Chapter 14: Christmas is a Time for Fun and Laughter

Disclaimer: *Sigh* Still not JKR.

Author's Notes: Endless thanks to DracoGurlForever for beta reading; to the PP admins who work tirelessly, and to you the readers for reading and for any reviews you might have left me.

Chapter 14: Christmas is a Time for Fun and Laughter

It was the night before the start of the Christmas holidays and, as had become their tradition, Sophia and the other girls from her dormitory were spending the evening up in their room; a girls-only night was how they always spent the last night of term before parting ways for the holidays. The five Gryffindors were squished onto Lucy's bed, and the little space that was left was covered with sweets from Honeydukes. Hamish had also invited himself to the party and was currently curled up in Sophia's lap, his tail brushing over an empty sweet wrapper as he flicked its tip contentedly.

'Are you sure you're going to be okay on your own, Sophia?' Lucy asked as she took a bite into her bar of Honeydukes chocolate.

'Yes, I'll be fine. It'll be nice to get a bit of peace and quiet from your snoring,' Sophia replied, giving Lucy a cheeky wink. Lucy huffed and chucked a balled-up wrapper at her, causing Sophia to squeak as she threw her hands up to protect her face. Hamish lifted his head at the commotion, and glared at Lucy before settling his head back down on his paws and closing his eyes once more. 'Besides,' Sophia continued, 'I won't be completely alone – I'll still have Remus, Peter, James and Sirius to keep me entertained.' She shrugged her shoulders before leaning over to snatch a lemon drop from the centre of the bed. She untwisted the sweet from the clear foil, throwing it back into the centre of the bed as she popped the sweet into her mouth.

'Mmm ... and there's absolutely nothing going on between you and Remus, then?' Lucy continued.

'Oh, come on, guys,' she said, feeling exasperated; her words were slightly muffled by the lemon drop. She shifted it around in her mouth before continuing. 'How many times do I have to tell you there is nothing going on between me and Remus? We just get on very well; that's all.' She crunched the lemon drop slightly violently, as if to prove her point.

'Okay, but have you ever considered it?' Melanie asked as she raised an eyebrow at Sophia. 'I mean, you have to admit, Remus isn't bad-looking. Can you honestly say that you've never even thought about it?'

'Damn,' thought Sophia. She'd never been asked this question, and to answer it truthfully would result in so many more questions, but, before her mind could think of something suitable to say, her silence had given her answer for her.

'Aha!' exclaimed Melanie, a look of glee spreading across her face. All four girls suddenly sat up straight and fixed their attentions firmly on Sophia. 'So, come on – tell us.'

'All right, fine,' she said, resigned to the fact she would have to tell them this secret that she'd kept for so long. She took a deep breath, deciding that the best way to tell them would be to be direct and to the point. 'Okay, well, there was a ... moment ... back in March when we ... when we ...'

'When you what?' Lily butted in, clearly frustrated by Sophia's hesitancy.

'Okay, so the quick and to-the-point approach isn't working,' she thought. 'Well, we kissed, if you must know. There, you happy now?' she said, focusing down on Hamish so she could avoid looking at the shocked faces of her friends.

'You and Remus–' began Lucy.

'–kissed?' finished Niahm.

'I knew it,' Melanie stated smugly.

'You never told me,' said Lily, looking hurt. 'I would have thought you would at least have told me.'

Sophia met the eyes of her best friend. 'Lils, I never told anyone, and neither did Remus. It was a mistake, and we both thought so, and that was it, really,' she answered with a shrug.

'How did it happen?' Niahm asked, her brown eyes showing her curiosity.

Sophia sighed resignedly. 'It was just after I broke up with Brendan, and Remus and I were talking. He was comforting me, and gave me a hug; as we pulled back, we just kissed. It was short, but then, when we looked at each other, we just knew it wasn't right, and we both laughed it off. I like Remus – I even love him, but only as a friend. So can we please draw a line under this question? There is nothing more to tell,' Sophia said as she looked at each of her friends pointedly in turn.

'All right, but are you sure you have nothing else to tell us on the boy front?' Niahm asked, a hint of suspicion in her voice.

'What, in the name of Merlin, are you on about now?' Sophia replied, feeling decidedly uncomfortable. Lucy, Niahm and Melanie looked from one to the other, and all of them started giggling. Sophia looked at Lily for reassurance, but saw that Lily was fighting back a smile too.

