Part Three
Hermione awoke to the squeaking mattress and her insides being jogged up and down. "Wake up, wake up!" cried a tiny voice.
Hermione groaned in plea for more sleep.
"Mummy, daddy, wake UP!" protested a high-pitched voice.
"Yeah, c'mon wake up!" chimed in another small voice. "It's CHRISTMAS! We want to open PRESENTS!"
"Go downstairs and sort out the gifts. We'll be down in a few minutes," said Hermione, her face buried in the comfort of her pillow.
After the kids had skipped and jumped their joyous way from the room, Hermione rolled over. She opened her eyes to the silver eyes of her husband. "Are you ready for a lovely Christmas?" she asked with a small sarcastic smile.
"Remind me again why we had kids," said Draco, rolling out of bed. He crossed the room to their dresser, opening the bottom drawer.
Hermione crept from the bed as well. She walked over to Draco and wrapped her arms around his waist, kissing his shoulder blade. "You know you love Christmas with the kids."
"Why do they have to wake us up so bloody early?" Draco moaned. "It's four in the morning for Merlin's sake."
Hermione kissed his shoulder blade again before letting him put on some pajama pants and going to the bathroom to get ready herself. She brushed her teeth, her hair and used the loo and headed down the stairs. "Hurry up, Draco!" she called as she reached the bottom of the staircase. She walked through the entryway and into the living room, where her children were waiting, squirming with impatience, in front of the brightly lit Christmas tree.
"Where's Daddy?" asked four-year-old Solstice excitedly.
"He'll be down in a minute, sweetie," said Hermione. "I'm going to go make some coffee." Hermione passed through the living room and dining room into the kitchen.
"DADDY!" six-year-old Gemma shouted at the ceiling. "I WANNA OPEN PRESENTS!"
"Gemma, don't yell at your father!" Hermione called from the kitchen. She turned on the coffeemaker before going back into the living room. Draco came down the stairs a moment later in green pajama pants, his hair disheveled.
"Yay, Daddy's here!" cried Solstice. "We can open our presents! Sit down Daddy!"
"Coffee," was all that Draco mumbled, walking past his daughters and going into the kitchen. He returned a few moments later with two mugs of coffee. He sat down next to Hermione on the floor, leaning against the couch.
"Alright, Solstice, you open your first gift," said Hermione. She took a sip of her coffee.
It was a family tradition that they watched each other open gifts by taking turns opening them. They went from the youngest to the oldest, generally.
Solstice grabbed a package from the huge pile under the Christmas tree and tore it open as fast as her little fingers would allow. Draco draped his arm across his wife's shoulders.
Solstice squeaked with delight as she held a new doll in her hand. The floor around her was strewn with wrapping paper.
"My turn, my turn!" Gemma shrieked, attacking one of the packages. Hermione took another drink of her coffee as she watched her daughter's delight as she unwrapped a broomstick that hovered a few feet above the ground. Hermione had never been fond of flying, but it seemed that Gemma had inherited Draco's love for Quidditch.
"Cool!" exclaimed Gemma, hoping on it at once. She flew in a circle, almost hitting her sister in the face with the broom handle.
"Hey!" Solstice shrieked indignantly.
"Girls," said Draco warningly. Gemma got off of her broomstick with a slight scowl, matching the ones Draco used to give Hermione.
Hermione smiled lovingly at her daughter. Gemma had Hermione's bushy brown hair, chin and build and Draco's molten silver eyes and nose. She had Draco's love for Quidditch and biting comments and Hermione's love for learning.
Solstice, on the other hand had Draco's bleach-blonde hair and his silver eyes. She had learned to read at age two and had Hermione's passion for reading anything that she could get her hands on.
"It's Daddy's turn!" said Solstice, bouncing in the spot she was sitting.
"Yeah, youngin', it's your turn," Hermione joked.
The four continued on their gifts, the living room quickly becoming a sea of wrapping paper. It seemed to Hermione that Draco was having some trouble staying awake. His head kept tilting backwards to rest on the couch. He had always had problems with waking up early in the morning.
When the monstrous gift piles were demolished and the children were occupied with their gifts, Draco said, "I'll be right back," and went upstairs to retrieve something. Hermione went into the kitchen and got another cup of coffee. When she returned to the living room Draco had reentered and was sitting on the couch.
He waved an envelope at Hermione as she took a seat next to him. Surprised at this, she took the envelope and slit open the top. She pulled out a piece of paper. Puzzled, she unfolded the paper and read.
Her mouth dropped open and she looked up at Draco before proceeding to let out a shriek of excitement, very similar to the kind her girls had been emitting earlier.
Both Solstice and Gemma turned befuddled heads from their gifts to their mother, who had their father in a tight hug.
Hermione squealed again and pulled away from Draco, only to give him a firm kiss on the lips. "Ew! Mommy!" cried Solstice.
Hermione pulled out of the kiss before she and Draco could get too involved and beamed at him. "Draco, this is a confirmation of a hotel reservation in Italy," she said.
"Yes, that is what it is, Hermione," said Draco, a smile creeping onto his face.
"This means we're taking a vacation!" said Hermione louder. "Next week! By ourselves!" She hugged him again. "You are wonderful."
"I know," said Draco. Then, the doorbell rang.
Hermione extracted herself from Draco and headed into the entrance hall to answer the door in her nightgown. Ron, his wife Kelly and their son Warren were there, along with Ginny, Harry and their children James, Ivy and Zane.
Hermione figured that she should have put some clothes on.
The kids stormed into the house, dashing past Hermione, while the adults shared greetings and hugs. Draco made his way into the entrance hall. "I'm going to go put some clothes on," said Hermione. "Draco, do you want to lead everyone into the sitting room?"
