CHAPTER SIX: CHRISTMAS AND SETTLING IN

On Christmas Eve, Hermione was taking a break from her research and notes to string popcorn with the twins. Remus was MIA because Muriel found some Christmas cheer in her withered old heart and allowed him to spend the evening with his wife. They had used magic on a small evergreen shrub from the garden to make themselves a suitable Christmas tree and were working on decorating it with bits of this and that they had found throughout the house, not daring to go shopping for decorations. Hermione had apparated to the other side of the country with a portable polyjuice lozenge and muggle money to shop for a suitable Christmas dinner for the next night and had homemade cinnamon rolls rising in the refrigerator for breakfast. George was currently trying to create a star for their tree while Fred was in the kitchen putting together something for that night's supper when Hermione saw she had received a note from Harry.

In Godric's Hollow. Using the PP. Can you come? It's Christmas.

Of course I'm coming, Harry. Where should I meet you?

The cemetery.

Let me grab my coat.

Hermione looked up at George as she tied her shoes and reached for her coat. He sighed heavily, but nodded. Fred walked in as she was buttoning her coat with one hand and reaching for her scarf and hat with the other. His face took on a grim look, but he nodded as well, pulling her close for a moment before kissing her gently.

"I'm going to try and get back quickly," she told them both from the doorway, surprising them. "Harry told me where he is. I'm going to bring him back."

"Where is he?" Fred asked curiously.

"Godric's Hollow. The cemetery," Hermione looked as grim as he had a few moments earlier. Both twins winced.

"Talk about punishing yourself - abandoned and alone visiting your parents' graves for the first time on Christmas Eve?" George whistled low to himself. "Bring him back safe, Hermione. Take the book. You never know if something might happen."

"If we don't hear from you in an hour, I'm coming after you," Fred told her as she pocketed her journal and head outside. "I'm completely serious about this. Be careful."

"I always am."

"Stay safe, Granger. If you've got a spare hand, see what you can do about Potter as well," George joked from behind his brother in the doorway. Hermione grinned at them, waving goodbye as she stepped out of the wards and apparated to Godric's Hollow.

"Thank you," Harry said as she approached and placed flowers on his parents' graves.

"It's the very least I could do," she insisted, kneeling down beside him and putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Will you come back with me?"

"Yeah. I'm not getting anything done on my own out here," he finally gave in.

"We've got the makings for a proper Christmas supper tomorrow," she promised, trying to cheer him up a bit. "Fred and George will be there and maybe Remus if Muriel kicks him out."

"No one else?"

"No one else knows where we are," she told him, both purposely avoiding Ron's name.

"It'll be nice to see the twins," Harry decided, standing up and lending her a hand to pull her up as well, both brushing snow from their knees. "You were right, you know. I shouldn't have tried to to do this on my own."

"You had to try," she conceded, giving him a small grin. "But it will be really good to have you home. It's great with the twins and Remus, but I miss you."

"I miss you too, Hermione," he admitted as they left the cemetery. Both stopped dead as they saw the figure standing in the street waiting for them. Hermione cursed vehemently inside her head, knowing she should have insisted they apparate out from the far side of the cemetery, not the town side. "Hello?" Harry asked and the figure beckoned him to follow.

"Harry, we really shouldn't follow. Let's just go, yeah?" Hermione tried to argue. Predictably, Harry was insistent and stubborn. She did manage to drag the argument out a good five minutes though, suddenly very aware that should anything bad happen, she had back up coming in less than forty-five minutes like it or not. So Hermione made a point to drag her feet and make sure Harry stopped following the old woman for a few minutes to look at the memorial his childhood home had become.

Hermione glanced at her watch as they followed the old woman into her home. If Fred waited the entire hour, she still had over twenty-five minutes left. She was betting he'd be there within ten, having used up all his patience and hoped he brought George with him. She paused as she entered the home, carving a quick rune on the door with her wand that glowed subtly in the moonlight. The twins had been reading The Hobbit recently in their free time, surely they'd understand her mark. She cast a quick charm to draw attention to her mark as she shut the door behind her, just in case.

Nothing about this house, the old woman, or being there felt right to Hermione. She tried telling Harry, but he didn't seem to care as the old woman beckoned him upstairs. It was like a bad fairy tale. Hermione set snooping around a bit, discovering that they were in the home of Bathilda Bagshot. In the distance she heard the faint sound of two people apparating. Upstairs she heard a tremendous crash. Praying it was the people she wanted apparating in, she hurried up the stairs to encounter Harry fighting an enormous snake. Eyes widening, she realized it was Voldemort's snake and horcrux and that there would be no way for them to defeat it, they could only hope to escape.