'Well,' Melanie said, drawing the word out in a way that made Sophia nervous, 'you do seem to be spending a lot of time with a certain Mr Black, if you know what I mean ...' She left the sentence hanging; a sly grin graced her face.

Sophia felt her mouth drop open at what the girls were implying. To be fair to her friends, she probably couldn't blame them for thinking along those lines. It was true – she was spending a lot of time with Sirius, and, as no one aside from Lily knew about Rosier and Sirius' part in that, it was a reasonable assumption to make. However, none of that would help her answer the question that had been put to her.

She would admit that Sirius was definitely attractive, and he always succeeded in making her laugh, and she knew that she could talk to him about anything; but she had never gotten the impression that he saw her as anything more than a friend. Also, she didn't feel ready to get close to anyone yet, so, surely that made this whole conversation quite pointless?

'What? No ... nothing is going on between us. We're just good friends,' Sophia stuttered.

'Like you and Remus are – were – just friends?' Lucy countered, holding the quizzical tone in her voice.

'Yes.'

'But you did kiss Remus once, didn't you?' Melanie stated with a smirk.

'Yes ... but that ... that doesn't mean anything. Stop looking at me like that!' Sophia said, half laughing, half annoyed. 'Sirius and I are good friends; yes, he's attractive, but I really don't think he sees me that way.' If she hoped that would be the end of the issue, she was sadly mistaken.

'What if he did see you that way – then what would you think?' Lily asked quietly, looking up at Sophia through her eyelashes.

Sophia was stunned to hear Lily, of all people, asking that particular question. She always assumed that Lily would discourage any of her friends from getting involved with one of the Marauders. She gave Lily a questioning look before answering.

'Well ... I ... I don't really know, to be honest. I'm not sure I'd be willing to put myself through that. I mean, his previous girlfriends haven't exactly been long-term, have they? It would be like setting myself up for a fall. You guys know I could never do a fling; I'd get too attached and just end up getting hurt. Not that he would mean to hurt me,' she added quickly, 'but I just don't think that any girl would ever become more important to Sirius than the Marauders – you would always play second fiddle ...'

She looked round at the other girls, who all seemed slightly crestfallen at Sophia's honesty. Maybe they had hoped to get a bit more teasing done before Sophia would admit how she really felt. However, they seemed satisfied with her answer, so she took that opportunity to move the conversation on. The girls spent the rest of the evening chatting and laughing before they all eventually crawled into their own beds and went to sleep.

The next morning, after eating breakfast together, the five girls stood in the Gryffindor common room saying their goodbyes.

'Have a good holiday; I'll see you soon,' Sophia said as she gave Lily a hug. Melanie, Lucy and Niahm were stood slightly off to the side, having already said their goodbyes.

'I will – you take care of yourself, won't you? Don't let those boys bully you – I'm counting on you to keep them in check while I'm away,' Lily said with a laugh.

'Me? What about Remus?' Sophia said chuckling.

'Oh, you know James and Sirius never pay any attention to him,' Lily said dismissively.

'What makes you think I'll have any better luck?' Sophia asked, bewilderment lacing her words.

'You hold more power over those boys than you realise,' Lily said with a wink; it really confused Sophia, but, before she could ask Lily what she meant, Niahm interrupted.

'Come on, Lily. We'd better get a move on, or else we'll miss the coaches down to the train.'

'Yep,' Lily agreed, nodding before turning back to Sophia one final time. 'Take care,' Lily said, giving Sophia another quick hug, then picking up her trunk to leave.

Sophia watched as the four girls left the common room before, waving until they were out of sight. Once alone, she took up a seat by the fire where she was joined by Hamish. She sat there, absentmindedly stroking the grey cat, while she tried to figure out what Lily had meant. 'You hold more power over those boys than you realise' – what the heck does that mean, anyway? she thought to herself.

She couldn't think of any situation where she had managed to stop the boys breaking the rules. Actually, thinking about it, she often found quite a lot of amusement in their tricks. Her thoughts were interrupted, however, when the Marauders climbed loudly into the common room and came over to join her.

Each of them fell down into one of the free seats around her, Remus sitting next to her on the sofa.

'Well, Miss McKinloch – are you ready to be corrupted by us four for the next two weeks?' Remus said seriously.

'Absolutely,' she replied with a big smile. 'What are we going to do first?'

