SPLITAPARTS: lessons in love ✔️

The Best Christmas Present Ever - Part Three

Sirius placed a mug of hot mulled apple wine before Cassie as she sat at the table with the rest of the adults. The children had been sent to pursue other activities. She looked up and thanked him with her eyes and Remus and Molly followed with fresh coffee.

"Excellent meal, Cassie—it was lovely of you to go to the trouble of preparing it for us all," Molly said as she stood next to Kingsley who was seated across from Cassie. "I'm going to go check on Arthur—he should still be sleeping, but he'll be fascinated with the games the children are playing with and if I know him, he'll be soon wide awake and I don't want him to push himself."

"The sofa is really comfortable, Molly—make him stay there and lie down and rest—Andromeda can fetch some extra pillows if he's insistent on watching—"

"Thank you dear, I'll do that!"

"You know what we need," Sirius asked, eyeing Cassie.

"What's that?"

"Some festive jazzy holiday music—"

"Played on a piano, I assume?"

"Well is there any other? I'd let you sing," he cooed.

An exasperated look befell her face.

"Sorry I brought it up—I only miss playing is all--we can transfigure a matchbox into a piano," Sirius said. "It won't sound quite the same, but it's better than nothing."

"Or we could move to the study," Remus offered, grinning.

"Oh really," Cassie asked, almost annoyingly, glaring toward him. "It's not Christmas yet."

"Or not," Sirius said.

Cassie clicked her tongue and sighed. "Alright, let's take our drinks to the study."

"Why the study, this is fine, Dee. The conversation is lively and--"

"Yeah, but there's not piano in here." She looked at Sirius and smiled over-dramatically.

"You have a piano? When did you get a piano?"

"Don't get excited, it's quite used—I got it a few years ago from an estate of a dearly departed friend."

"Oh? Who?"

"A Mister Bernstein—you may have heard of him?"

Sirius' jaw dropped and his eyes opened wide. "Bernstein—Leonard Bernstein?"

"Is there another?"

"Oh Dee—what did you do? Please tell me, you didn't—"

Her eyes met with his in perfect love. "I did. Now you can get excited. Go—"

Sirius rose from the table and walked through the dining room and across the hall. He slid open the pocket door and walked into the darkened room and felt along the wall for a light switch and clicked it on. The wooden paneling was darker than he remembered and he moved through the room as if he were floating on air and turned on a table lamp that was sitting on an antique cherry table. He inhaled deeply and took in the scent of leather and the various woods. The books on the shelf added an aroma of vanilla, which he knew Cassie loved. In the corner, he could barely see the outline of the large concert-sized grand piano. Cassie walked into the room and the rest followed and stood in the doorway watching their friend. Sirius stood silently staring at the mammoth instrument, holding a posture of deep contemplation. Cassie was remembering listening to him talk her down from a horrific panic attack immediately after having learned she was pregnant, when they realized that the music they held in common was a safety net..."The seven pitches of any diatonic scale can be obtained using a chain of six perfect fifths. For instance, the seven natural pitches which form the C-major scale can be obtained from a stack of perfect fifths starting from F and I've lost you completely, I can tell." She had burst into laughter and hugged him tightly until she finally found release and could do nothing else, but sob in his arms, effectively releasing her fears and worries.