THEY DID NOT HAVE SEX IN THE LAST CHAPTER.
They merely cuddled.
Christmas morning! I almost leaped out of bed, until I realized there was a really lovely bird wrapped around me, sleeping peacefully. Breaking with tradition, I chose to stay in bed and snuggle with my girl instead of jumping on Fred. As luck would have it, though, Fred chose to make up for my lack of action by launching himself onto my bed. I had noticed him rearing back before the jump out of the corner of my eye, so I was prepared for the attack, but Hermione was not. She sat up with a piercing scream, and blindly took a swing at her attacker. Poor Fred's eye won't look the same for days...
My roommates all shot out of bed, immediately questioning why there was a screaming girl in our dorm. I had to explain everything to the three of them, and Lee was the only one who didn't give me trouble for it.
After a long bout of apologies and Hermione blushing profusely, I finally turned to them and yelled out, "Let's just open our presents already, yeah?" They quieted down, so I continued. "How about this – you and I go up to your dorm, Hermione, to bring your presents down here so you can open them with us. I'll collect the gifts while you go brush your teeth, because I can already tell how much you want to."
She grinned at me before planting a chaste kiss on my mouth. "Sounds perfect, thanks, George."
She and I made our way up to her dorm, surprising her roommates in the process, and I got all her gifts while she was at the sink, managing to sneak my extra present into her pile.
We got back down to my room to find that Fred and Lee had actually waited for us to open their presents! I was dumbfounded. We sat down at the foot of my bed, and nodded at my best mates with a smile – and then all started tearing into our presents together. Fred and I swapped our Weasley sweaters, as usual, and I was amused to see that Mum made Hermione one to match mine...oh well, she'll just have to match Fred, now. *smirk*
"I think I'll have to steal mine back temporarily, Freddy, to take a picture with Hermione to send to Mum," I said, tearing into my next gift. He just nodded in response, going back to his own pile.
Overall, I got a pretty decent haul. Fudge from mum and dad (and the jumper), lots and lots of Ice Mice from all my siblings and Lee, Chocolate Frogs from Fred (we'd been exchanging these for as long as I can remember), and then I got to Hermione's gift. Turns out she was opening mine at the same time, so I said, "looks like we had the same idea then, yeah?" We had both gotten each other lovely Christmassy frames to put our picture from the Yule Ball in. She grinned and turned to me.
"Looks like it. It also looks like you've got one more that you missed," she said, opening her second gift from me. She laughed when she saw that it was a month's supply of Toothflossing Stringmints. "Thanks!"
I turned to my pile and discovered Hermione had been right – there was a small, Ravenclaw-coloured package I had missed. Label says it's from Luna; there's a little thank-you note for taking her to the ball. When I opened it, I found a bracelet made out of butterbeer corks; so perfectly Luna. I'd have to thank her at breakfast, it was probably the most unique gift I'd ever gotten.
We all three pulled on our Weasley sweaters and headed down to breakfast with Lee, meeting Harry, Ron, Ginny, Angelina and Alicia along the way. We ran into Colin when we got there, and he gave us a rather large stack of pictures he had taken of all of us at the ball last night. I think I might go down to the kitchens later and ask the house elves to help me bake some biscuits for him; that'd be a good trade, I think. Oh! "Oi, Lee!" I shouted.
"Hrmm?" he replied, turning to me.
"Can I get you to take a picture of me and my girl in our sweaters for my mum after breakfast, please?"
He just nodded, with a smile on his face, and tucked into his breakfast.
-oOo-
So it's New Year's Eve tonight, and I've got plans to take Hermione on our first official date – I'll kidnap her after lunch. In the meantime, this meal looks too good to pass up.
As soon as I finished eating, I looked down the table towards Hermione. "Hey, Mione, are you almost done?"
She nodded, and put down her silverware, pushing her plate away.
I got up and made my way over to her, and grabbed her hand. "C'mon, love, I'm taking you on a date. Let's go up to the tower so you can change into warmer clothes." I pulled her up with me, and we started making our way towards Gryffindor Tower.
"What should I wear?" she asked, curious.
"Something warm enough to be outside at midnight, and around muggles...and no, I won't reveal any more." I smirked, and motioned for her to go through the portrait hole before me.
Once she was ready, I took her hand and led her out onto the grounds. I found a nice, long stick, and we made our way over to the Whomping Willow. Prodding the knot, I led her under the now-still branches, and into the tunnel. When we reached the Shrieking Shack, I led her out the door and we headed towards Hogsmeade. As soon as the main road was in sight, I held out my wand and held Hermione back behind me.
BANG
Aah, my favorite magical mode of travel. "Welcome to the Knight Bus, Hermione!"
She stared in awe of the bus as I climbed on and whispered our destination in Stan's ear. He nodded, and I helped Hermione up the steps after slipping him the fare.
A long, bumpy (and cuddly!) ride later, and we had reached our destination. It was a simple little park I'd found. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a miniaturized kite. Checking to make sure no one was looking, I enlarged it back to its normal size.
"Ooh, we're going to fly a kite?" Hermione exclaimed. "I haven't done that since I was a little girl!" She looked positively overjoyed.
I nodded. "I thought you might enjoy this."
We spent the next hour or so flying the kite together, and then headed for the playground. "Get on a swing, Mione, I'll push you." She grinned widely at me, and followed my instructions. We spent a good half hour in companionable silence (with a bit of interspersed laughter) as I pushed her on the swings.
We got bored of the swings after a little while, so I took her by the hand and led her over to a little hill. It was still warm enough outside, so we used our coats as pillows as we laid down on the grass, staring up at the clouds and just talking. I held her hand in mine as we lay there, softly rubbing the back of it with my thumb.
Eventually, it started to get dark, so I helped Hermione up and led her to a small cafe just outside the park. We had a nice dinner, and spent a good few hours discussing magical theory over some coffee. It was surprisingly interesting; who knew I could be engaged in such an intelligent conversation? Around 11PM, I paid the bill and led her back outside to our little hill. Helping her into her coat, we sat back down on the grass. "George, it's getting rather late...shouldn't we be heading back to the castle?" she asked.
I shook my head. "We'd miss the best part of the night! It'll start in, oh...30 minutes."
She looked at me quizzically, but just smiled and nodded her assent.
At 11:30, I wrapped my arm around her just as the fireworks started. She gasped, and turned to me with a huge grin on her face. "George! I love fireworks!" She looked so positively beautiful in that moment. The smile on her face, the way the fireworks lit up her eyes, the way the light washed across her features, the happiness I could feel pouring off of her; there was no way I could watch the show, I was too entranced by her.
"Beautiful," I breathed.
"I know, aren't they?" she replied, innocently.
"I wasn't talking about the fireworks, Hermione."
She looked at me and realized I'd been staring at her instead of the night sky. Blushing, she smiled shyly and leaned into me further.
A few minutes later, the other people in the park started counting down to midnight.
10...9...8...
"Happy new year, Hermione."
7...6...5...
"Happy new year, George."
4...3...2...1...
And I kissed her, right as we rang in the new year.
Posted: 28 August 2011
Word Count: 1,545