A/N: I would like to dedicate this to ReynaDiAngelo14. Thank you for encouraging me and reading and voting. Sorry the update comes only now. I wanted to do it yesterday but I got unexpected visitors and I had to show them around...

#

Just like Draco had suspected, he woke up with a mouthful of black, strangely soft hair. The scent was so distinctively Potter and he could not help but bury his nose into it for a few more minutes. Then, he tried to untangle himself from the other boy, but Potter grumbled in his half asleep state and tightened his arm around him. Draco's heart sped up. He could not deny that the feeling inside his stomach was anything but negative. Potter's strong arms with, in comparison to Draco's, tan skin, wrapped around him... it woke something inside Draco that he never knew he wanted.

"Potter." Draco hissed, trying to not disturb Ron's sleep. It was still quite early.

"What..." Potter grumbled. "Comf'tble."

"I know." Draco hissed. "But I need to get the presents under the Christmas tree."

Potter stayed still for a few seconds, still not releasing Draco. Then he blinked up at Draco, seeming to gather the content in the other boy's statement. "Presents?" It took Potter a few more seconds, then he sat up abruptly, his sleep haze disappearing from his eyes. "It's Christmas!"

"Shh..." Draco whispered. "I don't want everyone to wake up yet. I'm gonna go downstairs."

Potter stood up, throwing a sweater over his head. "I'm coming with you."

"Okay." Draco whispered. It was still dark but the moon was shining through the roof window. From behind some boxes, Draco pulled out a huge bag. Potter followed him as he carried the presents down the stairs as quietly as possible.

Only when they reached the living room, Potter dared to talk. "You know. The Weasleys normally just put the presents in a stocking and leave them at the end of their beds. Everyone opens them first thing in the morning. I've seen our stockings."

"Our stockings?" Draco wondered as he opened the bag and put the presents under the Christmas tree. "Who would have presents for me?"

"Snape?" Potter guessed.

"But Uncle Sev would not put them in a stocking." Draco said. "At home I got way too many presents for them to fit in a stocking. We always put everything under the Christmas tree and opened them together. It's quite fun."

Potter shrugged. "I don't know why they are doing it like that."

"Maybe they don't want to see the disappointment in each others eyes when they open the cheap presents." Draco sniggered.

"Fuck you." Potter said. "I was starting to find you decent."

"Relax." Draco said. "I was kidding."

"You always say that-"

"Shh..." Draco quietened him.

"You always say that." Potter said with a lowered voice. "But you don't mean it. You're insulting them. You're blaming them for their lack of Galleons, but guess what? Mr Weasley should have been promoted long ago but pricks like your father prevent that from happening, just because he doesn't have the same opinions like these prejudiced assholes."

"You don't have to tell me my father is an awful human being." Draco said. "I've found out as much on my own. And, well. If the Weasleys didn't have enough money, why did they get so many kids? Father always says that's much more than they can afford and they should have known that."

"You know," Potter's voice sounded more icy than Draco had heard in a long time. Maybe because they had kind of warmed up to each other, but something about Draco's words had forced the Golden Boy to freeze this warmth back to a huge ice block that Draco was not allowed to break. "You say you know how wrong your father is, but you still live and think like him. Look at all the Weasley children and tell me, how can you say one of them should not be born into this world. The Weasleys spread so much warmth and love and all you do is criticize them. There are so much more important things than money and blood status and the Weasleys are the perfect example for everything your name doesn't stand for, but they still life a much more fulfilling life. Forget what your father says and think for yourself for a minute."

Draco watched as Potter panted heavily after his speech, then he threw one last look at Draco and ran back up the stairs. Draco sat there, frozen. It was not necessarily Potter's words that hit him, but more the look in his eyes before he fled. These mesmerizing green eyes were filled with hurt. Hurt, that Draco had caused. Although he was not entirely sure how.

Lost in thoughts, he did not hear how one of the doors opened and Mrs Weasley came into the living room. "Oh, Draco. What are you doing up so early?"

Draco looked down and noticed that he had frozen in the act of getting out the rest of the presents. "Oh." Draco said and quickly turned the bag over, letting the last presents tumble onto the floor. "Umm, I just thought... Because you all were so great about be being here..." Draco felt himself flush. Suddenly, this whole thing seemed stupid to him.

"You..." Mrs Weasley approached him. "You got presents? For us?" Draco's ears felt like they were on fire and he could not look at Mrs Weasley. "Oh, Draco." She said and before he knew it, Draco was swept in a warm, motherly hug. "You didn't have to."

Draco did not say anything. He had no idea what to say anyways. He just returned the hug. He had always loved hugs. There were not many times where he got one.

