Sometimes, Hermione found it hard to believe that ten years had seemingly passed in the blink of an eye. Overall they lived peaceful lives, had their tight-knit circle of former Order members and so-called war heroes, and after ten years enough time had passed for the wizarding world to rebuild itself -and improve at that. Diagon Alley had expanded, Hogsmeade had grown, and Hogwarts was beginning to see more students than ever. For his first term after the war, Kingsley had pushed through more reforms than even Hermione could have dreamt up, even though she was quite involved in drafting some of them, all in order to fix the broken system of the Ministry. Of course there were hiccups and bumps along the road, but those minor problems made her relish the good things in life all the more - like lunch with a good friend.

She smiled to herself as she entered a small café not too far from the Ministry, where she and Ginny had decided to meet. Ginny had sent her an owl that morning, saying that she needed a break from five year old James, two year old Albus and one year old Lily. She loved her children like you wouldn't believe, but occasionally she had to get out and just be her own person for a while. Those days she dropped off her three little monsters with Mrs Weasley or Remus and Tonks and sometimes even Sirius, so that she and Hermione could have lunch or an afternoon to themselves to chat about everything under the sun. Today Hermione found the younger witch already seated at a table in a quiet corner of the café, a massive cup of coffee in front of her.

"Hi, Gin." Taking off her coat and scarf before sitting down at the table with Ginny, Hermione gave her friend a once-over and raised her eyebrows. "Sleep badly?"

"Don't even ask," the red-head groaned, taking another big gulp of her coffee. "James told Al some story about monsters under beds and of course Al's imagination just went haywire." Ginny flipped through the café's menu while telling Hermione about how she'd spent most of last night trying to convince Al his room was safe and he could sleep there without worrying about monsters.

"Poor Al. I remember having nightmares when I was younger, but it was never really monsters under my bed," Hermione said, smiling at the waitress, who brought her a second menu. Looking through it, a season's special caught her eye: a stew that seemed like just the right thing to warm one up during a cold and wet November.

"Same. I got scared by sounds when I was really small. Always thought someone was breaking the house and that it would collapse on us, when it was really just Fred and George, waking up during the night and deciding it was playtime," Ginny said, rolling her eyes.

Hermione laughed, shaking her head, "And now they've got children of their own."

"Scary thought, that." Ginny's laughter rang out as well, only to subside as their conversation lulled for a few moments. They studied the menu once more and appeared deep in thought over their choice of food. In the end, Hermione ordered a coffee in addition to the stew and leaned back in the comfortable armchair. Her gaze wandered over the bookshelves the café had put along the walls. A lot of the books on display she'd read before, but some of the titles she could make out made her fingers itch, ready to grab one of the books and spend the rest of the day in her cosy flat to read the day away. Ginny could tell where Hermione's mind had drifted off to and she sighed.

"Would you stop thinking about books for a moment?" she asked, with a smile on her face that showed she didn't actually mind Hermione's particular proclivity for the written word.

"Books are always on my mind, Gin. They're my one true love - they hardly ever disappoint and never betray you," Hermione replied, only half joking, and Ginny snorted.

"That wasn't dramatic at all."

Hermione shrugged, a smirk tugging at the corners of her lips. "Why did you want me to stop thinking about books and my filthy, filthy affair with them?"

Ginny burst out laughing at that, and breathlessly said, "I swear to Merlin, you spend too much time with Sirius. He's beginning to rub off on you." Hermione let out an undignified snort before her friend continued, "Although if you're still on about your love affair with his library, he's probably not rubbing off on you in quite the right way yet." It was Hermione's turn to burst out laughing, but the tiniest blush still coloured her cheeks, which Ginny didn't miss, but filed away to contemplate later.

"Anyway!" Ginny exclaimed, holding up her hand to stop Hermione from making another remark that would surely distract her. "I was wondering if you wanted to organise the Secret Santa this year or if you'd like me to do it again?"

Hermione thought about it for a moment before answering. "It would probably be better if you organised it this year. The department's pretty swamped at the moment and I'm not sure if I'll be going down to visit my parents over the holidays." Ginny nodded and was about to say something when their food arrived.

While they took their first few bites Ginny managed to hold back what was on her mind, but it didn't take long before she went, "Mum would be disappointed if you didn't spend Christmas with us this year after how little she saw of both you and Harry over Christmas last year." The spoon, on its way to Hermione's mouth, stopped and she frowned a little.

"My parents haven't seen me in a while and I wasn't at theirs for Christmas last year either," Hermione said, her tone defensive as her brows knitted together, and Ginny looked at her apologetically.

