Chapter 21 – Christmas

"Good morning, Miss Granger" a happy voice sang in her ear waking her up
"well good morning Mr Malfoy" she said smiling up at him "and would you mind telling me why you are in my bedroom?"

"Because it's Christmas day" he said "and I want to open my presents"

He then proceeded to jump up and down on her bed
"get up!" he yelled pulling her duvet away from her

"Ahh" she said and grabbed her wand and put a warming charm upon her "it's much too cold for that"

She grabbed her thickest robe from her wardrobe and placed it round her shoulders and went through to the common room.

"PRESENTS" Draco yelled and went and sat right next to their Christmas tree

"You are such a kid" she said rolling her eyes at him. And sitting beside him.

Hermione didn't have very many presents at all this year, Mrs Weasley had sent her a jumper and some homemade fudge, she had sent Draco the same. Then they just had their presents for each other

"This is too weird" Hermione said, "nothing from Ron or Harry, or my parents" her bottom lip trembled as she spoke and Draco kissed her

"It's ok" he said "my presents good, open it"

And with that he passed her a large present wrapped in silver paper with purple bows and ribbon on it. The tag said

My Light

And she ripped the paper off and it was a box made entirely of silver, with little pictures engraved into it all over. It was a big box about the size of portable television. And it had a charmed lock upon it.
"it will only open on the insertion of your wand" Draco told her

"How did you get it to do that?" she asked him

"I borrowed it when you were asleep" he confessed

"It's lovely" she said and put her wand into the lock on the front and the top popped open.

There was an array of things inside it. There was a book about the orb of matheusar, Draco had found out the name from Dumbledore and it had a locket in there that he had been to knock turn alley for. Inside it was space for pictures as normal. And whoever's pictures you put into it would instantly be protected by your love.

Much in the same way as Harry was protected by his mothers.

There was a photograph in a frame of Hermione and Draco, which he had gotten from that annoying boy in Gryffindor

"And you can put anything you want to keep safe in there" he told her and kissed her forehead.

"They are amazing" she told him and kissed him back

"Time for yours"

She passed him a smaller present "it's not as grand as yours I am afraid" she told him

He opened it and could not even believe his eyes. It was a small golden pocket watch similar to the clock that Mrs Weasley owned but it only had Draco and Hermione hands on it. It would tell Draco wherever they were at the time. It had school, home, work, mortal peril and some other stuff on it.

Draco was instantly in love with it. "It's fabulous"

"I am glad you like it" she said and kissed him.

"Merry Christmas" he said

"And merry Christmas to you" she told him and hugged him tightly.

They put their new presents away and it was soon time for their Christmas dinner. They were the only students that had stayed and so it would just be them and the professors. So they would sit at the head table with them.

The table looked very festive and there were Christmas crackers in all the place settings

"Cool" Hermione said "I love crackers"

"Me too" Draco said "but I refuse to wear that ridiculous hat"

"Draco" Hermione frowned "you have to everybody wears them, you don't want to look miserable do you"

"Miserable me?" he said "Malfoy's do not look miserable not ever"

"Malfoy's don't do much do they" Hermione said laughing at him. Whenever he said Malfoy's this Malfoy's that Hermione took great pleasure in making fun of him.

They started their meals once Dumbledore had wished everybody a happy Christmas. And a lovely meal it was. Once everybody had had their fill, people got up and started to leave.

"Can I please take this ridiculous object off my head now please?" Draco whined to Hermione

"Ok" she said pulling the lime green Christmas hat off him and pushing it into his face.

"Gee thanks" he said

"Excuse me" Dumbledore said "but before you disappear could I have a word with you both?"

They nodded

"Follow me" he said and they followed him up to his office.

