AN. Slinks out from behind the curtain, and smiles sheepishly. Uh, hi. :) So I know that it's been a long while, but I think I have a decent enough chapter here to post. Enjoy!

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Chapter 15: I Don't Want a Lot for Christmas. There's Just One Thing that I Need.

Draco was having a very interesting winter break. A very warm and cozy winter break. The house was filled with laughter and people and presents, and Draco often found himself wandering around in a sugar and social gathering induced haze. This Christmas was like nothing he had ever experienced, and he wondered if Grimmauld Place now rivaled the Burrow in the Christmas "cheer and cookies" department.

At Malfoy Manor, Christmas had always been a somber and strained affair. His father would gift his wife with the customary jewelry two days before Christmas, and then disappear into his study until midnight on Christmas Eve. Draco would then meet him in one of the smaller sitting rooms to have a small gift exchange. Draco always cherished those small moments of father/son time, but often felt saddened by the small amount of sorrow in his father's eyes that Lucius couldn't hide.

Draco had known from the beginning that Narcissa was not the one (or one of "the two", as it were) for his father, and to tell the truth, he felt better for it. Narcissa had often used both Malfoy males as she would use a bauble in her vast collection of trinkets. She'd coerce them into going out to a social lunch from time to time, show each of them off, and then put them back on the shelf until she had need for them again.

'Disgusting,' Draco shivered.

Lucius had tried to make the best of the situation during Draco's childhood, but Narcissa had quickly shot down all hope of shielding Draco at a very early age.

Narcissa had caught a three year old Draco playing with some of her expensive skin powder from France one afternoon, and had unleashed a wrath that Draco was sure would've made Voldemort himself hide in the nearest cupboard. The vicious ring in her voice as she reprimanded the child had filled half of the corridors in the great mansion.

Lucius, hearing his wife's screams of outrage and his small child's cries of terror, had rushed into the room where a mess of powder now covered not only every surface near the vanity, but also his young son who looked like he had been thrown to the floor. Seeing Draco's tear streaked face, Lucius had disregarded Narcissa completely in favor of rushing past her to scoop up his son.

Narcissa's anger reached almost beyond human capacity as she watched Lucius coo over the distressed toddler. She had promptly turned her wrath on the grown man who had come between herself and her target. The argument had escalated until Narcissa unleashed the harshest words she could muster.

"Stop defending him, you two-man whore!" Lucius had sucked in a breath, while Draco squeaked. He didn't know what those words meant, but it must've been bad to shock his hero. Narcissa, hearing Draco over Lucius, had gotten right in Draco's face for the child was close to eye level in Lucius' arms. "That's right, you little idiot. Your great bastard of a father is the destined receiver of not one, but TWO MEN! You weren't even meant to be born, according to his DESTINY!!" Narcissa, heedless of the magic hum in the room and the trembling of the objects on the vanity, had turned her attention back to Lucius, and with a truly malicious smile had sarcastically snarled, "Backs to the wall, gents."

The vanity, the windows, and every piece of glass in the room had exploded in a roar of angry magical energy. Narcissa was thrown across the room, and knocked against the furthest wall. Draco burst into silent tears, and Lucius cradled Draco's head to his shoulder.

Approaching his harpy of a wife, Lucius had knelt near her outstretched legs. He smirked to see the first real show of fear in her eyes in a long while. Leaning in close, with Draco clinging to his front, Lucius issued the witch a warning.

"Don't you ever insult my mates, myself, or my son ever again. We wouldn't want the Northern Wing of the Manor to explode, now would we?" Narcissa had nodded, and after giving orders to the house elves to clean the mess, Lucius swept out and moved to his study. Lucius knew that Narcissa would find a way to get back at him, but at the time he had a more important person to attend to.

Lucius had explained his mates to his son on that day, as well as belying Narcissa's words of hate towards Draco's birth. Lucius had explained that, if he had married his mates, he would've been the one to bear Draco into this world. There was no way Lucius wouldn't have Draco in his life. He assured Draco that, one way or another, Lucius was determined to have him as his son.

Draco had never gone to his mother's rooms again, and father and son had tried to produce a front together in order to protect each other from a good deal of Narcissa's wrath. Draco supported his father in his pine for his mates the best he could, and had kept the secret of his parent's discord. He had never called Narcissa "Mother" ever again, opting instead to wait for his "real" fathers to come along and join his first true parent.

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This Christmas was interesting for Draco, but it was also by far the best. He had his real parents! Granted, the fact that one of his "parents" was his age as well as his former worst enemy/now best friend was a bit strange, but that was okay in Draco's eyes.

Harry was a great friend, as well as a good influence and a bit of wild spice for his father. Draco felt that Lucius often held too much in, and was in too much control over his emotions. Harry might be able to teach Lucius how to yell in wild abandon yet.

