Day Thirty-One - Ringing in the New Year
Draco and Hermione ring in the New Year together for the first time as a couple
A/N: With Dramione being my favourite ship, I decided to to a little Dramione one shot for this one, so apologies if Dramione isn't your thing. I also tried to find out the names of Hermione's parents and got so many different options I just made them up myself, so in this story they're Richard and Jean. By the way, when it comes to the party food, it's just based on what I know of. There are things I've forgotten, I know it, but I didn't want to spend ages writing about the food anyway.
New Years Eve had approached fast, and Hermione and Draco had had some trouble deciding how to spend their first one as a couple. Draco wanted to go to the usual party at Malfoy Manor, whereas Hermione wanted to spend it with her parents watching the New Year's countdown on the TV as usual (something that was lost on Draco).
In the end, they decided to host a small gathering at Draco's new house. Hermione was still living with her parents in a muggle area, since they hadn't been dating for even a year just yet, but Draco had moved out of Malfoy Manor into a fairly large house in Godric's Hollow as soon as he could. He liked having a place to call his own, and his parents were planning on selling the Manor anyway and moving to somewhere smaller.
They were going to invite over a lot of people, but decided instead to just invite their parents over. Draco didn't quite fancy hosting a party for tons of people and hoped his parents would be happy to not have a party this year.
As it turned out, they were thrilled at the idea. Hosting a New Years Eve party every year was getting a bit old, and they'd already heard that the Parkinson's were planning one this year instead.
So, on New Years Eve, Hermione turned up at Draco's a few hours early to help set up a few things. Their parents would be coming for some food and then staying until just after midnight. Luckily, Hermione had already convinced Draco to get himself a muggle tv during the summer, and they'd finally got it working so they could have it on the background and then watch the muggle news countdown into the New Year.
Hermione was surprised Draco was so willing to do the work himself for having people over, since she expected him to borrow some of his parents house elves for the evening.
'I've decided I want to start doing more things for myself,' Draco told her simply when she asked him why he was doing it all himself. Well, mostly himself. She was helping after all.
'I've always had things done for me and now I've moved out it's about time I did things for myself for a change.'
'Well, I'm glad to hear it,' Hermione told him, giving him a side hug. 'You really are growing up, Draco Malfoy,' she joked as he gave her a light shove and a playful glare.
'Come on, we're supposed to be setting up before they get here,' Draco chastised. It was about ten to six and their parents were due at six. Both sets of parents were always on time, so they had to be ready.
Bang on six o'clock they heard the doorbell. They both rushed through to find both sets of parents waiting patiently on the door step.
'Welcome,' Draco announced as he held the door open wide and stepped back for them to enter. He'd never done this before, and felt like he was being awkward. He sent a nervous glance to Hermione who smiled at him encouragingly.
'Thank you for coming,' Hermione thanked her parents as they entered, giving them each a hug before turning to Draco's parents.
'It's lovely to see you again, Mr and Mrs Malfoy,' she said as she went to give them both a hug as well.
'How many times do I have to tell you dear,' Narcissa told her sternly as she held Hermione at arms length. 'It's Narcissa and Lucius.'
'Of course, sorry,' Hermione said sheepishly. 'Anyway, these are my parents, Richard and Jean Granger.'
Hermione gestured to her dad and then her mum as she introduced them.
'Mum, dad, this is Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy,' she gestured to the two Malfoy's on her other side.
'It's lovely to meet you,' Jean stepped forward to shake their hands, followed by Richard.
'It's lovely to meet you as well,' Narcissa said.
'Well, now that introductions are done with, can I take your coats?' Draco asked.
'Oh, thank you,' Jean said as she took her coat off and handed it over. Draco took Richard and Jeans while Hermione took Narcissa and Lucius' cloaks. They quickly hung them out the way near the door and then guided them through to the living room.
'Mother, father, you won't be familiar with this,' Draco told his parents as they walked into the room behind him, 'but this is a muggle television,' he gestured to the tv that sat against one wall.
'Hermione convinced me to get one and it's actually quite brilliant. There is a countdown to the New Year on the muggle news and then they show fireworks,' Draco explained as his parents went to examine it.