Mrs Weasley eventually pulled back before it could get weird. "Come on." She said. "Let's make some breakfast before the others wake up and find the big surprise." Draco agreed.

Mrs Weasley was just done levitating the plates and cutlery into the living room while Draco tried to fry eggs for the first time in his life, when Fred and George came down. They were the first to get stuck under the mistletoe. With loud, theatrical sighs of "Oh, George." and "Oh, my ugly prince." they kissed each others cheek and were able to step away from the stairs.

Their eyes widened at the heap of presents under the tree. "What's this?" Fred asked. "We already had our stockings. By the way, thank you for the wrist watch and all the sweets."

"Yeah, thanks mum." George went to hug Mrs Weasley who beamed.

"These presents are from our dear Draco." Mrs Weasley said, making Draco blush and look down at the half burned eggs. Mrs Weasley probably also saw it and came to safe their breakfast.

"You got us presents?" George lit up like a Christmas tree. "Man, you're amazing."

"Can you please marry Ginny?" Fred asked. Draco tried not to wrinkle his nose in distaste.

"Are you selling me to Malfoy?" Ginny sounded threatening as she came down the stairs.

"Ginny, he got us presents." Fred said cheerily. "You can't let him go like this."

"I bet Draco is just as much scared of my boobs as Harry is." Fred and George burst into laughter. Draco frowned at them.

"Potter is scared of your boobs?" Draco wondered. "Is that why he stopped liking you?"

"He never really liked me that way." Ginny said, letting herself fall on a chair. "This looks amazing. When can we eat?"

Draco ignored George's whisper of, "Amazing how he doesn't deny being scared of her boobs."

"When everyone is here." Mrs Weasley answered Ginny, levitating some plates with toasted bread onto the table. "It's okay, Draco dear. You can sit down."

Draco nodded and went over to into the living room to sit down. The three Weasleys were sniggering. "She only says this because you're no help in the kitchen." Fred explained.

Draco huffed. "It's not my fault I've never had to help in a kitchen before."

"Lucky you." George said.

One by one, everyone came down into the living room. "Can we start now?" Ginny said impatiently.

"No." Mrs Weasley said. "Ron and Harry are still missing."

"Oh, then tell those two idiots to come." Ginny grumbled. "I'm hungry."

"Me too." George said despite slipping a piece of toast into his mouth.

"I can get them." Remus said, but before he could stand up, an opening door and footsteps could be heard.

"Finally." Fred said. "Hurry up!" He yelled.

Potter and Ron came walking down the steps and at the last one, they could not move further. "What the-" Ron asked and everyone burst out into laughter. The two boys were confused for a few seconds before it finally dawned on them. Potter looked up and his eyes widened at the sight of the mistletoe. "Oh no." Ron groaned and turned to Potter.

They looked at each other awkwardly for a few seconds. Fred started to chant, "Kiss, kiss, kiss..." And the whole table went along. Ron and Potter glared at them before Ron finally leant forward. The whole room erupted into loud laughter when their lips pressed together awkwardly for less than a second before they stumbled away from each other. Ron and Potter grimaced and wiped their lips exaggeratedly.

"That was awful." Ron complained as he sat down next to Fleur and Potter beside him. "How long does this mistle-thing have to stay there?"

The onlookers slowly calmed down from their gloating laughter and Draco could not help but look at Potter. His lips seemed pinker than usual and a light blush was covering his cheeks. He looked... kind of pretty. And then those eyes... Potter looked back at Draco, and both looked away quickly. Draco could feel his cheeks flush.

"6th of January." Mr Weasley answered Ron's question. "Until Epiphany Day."

"Hurry up with your food, will you?" Ginny said. "I want to open the presents."

"What presents?" Ron wondered, looking around, his face lightening up when he spotted them under the Christmas tree.

"They're from Draco." Mrs Weasley said proudly, petting Draco's head. Draco looked down at his food, his cheeks burning.

"Uncle Sev bought them." Draco mumbled, but no one seemed to listen.

"That's right." Ginny said. "I want to know what's inside. So hurry up."

"Ginny." Mrs Weasley scolded. "No one will hurry with their food. We enjoy it."

"Is she on her period?" Fred asked. "First, she yells at everyone to come because she's hungry and then she tells us to get it over with?"

"Shut up, idiot." Ginny slapped the back of Fred's head.

"She's more vicious than usual." George observed. "I second Fred's theory."

"My monthly cycle is none of your business." Ginny said. Draco shifted in his seat. He looked around to see if anyone else was uncomfortable with this topic, but he saw most of them immersed in their own conversations. Only Severus sat next to him with an emotionless expression, but his left eyelid twitched a bit, meaning he was feeling similar to Draco.

