For the Christmas Holidays, Professor Dumbledore had announced that the break would be extended by an extra few days because of the Ball taking up the first days of Christmas. Aimee had decided to spend her Christmas break with her uncle in the country, after receiving an invitation from him by owl. Her Uncle Wilfred liked the quiet life in the small town of Allendale, located in Northumberland, not too far from Newcastle, where he had his own farm. He managed this farm on his own, but it wasn't too much work for he was a wizard and used magic to do most of the heavy pulling and strenuous chores and he enjoyed the peaceful life he could lead. Uncle Wilfred claimed life on a farm was much better than living in the Wizarding community as he found the company of cows more appealing than the ever irritating presence of the Ministry.

When Aimee walked through the barrier of Platform 9 ¾ and into King's Cross Station she found him waiting for her. He waved his hand and smiled. Uncle Wilfred was a tall man, much taller than most, with black hair and blue-grey eyes and broad shoulders. He was the youngest of four children, though he never looked it, because he'd outgrown all his siblings by the time he was twelve. He was constantly teased by his older brother, and Aimee's father, Geoffrey, for being so tall. Aimee hugged her Uncle, but only reached up to his waist. He gave Aimee a toothy grin as he took her trolley from her hands.

"How was the ball?" he asked in his deep and soothing voice. Aimee had always found her uncle a reassuring presence.

"It was great, really enjoyed myself" Aimee answered, feeling herself blush. Uncle Wilfred saw this, but said nothing, he remembered his own parties from his childhood quite well, and knew exactly what kinds of things kids her age got up to.

"How are we getting to the farm?" Aimee asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, we're going by Floo." He answered, "From the Leaky Cauldron"

After sending Aimee's trunk away with a flick of his wand, the two of them walked together to the Leaky Cauldron and used the fireplace to transport themselves to Uncle Wilfred homely abode. Uncle Wilfred lived in a small, two-storey cottage in the centre of his farmland. Stepping out of the fireplace and into a small sitting room with two soft plush armchairs, a wooden coffee table and photographs of various family members on the wall, Aimee walked out into the hallway. To her right was the front door, to her left and all the way down at the end of the hallway, was the family room. She quickly made her way down to the family and stopped at the antique wooden piano; which could be seen from the hallway.

Whilst her Uncle busied himself with making tea, Aimee sat at the piano and lifted the lid, and with satisfying plonk of piano notes, dropped her hands onto the black and white keys.

"Aimee! Come into the kitchen!"

Annoyed, Aimee got up and trudged into the kitchen, kicking her shoes off on the way. Uncle Wilfred didn't seem to notice. Instead, he placed a steaming mug of tea on the round wooden table in the centre of the kitchen, before sitting down with his own mug. Aimee sat.

"So," Uncle Wilfred started, taking a sip, "are you going to invite any friends?"

Aimee halted her sip, with the mug only a centimetre away from her mouth.

"You mean, I can invite friends?"

"Of course, why not. It's not Christmas without friends!"

"But Christmas was two days ago" Aimee corrected

"New Years then?" he smiled and took another sip. Before either of them could continue, there was a knock at the front door and Uncle Wilfred stood up to answer. Aimee sat at the table, carefully sipping her tea. She could hear her Uncle and the voice of a young woman, it sounded a bit like flirtatious banter. Aimee stopped, and looked suspiciously through the archway and into the hall. At the sound of footsteps, she quickly went back to her mug.

"Aimee," she heard her Uncle say, "this is Laura, she's my neighbour."

Aimee looked up and saw a very pretty young girl, probably in her twenties, standing next to her Uncle. She was a bit on the short side, and had curly black that was pulled up into a messy bun. She had hazel eyes and a nice smile; she was wearing jeans, work boots and a tight jacket. Aimee could see by the way they were standing there was something going on between them. Aimee stood and shook hands with Laura, who spoke with a soft voice,

"Hi Aimee, your Uncle has told me all about you"
Aimee felt a small twang of contempt

"Funny, he never mentioned you."

And the two let go of each other's hands. Uncle Wilfred quickly saw the tension between the two and stepped in,

"Laura only moved in next door a few months ago," he explained, "she bought out the property"

"I'm sure" Aimee said with a sweet smile, and sat back in her seat.

