Cheers, Potter.

This is how you repay me?

Harry's POV

In the calm of the weekends, a lot of us had struggled to acclimatize to having downtime again, so we'd decided to be bored together and gotten into the routine of gathering on the seventh floor.

The Room of Requirement, by definition, was always perfect for whatever we wanted to do. Stupid karaoke night? Done. Friendly exploding snap tournament? You bet. Simple comfy hang out spot? Easy peasy. Naturally, we all loved it there.

After a while though, something began to hang over us all, something draining and ominous loomed: Christmas.

Seamus would not let anyone get away with not celebrating it, something in his brain was wired to thrive in chaos; a Hogwarts Christmas was his... Christmas. One particularly cold and dark Saturday, we gathered in the room around a magical bonfire and brainstormed ideas for the holiday. After all, our friend was right; it was only fair we should celebrate the end of a term that wasn't caused by the invasion of Hogwarts, a hoard of Dementors uprooting things or, you know, general calamity.

"What if we borrowed the Great Hall and had a sleepover?" Padma suggested.

"Boooring!" Seamus declared, dramatically snoring while looking the poor girl right in the eye. Hermione suggested going to Hogsmeade for an evening again, which was shot down by Ginny – apparently still not over her monster-hangover from the last time we went and she had a one-night fling with Zabini – saying if she ever saw the inside of that pub again it would be too soon. Dean suggested organising a Hogwarts-wide party and inviting everyone who wanted to come, but en-masse we decided that would be too much work and would definitely end in a full hospital wing and a very flustered Madam Pomfrey. We were at a loss.

We were ready to give up when the door thundered open.

"Sorry I'm late, he didn't want to come," Blaise announced as he joined our lazy circle, dragging a disgruntled Malfoy in by the sleeve. I smiled at the stubborn look on his face as he was yanked to the floor by Pansy, none too gently. She had been sat here silently and looking painfully uncomfortable for twenty-five minutes, clearly expecting to meet her housemates here but was thoroughly distressed when she realised they were absent. Blaise, who had sort of strong-armed his way into our good-graces, had told us that Pansy had made amends and had "decided to not be a total raging bitch" in his own words, so as a gesture of goodwill, Hermione had invited her.

"What's put the bee in your bonnet, then?" Luna poked Malfoy in the ribs, a jovial smile on her face.

"I need to revise," Malfoy moaned, "NEWTS aren't that far away,"

Hermione lifted a hand that had moments before been stroking Ron's hair as he slept on her lap, and Malfoy bumped her fist. It was absurdly muggle interaction and I wasn't sure how I felt about witnessing it.

"Oh don't be such a kill joy, Draco," Blaise replied, sitting himself between Neville and I.

"Have you met me?" The blond retorted, "That's my whole thing,"

He earned himself rumble of laughs, from myself included, when I looked over to where we sat, I could see he was looking at me, a reluctant but genuine smile brightening his features.

"So we still haven't made a decision." Seamus reminded us, irritation clear in his tone.

"Bloody Hell, you lot are still on that?" Ron asked waking and sitting up beside Hermione.

"Why don't we go into London?" Malfoy suggested, surprising everyone, "I know a fair number of us have never been aside from Kings Cross. We could go to Trafalgar Square, or..." He drifted off as we all looked at each other in silent conversation.