"Don't eat too much." Mr Weasley said to Severus, who was never eating much anyways. "The Christmas lunch and dinner my wife makes are always fabulous." Draco thought it was kind of cute how proud he was of his wife.

After breakfast, which went on way too long according to Ginny, they were all given a go to look at the Christmas presents. Draco had wrapped them himself to observe what his godfather had bought from Draco's money, and he was pleased. But he was still nervous when the Weasley children all found the present with their name on it. Suddenly, he felt extremely pretentious and self-conscious. The uncomfortable feeling of shame settled in his stomach.

He stood up as hurried up the stairs. No one really noticed since they were all occupied with their presents. Well, except Severus, but he was never a person to run after someone if they did not tell him to.

Draco ran up all the stairs until he reached the attic. He pushed the door open. The sun was shining through the roof window onto the cartons and shelves. The mattress was still laying on the floor beside the unmade bed. At the bottom of the mattress lay a stocking that Draco had not seen in the morning. He picked it up and sat down on the bed. The stocking still looked untouched, as opposed to the two that were thrown carelessly onto the pillow of the bed.

He guessed this must have been Potter and Ron's so he looked into the one in his hands curiously. He pulled out three boxes in various sizes. He decided to sneak a peek into the biggest, softest one. It was something knitted, green in colour. He frowned, torn between opening the presents and asking downstairs for who this was.

He took the soft present and tried to put it back into the stocking, but the paper tore open and a green sweater fell onto the floor. Draco picked it up and looked at it. It looked self knitted. He turned it around and spotted a big silvery-white D across the front.

"Look at that." Draco's head snapped to the door where Potter was leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. Not for the first time Draco caught himself by thinking how attractive this lad looked with his unruly, black hair and his weird glasses. "You got a Weasley sweater."

Draco frowned. "What does that mean?"

"It means..." Potter said slowly, "That the Weasleys have the biggest heart in the world. And that you're part of the family now. So, you know. Whatever happens in the future, you're always welcome here." Draco was torn between feeling flattered and incredibly guilty. "Stop making that face." Potter said. "Throw it on and get back down. Everyone is so happy. There's no need to feel ashamed."

Wondering how Potter knew exactly what he was feeling, Draco stood up and followed him down the stairs. "You know, Potter." Draco said before they could reach the other's listening rage. "You're not half bad. I'm sorry I didn't tell Uncle Sev to get you a present."

Potter snorted. "Thanks."

They made the last few stairs in thoughtful silence. The tumult in the living room got more audible. Draco could hear Fred and George arguing whose broom is more beautiful even though they should look exactly the same.

"Wait!" Draco suddenly yelled and grabbed Potter's sleeve.

"What?" Potter frowned. All the Weasleys could see them now. Draco did not know what to make out of their excited expressions with which they were now watching him and Potter. The raven haired's eyes followed Draco's hand as he gestured upwards. Realization dawned on Potter's face and he grinned. "Thanks, Malfoy. You go first?"

Draco nodded and passed the last step alone, successfully preventing getting stuck under the mistletoe with his nemesis, kind of. Potter was not that bad anymore. But that did not mean he wanted to kiss him... Draco ignored the voice in his head that was protesting.

"Oh, Draco." Fred groaned. "Why did you remember that damn mist-finger?"

"It's called mistletoe." Mr Weasley corrected.

"I don't care." Fred said. "Anyways, EVERYONE ON DRACO!" He yelled, but only Ginny, George and Ron followed his command. Still, in the next second, Draco was smouldered by four Weasleys. Draco wondered what his father would say if he knew. "Thank you, Dracoooooooooo." Fred said.

"Thank you, Dracoooooo." George sung, attempting to harmonize with his brother. When Ron tried to come in with an attempted triad, Ginny broke away.

"Stop, boys!" She yelled, but thanks to her pitch it was piercing enough for everyone to separate and stare at her. "That's not how we should thank him. Now watch and learn." She stepped closer to Draco, laid her hands on his shoulders and went up to her toes to press a kiss to Draco's cheek. Draco did not know how to react, so he just smiled abashedly.

"Oh, I like zat." Fleur said, also stepping close to Draco. But before she could give him a kiss, Potter stepped in the way and pointed at the Christmas tree.

"Hey, look, umm. The tree looks very nice." Draco looked at the tree. It looked nice, but it was no different than it had been a few seconds before. For some reason, Bill, Ginny, Fred and George burst into laughter. Even Mrs and Mr Weasley looked amused.

"What's there?" Draco asked and for some reason, it made the Weasleys laugh even harder. Draco looked at Potter for clarification, but he was avoiding his eyes.

