X. HO-HO-HOME ALONE

        The Black twins were famous for
breaking rules and pranking people, well, that and their leather jackets, they could never be seen without one, they were also known for their ability to seem emotionless and at times of crisis, they would always stay cool.

       But somewhere between the first two
years in Hogwarts, Sirius changed, he got the bestest friends anyone could ask for, he could share things with them, he could cry, he could even talk about his family with them without getting the feeling of being judged.

      He trusts the boys with his life.

      And as for Sirine, well she was a little
different in that matter, though she did trust the girls with her life, she couldn't bring herself to share things that bothered her ever, they found out about her family when in second year Sirine had rushed up to her dorm to open the howler her mother had given, it had brought her to tears and her mother had restricted her from coming home during Christmas.

       That was the Christmas Sirene had
spent with the McKinnons, and it was without a doubt the best Christmas she'd spent, ever.

      That was also the Christmas Sirius
Black had spent with the Marauders at James' house.

      Christmas at the Black family, though,
was anything but the home-y Christmas the Black twins had experienced during their second year, the Mckinnons and the Potters had spent their day inside their house, opening gifts in the morning, watching movies, and then had an amazing home-made meal at night.

        The Black family on the other hand,
was in total contrast to the other families, sure they had their fair share of presents, but that was about it. The night before Christmas was when the house elves would start preparing for the meals, decorating the house, washing dishes and cleaning every nook of the house to the point of perfection.

       It was quite surprising when the Black
siblings woke up to the quietest the house had ever been during Christmas time in almost a decade.

      "Morning, mother" Regulus said,
sliding into a chair besides a scowling Walburga Black who was busy glaring at Sirine and Sirius who seemed like they'd just gotten out of bed, with their hair messed up and their pajamas still present, she turned away from the twins to look at Regulus who was dressed in a white button down shirt, and formal black pants with an unbuttoned vest, and a messily made tie.

      "Regulus, you look like a mess"
Walburga said, roughly pulling his arm to get him to stand up.

      "I-I'm sorry, mother" Regulus replied,
turning his gaze to the floor as his mother fixed his tie and vest for him.

       "It's fine, don't do it again" Walburga
said, pressing down her skirt to get rid of the crinkles that weren't there.

       "Morning, mother" Sirene said,
snarkily, chewing her food with her mouth open on purpose, hoping it would annoy her mother.

       "Merry Christmas, mother" Sirius
said, chewing loudly and putting his whole body weight on the table.

       "Your father and I are going to the
Malfoys' this Christmas, Regulus, I hope you'll come" Walburga said, ignoring her other two children, focusing on Regulus who was busy playing with his fingers, "Stop that, stop being nervous all the time"

       "I'm sorry, I'm gonna stop" Regulus
said, digging his nails in his palm, "Erm, I was actually thinking of inviting someone over? Like we talked about? In the letter?"

       Sirene and Sirius slurped their cereal
milk loudly, looking at the exchange between their mother and brother.

       "Ah, yes" Walburga nodded, "That
Emery girl? Tell me son, is she a pureblood?"

       "I- I don't know, I haven't asked"

       "I taught you better than that!"
Walburga exclaimed, "Are you trying to be like your siblings?"

       "Ah, right, how dare we not ask for
the entire background of the person we befriend" Sirine said snarkily taking a huge bite of her cereal.

     "Watch your tone, girl" Walburga
snarled, "And fix your hair" she grabbed Sirene's hair and then pulled it hard, making her head go back and release a yelp.

      "Yeah, great idea, ruin it even more!"
Sirene scoffed, trying not to give her mother any more attention than she already is.

     "Shut up!" Walburga said, raising her
voice at Sirene who rolled her eyes.

"Ooh, me so scared" Sirene fake shivered.

Sirius snorted at that, some of the milk coming out of his nose.

        "You think disrespecting your mother
is funny, do you?" The stern and dark voice of Orion Black spoke from behind them.

        Sirene and Sirius winced at that.

        Regulus looked down.

         Walburga smirked.

        "No, but I make it funny" Sirene said,
shrugging at her father.

        "You know what I think is funny?"
Orion said, a nasty scowl on his face that indicated it wasn't something pleasant, "You writing with that quill, so, go ahead, write I shouldn't have been disrespectful, go on" he nudged her.

"How many times?" Sirene asked, getting up with her jaw clenched.

"Until it's evening"

⚕️

       "Sit still" Sirius said to a squirming
Sirene who had her eyes closed and her jaw clenched as Sirius applied medicine on the wound that was present on the back of her hand that clearly said I shouldn't have been disrespectful.

      "I'm sorry" She said through her
gritted teeth.

      "You shouldn't talk back to him, Si"
Sirius sighed, "Now look at what's happened"

      "Eh, the scars will disappear once the
wounds heal, no biggie" Sirine said, smiling at her brother who seemed to be wincing at her wounds.

      "How much does it hurt?"

       "Nothing less than a bruised ego,
because I honestly thought it would be less painful"

       A knock on the door of Sirene's
bedroom door that was covered with the posters of a muggle band called 'The Beatles' and a 'keep out sign' she'd added when she was about seven, distracted the two from their conversation as they turned to find Regulus standing there with something in his hand.

