Disclaimer: I have taken a tally on what all I actually own (what I have bought with my own money). This would be a bunch of pictures I had developed, 1 shoe (I lost its match) and a bunch of Harry Potter posters. While you might be interested in the posters, the pictures and shoe will have no value to you, so there is no use in suing me. And, I think JK Rowling has more than that… I, for instance, do not own a mansion. She does.

AN: LOL. I got Writer's Block on the first scene, so I just wrote little bits of scenes when something came to me, then put it in an order that made sense. I hope it makes sense to you guys too!!

AN2: In the next two chapters, you'll find that the presents are the same (mostly) as what is mentioned in the 5th book. I figured that it'd be a little more real and easier than having to spend 20 minutes thinking up a strange word to use.


It was Christmas Eve and after an agonizingly long breakfast, Draco and Hermione bundled up and went outside to watch the progress of the snow that had begun earlier that morning.

Draco led her up a rather steep hill to where there was a pile of large rocks. They sat on a flat boulder low to the ground, huddled together to keep warm.

"It's beautiful…" Hermione whispered, admiring the view of Malfoy Manor and the sprawling property that came with it.

"I've always loved my family's house," Draco told her with a reminiscent smile. "I used to play hide and seek in all the little rooms up in the attic when Vince and Greg came over with their dads. I thought I'd stop enjoying it when I came back this Christmas, but I was wrong."

Hermione smiled at his childish adoration for the place he grew up.

"Did you know that Malfoy Manor, minus my father's wing, was actually built by the only Malfoy to not be a supporter of evil, and with legitimate money?" He seemed proud of this fact.

Hermione smiled, but didn't say anything, content to listen to her boyfriend's happy ramblings.

"You would have gotten along with Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather Hephaestus. He didn't keep any House Elves, and was very well known for helping get equality for different species." Draco paused and added, "He was mostly left out of any books on Malfoy family history. The only reason he's in any at all is for building Malfoy Manor."

"I wonder if you'll still be in those books," Hermione teased. Draco grinned. "Who cares? Besides, if they take me out, there won't be any more Malfoys. Father's only brother was disowned ages ago."

"What about your mother's side of the family?"

Draco chuckled. "Father only married mother because she had the Black family name, but he hates the Blacks. He'd rather have the Manor become abandoned than give it to the Blacks, not that there are many left who aren't imprisoned."

"Oh, yes… I had read somewhere that the two families were related. I wasn't going to tell Harry, though. He would definitely not be happy about that."

"It's not exactly the same as blood relation, but I didn't really care for it either when I found out a few years ago. It didn't help that everyone thought Sirius Black was a murderer. Everyone associated with the Dark Lord knew the truth."

Hermione's face turned into a wry smile. "It's weird hearing you talk about what you were like before. It's even worse thinking about how much I hated you back then."

Draco laughed. "Yeah. I'm not proud of it, but I sure was an asshole…"

"Was?" Hermione replied teasingly.

Draco glared at her. Before Hermione knew what was happening, she had a snowball hitting her side. She whipped around to see Draco running away from her with a devious grin on her face.

Hermione immediately stood up and scooped up some snow with revenge in mind. She formed the snowball in her hands while she ran towards the small group of trees behind the rocks they had been sitting on.

She watched as Draco stopped running, then turned around to see where she had gone.

She held back her laughs as Draco walked around the pile of rocks a couple of times. He then looked up at the trees and she saw the realization in his eyes as he started walking towards them.

Hermione watched as he came closer to her hiding spot. She waited until he was only a step away from her and then stepped out from behind the tree, snowball in hand.

"HA!" she screamed triumphantly as she thrust the snowball into his face.

"Holy sh-…"

Hermione laughed as she turned and fled to hide safely behind some of the rocks.

"Hermione! You little witch!"

She stopped and turned around with a smile as Draco appeared to give up.

"That's quite a complement from you," she teased as she sat next to him, back where they had been sitting in the first place.

Draco gave her a half-hearted glare. "I already admitted to being an asshole. What else do you want?" He paused. "Wait. Don't answer that."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You are such a per--" She didn't get to finish her sentence as Draco decided that it was a nice time to tackle her off of the rock.

