Once again, thanks to everyone for their support.

And all recognizable characters, etc. still belong to JKR.

The weeks began to pass quickly and crisp, sunny autumn days quickly faded into dull, gray winter. Ellie kept tight lipped about the counter curse her sister had given her, but nearly every night, once she was sure Draco was asleep, she would try to open the sealed envelope. This was to no avail, and it made Ellie very nervous.

What made her even more nervous, however, was the upcoming engagement party that Narcissa had planned. It was to be held on Christmas Eve and with each passing day, Narcissa seemed to grow more and more excited.

The walls of the manor were almost unrecognizable for all the decorations that had been put up. Enormous strands of garland, red and green ribbons, and sprigs of holly and mistletoe seemed to cling to every available corner. Normally, such a sight would have made Ellie's heart warm with holiday cheer, but lately she had been dreading Christmas. Draco, however, seemed to grow more cheerful as Christmas Eve approached. When Ellie commented on his change of character, he simply replied that he had loved Christmas since he was a child. Ellie rolled her eyes at this statement. Naturally, Draco would enjoy a holiday based around receiving gifts.

The morning of Christmas Eve dawned cold and gray. The clouds loomed thickly overhead, but they refused to release their deluge of clean, white snow. Ellie was writing a short letter to her sister while Draco continued to sleep when Narcissa burst into the room with a manic sort of smile on her face.

"Good morning, mother," Draco called groggily from his bed before turning over and presumably going back to sleep.

"Good morning, Draco," she said, "Are you two ready for the party tonight." Ellie coughed back a disgusted laugh.

"Well, no, actually, we're not. But I think that ten hours might be just enough time to get ready," Ellie said sarcastically. Narcissa did not look amused. She simply marched to the closet and began to rummage through Ellie's clothes.

"Come now, Ellie, you ought to be in a good mood for your own engagement party," Narcissa said as she pulled out a long dress that Ellie's mother had sent her, "I think this dress will suffice."

Ellie spent the rest of the afternoon in the bathroom where Narcissa fussed over everything from her hair to her toenails trying to make her look perfect. Ellie felt bad as she looked at her reflection, the Malfoy family was entirely good looking. Surely, she would ruin their uncanny luck of producing attractive children.

Narcissa had shoved her into the dark blue dress. It was really a beautiful dress, but Ellie couldn't help but feel self conscious considering the amount of cleavage she was showing. It wasn't until Draco appeared in the bathroom, however, that she felt completely indecent. He stared at her chest unsympathetically which caused her to blush all the way to the roots of her hair.

"Stop staring at me, Draco," she felt even more embarrassed when her voice shook. Draco met her eyes with an unreadable expression.

"You actually look like a grownup," he said simply. Ellie was unsure if this comment was meant to be a complement or an insult.

"You look very grownup in your dress robes, too," she said awkwardly. At that moment, Narcissa clapped her hands together excitedly.

"It's seven thirty," she said happily, "nearly all the guests should be here by now." So the pair followed her in silence down the stairs to the party. Draco took Ellie's hand and looked at her seriously for a moment.

"What I said earlier came out wrong," he said as his eyebrows inched together, "What I meant was that you look very beautiful." Ellie felt her ears turn hot and without thinking she snatched her hand away and blurted out:

"Stockholm syndrome." Draco looked at her blankly.

"I'm sorry, but excuse me?" he said.

"Stockholm syndrome," Ellie said again, "that's what you're feeling." Draco shook his head.

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

"Stockholm syndrome," Ellie repeated for a third time, "is when in a hostage situation the hostage eventually develops an emotional attachment to their abductor. That's all this is." Draco's expression was hard to read. Perhaps it was hurt, but then again, maybe it was relief.

"Come on," he said taking her hand again, "you're making our guests wait."

The party was extravagant, to say the least. Narcissa had truly outdone herself with the decorations. The entire ballroom was covered in red and green; it looked almost like Christmas itself had vomited all over the room.

For a good half hour, Ellie was forced to be introduced to every Malfoy relation to ever exist as well as a few of Draco's school chums. Finally, the small band Narcissa had hired began to play and Draco led Ellie out onto the dance floor. Ellie hummed along with the oddly familiar tune.

"Draco, I think this is a muggle song," she said as he led her in a slow dance step she didn't know.

