A/N I absolutely adored writing this. Properly put me in the festive mood as I put on a Christmas playlist on Spotify, and curled up with a little glass of port and some after eights.
A Partridge in a Pear Tree
Hermione Granger, seasoned employee of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, sighed deeply to herself and tried to ignore the chirping in the corner. Christmas was only a few weeks away and she was determined to make it through her rather large To Do List so she would be able to relax properly during her well-deserved time off.
Although normally known for her sensible and level headed nature, at Christmas time, she could admit to herself, that she lost her head a little. She'd always loved Christmas as a child, building snowmen, drinking hot chocolate, watching the magical moment when her town's Christmas tree lights were turned on.
It was a time when her hard working dentist parents took time off so they could properly celebrate as a family. As an adult it had now become a running joke with her friends over just how excited she became as soon as the 1st December hit. She would decorate her flat and office to the hilt and would drag her friends to any Christmas market that she could find. Her friends found it amusing and indulged her in her Christmas obsession, enjoying seeing the more playful side of their usually rather uptight friend.
Her work colleagues had taken slightly longer to get used to the change that seemed to take over Hermione and her office during the Christmas season. Unused as many of them were to Muggle traditions, they couldn't help but be carried away by her enthusiasm, and let her organise an annual Secret Santa present exchange. Last year however one new work colleague had been particularly scathing in his reaction.
Draco Malfoy had joined the Department during the summer of the previous year, much to Hermione's displeasure. It had been five years since the Battle of Hogwarts and she'd barely clapped eyes on him since. She'd heard he'd gone to France after the war with his mother. Lucius Malfoy was of course in Azkaban, minus the Dementors thanks to Minister Shaklebolt, but Draco and Narcissa were let off with a large fine that barely made a dent in the Malfoy coffers. Malfoy Manor was boarded up and son and mother had apparently moved to one of their larger French houses.
When Draco Malfoy joined the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, at first he mostly kept to himself. When Hermione had to work with him, they both went out of their way to be extremely polite and professional, a task that was unbearably difficult at times. They often had to swallow the rude retorts that would so easily spring to their lips.
When Hermione said, "I think you may be mistaken." In reality she would mean, "How on earth can you think that you prejudiced backward, sleezy little ferret?"
When Draco said, "Shall we call it a day and resume our discussion next week?" He actually meant "I'd rather kiss Umbridge than spend one more minute listening to you, you bushy haired priss!"
On the days after they had a meeting they would, separately of course, have a glass of wine as a reward to congratulate themselves on being able to maintain a façade of professionalism. Hermione, who was living with Ginny, would have her snorting with laughter when she shared what she would really have loved to say to him.
Draco would meet Theo and Blaise in The Leaky Cauldron where he would have them smirking at his impressions of Hermione as she enthused about the latest proposal.
Their masks of professionalism lasted until Christmas.
On the 1st December, Draco had come to her office for their weekly meeting and his jaw had dropped at the sight before him. A Christmas tree as tall as Hagrid seemed to fill the entire office, complete with twinkling lights, tinsel and what looked like ornaments a child had made. Christmas music was blaring out an unfamiliar tune that had the lyrics, "Ruldolf with your nose so bright, won't you guide my slay tonight."
His professional mask slid off completely.
"What is all this crap Granger?" he had said bluntly and rather aggressively.
Rather taken aback by his change of tone, Hermione nevertheless beamed brightly back at him as she declared, "It's Christmas Malfoy!"
"And?" he had replied while raising one eyebrow and somehow managing to look extremely superior.
Her smile had abruptly dropped from her face as she had frostily replied, "Just because you're a grump doesn't mean the rest of us have to be."
"No one else has become a crazy person, that's just you!" he had scoffed, "in this scenario, I'm the normal one."
"You normal? I hate to break it to you Malfoy but no-one else resembles a ferret."
It was a low blow but she couldn't seem to help herself. Now that the professionalism had gone, all that she had supressed during their many meetings seemed to be coming to the forefront.
His cheeks had taken on a slightly pink tinge at her words, then he seemed to pull himself together as he'd sneered at her, "I'd rather look like a ferret than Madame Pince."
From that day it had become all-out war and Draco had seemed determined to rob her off her festive cheer. He disappeared all the chocolates in her advent calendar. She charmed his office door to play, "We wish you a Merry Christmas," every time he opened it.
He set tree eating ants in her room which demolished her Christmas tree. He had woken up with antlers on his head and had to go to work like that. She tried to act innocent when he confronted her, but the fact she had fallen off her chair laughing had slightly given it away.
Once the Christmas season had ended they seemed to have reached a truce. Hermione's office may have gone back to normal but their working relationship did not. Although not out rightly rude, most of the time, they now said what they meant and often had heated debates varying from polices in their Department to Hogwarts curriculum. A grudging respect had developed between them and occasionally they even conceded when the other had made a good point.
This year Hermione had been slightly dreading what would happen when Little Miss Claus and Scrooge met once more. The season seemed to only emphasis their differences- her sunny disposition and eternal optimism and his 'Bah Humbug' attitude to life with his cynicism and fierce dislike of anything whimsical.
She actually enjoyed working with him now and didn't want to go back to their outright war of the year before or to go back to their polite professionalism.
She had set her office up as usual with its over the top declaration of Christmas and just hoped he wouldn't react as badly this year.
Hermione had just finished her latest proposal and had satisfactorily ticked it off her To Do List when there was a knock on the door and in walked Harry Potter.
"You look pleased with yourself," he remarked.
"You would be too if you were one step closer to being able to full embrace Christmas," Hermione smiled at her friend.
"Fully embrace?" Harry said laughingly, "What do you call all this then?" as he gestured to the many signs of Christmas in the room. "What's the pear tree about? That's new! And why's there a bird in it?"
"It's a partridge to be precise," she replied. When he still looked puzzled she explained, "You know like in the song? 'On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree.'" She had automatically sang this and broke off slightly embarrassed at her out of tune voice.
"Isn't that going a bit overboard, even for you?" Harry teased, "Can we expect Rudolf next?"
She glared at him in response, "I didn't put it there! I just arrived this morning and it was there. No idea how someone got past my office wards."
Harry immediately jumped up at her words and pointed his wand at the tree. "Is it safe?" he said, "Could this be some kind of death plant? Remember what happened to that ministry worker Bode back in our fifth year? How his Christmas present turned out to be Devil's snare and throttled him to death!"
He quickly started to run diagnostic spells on the tree to check.
"Yes Harry it's safe. Sit down," She said impatiently, "I've checked it already. It truly does seem to be nothing but a partridge in a pear tree."
"I'm nearly done," said Harry, clearly not listening to her as he performed the last of his checks. The partridge chirped shrilly, clearly having taken a dislike to Harry getting so close.
When he had finally finished and sat down again, he helped himself to a Quality Street sweet from her sweetie tree on her desk and asked, "Well who on earth do you think put it there?"
"I don't think it's someone who means me any harm, just a harmless joke. To be honest I thought it might have been you and Ron if it hadn't been for your overreaction," she stated.
Harry smiled sheepishly at this. "Constant vigilance?" he offered. He thought for a moment and then asked, "Well what about Malfoy?"
"Malfoy?" she replied, "No I'd ruled him out right away. He hates Christmas with a passion and there's no way he'd know a Muggle Christmas song."
"True," mused Harry, stroking his recently grown beard thoughtfully. "I'll put my Auror skills to use and see if I can do some digging for you and find the culprit."
Hermione laughed at that. "Thanks Harry, you're like the big brother I never had or needed," and she stuck her tongue out at him. "I'll just put some extra wards on my office and I'm sure that will be the last of it."