"HUG"

HUG: embrace; Lorelei Black stepped outside her father's room happier than she was before and Sirius stepped out happier than he'd ever been in those fifteen years. As Sirius walked downstairs and Lorelei stayed behind to grab something from her room he saw George walking up the stairs, thank Merlin for the sweaters Molly made that helped him differentiate between Fred and George, and remembered to do something, he grabbed the redhead by his arms and then passed him a glare, George looked confused to say the least.

"Merry Christmas?" George offered weakly with a small grin, but got nothing in return from Sirius besides a scowl, "If it's something bad, I'm not George I'm Fred"

"Save it, carrot-top" Sirius told him and then continued to look as intimidating as he could manage to be, "What are your intentions with my daughter?"

George opened and closed his mouth, "What?" he stared at Sirius's terrifying grey eyes that he narrowed at the young man, "I don't know what you're talking about..."

"I might be a little rusty in the game, but I'm not a complete piece of junk" Sirius removed his arm and passed George a look, "I see the way you look at El, and frankly — that look's way too familiar with me, so I'm gonna ask you this again — what are your intentions with my daughter?"

"W-well I was just planning to dye her hair red as revenge for this morning" George spoke in a scared tone, and Sirius frowned.

"You do realize..." he said, "That you like her, don't you?" Sirius raised his eyebrows at the redhead and George could get nothing out.

"Well, obviously I like her, she's my friend" George told the older man and Sirius stared at George like he was spewing out the most ridiculous theories in the world.

"Son—" Sirius said, "Sit down" he sat down on the stairs and George, though confused, followed after, "You're telling me that you've seriously never noticed how you brighten up whenever you're around her?"

"She's funny" George told him with his brows furrowed.

"Or how sometimes you can't take your eyes off her?"

"I—"

"Or how you make excuses and do pranks just so you can spend more time with her?"

"Sir—"

"George" Sirius said, "Don't be so oblivious — we've got too many of those around here already, you're a good kid, but you're painfully ignorant to your own feelings, I'm her father and I'm giving you this lecture, maybe let that sink in" he slapped George's back and then went downstairs as George sat on the stairs wondering what the hell had happened.

George didn't like Lorelei, Sirius had probably gone mad — I mean, he did spend around twelve years in Azkaban with those soul suckers. George and Lorelei were just friend — and they'd been that way after a long time, and George didn't want to ruin that — and he wouldn't ruin it because there's nothing there besides the fact that they're good friends.

Good friends. Nothing else.

Nothing else.

George walked up to Lorelei's room with his hands in his pocket, and he raised his hand to knock on her door but before his knuckles could even touch the door, it opened. Lorelei had her head down and gaze fixed on the huge bag she had in her hand so she hadn't see George standing there which ended up with her bumping right into his chest, "The fuc—" Lorelei startled and almost fell down, "Oh, it's you" she chuckled, "I was wondering how a wall got there"

"Maybe if you weren't so short..." George trailed off making Lorelei hit his arm, "Ow, no need to be so violent"

"I am not short" Lorelei said, "You're just too god damn tall, George"

George.

She just called him George.

She never calls him George.

He likes being called George.

"Well, I heard everyone was giving out hugs downstairs?" George asked her and the two of them made their way downstairs, Lorelei was using wand less magic to float the bag ahead of them — George hadn't been able to do much of wandless magic, but he had never really tried to do it that much anyway.

"Oh, yeah, it was like a big hug fest going on downstairs" Lorelei chuckled, "It was nice, made it feel ok, like we weren't here because of some stupid old batshit crazy wizard, but just some happy family spending time together, as weird as that sounds."

"It doesn't sound weird" George reassured her, "It does feel like that sometimes, you know, like it's just us spending time here like a big family, everyone knows each other, and it's not happening just because of some war"

"I wish that was the truth" Lorelei told him, a small smile on her face, "Do you remember when we were around four years old, and I'd come to your house on Christmas with Birdie because both of us would not stop bugging Aunt Si to take us to you?"

"Oh, yeah" George started grinning really wide, "Then Birdie cried the whole night because Fred fell down and broke his leg"

"And you and I were just sitting in our room eating...uh, what were they called? They stopped making these!" Lorelei tried to remember the chips George and her were eating.