      "Reggie, come on in" Sirene said,
a grin making it's way on her face, her brother barely entered her room because their mother never allowed him to spend too much time with the twins.

    "Hey" He said quietly, making his way
to them, giving Sirius a nod, he'd always been closer with his sister, he doesn't know why but perhaps it was all the time Sirene had spent as a child taking blame for everything he did and Sirius blaming him for everything he did. Regulus winced at the deep gash on her hand, because she'd written it so many times, the writing got bigger and bigger each time.

      "Sup?" Sirene said, looking at
Regulus who was just standing there awkwardly almost as if he didn't know what to do with himself.

     "Erm, I got you this" Regulus said,
holding out a bandage, "Mother got a bunch of these for me when I fell off a broom once, they're enchanted to heal your wounds faster, Madam Pomfrey actually advised against using this but mother did anyway..and yeah, it worked like magic"

     "Oh, uh, thank you" Sirene said
awkwardly, taking the bandage from him.

     "You're welcome, and I also wanted
to hand you guys these" Regulus said, walking out of the room and coming back with a huge trash bag, "Erm, mother hid these, they're gifts from your friends, I thought I would bring them up"

"That's really nice of you" Sirius said kindly taking the trash bag from his brother's hands and giving him a pat on his arm, "I'm sorry your friend couldn't come"

"It's alright, we can meet up some other time" Regulus said shrugging, "You know, if you wanted to open presents together we could do that downstairs by the tree"

"Of course!" Sirene and Sirius said together hurriedly.

The twins weren't as close with Regulus as they were with each other, ever since they got sorted into Gryffindor, Regulus had been told by their parents to keep his distance with the twins, and so he had done.

They truly did miss each other, Regulus didn't want to distance himself from them but he had to, because of his parents and his Hogwarts house.

And the twins, well they couldn't do much on the situation, but hope that one day their parents would allow Regulus to spend time with them.

"There" Sirius said as he finished wrapping the bandage on Sirene's hand, she wiggled her fingers a bit before getting up.

"Come on, let's go down"

⚕️

       The Black siblings were all sat on the
floor with a cup of hot chocolate in their hand as they listened to Christmas music while opening their presents.

"Ooh, this one's from Sirius" Sirine said, holding up a messily wrapped present, "Still amazing at gift wrapping, I see"

"You're going to regret saying that when you open the present" Sirius said with a chuckle.

"Let's find out, shall we?" Sirine scoffed, unwrapping the present carefully to save the wrapping paper, inside the box was a Frank Sinatra vinyl, "I like it, thank you so much, Siri!"

"Wait, open mine!" Regulus said, handing her the neatly wrapped present with a huge bow on top and a tag that said 'Merry Christmas, Si'

Sirene opened the present to find the exact same vinyl that Sirius had given her, making her burst into laughter as she looked at a very confused Sirius.

"We got the same thing for her?!" Sirius asked Regulus who nodded chuckling a bit himself.

"This one's from James" Sirene said, looking at an extremely neat box wrapped in green paper, "This is extremely well wrapped, Siri, I'm starting to think you're the only one who doesn't know how to wrap presents properly"

Sirius threw her a glare while Regulus laughed softly.

Inside the box was a camera and a note that said 'I know you've been meaning to buy one so I got you it before you could, have a happy Christmas and sorry for the trouble and pranks this year and especially the wild situation, if you know what I mean.

P.s. Thank you for hexing Bridger

-James'

Sirene smiled softly, proceeding to open the rest of her presents, she got a book about the best players of quidditch from Lily, a box of expensive chocolates from Marlene, a cute friendship bracelet from Alice, a music box from Remus that played Sirene's favorite song, and finally a snow globe from Peter.

The rest of the night at The most noble and ancient house of Black was spent peacefully as the siblings talked about the year they had at Hogwarts, and their parent problems.

It was all good for now.

⚕️

It was almost midnight at the Potter manor when James Potter sneaked downstairs, walking on his tip-toes in hopes his parents wouldn't wake up, sitting right beside the tree and eyeing the one last present left.

It was Sirene's present for him, he hadn't bothered to open it in the morning simply because he didn't want some kind of jump scare ruining his morning, or a burst of glitter ruining his hair.

He held up the neatly wrapped present in his hand, untying the ribbon and opening the small box to find a golden snitch in there, eager to get out and fly around.

He grinned hugely, holding the snitch between his two fingers and watching it's wings flutter every once in a while. He found a note sitting at the bottom of the box.

Dear Dumbass,

I siriusly ( ;) ) hope I don't regret giving this to you, I hope you don't tell my brother I was the one who gave it to you, especially not after the lecture I gave him, and because I don't want him to think I condone his stupidity, I couldn't give it to Remus because I'm assuming he doesn't know about it or he would've tried to talk you out of it, and as for Peter, well let's be honest, he wouldn't have been able to handle the secret, so my only option were you, I'm sure your ego wouldn't mind inflating a bit more as you tell the "marauders" you found it. Have a happy Christmas.

-Sirine.

On the back of the note was the proper way anyone could become an animangus with a 'be careful' written on top in Sirene's messy handwriting.

Hey hey hey, just think about the fact that while you've been going on about the liars and the dirty dirty cheats of the world u could've been getting down to this sick beat <3