Author's Note

I do not own Sherlock or the Harry Potter franchise.

Christmas shopping Chapter 12.

Sherlock POV

"Christmas is coming up soon!" Hermione chirped happily.

I rolled my eyes, for her intelligence she got much too excited for these stupid holidays. It's not like you won the lottery being this cheery or anything like that. At best during this time you got some half decent food, some gifts I would end up using or breaking in six months, some snow you couldn't do anything with, and a couple days off from school. I suppose the idea off from school was appealing, but it was getting a bit old after a couple years of it.

"What do you want for Christmas?" Hermione asked, her eyes were wide.

"For you to be less cheery about it."

"Locks, are you telling me you don't like Christmas either?" she said, looking surprised as if that was shocking.

"Honestly, what is there to like? An old man who stalks you for a whole year supposedly breaks into your house on one night because you're a 'good child' and you get some stupid toy you'll probably break soon. What joy."

"But what about carolling?"

"Random strangers coming to your door in the freezing middle of winter only to sing you a sing they're already blasting on the radio half the time. Fun."

"Well there's making cookies-"

"We can do that all year." I said, she slammed the book she was reading in frustration before smiling.

"Well Locks, I'm going to prove to you one way or another that Christmas can be fun."

"Oh I bet you will."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Maybe it is."

She then smiled smugly. "Well seeing as I got you to like Halloween I bet I can get you to like Christmas too."

"I do not like Halloween!" I yelled, but she still smiled smugly.

"Anyways, I do accept your challenge." She said and suddenly smiled wider, and I knew she already had her first idea.

XXX

"And why am I agreeing to do this again?"

"Because you're a nice friend and you promised you would be willing to do anything with me in order for me to win this bet." She looked at me then with such earnest that I couldn't help but roll my eyes. How is putting raw ingredients together in a mixture, cutting them out and waiting for them to cook fun?

"How did you think I would like this?"

She shrugged. "You like chemistry and baking is basically the same principles."

"Except there are no explosions, or chemical reactions that are exciting, and you don't get to use a blow torch."

"Well we're trying to cook like normal people."

"But being normal is so dulling." She sighed, and stamped her foot impatiently.

"Just stop being a bloke and help already." she said, and I reluctantly began to mix the batter.

Truth be told I never really had a fondness for baking. Even when I was little at my grandmother's I never did, my older brother always did it I ate the batter. I just found it rather pointless, and I was always too impatient for it, patience never really being my strong suit for trivial things such as this. I could see though why Hermione liked it, she was always more gifted in things like this in general than me. She continued to roll out the dough and cut cookies out of it, humming a little tune as she went along. I honestly still didn't see how she liked this, it was just like using molding clay to cut shapes. She seemed happy though to do it, happier than I had ever seen her before; maybe even perhaps a bit nostalgic. It seemed that there more to this than just cutting these pointless shapes out, maybe it just reminded her of something else, maybe of her old home.

She then laughed at me when she saw my cookies after they were decorated. "It's really not that hard."

"Easy for you to say." I said defensively, compared to hers mine looked like zombies while hers actually looked like people. Mine somehow or another were deformed in many ways, from the limbs being too crooked, or the eyes too high on the head, it was almost pitiful really.

"Is that a gingerbread cherry?" she asked.

"It's supposed to be a gingerbread santa claus." I said, and to this she laughed even harder.

XXX

"Don't worry, Molly's mom will pick us up after an hour." I said for the final time before leaving. I was going with Molly to the mall for Christmas shopping; I still hadn't done it yet and I needed to get a gift for Sherlock. Molly and her mom just so happened to be too, so it was nice of them to offer to drop me off with them.

