Fic: A Happy Memory
Dec. 21st, 2015 06:13 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
an-english-girl.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
rt_moreloveAuthor/Artist: an_english_girl
Title: A Happy Memory
Rating & Warnings: K
Word Count/Art Medium: 513
Prompt(s): Sirius' Christmas
Summary: What is Remus thinking of on Christmas Eve? Missing moment from DH.
Notes: Only a drabble, this time.
“Christmas Eve,” said Tonks, sidling up beside Remus where he stood, staring out of the hall window into the twilit garden. She slipped her hand into his. “What's my hubby thinking of?”
“Harry,” said Remus simply, leaning over to plant a kiss in her festive red and gold hair. “And Sirius. And Christmas.”
Harry. Sirius. Christmas. Tonks felt her throat tighten and eyes prick suspiciously. Two years ago – two years ago exactly – only two years ago – Sirius had been lying on the drawing room floor at Grimmaud Place, playing Exploding Snap and having a wonderful time having Harry for Christmas. And now-
She squeezed Remus's intertwining fingers tightly. “I'm … sorry-”
For the first time, he seemed to really register she was there, turning and gathering her in to a baby-squashing hug. “Don't be sorry! It wasn't a sad thinking at all.”
Harry, Sirius and Christmas that wasn't sad?
Perhaps something in her stance expressed this confusion, or perhaps Remus was just really good at knowing what she was thinking. He always had been, after all – apparently much more than she had now. Remus gave her a final squeeze, and then adjusted to an arm-around-each-other pose, looking back out of the window. “Harry's first Christmas,” he said gently, as if the memory was fragile from its years of storage. “I didn't have very much money...”
And none at all this year...
“James and Lily and Sirius were getting Harry almost everything. Especially Sirius. Even Peter...” Remus ground to a halt again.
If this wasn't a sad thinking, she didn't even want to imagine what the sad ones were like...
“Peter got him a whole stack of picture books.” Remus gestured with one hand, as if to brush aside the image. “I was working in a muggle shop, supermarket thing. They had big sheets of plywood that deliveries came on, and the manager sold me two of them for a couple of quid. I had an old hand-saw, cut them up, made a floor jigsaw. I painted them the days … I wasn't working.”
Now her throat was tight for quite a different image. She could see Remus, pale and drawn after the full moon yet dragging himself out of bed to paint jigsaw pieces for Harry, to be like the others, to have something to offer...
And then all of a sudden, Remus was chuckling, his whole body joggling up and down against her side. “Harry liked it well enough, but it made Sirius' Christmas! He'd never had one! Such a wonderful muggle toy! He'd sit Harry in the middle of the floor and build that jigsaw a thousand ways round him...!”
Had Sirius remembered that sitting on the floor playing Snap two years ago? And did-
Dora twisted to look at Remus the very moment he turned to her. He had his slowest, happiest smile on and she grinned back. “Have-?”
He nodded. “Yes. I've still got the saw. I'll make another one next Christmas.”
~:~:~
Title: A Happy Memory
Rating & Warnings: K
Word Count/Art Medium: 513
Prompt(s): Sirius' Christmas
Summary: What is Remus thinking of on Christmas Eve? Missing moment from DH.
Notes: Only a drabble, this time.
“Christmas Eve,” said Tonks, sidling up beside Remus where he stood, staring out of the hall window into the twilit garden. She slipped her hand into his. “What's my hubby thinking of?”
“Harry,” said Remus simply, leaning over to plant a kiss in her festive red and gold hair. “And Sirius. And Christmas.”
Harry. Sirius. Christmas. Tonks felt her throat tighten and eyes prick suspiciously. Two years ago – two years ago exactly – only two years ago – Sirius had been lying on the drawing room floor at Grimmaud Place, playing Exploding Snap and having a wonderful time having Harry for Christmas. And now-
She squeezed Remus's intertwining fingers tightly. “I'm … sorry-”
For the first time, he seemed to really register she was there, turning and gathering her in to a baby-squashing hug. “Don't be sorry! It wasn't a sad thinking at all.”
