Fic: Dear Santa for kingzgurl
My contribution to the rs_small_gifts!
Title: Dear Santa
Author/Artist:mutuisanimis
Recipient:kingzgurl
Rating: G
Contents or warnings: *none*
Word count: 2157
Summary: Remus, Sirius, and Teddy write letters to Santa
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Notes: Many thanks to rewrites24 and escribo for the wonderful beta work, and to C. Remaining errors are all mine.
“Mooooony?”
Remus sighed and wrestled himself out from under the covers as Sirius’ voice drifted up from the kitchen.
“Mooooony! It looks like we're out of hot chocolate. Have you got any more stashed away somewhere?”
Sitting up, Remus cleared his throat and called softly back down the stairs to Sirius. “There might be some in the top, left cabinet. I'm coming down.…”
Remus found his slippers and bathrobe and shuffled out of the bedroom, toward the stairs. It had been a little after noon when he’d been watching out the bedroom window as Sirius and Teddy played in the snow before exhaustion had caught up with him and he’d fallen asleep. Now he caught a glimpse outside of a spacious snow fort and a veritable army of snowmen. Damn the moon last night, he thought as he started down the staircase. What rubbish to be in here moping about instead of enjoying the first snowfall! Between the full moon of the night before and the long week of work before that, Remus was now totally worn out and with nearly no voice.
As he turned the corner from the landing to the front hall, he was met with an energetic and frosty hug to the thighs.
“Daddy! I missed you outside. Did you seen all our snowmans? Papa says, Papa says we can decorate them later….” Teddy continued talking into Remus' robe, and Remus smiled tiredly.
“Let’s take your coat off, little man,” he whispered, shaking Teddy's shoulders gently and pulling off his hat. Teddy stepped back and began to undo his own buttons, and Remus moved toward the kitchen. “Any luck, Pads?”
Sirius held up two mugs in answer. Teddy dropped his snowy coat on the floor and rushed past Remus to get his drink. Remus nodded and hung up Teddy’s coat before following him into the kitchen. He took the third mug off the stove and joined them at the table. Sirius was grinning excitedly at the stack of parchment and the basket of crayons he'd set in the middle of the table. Letters to Santa. Remus thought that sometimes Sirius was more enthusiastic for such a supposedly childish activity than Teddy was. It was good to see that he had taken to fatherhood so easily.
“Ready to write to Santa, Teddy?”
“I’m ready!”
Sirius handed Teddy and Remus each a piece of parchment, keeping one for himself. Teddy grabbed a fistful of crayons from the basket and set them on the table, choosing a bright red crayon from the stack. Remus chose green and began to write Dear Santa at the top of his parchment, and then turned it so Teddy could draw those letters at the top of his own.
"Dear Santa," Sirius narrated as he wrote, "Hope you haven't frozen up there at the North Pole. Devon's just spiffing, by the way. You should come by…"
Remus chuckled, but Teddy looked concerned. "I can't write those many words. Is that OK?"
"How about you draw pictures of what you want, instead?" suggested Remus. Teddy nodded and began thinking quietly.
"…quite good this year, I really have been. You can ask Moony. Well, no, on second thought, don't ask Moony…" Sirius had quietly charmed his crayon to carry on writing as he dictated. "…Moony might tell you I've been, er, naughty." He paused, caught Remus' eye, and winked.
Remus raised his eyebrows, though he was smiling. "Might want to go back to hand-writing that, Padfoot. Naughty and nice should be between you and Santa, I think."
Sirius smiled back but continued speaking. "Anyway, Santa, there's this new motorbike model out, and the engine…"
Remus laughed quietly and looked down at Teddy's parchment, where the boy had drawn a big one in a circle, and was now sketching out what looked like a broomstick.
Remus looked back at his own letter, still stalled at Dear Santa. Now, with Sirius still prattling on about motorbikes in the background, and Teddy carefully drawing each piece of the broom's tail, he began writing his letter silently.
Dear Santa, I haven't got many special requests this year. Chocolates with chili peppers are always a plus. A new jumper or work robes wouldn't go amiss either, Remus was back on as a professor at Hogwarts, flooing home at night, and his office had quite a chill. But what I really want…
Remus trailed off writing and stared at his letter so far, tapping his crayon against the parchment. He was rather tempted to leave it just there. Sirius was clearly putting on the Finer Points of Motorbike Anatomy show for his and Teddy's benefit, though having it written down would no doubt be useful to Remus when he went out to get Sirius' gifts. Sirius didn't usually want or need inspiration for gift-giving, so Remus' list might be unnecessary and he felt a bit silly carrying on. Remus glanced down at Teddy's list where he'd moved on to item number two, which appeared to be a sort of small animal of sorts. He was drawing in the Y-shaped mouth and whiskers meticulously with the pink crayon, going over the lines to make them darker.
