Nativity

"I have to WHAT?" Draco Malfoy's voice echoed down the Tranfiguration corridor, originating from somewhere within Professor McGonagall's office.

"I said, Mr. Malfoy," followed the Professor's own voice, "that you have to perform in this year's nativity play. It is your own fault for fighting."

Draco was currently standing, fuming, in front of the Professor's desk...if steam could have come out of his ears, it would have been pouring out. To be fair to him, fuming was a bit of an understatement...all right...it was a huge understatement.

"But why? And why, oh why, do I have to do it with Potter?" Draco knew he was practically whining, and that it was very unbecoming of the Malfoy-heir, but he couldn't seem to bring himself to care. The news he had received was devastating. If his father knew...but he didn't, of course, he was in Azkaban...but if he did know, he would throw a fit; the school would be shut down and Potter would be dead (hence the reason he was in Azkaban in the first place).

"Because, Mr. Malfoy, you were fighting with Mr. Potter." The Professor seemed as collected as ever; God forbid the woman should ever lose her nerve.

"But why do I have to play...this part?" Oh yes, he was a Malfoy: he wasn't giving up that easily.

"Because, Mr. Malfoy," she said slowly, as if she were speaking to a stubborn five year-old intent on setting fire to his favourite teddy bear to see what would happen but would throw a tantrum if it burnt, "it is the only part with an opening."

"Please? Is there really nothing else?" Now he knew he was begging, which was also very unbecoming of the Malfoy-heir, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and this could definitely be classified as a desperate time.

"Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall answered, a little too sweetly. She seemed to be enjoying this far too much. "There is the part of the donkey open, if you would prefer that."

"Fine," Draco spat, hatefully, glaring at the Gryffindor Head of House. The effect of said glare, however, was lessened somewhat by his next words, "I'll be Mary."

Harry smirked at him; at least he got to be Joseph.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The first day of rehearsals rolled around and Draco made his way (cursing the whole time of course...who do you think he is?) towards the Charms classroom, where they would be practicing.

When he had returned to the Dungeons, after receiving the punishment from the Hell Kitten (as he'd dubbed the dear Professor) he had been expecting sympathy and hatred directed towards the said Animagus. Instead, he had had Pansy crooning over how he had got the leading role and Blaise saying it wasn't so bad; Hermione was directing...urgh! It hurt just thinking about it! He had stomped off to sulk (not that he admitted that to anyone) with all the Malfoy dignity he could muster (which wasn't a lot).

He slammed the classroom door opened and swept in, looking for all the world like he owned the place. Looking around the room, he sneered. It figured that it would be full of Gryffindorks and Hufflepoofs: Potter, there with Granger who was directing the play, Finnegan, the silly Irish twit, the Weaslette, the Creevey brothers (sheep, no doubt), Bones, Abbott, Finch-Fletchley, Thomas, Longbottom, Weasley, that strange Ravenclaw, what's-her-name, Lovegood, Blaise, silly Zabini, dating a Mudblood, and Professor Snape...

"What?" Draco whipped his head around to stare incredulously at the glum-faced Potions Master in the corner. "Sir?" he asked tentatively as he approached his snarling godfather.

"Don't ask," the man snapped. "I lost a bet with Minerva."

"Ah, yes, the Hell Kitten herself." Draco sat down and joined the man in cat-bashing, his new favourite pastime.

It was then that Granger decided the rehearsal should begin and called them all to attention...God, that girl was so power happy...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Not nervous are we, Malfoy?" teased Harry, approaching the blond from behind.

"You wish, Potter," he snapped back. Okay, so he was a little nervous, but he sure wasn't going to let Potter know that!

"Learnt your lines yet?" Harry seemed unable to take a hint.

"Of course," he sneered. Of course he hadn't learnt the lines... What on Earth did they expect? He hadn't known them yesterday, so why would he know them today? Okay, so that wasn't a good thing, definitely not good... There were so many more people then he was expecting...most of them were probably there to see him humiliate himself. Oh dear Merlin, he was so dead...

