For the first few days of the holidays, Draco and Hermione had pretty much kept to themselves and hadn't flaunted the fact they were together. Although aside from a trip to Hogsmeade on Christmas Eve, they'd rarely left the head dorms, so not a lot of people had been given the chance to see them together. However, everyone who had remained at school would see them together on Christmas Day as they had no intention of hiding their romance when they went down to lunch.
However, before lunch they had presents to open and after spending an hour in bed, celebrating their first Christmas together, they'd gotten up and after grabbing some breakfast, settled down beside the tree that sat in the corner of the head dorms, which was where their presents were nestled safely waiting to be opened.
"Do we want to do each other first, or open from other people first?" Draco asked.
"How about we do our other presents first, and then exchange gifts when we're finished," Hermione suggested.
Draco was more than happy with the idea, and putting the gift bag containing Hermione's presents to one side, he began to dive into the presents his parents had sent and his friends had left behind. Beside him, Hermione did the same and they began opening their presents from the people who weren't there to celebrate with them in person.
Draco's array of presents consisted of expensive looking clothes, the aftershave he favoured, a couple of boxes of posh chocolates and several books. Looking at what her boyfriend had received, it truly hit Hermione how well off Draco, his family and even his friends were. There wasn't anything inexpensive among his presents, even the smaller gifts must have cost a small fortune.
"That is quite a haul," Hermione remarked quietly.
"It is," Draco agreed. "But you don't have to compete, Hermione. I know I come from a privileged world. But I don't expect you to spend a fortune on me. In fact, I don't expect anything from you. You never have to feel as if you have to compete with everyone else. Because let's be honest, my parents do spoil me, and my friends all have money to splash on presents at Christmas."
"I just don't want you to be disappointed with what I've got you," Hermione admitted.
"I could never be disappointed with anything you give me," Draco assured her as he pressed a soft kiss against her lips. "Now why don't you finish opening your presents. You seem to have come to a halt."
So far all Hermione had opened had been the presents from her parents, and she still had the ones from her friends to open. Turning to the presents still to be opened, she started with Luna's gift, which was a bottle of sweet smelling perfume. Molly and Arthur has sent her a large box of her favourite fruit cream chocolates, and the twins had sent her a beautiful set of quills.
Turning to the presents from her closest friends, Hermione opened the one from Ron. Her best friend had given her a large box of chocolates and a beautiful notebook, with a gorgeous ginger cat on the front, which looked just like Crookshanks. He'd even had her name added to the front of the book in curving golden font. Hermione loved the gift, and even though it wasn't expensive, it was incredibly heartfelt and she appreciated the effort Ron had gone to, both to find the notebook and to have it personalised.
She opened Harry's gift next, and let out a delighted gasp to find her friend had bought her a box full of muggle bath bombs. During the summer, Hermione had mentioned how much she missed muggle bathing while they were at Hogwarts, and clearly Harry had taken note of it. And Hermione knew he had to have gone to a lot of trouble to get her a present from the muggle world.
"What are these?" Draco asked warily, picking up a bath bomb shaped like a Christmas tree. He'd understood Ron's present, and had actually been surprised by how thoughtful it was, but Harry's present was just baffling.
"Bath bombs," Hermione replied with a smile. "You put them in the bath, and they fizz and colour the water."
"Why not just use the bubble taps?" Draco questioned. Both the prefects bathroom and the bathroom in the head dorms had bubble taps which poured various coloured and fragranced bubbles into the bath water.
"As much as I like bubbles, sometimes I fancy a bath-bomb," Hermione replied with a shrug. "The really good ones not only change the colour of the water, but make it feel so soft. And these bombs from Harry are the good ones. We can try one later if you want."
"I won't say no to sharing a bath," Draco chuckled. "Can we exchange gifts now, or do you have more to open?"
"I just have one more present," Hermione said, reaching for the small box which was labelled as being from Ginny.
Opening the box, Hermione gasped to find a silver charm bracelet, complete with a roaring lion charm. Beside her, Draco let out a low whistle as Hermione lifted the bracelet out of the box to get a better look.
"This is stunning," Hermione gasped.
"Stunningly priced as well," Draco remarked with a low whistle. "Who gave you it?"
"Ginny," Hermione replied. "But what do you mean about the price? It looks like one of those enchanted charm bracelets that new jewellery store sell, but it can't be genuine. Surely she's found a cheaper version somewhere?"
Taking the bracelet from Hermione to get a better look at it, Draco nodded and confirmed it was genuine. "The charms alone are pretty pricey. My father bought a bracelet for my mother for her birthday, and he got her a new charm for Christmas. The basic charms aren't cheap, but you can get special charms made if you're willing to pay more."
"Ginny can't possibly have paid for a special charm to be made," Hermione said with a shake of her head. "I can't believe she could even afford a basic charm and bracelet."
"This combination was on offer down in Hogsmeade," Draco said. "To take advantage of their location, the store made new charms to match the four Hogwarts houses, and they were offering deals on a bracelet and a charm. Pansy bought a snake one for Daphne."
"Even on offer, Ginny must have spent a small fortune on this," Hermione remarked with a slight frown. "But why? Why would she spend so much money on me?"
"I don't know, but I'm sure she knew what she was doing," Draco said with a shrug. "Besides, it'll be rude to turn down her gift."
"I'm not going to do that, but I do wonder why she splashed out so much," Hermione mused. "I guess I'll find out in the New Year, but in the mean time, I'll send everyone a thank you for their presents."
"Before that, at least open mine," Draco said, passing Hermione the gift bag he'd put to one side.