"So..." George said when everyone had sobered up, "We should all kiss Draco as thank you?"

"No!" Potter said.

"Why not?" George grinned.

"I don't..." Draco started. "You really don't have to thank me. It's like, as a thank you for being nice to me and having me here and... stuff."

"Oh, Draco." Mrs Weasley said. "It's no problem. You're such a good boy."

"He just doesn't want us to kiss him." Fred said. "Maybe Harry can do it for all of us."

Draco looked confused from the grinning twins to the glaring Potter. He tried to suppress the heat climbing on his cheeks at the thought of Potter kissing him, but he still did not understand why Fred would say that. Draco's thoughts were not obvious, were they?

Mrs Weasley, Fleur and Bill just hugged Draco in gratitude and Mr Weasley clapped his hand on his shoulder and gave him a genuine smile. Draco blushed at all the attention, but he felt warm and welcome. He felt genuine appreciation without pressure and it was special. He could not remember a time where he felt gratitude from someone without pressure of exceeding.

"We would like to give you this Canary Cream." Fred said, "We made it ourselves."

Draco eyed them sceptically, then shrugged and took it. "Cool. When?" He bit into the creamy biskuit and moaned. "This is good." Suddenly a weird sensation went through his body, everything felt different. When he tried to ask what was going on, only twittering came out of his mouth and everyone in the room laughed. Draco caught a glimpse of some yellow feathers where his hand should have been, then the weird sensation came back and everything was normal again, except that everyone was laughing.

Before he could ask, George explained, "Canary Cream. We invented it last year."

Fred took a bite of another Canary Cream and Draco watched as he transfigured into a big Canary for a few seconds. It was quite funny and Draco joined the laughter.

"Fred, George." Mrs Weasley scolded. "Pranking him is not a very nice way to thank him."

"It's okay, mum." Fred said. "Draco has humour. Even if he doesn't show it very much."

"What do you say, Quidditch to test out our new brooms?" George asked. So Fred, George, Ginny, Potter, Bill and Draco spent Christmas morning playing Quidditch in the confines of the Burrow's backyard. But after two hours, the cold wind got too much and they had to move back into the house.

"The brooms are awesome." Fred grinned. "Thank you, Draco."

"Yeah, I never had such a fast, new broom." George said.

They all gathered in front of the fireplace and Mrs Weasley served them with hot chocolate. As Draco looked around the circle, at all the smiling faces, Fred the joker, George more with hidden consideration, Ginny the feisty beauty, Bill the cool but smart big brother, Ron the obvious but loyal... Draco had to think back to Potter's words. And he understood.

The Weasleys would not be the Weasleys with even one of them missing. And he was sure that the two missing children, Charlie and Percy, were deeply missed. They were all special, every single one of them. How could his father say that Mr and Mrs Weasley should have gone without even one of these wonderful human beings.

For Draco's father, it was always the real purebloods, and the rest. The rest, the bloodtraitors, muggles, muggleborns and halfbloods, have always been just a bunch to Draco. Never real individuals, much less important individuals. But people like his father, who were just judging the Weasleys as bloodtraitors with too many children and too little money, did not know what a special place each of these children had in the family. They did not know that moments like this, where the whole family was together, or the love that they all shared, was much more valuable than any amount of money. Mr and Mrs Weasley did not get all these children by accident. They knew what real love and happiness meant. And that could not be bought.

Draco's heart warmed as he watched Ginny and Bill laugh at the twin's antics. He looked at Potter next to him, and he was already watching Draco. His green eyes were warm and gentle. There was an understanding smile on his lips, and Draco felt like his heart could burst in his chest. He smiled back at Potter, whose eyes started to twinkle and Draco had never seen such beautiful eyes.

Ron tapped Potter's shoulder and the moment was broken. Potter turned to him and Draco tuned in on the conversation between Fleur and George.

It was the most tranquil Christmas Draco had ever had. He felt settled and sheltered and welcome. Everyone seemed happy and carefree.

That was, until they were almost done with lunch.

Draco was just finishing the fabulously cooked roast when Mrs Weasley stood up from her chair, "Arthur! It's Percy!"

Everyone turned to the window. Draco could see two figures walking through the white snow scenery, approaching the Burrow. Draco could identify the Weasley at once. Under his woollen hat the typical red hair stuck out. With his thick glasses he looked like the nerd of the Weasley family.

"Arthur, he's- he's with the Minister!" Mrs Weasley said.

"Draco!" Potter said, pushing at Draco's shoulder. For a few seconds, the two boys looked at each other, both surprised at the use of the first name, then Mr Weasley interrupted.

