Another Year of Christmas Disasters
By SilverWolf7007
Two: Eleven Pipers
"Can anyone else smell baking?"
"Yeah. That's odd, I've never walked into the Gryffindor Common Room and busted them cooking before."
"Blaise, Theodore, shut up and explain to me exactly why we are in the Gryffindor Common Room in the first place?" Draco sighed, leaning against the wall next to the entrance to the room.
Theodore rolled his eyes and held up a sheet of parchment. "Because we received a mysterious invitation and voted to accept it in a very democratic manner," he explained. Blaise thought he was being remarkably patient, considering this was at least the sixteenth time he had had to do so.
"Since when does Slytherin house accept anything less than dictatorship as a method of decision-making?"
"Stop whining, Draco." Blaise was amused to notice that the palm tree from the previous year was once more the focal point of the Gryffindor Christmas decorations, though there also seemed to be a small forest of decorated pine trees in the corner. "You had fun last year, didn't you?"
"Absolutely not," Draco denied immediately, but Blaise knew better and didn't bother even acknowledging the blond's protest.
"Seriously though, Blaise is right, something is cooking in here."
"Try asking the idiot brigade over there what's going on, then," Draco huffed, gesturing to where several Gryffindors and one lost Ravenclaw were crowded around a table. Theodore chose to take his advice and headed over.
Blaise figured it might be safer to ask those not involved, and made his way over to the couches by the fire, where Dean was beating Hermione at chess and Parvati was threatening Seamus with a tube of mascara. Draco wavered for a few moments but ended up following Blaise.
Hermione looked up at them, seeming mildly surprised and also relieved to have an excuse to ignore the chess game. "Blaise, Draco, what brings you to our Common Room?"
Draco snorted and fell into an armchair with an overly dramatic sigh. Hermione and Blaise both rolled their eyes. "Potter, obviously."
Parvati looked to Blaise. "My, he seems even more hostile than usual," she commented as she lowered her mascara. Seamus slumped in relief.
"I think he's worried he's going to end up having a good time again like last year," Blaise revealed, ignoring Draco's attempt to kick his shins. "Harry sent us an invitation - well he didn't sign it, but we know it was him. So we figured we'd come up, because even if Draco's in denial, Theodore and I thought it sounded fun."
"Well, so far no one has been injured," Seamus commented. "Though, when it gets quiet in here you can still hear the Christmas carols being drummed from the depths of the forest."
Draco glanced over at the pine trees and frowned. "Now that you mention it, I can hear something. What is it?"
"Monkeys," Seamus replied matter of factly. "Twelve of them. Drumming."
"I'm not even going to ask," Blaise decided. "Anyway, what are that lot up to?" he added, gesturing to the group that Theodore had now apparently joined.
Hermione gave a wry smile. "Harry bribed the house elves - and by bribed I really just mean he asked them nicely - into baking a large batch of gingerbread man cookies and ship them immediately up here once they were ready, which is why it smells as though we've been baking in here. And now they're decorating."
Blaise grinned. "Now that does sound fun." He grabbed Draco's arm and dragged his reluctant friend to his feet. "Come on, Draco, I don't want to miss this."
"That's all well and good," Draco complained as Blaise pulled him across the room. "But why do I have to come along?"
"Because it's fun!" Harry called out, peering across the table over Dennis and Luna's shoulders. "Come on, boys, I invited you today for a reason."
"Cookie icing?" Draco asked sceptically, allowing himself to be manoeuvred into place between Theodore and Harry. Ginny shoved a piping bag into his hands.
"Yes," Harry said solemnly. "Cookie icing."
Blaise took a bag of yellow icing from Ron and set to work on giving the gingerbread man in front of him blond hair. "I think I'll make a Draco-cookie."
"I do recall the Draco-cookie of my Christmas gift last year being perhaps the most delectable of the batch," Luna commented, giving her own cookie sparkly blue eyes (and Blaise didn't even want to know how she had made the icing glittery without actual glitter, which wasn't exactly edible).
"Why must I always be a cookie?" Draco lamented. No one answered him, so he just gave in and began piping.
"So why aren't the other four helping out in decorating these?" Theodore asked eventually, narrowly avoiding squirting icing across the table when Colin bumped his elbow.
"Because apparently, only eleven of us are allowed to help, and you three and Luna had pre-booked slots, according to Harry," Ginny explained, shrugging helplessly. "And I've found it's pointless to try and reason with a madman."
"Why eleven, is what I want to know," Neville muttered, squeezing a little too hard and coating the cookie's entire head with red icing. "Oops."
Lavender smiled knowingly. "Eleven pipers piping," she said, confusing most of them. Colin and Dennis rolled their eyes.
"I'm more worried about the future," Dean called over. "I don't know if the Gryffindor Common Room is big enough for that many birds."
Harry gave a maniacal cackle. "You'll just have to wait and see, my pretties."
"Tinsel birds?" Luna asked hopefully. "Oh, please Santa Harry, can't we have tinsel birds?"
He just shrugged, frowning thoughtfully. "I don't know, Luna...you're not wearing your Santa outfit, maybe you don't deserve tinsel birds."
Luna's eyes went impossibly wide. "Please excuse me, everyone," she murmured, dropping her icing bag and backing away from the table. "I appear to have forgotten something extraordinarily essential in my Common Room. I will return in more appropriate attire as soon as possible."
"Well, maybe tinsel birds, then."
Look, Slytherins!
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