dramaturgy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dramaturgy) wrote2002-12-23 07:30 pm
dramaturgy) wrote2002-12-23 07:30 pm
Entry tags:
Fic - Harry Potter - Gift of the Magi
FIC: The Gift of the Magi
AUTHOR: Liz
RATING: PG
CATEGORY: Fluff. Well, maybe not quite, but definitely the fluffiest thing I've ever written.
E-MAIL: dizzylizzy182@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter and other associated copyrights, no copyright infringement or harm to Bloomsbury, Scholastic, Warner Bros., or J.K. Rowling is intended by me, the author. Also no copyright infringement is intended on "The Gift of the Magi" or O. Henry who is probably spinning circles willy-nilly in his grave.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Last night I was sitting around, trying to think of what I could write that would even scale next to all the other things sent to the list this Ficmas, and I was drawing a blank. The only thing that came to mind was Ron as The Ghost of Christmas Future a la "A Christmas Carol". But then I picked up my uber large book of Christmasy tales, and turned to the Gift of the Magi. I read it about four times before something clicked. I hope you enjoy this half as well as I enjoyed writing it. Takes place during Draco's seventh year and Ginny's sixth.
DEDICATION: To my best friend Rachel who gives me joy. And Neil because I haven't heard from him in an age and a half and I miss him. ;_;
The Gift of the Magi
The last Hogsmeade weekend before Christmas was always busy. Merchants had sales, hoping to attract the eyes of students still shopping for their families and friends. Hogsmeade residents were also out and about, taking advantage of the discounted merchandise. Men, women, and children bustled about the street, in and out of businesses.
Ah, the smell of commerce in the morning.
Draco wandered down the main drag in Hogsmeade, looking into windows and pondering what to get Ginny for Christmas. She had, of course, insisted that no presents were needed, but he wanted to give her something. The thing was, he didn't have much money kept. If he needed or wanted something, he wrote his parents and either received it or money for purchasing it.
But he didn't have the nerve to ask his parents for money to buy a gift for Ginny. He would have been more likely to receive a package of poison and instructions how to administer it. Since that was something he counted as "Definitely Not An Option", Draco found himself preparing to enter Zilb's Pawn and Junk shop. Checking to make sure none of his classmates were about to see him enter the dingy little shop that was often ignored, and satisfied that no one had seen him, he ducked in the door.
The door shut behind him, blocking out the sounds of the people on the street and the cold wind. Draco pulled his gloves off of his hands as he surveyed the shop's interior. It had a homely feel to it, with the counters, shelves, worn walls, and scrubbed floors all made of the same wood, and a fire cracking merrily in the fireplace along one wall. He slowly approached a counter, and looked through the glass top at the three levels. Tarot cards, casting stones, rune stones, and incense were mingled in the first case. The next case held a myriad of carved wooden boxes. *Nice,* he thought, looking interestedly at a polished dark wood box with a rose carved on the lid. *But not quite right.*
"Can I help you?" Draco jumped a little and jerked his head up. Behind the counter stood an old wizard, perhaps as old as Dumbledore, he thought. He sort of reminded Draco of him, too, with a long beard and glasses perched on his nose.
"Perhaps," Draco finally answered, loosening his green and silver scarf from around his neck. "I'm looking for a present for my girlfriend."
"Ah," the man said, his eyes twinkling. "And you need a special gift for a special young lady."
A slight pink tinge came to Draco's pale cheeks. "Something like that."
The old man slinked along the counter as he spoke. "I'm sure we can find something here," Draco found himself following him to the counter near the back of the store, somewhat mesmerized. "Tell me," the old man said softly, "does your young lady like jewelry?"
Draco had to think about that for a minute. "Yes," he said with certainty. Ginny didn't generally go into material things, but she did like jewelry. "Yes she does."
The old man showed Draco several pieces of jewelry. Rings, necklaces, and bracelets in silver, gold, and bronze. None seemed like they would quite suit Ginny. "Wait," Draco said suddenly, a thought striking him. "Do you have charms? Like, for a charm bracelet?"
"Ah, progress!" the man commented with an amused grin. "We do have charms," he added, extracting a medium-sized wicker basket from the shelf behind him. Opening it revealed a plethora of charms in so many shapes and sizes Draco could have never counted them all. He fingered a small brass heart, reluctantly passed up a silver snake, and then picked up a gold Snitch. A slow smile spread across his face, and he uttered one word. "Perfect."
"It pleases you?"
"It pleases me greatly," Draco said. But now here came the scary part. "How much?"
"That particular charm -- very fine crafted, protective charm -- is five galleons and four sickles," the old man answered, closing the lid of the basket.
