A/N: This chapter is just a load of Christmassy fluff. Loads and loads and loads. Hope you enjoy.



    Draco took a shard of the Mirror and ran towards the Room of Requirement. He'd taken a large shard, one that held the image of his and Harry's hands intertwined. It'd just been the most convenient to grab, that was all. It wasn't like Draco chose that piece specifically or anything. No, that would be ridiculous.

    He threw open the door to the Room and headed to the nearest cauldron. He removed the staisis charm on it and drew out the shard of the Mirror, trying to recall what Dumbledore had told him to do. Something along the lines of liquifying the stone, adding the heart's deepest desire, and casting a spell to extract it. Okay, two problems there. Draco looked down into the cauldron before him. The empty cauldron.

    Salazar's slippers, he'd forgotten to take the Stone from Harry. Yes, he had been a little caught up with Jisky and then the dungeons, but- ugh, who knew where Harry could be? It wasn't like Draco had his Map of Hogwarts. He sunk down onto one of the plush chairs. thinking about how long it would take Harry to go to the Room and how he really, really needed the Stone.



. . .



    Meanwhile, down in McGonagall's class, Harry felt the strangest tug at the back of his head. He shook his head to clear it, then continued on the essay he was writing.

    The tug got stronger.

    He huffed, scratching at it, and returned to his essay once more.

    There came one more tug, so strong Harry was toppled backwards over his chair. Every eye in the classroom turned to him.

    "Is there a problem, Mr. Potter?" McGonagall asked.

    "Sorry, Professor," he said, standing up. "I really don't know what happ-" All of a sudden, he was pulled up off his feet, in a sort of Levicorpus-type spell... But nobody had their wands out. 

    The students all jolted backwards in shock, chairs scraping across the floor, while McGonagall moved slowly towards Harry. "Mr. Potter?"

    She reached out a hand, but before she so much as touched him, the door swung open of its own accord, and Harry went flying out of it.



. . .



    Draco, still sat in his chair in the Room of Requirement, was scowling at the thought of having to possibly wait until mealtime to grab Harry when the doors opened and Harry bloody Potter himself came sailing in like a possessed ragdoll and was seated on the other chair. The doors slammed shut behind him.

    "What," Harry said, "the bloody Merlin was that?!"

    Draco gaped at him. He looked back at the door, and then at Harry. The boys stared at each other for a solid minute, visibly confused, until Draco understood. And then he groaned.

    "Potter," he said, "I think I Required you."

    Harry blinked. "You- what?"

    "I required you," Draco said again. "I was just thinking- I needed the Stone, and you have it, so I needed you, and I was thinking about how I really wanted you here, and, well... The Room knew I Required you, and so it brought you to me."

    Harry opened his mouth, then shut it, staring at Draco. Then said, "Honestly, Draco, didn't you learn? If you need something, just Accio it."

    He made the movement with his wand and a few moments later, the doors opened again; a small, red-orange stone flew into Harry's palm. "Here you go, Malfoy," he said. "Now, I'm off to the infirmary to make sure I didn't accidentally sustain any injuries."

    Draco raised an eyebrow. "You are willingly going to the infirmary? Never thought I'd see the day!" 

    Harry grinned. "Well, if Pomfrey hears about me flying through Hogwarts without a broom and not going to her she'll have a right go at me," he said.

    "And?"

    Harry's smile widened. "McGonagall's making us write a theory essay," he said. Ohh. Those were terrible. Yes, Draco would far rather go to the infirmary than write one of those. 

    "Well, off you go, then," he said, making a shooing gesture towards the doors. When Harry had left, he stepped back over to the cauldron. "Melt it, huh?" he murmured to himself. But he didn't want anything to go wrong... He set the Stone in the cauldron and turned the flame below it to a low heat. But... Even though this was far safer, it would also take ages. And Draco didn't want to stay and watch. So...

    "Jisky!" he called. A pop of apparition revealed the house-elf. 

    "Oh, Young Master Draco," she said, "Jisky is so glad you called on her. What can Jisky do for you?"

    Draco took a moment to make sure she'd eaten- she looked far better than she had the last time he'd seen her, that was for sure- before asking, "Could you watch over this and alert me when it melts?"

    Jisky nodded eagerly. "Absolutely, Master Draco!"

