The sun shines brightly on Friday. After waking late, Harry and Ginny walk down to the little French patisserie on the corner to buy pastries and coffee for breakfast. They eat them on the little balcony outside Ginny's room, looking down at the street below. The balcony is covered in plants, tendrils draped over wrought iron railings. The rising sun is warm but the air bitterly cold, so they are both bundled up in jackets but it's nice to sit and chat together. When the cold starts to reach their fingers and ears, Ginny steps through the french doors and out of her room into the living room, dragging Harry with her. After fresh cups of coffee have been made, she puts on an old chick flick as they slump on the sofa and discuss Hermione and Ron's current predicament. Ginny manages to inject a certain amount of light into the situation, Harry finds, and slowly his worries start to ebb away.
Stretching like a cat, Harry prises his eyes open, to find the room empty apart from a few solitary sunbeams. He wanders into the kitchen to find Ginny gone and a covered plate of food sitting on the counter. A heart-shaped sticky note is attached, reading:
Hey Harry, shift's started. Eat, goddammit, Draco won't you to faint on him. Have fun and ignore that giant jumble of nerves you've probably become. Love ya, Ginny xxx. P.S. When I get home you have to tell me EVERYTHING!
Using a magnet to stick the note to their fridge, Harry smiles. Ginny, as usual, knows just what to say to calm his racing heart. Looking at the clock, it's just past 4. Still a while to go. Switching on the radio, he sits at the table and tucks into the food Ginny left out for him. Electric Love by Børns starts to play, filling the kitchen with music that matches Harry's mood exactly. He picks up his drawing pad, unearths a pencil from his pocket and starts to draw. Time disappears fast with the steady strokes of his pencil against the textured paper. Dark lines blend into soft shading as forms and figures start to appear under the pencil lead. When the sketches are finally finished, Harry tears them off the pad, tacks it to the fridge with a green magnet and glances at the clock. Quarter to seven. Jumping up in a panic, Harry rushes into his bedroom, running frantic hands though his tangle of curls.
5 minutes later, he is lacing up his converse, grabbing his keys and stumbling out the door, slamming it behind him. The street is dark and Harry has to carefully pick his way through the stream of people heading home on this cold, early December night. The pavement is covered in drifted leaves, catching on his trailing laces and swirling round his ankles as he hurries down the road. Turning the corner, he squints into the headlights, illuminating the busy road in front of them. Shops cast blocky patches of light onto the pavement as Harry scurries past, focused on getting to his destination in time. He glances down at the phone in his hand, almost crashing headlong into the woman in front of him, who shoots him an icy glare as the disappears off into the night. Rolling his eyes, Harry carries on, carefully avoiding the crowds of people intent on getting in his path.
He's only a teeny bit late as he crashes through the door of Sofya's, thoroughly out of breath. Draco's already there, of course, leaning breathtakingly against the counter, hair perfectly messy and face just so beautiful. Sofya bustles towards Harry, who breaks out of his daze to see Draco smirking at him. Harry hides blush in Sofya's shoulder as she gathers him in for a hug, patting his cheeks and rambling in quick-fire Italian. Her overwhelming affection warms Harry's heart, as she starts berating him about keeping Draco waiting. Moving rapidly, she places hot cups of coffee in their hands, tucks Harry's scarf in more firmly and ushers them both off into the night, yelling a cheery Arrivederci before retreating back into the shop.
Once on the street, Harry turns to Draco, who is smiling widely. They stand there slightly awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Draco sighs, rolls his eyes and leans towards Harry, placing a feather-light kiss on the corner of his mouth.
'I think we should be past the awkward stage now, really,'
'Hello to you too, Draco,' Harry grins, grabbing hold of Draco's gloved hand. 'You going to tell me where we're going, or remain cryptic?'
'It's a surprise,' Draco bursts out laughing at Harry's annoyed expression.
'Seriously? Now I'm desperate to know. You're doing this on purpose, you prick,'
They walk down the road in silence for a while, just enjoying the other's company. As they turn the corner, Draco breaks Harry's chain of thoughts with a hilarious story of a prank pulled in the office. Sebastian seems to be quite the joker, Harry discovers as Draco regales tale after tale of tricks played in the past. They carry on wandering down darkened streets with harry in stitches, out of breath from laughing so much. As they reach a quieter back-street, Draco stops suddenly, turning round to grin at Harry shyly. Harry takes a moment to look around, instantly recognising where they have ended up as the top of Oxford Street.
'Um, so, we're here, um, because I remembered you saying, ages ago, how much you love christmas lights and, um, these usually have the best ones, so I, er, thought we could walk down here on the way to-'
Harry interrupts Draco's nervous rambling by kissing him hard on the mouth, their bodies pressed up against a cold stone wall. Draco's mouth is warm, his gloves soft as they cup Harry's cheeks. When they finally break apart, Draco looks dazed, but Harry's eyes are shining brightly and his heart is bursting.
'I LOVE christmas lights! I can't believe you remembered that! There's something just so magical about them. Oh, this is amazing, I haven't seen the Oxford Street ones yet. You are an angel!'
'Well, I don't know about that,' Draco mumbles, smirking up at Harry.
