บท 31: Christmas.

(Its a lazy day here so this chapter is going to be quite lazy as well. The main focus of this chapter is opening Christmas gifts and stuff, to increase some connection between characters and since Christmas has always played somewhat of an important role in Harry Potter, so I thought I could make a chapter out of it. If you wanna skip the part, you can do so. Since other than some gift references in the future chapters, it's not really that important.)

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Today was Christmas, so Draco woke up early. He went out of his bed and wished his father and mother, a merry Christmas. His father still upset about the disinheriting thing stiffly nodded. Draco shrugged his shoulders and went towards the living room where all his presents were collected. This year Draco had a lot more presents than usual since almost all his new friends and the Slytherin first year student had sent him a present. He quickly went over and started unwrapping them one by one.

Theodore had sent him a book about potions from his family's collection which he had never read before and Draco did the same as well. Pansy sent him a beautifully designed bracelet, which was made from platinum and gold.

Draco looked at the bracelet for a while and wore it. The bracelet was bigger than his wrist but once he put it on, the bracelet shrunk itself to a perfect fit. There was a letter that came with the bracelet which read,

Dear Draco,

I heard about aunt Narcissa being pregnant so I wanted to congratulate her, make sure to do it on my behalf since I can't be there at the moment. Also, how did you like my gift? I had it custom made a month ago and I had put a lot of effort into making the design, so you better like it. Also if I don't like the gift you send me, you are buying me another one.

I nearly forgot! Merry Christmas to you Draco!

Your l̶o̶ dearest friend,

Pansy Parkinson.

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At Parkinson family's house, Pansy was opening Draco's gift as well. As soon as she tore open the gift wrap, she was surprised. It was a golden snitch, the newest on the market. This brand of snitch couldn't be played in a match since its sole purpose was to follow around the person who touched it first.

Pansy excitedly opened the package and held the snitch in her hands. The snitch slowly opened its wings and flew around her. Unlike the real snitch, this one was easy to catch and release back again. Pansy caught the snitch back in her hand and to her surprise, the snitch opened up and a note dropped from within. Pansy released the snitch again and read the note.

I can't always be around you so I will give you this snitch as a gift. With it around, you can always be sure that I am looking out for you, no matter where I am. Also, I wish you a Merry Christmas.

-Draco Malfoy

Pansy held the small note in her hand, blushing deeply.

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Draco opened another package which was surprisingly from Harry. Draco opened the gift and it was a set of the robe, inside it there was a note that read.

This is payback for the time you bought me my school robe. Now we don't owe each other anything.

-Harry Potter

Draco laughed reading the letter. 'I didn't expect Potter had it in him to do so.'

Draco put down the robe on the side and opened a new present from Daphne. Daphne had sent him a book about learning, how to fight with swords. Draco had previously mentioned his friends about wanting to learn how to fight with a sword as a joke but now it looked like Daphne took it seriously. Draco looked at the very old book in his hand. Draco opened the first page of the book and it read, "Gladio: Greengrass family."

From what Draco knew 'Gladio' meant sword and from the title, it seems like Daphne gifted him an old family book.

The second page of the book was a blank page but Daphne had left him a little note there.

Dear Draco,

I tried to find a present for you but I couldn't really think of anything decent. I remembered you talking about wanting to learn how to fight with swords one time so I decided to gift you this old family book, we had in our library. I don't really know much about swords but I hope it can help you in some way. Merry Christmas!

Daphne Greengrass.

Draco sighed, 'Well if I really go back to the dream world again, learning swords might actually be useful.' He said putting the book aside.

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At Greengrass family house, Daphne and her sister, Astoria were opening gifts as well.

"Hey, Daphne who is Draco?" Astoria asked looking at a gift in her hands.

"None of your business." Daphne said pulling the gift from her hand.

Astoria snorted and started opening her own gifts, ignoring her. Daphne slowly and carefully opened her gift and inside it was a beautiful necklace, with a black and green emerald stone. While Daphne was dazed looking at the necklace in front of her, Astoria suddenly said,

"Who is this Draco Malfoy?" Astoria's voice woke Daphne from her stupor as she turned to look at another present in Astoria's hand-labeled Draco.

"That's mine," Daphne said trying to pull the gift from her hand again but this time Astoria was quick enough so she managed to dodge her.

"This one has my name written on it." Astoria said, "So it's mine."

"How could it be?" Daphne said not believing Astoria, "You have never even met him before."

"Look.." She said showing off the name tag on top of the present, which clearly read 'From Draco Malfoy to Astoria Greengrass.'

Daphne froze reading the tag, Astoria took the chance and quickly escaped to her bedroom with the gift in her hand. Locking the door she sat on her bed as she tore open her gift.

The gift was a perfume bottle which was crystal blue in color. Astoria seeing the perfume jumped up and ran outside, coming back with a newspaper in her hand.

"It's really the Noitop perfume. From what I have heard the perfume is really expensive and it's almost sold out in all stores, so how can..." She said looking at the perfume in her hand, "Wait! Draco Malfoy, isn't he the famous genius in potions and the one who created this perfume?"

