❄️ Wolfstar Secret Snowflake Exchange ❄️

Thank you to everyone who participated in this years Wolfstar Secret Snowflake Exchange. This was the first year that the mods ran this exchange, and although we hit some snags, but overall we think it was a big success. We couldn’t have done it without our lovely authors and artists, so without further ado, here are the gift reveals:

For @im-captain-egg: Rock, Paper, Lynx by @crazy4moony

For @jim-is-spocks-thyla: Raised by Wolves by @stars-and-wolves

For @verdart: Art by @asketchymonday

For @lentejart: Art by @verdart

For @lupinmoons: Red, White, & Royal Annoyance by @im-captain-egg

For @ziezie13: Goodie Two-Shoes by @anemonenemerosa

For @lesbianadammilligan: your face looks funny by @pan-and-ready-to-stan

For @pan-and-ready-to-stan: The Marauders Four-Step Guide to Blind Dates by @mooncat457writing

For @stars-a-n-d-scars: Silent Spaces by @thisisjaybaker

For @rosemaldrge: Cookies, Snow and Stories by @jim-is-spocks-thyla

For @stars-and-wolves: Remus Lupin’s Guide to Snogging by @ziezie13

For @thisisjaybaker: undoubtedly assure you by @lesbianadammilligan

For @anemonenemerosa: Teenage Wasteland by @ziezie13

For @asketchymonday: Art by @lentejart

For @mooncat457writing: Fic by @stars-a-n-d-scars

.-

Love from,

Your Secret Santa.

Remus strained his neck to look over the people in front of him. The ticket master was at the gate, collecting people’s money and letting them on in twos and threes. Remus counted the heads in front of him, and then how many people were getting let on in one go and came to the conclusion that he would be on the Ferris wheel in under 5 minutes. Those 5 minutes past more slowly than he thought time was capable of.

Remus had always loved theme parks. The roller coasters, the shows, the exhibits, they all made him feel like he was part of a fantastical world where anything was possible. But the Ferris Wheel had always been his favourite attraction. It was hard to explain, but there was something about being way up there, with the wind in your hair and the sky in your heart that made it more magical than any 3D movie “experience”.

Finally, the person in front of Remus stepped forwards and he was at the front of the line. He grinned at the ticket master and pulled out his wallet to pay. Opening it, he retrieved 3 pound and placed them in the bucket. He was just stepping through the gate when an arm blocked his way.

“It’s 5 pounds.”

Remus’ heart sank. He turned back around to face the sour-looking man. He was filthy, his hands calloused and covered in what looked like engine oil. He was in dire need of both a shave and a haircut, and his glare could have borne a hole in metal.

“I- I’m sorry?” Remus stammered.

“It’s. 5. Pounds”, the man repeated, his tone growing more aggravated.

“I thought it was 3…” Remus said. If only he hadn’t bought that last bar of chocolate.

“Well you thought wrong, punk. Get out here before I call security”, by the way the man was reaching for the walkie-talkie on his belt, Remus knew he wasn’t bluffing. Sighing, he turned to go, but found his way blocked for the second time that night.

Remus raised his head to look at his newest assailant and found that he had forgotten how to breathe. In front of his was the most beautiful man god ever blew breath into. He was tall, but not as tall as Remus. He had a flowing mane of black hair, which looked as though it was made of the wind itself. Infallible coffee-coloured skin stretched across his and toned, muscular arms, which were covered in tattoos ranging from ancient runes to what looked like an upside-down Donald Duck. And his eyes. Oh, those eyes. They were captivating. Right on the edge of grey and blue, the kind that the second you made up your mind about what colour they were, they changed. And they were looking at something. They were looking at… him?

An accusatory cough from the ticket master pulled Remus out of his reverie, but not before the man had managed to get his heart-rate too well above a safe speed. Turning, Remus apologized profusely to the ticket master and began to leave, when a voice stopped him in his tracks.

“I’ll pay.”

Within the hour😉😉💜

For @anemonenemerosa​

I had so much fun with this! You asked for some Jily content together with Wolfstar plus a little sprinkling of good!Regulus and a happy ending. I have delivered. I have tried to tailor it to your tastes as best I can and I really hope you like it. So without further ado I give you my fic for the Wolfstar Secret Snowflake Exchange…

Sirius Black let out a groan as his body woke up. He did a mental inventory of the damage while he stretched his muscles. Honestly, it could have been much worse. It had been much worse. Gently, he reached a hand up to his face flinching as it brushed the tender skin along his jaw.

Shit. It was bruised for sure. There was no way his parents would let him out of the house today. God forbid someone saw the results of their handiwork and got the wrong impression. No, his mother had probably called into the school already to report him sick. He let out an exhausted sigh and sat up to face the door as he heard it open.