"Ouch," Draco said quietly. He reached into his trouser pockets and pulled out the two galleons and three sickles in his possession. "Dammit." He knew that would happen, but it didn't stop his feeble hope that the galleons and sickles would start reproducing asexually in his pocket.
The old man examined Draco for a moment over the top of his spectacles. "Does the young sir have anything of value to sell?"
His speech pattern vaguely reminded Draco of a house elf, which was slightly annoying, but completely irrelevant at the moment. "I don't th--," and he stopped as his fingers curled around something in his pocket. "I *do*," he said, drawing it out. The pocket watch glinted as he opened it and looked at the face. As long as it had been in his possession, it had never worked. "But, this is a family heirloom… I can't sell it," he said.
"Perhaps we can work something out, yes?" the old man suggested.
"What sort of something?" Draco asked.
"Collateral. Its not a trade, not selling; you give me the money and the watch, you get the charm. When you have the rest of the money, you come back, pay up, and you get your watch back. Quite simple."
Silence. "You won't resell it?"
"Its collateral. I can't resell it."
"Okay," Draco said, before he could talk himself out of it, putting the money and the watch on the counter. Soon, the charm was in a small white box on cotton batting. *She's worth it,* he thought. "Careful with that watch," he said, the box in his trousers pocket and pulling his gloves back on.
"No worries, master Malfoy. Your watch is in safe hands."
Draco nodded. "Thank you. Happy Christmas."
~*~
A bit later in the afternoon, Ginny was walking through the street with Hermione. Hermione was looking for a gift for Ron, and had asked for Ginny's assistance. As she still had to get a gift for Draco, she had obliged.
"The boys are *so* hard to buy for," Hermione lamented as they left Zonko's empty handed. "Ask them what they want, and they say, 'I don't know' and you never hear anymore about it."
"Oh, I know," Ginny agreed. "You'll never get a straight answer out of them." It was true enough with Draco and her brothers, anyway. They continued down the street, occasionally going into a store, or sometimes just lingering in front at the window. They reached the end of the street, and Ginny sighed. "That's that. We'll just have to tell them that they don't get a present this year because they were being difficult."
Hermione laughed, but pointed to the nondescript building in front of them, with the sign that advertised it as "Zilb's Junk and Pawn Shop". "We haven't gone in there yet," she said, putting one hand on the door knob.
"Are you sure that we'll be able to find something in there?" Ginny asked.
"Won't know until we try," Hermione said, letting herself into the shop. Ginny followed, relieved to at least be out of the cold and the falling snow. It was cozy inside the shop, and the wooden exterior was charming. An old woman who looked something like Ginny imagined her mother might look like in about thirty to forty years smiled at them from in front of a fireplace. "Can I help you two young ladies?" she asked.
"Yes," Hermione answered. "We're both looking for gifts for our boyfriends."
"Ah, gifts for significant others!" The old woman looked absolutely tickled. Her good mood was infectious; Hermione and Ginny were both smiling. "What did you have in mind?" she asked, standing behind one of the counters.
"Well," Hermione said. "I'm not really sure… Ron likes to do a lot with Divination…"
"Do you like Divination dear?"
"Me? I think it’s a pile of drivel, but Ron seems to have a knack for it."
While Ginny and the old woman discussed Divination and other things, Ginny looked at the items on the shelves and in the counters. She passed by a bookshelf, flavored sugar quills, and a shelf of knick knacks like Sneakoscopes and Rememberalls. There was a shelf of knives and daggers with decorated handles and serrated blades. It made Ginny shiver, so she quickly moved to the next shelf. Watches. She remembered that Draco had a pocket watch, and that the chain attached to it had broke in several different places about a week and a half ago. "Excuse me, miss?" Ginny called to the old woman. "Do you have watch chains?"
The old woman left Hermione looking at several different tarot decks, and walked beside Ginny. "We have a fine selection of watch chains."
"Could I please see them?"
A wooden box was taken out from under the counter. It was laid in front of Ginny, and she slowly opened it. About twelve different chains shone against the dark velvet interior of the box. She ran her fingers over each of them, lingering reverently over the last one. "I like this one," she said.
"A wise choice," the old woman smiled, pulling the chain out of the box. "Beautiful chain, eighteen inches, four galleons and six sickles, that one."
Ginny looked up from the chain. "How much?" she asked. The old woman repeated the price, and Ginny sighed. She didn't know what else she would find to get Draco, she *knew* he needed a new watch chain, but her current wealth consisted of a galleon and nine sickles. Looking at her hands, she saw her charm bracelet on her wrist. She had bought the charm bracelet in Ottery St. Catchpole in a muggle store, and doing the quick math in her head, it would be enough to make up the difference of the money she had and the money he needed. "This is a pawn shop, too, right?" Ginny asked the woman.
