𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐓𝐀 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐀

Chapter 1

Hark! through the darksome night

Sounds come a winging:

Lo! tis' the Queen of Light

Joyfully singing

Clad in her garment white

Wearing her crown of light

Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!

– "Sankta Lucia" ("Santa Lucia"), English translation

The first of December was, in fact, a Thursday. It had snowed the night before, leaving a layer of white powder on the Hogwarts grounds, making it look like a winter wonder land. Or that's what most people thought, at least. Draco, himself, hated the winter. And the summer, autumn and spring also for that matter, but particularly the winter. It was cold, it was dark all the time, it snowed, it was cold, it was Christmas, it was – did he forget to mention that it was freezing? Not to mention all the blizzards that liked to show up when you finally decided to poke your nose outside.

No, Draco did not like winter.

Nor did he like Christmas. Sure, he liked to get presents, but he could get those any time. Nowadays he didn't even have to ask if he wanted something, he could just get it himself. No, he didn't like to celebrate Christmas. Because Christmas was a holiday for family, and somehow his own always failed to think of that. They would have a massive Yule Ball every year with hundreds of people and he would usually not see his parents much at all through the whole evening.

The ball might have been fun when he was five and when he and Pansy ran around and duckedunder the tables to hide and tickle peoples feet (that was fun) but now he was 18 years old and was expected to mingle as a proper host and so on. It really killed his Christmas-spirit ever year.

"Draco" a voice said, waking him up from his own thoughts.

"Yes?" he asked Theo, without moving from his spot in front of the window that faced the now buried path to Hagrid's little shack.

"We have to go to breakfast now if we don't want to shovel the food down our throats." Theo stated. Draco finally turned around, grabbed his bag that Theo held out for him, and the boys started their journey to the Great Hall.

Because of the fact that they were "eighth years", the headmistress had decided that they should all live in a place together in the castle. She claimed that all the students that had come back should not be separated, and that they should become one fifth House instead of Hufflepuffs, Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Slytherins or some other crap like that. In reality it was because there wasn'tany room for them in their old dormitories now that there was a new set of first-years. So the eighth years were placed in an east tower, commonly known as the Eighth Year Tower since McGonagall had failed to come up with a House-name for them. And yes, they still walked around in their real Houses uniforms, thank Merlin.

And because there were only about thirty students or so that had returned, naturally they had all their classes together. Which meant, he had to see all the Gryffindors every. single. day.

If it had been up to him, he wouldn't have returned to Hogwarts at all. But his mother had insisted, almost threatening him.

Draco and Theo walked into the Great Hall and sat down at the Slytherin table. Draco was endlessly thankful that McGonagall hadn't put in a fifth table for the eighth years.