"I know that. I'm just warning you what Mum will be like if you do decide to go to Australia. You'd think with all the tiny terrors around she wouldn't miss you, but she does." Hermione knew that of course, but hearing it from Ginny's mouth made a small smile appear on her face all the same.

"I'll decide soon," Hermione said, ending that line of conversation and Ginny was happy to drop the topic as well. The rest of lunch was spent chatting about wholly unrelated topics - Hermione's current workload at the Ministry, the winter break that had just started for the Holyhead Harpies, and the Christmas product line Fred and George were planning for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes this year. The holiday lines, particularly the Christmas ones, had become a bit of a phenomenon in wizarding Britain as they were eagerly anticipated every year and sold out within hours. Although she'd said her department was swamped, Hermione took a long lunch break that day, reminding herself that she'd built up too much overtime anyway. Besides, none of the case files on her desk that day had been particularly urgent matters. With that in mind, she ordered a refill on her coffee halfway through their meal and settled in for a long chat with Ginny.


A little over a week had passed since Hermione and Ginny's lunch and all the Weasleys, honorary Weasleys, their significant others and children had come together for one of their usual weekend dinners at the Burrow. The chatter and laughter that always followed the meal was picking up, the kids were just running off to play somewhere else, and Mrs Weasley wasn't even thinking about moving the dishes over to the sink yet, while everyone else was feeling comfortably plump.

"Alright everyone!" Ginny said, getting up with a small groan that made the others chuckle and waving a dangly Santa hat around to make sure she had everyone's attention. "You know the drill by now. Pick a name out of the hat and pass it on to the next person. No telling your giftee that you're their Secret Santa," Ginny instructed and as an afterthought added, "I checked the hat myself this year - it won't be biting anyone this time." Another round of chuckles went through the kitchen when Ginny gave Fred and George a stern look as she handed the hat to the person sitting next to her, the two of them feigning innocence. Secret Santa had become a tradition among the adults of the Weasley family a few years ago. With the exception of the occasional mishap with the Santa hat or the one time one of the Weasley twins pulled Hermione (they still weren't telling who it had been), and ended up gifting her their entire line of Wonderwitch products, it had helped to greatly reduce stress around Christmas time for the ever-growing family. Most of the time everyone still got gifts for the other family members who weren't their giftee, but those were small things, such as someone's favourite sweets, a nice pair of socks, or a scarf. The Secret Santa gifts on the other hand tended to have a lot more thought put into them and they generally were of a more personal nature.

It took a while for the hat to finally make its way to Hermione. Feeling giddy, she quickly pulled out a piece of paper and passed the hat on. The moment of truth, she thought to herself. Opening the paper, she saw the name Fleur written on it in Ginny's small, neat handwriting. Hermione let out a long sigh and furrowed her brows. It was notoriously difficult to find Fleur a gift that she liked. Even though Fleur'd been too polite to outright say that she disliked something in the past, they could somehow always tell with her. At her sigh, Sirius, sitting to her right, turned to her and raised his eyebrows, trying to glance at the piece of paper in her hand. Hermione quickly stuffed it into her jeans pocket and with a smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth said, "Down, boy."

"Oh please," Sirius said with a roll of his eyes, leaning into her casually, "If you want me to go down on you, the least you could do is use my name."

"Seriously," Hermione muttered, exasperation lacing her voice. It took her a second to realise her mistake. She held up her index finger to shush him and hastily went, "No, no, no!" Sirius grinned at her, looking like Christmas had come early.

"Technically that does contain my name."

"Please stop," Hermione said with a groan. Remus, who was sitting opposite the two of them and had been following their exchange from the other side of the table, snorted and leaned forward a little, deciding to save Hermione by distracting his best friend.

"Hey, Pads, remember the time Lily gave you a dog collar for Christmas?" Sirius head snapped around and he narrowed his eyes at Remus.

For a moment he looked as though he'd flip his friend off, but then seemed to think better of it. Instead he asked, "Was that the same year she got you the flea shampoo?"

"No, the flea shampoo came later. If I remember correctly, the first thing she got was that deer whistle that nearly scared James to death," Remus replied, a smile still on his face as he looked from Sirius to Hermione, the latter now laughing.

"Did it have a tag, so people knew who to return him to?" Hermione asked and Remus' grin widened.

"Of course, said to return him to me or James in case he got lost and to top it all off, Lily had charmed it, so Sirius couldn't take it off for weeks. After a while he used it to get out of classes James and I weren't in though." Still laughing, Hermione looked over at Sirius fondly. He met her gaze and though he tried to act put out, he didn't do too good a job of it.