    "Thanks, you're a life-saver," Draco said. Jisky beamed. He left the Room with a smile, wondering how long it would take for the Stone to melt. In the meantime, doors swung open on either side of him, and students flooded into the halls. Mmm, lunch. Draco headed down to the Great Hall.



    Harry wasn't there when Draco arrived. Oh well, he'd be fine. He'd died before; he could get through a short spell of levitation.

    He sat down next to Pansy, who didn't even stop her conversation with Blaise to say hello. Rude.

    "-nd then I was thinking that I needed to buy some more clothes for me," she was saying.

    Blaise looked at Draco, his eyes practically screaming for help, but all he said was "Hey, Draco."

    "Draco!" Pansy exclaimed. "Oh, perfect, I was just thinking about the Christmas shopping we all need to get done." Draco glared at Blaise for involving him in Pansy's dreaded shopping spree. Blaise grinned back at him. "None of us have done much yet, so we're all going out after lunch to Hogsmeade. I know for a fact that you haven't bought your annual Potter Present, so you'll be coming too. Lovely. Anyway, as I was saying-"

    "Woah, woah, woah, Pans, slow down. First- I don't do a- a- a Potter Present. Don't look at me like that, Pans. Blaise, shut up. No, I mean it. Shush. And even if I did, why would I invite you along to go shopping with me?"

    "You're not inviting me," Pansy said. "We are inviting you." 

    Draco frowned. "We?"

    "Yeah," Blaise said. "Pans, Granger, Weasley and I."

    "Who are you and what have you done with my friends?" Draco asked them. "Christmas shopping with Granger and Weasley?! Have you lost your minds?"

    "Nope. Oh, look, Granger says she's ready. C'mon, Draco." Indeed, across the Hall, Granger had stood up and was beckoning the Slytherin trio.

    Pansy grabbed Draco by the sleeve and tugged him along after her, even though he resisted all the way to the Great Hall doors. Just as he was leaving, Harry walked in. "Save me!" Draco cried; but Potter, useless git he is, just stood and watched Draco be dragged away to be tortured. Tortured how, you ask? Shopping with Pansy Parkinson.



    Hogsmeade was far busier on a school day than it would be usually, but the small group forced their way through the crowds. There seemed to be a mixed attitude around them; people crowded around Granger and Weasley, leading the group, avoided and ignored Pansy and Blaise, and flat-out glared at Draco, who was reminded exactly why he didn't go out often after the War. Weasley pulled back to stand next to him- many confused stares followed him- and muttered, "This will be terrible. Parkinson's somehow managed to get Hermione excited for Christmas shopping! Hermione hates Christmas shopping! Says it's time that could be spent better studying. But- look at them!" 

    Ahead, Pansy and Granger walked, arm-in-arm, chattering excitedly about Merlin-knew-what. Blaise joined the boys. "Lighten up, you two, it's nearly Christmas!"

    Pansy looked back at them with a grin, ignoring the general disgust of the onlookers, and said, "Yeah, sour-grapes. Lighten up. C'mon, 'Mione has ideas for what you can get Potter-" Wait, since when was Granger "'Mione"? And, even worse-

    "You- I'm not getting Potter anything!" Draco spluttered.

    "Don't worry about it, Malfoy," Granger said matter-of-factly. "Harry always gets you something, too." Draco stared at her, dumbfounded.

    "He does? Wait- no- I don't care- that's not- I don't get him anything, though,"

    "Draco," Blaise said, "You should know by now that you are a terrible liar."

    "Yeah, Malfoy," Weasley said, "You're blushing."

    Draco gave Pansy and Blaise the most betrayed and wounded look, but they only laughed at his peril- the bloody traitors- grabbed him, and pulled him forwards. The crowd seemed to have melted away around him, and any judgements that they made went unnoticed by the group.



    They went to Dogweed and Deathcap first, where Granger and Weasley spent an unbelievably long time helping Blaise pick out a plant for Neville Longbottom. After half an hour of "No, that's too bright," and "It's not deadly enough," and "Neville has 10 of those already", Draco strode forwards and picked up the plant that had first caught his eye. 

    "How about this one?" He asked, holding up a Mimbulus Mimbletonia. "Heard Longbottom had one before, and it died in seventh year 'cause he didn't have time to look after it."

