Day Ten - Holiday Parties

Holiday parties can be so boring, but with the right people, they can easily become fun…

A/N: This one ended up much longer than I intended, so apologies, and the more "fun" bits a more rushed cause I'm just lazy and couldn't be bothered to go into major details. The music might not be what would be around at the time, but canon is out the window. I also apologise for this one shot being late, it was my bro's b'day yesterday and we were watching the football and with all of it I got distracted and didn't get chance to post, especially cause this wasn't finished yesterday either.

Draco hated the annual Christmas parties that were thrown at Malfoy Manor. They were always so boring, and filled with all of the people his father often exchanged money with in order to get things done his way.

When Draco was younger, he always wanted to be just like his father. Now that he was older, however, he was realising that he'd much rather earn things on his own merit. He was smart. He didn't have to rely on his father's money to help get him places and help him get his way. He was a Slytherin after all, and there were more ways than just using money to get things to go your way.

For example, this year's Christmas party was bound to be much more eventful than any previous ones, as Draco had bribed his friends into attending with the promise of easy access to alcohol. He had also managed to convince Potter, Granger, and a few of the Weasley's to come by promising to lay off bullying Gryffindor house for the rest of the school year. It was a high price to pay, but Draco was convinced that having a bunch of Weasleys and a Muggle born there would be just the thing to get under his father's skin.

He was fed up of his father always getting his way, and he felt it was about time to really piss him off with his newfound "friendships" with the Gryffindors. Besides, they weren't all that bad once he thought about it.

His Slytherin friends were the first ones to arrive. Blaise and Theo immediately made a beeline for the bar, while Pansy and Daphne came to greet him with a hug each. They'd all decided over the last year that they were fed up of the typical Pure Blood "proper" greetings that showed no affection at all, and we all slowly starting to show affection to each other in their own ways.

'So, what's the plan for tonight then?' Blaise asked by way of greeting once he'd returned with two drinks in hand and giving one to Daphne. 'You said you had a sure fire way to get under your father's skin?'

'Yeah, what's up your sleeve, Draco?' Pansy asked, taking the glass Theo had brought over for her.

'Oh, we shouldn't have to do more than have a few drinks and sit back to watch the fun,' he said mysteriously, taking a sip of his own drink.

'Oh, come on, mate, you've gotta give us more than that,' Theo begged.

'Well, I may have invited Potter and Granger to the party,' Draco confessed to groans from the others. 'And a few of the Weasley's.' More groans followed that admission.

'Why would you invite a bunch of Gryffindor's to your parents Christmas party, let alone those Gryffindors?' Daphne asked, her tone laced with curiosity.

'Who better to piss off my father than the children of the blood traitor he hates most, Potter, and a muggle born?' They'd all stopped using the word mud-blood earlier that year.

'Very true, to be fair,' Blaise shrugged.

'How can you be sure they'll show up though?' Pansy asked.

'I promised them I'd lay off bullying the Gryffindors for the rest of the year, and told the Weasley twins they could cause whatever mayhem their hearts desired.'

'As if you're going to stop bullying Gryffindors,' Theo snorted.

'I gave them my word,' Draco shrugged. 'Besides, it's starting to lose it's charm, and I'd much rather get to see my father pissed off.'

'Is it such a good idea though?' Pansy asked in concern. 'Who knows how your father will react. What if he hurts you?'

'Well if he does, I'll just go to the Ministry with mother and see if we can get him thrown behind bars. We've got enough dirt on him anyway that it shouldn't be too hard.'

'Would your mother agree to that?' Pansy asked.

'She already has. She knows full well who I've invited here tonight and why. She's just as fed up of these parties as I am. She wishes she could just celebrate Christmas with her friends and family instead of a bunch of my father's business contacts. Besides, she's convinced he won't actually do anything to me. She's already told him the consequences if he tries anything like it.'

'What a lovely conversation this is,' Blaise commented bluntly.

'Hey, you were all asking the questions, I'm just answering them,' Draco defended with a laugh. 'Come on, let's get some more drinks before the Gryffindors arrive.'

