Hi everyone :)

It's another really short chapter piece from me! And it's Christmas themed! AND it focuses on Harry and Draco's heart warming love for each other :)
Me being me and me absolutely adoring both Christmas and Harry Potter, writing a Christmas story just had to be done. As always, I've tried to do something somewhat original and so decided to try an idea I haven't seen done before.

Okay, here's a note for everyone; as you probably don't know, I'm British. And, we Brits have a tradition at Christmas and that is having Christmas crackers at dinner time. I have absolutely no idea if other people have these as well so, just in case there are people reading this who have no idea what a Christmas cracker is, here's a brief explanation:
They're basically wrapped and decorated cardboard tubes that contain a paper hait, usually in the shape of a crown, a small plastic toy and a "joke" or a riddle. Two people take an end each and then pull it apart and it cracks because of a a strip of paper inside called a snapper which "exlpodes" when pulled apart. They're usually pulled before and during Christmas dinner.
I hope that's cleared everything up :)

WARNINGS: This story is SLASH people. If you have something against that you can leave, I won't hold it against you and I'll give you your Christmas cheer which everyone else will get at the end (hands everyone leaving a little box labeled "cheer")

DISCLAIMER: Even if I asked Father Christmas to give me Harry Potter for Christmas, I really don't think I'd get it which is a shame because then I could rewrite the entire series to make it so Harry and Draco realise their undying love for each other :D

Oh yeah, and this takes place during the Sixth Year and, naturally, takes no notice what so ever of HBP :D

Enough from me, on with the festive fluff :)

"Merry Christmas everybody!" Harry called cheerfully as he entered the Great Hall late Christmas morning. He'd spent the better part of the morning so far in bed and had only risen now for the Christmas dinner shared with the rest of the school.

"Merry Christmas." A chorus of answers came from the dozen or so students who remained and the professors as well.

"Have you had a pleasant morning Harry?" Dumbledore inquired as the Gryffindor slid into a seat beside a Sixth year Ravenclaw, seeing perfectly well who he was sitting opposite tobut choosing to ignore it at that moment. All the students were sitting at a single table but had pretty much clumped together in their Houses.

"Yes, thank you sir." Harry assured with a smile as he settled. Turning to look forward, his eyes met with hard, silver ones. "Malfoy." He acknowledged with an inclination of his head.

"Potter." The blonde Slytherin opposite returned the greeting, an odd glint of something flickering in his eyes for a moment, totally passing the Fifth year Slytherin beside him. Harry saw it though and he had to bite back a grin.

"Nice day so far?" He inquired, his tone over-polite and Draco raised his eyebrow very slightly.

"It's been...Acceptable." The blonde replied, his tone sounding as though he was implying something though what exactly was a mystery to most. "I suspect that it will improve greatly this afternoon though."

"I hope it does." Harry said, still being overly-formal.

"Why are you being so civil Potter?" A Seventh year Slytherin sneered from a little further up the table.

"It's Christmas Day, I think we can all manage to put petty arguements aside for now don't you?" He pointed out easily. The Seventh year didn't answer but did grumble under her breath. Although Harry didn't catch all of it, he definately heard the girl say "Voldemort".

"My sentiments exactly Potter." Malfoy agreed with a smirk. "Pull my cracker?" He offered, picking up the green and gold shiny Christmas cracker which sat in front of his plate.

Harry watched as Draco very definately turned it around so that the end he had held before was the end Harry would have to hold. The Gryffindor studied it for a moment before taking hold of it tightly. Without the need to a signal, the two boys began to pull. The struggle lasted only a few seconds before the paper ripped with a crack and a tiny display of fireworks, one of the features which seperated magical crackers from regular, muggle ones. Harry found himself with the bigger half, the half which contained all the "goodies".

"Better luck next time Malfoy." He grinned as he pulled out the little bundle of objects inside. Draco merely continued to look at Harry neutrally but it was enough to tell him something; Harry was meant to have won the bigger half.

Intrigued with this silent bit of information from the blonde, Harry looked down at the objects. He unfolded the dark blue paper crown, trimmed with silver paper, and put it on, joining the other few students and Professor Dumbledore who were all holding up the great British tradition of wearing the silly looking hats. Next to unwrap was the prize which had the cracker's "joke" wrapped around it. Harry did so, the prize dropping into the palm of his hand, and his eyes widened marginally at what he found. Instead of the cheap wooden toy he was used to getting in magic crackers, he now held a simple silver ring with many gently curving vines engraved in it. And, if he didn't know better, he'd have said that the ring was real silver. He noted that if he looked really closely at one particular point, the vines were twisted in such a way to create a D and a M. Once you could see it was there, it became obvious that it was done on purpose.

Harry's eyes darted over to Draco but he had already gone back to talking with the Slytherins around him. The Gryffindor's eyes moved back to the ring and the piece of golden parchment the joke was written on. He picked it up and read it; it was an average stupid Christmas cracker joke: What do you call a Gryffindor with half a braincell? Gifted. Harry rolled his eyes at the "joke" and it confirmed to him that the Slytherin had tampered with the cracker beforehand. He was just about to dismiss the joke and the ring when he noted something in the corner of the small piece of parchment the joke was on. In the bottom, right hand corner was a very tiny lion which appeared to be roaring and, coming out of the open lion's mouth was a snake. It was a symbol Harry recognised only too well.

