A/N: Once again, this fic was written for a LiveJournal community called Metamorfic Moon.

My prompts were: Holly and these lyrics:

A time for giving, a time for getting/A time for forgiving and for forgetting/Christmas is love, christmas is peace/A time for hating and fighting to cease.

- Mistletoe and Wine - Cliff Richard

Spreading Good Cheer

Remus draped one last garland of evergreen on their fireplace and stepped back to look at it all. It was all he had ever wanted or dreamed of and he couldn't believe he finally had it. He felt, in a way, that he had cheated life. He was never supposed to have any of this. It all started back when he had found his first friends, the Marauders. That was when he had begun to feel as though he owed a debt to life or society. He felt that he should be punished because his lycanthropy and the world had made him feel that way until he came to Hogwarts. And now, here he was living in a nice house with a wife and a baby. He had never imagined he would be so blessed.

"It's perfect," he said to himself.

"What's perfect?" came a voice from behind him. Remus turned around to see his wife, Nymphadora, holding their son Teddy on her hip.

"All of this," he said, smiling.

Tonks smiled coyly. "What do you mean?"

Remus spread his arms and walked towards Tonks, engulfing her and Teddy in one giant holiday hug. "You, and Teddy, and Christmas."

"Oh, Remus," said Tonks and when Remus pulled away from hugging her he saw that she was blushing. The red on her cheeks clashed awfully with her bubblegum pink hair and Remus thought it was awfully adorable. He grasped her shoulders gently and kissed her nose.

"Oh, stop it," said Tonks, blushing even deeper. "They'll be here any minute!"

"Since when have you cared who sees us kissing?"

"Since nearly all of our friends decided to come to our new house for Christmas."

"Darling, they didn't idecide/i. We invited them, remember all the red and green cards and the licking of the envelopes and all those trips our owl had to make?"

"Shush," said Tonks, whacking him lightly on the arm.

"Oh," said Remus suddenly as he rummaged through their box of Christmas decorations they had accumulated from Tonks' mother and bought in Diagon Alley. "Look, holly."

"Oh, yes, that's quite old. Do you think we should hang it up?" asked Tonks, fingering the sprig of holly tentatively.

"Are you telling me you're considering inot/i hanging it up?"

"Why? What's so important about it?"

Remus' eyes cast downwards at his shoes. He blushed slightly and said, "You don't remember?"

Tonks bit her lip, "Not really."

"Well, that's all right, it's silly anyways."

"No, tell me," said Tonks, setting Teddy down in his basinet.

Remus rolled his eyes towards the ceiling, a red blush settling across his cheeks.

"Well," he said. "It's just that...one night last Christmas you couldn't sleep. Teddy must have been bothering you or something. Anyways, I decided that Christmas-izing our bedroom would make you feel the holiday spirit and perhaps you'd get to sleep better. All I could find around your mum's house was..."

"Holly and tinsel," said Tonks, smiling suddenly as she remembered the incident that had occurred almost a year to the date. "I remember now."

"And you slept like..well, a baby," said Remus, chuckling softly. "I just thought it might be nice to decorate with it again."

"That's a sweet idea, darling," said Tonks, reaching up to cup her husband's face and kiss him softly. "I'm sorry I'd forgotten. It's just that I'd rather forget some of those more unpleasant pregnant nights."

"Understandable," said Remus. The only reason he remembered it was that the holly had been int he box to jar his memory. So much had happened between then and now, both good and bad, that it was hard to recall things. After they had emerged from the final battle unscathed, they settled down straight away. Tonks' mum had helped them buy a small house in a London suburb. Remus had been pinching himself every morning to make sure he wasn't dreaming of this perfect family and suddenly perfect life. He'd also been reinstated at Hogwarts as now-permanent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"So, who's coming tonight?" asked Remus, rifling through the box of decorations.

"Well, all of the Weasleys, for starters. I don't know how we're going to fit them all. I daresay we're going to have to conjure up a few extra chairs," said Tonks. Remus smiled slightly at how his wife had fallen in to the role of the housewife. It hadn't been easy. She'd been restless to return to her job at first but after careful persuading from Remus and her mum, she decided that it would be better for her to stay with Teddy during his formative years. After all, that was what her mother had done for her and Tonks fondly remembered their many days spent together in the park or playing Quidditch in the backyard.

