Disclaimer: see prologue

Guide: "Speech", Thoughts, ~letters and other written things, "Parseltongue"

AN: I hope you all enjoy the nice spring weather. :) The sketch of Draco's promising ring still does not come out right. So it may be a while before I can post a passable sketch on my DeviantArt page.

-~-~- Altair -~-~-

-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-

-~-~- Chapter 39 – Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Part II-~-~-

26th December 1997, Burrow

If celebrating Christmas with the Malfoys can be compared with enjoying the sight of the falling snow as you are making snow angles, then Christmas with the Weasleys was like a full-out snowball fight.

And so after enjoying a relaxed, serene and calm Christmas Day with Draco and his parents, Harry had not even taken more than three step from the Floo when he was already enclosed by the loud chaos of the Burrow.

"If this isn't our long lost Harry," one of the twins said, placing his arm around Harry's shoulder.

"Your presence was sorely missed yesterday," Fred added, claiming Harry's other shoulder.

"And the day before," George continued, placing his body's weight on Harry.

"I didn't miss you at all," Harry answered in good humour, freeing his shoulders from their clutches.

"And it is obvious why," George commented, holding onto Harry's left hand, inspecting the promising ring.

"You finally made it official," Fred stated, making Harry smile like the soppy fool in love he was when he voiced his confirmation.

"The new, fitting clothes must have done the trick," George said to his brother.

"I think it has more to do with his enchanting green, and thanks to us, spectacles-free eyes," Fred voiced his opinion.

"Nah, it is definitely the clothes and the fit, Quidditch-honed body," George argued, both twins giving Harry's ass a slap.

"Hey," Harry complained, half-heartedly.

"You're both wrong," Luna's dreamy voice announced from the doorway. "It's the sex," she stated in a dry, matter-of-fact tone as she walked over to their little group.

"What about the good, old loving personality?" Harry asked.

"Good kisser," Fred answered.

"Common interest?" the brunet tried again.

"Sex," the twins and Luna answered in unison.

"I give up," Harry announced in resignation.

"Jokes aside," George said in a serious voice, "we're happy that you are happy with Malfoy."

"Yes," Fred agreed, patting Harry's shoulder.

"Speaking about Malfoy, what did his father say about our little gift?" George asked, leaning with his elbow on Harry's shoulder.

"Based on the hum that slipped through this morning, I would say that he liked it very much."

"That's good to hear," Fred said, turning to his brother he added, "Give it a week or two and he'll be ready to agree to our business proposal."

"By the way," Luna began, "I hope that you liked the underwear I gave you."

Harry choked on his own spit. He could not believe that Luna could ask such a question with a completely innocent smile on her face.

"What did I hear about underwear?" Ron asked as he and Hermione finally came down from Ron's room.

"Nothing you want to know about," Harry answered as he walked over to his two best friends, happy to finally get away from the twins, who were closely listening to everything Luna told them about the underwear she gave him.

As the three walked up the stairs, Harry heard the twins exclaim excitedly, "Draco Malfoy's Property!" and cringed. He feared that news of Luna's gift would make it to the dinning table.

~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-

One the three friends were sitting in Ron's room, Harry told them, "Draco and I are now a couple."

"Congratulations! It was about time that you two manned up and confessed," Hermione said.

"Yeah, took you two long enough to finally make it official," Ron said with a nudge of his shoulder.

Harry could not describe how happy their easy acceptance of his and Draco's relationship made him. "Thank you, guys."

The next three hours were spent with exchanging stories of their Christmas holidays, joking around or just enjoying the sandwiches Mrs Weasley had prepared for them. And while Harry greatly enjoyed the company of his best friends, he missed Draco.

I'm not even away from him for four hours and I already miss him, the brunet thought ruefully, unconsciously playing with his promising ring. Separating just two days after confessing their mutual love certainly wasn't a good idea.

"Harry, is this a promising ring you're wearing?" Hermione asked excitedly, bringing him back to the present.

Stopping his hand movement, he proudly told her that her assumption was correct and that it was Draco's promising ring. Somehow he'd forgotten to mention the ring when he informed them of his new relationship status.

"It's beautiful," Hermione exclaimed. "Did you also give him yours?" she asked.

"Yes," Harry answered. "We actually chose the same meaning for our rings," he elaborated with a dreamy smile, once again turning the ring on his finger. "Though I still do not know why the colour of the stone changed from red to green."

"He put a spell on it," was Ron's 'Duh, we're wizards' answer.

"Hmm," Hermione said deep in thoughts, "Do you know what kind of stone it is?"

"He said that it is an alexandrite," Harry answered while he looked at the currently green stone-eye of the dragon.

"Of course," she exclaimed. "Alexandrite is a stone whose colour changes depending on the type of light. In sunlight, it has a green colour, but in candle light it appears red. It has something to do with the stone absorping the yellow light, so only the green and red lights are reflected. Because candle light mainly consists of yellow and red light, the alexandrite appears red, whereas in daylight the green light is more intensive than the red part, so the stone looks green to us," Hermione tried to explain the physics behind the alexandrite effect to her friends.

