2001

It was December again. With the familiar scents of England drifting by Draco's face, he sat in the cushioned seat with his book on Magical Cures of Viral Diseases clutched in his hands, swaying on with the train towards Wiltshire.

Throughout the hours of his travel to Wiltshire, a thought had been playing his heartbeats like a violin, but it was tough for him to decide. The one week break sanctioned by the Institute of Medicinal Sorcery to him, was meant to be solely dedicated to visiting his mother Narcissa after the yearly exams, but he was yet to reply to a couple letters sent by both Pansy and Hermione requesting to join their Christmas reunion which he had missed last year. Even if he had the night to decide, it could take him more than an hour to travel to the wooden cabin they had booked for the celebration.

A while back, Narcissa had moved out of the Malfoy Manor and into an apartment in the small town of Tidworth, confessing to be facing symptoms of insomnia or otherwise terrible nightmares. The unfamiliar rows of buildings to where she lived must have lent her some sense of security for the little piles of galleons they charged, as she had confirmed complete comfort under the low ceiling and had assured him that the sounds of people waltzing above her room did actually made her feel safe and sleep well.

"I know how to use my wand." she had written under a post script addressing to his worrying letters continuously knocking at her windows.

Almost two years had passed since the day of farewell ball arranged by Hogwarts for the ones who had bravely fought in the Second Wizarding War that had almost rendered him hidden in the dorms. But there were little secrets that Harry had sealed his lips upon, just to let them out on that day, like how he could never kill Dumbledore even when he had the chance and power or when he hadn't let Harry's identity out on a special opportunity that could have gotten him killed, and even when his mother had declared him dead in the Forbidden Forest despite of sensing his breath while she was stood in front of the Dark Lord.

He had merely laughed at the first two examples, for he knew perfectly well what had been going through his mind at those times. They had been just cowardly silences from his side, mixed with a tinge of guilt of taking birth on the wrong side even if he never had a choice on it. Back in the Malfoy Manor, if something had fuelled his discretion were those green eyes that was filled with certainty of getting recognised and the fear of unknown. Though what his mother did had baffled him into silence after Harry's revelation, but when he had tried to confront her about it she had skillfully changed the topic to her nightmares about Him coming back.

However, he hadn't gotten much time to miss them too much in those years that were filled with piles of assignments, tests, practicals, and a few nights of filling up blanks left by a millimetre of magical ink spilt on his arm with people he didn't know and moaning names he didn't care about, the same old night of January playing in his mind in clips, when Harry had touched him for the first time.

The moment he stepped down on the platform, Draco blamed the abnormally low population of the town for the almost empty station. With his trunk shrunk into his pocket, he made his way towards the floo station without an ado.

"Hello, mother."

A smile spread across his lips as he held the woman in his embrace and inhaled her sweet smell of mint and honey.

"Honey, how was your year?" she asked with a hand on his shoulder.

"Can't say it was my year with all the assignments and tests, but it was usual and fine. How was it here? Are you coping up good?"

"Yes, I made a few acquaintance here. We have a few tea parties here and there, they are fun!" she smiled with a nod.

"Excellent," with a kiss on her cheek, he set his trunk beside his single bed.

The choice of apartment could have done better with the town, but the little richness of the place didn't allow it to spread too far with the people mostly belonging to the lower middle class. Besides, Narcissa repeated that it was enough for her stay and easier to clean on weekends without any helping hand.

"I had baked some pies for dessert. You can have some after you get back from the shower." Narcissa called from the door as he emptied his trunk in the laundry basket.

"Sure," Draco nodded his head.

With the blueberries mushing in his mouth, he closed his eyes to capture the most of the flavor as he savored on the delicacy with pleased hums.

"It's wonderful!" he squeaked between scoops resulting his mother to giggle at him with the cup of tea shivering in her hand.

"Seriously, I missed this so much!"

"I'm glad you like it." Narcissa cooed.

"I love it."

"Thought the eateries served well in Newport?" she inquired with a tone of concern.

