Dear Sirius...

Part 22

Remus and I set wrapped baby toys under the Christmas tree for tomorrow morning. Regulus and Leo upstairs sleeping. Their first Christmas in this world, I would like to make it perfect. Just because they can't remember it doesn't mean anything.

"Think they will enjoy these gifts?" Remus asks me.

"Of course," I say. "They mostly picked them out."

Which is true. I took them to a store and whatever they reached for (within reason) I bought it for them.

I take a step back making sure that the underside of the tree looks presentable. That's my downfall, I absolutely love Christmas and the spirit of it, so everything has to be perfect. The tree? Decorated with a fresh pine tree. Christmas cookies. Only the best, sugar cookies.

Presents? The thing everyone wanted most. Everything has to be perfect for this holiday.

I turned around to see that we missed one Christmas present. I grab it and take it over to the tree.

"Wait," Remus stops me. He gently grabs the box from my hands.

"What?" I question, really confused.

"That's your Christmas present," he says.

"Remus," I start, "you know I don't do Christmas presents. I give them but I don't receive them."

Remus rolls his eyes. Ever since we were younger I never liked getting gifts. I don't fully know why, but it made me uncomfortable whenever someone got something for me.

"You'll be fine," he says. "You'll really love this."

He holds the present out to me. I grab it with a sigh, he wasn’t going to have it any other way. I slowly take off the red ribbon along with the white wrapping paper. It revealed a plain red box. I opened it up and stopped breathing. Tears threatening to escape my eyes.

Two necklaces lay safely in the box. One being a wolf paw, the other being an otter paw, and in the middle they connect to come together as one. The wolf paw the color of Sirius’s animagus fur. The otter paw the color of my animagus fur.

"Thought that," Remus started, "when you see Sirius again, you can give him the otter foot."

"Does this mean you think he is innocent?" I ask, hopefully.

"No," he says. "But this will give you hope. For whatever it is you need to go your way."

Tears finally streak down my face. I look up at Remus, a smile on his face. One full of love and care.

"Remus," I say, pulling him into a hug. "This is the best present I could ever wish for."

He hugs me back, cherishing this moment.

"I figured you missed him," he says, pulling away finally. "I know it's not him, but it's something."

"Seriously Remus," I say, holding the box closer to my heart. "This means so much to me. Especially coming from you."

He gives me a smile. I look back towards the necklaces. The attention to detail in these is amazing. Sirius’s paw print looks exactly like his wolf form, it's insane. I honestly thought that I was going to forget the color, but now I will never forget it.

"I'm going to bed," Remus says walking towards the door.

"Remus," I say, stopping him. "Just so you know, the gift I got you, is not as cool as this."

He waves the comment off, "seriously Lottie, you need to start doing things for yourself too. Goodnight."

With that he heads out of the room. I look around the room. It feels a lot different this year, not as empty as it was before. Maybe I can actually do this…