'Fascinating,' Narcissa said as she finally left it to take a seat on one of the sofas.
Lucius went to sit next to her and Jean and Richard took the seat opposite them, with Hermione and Draco taking the two armchairs at the side.
'We have food set out in the dining room, and the rest will be coming out of the oven shortly,' Hermione told them. 'We thought we'd just put the tv on quietly in the background with the muggle festive things playing and Draco suggested I introduce you to some muggle board games.'
'That sounds fun,' Narcissa said enthusiastically. Lucius didn't look so sure from beside her, but it was clear he was at least willing to participate.
'What board games did you have in mind?' Jean asked her daughter.
'I was thinking Frustration, because it's quite simple, and then maybe Cludeo. It's always been favourite of ours,' Hermione explained to the Malfoy's.
'Excellent,' said Richard.
'We'll just go and check on the food. Can we get you anything to drink?' Hermione asked as she stood up.
Draco strode off to the kitchen while Hermione took the drink orders. A glass of wine each for Narcissa and Lucius, a beer for her father, and a cup of tea for her mother.
She followed Draco into the kitchen to get them, along with a butter beer for herself and a fire whiskey for Draco, who was currently taking food out of the oven.
'These are ready, I think. What do you think?' Draco asked Hermione as he showed her the food.
'Yes, they're fine,' she told him with a nod. 'I'll come back in a few minutes and help you plate everything up and take it through to the dining room.
'I'll help you carry the drinks through. We may as well take them straight to the dining room now,' he suggested.
'Good idea,' Hermione agreed as she grabbed a couple of glasses and went to place them on the dining table with Draco behind her.
'I'll go fetch our drinks for the table if you go and fetch our parents through, then you can help me with the food,' Draco suggested.
'Of course,' she agreed, going back through to the living room.
'I've put your drinks on the table ready, since the warm food is about to go out,' Hermione told them all when she walked in. 'Can I show you all through to the dining room?'
'Yes,' came a chorused response as the adults all stood up to follow her.
Once in the dining room, Hermione guided them all to their seats. Richard and Jean were on one side of the table, Narcissa and Lucius on the other, with Hermione and Draco at opposite ends of the table.
'I'll just go and help Draco with the rest of the food, we won't be a moment,' Hermione explained. 'Help yourselves to what's already here.'
The table was covered in various sandwiches, a selection of cheese and biscuits, bowls of crisps and snacks, and there were various empty spots for the hot food. Hermione brought through a pizza and some sausage rolls, and Draco followed with some pigs in blankets and some mozzarella bites.
'Just a couple more things and it's all out, and we have a few things for dessert as well,' Draco told them as he went back into the kitchen for the last couple of things.
'I hope this is all okay for you, Narcissa and Lucius,' Hermione told them nervously. She had suggested the types of food to Draco that she and her parents normally ate on New Years Eve, wondering what he thought about it. She expected him to say no, or at the very least insist on some of the things he and his parents would typically eat, but as it turned out, he was all for the party food selections Hermione suggested.
'Draco said he did warn you about the type of food we have, but if you don't fancy any of it we can make you something else.'
'No, no, dear, this is fine,' Narcissa assured her as she selected some food for herself.
'Draco did indeed warn us, and told exactly what you'd both be serving, and we assured him it was fine,' Lucius told her as he too began to select things for his plate. 'He said he wanted to give us a bit of a muggle New Years experience, and we thought it was a wonderful idea.'
'Oh!' Hermione said, slightly surprised. 'Okay, great.'
'Perhaps another year you'll all have to give us a Wizarding New Years experience,' Richard suggested.
'Oh that would be fun,' Narcissa said.
Draco finally returned with a selection of quiches and vol au vants, a plate full of breaded chicken pieces, and a pork pie.
'Oh, sorry Draco, I forgot about the pork pie,' Hermione said as she got up to help him as his hands were quite full. 'I'd wondered what was taking you so long.'
'Don't worry, it's fine,' Draco said as she took the plate of chicken from him and they placed everything onto the table.
By now, Narcissa and Lucius had a good selection of the foods on their plates and were digging in.