"It does, it's a city. But I do miss your recipes." shrugging his shoulders, he set the empty plate down on the coffee table, as another thought occurred to him. "Mother, how would you feel if I disappeared on Christmas for a couple of days?"

"Huh?" raising a thin eyebrow, she gawked at her son. "Where to?"

"The group has arranged a reunion party on the occasion around the countryside." Draco confessed over his cup of black coffee that he had grown used to while staying in Wales.

"Ah," breathing on the dawned realisation, Narcissa intertwined her fingers on her lap as she thought on the matter. "I'm guessing you missed the previous reunion for me?"

"I — no?" Draco coughed out spittle of coffee on the back of his hand, sucking in a deep breath.

"Be careful, Draco." Narcissa shook her head with her lips pursed to stifle the smile spreading across her lips. "You could have just went on, really." the lady laughed.

It was a shame it didn't usually snow enough in England to cover the grounds, just the way he loved in Scotland. Maybe that was the reason Blaise had decided to shift it towards Broad Chalke, to spend a cozier Christmas with wrapped in blankets and warmth from the fire with a green dominated view from the balcony. Formerly, they'd all pass their Christmas holidays in front of the fire, drinking butterbeer and hot chocolate complimented with lots of treats sent from their homes either baked or ordered from bakeries especially for their families. Back then, they loved to brag about the their expensive sweets and royal puddings, even sometimes turn their noses up against people with petty chocolate hearts.

On the December of 1999, they had planned something similar around this, but with everybody busy with either their jobs or courses, the plan had been dumped after a few reschedule. Though, an occasion had passed when they all were supposed to visit the Weasley's to witness Hermione and Ron's engagement, but later he had been told that only Harry and Pansy could make it since they both were living in England at the time.

Blaise had informed him, that the cabin was yet to install a floo in the building, meaning they were just going to have to floo to the nearest station a mile away. For unknown reasons, his heart skipped beats as he informed the security about his arrival, one of the members of the group that had booked the cabin for the Christmas. Without another word, the man ran towards the the building he could see from afar, buried in decorative vines and wild flowers, leaving him to wonder why he didn't have some way to communicate with the guest from the booth.

By the time the white door to the cabin opened he could feel his heart in the throat pulsing under his chin with nervous sweat beads below his nose even in the weather of around three degrees.

"Hi, mate! Glad you could make it." Blaise beamed at him with a pat on his shoulder.

"Yes, of course." Draco greeted back with a hug and made it into the house. "Nice choice, I love the lake view." Draco nodded towards the backyard which had a fraction of the water peeking from behind.

"It was Weasley. The couple had been here after their engagement for their...fun?" Blaise chuckled as he lead Draco inside the living room.

"Ah, right."

As the occupants of the room came into view, Draco's heart plummeted to his stomach with a flip. Harry wasn't present there.

"Potter's inside, busy on some muggle contraption."

"Oh," Draco sighed as he waved to the others with a smile.

"Didn't let us put up wards so that he could use his...thingy." Blaise grumbled.

"Draco!" Pansy shrieked and jumped up, hanging from his neck, until he hugged her back.

"Hello, Pansy," he smiled back at the woman's excitement which brought back the feeling of being at Hogwarts.

"How have you been? Oh my god, it's been forever!" Pansy pressed a tight kiss on his cheek as she let go of his neck.

"I'm excellent, how are you?"

"Great!" Pansy pulled back.

Wishing that Harry would come out, Draco grabbed a seat on the couch before Blaise could occupy it smilling up at the couple snuggled under a blanket at the corner seat.

"Congratulations to the both of you. It's a shame I couldn't make it." Draco clicked his tongue.

"Don't worry about it. What you're doing is very important for you, I know." Hermione smiled.

"Really? Was it me then, who kept pouting at Pansy for his absence and retelling stories of your study dates?" Ron wiggled his eyebrows at her with a hint of smile.

"Ron, that was just two times! What are you talking about?" Hermione moved to turn a frown at the man she was leaning on.

"I'm just joking." Ron raised his hands to showcase a gesture of surrender to his woman with a smile.

