Truth or Dare ✔️

AE - 19

A/N

Hi y'all...I want to apologize to all of my readers for not updating. My dog has been in hospice care for the past three weeks and he finally passed yesterday and today a friend and I buried him along with a tiny kitten that he had befriended (she passed away within an hour of him).

Anyway, I am working on another piece (and have several others in the works--I'm a glutton for punishment apparently) that has a darker theme and even it's been a bit of a chore to write.

What you can look forward to is a wedding...yes...Hermione's going to get to wear her white dress and have Daddy walk her down the aisle...I'm sure madness will ensue, since it also involves Sirius, Harry, Remus and Regulus!

Anyway...I did manage to edit this a bit and not have it be so gloomy...it's Christmas after all!

Thanks for hanging in there...

All the love...

Nique

Sirius placed Penelope in a play pen  that was in a corner of what Hermione called, the family room and rearranged the modern furniture to accommodate the massive tree that Regulus had brought home. He set the tree up and thought about what kind of decorations to place on it...this was to be his first real Yuletide tree; he never bothered with them when he was a young man, he didn't see the point as he lived alone. But he visited the Potters nearly daily just to gaze at theirs, it always seemed to comfort him...They always had the loveliest of Yuletide trees...

He realized that he didn't have the foggiest idea what he was doing...he couldn't even fake it.

He also realized that he was hearing only silence and he turned his head slowly toward the play pen, fearing the worst...that the baby had learned how to escape the play pen. He felt his heart pound in his chest and he walked over toward the fabric pen and looked down and saw that she didn't appear to be in there. His pulse quickened and he saw a lump of blanket and prayed that she was beneath it. He lifted the blanket quickly to find her curled up and he fell to his knees and breathed a heavy sigh of relief as he held his head in his hand and closed his eyes...she was sleeping peacefully. He lifted her from the pen and held her close and tried to keep his breathing as even as he could. Finally, he yawned and walked with her toward the sofa and lay down, holding her tightly to his chest.

The last thing he remembered before drifting off was holding Harry like this on the Potter's sofa as he dozed off to the radio, baby Harry fast asleep on his chest.

______

Remus stood next to the sofa where Sirius and Penelope still slept and he put his finger to his lips for silence as Harry walked up next to him. "Sirius used to do that with you when you were that age. I've a photo of it somewhere," he whispered.

"I'll be right back," Harry replied quietly.

Remus shook his head. "Where...?

Harry placed his hands to his face and mimed that he was taking a photograph and Remus smiled as he nodded his head...it would make for a wonderful Christmas gift from Harry.

He trotted through the house to where Hermione was wandering around the house looking for Sirius. "I found him," he said.

"Oh? Where is he?"

"First, may I borrow your camera?" Harry beamed. "You gotta see this, Hermione! It's really very sweet, even for Sirius! Come on!"

He led her toward the family room where Remus was still standing and when Remus moved back to reveal Sirius and his daughter on the sofa and she smiled warmly. "That's what you want the camera for?"