"It is."
Almost with shaking fingers, she undid the clasp of her charm bracelet and set it in front of the old woman. "What can I get for this?"
The old woman put on a pair of glasses, and held the bracelet up in her fingers. "Nice quality, very well kept," she appraised with an approving nod.
Ginny smiled shyly. "With six older brothers I've learned to take care of things lest I find them broken."
"I could give you four galleons for it," the old woman said.
*You can always either come back and buy it back or get a new one this summer,* she told herself. *Besides, its for Draco. And its Christmas.* "All right," she said. "I'll sell you the bracelet and take the watch chain."
The exchange was made, and the chain was put into a little white box and the change went into Ginny's pockets. She had grown attached to that bracelet over the few months she'd had it, but it had only had two charms on it, and felt better when she thought about the watch chain in the box in her bag. Hermione purchased a tarot deck and a swath of silk for Ron, and they left the shop.
~*~
On Christmas morning, Draco and Ginny met in the Great Hall at breakfast and exchanged their gifts there. The wrapped gifts sat by their plates while they talked over breakfast. When they finished eating, they picked up the small boxes and looked at each other. "After you," Draco said.
"No, you go," Ginny said.
"Please, I insist."
"Age before beauty," Ginny grinned and batted her eyes innocently.
Draco gave her an appraising look. "Let's open them at the same time."
With no other word being spoken between them, the ripped the paper off of the packages and opened the boxes. Ginny held up the Snitch charm. "Oh, wow," she said, probably sounding a bit more fake than she meant to. "Thanks, Draco…"
At the same moment, Draco lifted the watch chain from the box, and held it in both of his hands. Shock was clearly displayed on his face. "Ginny, I… thanks," he said.
They looked at each other. Ginny spoke first. "Draco… I pawned my bracelet to get the chain…"
"I gave the watch for collateral to get the charm," Draco answered.
At first, a smile tugged at the corner of Ginny's mouth. The slight smile turned into a giggle. The giggle turned into a laugh. And the laugh turned into tears of mirth. Draco didn't see what was so funny at first, but when Ginny calmed down for a moment and burst into giggles again by looking at him, he started to smile too. Pretty soon they were both laughing so hard they were attracting Looks from everyone in the Hall.
AUTHOR: Liz
RATING: PG
CATEGORY: Fluff. Well, maybe not quite, but definitely the fluffiest thing I've ever written.
E-MAIL: dizzylizzy182@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter and other associated copyrights, no copyright infringement or harm to Bloomsbury, Scholastic, Warner Bros., or J.K. Rowling is intended by me, the author. Also no copyright infringement is intended on "The Gift of the Magi" or O. Henry who is probably spinning circles willy-nilly in his grave.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Last night I was sitting around, trying to think of what I could write that would even scale next to all the other things sent to the list this Ficmas, and I was drawing a blank. The only thing that came to mind was Ron as The Ghost of Christmas Future a la "A Christmas Carol". But then I picked up my uber large book of Christmasy tales, and turned to the Gift of the Magi. I read it about four times before something clicked. I hope you enjoy this half as well as I enjoyed writing it. Takes place during Draco's seventh year and Ginny's sixth.
DEDICATION: To my best friend Rachel who gives me joy. And Neil because I haven't heard from him in an age and a half and I miss him. ;_;
The Gift of the Magi
The last Hogsmeade weekend before Christmas was always busy. Merchants had sales, hoping to attract the eyes of students still shopping for their families and friends. Hogsmeade residents were also out and about, taking advantage of the discounted merchandise. Men, women, and children bustled about the street, in and out of businesses.
Ah, the smell of commerce in the morning.
Draco wandered down the main drag in Hogsmeade, looking into windows and pondering what to get Ginny for Christmas. She had, of course, insisted that no presents were needed, but he wanted to give her something. The thing was, he didn't have much money kept. If he needed or wanted something, he wrote his parents and either received it or money for purchasing it.
But he didn't have the nerve to ask his parents for money to buy a gift for Ginny. He would have been more likely to receive a package of poison and instructions how to administer it. Since that was something he counted as "Definitely Not An Option", Draco found himself preparing to enter Zilb's Pawn and Junk shop. Checking to make sure none of his classmates were about to see him enter the dingy little shop that was often ignored, and satisfied that no one had seen him, he ducked in the door.
