Chapter Four: Christmas Games
Hermione woke up on Saturday with a feeling of dread. She washed her face and looked in the mirror before heading down to the empty common room for Christmas morning.
It was Tuesday night, or, well, Wednesday morning, and she and Draco were at the Quidditch pitch finishing up her failure of a flying lesson. They were laughing about everything that happened that night and over the last few months when Draco stopped to look up at the stars.
Hermione stopped beside him and looked up with him. The snow began to gently fall onto them and she stuck out her tongue, hoping to catch a snowflake. Draco looked at how innocently beautiful she was, but realized that it was snowing and she was only in a T-shirt. He conjured up a robe, all of his being in his dorm, and put it over her shoulders.
The two locked eyes for a moment before Hermione hugged the robe from the inside and looked down.
"Won't you be cold?" She asked.
"The cold doesn't bother me," he said, shrugging.
"You'll catch your death," she whispered, looking up without moving her head.
"Maybe we should go inside then," Draco suggested quietly.
Hermione nodded and was about to start walking back inside the castle when Draco's broom appeared in front of her. She looked up at his devilish grin and took a step back, laughing.
"You can't possibly expect me to ride that all the way back to the Gryffindor tower," she said.
"You can do it," he told her.
Hermione cautiously swung her leg onto the broom and tried to get comfortable, but she soon felt Draco's warm body against her. He put his hands on her shoulders and relaxed her tense form. "Just relax."
Draco looked over her shoulder and put his hands over hers and led her up a few feet into the air before letting her take control, which she did poorly, but they still ended up outside her window.
"That was the shakiest ride I have ever taken Granger," Draco said with a smirk as she climbed off the broom and onto the windowsill.
Hermione wanted to give him a playful slap on the arm, but was afraid of falling and ended up sticking her tongue out at him.
"If you keep at that, I will have to bite off your tongue," Draco joked.
Hermione put her tongue back in her mouth, but said, "but then that would require your pureblood germs to touch my mudblood ones," in a mocking manner.
"And who said that I would mind that so much?"
The two looked at each other. They were so close that each breath felt as though they were in the others ear.
"Stay for Christmas," Draco said quietly. He didn't want her to leave.
"I signed up to go h-"
"Stay for Christmas," and then he was off, but not before Hermione heard him add the word that hit her like a ton of bricks, "please."
It was Saturday morning and the common room was quite empty. There was a first-year boy opening his presents with his friend from second year in one corner with Harry and Ginny at the fireplace talking in hushed tones.
"What are you two doing together?" Hermione said in her best Ron impersonation, causing the couple to turn around so quickly that Ginny almost fell out of her chair and Harry was in a complete state of shock.
When they saw it was only Hermione, Ginny slapped her on the arm and Harry leaned back in his chair trying to catch his breath.
"I think I just had a stroke," Harry said with is eyes wide open.
"Oh calm down you big baby," Hermione said. "Honestly, Ginny, I don't know what you see in him."
Ginny rolled her eyes and cuddled up to her boyfriend. She liked the time when they could be openly affectionate and together.
Hermione watched the couple together and sat in the armchair across from them. "So what are you two up to this fine morning?"
"We have decided to tell Ron about us," Ginny said nervously. She fingered a bracelet on her finger as she looked up the stairs to the boys dormitory.
"Ginny," Hermione exclaimed, first noticing the bracelet, "that's beautiful. Where did you get it?"
"From a wonderful boy who loves me," Ginny said with a sparkle in her eye. She looked up and kissed Harry affectionately on the lips.
"If you two don't stop that soon, you might not have to tell Ron because he'll find out on his own," Hermione said with a chuckle before getting up to grab her presents from her dormitory. "I'll be right down and then we can open presents together."
"Hurry up!" Harry called. "I want to see what else Ginny got!"
Ginny's eyes went wide with excitement and she jumped down to go through her pile of presents.
Hermione walked into her dormitory and picked up her heavy pile of presents. Most of them, she could tell, were books, but there were a few that looked like something different from her usual gift. She hurried to the door when something caught her eye. It was a single box on the windowsill she had climbed into only days before. She thought about how the had planned poker games for the rest of the week so that she wouldn't have to face Draco alone again. Without thinking, she put her presents onto her bed and walked over to the window, her eyes focused on the box.
It was a simple gift box; light blue wrapping paper with a blue ribbon and small enough to put in her pocket.
"HERMIONE GRANGER!" Hermione snapped out of her trance and looked out the door. "GET YOUR ARSE DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!"
Hermione shoved the box into her nightstand and picked up the rest of her presents from her bed and went downstairs.
Christmas day was pretty uneventful, but Dumbledore set up a sort of Secret Santa where each of the professors, instead of buying something for another professor, gave a present to one of the students whose name they picked out of a hat. There was an exact amount of students staying at the school as professors, which was more than usual.
