Author's Note: Hello, and welcome to the third book in the 'Amortentia' series. If you haven't read the previous two, I suggest that you do so... some parts of this may not make sense if you haven't. I really, really hope you enjoy it. Please review!
"Wake up, darling," my fiancé's voice says sweetly, pulling me closer to consciousness from my deep sleep.
"Uh uh," I reply in response, keeping my eyes closed and enjoying the blissful oblivion of sleep. My fiancé chuckles slightly in response and gives me a light kiss on the cheek.
"It's Christmas," he says a moment later. "Let's go downstairs and open our presents."
"The presents aren't going anywhere," I whisper sleepily.
"But I want to see you open your gifts now," he replies. With that, he stands up and walks around to my side of the bed. He leans down and scoops me into his strong arms, lifting me into the air. Now suddenly and abruptly being wide awake, I open my eyes and wrap my arms around his neck, afraid I'll fall otherwise.
"Okay Draco, I'm awake!" I say playfully. Draco ignores my statement and starts walking towards our bedroom door. "You can put me down now," I say in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Nope," he replies, "I'm carrying you all the way downstairs to make sure you don't crawl back in bed."
"No," I reply with a laugh. After a moment of waiting to be put down, I realize Draco's serious and speak again. "Can I at least use the bathroom?" I ask skeptically. At this, he gives me a very questioning look, but after a moment he seems to have decided that I'm not trying to trick him.
He carefully places me on my feet and says, "Okay then, I'll go get the baby." With that, he takes off for our son's nursery next door while I walk towards the bathroom.
After using the bathroom I stare into the mirror for a moment and attempt to straighten the sleep-induced mess that is my black hair before stepping back into the bedroom. Upon re-entering I'm greeted by Draco, who is now holding our nearly two-month-old son in his arms.
"Look who was already awake and waiting for me," he says cheerfully. I smile at this and walk over to Draco, peeking down at our blond-haired and blue-eyed son. Skylar is lying in his father's arms with a sleepy and curious look on his face.
"Hi bean!" I say happily as I lean down and tickle his tiny stomach, calling the infant by the nickname his father gave him. Little Skylar smiles in response, making my heart melt.
"Do you think he knows its Christmas?" Draco asks. I cast him a playfully stern look in response.
"With the way his father has been going on and on about it for the past three weeks, I'm sure he knows something special is happening," I reply. Draco laughs heartily in response to this.
"Come on, let's go wake my parents," he says a moment later. Smiling and shaking my head slightly, I follow Draco out of our bedroom and down to the second floor of Malfoy Manor, where his mother and father's room is located. When we reach their room Draco loudly knocks on the door and calls out to the sleeping couple. "Mum, Dad," he says, "Wake up! It's Christmas!"
"Draco, you are eighteen years old and it's six-thirty in the morning," his father's muffled voice replies from behind the door a moment later. "Since you're a grown man now, don't you think you could contain your excitement and let your mother and I get a little more rest?"
"I have to be this excited," Draco replies in a matter-of-fact tone. "Skylar can't express how excited he is, so I have to do it for him." I cast my fiancé a knowing look at this and chuckle at the excuse he's given to explain his excitement. Just then there's a loud gasp from behind the bedroom door, followed by a delighted cry from Draco's mother.
"He's right, Lucius!" she exclaims. "It's Jayde's first Christmas with us and Skylar's first Christmas ever! We've got to make it extra-special! Come on, get up!" There's a loud and dissatisfied grunt from Lucius in response to this, which is followed by shuffling noises and the sound of moving feet. Narcissa opens her and Lucius' bedroom door a moment later, wearing her dressing gown. She greets Draco, Skylar and me with a warm smile, and she is followed by a baggy-eyed and robe-clad Lucius a moment later. We all exchange greetings of "Happy Christmas" and walk downstairs to the Entrance Hall in an expectant and excitement-filled silence; though some of the magic of Christmas is gone for me now as I'm an adult, I can't help but feel like a giddy little girl again as we walk downstairs. I'm unsure whether this excitement is due to the fact Narcissa mentioned earlier that it's my first Christmas with Draco and his family, or the fact that it's my son's first Christmas, but either way the energy in the air tells me that the Malfoys are all feeling this same elation.
When we reach the Entrance Hall we turn right and enter the Drawing Room, which, like the rest of Malfoy Manor, is decorated festively with lights, trees, and other various Christmas paraphernalia which Narcissa had the maids put up in the first week of December. There's an enormous tree that stretches from the floor to the ceiling at the back of the room sitting just to the right of the fireplace, and piles upon piles of presents rest just beneath the branches, which are decorated mostly in silver. Once inside the Drawing Room doorway, Narcissa rushes past Lucius, Draco and I practically bouncing with delight.