The door shut behind him, blocking out the sounds of the people on the street and the cold wind. Draco pulled his gloves off of his hands as he surveyed the shop's interior. It had a homely feel to it, with the counters, shelves, worn walls, and scrubbed floors all made of the same wood, and a fire cracking merrily in the fireplace along one wall. He slowly approached a counter, and looked through the glass top at the three levels. Tarot cards, casting stones, rune stones, and incense were mingled in the first case. The next case held a myriad of carved wooden boxes. *Nice,* he thought, looking interestedly at a polished dark wood box with a rose carved on the lid. *But not quite right.*
"Can I help you?" Draco jumped a little and jerked his head up. Behind the counter stood an old wizard, perhaps as old as Dumbledore, he thought. He sort of reminded Draco of him, too, with a long beard and glasses perched on his nose.
"Perhaps," Draco finally answered, loosening his green and silver scarf from around his neck. "I'm looking for a present for my girlfriend."
"Ah," the man said, his eyes twinkling. "And you need a special gift for a special young lady."
A slight pink tinge came to Draco's pale cheeks. "Something like that."
The old man slinked along the counter as he spoke. "I'm sure we can find something here," Draco found himself following him to the counter near the back of the store, somewhat mesmerized. "Tell me," the old man said softly, "does your young lady like jewelry?"
Draco had to think about that for a minute. "Yes," he said with certainty. Ginny didn't generally go into material things, but she did like jewelry. "Yes she does."
The old man showed Draco several pieces of jewelry. Rings, necklaces, and bracelets in silver, gold, and bronze. None seemed like they would quite suit Ginny. "Wait," Draco said suddenly, a thought striking him. "Do you have charms? Like, for a charm bracelet?"
"Ah, progress!" the man commented with an amused grin. "We do have charms," he added, extracting a medium-sized wicker basket from the shelf behind him. Opening it revealed a plethora of charms in so many shapes and sizes Draco could have never counted them all. He fingered a small brass heart, reluctantly passed up a silver snake, and then picked up a gold Snitch. A slow smile spread across his face, and he uttered one word. "Perfect."
"It pleases you?"
"It pleases me greatly," Draco said. But now here came the scary part. "How much?"
"That particular charm -- very fine crafted, protective charm -- is five galleons and four sickles," the old man answered, closing the lid of the basket.
"Ouch," Draco said quietly. He reached into his trouser pockets and pulled out the two galleons and three sickles in his possession. "Dammit." He knew that would happen, but it didn't stop his feeble hope that the galleons and sickles would start reproducing asexually in his pocket.
The old man examined Draco for a moment over the top of his spectacles. "Does the young sir have anything of value to sell?"
His speech pattern vaguely reminded Draco of a house elf, which was slightly annoying, but completely irrelevant at the moment. "I don't th--," and he stopped as his fingers curled around something in his pocket. "I *do*," he said, drawing it out. The pocket watch glinted as he opened it and looked at the face. As long as it had been in his possession, it had never worked. "But, this is a family heirloom… I can't sell it," he said.
"Perhaps we can work something out, yes?" the old man suggested.
"What sort of something?" Draco asked.
"Collateral. Its not a trade, not selling; you give me the money and the watch, you get the charm. When you have the rest of the money, you come back, pay up, and you get your watch back. Quite simple."
Silence. "You won't resell it?"
"Its collateral. I can't resell it."
"Okay," Draco said, before he could talk himself out of it, putting the money and the watch on the counter. Soon, the charm was in a small white box on cotton batting. *She's worth it,* he thought. "Careful with that watch," he said, the box in his trousers pocket and pulling his gloves back on.
"No worries, master Malfoy. Your watch is in safe hands."
Draco nodded. "Thank you. Happy Christmas."
~*~
A bit later in the afternoon, Ginny was walking through the street with Hermione. Hermione was looking for a gift for Ron, and had asked for Ginny's assistance. As she still had to get a gift for Draco, she had obliged.
"The boys are *so* hard to buy for," Hermione lamented as they left Zonko's empty handed. "Ask them what they want, and they say, 'I don't know' and you never hear anymore about it."
"Oh, I know," Ginny agreed. "You'll never get a straight answer out of them." It was true enough with Draco and her brothers, anyway. They continued down the street, occasionally going into a store, or sometimes just lingering in front at the window. They reached the end of the street, and Ginny sighed. "That's that. We'll just have to tell them that they don't get a present this year because they were being difficult."
Hermione laughed, but pointed to the nondescript building in front of them, with the sign that advertised it as "Zilb's Junk and Pawn Shop". "We haven't gone in there yet," she said, putting one hand on the door knob.
"Are you sure that we'll be able to find something in there?" Ginny asked.
