DISCLAIMER: Still don't own anything from you recognise from the books….
A/N: Yay! I'm back…. okay so I would have updated earlier, but who know you could get a cold when you go to the snow? (lol…I haven't been able to move or think properly for the last couple of days and I got back Saturday)…..anyway I have decided that I will not be using any HBP spoilers in my story because I am too lazy to change it and it just won't work in my story lines. …..Also I'm really happy you all liked the last chapter (at least those who reviewed did) because I was just using it as a sort of filler until I could get some really good ideas…any way some one mentioned at the start about Hermione's and Snape friendship I was going to keep it in there but some one said they thought it was a bit weird (which I had to agree with) and after reading the HBP I am beginning to dislike him very much again so it will not be bought up again in any of my stories….
Christmas Eve (During the Day)
Alex sat in the Zabini lounge room, with the Zabini owl, carefully she placed the two wrapped presents inside the box and sealed it with the magic spellotape her mother had bought her, she then tied a thin envelope on the top and finally tied to the owl she had affectionately named Zabi, since none of the owls were actually named.
Closing the window once Zabi had disappeared from her view, she turned to leave the lounge room, in the hope she could get back to the room hr father had given her without being seen by 'Uncle' Draco or 'Aunty' Lydia or her parents for that matter.
"Lex, can you move that chair please," Hermione came into the lounge, with both Blaise and Draco behind her carrying an enormous tree. She pushed the chair out of her way and moved toward the door.
"Oh, Blaise, it's Beautiful," Hermione exclaimed as they put the tree up, Alex rolled her eyes at the cheerfulness in her mothers voice. So far this had not been a good Christmas break for her, having to listen to her parents go gaga over each other like they were teenagers and then listening to draco (jr.) complain and insult everything, was not her idea of a enjoyable holiday. At least she still had New Years. She moved closer to the door, only to be stopped by two identical blonde girls.
"The tree's here, the tree's here," They shouted jumping around the room.
"Chels, Maddy, calm down, it's just a tree," Draco (snr.) told them, as his wife followed them into the room, large boxes of decorations being levitated behind her.
"Their alright Draco," Hermione said, taking their hands in hers, "DO you guys want to help us decorate the tree now?"
Both nodded enthusiastically, blonde pigtails flying everywhere.
The news that they were decorating the tree would have, usually, excited Alex, but since this was not her normal Christmas, it alarmed her even more of being stuck in a room with two screaming girls, finally she reached the door.
"Alex, where are you going?" Blaise's voice came from somewhere near the tree, behind her.
"Um, well, you see, I was just going to go get Draco, you know make it a family thing," she quickly covered up, turning around to face her father.
""That's a good idea, Lex darling," Hermione replied, before turning to the twins again, "Now do you think this would be fun with cookies?"
Rolling her eyes, Alex silently left the lounge room and made her way up the grand staircase that led to all the bedrooms. Her parents was down the hall from hers, and she had conveniently put a silencing charms on her room so that she couldn't hear anything which may have later put her into therapy. She was halfway up the stairs when she heard Lydia call up to her.
"Alex, when you come back down could you get Drakey to bring down the boxes up there. There a bit heavy so make sure he carries them,"
Now she had no choice but to actually go find the blonde boy that been annoying for the lat couple of days. She guessed he was in his room, since that was where had generally been hanging out when he wasn't annoying her. Now she just had to figure out which room was his.
The one at the end of the hallway was her parents and hears was the second door down from their room. at the other end of the hall was the room Draco and Lydia were staying in and the room next to that was the twins, that left three doors.
She came to the first one and knocked against the white wood, no one answered so she opened the door, she found that her first guess was right, this was Draco's room, but he wasn't in there, only his clothes were strewn across the floor. She gently closed the door and turned back into the hallway. The door to the left of her room was slightly ajar, a light shining through it catching her eyes.
"Draco?" She asked, pushing the door open a bit further sticking her head into the room. What she found surprised her slightly. It was a room not much larger than any of the bedrooms, but each was aligned with a bookcase, with books almost falling off the shelves, they were that full. She knew her dad liked to read, but this was ridiculous, this was something Alex though only her mother could be possible of.
"What do you want Granger?" Draco asked, bringing Alex back into reality.
He was sitting in a small armchair, beneath a table light, a thick book lay open on his lap. Suddenly Alex felt bad for interrupting him.
"Oh, um, well their decorating the Christmas tree and Maddy and Chelsea want you to help them, and your Mum wants you to take some boxes downstairs…" She trailed off ass she entered the library, looking at the books on the shelves.
