Chapter Text
With the week’s lessons being tied to the Winter Solstice, the Great Hall had been dressed up with mismatched decorations from its occupants. Wonky stars, uneven candles and wrinkly snowflakes floated above the tables while holly berries and sprigs of varying freshness lined the perimeter of the room.
Harry was brimming with happiness as he watched Draco joke with Greg. He had initially been worried about returning to the confines of traditional schooling after the year’s hiatus, but it had brought more than he had expected.
Without being in perpetual mortal peril, Harry had found himself better able to appreciate Hogwarts in its training for him to be better wizard. It was something he had never considered previously, more invested in knowledge that would ensure his survivability. Most importantly, he had also enjoyed the opportunities to mingle with his classmates, learning with and from them. More so than the other years, Harry felt reluctant to leave for the winter break. He desperately wished that Draco and him would still be on talking terms after dinner.
The hall quieted when the Headmistress took her position at the podium. She straightened her notes before beginning in a stately manner, “Hogwarts, has always prided itself on its diversity, embracing and nurturing the best in its students. However, in the midst of competition, we have forgotten what we are capable of when we come together–a school, generations of inquisitive students, a better future for our friends and families.”
Harry felt Draco squeeze his thigh as his eyes warmed. “Our loved ones, both in our memories and around us, fought for us to sit here today with our friends–both old and new. As we celebrate the shortest day and the longest night tomorrow, I hope that you will share your blessings, and let the light within you shine brighter. Let us examine and let go of our past this holiday. Give the people around you the gift of forgiveness and focus on your goals and intentions for the coming year.”
The hall was silent as the Headmistress looked at her students heavily.
“Finally, I would like to thank you for the participation in our anonymous gift exchange. Today will be our last exchange, but the kindness should not stop here. Do something for a stranger every week, if not every day. Reveals will be conducted over the course of our meal. Please mingle, and make a new friend or two.” She gave a perfunctory nod before returning to her seat while the Hall broke out into applause.
“I’m glad to be sitting here too,” Hermione said as she wiped the tears in her eyes away fiercely. Harry smiled at her in agreement.
“Oh finally,” Ron exclaimed excitedly, withdrawing the hand he had around Hermione when the food appeared.
“Are you going to find your partner now?” Draco asked as the Slytherins got up.
Harry shook his head while helping himself to the grilled chicken. “Probably later,” he said–more like long long later, if not forever.
“And ruin your meal?”
Harry looked at the food that he had already amassed on his plate. “I don’t really think that it’s a problem.”
Draco pat his cheek with a sardonic smile before striding off. Craning his neck, Harry watched as Draco tapped Anthony Goldstein on the shoulder to hand him the present he had been fidgeting with the whole afternoon.
Bloody Draco, honestly. Anthony, who had expressed interest in entering Healer training, had been crowing about the books he had received in the common room, even skipping out on the first eighth year party to read the tome on 16th century medical healing.
Somehow the swots all managed to find each other, he thought as Goldstein enveloped Draco in a hug.
“It’s not so bad, huh,” Harry greeted when Draco finally returned to the seat beside him. The other Slytherins had dispersed, and Pansy was seated between Susan Bones and Lisa Turpin, their heads bent together in gossip.
“Tell that to yourself,” Draco said as he reached for the cheese platter, his cheeks flushed with pleasure.
"How did you even get books that cheap?”
"Secondhand books, or copying from my family's collection,” Draco replied as he helped himself to the leg of ham.
Harry frowned as he chewed on his food, distinctly aware that Draco was underplaying the effort he put into the presents. After maxing out her borrowing allowance too many times, Harry had suggested that Hermione copy the books, only to be served a discourse about the anti-replication spells in many books and how using magic on the older books would cause them to crumble to dust. Harry looked at Draco pensively.
“You’re a very nice person, Draco Malfoy,” he said as he bumped Draco’s shoulder amicably.
“Stop it,” Draco complained as he pushed him away.
“Draco’s a very nice person,” he said louder, nearly falling onto Ron when Draco tried to shut him up. “You could try glaring harder,” he laughed as Draco glanced around furtively, scowling at anyone who were looking at them.
