SPLITAPARTS: lessons in love ✔️

The Best Christmas Present Ever - Part 1

Ryan was awakened by the sound of Silver's soft purring coming from the pillow next to his and he smiled. He reached over the picked the cat up and pulled her beneath the blanket with him and the cat's purring became louder. She snuggled beneath the blankets close to him. The air was chilly, but heavy with the smell of breakfast cooking downstairs. Their mother had told them repeatedly that breakfast was their father's specialty.

"You're in a good mood. Do you smell that, Kitten," he asked hunkering down in the blankets. The cat meowed softly. "Smells like Mum, doesn't it?"

Silver meowed once more, yawned and stretched, then peered out from beneath the blanket to sniff the air again.

"Is that why you're purring?"

The cat rubbed her face on the underside of his chin.

"Well, you best hop over into your own bed before someone comes up—I don't want to have to explain why my sister is in bed with me." The cat materialized into Andromeda.

"Oh bother. Besides, I'm cold and you're not and no one cares about a little cat."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, I reckon. Still—" He flipped the blankets back and revealed his sister tightly curled up close to him. "Go on Catbutt."

"I'm tellin' Mummy."

"Tell her what?"

"That you're being mean."

He sighed. "You do that—now get—"

Grumbling, she slid off his bed and climbed onto hers with feline grace and pulled the blankets around her so that only her nose and eyes were visible to him. "I wonder if he's figured out who we are yet?"

"He hasn't, but he greatly suspects—his thoughts are foggy. It's odd really. He really only knows that you're Ginny's best friend and I'm your brother and we're great fearless actors. He does remember you from the common room though—It holds a special place in his heart and that's where the issue of secrecy is. I think he may actually remember, but it's like a dream in his head—maybe my spell wasn't so good after all. Suffice it to say, I dare say that you're a Daddy's girl." He smiled revisiting the memory of his father and his sister having a conversation about music, sneaking into the Gryffindor common room and Peter Pettigrew. Sirius was pleased that the young violinist showed no fear toward him, but while she didn't come out and tell him who she was, he had hoped that she was his daughter...the violin that was the key. She looked so much like their mother, and possessed his eyes and his grumpy yet sometimes overly sensitive demeanor.  This made Ryan chuckle, breaking the silence.

"What are you laughing at?"

"That night in the Gryffindor common room when he broke in—"

"He didn't break in—he had the day's password."

"He was trespassing and he knew it. You know it as well as I do."

"Yeah, yeah."

"You're a lot like him, you know."

"So are you. You favor him. I suppose that's why all the girlies faun over you like they do. Uncle Remus said that's how they were around him."

"Well at least I don't have his temperament. I heard tell that he was a right foul git when he was our age."

"Most boys are. Even Draco. He can be so mean sometimes."

That got his attention as he slipped a sweater over his muscular torso. "Oh?" He raised one eyebrow. "Show me."

Andromeda sat up and folded her hands into her lap and nodded. The memory was foggy, but it showed several of the Slytherin boys picking on her and he did nothing to stop it. Since that day, Draco had kept his distance from the two of them...now Ryan knew why. And he was incensed. "Don't let yourself get so angry that you start blowing things up."