As Christmas crept closer, Hermione began to hope that her problems with Scorpius were coming to an end. Even though he hadn't gotten to see Santa with her parents, he'd calmed down significantly since that day, and even though he was still misbehaving somewhat and was still a bit frosty towards Hermione, the worst of his behaviour seemed to have passed. As such, Hermione was more than happy to have Alex over the day before Christmas Eve, and she allowed both him and Scorpius to help her in the kitchen.
"Now we'll make some cookies for Santa," she informed the two six year olds.
"Why?" Scorpius asked with a pout.
"Because we always leave cookies for Santa," Hermione replied. "Don't you think he deserves a treat for bringing you all your presents?"
"Can we make cookies for the reindeer as well?" Alex asked as his best friend scowled at the thought of making anything for the man who was trying to split his parents up.
"Reindeers normally eat carrots," Hermione said. "I was thinking we can go into the village later and buy some for the reindeers. But for now, let's make cookies."
"I thought you said Santa wasn't coming to your house," Alex whispered to Scorpius as Hermione began to get the ingredients out for the cookies.
"I warned him to stay away," Scorpius replied, recalling the letter he'd written at The Burrow.
"It sounds like your Mum still thinks he's coming," Alex said.
"If he does, he's going to wish he'd stayed away," Scorpius muttered, his little mind whirling with ways to make Santa regret coming to the Malfoy house.
"Are we ready?" Hermione asked, breaking into the boys whispered conversation.
"I guess so," Scorpius replied with a sigh.
"What's wrong with you?" Hermione asked her son. However, before she could press the matter further, the doorbell rang. "You two wait here, I'll be back in two minutes," she warned as she hurried off to answer the door.
With Hermione out of the room, Scorpius's eyes darted around the kitchen, looking for some way he could cause trouble. Spotting the salt tub sitting beside the oven, an idea came into his head. Getting Alex to help him, he pulled a chair over to the bench and popped the lid off the salt tub. With Alex's help, he then opened the bag of sugar his mother had gotten out of the cupboard, and ever so carefully he topped the sugar bag up with salt.
"Why did you do that?" Alex asked as Scorpius jumped back down from the chair and pushed it back under the table.
"Santa won't want to eat our cookies now," Scorpius replied with a devious grin.
"Yuck," Alex spat, thinking about how salt would taste in cookies.
"Yuck," Scorpius agreed with a chuckle.
"What are you two laughing about?" Hermione asked as she re-entered the kitchen.
"Nothing," Scorpius replied with a shrug. "Can we make cookies now, Mum?"
"So now you want to make cookies for Santa?" Hermione checked.
"Yes, I want to make Santa lots of cookies," Scorpius said.
Smiling happily, and thinking that maybe Alex was having a good influence on her son, Hermione set about making cookies with the boys. Both six year olds had a whale of a time, and the morning passed with no fuss, but lots of fun and laughter. With Scorpius so eager to make cookies, they ended up with four trays worth, which Hermione promised them they could decorate that afternoon.
"Let's go and buy some carrots and get some lunch," she told the boys as she set the last batch of cookies out on the table to cool.
"Can we go to the playground as well?" Scorpius asked. "I want to play on the swings."
"Yes, we can go to the swings as well," Hermione replied, happy to let Scorpius do as he wanted as his behaviour was so much better.
The trip down to the village lasted a couple of hours, and while they were at the playground, Daphne joined them. Leaving the two boys to play on the swings, the two witches settled down on a nearby bench, using magic to try and keep themselves warm.
"How are those two not freezing?" Daphne asked with a shiver. Even though both boys were wearing big coats, hat, scarf and gloves, it was still cold to be hanging around the playground.
"I don't think children feel the cold in the same way we do," Hermione said. "Or maybe we're just getting old."
"Speak for yourself, I'm not old," Daphne huffed.
"I've certainly being feeling old these past few weeks," Hermione remarked.
"Is he no better?" Daphne asked. "He seems rather well behaved today."
"He has been pretty good today," Hermione conceded. "In fact, he's slowly being getting better for the last week or so. Mind you, he's still not tidying his room and when he wants, he's still ignoring me."
"I'm sure he'll grow out of it," Daphne said. "Besides, with Christmas almost here, I'm sure he'll soon have other things to keep him occupied. In a couple of days when he's got all his new toys, this will all be forgotten about."
