Decorating the Tree.
Letting himself in through the front door of his house, Draco hurriedly shut it behind him to keep out the bitter cold. For the last few weeks the weather had been steadily getting colder, and Draco wouldn't be surprised if it snowed before long. Shrugging out of his jacket, and pulling his boots off, Draco wondered if his girlfriend was home yet. While Draco had spent the morning with his friends, Hermione had gone out to see her parents. However, she'd said she would be back by early afternoon, which was one of the reasons Draco had come home so early. He was hoping to spend the rest of the day snuggled up in the warmth with his gorgeous girlfriend.
Deciding to investigate to see if his girlfriend was home, Draco began to search the house they'd recently bought and moved into. Knowing Hermione was still sorting the library, Draco tried there first. However, the books she was sorting were still piled up the same as they had been the previous evening, meaning his girlfriend hadn't been in the room all day. Walking across the hallway, Draco entered the large front room and froze in his tracks.
Standing in the corner of the room was a massive Christmas tree. Draco was used to having a large tree at the manor, but he hadn't expected to see one as big in his new home. The tree totally dominated the room, and he had to wonder what had gotten into his girlfriend to buy a tree as large as the one she had. He knew they'd been talking about decorating for Christmas, and he knew Hermione wanted it to be perfect as it was their first Christmas living together, but still the tree was a little bit over the top in Draco's opinion.
"Isn't it wonderful?" A voice called from behind him, and Draco turned to find Hermione standing in the hallway behind him, grinning widely.
"It's large," Draco said, entering the room. As he did so he spotted half a dozen shopping bags on the floor, all of which seemed to be stuffed to the brim with decorations.
"I think it's perfect," Hermione said as she followed her boyfriend into the room. "Or at least it will be once it's decorated."
"I guess it will look nice when it's fully decorated," Draco conceded. "And I see you've bought decorations as well."
"I may have gotten carried away," Hermione chuckled as Draco gestured to the bags on the floor. "But it's not all for the tree. I got decorations for the rest of the room as well."
"As long as it's not too much," Draco warned. He didn't mind decorating for Christmas, but he didn't want to live in some sort of garish Christmas nightmare.
"I'm sure it won't be," Hermione replied with a shrug. "Now why don't you go and make us a cuppa, and we can get started. I need to find the lights."
Leaving Hermione to sort her decorations, Draco went and made two cups of coffee. Since getting involved with Hermione, he'd become addicted to the muggle drink. In fact just the other week he'd seen a fancy coffee maker he liked, and Hermione had promised to buy it for him for Christmas. Finishing with the coffee, he headed back into the front room, where he found Hermione sitting on the floor surrounded by decorations.
"Thanks," Hermione said, taking the cup her boyfriend handed her. "I've found the lights. We need to start with them."
Taking the large box of lights Hermione handed him, Draco put his cup down and carefully removed the lights from the box. He then pulled out his wand and was just going to use it when Hermione stopped him.
"No magic," She said firmly. "We should do this the muggle way."
Draco looked between Hermione and the large tree, not believing that she was being serious. "No magic," He repeated in bewilderment. "But the tree is massive, it'll take all afternoon."
"I know, won't it be fun?" Hermione replied with a smile. "Please Draco, I want to do this the muggle way."
Decorating such a large tree the muggle way wasn't exactly Draco's idea of fun, but he couldn't resist Hermione when she looked at him with her big, pleading brown eyes. "Okay," He sighed. "We can do it the muggle way."
"Thank you Draco, I'll make it worth your while," Hermione vowed, giving him a saucy wink. "Now, we need to put the lights on first."
Draco nodded as he wondered how on earth he was going to string such a large amount of lights around such a large tree. How muggles decorated their trees he had no idea, and he was only onto the lights. He didn't want to think how much time it would take to get all the baubles onto the tree.
"How do we this?" Draco finally asked.
"I think we need a chair, or some ladders," Hermione admitted. "Then we can work together to get the lights on."
Summoning a chair from the dining room, Draco moved over to the tree and began stringing the lights around the bottom of the tree. As he worked his way upwards, Hermione came to help him. Finally, Draco placed the last part of the string around the top of the tree.
"Let's check they work," Hermione said as she plugged in the lights. Their house was adapted to incorporate both muggle technology and magic, and for things like lights, Hermione preferred electricity.
