The smile on Cat’s face spread as she placed her hands on top of Sirius’s arms. “Hmmm, or maybe you should stop worrying so much and shave or something” Cat replied playfully. She smiled as she felt Sirius’s body shake with laughter, “What? Do you think I’m joking with you?”

Sirius kissed the crown of her head before resting his cheek against it. “Not at all, I know to take all requests from you very seriously Miss MacLeod.” Sirius and Cat stood in the yard, their arms around each other for several minutes, watching Harry and the others play in the falling snow. Feeling Cat relax and grow heavy in his arms, Sirius shook his head as he kissed her cheek once more “Come on Cat, time to take you inside” he said, trying not to laugh as she startled out of a light sleep. “You sleep, I’ll shave.” he added as he winked at her.

“I’ll hold you to that Mr. Black” Cat teased back as she allowed Sirius to escort her back into the warmth of her home. “Have you eaten enough Sirius?” she questioned as the delicious aroma of the kitchen filled the house.

“Have I ?… Kitty, honestly, I appreciate you and your clan trying to fatten me up, but enough is enough.” he laughed as he placed his hands on his belly and patted it. “I swear, I’m close to bursting now.” he could tell by the critical look on Cat’s face that she didn’t believe him. “Honestly” he added softly, taking her hands in his. “I’m fine, and I’m getting better each day.”

“I just worry about you Sirius” Cat confessed. “It isn’t like you to let yourself go like this. I don’t like to even think of what must have happened to you. Who was it that imprisoned you? Lucius? Or one of his cronies?”

Sirius shook his head as he hugged Cat tightly “How tired are you gra? Do you think you can stay up for a few hours to have a long heart to heart?” he asked sincerely.

“A few hours? Oh, Sirius, is it really that bad?” Cat sighed as she asked, although one look into his eyes told her more than his words ever could. “I want to know Sirius, I ‘need’ to know.” she insisted, stifling a yawn as she did so.

Sirius gave her a crooked grin “Well I can see we’re off to a great start. Come on, I’ll walk you to your room” he said as he offered her his arm, he beamed as she willingly took it and leaned against him. He felt the familiar tingling in his stomach as he led her up the winding stairs towards the southern side of the house. They spoke quietly about her family as Cat directed Sirius towards her room, her head resting against his shoulder as they walked.

Cat watched Sirius intently as they walked though the house, she adored the way his face would light up when clan would pass them and smile at him, or even better, when the children dashed across their path on their way to play. She glimpsed the man she had known in those moments, the kindness, the joy, the heartfelt smile. It was all still there, buried within his worn exterior. Just as she was about to ask him about his past, one of her nephew came running out of an open door and straight into Sirius. “Tucker, baby, watch what you’re doing.” she said to the small red-haired boy as Sirius quickly grabbed the boy to stop him from falling.

“Now Cat,” Sirius soothed, “boys will be boys” he winked as Tucker gave him a devilish grin. “Besides, I have the feeling I should get used to things like this. Not that its going to take much” he added as he tussled Tucker’s wild hair and laughed as the boy went off to join his cousins.

“Good thing you like children” Cat sighed “because my family is blessed with them, troops of them.” She shook her head as she looked into the room Tucker had ran out of, inside was another niece, Alissa slightly older than Tucker with dark hair and a very pretty smile. She was teaching her younger cousins how to dance a reel, as a ghost stood beside her, playing the bagpipes as they danced. Cat heard Sirius laughing softly behind her as they watched the children try a few complicated steps, only to have many of them trip over or into each other and land with a thud. “We should go, if they see us watching them they’ll be embarrassed” Cat whispered softly as she went to take Sirius’s hand, only to realized his arm was already around her waist.

Sirius smiled tenderly as he realized Cat was perfectly content to allow him to hold her like this. Everything just felt so right, so perfect, it was as if all the darkness and pain he had held inside of him was being siphoned out by the very air of Fernglennis.

When they finally reached the door to her room, Sirius hesitated a moment as his hand touched the knob. “Will your brothers hurt me if I’m here? I’ve seen them, and I have no intention of getting on the wrong side of them.” he said as he grinned playfully.

