"Just let me trade. Please."
Hermione sighed. "For the sixth time Harry, all assignments are final. Just think, surely you can think of something that Draco would want for Christmas."
Harry whimpered. "But there have to be hundreds of people here at the Ministry that I would be fine with buying a gift for. Hundreds! Please not Malfoy. Please. Why did you give me Malfoy?"
"I didn't," Hermione growled. "I explained this earlier. The names went into a hat and you drew a name. That's it. On the back everyone wrote something they wouldn't mind receiving, including Draco. Did you look at that?"
"He wrote 'something priceless'. Stupid git."
Hermione stood, heaving a number of files in her arms before favouring Harry with a scathing look over her reading glasses. "That really isn't all that hard, Harry. Just…suck it up and use your brain."
As Harry watched her walk away, he wondered when Hermione decided that making his life a living hell would be a good idea.
"Granger, I insist on having a new name."
Hermione thought it would be a good moment to pull out all of her hair. "Draco, I'm trying to work and, like I've said numerous times, you can't have a new one. Harry's easy to buy for; he got tissues and clothes hangers for Christmas for a number of years."
"Tissues it is," Draco snapped and he furiously buried his hands into his pockets. "Granger, I refuse to buy for Potter. His request is ridiculous."
"I seemed to recall it being rather sweet," Hermione replied as she began to knead her temples. "He wrote 'Something from the heart'."
"Then I'll give him a phial of my blood," Draco replied. "Problem solved."
Hermione growled, taking a few deep breaths before deciding she was stable enough to talk to him again. "Use your superior spying skills to find out something he would like. Poke about his cubicle, eavesdrop on conversations. You know, do what you usually do."
Draco frowned, but didn't argue. "I'm giving it two more days, Granger. If I haven't found anything, I'm giving him blood."
"Just…go away," Hermione sighed before laying her head down on the desk.
"…And so I just threw the cheese away. I know it was probably supposed to smell like feet, but I just couldn't eat it," Harry finished before draining the rest of his water and tossing away the paper cup. His eyes slid from the rather mousy woman he had been talking to over to Malfoy, who seemed to be adding sugar to his cup of tea one grain at a time, his face turned slightly toward the water cooler. Harry narrowed his eyes suspiciously when Draco stomped one of his feet and whimpered, throwing aside his spoon and stormed back to his desk, muttering all the way.
Harry trailed him at a bit of a distance, but it obviously wasn't enough because Draco threw his cup aside and whirled around to stare at Harry, an unstable look in his eye. "Don't you ever talk about anything interesting?" he screeched.
"Don't you ever work, or do you just follow me around all the time?" Harry countered.
"What do you want?" Draco hissed, hoping that he might say 'A nice vase' or 'I could do with a broomstick servicing kit'.
"Oh, what does anyone want?" Potter started sarcastically. "A house in the country, someone to love, socks..."
"A phial of blood, maybe?" Draco asked hopefully, but Potter just favoured him with a disgusted look. "I didn't think so."
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Potter countered, just praying he didn't say some obscure relic that would be impossible to find.
"You to leave me alone," Draco replied very quickly.
"That's good…" Harry whispered to himself, turning around and heading back to his desk.
Draco stood there for a moment, completely baffled, before stooping to clean up his spilled tea.
"It's depressing Hermione," Harry said as he crucified the carrots in his salad. He really hated carrots.
"What is?" Hermione asked, not really interested.
"I mean…I was thinking about the New Year, and how if you're alone at midnight you'll be alone the coming year. You'll be with Ron, and I'll be with Kreacher. That's just disturbing. I think I'm always going to be alone, because I'm lonely and loneliness breeds loneliness. I don't think that made sense."
"It didn't," she droned.
He cleared his throat and threw his fork down. "I mean…I don't know of anyone who is as lonely as me. No one is desperate enough to want to be with me at midnight. No one. Even if I threatened someone with death I doubt that they would agree to stay with me at midnight. That's all I want, someone to stay with me."
"That's good…" Draco muttered from his hiding place behind a strategically conjured cactus.
"…Thanks," Hermione muttered, holding up the rather lewd corset she had received from a greasy member of the Unspeakables. She didn't really see how it fit her 'something functional' request, but she set it aside and pulled the next name out of the hat. "Alright, next we have…Harry Potter. Who drew Harry Potter's name?" Harry climbed to his feet, scanning the crowd of rather uninterested people. He had almost decided that the feat of buying a gift for him might have actually killed someone but Hermione snapped, "Don't make me force you to hand over the gift."