"Won't know until we try," Hermione said, letting herself into the shop. Ginny followed, relieved to at least be out of the cold and the falling snow. It was cozy inside the shop, and the wooden exterior was charming. An old woman who looked something like Ginny imagined her mother might look like in about thirty to forty years smiled at them from in front of a fireplace. "Can I help you two young ladies?" she asked.
"Yes," Hermione answered. "We're both looking for gifts for our boyfriends."
"Ah, gifts for significant others!" The old woman looked absolutely tickled. Her good mood was infectious; Hermione and Ginny were both smiling. "What did you have in mind?" she asked, standing behind one of the counters.
"Well," Hermione said. "I'm not really sure… Ron likes to do a lot with Divination…"
"Do you like Divination dear?"
"Me? I think it’s a pile of drivel, but Ron seems to have a knack for it."
While Ginny and the old woman discussed Divination and other things, Ginny looked at the items on the shelves and in the counters. She passed by a bookshelf, flavored sugar quills, and a shelf of knick knacks like Sneakoscopes and Rememberalls. There was a shelf of knives and daggers with decorated handles and serrated blades. It made Ginny shiver, so she quickly moved to the next shelf. Watches. She remembered that Draco had a pocket watch, and that the chain attached to it had broke in several different places about a week and a half ago. "Excuse me, miss?" Ginny called to the old woman. "Do you have watch chains?"
The old woman left Hermione looking at several different tarot decks, and walked beside Ginny. "We have a fine selection of watch chains."
"Could I please see them?"
A wooden box was taken out from under the counter. It was laid in front of Ginny, and she slowly opened it. About twelve different chains shone against the dark velvet interior of the box. She ran her fingers over each of them, lingering reverently over the last one. "I like this one," she said.
"A wise choice," the old woman smiled, pulling the chain out of the box. "Beautiful chain, eighteen inches, four galleons and six sickles, that one."
Ginny looked up from the chain. "How much?" she asked. The old woman repeated the price, and Ginny sighed. She didn't know what else she would find to get Draco, she *knew* he needed a new watch chain, but her current wealth consisted of a galleon and nine sickles. Looking at her hands, she saw her charm bracelet on her wrist. She had bought the charm bracelet in Ottery St. Catchpole in a muggle store, and doing the quick math in her head, it would be enough to make up the difference of the money she had and the money he needed. "This is a pawn shop, too, right?" Ginny asked the woman.
"It is."
Almost with shaking fingers, she undid the clasp of her charm bracelet and set it in front of the old woman. "What can I get for this?"
The old woman put on a pair of glasses, and held the bracelet up in her fingers. "Nice quality, very well kept," she appraised with an approving nod.
Ginny smiled shyly. "With six older brothers I've learned to take care of things lest I find them broken."
"I could give you four galleons for it," the old woman said.
*You can always either come back and buy it back or get a new one this summer,* she told herself. *Besides, its for Draco. And its Christmas.* "All right," she said. "I'll sell you the bracelet and take the watch chain."
The exchange was made, and the chain was put into a little white box and the change went into Ginny's pockets. She had grown attached to that bracelet over the few months she'd had it, but it had only had two charms on it, and felt better when she thought about the watch chain in the box in her bag. Hermione purchased a tarot deck and a swath of silk for Ron, and they left the shop.
~*~
On Christmas morning, Draco and Ginny met in the Great Hall at breakfast and exchanged their gifts there. The wrapped gifts sat by their plates while they talked over breakfast. When they finished eating, they picked up the small boxes and looked at each other. "After you," Draco said.
"No, you go," Ginny said.
"Please, I insist."
"Age before beauty," Ginny grinned and batted her eyes innocently.
Draco gave her an appraising look. "Let's open them at the same time."
With no other word being spoken between them, the ripped the paper off of the packages and opened the boxes. Ginny held up the Snitch charm. "Oh, wow," she said, probably sounding a bit more fake than she meant to. "Thanks, Draco…"
At the same moment, Draco lifted the watch chain from the box, and held it in both of his hands. Shock was clearly displayed on his face. "Ginny, I… thanks," he said.
They looked at each other. Ginny spoke first. "Draco… I pawned my bracelet to get the chain…"
"I gave the watch for collateral to get the charm," Draco answered.
At first, a smile tugged at the corner of Ginny's mouth. The slight smile turned into a giggle. The giggle turned into a laugh. And the laugh turned into tears of mirth. Draco didn't see what was so funny at first, but when Ginny calmed down for a moment and burst into giggles again by looking at him, he started to smile too. Pretty soon they were both laughing so hard they were attracting Looks from everyone in the Hall.