Hermione woke on Christmas morning incredibly glad that wizarding tradition dictated that Christmas day be a family day. Admittedly the dinner hadn't been as bad as she had anticipated but she really didn't want to sit through another formal meal.
'Muppet has laid out Mistress' morning gown.' The squeaky voice of an elf informed her and she groaned. Apparently purebloods didn't spend Christmas morning in their Pyjamas. At least the morning gown looked an awful lot more comfortable than the evening dress Narcissa had had her in the night before. She pulled it on over muggle jeans, determined that these purebloods wouldn't steal every ounce of joy from the day.
The presents were already stacked beneath the tree, and yet more were piled along the dining table. She'd never seen so many presents before, even at the Weasleys and she couldn't comprehend where they'd all come from. Did the Malfoys really have that many friends?
Gellert was already sitting in one of the chairs and he waved her over. She took a seat next to him just as Draco and his parents joined them.
'Why are there so many presents?' She asked curiously and Gellert smirked.
'Tributes. Houses wanting to win favour, or keep it. The ones under the tree are personal.' He answered, receiving his first from beneath the tree. Hermione took her own from the elf, squeezing the hard package. It was almost certainly a book, gifted by Harry so it was likely to be rather basic relative to what she usually read, but interesting none the less. She was correct, and she dropped it to one side in exchange for a new parcel. Gellert had just finished unwrapping the spell-checking quick-quills she had gotten him and he read the note with a laugh.
'I hoped they would save you time marking.' She explained unnecessarily. Picking presents for him was always hard because he had enough money to buy anything he wanted. He smiled in thanks and flicked his fingers for an elf to bring his present for her. It was a box, slightly larger than the palm of her hand and surprisingly heavy for its size. She tore open the silver paper, revealing a jewellery box inside. She was speechless as she lifted the lid, revealing a pair of ornate wolf head shaped cloak clasps, a delicate chain joining them. She recognised it as the protective pair from the little shop on Diagon Alley, and she knew the price had been four digits. Suddenly her own present seemed rather inadequate.
'Oh Gellert, you shouldn't have.' She whispered and he shrugged.
'I thought you'd look good in them and the extra protection can hardly hurt these days.' He replied. She set them aside carefully as another gift was passed to her. This one was large and soft, almost certainly a Weasley jumper, so she tore off the packaging.
It wasn't.
Instead, she found herself looking at perhaps the nicest cloak she had ever held. It flowed through her hands like silk with a deep, fur lined hood. She frowned, double checking the label on the packaging to find out whom it had come from. She looked across the room to see Draco Malfoy smirking at her. It was from him.
'As I said, most of the gifts are to win your favour.' Gellert whispered to her and she blinked.
'Why would Malfoy want my favour?' She hissed back, unsure whether to check for jinxes.
'Because you're a powerful witch.' Gellert replied as if that were common sense. Either way, she soon discovered that people wanting to earn her favour was rather nice; she received presents of clothes, books and many other precious little trinkets – some of which were useful, and some that were so wildly off the mark that she didn't even know what to do with them.
Ron had sent her a book she had already read, and Hagrid had sent a hand carved whistle, although she wasn't certain what she would use it for. Other than that, she had received a wrist watch whose face was a miniature foe glass from the adult Malfoys, a book on alchemy and an in depth study of Unicorns from Newt Scamander of all people and a book on advanced invisibility charms, which turned invisible itself if one didn't have the proper password from the Carrows. She had a set of elegant fur trimmed robes from a Norwegian family, a new set of warm dragon hide gloves from the Romanian Minister for Magic and a Weasley jumper from Mrs. Weasley, accompanied by a large packet of fudge.
At the end of the day, an elf appeared with a list for each of them with what they had received and who from, before each of their new belongings was taken away to their respective rooms.
'Should we have the duel before or after lunch?' Gellert asked lazily, looking up at the clock. Hermione had never heard of duelling over Christmas, but the way Draco's face brightened at the mention was enough to make her slightly nervous.
