Chapter 7
25 December 1976
“Remus, Remus, wake up!”
“Christ, what time is it?”
“Six AM”
“Why are you awake? You’re normally worse than me in the mornings”
“Shut up! It's Christmas!”
“Oh right, merry Christmas”
“Yes, yes, get up, I got you a present”
“Aw you do have a heart”
“Shut up and open it”
Regulus pulled out a large box, pristinely wrapped in green and black paper. Around it was a bright red bow, tied very carefully into a perfect bow.
“Wow, you’re better at wrapping than me”
“Obviously, I’m better than you at everything”
“I think I’m far better at being modest than you”
“Open your present before I take it back, idiot”
Remus rolled his eyes, “Yes, yes okay!”
Remus pulled the bow, and ripped open the paper very aggressively.
“I know you’re a werewolf, but do you always have to act so barbaric?”
“Yes, obviously” Regulus rolled his eyes.
Inside of the box, he found a large amount of chocolate frogs and cauldron cakes. There was also a note:
Should stop you from stealing mine
Merry Christmas
Regulus
X
“Aww you do care!”
Shut up” Regulus replied, hiding a smile.
“I don’t steal your chocolate”
“For a literal dog, you eat way too much chocolate, and normally it’s mine”
“Dogs can’t eat any chocolate”
“Exactly”
“You’re so annoying! But I got you a present as well” Remus gestured to the end of the bed, “It’s in my trunk”
Regulus looked surprised, for reasons Remus couldn’t understand, then he crawled across the bed, and opened the trunk. He pulled out a messily wrapped lump.
“How are we friends?”
“No clue, you just showed up in my life and didn’t leave me alone”
“It was obviously the other way round”
“Nope, you’re lying, now open your present!”
Regulus neatly folded back the wrapping paper, Remus rolled his eyes as he did so, inside he found a small black cat teddy.
“Seriously?”
“Yep! Don't you love it?”
“Love is a strong word”
“Shut up, you love it, read the collar!”
On the collar, there was a small metal tag, with the name Toebeans on it.
“You had a lot of fun making this didn’t you?”
“Yep! Everyone around me was very confused when I asked for an engraving spell out of nowhere, but it was worth it, Toebeans”
“Thank you,” Regulus whispered quietly.
“What was that?” Remus asked, “Couldn’t quite hear you”
“I said thank you, idiot”
“I knew you’d love it”
“Never said that”
“Sure, sure” Remus rolled his eyes, “What do you want to do for the rest of the day?”
“No clue”
“Yeah, me neither”
After that, Regulus seemed to come to his own conclusion for what he wanted to do, and he pulled out his book. Remus did the same, not knowing what else to do, however, it was 6 AM so after not much time had passed, they had fallen asleep on top of eachother.
When Remus woke again, light had begun to filter in through the red curtains. Regulus was still asleep on his shoulder, and, much to Remus’ delight, he was holding the cat toy to his chest.
“Reg? Wake up, I want to get breakfast”
“Mhm okay”
They each sleepily ambled to the great hall, where they picked up a few slices of toast and carried them to the astronomy tower.
“I think I prefer this place at night”
“Me too”
They ate quietly for a while, both of them still waking up properly. It was a surprisingly nice day, considering it was December, this meant the astronomy tower was very well lit.
“Do you miss having Christmas with your parents?” Regulus asked after a while.
“Not really, there almost always was a fight.”
“Between your parents?”
“Yeah, they never really got along well, I think things just became too much after I turned”
“Wait, how old were you when you got bitten?”
“Five”
Regulus’ eyes went wide, “Wow”
“I know”
“I’m guessing you’re not missing your parents too much?”
“Not particularly, Christmases have never been a very fun time”
“I can imagine”
Families were always a difficult topic to talk about with Sirius, he always tried to avoid it. With Regulus though, he seemed to have no problem with exposing the abusive ways of the Blacks, he just had never really had anyone to expose them to.
“Do you think you’ll run away?”
“I want to just wait it out, but with the way the war is going, I’m not sure that will be an option”
“I’ll help you get out, we can run away together”
“As much as I would love to run into the sunset with you, I doubt that would work.”
“Are you saying you’re in love with me?” Remus fake gasped.
“Sure, let’s go with that,” Regulus laughed.
“I’m not joking, you know, we can get married as soon as you turn 17, and disappear to America or something.”
“You know gay marriage isn’t a thing, right?”
“Meh, I’ll figure something out,” Remus said, smiling at Regulus.
They both laughed at each other, ignoring the impending doom that Regulus had just admitted was waiting for him.
“Come on, let's get back to the dorm.”
They spent the next few hours lazily chatting and reading. For dinner, instead of eating the big feast provided in the great hall, they snuck into the kitchens and got a plate each to take to the common room.
“Remus?”
“Yep?”
“Have you got any drinks?”
“No, but I can just steal some from Sirius, he won’t care”
“Hell yeah, let’s steal stuff from my brother!”
“Come on, idiot”
Many drinks later, they were each lying on the floor of the dorm.
“This has been like the best Christmas ever!” Regulus slurred.
“Haha yeah”
“You’re like my best friend ever, Remus!”
“I’m your only friend,” Remus said, frowning.
“Yeah, but like, if- if I had other friends, you’d still be my favourite”
“Aww, you’re my best friend ever too, Reg!”
“Good!”
“We should probably go to bed, I’m quite drunk”
“Yeah me too, you’re so smart Remus. Like the smartest person ever.”
26 December 1976
“Ugh, we got way too drunk last night”
“Yeah you were acting weird”
“I was not!”
“You called me smart”
“Yeah, I don’t know what possessed me to say that”
“I should get you drunk more often! You were being so sweet”
“I am not sweet” Regulus huffed.
“Potato, potato”
“You’re insufferable”
“Yeah, but you love me. You said that I was your favourite friend ever”
“Lets just get some more sleep, my head is killing me”
“Good idea” Remus hummed, before promptly falling asleep next to Regulus