Christmas!
First of all: Happy New Year! Woohoo! Welcome, 2021!
Christmas decorations were all over Hogwarts. The great hall was decorated with quite a lot of Christmas trees and ornaments and everybody had taken their red and green clothing out of the suitcase. Hermione couldn't be happier. The last 2 Christmases had been depressing; getting attacked by a snake and the other one wasn't any better. Last Christmas was forced to be spent inside the gloomy setting of Grimmauld place. There weren't any gifts either since they couldn't risk stepping out and getting caught. To see such festivities made Hermione feel joy inside and out. And of course, that did not escape Lily's attention. She made Hermione feel even better by singing Christmas carols all the time and offering a hot chocolate whenever she felt like it. Though Sirius had complained about how his "ears were bleeding" and "his head was going to explode if he heard 'Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer' one more time" but Lily had shut him up with a smack on the head with her book and continued singing.
Lately, James and Lily had been spending time with each other more often, even sometimes showing affection such as leaning into each other's touch. Snape had noticed this and he had been in a really bad mood; shooting them glares whenever he would see them, but that wasn't enough to ruin the Christmas spirit.
In the midst of all this, the Gryffindor common room had also been decked with ornaments and wreaths, it was like a winter wonderland all around! But what got everybody's attention was the magical mistletoes hung all around Hogwarts. Apparently, those mistletoes would open at any place randomly and form some sort of invisible trap around you and you wouldn't be able to get out of it unless you kiss the other person, however, nobody believed that. That is until two people had been caught in the trap near the great hall and the word had spread quickly. Hermione could bet that Catherine would be chasing around Sirius just to get caught in a mistletoe.
Currently, Hermione was sitting in the common room with Peter, Remus and Sirius. James and Lily had gone to the library to return books, actually, it was just Lily returning books- James just tagged along because it was Lily. While sipping on some hot cocoa, Hermione was reading a book seated on the sofa, while Remus, Peter and Sirius were playing exploding snap around the coffee table in front of her when James and Lily returned.
"Padfoot, you wouldn't believe what I saw!" James exclaimed. Sirius jerked his head up and asked, "What? What did you see?"
James looked over at Lily, who came around the table and took off her scarf,
"Regulus was just caught under the mistletoe in the hallway." She casually said.
"Really? With who? Please tell me nobody from our year," Sirius replied. The book was left on the table next to her because Hermione was also very interested in this.
"Quite the opposite actually. He was with Catherine." Hermione's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "We overheard her asking Regulus where you were and he told her to shove off because he didn't know but then he couldn't step out."
"Catherine really likes you, you know," Remus said while looking over the cards and arranging them.
"Well that's the thing, I don't really like her. I mean not that she is a bad person but being stubborn just isn't attractive to me." Sirius shrugged his shoulders. Lily looked over to Hermione and smirked proudly. "Maybe I should do something about her. I don't know, maybe get together with her and then break up, don't think she'll be chasing me after that."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, confused. "You can't just do that. That's cruel."
"Do you have any other ideas?" Peter asked.
"Are you guys really on board with this?"Hermione asked, bewilderedly looking around.
"I mean it does kind of seem like the only option," James said tilting his head.
"What? No. It's too bitter," Remus said.
"I agree with Remus and Hermione," Lily said, looking from the couch.
" I can't really think of anything else at the moment. Plus she deserves to be put back in her place," Sirius said.
"Yes, I agree with the latter but you can't just be together and then break her heart. Honestly guys. She may be mean and think she is above everyone else, but she has feelings too!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Yeah, I mean James just think about it. What if I break up with you tomorrow and say I never had feelings and I was just pretending all along. In actual, I think you're annoying and I did all of this just to get rid of you," Lily suggested.
"No, but it's different." James defended.
"How so exactly? One person likes the other person a lot and chases after them. It's quite the same, to be honest," Lily countered.
"Well then what do you suggest we do? Just have Sirius tell him he doesn't like her?" Peter sarcastically asked from the floor. Hermione looked thoughtfully over at Lily who was doing the same.
"Actually, that's not a bad idea," Hermione said.
"Then how is that different than what I was originally doing?" Sirius asked.
