Draco Malfoy and the Half-Blood Btch-Chapter Sixteen; The Golden Christmas

When Belle stirred from her deep, fretful slumber, it was to discover the world outside had been consumed by the inky cloak of night and the moon shone like a lustrous pearl over the sparkling mounds of fresh snow that softly blanketed the frozen ground. Moonlight tip toed through her open curtains and cast a silver glow about the room; the candles had been put out, and the cold seemed to seep in from the windows and skipped along Belle's exposed flesh, causing her to shiver. Belle could not see her clock, but she guessed by the position of the moon that it was somewhere around midnight.
Blindly fumbling her hands around on her nightstand for her wand, and finally she found it and cast light upon the room. 11:37pm, the hands of her clock read. Must've had a bad dream.... Belle thought, though the details of her last waking hours were very hazy. She could not recall specific events, just random flashes of sights and sounds. Belle then realized she felt inexplicably...light. Like some mammoth weight she had not known existed had been lifted from her chest, like she was somehow...freer.
"I'm...." Belle muttered aloud, searching the crevices of her mind for the correct term, "I'm contented. I'm not frustrated, or, or searching anymore." She whispered, hardly daring to believe the words had left her lips. Grasping the edge of her bed for support, Belle slowly stood, trying to remain level-headed. The light of her wand revealed several items at the foot of her bed, and upon examining them more closely, Belle remembered opening these gifts hours ago. Her chest seemed to fill with a sort of pleasant bubbling sensation; gratitude, Belle told herself.
Tap tap tap. Belle jumped at the sound that had come so suddenly out of the silence, and at first she could not place its source. Tap tap tap. It came again, and when Belle moved towards the glass doors that led out to the balcony she saw a dark form hovering above her window. Curiously (not suspiciously, curiously, she thought excitedly) she approached the unknown courier that so intrigued her newly found inquisitiveness, and without hesitating she opened the door a sliver and slid out onto the balcony.
Malfoy was hovering on his polished Nimbus 2001, his pale features illuminated by the ghostly moon. He stared at her as if waiting for a reply, is eyes searching hers inquiringly. "Well?" He finally asked after several long moments of silence.
"Well what?"
"Well," he drawled, as if it were obvious why he was perched on her balcony in the dead of night, "do you want your Christmas present or what?"
Belle knit her eyebrows, and then let out a little laugh that seemed to ring like holiday chimes over the frigid wonderland. "You got me a present?" She laughed again, the words sounding delightfully ludicrous as they danced across her lips.
"Fine, if you don't want it..." Malfoy said, trying to seem exasperated, though Belle could see he was slightly stung; he thought she was mocking him.

Oh, I love Christmas :)
"No, no I do!" She said, grabbing hold of his broom to stop him from leaving, "this is just...really atypical of you. I mean...." She trailed off, unable to find words to adequately describe the oddity of the situation. "Just one second."
Belle dashed back into her room and snatched the Ravenclaw scarf and gloves Sally-Anne had given her for Christmas. Her eyes found the perfume Padma had given her. "Oh, what the hell." She said, dabbing some on her wrists and neck. The perfume had taken on an intoxicatingly warm, rich smell, like cinnamon honey drizzled over freshly roasted chestnuts.
Bounding back out to the balcony, Belle was half-surprised to find Draco still waiting for her. She was almost sure it had been some wisp of a dream left behind by her long slumber. Taking a deep breath, Belle slid gracefully onto the back of the broom before she could convince herself otherwise. Malfoy was clearly thinking along these same lines, for the moment she was seated securely behind him, he kicked off hard and they soared upwards into the night. Belle grabbed onto Malfoy's waist instinctively, and that breathtaking tingling sensation tickled her palms through her gloves; Belle shivered, though not because her breath escaped her trembling lips in visible puffs and the wind was biting playfully at her cheeks as they whizzed through the dark sky.
A little over fifteen minutes after they had taken off, the broom began to descend, and though Belle was nearly frozen to the handle, she could not help the guilty bubble of regret that rose in her stomach at the thought of dismounting and losing the intense comfort that had taken hold of her senses. Nevertheless, when Malfoy came to a gentle stop a few feet of the ground, Belle took arms from around him and slipped off the side.
They had come to the middle of a wood, and though the trees stood like ancient giants with their thick branches reaching across the heavens, the dazzling white snow carpeted the forest floor. Before them, doused in silver moonlight, lay the most gargantuan tree Belle had ever laid eyes on; its artfully twisted limbs bore no leaves, and no creatures skipped across the blistered bark, but it was somehow full of life as it gazed down upon the forest. The stars seemed to twinkle knowingly at her through the canopy; she smiled back at the midnight canvas, eager to learn the secret they took part in.
"Wait a second," Belle said, a thought striking her, "the Unbreakable Vow. I thought if I left the Manor, I would die." Draco turned and glanced at her, his broomstick now in hand.
"It's just the Malfoy property you've got to be on," he explained as he conjured a blanket out of nothing. "Technically, these woods belong to our family." He performed a tricky little charm that Belle recognized as a drying spell on the blanket and then sat down, checking his watch. "Just another minute or so, I'd say." He muttered to himself.

