Disclaimer: Nothing is owned by me. Maybe the necklace, but other than that nothing.
A/N: Remember, Auror Camp…
v Harry Potter and the Mark of Hermes
Chapter 3: Christmas Days
"Did you find them?" he asked the short, bald, quivering figure that stood before him.
"Yes Master. I found all but one."
"All but one?" The Master spat. "Which three did you find?"
The servant handed the three books to his Master, but he threw them back before he barely touched them.
"The fourth! I need the fourth! These three are useless without the fourth!"
"But Master, we looked everywhere and nobody could find…"
"If you do not give me the fourth, I shall take your other hand. This time however, I won't replace it! Now get out of my sight!"
*~*~*~*~*
Harry sat on his bed, lazily watching as his fellow Gryffindors packed their bags for the Christmas Holiday. Dean and Seamus, eyeing each other in secret communication, cleared their throats and interrupted the silence.
"So, Harry. You and Hermione have Gryffindor Tower all to yourselves for two weeks. Any umm…special plans?" Seamus nudged Dean and gave Harry a little wink.
Harry in reply, glared at them both, and was about to do something else before Ron faked a coughing fit.
*Cough cough cough* "Umm...Harry, I need to speak with you, outside, please."
Ron grabbed Harry off his bed and pushed him out the door.
"Ok, what do you want?" Harry asked, trying to get back into the room so he could practice a couple of hexes.
"I wanted to get you out of the room before you bloody killed Dean and Seamus!" Yelled Ron with an air of frustration mixed with amusement.
"And your point is…?"
Ron sighed, "Look lover boy, defending the honor of your lady is normally a respectable thing. But I doubt Hermione will respect you very much if you get yourself expelled!"
"You're right," Harry agreed, still clearly angry with Dean and Seamus. "Its just that, this is why I wanted to keep it a secret. Now EVERYONE knows and I can't go anywhere with her without someone staring or making a jeering comment or…"
"And who bloody cares what other people think?" Ron asked, beginning to get peeved on his friends behalf, "They're all a bunch of gits anyway…"
"You're right. Hey, you're right! I don't think I've ever said that to you before today…"
Ron playfully punched Harry's shoulders and escorted him back inside.
Once inside however, the playful air that Harry and Ron had enjoyed a moment ago quickly turned back to the tense state it was before they left the room. Ron was about to ask Harry to step back out again when Harry heard Hermione call him.
*Harry, meet me at the rock in 10 minutes.*
*Allright,* he answered back.
"Gotta go Ron," Harry informed Ron without elaborating. Of course, Ron knew what he was implying.
Before he left however, he turned to Dean and Seamus with an icy stare.
To Dean and Seamus, Harry seemed to grow about 10 feet in that one moment, and it soon dawned on them that this boy had defeated the Dark Lord about thrice in his life and managed to escape unscathed once. That, and he had attended Auror camp this summer, so he probably knew more spells and hexes than the average 5th year. They really shouldn't be messing with him…
"Harry," Dean gulped, "Ssss-sorry about what we said earlier, we-we-we didn't mean anything. Honest!"
Harry nodded his assent and left the room without replying.
"Remind me to never tick Harry off," Seamus said, with an earnest look on his face.
Ron couldn't control his laughter any longer…
*~*~*~*~*~
Harry ran all the way down to the rock.
She was already there, staring dreamily at the lake. The sky was blue and the day unusually bright because the sun reflected off the snow.
She sat on the rock as if it were the middle of spring, instead of the middle of winter. She heard his feet crunching the snow and turned around and smiled at him.
She had such an angelic smile. He couldn't wait to taste it…
As if she could read his mind (which she could, but wasn't really doing so at the moment…) she jumped off the rock and threw herself on him. They toppled to the ground and she sat on his stomach, leaning over, planting small kisses all over his face.
"Not that I'm not enjoying this, but tell me, why did you call me here?" Harry managed to ask between kisses.
Hermione suddenly stopped as if awakened from a trance. "I want to make up for the next two weeks."
Harry stared at her, not really catching what she meant. "Make up…make up for what?"
Hermione groaned. "Harry! We have Gryffindor Tower all to ourselves!"
Harry blinked. "And…."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "And well, the temptation to well…do more than just kiss will be too great! So I have decided that I will not touch you for the next two weeks!"
Harry gasped in disbelief! No touching for two weeks, talk about an obstacle.
He could defeat the Dark Lord, he could win the TriWizard tournament, but he didn't think he was capable of keeping his hands off his girlfriend for two whole weeks.
Harry didn't know whether to be annoyed, or flattered. For one thing, he had envisioned two weeks of privacy with Hermione. Yet, he never really thought of doing that with Hermione, at least not now. Their relationship was too new.
"Hermione, do you really think I would force you to anything like that?"
"Harry, you don't need to force me. I'd probably jump at the chance!" Hermione, realizing what she had just said, blushed the deepest shade of crimson Harry had ever seen.
"What I meant to say was, umm…I have no control with you. And I have to always be in control! That is why being with you, alone, is scary to me." Hermione shone her big brown eyes at Harry. Harry couldn't believe he was actually agreeing to this.
"Come here," he commanded her, and enveloped her into a hug. "Fine, no touching for the next two weeks."
She grinned at him and gave him a peck on the lips.
"So, when exactly does this thing start anyway?" Harry asked.
"Umm...not until everyone leaves." Hermione answered.
"So we still have time?" Harry asked, an impish glint in his eyes.