"Is that a cat, Teddy?" Sirius asked, noticing Teddy's drawings for the first time.
"Yeah! I want a real Fuzz!" Teddy bounced a little as he answered. He already had toy cat called Fuzz that he played with almost endlessly.
Sirius raised his eyebrows in a question to Remus, who shrugged. "I guess Padfoot could learn to play nicely with a cat, right, Sirius?"
Sirius pretended to bark, but nodded and smiled.
Remus laughed quietly again as Sirius and Teddy both turned back to their letters. He watched them for a bit, sipping at his hot chocolate, and the pain and exhaustion of earlier faded away. He stretched his legs beneath the table to slid his feet into Sirius' lap and smiled when Sirius dropped his hand to rub at Remus' ankle before he turned back to his letter.
What I really want, I've already got. People I love who can make me laugh. I have my family. He signed his name at the bottom, rereading his letter before adding, P. S. As far as what you, Santa, could bring me (that's not practical, because I know you hate that) I really would love the Fellowship of the Ring DVDs. And there he paused again, and admired Teddy's picture of Fuzz the cat, now with spots.
"That's a great picture, Teddy," he said. "Do you have a number three idea to draw?"
"I'm still thinking about that," answered Teddy. "What about you, Daddy? What are you saying to Santa?"
"So far I've only got boring grown-up things. What do you think I should say to Santa?"
"Ionno," said Teddy, and he went back to coloring Fuzz's spots with his purple crayon.
"What kind of 'boring grown-up things', Moony?" Sirius asked, and Remus realized that Sirius' crayon had finally dropped to the table, worn down to nearly a nub.
"None of your business, Padfoot, my friend. I'm writing to Santa, not you, aren't I?" Sirius would roll his eyes (lovingly) at the practical things, Remus knew, and Remus was not really in the mood to argue about his letter with Sirius.
Growing up, watching movies with his friends, who had never been to a theatre before they'd come to stay with Remus during a holiday, had been a different kind of magic, especially since James and Sirius had really been taken with the ideas of movies. A few years after the war, once Sirius had returned and they'd settled into this little cottage, Remus had bought Sirius a DVD player and used TV for their first Christmas together. They figured out how to keep the ambient magic from destroying them, and Saturday movie nights had become a ritual.
However. Remus had also tried to introduce his friends to Hobbiton and Middle Earth, places where he had spent much of his youth, but it hadn’t really taken with them. James and Peter had thought the whole premise was ridiculous ("Elves aren't like that! Magic isn't like that!"), and Sirius, though willing to forgive such inaccuracy, found the story boring and a bit too complicated to be enjoyable, even when Remus tried reading it aloud to the rest of them.
When the film version of the Fellowship had come to theatres, Remus hadn’t been able to see it, but he had heard wonderful things about it. Now he was hoping to find some specific reasons that Sirius might want to see it, but first he had to get a copy and see it himself. And he wasn't quite sure why he thought putting it on a letter to Santa was really going to achieve that, but he'd done it.
"Ooooh, secretive, aren't you? Nice try, Moony," Sirius said, stretching across the table to reach the edge of Remus' letter. "Give it here."
Remus batted his hand away. "No, Sirius. I'm not done writing yet. Be patient."
"Well, get writing then. Let's see what else Teddy's got." Sirius turned his attention to Teddy's letter, where a large number three had been drawn, and beside it several colorful shapes.
"What are those, Teddy?" Sirius asked, pointing to the shapes.
"Candy!!" Teddy nearly shouted. "That's chocolate and candy canes and Bertie Beans and special candy only Santa knows about!"
Remus and Sirius both laughed at that.
"What flavor are Santa's special candies?" Remus asked as he returned to his own letter.
"Chocolate and strawberry and cheese!"
Sirius struggled to keep a straight face. "Cheese candies?"
"Yeah! They taste like magic! I need to show Fuzz my list. I'll be right back." Teddy climbed out of his chair and took off for his bedroom.
"Alright, Moony. Give it up. Let's see this 'boring grown-up list' of yours." Sirius held out his hand.
Remus wrinkled his nose. "Do I have to? It really is very boring, Padfoot. Don't say I didn't warn you."
Sirius stared at him, challengingly. Remus raised his eyebrows almost cheekily, then stood up and walked toward the living room, letter in hand.
"Oh, that's how it is, is it?" Sirius muttered. He got up and followed Remus, finding him sitting on the couch. He sat down on the other side, looked at Remus, smiled devilishly, and began to tickle him.
