Chapter 13- Gryffindorian Christmas
As soon as Harry saw that Hermione was the only one who had signed up to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas break, he caught Ron's eye and knew that they were having the same thought. Grinning, Harry signed both of them up.
"Where's Ginny going?" Harry wondered aloud.
Ron scowled. "She's going to Seamus's house," he said acidly, "to meet his family."
Harry hid his smile and turned his laugh into a cough. "Come on, Ron, don't be so upset about it." He leaned over to speak in Ron's ear. "At least it means we'll get to be alone."
Ron shot him a seductive look…or one that tried and failed hopelessly to be. Harry thought it was cute nonetheless. "Hermione's still here, though."
"Well, Hermione's been disappeared since November. What makes you think she'd reappear now?" In all honesty, Harry was worried about Hermione, but at the same time he was glad she was not around. She would have noticed something, undoubtedly.
Once again, Ron seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Should we tell her?"
Harry was silent. After a minute or two, he shook his head slowly. "Not yet. I think she's having something…happen. Some personal stuff or something. We shouldn't bother her just yet…anyway, are you ready for her to know?"
"Probably not," Ron admitted. "All the same, I kind of feel bad not telling her."
"I want to kiss you."
"Shhhh! Harry, people could be listening."
Harry grinned. "Sorry. But I do."
"Ron and Harry, sitting in a tree," a quiet voice said.
"Ginny!" Harry and Ron exclaimed.
"Why don't you go up to Ron's room already? You're sickening."
"Not any more that you and Seamus," Harry teased.
"Wanna bet?"
"Yeah."
Seamus came up beside Ginny. She batted her eyelashes and he stuck his tongue down her throat. Ron turned away, but Harry watched in amusement. "See?" he said. Ginny winked before they disappeared up the steps to the boys' dorm.
"Hey Ron," Harry said. "You could bust Ginny for being in the boys' dorm."
"I wouldn't do that to my own sister. I'm not going to go turning into Percy."
Harry shuddered. "I hope not. Then who would I…" he scribbled a quick note and passed it to Ron.
"You'd better not do that with *any* of my brothers," Ron warned.
Harry laughed. He wrote another note. *It's not Weasleys I like, Ron, it's you.*
The last Friday before Christmas break, Harry rolled his eyes when Ron was not down in the common room. "He must still be asleep. You go ahead, I'll wake him."
Seamus, Dean and Neville continued down to the Great Hall. Harry climbed the stairs, pushing the door to Ron's room open carefully. He closed it again as slowly as he knew how.
Harry crept to Ron's bedside, kneeling quietly so as not to wake him. Carefully, precisely, he licked Ron's cheek.
"Hey!" Ron said, jerking awake and wiping his cheek off. "Harry, what the hell?"
"What, you didn't like it?" Harry asked, turning his head in shame.
"Well- I guess- but did you have to do that to wake me up?" Ron smiled.
"Yes."
Ron pushed Harry, who fell to the floor, his limbs flopping every which way. When Harry next glanced at Ron, he covered his eyes jokingly. "Oh the horror!" Ron, as it was plain to see, had been sleeping in the buff.
"Shut up, Harry. I wouldn't say anything like that to you."
"I'll *bet* you wouldn't," Harry teased. He liked to tease. He was in a very playful mood, ever since the end of November, actually.
Ron pulled on his robes, grinning. "No, I wouldn't. I think I'd be too busy with…other things. Like the fact that you're NAKED, for one thing."
"Shh, Ron, you don't want anyone to hear us, do you? Let's go down to the Great Hall."
"You don't think Ginny told Seamus, do you?"
"Ron, will you stop it already? She got it when we told her not to tell *anyone*. She didn't tell Seamus. She won't."
"I hope you're right."
"What would be so bad about it, anyway? I mean, we wouldn't break up just because people *knew*, would we?"
"So we're going out now?"
"Isn't that what we've been doing?"
"I thought you said we were just-" he broke off as a Ravenclaw third year passed. "More-than-friends," he finished.
"Well," Harry began. He gestured with his head toward the nearest classroom, which at that time would be empty. They stepped inside. "I was thinking. We've been more-than-friends for almost a month. I think we should take the next step or something. Like- like we could be boyfriend and…boyfriend. You know?"