"Ah, of course," Harry replied, a knowing glint in his eyes, before heading off, no doubt to find the Director herself.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Draco was sitting in the middle of the stage; he was sitting on a stool, in the middle of the stage. "Oh Merlin, I can't believe I'm doing this," he whispered to himself. He was so dead. From the wings, Harry gave him the thumbs up and raised the curtain.

Hermione and Ginny were on a little floating pulpit thing, off to the side; he could see that now the curtain was open. They were dressed as angels. There was a huge round of applause and some wolf-whistling as he came into view of the audience; the huge audience. "Oh shit..." was his only thought before the play officially began.

"The story we are about to tell took place many hundreds of years ago," Ginny started, "but it has been told and retold more than any other story in the world. Because of it, millions of people all over the world celebrate a huge festival every year. This is the story of Christmas."

Hermione took over the narration. "In a small town called Nazareth, a young girl sat alone in her room." There was a lot of sniggering. "Her name was Mary. Mary was betrothed to be married to a carpenter called Joseph Bar Jacob. Mary was a very religious girl, and God was pleased with her."

"So he sent me to give her a message." Having said that, Ginny hopped off the pulpit and approached him. "Boo!" she squealed.

"Oh look. It's an angel," drawled Draco, remembering this one line, at least.

"Don't be afraid, Mary," Ginny carried on, as if she hadn't noticed his tone, "I've come to tell you good news."

"I'm not afraid," stated Draco. Come on, that was the logical thing to say, right?

"Oh." Ginny looked taken aback for a second, glancing into the wings, to Harry, then at Hermione. They both waved for her to keep going, so she improvised. "Well you're supposed to be."

"I'm not." Right, uh okay. So possibly, Draco was the worst person at improvising in the world. He hadn't even heard of the Nativity! It was just some Muggle-born who was very unsubtle about his power, that was all; he really didn't see what the fuss was about!

"Well, anyway," Ginny carried on, back in character, "I've been sent to tell you that God is pleased with you and he has chosen you to be the mother of a very special child." More sniggering from the audience. "You must call him Jesus." She looked blank for a moment and grinned. "I've got to go and save the universe now."

She jumped back up to join Hermione.

"Save the universe now?" Hermione asked her, looking rather skeptical about the whole thing.

Ginny shrugged. "Well, I thought it sounded rather good, actually."

Harry came onto the stage and led Draco off. To put it lightly, Draco was rather confused. None of those lines, the ones that came after his second line, were in the script at all.

Hermione had carried on talking as Harry had come on. "Joseph and Mary were married not long afterwards. At that time the ruler of the land, King Herod, decreed that every man in the country had to go to his home town to be counted, and take his wife and family with him. Joseph's home town was Bethlehem, because he was a descendent of King David."

During this time, Harry had whispered quickly in his ear (as he shoved a pillow up his robe and charmed it to stay there), "Just play along! Make it up as you go."

Harry tugged at Draco's hand with one of his hands; the other was leading Professor Snape by a lead. The dear Potions Master had donkey ears and a sign around his neck that read 'DONKEY'. He was, as usual, scowling. The crowd roared with laughter as they came on stage.

Hermione was still speaking as Draco was hoisted onto the man's back, "So Mary and Joseph set off with their donkey. By this time Mary was due to give birth very soon."

"The journey to Bethlehem was long and tiring, especially for Mary. When they got to Bethlehem they could not find anywhere to stay, because so many people had to be counted that all the inns were full. Finally they came to the last inn in the town." The narration had switched to Ginny.

Susan Bones came out to deliver her lines (there weren't that many!). "No, sorry, we're full up."

"Haven't you got any rooms at all?" Draco demanded. He was getting rather impatient, and it was getting rather uncomfortable on his godfather's back.

