Merlin, Draco couldn't believe he was doing this. As he went through the door, a little bell rang, and a very peculiar smell hit him full force.
Draco tried not to look too revolted as a far-too-happy looking assistant skipped over to him.
"Hello sir, can I help you?" she said.
Draco shifted in his robes uncomfortably.
"Yes, I'm looking… I'm looking for a dog."
"Aren't we all?" the assistant laughed. No, thought Draco. She motioned to the left and said, "Right this way."
She took him into a room with bunches of rabbits, and then through one with cats. Draco looked at them longingly. Couldn't they just get a cat? They were so much better. And smarter. Dogs were large, needy, breathed in an annoying way, smelled and shat everywhere.
But Harry - Harry loved the disgusting creatures. He liked cats well enough, but dogs were a thing with him. Draco sighed. He was sure it was all to do with Harry's saviour complex - a creature that was want for love and attention 24/7 would be feeling Harry's saviour instincts 24/7. Not that they needed feeding - only two months ago Draco and Harry ended up taking no less than six pensioners on their couples holiday because Harry was worried their elderly neighbours didn't get out enough.
Some chirpy, annoying song was whining out through speakers - something about all I want for Christmas is you. Draco was never going to understand Muggles. Or Harry.
"Is this for a child?" asked the assistant, "we always say that people must make sure their kid knows that a dog's for life, not just for Christmas!"
She laughed nervously.
"No," said Draco, "it's for my boyfriend. And you needn't worry, he is the last person who would ever leave an animal - or a person - who depended on him. Believe me."
"Oh, well, good," she smiled. "Here are our dogs. Call me if you need any help."
"Thanks."
The assistant left, and Draco was left standing alone with about twenty dogs. In a Muggle rescue kennel. Good fucking Lord, the things he did for Potter.
Draco turned to the kennel closest to him. Inside was a large black and white spotty dog. Harry had shown him this breed in the book Granger had given to him on dogs - it was a Dalmatian. Harry had laughed for ages when Draco hadn't known what one was: I've never met a child - let alone an adult - who didn't know what a Dalmatian was, he'd said. Draco had puffed his chest out and reminded him that Purebloods didn't own Muggle things like dogs, thank you very much, and that Harry probably couldn't name half the magical pets Draco had owned as a child, let alone their breeds.
Harry had told Draco he was so uptight, and then kissed him, laughing.
Draco wasn't laughing now. The poor dog in the first kennel was laying down and looking rather forlorn; Merlin, Draco's heart was aching. How long had most of these animals been here, without a warm, loving home?
He almost had the thought that he wanted to adopt all of them, but then he reminded himself that Harry's saviour thing would rub off on him if he wasn't careful, so he moved onto the next kennel, trying not to look back at the Dalmatian.
In the next kennel there were two small, fluffy dogs with eyes that poked out in a rather alarming fashion. They yapped at Draco in little high-pitched voices, and Draco quickly moved on.
In the next kennel there was a chocolate brown dog with a shiny coat that looked at Draco lazily. In the next one after that there was a dog Draco recognised as a Pitbull. It sneezed, and Draco couldn't stop laughing for a good two minutes.
Just as Draco got round to the last dog, the assistant came back.
"Well," she said, "see anyone that caught your eye?"
Without meaning to, Draco's eyes flicked to the Dalmatian. It was still laid down, glum.
"That's Dotty," said the assistant, "she's been here for a while."
Draco sniggered. "Dotty? I see no imagination was spared naming her."
"You should hear what some of the other dogs get called! Dotty's not too bad - the first family who owned her let their four year old name her. Sadly, the parents got sick of caring for Dotty by the time the child was five. The second family held onto her for a bit longer, but ultimately she ended up back here."
Draco's breath caught in his throat.
"Usually, Dalmatians get adopted relatively quickly," the assistant went on, "families love them. But Dotty's going to be a senior soon, and nobody wants to get their children an old dog. But she's ever so docile and lovely - "
"We'll take her," Draco blurted.
The assistant smiled. "That was a quick decision, are you sure you don't want to discuss it with your partner first?"
"He - he'll love her. I knew straight away."
"Alrighty then," said the assistant, beaming, "I'll get the paper work."
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.
"Mother, don't freak out -"
"What. Is. That."
Draco Malfoy stood in the doorway of Malfoy Manor with a tail-wagging Dalmatian on a leash, looking at his horrified mother, who had never been so close to a real-life dog, let alone let one into her home.
"Narcissa, darling, what is all this noise about? I was just - good grief!"
Lucius Malfoy stopped dead in the hallway and stared at the large spotty monster on his doorstep.
"Draco," said Lucius slowly, "is that a - dog?"
Draco sighed.
"Yes, Father."
Lucius wrinkled his noise, head still recoiled. "But son, why?"
He stared at Dotty with deep distrust - Dotty the monster, who was currently licking at Draco's hand with rather a lot of vigour.
"She's Harry's Christmas present. I want it to be a surprise, so I'm keeping her here until Christmas."
Narcissa Malfoy's eyes popped out like the dogs Draco had seen in the second kennel.
"You mean," she said, "to keep it… inside?"
"It's only for two days," said Draco, "we'll take her home on Christmas afternoon before we go to the Weasley thing. And I'll be here for the whole two days to look after her. You'll barely see her."
Narcissa looked rather like she might faint.
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.
"Drrrrrrraaaaacooooooooooo! Drracccooo -"
Draco flew out of bed.
"Dracooooo!"
Draco recognised the voice as his fathers and his heart jumped; he grabbed his wand and ran downstairs, following the cries.
"Father!" Draco called as he legged it down the stairs towards the voice, "Father! Where are you?"