Ron's face broke into a wide grin. "I would love to be your boyfriend, Harry," he said happily. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He was so ecstatic, all he could do was grin and kiss Ron before they left the classroom.
Snape had left early for his vacation, or job, or whatever he was doing. Potions class was cancelled. Harry and Ron went to the kitchens to get some food, stealing a few furtive kisses on the way, and the sixth year Gryffindors had a party in the common room. "This sure beats Potions," Dean commented. Neville was contentedly munching a chocolate éclair.
All the Gryffindors were enjoying themselves. Students from other years joined them as classes let out. Soon everyone was having a grand old time. Hermione was nowhere to be seen. Soon, however, she emerged from her bedroom, and even went as far as a glass of pumpkin juice before retreating upstairs again. Ron and Harry exchanged looks and shook their heads before diving headlong back into the party.
The consecutive Saturday saw most of the Gryffindors off, and Ron and Harry were alone during the day. "So what do you want to do?" Harry asked.
"Chess?" Ron suggested.
"What's the point? You always win."
"Well, we'll have stakes this time. If you lose, you have to kiss me."
"What if I win?"
"Then I have to kiss you."
"I've got an idea," Harry said, grinning. "Why don't we skip the game and just go right to the prize?"
That was how they ended up exploring each other's mouths for the next two hours.
Suddenly Ron pulled away. Harry was disappointed. "What?"
"Do you hear that?"
Harry listened. Footsteps sounded outside of the portrait hole. "Snowflake Angel."
"It's Hermione!" Harry moved quickly to the armchair across the table.
She entered with a hand over her face, racing up to the dormitory. She didn't even see them. Ron looked from the stairs to Harry. "What do you think that was about?"
When she reentered, she was calm and collected. "What are you doing?" she said, sitting on the couch with Ron.
"Playing chess," Ron said, gesturing to the table.
Hermione looked at the board. "You haven't even moved yet."
"We can't decide who goes first." Harry saw Ron's look, but ignored it.
"White. Even I know that."
"We can't decide who should be white," Harry said.
"Just pick a color. You two, sometimes, I just don't know."
"It's not that simple," Ron said, trying to help Harry's excuse make sense. "We have to think about this carefully, from every angle-"
"Of *course* it's that simple. Why does it matter who's black and who's white? Why do boys have to make everything so *complicated*?" She said angrily.
"Nevermind, don't answer," she muttered, and stomped out of the common room.
"What's wrong with her?" Ron wondered.
"I don't know." Harry hoped this did not mean she *would* be around for the whole vacation. Then he and Ron would never get a kiss in.
************************************************************************
As it turned out, Hermione was once again stuck to their side for the first few days of break. Ron and Harry were only alone at night, when Hermione went up to her dorm. It was much like the old days again, except that Ron and Harry wished she would go away, and she very much looked like she wanted to be somewhere else.
On Christmas morning, Hermione looked happy for once. Ron and Harry descended from their rooms to find her waiting by the tree. "I thought our presents were usually at the foot of our beds," Ron said.
"Happy Christmas to you too, Ron," Hermione smiled. "Since there are only three of us here, our presents fit under the tree. Come on, I've been waiting for you."
Harry was relieved that Hermione was happy again, but he still wished she would leave them alone for a few minutes. "Yeah, come on, Ron, she's been waiting for us." He quickened his pace to close the distance between himself and his presents.
Later on, Harry stole a Chocolate Frog from the pile he had gotten for Ron and looked over their presents. He had received a N.E.W.T. study book from Hermione- which he would have complained about, but appeared to be so useful that it would come in handy when he put off studying until a week before the test- a note from the Dursleys telling him that this was the last summer he could come back (thank god, he thought), a box of Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Condoms from Ron- at which he had thrown Ron a very suggestive look, and Ron had acted like it was a joke but looked back at him very meaningfully- a beautiful black hippogriff feather quill from Hagrid- the hippogriff had been flying in a storm and died, poor creature (Hagrid's words)- and a note in a script that he now recognized as Dumbledore's.
*Read 'Alternate Magic', Chapter 16: The Properties of 'White Shields'*
They all had fair piles. It was only until about half their piles of candy were gone when Harry saw the hidden present behind the tree. It was wrapped in iridescent red paper, and had a label with Hermione's name.
