Heart on his Sleeve
Todays prompt (day 21) is the heart shaped tree decoration
Apologies for this one, its both short and not very well written, but I stated at 10pm haha, things happened today, so tomorrow should be better (I hope)
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Harry pushed open the door and Draco opened his eyes.
That’s when everything started to go south.
“What is that thing?”
Harry looked at Draco, then at the tree he had spent the morning decorating. It wasn’t real but he had laid the lights, the tinsel and the ornaments and baubles in a way he had thought looked good.
“You don’t like it?” he asked, trying to hide the hurt in his voice. He had worked hard on this, and Draco hating it hadn’t even come into his head.
“Like it, it’s an atrocity, where did you get it from?”
Harry bit his lip to stop from showing emotion as Draco turned stormy eyes upon him. The eyes narrowed as they took in Harry. Then widened.
“Oh Harry…I…” he stopped, looked back at the tree that looked like a horrific holiday mess and then back to Harry. He didn’t want to say he was sorry because it was horrible. But. “I’m sorry I hurt your feelings.”
Harry nodded stiffly and he walked out of the living room. Draco waved his wand and the ornaments and things carefully packed themselves into a box. He wouldn’t vanish Harry’s decorations, he just wanted to not have to look at them.
The next day there was a real tree, huge and fluffy and filling the room with the scent of pine and citrus. The boughs were hung again with bright pink tinsel intertwined with silver, and huge bubble baubles in all colours.
Draco came home to the empty house, and the tree. He yelled for Harry, who walked out of a room across the corridor with an armful of lights. Draco pointed at the tree. “No.”
Harry’s face fell, and then he got angry. “What is your problem with the tree this time, it’s huge and pretentious just like you like it!” he shouted, dropping the lights to the floor.
Draco frowned. “Don’t get prissy,” he said and folded his arms. It was like this sometimes; their school boy rivalry made its way out. “It’s ugly, Christmas is supposed to be elegant.”
“Ugly? What the hell Draco, Christmas is supposed to be fun! It doesn’t matter what it looks like, it’s the fun of decorating it that matters!”
Draco laughed cruelly and flicked his wand, the tree did vanish then and Harry gaped at him before he shook his head and left, slamming the door.
Evening came, moving into night and Harry didn’t come back. Draco started to get worried but he couldn’t get through to Ron and Hermione, or his parents, the Weasleys or Andromeda at this time of night. They would have killed him, so he had to wait.
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After the argument Harry apparated to the Manor and stormed into the first sitting room. He knew Narcissa would be there at this time taking tea.
He ranted, pacing in front of the huge fireplace while she listened and sipped tea. When he was done she smiled at him and got him to sit down.
“Harry, you have never had a real Christmas I know, but Draco was brought up with proper pureblood values. Ah, before you say, it is not something I encourage that you keep. But it will be a slow process to fix it. So I have a plan while he is out tomorrow we will do a little shopping.”
Harry had nodded, then taken dinner there before going to sleep in Draco’s old room. The Malfoys had accepted him into their inner circle since he had proven he was serious about Draco, Narcissa especially and they were good friends now.
The morning came, and they went back to Harry’s home with wands in hand. Narcissa had a tree delivered and she frosted it with snow as Harry hung glistening glass shards along the branches.
Narcissa conjured some silver tinsel, but it was thinner and hung like webs across the tree, sparkling in the lights that she had added on beforehand.
Then went the other ornaments, blown glass, rainbow glass and then some solid silver. Harry looked at it and though he liked the effect it was very cold looking.
“Wait,” he said and ran to the box of things that Draco had packed on the first day and not vanished. He rummaged through it until he came up with a decoration that was shaped like a heart, in red with gold trim around the edge and a golden hanging string. “I want to put this on, whether he remembers or not, this was the first thing he bought me last Christmas and it’s a treasure I want to keep.”
Narcissa looked at the little velvet heart on Harry’s palm, it would clash terribly but somehow she decided that the little thing perfectly represented the duo. Draco was perfect and cold, and Harry was a little rough around the edges, always standing out and full of warmth and love.
She lifted it from his hands and took it over to the tree with its huge snowflake on the top and placed the little heart front and centre amongst the snow dusted branches and stepped back. “I think that is perfect.”
Harry nodded as he took it all in, it was huge, filling nearly a quarter of the room but the heart stood out on it as bright as the sun in the sky and he was happy that he managed to get something on there for himself.
Draco walked in then, stopping dead as he saw the tree. Harry and his mother were struck dumb by him however as he carried a small green tree, decked out with all manner of coloured lights, baubles and tinsel. It was only the height of his knee but Harry loved it immediately.
Draco put it down as he walked forwards to look at the masterpiece in their living room and then he saw the little heart. He picked it up, letting it rest on his hand as he looked back at his mother. She nodded with a smile and he let his face open and a smile break free.
Harry was putting the smaller tree in the middle of the table when he was tackled to the floor with a hug from Draco. He laughed, looking up at him, eyes shining and mouth pulled in a large grin.
“This is brilliant Harry.”
“Yours too,” he breathed and wrapped his hands around Draco’s back. Narcissa gave a little cough then and they sat up with blushing faces but all three of them shared smiles.
This was what Christmas was about, Harry decided. It really didn’t matter about the tree, or the decorations, it was all about the people who you spent it with.