'Before- to work up an appetite.' Narcissa answered, 'I'll just change.' Everyone hurried off to their respective rooms, Hermione pulling Gellert aside just before she went into hers.
'A duel?' She asked dubiously and he grinned fiercely.
'I believe muggles call them snowball fights, but they are far more interesting for wizards.' He hurried off to grab his own clothes as Hermione quickly pulled on her new cloak and gloves. She rejoined the family a moment later in the main room, everyone wrapped up appropriately. The rules were haggled out, a boundary set at the treeline, no spells allowed on other participants, each to his own, you lost if someone managed to steal your hat... Gellert set a massive fiery clock counting down in the air, giving them five minutes to prepare their defences and they were off.
She stared blankly at the snow infront of her, wasting several precious seconds with no idea what to do. Then she built a snow man, using her wand to animate it and conjuring a cloak as a disguise, she glanced at the clock – she could make loads of these.
Five minutes later, the field descended into carnage. Lucius Malfoy had built an ice castle, Narcissa had gone offensive with jinxed snowballs that could fly around corners. Gellert had gone for a similar idea as her, but had instead chosen to build one massive golem and Draco had burrowed down into the snow until he was invisible. She batted away Narcissa's snowballs, setting them on Gellert, who conjured a massive snowstorm. She added to it with her own magic, making the wind whip through the air and ice lash her face. She deployed her snowmen, sending them barrelling towards the other participants and hoping that in the terrible visibility people might mistake them for her. A disillusionment later and she was sneaking towards where Draco had last been.
Shouts came from one end of the field, the Golem roared and ice crashed against ice. A small falter in the snowstorm showed the Golem battling what looked like a moose, or perhaps just an animated snow mound. The Golem was winning, but she saw Gellert egging the beast on and redirected one of her minions towards him. She considered summoning her own titan, but decided against it; stealth would be her ally and even with Gellert's assistance, keeping up such a large storm was exhausting. One of her minions was destroyed to the left, so she darted in that direction. Suddenly the ground caved in beneath her and she found herself falling into a small cavern, or perhaps more accurately, tunnel.
She stopped supporting the storm and diverted her energy to rapidly creating snow minions. Someone shouted a curse word, which echoed down the tunnel, then everything fell silent, apart from the distant roars of the two golems. Hermione snuck down the icy tunnel, wand outstretched, then shrieked as her head was torn from her head. It went whizzing down the corridor in the claws of a snow owl – stunning craftsmanship and spell work – and landed neatly in Narcissa's hands. She already had Draco's green hat poking out of her robe pocket, and Hermione's Gryffindor one quickly joined it.
'The exit is that way.' Narcissa informed her in a sugary voice and Hermione nodded, following the direction the older witch had indicated. She found Draco already waiting, spectating the duel between his father and Grindelwald with interest.
'Bloody owl got me.' He grumbled to her and she snickered in reply.
'Me too. How are they going?'
'Looks like Grindelwald put too much energy into that storm. His monster isn't as quick as fathers.' True enough, it seemed Lucius' blob had grown into a very roughly formed dragon, whilst Gellert's golem still looked like a rather disproportionate ent. She oohed as the dragon-blob chomped off an arm of the ent, seeming to absorb the snow and become bigger. It made a charge past the wounded monster, only to be bashed around the face by the other arm.
'There's Narcissa.' She pointed out, two almost invisible owls winging their way across the sky. They circled over the duelling pair for a minute, then dove. There was a roar of fire as Gellert barely melted his owl, Lucius' gave a triumphant screech as his black hat was torn away. Gellert's golem gave a mighty roar and ate Lucius' dragon before it disintegrated, becoming larger but somehow less coordinated. It made several clumsy swipes at bewitched snowballs, then batted another owl out of the way, lumbering in Narcissa's direction. There was a brief scuffle as Narcissa threw everything she had at the titan, before her hat was removed from her head.
Everyone applauded and congratulated each other, noting remarkable spellwork and strategy throughout the game. Then, sopping wet and considerably more cheerful, they each dried themselves off and headed in for a sumptuous dinner cooked by the elves.