"Shut up,” Draco hissed as he straightened his uniform. “I’ll be hauled to Azkaban for flouting copyright law,” he said, lips curling at the edges even though his eyes were serious.
Harry reached for Draco’s hand as he felt his heart twinge. “I’ll protect you,” he said seriously.
Draco rolled his eyes as he pulled his hand away. “Save it Potter. You’re a saviour past his prime,” he said as he reached for the mashed potatoes. “Imagine not being able to memorise Golpalott’s Three Laws.”
Harry made a face as he served Draco a helping of sausages. “I’ll work on it over the holidays. I promise,” he emphasised when Draco only looked at him sceptically.
“Maybe we should have a Potions lesson over the break.”
“I'll probably need a little more than that since we'll be missing three lessons," Harry suggested hopefully. This way he would definitely be able to see Draco even if he didn't want to visit the Burrow.
A blush crept across Draco's cheeks as he picked at his plate. “I’ll try my best to fit you into my social calendar.”
Harry nodded quickly. Draco had confided previously that his mother was being shunned by her previous circle of high-society wives and she was taking the rejection poorly, working obsessively to salvage the ruined Manor. He knew that Draco was eager to spend time with her, but Harry couldn’t control his desire to see him over the long break.
“I’ll take any available time,” he said earnestly, "I was serious about Muggle London too."
“Okay,” Draco whispered as his eyes swept across Harry’s face and rested for a moment on Harry’s lips.
Harry leaned in to press a quick kiss on the underside of Draco’s jaw before returning to his plate with a pleased smile.
“Gonna find your exchange partner?” Ron asked when he received a bag of sweets from Hannah.
“Shut up,” he hissed, elbowing Ron in the ribs when he noticed Draco’s interest in the comment.
“How about yourself, Ron? Are you going to find your exchange partner?” Draco asked pointedly as he raised his brows.
Something in Draco's voice–possibly the smugness–triggered Ron's attention. His hand froze in mid-air as he turned to look at Draco. Setting his spoon down carefully, he narrowed his eyes at Draco, then Harry. "Does he know?” He hissed at Harry.
“Know what?”
Ron looked around quickly before bending close again. “The thing! The thing we did!” He elaborated in exasperation when Harry only continued to stare at him blankly.
“He doesn’t know, Weasley. Only I do.”
Ron stared at him in disbelief. “Bloody hell,” he complained as he searched his robes, unshrinking the present as he pulled out. He handed it over to Harry perfunctorily, “how did you even know?”
Harry flipped the present in his hands, frowning in confusion at the stellotape running crookedly across the parchment. He wished that Hermione wasn’t so busy talking to the fourth year students, just so that someone would explain the situation to him.
"Well, firstly there was the chocolate frog card that you were looking for. It seemed too convenient that Harry would get something that made you so excited. Secondly, it was how Harry’s partner knew how to circumvent the gift exchange spells with the annual subscription. I was initially convinced that it was a Slytherin, but none of us–” he smirked at Harry, “care that much about Harry that much. Well except for me,” he corrected when Harry made a noise of protest.
“Then I saw the ink stain on one of your wrappers, and it all fell in place. Who cares enough about Harry, benefitted from his gift, thinks that mundane everyday gifts are appropriate, has a terrible sense of humour and is messy?” He wiggled the fingers that he had counted off, raising his brows airily as if welcoming challenge.
Harry gaped at Ron in shock. “You guys rigged it twice?”
Ron shushed him quickly as he set up a Muffliato “How could we not? Did you see how the Hufflepuff girls used to look at you?”
Harry felt the disbelief in him subside at the reminder. He just wished that they had involved him in their plans instead of leaving him to find out about it through someone else. In retrospect, it was just as well that his partner had been Ron–the lube on promotion had really come useful yesterday. He grinned as he gave Ron a sideways hug, “Draco and I really like the magazine,” he said sincerely. There was so much that he had to update his friends about.
“Draco and you?” Ron questioned, released a sharp bark of laughter when he realised the implied meaning. “I did not need to know that!”
“No, no! We look at it separately!” Harry explained, groaning when he realised that the clarification had not been helpful at all.
