Author's Notes: Written for 100quills at LiveJournal with the prompt "winter".
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
A Fine Winter Evening
It was eleven o'clock on a cold December evening. Albus Dumbledore was busily working in his office, seemingly unaware of the late hour. He was sitting on the floor, surrounded by a plethora of wrapping papers with various designs on them - snowflakes, Christmas trees, and stars. Also scattered about the floor were scissors, tape, and ribbons.
Albus frowned as the tape suck to his finger yet again. He wondered how the muggles managed to wrap their gifts this way with such ease. This was definitely not one of Albus' talents. He had had a grand time selecting festive wrapping paper and brightly colored ribbons, but when it came to the actual use of these things it was a completely different story. Albus could easily use a spell in order to wrap the Christmas gifts, but he had always believed that hand wrapped gifts had a certain special quality. That was, of course, until Albus had actually tried to hand wrap them.
Outside, snowflakes fell, oblivious to Albus' distress. There was something lovely about winter snow. It was both peaceful and beautiful. Albus had a theory about snowflakes: they were like people. All were very similar at first glance, but, at a closer look, no two were the same. Case in point: Aberforth and himself. They shared similar looks, but had completely different personalities. Each person's personality was unique, just as a snowflake's design was.
Albus turned his attention back to the disaster before him. Wrapping paper was cut haphazardly; dozens of crumbled pieces of tape littered the floor of his office. The ribbons seemed to be mocking him. And worst of all, none of the presents were wrapped. Filius's mittens, Hagrid's scarf, Aberforth's chocolate, and Minerva's locket all lacked wrapping paper. Albus sighed, feeling dismayed. What would he do?
A fine winter evening this was turning out to be, Albus thought as he pondered what he would do with bright blue, red, pink, yellow, and green ribbon.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door to Albus' office, and his wife entered. Minerva McGonagall was clad in her usual tartan pajamas.
"Albus," Minerva asked as she surveyed the mess that was her husband's workspace, "what on earth happened?"
"I was attempting to wrap gifts in the muggle fashion," Albus replied as he nimbly shoved Minerva' gift out of sight.
"Ah," Minerva said, "With limited success, I see."
"That ridiculous tape is the work of the devil," Albus muttered.
"I'll help you in the morning, if you would like," Minerva offered. Albus nodded vigorously, "But in the meantime, come to bed. It's late."
Albus smiled as Minerva led him towards the door to his office. However, upon seeing something hanging from the doorway, he paused.
"Look, dear," Albus told Minerva, "Mistletoe."
Minerva smiled. As they kissed, Albus realized that this hadn't been such a bad evening after all.