"Draco! You are an asshole!" she screamed as she rolled down the hill while Draco was lying on his back at the top of the hill, gasping with laughter.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

"I'm taking Sera outside for a bit. Anyone wanna come?" Sissy called up the stairs. She stepped aside as the stampede thundered down the stairs, grabbing gloves and coats as they reached the bottom.

"Can we go over to Derek's house, mom? Please?" Sebastien asked pleadingly as soon as he had his coat zipped up.

"I don't know. Can you?" Sissy replied as she supervised Sera putting her mittens on. Sebastien sighed and Severino continued for him. "May we go to Derek's house please?"

"You may go over and ask if he's allowed to come outside and play. But don't go inside. I don't want you bugging Mrs. Finley."

The two boys grinned and opened the door to leave as soon as they were bundled up.

"Wait, boys! Come here for a second!"

The two boys turned around and looked at her solemnly, as though they knew they were going to be told rules that they wanted to break. "You two had better be good. We live in a Muggle community and if I get another letter from the Ministry of Magic, you won't be allowed to see the light of day until you start school." Sebastien elbowed Severino mockingly while their mother spoke to them, as he was older and would be able to "see the light of day" sooner than his younger brother would. The two boys then looked up and nodded solemnly at their mother and sped out the door.

Shaylee tugged her hat over her head and as she was pulling on her coat, she looked around. "Where's Sevvy?" she asked Cecelia.

"I'm right here," Severus answered, coming out of the kitchen with something in his mouth. Sissy looked up and glared at him. "Severus Snape, that had better not be what I think it is."

Severus ignored her and turned around to put his own black coat on. "Severus! No more! Those cookies are for the neighbors!"

Shaylee tried, but she couldn't hold back the mocking grin. "Aw… Does Little Sevvy have a sweet tooth?"

Severus glared right back at her.

"Unkie Sevwus?"

Severus turned his glare into a grin as he looked at his niece.

"Mbake an angel wit mbe?"

"Sure, Sera." Severus took her by the hand and went outside with her, sending a warning glare at Shaylee on the way.

Shaylee shook her head. Did he really think she would tell anyone at Hogwarts? She rather liked this side of him, but she knew he loved his reputation for being evil too much to destroy that.

… Besides, blackmail was too valuable to get rid of without using it.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

"Watch out!" Ginny screamed, laughing, at Harry.

Too late. He had been pelted by a dozen bewitched snowballs sent by the twins.

As soon as Harry recovered, he turned around and glared at them. "If I was allowed to use my wand…" "We wouldn't have provoked you, of course!" Fred chipped in with a grin.

His twin pulled him back as a handmade snowball thrown by Harry whizzed right past his head.

"Code Periwinkle! I repeat: Code Periwinkle!" George jokingly screamed as he jumped behind a large pile of snow.

"Cheaters…" Ron muttered as he quickly began stacking up snow for their own wall of defense.

"Harry, you help Ron with the fort and I'll get the twins," Ginny ordered bravely. A small blush entered Harry's cheeks as his eyes met Ginny's. He thought briefly again of his need to have the conversation with Ginny, but she turned away before he could say anything and he quickly turned to oblige.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"What are you showing me?"

"I'm not telling, no matter how many times you ask," Draco answered Hermione's question with a grin.

It was now about 9:30 at night and Draco was leading Hermione somewhere in the Manor for a "surprise".

They were at the main entrance and Draco turned left instead of going on outside. They were now in a hallway with a single pair of huge doors at the end.

"We're almost there," Draco told her as they got closer to the door.

They stopped as they reached the door. "Presenting," Draco said as he put his hands on each door handle, "the 1995 Malfoy family Christmas tree…"

"Oh…" Hermione barely had time to say before the doors opened, revealing a gigantic Christmas tree in the middle of a huge room.

The tree was just as amazing as any in Hogwarts, possibly even better. It was decorated with real faerie lights of different colors, as well as glowing and sparkling ornaments in varied sizes and shapes. The shape of the tree was perfect and a soft evergreen smell was floating through the room.

