Chestnuts Roasting Over The Open Firewhiskey: A Hogwarts Christmas Tale

The Week of Christmas

Draco dropped at the long table with a loud thud and looked readily at the food laid out for the choosing. As he reached for the mashed potatoes, he noticed Granger was upsetting a house elf across the Great Hall. Draco sighed as the elf's voice got progressively louder. It sounded like Granger was refusing to let the elf serve her and the elf was obviously upset and offended. "For someone supposedly so dedicated to house elves," Draco remembered the ill-fated S.P.E.W., "Granger really seems not to understand the beings at all." Ignoring the ignorant display that he found fitting for the beastly girl, Draco focused on his food. He was not in the mood for nonsense today, having spent most of the day working on the vanishing cabinet, alone with his thoughts. For hours, visions of his waning mother and of the impending murder he'd have to carry out when he finally fixed the cabinet tortured him. Draco wanted nothing more than the death-like state of deep, dreamless sleep. He resolved to go directly to sleep after eating, if he could make it through with all the noise. Suddenly it was silent and his eyes followed the red-faced girl storming out of the hall, overcome with satisfaction that he'd get to enjoy a quiet meal.

That satisfaction lasted through the next morning's breakfast, his good mood prompting him to spend the morning flying rather than working on his duties. It faded, however, during lunch and dinner that day when a certain witch did not show up. It was completely gone two days after the elf incident as Draco regarded the completely empty Gryffindor table with a whisper of worry from the corner of his mind. That day, he threw himself into his school assignments, eager to escape thoughts of the vanishing cabinet, the Dark Lord, his parents, and Granger.

Hermione slipped into the prefect bath and sigh happily, thankful this was her first venture outside her room since the mortifying house elf incident three days earlier. Normally Heriomine was thankful for the prefect baths. With her duties as a prefect, having to share her room with two especially obnoxious roommates, and constantly tutoring her friends, she relished taking a quiet bath. She typically took it early on weekends to avoid anyone in the halls, but today she allowed herself to have a bit of a lie-in. After the past few days of hiding out in her room and avoiding meals, she decided today would be a day dedicated to relaxation, like the spa day her mother took her on the week before school started. It was the first time she'd ever done something like this herself and she'd laid out a careful schedule. After a bubble bath and face mask, Hermione planned to take a walk around the Great Lake and grab lunch directly from the kitchens before making some hot chocolate and settling into one of the common room's good armchairs by the fire with her newest book. She imagined Ginny's reaction to finding her scheduling a day like today. "Finally finished your homework for over break? It took you nearly a week - you're slipping Granger," she'd tease with a wink. "Let me do your hair for you!" she'd insist, jumping at the opportunity for some feminine bonding. Hermione sighed. She missed her friends. But the prefect bath would start her escape today, and for that she was especially grateful.

She spent the bath working on wandless magic in the water, floating and moving bubbles. Once the water cooled and her fingers were pruned, Hermoine decided it was time to get out. Hermione scourgified the face mask before performing a drying spell on her hair. Looking at herself in the mirror, she scrunched up her face. A lot of what she saw was the same: her bushy hair was untamable, her nails were chewed short, and her chest was still rather flat. But over the past summer, her body had morphed dramatically, to her at least. She'd always been short and slender, but her hips had filled out considerably. As someone who did not spend much time looking at herself in the mirror, it was still a change she was adjusting to. She sighed, unsure of how to feel about her new appearance, feeling like someone forgot about the rest of her, leaving her unbalanced. Plus the scars - the crater by her ankle left from falling during the Basilisk attack and the nick above her eyebrow from the Shrieking Shack. Both went unnoticed for too long to permanently heal. Logically, she knew her appearance didn't matter as much as her wit and compassion, but occasionally she still felt like the self-conscious 13 year old crying in the bathroom. She wrapped herself in a towel with a sigh. The point of today was to feel better, not awkward.

Just as Hermione opened the door to head back to Gryffindor Tower, she slammed directly into another person walking in. She nearly toppled back, but a set of arms shot out to steady her. She looked up to see a frozen Draco Malfoy, his grey eyes wide and his platinum eyebrows nearly halfway up his forehead. He was clearly just as surprised to see her. She tore her eyes from his face to his full chest to his abs. Draco Malfoy in only a towel was still holding her. "Ginny was right," she mused internally, before she could silence herself. "Quidditch did a body good. Who knew?"

"See something you like?" Draco's amused voice cut through her voice like a knife. Hermione realized she had been staring at his pale body, snapping her eyes back up to his. His smug expression banished any embarrassment she might have felt at being caught ogling him.

"No, absolutely not," Hermione said primly, clutching her towel tighter around her. "If you'll excuse me," she broke free from his hold and rushed past him. "Back to early morning baths it is," she determined mentally as she practically ran back to her room, her fuzzy slippers smacking the stone loudly the entirety of the way.

Draco was torn between satisfaction and confusion as he locked the door behind him. He had watched her brown eyes slowly drink in all the details of his body while he held her and was rather scandalized by how bold she had been, and how intimate the moment was. Only two women had been in that sort of position with him before: Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass. Contrary to the Hogwarts gossip mill, he stuck closer to the expectations of pureblood society than most of his contemporaries. Draco relaxed into the hot water of the bath and closed his eyes. Rather than the welcome darkness, he kept seeing flashes of Hermione beneath his eyelids: her smooth olive skin, her tantalizing collarbone peeking out from beneath her frizzy curls, her delicate hands clutching the towel with white knuckles. "Who knew the know-it-all was hiding a body under her robes all this time?" the thought came racing to the forefront of his mind. "Disgusting," he chided himself for thinking about Granger as a girl, rather than the annoying swot she was. The smell of vanilla lingered long after she left.

The scent was one he kept thinking of over the next few days. It floated around him when he tried to sleep and distracted him while he worked on the vanishing cabinet. It was intoxicating and unbearable and thrilling all at once. Finally Draco couldn't take it anymore, deciding to take a walk around the castle to clear his mind. It was working until he passed the library and a yell grabbed his attention. He peered in to find Peeves throwing books around the room.

"I'm sorry!" he heard Hermione's voice scream. He looked around from the safety of the doorway for the petite witch, his eyes finally landing on her hiding under a table. She looked up upon hearing his laughter.

"Malfoy! Could you distract him?" she pleaded. "I didn't mean to upset him and now Madam Pince will blame me for this destruction when she gets back. My wand is back in my room and nothing wandless has worked so far!"

"Absolutely not, Granger! Firstly, why would I risk taking a book to this face for you?" he gestured to his face with a stoic expression. "Secondly, this is too good to stop. And thirdly, it is Christmas break for Circe's sake. Take a break from the books!" he said as he looked for Peeves. His search stopped abruptly when a book barely missed him, thrown from Granger's direction. He turned to glare at her, only to find her holding up a particularly rude hand gesture in his direction with a haughty look on her face. Shocked that the prissy swot would even know the v-sign, let alone use it, Draco released a cynical laugh.

"Bye Granger!" he called in response. He replayed the moment all the way back to the dungeons. He hated to admit it, but seeing Granger flustered or embarrassed was turning out to be the highlight of his break.

Hermione sighed as she watched the blond boy retreat. Of course he was the one to find her; he was probably the least likely person to help in the entire castle. Her eyes returned to Peeves as she formulated a plan to distract him so she could get her wand before the librarian returned.