Well, here she was. Hermione could see the gleam of lit candles filtering through the windows of Harry and Draco's new flat. She pulled her thick winter coat closer and walked towards the door, a jumble of nerves and excitement twisting in her stomach. She hadn't seen either of them, or any of her friends really, for over a year. Her job at the Ministry had sent her overseas to work closely with delegates to the International Confederation of Wizards, ensuring she was gone for long absences. She kept in touch, of course. Harry was diligent in writing her long letters updating her about everyone's life back in Britain. Ginny and Luna wrote occasionally too, but Ron was absolute rubbish at keeping up. So she had known beforehand that Harry and Draco finally moved into their own place together, after two years of half-staying at each other's flats.
Hermione knocked firmly, hearing muffled bickering from the other side of the door.
"Hermione!" Harry swung the front door open and swept Hermione into a tight hug. She could see Draco standing over his shoulder, looking simultaneously annoyed but happy to see her.
Draco nudged Harry aside and pulled Hermione into a formal but warm hug, clearing his throat.
"I'm glad you're here, Harry and I were just having a mild disagreement about the amount of Ogden's Old I picked up earlier."
Hermione grinned at the pair of them, glad to see nothing had changed in her absence. Harry was dressed in his festive red "H" sweater that Molly insisted on replacing every few years, and his hair fell into his eyes when he moved his head too quickly. She watched Draco's hand dart out and smooth away a stray strand from Harry's forehead. Unsurprisingly, Draco was wearing well-tailored trousers and a crisp white button-up, decidedly less jovial than Harry. His hair was neatly combed and arranged handsomely, the white-blonde strands carefully placed.
"You both look good." Hermione smiled, handing Harry the plate of treacle tart she had brought.
"Am I the first one here?" She glanced around them the open living room, noting how perfectly they had blended each other's styles. The furniture looked absolutely posh, Draco's doing, she suspected, but it was filled with soft elements of whites and golds that filled it with an air of warmth. Their massive tree stood in the corner, twinkling with suspended lights and tiny snitches that hovered in place.
"No, Gin and Luna are already here, Ron and Blaise just arrived. Theo's due any minute, and Pansy will probably be late." Harry answered, grabbing Hermione's coat and ushering her inside.
Hermione followed Harry to the kitchen, where the group of guests were already assembled. Ginny squealed when Hermione entered, stuffing the remnants of her pumpkin pastie into her mouth and rushing over to her. Luna followed her closely, wrapping her arms around the already embracing pair.
"Missed you guys." Hermione laughed, enjoying being gently crushed between the two of them.
They stepped back and Ginny planted an easy kiss against Hermione's head before swinging her arm around Luna's waist and pulling her tightly towards her, kissing her swath of blonde curls.
"Good to see you, Hermione." Ginny beamed as Luna nodded her agreement.
"Yes," Luna smiled, gazing from Ginny to Hermione, "You've got significantly less Blibbering Humdingers around you as well since last year. A good sign, don't you think, Ginny?"
Ginny shrugged but murmured her agreement as Hermione chuckled.
"Good to know, Luna, thanks." She turned to Ron, who was standing at Ginny's shoulder, waiting to say hello.
Ron beamed at her and crushed her in a quick hug, pressing her face against his chest. Hermione felt laughter bubble up from her again, feeling warm and loved and overwhelmed at seeing her friends after so long.
"Hullo, 'Mione." Ron gave her shoulders another quick squeeze. He too was in his "R" sweater, the maroon red clashing with the flush on his neck from the Butterbeer. She was happy to see the scars along his arms had faded a bit more as well, now long silvery stripes crisscrossing his forearms.
Ron stepped to the side and gestured to Blaise, who was standing behind him with one elegant eyebrow arched in amusement.
Hermione smiled shyly at Blaise, accepting the hand he offered her and the polite hello he murmured. She had known of his and Ron's budding relationship thanks to Harry's updates, but had never seen them together. In fact, Hermione hadn't really spent any time with her former Slytherin classmates, save for Draco, who had been a regular feature at their gatherings since he and Harry started dating. Harry had written that in the past year, he and Draco slowly began to merge their friend groups, or at least ease them into wary acquaintanceships.
Hermione was happy to see Ron find someone as well. His dating life had consisted of the strange fling with Lavender in sixth year, to the brief moments she and Ron had shared while on the run, to an on-again-off-again relationship with Oliver Wood after the war.
"Good to see you happy, Ron." Hermione readily accepted the Butterbeer that Ginny thrust into her hands, tipping it towards Ron. Just then the group turned towards booming laughter that emerged from the front door, heralding Theo's arrival.
"I do hope he brought pudding." Luna whispered, Ginny rolling her eyes good-naturedly in response.
"Always with the pudding." Ginny teased, holding Luna under her chin and catching her lips in a quick kiss.
Theo, tailed by Draco and Harry, bustled into the kitchen. His lanky arms were laden with messily tied packages wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine.
"Hello! Hello! The moment you've all been waiting for!" He announced, carefully moving from friend to friend and dropping a package into their hands. Everyone let out a collective groan.
"No gifts until after dinner!" Draco protested, trying to shove away the package Theo was trying to simultaneously push into his arms.
"These are not gifts," Theo corrected him, shaking his head of artfully shaggy brown hair, his smile wide.
"These, my friends, are stockings."
