After his conversation with Ron and 'Mione the day before, Harry resolved to ask Draco about what would happen when the social worker visits were officially over. Would he still let Harry to visit? Would he want nothing to do with him? It had barely been a week, but he'd already become ridiculously attached to the small, frog-loving girl.

He also didn't want to have to leave Draco. He'd done a lot of thinking last night and had come to the conclusion that maybe he was a teensy tiny bit attracted to Draco. He wasn't going to act upon it, obviously. Draco had far too much on his plate without Harry trying to start a relationship with him.

Harry also valued their friendship. Scattered conversations at various fundraising events for orphanages over the years had led to a strange sort of half friendship - they would greet each other but hadn't quite reached the stage where they exchanged Christmas cards. Now that they had been thrown together though, Harry was confident that he could call Draco his friend. He enjoyed their conversations and their friendly bickering, and if that was all he ever got, he'd be content.

Are you sure? A small, traitorous voice in the back of his mind said, one he personally called his 'inner Hermione". He quite firmly ignored it.

If only young me could see me now he mused. A few years ago, the idea of being even remotely friendly with a Slytherin, much less Draco Malfoy, would have been horrifying, but Harry liked to think that he'd grown up since then.

•••

Draco was just helping Melissa put on her left glove when Harry tumbled through the floo, sending up another cloud of black soot.

"For Merlin's sake." He muttered, vanishing the soot from the air and Harry's clothes.

"Thanks." the other said distractedly, wiping a thick black layer of dirt and ash off his glasses and onto his grey jumper.

"You're a mess Potter." He aimed another spell at him, this time one designed for removing stains off wool.

"You'll have to teach me that spell." Harry gave him a crooked grin and handed over a small brown cake box. Draco lifted the lid, almost moaning aloud at the heavenly smell that floated out of the box. Inside were two cupcakes, topped with a swirl of white frosting and little sugar decorations.

One had a black top hat, trimmed with a piece of red strawberry lace, two little chocolate chips for eyes, a triangle of orange icing for an nose and more chocolate chips to form a smile. The second had three chocolate buttons going down the centre, a red and green scarf shaped piece of icing at the top and two shards of chocolate sticking out at the sides for arms.

Together, they formed an unbearably adorable snowman that almost looked too good to eat.

"Ooh! 'Nowman!" Melissa gasped, peering into the box over Draco's arm from her vantage point on the stairs. "Can I eat his head?"

Draco laughed at Harry's poorly-concealed horror, more than used to the violent-yet-innocent statements and queries children made.

"Where did you get these?"

"Molly - Ron's mum - likes to practice her Christmas baking early. Her kitchen looks like something blew up in it. She went a bit overboard - Charlie's partner is lactose intolerant, so she's trying out every recipe she can to make it perfect for them." He pulled another box out of his pocket and unshrunk it. "I've got biscuits too."

"Are you sure she'd want me to have it?"

"She insisted on me taking them specifically for you two. I told her this morning when I went over for breakfast about Lissy. She's also expecting you over for dinner tomorrow evening, but I told her that might be a bit too much."

Draco gently batted Melissa's fingers away from the cakes. "I'll think about it. Who will be there?"

"Not many, there's usually a lot of us on Sundays, but there was an incident with testing out a new product in George's shop and half of his employees are still recuperating, so some of them are helping out over the weekend. Bill's daughter will be there, she's the same age as Teddy and Teddy will be there too."

Draco nodded. "Were the cakes the only reason you came, or do you just enjoy destroying my clean kitchen?"

Harry looked sheepish. "I'm sorry about the kitchen. But there is a reason I came." He offered one of the biscuits to Melissa, who looked to Draco for permission before taking a snowflake shaped one out and taking a very large bite out of it. "I go back to work tomorrow and I wanted to , y'know, spend my last day off with you two. And check when the next date for the social worker visit." He was avoiding Draco's eye, fiddling with the lid on the box.

"Ok." Draco said simply, standing up and closing the cupcake box. Melissa whined in protest. "We can eat them later."

He returned his attention to Harry. "We're heading to the Christmas market in Mystic Ally." It was a smaller street just off Diagon, home to the majority of the divination shops in England. It always smelt of lavender and incense and everything was overpriced, but it's Christmas market was the best, so Draco could put up with the nauseatingly overpowering scent of cheap incense for an hour or so. "You can come with us if you like?"

