The Marriage Decree

Chapter 163: Chocolate is for After Lunch

Back in the Great Hall, Headmistress McGonagall draws the attention of most of her staff and students, who gather at the foot of the podium for further instructions. However, Draco's eyes watch the door, waiting for his wife to rejoin him.

"Mama?" Scorpius asks, hand reaching out for his father's face, pulling his eyes down to his son.

"She'll be back soon," Draco assures Scorpius, who is sitting in his lap.

"O'tay," he mutters, leaning back against his father's chest, tired after a busy morning of decorating Hogwarts.

At the podium, Minerva begins to speak. "Thank you all for giving up your morning to help get our castle ready for Christmas. I understand many of our older students are eager to get back to their studies after lunch. Therefore, to ensure I don't keep you here any longer than necessary, let's begin."

Draco feels a hand on his shoulder and glances up to find Hermione smiling sadly back down at him. Gently, he reaches up to clasp her hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. His wife has been through a lot this year, and he knew she was taking it hard, which is why he suggested they take a step back from helping MACUSA remove Shacklebolt from power. They'd done as much as they could, anyway. Now, it was up to the International Confederation of Wizards and MACUSA to compile their mountains of evidence against the Minister of Magic.

"I'm okay," Hermione leans down to whisper into his ear. "There's no need to worry," she adds, gently smoothing out his furrowed brow with her thumb.

Smiling, Draco guides her to sit down, and Scorpius immediately scampers over to his mother's lap, wrapping his arms around her for a comforting hug.

"What's Minerva talking about?" Hermione asks quietly.

"Not a clue," Draco mutters, his body turned to his wife.

From seemingly nowhere, Pansy's face appears between them. "We need to decorate the Great Hall before lunch, then we can leave."

"Thanks," Hermione mutters, turning her attention to their headmistress, who has just produced her wand and summoned multiple boxes of decorations onto each house's tables.

"Help yourself to any of these boxes, and most importantly, have fun as we continue our day of Christmas celebrations."

The students of Hogwarts break off into their friendship groups, running to grab a box of decorations or to claim one of the trees as their own. Sophie, Lucile Stones and Gaius Broadmoor immediately rush to the fullest looking tree. Linking arms, they create a chain to block any other students from attempting to steal their tree. Elizabeth, Florian Montgomery, Joseph Hill, Mary Elwyn and the Tarquin Twins quickly grab a few boxes before joining them. Together, they sift through the boxes, sorting the decorations by colour or theme.

"Right, I'm thinking we use these Dickensian baubles to create a Christmas scene," Elizabeth begins.

Mary frowns, "What?"

"Dickens," Joseph repeats. "He's a famous Muggle author from about two hundred years ago."

Mary stares at Joseph, waiting for him to explain the relevance. When he doesn't, she turns back to Elizabeth, "Why can't we just put them wherever and get this over with?"

Elizabeth bites her lip, torn between wanting their Christmas tree to look perfect and not wanting to annoy her friends.

"Yeah, the faster we finish the tree, the sooner we can eat lunch," Gaius complains.

"Lunch is getting served at half-twelve regardless of when we finish the tree," Sophie states, defending her friend. "Elizabeth and I will create the Dickens scene at the bottom of the tree, and everyone else can do what they want with the rest."