They went and gathered more drinks from the bar and then decided to hover around the main entrance to the drawing room where the party was being held. Draco had already asked the house elves to inform him of the others' arrival and meet them by the front door.

Twenty minutes went by before the Tinky, his personal house elf, came to tell him of their arrival.

'Master Draco, sir, your lion friends is here,' she said timidly. She wasn't a big fan of the many guests gathered in the drawing room and was trying hard not to be seen.

'Thank you, Tinky, you can have the rest of the night off now,' Draco told the elf.

'Thankings you, Master Draco,' she squeaked before she disappeared with a crack.

'Well, looks like the real party is about to begin,' Draco told his friends. He gave a short nod to his mother across the room, which she returned, and then turned on his heel to go and meet his guests at the front door. The other's followed behind him.

'Potter, Granger, Weasleys,' he greeted them all with a nod of the head as he approached.

'Malfoy,' they responded together.

'Thanks for the invite,' Fred spoke from the back of the group.

'Which way to cause chaos?' George asked beside him.

'I'll show you in a minute,' Draco told them. 'Before I do, let's just be clear here. I invited you here because I knew it would get under my father's skin, and over the last year we've realised you're not all as bad as we first thought.'

They looked mildly surprised, but supposed it was bound to happen at some point. They had all been working together in classes more, at the instructions of the teachers, but what no one expected was that they would actually start to get along.

'I promised you all I'd stop bullying the Gryffindors, and I fully intend to keep that promise, as I'd much rather see my father pissed off at my choice of guests.'

'Why do you wanna piss him off so much?' Ron spoke up.

'I'm fed up of these stupid parties that are just networking events for him. A way to buy more people off so he can get what he wants. I'll admit, this last year I've started to realise that my father is an idiot, and I don't want to grow up to be like him.'

The Gryffindors were clearly shocked at Draco's honesty, but he was at least glad they didn't feel the need to question him. He was telling the truth, after all.

'Anyway, I don't want any animosity between you lot and me and my friends tonight, You're all my guests, and we're all here for the same reason: to piss off my father and have some fun. Agreed?'

They all murmured in assent.

'I think I speak for all of us,' Hermione piped up, 'when I say that we've all seen the difference with you all this year, and we're more than happy to do what we came here for and not get into any arguments with you all.'

'Yeah, let's just have some fun!' Ginny cheered.

Everyone else just laughed and Draco gestured for them to follow him.

'Party's this way, then. Drinks are at the bar, help yourselves to whatever, and if you have too much I have a stash of sober up potions in my room for everyone, and everyone is welcome to stay overnight in my room.'

'Woah, no one said anything about staying overnight, Malfoy,' Ron laughed nervously.

'Relax, Weasley, it's only in case you're all too tired to go anywhere later. I can just as easily send for a muggle car to come and take you all home.'

'Really?' Hermione asked, stepping up beside him with interest.

'Yes, I plan to stay sober enough to remember this night and to look out for my friends, new ones included.'

'Aw, Malfoy, we're your friends now?' Harry cooed from his other side.

'Shove off, Potter,' Draco gave him a light shove and they both laughed as they approached the drawing room.

'Welcome to the party. Fred, George, I believe you wanted to cause some chaos?'

'Indeed we did, Draco,' they chorused and immediately set off for the bar.

'Fred and George causing chaos while drunk. Are you sure this is a good idea, Malfoy?' Ginny asked, though she was smiling broadly.

'Very sure,' he said simply. 'Granger, care to come with me so I can properly introduce you to my mother and father to make sure they know you're here?'

'Oh! Um… sure,' Hermione shrugged. She hesitantly took the arm Draco offered her and they made their way across the room.

'I can't wait to see old Lucy's face,' Blaise muttered to the others, who were all still gathered by the door way.

'Don't worry too much, Hermione.' Draco told her, shocking her by the use of her first name. 'My mother already knows you were all coming, and she knows exactly why.'

