I Beg Your Pardon, Potter?

Chapter 50

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Ron said once they had finished running through the plan again on the morning of Christmas Eve. "I just feel like there are so many ways in which it could go wrong."

"It's a like a Wronski Feint," Harry said. "High risk, high reward."

"Yeah, but Wronksi Feints don't often end in death," Ron muttered.

"I will personally see to it," Draco said. "That Harry will not die."

"And I will personally see to it that Draco won't," Harry said.

"And I will sit in the Hog's Head and nervously eat biscuits until you return."

"That's the spirit, Ron."

...

Ron cheered up considerably over lunch, particularly as Pansy took it upon herself to spike all of their pumpkin juices. She was so fast that Harry didn't even see her do it. He made a mental note to tell Seamus about that. Somehow when Seamus did it, you always caught the flash of a sleeve.

During the afternoon, they played a rousing game of exploding snap and even included some of the other Gryffindors who had stayed for Christmas, namely the Creevey brothers. (Colin took this as tacit acknowledgement that he was now "cool" and Dennis spent most of the game flinching whenever any one of the Slytherins moved.) And before they knew it, it was dinner time.

When they arrived in the Great Hall for dinner, it was clear that someone (probably Dobby) had mentioned their wanting to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, because the crackers that were usually reserved for Christmas lunch had been set out and Dumbledore was sitting at the head of the table. He smiled at them as they took their seats before pointedly drawing all of the teachers' attention to the "truly wonderful" decorations on the Christmas tree behind him. Only Pansy got the hint and quickly nudged everyone to empty their flasks into their pumpkin juice.

If the teachers noticed half of the students becoming more and more boisterous as the evening went on, none of them said anything. In fact, Professor McGonagall even summoned a house elf part way through the first course and requested wine for the teachers.

For Harry, it was another almost perfect moment. He was surrounded by friends, in the place that he loved, and enjoying an excellent meal. When Draco leaned over the table to help himself to another helping of roast potatoes and then sat back down with his thigh flush with Harry's, Harry couldn't help it. A huge grin broke out on his face. Yes, tomorrow was looming over him and it was a terrifying prospect, but right now he was going to concentrate on the things making him happy.

The evening devolved into everyone singing Christmas carols, conducted by Professor Flitwick who was standing on his chair wearing the fedora that had emerged from his wizarding cracker. While Harry and Ron sang the loudest, Colin was most definitely the most boisterous. After a particularly rousing chorus of O Come All Ye Faithful, he chucked his boater in the air in his enthusiasm.

When the six of them retired to the Slytherin Common room (which was the only way to convince Colin to just go to bed and not follow them), they found a small pile of presents placed under a miniature tree. Draco nudged Harry and smirked as they made their way over to the table, because it was next to the couch on which they had, ahem, fooled around. It was all Harry could do not to giggle as Blaise and Hermione sat down on it. Presumably, though, it had been cleaned since then.

"This still feels weird," Ron said, sitting down on the opposite couch.

"How?" Harry asked.

"We're not in bed. Or pajamas. It's not Christmas morning."