"I hope so," Hermione replied with a sigh.
Fifteen minutes later even magic couldn't keep out the cold, so Hermione and Daphne dragged their children away from the playground and back to Hermione's house. Once back in the warmth, the two witches settled down with a warm cup of coffee, while the boys were allowed to decorate their cookies.
"Do you want one?" Hermione asked the two boys once they were finished and the mess they had made with the icing was all cleaned up.
"They're for Santa," Scorpius said sternly.
"I'm sure he won't mind you each having one," Hermione chuckled, plucking two cookies from the vast array on the kitchen table and handing one each to the two six year olds.
"Can we go upstairs and play?" Scorpius asked.
"Sure, but don't make too much of a mess," Hermione answered.
While Hermione and Daphne moved into the front room the two boys went running off upstairs. But what neither of them realised was that once they reached Scorpius's bedroom, he cracked open the window and they both threw away their salt tainted cookies. Scorpius then roped Alex into helping him make some signs he was planning on displaying the following day, each of which warned Santa to stay away.
Oblivious to her son's plans, Hermione was enjoying a few peaceful moments with Daphne. However, their peace didn't last too long as Draco and Blaise arrived, each of them ready to settle down and spend the festive season with their families.
"How's he been today?" Draco asked his wife.
"Good," Hermione replied with a small smile. "Let's hope he stays that way."
"He will," Draco replied confidently. With not having witnessed Scorpius's really bad behaviour first hand, he had every faith that the worst had passed and their son would return to his normal self.
"Do I smell freshly baked cookies?" Blaise asked with a sniff.
"There's some in the kitchen, help yourself," Hermione said.
"Bring me one," Draco called as his friend headed into the kitchen for a Christmas treat. "I spoke to father, and he's coming over tonight once Scorpius is in bed," he informed his wife as he sat down beside her. "By the time he gets up tomorrow morning, it'll be another white Christmas."
"Sooner or later he's going to end up so disappointed when he finds out the pair of you fake the snow every year," Hermione said as Blaise re-entered the room and handed Draco a home-made cookie.
"He won't need to find out until he's older," Draco replied with a shrug as he bit into his cookie. Within seconds he was gagging, and a glance over at Blaise revealed that he was also pulling a face and struggling with his cookie.
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.
"They are disgusting," Blaise said without thinking.
"Blaise," Daphne hissed, nudging her husband in the ribs.
"They're all salty," Draco explained to his puzzled wife.
"Salty?" Hermione queried. Breaking off a small bit of Draco's cookie she placed it in her mouth and almost spat it straight back out it was so vile. "Bloody hell, they're horrible."
"You must have used salt instead of sugar," Draco remarked.
"How stupid do you think I am, Draco?" Hermione questioned. "I know the difference between salt and sugar. Besides, I keep the sugar in the baking cupboard and the salt is beside the oven for seasoning. I did not get them mixed up."
"Someone did," Blaise remarked.
"Scorpius," Hermione hissed, jumping off her chair and stalking into the kitchen.
Draco, Blaise and Daphne all followed her and arrived in the kitchen in time to see her remove the bag of sugar from the cupboard. Hermione then tentatively dipped her finger into the bag and licked the white substance.
"Shit," she muttered, grabbing herself a drink of water. "Someone's put salt in the sugar bag."
"Deliberately?" Blaise asked with a frown.
"I don't see how it could have been an accident," Hermione said, picking up the salt tub. "Yep, look. There was more salt in here yesterday. When I went to answer the door, Scorpius must have put some salt into the sugar bag."
"Why?" Blaise questioned. "All it achieved was ruining a perfectly good batch of cookies."
"Cookies for Santa," Hermione remarked as Draco gathered the ruined cookies and dumped them in the bin.
"Why would Scorpius want to ruin Santa's cookies?" Blaise asked. "Have you being sharing your theories with him, Draco?"
"No, I have not told Scorpius what a dubious muggle I think Santa is," Draco replied. "But something's clearly happened to make him turn against him. I think we have to face it Hermione. Our son hates Santa."
"I just wish I knew why," Hermione sighed.
"We can always ask him," Draco said, heading off to call Scorpius downstairs.
