Christmas Preparations.
After receiving the message from Dumbledore, Harry and Hermione had made dinner, before everyone settled down for an early night. It was now the following day, and everyone was downstairs as they grabbed some breakfast. Since Hermione had made it clear she wouldn't be catering for everyone, breakfast had turned into a bit of a free for all. Apart from Draco, who had already grabbed himself some toast, the rest of the boys were in the small kitchen creating chaos.
Hermione stood watching Ron and Theo arguing over an individual sized box of cereal, before shaking her head and leaving the small kitchen. Settling down on the sofa beside Draco, she leant her head against his shoulder.
"This is going to be a long holiday," She groaned.
Draco chuckled in agreement, as he listened to the arguments coming from the kitchen. From the sounds of things Blaise was accusing Harry of putting marmalade on the toast he'd made, while Ron and Theo both wanted the same box of cereal and they'd entered a tug of war for it. Even from the common room both Hermione and Draco heard the box split and cereal go tumbling to the floor.
"Now look what you've done," Theo yelled. "You've spilt my cereal."
"You mean my cereal," Ron retorted. "I had that box, until you grabbed it. It was mine."
"For crying out loud," Hermione sighed as she jumped up and went storming into the kitchen. "Will you four behave and get your breakfast."
"My breakfast is all over the floor," Ron grumbled.
"There's more cereal in the cupboard," Hermione replied tightly. "If you want cereal get a fresh box, and someone clean up that mess." Levelling her most steely glare at Theo and Ron, she turned her attention to a bickering Harry and Blaise. "And what are you two fighting about?"
"I made myself two slices of toast, and Potter here spread it with marmalade," Blaise snapped. "I hate marmalade."
"It's my toast," Harry argued. "I made it, left it here and went for the marmalade. Zabini then comes flying over and accuses me of nicking his toast."
"Since the toast is already spread with marmalade, how we about we let Harry have it and Blaise you can make some more," Hermione suggested.
"But it's my toast," Blaise pouted.
"If you want it, have it," Harry huffed, shoving the plate towards the Slytherin. "I'll make some more."
"But I hate marmalade." Blaise grimaced at the sight of the toast spread with the orange conserve. "This toast has marmalade tainting it."
"I have a better solution, I'll have it and you can both make some more." Hermione smirked at the shock duo as she swiped the plate from under their noses and retreated back to the common room.
Settling back down beside Draco, she found her boyfriend laughing at their friends exploits. Looking at the empty plate sitting beside Draco, Hermione suddenly realised how the argument about the toast had come about. Draco had likely swiped Harry's toast, and he'd then mistaken Blaise's toast for his.
"You stole Harry's toast," Hermione hissed. The last thing she wanted was for Harry and Blaise to hear, as that would only make things tenser.
"Was it Potter's, I didn't realise." Draco shrugged, feigning innocence.
"You're terrible." Hermione shook her head at her boyfriend.
Draco merely grinned back at Hermione as their friends exited the kitchen. Ron and Theo had sorted their cereal and they now both had a bowl, while Harry and Blaise each had a plate of toast. The tension between the two Slytherins and the two Gryffindors was palpable, but at least the bickering stopped as everyone had breakfast.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Ron grumbled once breakfast was over. "We can't go outside because of the snow, and we can't get up into the common room."
"I don't know about you lot, but I intend to make this place a bit more festive," Draco announced. "Blaise, Theo, do you fancy coming with me to grab a tree?"
"Of course," Blaise replied with a grin. "It's not Christmas without a tree."
"Where are you going to get a tree from?" Hermione asked her boyfriend as the three Slytherins got up to leave.
"We can get one from The Great Hall," Draco replied.
"But the trees from The Great Hall won't fit in here," Hermione argued. "They're too big."
"We'll find a way," Draco replied, not concerned by the potential problem.
Hermione decided not to argue as Draco, Blaise and Theo left the head dorms. If they wanted to try and get a large tree into the head dorms, then that was their problem. She was just going to stay out of things, and let them do as they wanted.
"I guess now we're alone, we should talk." Hermione turned to Harry and Ron, once the trio were alone. "I'm guessing you have questions."
"I actually just have one," Harry said, surprising Hermione. "Why didn't you tell us about Malfoy sooner?"
"We were planning on telling people in the New Year," Hermione told her friends. "Initially we wanted to keep it between us, at least until we knew we were serious."
"But you were worried about our reaction," Harry guessed.
"I was," Hermione admitted. "I know you don't like Draco, and to be honest I was worried in case you would make me choose between you and him."
"We would never do that, Hermione," Ron said, joining in the conversation. "All we're worried about is whether or not you're happy."
"I am." Hermione smiled at her friends. "I'm very happy with Draco."
"Then I'm sure we can learn to live with it," Harry said, smiling back at his friend. "Of course, it would have been better not to have witnessed you in bed with him."
"I don't know, part of the view was pretty nice," Ron joked, winking at Hermione.
"Don't. It's just too embarrassing to think about." Hermione blushed bright red as she remembered that her two best friends had seen her topless.
"It could have been worse," Harry said as he and Ron laughed at Hermione's embarrassment. "You could have just hopped out of bed like Malfoy. Now that was embarrassing."