His little brother stood in the frame, one hand on his hip. “Really, Sirius? Why must you antagonize them? I hope the party last night was worth it.”

Sirius flopped back down, letting his head bounce slightly as it hit the pillow. “I’m not in the mood Reggie, so if you don’t have anything helpful to contribute I would ask that you kindly fuck off.”

He could practically hear his brother roll his eyes. “I’ll pick up your homework from the front office so tell James not to worry about it.” And with that remark Regulus made his exit leaving Sirius alone once more. 

Sirius remained in bed until he was sure there was no one left in the massive house. Once he heard the third car pull away from the drive he finally let himself breathe. It seemed like his mother and father were both too busy to stay home and act as warden. Perhaps the day could be salvaged after all.

He blasted his music through the house’s speaker system and relaxed under the warm spray of the shower, singing along to the song and letting his body move with the music. He was grateful for the layer of fog that covered the mirror as he wrapped a towel around his waist.

He settled into the breakfast nook with a bowl of cereal and watched a couple of squirrels chase each other in the yard. Honestly, it was too nice of a day to waste. He checked the clock, 7:42. James and Lily were probably getting in a morning make-out session before classes started. The two had been all over each other since they had finally got together earlier in the school year. He reached for his phone and made the call.

“Sirius! Please tell me you are running late.”

“Actually Prongs, I was thinking today we have a little fun. One last hurrah before the end of the year and all that.”

“Oh? What did you have in mind?”

“Is Lily with you?”

“Yeah, right now she is giving me a very questionable look.”

“Good. Bring her along… Peter too. It’s senior skip day. Meet me at my place in twenty.”

For @thisisjaybaker

I wanted to write something featuring friends to lovers, and since it’s in the spirit of the exchange, I went ahead and set it during the winter holidays at Hogwarts. I hope you enjoy the fic and have a lovely holiday season and a happy new year! 

“You know, it’s not too late to change your mind,” Sirius says, looking down at the floor where Peter is struggling to close his trunk. 

“He’s right,” James says. “You sure you want to leave Padfoot and Moony all alone for the fifteen dates I plan to go on with Lily?”

This is my gift for @stars-and-wolves​! I got called in to be a pinch hitter and I just couldn’t say no. I immediately knew what I was going to write when I saw your prompt of getting together and first kisses so I hope you’re satisfied. Happy Holidays! 

“I’m bored,” Sirius whined.

“You do know we have twenty-one inches for Defense Against the Dark Arts due on Wednesday, right?” Remus didn’t bother to look up from his own essay that he was working on. He could already picture, quite clearly, the pout on Sirius’ face.

“But that’s boring.”

“Are you telling me Sirius Black has nothing interesting to say on the discourse of what the Ministry classifies as a curse?” Remus responded.

“Fine. You win.” Sirius grabbed some of Remus’ parchment and his extra quill. Remus rolled his eyes but continued working.

“Happy?” Sirius asked as he started the paper.

“Ecstatic.”

The two boys continued to work in relative silence for half an hour before Remus put his quill down. 

“Oh thank Merlin,” Sirius breathed setting his own quill down in turn.

“You still have a good ten inches to go,” Remus said looking over at Sirius’ paper.

Sirius, however, waved him off. “I’ll finish it tomorrow at lunch.” He threw the unfinished essay onto his bed before throwing himself onto Remus’. The mattress bounced a bit as he landed and Remus smiled despite himself. 

He jumped into the bed alongside Sirius. Sirius was on his back now with his eyes closed and a smirk on his face. 

“You know. You could be top of the class if you actually put in some effort.”

“Hmmm, yes but then my parents would start expecting things from me again and it is best for everyone if I don’t encourage them.”

“What album are you in the mood for?” Remus asked.

“Heroes.”

Remus got out his wand and did a silent Leviosa pulling out the record from their collection and placing it gently on the record player. Soon enough music filled the room.

Weaving down a byroad, singing a song

That’s my kind of highroad gone wrong

(My, my smile at least)

You can’t say no to the beauty and the beast

The record player had been a gift from Sirius’ cousin in their second year and each of the Marauders had added their own records to the collection over the years.

Heroes had been an addition from Remus that he had got from his parents for Christmas. 

The two boys listened to the music lying side by side on the bed. They had long ago gotten over the need to be constantly conversing and were perfectly content to just be in each other’s presence.

As they were listening to “Blackout”, Sirius asked, “What do you think it’s like?”

“Hmmm?”

“Well, it’s just James is dating Lily now and even Peter has Macdonald. And I was just thinking what would it be like to kiss someone.”

“Oh. Honestly, it’s a bit overrated.”