"Seem good to me," Draco said when Hermione flicked the switch and the tree was lit up with hundreds of sparkly lights.
"Yep, they work," Hermione agreed as she flicked off the lights again. "Now tinsel. I went for purple and silver as the colour choice, is that okay?"
"It's no green and silver, but it will do," Draco answered, giving Hermione a grin so she knew he was just teasing.
"I thought neutral was better," Hermione said with a chuckle. "No old house rivalries in this house."
"I seem to remember you have a bit of liking for green and silver in the bedroom," Draco said with a wiggle of his eyebrows, reminding his girlfriend of the new lingerie set she'd modelled for him the previous evening.
"I'll try anything in the bedroom," Hermione replied without thinking.
"I'll hold you to that," Draco responded with a wicked cackle.
"I hope you do," Hermione said.
Grinning at the prospect of indulging in a few naughty things in the bedroom with his girlfriend, Draco grabbed some tinsel and while he started to decorate the top of the tree, Hermione worked on the bottom. Once the tinsel was done, Hermione produced a selections of baubles and they began adding them to the tree.
"Bloody hell, we've been doing this for hours," Draco groaned as he hung yet another bauble on the tree.
"Maybe I underestimated how long it would take," Hermione conceded. "But we're nearly done now."
In actual fact nearly done was nearly half an hour later. Getting off the chair, Draco stepped back and admired their handiwork as Hermione flicked on the lights again. He had to admit it was a stunning tree, even without being decorated with magic. It may have taken them a while, but the result was worth it.
"Okay, it's lovely," He told his girlfriend, wrapping his arms around her and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "And it was actually quite fun decorating it together."
"Maybe it can become a tradition," Hermione suggested hopefully.
"Yeah, I guess it can," Draco replied. "And now it's finished, I'm starving. Do you fancy ordering out for Chinese?"
"That sounds good," Hermione agreed with a nod as Draco headed into the kitchen to grab the takeout menu.
Hermione began to sort the unused decorations on the floor, when she suddenly spotted the angel she'd bought for the top of the tree.
"Draco," She called.
"Yeah." Draco popped his head around the door, menu in hand.
"The angel." Hermione held up the angel in a silver dress. "She needs to go on the top of the tree."
"Let's guess, you want me to do it," Draco said with a sigh as he entered the room.
"Please." Hermione gave Draco a smile as she handed him the angel.
Giving Hermione the takeout menu, Draco took the angel and climbed back up onto the chair. Leaning over, he placed the angel on the top of the tree. However, just as he was removing his hand, his foot slipped on the chair and he went flying face first into the tree. Hermione let out a squeal of surprise as she watched with wide eyes as her boyfriend and the tree went toppling to the floor.
"Draco, are you okay?" She cried, rushing over to where Draco was now lying on the tree.
"Great," Draco grumbled as he pushed himself up and away from the tree. "Sorry Hermione, but I've killed your tree."
"As long as you're okay," Hermione insisted as she helped her boyfriend to his feet. "You are okay, aren't you?"
"My pride's a bit bruised," Draco confessed as Hermione pulled some loose tree shavings from his blond hair. "I wasn't exactly elegant, was I? Flying face first into the tree."
"It was a rather spectacular fall," Hermione admitted with a small giggle.
"And what about the tree?" Draco asked, looking down at the broken mess on the floor. Not only was part of the tree flattened, but several of the baubles were broke.
"All I can say is it's a good job we're magical," Hermione replied.
As Hermione pulled out her wand, Draco watched in disbelief as she used magic to put the tree back up and fix its branches. She then got rid of the broken decorations, summoned some of the ones they hadn't used and used magic to fully decorate the tree. To finish it off, she then floated the angel into place on the top of the tree. In five minutes the tree was back to looking every bit as good as it had after a couple of hours work.
"I cannot believe you've just done that," Draco exclaimed. "What happened to wanting to do things the muggle way."
"We did do things the muggle way, it just didn't end as I planned," Hermione said. "I think in future, we'll decorate the tree with magic. Let's be honest, it's much safer."
"Yes, it is," Draco agreed with a small laugh as the couple settled down to sort dinner, the tree now sitting nicely in the corner of the room making them feel all festive.