Chapter 24

Christmas Morning

ppDraco:

I woke to the sun, once again, streaming in through the window. I had to do something about that.

It dawned on me that it was Christmas morning. I'd slept in bits and pieces knowing Harry was mad for whatever reason. He hadn't spoken to me for the rest of the night yesterday, not even a goodnight.

My stomach felt heavy, I didn't like this feeling, Harry being mad. It's not the same as it used to be, not that I liked it much back then, either.

I groaned as I sat up, viewing the small pile of wrapped packages at the end of my bed. Suddenly reminded that I never found a gift for Harry.

I sat up completely, running my hands through my bedhead of hair. I decided to shower before giving the pile any attention.

I stepped into the hot water, closing my eyes trying to imagine what today will look like at the home. The kids will be excited, smiling, happy; I smiled to myself at the thought.

I didn't have many legitimate happy memories as a child. Of course Christmas was always stacked with gifts, any material object I could ask for, but hearing stories from other students, I knew our holidays were always missing something integral.

I'd been lost in thought, staring into the corner of the shower when there was a knock on my door.

I turned off the water, "Just a moment!" I called.

I wrapped a towel around my waist; passing the mirror I saw my hair flipped forward across my forehead, not a bad look.

I opened the door expecting Harry but found Jeremiah instead. His eyes widened and lingered on my mostly exposed body.

"Uh, sorry. Just one more moment." I slammed the door in his face and threw the clothes I'd worn to bed over my head.

I opened the door again smiling, "Hi. Sorry. Thought you might have been Harry." I shouldn't have said that.

Jeremiah bit his bottom lip, holding in a smile, "'S okay. He sent me up to get you, though."

"Okay, I'll be down shortly."

"Do you want me to wait for you?" he asked, jutting a thumb over to the commons.

"No, that's alright. Just need to finish up, thanks." I closed the door again and collapsed on my bed.

Great, now one of the children knows that Harry and I are . . . whatever we are, and one has seen my mostly naked body. Harry will kick me out in no time. Nothing to do now but dress in actually clean clothes and head down.

It was Christmas, so I went a little bold, choosing a red fitted sweater, with some more relaxed black jeans. I almost never wore jeans, they were too casual in my opinion, but it was a casual day.

I decided to forgo the hair potion I usually use and let my natural hair flip-flop where it wanted, which was apparently above my eyes.

With the heaviness still in my gut and my dress being what it was, I mozied downstairs to the kitchen.

There was no one in there, but I heard voices from the drawing room.

It was like I entered an entirely different room. It was bigger, there was a large round table in the middle, everyone, except me was sitting around it. The Weasley's had arrived, along with who I assumed to be Andromeda and Teddy, a small red and green haired boy wiggling in his seat. Next to him sat - "mother? Why are you here so early?"

"Come, sit." She patted the empty chair next to her.

I slowly walked around the table and many eyes, not Harry's, I noticed, watched me. As soon as I sat, Harry stood.

"Happy Christmas, everyone. Each year I am more and more thankful for the people in my life and how happy they make me, how much they love and care for me, and I them. Draco and Narcissa have joined us today, which believe me, I didn't think I'd ever be saying, but I couldn't be more thrilled or more grateful that's decided to spend their Christmas with us." there were a couple laughs and some clapping, "Leaf and Aggie prepared a lovely, large, breakfast, so everyone eat up, and afterwards we can spend the morning showing off our gifts!"

The table chatted about Christmas, jobs, life, things that normal people talk about over Christmas. My mother and I were mostly silent, but she kept smiling at me every once in a while. Harry was sitting directly across from me, I couldn't help but look at him. The way he's been acting made me feel like I did something wrong. I hadn't thought it was that big of a deal, but it obviously was affecting Harry in a different way.

"You look very nice, Draco,"

My mother's voice pulled me out of my thoughts, "very relaxed. I like your hair."

"Th- Thank you."

She returned to her food, she had so little on her plate, I wondered what was taking her so long to eat. A couple seats down, Andromeda was assisting Teddy in holding his spoon properly, my mother looked astonishing like her, similar eyes and mouth shapes, same sharp nose, only her hair really separated their looks, which was dark brown and curled like Aunt Bella's used to be.

Everyone finished eating, sitting back in their chairs to continue conversations.

Slowly, the group trickled from the room. I had intended to help clean up, so I stood and started to clear plates with my wand. I was focused on my task, I hadn't noticed that everyone had gone; everyone except Harry, who leaned against the frame of the door.

"I hired house elves for this exact reason, you know."

"Yes, but this gives me something to do instead of holding awkward conversation with my mother." I replied, not looking at him.

Harry was silent for a moment, "thank you for my gift." he said.

I froze, I hadn't given him a gift, I hadn't had time, "I didn't get you anything."

He chuckled from his spot at the door, "No, your mother did. She signed your name, though."

My face reddened, "oh Merlin, what did she buy?" I couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of of gaudy, hideous thing she'd signed my name to.

"A lovely emerald and opal wizard chess set. I love the contrast of the two gems and the craftsmanship is just excellent."

I turned to look at him, surprise written on my face, he could see plain as day.

"Look," he said walking over to me "let Leaf and Aggie finish this mess. Go talk to your mom, your aunt, and your cousin. They're excited to meet you." He tiptoed up for a small kiss, "and we'll talk tonight so I can give you a proper apology."

I melted at his lips on mine, it had only been one day since our argument, but I had missed his kisses. I placed my wand back in my pocket. I wanted nothing more than to grab him and kiss him deeply, but it was too risky now.

"Okay" I said quietly.

"You look very sexy this morning, Malfoy."

"This is my laziest look, Harry. I couldn't be less put together than I am now." I said, a bit offended.

"Well lazy suits you. Go. Sitting room, your family."

I mumbled under my breath as I walked past him, following directions.

X*X*X*X*X

Harry waved to George and Angelina, as they appearated on the front walk. He Closed the door and leaned against it, letting out a deep breath.

They were the last to go, kids had sauntered off to their rooms hours ago, Draco had disappeared somewhere, and Harry had just spent the last hour playing a new game George created, testing it out before putting it on the shelves of the store.

He went into the Drawing room, which was back to it's usual arrangement.

"Happy Christmas, Sirius." he said to the portrait.

"Happy Christmas, Harry," he replied.

"I'm a bit of a mess, you know."

"Oh, I've noticed, godson." Sirius smiled at him.

"What am I to do? I feel like . . . I made it very clear that the kids come first, but I don't feel that way when I see him, I can just barely keep my hands off him. I want to touch him all the time."

"It's called love, Harry."

"I'm not in Love with Draco Malfoy" he defended, but even as he said it, he tasted the lie in his mouth.

"Tell yourself what you need to, dear boy. But don't worry. Everything has a balance, you two will figure it out. These things always do." Sirius assured him.

"Even with Remus?" Harry asked.

Sirius laughed, "especially with Remus. We denied our feelings for years! And it was even more difficult because we were friends and always around each other, but once we accepted our love that extended past friendship, our lives found a better balance than it had before."

Harry nodded silently, "Thanks, Sirius."

He then walked from the room right into Draco, who was leaning against the wall opposite the door. He stood with his arms crossed and his head hung down, staring

He'd obviously been listening in.

"It's not nice to eavesdrop." Harry mumbled, feigning annoyance.

The idea of love that Sirius had mentioned had Harry a bit rattled.

"I wasn't listening. Just waiting for you. Promise." Draco looked at him through his white eyelashes.

Harry eyed him suspiciously.

"All the kids are in bed, I was hoping we could talk?" Draco asked.

"Sure. come on up."