Even after the thirtieth minute, Draco refused to lean back to relax his stiff posture on the couch, still once in a while glancing towards the many doors visible to the last inches of the periphery of his vision, fretting and mulling over the last person who remained invisible to him even after knowing that he was there. Wondering about Harry's level of courtesy, he ran fingers through his hair just to undo the rugged side sweep he had opted for while getting ready in the morning. Getting sure about Pansy had called his name pretty loudly for everyone present in the house to hear, Draco sighed to himself.

"I'll freshen up a little." he informed the group in total expecting some direction from the people.

"Yes, go on. We are planning on getting the Christmas tree this evening. Don't want to wait till the fresh ones are gone, do we?" Ron nodded his head with a shrug.

"There's a washroom down the hall to the right." Hermione pointed towards a hallway in the back of the living room.

"Thanks,"

The blonde strands shifted to his face as he bent down to splash water to his warmed up skin resting underneath the woolen scarf. Consoling heartbreaks with adamant pep talks had forever been his potion while on the journey to gradual realisation that Lucius Malfoy was indeed someone very vile with a nature of submitting to people who offered him little ounces of power. But with Harry being someone the complete opposite, the instincts confused within themselves to find a legitimate answer to the strange behaviours Draco received from him everytime they were together, sieving his thoughts to find a reason behind the man's action.

The buzz of Hermione and Pansy chatting in an agitated tone seeped through the door with an air of unusualness to it that attracted his attention.

"I'm going to fry Flintstone's backside if he tries to stop the law from passing Kingsley this time. Thinks he can just allow poaching of unicorns. I'm not going to be too ethical with him, if that's what he likes." Hermione grumbled.

"Why don't you just contact Shacklebolt? Write a letter to him if the man hops in your way another time. Should give him a good lesson." Pansy shared her idea.

"Had advised a couple of times, but she won't take it." the familiar voice hit him like an electric shock making him rush towards the towel to wipe his face dry.

"Hey, you missed Draco." he heard Hermione and halted at his movements of opening the latch of the door.

"What, really? Where's he?"

"In the washroom, went to wash up." she said. "Where were you? He's been here for almost an hour now."

"I had my earphones on, didn't hear him."

With a confused yet frantic heart, Draco stepped out of the bathroom without a sound on his way with the lock.

"Stop using those! They aren't very good for your ears." Hermione reprimanded with a smack on his arm, and Draco fell short at the view in front of him.

The diversity of the way Harry dressed was everything that occupied Draco's mind; from the royal blue camo joggers to the gray green tank top paired with a brown leather jacket and even the bangs that reached just above his eyes; it all came down as a blessing for him.

"There he is." Pansy called as Draco approached the group with uncertain steps.

"Did I miss something?" he tried, successfully blocking the waver in his voice.

"Yes, me." sprawled on the floor with legs half stretched and leant on the couch, Draco believed, Harry was smiling at him, even when the eyes behind those same old glasses couldn't filter the cockiness dripping through them.

"Ah, of course," Draco succeeded again in pulling out his confidence from the crowd of butterflies running around his stomach.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you earlier." he stood up, hair falling to his forehead to almost cover his eyebrows.

"It's okay," Draco nodded, unable to comprehend any other reaction out of himself after the scene in front of him, though a part of him was trying to presume the man's upcoming action while he stood absolutely still.

For a surprise, Harry actually hugged him by the waist, almost wringing the air out of him to the point where he stumbled to keep his balance and anticipated to be lifted up his feet but was only hit by the old scent of soil and books paralysing his movements for a split second while the hug lasted. The little braid hanging upto his upper back, decorated with a golden ribbon caught his attention and his eyes bulged out.

"Your hair..." the words had left his mouth before he could stop it. "you let it grow?" even though the question sounded ridiculous, those were the only handy words he could fetch from his dictionary to improvise his slip up.

"Yeah, how's it?" Harry grinned, giving it a tweak.

"I don't know, looks... different." he nodded his head with a sober smile to cover up the flood of hormones rushing through his veins forcing him to duck his eyes away, lest he could have swooned.

"Dursley would have chopped it off himself if he saw that." Hermione rolled her eyes at him.