"Well, I should be going." Laura said, she wasn't stupid, she could see Aimee didn't want her there,

"Nice meeting you Aimee" she said politely, and left the kitchen, where Uncle Wilfred let her out the front door and walked back in.

"That wasn't very nice" he told her sternly. Aimee raised an eyebrow, she didn't really care. If her Uncle was shagging the neighbour he could've just come out and said it. She got it, he was young and handsome and he used it to his advantage. But Aimee didn't dare say it,

"Sorry, next time I see her I'll apologise"

"Thank you." he said, "Now, about your friends, would you like to owl them now?"

"Yes" Aimee stood and reached for a pen and paper, "How many can I have?"

"Many as you like," he answered, waving his wand; the mugs disappeared, "just as long you still get chores done at the end of the day"

Aimee turned to her Uncle incredulously,

"Are you serious? I'm only here for a week and a half!"

A mischievous grin reached his face,

"Wouldn't have told you if I wasn't, I'm not asking you to do anything big, just small stuff"

Aimee eyed him, scowling. He was only doing this to pull her leg,

"Fine"

She sent out four owls: one to Hermione, one to Harry, one to Ron and one to Draco.

Draco was lounging on his king size bed in his bedroom. He was throwing a foam ball in the air and catching it again. He'd arrived home that morning, but had so far only seen a glimpse of his mother and it was already evening. Honestly, he didn't want to see anyone and he was lucky he lived in such a large house; it was incredibly to hide if you didn't want to be found. With four-storeys and dungeons, over thirty-five bedrooms, seventeen bathrooms and countless rooms that hadn't been used for years; there were plenty of hiding places.

His mirror gave a quiet tingle, and settled down again. Draco had charmed it to do that anytime someone opened the door to his outer chambers. Not wanting to be disturbed, he quickly rolled off his bed and lifted the tapestry the right of his bed. Behind the tapestry was a small wooden door, which he opened and crawled through; and shut the door behind him. He'd crawled into a small hidden room that he'd discovered when he was six while trying to get away from his angry father. He'd set up an armchair and a few candles in there, as well as some books if he'd ever get bored and was stuck in there for a while.

As he plopped down into his armchair and listened to his bedroom door creak open. He heard his mothers' voice,

"He's not in here Lucius… I thought he might have been hungry…"

And with that, she shut the door and Draco felt a twang of sadness. His mother, who was usually strong and beautiful, was now defeated and sullen; with large dark circles around her eyes and the fire from her eyes gone. Draco sat in the chair for a few more minutes, biting his lip, when he heard a rapping on his bedroom window, which convinced Draco to come out of hiding and he re-entered the bedroom. At the window was a black horned owl with a note attached to its foot. Draco slid open the window and let him in, and the owl flew to the wooden desk near the window. He slid the note off and read it, recognizing the neat handwriting,

Hi Draco,

I was wondering whether or not you might like to come over during Christmas break.

Just send back your reply and a time and date if you can

Aimee

Draco smiled. Of course he was going to come. He'd rather be anywhere but home at the moment. He took a fresh piece of parchment and wrote down just as neatly on it,

Sure.

Thursday at noon.

Draco

Smirking, he rolled up the parchment and attached it once more to the owl, which flew out the window as soon as it was tied securely to its leg. Draco fell back on his bed and felt his stomach grumbling. He got up and left his bedroom, making his way to the kitchen.

After receiving owls from Ron and Harry saying that they wouldn't be able to make it for the Christmas break, Aimee felt a bit disappointed. It was only the next day when she received two more owls, one from Hermione and one from Draco. Hermione's owl said that she'd join her on Wednesday, whilst Draco's told her he'd visit on Thursday.

When Wednesday finally arrived Aimee sprang out of bed, eager for the day to begin. Hermione was coming, and she'd promised her she'd show her the horses. Dressing warmly, she skipped down the stairs and into the kitchen, where her uncle was standing, holding Laura in his arms. They were kissing quietly, but passionately. It'd looked like she'd spent the night. Without wanting to make a scene, Aimee tiptoed back out of the room and went to the bathroom just across the hall and locked herself in. She waited a few minutes before she was sure Laura had left the house before she went back into the kitchen and sat at the table, where there was a plate of scrambled eggs and a mug of hot tea waiting for her.