The snake seemed distracted by her sudden appearance and reared back to attack. Thinking quickly, Hermione summoned a wooden chair between the two, saving her from the teeth and diving around the snake to where Harry was as it splintered the old furniture. Hermione blasted a hole in the wall behind Harry, shoving him straight out before turning to the snake again, who was rearing back for another go. Sending another blasting curse back at the snake with everything she had, she backed out the hole in the wall herself, grateful when she was caught by strong and familiar smelling arms.

"Let's get out of here, Gred," George demanded, restraining an angry Harry somewhere behind Hermione.

"With you on that, Forge," Fred agreed as the sound of multiple apparitions signaled the arrival of death eaters.

"Secondary location, boys!" Hermione gasped out, watching the two nod as they side-along apparated her and Harry out of Godric's Hollow. "Why would you choose your shop?" she demanded as a caterwauling charm went off. "Must I do everything myself?" she grabbed George, who still had hold of Harry, from her position in Fred's arms and apparated the four of them to the forest of dean.

"Set up the wards," Fred directed Harry as soon as everything stopped spinning.

"You got a tent somewhere, yeah, Potter?" George asked, stopping Harry from setting up the wards to do so himself and redirecting him to set up shelter. "Hermione needs a bit of a lie down, I think."

"Yeah, let me just get it put up," Harry told him, scurrying to comply while George started casting the wards.

"You ok, Hermione?" Fred asked, noticing he was still mostly holding her up.

"I'll be fine in a bit. I just put as much of my magic as I was able into that last curse and then apparating four of us on a whim? Takes a lot out of you," she sighed, walking into the tent Harry had gotten up ridiculously quickly. "Don't suppose you've got any chocolate?" she asked as she went to lie down in a random bunk.

"No, fresh out. I've still got a few pepper up potions if you'd like," he offered, digging in his backpack.

"Maybe just a sip or two. Enough to get us home again," she agreed as he looked. "Were you hurt?"

"Felt like my head was going to explode, but I seem ok now," he told her, patting down his front as if to prove his health.

"You've got some glass and blood in your back, Potter," George told him, taking a seat at the table and pulling out his notebook to check in with everyone. "Didn't get there in time to catch you. Course, if I had my way, Freddie here'd be the faster one and I'd have had the lighter, prettier catch to make."

"Oi! That's my girl you're talking about there, brother of mine!" Fred insisted, stopping behind Harry to look his back over. "You'll be ok, Potter. Let me just get this glass out. You'll be alright until we get home. We've got a salve there that'll heal this right up."

"Your girl, Fred? Have I missed that much?" Harry asked, looking over to Hermione's blushing form.

"Just a bit there, eh, Potter? Life in the wilderness can do that to you," Fred told him with a wink, finishing with the glass and pulling the back of his shirt down again. "How're things, Georgie? Any retaliation? Everyone else ok?"

"Things are good. We about ready to pack it in?" George told him, closing the journal and looking to Hermione. "Think you can manage?"

"Of course I can manage. I just don't fancy the wind and snow now that I've just warmed up," she insisted, scowling at the howling of the wind outside the tent. Honestly, both she and the twins knew they'd only be there a few minutes, but the weather just kept getting worse by the minute and the idea of even few of them without shelter wasn't pleasant.

Harry was pleasantly surprised at the house George side-along apparated him to as soon as he stepped through the wards. After his own time hiding in Grimmauld Place followed by a few months on the run in a tent smelling of cat pee, he had expected a small, run down shack in the middle of nowhere as Hermione's hide out. He, of course, should have known better, and eagerly awaited the point in the tour when he was left to his own devices to shower in the bathroom he would be sharing with Remus. After his shower, he walked through one of the three doors in the bathroom to his own bedroom, at least until they took in more people. With Harry joining them, Fred had given up the room he had been using and was bunking up with George in the four bedroom house. When Tonks had given birth and came to join them with the baby, Remus would give up his room to Hermione, who would give up the master suite to the new family. Over dinner, Harry learned that Hermione had been trying to switch rooms in preparation since he had come to stay with them, but Remus refused to deny her the master suite in the house she owned until circumstances took away his protests.

Remus was overjoyed to see Harry when he arrived back a few hours after the four young adults ate. He had been particularly worried for him since Ron had abandoned the quest, but no longer insisted he take Ron's place, having come to terms with the idea of having a family of his own and being there for him. Despite notes from both of them that evening, Ron still hadn't replied in the journals and Fleur had told Hermione a few days ago that he had finally left and joined his family at his Aunt Muriel's. The five housemates had a lengthy conversation about the youngest Weasley son and decided that they should count him out for the rest of their journey, however long and trying it may prove to be. The other four had also talked Harry into staying with them and using the hidden muggle home as a base of operations.