"And then there's Harry and Ginny, and Hermione, and I think Neville might be stopping by as well. You know, I've heard that he's dating a Hannah Abbott."

"Ah, I remember her, good student," said Remus, pulling a tangled mess of lights out of the box. "You know, you're becoming more wont to gossip nowadays."

"It's a bad habit I picked up sitting around here all day," said Tonks, jokingly, tugging the tangled lights from a very confused looking Remus' hands.

"No, in all seriousness," said Remus. "Are you enjoying being a stay-at-home witch?"

Tonks thought for a moment, turning the question over in her head and turning the ball of lights over in her hands. "Yes."

Remus smiled and put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her tight and kissing the top of her head. "I just wish I could be around more during the school year."

"The time you're here is all that matters," said Tonks, burying her head in Remus' chest and wondering when they'd become such a bunch of sappy married people.

They stood like that for a while until a small baby noise from behind them made them jump. Tonks looked behind her to see Teddy smiling at them and clapping his tiny hands from his vantage point in the basinet.

"See? Teddy thinks we're adorable," she said, laughing.

"Either that, or he's telling us to quit acting sappy and get the rest of these decorations up," said Remus, grinning at his wife. He leaned over into the basinet, "You're sick of mummy and daddy being lovey-dovey aren't you?"

Remus tapped Teddy's little nose just slightly with his finger and Teddy began to giggle. Remus picked up his son and whirled him around just to watch his smile grow even larger.

"It's Teddy's first Christmas, you know," said Tonks, smiling fondly at the scene playing out in front of her.

"I know, it's such a lovely thought," said Remus, grinning at his son and laying him down gently in his basinet. "It's even lovelier that we're here for it."

"I know," said Tonks, running a hand wearily over her face. "This past year has been so nerve-wracking."

"It's all over, dear," said Remus, engulfing his wife in another warm, comforting hug. "Don't think on it any longer."

"It's so hard to forget. We lost so many people," said Tonks, sniffling a little.

"I know, I know," said Remus, his mind wandering to those best friends he had lost so long ago and the new friends he lost only this past summer. The pain had not left and he doubted it ever would but he could not let it ruin his life. "Christmas is all about hoping and love and forgetting all the bad things that have happened during the past year. We should enjoy the holiday season and be greatful for those who are still with us."

"You're right," said Tonks. "Oh look at me, sniffling like a bloody ninny. I should be doing something useful, they'll be here any minute. I'll go and prepare the snacks."

Remus smiled at his wife as she bustled off to their small kitchen that lay off of the living room. He knew this Christmas was hard for her because she would have to spend it without her father. Last year there had at least been some hope he may have only gotten lost in the woods. But now the knowledge that he was really gone hung over her head and hindered her holiday cheer. Remus dipped into the decoration box once more and pulled out some more sprigs of holly. Feeling determined to cheer her up again this Christmas with the festive green leaves and red berries, he began affixing the clusters to the mantlepiece with his wand.

center--/center

About an hour later, the Lupin household was hustling and bustling with people they knew and loved. All the Weasleys were present excepting, of course, Fred who had been killed in the final battle. Mrs. Weasley was doing her best to look cheerful for Christmas but it was hard when George sat in the corner looking despondent. Hermione and Ron sat together with Harry and Ginny talking and laughing. It certainly looked as though they were in the Christmas spirit. But at closer inspection, Remus could see Ron glancing over at George worriedly. Kingsley stood as the tallest man in the room, talking to Andromeda and Arthur Weasley. Somehow he had found a hole in his busy schedule as minister to come to their holiday get together. Remus made his way towards their small gathering.

"...things are looking up, frankly. I am very optimistic for the future," he heard Kingsley saying. "Oh, hello Remus. It's very nice of you to have us all over here."

"It's the holidays, why not?" said Remus, smiling cheerfully.

"How is Tonks doing, Remus?" asked Andromeda.

"Excuse us," said Remus to Arthur and Kingsley. They nodded and allowed Remus to lead his mother-in-law away from the group. "How are iyou/i doing, Mrs. Tonks?"

"Remus," said Andromeda, pursing her lips. "I told you to call me Andromeda. And I'm doing fine, thank you. Where is Tonks?"

