December 2 - Decorating the house

Draco slumped into his chair at the kitchen table looking rather bedraggled. His hair was messy, his eyes were bloodshot, and his clothes rumpled as if he'd slept in them. "Where's the gang?"

"They're all making use of the new coloring books and crayons they got from their calendars. I was beginning to wonder when we'd see you. I think they're in their rooms. I told them they could use the pictures to help decorate when we start doing that."

"That's today?"

"Did you forget?"

Draco yawned, "Maybe, I don't know. I didn't sleep well last night."

"You had caffeine too late again," Harry gently scolded. "I thought you were only drinking decaffeinated teas after dinner. You know what caffeine does to you."

"Yes, well," Draco lifted his mug. "Hair of the dog. I won't forget again."

"You've said that before. I have a feeling I'll hear it again."

"Maybe, or we could set a timed ward on the caffeinated tea cabinet."

"Maybe you should give up caffeine entirely."

"Bite your tongue!," Draco said in horror. "Give me just a few minutes and I'll be good to go. We're starting with the hallways right?"

"The stairs, greening the banisters. The pine garlands were delivered yesterday. They're sitting in boxes in the library."

"Is it really a good idea to wrap the banisters? Some of the kids still use them when they come down the stairs."

Harry nodded. "We won't wrap them completely, there will be gaps they can hold on to as they need. After the stairs, the rest will be hung in the main hallway and around the top of the drawing room, the library, and the playroom."

"We add red bows to the points where the swags are attached when all of the garlands are hung, right?"

Harry nodded. "And the large glittery gold ornaments from the same points."

"This is going to take all day isn't it?"

"You really never did the decorating at the Manor?" Harry asked.

The blond head shook. "My mother? You must be joking. We had professionals come in to decorate the entire house, every swag, every tree, every everything. I never touched a single decoration. We didn't even have a family tree that we decorated ourselves. There were family heirloom ornaments but they were handled by the professionals as well. You, on the other hand, I imagine had to do nearly all of the work yourself."

"Not the tree," Harry said looking aghast. "I didn't dare touch the tree. Petunia would have sent me to my cupboard for a month. I got yelled at for even looking at it or the presents underneath, not that it mattered since none of them were ever for me. I'm lucky they even let me out of my room on Christmas, though if they didn't she would have had to do the cooking. It was nearly enough for her to ask me to come back home second year after she'd cooked first year. She didn't but I could see she wanted to. I did hang the swags every year. She made Vernon do the outside of the house as I was only allowed out to go to school or in the back garden or down to Mrs. Figg's house. Neither of them really wanted anyone to see me. They preferred to pretend I didn't exist unless they needed me to do something for them. They didn't want to have to explain to anyone where I came from. I have no idea why as they lied every time anyway, that damned story that my parents were killed in an automobile accident."

An eyebrow raised but Draco didn't comment just shook his head, took another drink of tea, and asked, "And you've not really decorated this place before either?"

"Who had time during Auror training? I suppose I could have, but we didn't even really spend time here doing anything for Christmas. Ron and I both went to the Burrow on Christmas Eve every year and stayed there until the twenty-sixth. We were home so rarely other than that it just never seemed worth the time it would take to put them up and take them down."

"We're not doing trees today, right, just the other decorations?"

"Nope, no trees yet."

"When are we doing that and how many trees are we putting up anyway?" Draco asked, eyeing Harry carefully, he wasn't sure he was going to like the answer. "You told me you wanted to keep that a surprise. Are you still going to keep it a secret or do I get to be in on it?"

"I'm thinking two. One in the drawing room for Christmas morning and one in the playroom."

"That's it? Really that's all?"

"I'd love to put one in each kid's room, but that's just too much to keep track of and keep alive. I know we can use a stasis spell but that seems wrong somehow. I was wondering, would your mother mind if we cut a tree from the Manor property? You have evergreens don't you? Otherwise, we can find a Muggle tree farm."

Draco nodded. "We do and I'm sure for you and the children she won't care at all, no need to go anywhere else. We should let her know when we want to do it though."

"I was thinking about the fourteenth, so we don't have to keep the trees alive for too long. We can go in the morning and cut down trees, then spend the afternoon decorating them."