"Good morning" he said cheerily, piling up a plate of scrambled eggs for himself.

"Morning," Aimee replied, "You seem like you're in a good mood."

"Oh? Didn't notice..."

Aimee pressed on,

"I'm not stupid, I saw you and Laura."

Uncle Wilfred stopped. He looked as though he was trying to find the right words.

"I get it," Aimee said for him, "You're in a relationship, there's no need to hide it from me."

"Well," Uncle Wilfred said, looking relieved, "I'm glad that's settled. Thank you for understanding."

But Aimee didn't respond. She picked at her scrambled eggs for a couple minutes before eating them, and the two finished their breakfast in silence.

At long last, Hermione had arrived. She had snowflakes in her hair from the long trip from London and pink cheeks from the cold. At once Aimee offered her a cup of tea, where her Uncle Wilfred was sitting and reading the Daily Prophet. At Hermione's entrance he put down the Daily Prophet, gave her a sweet 'Hello' to which she answered, before asking how her trip was,

"Oh, it was fine. My parents drove me"

"Neat things, cars, aren't they?"

"Oh yes" she answered

And with that he went back to reading. Hermione blushed and looked away to face Aimee,

"So what are the plans for today?" she asked

"Well, I guess if it's not too cold we can take the horses out for a couple hours"

Hermione squealed with glee, and followed Aimee out of the cottage and into the horse stables where there were three horses, a honey coloured one, a black one and white one. Hermione ran straight for the honey coloured horse and asked its name,

"Her name is Annabel"

"Can I ride on her?"

"Sure, let's saddle her up"

After half an hour, the two girls had saddled up Annabel and the white horse, Rose. The black horse was named Kelvin.

The two teenage girls slowly rode the two horses through the meadows the entire day, gossiping about everything from boys, to school and certain events at the Ball. When Hermione had left, it was well into the evening. Aimee skipped supper and went straight to bed.

Draco was to meet Aimee at noon, and though it was only 11:50, he thought he might as well leave now, because honestly; he couldn't wait to see her. Striding over to the fireplace in his out chambers, he took a handful of silver powder in his hands and threw it into the fire. Instantly the flames turned green and he yelled out "Wilfred Hallicraft residence, Allendale!" before stepping in. The familiar sensation of being engulfed by the flames came, and then he felt himself transition from his own fireplace to another. He found himself in into a small sitting room with two armchairs and a wooden coffee table. He could hear music coming from the hallway in front of him and realised it was a piano playing; the music sounded extremely familiar to Draco.

Walking quietly and slowly down the hallway, he saw Aimee seating at a piano, playing it lovingly. He recognized the music as the "Moonlight Sonata" by Beethoven. Not wanting to disrupt, he leaned silently against the doorway and continued to listen. The piece was a long one, but Draco liked it, so he stood waiting for a few minutes. When it finished, Aimee said,

"I didn't know you enjoyed Beethoven"

Draco straightened up, a little bit startled.

"How did you know I was here?" he asked

"I can see you in the reflection on the piano" she answered, turning around to face him; she was smiling.

"Why didn't you say something?"

"Didn't wanna break the flow of the music."

It was at that time a man walked into the room from the back door. Draco realised it was her uncle, he could see the similarities between the two; mostly the blue in their eyes.

"Aimee, I need you to do something for me before your-" But the man had realised Draco was in the room. He walked over and shook his hand before introducing himself,

"Wilfred Hallicraft, I'm Aimee's uncle"

"Pleasure, I'm Draco Malfoy"

Wilfred gave him suspicious look that only lasted a split second, before turning to Aimee.

"Well, it looks like Draco might have to help you out. It'll get done much quicker if he does"

"And what might this task be?" Aimee asked

"I just need you to move the straw to the other corner in the barn" he told her.

Aimee sighed deeply, obviously annoyed. Draco on the other hand said nothing. He didn't want to do it, he'd rather lock himself and Aimee in her bedroom and not come out until evening, but he didn't dare object.

