"I remember," said Harry, and then there was no time for them to talk privately any longer. As they came back into the main part of the Weasley yard, the crowd more-or-less swallowed them. Harry got separated from Draco and was sort of swept forward to a table piled high with gaily wrapped presents.
"Speech! Speech!" called out several voices in the crowd.
"Now, now, let's let the boys open up their presents, first," said Molly Weasley, bustling forward. "And then dinner and dancing, and then speeches later, when we cut the cake. That's how we've always done it in my family!"
Draco joined Harry at the table, then. He had a slightly contemptuous look on his face, as if he didn't think that was the proper way to go about things at all, but to his credit, he didn't say anything rude. In fact, he gestured grandly towards Harry. "Why don't you choose a present to begin with?"
Harry plucked one from the pile, and read the tag on it in a loud voice. "To Draco Snape from Ron Weasley!"
"One for yourself, I meant," murmured Draco.
"Go on."
Draco tugged on the silver ribbon and made short work of the wrapping paper. Then, an awful look crossed his face. It was gone in an instant, too fast for anyone else to catch it, Harry thought, but he'd seen it. Probably, Snape had noticed as well.
"It's a gag gift," said Draco, not revealing enough of it for Harry to know what the joke was. He waited a moment. Harry wasn't sure why, but it did seem like Draco was trying to flash a message with his eyes. A message someone had evidently got, since in the next moment he was holding the present aloft. "A magician's bag of tricks. I suppose this is Ron's way of saying I need to study a bit harder during my last year at school."
"No, it's my way of--" Ron abruptly stopped talking and glared at Hermione, who had come to stand next to him. "Hey! That hurt."
Well, she'd stopped Ron from saying anything about Rhiannon. Obviously, Hermione had mentioned the magic show Draco had put on, but Harry had no doubt that now, Hermione would set Ron straight about keeping Rhiannon's existence a secret.
"Good save," said Harry under his breath.
Instead of replying, Draco thrust a package wrapped in blue paper at Harry. "To Harry Potter from Hermione Granger!"
Harry grinned and unwrapped it, but when the present was revealed, he felt absolutely floored. It was a book whose title he couldn't hope to read, and a set of three spiral-bound notebooks, all of them filled with Hermione's precise writing, page after page of it. But the neatly centred title on the first page was what had caught his attention.
Translation: Middle Bulgarian to English
He glanced up from it, and met her eyes. "You translated the mirror book for me? The whole thing?"
"With the help of the rod." She came forward. "It was attached, as was a mirror."
"A mirror?"
"You're going to need one. And Viktor said to tell you that he needs the book back when you're done using it. Oh, here's the rest." Spotting a small rectangle wrapped in blue, she handed it to Harry. "In case you want to check my translation at some point."
Harry leaned forward to drop a kiss on her cheek. "I don't know how to thank you. You're the best."
"We'll talk a little later. Mirror magic is a tricky, but I found something you should start with, I think."
"I stand corrected." Harry kissed her other cheek. "You're better than the best. But for now, I think we have to keep going . . . no, don't move back, here's oneÖ to Draco Snape from Hermione Granger!"
Wow, the box was a lot heavier than Harry had expected. He almost dropped it when he slid it off the table and the full weight of it fell into his hands.
"I know about your gifts," said Draco to Hermione as he took the box from Harry and set it back onto the table so he could unwrap it. His voice could have been cutting, but it was mildly amused, instead. "You give people what you think they need, not what you know they want."
"I think what you need is what you want," said Hermione.
"Oh, really. Well, this should be interesting." By then, Draco had got the box open. When he peered inside, he slowly blinked.
"Books for all the years of Muggle Studies you missed. Since you told me you wanted to take the seventh-year course. You might as well be prepared, I thought."
"Thank you," said Draco, his voice warm, for all it was quiet. "I'd kiss your cheek too, but I think your boyfriend might take it amiss. We can't ruin the festive party spirit you worked so hard to arrange for H-- . . . er, for us, I mean."
Hermione merely smiled, and stepped back into the crowd.
"Muggle Studies textbooks!" announced Draco in a loud voice, plucking a couple of them out of the box and holding them up.
"You don't take Muggle Studies!" shouted a voice Harry would recognise anywhere. Seamus.
"I'm starting this year, and I'm earning a N.E.W.T. in it, just see if I don't," Draco called back. "It'll help me become better prepared to enter the Aurors' programme. After all, not all our wizarding citizens were raised in a magical environment!"
Harry hoped Kingsley had heard that, wherever he was. But if not, then maybe word would spread about how much Draco had changed.
They kept unwrapping presents, taking turns, the pile growing steadily smaller as they worked their way through it. Arthur and Molly gave each of them a pocket-watch. Ginny got Harry a set of cufflinks which he thought looked like more money than she should have spent, especially when he realised she'd bought an identical set for Draco. Harry was even more surprised when he saw that Hagrid had sent along presents for both Harry and Draco. Harry got a new perch for Hedwig.
Draco got a ferret.
Harry burst out laughing, as did several Gryffindors in his year.
Snape glowered. He obviously hadn't found the incident amusing in the least.
Draco looked like he was angry and trying to hide it behind a casual shrug. "Seems tame enough," was all he said, setting the cage back on the table.
"Are you going to keep it? You don't really have any sort of pet--"
"I'll think about it." Draco changed the subject by grabbing the gift nearest him. "Ah. For Harry Potter, from his best friend, Ron Weasley."
Harry was a little surprised that Draco had called Ron that, but then he saw that Draco had only read out loud what was written on the tag. Harry almost sighed. He was more than a little sick of Draco and Ron fighting over him. Couldn't he like them both?
He hurriedly tore off the wrapping to reveal a book. Not about Quidditch, either. It was an advice book, of all things. Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches.
Not much use to Harry, was it? He nodded in Ron's direction to thank him, then dropped the book on the table and promptly forgot all about it.
"Looks like there's only one present left," said Draco, picking it up and reading from the tag. "To Harry, from Dudley."
Harry beckoned his cousin closer, then began tearing the Muggle paper off a small box. After all the wild wizarding designs he'd been looking at for the past half-hour, the simple black-and-white checked paper was soothing to his eyes.
Popping open the box, he drew out what seemed to be some kind of ornament. Oh, a brooch. Sort of a big one, shaped like a pear, and covered with what looked like little bits of amber. It sparkled when he turned it this way and that, so much so that it struck Harry as horribly gaudy. Definitely, in much worse taste than the small, elegant pin Draco had given him the day before.
"Uh . . . thanks, Dudley," said Harry, trying to sound more enthusiastic than he felt. So what if the brooch was hideous? It was the thought that counted, after all.
There was a lot more thought in the gift than Harry knew at first, though.
"Yeah, weird, I know," said Dudley, laughing a little, like he was nervous and trying not to show it. "But see, I wrote your dad, asking him what he thought you'd like, and he said it was traditional for family members to give heirlooms for a seventeenth birthday. And, well . . ."