Modern Hogwarts

Christmas Day: Dominic Greengrass

Dominic woke up at three and couldn't fall back asleep. Knowing Teddy Lupin was a few rooms over and still oblivious to Dominic's feelings made him anxious and queasy.

The Potters and Weasleys had gone to Paris for the holidays and left Teddy all alone. Instead of going to all the trouble to spend one day with his grandmother, Teddy stayed at Malfoy Manor.

Dominic was more in love with Teddy now than ever before. He couldn't help but stare at Teddy and watch him do little things. He craved more than ever to be in Teddy's arms or have Teddy fall asleep on his shoulder.

But Dominic somehow managed to keep the feelings to himself and not let them show.

Dominic laid in bed for six hours, thinking and dreaming about Teddy. He dreamed of kissing him on the beach and snuggling him in bed. He dreamed of a future with a house and and a normal life. The more he dreamed, the more he fell in love with Teddy and wanted to make the dreams reality.

When it was finally time to go downstairs, Dominic couldn't keep his eyes off of Teddy. He watched him from the corner of his eye as he came in and sit down. Dominic somehow fell in love with the wrinkles in Teddy's pants and the messiness of his tossiled blue hair.

The Malfoy's family room was bursting with Christmas presents. Potter had dropped off presents for Teddy from his family, along with presents from his grandmother Tonks; and Draco and Astoria had given Dominic a mountain of things to make up for the years they missed. Subsequently, Scorpius got many more presents than usual to make sure he didn't feel left out from the other boys' hauls.

Most of what Teddy got were clothes or technology. He got a new laptop and new airpods to replace the ones he'd lost. Dominic also got clothes, but they were things his aunt had picked out. Dominic also got a stack of books from Scorpius. "They're my favourites," Scorpius had told him. "They always cheer me up when I'm down, so I hope they cheer you up too."

"Thank you Scorpius," Dominic said, very touched. "But how about I leave half of them here, then when I come back in the spring we can swap halves so we both have them."

"No," Scorpius said. "I've read them all five times. I want you to have all of them, forever."

"Thank you Scorpius," Dominic said. "I really appreciate this and I'll read nonstop until I've read them all." Dominic hugged his cousin, who was starting to feel like a little brother.

Draco then pulled out a heavy box, wrapped in silver paper, and gave it to Scorpius. They were new copies of the books he'd given away. Draco and Astoria wanted to show Scorpius how proud they were of him for giving up his prized possessions to help Dominic and make him feel better. But they knew Scorpius loved those books much more than he let on, and they didn't want him to be without them when he went off to Hogwarts.

Scorpius smiled bigger than any other child on Christmas in history.

After they finished opening presents and Teddy sent a long thank you to his aunt Ginny and uncle Harry, the family ate breakfast and went their separate ways for the morning.

Draco and Astoria sat in the front parlor watching the rain hit the windows and talking about this and that; Scorpius hid himself in the library with the pile of new books his mother had picked out and gifted him; and Dominic and Teddy found themselves in one of the sitting rooms on the second floor.

"Thank Merlin we figured out wifi for this place," Teddy said as he set up his new computer. "Wanna watch Netflix or something?"

"It doesn't matter to me," Dominic said, nervous that he was alone with Teddy for the first time in months.