'And she approves of it?' Hermione raised her eyebrows at him.

'She's just as fed up of these parties as me, trust me. Being polite to you all and meaning it is her part in this plan to piss off my father.'

Hermione didn't have time to respond as they approached Draco's parents.

'Mother, Father,' he interrupted, nodding at the man Lucius had obviously been trying to make a deal with. His father was already looking furious at being interrupted, and his face only grew more sour as he turned to see who was stood next to his only son.

'I believe you both remember Hermione Granger, the smartest student in our year at Hogwarts,' he knew this would rile up his father even more, reminding him his son was second place to a muggle born, 'but I thought I'd introduce you properly. Hermione, this is my mother, Narcissa.'

'Hello, Mrs Malfoy,' Hermione held out her hand to for her to shake. 'It's lovely to officially meet you.'

'Oh dear, please, call me Narcissa,' she invited before surprising all of them by pulling Hermione into a tight hug. Draco glanced over his shoulder at the others to see them staring in shock, and Blaise was clearly thrilled at the look on Lucius' face. When Draco turned back to look at his father, he could see his face was bright red and he was clearly trying extremely hard not to say anything rude. He couldn't risk being so openly rude in front of his guests, many of whom would no longer want to do business with him if the witnessed such things.

'And this,' Draco told Hermione once his mother had finally released her, 'is my father Lucius.'

'Mr Malfoy, it's a pleasure,' Hermione said pleasantly. Draco could tell she was enjoying this as she held out a hand for his father to shake.

'Miss Granger,' Lucius replied simply, shaking her hand as briefly as he could. 'If you'll excuse me, I have many guests I must speak with.' He dismissed himself quickly. As soon as he was out of earshot, Hermione and Draco burst out laughing and Narcissa was clearly trying hard not to do so herself.

'Well, that was quite the spectacle,' Blaise told them as he approached them. 'Never thought I'd see the day where old Lucy would shake hands with a muggle born.'

'Me neither,' Draco and Narcissa confessed together.

'Well, I had better let you all go and cause some more chaos together,' Narcissa told them fondly. 'I'll come by and say hello to your other Gryffindor friends shortly, dear.' She told told Draco as she lightly touched his cheek before drifting off to the bar to get herself a fresh drink.

'Well, time to have some fun,' Draco told Hermione and Blaise.

The three made their way back over to the others who had been rejoined by Fred and George, both of whom now had drinks.

'So, what's first?' Fred asked the group.

'We get hammered, that's what,' Blaise clarified. Everyone but Fred and George wen to get themselves a drink, and Draco herded the other Gryffindors, minus the twins, over to his mother for introductions.

'Nice to officially meet you all,' Narcissa said as she gave out hugs to Harry, Ginny, and Ron, all of whom were shocked to receive them. They had thought Hermione's hug was due to Lucius' presence.

'Now, we have the classical music playing through the wizarding wireless, but Draco tells me Hermione was asked to bring a muggle appliance?' Narcissa questioned, looking around the four Gryffindors in confusion. She couldn't see anything that would play music.

'I did bring something, actually,' Hermione confessed, pulling out her small beaded bag. 'Undetectable extension charm,' she told Narcissa as she watched the girl pull out some kind of machine.

'It's just a standard muggle CD tape player, but I've managed to get it working around magic, without needing to be plugged in, and made it much louder,' Hermione explained to them all.

Draco guided Hermione to hide the player behind the bar, and they handed over a bunch of muggle music tapes (also hidden in the beaded bag) to the house elves so they could keep swapping them when the tapes reached the end.

'Time to introduce your father and his "friends" to S Club Seven,' Hermione announced as she pressed play on the tape player.

The wizards and witches gathered in the room all looked around in confusion as the classical music faded and pop music started blaring. Draco had decided that instead of just playing music for younger witches and wizards through the wireless, it would annoy his father more to play muggle music instead.

