Stripped Bare- Chapter 14

Christmas Day

Discalaimer: I own nothing of Harry Potter.

Hermione handed her father a present and picked up another. She turned the heavy parcel over until she could read the tag.

"This is Harry's," she grunted, holding it out to her mother. Mrs. Granger passed it to Harry and took the next gift, which was addressed to her. Hermione found one of her own presents and settled down on the floor with a huge grin. "Can we open them now?" she asked, sounding more excited than a child.

"Yes, since we all have a present," her father said. The air was filled with the sound of ripping paper and gasps of wonder, followed by 'thank you' and 'you're welcome'. Hermione glanced over to see what her parents had bought for Harry, and saw him reading the spine of one of her favorite books.

Funnily enough, it was the newest edition of 'Hogwarts: A History'. She laughed. Harry heard, looked up and saw that she was watching him. He smiled back and shifted position, his cheeks turning the faintest shade of pink. Hermione's grin turned sympathetic as she knew why he was uncomfortable and she looked back under the tree when he lay the book over his lap. Picking up a small square package, she read the tag, and handed it over to her mother, saying that it was for Uncle Byron.

"Harry, would you like to put your book on the side table?"

"Oh...no, that's all right," Hermione heard him answer her mother. "I'd like to hold onto it, maybe read a bit while Hermione's handing the presents out?" She laughed silently to herself. She knew why the book was in Harry's lap, and that he was more likely to ask Delores Umbridge and Rita Skeeter to dance than he was to open the cover.

When all the presents had been removed from under the tree, Hermione moved up to her original position, next to Harry. The tradition in her family was that they could open one present, then they had to wait until the rest were handed out to unwrap any more. She'd been giving over her presents to be placed by him so she didn't have to sit on the floor, surrounded by everyone's paper.

"Get these off of me!" he joked when she'd sat down. She thumped his shoulder and relieved him of the small pile of her presents that were on his lap, adding them to the rest around her feet. She caught the scent of his cologne and stopped to study him when she'd straightened up. He was wearing a new emerald jumper that Mrs. Weasley had knitted him, jeans and sneakers. Nothing out of the ordinary, but for some reason, she thought he looked delicious. He noticed her staring at him again and met her eyes.

"What? Do I have something on my cheek?" He brought his hand up to it.

"No."

"Then why do you keep staring at me?" He lowered his voice so no one would hear. "You know what happens to me when you're around, and knowing that you're watching me is making it even worse. I'm just glad that Mrs. Weasley made this a little too big." He touched the front of his jumper. "It covers up the problem when I'm standing."

He opened a present that was from her uncle, and held up the long dark green and black scarf that had been inside. "Hey! This will go great with Luna's present," he said. She laughed and turned back to her own gifts.

They were lugging their new belongings up the stairs an hour later, and Harry amusedly called Hermione's name just as she had emptied her arms, letting the whole lot she'd been carrying tumble onto her bed.

"Yes, Harry?" she asked when she'd appeared in his doorway.

"Did you notice most of the clothing I got for Christmas is green?" he chuckled. She walked over to the bed and examined his presents. Sure enough, he'd recieved the green and black scarf from her uncle, two green shirts from her parents, green socks from her cousin, it was if Harry was going to be able to support the Ireland Quidditch team with no problem next year. She heard him groan softly and stepped away from him.

"It 'does' look like everyone thinks green is your best color." She moved over by the window and saw a splash of color under one of Harry's shirts on the dresser. She looked more closely and saw that it was a wrapped box. "Who's this for?" she asked. He looked up to see what she was talking about.

"Oh!" he said. "It was to go under the tree, but I didn't think your parents would have wanted to see it." Hermione pulled it out from under the sweatshirt.

"It's for me?"

"Yeah. I had no idea of what to get you, Ron was no help, so that's the one that I'm not really sure you'll like." She tore the paper form the box and pulled off the lid. Inside lay a deep purple silk garment. She lay the box down on the dresser and lifted the fragile fabric. It unfolded to reveal it was a floor length negligée.

"Oh, Harry," she breathed, looking over to see him standing by the bed, nervously watching her. "It's gorgeous! I love it."

She rushed over to him and kissed his cheek. A sudden flash of desire in his eyes told her that she still needed to be careful with him. He was trying to learn to control his hormones and she had just gotten out of her relationship with Stephen. Plus, even though they'd had sex twice, she still regarded him as her best friend and didn't want to ruin it by falling into a relationship that had no future for either of them.

"Thank you," she whispered. He nodded with a hard swallow. "I'd better go and see if I can help with dinner." She backed away from him, turned and fled to the safety of her own room.