A/N: Ah Christmas time, this year I've decided to get in the Christmas spirit and write my own Christmas story, so here it is. It's Christmas fluff so it does exactly what it says on the tin
There is a bit less dialogue than is normal for my stories but it's the same kind of idea, H/H romance with some humour thrown in and Colin who I tried to make sweet but only succeeded in making annoying
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Colin Creevy, Gryffindor sixth year and an official member of the Harry Potter fan club was creping around the Gryffindor girls' dormitory stairs one night in the week before Christmas. This was either because he had just got incredibly lucky with some girl, or possibly he was just a perverted teenager or he was working really hard to complete the perfect Christmas present for his hero. It was the latter. He was desperately trying to find Hermione Granger, head girl and Harry's best friend, he knew she would be in either the seventh year girls dormitory or her own private study nearby. The only problem was that no matter what he tried, he just couldn't get hold of her; she was always either with Harry making it impossible to ask her about his present or mysteriously absent, probably on head girl duties or something.
He was hoping that maybe she was going to come downstairs to collect some of her schoolbooks that were strewn around there, but it seemed like his luck was out today and so he was about to give up when somebody walked straight into him
'Lumos' the other person muttered giving the staircase an eerie glow and allowing Colin to see who it was
'Ginny what are you doing here?' Colin exclaimed in surprise at seeing one of his friends at one in the morning out of bed
'Hey this is the girls dormitories I'm allowed to be here, why are you here?' Ginny said very indignantly and sounding oh so slightly nervous
'I wanted to get a picture of Hermione for my present for Harry' Colin explained backing away from Ginny slightly, knowing all too well how angry she could get and not wanting to upset her but still noticing that she had a strange smell around her, rather like the dungeons
'She went to bed early tonight. Honestly, just ask her during the daytime instead of scaring me to death in the middle of the night' Ginny really didn't understand why Colin was making this big a deal over a present. She'd gotten over her Harry obsession long ago, well actually about a year
'But then Harry will be suspicious' Colin practically wailed, he wanted Harry to be really surprised and thrilled when he saw what he'd got for him
'Fine don't' Ginny said exasperated as she threw her arms in the air in annoyance, forgetting she was holding her wand and subsequently lighting up her face
'Gin what's that on your neck?' Colin asked surprised as he saw what he thought was a set of teeth marks on the side of Ginny's neck
'Huh? What?' Ginny asked in alarm as her free hand flew to her neck covering the mark
'It looks like a bite, did something bite you? Maybe you should see Madame Pomfrey' Colin sounded very concerned as Ginny had now turned rather red
'Oh right, it's nothing, just a stray pixie. Night Colin' Ginny basically sprinted into her dormitory as fast as she could leaving a very confused Colin to trudge back to his bed, he was rather confused, as he knew there hadn't been a pixie in Hogwarts since Lockhart. But where else could Ginny have gotten a bite on her neck from?
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The next day was a Saturday and Colin arose bright and early hoping to catch Hermione alone before she left for breakfast, but unfortunately Harry and Ron were already in the common room waiting for the same girl
'Hullo Colin' Harry grinned at the younger boy as he descended the dormitory stairs
'Hiya Harry' Colin gave a weak smile in return, normally he would be delighted to see Harry but this one morning was the exception
'Hi Colin, how's that project going?' Ron asked with a large wink at Colin, he could have groaned, that Weasley just didn't know the meaning of the word discretion, he might has well have waved a large flashing banner in front of Harry saying 'Colin's making a secret present for you'
'Fine just fine' Colin muttered
'Are you helping Colin with a project?' Harry asked his best friend in surprise; he had obviously never considered Ron to be scholarly enough to help with anything like that
'I think everyone is' Ron said smiling, not noticing that Colin looked as though he wanted to murder him, or at the very least gag him
'But what kind of project needs everyone's help?' Harry asked looking very confused, however Colin was saved from answering by Hermione's appearance
'Are you guys ready? Oh good morning Colin, Ginny said you were looking for me, was it something important?' Hermione asked smiling brightly, apparently she was in a very good mood this morning, in fact all of the trio seemed to be very happy, especially Harry and Hermione
'No, it doesn't matter' Colin said with a forced smile
'Well ok then. Let's go' Hermione gave a final smile to Colin before she went towards to Great Hall with her two best friends obediently following her and Colin could only rue another missed chance to get his present completed
Colin had managed to convince all the seventh year Gryffindors and quite a few from other houses to write a few personal words for Harry and pose for a photo, in fact Colin had had to stop Seamus Finnegan from posing for an entire catalogue of pictures. He knew how much Harry loved his friends and was sure this present would please him, but he just wasn't able to find Hermione Granger alone to ask her to contribute to it.