"You missed one, Mione," he said.
"Now you can't say my name right either?" she said as she came to look. She did not seem to know who had sent it, and there was no written indication. Harry and Ron sat back to watch.
When the paper came off, a perfect peach-colored rose fell to the floor. She slowly bent and picked it up gingerly, inhaling its aroma. She sluggishly opened the rest of the present as well. *She must have figured out who sent it.*
Along with the rose, a large painting was concealed in the paper. It was a colorful, swirling portrait of Hermione herself, by someone who apparently cared about her. Her hair in the picture was a version of her own wild hair that was one of the slightly tamer styles she had taken to wearing. Her eyes were bright and wide, her cheeks flushed prettily. Stars twinkled around her in a many-colored sky.
"Oh, my…" Hermione never finished that sentence. Harry did not want to guess exactly what of hers she was talking about. He did not have much time to think about that, because she picked up the Muggle music disc that was included.
Disappearing into her dorm for five minutes, she reemerged with a handheld CD player. Ron had no idea what it was, but of course Harry knew, and explained it while Hermione listened to the CD.
She removed the headphones a few minutes after putting them on, and then said quietly, "I have to go somewhere." Plucking the rose from the floor, she slipped out of the portrait hole.
"I wonder who it's from," Ron said. He looked at Harry hopefully. "Alone at last?"
"Maybe," Harry responded. "I think we'll have to wait and see."
Ron looked disappointed. "Oh, well. Let's go get breakfast." Harry smiled at his boyfriend's back. Food could distract Ron from anything. "Well, are you coming, Harry?"
It was Sirius's green bird, bearing a short message, that brought Harry his best gift that day. When he read the note, he almost cried.
*I saw Lily and James shortly a few days ago. They wanted me to tell you hello, and they love you.
Love, Sirius*
End Chapter 13
Thank you guys for all your reviews! Me loves you, so glad you like my story, because I like it. It's probably my favorite one that I've written/ am in the process of writing. Loves you me does to little teeniest pieces. Me really really does.
Please review. More confetti, this time it's color-shifting. It turns purple in water.
As soon as Harry saw that Hermione was the only one who had signed up to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas break, he caught Ron's eye and knew that they were having the same thought. Grinning, Harry signed both of them up.
"Where's Ginny going?" Harry wondered aloud.
Ron scowled. "She's going to Seamus's house," he said acidly, "to meet his family."
Harry hid his smile and turned his laugh into a cough. "Come on, Ron, don't be so upset about it." He leaned over to speak in Ron's ear. "At least it means we'll get to be alone."
Ron shot him a seductive look…or one that tried and failed hopelessly to be. Harry thought it was cute nonetheless. "Hermione's still here, though."
"Well, Hermione's been disappeared since November. What makes you think she'd reappear now?" In all honesty, Harry was worried about Hermione, but at the same time he was glad she was not around. She would have noticed something, undoubtedly.
Once again, Ron seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Should we tell her?"
Harry was silent. After a minute or two, he shook his head slowly. "Not yet. I think she's having something…happen. Some personal stuff or something. We shouldn't bother her just yet…anyway, are you ready for her to know?"
"Probably not," Ron admitted. "All the same, I kind of feel bad not telling her."
"I want to kiss you."
"Shhhh! Harry, people could be listening."
Harry grinned. "Sorry. But I do."
"Ron and Harry, sitting in a tree," a quiet voice said.
"Ginny!" Harry and Ron exclaimed.
"Why don't you go up to Ron's room already? You're sickening."
"Not any more that you and Seamus," Harry teased.
"Wanna bet?"
"Yeah."
Seamus came up beside Ginny. She batted her eyelashes and he stuck his tongue down her throat. Ron turned away, but Harry watched in amusement. "See?" he said. Ginny winked before they disappeared up the steps to the boys' dorm.
"Hey Ron," Harry said. "You could bust Ginny for being in the boys' dorm."
"I wouldn't do that to my own sister. I'm not going to go turning into Percy."
Harry shuddered. "I hope not. Then who would I…" he scribbled a quick note and passed it to Ron.
"You'd better not do that with *any* of my brothers," Ron warned.
