Christmas Story 2018 - In the Spirit, part 8 (H/D)
Title: In the Spirit - Part 8
Author: sesheta_66
Prompts used: slythindor100’s early bird prompt 5: Santa, I can explain stocking (picture under the cut) and dracoharry100’s prompt 13: Muggle Christmas specials
Word Count: 1.4K
Rating: PG, for now
Warning: none
Summary: Harry had a rough Christmas last year, to say the least. But things are looking up this year, and he plans to embrace the season, even if he is still single.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: Written for the slythindor100 Early Bird 25 Days of Draco and Harry and the dracoharry100 Christmas Challenge.
On LJ: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
OR on AO3
[Part 8]
In the Spirit - Part 8
"She’s mental!"
"Ron!" Hermione said, swatting him across the shoulder. "Luna is not mental."
He looked at Harry for support. "Didn’t you hear what Harry just said? Luna thinks Harry and the ferret should be best mates or something. How can that be anything but mental?"
"I don’t know," she said, eyeing Harry before turning back to Ron. "You do remember him flying into fire to save him, don’t you?"
Ron glared at Harry. "Yeah, I remember." He shuddered, as though reliving the moment. "I never said he--" He motioned towards Harry "--wasn’t mental too, but that’s just Harry. Always saving people. It doesn’t mean he wants to be mates with the prat."
Hermione surveyed Harry, giving him the impression, as ever, that she was reading his thoughts. "Is that all Luna said?"
Harry narrowed his eyes at her, wondering just what she and Luna had been discussing behind his back, and just how far that conversation had gone. "Why do you ask?"
She looked away quickly, shrugging. "Just wondering if she had anything else to say on the matter." She left the room to go check on the dinner before Harry had a chance to reply.
Ron excused himself to get Rose and Harry took in their decorations. He chuckled at the stocking George had got for Rose when she’d been born.
With the words, "Santa, I can explain" emblazoned on it, Harry rather thought it more appropriate for George, but they’d kept it. As he glanced at the television, he noted a stack of Muggle Christmas specials on DVD that Harry suspected were more for Arthur than Rose. As he made to look at what all the shows were, he was interrupted by a scurry of feet coming down the hall.
"Uncle Harry!" Rose barrelled into the room and right into Harry’s outstretched arms, planting a sloppy smooch on his cheek.
"Hello, Rosie!" Harry picked up the toddler and spun her around until her giggles had reduced Hermione to tears of laughter. Harry put her down and she wobbled before falling on her bum and laughing some more.
"Okay, you," Hermione said to her daughter. "Time to eat," she said as she put her into her high chair and put some bite-sized bits on the tray. "We’ll leave the messy stuff until your head stops spinning."
They enjoyed their meal, entertained by Rose's antics, which reminded Harry of Teddy when he was a toddler. Only when she went to bed a few hours later did Hermione bring the topic of conversation full circle.
"So you never answered my question earlier."
Harry, taken aback at the abrupt change in conversation, had no idea what she was talking about. "What question?"
Hermione gave him her 'don't be daft' look that she normally reserved for Ron. "Did Luna say anything else?"
"Well, yeah. The Quibbler is doing well. Rolf too. Did you know that he--"
"Harry!"
"What?" He'd honed his skills at distraction and diversion over his years as an Auror, but they'd never been much of a match for Hermione.
"About Malfoy."
Once more Harry found himself wondering how much Luna and Hermione had already discussed the topic. He wasn't sure how to feel about that.
"What are you on about?" Ron asked. "And why would Harry want to talk about the ferret when there's a world of topics to discuss? Take Quidditch for instance. The Cannons are doing well this season, don't you think?"
Harry laughed at his friend's attempt to steer the conversation elsewhere, partly because his choice of topic was inevitably his team who, from what Harry had witnessed in his years in the wizarding world, had never amounted to more than a mediocre team, and partly because he had less chance of distracting his wife than Harry did.