"Alright, fine," Harry heard muttered from somewhere behind him and he turned, watching Draco unfold from his chair and pull something from his robe pocket, holding it out for Harry to take but not moving any closer to him. It was a small black box with a scarlet ribbon tied around it. Harry took it hesitantly and Draco sank back into his seat, embarrassment high on his cheeks. Harry sat back down and untied the ribbon, taking the lid off and peered inside. Inside was a phial of a red substance that looked suspiciously like blood and a card that bore Draco's delicate handwriting. It read:
The remainder of your gift shall be given to you New Year's Eve at the annual Ministry Ball. That way, you have to come.
-DM
P.S. You said you wanted something from the heart. I'm prone to taking things too literally.
Malfoy was so bloody…Harry laughed and couldn't continue that thought, seeing as he was holding a phial of blood that was presumably Malfoy's.
By the time Harry started paying attention again it was his turn to hand over his gift to Malfoy. He pulled the thin box from under his seat and took a deep breath.
"Draco Malfoy. Who drew Draco?" Hermione asked, even though she already knew the answer. Draco was pleased that he wasn't going to receive a corset from Hawkins, but he was quite sure that he wouldn't do much better. 'Something priceless', indeed. He was sure he would end up with something homemade. Draco stood at the same time as Harry, and cursed himself silently over and over. Harry bit his lip and took a few steps closer to him, the thin box clutched in his hands.
"I…well; this is just part of it. Since…well, I can't really fulfil the rest until after you've fulfilled yours, so I won't tell you until…just…here," Harry stuttered, finally deciding it would probably be best if he just shut up. "I found this in a drawer when I moved a couple months back. I was going to give it back to you, but now is a good of a time as any. Happy Christmas."
Draco's throat seized as he opened the box, seeing his old wand nestled in green velvet looking brand new. Harry must have polished it, and its hawthorn wood gleamed bright. It might not work for him anymore, but it was his wand. His old wand. Harry had kept it. Harry had given it back. "Thank you," Draco breathed, and even that wasn't enough to express how he felt. "Thanks."
Harry grinned, and he looked a bit sad as he took a step back. "You're welcome."
Draco felt like an utter fool as he watched Harry sit back down. The last part of his gift, he had better make it good.
It was cold, but Harry had decided to go outside anyway. He was tired of watching the couples, and he was even more tired of pretending that he wasn't looking for Malfoy, who it seemed hadn't shown at all. He was slightly drunk, slightly weary, and more than slightly annoyed. It wasn't a good combination.
And it was five minutes to midnight, and he was alone.
"It's freezing out here Potter, are you insane?" he heard Draco say as he came through the door, striding over to where Potter was leaning against the wall.
"I'm only as sane as someone who gives their own blood as a Christmas gift," Harry replied with a dry smile.
"Touché," Draco replied before leaning against the wall beside Harry. "Anyway, I have come to give you the rest of your gift."
They were both silent for a long moment, Harry watching Draco with raised eyebrows. "What is it?" He finally asked, sure that Draco was doing this on purpose.
"Oh, well…" Draco stepped in front of Harry, wishing the other man was smarter and had decided to skulk indoors. "I heard you talking about not wanting to be alone on New Year's, so I decided to offer my services. As a gift."
"You're insane," Harry breathed, but his stomach had started to flutter a bit at the idea.
"Oh come on Potter, I realize that you aren't the best at picking up hints and this is the biggest of all," Draco said before he pulled out a watch fob. "Two minutes."
"You do realize what this means," Harry said flatly as Draco inched closer to him, his fogging breath ghosting across Harry's face. "You've got to spend the rest of the year with me."
"I'll have to anyway, we work together," Draco said as he dropped his chin a bit, lowering his face to Harry's level. "This will be better, I promise."
"You don't have to…" Harry started, but Draco had checked his watch again and began a countdown from ten. "No really, this is just entirely too much to ask from someone and this isn't what I meant at all and the blood was probably closer to what I meant what are you…"
And with that, Harry's talking was cut off by a rather warm and awe-inspiring kiss. Harry wrapped his arms around Draco's neck and Draco's cold hands wormed their way into Harry's cloak. Draco pulled away, pressing their cold noses together for a moment before opening his eyes. "So, what was the rest of your gift?"
"I was going to promise to leave you alone," Harry replied breathlessly. "It's what you wanted."
Draco laughed and leaned in to kiss Harry again. "You can take it back. I changed my mind."
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