"Wow…" Hermione stepped in the room and looked around at the other decorations. There was holly draped on the walls throughout the whole room, with poinsettias and mistletoe placed in random spots.

Draco watched her with a grin, then stepped forward so that he was next to her.

"Beautiful, isn't it? Father allows us to decorate the Ballroom for Christmas, so long as he doesn't have to see it." He laughed at this, but Hermione turned towards him, puzzled.

"So where do you unwrap presents?"

"The House Elves sort them out and put them in our rooms. I'm really the only one who gets anything. Well, Mother and Father might get each other something. I don't really know…"

Hermione still looked a little puzzled. "So, you celebrate Christmas morning alone?"

Draco nodded and shrugged. "Well, until breakfast, anyway."

"There's a formal breakfast on Christmas morning?" Hermione asked incredulously, thinking of the stiff, boring meals she had experienced so far at Malfoy Manor.

She shook her head and started again before Draco could answer her. "So what's this room decorated for then?"

"To impress any guests," Draco admitted with a grin.

Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "Well, I'm impressed. You've done your job, room," she said to the walls.

Draco cleared his throat and when Hermione looked back at him, he was wearing a look that said he thought she was insane. "If you would like, we could spend Christmas morning in here. Well, as long as you talk to me and not the decorations…"

Hermione glared at him for a short moment, then smiled. "That would be much better."

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

"To the right… Your other right, eejit!" Shaylee said, "helping" Severus situate the tree in the Living Room.

"I know that, Fairy Princess," Severus retorted. "If it goes any farther to the right, it's going to be sitting on top of me."

"Then move! It's not that hard!"

"If I move, I'll have to let go. And I don't exactly think we want a tree lying in the middle of the floor."

"In all your years as a Potions Master, have you forgotten how to use your wand?"

Severus was silent for a moment, and Shaylee grinned, knowing that she had won.

"You are really aggravating, you know that?" Severus said, coming out from behind the tree with pine needles in his hair as the tree stood still.

Shaylee giggled at this picture. "Thanks."

Severus glared at her and brushed most of the needles out of his hair before he took the tree again and moved it closer to the wall.

"Perfect," Sissy said from the doorway.

She walked in holding a box and set it down on the coffee table.

"I told Sera that the sooner she fell asleep, the sooner Saint Nicholas would come, so she's out like a light."

Severus smiled at this as he sat on the couch by Shaylee and opened the box, revealing stacks of ornaments, both hand-made and antique glass ones.

"I'll put the lights on," Cecelia said as Severus pulled out random ornaments and started looking at them.

"Why did you get all of Mother's decorations?" he asked as Cecelia levitated the lights around the Christmas tree.

She looked at him briefly with her eyebrows raised. "Cause I was her daughter…"

"Well, I was the oldest."

"Hey, you got the house. Don't complain." Sissy finished with the lights, the Muggle kind, and started putting garland on as Severus kept looking through the ornaments.

"You have a house?" Shaylee asked Severus, thoroughly surprised. She had thought him more of the one bedroom apartment kind of guy.

"Yeah. A blue farmhouse with a red barn and a white picket fence."

For a moment, Shaylee thought he was joking. After he didn't add anything, however, she saw he was serious. "Wow. I see why you don't live there. Um… I don't think…"

Severus laughed. "No, I don't live there. I check on it occasionally, but 'Little Miss Cecelia' won't let me sell it." He glared at his sister, but Shaylee could tell that he didn't hold this against her.

"I bet if you painted it black, you'd like it," Shaylee teased.

"No, I'm fine with the house. It's the stupid picket fence…"

"Why don't you take the fence down then?"

Severus was silent, but Cecelia answered for him as she came over and helped empty the box.

"Sev was a Momma's Boy." That earned her a glare.

Shaylee listened with a grin.

"He was the most protective son a Mother could hope for. A real chivalrous type." Cecilia leaned down and kissed the top of his head. "But that's perfectly OK. Mammy loved that."

Shaylee smiled over at Severus, but he was separating the glass ornaments from the handmade ones and wasn't looking up.

"Boys! Bring the cookies in here and you can help with your ornaments."