"Not unless you want to sleep in the cowshed," Susan said, beginning to walk away. Draco shot an imploring look at Harry.

"Okay," he said finally, "we'll take that then. It's better than sleeping on the streets." Draco looked scandalised at the very idea.

"Oh, all right then. This way." Harry shot Draco a grin, and the blond scowled back. They went off to the side of the stage where a stable thing had been put up.

Hermione carried on as the narrator. "So the innkeeper led them to a small stable at the back of the inn, gave them some blankets and went back to his inn. Later that night, Mary gave birth to a baby son, and she called him Jesus."

Draco pulled out the pillow (which had been transfigured into a doll by McGonagall, who was standing off to the side) out of his shirt and cradled it in his arms. The doll was life-like and it even wiggled around. Harry looked down at it, while Professor Snape stood off to the side looking very bored.

"In the meantime, I was sent to go and tell some shepherds about the new baby. The shepherds were looking after their sheep in the fields just outside town," Ginny crowed and floated (thanks to Professor Flitwick and his levitation charms) to where Dean Thomas, Justin Finch-Fletchley, and the Creevey brothers were sitting.

"Boo!" She paused, while the boys stared up at her blankly. "Were you scared?" she asked.

"Yep. Terrified," answered Justin, sarcastically.

Ginny looked rather pleased with herself. "Oh good. Do not be afraid, for I bring you good news. Tonight, in Bethlehem, a baby has been born who will be the saviour of the world. You will find him in a stable, under a bright star." With that she was floated back to her pulpit where Hermione was trying to stop giggling.

"Okay, let's go find the new baby," Colin said uncertainly.

"Hey, what are we gonna do with all the sheep?" Dean piped up as they stood. Dennis looked a bit put out.

"I don't know," replied Justin, but added hastily when he saw Dennis glaring, "we'd better take them with us."

"What all four hundred and seventy two and a half of them?" asked Colin, rather stupidly.

"And a half? Are you sure you counted them right?" Dean raised his eyebrows as Colin shrugged. A sign tied itself around Dennis' neck. It said, 'I represent 472.5 sheep.' They walked to the 'stable'.

Hermione looked skeptical but carried on with a small shrug. "So the shepherds set off to Bethlehem, with their four-hundred-and-seventy-two-point-five sheep. It didn't take them long to find the baby because there was a bright star above the stable, showing them the way."

Blaise Zabini was floated above the place where Harry and Draco were seated. Professor Snape was now fiddling with a cable of some sort, which someone had forgotten to take off the stage.

Ginny picked up the story. "A long way away, in the east, some astronomers saw the star too, and wondered what it was."

Luna, Neville and Seamus were sitting at the end of the hall. Blaise moved towards them, having cast a spell that wrote words in the air. It said 'THIS WAY'.

"Hey, look. It's a star," Seamus improvised, pointing at Blaise.

Blaise changed the words to 'FOLLOW ME'.

"I think it wants us to follow it," Neville said, a little unsure. Blaise rolled his eyes and the audience laughed. The words changed: 'WELL DONE'.

"Well, we haven't got anything better to do. Come on, let's go," said Luna, still looking like she was in her own world.

'GOOD IDEA'.

"I'm tired," groaned Neville, deciding that they would have traveled a long way (had they really been traveling).

The audience laughed again as Blaise changed the words. 'ALREADY?'

"Can we stop and rest for a moment?"

'NO'.

"That's a good idea."

'NO IT ISN'T'.

"Here's a good place to stop."

They sat down, Blaise was getting frustrated, so he kept changing the words, he had been given strict instructions by Hermione not to speak. 'GET UP', 'I HAVEN'T GOT ALL NIGHT YOU KNOW', 'HEY YOU', 'WITH THE BRIGHT GREEN ROBES' flashed one after another.

"Potter," hissed Draco, while the attention was on the 'wise men'. "What the hell is going on?"

