Good 'N Bad

Chapter : 14 Holidays

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          The holidays were closing in and everyone was in a frenzy. All were busy with last minute packing before the Christmas Feast in the Great Hall. This time next day, I would be back home, in my bed, going through my plans for decorating the house. Christmas was my favourite time of the year. And I took it as a challenge to make the whole house lively without using any magic. Uncle Sev always considered this a bore, but he stopped complaining after the first few tantrums.

          I had made up my mind, that I would not worry myself with the horcrux business any more. There was nothing I could do except to sit and wait for the worst. And besides, it would not be fun if I looked gloomy all christmas.

          Draco would be celebrating Christmas with us this year, and surprisingly I was looking forward to it. It was a chance for me to get to know him better, and who knows we might join our wits together, and pull some pranks on Uncle Sev. My body tingled with excitement everytime I thought of a new prank. I could feel it in my bones that this year's Christmas would be lovely.

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         Draco was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, as previously planned, with his trunk. From there, we would walk till just outside the main gates of the school and then apparate to our destination. We had apparition classes this year, so we both knew how. But Draco didn't know where we lived, so I said we'd do side-along apparition.

'Ready?' I asked, and with a nod from Draco, I had apparared ourselves to Spinner's End. There were brick houses lined along the streets with a few broken streetlamps. Our house was located at the end of Spinner's End. 'Well, here we are', I said and started heaving our trunks inside. Draco was gaping at the houses all around. It actually wasn't a very pretty sight, many of the houses were deserted, which gave them an eerie feeling.

          Once inside, I gave him a tour of the house. There was a small sitting room, with threadbare furniture and the walls were covered with books, there was a hidden door among these shelves through which we could reach the kitchens and cellars, lamps hung all around the wall which brightened up the rooms. There were four bedrooms upstairs, one was Uncle Sev's, one was mine and two were guest bedrooms, one of which would be given to Draco.

          I left him in his room to unpack while I made my way downstairs to make sure dinner was ready. Wilkins, our house elf had been serving in this house for nearly a century, and she was very sweet with me. Hermione would not have approved because of all her policies on house-elf enslavement. She had even started a club called S.P.E.W at one time (The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare).

          After making the necessary arrangements for dinner, I went up to my room and unpacked. My room was a small, maroon coloured one, with walls covered in posters of all kinds, some of the pictures were stationery, because they were of muggle bands and teams. Though I did not have much of a muggle background, I had made a few friends who lived around here. Before coming to Hogwarts and after during the holidays, I used to spend most of my time with them. While unpacking, I was thinking about all the fun we used to have when I heard a knock on the door and Malfoy came in. He looked around my room in amusement.

'Nice room. So, what have you planned?'

'Nothing much today. We'll have dinner and then you can help me bring up the boxes of decorations from the cellar. You look strong enough.'

'Of course I'm strong. But what do you mean "bring up the decorations", don't you have anyone to do it.'

'I prefer doing it myself, I feel it rather fulfilling. Anyway, let's go down. I'm starving!'

Uncle Sev had reached home and was already sitting by the table, waiting for us. 'I hope you have settled in, Draco, and that you are comfortable here. Whenever you need something, do not hesitate to ask either one of us or Wilkins, our house elf. Ava can show you around, I might not be able to be here the whole time, but I will try. I am sure she will have something planned', he glanced sideways at me. Gosh! Uncle Sev was putting me on the spot! He didn't plan to help, he intended me to handle the git. Ugh! I was so mad!

'But Uncle Sev..... surely you won't be gone the entire time.'

'Oh no, no. I will have to go tomorrow morning, but I will be back a day before Christmas Eve and will stay for four days. I am not sure whether I will be present for New Year. I will inform you about that later', I shot daggers at him, and I'm pretty sure I saw his mouth curling a little!

'That's all right Professor, we can manage', said Draco matter-of-factly.

I gave up, 'Ugh, fine!' We finished dinner and Draco and I headed down to cellars. It was a little dusty and the boxes were at the very end. I was leading the way, when suddenly I felt something brush my back. I couldn't control myself, I screamed,

'Eek!!! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!' A feather of cobwebs fell all over me and I tried frantically to get away from it.

'Wait! Calm down! Ava! Stop moving!' Draco dusted me off the gross spider webs and laughed hysterically.

'Stop laughing! Its not funny!' I said crossing my arms over my chest while pouting. He still didn't stop, he was bending double and clutching his stomach to stop himself from rolling over.

'Scared of a few spiders, Greene?' And he continued laughing. I turned up my nose and moved forward again, this time keeping a cautious hand above me. We soon got out of the dusty cellars, a box each and placed it in a corner of the sitting room.

'That's enough for today. We'll get the rest tomorrow. Good night', I only got a grunt as an answer. He was out of breath, I made him carry one of the biggest boxes as revenge for laughing at me so hard. He was in for a hard few days with me, I would make sure of that.

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Next morning at breakfast, the doorbell rang and I went to answer it. A nice-looking, friendly-faced, crystal- blue-eyed boy, with thick brown hair, which fell over his eyes, stood at the door, grinning like mad!

'Al! Oh, its so great to see you!' I exclaimed and gave him a big teddy bear hug. Alfred and I were thick friends from childhood. He was muggle, but he knew everything about the Wizarding World. He once caught me  while I was practicing spells, so then I told him everything and kept him updated with all that went on in school during the holidays. Just for his enthusiasm, I even sent him a few letters through the school owlery. In turn, he introduced me to the muggle world.

'Its great to see you too! I figured you would have come back today. So I thought I'd pop in.'

'Glad that you did. Come in, did you have any breakfast? We were just having some.' Suddenly we were disturbed by someone fake-clearing his throat. Turning around, I saw Draco standing a little behind, with his hands in his pockets, glaring at Alfred. 'Oh, yeah, Alfred this is Draco Malfoy, a... friend from Hogwarts. Malfoy this is Alfred, my childhood friend. Now you've been introduced, come in. Uncle Sev will be leaving soon.'

          Their reactions when they saw one another was really curious to watch. Alfred gave a wide smile while Draco just stood there glaring at him. We piled into the dining room and finished whatever was left of the breakfast. Uncle Sev said goodbye and left, but not before planting a kiss on my forehead.

'So shall I bring up the rest?' Offered Alfred.

'The rest of the what?' Spat Draco.

'The rest of the decorations. Yes, Al, that would be a great help. Thank you.'

'Anything for you', he winked and left for the cellars.

'Malfoy, wait one moment', I called him as he turned to follow Al, 'What is wrong with you? Why are you acting like this to Al?'

'Why do you have such a problem? Is he your boyfriend?' He asked furiously.

'Malfoy, are you jealous?' I asked curiously. I swear I saw a light blush creep to his cheeks then.

'What! No! Don't be ridiculous!' He spat before he stormed to the cellars.

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