Shrugging he put his arm around Hermione and said, "Could have broken the charm on it at any time, but it was more fun to annoy Lily for a bit."

"Of course you could have," Hermione replied, rolling her eyes. A glance at Remus, who was shaking his head, told her that their friend was fibbing. The three of them would have continued their conversation, but Ginny spoke up as the Santa hat made its way back to her.

"Last name in here is Charlie's - as per usual. I'll give everyone their present during Christmas dinner, so getting your present to me any time before then will be fine." They never told Charlie this, but during desperate times they'd let people swap for that last name in the hat. One year, Fred had come to her because he'd picked George and he didn't think he could keep it a secret from his twin that he was his Secret Santa. Just like every year, Hermione wondered who'd picked her, but her thoughts were quickly dissuaded when Mrs Weasley asked her from the head of the table if her participation in the Secret Santa meant that she'd be around for the holidays. Hermione sighed and said, "Yes, decided to stay for Christmas. I'll be leaving on the 29th though and stay with my parents for New Year's." Mrs Weasley looked satisfied with that, nodding along while she was speaking. When Hermione turned back to Remus and Sirius, Remus was talking to Tonks next to him, but Sirius was watching her.

"What?" she asked, surprised to find him lean in a little bit closer.

"Who will I kiss at midnight then?" Hermione's laughter filled the air once more - sometimes Sirius was just a little bit too obvious. If she ever responded to any of his joking flirtations, she was pretty sure he'd run the other direction. Now, whether he'd be running screaming or not, that she wasn't quite so sure about.

"Not me apparently, but even if I'd been around you wouldn't have kissed me, would you?" she asked once her laughter subsided, raising her eyebrow in a look she'd stolen from McGonagall and perfected only a couple of years ago.

Sirius kept his gaze fixed on her as he replied, his voice low, "Now we'll never know." Even though she knew he wasn't being serious, her heart skipped a beat and a small sigh escaped her. Sirius didn't miss that and slightly embarrassed by her reaction, Hermione turned to Percy, who was sitting on her other side, abruptly ending her conversation with the Marauder. She heard him chuckle as she struck up a conversation with Percy about his and Audrey's plans for New Year's Eve. With Molly and Lucy being five and two respectively, Percy and Audrey had decided to go somewhere snowy, seeing as their little girls loved nothing more than snow. Audrey had also insisted on a holiday away from everyone else, because Percy, much like Hermione, would get sucked back into work between Christmas and New Year's if they stayed at home. Although he had become a little more laid back over the years, particularly since the birth of Lucy, it was still difficult for him to take time off from his job, because he considered it to be so important. Admittedly, he had risen quite a bit in the ranks of the Ministry over the last decade and didn't have to deal with cauldrons' bottom thickness anymore, but it wasn't the kind of position you'd forego holidays with your family for. Then again, who was she to talk.

The evening ended as so many of their get-togethers did nowadays with parents collecting their children as well as various strewn about belongings and toys after they'd cleaned all the dishes. It was utter chaos with everyone flooing and apparating back to their own homes, and Hermione waited for everything to calm down again before she herself left. She was just kissing Mrs Weasley's cheek, thanking her for the wonderful dinner, and giving Mr Weasley a quick hug when Sirius, who was also waiting for the chaos to subside, waved her over.

"Film at my place?" he asked her once she'd come over to him.

"Hmmm," she said, acting as though she had to seriously contemplate if they should have one of their movie nights or not, even though they both knew she'd say yes - she always did. "Only if you promise that you won't put on Dirty Dancing again." For some reason it was one of Sirius' favourite films, and it was one of the few that made her regret getting the TV and DVD player to work in Grimmauld Place and introducing Sirius to DVDs. She had liked the film before - she really had. But if she had to hear the line 'I carried a watermelon' one more time, she couldn't be held responsible for her actions.

Sirius smirked at her and said, "Of course not. It's almost December, so it's time for Love Actually."

"It's not even December yet," Hermione said feebly, although she was actually fine with Love Actually.

"That's why I said almost, love," Sirius said, winking at her before disapparating with a pop the next second, Hermione following him a moment later.


A/N: Hello everyone!

Thanks for reading the first chapter of this new story! My original plan was for this to be just about that one Christmas and this one round of Secret Santa, but then things happened, plans were changed, and this fic just kept on growing, haha.

Buckle up, it's going to be a long(ish?) ride c: