The sun was just rising over the mountains, it had a soft orange glow to it which filled the mountain range, the wide blue skies were setting an idyllic scene for skiers and snowboarders alike. A few people had already carved out paths on the mountain side, eager to catch the first of the powder, safe to say most of the tracks were from snowboards, seldom skiers entertained the freshly laid powder. There were two hotels on the wizarding side of Aviemore, both had few rooms and expensive rates, as most people owned chalet's or rented them out. Bars littered the main street along with a handful of restaurants boasting hearty Scottish food and the odd pizzeria and small bites. Right at the end of the main street lay an old battered shack which housed the ski and board rental shop, it was transfigured, like many of the shops and restaurants to be so unappealing to muggles, that if they happened to break through the wards and stumble across it; they wouldn't dare to venture in. Yet on the inside, the ski shop had rows upon rows of multicoloured boards and skis stacked high to the ceiling, the staff grabbing them from all angles and levitating them until the purchase had been made. It was chaos, but Oliver had spent many a happy afternoon in there getting new skis and trying out the different styles.
Oliver was sat at the large table, wearing a battered Hurley sweatshirt and checked pyjama bottoms, they were tatty but he loved how soft they had gotten, even if his mother frequently told him that he'd had those pyjamas since he was at Hogwarts, and he earned good money now so he should probably buy a new pair. He always told her that wasn't the point. Oliver's hair had grown out and was disheveled from his restless sleep - Hermione had had bad nausea from the altitude and the pregnancy and was throwing up for most of the night. She finally managed to settle herself so Oliver had left her sleeping.
"Are you sure Hermione is okay? I could go bring her some of my herbal remedy tea." Mrs. Wood spoke up, getting up from the table. She may be the perfect wife, perfect business woman and all around busy body but she always had time for her son, and now her daughter-in-law to be.
"Aye Mum, stop fussing. She'll be fine. It's just the altitude and the pregnancy, it's a bad combination. She's sleeping it off now though, so hopefully she'll be alright by the time our friends get up here." Mr. Wood was sat opposite his son, smiling proudly at how he was handling the situation, a year ago he would have never seen his son caring for a girl like this - he had grown tiresome of waiting for grandchildren and for Oliver to finally settle down.
"Now, I've left the bedding for your friends in the airing cupboard, and if you should need extra just find Shelly. She's said that she'll cook your dinner and lunch if you request, but breakfast will be laid out buffet style from 7 in the morning. Shelly doesn't work between 8-12 so I expect you to clean up after yourselves, and for Merlin's sake don't drink too much of the wine cellar, your father nearly had a heart attack after last time."
"Please don't remind me, the amount of galleons that cost me to replace the 1978 bottle of Merlot. Merlin." He muttered merlin quietly, going back to his cereal.
"I won't! Ron's t-total, Hermione's pregnant, Draco is bringing his son so won't be drinking much, which leaves me, Harry and Ginny, and I'm not sure what the situation is with Ginny and alcohol, but she's suffering with PTSD at the moment so I don't think that getting hammered will be her main goal this week."
The two of them sat in shock, Mrs. Wood extremely surprised by his new group of friends. "Well. Okay. The spare skis are in the boot room. They do ski, I presume?"
He laughed, "I bloody well hope so."
A port key had been set up so that people could easily get to and fro Aviemore, so Draco, Harry and Scorpius decided that would be the easiest mode of transport for them, Scorpius didn't really enjoy apparation, and they couldn't floo. Whereas Ginny, Ron and Gabrielle were going to floo up. One by one they stumbled onto the rug in the living room, blinking their eyes quickly and brushing the dust off from the seldom used Floo Network. Shelly cleaned it every six months, but it was a big job and she only did it when she had a week to give it a 'good go' as she put it.
Gabrielle stood in a wrap around knit dress, thick tights and knee length fur boots, she had a thick ski parka on over the top and a knitted beanie over her long curled locks, safe to say Ron couldn't keep his eyes off her. Ginny was looking better than she had in ages and Harry had laid to rest her grouchy attitude towards him, he understood that she wasn't coping well, the Ginny that argued with him on Christmas day wasn't the Ginny he knew. Oliver greeted them all warmly, and settled everyone down with a mug of tea, coffee or hot chocolate. A snow storm had started to emerge mid afternoon and all skiing on the mountain was closed off, he'd managed to get a few runs before lunch but then he'd gone back to check on Hermione. She was still sleeping, and Oliver knew not to wake her up from her slumber.
