A/N - Just a fluffy, romantic xmas piece. Enjoy.
Looking around at the chaos in the kitchen, Hermione Granger had to serious wonder if she'd bitten off more than she could chew. When she'd first decided to host Christmas lunch she'd expected it to be a small affair, but here she was spending her Christmas morning preparing food for just over a dozen people.
Initially Hermione expected to just be cooking for herself, her boyfriend Draco Malfoy, his parents, Lucius and Narcissa, and Draco's best friend, Blaise Zabini. Hermione had made the offer since her and Draco had just bought a new house together and she wanted to thank the Malfoys for making her so welcome in their lives. Since she'd started dating Draco three years ago, Hermione had spent every Christmas with the family and she thought it would be nice if for once Narcissa didn't have to worry about playing hostess.
Hermione had also invited Blaise for Christmas as he usually spent the day with the Malfoys because his own relationship with his mother wasn't great. Blaise's bad relationship with his mother was something Hermione could relate to since she rarely spoke to her parents since the mess after the war when they couldn't forgive her for obliviating them to keep them safe. Blaise was also Hermione's friend as they worked together as lawyers at the Ministry and it had been Blaise that had reintroduced her to Draco and encouraged them to go on a date.
Preparing Christmas lunch for five had seemed easy to Hermione, but shortly after deciding to host Christmas lunch the numbers just started to add up. It began when Draco and Blaise's best friend, Theo Nott, broke up with his girlfriend, Daphne Greengrass, and moved in with Blaise. It seemed rude not to invited Theo for lunch when they were inviting Blaise so Draco and Hermione extended the invitation to Theo as well, figuring one more person wouldn't make much of a difference.
Shortly after that, Molly and Arthur Weasley received an offer from their son Charlie to go and visit him in Romania for Christmas. With Bill and Fleur going off to France with their daughter to visit Fleur's parents and Percy spending Christmas with his fiancée's family, the rest of the family encouraged their parents to go and see Charlie. However that left Ginny and her husband, Harry Potter, Ron, George and his wife, Angelina, at a loose end as they normally spent Christmas at The Burrow. Ginny was a terrible cook so the thought of her cooking lunch was unappealing, and Angelina wasn't much better. Since Hermione was already making lunch she felt obliged to offer to cater for her friends as well. Luckily Draco and George were good friends and he also got on with the rest of her friends okay.
By the time the Weasleys had been added to lunch, that meant Hermione was cooking for eleven. As if that wasn't enough the number had gone up to thirteen days before Christmas when Theo reconciled with Daphne. Theo of course wanted to spend the day with his girlfriend, but Daphne had already agreed to spend the day with her best friend, Pansy Parkinson. Since Daphne and Pansy were also friends of Draco's, Hermione had agreed that the two witches could join them for lunch.
"I don't know what I was thinking," Hermione muttered to herself as she thought back on how she'd ended up cooking for so many people.
"Talking to yourself, are you?" Draco chuckled from the doorway.
Hermione turned round and found Draco was leaning against the door, watching her as she bustled around the kitchen.
"Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to help?" Hermione questioned, turning back to the vegetables.
"What do you want me to do?" Draco asked, stepping warily into the kitchen. Cooking wasn't really his forte and even with magic he struggled to do more than make a cup of tea and some toast.
"Peel and chop the carrots," Hermione said, pointing towards a large pile of carrots. "Then you can sort the other veg."
"How much veg do you have?" Draco questioned, looking at the masses of vegetables that was sitting on the counter.
"I wanted to have enough," Hermione replied. "I would rather do too much, than not have enough. I don't want people going hungry."
"I'm sure they won't," Draco muttered as he began to magically peel the carrots. Aside from the tons of vegetables Hermione had an extremely large turkey and a three bird roast in the oven.
"I just hope I haven't forgot anything," Hermione said, checking the food she was cooking against a list she'd made earlier in the week.