"You may be wondering what this is about?" he asked

"The orb?" Hermione asked

"And I should of course known that you would probably have realised" he said smiling. His eyes were twinkling

"Did you find out about it sir?" she asked her eyes were burning with the look she got when she wanted to find out information

"Indeed I did" he said "I received a reply from matheusar just yesterday, we found out what the silver means and we also found out something else"

"What?" Hermione asked she was bursting to know and didn't want him to beat about the bush with it.

Draco held her hand and squeezed it slightly, which calmed her down a little bit.

"Well the silver means that the prophecy is definitely about you. The other thing we found out is the reason instead of gold is because the light in you is totally pure, because it can never change into dark. There is always the chance with people that the gold can turn into black. But the silver is immune to it and can not change. So you could never be dark" he explained

"Does this mean I will have to fight voldemort?" she asked

"I think it means you will end up fighting with him in the end" Dumbledore said "what was supposed to have happened was that you would be at Harry's side throughout the battle, however now that can no longer be the case you will just have to train as a fighter as well. So you can play Harry's part as well"

"Could I not do that?" Draco asked "I could probably learn to fight as well as Harry could and probably a little better than Hermione will"

"I am afraid not Mr Malfoy" Dumbledore said shaking his head. "Unfortunately we have other plans for you"

"When do I get to know what these plans are then?" Draco asked

"When the time is right" The aged headmaster told him. "But the time is not right yet"

"I understand" Draco lied. He did not understand and thought Dumbledore was just brushing him off. He was going to talk to Hermione about it later on.

"Well thank you sir, just one more question" Hermione said "who is going to train me to fight?"

"I think I will get Remus to do it" Dumbledore said "He can privately tutor you"

Hermione was excited at the prospect of seeing Remus Lupin again. He used to be their DADA teacher. But he was a werewolf and had, had to leave the school after their third year. But he was close to Harry and he was working within the order.

They went back to their common room after that for there wasn't really anything else to be doing for the rest of the day. Hermione was reading the book that Draco had given her and he was sat there stroking her hair as she read extracts from the book to him.

"Everyone who is employed as an auror, so that they can be tested for darkness" she said

"Are you scared?" he asked her suddenly

"Scared?" she said "I will have you know us Gryffindor are brave"

"Really" he said and raised an eyebrow

"Petrified if I am totally honest with you" she said and a shiver ran down her spine

"You know I will fight with you no matter what Dumbledore says don't you" he told her

"I think you should wait and see what Dumbledore has planned for you first, before you go saying that" she answered

"God damn it" Draco said hitting the arm of the sofa "I hate this, I hate the fact that someone has plans for me and wont tell me what they are"

"Calm down Draco" Hermione soothed "Dumbledore is just doing what he thinks is best. I am sure he will tell you soon"

The night wore on and eventually it was time for the young couple to go to their beds. Hermione kissed Draco goodnight and went to brush her teeth. Draco waited patiently for the bathroom and gave her another quick kiss as she came out and went upstairs.

After that Draco decided to call his head of house using the fireplace. He wanted to talk to him about all this. He knew he could trust Snape and that if Dumbledore was doing the right thing Snape would assure him of this.

"Hello Draco" Snape's head appeared in the fire "what can I do for you?"

"Well I was hoping you might be able to put my mind at rest about Dumbledore really" Draco explained, he then went on to explain about Dumbledore's future plans that he wasn't sharing.

"Well Draco to be totally honest with you there is a bit of controversy within the order at the moment regarding that" Snape told him "not many of the order, including myself agree with the plans regarding you"

Draco was a bit shocked at this information
"what will happen if not everybody agrees?" he asked

"It doesn't really make any difference as Dumbledore has the final say on everything anyway. We just want to make sure he hears all out opinions and everything before he makes his final decision, we might be able to talk him out of it" Snape said

"Wow, must be some serious stuff then" Draco said and wondered "I don't suppose ……"

"No Draco I can not tell you, it's more than my life's worth" Snape said "sleep well"

"Night" Draco said and put the fire out, and went to bed to have his usual disturbed sleep.