That Goddamn Twinkle - ENZO BERKSHIRE

࣪𖤐 Y6 | 11 . xmas '96

➵ HOUSE OF MEMORIES - PANIC! AT THE DISCO
'Promise me a place in the house of memories.'

The snow had cleared by the morning, somehow. It had rained so torrentially through the night that it had all turned to mush and puddles. The sun hung low in the sky, peaking over the horizon as the clock struck eight AM. Contrasting the time of year, the birds whistled in the trees, waking Rory peacefully.

She seemed to be one of the last ones awake as the bubbly chatter from the living room was loud enough to wake up a whole street. Since the burrow was so huge, there were just about enough rooms for everyone. Rory bunked with Remus and Victoria in an old, small room. It wasn't too comfortable, but Rory was just grateful to be getting some sleep.

Enzo beamed up at her as she walked into the room. Ginny was in the middle of messily unwrapping one of her few presents as Rory sat down next to her father. "Merry Christmas, sweetheart." he smiled.

"Merry Christmas." she grinned.

He passed her one of her presents carefully. It was a thin, rectangular shape as light as a feather. She furrowed her eyebrows and peeled it open. Inside was a small photograph of Rory, Remus and Sirius on Christmas last year. They all had funky Christmas glasses on— Sirius had an arm around Rory with a fat smile across his face. Remus was next to Rory in the middle of an eye-roll at his husband.

Behind the photograph, a number of letters were attached. There must've been over thirty letters altogether. However, they were all from Sirius. Remus must've made this himself— no amount of magic could've made something this precious and full of love.

"I know you miss him, sweetheart, I do too. I put together all of his letters to you in the hope that it will remind you of his wise words whenever you may need them. He was always a better speaker than me." Remus smiled.

A teardrop fell from her eye and onto the parchment with a plop! She laughed and brought her father into the warmest hug she could find. He kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes. If he had the option, he would never let go.

—

Christmas dinner this year was different. Everyone acted fine between themselves and spoke to others with smiles on their faces, but everyone at that table had something on their mind. Rory guaranteed that nobody was thinking about Christmas at the moment.

For instance, Rory was worried about the full moon being a few days away. Actually, worried wasn't the right word. Dread fit better. Rory didn't worry about full moons anymore. She knew they were inevitable— but she figured she would allow herself to dread it every month. As much as it didn't stress her out, she would much rather not be doing this every month for the rest of her life.

Harry was thinking about how good last Christmas was. Everyone was themselves and enjoying the time they were all spending together. When they went sledding, when they played group board games, when their stomachs would ache from laughter. He missed it. He missed Sirius.

The majority of people at the table would agree that the attitude would be completely different if Sirius was present. If he was sitting at the head of the table cracking jokes left-right-and-centre, morale would be much higher. He was the light in everyone's life that they sometimes needed when their bulb had burnt out.

Rory filled her plate with roast dinner, grateful for Molly's magical cooking (pun unintentional). Enzo put an arm around the back of her chair as he laughed with Atlas. Rory listened to Ginny and Chris's conversation across the table as they discussed quidditch.