(Hey Guys, how do we like the new cover? It fits my pages vibe more. But if you prefer the old one, let me know.)

Remus POV.

Surprisingly, I woke up before Arty. Which I think is because of a childlike excitement towards Christmas I pretend not to have.

Arty was lightly snoring, her mouth open and in such a deep sleep I could manage to ease myself from the way her legs wrapped around my torso and slide out of bed. Making sure to keep her tucked into our soft sheets.

I left a small kiss on her forehead before sneakily heading downstairs.

Our past two Christmas' together have been with the group. Lots of decorations. Lots of company and gifts.

This year was our first Christmas alone.

Lily and James wanted to experience Harry's first Christmas just their little family; Alice and Frank wanting to do the same with Neville.

And after figuring out Sirius was in the city again and Peter coming to the conclusion that we didn't need to worry too much anymore, both Peter and Marlene had risked going back home to their families for Christmas too.

Mum rang me the other day and I confided in her that because of my low paid job and the weather conditions...Arty and I didn't have much to work with this year. I didn't expect anything from my parents, they're both retired and on a tight budget themselves...regardless, Mum told me to wake up early on Christmas Day and keep an eye out for our old family owl; Ffion.

As I snuck downstairs, feet freezing and floorboards creaking, I heard a tapping on the kitchen window.

Ffion asking to be let in with his beak, with a brown paper parcel strapped to his back.

"Hey fella." I whispered, giving his head a gentle stroke with one finger and untying the package from his responsibility.
"Take this to Mum for me." I said and placed a Christmas card in his beak.

With that he happily began flying back to Wales.

I untied the brown paper package to reveal...fairy lights and a note.

Remus & Arty,

Christmas isn't Christmas without a twinkle.

Sending you both love and light
Mum & Dad

I shook my head with a small laugh. James must have wrote to them to say we didn't have fairy lights put up.

We harvested a tree, for free as a thank you from one of the neighbours (for handiwork I had done for them earlier in the year) and already had ornaments to decorate it; both gifted from previous years and handmade.

We couldn't afford fairy lights and Arty had pretended she wasn't bothered. I could tell she was, she loved fairy lights. So much so that I couldn't help but love them too.

I started untangling the colourful lights, heading over to our small tree.

"She's going to love these." I mumbled to myself with a smile.

I looked down at the box under the tree.

"And I hope she'll love you..." I said to the poorly wrapped box, with a nervous exhale of air.

Arty's POV.

I reached out for Rem, only to feel him not next to me. A cold side of the bed where he usually provided extra warmth.

My eyes opened in search for him and just as I did, I heard a creaking coming up the stairs.

"Remus?" I groggily questioned, rubbing my eyes and sitting up.

"Hi, baby." Remus smiled and came around the corner holding two steaming mugs.

I almost grinned smelling the sweet scent of marshmallows and hot chocolate.

"Merry Christmas." I gleefully replied. Sitting up straighter and rubbing my hands together, showing my excitement for our morning drink.

"Merry Christmas! Hot chocolate?" He replied wiggling his eyebrows.

"In the morning? With marshmallows?" I said, showing 'gimme' hands. He laughed at my childish gesture as he half climbed back into bed, clinking our ceramic mugs before taking a hesitant first sip.

"It's still quite hot, be careful." He blew out.

I couldn't help but smile at his protective nature over me. The small things that always made me feel cared for. Warning me about drink that was still too hot, covering a corner of a table with his hands as I walked closely passed, holding out his hand for me to take a large step up the uneven steps of the village and always walking behind me as if he was on watch out.

"You love me so much, huh?" I said with a cheeky grin on my face, starting to attempt to blow my hot chocolate to a drinkable temperature.

"Duh." He laughed and rolled his eyes.
"Of course I do." He said more seriously.

Some time passed and we finally managed to finish our drinks without scolding our mouths. Scooping out the remaining melted marshmallows with our fingers because no one could tell us it was disgusting or to stop playing with what we consumed; giggling together like best friends waking up early at a sleepover, when the rest of the house is still asleep. A memory I imagined many people having, a memory I can put Narcissa in that place when we were children.

"Do you want some breakfast?" Remus said, placing his empty mug to the side and licking off his fingers from any sticky marshmallow.