"Looks like Blaise can't get them to move," Harry whispered back, a grin on his face. "Oh look, there we go!"

"Hey, I think we should keep following that star," Seamus' voice drifted down the aisle.

'WHERE'D YOU GET THAT IDEA FROM'.

"Ha," crowed Harry quietly, "looks like Blaise's Slytherin side cannot be repressed any longer!"

"But I want to sleep," wailed Neville.

'DO YOU THINK I CARE' flashed boldly in the air...It looked like Blaise really was getting impatient.

"No, we'd better get going. Come on." Luna led them down towards the stage. Blaise couldn't resist sticking up a 'FINALLY'.

Hermione had to suppress sniggers at Blaise's glare before she could carry on narrating, "So the wise men followed the star all the way to Bethlehem, where they found the baby Jesus and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Then they returned home and told everyone they met about the baby who would be king of all Israel."

After delivering their 'gifts', the three of them went off the stage.

Blaise glared after them and Draco whispered to Harry as the attention turned to Ginny and Ron who was sauntering onto the stage, "You'd think that after all the trouble of getting them up here, they'd stay a while longer!" Harry sniggered.

"So the wise men followed the star all the way to Bethlehem, where they found the baby Jesus and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Then they returned home and told everyone they met about the baby who would be king of all Israel," Hermione was saying.

Ron, by now, had reached the center of the stage.

"Unfortunately King Herod heard about this, and he wasn't a happy bunny," said Ginny.

"I'm going to be the only king round here! I decree that all baby boys in the land should be killed! Killed!" Ron growled.

"That's our cue," whispered Harry, dragging Draco and Snape (on the lead) away.

"When Mary and Joseph heard about the decree, they had to flee to Egypt, where they hid for two years," Hermione reported, then looked a little lost for words. "At last Herod died," she said uncertainly, nodding to Ron as he looked at her incredulously before 'dying' and being levitated off, "and they could safely return to Nazareth with Jesus."

Ginny ended the play with a couple of simple lines: "That's not the end of the story - it's only the beginning. But we aren't in the rest of it, so we thought you wouldn't find the rest of the story very interesting. We hope you have a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year!"

The curtains closed and everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief as they heard clapping from outside.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Potter!" Harry turned around at the sound of his name being called out, sighing. He was hoping to go straight back to Gryffindor and get some much needed sleep. Draco was walking towards him.

"Malfoy," he stated, curious as to why the Slytherin would want to talk to him.

"What the hell happened, Potter?" the blond asked, glaring accusingly at him. "You all knew your lines yesterday. And don't say you forgot them, I'm not stupid. I asked Granger and she told me to ask you, so spit it out, Potter."

Harry sighed. He figured he'd have to explain sooner or later (he wanted it to be later so he could think about what to say), he'd left the changing room early just to try to avoid the smaller boy.

"Fine," he said wearily. "I figured you didn't know your lines, which you didn't," he added, seeing Draco open his mouth to retort, "and I just thought that it was a little cruel to let you embarrass yourself. After all, you never asked to be in the play." Harry closed his eyes, afraid that the blond would be revolted with his next words. "I didn't want you to be made a fool of, so I told everyone else to just make the whole thing up, then we'd all look ridiculous and not just you."

"And why would you do that for me, Potter?" Draco asked gently, already half knowing the answer.

"Because I like you," Harry breathed, turning away. He was stopped when a slim hand caught his own. He felt a long, aristocratic finger tilting up his chin and his eyes snapped open. He found himself gazing into the same silver eyes he had dreamed about, night after night, and he saw open adoration within their depths.

"Good," was all the warning he was given before cool lips were pressed onto his own.

They broke apart when they heard loud cheering from behind them, and turned to find the cast and most of the occupants of the hall regarding the couple with amusement. Blushing slightly, they grinned impishly at each other, before running faster than a bat out of hell towards Gryffindor Tower.

Finite Incantatum