In her wildest dreams Hermione couldn't have predicted how one kiss can change girl's life. After five years of being friends with Harry Potter, she got used to being in the very centre of every single person and creature's attention. But she definitely was not prepared for what was happening after her Friday evening kiss with Harry. Because people gone mad.

She had been asked about the kiss over and over again. How was it? Is he a good kisser? Did she enjoy it?

She couldn't understand why all of a sudden almost every girl in the castle wanted a detail from her very private issue but it wasn't the worst. Hearing congratulations from unknown people every five minutes wasn't the worst either. The worst was the fact that she was alone with all of this.

Ron stopped even noticing her presence, Ginny gave her short congrats and didn't seem to be willing to hear the whole story and Harry were nowhere to be found. She was alone all weekend and she had no idea what to think or do.

She tried to analyse her situation over and over again but she didn't know how to feel about all of this. How does it feel to kiss Harry Potter? Confusing and awkward at best? Why were strangers more excited about that kiss than she was?

Ms Pince forced Hermione to focused on her words when she tried to rush her out of the library for the third time. Eventually, Hermione cleaned up her safe place and left. She was about to come back to her dormitory but instead of turning left she climbed the stairs and found herself in front of the owlery.

'Here, you are.' Hermione said, noticing her best friend. Harry was sitting in the corner watching owls flying in and out. He didn't bother to greet her so after a moment of silence, which was a little too long to be comfortable, she sat next to him. 'I haven't seen you for a while.'

'Erm.. I was really busy lately.'

'You were really busy avoiding me indeed.' She agreed watching him carefully, but he was still too busy with observing owls to look at her.

'That's not the truth' He said, playing with his fingers. 'Or maybe it is.' He admitted after a while, taking a deep breath.

'I'm sorry.' They said at once.

'I really am, Hermione.' He said, shaking his head. 'I pushed you to kiss me so our best friend became jealous, it's sick and now everybody believes there's something going on between us.'

'Don't you dare to blame yourself. I should be smarter than some stupid teenage drama!'

'Damm it, you're my best friend and for once you needed help not I and what did I do? Did I give you a proper solution? Hell, no. I've just given you more problems.' He wanted to stay calm but he was so disgusted by his own behaviour that he started losing control. He had a strong need to punch something, anything to release his anger.

She had no answer to it. He indeed gave her a hard headache but she was too smart to put all blame on him. She gave him her consent. He didn't force her to kiss him. He just proposed it and she agreeded to it. The silence between them was tense but bearable. She wanted to break it but every time she opened her mouth to say something, words didn't come out.

'It will stop, eventually.' Harry said, rising suddenly. 'It always works like this. We will do our things and everybody will forget.' He offered her his hand to help her stand up.

'If we told Ron the truth, he would think I'm crazy.'

'So we don't tell him for a while.' He said, closing the door behind them.


The castle was decorated for upcoming Christmas overnight. Christmas Trees were placed in almost every corner, mistletoes were hanging all over the ceiling. Artificial snow was falling down and disappeared when someone tried to catch it. First year students were a little over excited about this beautiful view and Hermione was forced to escort some of them to their classes before they got lost wandering around and admiring breathtaking decorations.

Christmas was in the air. Hermione felt it too and it made her really miserable. She tried to transfer all her problems into unrequited feeling towards Ron but the truth was that the little girl inside her was craving to spend Christmas with her parents. Unfortunately, professor McGonagall informed her it was too dangerous for both her and her parents.

'Are you all packed up?' Hermione asked as Harry took place next to her in the common room.

'Yep.' He replied shorty. She wanted to ask him to stay in the castle but with Sirius' dead Harry lost the last piece of a real family and she was too aware of how hard this Christmas would be for him. Spending time in the Burrow could be the only way to draw his attention away from his sorrow.

'It's a schedule for you.' Hermione stated handing him a piece of parchment.

'And why do I need this?' He asked looking through it superficially.

'Because we are going to spend Christmas in the Burrow and all eyes will be on us. We need to play it right.'

'This is not how relationship works, Hermione.' He said, laughing.

'What are you laughing at?'

'Can I kiss you at 3:30 or only 4:00 as you planned?'

'We need to kiss if we want it to look real!'

'And you think doing it 3 times a day is good enough, huh?'

'This is not funny!'

'We should go with a flow.'

'And what exactly do you mean by that?'

'I will kiss you if I feel like it and you can kiss me sometimes too, you know. Considering I'm your super sexy, athletic, saving the world kind of boyfriend. Or should I say fake boyfriend?'

'Thanks for making it even harder for me.'

'Oh God, I got myself a girl with no sense of humour.'

'What are you doing?' She yelled, when he dropped her schedule into a fireplace.

'Don't be so tight up! Everything will be alright, Hermione. We are best friends, we can add some hand holding or other stupid stuff and it will be fine. I promise we will handle it just right.'