When Hermione woke the next morning it was a lot earlier than she would normally have done. The bed was warmer than it had been the night before, she was nestled against Charlie. For once she didn't move away the second she woke up, she was far too comfortable. She was certain that she had fallen asleep downstairs last night which could only mean that Charlie had carried her up. Without realising she wriggled slightly closer to him, he opened his eyes.

"Happy Christmas" he mumbled, blearily wiping his eyes

"And you" she smiled, still refusing to move because he was too warm, she'd risk the embarrassment.

He grinned down at her and opened his mouth to say something but Ginny burst into the room, without knocking.

"Get up!" She commanded, grinning "it snowed last night and the sooner we get up the sooner we can have a snowball fight and un wrap presents and things!" she ran out of the room again, reappearing briefly to say "Merry Christmas" as an afterthought before clattering down the stairs. They heard her knocking on Percy's bedroom door.

Hermione still hadn't moved "no rest for the wicked, then?"

He shook his head "of course not"

When they eventually stepped out into the garden it was to see that Ginny was right, the whole ground was covered with 5 or 6 inches of snow and the twins already had a snowball fight in full swing. Charlie had expected them to be in teams of sorts. But Hermione laughed at the sight before her before throwing a snowball that hit George squarely on his non-existent ear and sprinting away. It was, as Ginny explained, "every man (or woman) for themselves".

With a strong sense of déjà vu, Hermione found herself creeping round the edge of the house, back to the wall with a snow ball in hand. If you had replaced the snow ball with a water bomb it could have been summer again with their water fight. Just like last time, she rounded a corner and found Charlie laying, or rather standing, in wait. This time though, she was less prepared and with a shriek of surprise she stumbled backwards, skidding on a patch of ice.

He caught her before she hit the ground and righted her again; their faces were now only inches apart. She stared at him, eyes wide with surprise. Both were frozen in complete shock. He looked at her and, for the first time, really saw her as someone other than his brother's best friend or the woman he just happened to live with. He saw the large hazel eyes and beautiful wild curls and the rosy cheeks and behind them he saw the things that made her her. The blazing temper, fierce loyalty and compassion and the immense amount of courage that she didn't even know she had.

The next thing he knew, there was a wet kind of smack and the top of his head suddenly felt cold. She had dropped her snowball right on the top of his head and freezing water was dribbling down the back of his neck, she laughed, slightly nervously and darted away across the grass.

Hermione spent the rest of the day making a concentrated effort to pretend that nothing had happened. Her Gryffindor courage had failed her again and she was terrified.

Just when everything seemed to be settling down and they had finally moved beyond awkwardness it had all been ruined. She had never been immune to his perfectly sculpted muscle or his rugged good looks. When they got married she was exposed to them every day but she was also exposed to the side of Charlie that she had never really seen before, the side that was charming, selfless and generous. She couldn't lie to herself; she had developed a little crush.

This would have been fine, she was good at poker facing with her emotions, they would have finished the five years, gone their separate ways and all would have been fine. But that moment during the snowball fight had caught her off-guard and shaken her control. She couldn't stand up to his scrutiny and in that moment, she was sure that he had seen right through her. So she took the coward's way out and ran rather than face up to her problems like the adult she was.

Now she found herself seated at the table in the kitchen, eating the most delicious Christmas dinner in the world, unable to enjoy it because she was almost squirming under his gaze. Several times she caught him staring steadily at her. Each time she met his eyes, she ducked away quickly, blushing. It was distracting to say the least, made worse by the fact that Ginny had very plainly noticed the situation and kept shooting amused glances at the pair of them.

When everyone sat down to unwrap their presents, Hermione automatically headed for the corner that held Harry, Ron, Ginny and Susan, Charlie seemed to have other plans though. He grabbed her arm, pulling her over to the armchair he normally occupied. He sat down and pulled her into lap, barely pausing in his earnest conversation with Bill. She fought not to blush because she had sat on his lap several times before, when the bar on the reserve had been short on seats. She relaxed a little when she realised that he wasn't really acting any differently. In fact he was acting as if nothing had changed at all. As she tore into her first present, exclaiming over the traditional jumper from Mrs Weasley, she could almost pretend that nothing had.

