CHRISTMAS KISS-049
Days later, everyone spent Christmas Eve morning putting up Christmas decorations. Diana could not remember her father ever being in such a good mood; he was singing carols, apparently delighted that he had company over for Christmas.
He pulled his daughter to dance with him, spinning the giggling girl around as he sang 'Rocking over the Christmas Tree' at the top of his lungs, grabbing his daughter's hand and rocking around in circles. Diana exploded into laughter, a large smile spread across her face as she danced with her father. Sam was suddenly pulled into the dance, making it a three-way dance now.
The twins were the happiest they had ever been, finally having their father on Christmas. Years of disappointment in having a fatherless Christmas' vanished at that moment, each of them wishing this could be forever.
But it can't.
This was the last Christmas the twins were going to spend with their father. And none of them knew what was going to happen in a few months.
Hermione arrived at the house around twelve. The dancing had died down, Sirius headed into the kitchen insisting on helping Joanna with Christmas dinner, and dragged his son with him. Surprisingly to them, Remus had come over and was spending Christmas with them, he was gazing lovely at Joanna.
Diana and Ginny followed after Hermione, whispering about how Harry's been hiding from them and acting weird since they got back from visiting Arthur at St Mungo's. She was worried about him, as they started towards the boys' bedroom. Once there, she opened the door and saw Ron and Harry sitting on their beds.
"How're you feeling?" Hermione asked.
"Fine," Harry said stiffly.
Diana snapped impatiently. "Cut the shit, Harry."
"Ron, Ginny, and Ana say you've been hiding from everyone since you got back from St Mungo's," Hermione added.
"They do, do they?" Harry said, glaring at the trio.
Ron looked down at his feet, Diana gave him a deadpanned look and Ginny seemed quite unabashed.
"Well, you have!" Ginny said. "And you won't look at any of us!"
"It's you lot who won't look at me!" Harry said angrily.
"Maybe you're taking it in turns to look, and keep missing each other," Hermione suggested, the corners of her mouth twitching.
"Very funny," Harry snapped angrily.
"Look, the others have told what you overheard last night on the Extendable Ears—"
"Yeah?" Harry growled, his hands deep in his pockets as he watched the snow now falling thickly outside. "All been talking about me, have you? Well, I'm getting used to it,"
"For Melin's sake, Harry, we wanted to talk to you," Diana said. "But as you've been hiding ever since we got back from—"
"I didn't want anyone to talk to me," Harry said.
Ginny rolled her eyes, angrily. "Well, that was a bit stupid of you. Seeing as you don't know anyone but me who's been possessed by You-Know-Who, and I can tell you how it feels,"
Harry remained quite still as the impact of these words hit him. Diana looked between her baby sister and her not official boyfriend, waiting for his response.
"I forgot," He said.
"Lucky you," Ginny said coolly.
"I'm sorry," Harry said and Diana knew that he meant it. "So...so, do you think I'm being possessed, then?"
"Well, can you remember everything you've been doing?" Ginny asked. "Are there big blank periods where you don't know what you've been up to,"
"No," Harry said.
"Then You-Know-Who hasn't ever possessed you," Ginny said simply. "When he did it to me, I couldn't remember what I'd been doing for hours at a time. I'd find myself somewhere and not know how I got there,"
"That dream I had about your dad and the snake, tough—" Harry began, but he was interrupted by Hermione.
"Harry, you've had these dreams before," she said. "You had flashed of what Voldemort was up to last year,"
Harry shook his head. "This was different. I was inside that snake. It was like I was the snake...what if Voldemort somehow transported me to London—?"
"One day," Hermione said, sounding thoroughly exasperated. "You'll read Hogwarts: A History, and perhaps it will remind you that you can't Apparate or Disapparate inside Hogwarts. Even Voldemort couldn't just make you fly out of your dormitory, Harry,"
"You didn't leave your bed, mate," Ron added. "I saw you thrashing around in your sleep for a least a minute before we could wake you up,"
The five of them were called down for dinner by Joanna. Ginny hopped off the bed, linking her arm with Hermione, and headed down the stairs. Ron quickly followed after them with Harry and Diana stepping behind him. The girls and Ron disappeared into the dining room, leaving Harry and Diana alone.
As soon as Diana made the last step, a mistletoe suddenly appeared above her head without her knowledge and halted her to a stop. She frowned as she tried moving, but there was no use she was stuck. Harry, as dumb as he is, was also stuck under the mistletoe. Diana turned towards him and they both looked up at the same time, seeing the mistletoe.
They looked at each other and smiles spread across their lips. Harry leaned up, cupping his not official girlfriend's face, and placed his lips on hers. They melted into the kiss, his arms wrapping around her neck as Diana's went around his waist.
Their mouths moved in sync, heading titling to the side for easy access. The kiss got a little heated when Harry decided to be bold and lick her bottom lip, asking for entrance. Diana smiled against his lips, opening her mouth and their tongues started to dominate.
Diana smirked as she explored his mouth, winning dominance over him. Harry let out a low groan at the back of his throat as he slowly brought his hand up, cupping the back of her head, and deepened the kiss. They pulled away for the need of air, and a bit of silva trailed out as the pair grinned at each other.
