A/N: Sorry again for the wait! Here is another chapter! Hooray! Enjoy, Rate, and Review!

The bad taste that big exams left in the mouths of students slowly began to subside as the week of midterms came and went at Hogwarts. With the Hogwarts Express only running twice a year (to get the students to and from Hogwarts for the summer) special arrangements had to be made to get everyone home and back for the holidays. It was a far more complicated process then it had been before involving many owls to and from Hogwarts, long floo calls and hundreds of portkey setups. After all that, everyone had to leave at staggered intervals creating a logistical nightmare. All in all it was a very complicated mess that took a little over two weeks, hence the midterms and last quidditch game of the season coinciding.

Harry, though no longer showing any anger towards his sister and best friend, had made no attempts to apologize to either one. Ron had still regarded him with heated expressions and his sister simply ignored him. Even his younger brother Adam, who had always looked up to his older brother, was ignoring him and shooting him angry looks in the corridor. Harry could have lived with this had his situation had his situation with Hermione not been just as complicated. She had been stealthily avoiding being alone with him since they had kissed. She would pretend to study in the Head Girl dorm, or she would be accompanied by at least three other Gryffindor girls. When they did talk, it was all business. It seemed as if she would be content to ignore the event forever. Her refusal stung more than Harry was willing to let on, so, after the first week of her careful avoidance he had lowered himself into a steady pattern of brooding.

It was in this pattern that he found himself sitting alone in the Great Hall glaring down at his eggs. He was so intent on scrambling them into small pieces that he barely noticed when his younger brother sank into a seat next to him, his eyebrow quirked up in amusement as he observed for a moment before announcing his presence. Being in a different house, it was harder for David to keep up with his brother's drama, but from what he had gathered from Kate, Harry seemed to be having it in spades for the last couple of weeks. "SO!" he shouted in Harry's ear causing the latter to drop his fork with a clatter and jumped.

"Don't do that!" He growled, picking up his fork and continuing his brooding.

The fact that he hadn't been socked was not lost on the younger Potter he decided to press on. "You seem popular these days," David pointed out, enjoying his older brother's mood.

Harry grunted in reply.

"Oho! You've given up speech as well?"

"Davie, boy, do me a favor and shove off!" He looked up only long enough to give his younger brother an emerald glare.

Unruffled, he sat next to his brother, pushing a stray bit of straw colored hair out of his amused face. "I'd rather not, actually. It's not often that I am not the most hated Potter in the school. What did you do to gather all this unpopularity?"

"It involves a load of snogging then ignoring on all fronts, but it's a rather complicated story I'd rather not relay."

David shrugged, "Well, just thought you should know that we are finally heading out for Christmas tomorrow morning." Stealing a piece of toast, he made to leave, turning at the last second for dramatic affect. "It should be an interesting holiday." With that he dropped a letter in Harry's massacred eggs and walked off chuckling.

Harry dropped his fork again, brushed egg bits from the parchment, opened the letter, and read:

Dear Harry, Kate, David, and Adam,

How have you all been? I hope that your lack of owls is due to the fact that you are all so busy making good grades and filling your heads with knowledge rather than ignoring your mother. Your father and I have been very busy setting up the new house for all of you. I miss you all dearly. It is way too quiet here without at least one of you home. I haven't had this much time to myself for eighteen years. The result is a house that is completely decked out for the holiday. I hope you will all like your new rooms (yes, each of you have your own rooms!). They were your father's personal project and he is quite proud, so don't say anything if you don't like them!

Dumbledore is sending you home to us on December twentieth by portkey. Unfortunately, we will not be having the holiday here at the new house. We will all be at Grimwald Place with Sirius and other family and friends. It should be a good time.

I can't wait to see you all again.

Love Always,

Mum

Harry dropped the letter and sighed. He knew that when she said that they would be spending the holiday with family and friends it meant that everyone from the Order would be there. That meant that Ron would be there. Harry wasn't sure if he could handle watching Ron snog his sister in front of their representative families. He could see now why David thought it was funny. The boy loved to see him squirm.

The only thing Harry had to look forward to was perhaps his Dad would finally be telling him the reason behind their sudden move. After their final in DADA, Sirius had kept Harry behind in class to tell him that he was going to writing home to his fellow maurauder. He was very impressed with how well his godson had stayed in line, admitting that he himself probably wouldn't have been able to do it. Harry laughed inwardly at this. He had managed to destroy his entire life in a matter of weeks. How was that impressive? However, he did warn that the letter might do no good whatsoever, but at least he would try.

And this would be three weeks away from Hermione. Harry shook himself at the thought. He had never beaten himself up so much over a kiss before. Usually, when things didn't go well, he simply moved on to the next available girl to ease the sting of his wounded pride. Now, however, it seemed he couldn't. Even when Lavender Brown had offered herself, he had found himself turning her down. Not like he hadn't kissed half the school, why was Hermione so different?

Because she is one of your best friends, whom you love, and you just made that love a lot more complicated by liking her, he thought. Did he actually like her, or was it simply the moment, he wondered. After a moment more of making mince meat of his eggs he came to a conclusion.

He did like her and, by Merlin, he wasn't going to let her go to holiday without knowing it.

With his mind set, Harry left his murdered eggs and headed for the Library, ready tell his best friend that he didn't want to be friends anymore.