Draco arrived at Malfoy Manor early on the 20th of December. His mother had greeted him at the train and brought him back to the house, Lucius still having ministry business to take care of. Draco fell into his own bed, groaning as he felt the warm fluffy blankets and satin pillow cases. It was good to be home. Draco kicked off his shoes, unbuttoned his cloak and lay back in the bed. "Dobby!"

A sudden CRACK, and the house elf stood before him, he had droopy ears and large doe eyes. "Yes, Master?" The house elf asked, bowing low to the boy who did not even spare him a glance.

"Unpack my bags, but make sure to keep track of what I brought so I can take it back with me to Hogwarts." Draco got up from the bed, looking around his room.

"Of course, master." Draco looked at his bookshelf, where so many of his favorite books had been stored. He needed to remember to take a few of them before he left. As he reviewed them, Draco heard a large Squawk come from his owl's cage. "Dobby!"

"I'm sorry, Master!" Dobby put the cage down, taking nearby textbook and smashing his hand. "Stupid Dobby!" He yelled, but Draco just took the Textbook out of his hand and rolled his eyes.

"Dobby, just go unpack the clothes," Draco cooed at the bird, who seemed to have a defiant ruffle of his feathers and turn in his cage. Draco unlatched the carrier and the bird flew out onto a perch in Draco's room. Dobby watched the bird fly by, and made a sound of amusement. "Dobby, How has mother been?" Draco asked, rifling through his old desk to make sure his things were in order.

"Ah, The mistress has missed you sir," Dobby said. "She tells Dobby all about how your Potions are going. Mistress has been a bit bored without you here, but she's taken to having company over for afternoon tea." He smiled at Draco, who nodded back at him. Dobby had been given to Draco on his seventh birthday, and although he never allowed himself to cross the boundary between House elf and Master, he almost thought of Dobby as his friend. Dobby in turn, worked for him as hard as his little boney fingers could, and tried to think about Draco before the boy could even tell him what to do.

"I do like Hogwarts, it seemed like a terrible place from what Father has said, but the classes are really fun. Homework is a little outrageous at times, though." Draco pointed at the stack of textbooks. "They've even assigned us things for our vacation."

Dobby looked over the pile he had set on the desk, "Master is very smart, Dobby believes in you." He said, with almost a little chuckle.

Draco nodded, but turned around back to rummaging around his room. "What has Father been up to?"

"Ah, Master Malfoy has been working at all hours of the night. Dobby has seen him come in, have a coffee, and leave. Something very troubling has happened." Draco pouted his lip and wondered what his father could be up to.

At dinner that night Narcissa Malfoy had ordered only Draco's favorites, and Draco could barely get over the expert taste. Lucius was still away on business, apparently picking up slack of other ministry workers leaving for vacations. Draco enjoyed speaking with his mother again, he'd missed her at Hogwarts.

"Did you make any new friends, Draco?" she asked before taking a dainty sip of wine.

"Yes, I have. The Slytherins have been good to me. Blaise Zanbini, Millicent Bullstrode, Pansy Parkinson, just to name a few." Draco took a few small bites of food before continuing, "Though Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle have been very good friends."

"I do hope you find a good a friend as Snape was to Lucius." She said softly, snapping her fingers for a house elf to change the course to dessert.

"Mum, did Dad ever take you to the Yule Ball?" Draco asked, taking a bite from his cheesecake.

Narcissa seemed to reminisce for a moment, chuckling to herself. "Yes, we had come separately. Apparently your father had thought it funny to invite another person as his date, though he was betrothed to me." She stirred her pudding with a small spoon, "I searched for him high and low to see who he could have brought, when I saw it was him messing about with Severus I nearly blew a gasket." She chuckled, "Though it would have been worse if he had brought a proper date to the Ball. He did sneak out of our dance, though, once the music began."

"So he didn't really see you much that night?" Draco asked.

"No, the Ball was a bit of a disappointment, but your father made up for it. The next night there were a bunch of flowers along the common room, music playing and a fire going. We had our own few dances, it was a wonderful night." She smiled, and Draco smiled back at her.

Lucius came home a few hours later, Narcissa had retired to her room, Draco waiting for his father in the parlor. Lucius smiled at Draco, who had fallen asleep on the big chair. He stroked his son's hair, "Draco…"

Draco stirred, opening his eyes, "Daddy?"

Lucius could forgive the sudden lack of maturity, for how cutely Draco had awaken. Draco seeing his father gave him a big hug, "Father!"

"Draco…" Lucius hugged the boy back, "You needn't have stayed up for me."

"I wanted to see you, Mom said that you were busy at the ministry."

"Yes, but now I should have some free time to spend with my family." Draco smiled up at Lucius, who slicked back the now tussled hair on Draco's head. "How have classes been?"

Draco told Lucius of his school work, and anything of interest he could muster from the year so far. Lucius listened intently, eating a quick meal his house elf had brought him.

"And what of Severus?" Lucius asked, "Has he been treating you well?"

"Oh yes, Uncle Snape had been most helpful in learning Potions. He's been a great teacher." Draco smiled, noticing Lucius's lip pull up slightly.

"What was your favorite subject in Hogwarts, Father?" Draco asked, taking a sip from his hot Chocolate.