Remus held out for nearly a minute, shifting around but quietly. Finally, he held out the letter for Sirius to take and squeaked out "I give, I give!" with what was left of his voice after laughing so hard. As he tried to catch his breath again, Sirius leaned onto Remus' shoulder, unfolded the letter, and read it aloud, commenting as he went.
“‘Dear Santa, I haven't got many special requests this year,’” Sirius began to read, but he stopped to frown as he scanned a few words ahead. "You never have special requests, Moony. Chocolates are a fine idea, but clothes? Those are boring and grown-up. Get in the Christmas spirit!" Sirius poked Remus for emphasis.
Just then, Teddy came in clutching Fuzz. Seeing his parents cuddled on the couch, he climbed up between them and laid his head in Sirius’ lap. Remus reached over and tousled Teddy’s hair.
“I got Daddy’s letter,” Sirius informed Teddy, looking over him and sticking his tongue out at Remus. “So far he’s got chocolate and clothes. Let’s see what other boring grown-up stuff he’s got on here.”
Remus rolled his eyes, but Teddy said, “I like chocolate!”
"'But what I really want, I've already got,’” Sirius read out. “‘People I love who can make me laugh. I have my family.’” He stopped again and leaned over to kiss Remus, who was was resolutely Not Blushing. Teddy covered his eyes with Fuzz.
“Oh, come off it, Moony,” Sirius said. “That’s a perfectly fine thing to say in a letter to Santa. Very grown-up and sappy of you, certainly, but Christmasy enough.”
“Thanks for your approval, Pads,” Remus said dryly, but he smiled all the same.
Sirius started to read the postscript, then abruptly sat up and groaned at it. “Mooooony… You are cruel! You wound me!”
Remus just laughed and pulled Sirius back down onto his shoulder. Teddy shifted slightly in their laps, worn out from all the running around outside, and now apparently asleep. Sirius pouted a bit more, but Remus rubbed his shoulders until he, too, was starting to doze off. Remus, on the other hand, was wide awake, but he relaxed against the back of the couch, happy to be with his family.
Now forgotten, Remus’ letter to Santa fell out of Sirius’ hand and landed on the floor. And Sirius, since you’re reading this, stop rolling your eyes right now if you want anything for that ridiculous motorbike, you twit.
Remus smiled.
-fin-
Title: Dear Santa
Author/Artist:mutuisanimis
Recipient:kingzgurl
Rating: G
Contents or warnings: *none*
Word count: 2157
Summary: Remus, Sirius, and Teddy write letters to Santa
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Notes: Many thanks to rewrites24 and escribo for the wonderful beta work, and to C. Remaining errors are all mine.
“Mooooony?”
Remus sighed and wrestled himself out from under the covers as Sirius’ voice drifted up from the kitchen.
“Mooooony! It looks like we're out of hot chocolate. Have you got any more stashed away somewhere?”
Sitting up, Remus cleared his throat and called softly back down the stairs to Sirius. “There might be some in the top, left cabinet. I'm coming down.…”
Remus found his slippers and bathrobe and shuffled out of the bedroom, toward the stairs. It had been a little after noon when he’d been watching out the bedroom window as Sirius and Teddy played in the snow before exhaustion had caught up with him and he’d fallen asleep. Now he caught a glimpse outside of a spacious snow fort and a veritable army of snowmen. Damn the moon last night, he thought as he started down the staircase. What rubbish to be in here moping about instead of enjoying the first snowfall! Between the full moon of the night before and the long week of work before that, Remus was now totally worn out and with nearly no voice.
As he turned the corner from the landing to the front hall, he was met with an energetic and frosty hug to the thighs.
“Daddy! I missed you outside. Did you seen all our snowmans? Papa says, Papa says we can decorate them later….” Teddy continued talking into Remus' robe, and Remus smiled tiredly.
“Let’s take your coat off, little man,” he whispered, shaking Teddy's shoulders gently and pulling off his hat. Teddy stepped back and began to undo his own buttons, and Remus moved toward the kitchen. “Any luck, Pads?”
Sirius held up two mugs in answer. Teddy dropped his snowy coat on the floor and rushed past Remus to get his drink. Remus nodded and hung up Teddy’s coat before following him into the kitchen. He took the third mug off the stove and joined them at the table. Sirius was grinning excitedly at the stack of parchment and the basket of crayons he'd set in the middle of the table. Letters to Santa. Remus thought that sometimes Sirius was more enthusiastic for such a supposedly childish activity than Teddy was. It was good to see that he had taken to fatherhood so easily.
“Ready to write to Santa, Teddy?”
