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“They’re a tradition!”
“They’re a nuisance!” Harry said, laughing.
Tonks glared at her boyfriend. “Our stockings are beautiful -”
“Eclectic.”
“- and they add flair to our otherwise plain house. We’re never here. We deal with the darkest problems the Wizarding world has to offer - I think we can make this place festive for the holidays,” Tonks finished.
Harry looked around at their living room, and he couldn’t help the smile that came to his face. They’d long since run out of room on the fireplace mantle for all of their stockings, and Tonks had taken to buying stocking hangers that would be right at home in a Dr. Seuss book. “Five each is excessive,” he said, grinning at her.
“Six,” she countered, holding out a bag. “Happy Christmas, Potter.”
“We’ve been together for six years,” Harry whispered happily, taking his zebra-striped stocking out of the bag. It had a fiery red H stitched on the front. With sequins.
“That we have - so I expect nothing but the height of romance this Christmas.”
Harry scoffed. “I think I know how to give you a gift by this point.”
Tonks nodded in a decidedly noncommittal way as she curled up on the couch and Summoned her tea.
Harry stared at her. He knew this game - it was one of their favorite to play at this point. “I’m romantic,” he insisted. “Are you saying I’m not romantic?”
“I didn’t say that, love.”
“I’m plenty romantic! I took you on a date just last week.”
“...to Ron’s enchanted paintball arena.”
Harry paused. Okay, so maybe taking your girl to your best mate’s park didn’t count as the height of creativity and romance, but she had enjoyed it! Still, he wasn’t going down that easy. “So how about we put a little friendly wager on this subject?”
Tonks smiled behind her mug. “Go on?”
“Small gifts this year,” he said, glancing around the room. “One for each stocking. And they have to fit inside the stocking - no enlargement charms. Last gift is opened Christmas morning. We explain all our gifts, and whoever was the most romantic wins. This is real romance - no going over the top expensive. Little stuff. Full year of bragging rights to the winner with no complaint.”
Tonks took a moment to consider this, and finally raised her mug. “Cheers, love. Prepare to swoon.”
*
Ron and Hermione were in the middle of lunch when two Patronuses floated down into their kitchen.
Harry’s stag said, “Ron, mate! I need your help. Can you meet me at the Leaky Cauldron in an hour and a half?”
Tonks’s honey badger said, “Er...Hermione? Could use your help with something. Girls day out on Oxford Street?”
Husband and wife looked at each other in amusement.
“Wonder what they’d do if we ever said no to their little schemes,” Hermione mused as she picked at her salad.
“They’d nag us incessantly until we gave in,” Ron said. “Face it - those two are hopeless without us. Well, Tonks would probably survive, but Harry….”
Hermione just shook her head as she sent a Patronus back to Tonks saying yes.
*
“Shall we open before work?” Harry asked excitedly on the first gift day. He couldn’t help it. This was going to be better than the American Quidditch and Deep Fried Oreos Bet of 2002. Much like that bet - even if he lost, he really kind of still won.
“I’m game,” Tonks said, handing Harry his first stocking.
He passed hers to her and rummage around the tissue paper for his gift. That was until her shout of joyous laughter caught his attention. He grinned as he watched her pull her gift out from the stocking.
“You, Potter, are a crafty bastard,” Tonks said, putting on the purple and gold flower crown.
“Oh good, you remember,” he said, knowing full well she would.
“Yes, I remember you getting that precious little kid at the Renaissance Fair to run up and give a crown to ‘The prettiest princess in the kingdom.’ Nearly blew our cover, with all the Muggles taking video!” Tonks twirled, just as she had the first time, and kissed him on the cheek. “Go on - look at yours before you’re late to work.
Harry had a bit of difficulty getting the bulky thing out of the stocking. When he finally held it up, he gasped. “The ATeam action figure van?” he yelped. “You went retro! Thank you, Tonks. I’ve always wanted one.” He hugged her, grinning from ear to ear. “I may reenacted a few episodes after dinner. Fair warning.”
“I’ve got a late meeting, so play to your heart’s content.”
*
Harry could barely sleep on Christmas Eve - he was far too nervous. It wasn’t the bet… he really did want the morning to go perfectly for Tonks. Around five in the morning, he crept out of bed, glad that his girlfriend was a sound sleeper, and wandered down to the kitchen to make breakfast.
It had been weird, after the war. Everyone had found different, and sometimes surprising, ways to cope. Harry’s had been cooking. But now he tended to stress cook. It was a good thing he was independently wealthy and he and Tonks had good jobs on top of that. More than once, Tonks had asked him why one earth they had insert-exotic-cooking-ingredient-here in their cupboard. So now, nervous and running on no sleep, he cooked. And cooked. And cooked.
Tonks wandered in around seven, and stopped short when she saw the feast he’d prepared.
“Is the entire Weasley family coming here for Christmas?” she asked, alarmed.
“No...I just wanted to make you a nice breakfast. And then it got out of hand. Eggs benedict?” he offered.
They ate in companionable silence for a while. When Harry was certain he couldn’t eat another bite without exploding, he hesitantly suggested, “So...presents?”
“I thought you’d never ask. But let me refresh our tea first.”
When they made it to the living room, Harry wandered toward his stocking first. It was the last one, hanging from the mantle. “Me first!” he said in a kid voice.
Tonks laughed. “Get on with it, then.”
Harry took the stocking off of the hook, noticing how heavy it was. “What’s in here, rocks?” he muttered. Then he looked. “A PlayStation!”
“To go with the Muggle TV you insisted on getting. But do you get it?”
“Get what?” he asked.
“All the gifts you got me had to do with our relationship over the past six years. What do all of the gifts I got you have in common?”
Harry paused to think. ATeam van...Transformers...an Easy Bake Oven...the Chronicles of Narnia series...the Bed Bugs board game...now a PlayStation. Everything he’d ever asked for as a kid, and never gotten from the Dursleys. “How...how did you…?”
“I did a little digging with Hermione. We may have contacted your aunt as well.”
Harry set the game down and hugged her. Quietly, he said, “Thank you. And you should get your gift now.” He smiled at her slightly as he pulled away, and nodded at the very last stocking.
Tonks made her way over to the lime green and purple stocking and peeked inside. “Harry...there’s nothing in here. Harry?” Tonks said, turning around. She gasped.
Harry was on one knee, holding out the ring box, and trying to form words.
Tonks smiled slightly, shocked. “I thought you said no going overboard?”
“I forfeit,” he said. “Nymphadora Andromeda Tonks...will you marry me?”
“I feel like I should say no after you used my first name….”
“So that’s a yes, then?” he asked, smiling brightly.
“Yes.”
With a happy whoop, Harry stood and slid the ring onto Tonks’s finger. “You’re still going to say you won, aren’t you?”
“Merlin yes. But I will admit one thing from this day until my last day.”
“What’s that?”
“You outdid yourself on the romance, Potter.”