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Narcissa was sitting on the sofa beside her sister, a cup of hot chocolate warming up her hands and her new wool cardigan sweater turning her figure uncharacteristically soft.
She supposed she could make an exception for Christmas day.
Especially while watching her son helping her nephew make short work of the paper on all his new toys, matching silver blond hair and grey eyes, their faces alight with wonder.
She leaned into Andromeda for just a moment and her sister caught her hand, smiling at her like no time had passed since their last Christmas together.
It hadn’t been easy, swallowing her pride and asking for forgiveness for what she’d let happen to them, and it had taken time but Narcissa now was sure it had been the right choice.
It had given her and Draco the chance of a new life and a new family, now that Lucius was gone.
A delighted gasp of joy turned her attention back to the boys, Edward was bouncing his new prismatic ball, the colors changing every time it hit the floor.
With a giggle the boy switched just the tips of his hair along with the toy, making Draco laugh, she could listen to that sound all day.
“So, which was your favorite? The prismatic ball or the training Snitch?” He prompted with a grin and Edward was quick to answer “Ball!” with an excited shriek before demonstrating the magic toy again.
Draco ruffled his hair and then smirked at Andromeda “Do let Potter know.”
There was none of the olden days snark in it, all that was left was a friendly rivalry in winning over the far too adorable five year old. He had them both wrapped around his little finger.
Andromeda rolled her eyes and then glanced at the clock “Mh, we should be getting ready. Teddy, will you go with Draco to get washed up and dressed? The ball will be waiting for you here when you’re done. Promise.”
Narcissa watched Draco leave with a pouting Edward and then leaned back in her seat with a soft sigh, Andromeda gave her a small smile “Are you sure you’ll be okay just the two of you, Cissa? You don’t have to be”
Narcissa had heard those words at least ten times already and she shook her head without hesitation “We couldn’t impose, Andie. We’ll be fine” she reassured her “It’s been a pleasure being here this morning, we’ll go home and have a nice Christmas dinner and an early night”
Andromeda sighed “Fine, but we should take a picture for the tree before you go”
“With that I absolutely agree”
“Time for the bauble picture! You do want them on our Christmas tree, right?” Andromeda called as Draco and Teddy came down the stairs, she reached a hand for his little face and brushed aside a lock of hair from his forehead.
Teddy adjusted himself in Draco’s arms and looked around, slightly uncertain, a small frown on his tiny brow “Yes, but I like it better when we do it at the Burrow with all the colors…”
Draco noticed a mischievous light in his aunt’s eyes as she broke the news to Teddy “I know, sweetheart, but Draco and Aunt Cissa are not coming to the Burrow with us today”
The reaction was immediate, his little face scrunched up “No! They come too!” His eyes were already filling up with tears as he turned to Draco, hair going platinum white “Tell Grandma you’re coming too!”
Draco stared at the child and bounced him a little in a desperate attempt to soothe him “Teddy we can’t… We haven’t even been invited…” he protested, already feeling he was about to lose despite the details escaping him.
He exchanged a glance with his mother and found her speechless.
Andromeda on the other hand was clearly fighting a fit of giggles.
At least Teddy had stopped contorting his face and was now pulling madly on Draco’s jumper “We can ask Grandma Weasley! I want to call her!” He exclaimed and Draco had to quickly balance his mad reaching for the Floo Powder bowl.
Like a man walking to his doom, Draco grabbed a pinch of powder and knelt with Teddy who waited for him to call out the Burrow and then fearlessly stuck his head in the green flames “Grandmaaaa! Grandma Weasley!” A giggle “Uncle Charlie! You’re not Grandma!” A pause “Okay… It’s really important” Another, longer pause. No turning back now.
“Grandma can my cousin Draco and my Aunt Cissa come to lunch with us? They’re all alone and we don’t even have a bauble and it’s Christmas! Please! Oh and Draco said Grandma had to tell something to Harry, this way he can tell him himself!”
Draco wished he could be eviscerated right in that moment. Eviscerated and burned. Every memory of him erased forever.
And now Andromeda didn’t even bother to cover her laugh.
