I woke up early on Christmas day, jumped out of my bed at the manor, walked the few meters over to Draco's room, and threw his door open. "Draco! Draco! Draco! It's Christmas! Wake up!" I exclaimed, jumping on his sleeping form after each word. "Come on," I whined, laying next to him after I finally wore myself out from jumping. My actions elicited a groan from the boy and I threw my body on top of his, whispering, "Draco Lucius Malfoy, you better get your ass out of bed or I won't make you cookies later."
Draco shot up at this and shoved me off of his bed. "I'm awake," he said. I giggled and ran back to my room to change into a more formal outfit for breakfast with the Malfoys. The plan for the day is to have breakfast and then floo over to my house with Draco where we will open presents and make cookies. The Malfoys aren't keen on celebrating Christmas in a casual fashion. They prefer to have their pureblood formal and then a nice family breakfast on Christmas Day. All in all, very mundane.
I tied up the laces on my heels and began my descent down to the formal dining room. Lucius sat at the head of the table with Narcissa on his right and an empty seat on his left for Draco. I sat next to the seat left for Draco and we were stuck in an awkward silence. A few painfully uncomfortable seconds later, I broke the silence by looking at Mrs. Malfoy and saying, "You look lovely this morning, Mrs. Malfoy."
"Thank you, you do as well. Happy Christmas," she said smiling at me.
"Happy Christmas," I said smiling back. Thankfully, Draco walked down just then to relieve the tension. He kissed his mother on the cheek and then proceeded to sit beside me. I smiled over at him and we all began to eat in silence. Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy engaged in hushed conversation at some point and Draco and I ate quietly. It felt so weird being so close to him but not touching him. Ever since coming to his house, we became a lot more physical, for lack of a better word. Whenever we are sitting or laying next to each other, we had some part of our body touching. During the formal, his hand found a comfortable spot at the small of my back and then, when sitting next to each other, our legs were touching and sometimes his arm was around my shoulders. My point is, we were close. He must have had the same thought that I did as his left hand ventured to rest on my knee area. I nibbled on a pastry whilst he talked with his father.
Breakfast began to wrap up as we all finished eating. When Draco's parents began to stand, I looked at them and said formally, "Thank you for welcoming me into your home. It has been an absolute pleasure staying here." Mr. Malfoy nodded and Mrs. Malfoy smiled at me.
"It has been a pleasure getting to know you better. I hope to see you during Easter holidays," Mrs. Malfoy said back to me.
"I would enjoy that." Draco kissed his mother on the cheek and bid them ado. I made my way to my room and packed together the items that I had brought along with me. I met up with Draco at the fireplace that was in the sitting room in our wing and we disappeared in the emerald flames to my home.
We arrived in the main living space of my manor and I was immediately calmed by the warm tones of my house. After being in the cold dark manor of Draco's place, it was comforting to be home. The house elf that was dusting off one of the tables shrieked in surprise and disappeared, most likely to alert my mother of my arrival. I smiled and moved to one of the couches, sitting down with Draco not far behind me. Keeping true to my thoughts from earlier, our shoulders and legs were touching even though there was plenty of room on the couch we sat on. My mother entered the room not too long after and I jumped up and hugged her, even though I had seen her the night before.
"Anthea, honey, I am so happy to see you!" she exclaimed loudly.
"I'm happy to see you too, Mum," I said hugging her back fiercely.
We exchanged stories from the past days that we were apart and made our way to the heavily adorned Christmas tree that was in the corner of the room. There were presents bunched around it of varying size. Draco, Mum, and I sat around on the floor or on chairs opening up presents and sharing stories, having a grand time. It was one of the most fun times I've had in awhile.
Draco and I left my mom alone so that she could read all the new books on spell making that I gave her and we headed upstairs. There was a small sitting area off of my room that we put all of our gifts in. I quickly showed him where his room was and then went to my room to change into a more comfortable outfit of a Christmas sweater and braid back my hair. I walked back out to find Draco laying across one of the couches. I called on one of the house elves to light the fire and then I laid down on the couch next to Draco and snuggling up to him.
"Did you have a good Christmas?" I asked him.
"Of course. Did you?"
"Mhm. Thank you for letting me stay with you. I love being around Braxton, but St. Mungo's is just too stuffy."
"Agreed. When my grandfather fell ill, we went to the hospital daily to be with him. It was dreadful."
"I'm sorry to hear that. My brother's ward in the longterm Artefact Accidents Department is sometimes eventful. There can be some nasty occurrences with cursed objects and such. You would think that it would be tame, but the number of people crying causes my mum to place a charm on our room to block out the noise."
"Thea, can I ask you a question?" Draco said after some silence after my last statement.
"Of course," I replied looking up at him.
"Next time you see your brother, can I come along? I would love to meet him"
I was stunned at his question, so it took me a few seconds to respond. "Of course you can, Draco. Why do you want to?"
He sat up and looked me in the eyes. "Thea, I care about you. Braxton is a huge part of your life and I would be honored to see that piece. I want to be there for you to support you."
"Oh, Draco," I said and hugged him tightly. Tears were starting to form at the corners of my eyes. He kissed the top of my head and we rested in that position for a few moments. We broke away to me saying, "I think there are some cookie ingredients that want to be turned into cookies. Let's fix that." I grabbed his hand and pulled him to the kitchen.