Day Five - Holiday Shopping

The trio, along with Ginny, decide to get some of their holiday shopping done, and come across some Slytherins while they decide where to go next.

A/N: This, along with pretty much all of these December one shots, is ignoring canon for the most part, because everyone's cheerful and alive. Who wants the misery of Voldemort popping up at Christmas?

The first Hogsmeade weekend in December saw many of Hogwarts students heading into the small town to do their Christmas shopping. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were currently wandering through the streets and arguing which shop to go into next.

'You always spend ages in the book shop though,' Ron was saying to Hermione. She was trying to convince her friends that they should go to her favourite shop next.

'And you lot always spend ages in the Quidditch shop!' Hermione argued back.

Harry and Ginny were walking together a little way in front of the arguing pair, but they could still hear everything.

'How about this,' Ginny turned to face her brother and her friend. 'We go to the Quidditch shop, and you go to the bookshop, and when we're all done we'll meet at The Three Broomsticks for a Butter Beer?'

'Merlin knows we need one,' Harry muttered as they thought Ginny's suggestion through.

'Sounds good to me,' Ron eventually shrugged.

'That doesn't work, I have to go to the Quidditch shop to buy stuff for you three.' Hermione received three groans in response.

'Why don't you come with us and get your stuff and then you can go to the bookshop afterwards while we're still in there?' Ron asked her reasonably.

'I don't want to go to the bookshop by myself,' Hermione pouted.

'Don't worry, Granger, I'll go with you,' Hermione heard a voice from behind her. They all turned to see Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott stood behind them.

'How long have you three been listening to our conversation?' Hermione questioned as she crossed her arms accusingly.

'Since about,' Blaise turned around and glanced back up the street. 'There,' he pointed to Honeydukes, which they had exited only a few minutes ago.

'Hard not to hear you two arguing,' Draco butt in, gesturing between Hermione and Ron.

'Well, regardless, why would I go to the book shop with a Slytherin?' Hermione asked them, not sure which one of them had spoken.

'Because you want company, and I don't want to spend all day looking at Quidditch supplies,' Theo provided, telling her it was him who had spoken before.

Hermione shared a look with her friends. Theo was the least troublesome of these three Slytherin's, and they had all been getting along better this year.

'Okay, I'll go to the bookshop with Theo after I've got the stuff I need from the Quidditch shop,' Hermione announced to the group at large.

They all set off to the Quidditch shop, all of them now desperate to get out of the cold.

'So now we have to do our shopping with the Slytherins?' Ron asked as he glanced behind him to see Blaise, Draco and Theo following them.

'Don't pout, Weasley,' Draco told him from the back of the group. 'Just be grateful Granger finally has someone to spend time with in the book shop who isn't you lot.'

Ron simply shrugged in surrender as they continued on.

Twenty minutes later, and Draco had actually helped Hermione to pick out the perfect gifts for her friends so she wouldn't have to ask them to pick out their own presents, and was now on the way to the book shop with Theo.

'What happened to Malfoy this year?' She asked him. 'In fact, what happened to all you Slytherins? You're actually being nice to us for once.'

'We all started to realise the last couple of years that the nonsense we'd been taught as kids about Muggle borns and Muggles was just that: nonsense,' Theo explained. 'I guess it all started to click when Muggle Studies became mandatory. Anyway, since this is our final year at Hogwarts we all figured we'd better put in some actual effort to befriending you Gryffindors. Never know who you'll have to interact with out in the adult world, and we'd rather not have to deal with all the animosity to be honest.'

'Well, it certainly makes a nice change,' Hermione gave him smile as they entered the quiet shop. They spent the next hour quietly discussing their favourite books and picking out all the ones they wanted. It turned out Theo was the resident bookworm of Slytherin.

They finally made it out of the shop and to The Three Broomsticks where they found their friends all sharing a booth.

'How on earth did this happen?' Hermione asked in pleased shock as she sat down next to Ginny.

'I dunno, I guess we just finally started getting along over Quidditch and realised they're actually not that bad,' Ron told her, gesturing to Draco and Blaise across the table.

'And what about you two?' He turned to Hermione again and pointed between her and Theo, who was seating himself down next to Blaise on the opposite side of the table. 'You two looked pretty chummy on your way in.'

'Turns out Granger isn't the only bookworm in our year, Weasley,' Theo supplied for her.

Harry, Ron and Ginny all let out a groan.

'Oh no, now there's two of them,' Ron complained jokingly.

'That's a good thing, they can keep each other entertained while we all talk about Quidditch,' Blaise reasoned.

'Very true,' Harry agreed, clinking his Butter Beer glass with Blaise's.

'I'll go get another round of Butter Beers in,' Theo told the group, realising everyone but he and Hermione had almost finished their drinks.

He returned a few minutes later with a tray of Butter Beers to thanks from around the table.

'Well, here's to a successful shopping trip and finally becoming friends with some Slytherin's,' Hermione held her glass to the centre of the table.

'Cheers!' They chorused.