On the way home, Blaise had to take Ash with him because she couldn't focus on the world around her, all she was doing was think and fret about what she saw in Knockturn Alley. After the second apparition, Blaise stopped and took Ash's hand, leading her to a little café not far away.

After they sat down and Blaise ordered a hot chocolate for the two of them, he turned to Ash in concern. "Ash," he said, "tell me what happened! It's not like you being so out of it."

"I know, I'm sorry... its just, I saw Draco today."

"Was that why you suddenly vanished?"

"Yes and no."

"What's the no?"

"He was with some really shady looking people and... Pansy."

"And you're more worried about the shady looking people or Pansy?"

"I know I should be more worried about the shady part - especially because they went into Knockturn Alley and into that Borgin and Burkes shop... but I can't help myself feeling betrayed when I see Pansy hanging on Draco's arm when I'm not around."

Blaise looked at his friend and took her hand in his. "Don't worry Ash. Draco may be a git, but he loves you. He would never betray you - especially not with Pansy."

Ash gave him a weak smile while looking at her hands. "You're right, I shouldn't even be thinking like that! In only two days I will see him again," she smiled at the thought.

"Exactly. So be happy and drink up!" Blaise said smiling at her.

After a few moments of silence, in which the two sipped at their hot chocolate, Ash looked up at her friend and said, "Blaise... You really are an awesome friend! I really must have done something right"

Blaise looked up to her and laughed shallowly. "Well, you were sorted into Slytherin - that should work as 'done something right,'" he joked grinning at Ash.

Again a comfortable silence fell over them, until Ash broke it.

"Blaise?" Ash asked.

"Yeah?"

"This is a muggle shop, right?"

Blaise looked at his friend and then around them at the other customers.

"Yeah."

"Do you have any muggle money?"

"No...?"

"How did you suppose we would pay for the drinks?"

"Um... I didn't think that far ahead..." he said honestly making Ash shake her head in disappointment.

"Alright give me a minute, I'll get some money"

"Where from?"

"The bank"

"OK..."

Briskly Ash looked around for an ATM and fished in her bag for the plastic card that her parents had given her at one point telling her that if she ever needed muggle money, she could use this. Quickly she pushed in the card and typed in her password before taking out the money and card again.

Thankfully she already had to use the card a few times - especially after Easter - therefore she knew how to work this thing. But the first time ... Merlin... she didn't even want to think about it!

As soon as she got the money, she hurried back to Blaise, who was looking quite annoyed by the muggle waitress that was swooning him.

Quietly walking up to them, Ash tapped the waitress - that had sat down on her seat - on the shoulder. "Sorry, but only because his girlfriend vanished for a minute, doesn't mean he's open for the taking," she whispered into the girls ear, making her jump up hitting Ash's nose in the process, blood started flowing out freely.

"Merlin, this is so not my day," Ash cursed as the waitress starred at her in shock not knowing what to do.

"Get some ice, stupid," Blaise bellowed at her, getting the girl moving, while trying to stop the blood flow without magic.

Briskly the girl came out again, followed by the manager, bringing Ash an pack of ice for her nose.

Gently placing it on her nose, Blaise listened to the apologies of the manager and the waitress. "You'll get the drinks for free of course," the manager said making Ash groan. Now she had gotten the money for nothing. "Would you like anything else?" the manager added but Blaise shook his head no.

"We're going to go now," he said with an icy tone and helped Ash stand up.

"Thank you for the ice!" Ash said to the manager as she got pulled away by Blaise.

"Why did you say thank you?"

"I was trying to be nice."

"After they nearly broke your nose?"

"Oh, come on. It's not broken!"

Blaise took the ice from her hand and looked at her face. "Are you sure?" he said concerned as he looked at it from every angle. "I don't think your nose looked like this before the elephant hit you."

"Really?"

"I think we should go to St. Mungo's..."

"Apparate all the way back to London?"

"Yeah... I think that would be the best way to go." Blaise said nodding and took a hold of her around the waist. "Also they can get rid of that bruise on your face..."

"If you insist," she muttered annoyed and let Blaise apparate them to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

As they stood in the line to administrate, Ash looked around a bit unsure, "do you think this is really the place to go with a bruise and a -not quite - broken nose?"

"Where else do you want to go?"

"I don't know... the doctor from next door?"

"We don't have a doctor next door."

"Don't take me so literal!"

"Excuse me, I think my friend broke her nose, can you have a look at it and give her SkeleGro and something against the bruise?" Blaise asked when it was their turn in line.

The nurse looked up at them annoyed - but it lessened when she saw Blaise. 'I guess he's hotter then I can see...' Ash thought to herself as Blaise pulled her along to the ward the nurse had told him to go too...

"Told you it wasn't that bad," Ash said.

"He still fixed it though - hence there was something to fix!"

"Yeah, the bruise you gave me this morning."

"Well you shouldn't have tried to wake me up."

"Whatever... What are we doing now?"

"We're heading home."

"OK... but I get to apparate us!"

Blaise sighed in defeat, "OK."

Excited she hugged Blaise tightly and thought about his mansion. A moment later they squeezed through a long tube and soon plopped up in front of the Zabini Manor.

"Home Sweet Home" she sighed.

Sunday night and Monday went by as if time had turned into a snail and was slowly crawling along. Ever since she saw Draco with Pansy in Diagon Alley she was burning to question him, to ask why he was spending time with the pug but not with her!

And yet she knew... even if she saw Draco this evening she wouldn't be able to ask him these questions that were burning in her heart.

She wasn't a hundred percent sure... but fairly certain that she really truly loved Draco and she was scared like never before of the answers she might get from him and what he might think about her when he know that she had followed him like some creepy stalker...

