Horace Slughorn awoke in the mid-morning on Christmas, a headache throbbing behind his temples. He squinted at the bright light reflecting off the new fallen snow and groaned as he sat up, scratching his bulbous belly, clad in bright green and yellow striped pyjamas. He shuffled about his living quarters, still squinting, searching for his slippers.

When he'd got the fuzzy things on, he opened his door and went just down the hall to his office, pushing open the door and going on to his private storeroom. He collected a bit of this and some of that, filling his arms with ingredients, emptied his arms into a cauldron, and carried it back to his desk, intent on making the potion to rid himself of hangover.

He was surprised when he came up to his desk to find that there was a box, wrapped in paper with little red and green birds and a big silver bow on top. A little card was attached to the top that read Read Me on the envelope.

Slughorn put the cauldron down on the edge of the desk and sat down, curiosity lighting his face as he pulled the card from the ribbon carefully. He opened it up and read,

Happy Christmas, Professor. May you have good fortune always, and the purest happiness. Watch carefully! Lily.

Slughorn smiled at the card, though his headache still throbbed profusely, and he reached for the box, lifting it up to find beneath it a bowl of water. On the surface of the water floated a perfect, white lily. He bent low to peer into the round bowl, which seemed to shimmer like crystal even in the darkness of the Potions room, as though sunlight had been forever captured in the water. The lily was softest pink in the center and bowed out to the purest white, with long rigid stamen and the tiniest brown freckling along the curve of the petals. Horace Slughorn was quite sure he had never seen a flower as mesmerizing. It seemed almost opalescent. He breathed carefully, afraid to disturb the water upon which the lily floated, slowly spinning rather hypnotically.

"My goodness," he whispered, "Positively beautiful..."

But even as he spoke, something happened. The flower seemed to fold in upon itself, closing up as though for the night until its sepals were fully exposed and it floated onto it's side before falling down through the water, slowly and gracefully, until it reached the very bottom and rested there.

Slughorn stared, leaning forward in his seat, his stubby fingers clutching the edge of the desk, mouth open in stunned silence as he watched.

The lily seemed to be glowing, he thought at first, but then he realized it wasn't a glow at all, but a slow fade from the pristine white to a deep yellow and then golden-orange, flashing, shimmering with sparks of magic... fins grew from the top and sides, long flowing things that wavered in the water, shivering like silk....

The transfiguration was so graceful, so perfect that the lily changed from flower to a beautiful goldfish before his very eyes - and without a single detail out of place. The fish's fins rippled as he began to swim about, as animated as any true fish.

Horace Slughorn sighed, his heart racing with the exhilaration of having watched such a beautiful display of magical ability, and he sat back in his chair, his eyes following the very-much-alive goldfish as it swam about the water in the bowl.

It was the most lovely thing that Horace Slughorn had ever been given in his entire life - a little friend.

Sirius and Remus sat playing wizard chess in the bed upstairs in the Shrieking Shack, waiting for it to be late enough to prepare for the full moon rising. Remus kept his briefcase by his side the entire time, and every now and again his fingers would absently trace the name Professor R. J. Lupin as though he were afraid it might disappear.

Sirius tried not to be distracted by the motion. "It was nice of Lames to get you that briefcase. It really is beautiful."

"Lames?"

"Saying Lily and James is getting tiring, so I've shortened it to Lames," Sirius explained.

"I might have compounded it Jily, as Lames sounds..."

"Like laaaaame," Sirius drawled, grinning.

"Precisely."

Sirius just continued on grinning evilly.

"It was really nice of them," Remus said, looking it over again and reverting to Sirius's original statement. "I rather love it."

"I'm sorry I couldn't get you a bigger box of chocolates," Sirius said.

Reminded of them, Remus took one of them out of the package that he'd presented Remus with shortly after James and Lily had left. "I told you already, it's far too much as it is," Remus replied, and he offered a piece to Sirius.

Sirius shook his head. "I would buy you an entire chocolate farm if I could."

"A chocolate farm, 'ey?" Remus asked, trying not to laugh.

"Mhm," Sirius nodded.

Remus decided to let Sirius have this one and he moved a chess piece. "I'm sorry that I couldn't buy you anything at all."

"You're all I need, Moony."

"I fee exactly the same way," Remus answered, smiling.

Sirius was scarcely paying attention to the game, but watching Remus's face as he  cast his eyes downward and concentrated on the board. When Remus looked up, Sirius diverted his eyes down to the board, drawing a deep breath. He moved quickly, not really thinking about it, and Remus raised an eyebrow, "You're sure about that move, mate?" he asked.

Sirius nodded, and when he answered it mag not have been about the game of chess at all: "Yes, I'm sure."

"Well, okay then," Remus said as he reached for the board to make his final move, but before he could, Sirius had stood up, knocking the board aside, the pieces scattering over the blanket and some even onto the floor. Remus stared in surprise as the tiny knights pushed themselves up off the floor and the king adjusted his crown indignantly, looking up and shaking his fist at Sirius Black. He blinked in disbelief. "Blimey, you don't have to be such a sore sport about it..."

