Monday, December 24, 2001
"I don't know why you won't just come for dinner at least."
"I've told you, Harry. It's still too soon."
"But I thought it was a mutual decision?"
Hermione sighed and ran a hand through her hair, detangling her curls after the damage the wind had done to them that morning. She wasn't sure why she'd decided to walk to work that morning rather than apparate or use the floo, but she had. It had been nice to have the time to herself to think. She'd known Harry was going to start this again first thing this morning and she suspected his fiance probably had a hand in it as well.
The halls were mostly empty as they stepped off the lift and onto the floor of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Christmas Eve wasn't a mandatory work day, but Hermione didn't have anywhere else to be and it seemed a shame to let her work get backed up.
"I just don't anyone getting the wrong idea and thinking we're going to get back together."
"I...ah…" Harry hesitated, "actually, I think Ron is already sort of seeing someone."
"And he's well within his rights to do so," Hermione said, unphased by the news that he'd moved on within a month of the decision to end their relationship after two and a half years of officially being together. They'd both known it wasn't working for the better part of the last year. "But that's all the more reason I shouldn't come to Christmas at the Burrow this year."
Harry frowned, but he knew he wasn't going to get any further with this. Hermione was stubborn and once her mind was made up, he knew that was that. "I just don't like the idea of you sitting at home alone on Christmas."
"I'll be fine, Harry. I've got plenty to keep me occupied. I'll probably bring some files home to get ahead on reading them for next week's meetings and maybe read some books of my own."
"Will you at least come over tonight for Christmas Eve dinner with Ginny and I?"
Hermione smiled. "Of course, Harry."
She bid him farewell as their paths diverged and each made their way to their own office. She'd already opened the door to her own office when she realized something wasn't right…
There were rustling sounds from within, though the lights were off. A quick nonverbal spell and the room was bathed in light. At the center, perched atop her desk and chewing on one of the quills she'd gotten the year before sat the culprit: a small kitten with fur as white as snow and a green bow around its neck.
Crinkling her brow in confusion, Hermione made her way closer as the kitten mewled and looked up at her with wide green eyes. Nearby on the desk, she spotted a piece of parchment, stained with ink from an inkpot no doubt knocked over by the kitten as its front right paw was also stained black.
"Well, you've certainly had some fun this morning, haven't you?" she said as she cast Tergeo to siphon the ink away from the parchment and then from the paw of the kitten as she lifted it from her desk and cradled it in one arm to keep it from wreaking any more havoc on her office.
Now that the ink spill had been cleaned up, she could make out the words scrawled on the parchment:
No one should be alone on Christmas. Maybe you could give her a home?
Happy Christmas.
That was it. No signature.
As usual, she thought.
There was no doubt in her mind where, or rather who, the kitten had come from.
After Crookshanks had passed of old age nearly a year and a half ago, she'd thought about getting another cat, but with Ron's miniature owl Pigwidgeon in the flat, she'd decided against it. They'd fought enough third year over her pet trying to kill his that it hadn't been worth it. Nevermind the fact that his rat had turned out to be a Death Eater and Crookshanks had been in the right all along…..But that was neither here nor there.
She remembered telling Harry as much a while back and it wasn't hard to imagine that his partner could have overheard…. Now that she and Ron were no longer living together, there was no reason she couldn't have a pet again and cats made excellent company. They didn't require the constant attention some pets did which was great for her busy work schedule. She just hadn't put much thought into getting one after the breakup as she'd been busy moving into her new flat.
"Well, I suppose it's just you and me now, isn't it?" she said to the kitten, who purred in response.
Hermione realized how crazy she must look, standing in the middle of her office and talking to a cat. She hadn't shut the office door when she'd come in, but no one else was around to hear, as most of the people who had offices on her hallway had taken the day off.
The kitten, who she realized she'd need to name eventually, was still curled in her right arm and she lifted the note from her desk with her left hand to read it once more. Something about the first sentence had struck her as familiar.
