"It's a common muggle Christmas activity."
"Sounds weird."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in the Great Hall thinking about ideas on how to spend their Winter break. They were forced to spend it at Hogwarts because Mrs. Weasley didn't want them freeloading in her house anymore. Upon hearing the news, Ron had been outraged and started throwing knifes at innocent Hufflepuffs. Now that he had calmed down, they were left with nothing to do.
Hermione had casually suggested that they play Secret Santa with a group of the remaining students at Hogwarts.
"Secret Santa is quite a simple game. Everyone puts their name in a hat and they draw somebody else's name. Whoever's name they pick is the person they have to get a gift for, for Christmas."
Harry stared dreamily off at the Slytherin table. "I hope we can get Malfoy to play."he sighed
"What?" asked Ron.
"Nothing, nothing..." replied Harry hastily.
Turning to Hermione, Ron said, "But there's barely anyone left at Hogwarts."
"That's okay, we'll just round up who we can to play the game." she answered.
The news quickly spread throughout the small number of remaining students that a game of Secret Santa was to be played. People willing to play besides the trio included Luna, Cho, Ginny, and Neville. Malfoy was forced to play by the authors. (A/N- C'mon, we couldn't leave Malfoy out!) They gathered in an empty classroom and were explained the rules of the game.
Hermione brought everyone some parchment and quills and soon everyone was performing the hard task of writing their name and singing a merry tune. As soon as they were done, they slipped their names into a large hat that was conveniently located in Harry's pocket in case he needed it for just such an occasion.
"I'M SO EXCITED!" squealed Cho as she put her name in the hat. Ginny gave her an odd look.
One by one, they dropped their names into the hat, and it took so long that soon it was time for dinner.
"I hope I don't get Malfoy." grumbled Ron. Harry looked surprised.
"Why?"
"I don't want to have to get a present for that bloody git."
Ginny looked over and said brightly "He's not that bad! After all he is blonde." Ron stared at her in disgust.
"Blonde is gross!" said Hermione rather loudly. Terry Boot looked over at her with an offended expression even though he was not blonde, but he was rather strange so nobody cared.
"And anyway,: continued Hermione, "Witch Weekly says that red hair is very attractive, and I have to say, I agree."
Ron turned very red at her statement, and Ginny smiled proudly.
"EXCUSE ME, WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING? AND HERMIONE, YOU'RE ALWAYS SO SNOBBY! CAN'T YOU CONSIDER OTHER PEOPLE'S FEELINGS?!" Harry screamed. "AND GINNY- HOW DARE YOU SMILE PROUDLY? AND RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY! YOU HAVE A STUPID MIDDLE NAME!"
Everyone who was addressed looked over at Harry's perfectly calm face with a startled expression. Harry just continued eating as if nothing had happened. When he saw everyone's odd looks, he said "Sorry I'm having mood swings because of PMS." That just made everyone scared.
Anyway, back to the story.
After dinner, the participants of the game returned to the empty classroom and decided to draw the names from the hat, which they hadn't done before since they had taken so long to put the names in.
Hermione was the first one to pick. She grabbed the hat and shoved her hand in.
As she drew out a piece of parchment, her face fell slightly, but she kept smiling.
Next came Ginny. She drew out the parchment and a smile flickered across her face, but it soon disappeared.
"OOH, ME NEXT, ME NEXT!"screamed Cho "I WANT HARRY!" Harry looked at her oddly and backed away slowly. As she drew out the parchment it was obvious that her wish had not been fulfilled. Harry looked immensely relieved.
He then hurried over to the hat and drew a name. He looked at in and turned absolutely white. "Damn." He swore under his breath.
Then Neville bravely stepped up to the hat and took his time to choose a name. Ron looked immensely annoyed by the time Neville was done.
Fortunately Ron's turn was next so he didn't have to wait much longer. His face turned considerably redder as he read the name which he had picked. He returned to Harry's side with a grin threatening to break out.
Luna was swift with her decision and her face was unreadable as she went back to her seat.
Everyone looked at Malfoy, as he was the only person in the room who had not picked a name. He started squirming and nervously said "Well, I guess we're done now!" Harry grappled him and pushed him up to the hat. Malfoy looked like he was ready to rip it in half, but nonetheless drew the last name. He had a look of utter disgust on his face and looked slightly reminiscent of a boy named Draco Malfoy with a look of utter disgust on his face.
"Well, now that we all have someone to give gifts to, everyone must make sure that they keep quiet about the name that they've drawn. Alright, Christmas is coming, so don't procrastinate about getting the gifts, okay?" said Hermione cheerily.
"Uh, what does prucastinoo mean?" asked Ron dumbly. Hermione just sighed and left the room. All of the others followed. Once everyone had left, only Ron stood in the empty classroom.
He blinked a few times, and then said "Prucastinoo..."