A/N: This is a Christmas gift for anyone who might be interested. The story was originally published elsewhere earlier this year because there were a couple of scenes that were far too graphic for this site. However, as a majority of the story is just a proper Christmas love story, full of good cheer and a bit of angst, about Hermione and Percy (who I suspect might actually make quite a good couple), I thought I would take out the naughty bits and re-post it here for you to enjoy as well.

I like to think that under that staid and boring exterior, there's a spark of something quite wicked (in a good way) about Percy; that he's not actually at all as his family imagine him to be (remember his joke during the final battle — apologies for any bad memories of what came almost immediately after). Yes, he made his mistakes during the war but he came good at the end so I believe he deserves as much love as anyone else. For the purposes of my story, moving away from the Burrow gave him the chance to see and experience the big wide world in far greater detail than might have been the case had he stayed at home and it's changed him in ways no one expected. Obviously, the story is AU but more so as I've kept Fred alive — I can't deal with him being dead in a story about the Weasleys, sorry, but there it is.

Please note that the original story is still available on the other site so I am not plagiarising (my own work). If you've read it before, elsewhere, thank you for reading again. If you're new to the story I hope you enjoy it. As always, I want to thank my beta, Mamacita for her sterling work. Happy Christmas everyone! Dx


Hermione felt a great sense of relief as she spotted Percy Weasley standing across the room from her, having just picked up a cup of tea from the refreshments table. She had been invited to this seminar as part of her training for promotion but it wasn't really an area she was particularly interested in and up until now the subjects covered had been pretty dry, none of the speakers inspiring her to stay focussed for more than a few minutes at a time.

In fact, so far, most of them had reminded her of the droning tones of Professor Binns, who had effortlessly managed to make the extremely interesting History of Magic lessons at school sound incredibly dull. However, these days she didn't have the same zeal to absorb all the information she could as she had when she was at school and so she had switched off, taking in only a fraction of the information that was being thrown at her.

During the course of the morning sessions she had half-filled her notepad with doodles of various descriptions and had considered slipping away, ready to feign illness if anyone caught her, certain that her time would be better spent on going back to work, but she had held off; firstly, she suspected her boss wouldn't be very happy if she returned, and secondly, there was no point in leaving work instead, and then mooching around at home on her own when everyone else was still working.

The appearance of Percy considerably brightened Hermione's day. Although he wasn't generally the most popular of the Weasley siblings, Hermione had always got on well with him, better than she got on with the twins, if she was honest. Although Fred and George — and Ron, too, to some extent — considered him to be a boring prat, Hermione had always admired his work ethic and had actually harboured something of a crush on him when she had first met him as a Gryffindor Prefect, a post to which she herself had aspired at the time.

Percy hadn't really taken much notice of Hermione. She was three years younger than him and was a friend of his youngest brother, and although he had been polite enough on the few occasions they interacted there had never been anything more than cursory interest on his part. He had gone on to be Head Boy and then to a responsible job within the Ministry of Magic, working as personal assistant to Bartemius Crouch Senior, the then Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

Hermione had actually been proud of him at a time when most of his family seemed to be intent on taking the piss, and even when he had lost his way during Voldemort's return to power, she had always tried to retain her friendship with him, even though she understood the rest of his family's disappointment with his poor choices.

It was during that period that Percy had left the Burrow, to the distress of his mother and sister and the anger of his father and brothers. He had refused to return, even once the war was over, and had forged his own path. Hermione had seen him only sporadically since then; on the very odd occasion when he and his long-term girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater, with whom he had been in a relationship since school, much to Hermione's chagrin, attended Sunday lunch at the Burrow with the rest of the family, and even less often at the Ministry of Magic, where Percy had become Head of the Department of Magical Transportation after the war and where Hermione, Harry and Ron now all worked, too.

Although Hermione had fallen into a relationship with Ron, with whom she had spent a turbulent six years at school and several both blissful and more recently incredibly frustrating years after, she had never really got over her crush on Percy and often found herself tongue-tied and awkward whenever she bumped into him. Despite what Ron and his siblings thought, Hermione had always found Percy charming and interesting and the chance to potentially spend the afternoon with him was an exciting prospect for her.

Timidly, she raised her hand and waved at him when he looked in her direction, her heart pattering out a staccato rhythm when he waved back and began walking towards her, a smile on his face. Almost a decade of strictly-controlled desire washed over Hermione as she took in his lean and rangy frame clad in his usual work robes, looking every inch the noble Head of Department, although as she was about to discover there was something far more easy-going about him these days.

The two of them spent the afternoon completely ignoring what was happening at the conference, instead catching up on news from various areas and, to Hermione's surprise, a considerable amount of piss-taking of the other attendees and speakers. Percy's mimicry of just about everyone turned out to be surprisingly good and the two of them spent most of the afternoon trying to stifle their laughter as serious subjects were rendered completely hysterical through the judicious use of his talent.

Once the seminar finally came to an end, much to Hermione's disappointment now that she was having a much better time, Percy invited her to go out for a drink and a bite to eat with him. Not wanting to end the pleasant time she was having and, in truth, unwilling to leave Percy when he was showing more interest in her than he ever had before, Hermione immediately agreed.

She was completely surprised when, after bidding her wait for a few minutes, he returned wearing black jeans and a pale blue t-shirt, pulling a thick blue jumper over his head as he came towards her. Hermione had never seen Percy looking so casual — even when he was at school he had always dressed in a smart and formal way as if he was fifty years older than he actually was — but she liked it. She liked it a lot.

They started with a drink on the deck of the Tattershall Castle, a boat that was moored on the Thames not far from the Ministry of Magic, enjoying the last of the late autumn sunshine which cast a golden glow over the whole of the north bank, a colour picked up by the London planes that lined the street.

Once the sun had set, the night was suddenly chillier, causing Hermione to shiver and wrap herself up in her thick woollen jacket. They walked towards Covent Garden and stopped at a small Italian restaurant for something to eat before heading towards the piazza, happy to wander the market stalls and chat before making their way to the Punch and Judy. A pub crawl around the area followed. Hermione became quite lightheaded from the alcohol she imbibed, although at no time did she ever consider leaving and going home.

The Percy she was with this evening, the Percy she had spent the afternoon joking and laughing with, was nothing like the Percy she remembered from the Burrow, but Hermione still really liked him. In fact, she had to admit that she liked him even more than the old staid, rule-conscious, workaholic Percy. Unfortunately, he was still with Penelope, something she had discovered through careful if somewhat oblique questioning, although as far as she could ascertain they weren't engaged nor were they living together, despite having been a couple for a million years.

When Percy eventually invited her back to his flat for one last brandy and some coffee, Hermione considered it for only a few seconds before agreeing, both eager to see the home he had made for himself away from his family and still unwilling to remove herself from his company.