"Batshits" George told her, "They were shaped like little bats and in those they had little pieces shaped like shit that would always have a surprise taste, what a weird candy to feed kids"

"Yeah" said Lorelei, "Come on, let's get down before the rats finish up all the food"

🫐

"OK, OPEN MINE!" Birdie told El as she passed her a very neatly wrapped present, Sirius passed Remus and Sirene a look — James was the best at packing gifts too, his wrapping paper and the style of wrapping it was almost too good to be done by human, Lily though — she was shit at it, her presents looked like they were wrapped by a dog, it's clear where Birdie got her skills from very. If Lily heard Sirius say this she would probably chuck her show at him, oh, how he misses her.

"Oh my Merlin, Birdie" Lorelei said with her eyes wide open as she pulled out a gold necklace with a small motorcycle hanging from it along with the word 'El' in Birdie's handwriting, "This is..."

"It's exactly what you've been wanting for ten years" Birdie confirmed with a nod, Sirius, Sirene, Andrew and Remus edged closer to the end of their seats and when they caught a glimpse of the present Sirius smiled, "Moony, it's us. They're like us — the Marauders kids, all together. Remember, Sirene and James got me the same gift!" Sirene chuckled before taking a sip of her eggnog, "I wish James and Lily were alive to see them this way, they would've loved it" Sirene started choking on her eggnog, Andrew immediately began patting her back with a wince on his face.

"Ok, now open mine!" El handed Birdie her present as Birdie handed Hope hers, when she opened the present she had a huge smile on her face.

"You got me the bird necklace" Birdie said, she immediately tackled Lorelei into a hug and the two girls fell over on the ground.

"Damn, Birdie" Hope said as she pulled out chocolates from the bag, it was like the amount of chocolates was never ending, "I'm- I'm stocked for life now by the looks of it"

Birdie chuckled and threw another chocolate snitch at Hope's forehead, Hope did nothing but unwrap the chocolate and eat it up. The present from El was a collection of Jane Austen books, Hope loved muggle books, but she'd only recently started reading them and books were expensive, so she very much appreciated El's present.

Hope had gotten Birdie a white dress with strawberries as the print which Birdie immediately fell in love with, and for El she'd gotten a calligraphy pen set — the girls had had told Hope that they didn't need gifts, but Hope insisted, she'd  apparently been selling something at Hogwarts — she refuses to tell Birdie and El what, but she says it's nothing to worry about so they trust her. Lorelei had gotten Harry a shirt that said 'Do not talk to me I'm annoyed today' Harry had laughed and told her that he loved it, Birdie had ended up giving Harry the snitch which he also loved, not knowing the fluffy haired brunette much almost everyone had gotten her a book — Hermione didn't seem to mind, though. Lorelei had gotten Regan a journal, Regan seemed confused but she liked it anyway, Birdie had gotten her this pretty sweater that she made herself and Hope gave her a hair clip that had a snake wrapped around it, Regan said she loved that the most.

"Bubbles, I have yours!" George said from the other side of the room and waved his present at her, Lorelei got up excitedly.

"I have yours!" said Lorelei and she made her way towards him, both of them sitting down in the middle of the room by the couch with their presents in their hand, "Well, open it!"

George tore away the packaging carefully and then set it aside along he then grabbed the bow from the present and set it on Lorelei's head, she grinned at him as he opened the box to see a pair of shoes, "They're..."

"It's because I puked on your shoes, remember?" Lorelei chuckled as he looked at the shoes, "Uh, they clean themselves after they get dirty, only when they're off your feet though"

"I— I love them" He told her, "Thank you!" she smiled in response, "Open mine now"

Lorelei nodded and then opened her present tossing the wrapping paper aside and setting the bow on top of Fred's head just like he had with her, she then opened up the box and saw a photo album, she opened it up and saw around a hundred pictures of her with her friends, at Quidditch games, in the Great Hall, in the Hogwarts Grounds and in Hogsmeade too, "How did you...?" she swallowed, "George, this is..."

"Colin Creevey's a nosy kid, always taking pictures — no one's safe from him," George chuckled, "He's got loads of pictures like this — says 'People say a lot in pictures, but not like they do with words' or something like that, it's a bit creepy but—"

"I love it so much" Lorelei told him in a soft voice as she came across a picture of her and Cedric, and she felt tears forming in her eyes and she then felt her throat close up, before she could cry she just grabbed George by the shoulders, pulling him into a tight hug, "Thank you"

George hugged back, he could feel her scent surround him, and it made him feel...happy, it was like he wanted the world to pause at this moment and for her to never pull away, and he...

Shit.

He liked Lorelei Black.

i love them sm :,)