"In the drawing room," Lucius called back.
Draco sped down the corridor to the drawing room, sliding along the polished floors and flying into the room at last.
"Father! Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Lucius was stood in a corner, clutching a slipper to his chest, and pointing to the other corner of the room.
Draco edged around the room carefully, trying to see what it was at the other side of the room, behind the sofa.
As he strained to see over it, a large, happy, spotty head popped up, a slobbery slipper in its mouth.
Draco smacked his head as he recalled the notes. Noted slipper-chewer.
"They were my favourite pair," whimpered Lucius.
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.
"You're getting your dad a pair of slippers?" said Harry, "I thought Malfoys tended to go a bit more… extravagant."
It was Christmas Eve and Harry had arrived that evening to spend the night at Malfoy Manor. Draco was wrapping a last minute present as they were getting ready for bed.
"It's a long story," said Draco, spelling a giant silver bow and the word Lucius onto the wrapping paper, "I'll tell you about it later. Right - done. I'm just going to go put this under the tree, I'll be back soon."
Harry gave him a quick kiss and Draco put his own (slightly chewed) slippers on.
As he left his room, he made a quick detour down a small corridor to check on a certain dog with a propensity to -
Draco stopped half way down the corridor, and growled.
A dog with the propensity to open doors. What kind of a dog could work handles?
Draco looked at the wide open door to Dotty's room and turned around. Great. A dog chase at 11pm at night was really what he needed right now. Draco just hoped he found her before she found his mother. He didn't think Narcissa could handle another full-force face licking in the space of 24 hours.
Draco checked the surrounding rooms.
"Dotty! Here girl! Dotty!" was yell-whispered at least fifty times over.
There were no results. Draco went downstairs and put Lucius' gift under the tree.
He looked around. If he were Dotty, where would he go?
Quite suddenly, a house-elf apparated in front of Draco, causing him to stumble back a few steps.
"Nobbles!" said Draco, "I told you, don't do that so close to people - you'll give them a heart attack."
"Nobbles is sorry, Master!" said the elf, "But Master! The turkey! The turkey!"
"The turkey?"
The house elf screeched an anguished cry. "A monster is eating it!"
"Oh Merlin."
Draco ran to the kitchen; even as he approached, he could hear the clang of pots and pans. As he entered the large room he spotted a large turkey with quite a few bites missing; then Dotty spotted him, and jumped at him with a running start.
Draco was knocked over flat onto his back, and licked over thoroughly.
"For fuck's sake Dotty," said Draco, fighting her off, "get off me. You saw me an hour ago. You can't have missed me that much."
Dotty backed off and sat looking at him, panting, tongue out, ears up.
"C'mon," said Draco, "let's go to bed, you silly old girl."
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.
"Where have you been?" said Harry when Draco returned the next morning. "I've been making small talk with your father. For an hour."
"Sorry," said Draco, placing a kiss on Harry's unhappy pout, "I had to get a new turkey."
He waved the bag at Harry.
"Why? What happened to the old one?"
"I'll explain in an hour," said Draco, grinding his teeth. "Let me give this to Nobbles, and then we'll do breakfast and gifts."
Draco was expecting something to go wrong at breakfast at any moment, even though he'd spelled the door handle so it could only be opened from the outside. Dotty had jumped up on the table at breakfast the day before, and there had been rather a lot of screaming.
It continued into gift opening - both the lack of Dotty and Draco's paranoia that a Muggle dog would manage to get through magical wards. Lucius put his new slippers on with equal approval and disgruntlement.
Finally, they made it to the end of all the gifts: Harry was playing with some extremely expensive magical pen or other Lucius and Narcissa had gifted to him, and Draco was about to breathe a sigh of relief and go get Dotty.
As he stood up to excuse himself, the now familiar sound of paws and claws against floor became audible at a distance, travelling their way.
"Oh no," said Draco.
"How did she get out?" said Narcissa.
"How did who get out?" said Harry.
Claws on floors was now quite loud, and turning the corner into the small corridor leading to the living room -
A very large bundle of excitement with a very large pink bow attached to collar burst through the doors at full speed, and all at once, they realised who it was heading for -
"No!" said Lucius, but it was too late: Dotty launched herself at him, covering his face with kisses.
Draco grabbed her collar, "down girl! C'mon! Down!"
Draco finally got her off his Father, but she only proceeded to launch herself at the next nearest person: Harry.
Harry took her with open arms, laughing and petting her as she went to town on his face. Lucius watched with pursed lips, getting a handkerchief out to wipe down his face.
"Docile my ass," muttered Draco.
After a couple of minutes of dog and Gryffindor meet-and-greet, Dotty settled down to sit on Harry's lap, which Draco knew from personal experience was heavy and uncomfortable. Harry looked ecstatic. Of course he fucking did.
"What's her name?" he said, looking at her so lovingly that Draco felt a bit nauseous.
"Dotty. And I would like to clarify that I did not name her. A four year old did. But she's yours so if you want to rename if -"
"She's mine?"
Harry's arms tightened around the dog, and he looked at Draco like a disbelieving child who'd just been given a unicorn.
"Yes. She's also the reason for the new turkey… And Father's new slippers…"
Harry struggled to contain his laughter. Lucius huffed, still wiping his face.
"Do you like her?" said Draco.
Harry hugged the dog close to him, and she nuzzled his hair approvingly.
"Draco, I can't imagine a better present."
Draco grinned, stuck his hands into his trousers, and hoped that wasn't entirely true.
Harry cooed to the dog. Draco's hand clenched around a small, ring-sized box in his right pocket.
"Merry Christmas Harry," said Draco under his breath.