"It's too late now if you have," Draco replied. "People will be arriving in a few hours."
"What?" Hermione looked up at the clock, dismayed to see it was already mid-morning. Even though she'd been in the kitchen since getting up she was still nowhere near been finished. "I need to get a move on," She muttered to herself. "Go find something to do and give me some space."
Deciding it was best to leave his girlfriend to it, Draco left the kitchen in order to find another way to spend his morning. Once she was alone, Hermione quickly moved through her list of tasks and once she was happy things were going according to plan she looked up to find she was right on schedule. Casting spells on the food so it wouldn't burn, Hermione exited the kitchen and headed off to find her boyfriend so he could start to set the table. Luckily they had a large dining room and a table big enough to fit all the food on and seat everyone comfortably.
"Draco," Hermione called, finding no sign of her errant boyfriend.
"You called," Draco said, suddenly appearing through the front door.
"What were you doing outside?" Hermione asked as her boyfriend removed his coat and hung it on the rack beside the front door.
"I was making sure the path was clear," Draco told his girlfriend. "We don't want anyone slipping on the snow."
With so many people coming for lunch it had been decided not to use the floo network in case anyone tried to use it at the same time, which would create chaos and possibly result in a serious accident. Instead they'd told their friends to apparate into the front garden and enter the house through the front door.
"If you've finished there, help me set the table," Hermione said, heading off to the dining room.
Draco followed his girlfriend into the dining room and together they set the table. They'd just finished and Hermione had just declared she was happy with the end result when there was a knock at the door. Leaving the dining room the couple went to greet their first guests, who turned out to be Draco's parents.
"Thank you so much for having us," Narcissa said to Hermione as she embraced the younger witch. "I have to admit I've never had such a relaxing Christmas morning."
"I just hope my Christmas lunch can live up to yours," Hermione remarked.
"It's not as if I actually cooked," Narcissa chuckled. Even though these days times had changed and her house elves were free and well paid, they still did all the cooking at the Manor
"Lucky for us," Lucius laughed. "You would have likely poisoned us all."
"Hopefully there'll be no poisoning here," Hermione said with a rueful smile. Normally she was fairly confident with her ability in the kitchen, but she'd never catered for so many people before and she was nervous that she'd messed up somehow.
"Ignore Hermione, she's a great cook," Draco said to his parents as he led them into the front room. "Lunch will be amazing, I'm sure of it."
"I'm sure it will be," Narcissa smiled. "Now where do you want these?" She asked, holding up the bags of presents they'd brought with them.
"Put them under the tree," Draco told his mother. "We're all going to exchange presents after we've eaten."
"I hope what we've got for people are okay," Narcissa remarked as she deposited the bags underneath the large tree in the corner of the room. "I had no idea what to buy for your friends, Hermione."
"I told you, you didn't have to buy anything," Hermione replied.
"Nonsense," Lucius tutted at the thought of turning up empty handed. "We had to get something for them. It would be rude not to."
"I'm sure whatever you got will be fine," Hermione reassured the couple. "They'll appreciate the gesture, and I know for a fact they were just as unsure about presents as you were."
Before the conversation could continue there was a second knock of the door and yet more of their guests arrived. Within half an hour everyone had arrived and were mingling in the front room. Everyone also arrived with bags of presents that were placed under the tree, until after lunch.
"Do you need any help in the kitchen?" Ginny asked Hermione as the brunette witch darted between the kitchen and front room on a regular basis.
"I'm fine," Hermione smiled at her friend. "Draco, you can come and carve the meat please."
"Look at how well trained she's got him," Blaise joked as Draco obediently followed Hermione into the kitchen.
"One day, you'll be exactly the same," Narcissa told the young wizard.
"Not me," Blaise replied with a shake of his head. "I'm staying single, it's the best way to be."
"You'll change your mind when you meet the right witch," Pansy told her friend. "I remember Draco saying the exact same thing, and look at him now. He's happier than I've ever seen him with Hermione."