Dean Thomas had wanted to write a rather rude poem to Harry, which involved Hermione, but Colin had edited it as he felt convinced that Harry didn't want to do any of those things to his best friend. He did sometimes wonder about whether Harry and Hermione would ever realise that most people at Hogwarts were placing bets on them getting together, of course these were the same people who had placed bets on Ron and Hermione getting together and everyone knew how that had turned out. Blazing arguments, hateful comments and Harry caught in the middle had been the milder description of Ron and Hermione's disastrous three week romance, which everyone had breathed a sigh of relief when it had ended.
'Oh, erm Conrad' a female voice called after him as he walked down the corridors to the Great Hall for dinner, Colin turned in surprise to see Parvati Patil racing after him looking rather unstable in her high heels
'It's Colin' he corrected wondering what on earth she could want with him
'Oh right, sorry. About that picture you took of me for Harry's present, I was thinking and I've decided that pink lipstick was a mistake so can we take my photo again but with this red lipstick this time' Parvati said breathlessly looking highly distressed by the matter, as though this was some kind of life or death situation
'Well alright then' Colin didn't really know how to say no to anybody, especially not anybody like Parvati so he raised his ever present camera ready to take the photo
'No, not here, the light will cast a shadow on me. Out there' Parvati commanded as she grabbed Colin's sleeve and began dragging him through corridors, they passed two sixth year Slytherin's who watched in open mouthed amazement and a Ravenclaw who gave him a thumbs up signal. Colin blushed, he didn't know what he'd do when Seamus found out about the rumour this was bound to spread, but he thought hiding would be a very good idea
After Parvati was finally satisfied with her new picture she left Colin alone on the front steps of Hogwarts and he breathed a large sigh of relief even though he had just missed dinner. And his relief quickly turned to joy as he saw Hermione walking alone around the lake, this was it, the opportunity he had been waiting for, and he sprinted towards her as fast as he could. As he came closer he was suddenly struck with how beautiful she looked gently bathed in the moonlight, he had never really thought about it before, in fact he never really thought about any girl in any sense other than his friend. But Hermione looked so pretty with her hair all curly and a soft smile on her lips that he couldn't help but notice, however that wasn't going to put him off from his task and so he skid to a stop in front of her seemingly alarming her
'Oh Colin, you scared me' she said not looking remotely scared, although considering she had been present for the destruction of Voldemort the previous year, Colin doubted that a boy with a camera could scare her
'I'm sorry, but I was wondering if you could spare a few minutes to help -'
'Not interrupted am I?' Harry's voice broke into the conversation sounding as usual these days extremely happy and Colin mentally banged his head against a wall as he turned to see Harry gaping at Hermione, apparently he too had noticed how beautiful she looked
'No, I have to go' Colin said quickly before Hermione could say otherwise and he left trying to look normal, although he could have sworn he heard Harry whisper 'You look beautiful', but maybe it was 'You like cutesy doll' after all he was a long way away
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Two nights later Colin flipped through his almost completely picture book, re-reading the entries and looking at all the smiling and waving pictures, until he came to the page titled Hermione Granger that still remained blank. He had tried everything in his power to find her alone, but she just never was, Harry was always around. By now it was Christmas Eve and Colin was so desperate that he was willing to eat slugs so long as he got to speak to Hermione and that was when a plan popped into his head, so simple that he couldn't believe he hadn't tried it before and he sped off to find his brother
Harry and Hermione were sat alone in one secluded corner of the common room and looked so very deep in conversation that Colin almost felt bad about disturbing them, but he decided it was for the greater good and so pushed Dennis in the right direction
'Hello Harry' Dennis piped up looking very nervous
'Hi' Harry looked up, he didn't look very happy and been interrupted but he didn't look very annoyed either
'I was wondering if you could help me to clip the broomstick I bought for Colin' Dennis said with a half smile as he glanced in the direction that he knew Colin was hiding
'Colin? I didn't know he flew' Harry exclaimed looking very surprised
'He's been keeping it secret, he doesn't want people to laugh at him' Dennis explained and Colin was proud that his brother sounded very convincing while completely lying
'How did you afford a broom?' Hermione asked remembering that their father was a milkman, which wasn't exactly the highest paying job in the world
'Erm, I've been saving' Dennis squeaked suddenly looking very unsure and wishing he could run away
'Of course Harry will help you' Hermione said with a smile at the younger boy, perhaps feeling sorry for him been a milkman's son or perhaps just been in the season of giving, either way Colin practically jumped for joy
'Oh yeah, well lets go' Harry gave Hermione a very searching look and received only a blank one in return before he left with Dennis and Colin hurried from his hiding place to where Hermione was sat
'Hermione, can you help me?' he asked very quickly knowing that Harry could return at any moment
'I'll try' she said sincerely
'I'm trying to make a present for Harry with pictures of all his friends and a few words from them as well in an album' Colin said breathlessly as he shoved the album into her hands looking around desperately
'Oh Colin, this is a lovely idea, he'll love it, just let me get my quill' Hermione exclaimed beaming as she realised why Colin had been practically stalking her for the last week. And she'd just finished writing about how brave Harry was and how proud she was of him when a second year came rushing up looking very scared
'There's a fight on the third floor, my friend Richard's in trouble' the boy said
'Sorry Colin I have to deal with this' Hermione exclaimed jumping up and allowing the book to fall into her seat as she rushed from the common room to take care of the fight.