No one should be alone on Christmas…
With a jolt, she realized they were her own words, spoken three years ago when she and Draco Malfoy had been the only two 8th years left at Hogwarts for Christmas.
It was then that she realized she wasn't the only one spending Christmas alone this year. Narcissa Malfoy had passed last spring, proof that it was in fact possible to simply waste away from depression, though wizards called it something else. Hermione saw it for what it was.
She and Harry had been two of the dozen or so people who had attended the funeral. It was one of the few occasions she'd seen Draco Malfoy outside of work, the other being when he'd attended Harry's birthday party at the Leaky Cauldron, now owned by Hannah Abbott, over the summer. He'd kept mostly to himself, though they had exchanged a few pleasantries when she arrived with Ron, and Hermione had been surprised Draco had come at all.
Hermione put the note in her pocket and, keeping the kitten tucked in one arm, exited her office. It seemed she was in need of pet supplies before the shops all closed early for Christmas Eve, but first she had another stop to make.
The door to Harry and Draco's shared office stood open and she tapped softly on the doorframe, successfully garnering the attention of the room's only occupant.
Draco glanced up from the file he'd been reading and arched a brow when he saw her. "Morning, Granger. Didn't realize it was bring your pet to work day."
"Yes, well, I didn't realize I even had a pet until I walked into my office this morning. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"
She could swear that she saw the corners of his mouth twitch up briefly at her question, but it was over too soon to be certain. He leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head. "Why would I know anything about your new pet?"
The kitten, sensing the opening left by his shift in position, leapt from Hermione's arms to Draco's desk and then into his lap, where she quickly made herself comfortable while he swore under his breath.
It was Hermione's turn to smirk. "I think she likes you."
Draco lifted the kitten from his lap though it meowed in protest and held it out toward her. "Here, take your furball before she leaves hair all over my robes."
"There's a spell for that, you know," Hermione remarked, though she took the kitten back from him. "Where's Harry?"
"No idea. Came through maybe five minutes ago, said something about you being too stubborn for your own good, got the files he needed and left."
She rolled her eyes at that. Go figure that Harry's only reason for coming in that day had been to 'coincidentally' meet her in the lift and try to talk her into coming to Christmas at the Burrow one more time. She appreciated that he didn't want her to be alone on Christmas, but she had another solution that didn't involve attending Christmas dinner with her ex and his family three weeks after their breakup.
"What are you doing for Christmas this year, Malfoy?"
He looked a bit taken aback by the question, but shrugged and replied: "Read a book. Question my life choices. The usual."
His tone was flippant and she knew he'd intended it as a joke, but something about his expression when he'd said it told Hermione he was serious.
"What a coincidence. Those sound like my plans as well," she remarked. "Since we're both going to be sitting around reading alone, maybe we could keep eachother company? I mean, no one should be alone on Christmas, right?"
Draco watched her, sensing the trap in her use of that particular phrase after what he'd written that morning, but he kept his face impassive as if he didn't recall those were the very words she'd said to him three years before, the very words that had been the start of one of his best Christmases to date.
He paused as if considering her offer, though his immediate instinct had been to accept before she changed her mind.
"Yeah, ok."
At his nod, she grinned. "Great! I'll see you tomorrow morning, then, maybe around 10am? I live in a muggle neighborhood, but my flat is connected to the floo network, so I'll open the connection for you in the morning." Still smiling, she turned and left the office with the kitten still tucked safely in her arms.
Tuesday, December 25, 2001
At precisely 10am Christmas morning, Hermione heard the flames roar to life in her fireplace and she smiled to herself, thinking that Draco Malfoy must have stood watching the clock to ensure he would arrive exactly on time and not a minute too early or too late. She knew because she was guilty of doing the same thing whenever she was invited somewhere.
She set two plates loaded with french toast and scrambled eggs on her small kitchen table, shot the kitten a warning look not to touch the food, and made her way into the living room just in time to see him step out of the fireplace, immaculately dressed as always.