'How is everything?' Draco asked them hesitantly.
'Surprisingly delightful,' Lucius said once he'd swallowed his mouthful of food. 'It's nice to try something different for a change.'
Hermione and Draco exchanged raised eyebrow looks before they went back to selecting food for themselves and piling their plates high.
As the ate, Narcissa and Lucius asked about what Jean and Richard did. Draco had told them they were dentists, but not knowing much himself he wasn't able to give them any more information. The Malfoy's, however, were intrigued and therefore not satisfied with such a simple answer, so they were excited to find out just what a muggle dentist was.
In return, Jean and Richard wanted to know more about what Lucius did, which he was very vague about but it seemed to satisfy their curiosity for now. They also wanted to know what life was like for magical people. Since their daughter spent her time away from Hogwarts mostly in the muggle world, she didn't have much to tell them about the real world life of witches and wizards.
Richard was also fascinated to learn more about Quidditch from Draco, so while he quizzed the young man on the wizarding sport, the rest of them turned to a conversation about the tv that Hermione had said they would watch.
Once they had eaten their fill of the party food, Hermione and Draco cleared the table and topped up the drinks. Lucius swapped his wine for a fire whiskey, and Richard requested to try one as well. He was surprised at its strength but found it very enjoyable. He did, however, decide to stick with just the one glass and then transfer to water.
With the table cleared, Draco and Hermione brought out a couple of desserts, including a chocolate log and some mince pies. Everyone helped themselves, and they ate fairly slowly since they were already quite full. It wasn't until eight o'clock that the table was finally cleared of all the food and Hermione brought out the muggle board games for them to play.
'Okay, first up is Frustration. First, you pick a colour,' Hermione explained as she laid out the board and got the pieces out the box, 'then we press the button in the middle that rolls the dice to see who goes first. Highest number goes first and we go around the table clockwise.'
They took it in turns to roll the dice. The highest was Lucius with 5, so he was to go first.
'Okay, so all you have to do is roll the dice and move your piece around the board that many places,' Draco said as he demonstrated. 'The aim of the game is to get all your coloured pieces to the centre first. It's fairly simple.'
'Sounds simple,' Narcissa agreed. 'Okay Lucius, you go first, so off you go.'
Lucius went first, playing as green, then Narcissa playing as yellow. Hermione was third with purple, Jean fourth with red, Richard with orange fifth, and Draco went last playing as blue.
Thirty minutes later, Narcissa had won the game, leaving Draco and Lucius very annoyed. They really didn't like to lost, which Richard and Jean found very amusing.
'Shall we play another one?' Narcissa asked smugly.
Lucius and Draco were about to say no when Jean and Richard spoke up at the same time.
'Absolutely,' Richard said.
'Of course!' Jean enthused.
Hermione laughed at the sour look on Draco's face. He always hated playing this game because it was mostly down to luck.
'Oh don't be so miserable, Draco,' Hermione laughed at him with a wink.
'Shush, you,' Draco responded with a small smile. He couldn't stay grumpy.
They rolled the dice again to find out Jean would go first this time. They all played the same colours, and at the end of the second game Hermione had won. She was thrilled to have beat Draco again. They were both holding a tally of who won the game the most, and she was currently ahead by three.
'You have some catching up to do,' she gave Draco a wink. He scowled back playfully.
'Okay, enough of that game,' he announced as he began to pack it away again. 'Time for Cluedo next.'
Hermione took the game off him to put it away as Draco set out the Cluedo board. Hermione returned moments later to help Draco set out the board and explain the game.
'So, first things first, we put the player pieces at their start points,' she did just that before she continued. 'Then we each pick a player, so just go by the colour of the pieces. Everyone okay with the same colour as for Frustration?'
Everyone nodded.
'Okay, so there are clue cards that you pick up as you play if you get a magnifying glass when you roll the dice,' Draco said as he held up one of the dice to show his parents. 'When you pick one up you have to read it out loud and do what it says. Then you move how ever many places you got when you rolled the dice.'