"Oh no. Harry's right. Draco, you have to hide. They're almost at the door." They had decided from the beginning that only people of the Order were allowed to know where Draco was. Even the ministry was not trusted nowadays.

Draco nodded, standing up from the table. "Hurry." Mr Weasley hissed and Draco ran up the stairs until he was sure he could not be seen in the living room. He listened carefully. At first, there was nothing, then a murmur, and finally Mrs Weasley's exclamation of "Oh, Percy!"

After that, Draco could only pick up part of the conversation. From what he perceived, Percy wanted to see his family on Christmas and the Minister came along. It was suspicious in Draco's opinion but he had no idea of the bigger picture. Then, there was the sound of the door opening and closing. That was a short visit, Draco thought as he went back down the stairs.

"I need to go to the toilet." Draco heard Ginny say in a panicked tone before she appeared in front of Draco, pushing him back up the stairs again. They reached Ginny's room, went inside and Ginny closed the door. "Are you crazy?" She hissed.

"What?" Draco asked. "I heard the door so I thought-"

"Percy is still here." Ginny said. "The Minister just wanted to take Harry on 'a walk'."

"What?" Draco's heart dropped. "The Minister has Potter? Are you kidding me? Do you know what he wants to do with him?"

"Relax." Ginny said. "He most likely just wants to talk to him. Honestly, with how much you care about him, you should be calling him by his first name by now."

Draco scoffed. "I don't care about Potter. But you know, maybe the Minister is Imperiused. As much as I don't care about Potter, I don't want the symbol of hope die. For the sake of the community, of course."

"Wow." Ginny said. "I've never heard so much bullshit in my life. And here I thought the old Malfoy was gone."

"He will never be gone." Draco stuck his nose up in the air. "He's way too awesome."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Stay here until we call you back. I really need to use the toilet now."

"This information was definitely needed." Draco said sarcastically. Ginny hit him.

#

When Draco was called back down, the atmosphere was tense. Everyone was either looking at Potter, waiting for him to explain what the Minister wanted from him, or glaring at the door where Percy had probably disappeared through. Except for Mrs Weasley, who seemed forced cheerful.

"Fuck Percy." Fred hissed at Draco when he sat down next to him. "He didn't come because he wanted to see us. He just came so the Minister had a chance to talk to Harry."

"That four-eyes still can't admit that he was wrong." George whispered from Fred's other side. "Mum just doesn't want to believe it."

Then, Potter started to talk about how the Minister wanted him to promote the Ministry's work with his presence, but Potter refused. At first, Draco was confused why Potter was so adamantly against the Ministry. What was wrong with Potter spreading hope in the wizarding community?

Draco was shocked when he heard about all the things that went wrong in the Ministry. He knew, of course, that they had not caught any real Death Eaters. Draco would have been one of the first ones to know. But he had not known that they were holding innocent people in Azkaban just to seem active. When Potter held out his hand to Draco, showing him the scar of 'I must not tell lies', Draco caught it.

"What the fuck?" He stared at the white writing on the back of Potter's hand. He had the sudden urge to kiss it better. He quickly let go of the hand.

"Draco." Mrs Weasley scolded. "Language."

"Sorry." Draco said.

That evening, when everyone should have been asleep already, Ron insisted on playing wizard chess with his new board and pieces. Draco and Ron sat in the attic secretly while Potter was rolling around the mattress behind them. Draco was tired and thought about letting Ron win on purpose so he could finally sleep. But his pride would never let him give up like this.

Finally, Potter seemed to give up on trying to sleep and came up to the pair. "Come on, Ron." He said. "Malfoy is tired."

"No, he's not." Ron said, unsuccessfully trying to suppress a yawn. "We need to finish this game."

"You can finish it tomorrow." Potter insisted. "You can let it stay there and continue tomorrow exactly where you left off."

"No." Ron said, but he let himself be pulled up and led to bed. "Wanker." He said as he fell into the sheets and cuddled inside. Draco smiled at Potter, who smiled back before blowing off the candles and returning to bed. He left a gap next to him and looked at Draco expectantly.

Draco followed. For a few minutes, both boys lay on their backs, both not really sure how to get comfortable. It was weird because they had slept like this many times before in the last few days. Tentatively, Draco inched closer, not looking at Potter whose stare he could feel. Finally, Potter closed the gap and laid his arm around Draco. They would wake up like this anyway, Draco thought and sighed contently.

"Draco?" Ron whispered into the darkness. "Why are you sleeping here? Snape went home."

Draco and Potter tensed up. Tightening his arm around Draco, Potter hissed, "Shut up, Ron."