Chapter Text
December 1: winter/summer
Prompt "Harry in Winter" | T | CW: Depression/Seasonal Affective Disorder
In winter, Harry gets heavier. The cold bites his knees and clouds his head, and no amount of warm baths can steam away the nightmares. I touch him more, tell him I love him more often, and I think it helps. I love him in winter, same as the summer.
December 4: obliviation curse
Prompt "Mistletoe" | M | CW: Memory loss (daily curse)
Under the bright sprig of green, Harry kissed him breathless, panting into him, bodies plastered together, hearts pounding in the same rhythm.
“You won’t remember it tomorrow,” Harry said through another devastating kiss, “you’ll forget it all when the curse restarts.”
“Kiss me again,” Draco begged, pulling Harry impossibly closer.
December 6: are you sure?
Prompt "Cozy" | T | No Warnings Apply
“Harry,” Draco whispered, prodding him. Harry blinked sleepily at him, woken from a deep dream. Draco pressed closer under the blankets, warm hand over Harry’s beating heart. “You’d tell me, if you were leaving me, right?”
Harry made an unintelligible sound, sleep-weary. “I’m staying,” he grumbled, and pulled Draco in.
December 8: lilies and petunias and lavender and...
Prompt "Nostalgia" | T | No Warnings Apply
Time, like rolling storms across a great wood, had worn age into Draco’s hands. His fingers, which had once delicately gripped a wand’s hilt, were grey and bent and too weak for more than holding Harry’s hand. But that was alright: their memory garden needed no magic, just stories retold.
December 11: (doubt)
Prompt "Candle" | T | No Warnings Apply
Truth. Harry set the intention as he dipped a final layer of wax and hung the enchanted candle to cool.
Later, he lit it wordlessly and wandlessly, laughing over their shared meal. With the candle’s watchful power, he waited to hear the lie in Draco’s affection, but it never came.
December 13: new traditions
Prompt "The Nutcracker Overture" | T | No Warnings Apply
There were few holiday traditions that Harry brought to the relationship, and too many from Draco. Somewhere amid the chaos of baking and visits and gifts, Harry locked them in their bedroom and refused to work. They listened to Tchaikovsky for one restful night, and so the new tradition began.
December 18: all tied up
Prompt "Present" | M | CW: Bondage
Draco was gentle when they used the ropes. It made Harry’s skin sing with the bite of fibre, made him ache for every touch. When the last knot was tied, and Harry was suspended in more ways than one, Draco called him a gift, and Harry finally felt like one.
December 20: still warm
Prompt "Warmth" | M | CW: MCD
Draco was still warm when they found him, but it was too late. It was too late, and Harry’s hands were hot on his chest, begging him to breathe. He wasn’t breathing and Harry thought he’d be sick with the impossibility of his sudden stillness. Draco was still, warmth fading.
December 22: spectral magick
Prompt "Together" | M | CW: Unreality, ambiguous relationship
“Phantasmancy,” Draco half-murmured, half-thought, linked as they were through Harry’s Legilimens. “The study of illusions.”
Harry reached for him across the bed, but he wasn’t really there.
“Careful,” Draco whispered, like ice melting in Harry’s mind, “don’t be fooled.”
Harry blinked. He was alone again. Or had he ever stopped?
December 27: unspeakable joy (a wedding vow)
Prompt "Joy" | T | No Warnings Apply
“In my fourteen years in a department I am not allowed to name, I have studied three emotions. I need not discuss fear today, nor guilt. Indeed, I have discovered far more about the sense of ‘joy’ in this man’s arms than anywhere else. May we keep discovering it together.”
December 29: an ordinary remedy
Prompt "Evergreen" | T | CW: Illness
Spruce tips, honey, and water simmered over the stove. Harry ached on the couch, shivered under the worn afghan, flushed with fever. Draco poured out a fragrant mug and brought it to Harry, healing steam curling under his nose.
“A potion?” Harry croaked.
“An ordinary remedy.” Draco kissed his forehead.