It was Chirtsmas eve in 1977. Sirius, James, Peter and Remus were all spending their last free chirstmas at the potter's. They all knew what was waiting for them as soon as they finished school. They'd have to fight. The wizarding war had been going on since forever, or at least thats how it felt, and Dumbedlore had told all of the students in their year he would be expecting them to fight, fight for the good, a happy life, a happy future, for them, their future kids and families and of course, the boys wanted to help but it was hard to accept that they would never get the chance to fulfill their wishes and dreams as they wanted to.
But for now, for this day they all decided to not thing about the war, just for 12 hours they wnated to pretend to be normal teenagers celebrating christmas together.

Sirius and James had been spending the whole day decorating and baking chirstmas cookies. Sirius had played the same chirstmas vinyl for thr whole day but neither of them were getting tired of it.
They were dancing through the kitchen, flour all over them.

"Boys!" Mrs. Potter knocked on the kitchen door.

"What's up Mum?"

"Remus is here." Sirius eyes got wide and the cookie cutters in his hands fell on the floor.

"Moony!" he screamed and rushed out of the kitchen to greet his boyfriend.

James picked up the cookie cutters and followed him.
The door was still open and Remus and Sirius were in a tight hug, swaying from side to side.

James let out a laugh.
"Didn't you guys see echother like two weeks ago?"

"That's to long" Sirius voice was muffled since his face was pressed against Remus's neck.
Remus nodded and kissed the top of his boyfriend's head.

"Come on now! We still have cookies to finish!"

A few hours later peter had also arrived and the cookies were all baked. The four were sitting in the living room, gathered around the chirstmastree, each a cup of hot choclate in front of them.

James was the first to give out his presents.

"Okay, okay everyone please calm down and listen." he grinned and pulled out the first present.

"This is for my one and only brother-in-law, our favorite, favorite moony." Remus laughed lightly as James handed him the messy wrapped package.

He shaked it a bit to try and guess what could be inside.

"I cant break this like this can i?"

James shook his head and grinned even wider.
"You'll love it!"

Remus wripped the paper and a book came out of it.

"Oh my god! James!" Remus jumped up and tackeld James with a hug.

Peter started laughing
"What? What is it?!"

"it's one of the first 'the picture of dorian grey' copies! Thats Oscar Wildes's first book! I love you so much right now, Prongs!"

James tightend the hug and laughed loudly.
"I'm glad you like it."

"I do!"

He sat back down next to Sirius and started showing him his new book.

"Please go on James." Peter smiled.

They exchanged presents and ate cookies till midnight.
The candles were all lit up and pillows were all over the floor, the marauders were fast asleep on the couch. They didn't know that this would be the last christmas they'd spent happy, all together.

The following years Remus would look back at this christmas, rembering it as the last time he felt truly happy.

Now he was sitting on the snowy grass. His pants were soaked in snow, his whole body was covered in bruises and bloody cuts, he was drunk and not his normal self. The last night was a full moon.
The war was over, everyone was happy, the first christmas were everyone was free. Well, almost everyone. Remus's ex fiancé was imprisoned, and all of his friends were dead. While everyone else was celebrating and enjoying the holidays, Remus was grieving and it was everything but easy for him.

He didn't think that he'd ever spent a nice christmas again after that and he didn't for a very long time, until he got Sirius back. The first christmas after everything was hard for both of them, but it was also the best day they had since forever.

They were lying on Remus old couch, legs tangled up together, Sirius's head on Remus's Chest. They didn't even have any presents but the time they were spending here, right now, was the best present either of them could ask for.