Our First Noel

It was Hermione and Draco's first Christmas together as a married couple. They had gotten married two years after they graduated. It was a big wedding, neither of Draco's parents had shown up but both of Hermione's did as well as the rest of her family. Draco had invited his parents even though he had a feeling they wouldn't attend, and that was the last he had ever said to them. Most of the guests at the wedding were Gryffindors, all of the Weasleys, many people from the Order who weren't on duty, and Harry of course. Draco had wanted a small, intimate wedding and Hermione agreed, but she didn't have the heart to knock some of the people off the guest list. Since Hermione's family, besides her parents, still didn't know Hermione was a witch, they had to have a Muggle wedding. Hermione was worried about this because she didn't think Draco would approve, but he did to her surprise. They had taken a lot of pictures using the wizard camera for them so they would move. It was one of the only things they used from the wizarding world in their wedding. Hermione and Draco always got a laugh out the pictures when they looked through their album.

As well as being married, they were also expecting. They hadn't really planned on having a baby so soon, but when Hermione found out that she was pregnant she was overjoyed and so was Draco. They decided they didn't want to know the sex of the baby. Well, actually Hermione decided she didn't want to know the sex of the baby, Draco did, but Hermione wasn't allowing him to know either. Although Hermione wasn't due until June she was still feeling some of the things that go along with being pregnant. They were going to have a big Christmas party, and invite all of their friends and colleagues from work, but Hermione didn't want to have to deal with all of the stress of planning it while she was pregnant. So, they decided to just invite Harry and Ron over.

They both agreed that they weren't going to spend a lot of money on each other, but they both broke that agreement. There were a ton of presents under their tree in their new house. Hermione always laughed to herself when she passed the tree, Draco had decorated it as a surprise since Hermione had been having to work a lot of overtime. When she came home from work, the tree was on the ground, ornaments broken, tinsel everywhere. She remembered Draco coming out of the bathroom with a very frustrated look on his face, which then softened when he saw Hermione.

"Surprise!" he yelled. "I had some, er...problems with the tree...I was trying to decorate it without magic and this is what happened," he said pointing to tree.

They picked up the tree and put it back in its stand, they then swept up the broken ornaments and tinsel and started over. When they were done, the tree still looked strange because the right half of it had a lot of pine needles missing from when it fell so it was sort of lopsided. There was still tinsel everywhere from when Draco had thrown a big handful of it at Hermione for making fun of his Christmas tree problems.

Hermione and Draco were now making Christmas cookies. Well, Hermione was making Christmas cookies, Draco was being more of a burden then a help. He kept eating the dough when Hermione's back was turned.

"You're just like a little kid!" she'd yell when she saw fingerprints in the dough.

Draco would then shrug his shoulders. "I don't know what you're talking about," he'd say sarcastically.

Harry and Ron were going to be over in about an hour. Even though Ron still wasn't sure about Draco, he had lightened up to him considerably. Harry had become a good friend of Draco's the year before Draco and Hermione had gotten married, so Hermione told Harry to persuade Ron into liking Draco.

There were lights up all around the house, as well as wreaths and garland. Their house was small, but Hermione and Draco both liked the cozy feeling of it. It was a split-level with two bedrooms upstairs and a kitchen, a living room and a bathroom on the first floor. There was also a basement that was used for parties, but that was about it because it wasn't finished and it was sort of drafty. The fireplace warmed the whole house up when they didn't feel like using the heater. Ron still didn't understand why they didn't use magic a lot. Hermione didn't want to be dependent on magic for everything, so she only used it at work and whenever there was an emergency, or she was sick. Draco used it more than Hermione did, but he agreed that they shouldn't be dependent on magic.

Hermione had just started to put the cookies in the oven when the doorbell rang. Draco walked over to the door and opened it for Harry and Ron. He gave both of them a hug and wished them a merry Christmas.

"Hermione will be out in a minute, she's just putting the rest of the cookies in the oven," Draco informed Harry and Ron.

"Uh oh, Hermione's cooking? We don't have to eat the stuff do we?" Ron said in a worried tone of voice as he took off his jacket.

"No, you can do what I do and just pretend," Draco said as he winked. "Well come on, sit down."

Hermione walked into the living room. "Ron! Harry!" she said giving each of them big hugs. She then punched Ron in the arm. "I heard what you said about my cooking, and you," she said looking in the direction of Draco. "Pretending to eat my cooking!"

Draco laughed. "I was joking Hermione!"

"Let me just add, that I didn't say anything about your cooking," said Harry chiming into the conversation.

"Well, you could have at least stuck up for me!" Hermione added.

Ron started laughing. "I haven't looked at these pictures yet!"

"Oh, me neither, let me see," Harry said sitting next to Ron on the couch and pulling the wedding album closer.

"You were so drunk Harry, you were two seconds away from jumping on the table and dancing!" Ron said laughing.

"I was not!" Harry yelled back sort of embarrassed.

"Sure you weren't" Hermione and Draco replied in unison.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Married people..."

The rest of the night was spent talking and making fun of Hermione's sugar cookies, even though they all secretly thought they were good. They also played a few card game until Harry and Ron left at 11:30.

Hermione sighed. "Only a half hour left until Christmas is over."

"Yea, it was fun, but let's make the most out of our half hour together," Draco said with a smirk.

"Okay," Hermione said as she leaned in to kiss him.

Draco picked Hermione up and carried her over to the couch and kissed her. "Merry Christmas," he said as he flicked out the lights leaving just the glow of the embers in the fireplace being the only light.

Draco and Hermione lied curled up on the couch together talking and snuggling until they finally fell asleep at five past midnight. They had completely forgotten about the presents under the tree because to them, that wasn't what Christmas was all about.