Pine Fresh

“Do you know what today is?”

Jessica was staring at Draco from across the table with a blank look on his face. He lowered his cup of tea and pressed his lips together before furrowing his brows.

“Er, this isn’t a trick question is it?” he asked and Jess blinked.

“…No.”

“Ok then. It is,” he began but he dropped his eyes to the newspaper in front of him, quickly checking the date that sat in the top corner of the page since he didn’t actually know, “the first of December,” he finished and watched as Jess’ face dropped slightly.

“No,” she repeated and Draco’s stomach thudded. Wait, was he reading the same newspaper as yesterday? He ruffled the paper, quickly glancing at the first page again to check though Jess’ sudden fit of laughter made him look up.

“Well, yeah it is but that’s not what I meant!” She dropped her fork and grinned. “It’s the start of Christmas!” She shouted, throwing her arms in the air and Draco snarled.

“Christmas is on the twenty fifth, not the first-,”

“Honestly, what is wrong with you! The decorations go up now! It’s December!” She corrected, getting up from her seat and Draco shook his head.

“No, it goes up twelve days before Christmas,” he assured her smugly and Jess snorted.

“No it doesn’t. Not where I come from. We always put the decorations and get the tree right after Thanksgiving-,”

“After what?” interrupted Draco but Jess ignored this as she carried on.

“And we all decorate the tree together and the house looks prettier than a store window. You’ll see,” she said and went to fetch her coat. “Besides, what are you doing today?”

Draco bit the inside of his cheek. He had a sneaking feeling that whatever he said was going to be the wrong answer.

“I’m going to work-,”

“Wrong. We’re going Christmas tree shopping. Get your coat and finish your tea. I wanna go now before all of the good trees are gone!” She squealed, giggling and smiling like an excited five year old and Draco’s smile disappeared like melting snow. He hated Christmas shopping, the elves used to deal with that sort of stuff. Still, as head of his own house now, he guessed he had to do it himself now. Sighing extra loud, he dragged himself up off of his chair and drained his cup. Jess returned with his and her coat and Draco reluctantly shoved it on.

“Fine, let’s go and get it over and done with,” he said but Jess grabbed his chin in her hands and squished his cheeks together. Staring him directly in the eye, she shook her head and sighed.

“That’s not the Christmas spirit, Draco. Say it with a little more spunk,” she said and Draco kept in his laugh. “Ok… Fine, let’s go and get this Christmasy shit over and done with!” he exclaimed falsely. Jess’ face was deadpanned but she ignored his sarcasm with a sigh.

“Better, Malfoy, much better. Let’s go.”

To Jess’ shock, the city shops weren’t as excited as she was about Christmas. Hardly anyone was buying trees or decorations and only half of the shop windows were dressed up like a present. Not everyone was as peppy as her about shopping.

“Why is it so empty?” She asked as the pair were browsing Christmas trees in a large department store called John Lewis that lived on one of London’s many streets. Draco followed Jess around the shop with his hands in his pockets, spending most of his time staring at the floor or at the muggle customers around them.

“Because, unlike Americans, Brits don’t really care about Christmas until the few days leading up to it then we all panic and leave everything till the last minute. It’s hilarious really, though my parents let the elves prepare everything so this is my first time actually doing everything properly.”

Jess turned to him and grinned. “So you’re a Christmas virgin?”

He stumbled. “I’m a what?”

Her smirk grew bigger and she returned to inspecting the trees. “You heard me. What do you think of that one?” She asked, pointing to a frosted 7ft pine tree and Draco shook his head.

“Too thin. Anyways, it sounds like you’re speaking from experience. Didn’t you family leave it to your house-elves too? I’m pretty sure my father mentioned how much time your parents spent doing… other business,” he asked, knowing not to mention their involvement in the past too much but Jess shook her head, beaming at the beautiful section on string lights.

“Oh no, that was the one thing my parents refused to let the elves do. We did it all as a family, it was our thing you see. They let me and my sister decorate the tree together while they lit up the whole house with icicles, holly, tinsel – you name it, we had it.”

Draco admired Jess’ enthusiasm and smiled. He’d never known her to speak so openly and happily about her family like that. He wished he could have witnessed the Hunters at their home at Christmas time.

“That sounds… warming,” he mumbled and looked at the main tree on display before them. It was huge and took up half an aisle, alienating all the other trees. Draco smiled and grabbed Jess’ hand.

“What about that one?” he suggested and Jess grinned, nodding excitedly. “That’s perfect! Now, what colour scheme are we having in the house?” She asked, and Draco smirked.

“How about green?”

Hours later, the pair walked out of the store with bags of Christmas décor and a home delivery receipt for their prize winning pine tree. Draco had never felt so Christmasy in all of his life and he actually enjoyed it.

Jess grinned and glanced at Draco as he strolled beside her, stray glitter from their new decorations smeared on his cheeks. Laughing to herself, she decided not to tell him since it made him look like one of Santa’s little elves, and they carried on their merry to find a place that sold ingredients for mulled wine.

“What is mulled wine exactly?” asked Jess once Draco bought everything and he gasped, faking pain.

“How can you even ask that? And you call yourself a Christmas fan…” He mumbled before he tutted and Jess shoved his arm.

“Oh shut it!”

He grinned and winked. “I’ll make it for you when we get home, my arms are killing me.”

Once they arrived home, Jess hung the string lights up all over the house, wanting everything in their home to sparkle and scream ‘ITS CHRISTMAS!’ Once satisfied with the final placement of fairy lights, she spotted the delivery van and screamed when she saw the Christmas tree.

“DRACO ITS HERE!” She shouted from the door but Draco ignored it since he was too busy concentrating on creating his favourable mulled wine. It was the only thing he really enjoyed about the holiday since it tasted so divine. How had Jess not had some before?

“Time to decorate the tree!” called Jess from the front room and Draco complied. Carrying to goblets into the front room, he admired the massive tree with an acceptable nod.

“Not bad Hunter, not bad,” he commented and Jess placed her hand son her hips, looking up at the tree. “You just wait until we’ve decorated it! Now, put down those goblets and grab some baubles!”

The couple spent a good hour putting the glistening, glittery decorations on the tree. The tinsel gleamed in the fairy light glow and the small hanging angels hung from the pine needles. Draco, wanting to put more life into their tree, tapped his wand on the angels and made them dance. The whole tree came to life and Jess had never looked so happy before.

“That is beautiful,” she whispered, stepping back to admire their handiwork. Wiping his forehead, Draco agreed and began to drink his wine. He gave Jess her goblet and watched her taste the wine. Her nose crinkled for a couple of seconds but the overwhelming allure of oranges, spices and warmth won her over. She fell in love with the drink.

“Look at our lovely tree,” sighed Draco, proud of their hard work but Jess shook her head and carefully pulled a crystal star from the last box. “Not quite. We haven’t put this on yet.”

Draco grinned and grabbed her waist, pecking her spiced lips gently. “As this is our first Christmas, we should do this properly,” he told her and suddenly grabbed her waist tighter then lifted her up. Squealing, Jess laughed then turned to top the tree with the decoration. The light caught the star and cast small rainbows all over the room. It was absolutely perfect.

They both stared at the star for a few seconds and smiled at each other. They couldn’t wait to celebrate their first Christmas together.