A/N: Hey all, it's a D/G holiday story! Yes, this is the one that I started on the Facebook group and never finished. It's also being posted there, and that is the only place to see the daily art that goes with each chapter. Because I obviously can't post the art or direct links to it on FFN, here's how to find it. Go to Facebook and type in "The Fire and Ice Archive Community at D&Gdotcom" and then join the page. It's all there!

PART ONE: A Very D/G Christmas: The Promise

Draco stood across from Ginny, hands on hips. "What more do you want?" he demanded. "There's a Christmas tree. Ornaments. I'm even wearing the Santa suit! And may I say that the elf outfit is adorable; I knew it would be."

"No, you may not!" Ginny stabbed a finger in his face. "Draco, we're in a dungeon. It's Yule in a dungeon at Malfoy Manor."

"I have some very fond memories of past holidays here, I'll have you know," said Draco, lying through his teeth.

Ginny waved a hand at the wall, sweeping down to the floor. "Skulls... a ball and chain... an axe... a sacrificial altar... really, Draco, does this say 'Happy Holidays" to you?"

"Er..." In point of fact, it didn't. Draco had tried rather hard to suppress several Yule memories that involved dungeons and dragons, but in a far from playful way.

She stepped closer and put her arms around him.

"That's quite nice," he admitted. He'd forgotten how bloody *cold* it was in the dungeons. "I mean, no, you've simply got to accept the Malfoy Holiday Traditions if we're to be together, Ginny."

The look in her eyes turned dangerous. He attempted to backtrack. "I mean... ah..." Her hair was brushing his cheek now. What exactly *had* he meant? He couldn't quite remember.

"Draco," she whispered, "If it ever gets to that point with us, I'll be more than patient with the Pureblood Ball, the formal teas, the traditional undergarments, and every other silliness that your sort likes to indulge in. But I've got to draw the line somewhere."

He stood very still. *If?* Funny, how that one little word was a dart of concentrated pain in his chest. But it was true. He hadn't invited her into these parts of his life in the past six months, for the length of time they'd been together. And they were together; he knew that now, whatever else one could call this odd relationship between them. He supposed he'd always known that he was the one who had begun this deepening of their relationship by inviting her to the Manor to the first place, even though they were in his private wing and he had not yet quite told anyone she was there.

She pulled back slightly. "Forget I said anything at all."

"No!" He reached for her hand and replaced her fingers on his lower back.

"No?" She cocked her head to one side in the way he'd always liked, even when he'd resented her as Harry Potter's girlfriend, a mischievous expression stealing over her face. "What does that mean? No, you're determined to spend the holidays in the Malfoy dungeon; no, you won't do something different with me, or…?"

He bent his head and spoke softly into her ear, almost afraid to say the words. "No. I don't wish to spend this holiday away from you, Ginny; not in any way."

"So we'll go somewhere else?" She nibbled at his ear.

"Wherever you like," Draco whispered, giving himself up for lost.

Ginny raised one devilish eyebrow. "Yuletide at the Burrow. That's what I'd like."

Draco wondered if it actually was too late to throw himself into the jaws of the dragon in the dungeon just below this one. It was always an option for Boxing Day, he supposed.

"I would stay here if your parents were actually going to have Yule," Ginny pressed on. "But they're not."

No, they decidedly were not, thought Draco. His mother was in the South of France, and his father was still in Azkaban. Narcissa Malfoy had tried to convince Draco to go with her, painting pictures of sparkling celebrations in Nice and Monte Carlo, but he'd refused. He wondered if she had any idea why.

"So… please?" She looked up at him from the circle of his arms, eyes sparkling with hope.

"Yes," he said.

If the incensed spirits of the Malfoy ancestors threatened to drag him to the ninth circle of hell for going to the Weasley family home, he could always claim that he'd acted under duress.