A/N: This was written for Liza for a Secret Santa — hope you enjoy it! Thanks as always to my wonderful betas.

The Secret Santa

Prologue

Lily sighed as she watched James writing intently.

"I thought we were organising a Secret Santa for the Seventh Years as a show of house unity," she began, summoning the page he had been writing on and peering at it. "That means, you can't just ignore the Slytherins who signed up."

James looked sheepish. "But they're… okay, fine, I'll pair the few snakes up with people. But, that's not why we're doing this. This is all part of my intense, convoluted, plan to get—"

"—to get Remus and Sirius together finally. I know, you've told me before."

"It has to happen! They've been in love for forever!" James cried dramatically.

Even Lily had to agree she had regularly listened to Remus talk at length about Sirius' proclivities. Lily let James rant as she tapped her wand against the parchment she was holding. The names on the page all wiggled, organising themselves into random pairs except for the two written at the top in capital letters.

REMUS + SIRIUS

12th December 1977

Sirius paced across the empty Gryffindor changing room, his wand tip lighting the room eerily, the shadows moving wildly as he spun on his heel to cross the room again.

James was late.

James was late, and it was an emergency.

"Padfoot, what… why are you in the dark?"

Sirius threw a hand over his eyes as James cast a spell which lit the entire room in brilliant light.

"This is a secret meeting! To discuss something no one else can know about!" Sirius hissed furiously.

"Pads… what are you even going on about?" James said with an arched eyebrow. "It's almost one am and you somehow slipped a note in my pyjama pocket with an alarm set to wake me up. That's a bit much, even for you."

"Sod off," Sirius said automatically. "I couldn't let the others know. I've got Remus for the Secret Santa and I was thinking about what book to get him…"

James put one hand up, rubbing his eyes as he adjusted his glasses.

"Just to clarify — you woke me up, in the early hours of the morning, demanding that I come all the way down to the Quidditch pitch, and you want to talk about what book you're getting Moony for Christmas?!"

Sirius shrugged, not meeting James' gaze.

"Just wanted to ask if you thought a lexicon on spell etymology or maybe—"

"No." James threw his hands up in the air as he turned on his heel. "No. You are not getting him a book. I'm going to bed, and you better let me lie in or by Merlin's pale hairy balls, I will spell your hair green."

Sirius gasped and put a hand on his hair as James shook his head, cancelling his spell which cast the changing room back into darkness.

"Such an idiot," James muttered as the door closed behind him.

18th December 1977

Sirius double checked the illusion spells he'd cast in the window of the Hog's Head. Two long brown plaits, large blue eyes and — Sirius glanced down to be sure — a pair of breasts he'd made sure seemed authentic. Looking like a girl had felt like a genius move, no one would suspect that it was him now. The disguise was necessary; Sirius had gotten in trouble for illegal activities before.

He walked in, pulling the hood of his robes up and looking around for the person he'd agreed to meet with. A heavy hand dropped onto his shoulder and Sirius shrieked, instantly blaming the illusion for how high pitched the noise sounded.

"Get in the back here Sirius you absolute…"

Aberforth dragged him behind the bar and through a door into a small kitchen. With an all too easy wave of his hand he banished Sirius' illusion and scowled at him.

"I know you're of age now, in seventh year, but it's nine in the morning, you should not be drinking at this hour," Aberforth began.

"I'm not here to drink!" Sirius said, oddly touched that Abe was about to start some sort of intervention. "I'm here to buy a pegasus."

With a strong tea in front of him and Abe now stationed back behind the bar of the empty pub, Sirius found himself talking about everything he'd been worrying over for the past two weeks or more.

"I got Remus, you know, Remus Lupin?"

"The young man who can drink you all under the table?"

"Yeah, yeah, the one with the gorgeous eyes," Sirius murmured, looking over to Aberfoth. "See, that's where the problem lies."

Abe didn't say anything, just kept listening.

"Remus, he, he deserves so much! I'd do anything for him and I know he doesn't feel the same way, but I just want him to know how much I care. I started off with a peacock quill because his writing's beautiful and he should use something beautiful to write with."

Sirius sighed and drank some of his tea.

"Then I bought him a purple jumper because he's always cold — I have to hug him a lot in the winter. There was a 'P' theme going on so I bought a few more things until…" Sirius faltered and cleared his throat as Aberforth scowled.

