Despite the Christmas Eve party starting at seven, it was almost twenty past before Ginny arrived at Ron and Lavender's room. When Ron pointed out his sister was late, she reminded him that parties often took time to get underway properly and the chances of them missing anything was remote. To be fair, Ron did agree with his sister, but since they were attending the party, he felt as though they should be making the most of it. Especially since he and Lavender were attending the party for free.
Finally ready to go, not quite half an hour late, the trio made their way down to the ground floor. Coming from the lifts, they had to enter reception, and they found a red carpet had been put down leading from the front doors and heading towards a different part of the hotel. There was also staff milling around the reception area, and they pointed the trio down the red carpet to the party.
As they set off down the red carpet, Ron heard people entering the hotel behind them and glancing over his shoulder he recognised Oliver Wood, accompanied by a beautiful witch he was assuming was his wife, entering the building. These days Oliver was a professional quidditch player, but rumour had it he was about to retire early and take a job up at Hogwarts. Ron was just about to ask Ginny if she knew anything about the rumours about Oliver when he spotted people ahead of them on the red carpet and realised a small queue was forming.
"What the hell?" he muttered as they came to a brief stand still behind a witch Ginny played quidditch with.
While Ginny was chatting with her friend the group slowly moved around the corner and Ron saw that entry to the party was being monitored by yet more members of staff. However, as he was about to complain again he recognised the wizard at the front of the queue as Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Minister for Magic. And given that the Minister for Magic didn't seem to have an issue with waiting his turn to enter the party, Ron felt as though he would be childish to complain.
Not that Ron really had much of a chance to complain as the short queue was swift moving and within a couple of minutes he, Ginny and Lavender reached the members of staff greeting guests and checking they had invitations to the party. On production of their invites they were each handed a small colourful box and a full glass of champagne.
"Merry Christmas," the witch handing out the champagne beamed as they passed her to enter the party.
Muttering a festive greeting of his own, Ron headed into the party with his wife and sister, and was instantly stunned by the sight that greeted them. The room was as big, if not bigger, than the Great Hall at Hogwarts and was decorated with icicles and soft white fairy lights. A large, stunningly decorated in silver and white tree stood beside the door they had just passed through, and another tree stood over the other side of the room. Several doors opened out into the gardens, and one side of the room also held open doors leading to another room just as large as they one they were in. A decent sized bar sat in one corner of the room, and tables and chairs were dotted around the room while still leaving room for dancing. Ron recalled the invitation mentioned food, but as he couldn't see any sign of sustenance, he was guessing it was through in the other room.
"Impressive," Ginny remarked with a low whistle as she and Lavender soaked up the sight.
Nodding his agreement, Ron looked down at the box he'd been handed upon entry and gave a thrilled cry when he realised it was a taster selection for Honeydukes new decadent range. He'd seen adverts for the new range of premium chocolates the sweet shop had started selling earlier in the month, but the prices were pretty eyewatering and so he hadn't been able to justify buying himself, or Lavender for that matter, a box for Christmas.
"You can have those later," Lavender said, sweeping the box from her husband's hands and together with her box, she shrunk then and dropped them in her handbag, with Ginny following suit and doing the same with her box.
"Let's explore," Ginny announced, heading into the throng of the party. Even though guests were still coming through the doors behind them, the party was already pretty buzzing meaning that plenty of people had arrived early or spot on time.
As they moved through the party, Ron spotted several familiar faces from the papers and the types of celebrity magazines his wife and sister devoured. He also spotted people he knew worked at the Ministry of Magic, as well as people he knew personally. The first people he spotted whom he knew personally were his old school friends, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. A quick chat with them revealed that Harry had invited them to the celebrations, but due to prior commitments the party was all they would be attending.
As they made their way into the second room, Ron saw it was set up almost identically as the first. The room boasted two large Christmas trees, decorated in the same silver and white theme, and doors led out to the garden area. There was a second, smaller bar in the corner of the room and set out along the far wall were long tables, draped in silver tablecloths and loaded with food. As Ron headed in the direction of the food table, to check out what sort of spread Harry and his partner had put on, he was distracted by the sight of a familiar wizard with long white blond hair.
"What's so funny?" Ginny asked when Ron began to snicker.
"Look who's here," Ron said, nodding towards the corner of the room where Lucius Malfoy, and his beautiful wife, Narcissa, stood talking with a couple Ron didn't recognise.
"Why is seeing the Malfoys so funny?" Lavender asked. "Given how high end the hotel is, I would have been more surprised not to find them here. I'm sure this will be their sort of place to visit, Ron."
