Disclaimer: Yes, Harry Potter is still the property of JKR. The holiday season did not change that.

Warning: Mentions of character death.

Author's Notes: This bit of incoherent randomness was written mostly because I kept hearing Megsie's voice in my head telling me to. And I always listen to Megsie :P

As it's close to Christmas (or whatever holiday it is that you celebrate, if you celebrate one), it seems only fair that I beg you to review the fic. Except I feel very silly begging. But stop reading about me talking about how I don't want to beg, go on and read the fic!

And then review, of course. XD

o.o.o.o

Sirius Black had not expected death to be like this. He had expected fire, and pain and noise -- because surely, hell was the only place for someone like him. Even when he'd been alive, that was where he'd been. Or, failing that there were places like Heaven and Hell, he would have expected to spend eternity drifting in some sort of formless gray oblivion.

But instead he was surrounded by a sort of quiet, gentle calm. There was warmth around him, and a soft glow outlining the veins in his eyelids told him that there was light here, too.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, and found to his dismay that he was staring at a Christmas tree, decorated with many shiny glass balls and yards upon yards of tinsel, lit up with what must have been hundreds of candles. Around the base of the tree, under the laden boughs, were many brightly wrapped presents, with horrendously large bows on most of them. Sirius groaned.

He'd always hated Christmas.

But then, from somewhere above his head -- was he lying on a floor? -- he heard a heart-wrenchingly familiar voice gasp his name, sounding positively astounded.

Oh, god, she was here. A Christmas tree was one thing, but her...

"Sirius! Oh, Sirius, is it really you?" cried the voice, a curtain of red hair momentarily obscuring his sight, before two startlingly green eyes took up all the available room in his view. They were shining -- damn, she looked like she was about to cry! Was his presence that bad?

"Lily," he groaned, and lifted his left arm up to cover his eyes. God, even looking at her hurt.

A sharp intake of breath, and then a squeal of delight. "It is you!"

To his dismay, and complete surprise, she threw her arms around him. Her body was soft and warm next his, the swell of her breasts pressed flush against his chest, and he wondered if maybe he hadn't managed to slip into heaven, after all.

"Where am I?" he asked, trying to gently disentangle himself from her arms without looking at her. It wasn't working. Damn, but her eyes were breathtaking.

"I don't know," she answered, her expression smooth. She threw her arms back around him. "And I don't care. It's lovely here -- oh, I'm so glad you've come!"

This time he sat, in front of that Christmas tree, blinking down at her clinging to him, and after a moment or two hesitantly slipped his arms around her, too. If it was going to happen, he might as well enjoy it. And, hell, he was dead, wasn't he? It wasn't as if James could kill him again...

Speaking of which, where was James?

"I don't know," Lily admitted, leaning her head back slightly and craning her neck to look at him. "He was here awhile ago, but then he went away for awhile."

"How long ago?" asked Sirius, mesmerized by how blithely she was discussing the absence of her husband. He stared at her, and it slowly dawned on him that she looked younger than the last time he'd seen her.

All right, so maybe James wasn't exactly her husband in this place, wherever it was. Shouldn't that make him unhappy?

She twitched her head, and her red hair fell away from her face, down her back and over his bare hands, like cool, crimson silk. "I don't know."

Sirius was still thinking. If she looked about seventeen, how did he look?

"Lily?" he began, tentatively.

She smiled. "Nineteen," she replied promptly, though he hadn't gotten around to asking the question yet. "Nineteen, and beautiful."

Then she stretched a bit, leaning up him, and pressed their mouths together.

Oh, he'd definitely ended up in heaven, after all.

He pulled back. "Lily..."

"Oh, I know," she assured him, her smile radiant and innocent. "You don't have to say it. But we don't mind."

"Who is--" Sirius started to say.

"Sirius!" came another voice, so overjoyed that Sirius abruptly wanted to cry. He leapt to his feet, barely noticing that Lily floated up beside him, and spun around.

There was James, looking all of eighteen, and beaming.

"You're back," murmured Lily, her arms still around Sirius. "I am so glad, darling."

"When did you get here?" James demanded, striding forward and pulling both of them into a crushing hug. He didn't give Sirius a chance to answer, turning to Lily and pressing, "And have you told him yet?"

"Awhile," Sirius finally answered, already beginning to feel all sense of time slip away from him.

He moved to rest his head on James's shoulder. James even smelled the way he remembered him smelling, of soap and sky and old leather, but the scent was running, bleeding into Lily's smell of candles and dusty books, joined by a third, one like chocolate and summer rain, which reminded him oddly of himself. They all swirled together, along with the pine needles of the tree, and left him feeling content.

James nodded, and looked again to Lily. "Have you told him?"

"Yes," she answered, her smile very wide. "I told him."

Both of them tilted their heads and swung 'round to look at Sirius.

"It doesn't matter," he said promptly. Because it was what they wanted him to say and frankly, at this point, it didn't matter, anyway.

"Good," declared James, as Lily moved in and kissed Sirius again. "Good."

And it was good. Already Sirius was finding it difficult to recall ever having been anywhere but this strange, warm place with the perfect Christmas tree and his two favorite people.

But he found himself asking again, this time into the nicely scratchy material of James's sweater, as he leaned over Lily to hug his friend a second time, "Where am I?"

"I don't know." James did not sound concerned. Then, echoing Sirius's words, "It doesn't matter. You are loved, that is enough."

"You are loved," repeated Lily, one arm around James and the other around Sirius.

Sirius smiled. "I know."

His smile was beautiful. It lit up his face, and Lily's, and James's, and it even made the lights on the tree sparkle more brightly. It was perfect. And it was all any of them needed.

They were loved.

That was enough.