The kitten, whom she'd named Glinda after the good witch in her favorite childhood book, leapt down from the kitchen chair she'd been occupying and followed, winding herself around Hermione's ankles before darting across the room to do the same to him.
"Morning, Granger. Happy Christmas."
"Happy Christmas," she replied with a smile. "I made breakfast. Nothing special, just eggs and french toast. It's what my parents always made on Christmas morning," she explained, "but if you don't like french toast, I can-"
"I'm sure it's perfect, Granger," he cut in. Everything you do always is.
"Great," she smiled, and turned to head back to the kitchen. "I wasn't sure what you'd like to drink, but I have coffee, orange juice, hot cocoa, eggnog…"
Hermione wasn't sure why she was blabbering like she was nervous. There was no reason for her to be nervous. It wasn't like this was a date or anything. It was just two people who would otherwise be alone on Christmas keeping each other company and there was nothing wrong with that.
She realized after a moment that he hadn't answered her question, or if he had, she hadn't heard him over her own babbling, so she turned back and found him still standing in the living room, though he'd scooped up Glinda. There was a crease between his brows and she opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, but he beat her to it.
"Where's your tree, Granger?"
"My..what..? Oh! My Christmas tree? I didn't put one up this year."
"But you love Christmas." It was a statement and not a question.
"I didn't see much point in putting one up when there wasn't going to be anyone to see it, but if it means that much to you, we can put it up after breakfast. I've got it here somewhere…"
He looked mildly confused, so she explained, "Muggles have fake trees they can just store and put out each year. I mean, some get live trees every year, but it's just been more convenient for me to have a fake one. I've got it and all the decorations still boxed up in the spare bedroom. We can get them out and put them up if you want."
"I'd like that," he said, and she could tell he meant it.
"You'd think you've never decorated a Christmas tree before," she teased as they made their way into the kitchen where their breakfast waited for them.
"That's because I haven't."
"You've never decorated a Christmas tree?" Hermione repeated, looking at him in disbelief.
"Never."
Her mouth fell open slightly.
"Mother wanted the Christmas tree to look a certain way each year and she always had the house elves do it with magic," he explained, shrugging.
So after breakfast, Hermione kept her word. They retrieved the tree and all of its decorations and dragged them into the living room. She was surprised to see that he wanted to do things the long way rather than just using their wands.
Once the tree was up and in its stand, she showed him how to use the electrical outlet to test each string of lights to make sure they worked and then fell into fits of giggles while she watched him try to string the lights around the tree with the "help" of Glinda who seemed to think they were a toy for her to bat at with her paws.
"I think you're fighting a losing battle there, Malfoy," she said when he'd tugged the lights away from the kitten only to have her start trying to climb the tree instead.
He paused, looking down at the lights in his hands. "I wish you wouldn't call me that," he said so quietly that she wasn't sure she'd heard him right at first, but then he looked up at her. "It's just that whenever people say the Malfoy name now, I feel like it's this big dark cloud over my life that everyone judges me by and it's just…" He paused. "You could call me Draco….if you want."
"Alright, Draco," she said and she couldn't help but notice the smile that broke across his face when she said it. "On one condition. You have to start calling me by my first name, too."
"But Hermione is just such a mouthful compared to Granger. Doesn't have the same ring to it," he scoffed, smirking.
"Do we have a deal or don't we?" She extended a hand toward him.
Draco looked down at her hand and then up at her before he brought his own hand up to shake hers. "Deal...Hermione."
"See? That wasn't so hard, was it?"
He smirked and let his hand drop back to his side. "On the contrary, that was excruciatingly difficult."
She laughed. "Fine. Call me whatever you want, but you're going to need to put this star on top of the tree for me, because I'm not tall enough to do it without magic or a chair to stand on."
December days in London were exceptionally short and darkness had already begun to fall by the time they finished decorating the tree and hanging other decorations around the flat. It certainly looked, and felt, much more like Christmas by the time they were through.
"What next?" Hermione asked, looking over at him where he sat putting shield spells on the tree to protect it from Glinda's attempts to undo their hard work.
"What else would you and your parents do?" he asked, thinking back to all the Christmases with them she had described to him in 8th year and how happy she had looked remembering them.
"Well...usually on Christmas day, we'd go to a family dinner hosted by one of my aunts or uncles, but it got a lot more difficult to do that after I started Hogwarts and had to dodge questions about my 'boarding school' without saying something I shouldn't," she said with a laugh, "But on Christmas Eve, when it was just me and my parents, we'd make hot cocoa and take it with us to go look at the lights in the neighborhood. My dad would always stop and pick up a pizza from a local place to bring home with us for dinner and we'd watch a Christmas movie. Of course, all of the pizza places will be closed since it's Christmas day, but I think I have a frozen pizza I could cook…" she trailed off, recalling exactly who it was she was talking to.
Draco Malfoy had no idea what a 'pizza' was other than it was evidently something you ate, nor did he have any idea what a 'movie' was, but if that's what she did for Christmas, that's what they would do. "Ok, let's do that, then."
Hermione stared at him. "You do realize that everything I just suggested is a muggle tradition and that going out in my neighborhood to look at the lights means walking around muggle London?"
"Yeah, I got that much," Draco said with a shrug as he stood. "It's not like it would be the first time."
She observed him silently, wondering if he was about to admit to having been the one who'd replaced her mother's book for her the last time they'd spent Christmas together, but he continued on, explaining, "Potter and I get all the cases that involve muggles. He grew up in that world, so we've got an advantage over most of the other Auror teams. It's actually a nice change going out there because none of them know who I am," he admitted. "...Or what I've done."
Hermione understood what he meant, though she experienced the stares of others in the wizarding world for a much different reason than he did. There was something freeing about losing herself amongst the crowds of muggles, just one girl of many rather than the war heroine, best friend of the Chosen One, the brightest witch of her age...The list went on.
It was the reason she'd decided to get a flat in muggle London instead, affording her some semblance of privacy after her split with Ron, amicable though it was, had been plastered all over Witch Weekly.
She didn't say all of that out loud, though, opting instead to busy herself gathering the ingredients for hot cocoa and locating two to go cups. "Right, then, muggle traditions it is."
"Think of it sort of like watching someone's memories in a pensieve, only none of it is real, it's all fictional..." Hermione said as she attempted to explain the concept of movies and VHS to him after they'd returned from their walk around the neighborhood.
She'd put the pizza she'd had in the freezer in the oven to bake while they dug out her meager movie collection from a box she'd yet to unpack. Luckily, they had been easy to find and her television was already set up in the living room. She found the two VHS tapes she was looking for and held them up for him to see.
"These were the two we watched every year when I was a kid: A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life. Here, you can read the back to see what they're about and decide which one you want to watch since I've seen both more times than I can count," she said, handing them to him and heading to the kitchen to pull the pizza from the oven once the timer started beeping.
"These both sound really depressing," he called from the next room and she couldn't help but laugh.
"Yes, I suppose they are a bit at first, but I promise they end well."
When she returned to the living room a few moments later with two slices of pizza for each of them on separate plates, she found him still seated on the couch where she left him, though Glinda seemed to have made herself comfortable in his lap while she was away. Smiling, she set both plates on the coffee table and cast a charm to cool them to a safe temperature to eat. "Which one did you want to watch?"
"I thought you said you and your parents watched both?"
"We did, but that would take nearly four hours."
"I've got time if you do," he said, shrugging. It wasn't as if he had anywhere else to be and he found he rather liked spending time with Hermione Granger.
"Well, seeing as they're both classics, I think everyone should see them at least once, so I suppose I can't rob you of that opportunity. We can start with A Christmas Carol and then see how you feel about watching the other one after that."
She took the VHS in question from its case and loaded it into the player, then turned off the lights, leaving a tabletop lamp beside the couch and the lights from the Christmas tree as their only sources of light, then used the remote to fast forward through all of the commercials as she joined him on the couch, if you could call it that. It was more like a loveseat, which was fine for her when she was home alone and fit better in her modest flat than a wider sofa would have.
