AN: I know this is a shorter chapter, sorry. Please read and review. Thanks!

Chapter 7

Christmas

December 25, 1998

It was Christmas morning. All of the Weasley's plus, Harry, Hermione, and Ashira were all sitting down eating a wonderful Christmas breakfast at The Burrow. Ashira had never experienced Christmas before, she comes from a Jewish background and they don't celebrate Christmas. She found all of this wonderful. She was ever so grateful to everyone for including her. She even received presents. She couldn't believe it. She thought that Ginny and Hermione were going to hate her but they had proved her wrong. She had never met Percy or Charlie before and was very pleased to be able to meet them. Charlie had brought a girl from Romania home. It appeared they were getting very serious. Percy was very quiet and didn't speak much. Ron said he was still feeling very guilty about the death of Fred, even though no one blamed him at all. Fred was a causality of war as much as it hurt.

The entire Weasley clan stayed far away from the topic of Fred. It was going to be a joyful day, there had already been too much sadness. They wanted happiness.

George gave everyone gifts from his shop. Most of the things were new products that has been made after the war. Everyone loved them, even Mrs. Weasley. Mrs. Weasley had made sweaters, scarfs, or hats for everyone. Harry and Hermione had bought gifts for everyone as well. After breakfast and presents all the boys, Ginny, and Ashira went to the pitch to play Quidditch. Hermione and Charlie's girlfriend, Crina, sat on a bench outside and watched everyone for a while until it got too cold and they went in and prepared hot chocolate for everyone to have when they came in. Hermione still wanted to go for a ride on a broom. She'd talk to Harry about it later. She still needed that thrill.

Luke had been having a quiet holiday at Hogwarts. There weren't many students that decided to stay over the break. He had been spending most of his time studying for his N.E.W.T.s and just relaxing. Hermione had given him a complete set of books on wizarding law. He had been spending some time reading that as well. She had really outdone herself. He hoped she liked her gift. They had just been bath salts, but they were very expensive plus she loved that rose sent. Suddenly the floo in his head boy dorm roared to life. He hoped it was Hermione, but no such luck. It was Michael Corner.

Michael and Luke had both been in Ravenclaw and both been members of the DA. Michael was excellent at potions, he was better than any of the Slytherins and Hermione. Luke had never seen Snape like anyone and he liked Michael due to his aptness in potions. He had chosen not to come back to Hogwarts after the war and he said he was going to finish his education somewhere else. He said he couldn't handle being at Hogwarts anymore. Too much pain. Luke and Michael had remained friends after the war. They wrote each other fairly often. Michael was having a very difficult time dealing with what he saw and everything he experienced in the war. He was not fairing well at all. He had started the year at a school in Canada but was not able to complete the year. He was having way too difficult of a time. He would just randomly freak out and then melt down. He was now living in a muggle neighborhood not far from two fairly large wizarding communities in Blaine, Washington, United States and was working in a chemical plant. He said mixing ingredients was like potions which was the only thing that was keeping him sane.

"Hey mate, how are you doing?" Michael asked.

"Merry Christmas mate. I'm doing well. I think the better question is how are you doing? You don't look well. You look quite sickly."

"I'm not doing well. I am seeing things. I keep seeing death eaters and even Voldemort. I know he is dead and I know some of the death eaters I think I'm seeing are dead too. I was there when Harry killed Voldemort, I even killed Rodolphus, myself. I don't know why I am seeing things. I keep waking up in places and I have no idea how I got there." Michael said wearily.

"Have you thought about checking into a magical hospital? You could come back and even go to St. Mungo's. You need to get help, Michael, or you're going to hurt yourself or someone else."

"I know I need help, I am afraid I've already hurt myself and probably someone else. I can't go to a hospital though. I can't do it. I need to go now, Luke. Thanks for listening. I hope you've had a Merry Christmas." and with that Michael shut off the floo connection. Towards the end of their conversation Michael got very antsy and his breathing was labored.

Luke sat back down and mulled what Michael said over. His friend was in the middle of a freak out and he couldn't do anything about it. He felt bad for his friend. He wanted to help his friend but he had no idea how to do that. Maybe he'd be able to talk to Hermione about it when she got back to Hogwarts. She always knew what to do or had ideas at least.