        The shopkeeper was clearly on the edge of adding "Wonder why?" but a glare from Weasley shut her up. Huh, perhaps Weasley wasn't so bad.

    "'S a good idea, actually," he said. "I heard Neville talking to Luna about how plants seem to develop a sort of personality, and the Mimbletonia also developed favouritism towards certain people. He sounded really fascinated."

    "The Mumble plant it is, then," Pansy said with a clap.

    As she went over and purchased it, Granger gave Draco a once-over. Draco had the strangest feeling he was being examined- or maybe tested. "Not bad, Malfoy," she said as Pansy returned to them. "Not bad."



    Next was a short trip into Dominic Maestro's music shop. Blaise helped Granger pick out a peculiar flute that only played when the musician was upside down for Lovegood, while Pansy had Draco help her pick a new violin for Blaise. She ended up entirely ignoring Draco's advice and decided on one that played like a mermaid; terrible above the water, but heavenly underneath. Draco dreaded hearing the first time Blaise would play it- presumably above water, where any sane human being would play their instrument.



    After that, Draco, Ronald and Pansy travelled to Scrivenshaft's for quills while Hermione and Blaise went off to Tomes and Scrolls to buy books and other such presents. "Bet you a galleon 'Mione will bring back at least three books that she'd bought for herself," Ronald muttered to Draco. 

    "Bet you a galleon it'll be at least five," Draco shot back. 

    "Oh, come on," Pansy said, "Give her some credit. It will be at least ten."

    "You're on."

    The group spent a quarter-hour or so browsing through quills; Draco learned that he would be expected to buy both Hermione and Ronald presents, since they were buying him things too. He managed to get Hermione a custom-made self-inking quill that would suggest phrases and other such improvements to her writing, and a paperweight of a small house-elf, which he had S.P.E.W carved into. He also had an idea for what to get Ron. 

    He purchased Hermione's quill and paperweight and dashed unseen into the only secondhand shop in Hogsmeade. He'd seen what he was looking for in here before, in a cluttered corner, tucked away, and- there! He grabbed the pensieve and bought it from the kindly old man running the shop. He withdrew his memories of rehearsing and singing Weasley is Our King with the Slytherins, and the first time he'd managed to successfully conduct them through the whole song; he duplicated the memories and stored them in the pensieve. He flicked his wand and the pensieve was sent back to his dorm room, where he could cast all the spells needed to keep it in good condition properly. Then he left, returning to the Quills shop, where Ronald was just buying his quills.

    Spintwitches' Sporting Needs was next, where Ronald bought his present for Harry (a Quidditch ball set of his own, missing a snitch for some reason. When Draco asked, Ron gave a sort of half-smile and told Draco that Harry had a snitch of his own he could use). Pansy then walked up beside Draco and said that perhaps Draco could get Harry a snitch of his own as a present; Ronald rejected the idea and helped Draco pick out a snowglobe that Harry would like. Then the two took their sweet time going over nearly every Quidditch-related item in stock, comparing items and advising each other on what to and what not to get. Pansy rushed off to J. Pippin's Potions (presumably to get Draco's present), but was back before the boys left (unfortunately). It didn't take her long before her impatience won out and she was dragging the boys away from the store to move onto their next destination- Zonko's.

    They indulged themselves in the newest and best toys the store had to offer, then moved onto Honeydukes, where the group found Hermione and Blaise. (Hermione, it turned out, had bought fourteen books; Pansy took her winnings from the scowling boys with a sugar-sweet smile.)

    The group spent a long time in there, each getting individually lost in the aisles of sugary heaven. When nobody was looking, Draco dashed into the Post Office to wrap Harry's present. He made sure it was all safe and secure before he sent it off to his dormitory, made sure that the little snow globe wouldn't break. When he emerged, he looked around cautiously before stepping outside. Pansy somehow saw him anyways, and gave him a knowing look. "So the snowglobe was for him, huh? Well, that's hardly enough. C'mon, 'Mione's occupying Blaise and Ron, let's go get him something special."

    She pulled him towards the sole apparition point in Hogsmeade, heavily guarded (you never knew who might come through) and apparated them to Diagon Alley, leading him up to the Magical Menagerie opposite Florean's.