She read the label in the perfume and confirmed her guess. 'Why would he send me a gift?' She thought for a while. She looked back at the gift wrapping she tore and found there was a note beneath it. It read,

Dear Astoria Greengrass,

My name is Draco Malfoy and I am in the same class and house as your sister Daphne. I have heard about you from your sister and I heard you were recently sick. Even if we don't know each other please accept this gift as a get well soon gift and a Christmas gift. I hope you take plenty of rest and get better. Merry Christmas!

Your well-wisher,

Draco Malfoy

Astoria kept the letter beneath her bed and held the perfume in her hands, she didn't know why but she felt very happy.

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Draco was opening one package after another in his home. Most of the Slytherin students had sent him chocolates. Candy's and Chocolates were always the safe route to go when you are not close with each other, but still, want to send each other gifts. Draco himself had sent a lot of other people chocolate's as gifts. Crabbe and Goyle had sent him bags of chocolates as well.

Cho-Chang had sent him a broom-cleaning kit and Draco had sent her a bag of chocolates. From what Draco knew Theodore was going to send her a Nimbus 2000 as a gift since she is the seeker of the Ravenclaw team and didn't have a nice broom to ride on. Draco didn't really like Cho a lot considering her difference from other girls. Girls like Pansy, Daphne and Hermione were different than her, when these girls became friends with him, they became friends with each other as well not making the conversation between them weird, whereas Cho would rather not talk much when they were together as a group and make things quite difficult and awkward. When everyone is trying or doing something as a group she would always be the one to say no, which made bonding with her quite hard. Theodore had told him that she talked a lot when they were together and she was just the silent type but the lack of her socializing skills made Draco dislike her a little. Draco was sure he wouldn't be friends with Cho in a normal world, but since Theodore liked her, Draco had to swallow his complaints and still try to make things work out.

Draco opened another gift and it was from Hermione, Hermione had sent him a handsome looking eagle-feather quill. Draco was expecting Hermione to send him something study related and here we are. Draco considering her personality had sent her something similar as well.

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In the Granger's house, Hermione had just woken up to the sound of someone knocking in her windows. Hermione rubbed her eyes went over and opened the window.

As soon as she did a big owl came flying inside and landed on a nearby table. The owl had came with a package in its legs.

"Owlbert, is that you?" Hermione said petting the owl, "You must be hungry, wait a minute."

Hermione went over and came back with some owl treats since most owls come from the long distance and they don't get to eat very often, Hermoine had bought some treats just in case, one of her friends sent her an owl.

Owlbert started digging in the snacks, ignoring Hermione which made her laugh. She slowly opened the present, Draco had sent her a spellbook full of protection spells and some healing spells as well. The book wasn't something that could be found on the store since Draco had hand-written all the spells down himself. He had written about some spells and potions mainly focusing on Protection and healing. Hermione page by page slowly read the book, she was surprised how the spells and potions were described and detailed more clearly than the book making it easier to remember and learn. Hermione knew that writing this entire book must have taken a lot of time and she was very touched by it. At the last page of the book was a letter written to her.

Dear Hermione,

I know how you have been trying to learn more offensive spells ever since our brawl with the Troll. Learning is okay but you have to learn to take some rest as well. Learning offensive magic is much harder than it sounds since attacks that really deal damage will fall into the Dark arts. While I know you can control yourself, Dark arts is like a drug making you fall deeper and deeper into it. So I hope when you learn Dark arts, you learn it with a professional mind rather than being emotionally passionate about it. Learning things specially Dark-arts, step by step is very necessary to get your body used to dark magic.

Also, I want you to learn these spells that I have written down for you. The spells are mostly protection spells and healing spells. These spells are easier to learn than the spells you are trying to learn. Hey! If you want to fight then you must first know how to protect yourself first, so I hope these spells will help you with that. Some of the potions that I have written down are the ones that I have researched myself, making their ingredients cheaper and the potions more effective. Also, I suggest you to not try those potions on muggles since a wizard's body is different from a muggle in someway, it might make things worse than it already is. I have also sent you two bottles of my perfume, for your parents. Don't worry! I have experimented with it and it affects the muggles in a similar way as it does to us.

And I wish you a Merry Christmas.

Draco Malfoy.

Hermione closed the book and looked at the bottles on the table she had failed to notice earlier due to being distracted by the book. Hermione took the bottles and went outside to her parents with a smile on her face.

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Draco had already opened all the gifts, he lazily stood up and carried all the present to his room. Suddenly several owls flew into his room carrying huge packages. Draco looked at all the package in surprise wondering what it was. As Draco was looking over he found a note that read,

This is all the ingredients you asked me to collect. Since they were very rare and expensive consider it a Christmas gift.

-Lucius Malfoy.

Draco sighed finally getting his ingredients and it seemed like his father wasn't that mad at him as well. Draco picked up all the ingredients with his wand and sent them towards his suitcase.

Unknown to Narcissa and Lucius, Draco had sent some of the family members that they had lost touch with some gifts in hope that they could rekindle their relationship or at least forgive them.