"Christmas cereal?" I said, beginning to get out of bed, making sure I slipped on some fluffy socks to avoid the hard cold floors downstairs.

"It's all we have, can't wait." Remus said pretending to be excited for it, though sarcasm was heavily laced in his words.

I didn't mind, we didn't need anything fancy as long as we are together.

We both travelled downstairs, our creaky footsteps almost harmonising with each other as each step on the stairs had a slightly different tone with different weight pressures.

Instead of taking a right turn into the kitchen, Remus walked into the living room; when I thought we were about to pour a bowl of cereal.

I followed him and was struck by what I saw, stopping abruptly in my place. My fluffy socks almost sliding on the wooden flooring at the sudden slippery movement.

Our humble tree was suddenly a glorious spectacle, glistening in the corner of the room in a way that made my eyes mimic its shine. A million sparkly, colourful lights looking like mini fireworks across our tree.

"Oh!" I gasped, clasping my hands around my mouth in shock.

I couldn't help but feel a little emotional and teary eyed; which kind of felt ridiculous because fairy lights didn't determine how nice our Christmas Day was going to be, but I suddenly felt like my internal checklist was complete.

"Did I do a good job? I didn't want to use magic and they were so tangled!" Remus said, placing his hands on his hips and observing the tree critically.

I didn't understand why he was judging his job; our tree wasn't huge and we didn't have the most expensive decorations but it was ours and now...it was complete! It shined as brightly as he did!

"You did a wonderful job! I can't believe you got lights? How?" I said in amazement, taking a closer look with a huge grin on my face.

"My Parents. They must have just sensed it." Remus laughed.

"Do you think I'll actually get to meet them soon? Since...people are now leaving the village? It's not risky for me to come with you anymore!" I asked.

"I'm sure we can plan something next year." Remus smiled.

I stared back at the beautiful tree, feeling so accomplished by our first solo efforts at Christmas.

Remus came closer and wrapped himself around me from behind, resting his chin on the top of my head as we swayed gently from side to side; admiring the colourful lightbulbs.

My eyes trailed down the branches, to the underskirt. A box. Not a small one either.

I didn't know whether I felt guilt or excitement. I had only crocheted Remus some socks and drew him a picture of himself. That looked like a decently sized gift.

On one hand, I couldn't wait to see what it was and on the other, I felt embarrassed by my homemade gifts for him.

"Is that for me?" I asked, which I knew the answer to anyway. We didn't have a pile of gifts that meant it was difficult to figure out which present was for who.

"Do you want to open it now?" He asked, kissing the top of my head and pulling away to walk over to the tree to retrieve the box.

"I feel bad, you already know what you're getting!" I said almost in a sulk. Referring to him catching me the other night up late, working as quick as I could without magic (which did make an appearance).

Remus pointed down at his bare toes, which I thought was brave in December on cold flooring.

"Exactly, and they're going to feel like heaven." He smiled.

We both picked up our wrapped gifts and carried them over to sit crossed legged on the sofa, facing each other.

"Do you wanna go first?" He asked.

"No, you." I giggled. Feeling like his feet must have been freezing.

Remus quickly unwrapped the socks and pretended to act surprised, which was funny.

"Oh wow! What a surprise!" He laughed as he began sliding the woven fabric onto his feet and showing them off like Cinderella.

"A perfect fit!" He exclaimed.
"And so comfortable too, you did such a good job babe." He smiled, getting extra cosy on the sofa with his legs curled up and leaning in slightly for a quick peck.

"You have one more, it's nothing special." I said pointing out the other small square present. Feeling a tad embarrassed.

He leant forward to pick it up, giving it a small shake to see if a noise would sound and began unwrapping.

"Oh wow," he said more seriously than he did when he opened the socks.
"You did this?"

I nodded, feeling my cheeks deepen.

"As I said, it's nothing special I-" I started but was cut off.

"No, no- this is amazing. You continue to surprise me...when did you learn how to draw?" He asked in quiet amazement.

"I mean...most of my family can, I guess. None of us really had to learn." I shrugged. Trying to play off my embarrassment as coolness.

