Celestial | Sirius Black Love Story

Chapter Nine

I woke abruptly to the sound of Remus, "Wake up, wake up, wake up!"

Slowly, my mind seemed to turn itself on and I saw Remus standing in a pair of nice trousers, wearing a red knitted jumper. His usually mature and contained face shone with excitement and he was dancing around on his toes.

"It's Christmas!" I said, getting up and pushing my knotty hair out of my eyes.

"Yes, so hurry up, silly! It's snowing too, look!" 

I rushed to the window and saw that it was indeed snowing. The biggest snowflakes I had ever seen were laying themselves like a carpet over the ground. It looked like the sky itself was falling down in a million pieces. 

"Get out, I need to get dressed," I pushed Remus towards the door. We always celebrated Christmas together, alternating between the two houses.

"Ok, but you better hurry up or we'll start without you!"

"You wouldn't!" I called back, but none the less I hastily pulled on a black pair of tights and a nice red dress mum had bought for me, then rushed down the stairs.

Mum had made everyone a cup of tea and we had baked several trays of biscuits yesterday that were now scattered around the room in small bowls to keep our hunger tamed till breakfast. 

The tree Remus and I had decorated yesterday stood in the corner. It turned out quite nice, or perhaps it was the pile of gifts under it that was particularly nice.

Remus and I exchanged thrilled grins before digging out a gift for each of us, and for our parents. 

I had bought mum a necklace with a dragonfly pendant during the summer, and had wrapped it when I arrived back home. The green in it made her eyes pop, and she loved dragonflies. I had also painted her a portrait of the two of us. She said she loved it, which made me swell with pride.

I had bought Remus a book about magical creatures, I saw it when I had been in Diagon Alley with mum, before I had even known he was a wizard, and knew that he would love it, so I wrote home to mum and asked her if she could buy it. His eyes lit up with interest as he unwrapped it and he flicked through it, taking in the beautifully drawn images of all the creatures, with labels describing their abilities.

I was unsure what to get Remus' parent, so I just wrote my name under mums on one of her gifts for them and got them some chocolate; they all loved chocolate. 

Remus' parents had given me a whole array of sweets, making me temporarily feel bad about just giving them a small gift but I reminded myself that they were adults with jobs, and I was a child with a small monthly allowance. 

Mum had given me some new sets of clothes, a vinyl by the Rolling Stones, and a small kit of rarer potion supplies.

Remus had collected some pictures of the two of us from when we grew up into a little album, the latest including  all our new friends, these ones moved. He had also found me some books; both magic books and fantasy books. I loved everything I had received and hugged all of them. 

We spent the rest of the day just talking and playing board games, and for dinner we ate a delicious roast chicken with stuffing, steamed vegetables and rich gravy. 

The whole next week Remus and I would take it in turns to wake up early to go to the others house, where we'd play games, read, and test each others knowledge on our new magical subjects. On the day before New Years Eve though, I went sprinted to Remus' house without even bothering to throw on a jacket to find out that Remus was under the weather again. He often struggled with different things, though I wasn't quite sure I believed all of the excuses. Nevertheless, I didn't believe that they would make up a complete lie so that Remus didn't have to see me, there was probably an underlying truth in what they were saying. So I walked back home, thinking of what could really be the truth. When I came back mum yelled at me for having ran out without even getting dressed, and made me a cup of tea to warm me up.