Colin slumped back on his chair in defeat and then stood up and trudged up the stairs to his dormitory, passing Harry and Dennis coming the other way
'Sorry Harry, I must have forgotten where I put it' Dennis was saying sounding strangely as though he was trying to hold back giggles as he gave his brother a large wink as they passed each other
'That's fine Dennis, I'm sure you'll find it soon. Now I must get back to Hermione... Oh she seems to have gone, well I guess I'll go find Ron' and even Colin could hear the disappointment in Harry's voice as he realised that Hermione was no longer in the common room, but he was in a bad enough mood himself without pondering on this
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Just as it approached two in the morning Colin sat up in bed in alarm, he'd left Harry's present in the common room where anyone could find it. Now he was upset that he didn't have Hermione's photo to complete the album but was still proud of the present and didn't want anyone else to steal it or Harry to find it. So he did the only sensible thing he could think of, he pulled on his dressing gown and crept down the stairs. He paused half-way down to check that the room was empty and to his surprise saw a figure apparently asleep on the couch in front of the turned off fire. From the size of the figure he knew it had to be one of the higher years, he just wasn't sure who and as he was contemplating what to do the portrait swung open to reveal Hermione who glanced swiftly round the room and then made her way to the sleeping figure on the couch.
It was too dark to see properly but Colin could have sworn that from where he was crouched it looked remarkably like Hermione had just given whoever was on the couch a kiss on the forehead. If she had done then Colin was shocked because Hermione wasn't the kind of girl who just went round randomly kissing people
'Creeping round late at night, you'll get a reputation' the rather amused voice of the not so asleep person on couch came, revealing it to be Harry
'That's Ginny and her mysterious boyfriend you're thinking off. And you git, I thought you were asleep' Hermione said not sounded quite as annoyed as Colin had thought she might be and suddenly one of them lit the fire casting the room in more light and causing Colin to back further into the shadows
'Nope just waiting for you' Harry's reply came as he sat up
'How sweet of you, I've just been making sure a third year Gryffindor was alright after Malfoy accidentally cursed him' Hermione stressed the word accidentally so much that it was clear she didn't believe a word of it
'Don't let ferret boy bother you, come here' Harry said and Colin stifled a giggle as he heard Draco Malfoy been called ferret boy, and then had to stop himself from yelling out loud in surprise as Hermione didn't sit next to Harry on the couch as he thought she was going to, but right on Harry's lap
'Merry Christmas by the way' Hermione said rather absent-mindedly as Harry began to stroke his hand softly through her hair
'Merry Christmas' Harry replied smiling softly as he tilted Hermione's head to face his and then kissed her with such passion that Colin blushed profusely. It was clear even to him who had no knowledge on these matters that this was not a first kiss. As the couple on the couch showed no sings of stopping Colin raised his camera ready to take their picture but suddenly realised that they didn't need a picture of this, in fact Harry didn't need an picture of Hermione at all, he already had the real thing. And so Colin slipped back to his dormitory confident that Harry wouldn't spot the album on the other side of the room, in fact he doubted Harry would notice anything but Hermione for the rest of the night
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And when Harry opened his presents the next day, he came across a leather bound book filled with scarlet and gold pages on which were messages and pictures from all his friends, eventually he came to the page for one Hermione Granger and he paused to look over at the girl in question as instantly her eyes met his and he grinned softly at her before turning back to the page. He looked at where the picture of Hermione was meant to be and instead found a note in Colin's writing that read 'Maybe you could put one of your wedding photos here'. And as he raised an eyebrow a smile spread across his face as he said out loud to no one in particular 'That might not be such a bad idea'
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A/N: Well you were warned, and I'm sorry that this story was rushed but I only
had a couple of hours to spare. So please leave a review and have a very merry
Christmas. In fact I've suddenly had this really strange urge to write a Christmassy
Snape/Hermione story, arrrghhhh good god please help me
REVIEW PLEASE
