Draco awoke the next morning only to find a note sitting on his bed. Still groggy from sleep, he broke the seal and opened it.

It read: 'Be at the tree on the lake's northern shore by nine am. Come alone and tell no one.' That was all it said, there was no signature or anything, just those two sentences.

Draco looked at the clock and groaned. It was a quarter to nine already. Figuring that the note had probably been sent by his father, he stumbled out of bed and dressed quickly.

He got there at one minute to. No one was there yet, so he just stood there stamping his feet to keep out the cold. He heard a small rustle in the branches above him, and looked up just in time to see the giant snowball that got him right in the face.

Alexas jumped down from inside the branches. "Morning." She said impishly. "Like the note?"

"About as much as you'll like this!" he retorted, dropping his shoulder and tackling her, sending her plunging into a nearby snow bank. He expected her to come out a spitting ball of fury, but she only laughed and threw a snowball at him. "Oh, so a snowball fight is what you want is it?" he said, returning fire.

The next half hour was a blur of flying snow and laughing. By the end of it, the two of them were drenched and completely exhausted. Making their way back to the common room to dry off, both of them had got the giggles. As soon as they would manage to get themselves under control, they would look at each other and it would begin all over again.

At one point, they ran into Professor Sprout, who was extremely surprised to find to students who she had thought hated each other, wandering along the corridor soaked and laughing. She would have said something, but as soon as they both saw the look on her face, the laughing just got worse. 'Just leave it alone.' She thought to herself as she walked away. 'Just leave it alone.'

Once inside the common room, Alexas went upstairs to change. About to follow suit, Draco paused. He conjured up a pair of blankets and two steaming goblets of hot chocolate with marshmallows, then went to find something dryer.

Pulling his robes over his head, he heard Alexas' squeal of delight. He chuckled and shook his head; she was just like a little kid.

By the time he got down there, she was already in the armchair nearest the fire wrapped in a blanket.

"Good idea this." she said, sipping the hot chocolate. "Come get warm." she added, motioning towards the armchair next to her. "I won't be hard, nobody's here but us, so we can get the best chairs for ourselves."

"And there's no need to pretend I don't care that everyone in the room is wishing that their looks could kill." Draco said dryly.

Alexas looked at him, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, come on! Almost everyone in this school hates me for the jerk they think I am. Sometimes I almost forget how to be myself. I'm just so used to being arrogant and nasty all the time."

"But that's not you." She smiled at him reassuringly. "That creep you have to pretend to be isn't who you truly are."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I'm an empath remember? So I know what's really in here." She touched a finger to his chest.

A smile crept slowly over his face. "Thanks."

"You're very welcome." She said, returning his smile. They just sat there for a few moments, not saying anything until she broke from his gaze, suddenly uncomfortable. She stood up quickly, leaving the blanket where it lay on the floor and depositing her goblet down there next to it. "I have to go, I- uh have to go and put the finishing touches on my presents for my friends." She said without looking at him and hurried off to her dorm.

"What was all that about?" Draco asked the closed door.

Alexas leaned against the door and sat down slowly. She looked over to her bed, where the two completely finished presents sat, as if accusing her. Why had that freaked her out so much? It's not like she was falling for him; that just wasn't physically possible.

"It's Christmas! It's Christmas!" Draco groaned as his bed jolted when Alexas jumped exuberantly onto it. "It's Christmas!" she repeated.

"Okay, okay. It's Christmas, now what do you want?" he mumbled sleepily.

"Presents!" she said, as if this were blatantly obvious.

Draco shook his head, but still rolled over and retrieved her gift from the cupboard in his bedside table. "Here." He grunted, tossing the gift over to her.

Once she ripped off the paper, Alexas gasped. "Wow! This is the newest release from Wizarding Wheezes! This is cutting-edge stuff! Oh," she said rustling about in her robe. "I almost forgot. This is for you." She handed him a small silk bag. Inside it was a silver ring. Draco inspected the inscription.

"Never forget who you truly are." He read. He looked at her, awestruck, now completely awake. "This is the nicest thing anyone's ever given me."

"I thought about what you said last week, and so I had mum get this made for you. It can be a reminder for when things get bad."

"Thanks." He said, slipping onto his finger. "So what is the game plan for today?"

She shrugged. "Well I have to go up to the owlery to post my mum's present. You wanna come with?"

"It's not like I have anything else to do."

Peering through the rows of perches, Alexas called out, "Quoth!" Out of the semi-darkness came a raven. She turned to Draco. "This is my raven, Quoth. Isn't he beautiful? He's named after that poem The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. But don't say it."

"Don't say what?"

"The N-word." She replied tersely.

"Nevermore?" he asked, and was duly rewarded with a sharp peck on the hand.

"I did tell you not to say it." She said matter-of-factly. "He must like you though."

"What? Why?"

"Well, you've still got all your fingers, haven't you?"

A/N: Did you ever see the episode of Fairly Odd Parents where Timmy wished it would be Christmas every day? And it ended up sucking? If I ran the universe it would be Christmas every third day. The others would be my birthday and easter. And we'd all be horribly fat. Hmmm. Maybe not such a good idea. R R!