'You can't move diagonally, either,' Hermione explained. 'The aim of the game is to figure out who killed the victim, in which room, and with what. These are the cards that show the rooms, suspects and weapons,' Hermione held up the cards. 'We separate them out and shuffle them. Then we select the top one of each pile and put it in this sleeve,' she said as she slid the three cards into the sleeve and placed in the middle of the board. 'No one can look at those until they've made a guess to see if they're right. If they're right, they win, if not, they're out.'
'We shuffle the rest of the cards together and deal them out. It doesn't matter if a couple people have one more than everyone else. These are the clues you start with, so keep them secret. Write them down on these,' Draco handed out the little pieces of detective paper. 'Whenever you get a new clue you mark it off so you can rule things out. Keep it secret.'
'What are these?' Lucius asked as he held up his pencil Draco had given him with his piece of paper.
'Pencils,' Hermione explained. 'They're like quills that don't need ink. You simply write like normal,' she demonstrated.
'I see,' Lucius said as he and Narcissa examined the pencils for a moment longer.
'So, we have to move around the board to all these rooms and other clues to figure out the answers?' Narcissa asked.
'Yes, and when you think you know the answer you can make a guess by going to the room you think it happened in and placing the weapon in there with you. If you're wrong, you're out of the game, so you can't show the answer cards to anyone else unless you're right, in which case you've won.'
'Excellent,' Lucius said simply. 'Shall we start?'
Everyone nodded.
'Red goes first,' Draco said, handing the dice to Jean. 'We won't bother with the characters names. We go around the table clockwise.'
The game started smoothly, though Lucius kept getting a little frustrated that it was taking him longer than he expected to figure out the answers.
After half an hour of playing, Lucius was finally confident enough to make a guess, and made his way around the board to the correct room so he could make his guess.
'I believe it was Professor Plum, with the Candlestick, in the Library,' he announced as he picked up the sleeve of answers. Sliding them out, he looked at each of them carefully before placing them face up in the centre of the board triumphantly.
'Nooo!' Draco cried in annoyance. He had been so close, being only one clue away from being able to make his guess.
'Well done Lucius,' Richard congratulated.
'Thank you very much,' Lucius said graciously.
'Well, I think that's enough of the board games for tonight now,' Hermione announced as she began to pack the board and pieces away. 'Shall we move through to the living room and put the tv on quietly for a bit until the new years countdown? We still have a good hour or so before midnight, I think it'll be nice to just relax.'
Everyone agreed and started to get up to make their way back through to the living room, drinks in hand.
'Would anyone like a drink top up?' Draco asked as Hermione put the game away.
They all said yes and instead followed him into the kitchen to get top ups of their drinks.
'We have some champagne for the countdown as well, I'll bring the bottle and glasses through in a minute so we have them ready.'
Once everyone was back in the living room they settled on the seats they'd previously occupied and placed their drinks on the coffee table while Hermione turned on the tv and lowered the volume. She turned to channel one and left it playing quietly in the background. It was just a standard tv programme on at the moment, but it would change to the news station at half eleven ready for the countdown and to give a recap on the last year.
Draco came through with his own drink and the bottle of champagne before disappearing to the kitchen once more. He returned once again, this time with six champagne glasses that he placed readily on the coffee table. Hermione shot up from her seat suddenly and dashed to the kitchen, only to return moments later with a box of celebration chocolates that she also left on the table.
'I forgot about these,' she explained briefly as she opened the box. 'Help yourselves everyone.'
Everyone helped themselves to a few chocolates and they sat talking quietly and recalling things from the year they'd just had. At about a quarter to twelve Hermione realised the time and she turned the volume of the tv up as the news casters finished a round up of the year.
'It really has been a wonderful year,' Jean said fondly as she leaned into Richard's side.
'I put it all down to these two,' Narcissa gestured to Draco and Hermione. 'Things have been better since they started getting better acquainted last year, and they just shot upwards once they got together.'
'Narcissa is very fond of your daughter,' Lucius said to Jean and Richard.
'As are we of Draco,' Richard responded with a smile at the young pair.
'Can't imagine why,' Narcissa joked, sending her son a wink.
'How about I pour the champagne ready?' Draco asked, hoping to distract them all.
