December 16 - wrapping presents

"How are we going to do this?" Draco whispered as the two men tiptoed down the stairs past the sleeping children's rooms.

"I thought maybe we'd put the presents under the tree they match."

"So Muggle ones under the tree in eleven and the magical ones here in the drawing room?"

"Yes and maybe one toy for each under the playroom tree."

"I like that idea. I was also wondering where we're going to wrap. I didn't know if we wanted to be doing that here where the kids might come down, but if we're in eleven it would be harder for them to find us if they need us."

"We can wrap in eleven, but leave the door open as long as we keep something close by to throw over the unwrapped presents."

"Or what if we keep the unwrapped ones in the theater room and wrap them in the drawing room. We can close the door magically if we need."

Harry nodded, "That sounds like the best idea. Okay, let's get everything we're going to wrap and bring it down," he said as he opened the cabinet door.

"Are you wrapping with magic?" Harry asked as he watched Draco unroll the paper and placed a box on it.

"No, it never turns out right when I do that, and I've tried multiple times. My mother is great at it."

"So is Molly. I've never gotten the hang of it, and neither has Hermione. It's making her crazy. She thinks it would be much faster, and there are better things she can do with her time."

"Wait, something Granger can't do with magic? Really?"

"She's also pretty much pants at cleaning spells, though she's still better than I am, just one reason I didn't fight too hard with Kreacher about staying. She is also amazing at wrapping by hand. Every package comes out perfectly. Ron, on the other hand, no matter how he wraps it's a disaster. His presents always look like a five-year-old wrapped them. Though, come to think of it some of our kids could probably wrap better than him."

"And that doesn't surprise me at all. Pansy can wrap with a flick of her wand like it's the easiest thing in the world. Theo is okay. I can do it if forced but not well so I prefer not to."

"And Blaise?"

"Blaise pays someone to wrap gifts for him."

Harry laughed. "That's the solution. I think Ginny does that too as I've never actually seen her wrap a gift."

"Having been shopping with her I can confirm that," Draco noted. "I didn't actually see her have it done, but she mentioned that she would. She said it was just because she didn't have the time with practices and games, but I wondered."

"I think she's just too big a ball of energy to sit still long enough to wrap presents."

"Once upon a time I would have thought the same of you," Draco mentioned as he creased and folded paper.

"And you're the one I would have expected to pay to have it done for you."

"Once upon a time I would have, absolutely. I would never have bothered to wrap my own presents when I could get someone else to do it. Though, to be honest, I probably wouldn't even have paid. I would have made the house elves do it," Draco admitted. "What are those?"

"A building toy," Harry replied.

"Not the snap-together ones they have upstairs though."

"Those are Lego, these are K*Nex. They also snap together but in a different way."

"It seems Muggles have more toys than we do."

"George is working on closing that gap."

"So he's moving into toys as well as jokes?"

"He's been looking at various Muggle toys, spending time in Arthur's shed. Last I saw he had magical rubber ducks that spit water at you on their own in the bath randomly without being squeezed. He's also working on a jack-in-the-box that will pop out and have a conversation with you. I know there are more, but I don't remember what they all are. I didn't buy any of them, though."

"Probably a good idea for now. The kids would just get them all mixed up."

They wrapped a while longer, each passing back and forth between the door to place presents under the appropriate tree and grabbing a new present from the stack to wrap. Draco kept a checklist at his side to mark off each gift for each child as it was wrapped.

"I've been thinking," Harry said.

"This sounds dangerous," Draco observed.

"Thanks a lot."

"Sarcasm is my first language you know."

"I would never have guessed."

"Of course not, since it's also yours."

"Very funny," Harry said, rolling his eyes.

"No, sarcastic."

"How many rounds of this are we going to do?"

"I'm done now."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Ok then, I've been thinking. We've been teaching the kids for several months now. I'm wondering if we could put all but the youngest ones in the school down the street next year."

"Is that a good idea?"

"I don't know. I'd like for them to be able to begin to socialize with kids their age that they don't live with, but I worry about accidental magic. We can talk to them about things that have to stay private, that they can't share with others."

"Is that fair to them? Wouldn't you have to explain to the school why you have so many kids? How would you do that?"

"I don't know," Harry sighed. "It's probably not feasible. I wanted them to have a fairly normal childhood experience, and school would be that."

"Except they are magical children and school at home is normal for most of us," Draco pointed out. "I think you're worrying too much. If you want we can find other families with children their ages and do lessons together or schedule playdates or go places together."

"That might be a good idea. We can look into that after Christmas. Maybe McGonagall can direct us to families with younger kids."

"Now that we've discussed that. I have a question for you on a totally different topic."

"Ask."

"You have this tapestry as covered as you can get, why didn't you remove it? Is it one of the things with the Permanent sticking charm? Have you tried fixing it? Would you want it fixed if it could be?"

"That was four questions by the way."

"Yes, I suppose it was. Are you going to answer any of them?"

"It is permanently stuck. I could have removed the whole wall, but I'd rather not do that much destruction. This is a lode-bearing wall after all."

"Did you just rhyme?"

"And not even on purpose. I think I'm getting tired."

"Maybe we should wrap this up then."

"Wrap it up?" Harry lifted an eyebrow.

"Yeah, maybe I'm tired too."

"Wrap this up?" Harry repeated and began to laugh.

Draco huffed indignantly while trying to hide a smile. It didn't last long before he was also laughing.

"Yeah, maybe it's time for bed. We can always wrap more another day," Harry wheezed when they finally settled down. "Let's put the rest of this away and come back to it tomorrow."

"Good idea." Each man finished wrapping the present in front of them, placed it under the correct tree, and carried the leftovers up to their hiding places.

"Who knew wrapping presents could actually be so much fun," Draco commented as they climbed the stairs.

"I think maybe it's only that way when you're doing it with someone you enjoy spending time with," Harry observed. "Otherwise it's not."

"I think that made sense."

"It did, you're just tired. It will make more sense when you're not tired."

"I'll take your word for it."

Harry nodded sagely. "You should, I've wrapped presents by myself several times and it was never as fun as tonight."

"Glad I could help make things more enjoyable."

"You make things more enjoyable every day."

Draco froze, hand on his door. "Well," he stammered. "You're welcome, and thank you."

Harry didn't respond, just smiled at the other man.