Lights.
Hermione looked at the large tree standing in the corner of the front room and the bags of decorations standing next to it, and wondered if she was doing the right thing in leaving her husband and children in charge of decorating the tree. Hermione and her mother had arranged to go out Christmas shopping, but the twins had been pestering her to put the Christmas tree up. Draco had insisted he could supervise the twins while Hermione still went out with her mother, but Hermione wasn't as sure. The last thing she wanted to do was return to chaos after a long shopping trip.
"Stop worrying," Draco told his wife, spotting the concerned frown on her face. "The twins and I can manage to decorate the tree."
"I know," Hermione replied. "Just don't forget about the special baubles."
"Don't worry, they'll have pride of place as normal," Draco reassured his wife. "Now stop fussing and get ready. Your mother will be here any minute."
Resolving to stop worrying, and just let her husband and children have fun with the tree, Hermione headed off to finish getting ready. By the time she'd slipped on her shoes and jacket and sorted her bag, there was a knock on the door. Draco opened the door and welcomed his parents-in-law into the house.
"Dad, what are you doing here?" Hermione asked, giving her father a hug.
"I had nothing on so I thought I would come and spend the day with Draco and the kids," Richard replied. "I hope that's okay."
"Of course it is," Draco said, smiling at his father-in-law. "You can help us with the tree. It has to be perfect, you know."
"Of course it does, my daughter is a perfectionist after all," Richard chuckled.
"Okay, we're leaving now," Hermione said, deciding to escape before her father and husband started comparing notes on her.
After saying goodbye to the two nine year olds and their husbands, Hermione and Jean headed off to do some Christmas shopping. Even though Jean had visited wizarding shops before, she felt more comfortable in the muggle world, so the pair were heading to a muggle shopping centre. With that in mind, Jean had brought the car and the two women got in and headed off for a fun day of retail therapy while their husbands looked after the mischievous Malfoy twins.
Several hours later, Hermione and Jean headed home with plenty of shopping. Jean was fairly certain her Christmas shopping was now all done. Hermione also thought the bulk of her shopping was done, but she knew that she would likely keep buying for the twins until the last minute.
"They're so spoilt," Hermione said to her mother. "What I got today should really be enough, but I bet they end up with loads more."
"I was the same with you," Jean replied. "I'd buy everything I wanted by the middle of December, but I'd still then spend the next few weeks adding to your presents."
"Next year I might leave my shopping until the last minute, so I don't add extras to it," Hermione said with a slight chuckle.
"I bet that wouldn't work," Jean said, laughing along with her daughter. "You'd only end up buying the extras first."
"Probably," Hermione agreed.
As the pair neared the village where Draco and Hermione lived, conversation drifted to the decorations that were popping up all over the place. Even the small village the Malfoys lived on the outskirts of had gone all out and there was a large Christmas tree in the centre of the village and lights strung up outside all the shops.
"It looks like some of your neighbours have been getting into the festive spirit as well," Jean chuckled, gesturing to the sparkling lights ahead of them.
Even though they weren't close enough to see exactly what the lights were, it was clear a house had been practically covered with Christmas lights. Hermione was guessing one of the houses nearby had gone wild with their Christmas decorations.
"Some people are so over the top," Hermione said with an amused shake of the head.
"They are," Jean agreed. "There's just no need for it really."
A few minutes later as they got even closer to home, Hermione began to get a bad feeling about the house with all the Christmas lights. There were a few houses on the outskirts of the village, but they were all pretty decently spaced, and by her reckoning there wasn't another house nearby that could be lit up with lights. If the house belonged to one of their neighbours, it should have either been closer to them or further away.
"Hermione," Jean said quietly. "I don't want to upset you dear, but I think that's your house."
"I was just thinking the same thing," Hermione whispered. "But it can't be. Draco would never be that crazy."
"Your father would," Jean confessed. "He's wanted to do our house like that for years, but I would never let him."
"So you think he's done it to mine instead?" Hermione questioned.
"We're going to find out any minute," Jean replied.