    The door opened with the quiet chime of a bell, nearly drowned out by the animals various squawks and squeals. It chimed again, a while later, and Draco left with a cage in his hands. He sent it back to his dorm room with a flick of his wand, concealing and protecting it with a few charms. The pet inside would be fine with its auto-replenishing food and water supply.

    Pansy gave Draco a soft smile as he made sure it was okay and safe and happy. Harry didn't know how lucky he was, she shought. Draco wouldn't go to such lengths for most people. But, then again, Harry had never been like most people. Not to Draco.



    They returned to Hogsmeade and found Hermione telling Ronald and Blaise about an enchanted muggle object that had found its way into the window display of a shop; a "telee-fone", whatever that was. When the boys spotted Draco and Pansy, they immediately turned to them for refuge, and the group travelled towards the Three Broomsticks for lunch.



    When they left, they found that snow had begun to fall; just a light dusting of it, the sort of lovely fluffy flakes that landed on your nose and hair like a thin second layer. Weasley spun around in the snow, delighted, and with the help of Blaise, managed to collect enough snow to make a snowball and throw it at Hermione. Pansy and Draco stood back and laughed as she chased them. Her bushy, snow-covered hair would have made her seem almost comical as she stormed after them, if not for the slight terror that arose in Draco when she turned on him for laughing at her. He cowered behind Pansy, who laughed at him... Until Weasley hit her in the face with a snowball.

    She turned to face him, quiet and slow- deadly, Draco thought. Ronald must've realised the danger he was in, because he laughed nervously and moved to hide from her behind a towering tree, but she whipped out her wand and suddenly he was pulled into the air. Hermione made to stop Pansy, but Pansy levitated him into the highest branches of the tree he'd been attempting to hide behind, and Hermione sat back and laughed. Blaise joined her, sitting on the thinly-snow-covered floor, watching as Ronald attempted to get down. Draco soon joined them laughing as Weasley slipped and missed a branch, managed to grab another, and hung helplessly from the branched. He looked pleadingly at Hermione, who did nothing to help; then to Pansy, who told him defiantly, "Never throw a snowball at me."



    Weasley struggled for a good minute before Draco said, "Oh, come one. It can't be that hard." 

    "Oh, really?" Ronald cried down from above, still hanging onto a branch. "Why don't you come up her yourself then?"

    Draco, of course, took the challenge. 

    He leapt up to the lowest branch- which snapped, and Draco fell back down onto the ground. Blaise had turned red from laughter, and it seemed that Ronald might drop off the branch from laughing. Draco stood up and sniffed, dusting the snow from his clothes, before jumping up to catch a sturdier branch. This one held his weight, and he swung up to sit on it. Being an intelligent wizard, he immediately cast a cushioning charm beneath himself (something that Ronald had not done) before continuing his climb. By the time he'd made it to the top of the tree, Ronald had finally managed to lower himself to a branch below him, and was watching Draco. When he noticed Draco's attention on him, he called up, "Not bad, Malfoy."



    The view was simply spectacular, Draco noted absently; he could see Hogwarts in the distance, as well as the glint of the winter sun on the surface of the Black Lake. The Forbidden Forest was a dark spot beside it, and Hogsmeade sprawled out in a map beneath him.



    "Well, this is hardly any fun," he heard Pansy say from below him. "Draco isn't the slightest bit afraid."

    Uh oh. That didn't bode well for Draco.

    "Diffindo Maxima!"

    Oh, sweet Merlin, Draco thought as the tree trunk beneath him was cut cleanly through the middle.



    The tree began to topple.



    Ronald (whose branch was shaking violently) screamed and held onto the branch; Blaise had fallen silent; Pansy stood back and watched. It was Hermione- bless her saintly soul- that saved him; she cast a series of lightening and levitating spells at him just as the tree began to fall sideways. "Honestly, Pansy," she said disapprovingly, "What are you thinking? Someone could get hurt. Don't make the tree fall that way. Make it fall-" she moved the entire severed section to the other side of the tree, away from the Hogsmeade path and over a snowy hill- "That way."



    Wait, what?



    She released the spells holding Draco up, and Draco was thrust into freefall. His stomach stayed at the top of the tree, but his body went hurtling towards the ground; he gripped the tree trunk, screeching, and went down with a crash! and the splintering of wood. But it wasn't over.

    He lost his grip on the tree and went rolling down the hill, head-over-heels. He rolled to a stop at the feet of none other than Harry bloody Potter. 