Harry tucked loose hair behind her ear and stuttered. "Do you want to be my girlfriend?"
Diana grinned wildly. "Of course, I do. I didn't just make out with you in the middle of the hallway for anything."
"C'mon," Harry smiled shaking his head at her. He entwined their hands and walked into the dining room.
***
The morning of Christmas day arrived, and Diana and the girls got ready for the day before heading down to the dining room with arms full of presents. The girls walked and were ushered to sit down by Molly, who said that she had a surprise for everyone.
Diana took a seat next to her twin and ruffed his now brown hair. The green had finally disappeared along with her floppy bunny ears. Sam batted her hand away and handed her a scarlet and sliver-wrapped present.
She smiled at him, kissing his cheek, before handing him a present. The twins both opened them, pulling out what was inside. Inside Sammy's present was a CD of his favorite band AC/DC and inside Diana's was a photo book with many photos of their friends over the years.
"Sam, how did you...?" Diana asked, looking through the book at the moving pictures.
"I asked Collin to take photos of you and everyone," Sammy replied. "Had to brided him with candy, though,"
Diana smiled. "Thank you, Sam. I love it,"
"You're welcome, sis." Sammy nodded. "How did you get this anyway?"
"Oh, I asked Tonks to get it for me," Diana said. "She gave it to Mum, who gave it to me last night before bed."
"I love it." Sam kissed her on the cheek, before turning to Ginny who was tapping him on the shoulder.
Diana was handed many more gifts from Remus and her Mum, her brothers and sister, and lastly Harry. She thanks them all, placing each of her gifts into a bag.
Harry reached over and placed a scarlet-wrapped gift in front of her. "Here."
Diana sent him a smile before opening it. Inside was a bracelet that matched the ruby necklace he got her for her birthday in the third year. "It's beautiful, Harry. Thank you,"
"You're welcome, love," Harry grinned.
"How we go," Molly said, coming into the dining room. "Daddy's back," she placed Arthur at the head of the table.
He was sitting in a wheelchair, one arm in a sling and a crown on his head. Molly rushed everyone to sit and handed each other the kids' presents from her and Arthur.
"And a nice big box for Ron," Arthur said as his wife handed their youngest son a big box.
"Big box for you, and—" Molly stammered over her words as she tried handing gifts to her twins, not knowing which ones were which.
Diana helped her out. "Fred's on the left and George's is on the right, Aunt Molly,"
"Thank you, dear," Molly said, handing the gifts to the right twins. She handed Sam, Ginny, Diana, and Harry a gift. "Open them, open them. I want to see your faces."
Diana pulled out a scarlet wool sweater with a big 'D' on the front and quickly slid it on. She loved her Christmas sweaters, she had many in her trunk.
She looked up and caught her father standing in the doorframe of the dining room. Diana gave him a large grin, waving at him excitedly. Sirius smiled and waved back, shaking his head at his enthusiastic daughter.
"A Christmas toast. To Mr. Harry Potter without whom I would not be here." Arthur said, raising his glass of wine. Everyone raised their glasses. "Harry."
After breakfast, Diana and Sammy headed up to their rooms when a half-open door caught their eyes. They exchanged a look before walking toward the door and Diana pushed it open fully. The room was bare, with no furniture in sight and it was a very clean room. The walls, though, were covered with the faces of the Black family, some of which were burnt away.
"Nasty brats, standing there as bold as brass." A creaky voice said out of nowhere.
Diana jumped in fright as she looked down at Kreacher, her father's house-elf, and cringed away from him.
"Blood-traitor Master Black's nasty spawns, friends of Mudbloods and blood-traitors alike. If my poor mistress only knew—" Kreacher grumbled but was interrupted by Sirius.
"Kreacher! That's enough of your bile. Away with you!" Sirius said.
"Of course, master. Kreacher lives to serve the noble house of Black." Kreacher said as he walked away.
"Sorry about that, darlings," Sirius said, walking into the room. "He never was very pleasant even when I was a boy. Not to me, anyway."
"You grew up here?" Sam asked his father.
Sirius nodded. "This is your grandparents' house. I offered it to Dumbledore as headquarters for the Order. About the only useful thing, I've been able to do. This is the Black family tree. My deranged cousin. I hated the lot of them. Your grandparents' with their pure-blood mania."
He pointed to the burnt picture of himself. "Your grandmother did that after I ran away. Charming woman." Sirius ran his hand over the two burnt pictures of his children. "She added you two, just to burn it after."
A silence fell between them for a moment, before Sirius handed his children a gift of his own. "I wanted to give you those when we were alone."
Sammy opened his gift and pulled out a pocket-watch with his and his dad's name engraved into it. He smiled gratefully and hugged his father. "Thank you, Dad. I'm going to show Mum,"
Sirius smiled, watching him leave, and turned his eyes onto his daughter. "Are you going to open it or just stare at it all day, darling?"
Diana opened it, pulling out a worn black leather jacket. She grinned, sliding it on with the help of her father. "It's so cool! Thank you, Dad!"
"It was mine," Sirius said, fixing the oversized jacket. "I want you to have it. Happy Christmas, darling,"
Diana threw herself into her father's arms, burning her face in his shoulder. "Happy Christmas, Dad. I love you,"
"I love you too," Sirius muttered into her hair.