A/N: Greetings! Not much to say here, thanks for the reviews, and big hugs to Becca. Becca, you are my hero! Your stories rock, Dracey needs to die, and you could run your hands through his hair and then wash your hands.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Really. Except… no, nothing.
Chapter 2
On the run from the Knight Bus to Harry and Ron's apartment building, Hermione was drenched by the rain. She pulled a soggy piece of parchment out of her bag, with the exact address on it. The Muggle complex was dingy and dusty, with no elevator. She climbed four flights of stairs to reach the fifth floor, then stopped at flat number 28. She knocked wearily on the door.
Please let it be Harry, please let it be Harry, please let it be...
The door swung open, and standing there was Ron. He raised his eyebrows, looking startled.
"Hi," he said uneasily.
"Can I stay here tonight?" Hermione asked, sounding much more pathetic than she would've wished.
"Huh?"
"I don't have anywhere to stay. Some idiot burned up my room at the Leaky Cauldron, and I don't know anyone else in the city. If you guys have a couch or something I could just kip on..."
"Well... sure. Of course you can," Ron said, opening the door wider and letting Hermione in. She put her bag down and went over to the sink to wring out her long hair. Then she sat down at the kitchen table, biting her lip as she and Ron attempted to avoid eye contact without seeming like they were avoiding eye contact.
"So, what are you doing back here, anyway? In England, that is," Ron asked, finally breaking the silence.
"Well, since Viktor and I broke up, I didn't really have a reason to stay in Bulgaria, so I thought I might come back here to work for the Ministry, now that they're on our side. Harry's been trying to convince me to come and work for the Order, but I was never really cut out for all the intense stuff. That was more what you guys liked."
Ron shrugged. "To tell you the truth, we don't do a lot of 'intense stuff.' Harry's getting rather bothered about it, in fact."
"Where is Harry, anyway?" Hermione asked, looking wistfully around the apartment. "I was hoping to see him."
"He'll be home soon, I expect," Ron said.
"I - I really miss being with you guys," Hermione admitted after a moment. "I was lonely in Bulgaria. It's nice to be back." They smiled at each other briefly, and Hermione felt her heart race. No - it's not like that with us anymore, it can't be like that...
"Why did you leave?" Ron asked in a low voice.
"You know why I left - Viktor was - "
"No, that's what you told everyone. Why did you really leave?" Ron asked, sounding sadder than she'd heard him sound all night. "It was because of me, wasn't it," he said in a monotone.
"No, not exactly," Hermione said carefully. "It was both of us. All three of us, actually. It was only four years ago, Ron, you haven't forgotten how much we fought. The summer after graduation was terrible, with Harry going back and forth between us, he couldn't stand it. So when Viktor asked me to come live with him again, I thought it would be best. Harry didn't need the two of us causing problems... I thought of all the bad times - "
"But what about the good times?" Ron said, almost pleadingly. "We had so many good times, Hermione. Seven years of them. Harry misses you, Ginny misses you - I miss you, too." Hermione looked up at Ron and he reddened slightly but continued to watch her, almost defiantly.
"I thought you hated me," she whispered. "When I said I would go back to him - I didn't think we could ever be friends again."
"Can we try?" Ron asked, so quietly Hermione almost didn't hear him. "I want to try to be friends."
"Of course we can." She stood up and crossed to him, wrapping him in a brief hug. God, how good it felt to hold him again after all these years.
"We did have a lot of good times," Hermione said, situating herself on the couch next to him. "Remember Christmas?"
"Which one?" Ron asked, glancing at her.
"The year you got me the book," Hermione said, smiling.
"Oh, yeah..."
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"Happy Christmas, you lazy bum."
Ron opened his eyes to see Hermione about three inches from his face, grinning broadly.
"Happy Christmas," he mumbled, finding it hard not to smile with her perched on the bed looking excited as a toddler. "What time 'sit?" He rubbed his eyes and sat up. His dorm mates were all waking up and yawning.
"Almost 9 o'clock," Hermione said.
"Lazy bum? You call this late?" he said, feigning disgruntlement.
"Well, it is for me," she said. "But I wanted to give you my present!"
"No, I want to give you mine first," Ron said quickly.
"Okay!" Hermione sat back and crossed her legs under her. "Where is it?"
Ron leaned over the edge of his bed and pulled bulky object out from under it, wrapped messily in green paper with little gold bubbles on it. He handed it to her and kissed her on the cheek awkwardly, mumbling, "Happy Christmas," again.
She inspected the wrapping for a moment before eagerly tearing it off to find - a book. Ron bit his lip as Hermione stared at the book.