Sirius shot up.

“You’ve kissed someone? Who? When? Why didn’t you tell us?”

Remus grimaced and slowly rose to a sitting position. “I didn’t tell you because I knew you would make a big deal out of it, which it’s not.”

“Which it most certainly is.” Sirius countered.

Remus made a face but just continued on, “You remember the Halloween party fifth year? We all got drunk and James tried to fly his broom down the corridor.”

“Yeah.”

“Well at some point in the night Marlene and I ended up snogging behind that tapestry of the unicorns.”

“You and Marlene?”

Remus shrugged.

“Was it any good?”

“I mean it was fine. I guess. Like I said overrated.”

“How do you know you were doing it right?”

Remus levelled his gaze at Sirius. “I was doing it right.”

“Are you sure?”

“Would you like a demonstration?”

For @rosemaldrge​

Dear Rose,

it has been a pleasure to be your Secret Snowflake this year. I’ve kept it very much fluffy, so I hope you’ll enjoy it.

I wish you a happy and healthy rest of the wintery season,

all my love,

your Secret Snowflake.

Cookies, Snow and Stories

In the grassy hills of Wales, a cottage was nestled quite remotely in between two hills. There was only a narrow lane curving up to it and no car in sight. If one didn’t know better, one would think witches lived here. But really, let’s not be stereotypical: it wasn’t witches living there, but wizards. And whether or not one had been assigned ‘witch’ at birth was rather irrelevant at this point.

So, a wizards’ cottage. And even though it looked rather tranquil from the outside, controlled chaos had taken over the kitchen.

For @stars-a-n-d-scars​

Dear Mia, ‘tis the season to be jolly and I hope you’ll have wonderful holidays! I send you the best of wishes for the rest of 2020 and for next year (which hopefully won’t be as much of a chaos)! I hope you’ll enjoy the fic I wrote! Lots of love, your Secret Snowflake :)

*****

silent spaces

My dearest Remus,

you had already anticipated your father’s and my surprise when you asked to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays in your last letter. Of course, we understand your reasoning. I am sure you offered Sirius to stay with us instead and that he declined, but make sure he knows he would be welcome here. Yes, you can stay, if you wish to, but we would like to see you for some time around the holidays, maybe you’d like to come and stay with us for New Year’s at least. And tell Sirius – and James and Peter if you like – that they are welcome as well for this holiday. As for your Christmas preparations: I’m aware that you are probably oblivious as to what to give to me or your father and as you have been ignoring our answer that we do not want you to give us presents I wanted to give you a few hints…

“What does she write?” James asked, after giving Remus about half a minute to read the latest letter from his mother, “Can you stay here for Christmas?” James had always been the most impatient of his friends. Remus could forgive him for this, though, and if it was only for the way Sirius was acting as if this conversation was not concerning him.

To: @pan-and-ready-to-stan​

From: Your Secret Snowflake

I hope you enjoy your fic! This was a joy to write. I loved exploring all of the marauders dynamics. I don’t normally write all four marauders, so I hope I did this justice :)

The Marauders Four-Step Guide to Blind Dates

Step One: Set Up the Date

Prongs

It’s been three years, and Sirius and Remus hadn’t gotten past the longing stares across the common room and the “strictly platonic cuddling” to confess that they had feelings for each other, and James and Peter were tired of it. They were tired of watching the other two marauders pine over each other, making everyone in Gryffindor wish they would just get a room already. So James and Peter—well, more Peter—came up with a plan. A four-step plan of which James was carrying out the first step. 

He found Lily in the library with Mary, Peter’s almost-girlfriend, swung one of the chairs at their table around and sat in it, facing the wrong way with his arms draped over the back of it. “Lily, Mary, how are you doing this fine evening?”

“What do you want, Potter?” Lily asked in a no-nonsense tone, but there was a hint of a smile as she looked up from her potions textbook. 

“Getting right to it. Alright then,” he said playfully. “I need your help to get Sirius and Remus together.”

“Oh, finally,” Mary piped up.

“I’m assuming you have a plan,” Lily said.

“I do,” James said, nodding. “We tell them that we’re going on a group date—You and me, Peter and Mary, and them with blind dates. Except, their “blind dates” are each other.“

She glared at him. “If this is just some trick to finally get me to agree to a date with you, you can—”

“It’s not, I promise!” He assured her quickly. “I can just tell how miserable they are. All they need is a little nudge, but if we set them up on blind dates, just on their own, it might not go well. If we’re there, we can continue to nudge if necessary.”

She looked at him skeptically. 

“Besides, it’s not actually my plan. It’s Peter. I’m just responsible for this part.”

“And what is Peter responsible for?”