    "Er, hi. Came to see if anyone was being tortured. Who was screaming?" he said, and Draco felt himself falling head-over-heels again; not physically, this time. More... Emotionally. Except, he realised, he'd fallen a long time ago. It was just now, looking up at Harry, that he realised. And maybe- just maybe- he now accepted it, too. But only maybe.

    The world was spinning, but Draco made out the crooked smile and matching glasses on Harry's face, and then the snow in his hair as he helped Draco up.

    "It was Weasley," he told Harry, pointing a finger back in the general direction of the group, who were all doubled over in hysterical laughter. Useless, moronic, pathetic, stupid traitors, the lot of them. And he marched up the hill to tell them so. 

    Harry's gaze followed him, and when he spotted Hermione's mane of hair and Weasley stuck in a tree, he did a double-take. He jogged to catch up with Draco and asked, "You're all out here together?"

    "Not by choice, trust me," Draco said. "And I advise you to get lost before Pansy sees you or you will also be pulled along for clothes shopping."

    "I would've thought you'd like that kind of thing," Potter replied.

    "Not with Pansy," he said.



    They stopped off for butterbeers and a clean-up before the inevitable journey, but then they were off. It was just past three, Draco guessed, when they arrived at Gladrag's Wizardwear. Ronald and Harry were trying their best to stay behind and unnoticed (by Hermione and Pansy, at least; Harry couldn't hide from the crowd) while Pansy attacked Draco and Blaise, forcing them to the front to browse clothes. Eventually, they split up into their separate trios; the Golden trio and the Silver one.



    Pansy led Blaise and Draco up and down the aisles, her watchful eye on them at all times so they couldn't escape. When their arms ached from carrying the bundles of clothes Pansy had heaped onto them, they were sent into the dressing room to try on their outfits. Now this was Draco's favourite part.



    Draco had always adored trying on clothes; he loved strutting up and down the small aisle, doing a little twirl in his fancy suits and his stylish jackets. He liked tipping his hats, when he wore them, as he bowed; when the Golden trio joined them (having skipped trying on clothes and moving straight to buying them), Draco loved the rounds of applause he received. He loved talking with Blaise before emerging, comparing outfits and giving compliments and adjustments. 



    Then Ronald came into his dressing room as Draco was putting away his last outfit (it had been a strong, collective "No," from the entire group) and gave Draco one last outfit. He handed it to Draco and told him quietly, "Harry will love it," and stepped out again.

    Draco gasped when he realised what it was; he put it on timidly, careful not to tear anything. Outside, he heard a round of applause for Blaise's last outfit. 

    "Draco? You alright?" Pansy called out.

    Draco looked at himself in the mirror. Hmm. "No," he called back. "Pans, come help me with this."

    Pansy brushed aside the heavy dressing-room curtains and gasped. "Draco," she breathed, "You look absolutely gorgeous."

    "Thank you," Draco whispered back. "But I think it needs a little something more, and I wasn't sure what."

    Pansy took a deep breath to calm herself, then stepped back to observe. "You're right. How about..." She flicked her wand, and Draco felt his hair fall loosely around his head; it was the soft, fluffy texture it had been when Pansy had called him adorable. He went to protest, but she wasn't done. "Sit," she told him, and advanced, pointing her wand at his face. He froze, knowing how badly this could go. But he trusted Pansy. "Close your eyes," she murmured. He did, and felt a wash of magic over his face; soft like feathers, smooth like silk, cold like water. Pansy stepped back. "Perfect," she said. Draco turned and looked in the mirror.



    The first thing he saw was the outfit Ronald had given him.

    It was a dress.

    A ballgown, really.

    A gorgeous dark green ball gown with black tulle, skin tight till the waist, where it flooded out into a poofy bell-like shape, with a short train at the back. It had shimmery full-length sleeves of a sheer satin-like material. The neckline was an Elizabethan Collar, clearly showing Draco's collarbones and the pale expanse of his neck.

    Then he saw his hair; almost-but-not-quite messy, and soft to the touch. Finally, he noticed his face- or, rather, what Pansy had done to his face.

    She'd put makeup on him.

    Just a subtle bit of eyeliner on his lower and upper lids, paired with a light green eyeshadow. There was some sort of gloss- strawberry flavoured, he noted- on his lips, and the lightest dusting of blush on his cheeks.

