Christmas

It always felt surprisingly cozy in the large manor at Christmas morning. Father still looked slightly groggily and Severus wore a smile if you looked carefully and mother was trying to get us all sing along with her to god rest ye, merry hippogriffs which apparently had gotten stuck into her head and she had no clue why. Severus and father were weakly objecting. Mother send me a pleading look and I joined her at the top of my voice, making her smile brightly.

We haunted Severus and Father with the song till they joined in, which in Severus case was a bit sourly. Father though seemed very amused.

After that we started opening presents. It was mostly me though, who had gotten the most presents. Severus only had four, as he always had, one from each of us and from Dumbledore. This year I got none from Pansy, of course, what else should I have expected, still I felt a bit saddened. Still, I got plenty of presents.

From Severus I got Do zombies dream of undead sheep, a book which I quickly realised was written by muggle scientists. Of course father and mother assumed it was a book about defence or something and talked about actual zombies instead it explained what was apparently neuroscience. I felt intrigued.

Muggles had the strangest ideas.

The dull spark of interest in muggles, which at first felt akin to enjoying unpleasant sensations you'd get from being grossed out or scared by horror tales or reading about dangerous magical creatures or awful magical maladies, had really ignited with learning more and more about their habits, creativity, inventions and reasoning.

I reluctantly lay the book besides me, wanting to find out more about this book. "I'm glad you like it," Severus says while observing me. "Thank you, for the chess set."

I smile back at Severus. "You teached me how to play. I saw it in the shop and I realised I hadn't touched a chess piece in a long time. Maybe we could play some time and Hogwarts. You know, I am a lot smarter now then when i was seven, I might beat you now.."

Severus snorts. "Maybe you could give me a challenge."

I grin broadly. From someone else that might sound derisive, but from Severus that sure felt like something close to a compliment.

I then open my parents present, which contains a book. Excitedly I turn it and then feel heat rush to my cheeks when I read the title. A young wizards handbook to puberty, girls and bodily changes by Jason Goyle. I look horrified to mother who is smiling amusedly.

Mother grabs my hand. "Draco, you've been maturing. We thought it might be appropriate to give you something that would be suitable with that. You've even gotten your first girlfriend."

I look at mother with large, horrified eyes. Please, can't we change the subject?

"Your mother is right," father then said. "It is important that you know this stuff. I believe that there is some important information on pages twohundred seventy two till three hundred and five. Of course, we know you and Pansy broke up, still it would be good for you to know for when you find a new girlfriend and decide to take things further.."

"Lucius," mother admonishes. "He's still my baby boy. Though of course you're right to say you should know these things."

"Well, you know what they say," Severus slyly interrupts, "The raging hormones of a teenage wizard are worse than the urge to seek gold and shiny objects of a niffler."

I feel officially mortified.

Father snorts. "I don't think that's an actual saying. You just made that up."

"Oh stop it," mother than says, "We're embarrassing him."

I quickly tear open a present that was awfully standing out as it was packed incredibly wrinkly and I immediately recognised it as Ginny's. It contained a textbook with mostly gross, but harmless jinxes. Like how to make nose hairs grow uncontrollably or how to let ear wax stream from someones ears.

In the first page Ginny had scribbled something: Happy christmas, Draco! When I was a kid this served me well growing up with Fred and George. I got it from Bill, telling me that when I was a bit older it would help me get back at them, of course he had meant when I started Hogwarts. Imagine the looks on their faces when I cast wandlessly, as I did not have one at the time, my favourite curse(See page 42) after a particularly mean joke. Ginny.

I smiled. I hope she liked the chocolate from Zonko's I got her, tastes heavenly and probably good as long as those dementors are around at Hogwarts. I quickly go to page 42 and chuckle. She told me after she got sorted that she'd used to bat-bogey hex on her twin brothers, I could have known!

Greg and Vin both got me candy. Greg I'd gotten some book from this Newt Scamander guy about magical creatures and Vin I'd given some candy.

I got some more candy of some other schoolmates. Buying Pansy's present had been the hardest. It still felt like the right choice, I wanted her to know I still cared, just no longer as her boyfriend. I had gotten her a friendship bracelet.