"You three take a seat," she says, "And I'll pass out the presents!" Eyeing her with raised eyebrows and smiling from ear to ear, the three of us don't argue with her and take a seat on the black sofa situated near the fireplace as she starts sifting through the mountain of presents beneath the tree. "Draco, you and Jayde can open Skylar's presents first, and then we'll all open ours," she suggests. Draco and I nod our heads in agreement with her statement as she pulls her wand from a pocket in her dressing gown and causes Skylar's presents to start floating towards us.
Apparently, Draco and I aren't the only ones who've spoiled our son on his first Christmas; I gasp as I notice that nearly half the presents under the tree were Skylar's and are now resting on the floor at mine and Draco's feet. As Draco's got his arms full with Skylar at the moment, I lean down and pick up the first present lying on top of the pile. While I do so, Narcissa flicks her wand again, conjuring up a tiny seat that Draco can place the infant in; she explains that this is so that he and I can open Skylar's presents together. Once Draco's got Skylar securely in the seat, he and I begin tearing the wrapping paper off the first of the baby's presents with as much excitement as if the presents were ours.
Draco takes the red bow off the package and places it on Skylar's head, and the infant looks around curiously as though confused by his father's actions. This causes Draco, Lucius, Narcissa and I to burst into laughter and smile at how cute Skylar is. Narcissa flicks her wand again and quickly summons the camera Draco and I were given at my baby shower, using it to snap a picture hurriedly before the baby can move around enough to knock the bow off his head. After this, Draco and I return to opening the present in our hands, and when we've got it unwrapped Draco presents it to our son.
"Look, bean! It's a toy dragon from Grandma and Grandpa!" he says. Skylar's blue eyes widen at this exact moment, probably as a reaction to the excitement he hears in his father's voice. Chuckling slightly, Draco presses a small button on the Dragon's foot, which activates the toy. The dragon immediately comes to life and flaps its wings, lifting itself into the air above the baby's head and flying around in a circle.
Poor Skylar can't look up just yet as he's so young and his motor skills are still developing, and he therefore can't seem to figure out where the toy has gone. He turns his head from side to side, but eventually gives up on finding his toy and turns his gaze to me, as if to ask "Where'd it go, Mum?" Laughing, I reach up and grab the dragon, pressing the button on its foot and causing it to return to its previous, immobile state. Little Skylar's eyes follow my hand as I place the dragon beside me on the couch, and Draco reaches down and picks up the next present as I do so.
It takes us quite a while to open all the presents that were bought for our son, and by the time we've finished he's received lots of clothes, shoes, toys, and various other 'baby' gifts. Draco continues to show each present to Skylar as they're opened, and the baby's reaction to this occasionally causes the Malfoys and I to start laughing again. From her position on the floor nearby, Narcissa is able to get quite a few good pictures; I'm certain she's taken at least twenty by the time we're done opening Skylar's presents. After all the infant's presents are open, Narcissa passes out the rest of the presents, starting with Lucius.
Draco's father opens his presents slowly, taking time to examine each one thoroughly and then thanking the person, or people in mine and Draco's case, who got it for him. Narcissa is the next to open her presents because Draco and I have to wait until after feeding a very irritable and hungry Skylar. She also opens each present slowly, trying her best to hide the excitement that is evident on her face. She smiles in delight with each present she opens and insists vehemently that this gift is exactly what she wanted for Christmas, even though she's said that about every gift she's received thus far.
At my insistence, Draco opens his presents next, receiving clothes, shoes, potion-making ingredients and supplies, and new Quidditch robes from either myself or his parents. He's more blatant about his excitement than his parents had been, and tears the paper off his presents very quickly. He makes sure, however, to thank either his parents or me after opening each one; he also gives me a smile and quick kiss of gratitude after each present. The main gift that I got for him, though, is opened last, and Narcissa and I eye each other knowingly as he sets to work unwrapping it; we're both positive that Draco's going to be thrilled about this gift and have been eagerly awaiting his reaction since Narcissa helped me pick it out in Diagon Alley two weeks ago. I can feel myself blushing as Draco peels back the paper, and when he's finally got it all removed he gasps, "Merlin's Beard!" I smile at his reaction and he turns to look at me in awe. "You got me a Firebolt 3?" he asks with an astonished tone.
I simply nod my head in response before asking, "Do you like it?"
"Of course I do!" he exclaims, turning his head to examine and appraise his new broomstick. Then he returns his gaze to me and smiles widely before leaning closer and kissing me tenderly once more. "I can't wait to try it out," he says, "I'm really going to whoop up on Dad and the others now."
Out of the corner of my eye I see Lucius roll his eyes in response to Draco's statement. "Great," he says a moment later. "Just what Draco needed: even more of a reason to brag about how good a Quidditch player he is." I can't help but laugh in response to Lucius' statement, and Narcissa laughs right along with me. As she regains her composure, she walks back over to the Christmas tree and flicks her wand again, this time causing the remaining presents to float and land in front of me. Though ecstatic about getting to open my presents, I feel slightly awkward because I feel three pairs of eyes on me, and I'm not used to receiving so many presents on Christmas as I grew up in an orphanage.