“Thank you, Grandma! Yes, he’ll tell you now”
Teddy pulled his head back and nodded at the fire “Grandma wants to talk to you”
Draco carefully set down Teddy and threw a bit more powder at the fire before sticking his head in himself “Good morning, Mrs Weasley and Merry Christmas” he said quietly, knowing that good manners would always serve him well “Edward thought we’d come too and when we told him otherwise he insisted on asking you to invite us” he explained quietly, trying to ignore the small crowd of gingers that was gathering behind the matriarch.
“Don’t be silly, young man, I couldn’t possibly split up Teddy’s family at Christmas and there’s certainly room for two more at our table. No childish scruffles, though!” She warned.
“No ma’am. Thank you for having us over, we’ll come soon”
Draco drew himself to his feet and straightened his back, glancing at his mother “Well, I suppose our Christmas plans have changed, at the very least for the time being” he said quietly, Narcissa was looking slightly queasy at the thought.
Andromeda had stopped chuckling and her features had softened, she reached for her sister’s arm “I’m so happy to be spending this day together, Cissy”
A few moments later, just long enough for Draco to go get a bottle of wine from the Manor as a host gift, they were all at the Burrow and Teddy had insisted on having Draco carry him through to make sure he’d come with.
The silence and the glances exchanged in the packed living room were awkward but Draco didn’t let such little things deter him from his proper conduct.
He walked over to Molly and offered the bottle “Thank you very much for extending this invitation, Mrs Weasley. Merry Christmas”
Of course the solemnity was dampened by Teddy squirming like an eel trying to greet his grandmother and her own face crinkling in a warm smile as she handed the bottle to George and took Teddy in her arm “You’re more than welcome and thank you for the bottle, it’ll be surely appreciated” she reassured him, cuddling the child close and moving to greet his mother and Andromeda.
Draco now realized that with Teddy gone he had lost all shields against the rest of the clan.
Maybe he could stick with Potter and Granger, they were on good enough terms that he wouldn’t risk an hex at least.
What had his life come to?
He checked his phone but the old magical house and all its fixtures were sending it haywire so he just shut it off and pocketed it again.
He’d have to convince Blaise to work on this concept, Wizards couldn’t keep kneeling on the floor to speak with people, not when Muggles had found such an elegant solution.
Just then a voice startled him out of his thoughts “Young Malfoy! Look at you, looking nothing like your father” He had never thought of Arthur Weasley as a brave man, but after all he supposed he had to be to survive this family and the war.
And to mention Lucius, no one mentioned him anymore, not even indirectly.
Draco swallowed and smiled politely “I’ll take that as a compliment. Merry Christmas, Mr Weasley, thanks for having us on such short notice.”
Arthur waved him off and then took him under his arm, slowly walking him towards the back of the house “It was meant as one. Now, do tell me, was that a small telephone you were using? Hermione tells me you’re studying in a Muggle advanced course these days, it must be fascinating” he grinned.
Left without a choice he followed Arthur and kept his attention on him but he could see in the corner of his eye Weasley and Potter chuckling, the pricks.
“Yes, sir, I’m in University. Chemical Engineering, you could say it’s a Muggle version of our Potion Mastery path…”
“Oh and what is that you do in this course? Do the Muggles have potions? I’d think not” Weasley asked as they left the house and Draco saw a small shed at the end of the path they were on.
“Actually they do, but instead of interacting through magic like ours do, theirs interact through a thing called science… they have found all the ways certain materials react to each other and make it work for them…”
It was the way he sometimes explained it to his mother or Pansy but he still hadn’t got anyone who wasn't a Muggleborn to understand him. Except Blaise, but then he was on a similar path, what with his electronics and his dreams of creating something he called Magitronics. How uninventive.
The vacuous look he got in return let him know Arthur Weasley hadn’t understood either, but at least he seemed excited about the conversation and he opened the door to the outbuilding with a flourish.
The shed was, to be blunt, absurd.
Every shelf brimmed with random Muggle objects, although the place of honor above the work bench was for a row of little plastic ducks. Underneath Arthur had clearly been working on something that had to be a waffle maker before he put his hands on it.