"Nice try, Ron." She turned her attention to Harry, raising one brow and looking disturbingly like McGonagall back in their school days. "Well?"
Frustratingly, he felt his cheeks redden of their own free will. "She has some daft idea that we'd make a good couple."
Ron choked on his after-meal pint. Honestly, it was almost worth the embarrassment. "Bloody hell, give a bloke some warning, mate."
Harry grinned and shrugged. "Sorry. I did say it was daft."
Ron spluttered a bit more before taking a large swig. "What exactly did she say?"
Harry caught Hermione's smirk out of the corner of his eye as he felt his cheeks burn even more. "First that it was inevitable that we'd become friends, then maybe more." Hermione was smiling broadly now. "Then when I asked what she meant, she said something about us being a handsome couple."
"She's not wrong," Hermione said.
"What?" Ron gaped at his wife. "Who are you and what have you done with my wife?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm right here and I'm just saying they would make a handsome couple."
Ron shook his head in disbelief. "Are you, or are you not, the same person I witnessed smack the ferret across the face in our fourth year?"
"Third year. And just because he was a prat in school doesn't mean he isn't good looking now. Or back then, for that matter."
"What?"
"Not my type, but ... well, he's never really been hard on the eyes." She looked at Harry before he had a chance to school his features, then turned back to Ron. "Hard on the nerves, to be sure, but I hear he's much better now."
"Oh you hear, do you?" Ron’s irritation rang loudly through the room.
Hermione sighed in that way she had with Rose when she was pushing the boundaries with her mother. "If you must know, Luna meets up with him for lunch or dinner every couple of months and says that he's much nicer since leaving school."
Harry wasn’t surprised. "Probably helps that his dick of a dad got brought down a few notches."
Hermione nodded. "More than a few, thank goodness."
"Cheers to that," Ron agreed.
"Luna figures he'd been emulating Lucius in school," Harry added, "and that he's not really like that."
Hermione did the eyebrow lifting thing again. "And what do you think?"
Harry took some time to formulate an honest answer. "He's never been as bad as Lucius. Not even close." He'd given Malfoy rather more thought than was probably wise since his breakfast with Luna. "And I reckon Luna may have a point. He was always on about my father this and my father that." He thought back to that horrible night on the Astronomy Tower. "And when push came to shove, he couldn't kill Dumbledore." Pictures of a scared kid flashed before Harry’s eyes once more. "And I saw how disgusted he was at what Voldemort did and made him do." He looked at Ron now. "And he didn't give us away at the manor. He could have won praise and glory - maybe even redemption for his dad - but he didn't do it. And there's no way he didn't recognise me."
Ron grudgingly nodded. "He was still a prat."
Harry laughed. "Definitely. But did he even know any better? I mean, was that really him or the kid that desperately wanted to be his dad?"
Ron scowled. "You know what? I don't care. He still didn't have to be such an idiot. You didn't have the advantage of a good role model growing up, did you? And look how you turned out."
Harry shrugged. "Maybe, somewhere deep inside of me, my parents' influence kept me from becoming like my uncle."
"Or maybe, in his own way," Hermione said, "Lucius showed Draco the love your uncle never showed you. He might not have been so awful to his son. At least not all the time."
"Fair point," Harry conceded.
"You know what?" Ron said, swigging the last of his beer. "I'm done talking about the ferret. Luna's mental and that's all there is to it. Right, Harry?"
"Er ... right."
Harry avoided Hermione's eyes as he found himself halfheartedly agreeing with Ron. He wasn't technically lying. Luna was crazy about all sorts of things. But he had to admit, if only to himself, that Hermione was right about one thing: Malfoy had never been hard on the eyes. Not even when he was all pointy back in school. And now? Well, he certainly had grown up well.
Harry couldn’t believe he was even entertaining thoughts like this, but the more he thought about Malfoy and reevaluated their past through Luna’s eyes - a dangerous pursuit, to be sure - the less crazy she sounded.
When he returned from his thoughts, it was to find Hermione studying him, and he had a sinking feeling that she knew exactly where and on whom his mind had been.