"I doubt it," he said simply as he twirled her around. She concentrated on the song and it dawned on her how she knew it.

"No, Draco this really is a muggle song. I'm sure of it," she said suddenly remembering, "I've heard it in a muggle movie." Draco only frowned. He didn't like talk of muggle things, but Ellie ignored him and sang softly into his ear.

"It's still the same old story, the fight for love and glory, a case of do or die," her voice was only a little more than a whisper, "The world will always welcome lovers as time goes by." Draco held Ellie close for a moment. It would have been a tender moment if it had been between a pair of true love birds.

"You're a lovely singer," he whispered into her ear. Ellie grinned and raised an eyebrow.

"Trying to charm me, Mr. Malfoy," she asked. Draco shrugged.

"Just trying to give you a complement," he said honestly. They danced on in silence until the song ended.

"At least we'll always have Paris," Ellie said with a small giggle as if it were her own personal joke. Draco only frowned. He would have responded, but across the room he saw Pansy Parkinson waving like an idiot.

"Excuse me for a minute, Ellie," he whispered into her ear, "I have to say hello to Pansy before she has a heart attack." And with that he let go of her waist and the pair drifted away to opposite ends of the room.

For a moment Ellie felt terrified as she eyed the crowd of people she had never met before. All the girls glared at her, so she tried not to make eye contact. Finally, she spotted a familiar face. Standing back towards the wall was Daphne Greengrass, the girl she had met several weeks ago in Diagon Alley. Ellie weaved between the people in the crowd until she reached Daphne who gave her an odd half smile.

"Hello," Ellie panted, leaning against the wall, "Enjoying yourself, Daphne?"

"Not really," Daphne answered.

"Well, that makes two of us," Ellie said, "You're the only one here that I've ever met before." Daphne didn't look surprised.

"And I doubt any of these girls would be keen on striking up a friendship," She said as she glanced over the crowd, "Most of them had crushes on Draco back at Hogwarts. It's disgusting, really." As Daphne said this, her eyes stopped on Draco. Ellie followed her gaze and saw Draco talking vivaciously to a pretty girl with light brown hair. She kept touching and rubbing Draco's forearm as they spoke to each other. It made Ellie feel almost nauseated.

"Are all the girls like that with him?" Ellie asked more to herself than to Daphne.

"Most everyone," Daphne said still glaring at the girl, "They all think they can still win him over. I think they're interested in the money mostly." Ellie glared at the girl. She was actually very pretty, and even through her fluffy, blue ball gown it was easy to see that she had a stunning body.

"Who is that girl, Daphne," Ellie asked. Daphne laughed humorlessly.

"Didn't you know? That's my little sister, Astoria," Daphne said. Her voice turned bitter when she spoke her sister's name, "She's a real prat, too. Won't stop talking about all the gobs of money the Malfoy's have and how easy it'll be for her to charm him." At that moment, Astoria turned and looked directly at Ellie. She had a look of triumph in her eyes as she grinned from across the dance floor. Then, she slowly turned and planted a kiss on Draco's cheek. To Ellie's horror, Draco didn't back away. Instead his hand moved to the small of her back and with a lopsided grin he led her out onto the floor to dance. Ellie's heart felt like it was thudding in her ears.

She watched Astoria pull him close as they moved gracefully across the dance floor. Occasionally she would lean close to Draco and whisper and giggle into his ear. Draco never pulled away; instead he played into her coy, little game and laughed with her. Ellie felt as if her blood was turning so hot it might burn right out of her skin.

"Excuse me for a moment, Daphne," she said, but Daphne didn't seem to hear her as she glared at her sister. Ellie walked as swiftly as she could out of the ball room, ignoring the tug that grew stronger and stronger around her naval. She wanted nothing more than to be as far away from Draco and the awful women in the ball room. She turned several corners very quickly before she pulled out her wand and took out her anger on the Christmas decorations. After blasting and burning all the ribbons, she felt that the pulling in her stomach was too strong and she should return to the party.

As she walked back the way she came, she noticed an enormous sprig of mistletoe that she hadn't noticed before. It only seemed appropriate that she should blast it to make sure she had truly gotten over her fit of rage, so she strolled until she was standing directly underneath it and pointed her wand straight up.