Ginny made a face and held up her package.
"Theo, these are odd-looking stockings…"
Blaise snorted his agreement, appearing more than over Theo's antics but entertained nonetheless.
"We were supposed to bring gifts?" Hermione muttered, suddenly feeling like her treacle tart was not going to cut it.
"No, Hermione, don't sweat it. He did this last year too." Harry interjected, coming to stand beside Hermione and graciously accepting the package Theo held out towards him.
"He's done this every year." Exasperated, Draco finally took his package with a huff.
Theo completed the circle around the group, coming last to stand in front of Luna.
"And for you, Luna dear, the finest pudding Honeydukes has to offer." Theo presented Luna's gift with a little flourish, pressing a chaste kiss to her cheek in the process. Luna thanked Theo profusely while Draco muttered under his breath about spoiling dinner.
"Blaise, open yours!" Theo urged, turning towards him. Blaise was holding out his package as if it could burn him.
"Theo, if this is another box of Ton-Tongue Toffees, I swear…" Blaise sent warning glares towards Theo.
"No no, I promise, it's absolutely not." Theo declared as the group watched Blaise jerk open the shoddy wrapping job, pulling out what looked to be a very lumpy, dark green knit sweater with a large silver "B" on the front.
"Blimey," Ron gasped, "is that one of mum's sweaters?"
Ginny burst out in a peal of laugher as Blaise held the sweater out in front of him. Theo joined Ginny, wiping away a tear from the corner of his eye as he held his hand to his chest.
"I coordinated with Mrs. Weasley herself. She was very happy to contribute to this year's annual stocking stuffers." Theo explained as Blaise looked decidedly put out and Ron looked between them in amusement.
Sighing, Blaise popped the sweater over his head and covered his own black and tasteful sweater with the cumbersome knit.
"You're a good sport, Blaise." Harry grinned as Draco blanched at the sight of his friend decked out in his own Weasley Christmas garb.
"One of us!" Ginny shouted as her and Luna clapped and Blaise dipped into a little bow.
"I think you look fit." Ron admitted, ducking his head as he smiled and pulling Blaise's hand into his own. Blaise closed his fingers around Ron's and pressed a quick kiss against his mouth, enjoying the flush that spread and deepened across Ron's neck.
"Well, as long as my dignity is gone, I'll take the compliment." Blaise grinned.
"Alright, what did the rest of you get?" Harry asked, pointing towards Hermione who was still holding her package tightly in her arms. Taking that as her queue, she carefully unwrapped her package and pulled out a book.
"Harry said you like books." Theo noted proudly, watching her as she read the title.
Hermine exhaled a deep sigh, turning the cover towards him. Her dark brown eyes flashed as she pointed to the title.
"Witch Weekly's Book of Advice for the Working Witch: Finding Time to Date." She read aloud, pleased at the collective groan that came from half the room, feeling her own cheeks flush this time.
"What?!" Theo defended, "Harry said you like books, Draco said you made no time for yourself, this seemed like a happy medium."
What little colour there was to begin with drained from Draco's face as Hermione turned her sharp gaze on him.
"I said nothing of the sort." Draco sniffed, not enjoying being pinned under Hermione's glare.
Harry leaned in and patted Draco softly on the back in a soothing manner, clicking his tongue at him.
"I think you did, love, but it was meant in good faith." Harry confirmed.
Hermione sighed and held up the book as a truce.
"Well, thanks anyway Theo, Happy Christmas."
The rest of the group opened their gifts in succession, Ginny exclaiming her thanks for the limited edition set of Seeker Weekly Theo had managed to find for her. Luna was evidently still pleased with her pudding, Ron received a box of sweets, and Harry and Draco both received Christmas ornaments for their new tree with Theo's face pictured in the middle, smiling and waving on repeat.
The front door opened and closed from the other side of the flat with a soft click, and Hermione turned at the sound.
Pansy Parkinson stood in the doorway, gently kicking off her leather boots and shrugging off her jacket. As she shouted her hello at the group and made her way to the kitchen, Hermione tried to keep her face neutral as she stared, not having seen Pansy since their days at Hogwarts. Pansy looked—Hermione swallowed hard—she looked different. Hermione stared at the soft curl of Pansy's eyelashes against the dip of her cheek and her high cheekbones, the deep red of her lipstick, the flash of dark hair that curved under her chin.
"Started without me?" Pansy waved at the group after pecking both Draco and Harry on the cheek. She turned to Hermione and offered her hand casually.
"Hermione, nice to see you, it's been a while." Pansy hummed, her smile seemingly genuine.
Hermione gave Pansy's hand a quick shake and enjoyed the warmth she felt from it, and the quick coil she felt twist in her stomach.
"Nice to see you, too." Hermione murmured as Pansy walked towards Theo and rustled his hair with her nails.
"Alright, T, what'll it be this year? The usual?" Pansy held her hand flat out towards Theo who pulled a chunk of black rock from his pocket with a false air of dignity.
"Pans, as you're late to our gathering another year, you receive your yearly quota of coal."
Ceremoniously, he plunked the rock into her hands as Pansy held it up in thanks. Pansy turned and caught Hermione's eyes, sending her a quick wink. Hermione smile tentatively in return, unconsciously winding one of her thick black curls around her finger. She felt heat at the tops of her cheeks. Merlin, was she turning into Ron?