I take my time, slowly opening each gift and examining them, as Lucius had; I also make sure to thank the giver or givers. I receive lots of clothes, shoes, books of common spells and various other trinkets from Draco's parents. From Draco, however, I receive more romantic gifts. He gives me a bottle of self-replenishing lavender perfume that smells divine, a bouquet of purple orchids that will never die, and lots of beautiful sparkling jewelry with diamonds that change colors to match the outfit I'm wearing at the time. I feel completely spoiled by the time all my presents have been unwrapped; I'm so shocked that I'm almost speechless.
Now that all my presents have been opened, Narcissa says that there's one last gift to be given out; she says it's a gift for both me and Draco. She flicks her wand one final time, causing a large box to appear in front of the sofa. Draco and I cast each other curious glances before getting to our feet and unwrapping the present together. Draco's eyes widen and he seems to be shocked when we finish removing the paper and reveal what appears to be a silver bowl resting atop a podium. I, however, am slightly confused; I'm not sure what this is.
"Do you like it?" Narcissa asks as Draco and I continue to stare at it.
"It's brilliant," Draco replies. Not wanting his parents to notice my confusion, I speak to Draco via Amare Vinculum, the love bond we share that allows us to communicate through our thoughts.
"Draco… exactly what is this?" I ask; he looks up from the gift and into my eyes momentarily as he responds.
"It's a pensieve," he replies. "It allows you to store memories and view them later."
Oh! I think to myself, now suddenly much more appreciative of the gift now that I know what it is.
"Your father and I thought it'd be nice for the two of you to have this, to be able to save all the precious memories of Skylar's first year and the start of the your new life as a couple," Narcissa says softly. I gasp loudly in response to her statement; I hadn't even thought about what sorts of memories could be stored.
"Oh Narcissa!" I exclaim, running over and pulling her into a hug. "That's such a thoughtful gift! Thank you so much!" Narcissa smiles from ear to ear and hugs me tightly.
"I'm glad you like it, dear," she says quietly in my ear. When I release my future mother-in-law a moment later, I find that Draco is waiting to hug her as well, so I decide to go thank Lucius for the gift also.
Without thinking, I pull him into a warm embrace as I tell him "thank you", and I can immediately tell it's made him feel awkward because he tenses up and seems a bit shocked. Until I notice his reaction, I had forgotten about Lucius being a 'non-hugger'; he rarely shows emotions. In fact, the only time I've ever seen him hug Draco, his own son, was the day our son was born, and even that was a bit awkward and only lasted for a few seconds. Though everyone else is normally more affectionate on Christmas, Lucius' rule of 'no hugging' apparently still applies.
Nevertheless, he pats my back awkwardly and says "You're welcome". In an effort to decrease his feeling of discomfort, I quickly pull away from him and walk back over to where Skylar is, lifting him up out of the seat his grandmother conjured for him a little while ago.
"Now then," Narcissa says, "let's all go have breakfast; we've a busy day ahead."
Draco, Lucius and I immediately follow her into the kitchen, where the maids have prepared a feast fit for a king. We all eat heartily as Skylar snoozes in his tiny seat before rushing upstairs to shower and dress for the day; Narcissa wasn't exaggerating when she said we've got a busy day ahead of us. By the time we've dressed and made it back downstairs, Lucius' family has arrived for more food and gift-giving; Draco's grandmother, Uncle Maximus and Aunt Tracy, and his two younger cousins remain at Malfoy Manor until late afternoon, and even have lunch with us. Once they leave, it's time to run back upstairs and slip into something more classy and elegant for the enormous Christmas Party Narcissa has thrown; it's apparently a tradition of hers.
By six-thirty in the evening, the manor is full of guests, including Draco's friends and their families, Lucius and Draco's coworkers, and some of Narcissa's friends. There's singing, dancing, wine, and yet another meal fit to be served in a palace, as well as more gifts. By ten-thirty things have finally settled down and the last of Narcissa's party guests has left. Completely exhausted, the Malfoys and I head up to bed immediately, telling each other "Happy Christmas" one last time as we do so.
Draco and I tuck our exhausted son into his crib and we each give him a kiss on the forehead before making our way out of his nursery and into our bedroom. After changing into our pajamas and brushing our teeth, we lie down and snuggle up close to each other, talking excitedly about the day's activities, thanking each other for our gifts once again, and telling each other how this has been the best Christmas of our lives, simply because we were together. When our eyelids start to droop only moments later, Draco kisses my forehead and quietly whispers, "Happy Christmas, darling… I love you".
"Happy Christmas… I love you, too," I reply as I slowly drift off to sleep.