Having Severus as his second (third?) father was a dream come true. Draco had always admired the man for his potions skills (a passion that Draco had always shared), as well as Severus' grudging loyalty to those he truly considered worth while or family. Draco suspected that Severus' many rescues of Harry had more to them then just Dumbledore's orders. Severus must've felt some connection to the Wizarding savior even before he was revealed as the third mate.

Even now, Draco snickered to himself at the memory of Severus after each of Harry's close encounters. Severus would curse the "green eyed heathen" from Hogwarts to Timbuktu, but when Harry found himself in another mess the man would rush to the teen's side, even following him to the dreaded Shrieking Shack. (Granted, Black might have had something to do with the motivation for that rush, as well)

Yes, life was getting better for the males in the Malfoy family, and for Draco it seemed to be getting better at a fast rate. The fact that his crush was also living in the same house with him did nothing but boost his joy a bit higher with every new morning.

Draco did feel bad for the Granger's loss of their house, but having Hermione so near was driving him nearly mad. He, Harry, and Hermione had spent the last few days together sledding in the backyard, building snowmen, and trying their best to make the perfect Christmas cookies. The fact that Draco didn't know how to cook didn't slow the three down any, in fact it seemed to make Hermione laugh to think the best potions student couldn't mix flour with sugar without making the mixture explode all over the blonde's face and front. The fact that Draco would sometimes cast a small explosion spell on the mix when Hermione "wasn't looking" was no never mind. Even Hermione's parents, as well as Lucius and Severus, had joined in on the last few days of fun.

In the evening, everyone would retire to the extensive library to continue the search on how to destroy a horcruxe. Lucius and Severus would usually search during the day as well, but had kicked the teens out, saying:

"You can come back when you've wasted all of that Christmas energy on something else besides my nerves." Maybe that was really Severus who said that.

Draco was happy. Really happy. The Order would come and go, many of them helping with the hunt on how to destroy a horcruxe, and Harry and Severus would hold hour sessions with his father in the afternoon to work on Occlumency and Legimency. The Grangers would often help Lucius and Severus in the library, or go out to shop for a new home.

Harry had insisted that they could stay as long as they wanted, and the Grangers had assured him that they wouldn't leave until after Christmas. Draco found that he liked a full house, and looked forward to the actual day of Christmas when everyone in the Order had promised to stop by for a dinner.

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It was around 12:30am on December seventeenth, and Draco found that though the house was warm and peaceful, he couldn't coax sleep into taking him for the night. This surprised him, for he had been having the best nights of sleep over the past couple weeks than he had had in years and had been sleeping like a log until midmorning. He lay in bed for a few minutes, before sighing to himself in exasperation and throwing the covers off. Maybe a glass of water would help him settle his restless body and relax him enough so that he could finally sleep.

On the way down the staircase nearest to his room, Draco noticed a glow coming from the library entrance. Curious, he slowed his pace and drew nearer to the open French doors. As he reached the landing, Draco noticed soft music coming from the origin of the light. He paused to listen, and realized that what he was hearing was Christmas music, though the song was not one he recognized.

Draco tucked himself next to the wall, and slowly peered around the doorframe and into the library. At first it looked as if the massive room were empty, but after further inspection he found the reason for the softly glowing torches.

There, lounging on the largest and softest sofa, was Hermione.

She was dressed in a tank top, with a down comforter covering her legs and the rest of the sofa. She had straightened her hair earlier in the day to make it more manageable, and it now hung in flat, multicolored sheets of light brown and blonde. Though it had snowed every night, almost every day had been sunny and Hermione's hair had lightened in the sun's rays.

Her hair now shielded most of her face from Draco's view, but he could still tell it was her from the book resting in her lap and the slightly upturned nose inherited from her mother. Draco blushed to realize that he had paid that much attention to her facial structure.

Hermione's wand softly glowed on the coffee table in front of her, and Draco realized that the music was coming from the vine wood.

"What's in your wand?" Draco blurted out. Hermione started and dropped her book to the floor. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to frighten you."

Draco made his way over to the sofa as Hermione turned to him. She watched him as he picked up her fallen book, and thanked him when he returned it to her. Draco sat on the end of the sofa where Hermione's feet had been resting.

"I'm sorry, what?" Hermione asked as she regained her composure. She eyed Draco with a bewildered expression that made Draco want to either kiss it away, or run and hide for his idiotic question. 'What's in your wand' indeed. Draco fought back a blush.

"I asked 'what's in your wand?'. I can see what it's made of, but out of curiosity, what is its core?" Draco clasped his hands together to keep them from fidgeting. 'What a stupid way to start a conversion. Give yourself a cookie, Draco. Ehk!'

"Dragon heartstring," Hermione answered, giving Draco what he swore was a slow, flirtatious smile.

Dragon…Draco…heartstrings…Whoosh, the blush was back with a vengeance. Draco turned his face away from her and towards the coffee table, trying to give the pretext that he was examining the wand. He wanted to smile back, but his usually cool demeanor fought against the urge. He didn't want to seem like an even bigger fool and smile at her goofily until she gave him her patented "You're an idiot, and you're freaking me out a bit" look and left the library.