Fred and George had already made their way into the middle of the room and were dancing around like lunatics, trying to beckon the onlookers to join them. Draco, Hermione and their respective friends went to join the twins. It was embarrassing as hell, but they had to put their embarrassment aside in order to do what they came for: piss off Lucius Malfoy.

A few songs in and the watching witches and wizards were starting to enjoy the bizarre music, and had started to join them in dancing. No one really knew what they were doing, but it was Christmastime! If you couldn't get drunk and dance like an idiot to muggle music at Christmas, when could you?

As the night wore on, Lucius was clearly getting more irate. Instead of trying to stop what was happening, he had simply tried to carry on as if nothing had changed. He was still trying to engage his guests in conversations about business, but everyone was now decided they'd rather make a party out of this party and join in the fun.

Blaise and Pansy had drunk more than any of the others, and had coerced the house elves to stop the muggle music, much Lucius' relief. However, his relief didn't last long when they climbed atop the bar to give a small toast.

'We would just like to say,' Blaise began, slurring his speech a little, 'that this has been such a great party.'

'Yes, it has,' Pansy continued. She was able to handle her drink much better. 'There is really only one person to thank for all this. Old Lucy! You invited us all to your manor and have put on such a great party that even the Gryffindors are here!' She gestured to the small group of current Gryffindors in the centre of the room, and there were some cheers from surrounding witches and wizards who had all previously been in the house of lions.

'To old Lucy!' Blaise cheered to finish off, raising his drink.

'To old Lucy!' Everyone else chorused, holding their drinks in the air briefly before taking a sip. Lucius was now bright red in the face, and had begun storming towards the two Slytherins climbing down from the bar when a loud whizzing followed by a bang stopped him in his tracks.

Everyone in the room moved to stand near the walls away from Fred and George, who were standing in the middle setting off a bunch of indoor fireworks, made by themselves.

Everyone cheered the display, and once it had finished half an hour later, Narcissa announced it was the end of the party and thanked everyone for coming. Lucius waited for everyone else to leave before rounding on his son and his ridiculous group of friends.

'You,' he seethed, striding towards Draco.

'Now, now, dear,' Narcissa told him calmly as she held his arm with her hand, 'you can't blame them all for wanting to have fun at a party. After all, all of our guests clearly enjoyed it.'

'These parties are not events for Draco and his idiot friends to have fun at,' he fumed. 'They are for me to do some networking and further the Malfoy business and name!'

'Maybe, dear, they should be less about business and more about having fun in the future. If you noticed, everyone decided they would rather dance and have fun than talk business with you.'

Lucius stood seething in anger for a moment.

'Or maybe, people in this house should learn to behave!' He snapped.

'Perhaps, dear, you should be careful how you treat your wife and son, considering what they know,' she said carefully. 'It wouldn't do you any good if they decided to tell people at the Ministry everything that you get up to.'

Lucius glared at his wife before turning on his heel and storming out of the room.

'Fine! Have your fun and we'll lose business and I'll stop buying you nice things!' He grumbled as he stormed off to bed.

'Well, now that's dealt with, I hope you're all planning to stay the night? You don't look like you should be trying to Floo home or travel in any other way in this state,' Narcissa looked on at the group in concern.

'Don't worry, mother, they're all staying here,' he gave the Gryffindor's a stern look when they looked like they were about to argue. 'We'll stay in my room, I already have the floor set up for us to sleep on.'

'Let the girls sleep on your bed, Draco. You were raised better than to let them sleep on the floor and your bed is plenty big enough for the four of them.'

'Of course, mother,' Draco said with an eye roll.

'Good boy. I'll see you all in the morning,' she bid them goodnight and left.

Draco led the rest of them up to his room so everyone could go to bed. Once everyone was settled, the boys spread out across the floor and the girls on the bed, a quiet calm fell over them.

'Hey Malfoy,' Fred mumbled.

'What, Weasley?' Draco sighed. He just wanted to sleep at this point.

'Great party.'

There was a murmur of agreement throughout the room, and Draco simply smiled to himself as he fell asleep. For once, he had attended a good holiday party in his own home.