"What… pardon me my ignorance, but Miss Granger could I enquire as to what I do with this… gadget?"
Lucius Malfoy is sitting in one of the formal parlors of Malfoy Manor with a cheerily wrapped present in his lap. He already schooled the sneer on his face once when he caught site of the paper that was printed with garish reindeer wearing muggle trousers and toasting each other with frothing mugs.
Narcissa is sitting to his left with her own gift, waiting her turn to open while Draco and Hermione sit across from them, very cozily snuggled in a small loveseat, their hands clasped between them.
"Oh! Well you see we were unsure if you were familiar with them but it's a muggle video recorder. It takes a moving picture of whatever you point it at." She rises and walks across the room, around the low coffee table, and holds out her hand. "May I?"
Still hiding that sneer, he offers it up to her, nearly pinching the thing between two fingers as if the contraption might be diseased.
As she is powering it up, a house elf pops in the room with a tray of cider in steaming mugs.
"Pipsy will just leave these on the table, yes Mistress?" She addresses Narcissa and all the while, keeps a large watery eye on Hermione, trying to cover her head with one hand.
"Yes, yes that's fine. Don't worry, Pipsy, I've made Miss Granger promise no hats on her person while in the manor."
The little elf breathes a sigh and bows before popping away with a snap.
Hermione, rather oblivious to the exchange, holds up the recorder and points it at Draco. He had needed very little convincing to gift such an item to his parents. Hermione had chuckled evilly at the idea of getting them something so absolutely muggle and her wicked streak made him love her all the more. "Do something for the camera, Draco."
Draco does as instructed and sits up straighter, offering a wave at the camera. "Merry Christmas, Father and Mother. Hermione and I are looking forward to many evenings at the manor in the coming year so you can get to know this girl who has so…. bewitched me." He winks and Hermione rolls her eyes with a grin, stopping the recording.
She turns to Lucius and points at the screen on the device. "You can put this video on another machine with a larger screen. I'll tell you more about that another time. For now, just watch it here."
Narcissa, in spite of herself, is curious and leans closer to her husband's shoulder. He tilts the device her direction so they can both watch. Reaching over the machine, Hermione makes the video play and is delighted when both Malfoys jump a little and watch Draco's performance again.
The Malfoy matriarch brings her hand dramatically over her heart and breathes out, "Well I had no idea muggles had such clever trinkets."
"Much like a wizarding photo wouldn't you say, Mother?" Draco shares a smile with Hermione. They had wanted to give his family something that might give them a broader view of muggles and the muggle world, hoping to further their acceptance of Hermione by discounting the notion that she came from a barbaric and distasteful world.
"Open yours." Draco nods to his mother and she smiles softly before tearing into her own wrapping. Hermione had giggled endlessly when she chose Lucius' paper, but for Narcissa she wanted to appeal to her elegance and maybe even, dare she hope, impress her. Her gift was wrapped in a lustrous peacock-green foil with a subtle monochromatic print of repeating fleur de lis. It is topped with a wired satin ribbon that Hermione had looped and curled into a bow nearly the size of the box so that the end pieces tumbled luxuriously over the sides.
When they had handed both over, Lucius had glanced back and forth between them before forcing a blank expression onto his face. Hermione couldn't wait to mimic it later tonight with Draco when they lay in bed, cuddled close and snickering about their first Christmas.
"Such a beautifully presented gift. I've hardly the heart to tear it open."
"I promise there will be more equally stunning gifts from us in the future so no need to forgo enjoying this one." Draco squeezes Hermione's hand and lifts it almost imperceptibly as he says 'us'.
Of course by the twitch of his right eye, it is apparent Lucius noticed.
Narcissa opens the package to reveal some sort of cloth zippered satchel, a strange square object with what appears to be a rubber tail, and small plastic rectangles in encasements. She looks up with pureblood poise and says, "Of course I will hope to receive a demonstration of my gift as well?"
Draco gestures to his father. "It's a sort of joint gift for the two of you. You have there a power cord that will charge the item with 'electricity'. I've already spoken with a specialist who can fit the manor with a sort of magic electric system in one of the spare rooms. There is also a case to protect the recorder and then those little items contain additional storage so you can keep more videos. Each one can only hold so many before it runs out of space."
His parents look a little perplexed but he was prepared. Also, the gift has another purpose.