"I'll let her know."

"Ok then, it's about time to start getting this house festive."

"So, direct me wherever you wish and tell me what to do. I'm yours to use, to decorate the day away."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "You should probably eat something first. I'm going to head up and start unpacking the garland."

Draco picked up a slice of toast, took a bite, then saluted Harry with it.

I'm yours to use, what the hell was I thinking? Why did I say it that way? He tossed the toast aside, stomach now too upset to take any more. If he got hungry later it would just remind him to think before speaking.

I'm yours to use, Harry thought as he went up the stairs, that was not the way I expected that to go, and why did that phrasing leave me feeling… How am I feeling? What is this? What is going on? He shook his head. I have to concentrate on decorating.

An hour later they both stood wands raised sending the pine garland into graceful arcs around the playroom. As the last one settled into place Harry reached for the ladder moving it in place to hang the ornaments.

"Why aren't you using magic to do this part?"

"Some things I think are just better done by hand."

"I'll take your word for it. So, should I hand the ornaments up to you?"

"Yes, please."

They slowly worked their way around the room. Harry moved the ladder and climbed up and down, Draco went back and forth from the ornament box, attaching a ribbon and then handing the ornament to Harry to hang. When they had reached the middle of the room Harry had to stand on the very top of the ladder to reach the highest point of the peak. The ladder began to wobble. Draco's eyes went wide and without thinking, he rushed to grab it and steady it. He didn't make it in time. Harry couldn't keep his balance, hard as he tried rocking back and forth trying to offset the rocking of the ladder, and he fell. Draco managed to get under Harry and catch him though they both hit the floor and had the wind knocked out of them.

"Thank you," Harry said when he'd caught his breath.

'"Not a problem," Draco replied. "Next time use magic for the high parts though, or stick the ladder to the floor, or something, please. I don't think my heart can take that again." Bloody hell! My heart? Damn, that was stupid. I have got to stop speaking without thinking first. You'd think this morning would have been enough of a reminder of that.

"I'm not sure mine can either. I had flashes of the children being farmed out to any number of people because some idiot at the Ministry decided to ignore my directive that you be their guardian."

"What happened?" Liam asked from the top of the stairs looking at the two men sprawled in a heap on the floor.

"Harry fell off the ladder," Draco answered.

Freya, who was standing next to Liam, gasped. "And you caught him?"

"He did," Harry confirmed.

"You're a hero!" Fiona announced.

"Yes, he is," Harry responded.

"I am not," Draco protested gruffly.

"Yes you are," Freya argued. "He fell and you saved him. He could have been very hurt and now he's not. You saved our dad. That means you're a hero."

"My hero," Harry sighed dramatically and wiggled his eyebrows at Draco with a chuckle.

The blond shoved him, "Get off me, Potter." He fought to slow his heart rate and his breathing. Harry might be making it a joke, but he had been seriously frightened by the fall. He didn't want to let that show, however.

"I'm going, I'm going," Harry laughed as he stood and brushed himself off then reached down a hand to help Draco off the floor.

The other man looked at the hand and hesitated only a second before taking it and rising to his feet. "Are we done here now?" He asked as he took a turn brushing himself off.

"Yes, I believe so."

Both men looked around at the dark green pine garland swags with their red ribbons and metallic ornaments hanging low from sparkling ribbons.

"It's not quite perfect," Draco commented.

"Nothing ever is," Harry protested.

"Oh yes it can be," the blond retorted. "Just wait until you see the Manor. I do believe Mother has managed to find decorators willing to come this year. She insists on perfection. It simply wouldn't do to have things not be perfectly even or even a smidge off-center. You can be assured she would send measuring tape soaring up and measuring each and every space to be sure it was perfect. Tree ornaments had to be placed exactly perfectly spaced apart from each one around it."

"That sounds boring."

"It is," Draco confirmed. "I think I prefer this with its slight imperfections. It looks more natural. However, you are not using the ladder up here next year unless we get a taller one. I'll float you up there if I have to instead. Now, off to the main floor."

"It's lunchtime," Freya pointed out. "Kreacher says come eat. You could really hurt yourself if you keep working while you're hungry so you should come to eat."

