A/N: This chapter seems very fitting, seeing as it was Christmas on Tuesday! Hope you all had a good one :D Thank you to the reviewers, I really appreciate it. Hope you enjoy this chapter! :)

Chapter 11

Everyone in the Burrow was awakened at about 7 o'clock by Teddy running around the house excitedly holding a long high pitched note in his throat. Nobody was angry though, they were all amused at his antics. Their ears were rescued after about five minutes when Andromeda pulled him back into their room. Hermione yawned, stretched, and then yelled over to Ginny.

"Merry Christmas Ginny!" Ginny groaned and turned over.

"It may be Christmas, but it's too early. Merry Christmas Hermione." Hermione grinned when Ginny tried to turn over and go back to sleep. She picked up her pillow and threw it hard at Ginny's head.

"OI!" Ginny yelled. "I don't deserve such violence on Christmas day! I deserve my sleep!"

"I believe Harry is probably waiting for you to go and give him your first Christmas present."

"Huh?"

"Oh Ginny, do I have to spell it out? Go and give him a huge kiss you div."

"Oh my God! I need to kiss Harry Potter! Everybody move!" Hermione looked on, confused as Ginny leapt out of bed and ran out of the door. She shook her head, laughed softly, and reached for her hairbrush.

Hermione swiftly made herself presentable, but stayed in her pyjamas and put her dressing gown on. She hurried down the stairs, to find she was the last one down. Ginny and Harry were practically eating each other's faces, Hermione noticed with a smirk; Arthur and Molly were hugging each other tightly and there were cries of 'Merry Christmas' coming from every direction. Hermione jumped as she felt a pair of arms snake themselves around her waist. She shivered as she heard a breathy voice talk straight into her ear.

"Merry Christmas Hermione." She smiled at the sound of George's voice, and turned to face him.

"Happy Christmas Ginge," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. He wished they could stay like that all day, but others didn't want them to keep each other to themselves. Molly had soon retained a firm grip around Hermione, and George was whisked away by his sister. Hermione had soon scooped Teddy into her arms for a hug. He was still squealing excitedly and making loud irrelevant chatter. He was soon whisked out of her arms by Ginny and approached by Ron.

"Uh, Merry Christmas Hermione," he said. She smiled at him.

"Merry Christmas Ron," she replied. She hugged him tightly, wondering how different the day would be to the usual Christmas with them as a couple.

"'Ermione, 'appy Christmas," Fleur said to her happily. Victoire had actually slept for her for the past two nights, so she was happier than they had seen her in a while.

"Merry Christmas Fleur," Hermione returned with a big smile. She took Victoire from Bill and gave er a kiss on the cheek, making her giggle.

The kitchen was chaos, so Mrs. Weasley thought it would be time to regain some order.

"Okay everyone, find a seat at the table, you all need to eat something, goodness knows I don't feed you enough these days. No presents until everyone is finished, washed and dressed, so Ron – you may want to hurry up so you don't delay everyone, dear."

"Yeah, Ron, I want my presents!" Ginny said, giving him a playful shove as she took a seat beside him. George saw that Ron had sat next to Hermione, so he gave her a subtle nod and she shuffled along the bench so he could squeeze himself between them. She gave him a grateful smile. Hermione was pleased that Ron was giving her space now, otherwise she would take longer to heal.

"Oh, everyone just eat, I know how impatient you all are!" Mrs. Weasley said loudly, and began to put plates on the table, piled high with bacon and sausages.

"Mrs. Weasley, you never fail to make excellent food," Harry told his surrogate mother.

"Oh for goodness sake Harry dear, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Molly? I refuse to answer you if you call me anything else." Harry grinned apologetically.

"Sorry, Molly," he said.

"Not to worry dear. Now do you have enough food there?" While Molly was fussing over Harry, Percy was in deep conversation about the ministry with Andromeda, which was nothing unusual for the likes of Percy.

"I've decorated my office for the occasion, usually I wouldn't do anything of the sort, but I thought it would be nice for a change, you know? My office is so dull, it needs brightening up."

"Perce, you know a few years ago you would never have said that your office needs brightening up. You've changed for the better, man," Charlie said, trying to get Teddy to eat his bacon which was proving rather difficult. "Come on Teddy, mate, you need to eat these or you can't have any presents." Teddy started to yell loudly, not being able to form proper words yet, his hair turning red with frustration. Charlie sighed, and turned Teddy's bacon into the shape of a Christmas tree with his wand. Immediately, the young boy stopped screaming, and made noises of happiness, his hair turning orange to match the Weasleys.

