"Mother! Father!" Draco exclaimed, coming quickly to my rescue as he appeared beside me. As if to justify my appearance in their house, he took my hand. I glowed.

"Hmm," was all I heard. Draco led me down the stairs anyway, despite the fact I was clearly no longer welcome here.

"Mother, Father, this is Angeline Wint. She's in my house at school."

"That's all is it?" I heard Lucius Malfoy say under his breath as he took my hand. I almost offered it to Narcissa as well, but before I had the chance, she pulled me in and kissed me lightly on both cheeks.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Draco talks about you fondly," she said. I didn't realise that Draco had even written to his family, let alone about me. This also seemed to come as a surprise to Lucius, who looked puzzled at his wife. She gave a tinkling laugh that rang throughout the hall, and then began to walk into the house. The door closed obediently behind her. I marveled at her grace as the house took her bags, zipping them off into a distant room.

"Merry Christmas," she said as an afterthought, turning back round. I started at the words. The encounter had been so surreal, I had forgotten that it was Christmas Eve.

We were led into the large dining room, a room in which I had never been. Draco and I had always eaten dinner in one of the many bedrooms or living rooms. I liked mostly to eat in the library, a room with sky-high black wooden shelves and- my favorite feature- a library ladder.

The dining room, however, was beyond comparison. It had a low ceiling, and from it hung three marvelous chandeliers, each trimmed with gold. They scattered rainbows onto the large, hard wood dining table. We took our places in the middle of the dining table, which could probably sit eighteen comfortably. Me and Draco sat on the high-backed chairs on one side, Lucius and Narcissa in the other.

As we sat, glasses appeared on the table. I saw red wine in Lucius' glass, white in Narcissa's, whilst me and Draco were given Coca-Cola. I almost laughed when I saw it. Draco looked over at me and smiled. Nothing can come of nothing, I reminded myself, he must have prepared this himself.

"So," drawled Lucius Malfoy, "You brought a friend home." he chuckled. "You'll have to excuse me Angeline, but Draco doesn't have many friends."

"Oh, Lucius don't be harsh, Draco has plenty of friends."

"Those two imbecile sons of Crabbe and Goyle do not count." Lucius said, punctuating the last two words with strong 't's.

"Well, I'm sure Angeline is nothing like that, she's probably far more competent in magic than those two." she said disdainfully.

"Well, actually, I only started doing magic this- Ow!" Draco had elbowed me hard in the ribs under the table, but apparently it was too late.

"So you're the squib-girl," he said with sarcastic civility. "Well, well, Draco. We haven't even brought home a proper witch? I would expect nothing more from you I supposed." He sipped his wine as if oblivious to the slicing comment he had just made. He looked like a vampire, such a pale man drinking from a glass of blood red.

"Angeline is certainly a proper witch. She's twice the witch than half the people in our year!"

"Oh? Like you Draco? Why of course, now everything makes sense! Draco, born and raised wizard falls head over heels in love with the squib-girl, but get this," he leant in, as if it were a secret, "They're just as good as each other, which, is no good at all." He leant back with a smile of contempt on his face. It made me want to...

"Wipe that arrogant smile off your face you pompous prig," I started, standing. "How dare you say such things about me? You don't even know me! And as for your son, who you do know, how could you then have the audacity to say those things about him?" I began to shout, and then looked over and saw Draco, sitting with his hands in his lap, staring at the table. I couldn't believe that he wasn't standing up for himself. I stamped hard on his foot.

"Ouch, what the hell was that?" he asked, rocking back and forth in a vain attempt to numb the pain.

"Don't you have anything to add?" I asked, meaningfully, gesturing to his parents, who were still staring at me in utter shock.

"I-uh- no?"

"Don't bother trying to make him speak, it's a lost cause," said Lucius. Suddenly, Draco snapped out of his shell and awoke to the conversation taking place.

"I'm only lost to you, Father." he said.

"Whatever do you mean, Draco?" asked Lucius, infuriatingly calm.

"I mean that maybe I'm not so awful as maybe you would like me to believe. Some people," he took my hand, "want me to better myself. But no, not you. You are terrified that I'll out-rank you, become better than you. How would you be able to live with yourself then? Your own son, more of a man than you are..."

"Draco, that's enough!" exclaimed Narcissa, shocked.

"No, mother, it doesn't even begin to cover the past fifteen years of my existence..."

"Oh, Cissy, if the boy wants to throw a hissy fit, allow him to."

"It is not a hissy fit, Father, it's the long awaited truth." He spat the last word right at his father, and then took my hand roughly and stormed out of the room. He dragged me out to the hall where the house, ever faithful, already had our brooms and luggage waiting. The door duteously swung open to let us out, and the gate had the same consistency as when we entered, and all the time we laughed.

"That... was... amazing," panted Draco. "I've never stood up to that man before!"

"I... I noticed," I gasped back. Then, Draco stopped laughing instantaneous, and he looked into my eyes. It was that penetrating gaze I had seen that day outside Umbridge's office, but without the pity. Now it said something stronger, something that stopped my laughter as well.

Slowly, unsure, Draco raised my hand and took it to his chest. I felt heat underneath my palm, and could feel the defined muscles that lay below them. Most of all, I could feel his heart, pounding into fingers. Wordlessly, he then drew me in and tenderly kissed me. Then again. Then again. Our kisses grew deeper as he pulled me completely into him, and I melted into his body. Suddenly, the world was holding its breath. Malfoy Manor, Lucius, Narcissa, albino peacocks, they all shrank into the dark corners of my mind as all that was light was consumed in this kiss. We broke apart to draw a breath.

"I love you." Draco whispered.

I paused, and it was as if he had realised what he had done. He withdrew, and glanced up at me hopefully. When I said nothing, he summoned up his courage. I saw it swelling in his chest, making himself even larger.

"I love you, Angeline," he said again, but bolder. My heart leapt from my chest and took to its wings, soaring high above the clouds and leaving me breathless. I knew at once that he was telling the truth. I also knew that I was as well when I said;

"I love you too, Draco." We kissed again, and then mounted our brooms and flew off into the frosted midnight sky