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Harry looked at the box in front of him. It was well wrapped, with a nicely tied ribbon and a card that designated its purpose. Truth be told, Harry probably would have guessed its purpose, even without the card. There were only two reasons people gave gifts on December 25th, and his birthday was long gone.
No, Harry was looking at the gift, rather than unwrapping it, because a small part of his brain was convinced he was hallucinating it. The only way to be sure was, "Is this a Christmas gift?"
The annoyed sigh Draco gave was something common, and thus obviously not hallucinated, much to Harry's secret relief. "Of course it's a Christmas gift. It's Christmas. What else could it be?"
Harry did not reply, A hallucination? Instead, he said, "I was just checking." The annoyed look he received was also common, so Harry decided that his sanity was safe to be lost another day. "Do you want me to open it now?" he asked, cutting off any witty, or insulting, comments.
"No, I'd prefer you wait until next Christmas, or maybe Michaelmas. Yes, I want you to open it. I'd have dropped it and left if I didn't want to watch," Draco replied, drumming his fingertips on the table between them.
"Well, I mean, it's only been Christmas for about five minutes. The house elves haven't even delivered the rest of the gifts, yet." Harry was aware that his argument was somewhat idiotic, but he had a sort of irrational terror in relation to the inexplicable -- except wholly explicable -- box before him.
Draco sighed again. "Just open the bloody thing," he said, motioning with his hand for Harry to bloody get on with it.
Slowly untying the ribbon, then peeling the paper back, Harry was met with a very plain, brown cardboard box. Once he removed the lid, he stared at the contents as he had done the box itself. "Huh," he said, speaking before entirely processing that he was doing so.
"They're crayons," Draco said, impatience in his voice. "For drawing."
Blinking up, Harry said, "Oh, I know. It's just, well, I wasn't expecting them?"
"They're enchanted," Draco continued, ignoring Harry's obvious confusion.
"To do what?" Harry asked, lifting the box of 24 crayons out of the cardboard box.
Draco pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow, an expression Harry had learned meant something like, If you continue to ask these banal questions, I shall become bored with you. Rather than saying any of that, however, Draco said, "You'll have to try them and see."
"Ah," Harry said. He stared at the crayons for a minute more before continuing with, "Thank you. I mean, for the gift. I'd give you yours, but I had it go with the other presents to be delivered by the house elves, so I haven't got it."
Draco brushed him off with a wave of his hand. "Doesn't matter; I'll get it later. Now, try one."
Harry laughed at Draco's impatience, but drew a crayon out of the box nonetheless. As he turned over the cardboard box the crayons had come in to draw upon, something else occurred to him. "Wait," he said, looking up at Draco, "how do you know what crayons are?"
The only response Harry received was another look, the one that meant, You'll have to try harder than that, if you want something. Considering the crayons in his hand, that was an effort Harry was pretty willing to make. He smiled back at Draco, and began to draw on the box.
