Draco stood in my hallway, looking around with an unimpressed expression on his face.

"It's not very Christmassy, Potter."

Ugh. We had only been inside for five minutes and already he was criticising.

"I've been busy at this place called work, Draco. It's what normal people who need to earn a living do."

"Keep your hair on, Potter," he drawled, throwing the boys' trunks at the bottom of the stairs amongst his own things. "I'm sure it's something we can rectify in due course."

"Right, whatever." I huffed, heading for the kitchen to flick the kettle on. I already had this sick dreaded feeling that I had made a huge mistake in inviting Draco to stay.

"About this work thing," Draco said, following right behind me, "are you going to be doing much of it over the next two weeks?"

"I've only got to go in for a couple of days, but I'm sure you'll cope," I sighed, pulling down a couple of mugs from the cupboard. "Tea?"

"Coffee. What do you mean, cope?" There was a hint of panic in his voice.

"Well, I know how strongly how you feel about leaving the boys without adult supervision, so I had originally planned for them to go to Molly's on my workdays. But now you're here, you can be babysitter again." I turned, smiling brightly at him.

Draco's face fell. "But I thought you were going to be here to help."

"I am helping, Draco. What do you think all this is? But I've got to work, too - I'm head Auror, I've got Dark Wizards to catch and drunken miseries in pubs to rescue. And - as you well know - they don't stop just because it's Christmas."

"Muuum, why haven't we got a Christmas tree?" Albus complained as he came bustling into the kitchen, followed by a rather forlorn looking Scorpius. "And what's for tea? I can't see anything in the oven."

"We have literally just got in!" I cried incredulously. My god - so this is what it was like living with a bunch of pathetic teenage boys!

Shit - and I had completely forgotten that they all needed feeding. I hadn't had time to stock the cupboards. And all that sat in my fridge was the rather dodgy looking leftovers from last night's Chinese takeaway for one.

"Don't worry," Scorpius piped up - the first I had heard him talk since he had gotten off the train, "Dad knows a great place to order pizza from, don't you?"

Smirking, Draco pulled a slim black phone out of his pocket. "On speed dial, too."

"Wait a minute-" I yelped, looking agape at the item in Draco's hand, "you have a phone?"

"Well, yes, it's how I contact people," Draco scoffed derisively, sharing mocking looks with Scorpius and Albus.

"So why the fuck have I been Owling you all this time?! Why didn't you just say you had a phone?"

Draco simply shrugged. "Well, you seemed to like using that bird a lot back in Hogwarts, I just assumed you preferred it that way."

"Everyone used a flipping owl back in Hogwarts." I cried, not quite believing Draco's train of thought. "It was the only way!"

"Well, if you wanted my number, you only had to ask," he drawled, placing his phone on the kitchen counter, and expertly slid it towards me where I was making the drinks.

I whipped my hand out and caught it in a flash (Seeker skills still top notch), and huffily input my number before furiously sliding it back to him, his eyes twinkling in amusement as he caught it with ease.

Fucking show off.

*****

Waiting for the pizza to arrive, the boys went to unpack in Albus's room, whilst I showed Draco to his.

"Cosy," he drawled, leaning against the door frame, his eyes lazily scanning the modest sized green bedroom before him.

"I expect it's a lot smaller than you're used to, but I like it," I said sniffily, crossing the room to draw the curtains shut against the dark sky outside.

"Hey, it wasn't a dig," he chuckled softly, entering the room behind me, "although I'm surprised at the colour choice - a bit too Slytherin for you, I'd have thought..."

"Actually, the room is usually yellow, but I bewitched the walls to make it more suitable for its new temporary occupant," I glanced at him and smiled at the genuine look of surprise on his face.

"You did this for me?"

"It wasn't exactly powerful sorcery, Draco. I just tapped the walls with my wand."

"Yeah - well... thanks anyway, Potter." And my heart warmed as he tried, and then failed to hide the smile that tugged at his lips.

Our eyes met and I was momentarily taken aback by the way the breath seemed to evacuate my lungs.

Luckily, the doorbell suddenly went, killing the moment.

"Grubs up!" I heard Albus yell as he thundered down the hallway, closely followed by Scorpius.

Draco didn't move, but just continued to stare at me, making me feel suddenly uncomfortable.

"Better get down there before it's all gone," I said awkwardly, trying not to let his piercing grey eyes get to me.

As I attempted to walk past him, his hand shot out, long cool fingers curling around my wrist.

"Etta," he whispered, his breath tickling my ear, making me shiver. He was so close I could smell the faint odour of his cologne and hear the steady beat of his heart.

"Your son is downstairs," I said stoutly, refusing to look directly at him. "I'm begging you, don't do this. This is not why I invited you here."

Slowly, his fingers slackened, releasing his hold on me.

"MUUUUM!" My son's voice bellowed from downstairs "THEY'VE PUT ANCHOVIES ON ALL OF THEM!"

"WELL, TAKE THEM OFF THEN!" I bellowed back.

"BUT THEY'RE ALL CHOPPED UP INTO TINY LITTLE PIECES!"

I looked at Draco, giving him a deathly stare.

"What?" He spluttered, "who doesn't like anchovies?"

"Normal people." I bit, rolling my eyes as I swept to the door.

"Well, clearly he gets that from you then," Draco muttered under his breath, following me behind.

At my insistence, we all sat around the kitchen table. I was determined to encourage conversation between Draco and Scorpius.

"So, Scorp," I said brightly as I magicked anchovies off one of the pizzas - much to Albus's disgust ("I can still taste them, Mum!"). "How are you finding second year? Did you try out for Quidditch in the end?"

"Nah," he said morosely, staring down at his own pizza glumly. "Didn't see the point."

"I told you, Mum," Albus barked across the kitchen from where he was rifling through the cupboards in search of crisps. "We don't like Quidditch."

Well, this was turning out to be a fine start.

I turned to Draco, hoping that he could help me out. But I was annoyed to find him paying no attention to anything other than the phone in his hand as he blithely stuffed pizza into his gob with the other.

"You know, Scorp," I said loudly, without taking my glaring eyes off an oblivious Draco. "Your father became the Slytherin Seeker at your age. And the first time we played against one another he lost Slytherin the match because he was too busy throwing petty insults at me to see that the Golden Snitch was right in front of his stupid face."

Finally tearing his eyes away from his phone, Draco looked up sharply, a deep frown creasing his features.

"Yeah, well if you hadn't been so insistent on being such an insufferable show off, Potter," he drawled, grey eyes flashing into mine, "then maybe I wouldn't have gotten so distracted in the first place."

"Bullshit," I muttered, taking a fierce bite out of an anchovy free pizza slice as I glared back at him. "I was better than you, and you know it-"

I jumped as a large glass jar was slammed down on the table in front of me, already heavily loaded with a mixture of Sickles and Knuts.

"Cough up, Mum."

This was going to be a long fucking two weeks.

*****