"Okay," Draco replied, closing his book, standing up. He slowly made his way toward the door, but stopped when Alex didn't follow him.
"Granger, are you coming?" Draco asked, looking at her slightly annoyed.
"Huh? What?" she was looking at a picture, it wasn't as old as the ones of her parents at school , but it was still pretty old. In the frame was her father and Draco's father, Draco. They each looked like they were in their earlier twenties, and neither men were smiling.
"That was just before my Dad came back to England," Draco said, standing at the desk looking at the picture aswell., "Uncle Blaise found us, me, Dad and Mum, when I was two." Alex looked at the picture carefully, standing behind the two men was Lydia holding a tiny Draco.
"Draco, why did your Dad leave?" Alex asked as he turned back toward the door.
He shrugged slightly, "I guess he was afraid," he paused "He was our age when he left, he didn't want to follow the dark side and he said if he stayed his father would have forced him to."
"So why did he come back?" Alex asked, understanding what Draco meant before he explained his first answer. "I mean my Mum, she came back for me, so that I could have a proper family, even though it meant facing my dad again, which I guess turned out pretty well."
Draco looked at her carefully, Alex looked away, but she could still feel his grey eyes studying her for any sign that she was going to use this information against him.
"I guess it's the same, my mum said Uncle Blaise found them when they were on holiday in France, he had been looking for someone else, I guess that was your mum, and he found us. He convinced my dad it was alright to come back here, that we'd be better here then back in the US." He said slowly, explaining everything to himself as much as he was explaining it to Alex.
"Do you wish he stayed in the US?" Alex finally asked.
"Do you wish your Mum stayed in New York with you?" He answered.
Immediately, without thinking about the question, Alex shook her head.
"There's your answer then," Draco replied, "Besides, I don't even remember living there, we had moved here before I turned three."
"Oh," Alex replied, finally following him out of the library.
Together, without any insulting comments or snide remarks they carried the boxes down the stairs and intot he lounge, where Chelsea and Maddy wee running around screaming about the tree and their parents were magically putting the decorations on the tree.
"Hey," Draco protested as his father levitated a bauble onto a top branch, "It's no fun when you do it like that," and he grabbed one of his sisters and began to tickle her on the ground, as the other one began to sulk.
"Hey Maddy," Alex said picking up a star out of the box, "Can you help me put this on the tree," and she lifted the small girl onto her shoulders and pointed to a higher branch and she tried to put the decoration on.
"Okay, time for bed," Draco (snr.) said lifting the twins up in the air.
"Nooo," Maddy began to wail.
"Yeah, we want to see Santa, Daddy," Chelsea began to complain.
(A/N: ok I was pretty sure that you say Father Christmas in England, but here in good old Aust. We say what ever and Santa fit here)
"But, Santa will only come and leave present when little girls go to bed," Draco told them, leading them toward the door, "You want to get presents right?"
Chelsea looked at Maddy, neither of them spoke, until Chelsea nodded.
"Yes, we want presents, Daddy," Maddy finally said grabbing his hand and pulling him out the room.
Hermione tried not to giggle.
"I think I better go help him," Lydia said, leaving Blaise and Hermione by the Christmas tree together. Draco had disappeared straight after dinner, and Alex had left shortly after, something about sending an owl to Nicole.
Hermione watched as Blaise carefully placed another piece of wood in the fire, before he returned to the couch. She leaned against him, taking in his smell of Christmas cookies, mixed with the pizza, (Alex and Draco's idea of tea), in his clothes. Soon as they sat in comfortable silence, listening only to the cracking of the fire, the hours passed and it reached eleven-fifty-five.
"Blaise, I'm going to bed," She said quietly, pulling herself away from him, "knowing Alex she will probably be up before the twins tomorrow,"
"Hermione, wait," Blaise pulled her back on the couch, standing up himself. He moved over to a cabinet next to the Christmas tree, and Hermione watched, intrigued, as he rummaged around in the drawer.
The clock quietly chimed, signalling that it was midnight. Hermione stood up again.
"Merry Christmas Blaise," she said.
He turned around, giving her a nervous grin.
"Merry Christmas," he took her back and made her sit on the couch.
"Oh, come one Blaise, I'm tired, we have to be up early, can't we just go to bed," she pouted.
Blaise knelt in front of her.
"You can once I've given you your Christmas present," he reached into his pocket.