"As you can guess Severus had taken NEWT level Potions, but I stayed with Charms and History of Magic." He smirked at this, "Though with a position at the ministry you tend to need Charms to make everything go smoothly."

Draco had a big yawn, and Lucius ordered him to bed, fearing the boy might pass out at any moment.

Christmas morning was filled with excitement and anticipation. Draco had woken up to Dobby's shaking, "Master! It's Christmas!"

Draco shot up, taking the clothes that Dobby was feverishly handing him to change into. He checked the mirror, seeing his hair was halfway staying slicked back, only a small tufted was pulling forward, He smoothed it down, brushing it our before gelling it back into place.

Draco began to run down to the stairs, Dobby at his heels making sure the boy could at least fall on his cushy body, rather then the hard stairs if he tripped.

"Not now Severus…" Draco heard, before slowing to a walk into the main living room where the Christmas tree was kept. Severus Snape smiled at Draco, standing close to Lucius.

"Ah, Draco, it's good to see you again. How has your vacation been?" Draco smiled, running over to give Snape a hug. The man stiffened for a moment, before returning the gesture.

"Father, is mother awake yet?" Draco asked, glancing over at the presents.

"Well…" Snape and Lucius looked at each other for a moment, "She's still resting for now, I'd better go fetch her."

Snape took some presents from his cloak, putting them under the tree. Draco sat underneath of it, waiting to be told he was allowed to dive into the sea of presents. Severus took a seat by the fire, resting his feet up.

Draco's parents came down, hand in hand, Lucius nodding to him to open his presents. Draco dove into them ripping up the wrapping paper, and throwing boxes everywhere. Dobby tried to clean up the mess as Draco was making it, but it became too much for the house elf to keep track of and it took Lucius shooing him off to get him to stop thwapping himself with a piece of wood.

Eventually Draco came to the present Snape had gotten him. He opened it, seeing it was a cloak. He put it on and noticed a little dial on the latch. "It's a cloak of Transparency. One click and your invisible to the naked eye, another allows you to travel through solid surfaces, Like a ghost, except only horizontal, not vertical."

Lucius looked at Severus a bit confused, "Is it wise to give a young child, such a highly magical gift?"

Snape smiled at Lucius, "Well, I'd expect Draco not to take it with him to Hogwarts, as it would be taken away if he is found with it. Does that sound fair, Draco?"

Draco pouted slightly, it would be such a great thing to bring with him to Hogwarts, but he nodded his head in agreement, "Yes, Sir."

Snape summoned a present to himself, handing it to Lucius. "To you old friend," Snape smiled smugly.

Lucius rolled his eyes, opening the present. It was a large tomb of pictures from their school days. He breezed through some of them, laughing at old pictures of him and his friends from Hogwarts. Narcissa smiled at a few pictures of herself and Bellatrix who were giving nasty looks at the camera, but others had turned out to be quite flattering. Lucius seemed to notice something about the book, and gave a secret grin at Snape, who in turned took a large sip of his coffee.

Lucius tossed a gift to Severus as well, "I'm sure you'll enjoy that, but first why don't you take your mother out to see her gift Draco. You know the spot." Draco smiled taking his mother's hand and leading her to the garden. There she saw the grass sculpture of herself laying on a bed of roses. Underneath the huge plant was a new set of patio furniture, everything needed for an outdoor tea party. Narcissa gasped and hugged Draco to her, "Oh I'm ever so spoiled!" She went to the set, touching the head chair which was golden with painted green serpents on the arm rest.

"Father and I ordered that set together, I thought you might like the Gold rather then the silver set." Draco said, looking around to see if his Father had followed them out yet.

"Oh Draco! It's beautiful!" She called walking around the set, snapping for a house elf to begin brewing a pot of tea. As she was preoccupied, Draco went back inside to see what was taking his Father so long.

"Father?" Draco called out. He came across Lucius and Snape speaking softly in the sunroom, just before the garden. Lucius began walking faster towards him, as Snape tucked something along his neck back under his robes.

"Did she enjoy it?" Lucius asked.

"She's more interested in the patio set, rather then her sculpture, but she seems to like everything." Draco said, rushing back over to his mom.

They had lunch on the new patio set, Narcissa catching up with Severus about the news at Hogwarts. Draco couldn't help but laugh when Snape began talking about Neville Longbottom's long streak of failures in his class. "He's as thick as a Dragon's hide, and no amount of forcing will ever get that boy to learn." Narcissa put her hand to her mouth laughing sophisticatedly.

Christmas had been a real treat, having his family around him was rejuvenating, and the trip back to Hogwarts was one that he desperately reluctant to do. Snape only had stayed for Christmas day, and had gone back to Hogwarts to finish up some last minute paper work. Draco enjoyed the next few days with his Mother and Father, but too soon he was on the train ride back home. He waved goodbye to them, smiling out the window as they watched the train leave. Dobby had been there too, waiting behind a pillar to wave one last goodbye to his beloved Master.

Draco sighed into his seat, listening to the ramblings of Crabbe and Goyle's Christmas Tales. He laughed as Goyle told him he had gotten sick from eating so many candies that his mom had gotten him, and Crabbe had taken a fancy to Pegasus riding after going to a resort in Germany. Before he knew it he could see the tall castle trudging up in the distance.