“Stop.” Cat laughed “And don’t let them hear you say that, they’ll never let you live it down. As long as you’re a gentleman, they won’t have any problems with you being here.” she added as the door opened for her. Sirius stared at the door for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and following Cat inside. He smiled when he saw her room, it was just as he imagined it would be, slightly cluttered with books and curious items, reflecting her interests and her charm. He grinned as he walked pass her dresser and stopped to pick up a bottle of lotion, he uncapped it and took a deep whiff, enjoying the soft, feminine fragrance. He smiled softly as he remembered rubbing lotion on Cat’s back for her when they vacationed with Lily and her family in Spain.

“Sirius?” Cat questioned, “Is something wrong?” she asked when she saw the strange, far away look in his eyes.

“No, nothing” he said as he turned and smiled at her, replacing the bottle on her dresser. “I just miss things like this, the little feminine touches, the fancy pillows, the perfumes, the click of heels… you know, the goofy little things.”

“You were imprisoned for a very long time, weren’t you?” Cat asked softly as she placed her hand on Sirius’s face. She could feel the clenching of his jaw under his shaggy beard, as if he were conflicted on how to answer.

“Yes Kitty, a very, very long time….years.” he replied as he placed his hand over hers. “and to be honest, I’m afraid to talk to you about it. I’m terrified that when you know the whole story, what happened and why….. I don’t want you to hate me Cat, I want you to love me. I want to be with you gra, I want you to love me like I love you.” he whispered as he leaned down towards her, praying that she wouldn’t turn her face away from him this time…..

Cat looked up into Sirius’s eyes and melted as she saw the fear and uncertainty in them. How could he ever think she wouldn’t understand, all she wanted, all she needed was the truth, the whole truth. She felt her heart melt as he confessed his desires to her, in truth, part of her wanted the same thing he did, it was only the thought of Severus that had held her back this far. She paused for a moment when she saw Sirius tilting his head towards her, she knew she shouldn’t allow him to, but it had been so long since she tasted his lips.

Cat stood on her toes as she lifted her face to his, she felt the electricity flow through her as their lips touched. She sighed softly as Sirius’s hand cradled the back of her head, his fingers weaving their way through her thick hair as they shared a sweet and tender kiss. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t allow him to press on any further. She shuddered as she felt his tongue play along her lips, trying to part them so he might enter into her and deepen their kiss. Cat gently pushed Sirius away “Sirius, please, I can’t not now.” she whispered as she rested her head against his chest, nuzzling against him as he wrapped his arms around her.

Sirius felt as if his heart was both breaking and mending at the same time. The fact that she had refused to allow him to proceed hurt him terribly, especially since he could still smell the lingering, musky scent of Snape on her with his heightened animal senses. But then again, at least this time she had lifted her head to return his kiss instead of turning away. “I won’t force you gra, I never have, I never will.” he promised softly as he held her close against him. “I just miss this so much, I miss the way we used to be.” he confessed as his hands ran their way along her spine, delighting in the soft gasps that escaped her lips as he touched her…….

Harry screamed as Sara pelted him with snowballs, he fell into a deep pile of snow as Sara laughed loudly at his half-hearted attempt to escape her. He grinned wickedly at her as he scooped up a large handful of snow and chased after her, molding it into a ball. He heard the voices of his other cousins laughing and yelling at them as they chose their sides in the battle. Before Harry realized what was happening, their was a full fledged snowball battle surrounding him. He turned to join JL and the other boys as they chased after the girls, attempting to corner them near the barn.

Just as the boys seemed to have the upper hand, Meg burst out of the barn with a tall, slender, silvery haired elf by her side. The elf motioned with his hand and suddenly the boys were hit with a barrage of snowballs, driving them to take cover as the girls cheered and the elf laughed.

“Hey, no fair, its supposed to be boys against girls. You’re on the wrong side Inuya” LJ complained.

“My apologies, but I must disagree with you Luke, son of Luke. If I must choose sides, then I choose to be the lone man amongst a tribe women.” Inuya replied, the faintest of smiles on his winter-rose colored lips.

