Six of One

The gang was having dinner in the Three Broomsticks.

"What are everyone's plans for Christmas this year?" Oliver asked.

"I dunno. Are we spending it with family or staying here?" Luna replied.

"My family's all going to Potter's Christmas ball, so I'm free," Ginny said.

"My parents are overseas," Pansy said.

"So are mine," Cedric added.

"I refuse to go back to the Manor. Every year my mother invites all her friends and tries to set me up with ugly and/or fat girls. I usually get so drunk I end up sleeping with one of them," Draco said.

"My dad is in Cambodia hunting Crumpled-Horn Snorkacks, so I'm free," Luna said.

"I haven't spoken to my parents in three years, since they practically disowned me when I decided to leave Puddlemere and become a writer," Oliver said.

"Okay, guess we're all staying here," Ginny replied after a pause, during which everyone took in these revelations.

"So, I guess we'll just have dinner or something," Draco said.

"Yeah. Pansy will cook," Ginny said.

"Oh, sure, Pansy will plan and cook an entire dinner on Christmas Day. It's not like she has a life or anything," Pansy said sarcastically.

"Fine. Luna will do it," Ginny replied.

"No, no, I wanna do it." Pansy said.

After coffee, they headed back upstairs to their apartment. Cedric found a piece of parchment lying on the coffee table.

"What's this?" he asked, picking it up.

Pansy read it out over his shoulder. "Dear Residents, Please be informed that due to maintenance work, all apparating wards will be affected, and therefore apparating in or out of the building will be prohibited during the 25^th of December. Our apologies for any inconvenience. Management."

"Oh, well, it's not as if we're going anywhere," Oliver said.

He suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, hey, you guys, I just remembered. My editor gave me the whole next week off, so I was thinking, we all take leave and we can just have a week of fun!" Oliver said.

"Oh, great idea! I think I'll be able to get off, the magazine just put through our December issue," Ginny said.

"If your idea of fun is lying around the house in pyjamas getting drunk, then sure, I'm in," Draco said.

"Yeah, Luna and I can close up the café for a week. We were taking Christmas and New Year's off anyway," Pansy said, looking at Luna, who nodded.

"I can get off work easy, no problem," Cedric said.

They spent the rest of the night listening to the wireless, while Pansy and Luna planned the Christmas menu and Draco and Oliver made a list of alcohol they needed to buy for their 'awesome kick-ass week of fun', as Oliver had christened it.

The next few days was spent in a frenzy of Christmas shopping, secret present buying and hiding, wrapping and the sacred event of putting up the Christmas tree. Ginny had ordered a deluxe, freshly cut tree from Belgium, and its arrival had been delayed. Finally, one night, Luna spotted something odd-shaped approaching their window, and opened it just in time for the eight enormous eagle owls to bring in the tree, which was packaged in about a million layers of paper. The six of them spent the evening decorating it.

"Argh, why didn't we just hire someone to do this?" Draco groaned as he attempted to untangle strings of Christmas lights.
"Because, putting up a Christmas tree together is a sacred, roommate-bonding occasion," Luna replied serenely as she levitated ornaments onto the plush, green boroughs.

"I think we have all bonded enough. Don't get me started on the time when I walked in on Cedric in the showe--," Draco said.

"You were the one who didn't follow the bathroom schedule!" Cedric cut in.

"The bathroom schedule doesn't account for occasions when someone goes a little crazy in the kitchen and sends tomato sauce flying straight into your face!" Draco retorted, glaring at Ginny.

"My wand was malfunctioning," she replied simply.

They managed to finish decorating the tree without any fiascos. Under Pansy's strict supervision and perfectionist behaviour, they ended up with a beautifully decorated tree, decked in twinkling gold lights, expensive red and gold ornaments and velvet red, gold-trimmed ribbon.

"Wow, it looks great," Cedric remarked as they all stood back to admire their work.

"It really does!" Draco exclaimed as he squinted at the tree, a bottle of beer clutched in his hand.

Two days before Christmas, and the day before the gang's 'week of fun' began, Ginny arrived home from work with a visitor in tow.

"Hey, everyone, this is Patrick. He works at the magazine," she introduced, and pulled in Patrick by the sleeve. "He's muggle-born, so I asked him to help me with something..."

"Go get it," she told Patrick, who went out the door.

"Go get what? I'm a little scared," Draco, who was sitting on the couch, whispered to Luna.

"Maybe she brought home a cat!" she whispered back.

"Luna! Don't scare me like that! You know I hate cats!" Draco shot back.

Patrick returned with a large cardboard box in tow.

"It's a television! The thing Muggles use to watch....things..." Ginny explained.

"Isn't there too much magic in Diagon Alley to set up that thing?" Oliver asked, suddenly the electrical expert.

"No, it's fine. I was able to find an antenna that converts magic into electricity to power the TV," Patrick explained.

"Oohhh..." everyone nodded, impressed.

They watched Patrick set up the television, and after he finished he left, but not before Cedric made a move on him and received a reprimand from Ginny.

"How cool is this? See, I thought we could use one for our AKAWOF, because apparently this is what Muggles do when they laze around at home," Ginny said as she flicked through the channels using the remote.

"Excuse me, but did you just abbreviate Awesome Kick-ass Week of Fun?" Oliver asked incredulously. "Respect the week!"

"God, sorry," Ginny said, rolling her eyes.

"It's so shiny!" Luna exclaimed, running her hand over the top of the TV.

They spent the rest of the night engrossed in the TV, resulting in an almost-duel between Cedric and Draco over who got to control the remote.

The next day, Ginny dragged Pansy, Cedric and Draco with her to a Muggle shop in London. They left Oliver and Luna at home, who refused to leave because they wanted to watch the morning cartoons. In the shop, they rode an escalator up to the electronic department, with Cedric quivering in fright the whole time. There, Ginny pulled a list out of her bag and showed the rest of them.

"This is a list of DVDs that Patrick gave me. They're these round silver things that you put in a machine and it plays movies," she explained. "So Patrick told me these are the best movies, and also we need to buy something called a DVD player."

"Oohhh, are movies like that thing Ron took us to watch one time?" Cedric asked excitedly, who was apparently recovered from his escalator ride.

"Yes!" Ginny said.

Between the four of them, they managed to choose fifty DVDs, narrowed down from two hundred, and a DVD player. When they brought home their new purchases, Oliver surprised everyone by managing to install the player successfully, and put in a DVD to play, after following the instructions in the booklet. They settled down with bottles of butterbeer and popcorn, and watched a movie.

"Dumbledore!" Draco yelled out suddenly in the middle of the movie.

"What?!" Pansy asked.

"Sorry, it's just this Gandalf dude reminded me of someone, and I just realised who," he replied.

"Shhhh!" Oliver shushed them, and they continued to finish the movie in silence.

The next day was Christmas Eve, and the gang went shopping. Pansy took Luna and Ginny grocery shopping for the Christmas dinner while the guys went shopping for alcohol to last the entire week of fun. They watched some more TV, and then when Luna and Cedric started complaining their eyes hurt, they turned it off, and spent the rest of the night roasting marshmallows, drinking wine and singing along to the carols on the wireless.