We drove up to the large mall, or rather only mall in the whole area, and you could tell. The mall itself wasn't very new, sure it had new shops but the entirety of it had seen better days. Still like most places it was cheerily decorated, there were bright christmas lights wrapped around the trees outside, a big blowup reindeer stood by the door as you walked in. Even as you went in it was decorated more, with metal angels hanging from the walls, tinsel wrapped around staircases, and a large christmas tree at least ten feet tall stood in the centre of the mall, glistening cheerfully. I smiled, this was always my favourite part of the year, it just always seemed so cheery and so warm even in the coldest times of the winter.

Molly and I immediately went shopping, I had no idea what I was going to get Sherlock though. I mean I knew his interests were in science and other things along that line but I already figured he was getting lots of chemistry sets already; and I wanted my gift to actually be meaningful. It was hard to think of something for him though because Sherlock wasn't exactly the sentimental type. He wasn't ever really over emotional, or overly sentimental or sweet, it wasn't exactly a bad thing, it just wasn't him.

I looked around the store, but nothing really seemed to fit him. Everything seemed much too gushy, too flowery, too cheery and bright for him. It was if everything in here was trying to describe the exact opposite of him, imagining his reaction to getting one of these things was almost laughable.

"You're getting a gift for Sherlock, right?" Molly asked, and I nodded, still frustrated.

"Do you know what he would like?" She shook her head.

"He doesn't really talk to me, he thinks of me as weird or something."

"You two are a better couple anyways." She added.

"What?" I asked incredulous.

People actually thought Sherlock and I were a couple? Is that what everyone had been whispering behind my back at school? Is that what everyone really thought, that we were actually dating? That was crazy, we were only in the third grade, I didn't consider dating Sherlock or anyone for that matter. It was stupid to date anyone; and I was very content not to do so.

She nodded. "That's what Charlotte and her friends have been told, or at least that's what they're saying."

"Oh, well we're not you know." I said, and although she was trying to hide I knew Molly let out a small sigh in relief.

"Still, it's not that odd considering how odd it is that you two are so close."

"What do you mean?"

"Well Sherlock doesn't really like people. He never really has, I've tried forever it seems to try to talk to him but it never works. But with you its been less than a year even and already you two seem like best friends. It's just so odd." I sighed, and I felt bad for her because I knew she was right.

Out of all the people in the grade Molly probably chose the worst person to have a crush on. Asides from his usual arrogant and rather rude nature, he also wasn't exactly the most kind hearted or even chatty person. Besides me really he didn't talk to anyone that much, usually people avoiding him but also he avoided them, or at least gave an air off of doing so. Sherlock it seemed was very picky of those he chose to talk to, and had little to no disregard to those who he didn't really care for. He was also oblivious to Molly's feeble attempts and was probably clueless that she had a crush on him. Even if he did know though I'm not actually sure he would care.

"Yeah, he's really anti-social I guess. If you really try though to actually talk to him he might warm up a bit. It also helps though if you talk to him about his interests, after all he does have that ego of his." I said, rolling my eyes. She smiled.

"Yes, I'll try that. Maybe it might just work." She said and I could see there was little glimmer of hope in her eyes.

I then looked over at the clothing's rack and something spotted my eye, and then and there I knew exactly what I was going to get him.

XXX

Sherlock POV

"Do I have to go Christmas shopping with you? Why can't I just stay with John, or Hermione, or even Mrs. Hudson!"

Mother then sighed impatiently. "Hermione is out shopping with Molly, John is away in London to visit his grandparents for the holidays, and Mrs. Hudson is moving to Florida with her husband!"

She then added: "It'll be fun Sherlock, besides you need to get the presents for everyone by yourself."

"Why do I need to get the presents? Isn't 'santa' supposed to supply them?"

"Yes but Santa is busy and it's the nice thing to do, now come on, chop chop." I sighed in defeat as I went into the car.