Harry received a 'get out of detention free' pass from Dumbledore. Ron received a hat that was charmed to change your appearance from Professor Flitwick. Many of the students received girft like this, but Snape, of course, picked Hermione's name and Draco was picked by Trelawny.
"A free reading my dear," Trelawny told Draco as she tried to lead him to her classroom, but Draco was putting up a struggle to leave and blurting out every excuse he could think of.
Hermione giggled at the struggle while Harry and Ron tried not to snort into their pudding.
"Miss Granger," the trio turned around and looked up at the seething Snape, "if you are through with your laughing, it is your turn to receive your Christmas gift."
Hermione gulped and stood up, wondering what Snape's version of a Christmas gift for a Gryffindor was. She nodded her head and awaited the bag filled with manure or a potion to fix warts or something like that.
Snape handed her a small box with pink wrapping and a yellow ribbon. Hermione looked in awe as she pulled the yellow ribbon, undoing the perfect bow on the top of the box, and opened it up. Inside the box was a potion book filled with ingredients and instructions for complex potions Hermione had only ever heard about from footnotes in her books. She looked up at Snape, trying to think of a way to thank him.
"Thank you Professor," she finally got out. Snape gave her a curt nod of the head and walked off, leaving Hermione to show the present to her friends.
"Wow Hermione," Harry said, "that's really…not Snape. Are you sure it's not a prank?"
"No," Hermione replied. "Dumbledore would be furious. That's it. Dumbledore must have just had a say in it."
The trio continued with their lunches and literally raced up to the tower to change into warmer clothes before heading outside to start a snowball fight with the other students who stayed at the castle during the vacation. There were only eight students, not including the Slytherins, in the castle, two third-year Ravenclaws and one first-year and fourth-year Hufflepuff. Draco was the only other sixth-year student to stay behind, but there was a seventh-year and fifth-year, both from the poker group. The three passed the time playing poker. They knew that if they invited Hermione, then someone might know about what went on.
That night, after Hermione had brushed the snow out of her hair and taken a warm shower, she put on her black leggings and long red and white striped sweater with a black belt and boots. She was in the middle of applying her make-up when she though to herself 'Wait, why am I dressing up? It's only Malfoy.'
She took the small blue box from her nightstand and pulled gently on the ribbon. Inside was a simple silver locket in the shape of a heart on an even simpler silver chain. There was no note or signature or anything to let her know who it was from, or if it was even for her. She lifted the chain and admired the beautiful craftsmanship on the locket. She tried to open the locket, but it was sealed shut. There was probably a charm on it.
Hermione thought to herself before deciding to wear a silver necklace from her grandmother. It was a silver locket in the shape of an eight-pointed star with a ruby in the center on a long, silver chain. She looked at the clock and saw that it was almost midnight. She and Draco thought at first that it would be more fun to spend Christmas with their friends, but when they found out that the other Slytherin boys wanted to have a game, seeing how the group wouldn't be too big, and knew that because of obvious reasons, Draco wouldn't be able to get out of playing. Hermione could tell that Draco was growing bored of the weekly games. Because most of the games weren't played for money anymore, two more tables had to be conjured so that three games could go on at a time and that everyone could get the chance to play.
It was Hermione who suggested that they meet. She knew that Harry, Ron and Ginny would want to stay up all night together, but there would be time before. She only hoped that she wouldn't need to stay to help Ginny protect Harry from Ron.
Hermione looked at herself once more in the mirror. She had added a pair of earrings and smoothed her hair and with a little colored lip balm she was ready to head out.
"Where are you going all hot?"
Hermione whipped around to find Ginny on Harry's lap, once again, in the middle of the common room. She smiled and asked, "so I assume you two told Ron?" hoping to change the topic.
"Nope," Ginny giggled, shaking her red curls.
"Then why are you…"
"We came up with a plan," Harry said wit ha tap to his temple.
"We decided that if we could get Ron to think it was his idea, then maybe he won't mind!" Ginny squealed.
Hermione nodded in approval. She had to admit that it was a pretty good idea.
"So, again," Harry said, "where are you off to this late?"
Hermione tried to put on a poker face, but she was having trouble. She had originally planned on doing what she always did; hanging out with her friends, claiming fatigue, then sneaking of. This time, though, she spent too long getting ready and for once didn't have a plan.
"I was thinking of visiting Dobby and the other House Elves," she spit out. "Maybe a little Christmas party."
"Hermione, they don't want one," Harry tried to reason to her.
"Well that doesn't mean that I can't drop off some gifts," Hermione replied curtly before turning her heel and heading out the portrait hole.
As soon as Hermione got into the corridor, she scanned all directions before running off to the Room of Requirement.
I AM SOSOSOSOSOSOOOO SORRY THAT IT TOOK ME THIS LONG TO UPDATE. HONESTLY I THOUGHT THAT I ACTUALLY DID A FEW WEEKS AGO. PLEASE DON'T TAKE IT OUT ON THE STORY AND JUST SEND ME ANGRY THOUGHTS INSTEAD. REVIEW
