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Draco could tell there was something wrong with Hermione, he just couldn’t figure out what. They had happily been out Christmas shopping until a few stores ago when she had turned all melancholy.
“Alright, what’s wrong?” he demanded once her spirits didn’t lift walking into Flourish and Blotts.
“Hmm, what?” she asked, looking up from a display of adventure novels.
“I said, what’s wrong? You’ve been acting out of sorts since we walked past the ice cream shop.”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” she tried to tell him, but he didn’t buy it. Draco waited for a better answer.
Sighing, she turned away from the books and back towards him.
“It’s just –I don’t know,” Hermione admitted, looking like she was going to cry. “I guess I really have been missing everything I used to do with my parents at Christmastime. Every year it gets harder and harder to deal with my failure to restore their memories, and Christmas was my favorite time to spend with them. I thought I would have more with them, but I skipped actually going home most of my time at Hogwarts to be with Harry and Ron. Now I will never get those chances back.”
Draco took Hermione by the hand and half lead, half pulled her out of the bookstore.
“I can’t do anything to bring your parents back for you, but do you think it might help to do some of the things you used to do with them? You can show me – I’m sure it will be much different than how I always celebrated, and if it’s important to you, it’s important to me. It is our first Christmas and while I know it won’t be the same-”
“That would be amazing, Draco! Thank you!”
She threw her arms around his neck and gave him a big hug that nearly suffocated him.
“Okay, okay, you can let go now,” he managed to get out before she let him go. “That’s better. Now, where do you want to start.”
“Hmmm, well, the first thing we always did was pick out our Christmas tree.”
“Wait, like go in the woods and cut something down? I thought that was just something that got ordered every year through post.”
Hermione smiled, which Draco took to be a good sign.
“No, silly, there are special farms that grow Christmas trees. You can go select the one you want, and then either you or the farmer cuts it down. Though we would always tie it on top of our car which could be problematic if we show up without one and try to take it home.”
“Leave that to me. Let’s head back to the apartment and drop off our purchases. We should also probably make room for this tree.”
Hermione laughed and grabbed his hand before Apparating to their home.
-----
Less than an hour later, Hermione had taken them to a small farm where various evergreen trees were growing. They were much smaller than the ones the Malfoys always had growing up, but he supposed this was a good thing considering how small their apartment was.
“Hello and welcome to Chris’ Trees. I’m Chris Mash and if you have any questions I am here to help. We have a surplus of Norway Spruces on sale, but the Non-Drop Nordman Firs have been the most popular this year.”
“Thank you, sir. Non-drop would be perfect in our apartment. Can you point us in the right direction for them?” she asked.
“Certainly. They are over to the left of the parking lot. I’ll chop down your tree and load it up for you once you find one. Er, where is your car? I didn’t see you pull up with one.”
Draco had been happy to let Hermione do most of the talking, but he took this opportunity to lean over and mutter a Confundus charm.
“We’ll let you know. I’m sure you have others to attend to in the meantime.”
“Yes…others…”
“Come on, Hermione. Let’s go find a tree.”
“You charmed him,” she accused under her breath as he pulled her away.
“So?”
He could feel the glare coming before he could see it.
“Oh come on, how else were we supposed to get around not having a car.”
“True,” she admitted. “Alright. Left of the parking lot, yeah?”
Draco stretched out his arm in front of her. “After you, my dear.”
Hermione led them down row and row of fir trees, finding fault with every one.
“Too tall…way too short…wrong shape…This one has a gap halfway up…too skinny…too stout at the bottom…that one looks right, but it’s at an angle…top’s all wrong…shape is very uneven…this one looks like a tube instead of a cone…These are really picked over.”
“Well, I guess we could get one of the spruces and enchant it to not drop leaves?” Draco suggested. He was starting to get a little annoyed and wanted this trip to end before he accidentally snapped.
“But we’ve always had a fir,” Hermione ascertained sadly. “And-”
“How about this one then,” Draco advised, partially to hurry things along but also to try and keep her from thinking too much about why they were here.
“That one?” she replied critically.
Draco watched as she scrunched up just the tip of her nose up like she always did when she was deep in thought.
“Hmmmm. It’s a little short, but not terribly so. Decently shaped cone, no gaps – yeah, that one looks like it would be perfect!”
He was shocked – to him it just looked like any of the other trees, but if that was the one she wanted…
“Great! I’ll go get Chris then.”
“No, let me do it,” Hermione insisted, much to Draco surprise.
“Oh? Why?”
She blushed a little. “I figured we could probably cut this down on our own with a severing charm and get it home easier if I just pay him for the tree now. You did have a really good idea confounding him back there, so I thought I could do that again when I give him the money while you work on the tree. Unless YOU want to deal with Muggle money.”
“No thank you!” he declared, waving his hands for emphasis. “Go on ahead and use your silly paper. I’ll have this thing ready to take home before you can get back.”
“You’re on!”
As she darted back across the parking lot to pay, Draco tried to figure out exactly where he was supposed to cut the tree. Looking around at other stumps he made an educated guess at it and as he had expected was finishing slicing the last bit through as Hermione made it back to his side.
“Everything it settled. He was still a little confused from earlier, so I mostly just played off of that. He’s convinced that he had already cut and loaded the tree up and that I ran back after realizing no one paid him. I don’t think there’s anyone else in this area so we should probably get this back to the apartment now before anyone sees.”
He nodded before grabbing the trunk of the tree in one hand and Hermione’s hand in his other. She wasted no time turning on the spot to head home, and, after a few minutes of adjusting a bit more furniture, they had their tree set up.
“Well, that’s one thing done,” Draco observed when he had finally gotten the reading chair perfectly positioned by the tree. “What’s next?”