Harry, Sirius and Christmas that wasn't sad?
Perhaps something in her stance expressed this confusion, or perhaps Remus was just really good at knowing what she was thinking. He always had been, after all – apparently much more than she had now. Remus gave her a final squeeze, and then adjusted to an arm-around-each-other pose, looking back out of the window. “Harry's first Christmas,” he said gently, as if the memory was fragile from its years of storage. “I didn't have very much money...”
And none at all this year...
“James and Lily and Sirius were getting Harry almost everything. Especially Sirius. Even Peter...” Remus ground to a halt again.
If this wasn't a sad thinking, she didn't even want to imagine what the sad ones were like...
“Peter got him a whole stack of picture books.” Remus gestured with one hand, as if to brush aside the image. “I was working in a muggle shop, supermarket thing. They had big sheets of plywood that deliveries came on, and the manager sold me two of them for a couple of quid. I had an old hand-saw, cut them up, made a floor jigsaw. I painted them the days … I wasn't working.”
Now her throat was tight for quite a different image. She could see Remus, pale and drawn after the full moon yet dragging himself out of bed to paint jigsaw pieces for Harry, to be like the others, to have something to offer...
And then all of a sudden, Remus was chuckling, his whole body joggling up and down against her side. “Harry liked it well enough, but it made Sirius' Christmas! He'd never had one! Such a wonderful muggle toy! He'd sit Harry in the middle of the floor and build that jigsaw a thousand ways round him...!”
Had Sirius remembered that sitting on the floor playing Snap two years ago? And did-
Dora twisted to look at Remus the very moment he turned to her. He had his slowest, happiest smile on and she grinned back. “Have-?”
He nodded. “Yes. I've still got the saw. I'll make another one next Christmas.”
~:~:~
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-12-21 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-21 10:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-22 01:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-23 06:57 pm (UTC):)
no subject
Date: 2015-12-24 11:56 pm (UTC)(But, augh, foreshadowing of next Christmas, when he won't actually be around to make a puzzle for Teddy...?)
no subject
Date: 2015-12-26 06:36 am (UTC)Indeed. Ouch.
But -- it's lovely to see Remus happy and remembering things, and lovely to see the two of them so contented together.
If only Remus had had a chance to make that puzzle, the next year!
no subject
Date: 2015-12-26 05:57 pm (UTC)That will always be canon to me... perhaps, in By A Thread-verse, Remus did make the jigsaw?
no subject
Date: 2015-12-26 05:59 pm (UTC)Thanks!
no subject
Date: 2015-12-26 06:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-26 06:11 pm (UTC);P
no subject
Date: 2015-12-26 06:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-28 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-28 02:24 pm (UTC)Thinking cap is now on!
no subject
Date: 2015-12-29 10:17 pm (UTC)There's something heart-warming about this little story: whether it's Remus remembering the past with affection rather than regret, or the ease and understanding between him and Tonks. Lovely. :)
no subject
Date: 2016-01-03 01:16 am (UTC):)
no subject
Date: 2016-01-16 06:18 pm (UTC)This story was beautiful. it invoked a lot of imagery and the past without losing the brightest of the present and reminding the reader that the past is now a happy memory. Remus who is secure in his happiness now (or at least until he is a noble prat again because hey it's Remus) and can look back into the past without being sad is wonderful.
It is actually very telling that Tonks is the sad one in this moment until Remus makes her feel better. And as for hearing that Remus will make a puzzle for Teddy, it made my heart flip flop. Because it's bitter sweet unless you take 'Pieces of the Puzzle' as canon; so you can imagine that they didn't die. Which I'll do until my dying breath. Lol
I cannot wait to see what you'll post next. Thank you for this story.
no subject
Date: 2016-01-16 07:31 pm (UTC):)