"Thank you Charlie, now he'll want that done at every meal," Andromeda groaned. He smiled lopsidedly.

"Sorry, Drom," he said.

"Oh, don't worry yourself dear, I'm only yanking your wand," she said with a grin.

"That's what she said," George whispered in Hermione's ear, and she had to stuff her fist in her mouth to keep her from laughing out loud.

"What's wrong with you, Hermione?" Ginny said, amused.

"N…nothing," she said, giggling and glancing at George, who looked very pleased with himself. Ron looked on disapprovingly, but didn't say anything. He was too busy wolfing down his bacon to bother saying anything.

10 minutes later, everyone had eaten their fill, and Ginny, Ron and Teddy were demanding presents, or 'pwesaa' as Teddy referred to them as.

"Ron, your mother has already told you, you need to get washed and dressed first. You and Charlie are the only ones, so you'd better hurry up!" Arthur said. Ron shot off immediately to get dressed; Charlie had scarpered half way through Arthur's plea. Bill had gone to change Victoire's nappy, and Mrs. Weasley shepherded everyone towards the living room, making sure they all restrained themselves from grabbing presents.

Everyone fitted into the living room comfortably, a remarkable feat, Hermione thought. The tree was enormous, scraping the ceiling, and a huge pile of gifts were lying underneath it. It only took Ron a few minutes to return with Charlie running behind him; Mrs. Weasley gave them each a disapproving look, knowing that they hadn't bothered to wash.

"Right, everyone, you can start opening presents! Be sure to pass others to people if you pick theirs up, don't just put them back!" Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Andromeda stood back from the tree with Bill, Fleur and Victoire as all the kids swarmed towards the tree. There was a great noise for a while until everyone had extracted at least one of their own presents and passed some to the adults.

"This eez chaos!" Fleur said amusedly, accepting one of her presents from Hermione. The adults (well, the mature adults) all took a seat on the sofas furthest from the tree so they would be out of the way of everything.

"Wow, thanks Harry!" Ron yelled, having just opened an enormous signed poster of The Chudley Cannons.

"Ginny, this eez beautiful! Merci!" Fleur said as she opened a silver bracelet from her sister in law.

"Muggle sweets, Hermione? Fantastic!" Mr. Weasley said excitedly.

"HARRY! Thank you so much! I LOVE IT!" Ginny screeched, having just opened a silver necklace with a letter 'G' on it from Harry. She leaned forward to kiss him.

"Haha, thank you Hermione!" Charlie said, opening his dragon ornament. He laughed even harder when he opened the soft one from Ginny.

"Oh, GINNY! What on EARTH is this?" Mrs. Weasley shouted, holding up a pack of 'Penis Pasta'. Ginny and Hermione laughed loudly, while she shook her head at them amusedly. George laughed hard too when he opened his own packet.

"I'll have to eat that at some point, Ginny, imagine if someone walks in?"

"Oh, you'll be fine, just eat with Lee, he won't mind."

"Hermione, that rabbit for Victoire is excellent!" Bill called over to her. She smiled in response, opening a present from George. She smiled even wider when she realised what it was. He had given her a simple silver bracelet, engraved with the words 'it's a kind of magic'. She gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek in thanks.

"Molly, thank you so much for the earrings, they're beautiful!" Drom said.

"George, this is marvellous!" Percy said to his brother, looking through a book that his brother had given him.

"Wow Hermione, Muggle tricks and chocolate? Awesome!" George said enthusiastically.

"I thought you would like it!"

"Hermione, where do Muggles get all these awesome sweets from?" Ron said, trying a few of his.

"Shops?" she said. He laughed and went back to opening more presents.

*~~HP~~*

A few hours later, most of the presents had been opened, and the household was beginning to get hungry again. The smell of roasting turkey was filling the house, and Ron and Ginny were moaning.

"Oh, go on then everyone, into the kitchen! Lunch should be ready by no anyway. Fleur, Drom, will you give me a hand in the kitchen?"

While Mrs. Weasley, Fleur and Andromeda went to the kitchen, a bubble of chatter broke out, about everything and nothing at the same time.

"I can't believe it hasn't snowed yet!"

"I know, what kind of country is this?"

"We'll have to have a huge snowball fight if it does snow."