"Tell me about it," Ron agreed with a shudder. "I didn't know where to look. He's not shy, is he?"
"No, shyness isn't something Draco has to worry about," Hermione laughed.
"So, now we know about you and Malfoy does that mean you'll be going public in the New Year?" Harry asked, deciding to get the subject away from a naked Draco.
"I think so," Hermione said. "That was always the plan. Over the holidays I was going to meet his parents, then we were going to tell you lot in the New Year."
"You were going to meet Malfoy's parents?" Ron looked surprised at the plan. "How? You were supposed to be staying with us over Christmas?"
"I was going to visit the Manor over New Year," Hermione told her friends. "Draco's parents always hold a party on New Year's Eve, and I was going to attend. I'd mentioned to Molly that I would be spending New Year with a friend, I just failed to mention who."
"I can't believe you were going to the Manor," Harry said. "Is it really as big as Malfoy makes out?"
"I wouldn't know, I haven't been yet," Hermione replied. "And if this storm doesn't die down soon, I'll not be visiting anytime soon."
"I think it might just be getting worse," Harry sighed as he stood up and wandered over to the window.
Hermione and Ron got up and joined Harry at the window. Harry was right, it definitely looked as though the storm was getting worse. At this rate they would be here until the end of the holidays.
The trio were still standing watching the weather when the door to the dorms banged open. Instead of anyone coming through the door, the top of a tree was fighting its way through the door. Hermione, Harry and Ron watched as the tree moved further into the room and underneath it they could see the bottom of Theo. It looked as though his top half was actually in the tree as he guided it into the common room.
"A bit of help would be nice." Blaise's voice called from the corridor outside.
Harry and Ron shared an amused look, before they stepped forward to help the Slytherins. Harry and Ron grabbed the top of the tree and with the help of Theo, they began pulling it into the room. After nearly five minutes, Blaise appeared holding onto the middle of the tree. Once he'd struggled inside, it was another few minutes before Draco appeared with the bottom of the tree. Unlike Blaise and Theo, who were supporting the tree physically, Draco was brandishing his wand and using magic to help him.
"This is ridiculous," Hermione tutted as she looked at the large tree. The thing was on its side and was nearly the entire length of the room, there was no way it was going to fit standing up.
"It may be a bit big," Blaise conceded.
"You think." Hermione rolled her eyes at the Slytherin.
"There's nothing wrong with big," Draco protested. "You don't normally complain about things being super-sized."
Blaise and Theo both let out a bark of laughter at Draco's obvious double meaning, while Harry and Ron groaned in dismay. Hermione shook her head at Draco, who was shooting her a seductive grin.
"There's only one thing about you that's super-sized, and that's your ego," Hermione shot back, causing Blaise and Theo to laugh even harder.
"Maybe we should try and get this thing up," Harry suggested, causing another round of laughter from the Slytherins.
"We better ask Draco for advice, he seems to be the expert at getting big things up," Theo cackled.
"Don't encourage him," Hermione muttered.
With the Slytherins still chuckling, they managed to extract Theo from the middle of the tree. Hermione had to laugh as he began picking bits of tree from his hair. Once Theo was free of tree debris, the boys set about trying to get the tree standing in the corner of the room. After about ten minutes of pushing and shoving, it became clear to the boys that the tree was far too big for the room.
"Hmm." Draco stepped back and looked at the tree that still wasn't up properly. "We may have a problem."
"And can you not fix it?" Hermione asked. She had a solution, but she was interested to see how long it took the boys to remember they had magic and could fix the problem easily.
"It looks as though we're going to have to shrink the tree," Draco said with a sigh.
"If you'd done that in the first place you could have gotten it back up here easier," Hermione pointed out.
"Now you tell us," Theo huffed, throwing his hands up in the air in frustration. "It was bloody difficult getting this thing up here."
"I thought three supposedly clever wizards would have figured the best plan was to shrink the tree." Hermione shrugged.
"That doesn't matter now," Draco said hurriedly, brushing over their stupidity. "Let's get it shrunk, then we can tidy the decorations."
"Speaking of which, why did you get a Slytherin tree?" Ron asked. "What about us Gryffindors?"
"We did the hard work, if you want a Gryffindor tree, you go and nick one," Blaise told Harry and Ron.
"No more trees," Hermione insisted, before Harry and Ron darted off to get a tree. "We can change half the decorations on this one."
Once the tree had been shrunk so it fit into the corner of the room, the boys set about straightening it up and making sure the decorations were neat and tidy. Once it was fully up, Harry and Ron set about changing half of the decorations to red and gold. By the time the tree was finished it was a mesh of the four colours that represented the two houses, and no-one was overly happy with it.
"Now it looks tacky," Blaise moaned. "You don't put four colours on a tree."
"Let me sort this out," Hermione said, shooing the boys out of the way.
Ten minutes later the tree decorations were charmed to change colour every hour. For one hour the tree would be silver and green, and then for the next hour it would be red and gold. All five boys were happy with the result, and complimented Hermione on her decorating skills. Now they had a beautiful tree, and it suited both the Slytherins and the Gryffindors.