“I’m ready!”
Sirius handed Teddy and Remus each a piece of parchment, keeping one for himself. Teddy grabbed a fistful of crayons from the basket and set them on the table, choosing a bright red crayon from the stack. Remus chose green and began to write Dear Santa at the top of his parchment, and then turned it so Teddy could draw those letters at the top of his own.
"Dear Santa," Sirius narrated as he wrote, "Hope you haven't frozen up there at the North Pole. Devon's just spiffing, by the way. You should come by…"
Remus chuckled, but Teddy looked concerned. "I can't write those many words. Is that OK?"
"How about you draw pictures of what you want, instead?" suggested Remus. Teddy nodded and began thinking quietly.
"…quite good this year, I really have been. You can ask Moony. Well, no, on second thought, don't ask Moony…" Sirius had quietly charmed his crayon to carry on writing as he dictated. "…Moony might tell you I've been, er, naughty." He paused, caught Remus' eye, and winked.
Remus raised his eyebrows, though he was smiling. "Might want to go back to hand-writing that, Padfoot. Naughty and nice should be between you and Santa, I think."
Sirius smiled back but continued speaking. "Anyway, Santa, there's this new motorbike model out, and the engine…"
Remus laughed quietly and looked down at Teddy's parchment, where the boy had drawn a big one in a circle, and was now sketching out what looked like a broomstick.
Remus looked back at his own letter, still stalled at Dear Santa. Now, with Sirius still prattling on about motorbikes in the background, and Teddy carefully drawing each piece of the broom's tail, he began writing his letter silently.
Dear Santa, I haven't got many special requests this year. Chocolates with chili peppers are always a plus. A new jumper or work robes wouldn't go amiss either, Remus was back on as a professor at Hogwarts, flooing home at night, and his office had quite a chill. But what I really want…
Remus trailed off writing and stared at his letter so far, tapping his crayon against the parchment. He was rather tempted to leave it just there. Sirius was clearly putting on the Finer Points of Motorbike Anatomy show for his and Teddy's benefit, though having it written down would no doubt be useful to Remus when he went out to get Sirius' gifts. Sirius didn't usually want or need inspiration for gift-giving, so Remus' list might be unnecessary and he felt a bit silly carrying on. Remus glanced down at Teddy's list where he'd moved on to item number two, which appeared to be a sort of small animal of sorts. He was drawing in the Y-shaped mouth and whiskers meticulously with the pink crayon, going over the lines to make them darker.
"Is that a cat, Teddy?" Sirius asked, noticing Teddy's drawings for the first time.
"Yeah! I want a real Fuzz!" Teddy bounced a little as he answered. He already had toy cat called Fuzz that he played with almost endlessly.
Sirius raised his eyebrows in a question to Remus, who shrugged. "I guess Padfoot could learn to play nicely with a cat, right, Sirius?"
Sirius pretended to bark, but nodded and smiled.
Remus laughed quietly again as Sirius and Teddy both turned back to their letters. He watched them for a bit, sipping at his hot chocolate, and the pain and exhaustion of earlier faded away. He stretched his legs beneath the table to slid his feet into Sirius' lap and smiled when Sirius dropped his hand to rub at Remus' ankle before he turned back to his letter.
What I really want, I've already got. People I love who can make me laugh. I have my family. He signed his name at the bottom, rereading his letter before adding, P. S. As far as what you, Santa, could bring me (that's not practical, because I know you hate that) I really would love the Fellowship of the Ring DVDs. And there he paused again, and admired Teddy's picture of Fuzz the cat, now with spots.
"That's a great picture, Teddy," he said. "Do you have a number three idea to draw?"
"I'm still thinking about that," answered Teddy. "What about you, Daddy? What are you saying to Santa?"
"So far I've only got boring grown-up things. What do you think I should say to Santa?"
"Ionno," said Teddy, and he went back to coloring Fuzz's spots with his purple crayon.
"What kind of 'boring grown-up things', Moony?" Sirius asked, and Remus realized that Sirius' crayon had finally dropped to the table, worn down to nearly a nub.
"None of your business, Padfoot, my friend. I'm writing to Santa, not you, aren't I?" Sirius would roll his eyes (lovingly) at the practical things, Remus knew, and Remus was not really in the mood to argue about his letter with Sirius.
Growing up, watching movies with his friends, who had never been to a theatre before they'd come to stay with Remus during a holiday, had been a different kind of magic, especially since James and Sirius had really been taken with the ideas of movies. A few years after the war, once Sirius had returned and they'd settled into this little cottage, Remus had bought Sirius a DVD player and used TV for their first Christmas together. They figured out how to keep the ambient magic from destroying them, and Saturday movie nights had become a ritual.