She didn't wait for a response, simply turned and headed down. The two men shook their heads and chuckled.

"Little momma," Harry muttered, then turned to Draco with a twinkle in his eye. "Shall we surprise her?"

The blond smirked. "Yes, let's."

He took Harry's arm and they twisted on the spot landing in the kitchen with enough time to sit down and begin eating just before the children came down themselves.

Freya regarded them with a fierce look, hands on her hips. "How did you do that?" She demanded. "You were all the way up in the playroom. How did you get down here before the rest of us? Did you do that thing you do to take us to Grandma Molly's? I thought you could only do that outside. You can do it inside like Winky and Kreacher too?"

"Yes, we can and you will learn how to do it yourself when you are sixteen," Draco replied as Harry began serving food out to the children's plates. "It's called apparition. You learn to do it at Hogwarts, when you turn seventeen you will take a test if you want to be able to do it all the time."

"A test?" Freya asked.

"What's a test?" Marcus wanted to know.

"You have to show that you can do it correctly and safely. The examiner will tell you a place to go and you have to get there and land exactly where you're supposed to," Harry explained.

"Tests are also given in your classes. They are often called exams or assessments. It's the same idea, you have to show that you know what you were supposed to learn," Draco added.

"Like when you ask us our letters and numbers?" Liam asked.

"Yes," Draco smiled. "Something like that."

"Are all of your pictures ready to hang?" Harry asked after they had finished eating.

Ten heads nodded up and down.

"Go get them then. We'll start putting them up in the hallway."

Draco set about clearing the table. "You go ahead and do that. I'll finish up here and start with the pine garland in the drawing room. I can pop up and get the ladder and use it or I can just float it up. It won't be perfect, I promise."

"They'll want you to see their pictures, you know that."

"So you hang them all up and I can see them all at once like a museum. They can each tell me about their picture."

"Ok, that's actually not a bad idea, but next time the kids decorate you supervise."

"That's fair."

Draco heard the giggling and children all talking over each other as they all wanted to tell what they'd colored and why, or even to ask for those that couldn't yet read and hadn't asked one of the other children. The first thing he'd done in the room was to cast a charm that kept him from hearing exactly what they said but didn't drown out the sound of their joy and excitement.

He had the entire bough up and decorated with its bows and ornaments and had set to cleaning the rest of the room since he didn't want to go into the hallway and disrupt the goings on or ruin the surprise. Finally, he had nothing left to do so he sat in one of the chairs near the fireplace and began thumbing through a catalog that had come by owl mail a few days ago.

"Draco, Draco, Draco," several voices called from the hallways. "Come see! Come see!"

He entered the hallway and looked at the walls now papered with freshly colored pages.

"Oh my! It looks like just about every Christmas picture ever. I see trees, cookies, snowflakes, presents, reindeer, and Santa Claus. Why does that one have a red nose?" He pointed to a picture.

Harry laughed. "I guess you've never heard of Rudolph?"

"Rudolph?"

"Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer."

"Santa has a reindeer with a red nose?"

"It glows," Teddy said.

"It glows?" Draco repeated. "Potter, what are you teaching them?"

"We can do magic. There are magical creatures and you can't handle the idea of a reindeer with a glowing red nose?"

"No."

Harry laughed. "It's really a Christmas story and song."

"It's a song?"

"Would you like me to sing it for you?" Harry offered, feigning innocence.

"Maybe later. Is this an elf?"

"That's mine," Fiona said.

Draco complimented her and then each child as he looked at every single picture in the hallway.

"You all did such a wonderful job making the house look like Christmas. What do you think?" He asked them.

"I wanna decorate my room," Caela insisted.

"Me too!"

"Uh-huh."

"I wanna too!"

"Ok," Harry held up his hands. "You all have more coloring pages, you can color one for each of your siblings and we can hang them in your rooms. Then maybe we can add something else."

"I'll hang them," Draco said.

Harry's eyes opened wide. "Are you sure about that?"

"It's my turn. If you all color pictures I'll help you decorate your rooms. We'll do it in a few days. I have some ideas."

"You have some ideas?" Harry muttered.

"You're going to love it," Draco promised.

Harry was pretty sure he was right, and for reasons he couldn't explain the thought kept him awake for hours that night.