“Step two: Making sure they don’t get suspicious,” James said.

Lily sighed and stared at him for a long moment, as if judging his sincerity, then nodded. “Alright, I’m in. But I don’t want to lie to either of them. So we’re just going to have to get creative with the truth.”

“Fine by me. I’m a terrible liar anyway,” he said with a shrug. 

Over the next half an hour, they came up with the plan’s details, which James would fill Peter in on later. Once they were done, James bounded up to the Gryffindor dorm room, where the other three marauders were studying for the charms end-of-term exam they had the next morning. 

“Lads, it’s a Christmas miracle!” James exclaimed as he threw the door open. 

“What are you going on about, Prongs?” Sirius asked from Remus’ bed. His head rested in Remus’ lap while he quizzed him, and James exchanged a covert look with Peter.

“Lily finally agreed to go out with me!”

For @lesbianadammilligan​

I really tried to make it angst with a happy ending, and luckily it still is, but it has accidentally become a bit more cracky than I expected. I hope you’ll still like it, though, and happy holidays! <3

summary: 

Well, Sirius decides, time to get a date. But, how do you do it? Hm. Didn’t James today have something? He said it would definitely work. 

And then, unfortunately for everyone involved, Sirius’ brain manages to recover bits and pieces of what, exactly, James had said.

-or: Remus has always disliked his soulwords, and what they meant, but as soon as Sirius opens his mouth Remus realizes that they might have always meant something different than he thought.

To: @ziezie13​

From: Your Secret Snowflake

Once, the idea was born, I had fun writing this. I’ve not done a fic that takes place in the wizarding world before so, I hope it turned out in a way you enjoy =)

Goodie Two-Shoes

“She’s not coming back until next week.” James sounding genuinely miserable, but Sirius had to listen to that for the last seven weeks, so his patience was long gone. James’ beloved Lily-flower was currently in France, doing a student exchange in Beauxbatons.

“There she is!” James exclaimed. The noise was still ringing in Sirius’ ear when James already stormed off, tackling Lily into a fierce hug and spinning the laughing girl around. Unfortunately, he knocked an exchange-student over in his enthusiasm and didn’t even realise it. So, it was on Sirius to help the poor fellow up again. The boy was pale, about half a head taller than himself and shaped like a twig.

“Merci beaucoup.” The boy mumbled absentmindedly, pushing his wavy brown hair out of his eyes and glancing irritably over at James, who was still clutching at Lily like his life depended on it.

“Ça va?” Are you OK? Sirius asked the distracted boy, whose head snapped right back to him.

“Tu parles français.” You speak French. It wasn’t a question.

“Non.” Sirius joked with a smirk and, to his disappointment, was just met with a slow blink and a blank look out of warm brown eyes.

“Remus!” Lily had herself disentangled from James and appeared from behind the tall boy with a broad smile.

For @lupinmoons <3

Hi Len!! When we talked about a Wolfstar RWRB AU on discord, I had already finished this fic and I was itching to tell you guys about it but I kept quiet like a good snowflake. And you said that you like my other Wolfstar stories so I’m even more excited and hope that you enjoy this story! Lots of love and happy holidays <3

-

“What are you wearing tomorrow?” Lily asks, leaning against the frame of Remus’ bedroom door. She has her red hair in a loose ponytail and wears a pair of mom jeans with an oversized sweater and pink sparkly socks.

Remus lifts his head from where he lays sprawled on the bed, laptop resting on his chest. “What wedding?” he asks, closing the laptop and sitting up. 

Lily sighs and shakes her head, pushing herself off of the door frame and walks over to the bed. She drops a stack of magazines on the mattress next to Remus and points to their glossy covers. “The royal wedding of Andromeda and Edward, Remus. What other wedding should I be talking about?”

-

For @jim-is-spocks-thyla

I am SO excited for you to finally read this! I really really loved writing it – I adore fluff and I’d never written a “raising Harry” fic before so I had a lot of fun exploring that! Happy Holidays <3

yours with love, Winnie

ps. send me a message on tumblr or comment on the fic if you want me to change the ‘gift’ of the fic from your tumblr username to your AO3 account

***

Raised by Wolves (https://archiveofourown.org/works/28162395)

“… Moony howled at the full moon as it rose over the trees. Padfoot and Prongs were already falling asleep in the magical forest after a long day of chasing rabbits and befriending the new unicorns.”

Sirius Black smiled as he almost gracefully exited the fireplace in the small house he shared with his two favourite people in the world. It was a Wednesday evening, and Remus’s deep voice was drifting from Harry’s bedroom, even though he was talking more softly than usual.

Harry is being raised by Sirius and Remus and they all love each other and they’re all happy