Harry laughed. He wrote another note. *It's not Weasleys I like, Ron, it's you.*
The last Friday before Christmas break, Harry rolled his eyes when Ron was not down in the common room. "He must still be asleep. You go ahead, I'll wake him."
Seamus, Dean and Neville continued down to the Great Hall. Harry climbed the stairs, pushing the door to Ron's room open carefully. He closed it again as slowly as he knew how.
Harry crept to Ron's bedside, kneeling quietly so as not to wake him. Carefully, precisely, he licked Ron's cheek.
"Hey!" Ron said, jerking awake and wiping his cheek off. "Harry, what the hell?"
"What, you didn't like it?" Harry asked, turning his head in shame.
"Well- I guess- but did you have to do that to wake me up?" Ron smiled.
"Yes."
Ron pushed Harry, who fell to the floor, his limbs flopping every which way. When Harry next glanced at Ron, he covered his eyes jokingly. "Oh the horror!" Ron, as it was plain to see, had been sleeping in the buff.
"Shut up, Harry. I wouldn't say anything like that to you."
"I'll *bet* you wouldn't," Harry teased. He liked to tease. He was in a very playful mood, ever since the end of November, actually.
Ron pulled on his robes, grinning. "No, I wouldn't. I think I'd be too busy with…other things. Like the fact that you're NAKED, for one thing."
"Shh, Ron, you don't want anyone to hear us, do you? Let's go down to the Great Hall."
"You don't think Ginny told Seamus, do you?"
"Ron, will you stop it already? She got it when we told her not to tell *anyone*. She didn't tell Seamus. She won't."
"I hope you're right."
"What would be so bad about it, anyway? I mean, we wouldn't break up just because people *knew*, would we?"
"So we're going out now?"
"Isn't that what we've been doing?"
"I thought you said we were just-" he broke off as a Ravenclaw third year passed. "More-than-friends," he finished.
"Well," Harry began. He gestured with his head toward the nearest classroom, which at that time would be empty. They stepped inside. "I was thinking. We've been more-than-friends for almost a month. I think we should take the next step or something. Like- like we could be boyfriend and…boyfriend. You know?"
Ron's face broke into a wide grin. "I would love to be your boyfriend, Harry," he said happily. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He was so ecstatic, all he could do was grin and kiss Ron before they left the classroom.
Snape had left early for his vacation, or job, or whatever he was doing. Potions class was cancelled. Harry and Ron went to the kitchens to get some food, stealing a few furtive kisses on the way, and the sixth year Gryffindors had a party in the common room. "This sure beats Potions," Dean commented. Neville was contentedly munching a chocolate éclair.
All the Gryffindors were enjoying themselves. Students from other years joined them as classes let out. Soon everyone was having a grand old time. Hermione was nowhere to be seen. Soon, however, she emerged from her bedroom, and even went as far as a glass of pumpkin juice before retreating upstairs again. Ron and Harry exchanged looks and shook their heads before diving headlong back into the party.
The consecutive Saturday saw most of the Gryffindors off, and Ron and Harry were alone during the day. "So what do you want to do?" Harry asked.
"Chess?" Ron suggested.
"What's the point? You always win."
"Well, we'll have stakes this time. If you lose, you have to kiss me."
"What if I win?"
"Then I have to kiss you."
"I've got an idea," Harry said, grinning. "Why don't we skip the game and just go right to the prize?"
That was how they ended up exploring each other's mouths for the next two hours.
Suddenly Ron pulled away. Harry was disappointed. "What?"
"Do you hear that?"
Harry listened. Footsteps sounded outside of the portrait hole. "Snowflake Angel."
"It's Hermione!" Harry moved quickly to the armchair across the table.
She entered with a hand over her face, racing up to the dormitory. She didn't even see them. Ron looked from the stairs to Harry. "What do you think that was about?"
When she reentered, she was calm and collected. "What are you doing?" she said, sitting on the couch with Ron.
"Playing chess," Ron said, gesturing to the table.
Hermione looked at the board. "You haven't even moved yet."
"We can't decide who goes first." Harry saw Ron's look, but ignored it.
"White. Even I know that."
"We can't decide who should be white," Harry said.
"Just pick a color. You two, sometimes, I just don't know."
