This is a little something I wrote for a friend a while back, but it's Christmas themed so I decided that this was the right time to post it. Merry Christmas!

"I'm so sorry, Harry," said Hermione, releasing him from her embrace and giving him a weak smile.

"It's fine, Hermione, I understand that you would rather spend Christmas vacation in Italy with your family, than stay-"

"It's not that," Hermione interrupted him. "It's just that I promised, and I didn't know Ron would be going to Romania..." Harry had been a bit upset about it actually, but when he saw how sadness and guilt filled Hermione's eyes, he couldn't help giving her his best fake smile.

"Seriously, Hermione. I'll be fine. It's only two weeks or so, right? And I'll be able to catch up on some homework and… do some other stuff." The brunette in front of him looked like she was about to cry, so he hugged her again, while wondering how it suddenly was he who comforted her.

When Ron and Hermione, and almost all the rest of Harry's friends and classmates had finally left, Harry felt a sort of emptiness pouring over him. When he looked out the window he saw to his surprise that it was snowing outside. The snowflakes glittered beautifully in the december sun, but not even this could make him feel better. What was the point of snow when his friends weren't there to share it with him? You couldn't have snowball fights by yourself. He remembered wistfully how much fun it had been the previous year, when he, Ron and Hermione had challenged the twins and Percy in a snowball fight on Christmas Eve. It didn't seem like anything like that would happen this year.

The castle was emptier than Harry had ever seen it before. The only Gryffindors apart from himself who were staying were two second year girls, and as far as he knew, none of his friends from the other houses were staying either. He realized that he had two options. Either he could just go back to the common room and sulk around in his own miseries, or he had to do something. He decided to go to visit Hagrid. He was probably the one and only friend Harry would have for the next couple of weeks, and it had been ages since he had visited him.

When Harry got down to Hagrid's hut, he couldn't see the half giant anywhere outside, so he knocked on the door, but got no response. He waited for a minute and then started to walk around the hut and the area nearby, calling Hagrid's name. After ten minutes he was ready to give up and started walking back towards the castle. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't notice a very deep hole in the ground, and almost fell into it, when someone called his name. He turned to see Hagrid coming out of the forbidden forest.

"Harry, yeh gotta be careful! Don' wanna end up in one of 'em niffler traps, eh?"

"What do you mean, Niffler traps?" Harry asked and started to walk back towards Hagrid.

"Come in an'ave a cup o' tea, an' I'll explain it ter yeh. It's startin' snowin', I think."

Well inside Hagrid's hut, with an enormous cup of steaming tea in his hands, Harry asked again about the hole in the ground.

"I've bin diggin' 'em aroun' the grounds the whole day. The nifflers escaped from their cage yes'erday and I have ter get 'em back somehow. They could be anywhere by now. Poor creatures wanderin' aroun' the grounds with nowhere ter go and nothin' ter eat…" Hagrid's eyes looked a little watery as he described it. Harry waited patiently for him to continue, and after about a minute, Hagrid seemed to have gathered enough strength to go on.

"Well anyway, I've bin diggin' these holes so that they will fall inter 'em. I made sure the landin' would be soft, of course, but there's no way they could escape once they had fallen in. I've made the sides o' the holes icy and slippery, yeh see. Jus' be careful when yeh return ter the castle, all right?" Hagrid paused and looked at Harry for confirmation, and Harry nodded.

"I'll be carful," he promised.

"So, how are yeh feelin', Harry? You've bin looking a bit down lately." Harry sighed and tried to think of something to say.

"Yeah… Both Ron and Hermione had things to do over the holidays, and I couldn't come along. Ron's in Romania, visiting Charlie, and Hermione's in Italy with her family…"

"I heard… Well, if yer ever in need o' company, yer always welcome here. Y'know that, right?"

"Yes, thank you, Hagrid," Harry smiled.

