#present wrapping

"Pass me the tape would you?"

"What do you mean? I gave it to you two minutes ago."

"Well, it's completely vanished and in case you hadn't noticed, I've got my hands a little full here trying to make sure this whole thing doesn't fall to pieces."

Sirius sighed, crouching down to retrieve the roll of tape from under the table and handing it to his girlfriend, who offered him a thankful smile as she pointed where she wanted him to tape.

"That's perfect, thanks."

"How many more of these do we have to do, Minty? I'm tired of this."

Araminta glanced past him to the large bag of gifts on the other side of the room, and then to the three small boxes they had already managed to wrap. "A few."

"I think I might need another cup of coffee."

"Too bad, Padfoot. We're in the wrapping studio now, we're not leaving until we finish this. And besides, you know full well that Lily isn't going to let you near their coffee machine after last time."

"Hey! It's not my fault it didn't take kindly to magic, how was I supposed to know that Muggle stuff is so picky?"

Araminta sighed, cutting another section of tape and trying to work out how in Merlin's name she was supposed to actually wrap the strangely shaped box of chocolates she had picked out for Remus. She was beginning to think she should have made sure all the presents they bought were cubes - they were far easier to wrap.

"Scissors," she instructed, flattening out the extra wrapping paper and watching as Sirius snipped it off. "See, you're great at this."

He puffed his chest out a little at that, handing her the next present with significantly more enthusiasm. Minty filed away that piece of information for later, knowing that if they were going to get through all the gifts they needed to wrap, Sirius was going to need a lot of encouraging.

"Would some music help?" she asked as she added a golden bow to the top of the present, trying to rub away the stickiness it had left on her fingers.

"Maybe." He shrugged. "This is just a bit boring, Minty."

Araminta turned to the radio Lily had left sitting on the table behind them. The woman had claimed that she liked to put on a bit of music whilst she was in the studio, and so had left it for them to use if they wanted. Araminta had a quick flick through the CDs Lily had left and, completely discarding them, turned the machine on, fiddling with the dials until she found something which sounded vaguely like music.

"What about this?" she asked, turning to face Sirius.

She found him holding a tube from one of the rolls of wrapping paper, holding it up to his eye and peering through it at her.

"What on earth are you doing?"

"I'm being a pirate." He grinned, offering her the tube. "See, it's great fun."

Araminta took the tube, holding it up and appreciating that her boyfriend wasn't far wrong. "This is great!"

"See, I told you so!" Sirius allowed himself a smug little smirk as he turned back to the pile of wrapping paper left on the table. "How many rolls do you think we can finish with all these presents?"

"Five?"

"Nah, I reckon at least ten."

"You're on, Black." Araminta joined him at the table, spreading out another section of paper and snipping it just long enough to cover the next present, finding that Sirius was a much more willing volunteer now there was a bet involved.

The presents were wrapped in no time after that, Sirius gloating loudly when it turned out they had used eight tubes of paper to do it. Araminta strongly considered pointing out that he had said they would use more than ten, but decided it wasn't worth it for the five galleons she had lost to him.

"You got it done then?" James asked as they appeared in the kitchen, Sirius immediately moving to retrieve the bundle of blankets James was carrying.

"We absolutely did," he informed the man, reaching into the blankets to poke little Harry on the nose. "We couldn't spend any more time away from this little cutie, could we? How on earth would he ever manage without his Padfoot?"

James snorted as Sirius wandered off with the child. "I have no idea."

"I don't think we're ever going to get the chance to find out," Araminta pointed out. "That kid is going to be attached to Sirius's side for the next twenty years if Padfoot gets his way."

"You're not wrong." James shook his head affectionately. "Did Padfoot slip up and tell you what he's got you for Christmas?"

"I couldn't possible say," Araminta mumbled, shooting him a crafty smile. Sirius might not have told her, but that wasn't to say she hadn't caught a glimpse of the black velvet box he had been carrying around for the last two weeks, or of the ring it contained. Her legilimency made it pretty impossible to keep any secrets, and this wasn't an exception to the rule.

"Well, Merry Christmas."