"Why do you ask?" Hermione's voice jogged him back into the present.

"Well, I noticed that you had cast a charm to make music play from it, and…" Draco faltered there. He knew the same charm himself, and knew it had nothing to do with the wand it was cast from. He had just wanted her attention on him, and it was the first thing that popped out of his mouth before his brain could catch up with his emotions.

Draco sighed, knowing that he must truly look like an idiot, and made to get up and leave. He felt like wallowing in his embarrassment induced depression alone, thank you. Maybe he'd be lucky and the ground would open up on the way to the kitchen or his room and swallow him whole, or maybe he'd drown in a freak accident sometime during the rest of the night involving his glass of water. He could already hear Hermione's voice in his head repeating "What. An. Idiot." over and over.

He hadn't even made it to the edge of the sofa before a soft hand was laid on his arm, the unspoken request for a moment louder than any alarm Draco had ever heard. The hair on the back of his neck stood, and Draco took a second to school himself before turning to the owner of the hand with an eyebrow raised in typical Malfoy fashion. Hermione returned it and added her own playful smirk before returning her expression to a more peaceful and inviting look.

"Stay, please. It's nice to have you around. That is, unless you're getting too tired?" Draco sank back into the couch and Hermione smiled, leaning back into the arm of the sofa. "So why were you up? Couldn't sleep?"

"Yeah. I was on my way to get some water when I saw your light on. You?"

"Lost track of time. This is a great book."

"They're all great books to you." Draco teased. Hermione just smiled. Draco loved to read almost as much as she did. "What are you listening to? I recognize some of the songs, but others..." Draco shrugged, and then started snickering as a Hawaiian sounding song came on with a guy singing about a "Christmas Island". Hermione smirked and swatted him gently with her book, a couple of her fingers holding her place as she swung it.

"It's a mix of the Elf and Love Actually movie soundtracks…Muggle" She said at Draco's confused expression. "It also has some of my other favorite Christmas songs."

"Oh. Nice." Draco smiled, and then yawned. Hermione conjured two glasses of water and handed one to Draco, who thanked her before drinking about half of the glass's contents. She smiled, and then settled back with her book. When a old-fashioned-sounding song came on with a woman singing about "Santa Baby", Hermione started humming along.

Draco tried to stifle another yawn, not wanting to go just yet but getting more exhausted by the second. Without missing a beat, or raising her eyes from the book, Hermione threw the comforter half off and beckoned Draco closer. Draco froze and blinked, not knowing whether he should take the invitation or if the invitation was actually what he thought/hoped it was. Was he supposed to take half of the comforter and lay against the opposite side of the couch, or maybe (he really hoped, in his wildest dreams) curl against her like a great cat?

He hadn't realized that he was leaning toward Hermione until he felt her small hand thread into his hair and guide him forward toward her, leaning his head onto her shoulder. He leaned over her, his head resting on her shoulder, has hands braced at her sides, and the rest of him hovering over her until she placed a kiss on his brow. He flopped down half over her, making her give a surprised "oof!" at his added weight, and snuggled against her as she pulled the comforter back over the both of them.

"Goodnight, Draco." Hermione murmured as she smoothed his hair away from his cheek.

"Goodnight,…sigh Hermione." Draco croaked back. Hermione rested her cheek against the top of his head, and continued to stroke his hair as she read. Draco was on the verge of sleep when a thought and emotion forced him back to consciousness for a final utterance. "Hermione?"

"Yes, Draco?"

Draco buried his face against her neck. "….I'mhopelesslyinlovewithyoujustsoyouknow."

Draco felt Hermione smile against his cheek.

"I know. Goodnight, my dearest Draco."

"…Goodnight, love." With another kiss to his brow and a whispered "I love you, too," Hermione sent Draco off gently into the land of dreams.

This was, without a doubt, turning out to be Draco's best Christmas to date.

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AN. So, yeah. : ) I hope you all enjoyed that! I'd been having a writer's block for the longest time, and then I realized that I just needed to write about Draco and Hermione for a bit. (Draco was driving me nuts with his letters that talked about nothing but "Hermione this and Hermione that… oh, yeah! And those other people in my life… Hermione, Hermione, Hermione" ad nauseum. That boy really knows how to annoy people.) ; ) Anyway, thank you to everyone that waited patiently for this. MANY MANY KISSES AND HUGS!!! Ok, so I have a little challenge for my artists out there. Can I have some fan art for this fic? I LOVE FAN ART!! If you post some, send me a message so I can see it! I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER! (Not that I don't, already. : ) ) I'm on deviant art (not as an artist, though.) So just give me a head's up…anywhere you post! Ok, I'll stop pleading for now. : ) And as always, please review…ok, maybe a little pleading. Muah!

Thanks to my Beta!