"Expulso," she whispered gently. Nothing happened and Ellie frowned. "Incendio!" She said. Flames shot from the end of her wand, but once they stopped she saw, to her frustration, that the mistletoe showed no sign of damage. Ellie's frown deepened.

"Diffindo," she tried, but the mistletoe continued to hand just as fine as ever, "Oh, fine." And with that, Ellie gave up. She tried to take a step forward, however, and nearly toppled over as both her feet remained firmly on the floor. She let out a frustrated shriek as she realized that she was stuck beneath the mistletoe.

Ellie tried every curse and jinx she knew, but she could not find a way to escape from underneath the mistletoe. Finally she sighed and accepted that fact that she most likely had to wait for someone to come and kiss her. After what felt like ages, Ellie finally felt the nauseating feeling in her stomach lessen and she knew that Draco was moving in her direction. Then, at last, she saw his dark silhouette round the corner and stride towards her.

"Draco," she said helplessly, "I'm stuck." A small grin crossed his face as he eyed the mistletoe above her head.

"And I thought you were just trying to keep me in pain," he said, "then again…" Ellie knew from his face that he had spotted the demolished decorations behind her.

"What took you so long?" Ellie asked, trying to draw his attention away from the mess she had made.

"How was I supposed to know you were stuck here?" he retorted, "Most normal people don't march off from their own engagement party to go blow up Christmas decorations." Ellie glared at him.

"Yeah, well most normal people don't flirt with women who aren't their fiancé," Ellie tried not to yell, "And yet you seemed to be pretty comfortable having Astoria Greengrass fawn all over you. Maybe you should marry her instead." Some dark expression passed through Draco's eyes and then it was gone. He lowered his head so that his lips nearly touched hers.

"You know, Ellie," he whispered, his breath tickling against her lips, "I'm fairly certain that this isn't Stockholm syndrome." He took a step closer and Ellie felt one of his arms snake behind her back. His eyes locked with hers for a moment, but then fluttered closed as his lips crashed down onto hers. Ellie felt as if her breath had been knocked out of her. It was as if the most painful feelings she had felt when she was apart from Draco were being reversed, and the most marvelous feeling occurred wherever their skin touched.

Draco pulled her closer and deepened the kiss. Somehow, Ellie's hands had managed to wind their way around Draco's neck and into his fine, blonde hair. Draco had one arm around Ellie's waist and the other caressed her jaw and cheek bones. With every moment that passed, Draco pulled Ellie's body tighter and tighter against his.

After what felt simultaneously like several long years and a few short seconds, Draco finally broke the kiss. The pair simply looked at each other, both breathless and flushed.

"I think we should head back to the party," Draco finally said. Ellie could only nod; she didn't think her voice would be able to work, so she followed Draco mutely back to the ball room. As they entered, Ellie could see Narcissa frowning disapprovingly from across the room and she wondered if people knew what events had just transpired. But Draco didn't seem to let any of that bother him. Instead, he lead Ellie right back to the dance floor and pulled her much closer than the first time. So close, that Ellie could comfortably rest her head on his shoulder.

Neither of them said anything as Draco led them around the dance floor. Several times, Ellie felt something graze the top of her head, and she couldn't tell if it was his chin or if he was leaning down to kiss her hair.

Finally he leaned down and whispered in her ear,

"I shouldn't have been flirting with Astoria. I'm sorry." Ellie felt a jolt of surprise and pleasure at the words. She had never known Draco to be the type to apologize, so she continued in her silence as she pondered his sudden change in character. Finally, the last of the guests made their way out the door to find their traveling cloaks and go home. Draco stopped dancing, but continued to hold her close. She looked up at his face and wondered if he was going to kiss her again.

"We should go to bed," he whispered with a small grin, "We wouldn't want Santa Clause to pass over our house because we're not sleeping." Ellie couldn't help but smile.

"Well, I'm sure that all you'll be getting from Père Noël is a bundle of twigs," Ellie laughed. Draco raised an eyebrow.

"Don't you mean coal?" He asked. Ellie shrugged.

"Who knows," she said, "I'm sure that he'll bring you whatever he's handing out to the naughty kids this year."

"I'm not all that bad," he grinned as he led her out of the hall and up to their bedroom.

Hmmm, what now? You ask? Well, you'll just have to wait for the next chapter!

Don't forget to review!