As it was, the loveseat was just wide enough to accomodate the two of them comfortably, though her hip pressed against his when she sat. She thought about using magic to extend the seat, but ultimately decided that if he wasn't bothered by sitting this close to her, then she wasn't either. She picked up her plate from the coffee table and tucked her feet beneath her, intending to make herself comfortable only to realize he was staring at her and hadn't touched his own food.
"I promise it's not poisoned," she said nodding toward his untouched plate.
He chuckled. "Yes, well, I would certainly hope the brightest witch of her age would come up with a more creative way to get rid of me than something as obvious as poison, but don't we still need silverware?"
"No, you eat pizza with your hands."
Thinking that surely she must be joking, he raised a brow at her and she started laughing.
"No, really. I promise it's not as barbaric as it sounds. See?" She lifted a slice from her plate and took a bite before setting it back down.
He looked at her, then her plate, and then over to his own plate. Shaking his head slightly, he reached for his plate, much to the protests of Glinda who was disturbed from her perch in his lap by the motion and leapt up the back of the sofa instead.
Hermione watched him, scarcely able to hide her amusement when she heard him mutter something under his breath that sounded like 'if my parents could see me now…' before he took a bite.
"See? Not so bad, is it?"
"Not so bad?" he repeated, looking at her. "Granger, this is bloody brilliant."
"Hermione," she corrected, laughing.
"Sorry. Old habits and what not, but really...this is amazing."
"Good. I'm glad you like it. Maybe Harry or I can introduce you to some other muggle foods sometime so you'll know what else you've been missing out on."
He nodded to show his agreement, but otherwise didn't answer as he was far too busy eating. And besides, the movie had started.
Three and half hours, two more slices of pizza, and almost two entire movies later, It's a Wonderful Life was nearing its conclusion and Draco watched as George Bailey got his life back after he saw what the world would be like without him.
"So do muggles really believe the whole guardian angel thing?" he asked, his eyes not straying from the screen. It was just another question in a long list of things he'd asked about muggles throughout the two movies.
Only this time, she didn't respond. He glanced to the side and saw that she'd fallen asleep curled up in her seat with her back against the armrest and her cheek cushioned by the back of the seat.
The light from the television combined with the glow from the Christmas tree cast a faint light, illuminating her features. Draco's breath caught in his throat. It wasn't the first time he'd noticed how beautiful she'd become, but it was the first time he was able to truly look at her for longer than a few moments without fear of someone noticing. She looked peaceful in sleep, the usual crease between her brows that formed when she was thinking too much smoothed away. He marveled at the fact that she'd felt safe and comfortable enough in his presence to drift off during the movie.
Draco Malfoy had known for some time now that he was in love with Hermione Granger. He'd suspected it in their 8th year when he'd realized how happy it made him to be the reason she smiled, whether it was from the book he denied giving her or from a sarcastic remark he'd made. The past year of working alongside her in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had only solidified that.
He would never tell her that, though, because he knew that she deserved someone far better than him. Someone who had been on the right side of the war. Someone who could go out in public with her without causing a scandal. Someone who had never insulted her, never called her that horrible name his aunt had later engraved into her arm….He could see it now peaking out from the sleeve of her jumper which was pushed up from the position she was curled into.
Draco Malfoy knew that Hermione Granger was never meant for him. It had been easier to remind himself of that when she'd been in a relationship with Weasley. It was harder now that she was single, but he had no doubt she'd find someone worthy of her one day.
If only things had been different...if he'd been born to a different family...if he'd had the guts to stand up to his father…..if only…
He realized the irony, then, as the credits rolled. If Hermione had been a Slytherin, he'd have thought her choice of movie had been deliberate. George Bailey had thought everyone else would be better without him, too, but that hadn't been the case.
Wasn't that what Potter was always trying to remind him?