Harry was feeling a bit better when he returned to the castle, after spending a couple of hours talking to Hagrid about Quidditch, classes, and teachers. He had been wrong in thinking that he didn't have any friends staying for the holidays. Dinner was already over, and although Hagrid had offered him some biscuits with the tea, Harry had not dared to do more than pretend to eat them. Therefore, he dropped by the kitchen to see if the house elves had any leftovers he could have. He returned to the common room with much more than leftovers. The house-elves had been overjoyed when he showed up, and they had made a whole separate three course dinner for him. He spent the rest of the evening re-reading Quidditch Through the Ages and eating kidney pie and treacle tart.

Harry hadn't thought that things could get any worse, but when he got down to breakfast the next day, he realized he had been wrong. Things could definitely get worse. As always during the Christmas vacations the house tables had been replaced by a smaller table for both teachers and students, in the middle of the Great Hall, and to Harry's shock and horror, one of the few seats of the table was occupied by none other than his archenemy, Draco Malfoy himself. Malfoy hadn't noticed him yet, and Harry used the moment to hurry back to the stairs to gather his thoughts. There were several reasons to why Draco Malfoy's presence caused such alarm within Harry. The first was the obvious: celebrating Christmas with his worst enemy (apart from Voldemort… and the Deatheaters…and the Dursleys, and- well, that wasn't the point! One of his worst enemies, anyway) wasn't something he had always hoped for and dreamed about. But then, there was that other reason. The reason he preferred not to think about. The last couple of months Harry had been experiencing some rather… unusual feelings around Malfoy. It had started out with a silly discussion he overheard some fourth year girls having in the library. As he had listened he had realized that they were making a list of the best-looking boys in school. One of the girls, a Ravenclaw with long dark hair, Harry remembered, had named Malfoy number one, and after a few minutes of debating she had persuaded the others. Harry hadn't been able to believe it. Draco Malfoy couldn't be the best-looking boy in school, he just couldn't! There had to be someone else.

Harry had tried to just forget the whole thing, but it had turned out to be impossible. He had started starring at Malfoy every time he saw him. Surely, there had to be something wrong with him. He had to have some unfortunate birth mark, or crookedness to his nose or… something! But the more Harry looked, the more convinced he became. Draco Malfoy was bloody fucking perfect. He couldn't find a single fault with the blond's appearance. And once he had started watching him, Harry couldn't bring himself to stop. The elegant manner in which Malfoy flickered his wand in transfiguration, the slender yet strong hands planting seeds in herbology, the strands of white-blond hair falling in his face while he took notes, his eyes that seemed to contain a stormy ocean at day, and a starry night sky in the evening… Harry could go on forever. He had no idea why he was noticing all these things, he just knew that for some peculiar reason, he enjoyed it.

Malfoy obviously hadn't stopped seeing Harry as an enemy, and as always, took every chance he could to make Harry's life a living hell. Before, Harry had always been able to shake it off. He had experienced similar things all through his life after all, and Malfoy bullying him was nothing new, but now it stung more than it used to. Every hurtful word, every menacing stare felt personal. It seemed like he at least had managed to keep up his facade without anyone noticing. Ron and Hermione hadn't said anything about his sudden lack of hateful comments towards the Slytherin. Hermione probably thought that he was trying to be a pacifist or something, but then again she always seemed to believe the best about people. If Harry knew Ron right, he hadn't even noticed. Only once, after some especially hurtful insults, Malfoy himself seemed to have noticed that things weren't as they had used to be. When Harry hadn't said anything back, Malfoy had frowned and given him an intense glare. But before Harry had even had a chance to react, Malfoy had turned and walked away.

Now the second reason to why Harry was so alarmed by the sight of Draco Malfoy was that he had decided to stop starring at him altogether, once and for all. Just a week earlier, Harry had woken up on a Saturday morning from a dream involving Malfoy. And it hadn't been a nightmare either. Harry had decided that that was it. He couldn't let this weird obsession go any further. He had actually quite successfully been able to avoid Malfoy and any thoughts of him for the last week. But now he would be forced to share every meal with him. It was going to be torture.

Harry finished his breakfast as fast as he could, sitting as far away from Malfoy as possible, and then returned to the common room. Harry had pretended that Malfoy wasn't there, and for once, his enemy had been decent enough to ignore him too. Though, he couldn't keep himself from wondering why Malfoy had chosen to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. His parents were rich and they seemed to spoil him, so why would Malfoy want to spend his Christmas at Hogwarts? Harry guessed that he would never know. He thought about skipping lunch, but he was hungry and the teachers would surely notice if he didn't show up.

Harry went down to lunch feeling morose, although he knew that at Hogwarts, even lunch on Christmas Eve was sure to be spectacular. Almost all seats were occupied when Harry finally stepped into the Great Hall. It seemed like the two second year Gryffindor girls, two seventh years from Ravenclaw, professors Dumbledore, Sprout, Sinistra, Flitwick, Snape, McGonagall, and of course Malfoy and himself, were the ones staying. Apparantly, Hagrid had chosen to stay in his hut for lunch. The only empty seat was between Malfoy and professor Sinistra. Harry sighed and sat down, trying to avoid looking at Malfoy.

"Harry!" Dumbledore exclaimed. He seemed to be in a very cheerful mood. "I'm so glad to see you're joining us. We were starting to wonder where you were. I would suggest that you hurry and take the last bit of this pudding! It's simply delicious." Harry forced a smile and took some of the pudding. Dumbledore had been right. It was delicious. Harry didn't pay any attention to the others' conversations. He was lost in his own thoughts. It didn't take long before all the silver serving plates were empty, and Harry was preparing to leave, when Dumbledore suddenly clasped his hands together, and the table fell silent.

"Since there are so few of us, I suggest we do something fun together this afternoon! It wouldn't be according to Christmas spirit if everyone just went back to their own rooms by themselves." By the looks on the others' faces, Harry guessed that everyone actually thought that sitting alone in their rooms was a great idea. Either Dumbledore didn't notice this, or he just chose not to acknowledge it.

"If I am not mistaken, it has been snowing all day, and to me that seems like a perfect excuse to have a snowball fight. I think everyone should join." McGonagall looked like she was about to choke, the Ravenclaw boy just looked bored and Snape had a look on his face that Harry was sure could kill. The only people who actually looked exited were Dumbledore himself, and the two second-year girls.

"Headmaster, I must insist-" started Snape, but Dumbledore interrupted him.

"You have to join us, Severus. Otherwise we can't divide into even teams."

Harry couldn't figure out how Dumbledore had done it, but somehow he had convinced everyone that having a snowball fight was a fantastic idea. Harry couldn't help thinking about his own wishful dreaming the day before. This was not what he had imagined. Dumbledore had decided that they would split into two teams. One with Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, and one with Ravenclaws and Slytherins, and to prevent any cheating they were forced to put away their wands. Harry felt a bit uncomfortable about being without his wand, but he figured that if everyone else put away their's too, it wouldn't be a problem.

At first the so called "snowball fight" was quite lame and awkward. None of the students wanted to be too violent near the teachers, but it turned out that the teachers actually could be quite dangerous when they felt like it, even without their wands. After ten minutes, both teachers and students were engaged in a wild war, that could only be compared to one that had occurred during the marauders' time at Hogwarts and in the end had resulted in plenty of bruises, an igloo, one lost and later found first-year boy and three chocolate cheesecakes, (but that is another story). It was impossible to run fast in the deep snow, and everyone looked quite silly as they tried to plod as fast as they could through it. Even professor McGonagall had been able to let go of her usual restrained self. Harry had to stop and just watch for a moment as Snape successfully threw a snowball towards professor McGonagall that made her favourite green pointy hat fall off her head, only to receive a snowball, right back in his face. Harry knew that he shouldn't have stopped to watch when he felt a snowball hit the back of his head, dripping icy water down his neck. He turned around to see Malfoy sneering at him. Harry hurried to make a snowball of his own. He would do anything to wipe off that presumptuous grin from the blond's face. But before Harry had a chance to throw the ball, the Slytherin had turned around and started running downhill. Harry followed him, zigzagging between the scattered trees.

"Too slow to catch me, Potter?" Malfoy teased, but Harry ignored him and used all his energy on running… walking… plodding… whatever you could call it. It had started snowing again, and it didn't take long before Harry could neither see nor hear the others. Malfoy couldn't move very fast in the deep snow, but neither could Harry, and it took awhile until he finally started to catch up with him. Only a few feet and Harry would be able to reach him. Now, only a few inches. When Harry had finally caught up with Malfoy, the snowball remained forgotten in his hand. He simply threw himself over the other boy, trying to force him down into the snow. Unfortunately, Malfoy had been standing on the peak of a small but steep hill, and when Harry knocked him over, they both fell and one of the buttons on Harry's cloak got caught in Malfoy's hair, causing them both to start rolling very fast down the hill, still entangled. Harry heard Malfoy cursing, and he tried to make them stop, but it seemed impossible. After what felt like a long time, but actually only was a couple of seconds, the ground beneath them disappeared. They fell, and landed relatively softly, on the bottom of a deep hole in the ground. Harry was on his back in a pile of snow, and Malfoy had landed on top of him.

"What happened? Where are we? What the hell," said Malfoy and Harry groaned. He felt as if he had broken at least one of his bones. Malfoy laying on top of him didn't help either.

"Stop asking questions, and get off of me!" Malfoy moved quickly and when Harry sat up, he saw that Malfoy was blushing. Looking around him, Harry realized exactly what had happened. They were inside one of Hagrid's niffler traps. It was about three feet in diameter and at least nine feet deep. It would be quite impossible to get out of there without any help.

"It's one of Hagrid's niffler traps," Harry explained absentmindedly, while trying to figure out a way for them to get out of there.

"Niffler traps?" Malfoy asked, but Harry ignored him.

"I think that the only way for us to get out of here would be to stand on each other's shoulders," Harry said after examining the slippery walls around them.

"No way, that will happen! I have touched you enough for one day, thank you." Harry turned back to look at Malfoy. Even like this, sitting on the ground in a hole, arms crossed and with one of the most stubborn facial expressions Harry had seen, Malfoy somehow managed to look handsome. It really was extremely annoying.

"Well, I can't see any other possible way we could get out of here, so I guess we'll have to stay here until someone finds us." Malfoy just starred at him for a minute. The silence was awkward, and Harry tried to think of something to say.

"So, why did you stay here for Christmas?"

"It's none of your business!" was the only answer Harry got, but that only made him more curious.

"I thought that Christmas at your place ought to be fantastic. Didn't your parents want you to come?" Malfoy sighed.

"Well, my father isn't very happy with me these days. I chose to stay."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked. "Did something happen?" Without thinking Harry put his hand on Malfoy's shoulder. Malfoy looked at him weirdly and Harry quickly removed his hand, embarrased.

"He's disappointed in me because I…" He stopped suddenly.

"Why am I even telling you this? You know what? I think I'd actually rather try to climb, even if I have to touch you while doing so, than having to stay here waiting. The sooner we get out of here, the better. I mean, I prefer touching you to having to listen to your annoying voice." Harry raised his eyebrows.

"You prefer touching me…" Malfoy suddenly seemed to have realized what it had sounded like.

"Merlin, Potter. You know I didn't mean it like that! It's just your dirty mind making up things." The blond flushed furiously, but Harry just grinned.

"Sure …"

"If you don't move, I won't be able to get up." The Slytherin looked like he was extremely annoyed. Harry moved as much to the side as he could and Malfoy made an effort to stand up. Suddenly the embarrassed look on his face turned into a look of pain.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, while giving himself a mental slap for sounding so concerned.

"I think I might have broken something," Malfoy groaned. "I didn't notice anything was wrong until I tried to stand." The Slytherin had been able to stand up, but he didn't look like he would be ready to climb or being climbed upon anytime soon.

"Oh, this is great," Harry said sarcastically. " Just fantastic. I'm stuck in a hole in the ground with my disabled archenemy, without wands or any other means of communication, and I will probably be for hours." Harry had expected Malfoy to disagree with what he had said, because he always did, but now they actually seemed to be of the same sentiments.

"Yeah, and it's bloody freezing too," Malfoy said, shivering and trying to warm up by rubbing his hands together. Harry gave Malfoy a pensive look, that made the blond shift uncomfortably.

"What? I wasn't implying anything!" Malfoy exclaimed.

"Neither was I!"

"Good."

"Fine." An uncomfortable silence settled between them. Somehow, Harry felt as if Malfoy had noticed Harry's starring during the past couple of weeks more than Harry had thought. It probably freaked him out. About twenty minutes passed in an awkward silence, and it was only getting colder and colder for every minute. Malfoy's teeth had started chattering, and Harry wondered why they couldn't have made the school uniforms a bit warmer. After another ten minutes, Malfoy looked as if he couldn't stand it any longer.

"On second thought," he said. "I think I might have been implying something." Harry was surprised, but he couldn't do anything but agree. Another hour like this and they would have to be defrosted once they got out of there.

"So what do you suggest we do?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. You think of something!"

"Well, I've heard that bodily heat-" Harry started, but Malfoy interrupted him.

"Ugh! You know what, I don't think I want to hear it. Just hug me, and we'll pretend that it never happened." Harry was shocked. He had never thought that Malfoy would actually say out loud what they both were thinking. Harry didn't know how to start. He had never felt so awkward before in his life. Slowly and carefully he took a step towards Draco and embraced him. Their bodies were tightly pressed against each other and their cheeks almost touched. Harry felt as if he was walking on a mine field. Just one false step and this would end in a catastrophe. He had never been this close to Draco before. When had he started thinking of Malfoy as Draco? He hadn't even noticed the shift. He could even hear the other boy's heartbeat. The smell of Draco seemed to fill all his senses, making him dizzy. He couldn't think of what he smelled like, he only knew that it was a wonderful smell. Even though he was almost as cold as before, he didn't feel cold at all. Draco seemed to have noticed the change in atmosphere too, and his breaths were abrupt and irregular. Harry didn't know if it was because of the cold or because of something else, but Draco suddenly pulled them even tighter together, letting his hand dig into Harry's hair. Harry pressed his cheek against Draco's and closed his eyes. He wanted to stay in this moment. He wished that it would take long before someone found them. He wished that it would take forever. He would only have to turn his face an inch and their lips would touch. If he hadn't been so dizzy and cold and warm and confused, the thought would probably have alarmed him, but now in this moment he could only think of things he wanted to happen and things he didn't want to happen… kissing Draco was definitely one of the things he did want to happen. Harry was interrupted in his thoughts by a whisper, very close to his ear.

"I know." Draco used a voice Harry had never heard before, it was laced with some sort of anguish and sincerity. Harry was paralyzed. It could have meant anything, but Harry knew that it didn't. Draco knew what he had been thinking. He knew that Harry wanted to kiss him. He must have noticed Harry's starring, but he hadn't said anything… until now. What did this mean? Somehow he figured that if Draco had known what Harry had been thinking, and he had been disgusted or angry, he wouldn't have used that tone. Slowly, Harry pushed away from Draco so that he could see his face. His hands shifted from the other boy's back to his waist, while Draco's hands came to rest upon Harry's cheeks instead of his neck. For a minute they just starred at each other, and Harry finally got to fully explore the colour of Draco's eyes. Then, in the exact same moment it seemed, they extinguished the space between them and let their lips meet. Harry had expected himself to be careful, even shy. But the tension that had finally led up to this moment made him braver than he ever would have imagined he could be in a situation like this. Tongues exploring lips, hands exploring bodies. The kiss only seemed to get more and more intense. And then there were footsteps coming closer. They pulled away quickly and Harry couldn't bring himself to look at the other boy anymore. Draco had kissed him back, there was no doubt about that. Yet he had the feeling that this… thing they had gotten themselves into wouldn't continue in front of another person, and he couldn't stand seeing that hateful look in the eyes of the boy he was in love wi- He stopped himself in his thoughts. Was he in love with Draco? He couldn't be. That didn't make any sense. Draco was a boy.

You kissed him, said another voice inside his head. That doesn't mean- he started, but who was he fooling? There was no point in denying it, as much as he hated to admit it. He was in love with Draco Malfoy. That was the simple, terrible truth.

The End?