Bastien and 'Rino walked in from the kitchen, carrying a plate with cookies on it. They immediately handed it to Severus, which ruined the serious moment and made Shaylee crack up and the teasing began again.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Ron and Harry were sitting in Ron's room, wrapping presents in the paper that Mrs. Weasley had provided for them for that purpose.

"What'd you get for Hermione, Harry?" Ron asked as he wrestled with a bit of twine he was using to tie the wrapping on the twins' presents.

"A book," Harry answered shortly. "Couldn't think of anything else."

Ron snickered at this, then stopped as he appeared to be in thought.

"So, if you got Hermione a book, what were you doing in that girly store when we went shopping the other day?"

Harry's face turned pink, but he hid it by pretending to concentrate on tying the string around New Theory of Numerology. "Browsing…" he answered in as innocent of a voice he could muster.

"Right," Ron said, grinning at Harry. "It's for Ginny, isn't it mate?"

"Not telling," Harry answered simply, turning to grab another present to wrap.

"Aw, come on! It's not like it's a secret anymore! It's just my sister, not You-Know-Who's daughter or anything… Not that any girl'd shack up with him long enough to have a kid…"

"Ron! That's just wrong!" Harry glared at him.

"Well?" Ron responded with a laugh. "Tell me, then."

Harry just shook his head and Ron made a pouty face. "I wanna know…" He paused as Harry glared at him again. "Pwetty pwease?"

Harry couldn't hold a serious face for long with Ron looking at him like that, so he gave up. "Fine, I'll tell you if you just stop it with the stupid face."

The pout immediately flew off of Ron's face and was replaced by a triumphant grin. "Now where were we?"

"You were ruining my life," Harry answered finishing with Sirius' present and setting it aside.

"It's just a present. I won't tell her! I just want a hint…"

"Guess. There's a hint," Harry said darkly.

Ron laughed. "Come on! I'm not mad because you like her…. Does it really matter what you got her for Christmas?"

Harry narrowed his eyes at Ron. "To me it does…"

"Aw, come on Harry, it's a girl. It's not like you guys are even dating yet!" Ron stopped and Harry could almost see the lightbulb appear over his friend's head.

Harry was bracing himself for the worst when Ron had the exact opposite reaction from what he had been expecting; Ron started laughing.

"You're--" He had to gasp for air, he was laughing so hard. "You're gonna ask my baby sister out!" he howled.

Harry didn't see what was so funny. "Um… Yeah…" He watched Ron laugh more before he started again. "Ron? Are you OK?"

Ron was lying on his bed, holding his stomach, still laughing. "You thought I'd be mad?" He erupted into even more laughter.

"I'm starting to think you are, but in a different sense," Harry responded, though the giddiness was starting to spread itself to him also, and a smile was quickly growing on his face.

The loud laughs were lowering down to brief chuckles and Ron told him, "Harry, I've been wanting you to get together with Ginny all along. You're the only guy I trust with her. I meant what I said on the train, even if you weren't listening; I'm perfectly fine with you two, as long as you obey the 'Protective Brother Speech'."

"Great," Harry said with a sarcastic grin. "I can have the girl, but I can't do anything…"

Ron's laughter stopped immediately and he glared up at Harry. "That's not funny."

Harry's smile shrunk and he opened his mouth to apologize, but Ron grinned. "Wait… Yes it is!" With that said, he started laughing again, Harry smiling warily along with him.

"You're such a git, Ron." Harry picked up a pillow sitting beside him and threw it towards Ron, pushing him back from his spot on the bed and causing him to teeter precariously on the side of the bed.

"Boys," Mrs. Weasley called from downstairs. "What in the world are you doing up there?"

Thunk

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Heehee. Everytime I wrote the word 'laugh' I started cracking up… Yeah, it took me a while to write the last scene.

Well, anywho, I hope you enjoyed it. I'm going to Kentucky again for the Summer, but I'm bringing my fic with me and I have the next two chapters outlined exactly what's gonna be in them, so I'll try to get it up ASAP. I definitely want Troubled Waters finished before school starts. Well, I'll try as hard as I can! I'll even go work on it now, since I have nothing else to do. R/R!!!