Two minutes later, Hermione and Jean's fears were recognised as they reached Hermione's house and pulled up outside of a brightly lit house. Still slightly stunned, Hermione got out of the car and gazed up at her house. The windows and front door were surrounded by fairy lights, and on the roof was a giant illuminated Santa's sleigh complete with reindeer. On the walls of the house were more lights, in the shapes of bells and Christmas trees. Even the garden had been decorated and the front path was lined with more fairy lights and in the front garden stood two giant illuminated snowmen, both of which also moved.
"Oh my god," Jean whispered at her daughter's side. "How on earth did they manage this in the few hours we were out?"
"Magic," Hermione announced. There was no doubt in her mind that Draco had used magic to accomplish the feat.
"It's garish, but I bet the kids love it," Jean remarked.
Right on cue the front door flew open and Scorpius and Lyra ran down the garden path.
"Mum, Mum, do you like the lights?" Lyra called.
"Aren't they cool?" Scorpius questioned with a grin as he turned and looked up at the house in delight.
"That's one word for them," Hermione muttered.
"They're brill," Scorpius continued, undeterred by his mother's less than enthusiastic response. "I bet you can see the house from space."
"I bet you can," Jean said in amusement. "Do you want to get your bags from the car, Hermione?"
"In a minute, first I want answers," Hermione said, marching towards the front door.
Entering the house she found her husband and father sitting in the front room, sharing a beer and laughing over something. When she entered the room, their laughter ceased and they both got eerily similar guilty looks on their face.
"Did you have a nice day, sweetheart?" Richard asked as Jean and the twins entered the room behind Hermione.
"I was having a lovely day until I returned to find my house looking like Blackpool Illuminations," Hermione replied.
"What?" Draco frowned, not understanding the muggle reference.
"The lights, Draco," Hermione said. "Do you want to explain?"
"It's simple really, when we got the lights out for the tree they weren't working," Draco began. "Richard pointed out that muggles do better lights, so we popped into the muggle world to get new lights."
Hermione turned to the tree and saw it was perfectly decorated, complete with lights. "And the lights for the tree are nice. But why do we have them all over the house?"
"The kids spotted some of the large lights, and I couldn't say no," Draco said with a shrug.
Hermione raised a disbelieving eyebrow at her husband, before turning to face her father. "And you had nothing to do with this? You didn't encourage them?"
"Of course I didn't," Richard protested.
"Richard," Jean warned in a low voice. "Tell the truth. Did you encourage this? Bearing in mind, you've been trying to do this at home for over twenty years."
"I may have encouraged the twins," Richard admitted sheepishly, while Draco's mouth dropped open and he looked at his father-in-law in amazement.
"You Slytherin," Draco declared, his amazement turning to awe. "That is so sneaky, decorating our house because you're not allowed to do it at home. Richard, I'm impressed."
"Impressed?" Jean frowned. "You've been conned into turning your house into a light display, and you're impressed?"
"It's a Slytherin thing," Hermione told her mother. "They love sneakiness of any sort. Lucius is just the same, he would be thrilled with Dad. It's also why Draco and his friends get on so well with the Weasley twins, they're all so deliciously devious."
"You're not going to make us take the lights down, are you, Mum?" Scorpius asked.
"No, you can't do that," Lyra cried. "I love the lights."
"No, I won't make you take them down," Hermione said with a sigh. As much as the display was too over the top for her liking, she wasn't going to upset the twins by removing it.
"Thanks Mum, you're the best," Lyra said, hugging Hermione before she headed back outside with Scorpius to look at the lights again.
The adults followed the twins outside, and Hermione got her shopping from her mother's car. As she removed her shopping, she looked at the house again and had to admit her father and husband had done a pretty spectacular job. While it wasn't something she ever would have agreed with, she could appreciate the effort that had gone into erecting the lights. Even using magic, it wouldn't have been easy to get everything in place.
"Mum, can we invite Alex over?" Scorpius cried. "I want to show him the lights."
"Why don't we see if everyone can come over tomorrow night," Hermione suggested. "We may as well show off our lights to everyone."
"Cool," Scorpius cried, as they headed back inside to see if their friends could come over and enjoy the unexpected Malfoy Illuminations.
