Day 10- Deck the Halls:

She was proud of Draco for resisting the temptation to use magic to finish pumping up the inflatable Father Christmas, despite being as red in the face as the old man's costume by its end. He certainly could have, since she, Claire and Kelly had finished with their inflatables and stringing up the lights, so had gone inside to set up the snack the children were clamouring for, while she said she'd wait for her husband. The kids were still outside, but paying little attention as they ran around playing some game. Draco and Hermione only turned around to look at them when they heard Phoebe angrily telling her brother to let her be Frosty. Naturally Scorpius was standing right by her, and Lyra was napping inside. Hermione was about to step in and suggest a peaceful resolution when Phoebe thrust out her arms to push Leo away, and a gold forcefield like energy shot out of her hands, throwing him back into the bushes. The two adult wizards' mouths dropped open and then they ran forward to check that the four year old was alright. He seemed to be; getting up and rubbing his head with no apparent pain. The couple glanced between each other. 'Was that-?' Draco mouthed to her. She nodded in reply.

"She didn't mean to do it Mummy!" Declared Scorpius, standing in front of his best friend protectively.

Kelly appeared from the front door with a perplexed expression. "Is everything alright? We heard shouting- which woke Lyra up." She glanced at the children critically but teasingly, the nearly two year old in her arms.

Scorpius and Phoebe looked up at her with wide deer-in-the-headlights-expressions. "Just a little skirmish." She explained, because she knew from experience that it was certainly accidental- accidental magic.

Claire poured out warm eggnog into cups, making a point of giving the adults the alcoholic one and the children a recipe more suited to them. They all laughed; although Draco and Hermione's minds were still elsewhere. "I don't know if this stacks up to that coffee from two years ago," she praised the Gryffindor. "I don't think anything ever can. After what I'd been through, that was the best snack I've ever had!" They'd decided to work the Class 2 stall together this year rather than sending anyone back into the grotto, AKA the headmaster's office. "I only volunteered because it was such easy money back when I did it at 15."

Kelly gave her wife a proud kiss on the cheek, which the kids didn't groan at- a sure sign they were still spooked from the incident outside. She supposed nothing like this had ever happened to Phoebe then, and certainly not that Scorpius had seen it- he would have told them. "My first Christmas job was in a card shop- a pretentious card shop." Kelly corrected herself. "Everytime someone entered, we had to burst into 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas'- even if we were serving another customer! We didn't get many customers!" They all laughed in synchronicity and then she asked the couple if they'd ever had Christmas jobs.

"Hmm? Oh no!" Hermione looked away from Phoebe to her friend. "Far too busy" Researching Triwizard Tournament Tasks? Protecting elf rights? Hunting horcruxes? "Revising."

"You're such a Sheldon!" Kelly chuckled.

This was enough of a distracting mystery for Draco's brow to furrow. "It's a TV show that started airing this year," Claire informed him with an understanding grimace- she hated comedies.

"It's a lifestyle!" Corrected Kelly.

"Do we tell them?" Hermione whispered to Draco after their friends went into the kitchen to get onto dinner.

Her husband ran his hands through his hair. "I don't-" she bit her lip, knowing it was hard for him not to know things about the Wizarding World, just as it was for her, but for different reasons. "You probably know more about it than me, being, you know..." he jerked his head at the adjacent room.

"I had no clue until I received my letter," she tried to think back to that long ago time. "I mean, I guess there were some signs... so does that mean we just leave it for the school to tell her in five and a half years?"

Eventually they decided to send McGonagall a letter. The headmistress reassured them that everything was fine, and the family would be contacted if there were any dangerous outbursts. Apart from that, she said, it was perfectly natural for children to experience momentary losses of control and they all recovered fairly quickly. They kept an eye on Phoebe of course, and from seeing her on the playground and at their house when she came by with Scorp a few times, it was clear she had forgotten it. Their son on the other hand, despite obeying their request not to talk to her about it, was still curious about what had happened.

"What are you up to Scorp?" Asked Draco as he peered down at the piece of paper their son had put on the paper, a focussed expression in his face as he pressed the crayon into it.

Hermione kept her eyes on her daughter to give Scorpius the impression of privacy, unsure if this was going to be 'just a Daddy thing'. "I'm writing an extra note to Father Christmas," the five year old explained. They'd already sent off their letters with the address 1 North Pole at the end of November. Naturally, he'd penned his after lengthy discussions with his best friend and checks that nothing overlapped so they could borrow each other's' gifts. "Asking him to send Phoebe to big school with me."

She couldn't help herself from looking over in that moment, it was so sweet. Draco's eyes twinkled knowingly, "I don't think you're going to have to send that." Scorpius however, just looked up, confused. "She is a witch." McGonagall had confirmed that her name had indeed appeared in the book at Hogwarts. Excitement eking from his bones, Scorpius leapt up and jumped with delight! "You have to keep it a secret, like a surprise party," Draco told him seriously.

At this, Scorpius made an attempt to roll his eyes, which ended up looking more like the angel bobble head in their car. "I know that Daddy! I'm not stupid!" She snorted with laughter, despite her best attempts to contain it. There was a reason why she'd gone into administration rather than espionage.

It was evil that was in his eyes now as Draco exchanged a look with Scorpius, then her two boys grabbed either end of the tinsel on the table and ran around her in a circle to wrap her up in it as Lyra cackled with traitorous delight!