Draco spent most of Christmas Day at The Manor with his mother. She had loved the hutch. She was so excited about it that she had the house elves put it where she wanted it and fill it imminently. She then got rid of the other pieces of furniture that she was tired of. They had enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner. This Christmas was very different than any other Christmas Draco had experienced. His mother was happy and there was music in the house. His mother even had his Aunt Andromeda and his cousin, Teddy, over for Christmas dinner. Draco knew that his mother had been in contact with his aunt after the war ended but didn't know they were on good enough terms to have her over for Christmas dinner. Draco wasn't really sure how he felt about the kid. The kid kept changing his hair color. He forgot that Teddy's mother was a metamorphmagus. He guess that Teddy had gotten that gene from her, better than the werewolf from his father. The evening was pleasant. He did enjoy talking to his aunt. Her feelings about blood were almost mirrored to his own. He really did have a lot of Black in him. His father would be ashamed. He realized that the lack of presence by his father was what made everything so enjoyable. His father was serving a 40 year sentence in Azkaban. He couldn't say he was upset by this. His father wasn't a good person. With his father gone everything fell into place. Into a comfortable pace and he and his mother got along wonderfully.

After the dinner his aunt and cousin left to stop by the Weasley's for dessert. Harry needed to see Teddy. Teddy, after all, was Harry's godson. Draco decided he should head home too. He would try to floo Roddy. He wanted to make sure he'd gotten his owl. He bid his mother goodnight and thanked her for the wonderful Christmas. When he got home he showered and grabbed a carton of ice cream and sat down to floo Roddy but before he could Roddy floo'd him.

"Hey mate, I was just getting ready to floo you."

"Great minds think alike don't they, buddy? How was your Christmas?"

"It's been great. What about yours?"

They talked about their day for a while. They talked about how there hadn't been any killings in about a week then Ronnie said, now to the real conversation.

At this Draco groaned. " Roddy. What is wrong with me? She is Hermione frickin' Granger. She is a muggle born, not that that matters. I tormented her for years and she still acts civil towards, maybe even kind. Why am I all the sudden attracted to her?"

Roddy laughed and said, "Maybe because for the first time you're able to look at her like a girl and not like a mud-blood. You're allowed to see her for who she is and not where she comes from. You can see that she is attractive, smart, funny, and obviously kind without fear of being hurt by your father or being judged by anyone. Y'all have grown up in the past 7 months. Since the war ended you've been allowed to be true to yourself. You've probably always thought these things about her but have pushed them back so far in your subconscious that you didn't even know they were there."

"Maybe. You're probably right. I should owl her. I should ask her to go to lunch with me one day. Do you think I should? Oh, did I mention that she offered to help with everything if we need her?"

"Yes, you should invite her out to supper one night. We might have to take her ... hold on Draco someone else is trying to connect to me. I'll floo you back in a moment." Roddy ended the floo.

Draco sat there and thought about inviting Hermione out to dinner or lunch. Lunch- it was less "date like", he just wanted to get to know someone who wasn't going to turn their nose up at him because of his past or use him for his name or money. Hermione was pretty and was kind. She would make a good friend. Friend. Just a friend.

Roddy disconnected the floo from Draco and answered the floo call from his boss, Johnny Ray. Roddy knew it wasn't good news if Johnny Ray was flooing him on Christmas, at home.

"Hey Johnny Ray, what's going on? There a problem?" Roddy said when he answered the floo.

"The bastard has struck again. He's killed an entire family in Washington, DC. He killed them while they were having Christmas supper. Damn. Ain't this supposed to be a day of joy? This bastard just off and killed 2 kids and their parents and the grandma at the supper table." Johnny Ray said.

"Well durn. We don't even get Christmas off. I'll be in in just a few minutes. I've got to floo someone real quick and then I'll head in."

"Thanks Roddy, sorry to ruin your Christmas."

"No problem Johnny Ray. It's part of our job."

Roddy shut the floo down then called Draco back. "Hey buddy, we are going to have to finish this conversation later. The bastard has struck again. He'd killed 2 kids, mom, dad, and grandma in DC. It's frickin' Christmas. You'd think he'd be with his family or something. Durn. I'm sorry bud."

"I'm sorry, Roddy. My problems can wait. Let me know if you want me to see if Hermione can help us. Good luck!" Draco said and he cut the floo off.