"I do not understand what you're talking about, but let's not tell Dad about it, less he wants to know more about this fascinating Muggle stone," Ron stated decidedly. His friends nodding in agreement.

"So, what meaning did you choose?" Hermione asked.

"Ehm…" Harry began, not knowing how much he should say. His friends already knew about his relationship with the blond, having been one of the first thing he told them even thought they'd already suspected that he and Draco were a couple. However, Harry felt the desire to keep the nature of the promising ring a secret. In his eyes, the knowledge of the exact meaning of their promising ring was a private secret between the two of them. Something that made their self-enchanted promising rings even more special.

"It's not an engagement ring, is it?" Ron asked worried.

"No," he answered with a chuckle. "It is a ring of friendship and love," he finally said, feeling that saying this much would not weaken the value of their promising rings, especially since there were at least three dozen different possibilities for 'friendship and love' promising rings.

"What does your promising ring look like?" Ron asked.

After describing the design of his own promising ring to his friends' satisfaction, the topic changed to how Draco's parents had reacted to the news of he and Draco being together.

~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-

Dinner showed that Harry's earlier fear of Luna's present making the round was not unfounded.

"Oh, Harry, dear take a seat," Mrs Weasley said as she shoved the brunet to an empty chair. Once he had sat down she started to fill his plate with mashed potatoes, telling him, "I really cannot thank you enough for your Christmas present. I really love the Lachesis' knitting set, even if it is too much." By the end of her speech, Harry had a more than plentiful amount of mashed potatoes on his plate.

"You're welcome," Harry answered with a kind smile. "Though I have to admit that it was not completely selfless. I expect another sweater next Christmas," he added with a wink which made Mrs Weasley smile with happiness.

"Make it two," Fred barged in.

"Yes, Mum. You can't forget to make one for Draco too," George agreed.

"After exchanging promising rings they're as good as married now," Fred said. By the lack of the other's reaction to the twins' statements, it was clear to Harry that they already knew that he and Draco were now together.

"Or better yet, three," his twin added. "Mr Malfoy would surely look dashing in one of your sweaters." This made the whole table laugh. The image of the haughty Lucius Malfoy wearing one of Molly's sweaters was just too hilarious.

"And don't forget to attach a tag on Harry's next sweater that states 'Draco Malfoy's property'!"

"It will go along well with the new underwear he got," George finished.

"Yes, it really was a genial idea, Luna," Fred said to the blonde girl sitting next to him.

"I just bought them to stop the Nargles from steeling Harry's briefs," she explained to the room like is was a basic fact of life.

"I fear, my dear," Fred answered, "that it will not keep Malfoy from taking them off, though."

"The ass of his is too irresistible," George added.

"Can we not talk about Malfoy's ass during dinner?" Ron asked, already busy with eating the food on his plate.

"But Ronniekins," Fred butted in, "we're talking about Harry's ass, not Malfoy's. Though I have to admit that his ass is hot too."

"If you had listened to what we were saying instead of stuffing your mouth, you would have known this," George added.

"You're not talking about anyone's ass at my table," Mrs Weasley finally interfered. "And congratulation, Harry. It is not everyday that you receive a promising ring...And what a beautiful ring it is," she added after she took a closer look at the ring, while filling Harry's plate with a double portion of peas.

"Really, Mum," Bill spoke up in a teasing voice from next to Harry, "with how much you're putting on his plate, one would think that you believe that the Malfoys starved him." This again made the whole table chuckle and Harry was once again reminded why he loved the Weasley family. They really were a very special and loving family and Harry was ever so grateful that they saw him as one of their own, even though he now was also a part of the Malfoy family.

"Of course, I do not believe this, dear," Mrs Weasley said to Harry, her kind voice getting weaker with every word she spoke as she took a closer look at the food she piled on Harry's plate.

"What do you mean by promising ring?" Fleur asked. "Is it another name for engagement ring?"

"Sorry, I forgot that you do not have such rings in France," Bill said, apologeticly. "The British promising ring is a variation of the Irish Claddagh ring, whose meaning depends on the enchantment. While it can function as a promising ring, it mostly stands for love, loyalty, protection, friendship or a mix of the four."

"What meaning did you choose?" Fleur asked Harry.

"Friendship and love," he answered. "Which reminds me, can you tell me what the inscription means? I believe it's French," Harry asked her, taking the ring of so that Fleur could take a look at the inscription.

"À toi, pour toujours," she read out loud. "It means 'forever yours'" she informed him. She admired the ring for some more moments before she gave it back to him. "I still like my ring better," she loudly whispered to her husband, giving him a kiss.

"I'm sure you'll change your mind once we tell you how promising rings are enchanted," Fred said provocatively.

"We'll even help you to enchant your wedding ring," George offered with a grin.

"Trust us, you won't regret it," Fred added, leaning forward in his seat to get closer to her.

"You won't enchant anything with my wife," Bill told them sternly.

