Thicker than Water (Marauders Era) PART II

27 December, 1995 - Family (IV)

Christmas approached rather uneventfully for Lavinia, something she was rather glad of. It was nice to have a break from it all, especially after the chaos in the lead up to the holidays. It was also nice to have those few days when things felt so strangely normal. Which, oddly, they did while Lavinia was staying at Grimmauld Place.

She knew that was probably odd because it was completely and totally abnormal for her to be in that particular house. But staying with Sirius, cooking dinners with Molly who was suddenly far warmer towards Lavinia than she had been before... all of it felt so normal. Even spending time around the children, who, like Molly, seemed to have suddenly warmed to her, felt normal. It was like taking a pause from life as she knew it to see life as it might have been. And it was warm and jovial and Lavinia loved every moment of it that she had.

Really, the only part of it that wasn't as lovely as the rest was Harry. And it was hard for Lavinia to blame him for it. It wasn't that Harry wasn't pleasant: he was. But unlike the others, who seemed to have suddenly decided that she was a person very much worth having around, Harry seemed... hesitant. Unsure. Confused, even. Like he still had no idea what to make of her. This probably wasn't helped by what Lavinia supposed was a rather sudden exposure to his godparents' relationship. Not that Harry really seemed to notice. Or at least, he didn't comment. He stared sometime, watching Lavinia like he was utterly baffled by her mere existence, much less her presence and role here. And this, Lavinia knew, was fair. More than fair, actually. Because she didn't suppose he really knew her.

Not that the others did either, but, as Hermione put it one morning as they were hanging holly on the chandeliers, "They finally understand why you're here. And they're finally convinced you're on our side." And this made sense to Lavinia. Because she had helped save their father's life and though she herself hadn't wanted or expected any gratitude, they had given it anyway. And they had, if Hermione was to be believed, finally realized just what it was that she did for the Order. And exactly how necessary that was.

It was heartbreaking to her that it had taken this for them to realize it. Heartbreaking to realize that these children were so suddenly experiencing one of the most awful parts of any war. That they had gone so quickly from normal life to... this. That the first thing any of them had to come to terms in the war with was the near death of their father.

At least, Lavinia reminded herself, it had only been near. Arthur was fine. He would be discharged soon enough and the children would go back to school and, with any luck at all, would be able to return to something like their normal lives. Or at least, as normal as a person could get after coming face to face with a reality like this.

However normal that post-holiday life might or might not be, however, they did seem to manage a fairly good approximation of a normal Christmas even in this old house and with their father in the hospital. Or at least, when Lavinia left on the morning of Christmas Eve, everyone seemed to be in rather jolly spirits, aided, no doubt, by Arthur's continued improvement and Sirius's rather surprising joyful manner.

Lavinia, for her part, enjoyed her own quiet Christmas Eve with Heather and Jasmine followed by a morning with Sirius and Remus in the living room of Grimmauld Place for a different kind of Christmas. Because this one wasn't the small cozy gathering of family, lit up by Jasmine's absolute adoration of the holidays Lavinia thought might have something to do with the fact that the girl was always utterly pampered by her various mother figures. No, this was a softer thing. It was mature and quiet and steady and, though Lavinia might have imagined it, something almost like sad. Or perhaps bittersweet was the better word because the morning was lovely and warm and Lavinia was anything but sad as she sat curled up against Sirius on the couch. But they also all knew that as nice as the holidays had been, as wonderful as these stolen moments had been with all three of them together again, with Lavinia living there with Sirius, not bother to pretend they were anything other than what they were.... That morning meant that this brief respite was over. Because after this, life started up again. And Lavinia and Remus had to go home.