Chapter 11 – expected and unexpected
Draco walks up to the Great Hall, completely lost in thoughts, he has no idea what to give to the Weasleys for Christmas. What do these people like? He wonders for the tenth time.
He can't begin to imagine what people, so different from himself, would like as a present.
He enters the Great Hall and notices Ron, alone at a table, Hermione and Harry are nowhere in sight.
He think about his actions for a while and then walks up to Ron.
"Weasley, I wonder if I could have a minute of your time, I need some… advise…" he admits, his face looks half disgusted.
Ron looks up and is startled to a point that he nearly falls off his chair and then nods.
He had never expected that Draco would come to him while he was alone, even less that he would actually need his advice.
He somewhat expects that Draco needs advice about Hermione, something he's totally unable to help him with, seeing he has absolutely no knowledge of girls what so ever.
With a bit of a doubtful look on his face, he follows Draco out of the Great Hall and tries to stay as undetected as possible, so that no one will see he's following a Slytherin. An impossible task, he notices after a few seconds, even before they've reached the doors of the Great Hall, all the students in there have turned their heads and are now facing them.
"What is it? It's gotta be important if you actually want to see me for it." Ron says once they've left the castle and stand in front of the lake.
Draco shrug's his shoulders, important… it's how you look at it. For him it's important if he wants to leave a good impression, but it isn't a matter of life and death. "I would like to know what I should get your family for Christmas. I don't know your family and I don't have a clue what thy like. Buying a present is of course the best thing to do if you're invited over for Christmas." He says, his voice so soft that Ron needs to get closer to him in order to hear what he's saying.
After thinking this over for a moment, Ron is still as confused as he was before, he had expected a lot of questions, but a question about buying something nice for his family, no, that was definitely not what he expected.
Draco grins sheepishly when he notices Ron's expression and shrug's his shoulders.
Ron sits down and grabs a quill and some parchment out of his backpack. "I'll make you a list with things they always wanted to have. If it is not entirely possible to buy these things, you'll have to think of something yourself, alright?" he asks softly and he starts writing.
Draco nods and takes place beside him on the grass, watching how Ron moves the quill along the underside of his chin while he thinks about his family wishes. He can somewhat imagine how difficult it is for him to think of such a thing, something that isn't really all that expensive to him, but he can also imagine that there'll be a lot of things on that list that the Weasley family themselves can't afford.
Finally, after an hour of writing, scrapping and thinking, Ron has finished his list, he seals it and gives it to Draco. "This is all I can think of at the moment, there's got to be some things on that list that are good enough to buy." He says, sounding as calm as possible, but Draco can read in his eyes that the idea of getting presents from a Slytherin, from Draco, most definitely doesn't make him feel at ease.
Or maybe it's just because he's ashamed of his family's wishes, because they might want things that an ordinary witch or wizard might not have in his or her wanted list.
Draco nods and thanks Ron with a friendly smile, to further spare Ron's feelings, he goes back to the Great Hall on his own and leaves the list unopened.
Once he's entered the Great Hall, he finds Hermione, they decide to meet each other after the lessons so that they can make plans for the shopping trip.
The lessons go by fast, during the Transfiguration lessons, Draco is reading the list of possible gifts when McGonagall disturbs him and asks what he's doing. With a daring voice he tells her honestly that he's making plans for the Christmas holidays, he looks through the class, sees Hermione grin and Ron's ears turn red and he quickly decides to look back at professor McGonagall.
Professor McGonagall makes a disapproving sound and snatches the list which caught Draco's attention.
'My mother, Molly Weasley…' she reads, she recognises Ron's handwriting and immediately starts to understand that Draco's trying to find out what the Weasley family wants for Christmas.
She hands the list back to Draco with a little smile, for the first time in her life, she feels something else than outright dislike for this Slytherin. "It would do me great pleasure if you halted that activities until after class, mister Malfoy." She says in her strict way of talking, after that she walks back to her desk to observe how people are trying to Summon things.
When the class is over and all students are happily celebrating the end of a long school day, Draco gets called over to professor McGonagall. "Malfoy, if you are planning to buy presents, you'll have to get a consent from your Head of House, in your case, professor Snape. You can't get a consent without a letter from your parents that they allow you to leave the school." She explains, her voice kinder than normally.
Draco nods, thanks her and walks away. Another problem, how can he ask to let his parent allow him to go Christmas shopping?
He shrug's his shoulders, that is of later concern, he'd better go over to Hermione to talk about their ideas.
Hermione is waiting for him when he finally turns up. Panting, he explains that McGonagall wanted a quick word with him after class and Hermione gives him an understanding nod.
The whole afternoon they decide what would be best to buy for the family, the best thing to wear for Draco as long as they are there and how he certainly shouldn't act to some of the things that might happen while they're there.
Hermione's a little startled about the fact that Draco could sum up the courage to ask Ron about the list of possible presents, but Draco shakes his head and says something like 'would be sad if Weasley didn't get anything'.
After that Draco decides to tell Hermione that they'll need a consent form if they plan on doing Christmas shopping, Hermione starts to smile, telling him she already knows that because she had to do it before.
Draco, on the other side, isn't quite as confident that he'll get the wanted answer out of his parents.
After having discussed this, it's time for dinner, Hermione and Draco, both at their own House table, quickly finish their food and then disappear into their own dorm to write a letter to their parents.
Hermione isn't at all worried about getting permission, she never failed to get it.
Draco needs to think for a while before he is able to write a note and once he's put the quill on the parchment, it's only to write the following words: 'We, of Slytherin House, have decided to exchange presents with each other, I would like your permission to go to Diagon alley and Hogsmead this weekend.'
Both of them meet again in the Owl tower where Hermione is watching Hedwig, Harry's owl, fly out of sight.
"Did you manage to write something down?" she asks Draco, he merely nods and locates his favourite owl once more. Once he's found it, he ties the letter to it's paw and sends it away without a second thought.
"There, now there's no possibility of backing out anymore." He says to Hermione as he notices she's waiting for him.
Together they walk downstairs where they spend the evening making whatever little amount of homework they've got. There are three days left before the weekend and the holidays start after the weekend. Knowing this, they also know that they're under a slight amount of pressure, because, just like Muggle shops, the shops for Witches and Wizards are also closed on Sundays.
Hermione gets her permission the next day, Draco needs to wait a day longer, he was already quite nervous because he only had one day left before the weekend.
When he sees the owl flying in, he suddenly understands why it took longer than expected, his father had gone to Gringrotts for him and had sent him a large bag of gold along with his permission, just to buy presents.
He feels soar in his throat because of that, he's telling all these lies, just to be with Hermione and he gets rewarded with a large bag of gold to buy presents for a family largely detested by the Malfoy family. For a moment he considers telling the truth to his parents, but he quickly decides against it. It would be very unwise to tell them now that everything was a lie.
Ron watches the huge gold bag that Draco just got with wide open mouth.
"Do you recon his parents know that it's going to be spend on my family?" he asks gloomy.
Hermione and Harry shake their head. "Not a chance, else he would never have gotten any gold. He told a complete lie." Harry says, there's a small grin around his lips.
"I won't be here this weekend, I'm going Christmas shopping with Draco." Hermione announces happily. The guys nod.
Hermione sees how Draco, sitting at the Slytherin table, smiles at her and nods, as if he wants to say he got the approval.
That same night they walk up to the teachers they need and ask McGonagall and Snape permission to go to Hogsmead and Diagon Alley. They get the consent. That evening they spend a lot of time talking about where they should go and what they will buy.