"Tell me Sirius, tell me you were not here to talk to the Pegasus dealer that was here when you came in here wearing that ridiculous illusion."

Sirius gave a very sheepish smile. "I might have gone a bit overboard."

That made the older man laugh. "Why are you doing all of this? Isn't a secret santa supposed to be a couple of galleons at most?"

"I love him." Sirius said softly, "Maybe it's not love, but he's so important to me and I want him to know that. It's not even just about how I feel, it's about him realising he has me; I want Remus to know there are people who care, that I care."

Aberforth smiled with a sigh. "Oh to be a teenager. Sirius, a pegasus is stupid. It'll just tell Lupin that you've more money than sense."

Sirius opened his mouth then closed it again, flushing with embarrassment.

"Get him something meaningful and tell him how you feel. Take it from me, you're only young once, and these are the years you're never going to forget. Make them worth it."

Silence descended over the pub. Aberforth walked around the bar and started to clear away the glasses left on tables, leaving Sirius to stare into his mug of tea and think.

20th December 1977

Headmaster Dumbledore himself congratulated James and Lily for organising the Seventh Year Secret Santa, which had almost gone without a hitch.

Almost because whoever had gotten Sirius had forgotten about him.

After a night of running through the forest with Moony, the other three Marauders had stumbled groggily down to breakfast only to be greeted by organised chaos. The organised part had felt debatable as owls with parcels swooped and swarmed overhead.

That morning James had gotten some charm infused hair gel off Mary Bulstrode which had made Lily laugh until she choked on her toast.

Peter got his gift — an extra large selection box of Honeydukes sweets in the afternoon off a Hufflepuff boy Sirius swore he'd never seen before. Sirius had stolen all the white mice within forty seconds of the box being opened.

By the early evening however, he himself had received nothing. He hadn't even been able to give Remus his gifts, as the full moon the night before had been particularly rough. Something about the snow and cold made the werewolf transformations more difficult. So Sirius had left the wrapped gifts on his bed, hoping they'd cheer him up.

"Sirius?"

Turning in surprise, he smiled at the sight of Remus coming towards him.

"I thought you'd still be in the Hospital Wing, maybe for another night."

"Pomfrey let me go a few hours back and I've been looking for you."

It was exceptionally hard to keep a poker face as Remus said that, wearing a jumper that was big enough so the sleeves hung over his hands, but Sirius just managed it.

"I checked the dorms first," Remus continued, "I wanted to say thank you. I can't believe you you bought me dress robes when we had that conversation about how I'd never had a pair this time last year!"

"I know, I remember," Sirius said softly, drinking in Remus' joy and amazement. "I trust they fit?"

"Perfectly, but actually I wanted to give you something."

Butterflies unfurled their wings in Sirius' stomach.

"Merry Christmas," Remus said quietly with a look in his eyes as he handed Sirius a sealed envelope. "This is for the Secret Santa. We're going to have to talk to James about his lack of subtlety, or maybe it was Lily, but anyway. I do have another gift for you for Christmas too."

"So do I," Sirius said, unsure what Remus was rambling about, thinking of the quill, chocolate and floating book lights he'd bought before actually settling on what he was getting for the friend he wished was more. Then what Moony said sunk in and Sirius stared at the envelope now in his hand in wonder.

"You got me as your Secret Santa? And you think Prongs and Evans did it on purpose?"

Remus rolled his eyes with that smile he only ever gave Sirius.

Slowly, he slit open the envelope and pulled out a letter, Remus' looping handwriting strewn across the page.

Dear Sirius,

I wanted to get you something meaningful and so I decided to just do something I've wanted for a while. It's a bit of a selfish gift but I hope you'll like it anyway.

Will you go on a date with me?

Moony

Sirius stared at the last sentence until Remus cleared his throat. His cheeks were a delightful shade of pink.

"I hope I haven't been misreading the signals but…"

"Yes!"

"Oh thank God," Remus laughed slightly.

They ended up by the rose garden outside, holding hands and sharing soft smiles as they talked about everything and nothing.

"I can't believe you feel the same way," Sirius said, still feeling shell shocked.

Remus didn't answer. Instead he cupped his face and leant in for a kiss. Surrounded by snow, the air perfumed with roses, with his arms around Remus' neck, his lips pressed in a kiss that was electrifying, Sirius let himself melt.

"As Secret Santa gifts go, I think I won the jackpot."

Remus laughed and then pulled him in for another kiss.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this, it was a present to write. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.