Sirius was pacing, though, and didn't even hear Remus's complaint. Back and forth, back and forth...

"Are you alright, then?" Remus asked, nervous at the sudden turn of mood.

Sirius nodded, tears practically filling his eyes. He shook his head, looking Remus Lupin over. "You stupid wolf," he murmured.

Remus asked, "What?" The expression of perplexity only growing. "What've I done?"

"Nothing, just - you exist and -" Sirius suddenly turned on him. "You are just incredible, you know that? You really do make my heart sing. That hasn't changed a bit in three years time."

Remus flushed.

"I wouldn't want to spend a day like this in anyone else's company but yours, or any other day for that matter. You're the one I look forward to waking up to every morning and the one I have to hear goodnight from every night." Sirius paused, gathering up his nerve. "I don't have a lot to give you, I may never have. All I've got that I can promise you is myself... and bloody hell, I do love you. So much." He walked over to the bed. "Remus, I know it isn't possible for - for some of the things that are traditional -- I know we can't get legally married, for example but --"

Remus's eyes widened at the words legally married and his breath caught in his throat, his heart rate picking up...

"Well, we've never been traditional, have we? I've lived my whole life rebelling against tradition, haven't I?" Sirius reached deep into his pocket and withdrew the ruby ring he'd bought some time ago. He stared down at it, watching the reflection seem to shift and move beneath the faceted surface. He held it up, offering it to Remus. "But perhaps we could give a go of it, after school, being married, if not by law, then at very least in our own hearts? Would you consider... just maybe... spending the rest of our lives together, you and I?"

Remus's mouth was very, very, very - excruciatingly - dry. His eyes met Sirius's. They were swimming with all of that grey hope. Remus realized yet again how much he loved those eyes... all the good all the bad that had happened over the past seven years had happened with those eyes watching. Together, he and Sirius Black had grown, and they'd shared secrets and adventures, worries and dreams... They had also shared the ups and downs, the times of horrid transformations and new scars. They'd cried tears over things that had happened in the Shrieking Shack and in the world at large... Those eyes, they were waiting, staring, pleading, for an answer to escape Remus Lupin's mouth, an answer that Remus could feel bubbling up, straight from his heart.

"Remus?" Sirius asked, his voice pinched, even more nervous than he'd been before the longer he waited in the silence.

"I - I'm sorry," Remus stammered, feeling as though he were being dropped from a great height. "I'm sorry. Ask me - ask me again. I'm sorry, I was -- stunned."

Sirius hesitated. "Stunned?"

"I didn't expect it."

Sirius said, "I didn't, either. I didn't plan for tonight. I've had this ring for... ages... just trying to get up the nerve to tell you that I love you and I'd die for you and I'd really like it if we just... lived for one another. What do you say? Wanna give it a go after we graduate? Will you be my... my husband?"

"Yes," Remus said quickly this time, answering almost before Sirius had finished speaking. "Bloody hell, yes."

And it didn't matter to Remus, even years later looking back on that year, 1977, that it was a full moon night on Christmas... That was the best Christmas ever, in his opinion. Sirius slipping that ruby ring on Remus's finger was the most brilliant, happiest thing that Remus John Lupin could ever have thought of, and he would hold onto the memory for the rest of his life.

Meanwhile, far away, in the Evans's dining room, around a table that included the Potters and the Evans, Petunia was sharing a similar story. She was recounting how, at a party earlier that very evening, Vernon Dursley had struggled down onto one porky fat knee and proposed to her as well. She now wore a big diamond on a gold band on her finger, and her tears ran thick as Mrs. Evans held her hand and congratulated her, and even Mrs. Potter joined in because Dora was as polite as could be.

Lily looked at James, who was smirking. "Ought I to do that, too, love?" he asked, teasing her.

Lily snorted. "Don't you dare," she answered under her breath and James laughed, eyes twinkling and assuring her that he wouldn't dream of it.

Later, after the dinner, 'round which the three adults had shared their own proposal stories with one another, James and Lily set out on a walk outside. There was a light snow falling, making the world look like the snow globe that he'd once given her during their fifth year. She laced her fingers through his, watching it fluttering peacefully down from the sky, creating a sheet of white that covered every thing gently.

They had made it 'round the block and arrived back at the Evans's yard, and stood in a pool of streetlamp light, facing one another, their noses pink from the cold.

James reached up and tucked a stray hair over her ear. His palm to the side of his face now, he hesitated from drawing back, and instead splayed his fingers over her cheeks. "Happy Christmas Evans," he said, softly stroking her skin.

"Happy Christmas," she answered, and they kissed.

He reached into the pocket of his coat with his free hand as their lips were locked and he wondered absently if Sirius, at least, would keep up his half of the deal they'd struck.