Discreetly, Harry slipped the ring and the parchment into a pocket in his jeans just as another cracker went off somewhere along the table. He saw Malfoy watching him out of the corner of his eye and their gazes met for a second before Harry's attention was called away by the Second year Gryffindor on his left who shyly requested he pull her cracker.

Dinner was over now and it, as always, had been lots of fun. However, Harry was glad that it was over. The moment people started to leave, he was off to slink into a dark corner, somewhere out of sight where no one would see him or even think to look for him. Said place turned out to be in a shallow alcove in the castle walls outside.

Harry shivered slightly as he pulled out the small piece of parchment from his jeans and unfolded it with somewhat numb fingers. When the message was completely readable, he pulled his wand from out of the waist of his jeans and touched it to the hard golden paper.

"Forbidden love is the best kind." He murmured as he touched the parchment with the tip of his wand. With that, the inked words began to shift; either moving place or morphing into completely different letters. Soon, a new message had replaced the stupid joke:

Meet you in the usual place at two.
P.S. the ring's white gold, not silver.

A big grin broke out on Harry's face as he read that and once he was satisfied with the amount of time he'd spent looking down at the parchment, he ripped it neatly down the middle and then in half again. He let the paper fall from his fingers and the pieces seemed to dissolve in thin air as they fluttered down towards the snow covered ground.

Harry sat in an alcove in the Astronomy Tower, rolling the ring from the Christmas cracker between his fingers. Down below he could see the younger students who were staying for the holidays all having a snow ball fight. He would've liked to be down there playing with them, he'd always liked snowball fights, but it was coming up to two o'clock. In fact, it was just as the clocks throughout the school struck two that the door to the tower opened and calm steps suddenly came on stone stairs.

"That joke was pathetic you know." Harry called out, not looking away from the window.

"It came out of a Christmas cracker, what were you expecting?" The smooth, calm voice of Draco Malfoy replied as he came into view if Harry had been looking at him.

"You changed it on purpose though didn't you?" The dark haired Gryffindor accused lightly, as the blonde reached his side and immediately slipped his arms around the other boy's waist.

"Might've." Draco shrugged before dropping a kiss on top of Harry's head and then keeping his lips there. "Merry Christmas by the way." It came out a little muffled.

"Merry Christmas." Harry returned, leaning back into the blonde's strong chest. "Am I to gather that this is my presant?" He inquired, lifting his right hand which now decorated the middle finger.

"Mmhmm." Draco hummed before lifting his head and resting his chin on top of his head instead. "I thought it would be an inventive way of giving it to you."

"Here's yours." Harry murmured softly, drawing a small box out of the pocket of his jeans. "Sorry I'm giving it to you in such a boring, old fashioned way." He grinned playfully, holding the green velvet box behind him so Draco could take it.

The blonde gently took the box and kissed the Gryffindor's cheek before removing his arms and opening the box. Inside was a gold ring much like the one Draco had given to Harry, only instead of being decorated with engraved vines, it was decorated with engravedlines which jutted out at various pointsin sharp angles like cracks. Each line was emphasised with shimmering silver which glittered in the pale sunlight streaming in through the window.

"Did you see me buying your ring?" Draco asked with a very light frown as he plucked the ring out of it's box and began to inspect it close up.

"I honestly didn't. Must just be our great minds hmm?" Harry mused cheerfully. "Say our spell." He prompted suddenly.

Draco raised an eyebrow at the boy who had shifted around so he could hug him around the waist but pulled out his wand none-the-less. He touched the ring with the tip of the wand and Harry shuffled to the side a little so he didn't get in the way. "Forbidden love is the best kind." Draco murmured before moving his wand away and slipping it back into the pocket of his robe.

Slowly, on the inside of the golden band the words "Love and gold from the Golden" written in the same shimmer silver which filled the engraved cracks on the outside. Draco grinned at the choice of message but said nothing. He slipped the ring on the middle finger of his right left hand and took Harry's right hand with it, their fingers lacing together and their new rings pressing together. Harry stood then, the top of his head just reaching the blonde's nose. The dark haired boy tilted his head back and leaned up while the blonde leaned down and, gently, their lips met.

Their kiss was unhurried, their tongues playfully intertwining and their fingers remaining linked while their free hands wandered to better positions. Draco's right hand rose to cup the back of Harry's neck while Harry's left hand was placed on the blonde's shoulder. After a few minutes, they carefully seperated but their faces remained close, their noses brushing together affectionately.

"Love you Harry." Draco whispered with a soft smile.

"Love you too Draco. Merry Christmas." Harry replied just as quietly, looping his arms around the blonde's neck and pulling them together in a close hug.

Aww, wasn't that cute? I feel all happy having written that :) Just in case people are wondering where the plot is exactly, there was no plot; this is just Christmas fluff for the sake of it :D
Anyways, for all still reading, here's you Christmas cheer (hands all pretty boxes gift tagged "Christmas Cheer") I hope everyone has great holidays and that the New Year is better than ever for everyone :)
That's all from me for this time. Catch ya all next time, take care :)

Hugs
Dream