If Draco had never been born, Potter may not even be here. It was Narcissa Malfoy's love for her son that prompted her lie….And if Draco hadn't been forced to plan Dumbledore's murder, who would have been master of the Elder wand? Would Potter still have become its master somehow?
He supposed it didn't matter now that it was all over. Everything happened the way it did and it had been recorded in the history books, the ink long since dry. Draco Malfoy was a villain. Potter and his friends, the heroes.
It didn't do to dwell on it now.
Draco stood and stretched, but Hermione still didn't budge, so he grabbed the blanket she'd had laid over the back of the sofa and draped it over her. She stirred slightly, but didn't wake, so he tucked the blanket around her shoulders and stood. He found her pot of floo powder on the mantle easily enough and took a handful.
"Happy Christmas, Hermione," he murmured softly as he stepped into the fireplace and vanished into the emerald flames.
Monday, December 23, 2002
When Hermione came to their office Monday morning, it was clear she was exhausted.
"You look terrible," Draco remarked, glancing up from the parchment on his desk just long enough to take in her appearance.
Hermione snorted. "And good morning to you, too, Draco."
She saw the corners of his mouth twitch upward at that.
Harry looked up from his own desk, his concern for his best friend evident. "Merlin's beard, Hermione, you alright? You look like you've been working yourself half to death."
"Feels like it, too," she replied, dropping heavily into the seat across from Harry. "I can't stay long. I just came by to let you know that I won't be able to make it to Christmas Eve dinner with you and Ginny this year, after all."
"What? Why?"
"I've just got so much to do, Harry. Ever since Sophie went on maternity leave last month, it seems like I can never get caught up. I was here most of the weekend and I expect I'll be here Christmas Eve and Christmas as well. The new law takes effect January 1st and there's still so much to do…."
"Why don't you hire a temporary assistant until Sophie comes back?"
"I could, but even if I hired one today which is impossible, they'll never be up to her level of efficiency in time," Hermione sighed, then glanced at her watch. "I need to get back to work...I've already wasted too much time as it is…"
Harry watched her go with a frown. Across the office, Draco tapped his quill against his desk, thinking…
Tuesday, December 24, 2002
"You still need to eat, Hermione," Harry was saying as he trailed behind her from the elevator toward her office on the morning of Christmas Eve. "If you don't have time to come to us, Ginny says we can bring Christmas Eve dinner to you."
"That's very sweet of you, Harry, but it's your first Christmas as a married couple. I don't want you going to extra trouble on my account. I can just order takeout and have enough leftovers to get through tomorrow as well."
Hermione reached her office and threw open the door, ready to tackle the mountain of work she knew she had cut out for her only to find her entire office transformed.
She and Harry stood in the doorway, both dumbstruck by what they saw.
Small fairy lights were strung around the office, a Christmas tree stood in one corner though she'd had no time to put one up and on her desk was the mountain of work she'd expected to find….neatly organized into files and labeled for her, then stacked according to the system Sophie used to indicate priority.
She didn't bother to look for the note she knew she'd find somewhere on her desk. She knew exactly who had to be responsible for this.
"...I'll be right back," Hermione said slowly after she'd taken it all in. She turned and walked away back down the hallway and toward the Auror offices, ignoring Harry's attempts to ask what was going on.
She halted only when she reached the door to Harry's own office and turned to see him jogging to catch up. Pausing with her hand on the doorknob, she waited until he was beside her and cut him off before he could ask anymore questions, "I hate to ask you to wait outside your own office, Harry, but I need to have a few words with your partner. I promise I won't be long."
"I-uh, yeah, okay," Harry agreed, looking bemused by her unusual behavior.
The door swung open and closed behind her a bit harder than she'd intended, causing the room's only occupant to look up from his desk, half drunk cup of coffee in hand.
When his eyes met hers across the small office, she couldn't help but notice the dark circles beneath them, as if he'd either been up late the night before or else up very early this morning….And yet, Harry had appeared perfectly well rested. Not a mission, then. That small detail was all she needed to confirm her suspicions.