"Not everyone is made for settling down," Blaise argued. "Some of us are perfectly happy being single."
"I have to agree with Blaise," Ron piped up. "I'm perfectly happy been single."
"You're only single because you have the worst taste in witches," George laughed at his brother. "By the time you've been out with someone a couple of times you realise that they're annoying and you get shot of them."
"It's not my fault I attract the wrong sort of witch," Ron pouted. "I don't go looking for the weirdoes, they just find me."
"What you need is a helping hand," Blaise said to Ron. "The pair of us should go out together one time. I'm sure we can find ourselves a pair of tasty witches."
"You're on," Ron grinned at the former Slytherin. At one time he would have thought the idea of going out for an evening with Blaise as ridiculous and highly improbable, but a lot had changed since the end of the war and a lot of old grudges had been cast aside.
"Lunch is ready," Draco announced, poking his head around the door. "Come on through to the dining room."
"Wow, this is an amazing spread," Harry remarked as everyone trooped into the dining room to find the table laden down with delicious looking food.
"Take a seat where you want," Hermione said, ushering everyone into the room. "And help yourself to food and drink. I think we've got about three different types of wine on the table, but we have more and if you don't like wine just say and I can get you something else."
"Stop fussing and sit down," Draco gently told his girlfriend. "Everyone is fine with wine. Sit down and enjoy your meal."
Hermione smiled at Draco as she sat down and tried to stop fussing. Luckily everyone seemed happy with their meal so it was easy to relax and within minutes she was laughing and joking with everyone else as they all enjoyed a great Christmas lunch.
After lunch everyone settled in the front room where they began to exchange presents. For the first time since they'd been a couple Hermione and Draco were giving joint presents, and it was only just occurring to Hermione that she hadn't checked what Draco had gotten for people. When her boyfriend offered to sort the presents she'd been so distracted with having to make lunch and play hostess that she'd jumped at his kind offer. However, she'd never actually seen what he'd gotten anyone and she was slightly wary about what he might have gotten her friends. Draco tended to buy thoughtful, generous presents, and she just hoped he'd carried that through with her friends and not just his. Hermione would hate it if her friends opened their presents and found something cheap while Draco's friends all got expensive presents.
Luckily Hermione needn't have worried as when it came to handing out their gifts, Draco had really bought great presents. He'd bought his mother her favourite perfume and a sapphire necklace, and his father a set of gold cufflinks and a bottle of his favourite firewhisky. Daphne and Pansy both got vouchers for their favourite spa and Blaise and Theo both got some Quidditch tickets and jersey's signed by their favourite players. For Harry and Ron, Draco had bought both wizards a season ticket for the newest Quidditch season. Ginny received a voucher from a new wizarding boutique and George and Angelina received a voucher for a romantic weekend away at a posh hotel.
"These presents are amazing," Angelina said, flicking through the brochure of the hotel that had accompanied her and George's present. "Thank you both, so much."
"You're welcome," Draco smiled.
"Have you not got each other a present?" Blaise questioned when the couple failed to exchange gifts.
"Of course," Hermione said as she summoned her present for Draco from under the tree.
Draco also summoned his present for Hermione and the pair exchanged gifts. Hermione's gift for Draco was a new watch that she'd seen him admiring months ago. On the back of the watch was a short inscription with the date and a message of love from Hermione.
"Thank you, I love it." Draco gave his girlfriend a kiss before slipping the watch onto his wrist.
While Draco was admiring his present, Hermione began to unwrap her present. From the size and shape of the box, Hermione was half expecting sexy lingerie but she got a surprise when she opened the lid of the box and found a soft emerald green scarf and gloves set.
"You were just saying last week you needed new gloves and scarf," Draco said as Hermione revealed her presents.
"Yes, I was," Hermione replied quietly. "Thank you."