"Why yes we do. Any ideas as to what we should until then Mr. Potter?" Hermione asked, a teasing air in her voice.
"Umm…I have a few," Harry answered, as he gave her the fullest kiss he had ever given her.
I hope this gets me through the next two weeks, he thought to himself.
*~*~*~*~*
Later that day as Harry and Hermione saw off Ron and the rest of the Gryffindors, he couldn't help but feel despondent.
Two weeks? How am I going to manage that?
Soon after, the people that stayed over for Christmas break, who were Harry and Hermione, Susan Bones and Hanna Abbott of Hufflepuff, and four Ravenclaw 3rd years, all went into the Great Hall for Dinner.
The Great Hall looked beautiful. It was magnificently adorned in red, gold, and green. The light of the floating candles reflected off the Christmas ornaments and the snow covered trees in the corner (real snow) made it look as if you were in a winter wonderland.
The tables in the Great Hall, as is custom, where pushed aside, and only one stood in the center to accommodate the remaining students and teachers.
Harry was about to sit down next to Hermione when he remembered the pact, I might accidentally knock elbows with her or something, he thought to himself. So he decided to play it safe and sit directly in front of her instead.
Hermione looked shocked at first, but suddenly realized why Harry moved.
*This is gonna be hard* She thought to him.
*Tell me about it* He thought back.
The hard stuff hadn't happened yet.
That night after dinner, they both walked back to Gryffindor Tower, together, and alone. They walked about a mile between each other to avoid any sort of contact. They were both quiet, afraid that talking would break their distance.
Once inside the common room, they both tried hard to not look at each other as they said their brief goodnights…
"Good night Harry."
"Good night Hermione."
They both ran to their respective dorm rooms and slammed the door shut, breathing a sigh of relief for having survived the day.
And so it was for the next couple of days. They went out together and played in the snow, they visited Hagrid, and they studied and read, (apparently, having Hermione in his head all the time influenced Harry quite a bit), always making sure to keep their distance from each other for fear of breaking the pact.
Harry had never wanted Christmas break to end so badly.
*~*~*~*~*
Christmas morning came, and Harry found himself being awakened by Hermione's soft voice.
*Harry, come down to the common room, its Christmas Day!*
Harry quickly went to his trunk. He took out a bathrobe and Hermione's gift, and ran down the stairs to greet her.
"Happy Christmas Harry!" She greeted him as he came down the stairs.
"Happy Christmas Hermione!" He was about to hug her when he remembered the pact. Merlin I hate this, he thought to himself.
Hermione was already looking through the pile of gifts. She opened one up from her parents. "Oh…look Harry. Isn't my new watch beautiful?"
Harry examined her new gold watch. He began to feel self-conscious about his gift.
Hermione opened the gift Ron bought for her. "Oh look at this! Remind me to thank that prat for getting this!" Hermione laughed, delighted with her book from Ron.
"Here Harry look, Sirius sent you this." Harry opened the small package from Sirius. Inside was an old worn book, on the cover it read Telepathy: How to Deal with It. Harry opened to the first page, on it was the title of the book and under it was scrawled: This Book Belongs to James Potter, and written under it in beautiful writing was And Shared by Lily Evans, and then, as if an after thought, in far more mature writing Potter. Right under that, Sirius wrote "Make sure you share this as well, Happy Christmas Harry."
Harry couldn't stop the tears from shinning in his eyes.
"Harry, what is wrong?" Hermione inquired. She noticed Harry's change in mood.
Harry snapped out of his reverie. He ran upstairs quickly to get a quill and came back down. He signed his ownership in the book and handed both the book and quill to a flabbergasted Hermione.
"Harry what is all thi-," she stopped talking mid sentence. She read the inscriptions in the book and felt her eyes shine with tears, sharing Harry's grief. She signed her name in the book and ran to Harry and threw her arms around him.
"But Hermione, the…"
"Screw the pact!" Hermione told him.
He laughed and was silently thankful to the gods for brining her into his life.
"Oh! I haven't given you you're gift!" Harry exclaimed, and quickly ran to the mess on the floor and picked up the small box. He handed it over to Hermione, who peered at him curiously. The box was long and thin, covered in scarlet satin. On the box, there were two letters in gold, P and G, interspersed in a beautiful calligraphic engraving. Behind them was a golden lion; together they formed the Potter crest.
Hermione meticulously opened the box. She gasped at its contents. She had never seen a more beautiful necklace. It was a magnificent gold necklace, and in its center was a diamond, shaped like a Lily.
"Oh Harry…" she had never received a more wonderful gift. "It's…its beautiful! Harry are you sure you want to-,"
"Shhh…," he chastised her gently, "You're beautiful." He cupped her face and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips.
She smiled a serene smile. "Harry, my gift, it isn't so…"
"It doesn't matter, you are all I need," Harry said, happy that she was happy with his gift.
She threw a blushing smile at him. "Here it is, open it."
Harry opened his gift. It was a gold bracelet. Engraved on one side where the words "I Love Thee," and on the other side it said "Auror Memories to Cherish."
Harry chuckled at the thoughtfulness of her gift.
"Now that I look back, it was at Auror Camp that I began to realize I was in love with you." Hermione said as she slid her arms around Harry's back.
"It was there for me also," Harry murmured, delighting in the feeling of her arms.
Harry turned around. "I love you Hermione Granger." He told her as he prepared to kiss her.
Hermione shivered in anticipation, "I love you two."
*~*~*~*~*~*
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