Turning a raised eyebrow at her, Harry pursed his lips. "I get it you don't like it, Hermione, but you don't really have to idolize the Dursleys for that."

"I never said that! I'm just saying that they wouldn't have liked it." Hermione squeaked in her defence with eyes wide.

"Then what's with sidetracking your opinion? You never said how I look." Harry crossed his arms over his chest with a confronting gesture.

"To be honest, she thinks — "

"Shut up!" Hermione slapped a hand over Ron's mouth. "Didn't I tell you not to speak about it?"

"Oh, come on!" Harry blew a puff of air from his mouth and threw his hands to his sides. "Alright, let's cut the bull and get on with the task in hand, shall we? It's already four." the tone sounding snappy. Draco backtracked a little, glancing at Hermione who glared at a red Ron.

"Harry..." Hermione groaned at the ceiling.

"What?"

"I didn't mean to bring up the Dursleys to hurt you, I swear!"

"I know that! But why do you have to act like a spy all the time? I mean, it's just an opinion about my hair, not going to kill me if you say you hate it." wheeling around on his heels, he faced Hermione on the couch.

"Oh my god," Hermione leaned her head on the sofa with her eyes closed, chest falling from a loud sigh. "I do not hate it, Harry. I just think, you look, kind of..."

"Kind of what?"

"Gay," with her breath held in her chest, she stared at Harry for his reaction while the man merely blinked at her stifled smile.

Even Draco himself, with bated breath glanced from Hermione to Ron, the chuckling duo on the other side of the couch blurred out of his focus from the tension which almost had him as red as Ron.

"Ugh," at last, Harry rolled his eyes and turned away, catching Draco's eyes on his way. "What are you, a muggle high schooler?"

"Didn't know how you'd react." Hermione shrugged her shoulders with a laugh.

"Yes, please, Hermione, you knew perfectly well how I'd react." Harry laughed out.

Despite of his urge to throw in a couple comments, Draco sealed his mouth shut with an engaging smile that assured the rest of his acknowledgment in the conversation, until he saw fit to speak again, which was after the topic had diverted back to her job with his little courtesy.

Out in the Chalke Valley, the temporary sheds selling baubles and other flimsy trinkets charmed to either swing on its own or glow like a sphere of prophecy with swirling patterns of reindeers and the Father Christmas clouding in and out of focus, crowded the otherwise empty streets of the village, attracting thousands of people to gather around them.

A few hundred metres away, a huge festival had lit the graying sky up for the evening, amplified sounds of people announcing names of people and competitions bounced back to their ears even from the distant, raising suspicions about presence of magic in the surrounding.

"Hey, can we go there?" Pansy jumped beside Ron, glancing at the red head with excitement.

"That's a muggle festival. We don't want any trouble." raising his hands beside his head, Ron shook his head.

"Come on, we won't be any trouble. Besides, muggles barely notice their noses, let alone magic." she waved her hand at Ron and turned to Hermione. "Come on! It's going to be worth it."

"I don't see why, though. They are just regular festivals — "

"No, no, no, let's go!" Pansy cut Hermione off, as she pulled at her arm like a child.

Like every other time, the young adult had managed to convince them to give in and walk into the pool of little children of mixed age groups holding their guardian's hands in a tight grip with sparkling eyes in wonder of the objects dangling from the bamboo sheds or the numerous Christmas trees erected from spot to spot with different decorations in each tree. Though Blaise had made her promise she won't try any funny business around the muggles and especially the kids to jeopardize or confuse them in any way, Draco was quite sure that by the time they walked out of there, she would manage to pull some stunt from under their noses.

"This was a very stupid idea, Pansy!" Ron shouted at the woman after apologising to a woman who he had just shoved with his shoulder.

"Stop whining, Ronald, and walk. We are trying to get to the less crowded section." Pansy shouted back over her back.

"If I get a single dead toenail, you're paying my hospital bill." he reprimanded.

"Have some mercy, and spare the Healers. You feet smell like mouldy cheese."