"Of course, it's different," Hermione said, coming around to sit next to the floor next to him. "I mean, when you get together with her, you are confessing that you actually like her and would want something more with her. You're allowing her to be your best friend. And when you just go up to her and tell her you never mean it, how do you think she's going to feel? Betrayed and broken of course! And she might feel similar when you just tell her but it is better in the long run since you never promised her a future, but if you get together first, you are taking all of that away from her," Hermione finished.
"You need to be a philosopher, like right now," James said from the armchair. Everybody burst out laughing, except Sirius. "What? I mean it seriously. No pun intended, Padfoot!" James continued. But when Sirius didn't respond, Hermione looked over to her left to see him peering at her.
"You can be my best friend," Sirius muttered.
"Sorry?" Hermione asked, smiling a little.
"I said I really agree with you," he smiled and looked back at James. "And I agree with you too, you're right," he looked back over at her. "Forget all this studying, you really should be a philosopher." A burst of laughter filled the common room again.
"That reminds me," Hermione said while getting up from the floor and sitting back in her previous seat. "I need to get back to my book. It's getting to the interesting part!"
"Hermione you are the only one who calls reading the goblin history through the 16th Century "interesting"," Peter made sure to use air quotes.
"No no, I think Remus might agree with me," Hermione said and looked towards Remus.
"Eh, it's okay," Remus said with a slight tilt of his head. Everybody chuckled.
o0o
"Hermione, wake up!"
Somebody shouted. A familiar voice.
"Wake up!"
And right after that, a pillow hit her face. She was up. She was wide awake. She looked to her left to see Lily clutching a pillow and grinning excitedly.
"Lily, it's-" she glanced at the analogue clock at her bedside table, "6:30 in the morning. Aren't you supposed to be in bed, under the covers? Like always?" Hermione asked with a little stretch of her hands.
"Hermione, it's Christmas for goodness sake! Why the hell would I want to be in bed when I could open presents?" She exclaimed. "Now put on a jumper. We need to go!" She grabbed Hermione's arm and yanked her arm until she was sitting up in bed. Yes, she was definitely up.
After putting on a beige jumper, not bothering to change out of her sweats, Hermione and Lily, who was dressed in a red sweater with ornaments on it, both of them headed downstairs; just to meet the boys sitting by the fireplace.
"Ah, there they are!" Peter said, getting up.
"Yes, we can open the presents now," Remus said, moving to sit by the fireplace. Hermione smiled brightly and went to sit in her seat.
"Merry Christmas guys!" Hermione greeted them merrily. She was met with a chorus of Merry Christmases directed back at her and everyone.
"Okay, I seriously cannot wait anymore! We can do all the formalities later, gifts time!" James urgently said.
James picked up a present from near the fireplace. "Oh, this one is for Remus from Peter." He passed the box around until it got to Remus. He opened it to find a blue and white flannel shirt accompanied by a new quill. Remus said thanks and they moved onto the next box. Sirius picked it up and said, "This one is for Lily from Hermione." Lily tore open the wrapping to find a box. When she opened it, she discovered there were two pictures inside it, both of them moving, of course, as they were taken from a magical camera. One of them was of James and Lily sitting on the couch when James put an arm around Lily's shoulder and she looked up at him and smiled. The other one was of Lily throwing a snowball at James from behind, which when hit him, he dramatically fell on the snow, face forward. After looking over them both, Lily sentimentally smiled at Hermione and shuffled across the couch to hug her. When she passed them both over to James, he smiled and said, "Wow, Hermione! These are so amazing."
When the next box was passed around, it was to Sirius from James. When he opened the packaging, it was a bottle of fire whisky. "Mate, I don't know how Rosmerta let you slide that one, but I'm very grateful she did," Sirius said and grinned while looking at the bottle. The next one was to James from Remus, it was a sweater that had the Gryffindor crest embedded on it. The one after that was to Peter from Lily, a herbology book. After this Hermione spoke up and said,
"Are there no gifts for me at all? I clearly haven't received one yet!" At this, all the boys looked at each other and exchanged glances while smirking.
"You sure you want it right now, Hermione? Don't want to save the best for last?" Sirius said.
"No, I can't wait. I'd like it now." Hermione said thoughtfully.
"As you wish…" Sirius said and got up and ran up the stairs.