'Snowball fight?' James suggested, a devilish grin spreading on his face that was instantly copied by Sirius. Sophia suspected she was getting herself into trouble, but nodded her head along with everyone else. They parted briefly to change into warm clothes before venturing outside into the Hogwarts' snow-covered grounds.

The sky was a clear light blue, without a cloud in sight, and there was no wind as the group trekked to the open area near to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. The snow was soft and fluffy underfoot, making walking difficult, and the weak winter sun caused a harsh glare on the pristine whiteness that covered everything in a thick blanket. However, they finally stopped, having reached their destination, and Sirius took charge in organising the fight.

'Right, let's split into two teams – James and I on one team; Remus, Peter and Sophia on the other – and we fight to the death!' he declared theatrically before breaking into his trademark grin.

Remus, Peter and Sophia ran off to build up a base, and after a few spells were said, they had created a nice little bunker with a healthy pile of snowballs.

They heard Sirius bellow across the snow-covered grass. 'Ready? Let the fight begin!'

No sooner had the words left Sirius's mouth than Remus was hit on the side of the head by a well-aimed snowball. Both teams spent close to twenty minutes in the relative safety of their bunkers, but getting successful aims from there was proving difficult.

'We need to make a run for it if we're to stand any chance of winning,' Sophia said. Her face was flushed from the cold, and she had some snow on her woolly hat from where a snowball had hit her.

'Well, you're a faster runner than we are – see if you can sneak up on them while we try to cover you,' Remus said as they dodged more snowballs that were sailing over the top of their bunker. Sophia nodded in agreement and gathered up as many snowballs as she could manage before looking at Remus and Peter. She had yet to master the Disillusionment charm, or else she would have used it to sneak up on Sirius and James.

'Right – I'm ready! Cover me!' she declared in a loud whisper before turning to sneak out from the bunker.

She couldn't see Sirius or James as she crept around the edge of her team's shelter, so she presumed that they were lying down in the snow behind their bunker. She crept along as far out to the side as she could manage, using the shadows of the trees to help her, while she watched the snowballs flying backwards and forwards from the two bunkers.

She finally reached James and Sirius, both of whom busy creating more snowballs and so didn't see her coming. When she was close enough, she opened fire on them. She managed to get James squarely on the back of the head, causing him to fall face forward into the snow, before hitting Sirius on the shoulder as she started to retreat.

James pushed himself up, shouting, 'Get her, Sirius!' as Sirius stared to retaliate.

Sophia began to run away but was slowed down by the deep snow underfoot and the fact that she was laughing at the snowballs Sirius was hurling at her. He quickly caught her up and abandoned the snowballs in favour of picking her up and holding her securely over his shoulder.

'You're in for it now, Sophia!' he shouted with glee as he started to carry her over to a particularly deep part of snow.

'Sirius! Stop it! Remus, Peter, help me!' Sophia shrieked through her laughter. 'Sirius – put me down!'

'As you wish!' he declared, rather abruptly dumping her into the deep snow. She screamed through the laughter as he tossed her through the air. She landed heavily on her back, and sank deeply into the snow, which meant that she was now well and truly stuck like a crab on its back. She looked up to see all four boys standing over her and laughing.

'I'm glad to see that chivalry is not dead,' she huffed as she took in her new cold and wet surroundings.

'I thought women wanted equal rights?' Sirius smirked, obviously pleased with his accomplishment.

'No, Sirius. We only want equal rights when it suits us,' she quipped with a grin.

'Surrender?' James asked, tossing a snowball up and down in his hand.

'Fine – we surrender,' Sophia said begrudgingly. 'Now, help me up.' She held out her arms and Remus and Sirius reached out to help her up. 'What are we going to do now?' she asked as she brushed the snow off her jacket and bum.

'Don't mind – it's up to you,' Sirius replied before adding, 'Do you need a hand there, Sophia? I'd be more than willing to help with the snow removal ...'

She wasn't looking at him and wasn't paying close attention, so it took a moment for her to register what he had asked her. When she did finally realise what he had implied, she turned to look at him with indignation, only then seeing that he was giving her one of his devilish grins. The other boys were in fits of silent giggles; it soon became loud laughter when they saw the look on Sophia's face.

'Why you little ... mind in the gutter ... you'll pay for that!' she said as she gathered up a handful of snow and started chasing Sirius, who had turned and started running. She caught up close enough to grab the back of his jacket and managed to ram most of the snow down his back.