"Do you think Harry and Draco will be alright making their way up here?" Ron spoke up, nurturing his coffee. As soon as he spoke Gabrielle looked at him, and bit her lip, she was apparently as infatuated as Ron was with her.
"I'm not sure, I've asked Huw to pick them up, he has a muggle car, it's unusual in the resort, but the most helpful thing in a storm. Brooms go hay wire and unless you ask kindly to borrow someone's Floo you've got no hope. He lives in the chalet next door so he said he'd get them at quarter past two, so around ten or twenty minutes and they should be here."
"Merlin, don't tell Dad you know someone with a car. He'll never stop talking about it." Ron laughed, getting up to put his coffee mug on the side. "So where's Hermione?"
"Cheers pal." Oliver nodded to Ron, and then answered his question, "She's not feeling very well, the mix of altitude and pregnancy has made her throw up pretty much all night."
Ginny and Gabrielle both adorned concerned faces, "Do you think she'll be alright for tonight? I'd hate for her to miss New Years!" Ginny spoke up, snuggled underneath a blanket. She had been excited to see Hermione again, and was a little disappointed and upset for Hermione that she was ill on one of Hermione's favourite holidays.
"Aye she'll power through, my girl's made of strong stuff."
Ron smirked, "Don't we know it."
Finally Harry and Draco had managed to battle through the weather, Harry knocked on the front door whilst Draco tried to calm Scorpius down, he'd had a long day and had never travelled in a car before. They had enough luggage for a month, both of the men had two bags on their back that they'd gotten from a muggle shop called North Face, one of the bags was bright yellow and the other was blue - they'd put charms on them so they could fit their Draco's skis and Harry's snowboard.
Oliver opened up the door and welcomed them in quickly, Scorpius was still crying. "What's up with the little guy?"
"Long day. He's tired." Draco looked tired too, the incessant crying of a two year old is hard to cope with after a while.
"I'll show you guys to your room, then he can lay down for a nap. Yeah?"
Draco nodded, "Sounds great."
The two men said their hello's to the other, Oliver repeated for the fourth time today where Hermione was and then Oliver took them up to their room. It had a mix of wooden and stone walls, the house dated back hundreds of years and so it had a rustic feel to it. The fireplace was prepped and ready to light if they so wished, and a large painting of Wood Manor hung above the hearth. The floor was wooden but it had a large cream rug over it to trap some of the heat inside the room, there was a corner alcove by the big windows that was made of stone. It could comfortably seat two people and was covered in throws, cushions and had two draught excluders by the windows. There was a large king sized bed facing out onto the mountains, it had an impressive head board with intricate sewn detail. The bed too was covered in throws, blankets and pillows of different textures, shapes and sizes. There was two bedside tables with a lamp on each, and Scorpius' crib was in the corner, all set up for him. Another door led to an ensuite which housed a shower and a bath etc.
"Merlin, this place must've cost your parents a fortune, Wood." Draco looked around and looked at the view, "We have a chalet in France but it's nothing compared to this."
Oliver shrugged, "Both of my parents work hard, we come from old money anyway, so they can afford it." He left the two men to sort themselves out, and went back downstairs.
"Sit down Draco, I'll sort Scorpius out." Harry took Scorpius from Draco's arms and got him changed into his onesie, then lay him down in the crib, handing him his ted and pulling the blankets over him. Draco unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off, going into one of the bags to find a more suitable outfit. But Harry wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, hugging him from behind. He kissed gently along his shoulder blade, and Draco smiled leaning into Harry. "We should go downstairs, they're going to start wondering where we are." Harry smirked a little, "Let them wonder."
Meanwhile downstairs, Hermione had finally gotten up. She was wearing one of Oliver's Puddlemere jerseys and leggings, her hair was tied back in a messy bun and she was sans make up. She had been laying in bed when she heard Harry and Draco come through the front door, it must've been Oliver's doing. Hermione had said her hello's and welcomed them to the chalet, apologised for her being in bed when they arrived and now she was sat in Oliver's lap.
Ginny yawned a little and pulled the blankets around her closer, "Ollie, we should show them the chalet and where they'll be sleeping and then we can decide on food for tonight!" Oliver nodded, laughing a little because of the excitement Hermione displayed for food. When he first met her she survived on coffee alone.