"Did he just run away from me? Honestly, guys, if you hadn't gotten a present for me, you know you can just tell me right? But yes, I would probably hex you!" Hermione laughed.
"Nah, you just wait, Hermione," Remus said.
Everybody could hear Sirius footsteps descending the stairs.
"All right, close your eyes," James said. Hermione did as she was told. She could hear some shuffling in front of her.
"You can open them now." She heard Sirius' eyes. And when she did. Oh, it was good. In front of her lay a new broom and a small package which was wrapped in Gryffindor wrapping paper.
"I- what? A new broom?" Hermione stuttered, looking at the broom disbelievingly. She bent down over the coffee table to run her fingers through it and inspect it and looked up at the boys.
"Don't worry. We all chipped in, so no it wasn't that expensive," James said. When Hermione opened her mouth to say something. Sirius said, "And yes we did have to do this. After all, we have a new chaser in town." Hermione moved to hug all four of them. After a few seconds, a throat cleared in the background. Hermione turned to see Lily standing.
"You do realise that there is another package there for you right? Yes, it is small compared to the broom, of course, it is, but I think you'll like it just as much." Hermione picked up the package and started opening it. After unwrapping it, it was a robe and a t-shirt. It said on the 'Granger' on the back of the robe and the Gryffindor crest in the front of the t-shirt, on the back of the robe and also on both of the sleeves of the robe.
"It's one of a kind, you know. Had to get the crest sewn on." Lily explained.
"Lily, thank you so much! I really love it!" Hermione leaned to hug Lily. The boys explained that she would get the rest of the gear and the team jersey as well on the actual practice day and if she wants, she can opt to wear this robe and t-shirt over the team one; there isn't much difference except the crest at the front of the t-shirt and the one on the back of the robe as well as on both the sleeves. Now that she had her own broom, she wouldn't need to borrow one for practices. She was practically beaming.
Moving on, they opened the rest of the presents. James had gotten a new pair of quidditch goggles from Hermione, a collection of all the notes that he had written over the years to Lily from Lily. He was surprised that she kept those that he kissed her right there while everybody clapped. He had also gotten a new set of socks from Peter and a mug that had written "Gryffindor Quidditch team captain" on it from Sirius. Remus had gotten a grey knit sweater from Lily, a huge basket filled with variations of chocolate from Hermione (to which he had replied by gasping and saying that no matter what, he is never abandoning her as friends), a new pair of gloves from Sirius and a robe to wear out from James. Sirius had gotten a dark grey fedora hat from Lily, a pair of ripped jeans from Remus, a new game of exploding snap from Peter and finally, a black leather jacket with a few studs from Hermione. Peter had gotten hair gel from Sirius, a lot of coupons from Honeydukes from Remus, a guide to self-study from Hermione and black button-down shirt from James. At last, Lily had gotten a planner from Remus, a polaroid camera from Sirius, an ochre-coloured cardigan from Peter and a deck of cards from James; however, those cards had been substituted with reasons why he loves her and he was proud to present '52 reasons why I love you'. At this, Lily had pulled him down for another kiss and an extra-long hug.
Remus acted like the classic Christmas dad and held up a trash bag for everyone to put their waste wrappers into. Lily turned up the stereo. Currently, 'Jingle Bell Rock' was playing. Everybody got handed a cup of hot chocolate. In Hermione's eyes, it was perfect. Blankets were thrown around. The fireplace was giving off warm hues. The stereo was playing while it was snowing in the background. Lily and James were lovingly sharing a blanket on the floor with their back against the couches and Sirius was sitting next to her on the sofa with his own blanket while Remus and Peter were 'taste testing' the chocolate from Hermione's gift to Remus.
She realised at that moment that her Christmas gifts were her friends. And while the broom was amazing, these people were better. This made her smile inevitably.
(Author's note: No the chapter isn't ending yet but I just came here to say how much I love 'Jingle Bells Rock' by Bobby Helms and if you haven't listened to it, I completely recommend it! And it fits so well as it was released in 1970. I literally vibed to it the whole holidays and even though it doesn't snow where I live, it felt like Christmas. It's the best!)
o0o
"Hey, take that!" Sirius said and threw a snowball at Hermione who had just hit him square in the chest. It had taken him by surprise; but to be honest, how did he not expect that? Especially when they are strolling near the pathway to Hogsmeade. The snowball he threw her hit her on her back as she tried to hide. In retaliation, she threw a handful of snow back at him but he ducked so it hit James straight in the face. He calmly wiped the snow off his face and his glasses then looked at her and said, "You're going to regret that."