Draco pet him on the head in laughter, “Harry meant to say that we did use your presents wisely.”
Ron beamed at them shamelessly–after living in a tent together for months on end, they had lost the concept of ‘sensitive topics’ entirely. Ron would tell Harry later–to Harry’s agreement–that he had gifted the lubes and the magazines out of practicality.
“Is there anything else that I should know?” Harry asked as he pointed his chin at Hermione.
Ron shook his head as he moved on to the log cakes. “Maybe you should ask your boyfriend.”
“We’re not–” he broke off as he glanced furtively at Draco. “We haven’t talked about it yet,” he glared at Ron to convey his annoyance. They had been over this multiple times, and Ron’s clumsy meddling was only making things harder for him. He could already feel Draco's nervousness rolling off in waves.
“Oh, look! Blaise is calling me. Goodbye!” Ron announced, picking up his plate as he scampered away immediately to avoid Harry's ire.
Harry picked at his plate as silence stretched between them. Where should he begin?
“It’s always nice to be validated,” Draco commented casually as he reached for a cup of chocolate mousse, “what did Ron give you?”
Harry worried at his lip as he passed the present to Draco, too nervous to think. He was familiar with Draco’s subterfuge to know that if he did not address it himself, Draco would bring it up later at a time more advantageous to himself.
“So Ron and Hermione also rigged the exchange for me to draw your name,” he said quickly when Draco looked at him in confusion for handing him the unopened gift from Ron.
“And I know that it was creepy of me to watch you open your gift while pretending that I didn’t know anything, but I really wanted to make sure that you liked your gifts, and then I didn’t know how to stop afterwards.” He looked at Draco nervously as he tried to gauge his reaction, despairing when he caught nothing on Draco’s stiff face.
He reached for Draco’s hand, only to stop himself. He was frightened about how Draco might react.
“Why would they rig it for you to draw my name?”
“Erm, they were concerned, I guess? That we weren't talking even though we were roommates," he said, slumping when Draco only raised an unimpressed brow at him. How did Draco always know that he wasn't telling the truth?
"Erm, so I was a little concerned about how you were doing, and they wanted me to talk to you, but I didn't know how to start, so they rigged it. So that I could do something for you. But I didn't know! I was confused when it happened!" He defended as he raised his both hands reflexively in innocence.
Draco was biting his lips as he looked at him. He suddenly leaned in to press his lips against Harry's. "You're cute," he said evenly with a small smile when he pulled away.
Harry blinked at him in shock, astounded when Draco only dug into his dessert. "So you're not mad?" He asked Draco hopefully.
"Of course I'm not mad. How could I be when you're so sweet?"
Harry felt his face flush at Draco's bizarre words. "Did you know that I was your partner? How did you know?" He demanded when he noticed the pleased smile on Draco's face.
Draco set his dessert down with a noisy sigh and an exaggerated eye roll. "It really wasn't that hard. Honestly, I initially thought that you guys would only rig it once, until you started being so dramatic about the reveals. I mean, worrying what they'll think when they find out that you were their partner?"
Harry ducked his head in embarrassment at Draco's impatient scoff. It was the best he could come up with!
"Honestly, why would Harry Potter care so much about what a random person thinks? Well, because he values the person's opinion deeply. But everybody who mattered loves him anyway, so he doesn't have to worry. So then, who does he care about deeply, but isn't impressed by him?" He gestured at himself airily, smirking when Harry gaped at him for the flawless deduction.
"When the answer became obvious, I realised that Ron had probably rigged it twice for you to draw my name, which was why you had your hand in the hat for so long. Everything finally came together," he waved his fingers proudly with a smirk.
"So you realised it before I gave the ice-skating spell," Harry mumbled as he tried to process his thoughts. "No wonder you were being so weird afterwards! You were always staring at me while opening the gifts! And all those weird questions! 'Oh, why do I have an extra gift, Harry?'" He mimicked in a high falsetto.
Draco shoved at him for the jibe. "I had to confirm my suspicions! You were so good at acting, I had to test you just to be sure. I mean, 'I think that the flowers are dead', honestly?"
