A/N: Thank you freedominspired for being awesome! I am so grateful for your suggestions and brilliant beta-skills :)
Now, the Swedish tradition with Santa Lucia (or Sankta Lucia as we say) has actually very little to do with the woman and saint Santa Lucia, and the connection between the two of then is at least according to me, quite fucked up.
For one, the Swedish church is a protestant church after the Lutheran doctrine (Martin Luther, mind you, not Martin Luther King), and we do not have saints in our church, with makes the celebration of Santa Lucia quit weird.
No, that's not why we do it. Like, according the Julian calender, that comes from Julius Ceasar and Roman times and was used before the calender that we use today, the night to the 13th of December was the winter solstice and therefore the longest night of the year (at least in northern Europe, I don't think it covers the whole world :P). And according to Swedish folklore supernatural powers where at the essence, and like animals could talk and so on. It was said that it was a dangerous night, and people usually staid up in a watched and ate and drank, now days known as "lussevaka" – roughly translated to lussewatch, to await the breaking dawn when the sun would return.
Trollsejd och mörkermakt ljus du betvingar
Signe lågornas vakt skydd åt oss bringar
Drömmar med vingesus, under oss sia
Tänd dina vita ljus, Sankta Lucia
. . .
Trollsejd and dark power, light you overpower
Bless the flames guard, who brings us protection
Dreams with wings murmur, under us predict
Ignite your white candles, Santa Lucia
"Sankta Lucia", Sigrid Elmblad
"So, are you gonna tell us what McGonagall said or what?" Ron said later in the common room where Harry, Ron and Hermione sat in front of the fireplace. By the looks of it, Hermione was begging to ask the same question, but her boyfriend had beaten her to it.
"Well..." Harry began, and then told the two of them everything he remembered.
"But, doesn't that mean that you have to be with Malfoy all the time?" Hermione asked as soon as he had finished.
"She can't possibly mean all the time, that would be ridiculous!" Ron said.
"I think she does though..."
"Hermione, McGonagall can't expect me to be by Malfoy's side every waking hour, we can't even stand each other!"
"Do you even know where he is, Harry? You have to take this seriously, he could be in danger."
"Oh, the horror!" Ron gasped dramatically, making Harry laugh a little.
"I think he's with Parkinson and his other friends.I saw him picking up food for her in the Great Hall earlier."
"You think Harry, but you don't know." Hermione proclaimed.
"Come on Hermione, and besides it's just the first of December, the dark powers haven't made a move yet." he grinned and Ron laughed beside him. Hermione rolled her eyes and then attempted to refocus on her Charms essay, just to look up again about ten minutes later.
"But what happened after we left, you know, with Parkinson and all that?" she asked.
Harry felt a stone settle in his stomach uncomfortable as he remembered what Malfoy had said.
"He was mad at me, and said that it was all my fault." Harry said sheepishly.
"What! That's ridiculous!" Ron protested, and Harry didn't doubt for a second that if Malfoy had blamed him while Ron and Hermione were still there, there would have been a fistfight in the matter of seconds.
"But he had a point, you know!" Harry said, making Ron shut up and listen, "Apparently Parkinson is terrified to go anywhere without him because people keep attacking her for what she said, much like you did Ron. And when I think about it, I have always seen her in the company of someone this year."
"She tried to hand you over to Vol- Voldemort, Harry, of course people are mad her!"
"But it's my decision whether to be mad at her, not everybody else! And actually I haven't given the whole thing a second thought before today, so I really don't care."
"Harry, she hasn't actually apologized to you." Hermione pointed out.
"Yeah, she probably doesn't regret it either." Ron said.
"You think she's content to feel threatened every day because of what she said?I don't think so, Ron." Harry said. "Anyway, Malfoy was right. It is my fault, and I have to tell people to stop picking my fights for me and leave Parkinson alone. Since I don't care, I don't see why everybody else should."
"But Harry-" Ron began.
"My fight, Ron."
Draco had actually never been in the choir room, none of his fellow Slytherins had. But Theo knew where it was anyway.
"Did you take secret choir-lessons with Flitwick or what?" Daphne asked her boyfriend as they stepped inside the room. The room itself had a very high ceiling and a wide wooden staircase that lead directly into a wall. Draco guessed that it was on that staircase that the choir stood.
"No," Theo answered, "I just like to know my way around the castle-"
"In case you get lost, you mean?" Draco cut him off and smirked. "I swear, in all the years I've known you Theo, I've never seen you get lost anywhere."
"That's because I always know where I'm going."
Anyone that was going to say something about Theo's statement was cut off when Flitwick entered the room through his personal door.
"Right. Gather around now everybody, please take a seat on the choir risers." he said and gestured towards the staircase. Draco and the other Slytherins sat down at one end of the stairs, as far away from the rest of the class as possible.
"Right, now since this is ceremony is going to be done in much more detail than usual, you not only have to know all the songs, but you are going to sing them in parts."