Harry watched intently as several of his female cousins quickly rushed to Inuya and flung their arms around the elf, kissing him happily on his cheeks as a purple blush came to his pale bluish skin. Harry turned to LJ, rolling his eyes dramatically, just in time to see Moira sneaking up behind LJ. Before Harry could utter a word, Moira had dumped a bucketful of snow down the back of LJ’s trousers, causing the young man to yelp and shimmy around as the others laughed. Harry’s eyes grew wide as he saw Moira refill the bucket and hone in on him “Don’t do it Moira” Harry pleaded as he took a few steps back, feeling very nervous when he saw the devilish look in her eyes.

Turning and running from Moira, Harry felt the crisp cold air as it stung his lungs. He could feel her closing in on him as he pressed on leaping over the strange mounds that Sara and Einy were building in an attempt to evade her. He thought he was going to make it to safety when he saw Callista, but realized too late she was only there to slow him down as Moira dumped her bucket of snow on top of him. She laughed as she brushed the mound of snow off of Harry’s cap and gave him a playful kiss on his cheek as she walked off to find her next victim.

“You alright Harry?” Callista asked softly “I’m sorry, I didn’t think she’d actually do it, but she is kind of unpredictable.”

Harry looked up at Callista and laughed hysterically, “No, its alright. I’ve just never had anyone play like that with me before. I mean, when Dudley chased me it was always to beat me up or something.”

“He beat you up and your laughing about it?” Callista asked incredulously “You’re a very strange fellow Harry.”

Harry waved his hand, not bothering to try and explain what a wonderful feeling it was to be able to play and laugh without worrying about a teacher coming along and taking points away, or worse, having the Dursley’s scream at him and continuously tell him what a shame it was he didn’t die with his parents. “You wouldn’t understand Cali, don’t worry about it, I like to laugh at things.” he replied simply as he took her extended hand and stood up, brushing the snow from him.

“Well then laugh all you want, but we better get you something dry to put on, Aunt Kitty and Aunt Siobhan will have a real fit if you get sick or anything.” Cali reminded him as she held onto his hand and walked towards the house. As they were walking Harry saw Ariel, who he remembered from the night before, she was still holding onto her stuffed bunny and staring dejectedly at a large snowball that was sitting in front of her feet.

“Hello Ariel, is something wrong?” Harry asked as they came up to her.

Arielle raised her large brown eyes to look into Harry’s and sighed. “We want to build a snow man with Aunt Kitty’s magic snow. But none of us is big enough to make the bottom piece.”

Harry looked at Callista and raised his eyebrow, “Magic snow? Is there something I should know about?”

Cali shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know, I mean she does this for us nearly every year. It’s nothing unusual or anything.” she replied, wondering why he seemed so confused about his own mother.

Harry was about to ask another question when he felt Ariel pulling on his sleeve “Harry, can you help us build a snowman, pleeeeaaasssee.” she whined, giving Harry a very sad look as her lower lip stuck out slightly.

Smiling down at her, Harry nodded and quickly rolled several large snowballs for the younger children to decorate and play with, smiling brightly as the children cheered him on. He grinned happily as he wiped the fine layer of perspiration that had formed on his brow. “Alright Ariel, do you need anything else?” he asked as he sat the last of the heads on top of the snowmen as Callista stuck rowan branches into them as arms.

“Yes” Arielle nodded “Can you help me with these?” she asked, holding up a fistful of holly leaves and rowan twigs “I’m too short to reach.” she added as she held her arms up to him.

Harry picked her up and held her as she used the holly leaves for eyes and made strange wistful smiles from the rowan twigs. As Harry set her back down, he saw all the children join hands and sing as they circled around the snowmen Ariel had just decorated.

Harry gasped as he saw the snowmen blink their eyes slowly as the children kept chanting, within seconds he saw them moving their arms and silently grin at the children who had created them. He found himself gawking as Ariel and the others cheered and ran to the snowmen who glided to meet the children. He watched in amazement as the snowmen took the children by their hands, dancing with them as the snow continued to fall over Fernglennis. ……

Cat looked up at Sirius as he held her tightly, refusing to let her go. “Sirius, please, I’m so tired.” she sighed “let me have a little nap and then we can discuss everything; you, your past, us…. Everything”