If she had learned anything from the last several years, it was that asking him about it has gotten her nowhere. So, she wouldn't ask this year. That would only give him the chance to deny it and supply some flimsy excuse. No, this year was going to be different.
Hermione started across the office at the same time that Draco started to ask, "What're you-?"
The rest of his question trailed away into nothingness when she seized the front of his robes in both of her hands and pulled him toward her, her lips meeting his.
He didn't respond to the kiss immediately, too stunned to react, and her brain kicked into overdrive. What if she had misread the situation? What if he didn't see her like that and had only been trying to do something nice as a friend? What if she'd just ruined the friendship they had with her impulsive decision to kiss him?
Feelings of shame and embarrassment flooded through her and she started to pull back, but just as suddenly as she had kissed him, his hands sprang to life. One arm hooked around her waist and the other hand held the back of her neck, fingers threading up into her curls as he eagerly responded to her kiss.
Hermione's position, already precarious as she was leaned over to kiss him where he sat in his chair, shifted in response and she fell rather ungracefully into his lap, but neither seemed to care. Her fingers slowly released the folds of his robes and moved up over his shoulder until both arms were wrapped around his neck.
She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, it could have been minutes or hours for all she knew, but a sudden knock at the door broke them apart.
"...that's Potter, isn't it?" Draco asked, his forehead still leaned against hers and his warm breath ghosting over her parted lips.
Unable to trust her voice, she simply nodded in response.
Draco had half a mind to cast a locking charm on the door or hex Harry for interrupting the most perfect moment of his life...or perhaps both… but he refrained, instead reluctantly releasing his hold on the brunette witch and allowing her to slip out of his lap.
Once upright, she smiled sheepishly at him while she straightened her rumpled clothing. "So...about Christmas…"
"Oi!" came a voice from the other side of the door. "Some of us still have work to do, y'know."
The color rose in her cheeks, but she continued on quickly, "It seems I might have some free time for Christmas, after all, and I'd really like it if you came over again this year."
"I'd like that, too."
"Good! I mean, that's great...I mean.." she trailed off, looking flustered as Harry knocked on the door once more.
Draco stood and took a few steps toward her, closing the gap between them. He was still having a hard time believing that the last few minutes had actually happened as he brought one hand up to hold her chin before his lips claimed hers once more. This kiss was slower than the first had been and he broke apart from her reluctantly. "Happy Christmas, Hermione."
"Happy Christmas, Draco."
At that point, the door to the office swung open as Harry stepped inside. He glanced between the two where they stood in the middle of the room just looking at each other and rolled his eyes.
Harry Potter wasn't blind. He'd seen the way his partner looked at his best friend when he thought no one would notice and had spotted the two happily chatting away in a corner at his own wedding reception earlier that year. Unless he was mistaken in his count, he knew they'd shared at least three dances together.
He noticed, too, that Hermione's cheeks were flushed as she brushed past him and out of the office while Draco sat back down at his desk grinning like an idiot, something Harry had never seen before.
It didn't take a genius to piece together what had happened and he sighed heavily, raking a hand through his hair.
That wasn't to say that Harry wasn't happy for them. He was. It was obvious they were perfect for each other. It was the timing that was bad. His bet had been on at least another year of this back and forth nonsense while they remained in denial. It seemed Ginny had won this one and he was sure he'd never hear the end of it.
A/N: Well, I didn't meet my original goal of completing this by Christmas or my second goal of completing it by New Year's Eve, but I did originally start this Dec. 22nd and complete it within a two week timespan which is a miracle for me. Those of you who have read my other Dramione fic 'Of Birds and Fish' understand why and I'm still sorry for that six year delay...
Thank you so much for all the lovely feedback on this! I think I may try to do more short Dramione projects (one shots and the like) in the future as inspiration strikes, but I do have another multi-chapter fic in the works and am working on writing way ahead in the draft before I begin publishing here so that updates won't be as delayed.
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and I wish you all a happy new year!- J