"It's not that simple," Ron said, trying to help Harry's excuse make sense. "We have to think about this carefully, from every angle-"
"Of *course* it's that simple. Why does it matter who's black and who's white? Why do boys have to make everything so *complicated*?" She said angrily.
"Nevermind, don't answer," she muttered, and stomped out of the common room.
"What's wrong with her?" Ron wondered.
"I don't know." Harry hoped this did not mean she *would* be around for the whole vacation. Then he and Ron would never get a kiss in.
************************************************************************
As it turned out, Hermione was once again stuck to their side for the first few days of break. Ron and Harry were only alone at night, when Hermione went up to her dorm. It was much like the old days again, except that Ron and Harry wished she would go away, and she very much looked like she wanted to be somewhere else.
On Christmas morning, Hermione looked happy for once. Ron and Harry descended from their rooms to find her waiting by the tree. "I thought our presents were usually at the foot of our beds," Ron said.
"Happy Christmas to you too, Ron," Hermione smiled. "Since there are only three of us here, our presents fit under the tree. Come on, I've been waiting for you."
Harry was relieved that Hermione was happy again, but he still wished she would leave them alone for a few minutes. "Yeah, come on, Ron, she's been waiting for us." He quickened his pace to close the distance between himself and his presents.
Later on, Harry stole a Chocolate Frog from the pile he had gotten for Ron and looked over their presents. He had received a N.E.W.T. study book from Hermione- which he would have complained about, but appeared to be so useful that it would come in handy when he put off studying until a week before the test- a note from the Dursleys telling him that this was the last summer he could come back (thank god, he thought), a box of Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Condoms from Ron- at which he had thrown Ron a very suggestive look, and Ron had acted like it was a joke but looked back at him very meaningfully- a beautiful black hippogriff feather quill from Hagrid- the hippogriff had been flying in a storm and died, poor creature (Hagrid's words)- and a note in a script that he now recognized as Dumbledore's.
*Read 'Alternate Magic', Chapter 16: The Properties of 'White Shields'*
They all had fair piles. It was only until about half their piles of candy were gone when Harry saw the hidden present behind the tree. It was wrapped in iridescent red paper, and had a label with Hermione's name.
"You missed one, Mione," he said.
"Now you can't say my name right either?" she said as she came to look. She did not seem to know who had sent it, and there was no written indication. Harry and Ron sat back to watch.
When the paper came off, a perfect peach-colored rose fell to the floor. She slowly bent and picked it up gingerly, inhaling its aroma. She sluggishly opened the rest of the present as well. *She must have figured out who sent it.*
Along with the rose, a large painting was concealed in the paper. It was a colorful, swirling portrait of Hermione herself, by someone who apparently cared about her. Her hair in the picture was a version of her own wild hair that was one of the slightly tamer styles she had taken to wearing. Her eyes were bright and wide, her cheeks flushed prettily. Stars twinkled around her in a many-colored sky.
"Oh, my…" Hermione never finished that sentence. Harry did not want to guess exactly what of hers she was talking about. He did not have much time to think about that, because she picked up the Muggle music disc that was included.
Disappearing into her dorm for five minutes, she reemerged with a handheld CD player. Ron had no idea what it was, but of course Harry knew, and explained it while Hermione listened to the CD.
She removed the headphones a few minutes after putting them on, and then said quietly, "I have to go somewhere." Plucking the rose from the floor, she slipped out of the portrait hole.
"I wonder who it's from," Ron said. He looked at Harry hopefully. "Alone at last?"
"Maybe," Harry responded. "I think we'll have to wait and see."
Ron looked disappointed. "Oh, well. Let's go get breakfast." Harry smiled at his boyfriend's back. Food could distract Ron from anything. "Well, are you coming, Harry?"
It was Sirius's green bird, bearing a short message, that brought Harry his best gift that day. When he read the note, he almost cried.
*I saw Lily and James shortly a few days ago. They wanted me to tell you hello, and they love you.
Love, Sirius*
End Chapter 13
Thank you guys for all your reviews! Me loves you, so glad you like my story, because I like it. It's probably my favorite one that I've written/ am in the process of writing. Loves you me does to little teeniest pieces. Me really really does.
Please review. More confetti, this time it's color-shifting. It turns purple in water.