The five of them got up and Oliver went downstairs to the boot room to organise everything, he'd found the right size skis for everyone, and some spare boots for Gabrielle. She didn't know how to ski yet but Ron had promised he would teach her. Hermione took Ron, Ginny and Gabrielle up to the bunk room. "So this is the bunk room, I'm sorry you're sharing but the other guest room is currently having renovation work done to it." It didn't bother the three of them in the slightest, the room was beautiful much like the rest of the house. It had three steps down into the room which had wood for the floor and wood for the walls like the other bedrooms. Right by the foot of the stairs there was a basket with towels neatly rolled up inside of it and then another basket on top with little shampoo's and shower gels. The room had 5 single beds in it - it had one on its own against a wall, with crisp white sheets and a white and grey checked duvet. Each bed had a faux fur blanket on it and a couple of pillows. The other four beds were in a built in style, two on the floor with storage underneath and then a ladder between those two up to bunk beds. All the beds had matching bedding. There were two large skylights in the ceiling which were charmed to melt snow as soon as it hit the window, so there would always be a clear view out of the window - except from in storms like today. There was a large wardrobe with partitions so that all 5 people had enough space for their clothes, it was expected that guests left their boots or shoes downstairs in the hallway or boot room. Shelly had high standards.
"I call dibs on that bed!" Ron called out, jumping on the bed that was against the wall on its own. This didn't bother Gabrielle or Ginny, they both opted for the beds on the floor instead of the bunk beds. Gabrielle fell back onto her bed and sighed at how comfortable it was, "Zis is so much better than my healer quarters. My bunk bed there is three up and I get a terrible draught." Her r's rolled when she said terrible and Ron couldn't help but smile.
"What's got you laughing, Ronald?" She exclaimed, sitting up.
"Nothing, Gabrielle." He got up from his bed, put his belongings away into the storage or into the cupboard. "I'll give you guys some privacy." He said, walking up the staircase and out of the room.
Oliver and Hermione were sat on the couch, "Should we just order some take away? I told Shelly that she could have the night off." Oliver rolled his eyes, "She was more than happy to cook dinner." Hermione shrugged, "I know but this way she can go out with her friends and I can have chinese or dumplings or pizza. Or all three."
"Merlin, you've got your appetite back. Are you feeling okay now?"
"Much better. I'm just disappointed I can't have any champagne at midnight!"
"You think you'll make it to midnight?"
"It's 9 now! If we order our food when everyone's down here, then you and the boys can Floo down into town and get it, it'll be on the table by 10 at the latest."
Slowly everyone came downstairs and they wrote down a list of what they were getting, two 15" cheese pizza's, dumplings in beef stew, sweet and sour chicken, with white rice and egg fried rice, fortune cookies, chicken chow mein and pork foo yung. They were also going to get two bottles of non-alcoholic fizz when they were in town and some chocolate, marshmallows and biscuits to make smores with. Hermione sent Harry, Oliver, Ron and Draco out to get the separate takeaways and the other bits and pieces.
"So, you and Ron, eh Gabrielle?" Hermione smirked, eager to know the gossip. She was setting the table for 7 people, and decorating it with her usual high calibre.
Gabrielle blushed instantly, "We've not even been on our first date yet."
"But you fancy him? Right?" Ginny joined in, happy to see her brother with a normal girl for once.
She nodded and got more glasses out of the cupboard to hide her face. "He's going to teach me to ski so hopefully zat will mean he gets to like me too. Is that how you say it?"
Hermione shrugged, "More or less. So I'm just doing the seating arrangement now.. Would you rather sit opposite or next to him? I could put you at the head of the table."
She walked over and took a look at the big table, "Hmm, I'll sit at the head with Ginny on one side and Ron on the other. Then I think you and Oliver should sit next to each other, you next to Ginny and Oliver next to you. Then Harry next to Ron and Draco next to Harry. No arguments then."
Ginny stood in shock, Gabrielle knew exactly who could butt heads, and had managed to find a seating arrangement that everyone would be pleased with. "You're going to fit right in." She smiled at Gabrielle and Gabrielle giggled, "When is your next therapy session?"
"What? How do you know?"
"I was the person who brought in the hospital gown for your physical, don't worry I'll keep it to myself."
"I'm sorry I didn't recognise you. I was a little caught up in my own.. little world."
And at that point Hermione heard Scorpius crying from the guest room, "I'm going to go get him, when the boys arrive can you put everything into the serving dishes over there and then make sure everything is hot."
Hermione scooped up Scorpius and sat on the nook in the corner of their room, he sat on her lap happily and she brushed the tears away from his face. "You're going to love having someone to play with." Hermione said quietly, resting a hand on her stomach. Scorpius giggled, "In there?" He said, looking perplexed. "Yup, in there. I know, it's weird isn't it?"