Andromeda said she was doing all right but Remus knew the holidays were just as hard for her as they were for her daughter. As she glanced about the room, Remus could see tears glinting in her grey eyes.

"Andromeda, why don't you go talk to Tonks? She's in the kitchen," said Remus, placing a hand comfortingly on her arm.

"All right, thank you, Remus," said Andromeda, smiling kindly up at her son-in-law.

As he watched Andromeda walk away towards the kitchen, he felt as though he'd accomplished one mission of spreading the holiday cheer. His eyes roved around the room until they landed on poor George, sitting in an armchair in the corner and staring at his fingers. He could hardly stand to see George, who had always been so cheerful, not participating in the holiday festivities. He drew closer to the twin and sat down on the arm of his chair.

"Hello, George," he said.

"Oh," said George, looking up as though shaken from a reverie. "Hello, Remus."

"How are you doing?" asked Remus.

"All right, I suppose."

Remus was getting tired of people lying to him all night long. "George, you're not all right, I can see that."

George merely shrugged.

"George, I know, perhaps better than anyone else in this room, what it is like to lose a very close friend. I lost two of my very closest friends. You've just got to think, if they were here...if Fred was here, would he let you mope around all evening?"

"No," said George, quietly.

"Of course not, he'd be playing jokes and teasing your little sister about her romance with the Boy Who Lived!"

Even George could not hold in a chuckle at this thought. He looked up at Remus with a bit of hope in his eyes.

"Do you really think...I shouldn't be sitting around feeling sad?"

"I don't mean that you shouldn't miss your brother or feel sad about it, but you should celebrate his life more than you mourn the loss of it."

"Perhaps you're right," said George. "Thanks, Remus."

With that, George got up from his chair and went to join his siblings and Hermione and Harry where they sat laughing. Remus watched from a distance; Ron looked up at him in surprised and then George must have said something because they all erupted into giggles once again. Remus smiled to himself at the scene. Christmas was a time to be cheerful, and if he had to help it along then so be it.

Just then, Tonks and Andromeda emerged from the kitchen. Andromeda was smiling and she had Teddy in her arms. Tonks caught Remus' eye from across the room and she smiled at him. Remus reached for a glass on the table next to him and cleared his throat.

"I think it's time for a toast," he said, raising his glass and looking around. Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at him. Clearing his throat again, he thought that perhaps he had used the word 'toast' a bit hastily. Now that everyone was looking at him, he wasn't quite sure what to say.

"Erm, let's raise our glasses to everyone in this room," he said, allowing time for everyone to scramble and find their glasses to raise in response to his words. "That the spirit of Christmas may follow them all year round."

There were cries of 'here, here' as everyone raised their glasses higher and then sipped the wine from them. Remus suddenly found that he had more to say.

"To Harry and Ginny, Hermione and Ron; the road of love is not an easy one but it is my greatest hope that you stick it out."

The room drank from their glasses once again.

"To the Weasleys, that they may honor the memory of their fallen son but not forget how blessed they are with friends and family alike."

Remus sipped from his glass with everyone else and caught Tonks' eye. She was looking at him in disbelief; he merely shrugged and smiled at her.

"To my wife and my son," he said. Once again, everyone dipped into their glasses.

"Finally, to everyone that we have lost, may they find rest. I know that they are looking down on us now, though they may not be here physically, they are here for Christmas as well."

The cries of 'here, here' were loudest for this toast and everyone took a longer draught from their wine glasses. The group of friends and family looked expectantly at Remus who put up his hands.

"No, no, I'm finished now," he said. Everyone chuckled as he went to stand next to his wife.

Tonks threw her arms around Remus' neck and held him tight. When she drew back, he saw that her eyes were sparkling with tears.

"That was lovely," she said.

"It was nothing," said Remus, looking down at his shoes.

"Nonsense! Who were you chanelling up there anyhow, Dumbledore?" she said, a smile breaking out on her face.

"I suppose so," said Remus, smiling bashfully. Tonks hugged him again. Looking around the room, he felt so blessed to be in the company of these people. Tonks handed him his son and, looking into that tiny smiling face, he felt there was nowhere he'd rather be.

"Merry Christmas, little guy," he said, cuddling his son close.

It had turned out to be a Merry Christmas after all. /lj-cut