Along with the children, the three people who had been utterly ignorant about the non magic world stared at the countless toys and charms conspicuously, attracting amused looks from the owners. In an easier situation, the other three would have loved to pass comments on their lack of knowledge, especially Ron, but with them being almost crushed under the pressure of people reaching their knees or waists, they spared the beings to their misery.

"Hey, what's that?" Draco inquired Harry for the third time, only this time, he was pointing at a candy floss machine.

"That's a candy floss maker. Want to try some?" Harry replied with a smile.

"Candy floss?" Draco questioned with suspicion, eyeing the children gathered in front of the man who was rolling out thready texture on a bamboo stick. "Aren't they for kids?"

Slipping a laugh at his words, Harry shook his head. "There's no such compulsion. You can have it if you want."

"Um, alright, if you say so."

With the pink ball of sweet propped between his fingers, his eyes lit with anticipation and excitement when he put a piece in his mouth. His questioning eyebrows raised at the dessert, when the piece immediately dissolved on his tongue with a syrupy sweetness, volunteering a conclusion that it was quite magical in itself to be able to do such a thing. When he turned to Harry, he found his eyes already scrutinizing his face for the upcoming reaction with a gentle smile stretching his lips.

"Do you like it?"

With a silent nod, he threw in another serving of the candy floss. "Yes, it melts out quite quickly." he said.

"Exactly what it's famous for." Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Though, I don't like too much of it. It denses up after a while and becomes chewy like caramel, which I think is too sweet for me."

With his eyebrows still raised, Draco turned to him as he sidestepped a little six year old glaring at the candy in his hand for some unknown reasons. "That was too much thought about a candy." Draco huffed a laugh through his nose.

"It's my tendency."

After a fifteen minutes of walk around the place, they found their way back to a bar waking up nostalgia en route of the night they had gotten drunk at Tracy's back in Hogsmeade which brought back more memories of the later hours into the night. Stealing glances of Harry, Draco wished to be as confident Harry had been while asking him how he looked with his longer hair earlier that evening. Even if the sky was too dark for them to get a handsome Christmas tree for the cottage, the thought that they could do without a tree nagged his lazy side to bring up excuses for skipping the decorations. Besides, he was pretty sure they weren't going to stay sober enough to walk straight after the time at the bar, let alone go and buy an actual Christmas tree.

"Hey, what about the tree?"

"Don't worry, I've already ordered it through owl. I know you lazy dirtbags." Hermione muttered, as they entered the cabin like a flock of sheep, fumbling around with lit wands, drunk out of their minds.

The morning after gradually became busier as the sun shifted above the tiled roof warming up the day for a easier way through the cold. The aftermath of the drunken night reflected on their mood swings as Blaise and Pansy cycled from painful groans to mild humor through the process of stringing ornaments to the unexpectedly handsome tree they had received through the owl order and Ron goaded Hermione's smile for her clever mind.

Harry seemed fresh from his practiced drinking habit which Draco presumed to have effected his neurological built through the years, though he was yet to assess the level of addiction he had held on to. His sudden makeover had tremendously affected his confidence, to the point where he sometimes swallowed back his sassy comments he was used to pass along with their conversations, though he was working on its return.

A few hours into the decorations, a contrast feathered owl had tapped on one of the windows in the hall announcing the arrival of a letter for Harry. Draco was curious despite of the chances of it being official, but at the end, he had discovered against his thoughts. It was indeed from a woman named Azalea Snow who Hermione teased him to be his new interest.

"They have been seeing each other for a month now." Ron nodded his head with a laugh.

"Oh," Draco smiled his best with an intentional ignorance of his heart in his stomach. "Good for you."

"Thanks," Harry nodded his head without sparing a glance his way.

And that was about how Draco's Christmas Eve went, with attempts of skipping Harry's presence in the house when they sat down to plan a rough routine of the next day about the village. The unconscious jabs targetted toward him with the idea of inviting Azalea over for the next day slapped him into partial silence throughout the span of discussion with just the will to pass interested glances their ways when any of them spoke.

"What about you?" Blaise asked.

"Maybe go to a nightclub?" he provided out of the blue.

"That's actually a great idea." Harry nodded his head and Draco had to hold a scowl back as he swallowed.