"Here, let me see that one." He plucks one item from his mother and gestures for the camera from his father. "Hermione and I wanted to be able to show you how this works. I hope you don't mind but we played around with it a little to be prepared. We have a video on this cartridge to show you."
Hermione is beaming with pride every time Draco says things like "electricity" and "cartridge".
Draco sets up the video he and Hermione had prepared and makes it start for his parents.
On the small screen, Draco and Hermione are sitting on the sofa in their shared flat. Cohabitating was an early battle they had with both sets of parents but the argument that they had been living together in a tent for months did carry a little logical weight.
In an elegant blue jumper, Hermione starts. "Mister and Missus Malfoy, I want you to know what an amazing man you have raised. I've never met anyone as intelligent, thoughtful, intuitive, caring, or brave as your son. It is a testament to the amazing people I know you must be for Draco to be such an incredible person. I hope this is the first Christmas of many that we can share with you."
Narcissa looks up from the screen and offers the couple a thin put-upon smile.
Draco, in a predictably green jumper, continues on the video. "Mother. Father. This year has been a difficult one for all of us. I couldn't have made it through without knowing you were there, somewhere thinking of me. But I also would not have survived without this brilliant and beautiful witch. She gave me everything of herself even as I had treated her with cruelty and derision. She is the most forgiving woman I could hope to love me."
They glance at each other both on the screen and in the here-and-now, steeling themselves.
"That's why I've asked her to be my wife. I'm honored to say that she has accepted." They clasp hands and pull each other closer and he finishes, "We wanted you to be the first to know so this is Christmas Eve that I've asked and presumably we are sitting in front of you now, looking forward to being a family with you and, Merlin willing, our children in the years ahead. Merry Christmas. We love you."
The screen goes black and Narcissa's mouth has dropped open, in shock or horror Hermione and Draco are both unsure. Lucius, to his credit, is only looking at the screen with a passive expression when he finally just starts playing with the buttons on the machine.
"Inventive way to make an announcement. Bit unorthodox, not traditional. But clever," he says in distracted mumble, almost disinterested.
Narcissa looks at her husband, mouth still dropped open. Shock, Hermione has decided. That look is shock.
"Mother, say something?"
"I- yes of course. Your father and I, we expected perhaps but it just seems… I suppose it is a little sooner than I had imagined, my dove."
Draco shrugs. "I thought Hermione was given to me as my perfect future. I was sure the Room of Requirement had produced a fantasy, an ideal witch, to show me what I could have. Who I could be. And I never questioned it because to me, she is perfect. Leaving the Room certainly never changed that. I can't imagine living without her, so why wait? She might get away."
He looks at her with softened eyes and Hermione breathes deep a sigh before smiling back. "I love you, Draco."
Narcissa is watching them with a calculating countenance when she finally takes a fortifying breath of her own. "It's not as though I can feign surprise at this outcome. You wear your heart on your sleeve like a Hufflepuff around her, Dragon." Draco chuckles at the comparison.
"Lucius, congratulate your son," she says in her snappy, no nonsense tone.
"What? Oh yes, yes. Congratulations, son." Lucius is still fiddling with the machine and popping tapes in and out from Narcissa's box. "I think I can figure out… there."
He sits back, nearly oblivious to the room but very proud of himself for figuring out the muggle contraption.
"It looks as though this one has a recording too. Another message for us?" He gives them a stern look. "Do not imagine I will be impressed if you have already placed her in the family way, Draco. I am trying to be rather accepting but there are still social expectations from a properly raised young man."
Draco and Hermione exchange a glance, trying to figure out what is on the…
They both gasp at once and reach for the machine just as the video begins to play.
Hermione is mortified and Draco is choking out excuses as Lucius Malfoy sees first hand an example of just how happy his future daughter-in-law makes his son, in the privacy of their bed chamber.
Narcissa glances over and raises an eyebrow. "You should have that looked at, my darling. That mole on your backside."
With a sniff she picks up her cider and takes a sip.
A/N
As I mentioned, this is UnicornShenanigans inspired, though I wasn't able to work in Hermione's campaign to replace the Malfoy peacocks with ducks so the plumed birds could be moved to a more suitable habitat... darn it.
Thank you Lightof, Unicorn, Trinka, Jade, and Gaeleria for your reviews yesterday! Hope you like this holiday treat
Looking forward to hearing your comments! Thanks for those reading, following, and favoriting as well!