She had always been good at present buying and this year was no exception. While she would always be limited by money, she never minded if the cost of presents caused her to be a little short on cash for a few weeks; the payback was in seeing people's faces as they unwrapped their gifts. This year though, no one was more delighted than Charlie. She had handed him a red envelope and watched his eyes widen as he examined the contents.

Being a healer meant that you occasionally patched up somebody rich or famous. During her time at St Mungo's she had nursed several quidditch players back to health after nasty accidents or vicious games. A few of them were such regular visitors that they were actually quite good friends. Oliver Wood in particular had been a frequent patient and had repeatedly offered her free tickets to any match she wanted. He played for Charlie's favourite team, Puddlemere United, and thanks to him and a few other useful contacts, she had managed to swing 4 season tickets at relatively little cost.

He was ecstatic and hugged her fiercely, kissing each cheek twice before turning to fend off the small crowd, now arguing about who was allowed the other 3 tickets. She continued to unwrap her presents, his was in a small velvet lined jewellery box, she flipped it open and stared, open-mouthed. It was a beautiful silver charm bracelet. It had only three charms on it, a rose, a star and a four leaf clover.

"I thought you could add more charms if you wanted to" Charlie whispered in her ear "you do like it, don't you?"

"It's beautiful" she breathed "thank you so much" and hugged him tightly

"Oi!" Ginny shouted, grinning at the other end of them room "you two look rather cosy over there, are you keeping something from us?"

Hermione jumped and blushed to the roots of her hair, leaping off of Charlie's lap. Charlie scowled at his sister who assured him that she had only been teasing. Hermione didn't look any more comfortable and seemed unsure what to do with herself. Ron and Harry seized the opportunity to pull her into the corner for a quick chat.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked

"I'm fine" she sounded as though she was trying to convince herself, she was very aware of the fact that Charlie was still watching her.

"Are you a proper couple now?" Ron whispered

"We're just friends" she assured him

Harry snorted "Hermione, Bill and Fleur used to be just good friends" Hermione glanced at Victoire asleep on Bill's lap and at Fleur's slightly swollen stomach which she was gently resting a hand on.

Weirdly, Ron was the more serious one on his occasion "seriously, Hermione, Charlie's a great bloke but he doesn't commit to anything easily"

She sighed, rubbing her forehead "I know, I can take care of myself but thank you for watching out for me"

Harry smiled "it's what we do"

Eventually, after they had passed some time with meaningless conversation, she excused herself to get a drink. She had to pass Charlie on the way out but carefully avoided his gaze. He caught her and grabbed her arm as she reached the door. She turned

"Are you alright?" he whispered, looking at her intently. She nodded, just as the twins roared with laughter.

"Look who's under the mistletoe" George sang and suddenly the whole room had stopped what they were doing to watch. Hermione shifted uncomfortably and stared at her feet, she wanted to kiss Charlie and had for a while now, just to see what it would be like to kiss when they didn't have to. But if he really did kiss her, she may well lose control of that careful guard she had kept up. She forced herself to look at him, surprised to see a huge grin instead of the horrified expression she had expected

"Do you want to?" he whispered, gesturing up at the mistletoe

She nodded.

"Me too"

She looked surprised

"Just do it" shouted one of the twins, who was swiftly elbowed by his wife

Charlie didn't hesitate, he kissed her gently. In that moment, the rest of the room seemed to melt away. He was slightly lost in the moment and Hermione seemed to be too so he didn't break away and instead, kissed her more deeply, tilting her backwards slightly.

He was a very good kisser, Hermione mused as she slid her arms round his neck. In fact her knees felt slightly weak. She pulled away from him as she heard somebody wolf whistle and then a lot of laughter.

A/N: Finally got round to updating on time...and I think this may be the longest chapter yet! thank you so much for all the lovely lovely reviews, I really appreciate it :)