He got up to fetch the bottle from the coffee table and opened it with a loud pop. Everyone cheered as he carefully poured out six glasses of champagne and handed them out.
They all turned back to the tv to see a presenter was outside surrounded by crowds of people who were all in London to see the fireworks.
'Almost time now,' Hermione said. It was five minutes to midnight.
They continued to converse quietly until the sixty second countdown started. They all stood up and counted down together with the tv presenter.
'Three… Two… One… Happy New Year!' They called as Big Ben chimed midnight. Each couple kissed gently.
'Here's to a great year, and hoping this one will be just as good,' Draco said as he held out his champagne glass over the coffee table.
'Cheers!' Everyone said as they copied Draco's movement and clinked glasses.
They all settled back down into their seats to watch the fireworks going off on the tv, and they could hear bangs from nearby as neighbours set off their own.
'This television contraption really is fascinating,' Narcissa said as she watched the fireworks in awe.
They watched the rest of the display quietly until the final embers had dissipated.
'Well, happy new year everyone,' Jean said happily.
'Happy new year,' everyone chorused back quietly.
They all sat quietly together in happiness for a few more minutes before Richard made a move to get up.
'Right, I suppose we had better be going, got to drive back home and get to bed,' he announced as he stood up and held out a hand to help up his wife.
Jean took the offered hand and got up as well.
'Yes, we really ought to be going,' she said as everyone else in the room stood as well. 'Thank you both so much for having us and for the food and the games.'
'Yes, thank you so much,' Narcissa agreed. 'It was lovely to experience some muggle things for a change, and the food was surprisingly good.'
'It was, and the evening has been very fun,' Lucius agreed.
They all began making their way into the hallway so they could collect the coats and cloaks.
'Well thank you so much for coming,' Hermione said. 'I'm so grateful you did. And thank you to you, Draco, for hosting at your house,' she told him as she gave him a kiss on the cheek.
'Anything for you, dear,' he said as he smiled down at her.
They stared at each other for a minute until Jean cleared her throat and they jumped apart.
'Let us get your coats and cloaks,' she said as she grabbed Lucius and Narcissa cloaks from the hooks and handed them over to them. Draco did the same with Jean and Richards coats.
'Do you have a long journey?' Narcissa asked as they all prepared to leave.
'Not too far, it should take about an hour, maybe less since it should be quiet on the roads,' Richard told them.
'I would offer to side apparate you both home, but I'm afraid we would have to leave your travel contraption here, and I imagine you need that,' Lucius laughed.
'Thank you, but we are more than happy to drive anyway,' Jean laughed as well. 'Perhaps one day we'll have to drive you somewhere, let you experience what it's like in our travel contraption yourselves.'
'That sounds terrifying, but fun,' Narcissa laughed. 'Anyway, thank you again for having us dear,' Narcissa said as she gave Draco then Hermione a hug. She then moved to give both Jean and Richard a hug too.
Jean did the same, hugging everyone goodbye, while Richard and Lucius both hugged Hermione and then shook hands with Draco and each other.
'Hopefully we'll see each other all again soon,' Narcissa said as they were on their way out of the door.
'Lovely to see you all, thank you for coming,' Hermione called as they chatted on the way over to the Granger's car. Draco and Hermione waved to them in goodbye before shutting the front door. They could still hear their parents saying their goodbyes outside for another five minutes before they heard the Granger's car start up and the distinct pop of apparition.
The pair sagged a little in relief at having successfully hosted both their parents with a muggle experience. They moved through to the living room to tidy away the glasses, then moved to clean up the kitchen, both using magic to get the place cleaned up quickly. It had been a long evening and the just wanted to go to bed now. Once everything was back to normal, with everything tidied away, the tired couple finally made their way upstairs to go to bed.
Once they were settled they were both thinking the same thing as they drifted off to sleep: that it had been successful New Years together, and hopefully there would be plenty more to come in the future.
A/N: So that's the end of this little book of one shots! Thank you to anyone who has read any of these, especially to the end. Wishing all my readers a Happy New Year for 2023 and hope it's a great one. Thank you again!