'That's cold!' he whined as she let go of him.

'It's snow, Sirius – it's hardly going to be warm, is it?' she replied sarcastically but with satisfaction. They walked back to where James, Remus and Peter were standing, still laughing, before she spoke again. 'Well, I say we should go back inside and get warm. It must be nearly lunch time, right?'

James managed to stop laughing long enough to agree, and they made their way up to the castle, where lunch was waiting for them in the Great Hall.

*

Sophia was woken up on Christmas morning by Hamish who was head-butting her shoulder and purring. She got up and gave Hamish some attention, including giving him his Christmas present, a mouse-shaped cat toy charmed to run around the floor. Hamish immediately started to stalk the toy, and Sophia giggled as she watched him leap down from her bed and skid across the wooden floor as he tried to catch it.

She threw on her dressing gown and opened her presents from her parents and the girls with whom she shared her room. Her parents had given her a voucher for Gladrags in Hogsmeade, a new swan-feather quill, and a selection of inks and parchments. Lily had given her a beautifully framed photo of the two of them that had been taken during the summer, and Melanie, Niahm and Lucy had pooled their money to get Sophia a selection of her favourite sweets from Honeydukes. She looked at the gifts and felt a brief moment of sadness that her friends were not here to share the experience, but she quickly brushed it aside, telling herself that she would see them in less than a week.

She then got up and picked up four neatly-wrapped parcels before leaving her room to go up to the boys' dormitory. She knocked on the door before poking her head into the room.

'Ah, I see you're all up, then?' she said with a smile as she entered the room. 'You've also cleaned since the last time I was up here.'

'Well, we knew you would complain otherwise,' James said cheerily.

All the boys were sitting on a rug on the floor, and they had already opened most of their presents. Sophia joined them on the floor and gave them each the gifts that she had bought for them while they returned the favour.

She had bought James a book about the Wigtown Wanderers, which she knew was his favourite team. The book also included training tips which she thought James might want to implement for the Gryffindor team. James beamed at her as he opened the present and quickly set about flicking through the book, pausing at pages that caught his attention.

Remus opened his gift to reveal a miniature chess set which he gave Sophia a hug for; he promised to play a game with her in the afternoon to try to improve her dismal skills at the game. This was quickly followed by a hug from Peter, who was delighted by the selection of items from Honeydukes that Sophia had selected for him.

Sirius opened his gift and grinned broadly as he looked over the selection of Zonko products Sophia had bought for him. 'These are great, Sophia! I'm sure we can have lots of fun with this lot.' He gave her a wink, and she laughed.

'That's fine; just don't tell Lily I gave it to you – she'll have my guts for garters!'

Relieved that everyone seemed to like their presents, Sophia set about opening her own. James had given her a packet of Exploding Snap cards; Remus had given her a pot of self-correcting ink to go with the pack of Sugar Quills Peter had bought her, and Sirius had given her a necklace. She gingerly removed it from the box to look more closely at it. Hanging from the delicate silver chain was a series of three forget-me-not blue enamel flowers; they were joined together by two S-shaped silver bars.

'Sirius, it's beautiful,' she breathed, her eyes glued to the necklace. 'I can't accept this, though – it must have cost a fortune!'

'Course you can; I want you to have it,' Sirius stated simply.

Sophia felt herself blush as she found herself utterly speechless and felt mortified by the now-pitiful presents she had bought for him. She looked into his eyes in an attempt to understand the meaning behind the gift, but she couldn't read anything in them other than sincerity.

'Well, put it on, then,' he said eagerly, gesturing to the chain dangling from her hand. Sophia tried to undo the delicate clasp, but her fingers wouldn't cooperate. 'Oh, give it here,' Sirius stated impatiently, though there was a hint of amusement there, too. 'It'll be New Year before you get it on yourself at this rate.' He took the necklace from her hands and slid round behind her before putting the chain carefully round her neck and doing it up. He moved back round so that he was facing her, a grin firmly in place. 'Lovely.'

Sophia instinctively reached a hand up and touched the necklace; she felt a smile forming on her face and her cheeks flushed red again. 'Thank you, Sirius – I love it.'

She gave each of them a hug and thanked them again for their gifts, then left to get dressed.

Author's Notes:

Sophia's necklace is actually a design by Sheila Fleet, a Scottish Jewellery Designer. You can see the necklace here.