Sirius

Looking back on it, this Christmas was the best I'd ever had. I got to spend it with the people that mattered most to me and we had a blast. Also, James's parents are the best parents ever.

On Christmas Eve, not one of us got dressed the entire day, opting to stay in our pajamas. Remus wore the cutest baggy wolf onesie that made me want to cuddle him all day, but alas I could not.

I opted for my black dog onesie, playing to Remus's nickname for me: Padfoot.

James wore a stag with little stuffed antlers on the top so we took to calling him Prongs. Peter wore a rat onesie with a long wormy tail and everything. James dubbed him Wormtail. Lily's was a doe with cute little spots all over. Regulus simply wore a green plaid onesie.

That afternoon, Mum decided we should make gingerbread cookies, and it was Peter's idea to turn it into a baking competition.

One side of the kitchen was Peter, Mrs. Potter, Regulus, and Lily. Our side was me, Remus, James, and Mr. Potter.

"How is this fair?" I complained, gesturing to their group of generally good bakers and then at us. "We'll lose."

Regulus shrugged, a small smile on his lips. "Sucks for you, I guess, Siri."

I turned to my group. "Alright, so our only option now is to sabotage them in any way possible."

Dad chuckled. "I'll pester your mum," he offered, going over to bug Euphemia.

"Well I guess it's up to us three them, since Dad's hopeless," James said. Remus snickered and moved to collect ingredients, lugging his oxygen cart behind him.

The competition was intense. We were going up against a professional, Mum who could be a professional, and Lily and Regulus who were both decent in the kitchen.

On our side, Remus was pretty much the only one who knew anything about baking, so he did most of the work. The other team got their cookies in the oven a solid twenty minutes before we did and when our cookies came out of the oven, they were atrocious. It was a good thing Remus is an artist. At least he could make them look better.

Even though our cookies had amazing frosting art, the other group won by a landslide. On the plus side, we ate lots of cookies that day.

Christmas Day was another pajama day. Remus shook me awake, sleepy himself. His face was flush and hair a mess, but he was super excited to go downstairs and open presents.

We walked sleepily down the stairs hand in hand, Remus with his cart. When we plopped down on the couch James and Lily were snuggled on the chair, sleeping. We figured they must've come down earlier and fallen asleep.

We went to the kitchen and I put on the coffee while Remus got his meds sorted out. A little while later, Regulus stumbled down the stairs, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

I handed him a mug of coffee, black, just how he likes it. "Happy Birthday, Reg," I said warmly. Regulus smiled sheepishly, staring down at his coffee.

I beckoned him forward and his face lit up for a second before he straightened out again. He set down the mug and he actually let me hug him.

"I can't believe you're eighteen, Reg. Just stick it out till you graduate and you can move the hell out of that house."

Regulus nodded, hugging me closer.

Mum and Dad came out of their bedroom from the other end of the hall, got their coffee and tea, and then we exchanged presents.

Later that day, when Peter and Mum we're preparing Christmas dinner, Remus and I sat in the living room watching a Christmas movie with everyone else.

Remus was doing his vest treatment, so there was a lot of coughs, but no one minded. Hardly anyone was actually watching the movie, mostly opting to do their own thing.

Remus was a bit self conscious about it at first, but by the time he was almost done, he didn't mind being in the living room.

I noticed Regulus kept stealing glances over his phone every time Remus would cough and I could tell he was intrigued by Remus's illness. He's always wanted to be a doctor when he grows up. He had plenty of time to practice when we were kids, and he was a natural.

I hooked my right middle finger around his, both of our rings clinking together. Remus smiles at me, looking down at the constellation ring he got me and the crescent moon ring I just got him for Christmas.

As the days went on, we always had something to do. On Boxing Day, Mum dragged us off to shop for awhile. Remus kept his mask on the entire time, but he contracted a cold anyway.

We spent that next day inside with lots of hot chocolate and movies. Plus we made a gigantic blanket fort that the six of us slept in.

There were also a fair few snowball fights along the way and many family game nights and movies. And since we're all about competitions, we broke into teams of two and had Mum and Dad decided who's snowman was the best. Rey and I won that competition.

Lily was constantly taking pictures to document the holiday. I felt nostalgic thinking about Lily and her pictures, even though I was living in the moment. It made me sad to think about that one day I'd be looking back on these times. I was terrified that one day I'd be looking at them just to remember what being with Remus was like. I was terrified to lose him.

Because whether I liked it or not, he wasn't getting any healthier. Quite the opposite, actually. Every time he would sniffle or cough, it would set me on edge.

On New Years Eve, Remus revealed that he'd brought along some of his paints and that he wanted to paint on us. I was a little confused at first, but then Lily got all excited and pulled out her phone to show us pictures of all the times Remus used her as a canvas.

I volunteered to go first and everyone gathered around to watch Remus work. I sat bent over on the floor of the dining room while Remus knelt over me, squirting paint onto my back. I couldn't tell what he was painting, but it felt cold and weird.

"Remus, that's beautiful," James said eventually. And then Remus stepped back, setting his brush in a glass and shaking out his hands. Lily snapped a picture to show me. It was a beautiful ombré of dark blues and blacks. He'd painting the night sky. The moon was partially hidden behind a cloud, but I could pick out the Canis Major from the rest of the stars.

"Good god, Remus. I love it," I gave him a quick kiss and he went on to paint Lily. He painted what looked like a vine of lilies across her collar bone.

Remus told James he was going to paint a beach, a sea view type landscape. But really, he was painting a near perfect cartoon Sponge-bob. Regulus and Lily had to leave the room under the guise of getting a glass of water because they couldn't stop sniggering.

Whenever Remus started to snicker, he'd cover it with a cough so James was none the wiser. Peter had Remus paint a cool, evil looking snake crawling out of a skull along his arm. He said he'd seen it somewhere and wanted to see what it would look like. I had to admit, it looked pretty cool, though there was an underlying gut feeling that I got when I looked at it. There was something off about it.

When Lily and Regulus came back, Remus offered to paint Regulus, but he didn't want to take off his shirt. I understood all too well. He didn't want anyone to see what he hid there. So Remus painted the sun on his cheek, the rays reaching across his nose and over his eye.

By the time Remus was done, he had paint covering his hands and even some on his cheeks from when he'd reached to fix his nasal cannula and brush the hair out of his eyes.

"You're so bloody adorable," I told him, pulling him into a kiss.

From across the house, we heard James scream, "What the bloody hell is this?!"

We both broke out into giggles.