Harry nodded and transfigured his jacket into a heavier coat. Draco picked Melissa up, brushing stray crumbs out of her scarf. "I can apparate is from here."

Harry took his hand and they apparated.

•••

Melissa wandered a few feet in front of them, zipping between stalls, but constantly glancing back to make sure the two of them were behind her. Witches and wizards whispered amongst themselves as they passed, but the pair were more than used to it and ignored the glares and mutterings.

Harry already had a bag full of small gifts for various Weasley's and was currently standing at another stall enquiring about a set of penguin gloves. He had steered clear of the cakes stalls, telling Draco it was treason to eat baked goods that weren't made by Molly Weasley.

Having tasted one of the biscuits, Draco could see why.

Draco had only purchased a few things - a book for Melissa, a pair of earrings and a matching bracelet for his mother and a box of Astoria's favourite fudge. He had spotted a few small things that he wanted to get for Melissa as part of her Christmas present, but with the small child almost constantly watching him, there was no way he'd be able to get them now.

Harry stuffed his newly purchased gloves into another bag and joined Draco once more. "Why doesn't the hearing aid short circuit when you apparate, but it does when you floo?" He asked, digging through his bags in search of Merlin-knows-what.

"There's a higher concentration of magic with flooing. Without floo powder, they have relatively similar concentrations, which won't cause problems with the hearing aid, but Floo powder increases the concentration. It contains magic and builds up within the floo network, so the hearing aid short circuits almost instantly. Apparation is also quicker than flooing, so it isn't exposed to magic for as long."

Harry nodded in understanding. "What is it that makes it so resilient to magic?"

"Healers aren't quite certain, but they do believe that the thick protective plastic is one of the main reasons why - muggle electricity doesn't go through plastic, so they have theorised that the plastic blocks most of the magic from getting to the important components inside."

Harry nodded again, but this time he appeared to be deep in thought.

"So do you reckon the Cannons could secure a top three finish this season?" He asked, changing the subject quite rapidly.

Draco scoffed. "Not a snowball's chance in hell. Have you seen their abysmal attacking formation? And they've got Stones back as keeper again - they did surprisingly well after his injury. But do you know who'll definitely start climbing up the table? The Magpies. "

"Of course you'd say that!"

They continued their rather heated debate over the quidditch league, while keeping a watchful eye over their 4 year old.

•••

"Froggy!" Melissa pointed at a stall on their right, where a very familiar toad sat upon a box, nestled in a worn and faded Gryffindor scarf.

"Trevor's a toad actually." Neville Longbottom said, leaning his forearms on the table and watching Melissa as she stared, transfixed at the toad.

"Can I touch him please?"

"You might want to check with your parents first."

Melissa turned around, bouncing on the balls of her feet, hope written all over her face.

"Go on."

Longbottom's head shot up at the sound of his voice. "Malfoy! Harry!" He looked over at Melissa, who was gently stroking the gap between Trevor's oversized eyes with a careful finger. "So this is your little girl. Luna told me all about her yesterday. I must say Harry, you certainly get yourself into some situations." He laughed and offered Melissa some strangely coloured treat. "Trevor loves these."

She took it and held it out to the toad, squealing in delight as his tongue darted out to take it.

"Malfoy." He turned his gaze onto Draco and he could suddenly see why so many people feared the once clumsy and quiet boy. Gone was the pudginess in his face, revealing a sharp jaw, which housed a stubbly beard. His eyes were hard when they had crinkled with laughter just seconds earlier. Draco was quite horrified to realise that he actually found Longbottom somewhat attractive.

"I'll be watching you - I still don't quite trust you." And then the war hero persona was gone, replaced by what Draco assumed was normal 'Neville'. "Interested in buying any plants today? I have some wonderful cacti that double as a living defensive system."

Draco declined politely, while Harry inspected strange looking orange vine that was growing around a stick that had been stuck into its pot.

Melissa gave Trevor one last pat on the head as they headed off, a forlorn look on her face. "Can we see Trevor again?"

Neville answered before Draco could even open his mouth. "Of course you can. I'll be at Harry's family's house tomorrow, if you're coming for dinner. I'll bring one of his friends along too if you like."

Draco couldn't say no when faced with such optimistic faces.