Click
Belle fidgeted for a moment before plopping down next to him; though she did not feel the constant irritation that had plagued her for four years any longer, she was still wary. "Why are you doing this?" She finally asked, chancing to look his way.
"Well," he began in a patronizing voice, "in most societies, Christmas Day is seen as a time to give one another gifts"
"Shut up!" Belle laughed, smacking him on the arm. "What I meant was, all we've ever done is fight; I was under the impression you weren't terribly fond of me. In fact I recall you referring to me as a 'pathetic half-blood' on more than one occasion. Why the sudden gesture of kindness?"
"Dunno," he shrugged. "Thought I'd be civil, I s'pose. That a crime these days?"
"So what makes you think I suddenly want to be friends?" Belle asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You came, didn't you?" He shot back, his silver eyes gleaming in the moonlight. When the doubt did not slide from her face, he sighed. "I don't see why you have to question it. Can't you just accept that someone's being genuinely decent to you?"
Belle bit her lip, unable to construct an appropriate response. She was saved from responding, for just then a shimmer of golden light came from the old giant that rested in front of them. Belle was sure that her eyes had tricked her when another shimmer of light burst from under a root. And then another. And another. The beautiful light was beginning to erupt from every crack and fissure of the bark, and soon the whole tree seemed to be burning in the brilliant golden sparkles.
With each blast of light, Belle realized, there came delicate figures that seemed to emanate the golden glow. "Fairies," she breathed in amazement. An enchanted tune, barely audible in the still night, flitted along the breeze and around the fragile creatures, and they began to dance to it. Twinkling and laughing, the music and fairies mesmerized the witch and wizard, though it was unknown to either whether the fairies knew or cared of their presence. Like everlasting fireworks the fairies grew in number and their glow lit up the forest, until the light radiated from the very soul of the wood.
Belle could not have said how long she and Draco sat under the fairies' spell, for time itself seemed to have stopped to watch the dance. But alas the glow began to recede, and so did its winged ballerinas, until there was but one beautiful fairy left, and then she sank back into the wood, and all was still.
Dawn erupted over the line of trees, the blood red December sun streaking the indigo sky pink and orange. Belle could not remember her heart being so full of wonder at the beauty of the world; her smile seemed to grow with the sun's rise, until she seemed a goddess of the celestial orb itself. Her heart beat rhythmically and boundlessly in her chest, and her brain whirred with long dormant feelings of liberty and awe.

Mucho importante ending in the results!
Malfoy seemed stunned by her outburst of aberrant joy, but her happiness was contagious and a genuine smile crept across his pointed face. They sat that way for a moment, gazing at the sunrise and smiling, contented in their frosted oasis.
Without warning, a silvery peacock pelted towards the clearing, and when it landed and directed its vain, striking head in their direction, it spoke in the cold voice of Narcissa Malfoy,
"You are to return to the Manor at once. Your punishment will be set once there. I expect an immediate reply, and your arrival in less than ten minutes." As the Patronus vanished into the air, Belle and Draco caught one another's eye.
"SH*T!" They shouted together, and without a second thought they leaped on Draco's broom and raced off towards the rising sun and what was sure to be an unpleasant conversation.
***
Hahaha, I'm mean, aren't I? These two finally have a moment and then it's all gone to waste by Narcissa. That sucks. Well, it's a start for Belle and Draco, isn't it? But is she really changed, and if she is, what if Malfoy's just using her on Voldemort's orders? Stay tuned kids. Thanks for reading as always, please rate and message!