The mall wasn't far away, though I wish it was. Everything in it seemed to be exploded with Christmas and 'cheer' on it. There were large billboards full of christmas advertisements as we drove. Stupid Christmas songs were blasted on the radio much to my dislike, and even the outside of the mall was decorated, with overly bright christmas lights and tinsel stupidly decorating the mall, making it look like a Christmas tree in itself. I honestly wish I could stay dormant for this whole season, because honestly this season was just a marketing campaign just so companies could make millions of dollars on pointless trinkets and decorations of this nature.

"Are you going to buy anything?" Mother asked.

"No, why would I?"

"You're going to get Hermione something, right? She is your friend after all."

"I already made mediocre cookies with her and hung out with her enough, isn't that enough?"

"Sherlock, it's Christmas. You should do something nice for her to show you actually do care about her." She then picked up a Barbie.

"How about this?" I had to fight the urge of laughing then.

My mother for being a 'genius' could be a complete dolt at times, especially on matters such as there. Hermione playing with a Barbie or really any doll for that matter was almost laughable, it was just ridiculous even thinking about it. What just seemed so foolish was my mother actually thought that Hermione was just some normal girl; that she would actually be interested in doing makeup or playing with barbies, even Lestrarde knew that was out of her nature. If Hermione was truly only like normal girls I would have rejected her immediately just like the other girls in our grade. Hermione had more to her, she certainly was much more interesting to talk to and just in general had more depth to her than most. That's why I liked her so much, it was refreshing to talk to someone actually interesting.

After much arguing and meandering around the mall we ended up going home without me buying anything; which of course drove my mother crazy. All throughout the car ride she kept berating me, as if pestering me would do any good.

It wasn't as if I didn't like Hermione, I did. In truth though I just didn't know what to get her. Sentiments and things along those lines weren't my strong suit, and besides it was just pointless to get her some material thing. Material things just faded out of use and memory and soon were forgotten, I wanted something she would actually remember and cherish, even if she couldn't exactly use it or it wasn't exactly practical. I wanted something that she would remember forever, sure a book or some science kit she would like, but she would probably forget about it, I didn't want our friendship just to be that. I wanted something that she would love, something that was some great, just like our friendship. Didn't my mother understand this? Didn't anyone understand this?

"For the last time I'm not getting her anything!" I yelled.

"Back to old habits I suppose, it must really be Christmas." I recognized the voice, the snide tone, and my blood began to boil.

"Hello dear brother, merry Christmas."

Author's Note

This was just another fluffy chapter that was fun to right, and I needed a way to create a cliff hanger. I also am re-updating to mention a few things that I forgot to mention. Firstly while I thought it was fun for Molly to have a crush on Sherlock, they won't become a couple or anything of that nature. While Sherlolly in itself is a very cute ship I don't think in here or in the show it will really ever become cannon solely due to Sherlocks opposite behaviour and Molly more or less meek one. I don't really think they would a be good couple at least. Secondly, my characters also tend to go from older to mature, this is not only how I write (I tend to usually write teenagers and other characters) but I think its also fitting. During this age you still have many innocences of your younger childhood but also are beginning to mature in different aspects, or at least mimic maturity. Especially for these crushes and dating, many of them are very innocent, and though they seem a lot more mature, they really don't know as much as what they're thinking about; rather hearing it more than thinking of it for themselves. Still I will admit I did write them a little older than third grade, though I suppose they could be very mature third graders. After this though I really don't know where I might take it as I am not satisfied with the next drafts of it, so it might be a while after I update. Anyways thank you so much for all who read this and please review!

*Also on a side note in case for many of those that you were confused on Jim Moriarty, he was initially much older than Sherlock and Hermione (in fact he was going to be John's age) but I then changed it due to it seeming too creepy (I mean he already is creepy) for him to be crushing on Hermione, especially since they wouldn't ever really talk. It also gave an excuse for Sherlock to have his arch enemy, and made it much easier for him to be written in. Still when I had written him and redrafted many of his older traits and had remained making him see much older than his age. I think though it does fit him, because honestly it would be a bit odd to write him as innocent or anything like that, I find it much too forced and odd.