A/N HEY!! Next chapter is here, slightly later than anticipated, but still here. I hope you enjoy it.

PREVIOUSLY

George looked at her confusedly.

"Ha, see what it feels like on the other end of the surprise Mr. 'surprises are fun' anyway you'll find out pretty soon, come to the kitchen then".

"Bah humbug, I knew those words would come back to haunt me".

To Be Continued…

--X—

"Noooooooo, crap, crap, I've totally ruined it!!"

"It's okay I can work with that, it's not totally ruined".

"But Hermione the cheese has almost completely melted, how are we supposed to make it now?"

"Erm I think we still have enough cheese to still make enough for the both, and we will have to get more bacon which I still have some left of … but maybe we should just leave the cooking to me from now on, otherwise I won't have any food left".

Hermione tried to make George feel better about the mistake that he had made, she had though he was exaggerating about his inabilities in the kitchen but he actually wasn't lying. They had been making spaghetti carbonara (one of the easiest dishes Hermione could think of) when George, who had been bringing Hermione the cheese that he had grated, had put the cheese in with the frying bacon, not realising that this was not the right thing to do.

Hermione had not been supervising George at the time, she had been preparing the eggs, but after George had put the cheese in he had checked the cooking instructions Hermione had written out for him and had realised his mistake. At first he had tried to scoop out the cheese but it had already melted into a big glob and was mixing with the bacon, this was when he had let out his little outburst.

Hermione found the whole situation actually quite hilarious but thought it best not to laugh and possibly hurt his already deflating ego. So Hermione just laughed to herself and got on with starting over again.

"Okay George, what I want you to do is JUST grate this cheese and then when you are done put it in with these" she pointed to the eggs she had been preparing. "Then after that put a couple of tablespoons of cream in with it and mix, and once you have done that just leave it, don't do ANYTHING else, okay?"

George nodded to her determinedly and started on with his task while Hermione re started the bacon.

By the time they had eventually finished preparing the meal and had dished it all up it had taken them three times longer than Hermione had previously anticipated.

When they sat down at the table Hermione let out a little involuntary sigh of relief, she was ravenous and couldn't wait to eat, she had thought that the meal would never be ready.

"Well George I hope you enjoy this after all the trouble we went through and all the wasted food" she mocked.

George stuck out his tongue at her childishly and replied back "Well it's not my fault, I did warn you but nooo you didn't believe me" He replied back sarcastically with a small smile on his face.

Hermione laughed and simply said "Alright, just start eating okay?"

George complied and took a bite; Hermione did the same once she saw his reaction, which thankfully was a large smile.

They sat there for a few minutes in silence and Hermione got caught up in her own thoughts. I wonder how his has been able to live on his own without having to ever cook for himself; he doesn't live at the Burrow anymore so I wonder how he is still alive. Hermione laughed at he thought and voiced this observation to George.

"Well basically I live with Fred and he does ALL the cooking, he is quite a good cook, but usually we either eat out or get take away, we are quite lazy you know". George laughed and then asked "Hey, I've always wondered, why did you end up a healer? I mean you never really showed much interest in that type of thing, at least from what I can remember".

Hermione contemplated this answer and replied. "Hmm I suppose that I decided to become a healer when my mother became ill once, quite seriously with pneumonia, and I had this feeling of not being able to help her at all thankfully she survived though, it was awful, I suppose I just like being in control" she laughed, shaking off the feelings of sadness which the topic had brought up.

George decided to change the topic noting Hermione's sadness and said "So! It's Christmas tomorrow, have I fulfilled my promise of getting you to have fun until that date".

Hermione smiled and replied back "Definitely, these past few days have been awesome, I must admit I was quite apprehensive about a couple of them but I ended up worrying for nothing".

"Well that's good then, challenge in life has been completed successfully, I can now live a peaceful life knowing this" George joked making Hermione laugh profusely.

--X—

By the time that they had both finished their meals and had had a very large conversation about nothing and everything they decided to move over to the couch. Hermione was having a great time listening to George's anecdotes and she couldn't have thought of a better way of spending her past few days. George had really started to grow on her and she hoped that after Christmas they would still be able to see each other often.

"Wow" Hermione said after looking at her watch "You do realise it is 10:21? That means that we have been with each other for almost the whole of the day, time really does fly".

George smiled. "Yeh, I have had a really great time Hermione and I hope you have too, but looking at the time I really have to go, Fred will be annoyed that I didn't come to the shop at all today and he'll be wanting an explanation".

George sighed getting himself up from the couch slowly, looking at Hermione longingly. She replied back saying.

"Yeh, I have a couple of things to do as well I suppose" Hermione replied back regretfully, she really wished that the day could go on forever; she didn't want George to leave. And as much as Hermione loathed admitting it, she was starting to grow feeling for George which she had never really anticipated getting.

Heaving herself up also Hermione slowly led George to the door, opening it for him.

"Okay I suppose I will see you when I see you". George said to her awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot and fidgeting with his coat zip.

Hermione looked at him and replied. "Yeh, hopefully sooner than later, I want to see what that Father Christmas gave you, y'no asses who got the better present, and find out how you liked my present".

George grinned at the opportunity to see her again and said "It's a date; I'll owl you to arrange a time or something".

Hermione blushed at the ambiguity of his statement and just said. "Um, Yeh cool" Hermione kicked herself at the way that she had replied. "Well I suppose I'll see you soon then" she carried on, reaching forward to hug him.

George enveloped Hermione into a warm hug, but before she could get too comfortable, which she happily would, he pulled away smiling and said.

"Bye then Hermione" He started walking away and Hermione said goodbye back, waving.

Oh Hermione she thought closing the door and going back into her apartment, what have you gotten yourself into.

A/N Okay, so that's that chapter over with, a much longer chapter this time so I hope you like it. It would be great to get a couple of reviews, I hope everyone liked it and the next chapter should be up within a couple of days.

Ciao. Xx