It felt weird these contradicting feelings and thoughts. Not knowing which one she should follow... Ash sighed as she got off the bed on Tuesday morning - not feeling the Christmas feeling she normally had on this day.

Today was the 24th of December.

Christmas Eve.

... The first Christmas Eve she would be spending in England - where you opened the presents on the 25th instead of the 24th.

... The first Chirstmas Eve she would not be spending with her family...

Silent tears escaped Ash's eyes as it dawned to her. She would never again spend this family holiday with her parents... No more evenings with Turkey and other weird things to go along with it... No more evenings of opening presents with her parents and then feverishly waiting for it to be 12.00 so that they could start celebrating her fathers birthday...

Her fathers birthday on the 25th of December...

Her fathers birthday was tomorrow... how... how could she forget?

Quickly she turned around and gently walked into Blaise's room.

"Blaise," she asked, softly sitting down on his bed.

"Yeah?"

"Could we... could we do a little trip to Germany tomorrow?" she asked whispering, having a difficult time to stop her voice from trembling.

Blaise turned around to look at her, seeing that she was silently crying while sitting on his bed. Swiftly he pulled her into his lap and allowed her to bury her head into his shoulder.

"Shhh..." he cooed into her ear. "What's making you sad?"

"I'm a bad person," she muttered into his chest. "I'm a bad daughter."

"What? Why would you say something like this?"

"I - I- I- nearly forgot my fathers birthday!" Ash cried, clinging to Blaise's upper body.

"But you didn't, did you? Shh.. everything is alright. When is you fathers birthday?"

"T-t-t-tomorrow," she cried pulling the word longer then it should be.

"Shh, see there's no problem at all. We didn't have any plans anyway. Therefore, instead of doing nothing, we apparate to your families..." he struggled a bit, "grave and wish him happy birthday. How does that sound?"

Ash looked up at her friend with watery puppy eyes, before getting a grip on herself again and smiling. "Yes... that sounds like a plan," she noticed that she was still hugging him tightly and quickly loosened her hold of him, pulling back. "Do... Do you think Draco could come as well? I'd really like my parents to meet him..." she said turning her head away from him.

As she wasn't looking, Blaise scrunched up his face, but he quickly sobered up before saying, "I'm sure he will."

Ash looked over her shoulder at her sleepy friend. "Thank you," she whispered quietly.

"For what?"

"For being my friend... and being there for me..."

"I'll always be."

Ash smiled at him with a sad smile, "I know."

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen,
Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen,
But do you recall
The most famous reindeer of all?

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose,
And if you ever saw it,
You would even say it glows.

The song blasted out of Ash's wand as she was getting ready for the Christmas Party at the Malfoy Manor.

Singing along to Christmas songs and dancing to the beats, one would have not believed that it was the same Ash that was crying and clinging onto Blaise just a few hours ago.

But it was the first time she - officially- saw Draco again since the holidays started and she couldn't contain her excitement about it.

Quickly she glanced over at the bag where her dress was hanging inside and grinned at the thought of wearing it tonight and the gaze she imagined Draco to wear when he saw her.

She had gone shopping with Oriana on Monday, they went only to the finest of shops and Oriana insisted that - even though it was the most expensive dress in the shop - she'd buy it for her and that she must wear it to tonight's Christmas party.

She smiled at the memory. Blaise's mother was really one of the best. It was really hard to imagine her being an cold blooded husband killer.

She took a deep breath and focused on applying her make-up once again. She wanted to look perfect today and she definitely would.

When she finished her make up and her hair - which she had curled and woven into an open pony tail - she turned back to the bag with her dress.

Softly she glided over to the bag and pulled the dress out. Next she gently placed it onto the bed and beamed at it.

It was a pure white flowing gown with low back and a very nice cleavage. it was made out of white silk and on the back a thin layer of cloth spread on the floor around her. The only impurity on the white was the silver jewels and sequin train that decorated the upper rim of the dress and her breasts with wonderful patterns.

In awe she picked it up and slipped it over her body. Feeling the silk cloth ran up her figure and gently settled against every inch of her body as if the dress was tailor made for her.

Careful not to get any wrinkles into the dress, she sat down and pulled on 10 cm high white high heels - which she quickly magicked more comfortable then they really were, still she knew that by the end of the evening she would be in agony... but how do you always say?

"Wer schön sein will, muss leiden!" - "Beauty knows no pain"

She gently giggled to herself and stood up from her bed again and walked to the window, watching the waves gently glide across the water before bursting into an explosion of water as they hit the cliffs.

"Wow," she suddenly heard someone say behind her, and she quickly turned.

"Blaise!" she said seeing her friend stand in the doorway in his best suit and looking beautiful like always.

"Wow!" he repeated and walked up to her with a smile. "You look gorgeous... no ... magnificent."

"Stop, your making me blush!" she giggled and looked down at the floor a bit embarrassed.

Blaise shortened the distance between them with two steps and now stood right in front of her, taking her chin in his hands and making her look into his eyes. "You look like an angel today," he whispered into her ear and gave her a gentle kiss on her cheek which set out an electric current to run through her body.

Swallowing hard she let her lips form a small smile and took a gentle step away from him.

He was her friend, her best friend -true - but only friends.

Sensing that she was uncomfortable, he quickly took a step back as well - barely hiding the fact that her reaction hurt him.

"Lets go" he said quietly and offered her his arm, which she gratefully took.

"By the way," Ash said quietly as they left her room and started walking down the hallway. "You look rather ravishing yourself."

Blaise chuckled. "I always do"

That comment made Ash laugh and every ice crystal that had formed for a minute broke. "You, mister, have a way too big ego." she giggled as she and Blaise joined his mother and her fiancée at the door.

They had decided to take the limousine to the Malfoy manor.