Ashes and Burns

Brushes and Convictions

Harry was having a crisis.

Not really a crisis, but a huge problem. The problem being he hadn't yet gotten Draco a christmas present. Well, he had thought of a gift beforehand but that was for when they were just friends, now they were boyfriends and that made a world of difference! He had less than twenty four hours to pick a gift and he was left confounded.

And so he had decided to seek advice from the other inhabitants of the house that were not Malfoys or Remus because they had the holidays sorted out already, which had ended up in all of them deciding to go on a shopping spree.

After a lot of debate, they decided to begin their search in the muggle world and then progress to Diagon alley. The most surprising thing was that Snape agreed to tag along. Which in hindsight was probably not a good idea because not even half an hour into their visit to the mall, Severus looked ready to hex half of the muggles present.

They were all dressed in muggle clothes, Harry was surprised Severus hadn't worn his usual dark robe and were now in one of the biggest and most expensive malls in London right in the middle of Christmas fever season. There was a huge crowd, loads of children lined up to see "Santa", christmas songs blasting from every shop and decorations bright enough to hurt your eyes.

Sirius and the twins had found it all very amusing and had began bouncing around Severus all excited like, said man whose right eye was furiously twitching and lips curled in distaste. Harry had never seen a better contradiction between Golden retriever energy and black cat energy until this day.

Harry offered Severus a nervous smile, "Well, we should split up here and meet back in an hour."

Severus only nodded and stalked off somewhere. The twins and Sirius went the other way and Harry was left alone to his devices. He sighed to himself and began walking with no specific destination in mind. He hoped something would catch his eye eventually. His eyes wandered from shop window to shop window.

'What do you get a guy who is rich enough to get whatever he wants? Fuck having a rich boyfriend is so difficult.' Harry huffed internally.

He had asked for ideas from everyone in the mansion earlier, he ended up asking Lucius and Remus too because the other ideas were honestly ridiculous. Their suggestions whirled in his head as he searched.

"Get him something shiny! Big! something that says 'WE'RE TOGETHER!' to the rest of the world! Not only will it soothe his possessive spirit but it will be giving Voldemort and Dumbledore the middle finger too!" - Fred and George

"Something simple and significant, like a memoir from your first date or the first time you met... or maybe something you made with your hands." - Remus

"My son enjoys flattery, get him something that expresses how wonderful of a mate he is... the bolder the better." - Lucius

" A gift for that brat? He would be happy with anything you give him though... Draco has always loved art and potions, a gift like that should do the trick." -Severus

"GIFT? HARRY YOU ALREADY HAVE THE BEST GIFT! YOURSELF! Just wrap yourself in nothing but a big shiny bow, he'll love it for sure!" -Sirius

Harry sighed, nothing he had seen so far matched what he wanted to get the blonde and the worst part was that the hour was nearly up. He sighed, he was about to leave when an art shop caught his eye. Thinking he would give it a chance, he stalked in.

It was tastefully decorated and a splash of colour that seemed wild yet cordinated. Harry smiled to himself and walked to the cashier.  She was a blonde teen, probably a bit older than him, dressed as colourfully as the shop and reminding him a lot of Luna Lovegood.