    Draco... Draco looked good. 



    Satisfied, Pansy stepped outside of the dressing room and announced to the others that Draco had one last outfit that he'd gone all-out on. She waved her wand at the dressing-room curtains.  



    The fabric rose upwards slowly, and Draco stepped out.

    He modelled this outfit slower than he had the others, more delicately. He walked down the left side of the aisle, passing the group, who were silent, their faces painted with identical looks of awe. Harry's mouth was hanging open, Draco noted. He smiled to himself as he walked.

    When he reached the end of the aisle, he performed a slow turn for the group; Pansy applauded him, which seemed to awaken the rest. Excluding Harry, who was looking at Draco, still open-mouthed, like Draco was the most perfect thing in the world, they all started to cheer and clap; Draco grinned at them as he made his second passage down along the right side of the corridor, on the other side of the bench the group were sitting on. He stopped in front of Harry, who was still staring at him, and gave him a small curtsey, slightly pulling up the hem of the dress so it didn't get caught.

    When Draco winked at him, Harry blushed.

    Draco continued his walk down the aisle, stopping just before he returned to his dressing-room to turn his head back and blow a kiss at the group- or, more specifically, Harry. They locked eyes, and Harry's cheeks turned the most gorgeous shade of russet.

    Draco's cheeks were pinker than the blush when he stepped into the dressing room. When Pansy joined him to help him take off the make-up, she gave him that knowing look of hers. "Don't," he told her softly. "I already know."

    She looked up at him, surprised, then turned back to the make-up with a grin that seemed to stretch from ear to ear.



    Pansy offered to buy the dress for Draco, who let her do so happily. It was a hefty price, considering the group were in Hogsmeade. He'd told the others to go ahead, that he and Pansy would catch up, but Harry stayed behind. As they watched Pansy buying the dress, Draco heard Harry breathe in deeply, then say, "Did you like wearing the dress?"

    Oh. Well that was unexpected. Draco frowned; he hadn't really thought about it. "Well, yeah, I guess so. I felt... I felt good. Especially with the make-up and all," he said.

    "Youshouldreallywearmakeupanddressesmoreoftenyoulookastonishing," Harry said, all very quickly.

    "Pardon?"

    Harry looked down at the floor, scuffing his shoes along the floor. Was he blushing again? "You- you should really wear make-up more often, you look astonishing," he whispered.

    Draco froze. Did he just- had he heard that right?

    "Oh," he said softly. "Thank you." He smiled at Harry, who smiled back nervously in return, and then Harry wasn't the only one blushing.

    "I also think- um, I mean, you should keep your hair like that," Harry added. Draco thanked him again and made a mental note to throw out every jar of hair-gel he owned.

    Then Pansy (who Draco suspected had finished buying her- his dress a while ago and was just waiting for Harry and Draco to stop talking) interrupted, pulling them out of the shop with an insistent, "We have to catch up with the others!"



    Outside, a blizzard seemed to have erupted.

    As soon as they stepped foot outside, they were hit with a wave of cold air and a layer of snow. The wind whipped around them as they made their way up to Hogwarts, tangling Draco's now-soft hair. Just as they were crossing into Hogwarts boundaries again, the snow began to recede, and the soft snowflakes from before returned. The floor was now coated in a thick layer of snow, and every step made a soft crunch in the fresh snow, leaving an imprint. 



    Blaise, Ron and Hermione had waited for the trio; they'd stopped on the grassy- well, snowy now- area next to the Black Lake. Ronald was lying down on the snow, spreading his arms and legs at the instruction of Hermione, it seemed; Blaise was watching and adding commentary. When Draco got within hearing range, Blaise said, "We're making snow angels!"

    Harry jumped forwards in excitement, falling on the ground; as Draco went to make sure he was okay, he began doing what Ronald was, only... Faster. After a few seconds, he called out, "Levitate me!"

    Hermione stopped mid-instruction and said, "Oh my God, Harry, that's a brilliant idea! Levicorpus!"

    Harry flew into the air; Hermione set him down beside the imprint in the snow he'd made. "Ooh, it's a good one!"

    "Do me, 'Mione!" Rona called; she cast the spell on him and place him beside his imprint. "Why does yours look better than mine?" he asked Harry.