As much as it pained her to admit it, Hermione was disappointed with her present. Draco had put more thought into the presents he'd bought for their friends, whereas his gift for her seemed to have been a last minute thought. As lovely as the scarf and gloves were, Hermione felt let down by her boyfriend. Hating that she was feeling so let down by her gift, Hermione abruptly stood up.
"I should go and do the dishes," She explained when people looked at her oddly.
Offering the group a tight smile, Hermione turned and fled into the kitchen. Once in the kitchen, Hermione magically set the washing up away and went to stand beside the window. She knew she should be grateful for any present she received, but she couldn't help it that Draco's present had left her distinctly underwhelmed. To be honest some of the presents she'd received off other people had more meaning behind them, even the gift set she'd received off Pansy had been bought from her favourite shop that sold bath and beauty products.
"Are you okay?" Ginny's voice asked from the doorway.
"I'm fine," Hermione replied, brushing away a few tears she hadn't even noticed had fallen.
"You don't look fine," Ginny remarked, entering the kitchen and moving across the room until she was standing beside Hermione. "You look upset."
"I'm just being stupid," Hermione said, attempting to smile.
"Is it about Draco's present?" Ginny asked gently.
"I know I shouldn't be upset. It was a lovely set, and I'm sure it cost a fortune. But it was less than a week ago I was complaining about needing a new scarf and gloves. I guess I thought Draco would have thought about what he was getting me long before that," Hermione admitted quietly. "I've had his present for months."
"You know when men are like. Bloody hopeless," Ginny said, attempting to cheer her friend up.
"That's just the thing, he's not," Hermione sighed. "Draco sorted all of the presents this year, and look at what he got people. He got Harry and Ron season tickets for crying out loud, and he doesn't really like them. He tolerates them for my sake."
"Maybe he has another present for you," Ginny suggested, although she sounded more like she was clutching at straws than actually being hopeful that was the case.
"Maybe, but I have to pull myself together," Hermione announced. "I shouldn't be upset because of what he bought me, I should be enjoying the day with my friends."
"That's the spirit," Ginny beamed.
"I'll just finish up here, then I'll be back," Hermione told Ginny as she turned to the sink of dishes that were nearly finished being washed.
Ginny nodded and darted out of the room, but before Hermione could finish up in the kitchen Draco appeared in the doorway carrying her new scarf and gloves set. He was also wearing his jacket and had pulled on his boots. He was also carrying Hermione's boots and had her coat thrown over his arm.
"I thought we could take a walk," Draco said to his girlfriend. "Everyone's fine in the front room."
"Okay," Hermione agreed. Maybe a bit of fresh air could clear away her disappointed thoughts as she would rather no-one else picked up on the fact that Draco's present had left her distinctly underwhelmed.
Ending the spell on the dishes, Hermione pulled on her coat and boots before taking her new gloves and scarf from Draco. They really were the softest material and to be honest if Hermione had received them from anyone other than her boyfriend she would have been thrilled with them. However after three years together she felt she deserved more consideration than a last minute gift she'd mentioned needing a week before Christmas.
"Are you ready?" Draco asked, holding out his hand for Hermione.
Hermione took hold of Draco's hand and let him lead her outdoors. Hermione fully expected them to walk the length of the large back garden to where there was a gate that led into a small wood. However, Draco veered off to the side and walked along the back of the house before turning around and walking down the small patch of lawn at the side of the house.
"Where are we going?" Hermione asked. From the front of the house they could walk into the nearby village, but she didn't see much point in doing that on Christmas day since everything would be shut.
"You'll see," Draco replied mysteriously as he led the way down the side of the house.
When they entered the front garden, Hermione gasped at what she saw. All their friends were gathered beside the house and in the centre of the garden was a large gazebo made from ice. Snowflakes were falling over the garden and Hermione could tell they were enchanted as they were so detailed and delicate looking. The garden was also awash with magical fireflys, flying around looking like fairy lights.
"What is all this?" Hermione asked.