After making a sad face, the twins turned to each other and said together, "Hermione." Their voice being somewhere in between flirty, excited and the typical 'of course'-tone.

"Don't even start," Hermione told them, laughing.

"Now your hurting us," George said.

"And it's Christmas. You're supposed to be all friendly and nice, you know?" his twin added.

"Besides, we are sure that there are some things that can only be performed with twins," they said in unison.

Now we got her, the twins thought when they saw how Hermione's eyes lit up with a mix excitement and curiosity. That Hermione did not answer did not worry them. Rather they interpreted her silence as 'I'll come back to your offer soon.'

This were the last words that were spoken during dinner that were in any way related to Sexual Magic, not that they would have been able to go into detail with a still underaged Ginny at the table. The rest of the dinner was spent with Hermione, Luna and Fleur telling the others how Christmas was celebrated in their homes.

~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-

"Next year, I'll ask Fleur to bring a bûche de Noël," Ron said as he and Harry got ready for bed. Now, where most of Ron's brothers had returned to their own homes again, the so lively Burrow felt empty.

"Or you could have gone back to France with them," Harry added, not surprised that his best friend was thinking about food.

"Last time I checked, you—and not I—are a favourite of the Delacour family, Oh-great-saviour-of-Gabriel," Ron teased his friend with a mocking bow.

"And here I thought you just feared to make an utter fool out of yourself in front of Fleur's beautiful Veela relatives."

"That too," Ron said as he turned away from his friend as he got comfortable in his bed.

In the meantime, Harry was studying the vial of Sleeping Draught in his hand. He could still feel the warmth in his heart that he felt when Draco had given him the satin bag with the two vials of Sleeping Draught inside it.

"Since you can't sleep without your pillow anymore, I thought that I would help you out," Draco had told him when he handed over the bag.

"Thank you," Harry said, grateful, and still hardly able to believe at the same time, that such a caring and thoughtful person was returning his love. "You really are the best boyfriend a boy can wish for."

"My pleasure. Though, I have to warn you that you can't take them for more than five days in a row, less you get addicted to the potion. So no staying away from me for more than a week."

"I wouldn't even think of it, my Draco pillow," Harry whispered before he leaned in to give the blond a kiss.

"I love you too," Draco answered once they separated. "But please refrain from calling me that in public."

"Okay," Harry agreed, than smiling mischievously he added, "I'll only call you my Draco pillow when we're out of the public eye, like at the breakfast table. I'm sure your parents won't mind the nickname."

"Harry," Draco blustered, even though he was fairly sure that the brunet would not dare to say such a thing in his parents' presence.

"Though I can't decide if I should call you Puffskein or Snuggle Bug in public," Harry spoke on.

"Depends if you want me to call you Wonder Boy or Doodle Bug in return," Draco answered. "Though I would prefer the good old Harry and Draco."

"Mr Perfect and Love of my life also sound good to me," Harry countered.

"If you would care to speak English, I could give you my thoughts on them."

"Maybe an other day, my beloved," Harry whispered in Draco's ear, making them both smile.

"Now this is something I can agree on, my love."

To the wonderful Draco, Harry toasted as he swallowed his vial of Sleeping Draught, sure that tonight's dreams would be dominated by Draco.

~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-

28th December 1997, Burrow

"Bye, Hermione," Harry said when it was their time to leave the Burrow two days later.

"Until New Year Eve, Harry," she answered, hugging the brunet.

"Why again are you going to Zabini?" Ron asked.

"Because we have a homework assignment to complete and because I promised to be his date for the annual Malfoy New Year's Eve party," she explained before she grabbed a handful of Floo poweder and spoke clearly, "Zabini Residence," Flooing to Blaise to complete their 'homework'.

"I can't believe that after only three months I now imagine a bed with lot's of pillows instead of a table full of books when she says 'homework'," Ron said to Harry. "Where has the old, innocent Hermione gone?"

"She became an attractive woman, Ronniekins," the twins answered.

"So Harry, do you also have some 'homework assignments' to complete?" the Fred asked and both twins raised their eyebrows in question.

"No," Harry answered but after a pause added with agroan, "except for Snape's dammed essay."

"I'm sure that Malfoy will write it for you if you give him the right initiative," George said.

"Yeah, I'm sure he cannot say 'No' to your pretty ass, Harry," Fred added.

"Argh, can we not talk about it while I'm standing next to you," Ron snapped, making the other three boys laugh.

"Poor Ronniekins, he is not grown up enough to listen to adult's talks," Fred said.

"I'm sure we can find some leftovers of the Ageing potion we brewed for the Tri-wizard tournament for you," George said.

"No thanks."

"See you in the new year," Harry said to the Weasley brothers, still laughing, before he Flooed back to Malfoy manor where Draco was already impatiently awaiting the return of his 'Harry blanket'.

~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-

Next: The Malfoy New Year Party, after which approximately only the last 1/3 of the story is left. Updated around June/July, as I have to finish the final chapter of the first arc of my other story Verbuar first.