A Very Harmony Christmas

A Marauder's Gift

Prompt: December 23rd. Last minute Christmas shopping.

~~~

A Marauder's Gift

"Those two are good for each other," Sirius commented, tipping his glass half full of fire-whiskey in the direction that Harry and Hermione had just gone after having finished breakfast.

"No arguments here, Padfoot," Moony agreed. "I don't think that I've ever seen Harry so happy and relaxed as he's been since they became a couple."

"It's a pity that this can't last forever for them, that they can't just stay here when the holidays end," Sirius said.

Remus looked at his best friend sadly. He knew that having the house full, especially with Harry being here was good for the old dog but it couldn't last.

"They need their education," Remus reminded him. "Besides, could you really see Hermione being content not going back to school?"

"No, I suppose not," Sirius replied and took a sip of his whiskey. "Still, what they're going to be going back to..."

Remus could only nod. From what the kids had said – not just Harry and Hermione but also the Weasley kids – Hogwarts wasn't the same anymore, not with Umbridge there. Defence was a joke and worse than useless and, as an ex-DADA professor, Remus found that particularly galling. It didn't help that, when you added in Binn's History class and that Harry had picked Divination of all subjects (although Remus held out some hope that Hermione could get Harry to amend that decision), there were too many subjects where the kids were wasting their time.

"How are they supposed to learn enough to make it in the outside world?" Sirius asked rhetorically, echoing Remus' thoughts. "Especially with Voldemort out there somewhere biding his time. Once he makes his move, no one will be safe, especially Harry and Hermione who will be Targets Number One and Two on his list."

"They have that Defence group that they started," Remus reminded him, not that he believed that it'd be enough to counter the pending bad.

"The DA," Sirius nodded. "I know. I know. But they need more. They should be like us, take their education into their own hands. Hell, when we were in school, we taught ourselves a lot more than the professors ever did."

Silently, Remus debated that assertion, even though it probably wasn't that far off the mark, considering the hundreds of spells that they had had to learn to pull off their various pranks.

"That's it!" Sirius said, sitting up so fast that, if he hadn't drunk so much already, his whiskey would have sloshed out of his glass. "We give them the tools that they need to survive. Tomorrow's Christmas. This can be their Christmas present from us!"

"We already have presents for both of them," Remus reminded him.

"Pfft," Sirius said, blowing off the reminder. "This is Harry and Hermione. They can always have more presents. How would you feel about a trip to Diagon Alley?"

"Sirius, you can't!" Remus protested.

"Did I say, 'me'?" Sirius replied, rolling his eyes. "I'll give you the galleons if you'll do the shopping."

"What do you have in mind for me to buy them?" Remus asked, intrigued.

~~~

Remus had never been into this particular shop before in his life. Why would he have? Everything in there cost more gold than he'd ever had in his life. Sirius, though, had insisted that this was the only place to go. His hand touched the money bag that was attached to his belt, reassuring himself that it was still there. If this went as planned, that heavy bag would be considerably lighter when he left.