"It might be, until they realise who owns it," Ron said, still chuckling. "I mean come on, do you really think they would be here if they knew it was Harry's hotel? They wouldn't willingly support his business, would they?"
"I suppose you do have a point," Ginny agreed with a chuckle of her own. "Maybe if we run into them later we can accidentally burst their bubble and let on who owns this place."
"Although they are not the only Slytherins at this party," Lavender remarked, her eyes on a stunning raven haired witch in a showstopping red dress, who had just approached the Malfoys and the other couple.
"Who is that?" Ron asked, wondering why his wife was so interested in the witch in red.
"Pansy Parkinson," Lavender replied.
"Parkinson?" Ron questioned with a snort as both he and Ginny stared at the stunning witch.
Try as he might, Ron couldn't summon up an image of Pansy that wasn't years old. His memories of her in school were vague, and quite honestly the memories that stuck in his head the most were from third and fourth year when she'd been hanging around Malfoy like a limpet. Only in those memories she was a pug nosed girl, who wasn't the slightest bit attractive. However, the witch in red, whom Lavender seemed convinced was Pansy, was gorgeous and oozed sexiness.
"Are you sure?" Ginny asked, sounding as sceptical as Ron felt.
"Positive," Lavender answered with a nod of her head. "She works for a fancy design company in France. Last year I was invited to join the fashion editor to a couple of fashion shows in Paris, and Pansy was at one of the shows. From what was said, she was pretty well thought of at the company and tipped to have a bright future."
"If she works in France, what is she doing here?" Ron asked, still struggling to believe the witch in red was Pansy Parkinson.
"Maybe she's visiting family for Christmas," Ginny replied with a shrug, clearly losing interest in former Slytherins. "Come on, let's go and grab another drink."
By now the champagne they'd been given upon entering the party was long gone, and so Ron had no objections to getting another drink. Unlike the food, the drink wasn't free, although it was discounted. But even so, Ron had told Ginny he had to be careful with money, so she headed to the bar to buy the first round and she'd promised him to buy the majority of the drinks.
While Ginny was getting the drinks, Ron and Lavender continued to circulate, which was how they ran into another couple of old friends, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood. As with Dean and Seamus, they had received a personal invitation from Harry, and they were planning on staying the night. However, like Dean and Seamus they'd already had plans for Christmas Day and wouldn't be attending lunch the following day.
"It seems like everyone knew about Harry owning this hotel but me," Ron grumbled to his wife as they waited for Ginny to return with the drinks.
"I think so," Lavender said quietly, gently placing her hand on her husband's arm and gesturing across the room.
Following his wife's gaze, Ron could hardly believe it when he saw the very familiar faces of his twin brothers, Fred and George. The pair were with their wives, Alicia and Angelina, and the foursome were merrily chatting away to someone Ron couldn't quite make out. Pushing through the crowds, he approached his brothers just as someone with dark hair walked away from them and vanished from sight as they headed out of one of the open doors that led outside. Even though he'd only seen the wizard with his brothers from the back, Ron was fairly sure it had been Harry.
"Ron, fancy seeing you here," George remarked, spotting his brother and his wife approaching.
"This is your work thing?" Fred asked, directing his question to Lavender.
"The magazine gave us tickets, and we upgraded to the full package," Lavender explained.
"Never mind us, what about you," Ron interrupted. "What are you doing here? And more importantly, why didn't you tell me?"
"You didn't seem that interested in our plans," George remarked with a shrug. "Even when we said we had plans, you never asked about them."
"You could have volunteered them," Ron argued. "Especially as you must have known about Harry owning this place."
"Of course we knew," Fred snorted. "Harry invited us personally. And if Mum and Dad hadn't been off in Romania with Bill and his family, they would have been here as well."
"Nonsense," Ron insisted with a stubborn shake of his head.
"It's not nonsense, and you know it," George said. "You threw away your friendship with Harry, Ron. The rest of us didn't. We've kept in touch, and therefore we knew about the hotel."
"You still could have told me," Ron protested. "I could have been prepared."
"Does it really matter who owns the hotel?" Angelina asked with a shrug. "You were coming here regardless of who owned it. And it's not like you have to spend time with Harry if you don't want to."
"I don't want to," Ron insisted with a pout. "Now if you'll excuse me, we need to go and find Ginny and our drinks. Surely she's been served by now."
Taking Lavender by the arm, Ron steered his wife away from his brothers and when he heard them laughing merrily as they departed he tried to pretend they weren't laughing at him. Spotting Ginny coming towards them, Ron hurried forward and informed his sister that their brothers were at the party. Ginny was just as shocked as Ron to find the twins were at the party, and like her brother, she was slightly put out that they hadn't bothered to tell them how they'd been planning on celebrating Christmas.