Hermione ran up the stairs and into her room, quickly changing into a pair of jeans and a red sweater. She went back downstairs, checking to make sure that the kids were fine playing with toys in the living room before going to the sitting room.
Draco had retrieved a bottle of champagne from the wine cellar and was now pouring generous glasses of it. Hermione took a seat on the loveseat, next to Ginny. "Draco," she said, "why are you starting the alcohol at six thirty in the morning? You're going to be pissed by eight."
Draco raised an eyebrow at Hermione and handed her a glass. The six of them toasted before beginning their drinks. Ginny turned to Hermione on the loveseat. "How've you been? I haven't seen you in ages!" she said.
"I've been really good," said Hermione. "I'll be especially good next week, when Draco and I go on vacation to Italy."
"Oh Hermione, that's wonderful!" Ginny said. "Was that your Christmas present?"
"Yeah, I was really surprised. But now I'm really excited. I feel a little bad leaving the kids for five days, but at the same time I'm ready to get rid of them. I hope that doesn't sound awful," Hermione grimaced.
"Of course it's not awful!" said Ginny. "Do you have anywhere for Solstice and Gemma to stay while you're gone?"
Hermione hadn't thought of that. "Oh. No, I don't think we do," she said, eyebrows knitted together. "Hey Draco," she called across the room. He put his conversation with Harry, Ron and Kelly on hold and turned to look at his wife. "Is someone looking after the kids next week?"
"Harry said he and Ginny could take them," replied Draco,
"Really Harry," said Ginny. Harry suddenly looked guilty. "Were you ever going to reveal this information to your wife?"
"Er…yes," said Harry. "It just slipped my mind."
Ginny rolled her eyes at him. "Well, I guess we're looking after your kids, then, Hermione."
"Thanks in advance, Gin," chuckled Hermione.
"Speaking of the children, why don't we let them open their gifts from us," said Harry. "I'm sure they'd love more presents."
The group migrated into the living room, where the children were taking turns on Gemma's new broomstick.
"Presents!" Ginny exclaimed, waving bags of packages she and Harry had brought with them. Ron had a few bags as well for the kids.
The children all got excited again, crying, "Uncle Harry!" "Aunt Kelly! Uncle Ron!" "Aunt Ginny!" "Aunt Hermione!" "Uncle Draco!"
More gifts were passed around, seats were taken among wrapping paper piles and children and adults alike unwrapped gifts.
Then Hermione, Ginny, and Kelly headed into the kitchen to get started on Christmas dinner. Hermione had absolutely no skill with cooking at all, but she enjoyed spending time with Ginny and Kelly and pretending to do something productive. She had no idea what the boys talked about, gathered in the den, and she wasn't sure that she wanted to know.
"I'm jealous of you, Hermione," said Kelly as she made her wand chop some broccoli. "Ron and I haven't gotten away since the kids were born, and I could really use some time off. "
"Yes, I'm very happy that Draco is doing this. It has been six long years," said Hermione.
"It's so hard to have sex with little children in the next room," added Ginny snappishly, putting the pork chops into the oven. She looked around the kitchen. "Where's the Christmas pudding?"
"I put it in the pantry," said Hermione.
"Okay, just as long as didn't loose it or anything. You know what we should do? The three of us should go on a vacation. I think the boys could handle the kids for a few days."
Kelly laughed. "I don't know if that's such a good idea, Gin. I'm afraid to leave Ron with the kids for a couple hours, let alone a few days. He might corrupt them with ideas that lying around and eating chocolate all day are good things to do."
Ginny and Hermione laughed and that's when the doorbell rang again.
Soon the house was full of guests: old friends and new, parents and siblings, spouses and children. Hermione and Draco lived in a wealthy part of wizarding London, and their house could comfortably fit hundreds of people.
Hermione, Ginny, Kelly, Draco, Harry and Ron raced around the house making sure people had food and drink. There was no table big enough for a formal sit-down dinner, so buffet tables were lined up in the dining room and laden with all sorts of food. Kisses were exchanged under floating mistletoe around the house and laughs were raised from various conversations. Music was filling the ballroom and a handful of people were dancing in there.
In the den, Hermione was engaged in a conversation with Luna Lovegood about the supposed creatures Luna was putting in her newspaper, The Quibbler, when one of Hermione's co-workers from the Department of the Mistreatment of Magical Creatures, Jim, came up to them.
"Excuse me," he said politely. Hermione stopped talking and both she and Luna looked at Jim. "Hello, Hermione," he greeted Hermione, and to Luna, he said, "Hello, I'm Jim." He offered his hand to her. Luna shook it, somewhat hesitantly.
"Luna," she ventured.
"Would you like to dance?" Jim asked her.
Luna glanced at Hermione quizzically. Hermione smiled. "Go ahead, Luna, we can continue this conversation later."
And Luna, with a dreamy smile on her face, let Jim lead her away. As soon as Luna had left, black-clad arms wrapped themselves around Hermione from behind. Hermione leaned back into Draco. "I'm tired already," she said, and he kissed the top of her head.
"You've done a wonderful job," he complimented.
"I hope everyone's enjoying themselves," Hermione said, glancing around the room at the groups of people.
"Hermione, stop fretting, you do this every year. You make the party and the guests make the fun."
"I know, I know, but I'm allowed to worry, aren't I? It's not against the law."
"You're supposed to have fun yourself, love," said Draco. "It's Christmas."
"I think I'll have more fun next week," said Hermione, lowering her voice and tilting her head back to look at her husband.
Draco raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure we will," he said. He leaned his head down and kissed her, upside down. "I am definitely looking forward to it."