Delving into the bag, Hermione pulled out a small box, which Draco told her to leave for last. Putting the box to one side, she opened the other presents, which consisted of a bottle of perfume, a new historical novel, a deep red leather bound diary, a beautiful emerald green silk scarf and a stunning peacock feather quill.
"I love them, thank you," Hermione said, smiling at her boyfriend.
"Now for the last one," Draco urged as Hermione reached for the small box he had wanted her to open last.
Tearing into the final present, Hermione found a small jewellery box and when she opened the lid she was confronted by a dazzling emerald dragon necklace. The dragon was wrapped around a ruby heart, and even without asking, Hermione knew both the dragon and heart were genuine gemstones.
"It's amazing, I love it," Hermione gasped, throwing her arms around Draco's neck and giving him a lingering kiss.
"I'm pleased," Draco replied, fastening the necklace around Hermione's neck.
Hermione thanked Draco for his gift yet again, before she handed him the bag of gifts she'd bought him. It hadn't been easy finding something for Draco, since he was rich enough to afford anything he wanted, but Hermione was confident she'd at least managed to find things her boyfriend would appreciate.
Hermione's gifts for Draco included a muggle mystery novel, a limited edition book on rare potions, a new set of quills, a snitch signed by the world famous seeker, Viktor Krum, a box of his favourite Honeydukes chocolates and a new emerald green shirt.
"Thank you, Hermione," Draco said. "I love everything. Even the snitch signed by your old boyfriend."
"Viktor was not my boyfriend, we were merely friends," Hermione retorted with a roll of her eyes.
"Friends enough for him to sign a snitch for you," Draco replied. "One of his signatures is notoriously rare. He doesn't give a lot of them out."
"So it'll be worth a fortune one day," Hermione said with a laugh.
"As if I will ever sell it," Draco snorted. "I'm hardly going to sell one of the first things you bought me."
Tidying away their presents, the couple began to get ready for lunch. Hermione was already wearing the necklace Draco had given her, but she added Ginny's bracelet, a spritz of the perfume Draco gave her, and the silk scarf to her outfit. As for Draco, he wore the shirt Hermione had given him.
"Are you ready?" Draco asked, offering Hermione his hand.
Slipping her hand into Draco's, Hermione smiled at her boyfriend. "Let's go."
Heading down to the ground floor together, Draco and Hermione paused just outside of The Great Hall. Taking a deep breath each, they then pushed open the door and entered the large room hand in hand.
Usually The Great Hall boasted four long house tables and the staff table at the head of the room, but with most of the students gone for the holidays, the usual tables had been replaced by one large circular table. Several students were already sitting around the table, and three of the seats were taken by Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape.
"Oh, what do we have here?" Dumbledore remarked with an arched eyebrow as the head students sat down at the large table. "Is this what I think it is? Has romance blossomed between our head students?"
"Yes, Hermione and I are a couple," Draco confirmed, rather surprised by how interested the Professors seemed to be in their love life. They seemed just as interested as the students, several of whom were whispering amongst themselves at the sight of the head students looking so cosy.
"How perfect," McGonagall announced with glee as she turned to Dumbledore and Snape with a Slytherin worthy smirk. "I think someone owes me some money."
"Here you go, Minerva, five galleons," Dumbledore sighed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a money bag. Plucking five gold coins from the bag, he handed them to the smug looking Professor.
"Severus?" Minerva queried, focusing on her younger colleague.
"A bet is a bet, I suppose," Snape sighed as he also handed over five galleons to McGonagall.
"A bet?" Draco queried with a frown. "What is going on here? Why do I think this has something to do with Hermione and I."
"Because it does," Snape replied with a shrug. "You coming in here as a couple won Professor McGonagall five galleons from every member of staff."
"Are you saying the Professors have taken bets on our love life?" Hermione gasped in shock. Although she wasn't the only one openly gaping at the Professors, as it seemed to have taken all the other students by surprise that their Professors spent their spare time placing bets regarding the children in their charge. "Do you do that to all the students?"
"No, and it's not something we always do," Dumbledore admitted. "But at the end of every year at the staff meeting we discuss the first years and often little wagers are placed on various things. We bet on which students will excel in certain subjects, and often who will make head students."
"Although that wasn't worth betting on the year you two started," Snape added with a careless shrug. "Miss Granger was a certainty from almost day one, and even Draco seemed like a good bet for the position."
"So you bet on our love life instead?" Draco questioned incredulously, hardly able to believe what he was hearing.
"Not intentionally," McGonagall confessed. "I merely remarked that I saw a potential match between the pair of you, and no-one but Professor Snape agreed with me. So I bet that by the time you graduated, you would either be a couple or would have had some sort of romance."
"But you also paid the bet," Draco said to his godfather with a frown. If Severus had agreed with McGonagall, it made no sense that he had bet against her and had now ended up paying her money.
"I did," Snape confirmed with a sigh. "I fully agreed with Professor McGonagall's assessment about the two of you, but I thought you would be too stubborn for anything to happen in school. I thought you would need a few years out of Hogwarts to mature and be able to see each other in a new light. Obviously, you matured earlier than I thought."
"I told you so," McGonagall gloated smugly. "And may I just say, the pair of you make a stunning couple. I wish you every happiness."
"Let's just hope everyone else feels the same way," Hermione said gently.
"Don't worry about that now, let's just enjoy the rest of the day," Draco said, taking hold of Hermione's hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze.
"Yes, let's eat," Dumbledore agreed, giving the signal for the elves to start serving lunch.
So far Draco and Hermione's new relationship had gone down well, but Hermione knew the big test would come when their friends returned and found out their news. However, she had no idea there was another confrontation brewing thanks to Ginny and her misinformed snooping before the holidays.