Rolling her eyes, Aimee agreed.

"Good. Draco," Wilfred turned to face him, "You can borrow one of my shirts, you don't want to get yours dirty." After the last sentence he turned and left the room the way he came in.

"Come on," Aimee said, getting to her feet, "Follow me"

She brushed past him and into the hallway, and made her way up the stairs. Draco followed. At the top of the stairs, she turned left and walked to the end of the corridor and walked into one of the bedrooms. Draco followed her inside. She was digging around in the second drawer of the dresser looking for a shirt. At long last she pulled out a dark burgundy button up shirt and threw it to Draco.

Aimee watched as Draco caught the shirt with his hand and proceeded to take off his jacket. He was about to pull off his shirt before he looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. She hastily turned around, so that she couldn't see him. But, in her good fortune, she could see his reflection on the window she was facing – and he had no clue.

She watched him pull off his black shirt and reveal his chest. It was lean and had just the right amount of muscle for Aimee's taste. She bit her lip and didn't remove her eyes from his reflection. But in a few seconds he put on her Uncle's shirt, and his exposed chest was now gone. As he was doing up the second last button, he said,

"You can turn around now"

Aimee looked at him awkwardly, a little embarrassed that she'd snuck a peak at his chest.

"Follow me" She said, and led him out of the room. He followed obediently. They took the back exit out of the cottage and trudged through the snow towards the large barn about fifty yards from the house. Draco watched as she pushed open the wooden double doors. Inside, on the right was an old car with tools lying around aimlessly around it, whilst on the left was just straw. At the back of the barn was a staircase that led upto a small blacony type second floor. Together they walked to the massive piles of straw, he picked up a pitch-fork as Aimeespoke,

"Basically, we have to move it all to the other side of the barn so that there'll be room for the new car"

"Car..?" Draco asked

"Yes," Aimee gave him a quizzical look, "You do know what a car is, right?"

Draco felt a bit embarrassed, how could he not know what a car is? But Aimee continued,

"It's a Muggle form of transportation, you drive it to where you want go. They come in all different designs and stuff..."

"Right" Draco didn't really understand how it could work without magic, but he decided to accept it anyway. Aimee could see he wasn't quite getting it, so she dropped her shovel and walked to old car in the corner.

"This," she said, placing her hand upon the car, "is a Chevy Imapala, 1967"

"What do you mean 1967?" asked Draco, also walking to the car

"I mean, it was made in 1967" she explained

"Why would anyone want a car that's nearly thirty years old?"

Aimee rolled her eyes

"Because, it's a classic. Wilfred's been fixing this one up, he loves working with his hands, rather than using magic for everything."

Draco thought her Uncle Wilfred was insane. Who would want to lug around and do work, when with flick of their wand it could be done for them in less than ten seconds?

"Yes, well, that's great." Draco said, "But how about we get some work done?"

All in all it took them about two hours to get the straw to the other side of the barn. When they were done, Draco was no longer feeling the cold, but now was very hot. He looked over Aimee and saw that her forehead was a little wet from sweat, and hoped that he didn't have the same thing.

"Hey, do you mind if I take a shower?" she asked him, hanging her shovel on the side of the wall.

"No, not at all" Draco replied, hanging his pitchfork on the side wall as well. When they exited the barn, the cold air hit them and Draco was no longer hot. When they entered the cottage, Wilfred was nowhere to be found, so Aimee just told him to go back to his bedroom and get changed while she took her quick shower.

Draco changed within a minute and went out into the hallway and sat down on a sky blue armchair. He heard the running water from Aimee's bathroom stop. He looked to his left and saw that she'd left her bedroom door open, but only a crack. Without making a noise, he got to his feet and quietly walked to the door, but kept his distance. He could see her moving around the room, wearing a pink towel, her hair up in a high bun so that it wouldn't get wet.

Draco watched silently as she walked out of view, and came back into view wearing nothing but her underwear and a bra. He smiled to himself as he watched her pulling on a singlet and pants, then a sweater, socks and shoes. When she started pulling her hair out of its bun, he walked back to the armchair and seated himself to make it look as though he'd been waiting there the entire time.