"Yeah, definitely."

"Well, good haul this year."

"Hermione, I really liked those truffles. You'll have to take me Muggle shopping one day."

"Teddy! Don't touch that vase!"

"Everyone come on into the kitchen! Lunch is ready!" there was a scramble as everyone tried to get into the kitchen at once, Ginny and Ron decided to push each other into the doorframe earning a laugh from Harry.

Once everyone had sat down, Hermione noticed that George looked a bit down.

"Are you okay?" she asked him in an undertone. He didn't look at her, but turned his gaze towards his mother.

"Mum, I'll be just a minute." He said, and left the room without an waiting for an answer. Hermione was confused until she heard the crack that signalled disapparition.

"Where on earth is he off to?" Molly asked, bewildered. She had paused in the act of serving Hermione turkey.

"Mum. I bet he's gone to Fred's grave." Ginny said in a small voice. Mrs. Weasley seemed to shrink.

"Oh yes. Yes of course. Of course he is. We should just give him some time." She looked as though it was hard for her not to cry. Everyone had gone quiet, suddenly sad about the second prankster not being there. No one really said anything for the next five minutes, and then Hermione couldn't stand it any longer.

"Molly, I can't just let him be out there on his own. He could be ages. I'm gonna go and find him."

"Okay dear. Just let him have time." Hermione nodded, and rose from the table. She grabbed her coat quickly and apparated to the cemetery for all those lost in the second Wizarding war. It always made her very emotional to be there; so many people she had known and loved had perished there, were now dead, 6 feet under the ground, far out of reach. She began to walk along the rows of graves, going in the direction of Fred's. A few names she knew caught her eye on the graves, and she had to try to keep composed.

As she passed Remus' and Tonks' grave, Hermione couldn't help but stop to make a wreath, just as she had done to James and Lily's grave three years previously. She laid it on the grave.

"We're looking after Teddy for you," was all she whispered before continuing on.

It was a few more minutes before Hermione spotted a redheaded George a few hundred feet away, kneeling down beside a grave with his head bowed. She sighed, and slowly and quietly approached him.

"G-George?" she mumbled softly, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. He turned to face her, his face blotchy and eyes red from crying. "Oh George," she said again, and knelt down beside him. George turned to face Hermione, and threw his arms around her tightly. He began to sob loudly, and Hermione couldn't help but let a few tears escape from her eyes. She let George sob into her shoulder for a few minutes until he started to calm down a bit. He released her and looked back to the grave, his breath shaky.

"Miss you Freddie," he whispered before standing up. "Thank you Hermione." She smiled at him sadly.

"It's okay George."

"Shall we go back?"

"Yeah, we better had. Are you alright?"

"I'll have to be, won't I?" George gave a brave smile and finally tore his eyes away from the head stone. "Come on 'Mione."

"I've changed my mind. Feel free to call me that." George grinned, wiping a stray tear from his face.

"Alright, but you're still my little Booknymph!"

"Whatever, Ginge." Hermione said good-naturedly, before holding George's arm and taking them both back to the Burrow. They arrived a few hundred feet away in the back yard, so they had to trudge up the hill slightly.

"Er, Hermione?" George said, turning to face her, stopping.

"Yeah George?" she said, also stopping to look into his soft blue eyes.

"I have something for you," he told her, and rummaged around in his pocket. She looked on, intrigued. He drew out a small box wrapped up and handed it to her. "It's just to show how much I've appreciated you being there for the last few weeks," he said, watching as she began to open the paper, smiling in anticipation.

She had soon shed the box of its wrappings, and lifted the lid. She gasped slightly as she saw what was inside. It was a silver bracelet containing one charm in the shape of a star. It was engraved with her name.

"George, I…it's…beautiful," she breathed, looking up at him with awe in her eyes. "Thank you so much, you didn't have tto do that."

"Yes I did. You've been so helpful and understanding for me, and this is my way of thanking you." He smiled, and she returned it as she hugged him.

"Thanks George. It means a lot. Incidentally, thank you for being there for me. You're like another best friend I never had."

"I'm glad you think so Hermione." They broke apart. "Shall we go in? I'm starving!" Hermione laughed, and they both walked briskly back to the house, content with each other.

A/N: Hope that was alright for you, looks like Hermione and George are getting ever closer! Hope you stick with this story, I will get down to some writing over the rest of the holidays and might be able to post twice a week if I get enough done. Please review!

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