However. Remus had also tried to introduce his friends to Hobbiton and Middle Earth, places where he had spent much of his youth, but it hadn’t really taken with them. James and Peter had thought the whole premise was ridiculous ("Elves aren't like that! Magic isn't like that!"), and Sirius, though willing to forgive such inaccuracy, found the story boring and a bit too complicated to be enjoyable, even when Remus tried reading it aloud to the rest of them.
When the film version of the Fellowship had come to theatres, Remus hadn’t been able to see it, but he had heard wonderful things about it. Now he was hoping to find some specific reasons that Sirius might want to see it, but first he had to get a copy and see it himself. And he wasn't quite sure why he thought putting it on a letter to Santa was really going to achieve that, but he'd done it.
"Ooooh, secretive, aren't you? Nice try, Moony," Sirius said, stretching across the table to reach the edge of Remus' letter. "Give it here."
Remus batted his hand away. "No, Sirius. I'm not done writing yet. Be patient."
"Well, get writing then. Let's see what else Teddy's got." Sirius turned his attention to Teddy's letter, where a large number three had been drawn, and beside it several colorful shapes.
"What are those, Teddy?" Sirius asked, pointing to the shapes.
"Candy!!" Teddy nearly shouted. "That's chocolate and candy canes and Bertie Beans and special candy only Santa knows about!"
Remus and Sirius both laughed at that.
"What flavor are Santa's special candies?" Remus asked as he returned to his own letter.
"Chocolate and strawberry and cheese!"
Sirius struggled to keep a straight face. "Cheese candies?"
"Yeah! They taste like magic! I need to show Fuzz my list. I'll be right back." Teddy climbed out of his chair and took off for his bedroom.
"Alright, Moony. Give it up. Let's see this 'boring grown-up list' of yours." Sirius held out his hand.
Remus wrinkled his nose. "Do I have to? It really is very boring, Padfoot. Don't say I didn't warn you."
Sirius stared at him, challengingly. Remus raised his eyebrows almost cheekily, then stood up and walked toward the living room, letter in hand.
"Oh, that's how it is, is it?" Sirius muttered. He got up and followed Remus, finding him sitting on the couch. He sat down on the other side, looked at Remus, smiled devilishly, and began to tickle him.
Remus held out for nearly a minute, shifting around but quietly. Finally, he held out the letter for Sirius to take and squeaked out "I give, I give!" with what was left of his voice after laughing so hard. As he tried to catch his breath again, Sirius leaned onto Remus' shoulder, unfolded the letter, and read it aloud, commenting as he went.
“‘Dear Santa, I haven't got many special requests this year,’” Sirius began to read, but he stopped to frown as he scanned a few words ahead. "You never have special requests, Moony. Chocolates are a fine idea, but clothes? Those are boring and grown-up. Get in the Christmas spirit!" Sirius poked Remus for emphasis.
Just then, Teddy came in clutching Fuzz. Seeing his parents cuddled on the couch, he climbed up between them and laid his head in Sirius’ lap. Remus reached over and tousled Teddy’s hair.
“I got Daddy’s letter,” Sirius informed Teddy, looking over him and sticking his tongue out at Remus. “So far he’s got chocolate and clothes. Let’s see what other boring grown-up stuff he’s got on here.”
Remus rolled his eyes, but Teddy said, “I like chocolate!”
"'But what I really want, I've already got,’” Sirius read out. “‘People I love who can make me laugh. I have my family.’” He stopped again and leaned over to kiss Remus, who was was resolutely Not Blushing. Teddy covered his eyes with Fuzz.
“Oh, come off it, Moony,” Sirius said. “That’s a perfectly fine thing to say in a letter to Santa. Very grown-up and sappy of you, certainly, but Christmasy enough.”
“Thanks for your approval, Pads,” Remus said dryly, but he smiled all the same.
Sirius started to read the postscript, then abruptly sat up and groaned at it. “Mooooony… You are cruel! You wound me!”
Remus just laughed and pulled Sirius back down onto his shoulder. Teddy shifted slightly in their laps, worn out from all the running around outside, and now apparently asleep. Sirius pouted a bit more, but Remus rubbed his shoulders until he, too, was starting to doze off. Remus, on the other hand, was wide awake, but he relaxed against the back of the couch, happy to be with his family.
Now forgotten, Remus’ letter to Santa fell out of Sirius’ hand and landed on the floor. And Sirius, since you’re reading this, stop rolling your eyes right now if you want anything for that ridiculous motorbike, you twit.
Remus smiled.
-fin-