Wanderer

A Happy Ending

Well, here it is. The end.

Chapter Thirty Seven – A Happy Ending

The Burrow was alive with music and laughter, every window lit with orange light, casting a glow on the earth outside. Despite the garden being covered in a thick blanket of white, untouched snow, which continued to lightly fall, there was an aura of warmth, and inside, every fire in every hearth crackled heartily, mugs of hot chocolate and tea steamed, cradled in hands, and cheeks were flushed. Christmas evening was well underway, trickling by, and as night had fallen (early, as it tends to do in winter), the house had become fuller, the laughter louder.

Christmas dinner had been served only an hour or so before, the small kitchen table rammed with mismatched chairs. Arthur sat at the head, as patriarch in his family home, with Molly on his left, who glowed with her usual bustling hostess pride, filling up the plates of those nearest her and calling down the table to recommend the cranberry sauce. Bill and Fleur sat on his father's right, their baby daughter Victoire wedged between them, playing absently with her carrots. George, now sporting lime green hair, sat opposite, beside Percy, and the Weasley clan was rounded off with Ron and Ginny on either side of the table. Then came the honorary Weasley children, Harry and Hermione, with Hermione's parents sitting beside her, marvelling at every bit of magic, whispering to ask their daughter for names they had been told just minutes prior for the hundredth time that day, and listening to the stories of the magical world with a soft awe. Draco and Narcissa were opposite, quiet if only because their family dinners had always been in silence, and Andromeda and Teddy completed the admittedly odd and somewhat unconventional family.

They were a motley mix, but the table would have felt emptier if any one of them had been missing.

Draco found his eyes kept wandering, settling on Hermione. Their eyes met a couple times when she glanced at him, thinking he wasn't looking. Their hands brushed as she passed him the veg. His mother caught him at one point, and his face flushed. Harry, sitting next to him, also seemed to notice if the wry smirk pulling at his lips was anything to go by. Draco made a conscious effort not to look as often after that.

There was a lull after dinner, once everyone had been fed, and they retired to the Weasley's cosy living room. Arthur sat in his armchair by the fire, his only daughter perched on the arm, her head on his shoulder, his arm cradling her. There was a game of exploding snap on the carpet in the centre of the room, which Harry was clearly losing if George and Ron's jibing was anything to go by. Molly cuddled her granddaughter, with Percy leaning over her shoulder to try and make the baby smile, whilst Bill and Fleur sat entwined on a chair, watching them fondly. Narcissa bounced Teddy on her lap, holding her sister's hand, and Andromeda's thumb stroked her knuckle like it used to when they were children.

Draco sat on the floor by his mother, and Teddy reached for him, grasping his hair, pulling. He tried to twist away, but the toddler giggled and leaned further.

"Mother!"

Narcissa broke off her conversation, glancing at them. She laughed before she could stop herself. "Oh, Draco!"

"He likes you," smiled Andy.

"Here," his mother, much to Teddy's delight, offered him the child, and though Draco shook his head, at her persistence, and Teddy's outstretched arms, he begrudgingly took him.

Grimacing, he placed him on his lap, craning his neck back to try and escape the tiny arms that once again reached for his face. Teddy laughed, and his hair suddenly went white-blond. He clapped happily.

Across the room, Arthur was animatedly chatting to the Grangers, gently probing them for as much information on Muggles as they were willing to give him. Hermione mediated, occasionally offering the answer or supplying a breakdown of Arthur's questions for her parents, who seemed a bit flustered at the sudden excitement of the Weasley patriarch over toasters.