Title: Pillow Talk, part 3
Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer applies.
AN: Thanks for the reviews! I love hearing feedback. I currently don't know how many chapters this story will be. There will be a conclusion with a resolved ending. I just can't promise when that will be. So it's best to stay tuned!
Four months later…
Hermione sat on her bed surrounded by a variety of gift-wrapping paper, tape, boxes, and tissue. It was her favorite time of year, Christmas and thus felt in the mood to wear her favorite red, plaid pajamas and listen to Michael Buble's new Christmas album. Looking around her room, she determined she had definitely made progress that evening. Most of the gifts were wrapped, tagged, and ready to be given to their respective owners. She currently was in the process of wrapping a gift for Ginny, a new set of dress robes from Madam Malkin's when a knock rapped on her door.
"Come in," Hermione granted entrance to her bedroom, not tearing away focus from her current project. The door opened wide to reveal Draco, still dressed from the day in dark grey pants and a green jumper over his white button down shirt.
"Good grief, Granger. It looks like chaos in here," he declared as he crossed across the room to the foot of her bed. He carefully navigated his way through the various plastic bags of ribbon, paper, and wrapped boxes.
"What do you mean?" she asked looking up.
"What's with the ribbon, paper, and boxes?" he asked gesturing and picking up a long piece of red ribbon that rested on her bed amid the mass of Christmas wrapping supplies.
"I'm wrapping presents!" she exclaimed stretching her arms out.
"For who? The entire population of England?" he asked, raising his eyebrow.
"Noooooo," she emphasized as if she was child. "Aren't you going to sit down?"
"Where?"
"On the bed, Draco," she sighed as she tied the red ribbon onto Ginny's gift.
"There's no room!"
"Make room," Hermione shrugged.
"Who are these gifts for?" Draco asked as he set aside tubes of wrapping paper on the floor, along with fully wrapped Christmas gift bags.
"This one is for Ginny," she said after applying a red bow on top of the gift.
"And the other five hundred boxes?" he asked scooting himself on the left side of Hermione's king-sized bed. He leaned back on her pillows, seeking comfort after a long night out with his date that night, Astoria Greengrass.
"Ha ha," Hermione said. "Those by the door are for the Weasleys. Arthur, Molly, Charlie, Bill and Fleur, Ron…"
"Okay, I get it, I get it. And those by the closet?"
"Oh, that's Harry's, Luna's and Neville's."
"And the ones over here?" he asked, nodding his head to the gifts he had set on the floor.
"Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Hagrid, and some other professors at Hogwarts."
"The ones on your dresser?" he pointed to her dark mahogany dresser on the far side of her room.
"Mum and Dad's," she replied plainly.
"Good grief."
"What? One of the best parts about the holidays is being able to give gifts to the people who are important to you," she argued as she set Ginny's finished present on the floor.
"Seems like a lot of effort," he replied, unconvincingly.
Hermione sighed. "It was. I'm exhausted. But it'll be worth it to see the looks on their faces when they open their gifts. That's one of the best rewards of giving out gifts at Christmas." She smiled at the thought.
Draco remained silent as Hermione's claim. He couldn't fathom spending so much energy, money, and time on purchasing, wrapping, and giving as many gifts as Hermione did.
"Have you done any Christmas shopping?" she asked, organizing the remaining scraps of gift-wrap paper.
"If you're asking about if I found anything for Mother, the answer is yes. I paid a visit to the jewelry store in Diagon Alley and found a necklace suitable to her tastes. It didn't take me long to get. It also helped that she was the one that picked it out and placed it on hold for me to purchase," he replied, nonchalantly.
Hermione frowned at Draco's confession. "You didn't even put any thought behind of what to get your mother?"
"Pshh. It saves me a lot more time if she just tells me what she wants. I don't spend weeks trying to think of a gift that she'll probably hate and she gets something that she knows she wants. It's a win-win situation, Granger," he answered.
"I always find that it's the thought behind the gift that counts. Are you buying any other gifts this year?" she questioned him.
"That's the only one," he replied frankly.
Hermione's shoulders dropped. "Really?"
"Mhmm. I don't see a point in spending any money on people I don't care for. Besides, I don't get any Christmas presents from anyone other than Mother so I wouldn't expect anything in return," he admitted to her.
"Oh," she whispered, looking down at her hands in her lap.
"Something the matter?" he asked seeing how dejectedly Hermione looked.
"No, nothing's wrong," she assured him, waving her hand back and forth in an attempt to remove any doubt.
"Something's bugging you." Draco could see it in her face. She wasn't smiling anymore. If anything she looked depressed at the thought of Draco's admission.
Hermione let out another sigh. Hermione swung herself off her bed and headed over to her dresser. She reached behind her parents' tower of gifts and retrieved a small, rectangular box. She walked back to the right side of her bed, her right hand outstretched with the gift.
"Happy Christmas, Draco." She let a small smile show on her face.
"Oh." Draco stared blankly at Hermione. He took the gift from her hands as she settled herself back down on her bed, tucking her legs underneath her.
"Open it," she urged him as he looked down at the gift box cradled in his hand. He stared at it as if it were a foreign object or as if it would bite his hand off if he even moved.
"It's not Christmas yet," he contended.
"My mum always said that it was okay to open one present before Christmas. It's our tradition to each open one on Christmas Eve, but I don't see why you can't open yours now," she reasoned.
Hesitantly, Draco untied the emerald green bow, and gingerly peeled off the silver wrapping paper.
Hermione laughed at Draco's tentativeness. "You can rip the paper, Draco. That's one of the best parts about opening gifts."
He smiled sheepishly and ripped the remainder of the gift-wrap. Revealed underneath was a velvet box. He slowly opened it to reveal what appeared to be a silver pen. But it was intricately designed, which confused Draco. The body of the pen was etched in scales, and the head of the pen morphed into a head of a fierce looking dragon while the cap of the pen transformed into its tail.
"It's a fountain pen. It's sort of like a quill, but you don't have to worry about refilling the ink. It's magically charmed to change the color of the ink according to your own wishes. No more worries about running out of ink or changing quills. I remember hearing you yell at your secretary when she couldn't find you a bottle of emerald green ink, and also when you tipped over that well of ink over your proposal that one day. I hope you don't think it's too ostentatious. I had it custom designed," Hermione rambled as he looked the pen over, carefully turning it over to admire the craftsmanship.
Draco was speechless. Never had he received a gift that was so…thoughtful? In the past, he received gifts from his mother and father. Mostly they were extravagant gifts that he couldn't even remember using. But this…
"Thank you, Hermione," he choked out, still holding onto her gift. "I'll use it everyday."
"You're welcome," she replied, beaming at the sight of Draco's surprised and appreciative face. "See? I told you it's worth it."