It takes two | Sirius Black

17.

Christmas was in full swing at the Potter residence, even Sirius was excited helping decorate the place for the festive holidays. Despite the fact they were magic, Effie insisted on doing it all by hand. The boys lazily draping tinsel on the banisters, the girls carefully placing baubles on the three enormous Christmas trees.

The Potter house elf, Mimi, was making hot chocolates and gingerbread equally as excited as everyone else. The war raging on outside didn't matter right now. Right now was about loved ones and Zion's very first Christmas.

The tot sat on the floor, chewing on a bauble as he gazed around in amazement at the bright red, green and gold decorations invading the house. Christmas music blared loudly, Sirius pulled Kate into his arms and spun her around to the music. Both of them laughing into eachother, the tot clapping joyfully. Sirius scoops him up and dances with them both. The happiest he'd ever felt.

James grabbed a string of gold tinsel and wrapped it around Lily, pulling her towards him and dancing with her goofily. Remus shook his head at the loved up couples, cracking a smile as he sung along quietly. Mr and Mrs Potter saw the teens dancing and showed them how it was really done. James and Sirius groaning with embarrassment, as Fleamont dug out the Dad moves.

The front door opens, Peter frowning at the lot of them before shrugging and grabbing Zion from Sirius and dancing with him. Remus tidies up the messy banister that James and Sirius had abandoned,watching lovingly as his friends danced and sang merrily. He was going to miss them all so much.

"Did you hear about Marlene?" Peter asks as they tuck into a late lunch.

"I know! Who saw that coming?" James asks, sipping his hot chocolate.

Lily snorts, "She's known since she was fifteen."

Sirius furrows his eyebrows, "Wait-"

"You helped her figure it out, baby." Kate smiles, James and Peter snorting hot chocolate out of their noses as they laugh.

"I like Dorcas." Remus shrugs, "She's nice."

"She's a Slytherin.." Sirius mutters like it matters.

"So is Reg and he isn't all bad." Remus reminds him.

"I can't wait to meet her." Effie smiles, "I'm sure she is lovely if Marlene is dating her."

Lily nods, "She is."

Zion starts to cry, throwing bits of gingerbread on the floor and rubbing his eyes with his fists. Mimi appears next to him and starts to clean up the mess, Sirius taking him out of his chair and bouncing him on his hip, trying to calm him down.

"Master Zion, made such a mess for Mimi." Mimi mutters as she cleans.

Sirius freezes looking down at the tiny elf, "Master?"

"Yes, Master Zion." Mimi confirms.

"I don't understand-"

James smirks, "He's a Potter."

As Christmas gets closer, the missions get less and less intense. Things are quiet, almost too quiet but as Dumbledore pointed out, even Deatheaters have families to see at Christmas time.

They spend their time together playing board games, Christmas shopping and baking. When they experience heavy snow, they go outside and build snowmen. Tiny Zion bundled up warmly, completely unimpressed by the cold white stuff. They even met Dorcas a few times now, Sirius deciding she was alright after all. Sirius and James even had chance to fly their brooms, sometimes Kate,Marlene, Mary and Dorcas join in. This is the time they needed, the time they thought they'd have before they joined the order. The chance to be teenagers. The chance to show Zion as much as possible.