Chestnuts Roasting Over The Open Firewhiskey: A Hogwarts Christmas Tale

Draco's Christmas Morning

Draco's Christmas morning started at 5AM, when he awoke on the floor of the potions lab with a headache worse than any hangover he'd ever experienced. He struggled to rise to his feet, anxiously wracking his brain for how he ended up here. The last thing he remembered was toasting his empty dorm room with Theo's flask. Then the memories of the rest of the night began to trickle in. With each rediscovered memory, he groaned louder.

"Why did I say she was beautiful? And so many times?" he asked the empty room, his head in his hands, thinking about their exchange in the library. " Because you think she is beautiful, git, " his own voice, one he'd worked hard to suppress over the years, yelled mentally at him. "Merlin, I called her naughty . Potter might actually kill me on his return." He blanched and turned on his heel back to his room. Down the corridor, he replayed the evening. "I can't believe she even tried to help me."

"Oh, Circe," he cursed upon thinking about what he had confessed regarding blood purity. He'd never shared any of that aloud, anxious it would somehow make it back to the ears of the Dark Lord or his father. Finally at his room, he slammed his room behind him and eased into the comfort of his bed. Just as he felt like he was about to fall asleep, another memory assaulted him. "Kill, marry, snog? Really?" he moaned into his pillow in embarrassment. "Am I thirteen?"

Then their kiss hit him. He sat straight up in bed, clutching his pillow to his chest. He felt her petite hand in his. He drank in her warm brown eyes looking up at him with apprehension and anticipation. He basked in the heat coming off her body. Draco remembered approaching her soft, pink lips gently at first, then growing more demanding, wanting her closer and closer. Draco began to smile, fully engulfed in the memory of the kiss. Granger had surprised him, her hips grinding into his. Then, his stomach dropped as he recalled her pushing him away and looking at him with sheer disgust. Draco slumped back into the bed. " I cornered a woman trying to help me and forced her to kiss me ," he realized, with a pit in his stomach. " I'm going to murder Theo."

" Theo. Why did Theo give me tainted firewhiskey? This had to be some sort of joke gone wrong. " Draco wracked his brain for what love potion would make him act so stupidly towards a girl he detested. Without the nasty side effect of falling all over someone he didn't and couldn't fancy, that potion was addictive. He hadn't realized how dark his world had become until last night, when that feeling melted away with Hermione's antidote. He'd have to ask Theo about the recipe and see if he could replicate it, sans the lovesick fool act.

Draco threw the pillow back to the head of the bed and walked over to his trunk, pulling out ink and parchment. He'd never sent a howler before, but knew if there was ever the time for one, it would be now.

As he walked the parchment up to the owlery, Draco kept turning the previous night over in his head. Draco had never been this embarrassed when it came to a woman. He didn't even know where to begin. This wasn't like a kiss after a bad date. He had kissed the girl who he taunted, hexed, and insulted for years. He kissed a girl who hated him, who he hated back, and he liked it. And she didn't. He wasn't sure which one was worse, but was pretty sure her not liking it was the important part. Surely the potion impacted how he felt about the kiss. Maybe a quick breakfast before a long nap could help him clear his head. Then he'd just have to avoid Granger until the break ended.

"Happy Christmas," Draco heard a voice say quietly behind him after he'd sat down. He winced, unwilling to look up. He decided to eat breakfast this early on Christmas morning for the express purpose of avoiding this encounter. Even though he'd witnessed how she had skipped meals when upset, he still took the precaution just in case. He wasn't prepared to talk to her yet, unsure of how he could apologize while reinstating the dynamic of their relationship prior to 9PM Christmas Eve.