A/N Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you are all having a most wonderful Christmas day.

Four Calling Birds

After her Very Good Day, Hermione had slept really well and woke up feeling refreshed.

So why, she thought to herself, did she feel anxiety bubbling away in her stomach?

Oh yes, she remembered, today would be the first time Malfoy would see her office decorated in all its festive cheer.

She had realised in the summer that she had begun to think of him as her friend. Something her Hogwarts self would never have believed to be possible.

It had been during a joint venture of theirs, where they were working towards the free availability of Wolfsbane amongst the werewolf population.

It had finally been passed in the Wizengamot and without thinking she had said to Malfoy they should go out for a drink after work to celebrate.

He had looked at her slightly strangely before his features smoothed over and he had replied, "Well we certainly deserve it, see you after work Granger," and had promptly left her office.

Hermione had gone in a slight panic over the fact she had just asked Malfoy to go for a drink with her. She then reasoned with herself that she went for drinks with her friends all the time, which is when it hit her that she now considered Malfoy a friend.

Doing research for their Wolfsbane proposal had meant they'd spent quite a bit of time together. Always at the Ministry but often having a working lunch where they'd stop and eat, while putting a break on work discussion and just chatting about anything and everything.

It was through those working lunches that she had learnt that he hated mushrooms and always carried a handkerchief, monogrammed of course with his initials.

She had also learnt not to speak to him for at least five minutes after he had commenced eating as he liked to savour the initial moments of tucking into his food.

She had learnt that he too loved 'Hogwarts: A History' and even had a signed first edition copy which she coveted.

And she had learnt that she very much enjoyed spending time with Malfoy and that a very small part of her was disappointed when their proposal had finally been passed as it meant she wouldn't be spending as much time with him.

She really valued her friendship with Malfoy and so she was worried that the sight of her Christmassy office would cause him to revert back to the previous year of meanness and pettiness.

With all her trepidation beforehand it was rather anti-climatic when Malfoy simply sat down in her office and didn't even comment on her decorations at all. Not even on the oddness of her having a partridge in a pear tree in the corner of her room.

His lack of response flustered her slightly and she knew she was behaving very oddly.

"Are you ok Granger? Your hair is doing that thing where it looks like it's going to attack me."

Draco seemed to have a fixation on her hair and had decided that it was a clear indicator of her moods. He constantly teased her about it, which mostly she took in good form but with all his "bushy haired" insults he had rallied at her at school, she was sometimes a bit sensitive about it.

She glared at him in response to his remark.

They worked hard over the next hour, and so Hermione was finally able to check another item of her To Do List, which Draco watched her do with some amusement.

"Are you coming to The Leaky tomorrow for Theo's birthday drinks?" he asked her casually.

"Yes, but I still can't believe Theo would do something so mundane and plebeian as going for drinks for his birthday," Hermione had replied, smiling.

Going for a celebratory drink with Malfoy had turned into a regular occurrence and they'd began inviting their friends along too. She didn't think she'd said two words to Theo at school, he'd always appeared quite aloof.

But over drinks she had discovered that he had a cracking sense of humour, with a really dry wit that could have her in stitches. He was also the most over the top, snobbish person she had ever met, sneering at her for merely ordering the house red. Theo didn't believe in mediocrity, something she could relate to, but he applied this to life, in particularly in throwing the most elaborate themed parties.

Draco smiled back at Hermione's assessment, "Well the invitation did say to meet at The Leaky for drinks, but it never said we'd be staying there for the rest of the evening."

Hermione groaned, "I'm still finding glitter everywhere from the last party he threw. Thanks for the heads up, I'm going to bring an emergency bag with me to prepare for every eventuality."

"Till tomorrow night Granger," said Draco, giving her a mock salute as her left her office.

Hermione worked for a few more hours until she had another item ticked off her list.

As she was leaving her office, she noticed something shiny underneath her Christmas tree. Intrigued she went to have a look and saw that it was a beautifully wrapped small gold box with a delicate gold ribbon. There was no tag on it.

Opening it up carefully she gasped at what she saw. It was the most beautiful, delicate music box. When she opened the lid, four gold songbirds started to sing the tune to 'The Twelve Days of Christmas.' She knew instantly that it was something she would always treasure.

Four calling birds, of course, she thought to herself. This was definitely her favourite gift yet. Someone was clearly going to a lot of thought, so it didn't seem to just be a prank like she'd initially assumed.

Maybe it was Theo? He did like plotting intricate schemes and he did have rather good taste.

She was surprised she hadn't heard back yet from Harry about his investigations and determined to ask him about it later when he came to pick Ginny up for their date night.