Ferrets and Peppermint

Dawn arose over the horizon with snow glistened on lawns like tiny crystals, glowing almost as bright as the sun. Even this early you could hear the joy of children waking on Christmas Morning to find what Father Christmas had delivered in the night.

Number 12 Grimmauld Place was silent. However, as the Fates saw, Christmas was not going to be a quiet affair.

If anyone had been walking past the house at exactly 9:03AM, they would have heard a shrill scream that seemed as if it could wake the dead. Even though it did not succeed in bringing to life rotting corpses, it did happen to wake the other three occupants of the odd, foreboding house.

Harry Potter's eyes snapped open as his wife's scream reverberated off the walls, images of the war unwillingly flashing through his mind. He struggled to get out of bed with the sheets tangled amidst his legs. Finally free, he grabbed his glasses and wand, ran out of his room and took the stairs down two at a time.

He literally ran into his best friend at the door to the kitchen and they both hurried down the steps to greet whatever horrors they found.

What they found instead was a slightly irritated red-haired woman making hotcakes.

"I would hate to know how long it would take you two if I had really been in danger," the woman snapped.

Harry and Ron stared at Ginny in shock while she just turned back to her cooking.

"Gin, why did you scream?" asked Hermione Granger as she strolled into the basement kitchen, pulling her messy hair back into a loose bun.

Ginny scowled and pointed to a small creature in the corner, chewing on a candy cane. It looked up at them with small beady eyes surrounded by pure white fur. It appeared almost as if the animal was glaring at the trio before turning back to its food.

The boys stayed mostly silent and stared at the ferret. Harry wondered how it got in the house and Ron mused on how familiar it looked.

Hermione, on the other hand, merely smiled and said, "I told you not to come over until I explain."

In almost a blink of an eye, a man stood in place of the creature with the peppermint candy in his mouth. He straightened his expensive black robes out and one hand brushed his hair from his eyes and took his candy from his mouth. He smirked at the boy's dumb looks and Hermione's beaming face.

"And how many times have I listened to you lately, Granger?" He threw a sly smirk at Ginny's back. "Weaselette knows already."

She rolled her eyes and walked toward him. She placed a hand on his chest then leaned up on her tiptoes to give him a gentle chaste kiss. She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned into his form.

Harry and Ron gaped. Draco ignored them and turned to Ginny's hunched form.

"I'll be attending breakfast, Gin."

"I already gathered Malfoy," she said, whisking batter by hand. "You could have given me a little warning before you nearly scared me to death, you stupid ferret."