For Colubrina, who deserves much better than she got.
Tuesday, December 24, 2001
Draco collected the finely wrapped gifts he'd picked out for his friends and family and exited the room set up for him at his mothers' home in France, styled in the traditional Slytherin green motif, cringing at the possibility that Harry and Hermione were being housed in outrageously Gryffindor styled suites.
As he walked down the staircase, following the smell of cinnamon cocoa and the sound of his mother humming, he found the lady of the house looking over the decorations of the several small trees in the foyer. Draco spotted a few homemade decorations he figured Hermione and Harry had chipped in from their childhoods to the main tree in the family room but the dozen or so others were adorned with less symbolic, more generic, glass bulbs and twinkling lights.
Hermione was visiting an aunt for the afternoon and Harry was with his godson before settling in for a week long retreat to France.
That left Draco alone with his mother for several hours of Malfoy bonding, but Draco didn't rush to her side as he might have years earlier. He stood at the doorway, gifts set aside momentarily on a side table and just watched as his mother focused intently on the fairy lights dancing before her, waving her wand with an airy swish to rearrange the boughs to accommodate their festive cheer more symmetrically.
His mother had always decorated the Manor beyond the expectations set the year before but for once Draco felt as if her heart was wholly in it. She turned, not yet noticing Draco, and with another wave of her wand transfigured the nutcracker brigade, ordering the animated soldiers to the other side of the room to resume their positions on guard of the pile of presents set up to be donated later that evening to the local orphanage.
Remembering the Christmases of his youth, Draco imagined those children would find themselves rather overwhelmed by her patronage come morning.
"Hello Mother," Draco said, making his presence known. Narcissa turned and lavished her only son with a smile, gracing each of his cheeks with a kiss as she wrapped her arms around him and held tightly for a moment. He kissed her on the forehead and looked over to admire her work. She had clearly put in hours of effort to decorate the house well beyond any of Draco's best childhood memories and after missing several holidays to rot in a dreary prison, he appreciated what she was doing for him.
"Thank you, Mother. For all of this," Draco whispered, kissing her head again as she let go and straightened up her robes. She gave him a scoff eerily familiar to his ears and looked around, admiring her own work as well.
"Between you and Harry, I imagine every Christmas will be this extravagant. Nothing less would suffice."
Draco's brow crinkled at the mention of Harry. It wasn't that he was still hung up on the admittedly strange relationship between Harry and his mother, but that he would need a large Christmas at all. Taunts of Christmases past echoed in his ears but Draco could hardly imagine that staying at Hogwarts during a few hols warranted such a response.
"I'm beginning to get the impression that you like him more than me," he tried joking but the effort fell flat.
Narcissa turned slowly and gave her son a scathing look with a perfectly groomed eyebrow that made him feel several inches shorter and several degrees stupider, cringing into himself with a small wince. Draco rarely warranted that look growing up, Narcissa favoring the 'I'm disappointed face' when it came to his antics, but he's seen it used on others and nothing good followed.
An uncomfortable silence fell on the room until Narcissa wordlessly turned and left, her posture signaling to Draco to follow her. She led the way into the dining room to a tray of freshly laid out cocoa and decorated sugar cookies that Draco was too afraid to touch until his mother gave her permission.
"Sit down, Draco."
The order came softer than Draco expected, his body reacting before his mind had a moment to parse through the word choice or tone. He watched as his mother sat as well, giving nothing away as she took one of the filled mugs from the tray, indicated for him to as well.
They both sipped silently.
"I know that when you were a boy you would taunt Harry often for having no proper family, but what do you know of his life before Hogwarts?"
Draco frowned as the memories flashed through his mind, his sneering little face and cutting words looking all the more pathetic with perspective. Once upon a time he'd thought being raised by muggles was the worst possible thing that could happen to a person but of course that had been long before he'd stood on the front line of the losing side in a war. Still, as he drudged up old memories of scant details shared around the castle, he admitted he knew very little and extrapolated quite a lot.
Narcissa nodded, her earlier look replaced by one much more tired and apprehensive. Then she began telling him the story about the boy under the cupboard.
. . . . .
Draco hid away most of the evening in his room, unable to keep his magic in check. He could feel the familiar hatred he grew up with, his face distorting against his will as the details of what those filthy muggles did contorting it with rage and like an endless cycle he would stop, feeling disgusted with himself until suddenly he would be assaulted by another anecdote imparted on him by his mother and the anger would surge all over again.
It was late in the evening when Hermione let herself into his room, telling him before he could object that she wasn't going to hear it, and dragged him out. She told him in hushed tones that she had told Narcissa those stories in confidence and they had been told to Draco similarly but that what was important now wasn't how horrible those people were but that they made up for all the Christmases lost and celebrated like a family for Harry who'd never had one.
Draco winced as a crushing force rebounded off a portrait, its frame shattered into splinters, into his lungs and briefly knocked the wind out of him. Hermione gripped his arm tighter with pinched lips but said nothing.
"I've known how horrible they were since first year and it's still hard to endure it. I know how powerless it must make you feel, especially for you considering how far you two have come in the last few months, but don't let them poison this for Harry. You being here has extended his family by one, Draco," Hermione whispered, giving Draco a brief hug as they came to the top of the stairs before descending. "Don't take that from him."
Draco nodded and exhaled, using the breathing techniques Luna preached to him constantly, and after a minute nodded again and followed her down to the main part of the house. They found Harry sitting on the ground at the foot of the sofa Narcissa was sitting delicately on, legs crossed, sipping from cups of chocolate and laughing.
Neither commented as the two newcomers joined the room, Kreacher setting out two steaming mugs for them soundlessly, and the conversation continued. Narcissa was regaling the room with stories of Draco's youth, but rather than join in telling them or moan theatrically throughout, Draco watched Harry.
Hermione's words played on repeat in his head as he watched Harry blush when Hermione pointed out the stray wisp of whip cream in the corner of his beard, don't let them poison this for Harry. You being here has extended his family by one, Draco.
They're my family now, Draco decided, watching as Harry flicked whip cream at Hermione who scolded him but without any real gusto, and I'll do everything to protect them.
Author's note: Hello everyone! Here's the first of several holiday chapters, which I'm posting tonight because it's overdue but editing in the morning (it's late here). If you thought Draco's reaction was a bit out of character, I promised it will be addressed shortly. Fingers crossed you all enjoy it. Also relationship development is imminent because come on, it's Christmas (in May).