Suddenly, a full-fledged snowball fight broke out. Snowballs were flying here and there and she spotted Lily getting hit by one from Peter in the corner of eyes and Remus hiding behind a rock to escape one from James however he didn't notice that when he was looking left to see where James went, James was standing right on top of him and when Remus looked up, he dropped all the snow he was carrying on Remus' face. While she was busy laughing at that incident, something wet dripped off the back of her neck. She turned around to see Sirius holding two snowballs in his hand and smirking.
"You wanna go, Granger?" he said.
"Oh, it's on!" Hermione challenged. After that, she tried to gather as much snow as she could and throw it at him. Soon, everybody had noticed and had joined in. Now snowballs were hitting Hermione left and right and she also blindly threw snowballs wherever she could. After a few minutes, the fight calmed down and exhaustion took over. They all sat in the snow, the boys over dramatically lying in the snow, while Lily and Hermione just sat there.
"I don't know about you guys, but it's cold," Peter shivered.
"Yeah, I don't exactly fancy sitting in the snow after a snowball fight," Lily agreed.
"But there is something better we can do…" James continued.
"SNOW ANGELS!" Sirius and James shouted.
"Really, boys? I'm cold," Hermione said, wrapping her arms around her.
"That easy to take down, huh?" Sirius teased. Hermione glared at him for a moment and then said, "We are doing snow angels right now. I don't care if anybody is cold or not," she declared.
"Just this once," Remus sighed.
They all laid down in a circle and started making snow angels. Everybody burst out laughing.
"What are we? 12?" Lily said while returning into her seating position. Soon everybody followed her actions and started teasing each other about it.
"Oh, look over there. Black and the mudbloods!" somebody said from behind Hermione. As soon as she turned around, the sight made her sick. Lucius Malfoy, Snape, Barty Crouch Jr. and Regulus stood there. Regulus' disapproval was clear on his face. Lucius seemed to be rather enjoying this. Hermione froze for a second, the tainted memories of Malfoy Manor were brought back. Lily knew what had happened so she put her hand over hers and when she turned to look at her, she smiled and gave Hermione's hand a little squeeze.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" James said with a frown, getting up. By now, everybody was standing up and in a line.
"What do I always want, Potter?" Lucius smugly said. "You and your little group of friends...you disgust me!" he spat. "A pure-blood, just like Black, and hanging around with these two! You're a vomitous site!"
"You say one more word against Lily or Hermione and you'll regret it," Sirius joined in.
"You know you would think that the older brother would be exemplary, but in the Black house, it's quite the opposite. Isn't it, Regulus?" Snape taunted. Lily let a flash of hurt cross her face but seeing Snape with his gang wasn't much shocking anymore. As if he had completely turned. The boy desperate for forgiveness wasn't visible in that emotionless face anymore.
"You guys handle this...I'm going to go see Narcissa," Regulus said in an annoyed voice and walked back to the castle; not before sending Hermione a little wink.
"Don't think the little brother could handle the site," Crouch frowned.
"Hey! Leave him out of this!" Sirius roared.
"Huh, didn't think you would care about him anymore, not after hanging out with these mudbloods."
"You're done here, pal," James said as him and the rest of the marauders drew out their wands. Sirius was just about to hex Lucius and his friends when a voice interrupted him-
"Gentlemen! What are we doing?" McGonagall came striding in. "We do not have duels at Hogwarts between students. Have you forgotten that or shall I offer some detention to jog the memory? I suppose an owl home would suffice the need!" she scolded. "Put your wands away and all three of you-" she gestured towards Lucius- " will follow me into my office. And the rest of you" - she turned to Hermione- "head back to your common room."
When Hermione turned to the castle to do what she was told, she saw Regulus peeking out. It struck her what he had done. He had gone back to the castle and informed McGonagall so she could come and break up the fight before anybody got injured. She sent him a grateful smiled before continuing her walk with the group back to the common room.