"Hermione, Ron, once gave this back to me, but now I'm returning it to it's rightful owner." He took her hand, and when she did not object he carefully took the ring out of his pocket, "I want you to wear it so that you have a reminder of how much I love you," he slid it on to her left ring finger, the finger that had worn this ring once before.
Hermione stared at the ring for a second, it had killed her giving this to Ron to give back to Blaise, somehow returning it made it officially over.
"Blaise, I think you can finish your tapestry soon," She smiled, but did not continue as their eyes met, carefully, he stood and took her hand, before leading her up the stairs to the master bedroom.
Surprisingly, none of the children (neither the twins or Draco or Alex) in the Zabini manor was awake before ten, the next morning, not even the twins.
Carefully pulling her slippers on her bare feet, Alex excitedly climbed out of her bed, preparing to wake up Draco who was undoubtly asleep. It was supposed to be her sweet revenge, but she figured it wasn't really revenge anymore since they had gotten along pretty well the day before.
Opening the her bedroom door, she came face to face with a wide awake Draco, who was wearing bright red flannelette pyjamas.
"You know red isn't really your colour," Alex remarked, as she side stepped him, and decided to wake her parents, silently praying that they would both be fully clothed. (Hey you never know, just cos I don't write that stuff into the story….okay I'm just weird)
"But before she had even put her hand on the door knob, the door opened, and both teenagers came face to face with Blaise.
"Good Morning, Alex," He said, kissing her gently on the cheek, "Merry Christmas Draco,"
"Is mum awake?" Alex asked, as he began to make his way downstairs.
"I believe, I'm down here Lex," Hermione's voice came from the bottom of the staircase, "Your father and I have been up for a while."
"Merry Christmas Professor Granger," Draco called out, leaning over the railing.
"Merry Christmas, ad Draco it's Hermione," came the reply. Alex too leant over the railing to see Draco's parents, her mother and now her father all standing in the foyer below, cups of coffee in their hands, pyjamas still on.
"It's Christmas and you didn't think to wake me?" Alex asked, her voice full of disgust.
"We thought we'd wait for the twins to wake up," Blaise replied, his hand sliding around Hermione's waist.
"They're still asleep?" Draco asked evilly, "Alex, come on, I never get to wake the twins up on Christmas."
Alex followed the boy into the room that was decorated pink, to see two small blonde lumps in each of the beds. Draco jumped on on and began to tickle her, while Alex gently sat on the edge of the bed.
"Chelsea," She said quietly and gently shook her shoulder, "Chelsea, time to wake up, it's Christmas time,"
with that, the girl immediately opened her eyes, just as Maddy began to squeal from Draco's tickling.
"Merry Christmas Chels," Alex said as the girl adjusted to waking up, Alex picked her up and followed Draco out of the room, who was being dragged downstairs by Maddy.
Finally the twins had given out and unwrapped every last present that was under the Christmas tree. Alex, who had seen her mother's engagement ring as soon as she got downstairs, had loved the present from her father and was planning to wear it to the potter's party.
The owls came shortly before they began to eat the traditional Christmas meal that Lydia had insisted on making.
First came Hedwig, the potter's snowy white owl, it carried a large lumpy package, and two cards, one which was dropped with the package at Hermione's feet, the other which was dropped into Draco's (snr.) hands.
The package contained three blue knitted jumpers, which Ginny had explained were from Mrs. Weasley, and they would be getting their presents from her and Harry when they saw them. Inside each envelope was a Christmas card and invitation to the potter's party, which surprised the Malfoy's a little, since while they didn't exactly hate each other anymore, Harry and draco weren't exactly friends.
Next came the familiar brown owl, which was sent from Logan and Georgie, it dropped a small package, which contained both photos from the school trip and a charm bracelet, which had enchanted charms on it.
The last owl, a midnight black one, flew to Draco (jnr.), which surprised him since Sam had gone overseas for Christmas. It was from Nicole, and contained two cards, one for himself and one for Alex, it explained that she hoped they were having a good Christmas and she would see them soon.
Finally between eating the turkey and the Christmas pudding, Alex realised that she had actually enjoyed Christmas, even spending it with the Malfoy's, since this was her family, her dad's family, which meant that it was her family too.
A/N: okay there's the chapter, I thought's I'd have it up sooner but being sick and with school starting again I didn't have the time and yes I know then ending is sort of crap (again) I guess I just find it hard to write good ending's and I don't like putting cliff-hangers since they annoy me when I read stories…please REVIEW!Hopefully I'll have a couple more chapters up during the week ends…
Luv emgurl