow and the bane of his life loomed up before him as he entered the snow-covered grounds, and for the first time in a long time, Remus cursed the fact that this was his life.