3 days later, 31st December, found all of them walking back to the common room. Usually, the New Years would be celebrated in The Great Hall but all of them had snuck out of there. Sirius had so gallantly posed the offer opening the Firewhisky he had and James had jumped on it; after that, changing his mind is right next to impossible. He had also gotten Peter onboard with him while Remus, Lily and Hermione were quite alright eating in The Great Hall. After all, they are the only sensible ones in the group!
"Guys, we need to hurry. Just a few minutes until the clock strikes twelve!" Remus announced, looking at his watch.
"We could just run.." James suggested, shrugging his shoulders.
"May I remind you that we are both Head boy and Head girl?" Lily said. "We don't want to be setting a bad example to the younger years."
"Come on, Evans! I hardly think anybody is going to be roaming around at this time." James whined.
"And if they are, we could just invite them to our little party," Sirius said.
"Absolutely not! It's enough that you guys are doing this in the first place" Hermione shut down the idea. Sirius and James just sighed, accepting defeat. When they reached the common room, there were only about 30 seconds left of 1977. Hermione and Sirius were the last to enter but when they made a move towards the couches, they couldn't move.
Hermione paralysed momentarily. "Please don't be it, please don't be it." She prayed internally. Only to look up and find a white mistletoe hanging over her and Sirius. Everybody else also was momentarily frozen while processing it all in.
"Well, it was bound to happen with somebody between us…" Remus said.
"And we all are so glad it's the both of you," Peter finished.
"Did you guys plan this?" Hermione asked, confused.
"We didn't but" James paused, "but we were going to use it if nothing happened over the holidays."
"But no, this wasn't us. We are still glad though!" Lily said.
"Guys-" Sirius sighed but was cut off by Remus.
"10...9...8…" he said.
"7...6...5…" Peter continued. Lily looked at Hermione and nodded towards Sirius as in silently saying "Do it". Hermione drew in a deep breath, mentally preparing herself and then turned to face Sirius to find that he was looking at her as well.
"4...3...2…" James said.
And Hermione doesn't know how it happened, (she was too busy blushing) but he was right in front of her, their lips almost touching and then there was absolutely no space left between them. His hand on her cheeks and hers on his waist. "IT WAS HAPPENING!" She internally screamed and felt fireworks and crackers explode inside her. Only they weren't inside her, it was literally happening outside the window in celebration. All the cheers and whistles made by their friends were drowned out. She faintly heard somebody shout, "Finally!" but to be frank, she didn't care. All she could do right now was deluge herself in this fascinating feeling of love. She wanted it to last forever, it felt like it lasted 10 minutes but in reality, it was barely 20 seconds, but it was enough for her to know that she wanted this. All the struggle since starting in this time had led up to this moment. This feeling.
When they pulled back from each other. She felt blown away- enlightened actually.
"Happy New Year, Hermione," he whispered.
"Happy New Year, Sirius."
And soon they were all engulfed in a huge hug and saying "Happy New Year" to each other. And how they were so glad that magical mistletoes existed. Hermione smiled. To be honest, she was feeling a little squashed as she was in the middle of the hug circle but it didn't matter. She was here and so were they. Hermione had a feeling that this new year would be so much better than the last year; she at least knew that something good is going to come out of this. Happiness is going to come out of this.
Author's Note: Hi! Again, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Moving on, did you honestly think that I would use magical mistletoes and not include the kiss scene? I have been planning the mistletoe part for so long! Felt amazing to finally get it down. I have a lot more ideas of what we can do after this but I am particularly leaning towards one of them. If you're wondering about the whole Catherine and Sirius telling her thing, wait for the next chapter! Usually, it takes me like 20-23 days to get another chapter out, especially now that school has started again and schoolwork is so much heavier, but I'm going to upload another chapter on 24th January as a birthday treat as mine is on the 25th. I don't know why, but I really like uploading chapters before any sort of event, it makes me 10 times more excited! Also, not going to lie, this is by far my favourite chapter I have ever written for this story because there is Christmas, there are mistletoes, there is the kiss (yes finally! It, too, was torturous for me to just keep writing them denying their feelings), ugh I just really love this chapter. But yeah, long talk, anyways thank you for reading and reviews are always welcome! Oh also, have a good day/night :)