Part 9
Author: sesheta_66
Prompts used: slythindor100’s early bird prompt 5: Santa, I can explain stocking (picture under the cut) and dracoharry100’s prompt 13: Muggle Christmas specials
Word Count: 1.4K
Rating: PG, for now
Warning: none
Summary: Harry had a rough Christmas last year, to say the least. But things are looking up this year, and he plans to embrace the season, even if he is still single.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: Written for the slythindor100 Early Bird 25 Days of Draco and Harry and the dracoharry100 Christmas Challenge.
On LJ: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
OR on AO3
[Part 8]
In the Spirit - Part 8
"She’s mental!"
"Ron!" Hermione said, swatting him across the shoulder. "Luna is not mental."
He looked at Harry for support. "Didn’t you hear what Harry just said? Luna thinks Harry and the ferret should be best mates or something. How can that be anything but mental?"
"I don’t know," she said, eyeing Harry before turning back to Ron. "You do remember him flying into fire to save him, don’t you?"
Ron glared at Harry. "Yeah, I remember." He shuddered, as though reliving the moment. "I never said he--" He motioned towards Harry "--wasn’t mental too, but that’s just Harry. Always saving people. It doesn’t mean he wants to be mates with the prat."
Hermione surveyed Harry, giving him the impression, as ever, that she was reading his thoughts. "Is that all Luna said?"
Harry narrowed his eyes at her, wondering just what she and Luna had been discussing behind his back, and just how far that conversation had gone. "Why do you ask?"
She looked away quickly, shrugging. "Just wondering if she had anything else to say on the matter." She left the room to go check on the dinner before Harry had a chance to reply.
Ron excused himself to get Rose and Harry took in their decorations. He chuckled at the stocking George had got for Rose when she’d been born.
With the words, "Santa, I can explain" emblazoned on it, Harry rather thought it more appropriate for George, but they’d kept it. As he glanced at the television, he noted a stack of Muggle Christmas specials on DVD that Harry suspected were more for Arthur than Rose. As he made to look at what all the shows were, he was interrupted by a scurry of feet coming down the hall.
"Uncle Harry!" Rose barrelled into the room and right into Harry’s outstretched arms, planting a sloppy smooch on his cheek.
"Hello, Rosie!" Harry picked up the toddler and spun her around until her giggles had reduced Hermione to tears of laughter. Harry put her down and she wobbled before falling on her bum and laughing some more.
"Okay, you," Hermione said to her daughter. "Time to eat," she said as she put her into her high chair and put some bite-sized bits on the tray. "We’ll leave the messy stuff until your head stops spinning."
They enjoyed their meal, entertained by Rose's antics, which reminded Harry of Teddy when he was a toddler. Only when she went to bed a few hours later did Hermione bring the topic of conversation full circle.
"So you never answered my question earlier."
Harry, taken aback at the abrupt change in conversation, had no idea what she was talking about. "What question?"
Hermione gave him her 'don't be daft' look that she normally reserved for Ron. "Did Luna say anything else?"
"Well, yeah. The Quibbler is doing well. Rolf too. Did you know that he--"
"Harry!"
"What?" He'd honed his skills at distraction and diversion over his years as an Auror, but they'd never been much of a match for Hermione.
"About Malfoy."
Once more Harry found himself wondering how much Luna and Hermione had already discussed the topic. He wasn't sure how to feel about that.
"What are you on about?" Ron asked. "And why would Harry want to talk about the ferret when there's a world of topics to discuss? Take Quidditch for instance. The Cannons are doing well this season, don't you think?"
Harry laughed at his friend's attempt to steer the conversation elsewhere, partly because his choice of topic was inevitably his team who, from what Harry had witnessed in his years in the wizarding world, had never amounted to more than a mediocre team, and partly because he had less chance of distracting his wife than Harry did.
"Nice try, Ron." She turned her attention to Harry, raising one brow and looking disturbingly like McGonagall back in their school days. "Well?"
