Author's notes: Oh, guys I'm soooo sorry for the delay! Especially after you were all so enthusiastic. I'll put up two chapters at once to make up for it, okay?

Please keep reading and reviewing, and don't take my dodgy updating schedules as a good example!

Thanks and cookies to: PixieDust-xxxx, TheCrzyinglyInsne1, PrincessProcrastination and Haydees for their reviews.

Chapter 6

Three days straight Cormac had spent in the library. His back ached from sitting in the same position constantly and one word merged into another on the page before his eyes. He couldn't do this anymore. It was inhuman. It was wrong.

How could Hermione sit there, utterly relaxed, completely beautiful, for so many hours?

She was some sort of reading demon.

She finished volumes so fast that she could barely have skimmed over the words, yet she memorized every sentence. She became totally absorbed in herself when she read. Any new piece of knowledge was greeted with a slight frown. Her mouth would lift into a small smile at other moments. Cormac found that the rate at which he could read a page slowed; but it had less to do with how tired his eyes were and more to do with how very easy it was to stare at Hermione while she read.

Nevertheless, they needed to take a break. Cormac was determined that Christmas day would be completely study free, whatever Hermione said about grades.


Christmas morning dawned white and cold. A snow storm raged, battering the ancient walls of Hogwarts' castle. Hermione didn't feel particularly compelled to leave the warmth of her bed to unwrap presents alone. She couldn't even face her pile of gifts knowing that there would be one less than all the previous years, because Ron wouldn't have bought her anything this time.

Really, she would have happily spent the day curled up in bed reading a book and avoiding the Christmas cheer. She didn't want to spend Christmas day alone, but since she'd opted to stay at school to use the library, and Harry had gone home with Ron, she didn't really have much choice.

She had wanted to ask Harry to stay at school with her, but that had felt incredibly selfish.

Hermione burrowed under her quilt, ignoring the fact that she had promised to use her time to study, and tried to get back to sleep.


Kurt glared at Cormac.

"Tell me again why we can't start celebrating Christmas yet."

"We're waiting for Hermione," Cormac replied simply.

"We've been waiting for Hermione for the last hour. For Merlin's sake, Cormac, let me open my presents," Kurt nagged irritably.

"Fine," Cormac conceded. "But I'm not opening mine until she's here."

"What law says she'll want to spend Christmas with you anyway?" Triumphantly Kurt ripped through the wrapping paper on one of his gifts.

"No law. There's no harm in asking."

"Whatever, mate. I don't think she's coming down any time soon anyway."

Cormac ignored his friend and turned back to watching the entrance to the girls' dormitories. Kurt had proved in their third year that boys could not access the girls' rooms when his attempted had resulted in the stairs becoming a slide. One of the Hogwarts' founders' jokes, apparently. Hermione might not even realise she had someone to spend the day with her. He should get a message to her somehow, but there were no girls around he could ask to deliver one to her.

"How can I send a message to someone?" Cormac pondered allowed.

"Send an owl, stupid," Kurt answered, still very much engrossed in his gifts.

Enlightenment dawned on Cormac's face. "Of course. Stay here, Kurt, I'm just going to run to the owlry."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "It'll be cold up there. And wet. When are you going to give up on her?"

"I'm not," Cormac shouted as he ducked out of the common room, a quill and some parchment clutched in one hand.


A persistent taping on the window awakened Hermione. She tried to curl up with her head under her pillow and go back to sleep but the tapping just wouldn't stop. Throwing her pillow away in frustration, she got out of bed to locate the source of the sound.

She found an owl trying to gain entry by tapping on the glass with its beak.

She opened the window to let the bird in. It was exhausted as it had been fitting against the wind to stay aloft outside the window. She recognized it as a school owl and wondered if it had gotten lost on its way to the owlry, until she realised it had a letter attached to its leg.

"I should have known," she muttered to herself as she untied the parchment. "It was a little too convenient that an owl would find an occupied room when the castle is nearly deserted, purely because it took a wrong turning on its way to the owlry." The wet owl perched on the end of her bed and ruffled his feathers. Hermione didn't have the heart to force the bird out of the window and back into the storm that was raging outside.

Hermione unrolled the parchment. There was a short hand written message scrawled hastily. "Please come down, Hermione."

It took her a moment to recognize the handwriting from their recent study sessions, but Hermione quickly understood that the message had to be from Cormac.

She didn't understand his insistence that he keep her company during the holidays. His motivation was still unclear, although she'd been trying to work it out. Did he want something from her, or was he genuinely trying to offer friendship? From what she'd assumed of Cormac before and during Slughorn's party she didn't think Cormac was one to offer charity or sympathy, so she'd assume he had some sort of ulterior motive, but then she wasn't sure he was bright enough to hide one.

She pulled on a dressing gown over her pyjamas.

"I have enjoyed his company," she admitted to herself as she made her way down the stairs. "It is more comforting to know there's someone who wants to talk to me, whatever his reasons."

Cormac was pacing impatiently when she reached the foot of the stairs. She waited for him to turn to face her; it didn't take more than a second.

"Hermione!" he exclaimed happily when he saw her. "I didn't think you'd ever come down."

"How long have you been waiting?" she asked curiously, noting the pile of unopened Christmas gifts on the chair beside him.

"All morning," he admitted, a slight blush creeping onto his features. "My friend Kurt was waiting with me but he got bored and went back to our dorm. I thought you might want to spend Christmas day with us, since your friends all went home," he suggested merrily.

The rational, more dominant part of her mind began to pile up reasons and excuses. "I was just going to study, Cormac," she told him. "You didn't have to go to all that trouble."

"I wanted to," he persevered. "And I'm not going to let you study at Christmas. It's unnatural."

Hermione considered his smiling, determined face, and found her resolve caving. She smiled at him slightly. "Thank you, Cormac," was all she could think of to say.

He bounded forwards. "You've not opened your presents yet, have you? Go and get them, we'll open them together!" As he propelled her towards the stairs again Hermione could help but feel some of his joy rub off.