Thursday, December 24, 1998 (Christmas Eve)
Hermione made sure to get down to the Common Room early in the morning. She was desperate to talk to Draco about everything that had occurred after their lovely day together in Hogsmeade.
When she arrived in the Common Room, she felt immense relief seeing Draco sitting in his usual chair by the fireplace. She rushed over to him and began rambling off apologies and explanations.
The wizard quickly stood up and pulled her close, kissing her lips which immediately silenced her. She let herself get lost in the kiss for a moment before pulling back and opening her mouth to speak again.
"Hermione…" Draco quickly cut in before she could say anything else. "Everything is all right. I am not mad or upset with you whatsoever." He explained. "When I returned to the castle yesterday, McGonagall summoned me to her office. That's the reason I was unable to be in here when you got back. I'm sorry that I wasn't here for you, Darling."
She smiled, the term of endearment taking her by surprise in the best way possible. Reaching up to cup his jaw, she leaned in and kissed his lips softly.
He smiled into the kiss and as they separated asked, "How erm…how did it go after I left?"
Hermione's smile slowly faded, and Draco's eyes suddenly sharpened with concern.
"What happened, Hermione?" he asked with an edge of anger rising in his tone.
The brunette sighed.
"You can talk to me." he said quietly, reaching out and lightly rubbing his thumb along her cheek.
Nodding, she said, "Viktor is just…well, he's nothing like he used to be. He is quite…quite cruel now."
"What did he say to you?" Draco said through clenched teeth.
Hermione shook her head, "Honestly, it's not important, Draco." she said through an exhale.
Shaking his head in response, Draco said, "If it hurt you, Hermione, then it is incredibly important. To me, especially."
Hermione smiled at his words before going on to explain what had been said between herself and Krum the previous day at The Three Broomsticks.
Draco became furious, "That bloody bastard!"
"I know." Hermione said. "He has no right to speak about you in such a way. I was furious that he did…"
"Hermione, I don't give a shite what he thinks about me. I'm angry that he touched you and spoke to you like that. I could honestly…" He clenched his jaw, shaking his head.
Surprised, the witch shook her head and pulled him closer, "Draco, please…let's just forget about him. I just…I want to be with you. I don't want to spend another moment thinking about Viktor Krum." she said, cupping his jaw so that he looked her in the eyes and knew she meant every word. "I just want to be happy…with you. Just like I've been this week."
He inhaled deeply and nodded, "Me too. I've thoroughly enjoyed the past week. I can't promise that I won't think about him…or the pain I would love to cause him, but, for you, I'll drop it. I've must ask you though, are you certain that you want me to drop it completely?"
She nodded, "I'm certain. I just want to forget about him." She said, inhaling deeply before adding, "Now, is everything okay with you? I mean…I'm not asking for all the details, unless you want to tell me, but you had said that McGonagall summoned you to her office."
Nodding, Draco sighed, "Well, my mother was waiting in her office when I got in there."
"Why?" Hermione asked, surprised.
"When I asked McGonagall that very question, she said that I should listen to what my mother had to say." He answered with an exhale before going on. "Mother said that the entire 'disowning' issue in the Daily Prophet had been all my father's doing. She said that she had nothing to do with it and that she doesn't even care about the money."
With a bit of hesitancy, Hermione asked, "And erm…what do you…think about that?"
The wizard shrugged, shaking his head before saying, "Honestly, I'm not sure if this is some sort of devious trick by my parents, but I don't care quite enough to think about all of that at the moment."
Rolling her eyes, she said, "Draco, darling, you need to think about it. It could be incredibly important and possibly dangerous, though hopefully not."
He nodded, "You're right." A smile forming on his lips, "Which is why I've done the important part for now. I've moved all the money to a new vault…with McGonagall's help, that is."
"That's good. It was a smart thing to do. McGonagall will keep the vault number a secret, and you shouldn't tell anyone else which vault it is. That includes me. It's your money, Draco."
He cupped her cheek, "Are you trying to say that I can't trust you? Because I know for a fact that I can."
She rolled her eyes once more and said, "No. Of course you can trust me, but it's still not anyone's business where that money is."
He nodded, "Okay." He said before leaning in and kissing her lips.
She smiled as they separated.