Frustratingly, he felt his cheeks redden of their own free will. "She has some daft idea that we'd make a good couple."
Ron choked on his after-meal pint. Honestly, it was almost worth the embarrassment. "Bloody hell, give a bloke some warning, mate."
Harry grinned and shrugged. "Sorry. I did say it was daft."
Ron spluttered a bit more before taking a large swig. "What exactly did she say?"
Harry caught Hermione's smirk out of the corner of his eye as he felt his cheeks burn even more. "First that it was inevitable that we'd become friends, then maybe more." Hermione was smiling broadly now. "Then when I asked what she meant, she said something about us being a handsome couple."
"She's not wrong," Hermione said.
"What?" Ron gaped at his wife. "Who are you and what have you done with my wife?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm right here and I'm just saying they would make a handsome couple."
Ron shook his head in disbelief. "Are you, or are you not, the same person I witnessed smack the ferret across the face in our fourth year?"
"Third year. And just because he was a prat in school doesn't mean he isn't good looking now. Or back then, for that matter."
"What?"
"Not my type, but ... well, he's never really been hard on the eyes." She looked at Harry before he had a chance to school his features, then turned back to Ron. "Hard on the nerves, to be sure, but I hear he's much better now."
"Oh you hear, do you?" Ron’s irritation rang loudly through the room.
Hermione sighed in that way she had with Rose when she was pushing the boundaries with her mother. "If you must know, Luna meets up with him for lunch or dinner every couple of months and says that he's much nicer since leaving school."
Harry wasn’t surprised. "Probably helps that his dick of a dad got brought down a few notches."
Hermione nodded. "More than a few, thank goodness."
"Cheers to that," Ron agreed.
"Luna figures he'd been emulating Lucius in school," Harry added, "and that he's not really like that."
Hermione did the eyebrow lifting thing again. "And what do you think?"
Harry took some time to formulate an honest answer. "He's never been as bad as Lucius. Not even close." He'd given Malfoy rather more thought than was probably wise since his breakfast with Luna. "And I reckon Luna may have a point. He was always on about my father this and my father that." He thought back to that horrible night on the Astronomy Tower. "And when push came to shove, he couldn't kill Dumbledore." Pictures of a scared kid flashed before Harry’s eyes once more. "And I saw how disgusted he was at what Voldemort did and made him do." He looked at Ron now. "And he didn't give us away at the manor. He could have won praise and glory - maybe even redemption for his dad - but he didn't do it. And there's no way he didn't recognise me."
Ron grudgingly nodded. "He was still a prat."
Harry laughed. "Definitely. But did he even know any better? I mean, was that really him or the kid that desperately wanted to be his dad?"
Ron scowled. "You know what? I don't care. He still didn't have to be such an idiot. You didn't have the advantage of a good role model growing up, did you? And look how you turned out."
Harry shrugged. "Maybe, somewhere deep inside of me, my parents' influence kept me from becoming like my uncle."
"Or maybe, in his own way," Hermione said, "Lucius showed Draco the love your uncle never showed you. He might not have been so awful to his son. At least not all the time."
"Fair point," Harry conceded.
"You know what?" Ron said, swigging the last of his beer. "I'm done talking about the ferret. Luna's mental and that's all there is to it. Right, Harry?"
"Er ... right."
Harry avoided Hermione's eyes as he found himself halfheartedly agreeing with Ron. He wasn't technically lying. Luna was crazy about all sorts of things. But he had to admit, if only to himself, that Hermione was right about one thing: Malfoy had never been hard on the eyes. Not even when he was all pointy back in school. And now? Well, he certainly had grown up well.
Harry couldn’t believe he was even entertaining thoughts like this, but the more he thought about Malfoy and reevaluated their past through Luna’s eyes - a dangerous pursuit, to be sure - the less crazy she sounded.
When he returned from his thoughts, it was to find Hermione studying him, and he had a sinking feeling that she knew exactly where and on whom his mind had been.
Part 9