Second Chances (Christmas Dramione)

4

Narcissa had always loved baking and cooking, but obviously couldn't do it over the years with being hit with the Imperius curse 24/7. However, with the holidays around and her personality back, she had the perfect opportunity to do so. Luna was in the kitchen helping, as she apparently used to bake with her own mother, although the things were....less edible. The two women baked the entire Christmas dinner which included: Turkey, roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and a few other things. For dessert they made mince pies, Christmas cake, and treacle tart (that one mostly for Harry). Luna concocted some weird desserts of her own, one of them something with blue fluff on top.

When everyone gathered together at the ornate dining table, the room was full of laughter and love. Not just the love of each couple, but love for everyone around. The thoughts of things and people they had lost were on their minds, but they also knew that that is what brought them all together.

Narcissa sat at the head of the table and raised her glass, cuing everyone else to do the same. She cleared her throat. "I am so grateful all of you are here with me for the holidays. Who knew we would have ended up here, huh? However, I am sure glad we did. Cheers!"

Everyone cheered and clinked glasses together before taking a drink, then they pulled the dishes toward them until everyone's plate was full. When dessert came around the smells of the different desserts replaced the ones of dinner, and despite being full, everybody decided they had room for "just a little dessert."

"Hey, Luna," Hermione started. "Are you the one who made this um...beautiful blue dessert?" She pulled the odd looking dish toward her and probed the blue fluff with a fork as if testing to see if it would explode.

Luna looked over, quite delighted. "Yes, I did! I mixed a bunch of ingredients together, and the blue stuff on top just appeared on its own! Isn't that cool?"

Hermione and the others chuckled. "It is quite cool, yes!" And she took the pie knife that went along with it, to slice a piece. For all they knew, it could taste delicious!

When Hermione took a bite, the most wonderful burst of flavors favored her taste buds. She decided this was her new favorite dessert, whatever Luna decided to call it.

"This is absolutely delicious, Luna!" Hermione exclaimed. "Wow! What are you going to call this?" She pointed to it with her fork, her mouth full again.

Luna put a finger to her chin in thought. "I think I'll call it...'Smurf Hair.'" She said this with a completely straight face and cut her own slice.

Hermione smiled. "Smurfs as in that Muggle cartoon, Luna? When did you see that?"

Luna looked at Hermione again. "Oh, I saw it on a television in a Muggle shop once. It was quite captivating."

"Hey, Luna," Ron called from down the table. "Can you pass the Smurf Hair? I want to try some." Luna passed down the tray, seeming happy that everyone was wanting to try her new dessert.

After they finished eating, everybody manually brought their dishes into the kitchen. Once in the kitchen sink, Narcissa snapped her fingers, and the soap and scrub brush floated up to wash them all. There were no leftovers, as Ron helped polish off the little that was left.

Everyone went to their rooms to bring out the gifts for the gift exchange, all except Hermione and Draco because Hermione had no idea her friends would even be there. She had a gift for Draco, but she had planned on a more private exchange. Now she felt bad as she didn't have anything to give her friends, so she awkwardly sat on the couch with Draco.

"Hermione, they aren't going to care that you didn't bring them anything," Draco told her, taking her fidgety hands in his. "They were in on the surprise, and they are just happy to be here with you. You know Theo will be more excited to give you something than he would be to get, anyway."

Hermione agreed with that. Theo loved any excuse to buy things for people. She also knew that her friends loved her and that Draco was probably right.

"Present timeeeee!" Sang Theo, as he practically flew down the hall on his tiptoes. He had bags hanging off his arms.

Draco looked from him to Hermione and rolled his eyes. "My point is proven," he said, and Hermione chuckled, though she still sounded nervous.

After Theo flew in and settled next to the Christmas tree, Harry followed with his own wrapped gifts, taking a seat on the ground next to his boyfriend. The others walked in shortly after with their own presents, and Narcissa was last but not least.

Despite Draco assuring Hermione that she didn't need to feel bad about not having gifts to give her friends, she couldn't help it.

"Everyone, I'm so sorry I don't have anything for-"

"Granger, stop it right now!" Theo interrupted. "You're ruining my moment." And with that he jumped up and handed her a medium sized red bag with matching tissue paper inside.

She was surprised but knew arguing with Theo would be pointless. "Thank you, Theo." She rolled her eyes and pulled out the tissue paper. Inside was a fancy black frame, and inside the frame was a moving picture of Theo and Hermione hugging at his last birthday party, him with one foot in the air. It made her tear up as she realized just how much had changed since school and then, and she was so grateful this drama king was in her life.

"Thank you, Theo," she said, and he gave her a huge hug. "This really means a lot."

When Theo sat back down with a smug look that said "nobody could top his gift," the others handed out their gifts to everyone. They now had a small pile of presents in their lap from each of their friends, and Hermione watched each person open a gift before she finished her own. She watched as Neville opened a small box from Draco, and she laughed when he pulled out a Rememberall. This time it didn't turn red, and he breathed a sigh of relief, waving at Draco.

"Very funny, Draco," Hermione elbowed him, and he shrugged.

"I figured I owed him for stealing his, though he did get it back," he said.

One of Luna's bags held knee-high socks that changed designs every ten seconds, and she was so ecstatic that she immediately pulled off the green and pink ones she was currently wearing and replaced them with the magical ones.

"Ginny, I love them!" Luna called over to her friend. "These will most definitely attract Sun-Bugs, which are very lucky!"

Ginny chuckled. "Show me when you see one, okay?"

Lavender opened one of her bags and pulled out an extravagant glass bottle of perfume. She gasped. "Ron! How did you know I wanted this?" She pulled the lid off the bottle and smelled it, looked at the label and put the lid back on.

Ron was watching her open it and smiled. "I mean, you weren't subtle, Lav. You were reading Witch Weekly, and I recall you saying, 'WOW! I would loovveeee this perfume!' And, Lav, you deserve the best."

Ron got a Chudley Cannons hoodie from Harry, Harry got a bottle of his favorite wine from Neville, Draco received hair gel from Theo which surprisingly made him happy, Ginny opened a bag that held new Quidditch protective gear, given to her by Blaise, Blaise got a Muggle shaving kit from Ginny ("this is so primitive"), and Theo got a basket full of skincare items from Luna.

Of course, there were plenty of other gifts, but those were the ones Hermione watched being opened. When all of the presents were done, Theo stood up with a large box and walked over to Narcissa. He placed it on her lap and her eyes widened.

"I got you this today," he said.

The woman looked like she was about to cry from happiness as she carefully tore open the green wrapping paper. The box was plain and brown, nothing on it. She lifted the top off and inside was everything she could ever want for baking. There were cookbooks with the authors smiling out at you, crazy looking utensils which Hermione didn't even know what were used for, frosting that moved (so if you decorated a cookie with a bike, then the frosting pedals and wheels would move), and many other things.

"I know you missed baking and cooking so I wanted you to have all you needed to get started again," he told her.

Narcissa had tears in her eyes and when she spoke she was choked up. "I don't know what to say. Thank you. Thank you! Come here, give Mama Cissy a hug."