"So, now that we've caught up…" Draco grinned, "what would you like to do today? Being that it's Christmas Eve, we ought to do something a bit different, wouldn't you agree?"
She smirked and nodded, "Have you ever built a snowman?"
He furrowed his brow and cleared his throat, "What the bloody hell is a snowman?"
Hermione laughed and kissed his lips once before saying, "It's a man made of snow. Obviously."
Draco chuckled and rolled his eyes, nodding, "Touché."
She smiled, "Well, it's a muggle tradition when it snows, to build a snowman. I thought that perhaps, after breakfast, we could go outside and build one."
"I think that sounds like fun." He replied, nodding. "So, let's grab our coats and head to breakfast. Then we can go build this snowman of yours."
She laughed and nodded before summoning her coat while he did the same.
The two of them made their way, hand-in-hand, to The Great Hall for breakfast.
When they finished eating, Hermione looked across the table at Draco and smiled.
He furrowed his brow and grinned, "What is it?"
She shook her head, "I was just thinking about how I had assumed this was going to be a dreadful Christmas, but thanks to you, it's been lovely…truly lovely." She said before adding, "Thank you, Draco." as she reached across the table, taking his hand.
He smiled and rubbed his thumb across the knuckles of her hand. "You've made my Christmas holiday lovely as well, Darling. Thank you, Hermione."
She smiled, blushing at his sweet words.
"Care to go build this snowman now?" Draco smirked, making her laugh.
She nodded, squeezing his hand before letting go and standing up. They both pulled on their coats before making their way outside.
"So…" the brunette asked, looking around the grounds, "where should we build it?"
"How about in the Quidditch Pitch?" Draco suggested.
She nodded, taking his outstretched hand, and together the two of them walked down to the Pitch.
Once they made it to the Pitch, Draco looked over at her, grinning, "So, how does one build a snowman?"
She laughed lightly while pulling her gloves on, "First of all, I suggest that you put your gloves on, or your hands my freeze off."
He chuckled and nodded, getting his gloves from his coat pockets before pulling them on. "Next?" He asked.
She smirked, "Now comes the real work."
Half an hour later, they stepped back and admired their work.
Draco grinned, and looked over at Hermione with raised brows, "That's a rather cheeky-looking snowman if you ask me."
The brunette laughed, nodding, "He certainly is. The best ones are." She said, turning to fully face the wizard. "Thank you, Draco, for helping me build him. I've always loved building snowmen, but I haven't been able to do it in years."
He nodded and pulled her close, "Anything for you."
Blushing, Hermione said, "You're incredibly sweet, you know." The wizard rolled his eyes, but she cupped his jaw, forcing him to meet her eyes. "I mean it, Draco Malfoy."
He nodded and leaned in, kissing her lips softly.
As they separated, a smirk formed on his face, "You know…we ought to build a snow-dragon that breathes fire while we're out here."
She laughed, "Wands will certainly be necessary for this." she said, pulling her wand out of her pocket.
After an hour of making mistake after mistake, they finally built the dragon, though it was smaller than expected.
Draco grinned, nodding, "Now that is a bloody awesome snow creature."
"Yes, it is." Hermione laughed as her stomach growled from hunger.
The two of them headed inside for lunch before making their way back to the 8th Year Common Room.
While Draco poured each of them a glass of Firewhisky, Hermione stood near the fireplace in an attempt to warm up a bit. The wizard joined her, handing her a glass before taking a sip from his own glass.
"I've thoroughly enjoyed today." He said, looking into her toffee eyes.
She smiled and nodded, "I have as well."
"So…" Draco said sometime later once they had both warmed up, "would you like to play some Wizards Chess?"
Hermione smirked, "Sure, though you've taught me well. Are you prepared to lose?"
He chuckled, nodding, "Absolutely."
That evening, instead of going to The Great Hall for dinner, the two of them stayed in the Common Room, curled up together on the sofa. They spent the evening on the sofa in front of the fireplace, drinking Firewhisky and snogging.
Draco quietly spoke up as it began to get late. "So, tomorrow is Christmas Day. What would you like to do to celebrate?"
The witch curled further into his comforting embrace and simply replied in a quiet murmur, "More of this."
He smiled as he tightened his arms around her and kissed her softly on the forehead, "Deal." He whispered in response.