    "You weren't spreading your arms enough," Harry told him. "Look, watch me."

    He lay down on an undisturbed bit of snow and walked Ron through what he was doing; Draco lay down- very slowly and very carefully- on a different piece of snow and followed Harry's instructions.

    "You're too stiff," Hermione told him. "Loosen up. Relax. If you're worried about your clothes getting wet or rumpled- well, we're magical. We have drying charms and ironing charms. Have some fun, Malfoy."

    She flopped down somewhere behind him, and Draco tried to listen to her advice. To his surprise, it seemed to work. It was actually almost... Fun. He stood up, careful to stay inside his imprint, and jumped out. When he looked back, he could just about see how his silhouette was an angel; with his arms making wings and his legs making a robe of sorts. Huh. 

    "Not bad," Hermione said as she passed him. "But still, loosen up a bit more. You're frowning at it like it's a bad test result."

    Draco made a noise of protest, found a new bit of grass to make an angel on, and made three. "Granger, come look at this! I made three!" he called out to her. She walked over and gave him a nod of approval; he beamed triumphantly. "Oi, Weasley," he shouted, "Bet my angels are better than yours!"

    "Ha! You wish, Malfoy!"

    "No, look, I have three. How many do you have?"

    "Only three? I have five!"

    Draco gasped in outrage. That would not do. He threw himself down and made more, and more, and more, as Weasley did the same; eventually, lost in their competition, Draco lost track of his surroundings and bumped into Pansy, who was sat next to Harry, both of them making small... What were those?



    Immediately and effectively distracted from his snow angels, he asked the pair what they'd made.

    "They're snowmen," Harry told him. "You make snowballs, but bigger, and put them on top of each other to make people."

    "Yeah, look, here's the head, with a happy face," Pansy told him, pointing at the top snowball on her snowman, who did, indeed, have a smiley face drawn into him, "And these two are the body, and these sticks are the arms. Harry says you can make a big snowman, too, and put a scarf on it, but he didn't want to make a big one with you and Ronald rolling around making snow angels," she added.

    "Hey, Malfoy, what're you- blimey, Harry, what are those? They're adorable!"

    Pansy grinned and explained them to him proudly; Hermione watched on, clearly entertained by the purebloods' collective lack of knowledge in this area, while Blaise went to get them all hot chocolate. Harry took Malfoy aside, where there was lots of fresh snow, and showed him how to make the snowball big enough to be a proper snowman. Draco made one about the side of his own head while Harry made one about three times the size to be the body. Draco bit his lip in concentration as he placed the head on the body. Harry sent him off searching for sticks to use as arms while Hermione accio-ed a scarf she'd knitted to go around the snowman's "neck", and Harry went down to the shores of the Black Lake. He returned with two large black pebbles and a handful of little grey and black ones; he put the two large ones into the face as eyes, then arranged the small pebbles in a smile. "Now all we need is a carrot," he said.

    Draco blinked. "A carrot?"

    "Yeah. Dobby!" With a crack of apparition, Dobby appeared. "Could you get me a carrot, please?" 

    "Right away!" Dobby cried. A few moments later he reappeared with a carrot, which he handed to Harry happily, then disapparated. Harry turned to the snowman.

    "Okay, just in the middle... and... there!" He stepped back, allowing the others to see what he'd done. The carrot was... A nose? Yes! A nose! 

    The snowman as a whole was rather spectacular; it came up to about Draco's shoulder. "Not too shabby for a first attempt," Harry said. "Well done." Draco beamed. "Even if I did do most of the work myself."

    "What?!" Draco cried. "Oh, it's on, Potter." He immediately set about making a new snowman, a better one; it would be the biggest snowman ever. When the head was about as tall as Draco was, he moved onto the body; he ended up having to use magic to help with that. He levitated the head up on top of the body, making sure it stayed firm, before bringing it down. Blaise had re-emerged with hand-made hot chocolates and passed them around, keeping two aside for Harry and Draco. 

    Draco summoned Jisky and had her bring him the largest carrot she could find; while she set off to do that, he walked down to the Black Lake and selected the finest small boulders for the eyes, and several slightly smaller rocks for the mouth. He arranged them on the face to make a happy smile with two round-ish eyes before Jisky arrived back with a carrot taller than herself; Draco took it and dismissed her back to watch the Stone in the Room of Requirement with a smile and his thanks.