"Why don't we just forget about all this drama and just focus on having a good time," Lavender suggested, not wanting the evening to be ruined by family dramas. "Let's grab some food, and then maybe we can dance, Ron."
The thought of dancing wasn't exactly a joyous one, but the idea of food did appeal to Ron and so he made an effort to forget about his siblings and the secrets they'd been hiding from him. After a decent plate of food, Ron did allow himself to be dragged onto the dancefloor by his wife, and after a while he found himself genuinely enjoying himself.
When it was time to get some more drinks, Ron offered to go and get them and so he headed to the bar in the room they were in. A couple of young wizards were serving behind the bar, and when it was his turn, Ron placed his order. Just as he was finishing up with his order and paying for the drinks, which even discounted still seemed expensive to him, a figure appeared at his side and placed his own order of drinks. It was the voice that alerted Ron to the fact he knew the wizard standing beside him, and sure enough when he glanced to the side, Draco Malfoy, dressed impeccably in a black tuxedo, was standing beside him.
"Weasley," Draco remarked with a bob of his head as the waiter who was serving him began to place his drinks on a tray.
Even though Ron had ordered first, his drinks consisted of cocktails for his wife and sister, and was therefore taking longer to put together than Draco's simpler, but more numerous, order. Sipping at his own drink, which had been delivered rather quickly, Ron watched as the drinks mounted up on Malfoy's tray. He must have been spending a fortune, and Ron was interested to see just how much the blond was going to spend on drinks. However, as the final drink was placed on his tray, he picked the tray up as though he was going to leave.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Ron remarked, unable to help himself even though the barman seemed happy to let the former Slytherin leave without paying for his drinks.
"What?" Draco asked, counting the drinks on his tray.
"Payment," Ron spat. "Or do you think you're too important to pay for drinks?"
"I think I can have free drinks in my own hotel if I want to," Draco replied with a smirk. "Now If you'll excuse me Weasley, I've got friends to get back to."
Draco's words had stunned Ron so much that he couldn't formulate an answer before the blond had turned and vanished into the crowds. He was still reeling over the revelation when the rest of the drinks arrived, and in a world of his own, he returned to where his wife and sister were sitting waiting for him.
"What's wrong with you?" Ginny asked as Ron set the drinks down and virtually collapsed into the seat next to Lavender.
"Malfoy," Ron answered hollowly. "I've just ran into Malfoy at the bar, and he wasn't paying for his drinks. When I called him out on it, he said he was entitled to free drinks as the owner of the hotel."
"What?" Ginny spluttered, almost choking on her cocktail she'd just taken a sip of. "Don't be ridiculous Ron. Malfoy does not own this hotel, Harry does."
"With a partner," Ron pointed out.
"A partner that is not Draco Malfoy," Ginny retorted with a snort. "Come on Ron, as if Harry would ever go into business with that worm."
"As if Hermione could ever be married to Malfoy," Lavender snorted, reminding the siblings that Harry's partner was supposedly Hermione's husband.
"Of course she couldn't," Ginny agreed. "You know as well as I do Ron that Hermione would never be married to Malfoy."
"No, she wouldn't," Ron conceded. "She wouldn't do that."
"More like she couldn't," Lavender corrected her husband. "As much as the Malfoys may have changed, and have abandoned some of the old ways, some things don't change in the upper echelons of wizarding society. And keeping the bloodlines pure is one of those things. The Malfoys would never have stood for a muggleborn marrying into the family."
"Then there's the fact that Malfoy is way out of Hermione's league," Ginny added cattily. "Even back in school he was hot, and let's be honest, Hermione is attractive, but not so much as to catch the eye of a wizard like Malfoy. He was clearly pulling your leg, Ron."
"But what about the drinks?" Ron asked. What his wife and sister were saying made sense, but he still had a niggling doubt that Malfoy had been honest when he'd told him about owning the hotel.
"Maybe he's staying overnight and set up a tab," Lavender suggested. "I suppose it's an easier way of handling paying for drinks all evening."
"I wish I'd thought of that, and I could have been doing the same," Ginny said. "Just forget about him, Ron. One thing I can safely say is that Malfoy does not own half of this hotel. He was simply winding you up."
Ron nodded, wishing he could believe his sister, but a voice inside him was telling him that Malfoy had been telling the truth. And if that was the case then not only was he in business with Harry, but he was married to Hermione. The trouble was, neither of those things made sense to Ron, and he couldn't work out just what had happened in his old friend's lives for Malfoy to be part of them. There was something not right about the entire thing, and even though he didn't want anything to do with either Harry or Hermione, he needed to know what was going on and where exactly Malfoy fit into the picture.