"Test me? What do you mean?" Harry's brows creased as he stared at Draco. As he ran through Draco's comments from the past few days, he finally understood.
"I can't believe that you did that just to test me! Do you know how long I spent finding that present for you?" Harry felt his heart aching as he remembered how Draco had insulted his gift yesterday just because he wanted Harry to what, cry for him?
"I had to sneak letters to Hermione to get that for you because you were always around! You were trying to catch me getting things for you, weren't you?" Harry accused when he finally made the connection. He clenched his fists when Draco only bit his lips guiltily. He was vibrating out of his skin in anger, and his palms were hurting from the sharp press of his nails.
Towards the end, Harry had to beg Hermione to request for his counsel after fictitious arguments with Ron, or he would pretend that he suddenly had very active bowels–just so that he could research and correspond for Draco's gifts. It drove him spare to learn that he had experienced all that trouble because Draco wanted to feel validated. Harry pressed his face into his hands so that he would not burst into tears of frustration. How could someone be so selfish, self-absorbed and thoughtless?
"I'm sorry. I'm an arse. The biggest arse ever," Draco said quietly while Harry tried to count his breaths so that he would not lose his temper and throttle Draco.
"I'll sometimes regress and I'll think about how funny it would be to trip you up, and I don't think about how you'll feel. I'm an arse," Draco repeated when Harry glared at him with all the spite he could muster.
"But I never do it intentionally. I mean, when I saw how I had hurt you, and after Ron reminded us to have fun, I realised how I had ruined everything because I was being selfish and childish and I really hated myself. I don't know how I deserve you when I'm still that snotty little boy on the train that you hated upon sight. I'm an arsehole who really doesn't deserve anything," Draco was tearing up now and Harry quickly cast a glamour over him.
"I don't hate you," Harry sighed as he quickly pulled Draco in for a smothering hug. "And you're not the same boy from the train. Close but not similar," he laughed when Draco pinched him in the waist while sniffling.
"And you're an arsehole. Like you said, the biggest arse ever." Patting Draco on he back when he started to grumble about being insulted, Harry was aware that his anger had subsided. He shook his head quietly, resigned to the fact that he was too easily manipulated by Draco. Watching Draco cry made his heart ache and Draco would probably always have that in his arsenal.
"The next time you're doing something questionable like this, you should think about whether I would strangle you when I find out about it. I can't keep giving in just because you're a brat," Harry said seriously when he pulled away.
Draco nodded solemnly at him, his eyes red from the tears. "If, not when you find out though," he said evenly as he cleared his nose with false airiness.
Harry rolled his eyes, refusing to warrant the response with a reply.
"Am I going to get my present now?" Draco asked after a while, narrowing his eyes as he watched Harry finish his dinner.
"Didn't you get it already," Harry looked at him in faux surprise, trying to control his laughter when Draco looked around them in confusion. "I gave you the gift of forgiveness as per the Headmistress' instructions."
Harry watched a series of emotions flit through Draco's face–confusion, amusement, anger, frustration, resignation, forced nonchalance, and then bitterness. "You better be giving it to me for Christmas," he said with a sulk as he snatched his mousse up huffily.
"Only if you behave," Harry smiled as pressed a kiss on Draco's jaw.
"You're a lousy boyfriend," Draco complained as he pushed him away by the face.
Harry blinked at him in surprise. A smile spread across his face when Draco glared at him challengingly, as if daring him to argue.
"The worst." He agreed, heart fluttering in happiness in his chest.
"You'll have to make it up to me then," Draco said, smiling sweetly as he threaded his fingers between Harry's.
"You wish."
Harry laughed when he received a kick to his ankle–he couldn't help but wonder if this was what being free felt like–the infinite possibilities before him, only worrying about when he would next see his significant other, and the impulse to fuck all of his responsibilities and do whatever his brain demanded.
He pounced on his boyfriend, curling his fingers in Draco's hair as he pulled him close. Harry's lips were on Draco's as he pressed all of his happiness into him.
Even though they would have a ridiculous number of arguments throughout the span of their lives, Harry would always look back to their first solstice together fondly; and it had all begun with an anonymous gift exchange.