I had drawn people, places and things but never shown anyone. I also had never put in the amount of effort to complete a sketch until gifting one to Remus.

"I love it, no one's ever drawn me before." Remus said holding the frame that I put the brown paper drawing in.

We both looked over the drawing.

(Credit: found on Pinterest by @lunopal)

And he laughed. Which made me frown.

"You're being generous with the facial hair in the first one." He said whilst brushing his smooth face down with his hand.

"You shave!" I laughed.

"Because it looks pathetic if I don't!" He laughed back.

"It's getting there! I like the little morning shadow." I smiled. It was patchy but it was light enough not to look stupid, I thought it was cute.

"I love it so much, thank you." He said appreciatively and leant in for a bigger kiss.

He held the frame on his lap as he waited for me to give the box for me a glance over.

"I'm not good at wrapping," he begun.
"And I will not be offended if you don't like it." He started to over-explain and I wondered why he was failing to hide nerves.

"I'm sure I will." I said reassuringly as I began unwrapping the box.

As I took the wrapping paper off, an unassuming plain, dark blue box was all that was left.

I opened up the blue box to reveal white gift wrap, a thin paper that could be pierced with only a firm touch.

And as I softly peeled that back, I felt like I had been winded.

White satin.

"Remus...is this?" I whispered.

He nodded.

"If you don't like it, it's absolutely fine." He said nervously.

I started to pull out the dress from the box, lifting it up by the neckline. It was familiar and new all at once.

My heart was pounding because I was so touched and it was almost as if I could feel my shoulders relax from the stress that had been growing within me over the past snowy two weeks.

"I don't understand, how did you...how?" I said feeling my eyes become teary.

"Something borrowed." He almost gulped.

I looked at him deeper, holding the beautiful dress to my chest that felt warm with love.

"It's been a couple of weeks process," Remus laughed as he was beginning to explain.
"Once we found out Sirius had gone back to the city, no problems...I reached out." He said hesitantly.

"You reached out? To Sirius?" I asked a little confused.

"Arty, that's Narcissa's wedding dress. " He softly revealed.

"Oh." My voice shook in an intake of breath.

"She had it changed and tailored for you. It was a mission, I can tell you that." He lightly laughed.

I held the satin out in front of me, feeling it against my fingertips.

Narcissa's wedding dress.
That she had given up keeping and tailored...for me.

I could feel a tear fall down my cheek at the gesture of both my sister's and soon to be husbands love.

I never thought I would have a wedding dress in time, let alone one of this quality and holding such value. The lengths Remus must have gone through to discretely contact her...the secrecy Narcissa must have gone through to get it tailored and sent back to me.

A lot of care went in to bringing me this dress, when I thought I would be getting married in a borrowed Yule ball dress from Alice.

"I don't know what to say." I said through soft tears.

Remus smiled and glanced back down at the box, taking a breath in.

"There's a note, too." He almost whispered.

"From Narcissa?" My heart began thumping.

Remus nodded and I quickly but delicately folded up the dress and put it back down into the box after picking up the wax sealed envelope.

My hands trembled as I attempted to open the envelope without ripping it.

Two years.

I hadn't heard from her in two years and I hadn't expected to for another two, or more.

I took a sharp inhale of breath before even attempting to read, being taken over by a wave of emotion already at just the sight of her swirly handwriting.

My little sister, Artemis

Life can be so cruel and so short that it's easy to get swept up in all the grief that sits heavy around us. I have missed you deeply, often wondering how life has been treating you since we had to part. The news of your wedding has almost evaporated my grief, making the strong current of life feel easier to wade through. To know you're loved and love in return, still to this day, is the greatest gift of all. That is why I want you to accept my dress as a token of good luck and my love. It has been tailored with the measurements I was given and therefore is something both borrowed and new. I am so proud of you.

Just know that on your special day, I'll be walking down the aisle with you through a dress that is now ours.

I'll be raising a glass for you as the new year greets us, wishing good luck and a good life.

Your sister,
Narcissa M.

I couldn't help but break down and cry.

"Remus, this is the best gift ever. Thank you so much." I happily sobbed, holding the note close to my chest.

"I'd do anything for you." Remus said, wiping a tear away from my cheek.
"Merry Christmas."