Suddenly Draco remembered something. “Wait a moment, one time Weasley and Potter got to school in a flying car and then your wife sent this incredible Howler… was it your car?” he asked, suddenly feeling a little burst of excitement.
“It was! I mean, it’s not an original idea, but I made it, if that’s what you mean. I could show you my old notes, Molly didn’t let me build another but I kept them” he offered, already starting to root around in a box on the tall shelf.
“I’d love to see them… What are you doing with the waffle maker?” he pulled out his wand to cast a simple diagnostic spell, trying to figure out the incantations already in use.
“Oh that’s what it is! I’m trying to produce little tabs of Floo Powder that will last a set amount of time when you call… you know, to know how much you’re spending”
“Is it working yet?”
It was such a neat little idea, Draco was starting to see who the twins had got it from.
A grimace twisted Arthur’s features “No, it just burns the Powder. Risked some nasty burns so far”
“Maybe I have an idea, but I’ll have to bring some materials here… Muggles have some materials to protect their powders until the moment it needs to work” he explained, thinking of what he could get his hands on at the lab.
“That would be truly wonderful!”
The last thing Draco thought he’d be doing on Christmas morning was to geek out alongside Arthur Weasley about his Muggle collection and his weird ideas, but that’s where Hermione found him, clearly intent on rescuing him as she proclaimed “Oh Arthur, I’m so sorry… Andie needs Draco… Uh… She needs him for the baubles!”
Arthur raised his eyebrows “Oh, of course, little Teddy will want one with his cousin” he smiled, gently nodding at Draco and closing up the shed before following Hermione.
“You make baubles, too? I thought it was a Black tradition” The words were out of his mouth before he could think of it and suddenly he panicked, thinking Arthur would take it the wrong way.
Instead, the man smiled “It was, then your ancestor married a Prewett lad and it became a Prewett tradition as well” he explained in his placid tones.
Draco shook his head, exchanging a surprised glance with Hermione “I had no idea. As a kid I always loved getting our picture taken for it. Sometimes I’d get one just with Mother that she put on the tree in her tea room. Mother kept all of them…” his voice wavered for a moment and while Arthur was none the wiser Granger bumped his shoulder very lightly as they walked inside “Teddy will be so excited having you in his bauble too this year”
The setup he found at the children table was very different from what he remembered as a kid, the clear glass baubles ready to be charmed were the only thing in common with his memories of austere photo shoots in his childhood. Narcissa looked as perplexed as him but she was clearly charmed by the merry bunch of children crowding around the table.
Teddy, being the oldest, was leading the younger kids with a veritable blizzard of multicolored glitter stuck to parchment bits but he jumped up and grasped Draco, pulling him towards the floor “You have to do your bauble!”
“Make. I have to make my bauble” he corrected gently, sitting cross legged on the plush carpet and, after the briefest hesitation, leaning back against his mother’s leg as if he were a child again, a smile spreading on his lips when she combed the hair back away from his forehead “Alright! Show me how” he grinned at Teddy who didn’t hesitate to throw himself in a convoluted explanation of all the steps and the story of why they were doing it.
Draco hadn’t drawn anything ever since he had left Hogwarts but he let the children convince him to draw a Narcissus for his mother and a dragon for himself before being co- opted into drawing stuff for them too.
Once all the glitter was either on the parchments or the children, Narcissa and Andromeda took care of the spellwork to make the baubles come to life, they added their personal touch to the ornaments making sure to represent some Slytherin pride in the avalanche of red and gold.
At last, Harry proclaimed it time to take the pictures.
First it was Draco at the table with the children, then Andromeda and Narcissa too, Teddy begged to have a picture with Draco and Harry together and adamantly told Harry he had liked the prismatic ball better just as the camera went off.
When Draco thought they were done and he sat back down beside his mother’s armchair he relaxed and flashed her a smile only for Harry to call out and snap a picture in the perfect moment.
When they charmed it into the ornament it replayed the moment with a different kind of magic, the ease, the happiness even, on both their faces and the bright eyed smile that went from Narcissa to the camera and back again was all that Mrs Malfoy could wish for.