Christmas morning blew in with the worst weather they had witnessed yet, leaving Harry beyond happy that he had finally reached out to Hermione and wouldn't be spending the day alone in the tent or worse yet - dead in a tiny house in Godric's Hollow. He was first up, out of habit of being alone on the run, and took over baking the cinnamon rolls Hermione had left to rise overnight. Fixing a full breakfast with tea, coffee, and orange juice past that, he greeted his savoirs with a warm smile as they entered the kitchen one by one, drawn by the enticing smells. After a large breakfast, they all congregated in the great room beside a roaring fire, pieced together Christmas tree, and an ancient television that Hermione had managed to dig out an equally ancient VHS player and a few movies for, apologizing that the warding made picking up a signal for the television impossible. Though they didn't have presents to exchange, the four Hogwarts drop outs spent the day watching old movies while sipping hot cocoa between getting supper started. Remus had behaved well enough to be invited back to Muriel's to see his wife for the holiday.

Boxing Day was unlike any other Harry had ever witnessed. Remus had arrived back late the night before laden with enough food, cookies, cakes, and fudge for an army from a worried Molly Weasley, who was thrilled Harry was accounted for. He also had Weasley Christmas sweaters for everyone, including himself, and seemed rather touched by the gesture, refusing to take it off for anything or anyone. Ginny sent long notes for everyone, telling them all that has happened and how much she missed them, as well as a small vial of blood for Hermione to key her into a notebook she had procured for the young witch. Hermione left the house that day only under the influence of a portable polyjuice lozenge to send the journal by muggle post to Bill and Fleur, who would get it to Ginny before she returned to Hogwarts. Remus had confirmed Ron was at Muriel's, but hadn't really spoken to him - it seems the boy avoided him the whole two days he had spent there.

Hermione, Fred, and George grimaced a little at his description of Ron's behavior, but immediately put themselves back to work after a quick breakfast from the large pot of oatmeal George had prepared for them all. Harry spent the first couple hours wandering from room to room refilling cups of coffee and tea as necessary. Fred was in the basement, working on his WWW products, George had brought in Lee Jordan and the two of them were in the twins' room working on what was to be covered in that night's planned Potter Watch, Remus and Hermione were holed up in the dining room turned library, the whole table covered with books and parchment, trying to figure out the next horcrux. He felt no small amount of guilt, seeing his friends he considered family so diligently working to help him.

"Already my turn for another cuppa?" Fred asked as Harry walked in with two steaming mugs. "Just barely finished the last. Someone kick you out, then?"

"Nah, just skipped Remus and Hermione. They are right next to the kitchen, after all," Harry told him, handing him the tea and sitting down on an empty stool across the workbench from Fred, who sat down from his work a moment as well.

"And the most likely to forget to take a break," Fred mentioned, snickering into his tea a bit.

"Is it like this every day?" Harry asked, the guilt clear on his face.

"Yep. Was the day we got you too, you just wrote in after we had talked Hermione into calling it a day. Yesterday was Christmas, so we took a break. Took almost a month to talk her into it, but we finally convinced her that one day to recharge wouldn't hurt the mission," Fred told him jovially. "Honestly, this is fantastic for George and I. We're getting loads done. Never had the opportunity to just work on our products all day. There was always school, hiding from Mum, running a shop, stuff like that. We can't do much in the way of marketing right now, but once this is over, we'll be able to have a whole new product offering to kick off the grand re-opening."

"I'm glad for that, at least," Harry told him sincerely, with a smile. "Is she doing ok? I know you're close now."

"Some days are better than others. Ron leaving you hit her hard. She blamed herself, for Merlin knows what reason. She works like it's a week from finals until we make her stop to eat or rest. Luckily, I'm particularly talented in talking her into a break," Fred commented cheekily with a wink.

"I'm glad you're taking care of her. It means the world to me that she's safe and at least somewhat happy. Makes it all easier to go through, a bit more worthwhile, you know," Harry looked morose again.

"Is this going to turn into a 'you hurt my sister, I hurt you' conversation, Potter?"

"Maybe…"

"As funny as that would be, let's just skip it and I'll skip the one we should be having about Ginny. We're both guys with sisters we want to protect and so will treat the girls we're with like we'd want our sister treated, yeah?"

"Sounds good to me," Harry agreed, relieved. "I really wasn't sure how to go about threatening you or how wise of an idea that was."

"Likewise. I mean, you're Harry bloody Potter. You're supposed to save the world and me, some prankster who owns a joke shop, is supposed to intimidate you properly?" Fred laughed a bit. "I like agreeing to keep in mind how we want our sisters treated better."

"I really am happy you two have found happiness with each other, especially with things as they are. You make her smile and laugh. Ron only made her scowl and cry," Harry told him, causing Fred to beam with pride.

"I do my best. Say, how would you like to learn a bit about the business you invested in?" Fred asked, taking Harry under his wing and showing him how to make the portable polyjuice they were constantly running out of. Fred was grateful for the help and Harry was thrilled to have something productive to do that didn't include reading ancient manuscripts with fine print. Plus Fred was a much better teacher at potions than Snape had been, helping and encouraging instead of demeaning and breathing down his neck.