Chapter 15-Christmas

A/N Thank you my twentieth reviewer Teala Snape! Also, the winter ball was held in the beginning of December.

Disclaimer: I only own the plot.

Hermione was there, in a clearing in the middle of a forest. It looked like a meadow, except for the trees that were in a circular shape around it, making it a clearing. In the center was a man with a snakelike appearance who was surrounded by men in plain black robes and masks. Lord Voldemort and at least twenty deatheaters. She had a sword in hand, and looked down on it. On the blade was one word, Knowledge. So this was the Sword of Knowledge. She could see Harry and Ron on either side of her and feel Draco standing at her back; each had their Sword drawn. The deatheaters were all looking at them, and they all had their wands out. The battle was about to begin. "Hermione, Hermione, wake up. Hermione, WAKE UP," The clearing dissolved and Hermione was sitting up in bed, Draco kneeling beside her, looking slightly down on her with frightened eyes.

"Draco, I saw it, I saw the clearing, where we are to battle Voldemort. God it was so scary, it's going to twenty against us four. Harry and Ron are the other two heirs, but I don't know which is which," Hermione said in a rush. Draco looked down on her. Then he grinned.

"Come on, we should go down to breakfast so that we can tell Dumbledore who the other heirs are, and so that we can tell them too," Draco said. (A/N it is now Christmas eve, during Christmas break. The only people still at school are Professors Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick and Trelawny, and the only students are Ernie Macmillan, Collin and Dennis Creevy, and Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Draco, coincidentally (or maybe not) thirteen people. Trelawny never ate anywhere except in her tower, for fear of unlucky-ness) so they dressed and went downstairs for breakfast.

"Professor Dumbledore, sir, I saw where the battle will be. And the other two heirs are Harry and Ron, I think we should take them to your office after breakfast and read them the prophecies. Then maybe we could have a spare classroom with a bunch of pillows and books of jinxes, counter- jinxes, hexes and counter-hexes, so that we can practice for the battle," Her face had been anxious, but as she continued talking her face had turned grim. She was going to be prepared for this war with or without help from Dumbledore.

"Maybe we could also have the few days between the end of Christmas break and my birthday without classes so that we can *cough* erm...practice some more," Draco asked hopefully.

"Sure, I wouldn't want you all to be unprepared, you do realize that you absolutely must (emphasis, my italics don't show up) win this war," Dumbledore answered, eyes glittering. "But I will be supervising you during the practice time that you spend when you should be in classes, I know more jinxes and hexes than you could ever find in a book." Draco's face fell; apparently he had wanted to do something other than just practice. Hermione giggled as she saw that Dumbledore was trying not to smile, he had guessed Draco's alternative motives.

The couple sat down to breakfast and began eating. Hermione had two pancakes and two slices of toast and drank a glass of orange juice to wash it all down. This was eaten very slowly and she was done when Harry and Ron had eaten their breakfasts also, even though they came down thirty minutes later than Draco and Hermione and had eaten at least two or three times as much as Hermione had eaten each. Then Hermione took the two unsuspecting boys up to Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore looked up at them when they stepped in his doorway (He had left his door open for them) and gestured for them to sit down in the three seats left out for them (He suspected that Hermione would sit in Draco's lap as she had done on all their visits to his office). Hermione sat in Draco's lap and Harry and Ron each sat down. "Ah, the four heirs," He said. Harry and Ron stared at him in a state of shock.

Harry finally found his senses and looked at Ron, he and Ron were the other heirs. Hermione watched this and giggled. "Professor Dumbledore, we are the other two heirs to help Hermione kill Lord Voldemort...?" He seemed to be having trouble processing this information.

"Yes, I think so, and you two are to practice jinxes, counter-jinxes, hexes, and counter hexes until the eleventh of January when you will all go to meet the Dark Lord for the first time," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he opened The Book that was set out on his desk and began to read the two prophecies to the new found heirs.

That night Hermione placed her presents to Harry and Ron under the tree in Gryffindor tower where all of the students (not including prefects) were staying, seeing as how there was only one person who was not a Gryffindor and also putting her present for Draco under the tree in their common room. That night she slept soundly, wrapped in Draco's arms.

Draco's POV

Draco woke up before Hermione did, as usual, but usually he went back to sleep. Not today though, he had to give her the Christmas present that he had gotten for her. He crept out of the room silently and went to go get it for her. Draco went into his room and got his present out of the box he had bought it in. Holding the gift to his chest he crept back into Hermione's bedroom and laid the little gift on her bed, where it clambered over to her sleeping form and started licking her face.

Hermione's POV

Something wet was on her face. She slowly opened her eyes and let out a squeal of delight. It was a little light brown puppy, with dark brown eyes and a white collar and chest; a lavender bow was tied around its neck. "It's a purebred Basenji puppy," Draco said, as if reading her thoughts. Hermione examined the puppy's pointy ears, which were situated on a triangular head with a slightly long snout. The tail was curled over, and the body and legs were thin, even if the puppy was still short. Hermione pulled the puppy onto her lap and looked at it thoughtfully. She had no idea what to name it. Draco came and sat on the bed beside her, looking at her puppy, but let her alone with her thoughts. Finally she came up with the perfect name.

"Little Dragon," she murmured. Then she smiled. Draco was sort of like an abbreviation for Draconis, which in turn could be translated into The Dragon. Even though Draco's name wasn't short for Draconis, still, it was close, and so she had thought of Little Dragon, or just Dragon for short. Now Hermione was glad that Crookshanks had been so smitten to Sirius and that she had ended up giving him to Sirius.

"Little Dragon," Draco murmured beside her, "I like it." Hermione turned slightly and kissed him. When she pulled away, she knew that they both wanted to kiss some more, but Harry and Ron would start getting worried. Reluctantly she said, "Come on, let's go to Gryffindor. Your present is in our common room, but you can open it in there," Draco sighed, but nodded and followed her out the door, with Little Dragon tucked safely in her arms.

In the Gryffindor common room Harry and Ron had already opened their presents (A copy of "Yet Another Guide to Quidditch" for Harry and Ron each) and were waiting for Hermione to come and open hers. Hermione introduced Little Dragon to them (they rolled their eyes, knowing that Draco could be an abbreviation for Draconis or The Dragon) and started opening her presents. Mrs. Weasly had given her a box of brownies and a light blue sweater. Harry had given her a book of hexes and their counter- hexes and Ron had given her a book of jinxes and counter-jinxes. Hermione turned to Draco, who looked surprised to have gotten three (emphasis) presents (one from Harry, one from Ron, and one from Hermione). Draco opened Ron's first, a box of Chocolate Frogs (Hermione caught his eye and nodded slightly), and then he opened Harry's present, a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, and then he turned to Hermione's present. He opened it and looked at it, obviously confused. Hermione explained that it was called a CD player and it was charmed to work at Hogwarts. She put one of the CDs in it and put the headphones on his ears, pressing play. You can imagine the shocked look on his face when he could suddenly hear music.

They all spent the day relaxing, but in the back of four people's minds was the task that they would be training for starting the next day.