"Wait, what?" Weasley asked.
"Parts, Mr. Weasley, in different harmonies, I'm sure you will discover what I'm talking about sooner or later." Draco heard Millicent snicker and he himself wasn't far from laughing at Weasley either.
"Now, I'm going to call you forward one by one, and you will sing a short piece for my so I can determine what vocal part you will sing best. Mr. Malfoy, you first." A wave of giggles and whispers spread through the class when Flitwick said that, and Draco felt himself boil.
"Why should I go first? Shouldn't you go alphabetically or something?" he protested.
"Not enjoying the spotlight, eh Malfoy?" Weasel said, making half the class laugh. Draco swore, if Weasley hadn't been on the other side of an ocean of people, Draco would have his hands around his neck right then.
"You shut your loud trap if you know what's good for you, Weasel."
"Now, now," Flitwick said, "There will be no jokes about how people sing here, or House points will be taken. Ten points from Gryffindor and let that be your warning.
"Now you must go first, Mr. Malfoy, because the ceremony is built around you and your voice is the most important. Now come down here!"
Draco swallowed and walked to Flitwick, who was holding out a parchment for him, and Draco felt his stomach rumble in disapproval. He had actually never sung before, not properly, and was quite uneasy about the whole thing.
Apparently Filtwick saw his hesitation, and said so everyone could hear; "Now, the goblet chose you for a reason, and I believe you have a great singing-voice hidden inside of you, Mr Malfoy." he smiled as Draco took the parchment, and found that he didn't understand a single word it said.
"It's in like Norwegian or something." he proclaimed.
"Swedish, my boy, Swedish."
"How am I suppose to sing in a language that I don't even speak?" Draco asked critically and glared daggers at anyone that had started to giggle.
"It will come to you," Flitwick said and patted him on the tailbone since he couldn't reach Draco's actual back. "You are Lucia, after all." the little man smiled and stepped back.
Draco glanced one last time at the class and at Flitwick before he looked down at the weird words again, realizing that he didn't even know the freaking melody! But he guessed that Flitwick would just say "it will come to you" or likewise so Draco opened his mouth and tried to sing whatever those words were in a random melody that just came by itself.
His voice started out as a low murmur, but as he became somewhat sure of himself it grew louder, his eyes never leaving the parchment to meet people's mocking gazes.
The melody he sang was a slow, almost ceremonial one, and he felt his voice just float like clear water over the lyrics. He let his voice take over, crystal clear and high-pitched as it was, and he didn't give a fuck about what people though of him any more, all that mattered was song that he was singing.
After what seemed like eternity the song that Flitwick had wanted him to sing finally ended, and Draco looked up to find the whole room staring at him silently. You could have heard a snowflake fall to the ground.
"What?" Draco snapped, not at anyone in particular.
"Ho ho, Mr Malfoy, that was splendid!" Professor Flitwick said delightfully, smiling with his whole face looking like Christmas had come early. "Knew you would have a wonderful voice Mr Malfoy, indeed."
Every eye followed Draco as he sat down again and Pansy immediately hissed in his ear, "Since when can you sing?"
"I didn't know I could sing until five seconds ago!"
"Come on Draco, you must have sung in the shower or something."
"Why the hell would I sing in the shower? Even at home when no one could hear me?"
"You're sitting here saying that you have never sung in the shower?"
"No I haven't!"
"What a miserable life you must have had."
"Why would you sing in the shower? You're showering!"
"Oh, the young nowadays..."
"I'm older than you, Pansy."
"Well the old then."
In front of them Flitwick was calling students forward to sing the same piece as Draco had done, and it was quite a funny thing to watch. Weasley was – big surprise – a terrible singer and it was hard not to break out in laughter when he tried to pronounce the words and sing at the same time, Draco had almost died trying to suppress the laughter that was building up inside of him. Flitwick looked like someone had scratched their nails across the blackboard by the time Weasel was done.
Weasel's girlfriend wasn't much better. She almost read out the lyrics, focusing much more on the pronunciation than the actual song, and her voice faltered as she tried to hit a high note, making Draco grimace.
Potter had a light baritone voice that floated nicely, but he mumbled through the whole piece, so unlike Pansy who's voice grew loud and brash after only a few words. Theo sang like he had read about it in some book. It wasn't technically wrong, but it was monotone and quite boring to listen to.
Longbottom however, was a great surprise. He started out as a nervous wreck, stumbling over the words and not catching a melody at all. But then he seemed to cool down and much like Draco, his voice began to develop. It was strong and deep, and much more decent than anybody in the room had ever imagined.
"Right," Flitwick said when everybody was done, still a bit shaky after Weasley's performance, "that will be it for today I think. I want you all to take a roll of parchment each and look at the songs, try to read them, and use translation- and pronunciation-spells if you must. We'll go over parts tomorrow. Now off to dinner."
Everyone grabbed a scroll for themselves before they walked to the tower to dump their things and head for dinner.