Harry grabs his gloved hand and pulls him out of the side-street and onto the main road. They walk, hands linked, down the wide main street, peering into shop window christmas displays as cars shoot past, lights The dozens of snowflake-shaped lights reflect off Harry's glasses, dazzling Draco as he stares at the pure, childlike excitement covering his face. The woven netting covered in millions of sparkling lights create a faux-blanket of stars, stretching over their heads. Window shopping consumes, with Draco making mental checklists of thing to come back and buy for Pansy, the haute-couture shopper. Just seeing the way Harry's eyes sparkle as he gazes up at the illuminated street makes Draco sure that this evening is going to be a hit.
They eventually reach the end of the street, after tearing Harry away from the network of electrical diamonds covering the street. The metal bus stop is basically empty, if you ignore the teenager on her phone and the bored looking man, listening to his wife ranting on the phone. Harry, taking Draco by surprise, pushes him down lightly onto the freezing bench and stands between his legs, arms resting on his shoulders.
'Oh. My. God. You. Are. Amazing!' Harry says, between kisses. Draco squirms, face growing unbearably heated.
'That was so beautiful! Christmas lights always remind me of the Christmas celebrations at Hogwarts. They were the best,' Harry trails off with a wistful expression. Draco, too, is reminiscent of the decorations covering the Great Hall, the fun of Quidditch in the snow, Secret Santa in the Slytherin Common Room, with someone always getting a nasty hex.
Before long, the bus draws up, letting out a much-needed burst of warm air as the automatic doors slide open. Draco steps in first, Oyster card beeping green as he walks up the aisle. Harry follows, stumbling up the stairs as the bus swings away from the stop with a rumble and a squeal of brakes. He slides into the empty seat next to Draco, delighted when he realises it's at the very front of the bus. Harry pulls out his phone and quickly snaps a photo of their feet, clad in classic black converse. Sending it off to Ginny and Hermione, he turns round to Draco, only to find him, camera posed, ready to take a photo of the unaware Harry. Acting quickly, Harry buries his face in Draco's shoulder, hearing the muffled click in the distance and Draco's laugh. Draco smells just how he remembers, hair gel and washing powder. At least he doesn't slick his hair back like he did in the earlier years of Hogwarts, it's so soft and nice to run fingers through now.
The bus grounds to a halt with a jolt and Draco leaps up and pulls Harry down the stairs. The icy air hits them like a brick wall as they step out onto the pavement. Harry takes off his glasses, rubbing them on his cuff as Draco tows him down the street. Draco comes to a standstill and Harry, placing his glasses back on his nose, blinks as the world sharpens around him. They are on the middle of the Waterloo Bridge, looking out over the River Thames and the sparkling lights of the city. Beside them stands the illuminated London Eye and across the river, the Houses of Parliament. Harry can see the Gherkin, Tower Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral, making up London's iconic skyline. Beside him, Draco tips his head back, letting the icy wind run through his hair. Harry can't help himself. He has never seen someone look so beautiful. They become a darkened silhouette, kissing with the city surrounding.
They descend down onto Southbank and walk towards the noise and lights. Classic christmas tunes blare out of speakers, and the night is filled with crowds and laughter. Walking under the entrance, they enter the Southbank Christmas Market and Harry looks at Draco, delight filling his features. After a quick detour to warm their hands with cups of spiced hot chocolate, they wander slowly round the busy market, with Harry acting like an excited child. Eventually, Draco's legs are starting to ache after about the 100th stall. Harry, too, is looking pretty tired, but the beaming smile hasn't left his face.
Arms full of paper bags and paper cups, they walk towards a bench, standing solitarily beside the river. It's quiet here, away from the bustle of the market. Harry's belgian waffles send a mushroom cloud onto Draco's wool-clad chest, making them both break out into laughter. They sit so close, they are almost on top of each other, unwrapping various warm packages of traditional, sugar filled food. Chocolate syrup ends up on Draco's nose, after a particularly badly aimed mouthful from Harry, and Harry just can't help leaning over and kissing it off. Draco's expression is soft, affectionate, and Harry gets lost in those perfect grey eyes. He doesn't know how long they sit there, it's only when a taxi horn blares from the bridge that he realises how cold he is. Draco shakes his head slightly, causing feather-light pieces of blonde hair to flutter softly. He digs in his pocket to retrieve his phone.
'Merlin, Harry! It's almost midnight! How have we managed to stay out in these temperatures for 5 hours?'
'Time flies, Draco,' Harry replies as they walk off towards the bridge.
The journey home is pretty uneventful, a jolting ride on an almost-empty Tube. The streets are quiet as they walk back, hand in hand. Draco, ever the gentleman, insists on walking Harry right up to his front door, effortlessly leaping the stairs while Harry concentrates on not falling on his face. As they stand outside the door, Harry reaches up to put his arms around Draco's neck.
'Thank you so much. I had such a good time with you tonight. Sounds cliché but it's true. You just gave me a whole new set of christmas memories,'
'Glad to be of service,' Draco closes the gap by leaning in to kiss him.
'You want to come in?' Harry reluctantly breaks away.
'I should probably head home. I have got to be in the office tomorrow anyway,' Draco, after one last kiss, starts to descend the stairs. Harry watches as he slowly disappears from view. A shout echoes around the stairwell.
'Next time it's your turn to take me out,'
Harry grins and opens the door.