"Come and find out," Draco urged, tugging Hermione over to the gazebo.
"Is it safe?" Hermione asked as Draco stepped into the gazebo and urged her to join him.
"Of course it's safe," Draco told his girlfriend. "Now get in here, or else the magic won't work."
"What magic?" Hermione questioned, carefully stepping into the ice gazebo and finding it surprisingly sturdy and not that cold.
Instead of answering, Draco turned Hermione around so she had a prefect view of the lawn. As she watched the enchanted snowflakes began settling onto the snow and for the first time she realised the enchanted snowflakes were ice blue, as opposed to white. As the snowflakes settled on the snow they began to form words. After almost five minutes the words, will you marry me, were visible glistening on the white snow.
Turning back to Draco, Hermione found her boyfriend kneeling beside her, holding out an open ring box. The ring inside was a delicate silver band with a crystal clear diamond as the main setting, with several smaller diamonds surrounding it.
"Hermione, will you marry me?" Draco asked.
"Of course I will," Hermione replied, throwing herself at her boyfriend.
As the pair embraced in the ice gazebo, their friends clapped and cheered from beside the house. Slowly the pair got to their feet and Draco pulled Hermione's glove off her left hand so he could slip the ring onto her finger.
"You didn't really think I'd just get you a scarf and gloves set, did you?" He asked with a wicked grin.
"It was all a plan," Hermione gasped. "You deliberately got me something I would think was a last minute thought."
"Actually, I only got that idea last week when you mentioned needing new scarf and gloves," Draco admitted. "I was originally just going to propose, but I thought it would be even better if you thought I hadn't made any effort on your present."
"It worked, I was beginning to think you were losing interest in me," Hermione confessed.
"I'll never lose interest in you," Draco promised, cupping Hermione's cheek in his hand before he leant down and connected their lips in a deep kiss.
"Cut it out you two," Blaise called as their friends made their way across to the gazebo. "You can smooch later, right now we need to celebrate."
"You lot were all in on it?" Hermione asked, looking around the group.
"We've known for weeks that Draco was going to propose," Harry admitted.
"And he told us a few days ago about his master plan," George added.
"Is this what you were doing this morning?" Hermione asked Draco, gesturing to the garden and all it's enchantments.
"It was," Draco nodded. "I was going to do it around the back, but the kitchen window overlooks the back garden and I didn't want to risk you seeing anything."
"What if I'd looked out of the front window?" Hermione asked.
"You spent the morning in the kitchen, and everyone had strict instructions to keep you away from the window this afternoon," Draco explained.
"It was a brilliant surprise, I love it," Hermione smiled at Draco.
As the pair moved in for another kiss, Blaise let out a loud groan. Spending his afternoon standing in the snow watching Draco and Hermione kissing wasn't his idea of the best Christmas.
"Can we not go inside?" He pleaded. "It's cold, and I need a drink."
"We all need a drink to toast the happy couple," Lucius said.
"Let's go," Draco said, taking hold of Hermione's hand and leading the way back indoors.
Once back indoors Draco produced a couple of bottles of champagne and the celebrating began. Sitting nestled at her fiancé's side, Hermione wore the biggest smile in the room. She couldn't believe that less than an hour ago she'd been upset that Draco hadn't put any effort into her Christmas present, while all along he was planning the best surprise ever.
"I can't wait for everyone to go," Draco whispered to Hermione. "I've got another present upstairs that will be handy for celebrating our engagement."
"Let's guess, sexy underwear," Hermione laughed.
"Of course," Draco grinned.
Hermione smiled back at her fiancé, before leaning over and giving him a languid kiss.
The day may have started off pretty hectic, but in the end Hermione was thrilled with how things had gone. Lunch was a big success, and it had been a very memorable Christmas. Hermione just hoped that other Christmases in the future were as memorable and as enjoyable. However the important thing was that she celebrated them with Draco, and after this Christmas they would be celebrating them as husband and wife.
The End.