Love Can Be Found In the Darkest of Places (A Marauders FanFiction)

Chapter 18: Crescent Moon

“Happy Christmas, Rose,” Sirius said softly as he nudged her awake and pulled her into his arms. She’d fallen asleep on the biggest armchair in the common room with an abnormally large Transfiguration textbook laying haphazardly across her legs. They were on break from classes and had very little work to do, however Dumbledore’s discussion with them had motivated her on a new level to become an auror to ensure that in one way or another, she would be helping the cause – both through the Order and through the Ministry.

Off to the corner stood a medium sized Christmas tree decorated with white lights and moving ornaments, with considerably less presents than usual littered underneath it. Mistletoe hung from the ceiling in various locations that most people had been tactfully avoiding, and the room smelled as though there were a batch of fresh cookies just finishing up in the oven. It was early still – nearly 8 AM – leaving Sirius and Rose alone.

She stirred when she felt the familiar warmth of his body holding onto hers, and pushed the book off of her lap before wrapping her arms around him groggily. “Happy Christmas,” she returned hoarsely, her voice lower than usual as a result of her lack of sleep. She smiled at him and rested her head on his shoulder, both of them turning their eyes towards the crackling fire a few feet in front of them.

Her eyes suddenly lit up with excitement as she jumped out of his lap and hurried over to the Christmas tree, picking up a small red gift bag labelled, Sirius. “Here you are,” she said, feigning formality and handing it over to him. He grinned at her and pushed a strand of his shaggy black hair away from his eyes. He reached in until his hand wrapped around a small box. He pulled it out curiously, wondering what it could be.

He opened it up to reveal a silver crescent moon necklace elegantly carved, with a small grayish orb hanging off the very top point of its curve. He stared at it in wonder, for whatever was inside the orb seemed to be moving in a constant swirl of gray. He blinked in surprise as the grayness disappeared suddenly, replaced by a whirl of different colors until they finally slowed down to reveal what looked like an entire galaxy within itself.  He looked up to Rose to see that she had an identical crescent moon necklace around her neck, and was holding onto it lightly in the palm of her hand.

“It does that whenever the other wearer is holding on to it,” she clarified softly as she continued to hold onto her own necklace to demonstrate. “When I let go of it,” she let it drop against her chest, “it turns back to gray.” He looked down at the orb on his necklace to find that had done just as she’d said – it had returned back to gray. “This way even when we’re not together… we can be, in a way.”

“Rose…” he said, at a loss for words. “They’re absolutely incredible. I’ll never take it off.” Her eyes seemed to sparkle in the light from the fireplace as she held out her hand for his necklace. He gave it to her, and she stepped behind him to clasp it around his neck. “Thank you,” he said smiling largely at her and pulling her back into his arms for a near backbreaking hug. Her twinkling laughter filled the room and he pressed his lips against her cheek before releasing her and grabbing his gift to her out from under the tree.

“And for the beautiful girl,” Sirius said as he handed her a slightly larger navy blue gift bag labelled, Rose. She reached in and pulled out a beautiful photo frame, with a moving picture of something that immediately brought tears to her eyes. It was of her and Sirius standing by their tree in front of the Great Lake, tossing a flat stone back and forth with the creature under the water and running around happily, with Rose occasionally jumping into Sirius’ arms, who would spin her around before setting her back upon her feet.

“James caught that a few months ago,” he said gently as he watched her staring into the frame, unable to keep his eyes off of her. “Remus taught me the charm. It’ll stay like that forever.” Her hand flew up to her eyes to wipe the tears away as she smiled at the frame that she was holding onto, overcome by a feeling of pure happiness that could only be created in her by Sirius. “This is the best thing anyone’s ever gotten me,” she said simply, after a few moments of silence. “Thank you so much.”