When Scorpius and Alex arrived downstairs and were asked about the cookies, Scorpius quickly came up with a story of him spilling the sugar and not wanting to get in trouble, replacing it with the salt. Neither Draco or Hermione really believed their son, but Alex backed him up, and they had no proof that the exchange of sugar and salt had been deliberate.
"Do we believe them?" Blaise asked as the boys were allowed to go into the living room.
"Hell no," Draco snorted. "Scorpius did it on purpose, but we won't get either of them to admit it."
"Well it looks like Santa is getting shop bought cookies tomorrow," Daphne said with a shrug.
"If he even comes here," Hermione muttered. "I have half a mind to cancel Christmas."
"We are not cancelling Christmas," Draco said, wrapping his arms around Hermione. "I'll have a talk to Scorpius and he'll behave for the rest of the holidays. Besides, I'm not working until the New Year, so I'll be here to support you."
Hermione took a moment's comfort in her husband's arms, before they returned to the front room with Daphne and Blaise. When they entered the front room they found Scorpius and Alex standing an open window, Scorpius grinning wickedly at something.
"What are you doing?" Hermione asked, closing the window and shooing the boys away.
"Midnight wanted to be in," Scorpius said, gesturing to their cat who was sitting in front of the fire grooming himself.
"Midnight has a cat flap," Hermione retorted. "I've told you before Scorpius, don't open windows."
"Sorry," Scorpius huffed, turning away from his mother and flopping down on the floor with a thud.
Taking a deep breath, before she said something she would regret, Hermione sat down next to her husband and for the rest of the day she allowed Draco to deal with their son. Not that there was much to deal with as for the rest of the day he was a perfect angel, and he didn't even complain when it was time to go to bed.
Shortly after Scorpius was settled in bed, Lucius arrived and he and Draco headed outside to create a white Christmas for Scorpius. When Lucius found two cookies under Scorpius's window, Draco explained about the cookies and Lucius had a good laugh at his grandson's antics. However, he wasn't laughing ten minutes later when they moved around to the front of the house and he found two broken tree ornaments and a neatly wrapped present lying under the living room window.
"The little git," Draco muttered, picking up the shards of the two tree ornaments, both of which were shaped like Santa. "He wasn't letting Midnight in, he was throwing these out."
"Why?" Lucius asked. "And why throw this present out?" he questioned, picking up the box and wincing as he heard broken glass jingling inside the gift.
"I wish I knew," Draco replied, taking the present from his father.
One glance was enough to tell him it was an expensive bottle of perfume he'd bought for Hermione, and had jokingly addressed from Santa following Scorpius's Christmas party. Only now it was ruined and he would have to replace it. Not that money for replacing it was a problem, but Draco was not at all happy with his son's actions.
"Maybe Hermione's right," he said to his father. "Maybe we should cancel Christmas. Or at least postpone until Scorpius is behaving himself. At the minute, I don't think he deserves any presents."
"Cancelling Christmas might only make things worse," Lucius advised. "He won't forgive you if he's getting nothing and all his friends are getting presents. If you want my advice, try and to get to the bottom of it tomorrow. If he won't talk to Hermione, see if he'll talk to you. And if that fails, send him to the manor and I'll get him to talk, even if I have to slip Veriteserum into his drink."
"You can't spike a six year olds drink," Draco chuckled.
"It wouldn't be the first time," Lucius returned with a casual shrug.
"What?" Draco stared at his father in shock, totally taken aback by his confession.
"Come on Draco, surely you can remember the talks we used to have in my study, where you admitted every bit of mischief you'd gotten up to," Lucius laughed.
"I just thought you were good at winkling the truth out of me," Draco muttered. "I didn't know I was being tricked."
"Which means Scorpius won't know if you do the same to him," Lucius pointed out. "I'm off to Blaise's now, so we can give Alex a white Christmas as well. I mean it Draco, find out what's going on, or I will, and I will not be afraid of using underhand tactics."
Knowing that his father meant what he said, especially given his admission that he'd done it in the past, Draco headed inside vowing to get to the bottom of what was bothering his son. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, and he wanted everything sorted before Christmas day itself. He wanted to know what his son's problem was with Santa, and why he was making his mother's life a misery with his recent antics.