    He then walked over to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, leaving Pansy and Blaise to guard his snowman, and picked two massive tree branches to be arms. He levitated them back over to the snowman and pushed them into the sides of the body. Then he carefully- oh so carefully- pushed the carrot into the snowman's head, with Blaise and Pansy stood behind the snowman head and held it to make sure it wouldn't roll away.

    They returned to their seats with their hot chocolates as Draco waited (quite chivalrously, if he did say so himself) for Harry to finish. As he waited, he made a few other tiny snowmen, like the ones Pansy had made before. He arranged those by the base of the snowman as he waited. When Potter was finally ready, they both stood back and levitated their snowmen heads up onto the bodies. Draco made sure his was balanced meticulously, then realised he was missing something. The scarf. But what scarf was big enough to go around a neck as big as Draco himself was? Hmmm...



    Oh.



    Draco was a wizard. Duh.



    He took Hermione's scarf (Hermione had come prepared for the winter weather, unlike the rest of them) and enlarged it so he was barely able to lift it; then he levitated it up and wrapped it around the snowman's shoulders. He then focused the levitation on just one end of the scarf, the longer end, looping it over and under and around and through, then pulling, making a perfect knot  that sat snugly around the snowman's neck. He sat and picked up his hot chocolate as he waited for Potter to finish.



    By this point, students inside the school had started coming out to have a look at the snowman-building competition; the younger muggleborns were delighting in the snow, making their own snowmen and snow-angels. The older ones appeared to have started a mass snowfight, with small teams of all houses and years popping up and making truces until two large ones remained; the more experienced wizards and witches had constructed a small snow fort on one side of the appointed battlefield, while the other appeared to have begun a snowball factory, passing snowballs along to the best throwers, who took aim and shot at any head that peaked above the enemy's fortress. Ron and Blaise were betting on who would win, laughing and cheering and commenting to each other about spectacular techniques and shots and hits. 

    Harry came and sat next to Draco, grinning, and picked up his hot chocolate. "Magical, isn't it," he said.

    "The snow?"

    "Yeah. It brings everyone together better than any other inter-house event could; I mean, look at them," he said, pointing at the snowball war. "I'm pretty sure they're the only reason McGonagall hasn't told everyone to go inside yet."

    "Actually, Harry," Hermione said, "I think that that might be why." She pointed out a second group of people playing in the snow, throwing snowballs. The- the teachers?

    As they watched, Sprout hit Binns with snowball... except it sailed right through him and hit McGonagall squarely in the head. 

    "Uh oh," Harry said from beside Draco, grinning. 

    "Uh oh indeed," Draco smirked as McGonagall used her wand to levitate an army of snowballs and send them hurtling at Sprout. A few hit Hagrid's cabin; he came out a moment later, and seeing what was happening, quickly joined in the fun.



    "Hey, Draco," Pansy said, drawing Draco's attention away from the teachers. "Look."

    Draco turned around and saw that she had moved the snowmen, rearranged them so that they looked towards Hogwarts, with their wood-arms... Oh. They were holding hands. 

    And Pansy had drawn a lightning scar on Harry's one and charmed the scarf on Draco's to be a Slytherin one, so that it looked like Harry and Draco holding hands.



    Draco blushed bright pink. It looked far too much like what he'd seen in the Mirror of Erised. Beside him, Harry was blushing again too... But neither of them made any move to change the snowmen. 



    Draco jumped as a sort of roar emanated from the teachers' snowball fight, followed by an almighty splash, and every single person out in the snow froze, looking to see what had happened. 

    Ripples spread out across the lake, and then a series of splashes preceded the arrival of something swimming to the shore.

    Hagrid climbed out, dripping wet... And, following him, McGonagall, who looked like an angry wet cat. Both of them turned on Slughorn, who paled.

    Everyone laughed as Slughorn backed slowly towards the castle, then began to run as the other teachers followed him.

    Amidst all the noise and movement, Draco felt a hand reach out and take his.

    Harry was still laughing, his eyes on the teachers, but his hand (unfairly warm after being in the snow for so long) had taken Draco's cold one. Draco felt himself melt inside; he linked their fingers and squeezed Harry's hand softly.

    Harry turned to look him straight in the eyes, and beamed.