"Do you like it?"
She looked up at him, a very forced smile on her face. "Yes. It's very nice."
"I thought you would like it," Ron said, feeling his face fall at the barely-hidden look of disappointment on Hermione's. "It's on the ancient runes in Egypt and their connection to runes in Europe..."
"Yes, I know." Hermione looked down at the book again.
"Well, open it up!" he encouraged her.
"No - no I don't think I will right now," Hermione said, her voice shaking slightly. "Oh, I just remembered, I've left your present in my room - so I'll see you later, then." Without another look at Ron, Hermione clutched the book to her chest and ran from the room.
"No - it's here!" Ron called after her, holding up the neatly wrapped present she left on his bed. He furrowed his brow and looked over at Harry, who was opening a box of Chocolate Frogs on the foot of his bed. "What'd I do?" he asked, bewildered.
Harry shrugged and Ron jumped out of bed, chasing Hermione down the stairs and out into the common room, but she wasn't there.
"That's a nice look for you, Ron," Parvati said, and she and Lavender laughed. Ron blushed, thinking of his too-short pajamas and bedhead.
"Did you see Hermione?" he asked.
"She's up in her room, crying," Ginny said, appearing down from the girls staircase.
"What?" Ron gasped, whirling around to face his sister.
"Why?" asked Harry, who'd followed Ron downstairs.
"Because of your present! I cannot believe that for your first Christmas together, you gave her a book," Ginny said scathingly.
Lavender and Parvati gasped. "A book?" Lavender asked.
"My goodness, he is thick," Parvati said, shaking her head sadly.
"He certainly is," Ginny agreed, glaring at Ron.
"But - but it isn't about the book!" Ron cried desperately.
"Of course it's about the book!" Ginny said. "It doesn't matter, anyway - she threw it out the window."
"What?" Ron gasped again. "Oh, no!" He looked out the window in a panic, seeing the blinding snow, then turned and ran out through the portrait hole wearing only his tiny pajamas and ratty old slippers.
"What's he doing?" Ginny asked, shocked. "He's gone to rescue the bloody book?"
"It really wasn't about the book," Harry said, appearing torn between sympathy for his friend and amusement at the plight. "He put a necklace in it, that was the real present."
"Oh, that's so sweet!" Lavender murmured.
"In the book?" They all turned to see Hermione standing at the foot of the staircase, her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide.
"He thought it was really clever," Harry said.
"Oh, no," Hermione moaned. She peered down at the grounds but couldn't see anything except snow. "He's going to catch a cold out there, it's freezing!"
"And he's got those horrid pajamas on," Parvati added unhelpfully.
"I'll go after him," Hermione said. She sprinted up to her room to get her cloak, then dashed back down to the Common room and out the portrait hole. She ran through the deserted corridors and waited impatiently for a staircase to move back into place. Finally she pushed open the large front doors and attempted to follow Ron's footsteps out to the ground beneath Gryffindor tower.
"Ron!" she yelled, barely able to see through the snow. She was already wet and cold and miserable. "Ron!" When she saw him, she plowed through the snow, falling over twice, until she reached the spot where he was frantically searching for the fallen book.
"Ron, I'm sorry!" she cried. "I'm so sorry!"
"There was a necklace - in the book," Ron said, looking up at her with an anguished expression.
"I know, I know, I'm so sorry I threw it out the window!" Hermione cried, throwing her arms around him.
"I have to find it!" Ron said, falling back to his hands and knees to dig through the snow. "It's got to be here somewhere."
"Don't worry about it, I don't need it," Hermione said, attempting to pull him back up.
"But - but it's our first Christmas together, I wanted to get you something really good, and now I've messed up again," Ron said distraughtly.
"No, it's all my fault," Hermione said. "Now, please, let's go back inside, you'll freeze to death. Look, you're turning blue!" She put her hand over her mouth in an attempt to stifle a laugh.
"It is kind of cold," Ron said, as if suddenly realizing he was in the middle of a blizzard.
"Let me warm you up," Hermione said with a grin, putting her arms around him again and kissing him. They broke apart after a minute, startled, when red fireworks shot out of a window from Gryffindor tower. Hermione laughed.
"Oi, what're you two doing out here?" Hagrid, in his moleskin overcoat, was suddenly upon them. "And in your nightclothes too, are yeh mad?"
"It was a book - "
"With a necklace - "
" - dropped it out the window - "
"Wait a second," Hagrid said. "D'yeh mean this book?" He reached into his pocket and produced the brown-covered book.
"Oh, my God, Hagrid, you found it!" Hermione cried, taking the book from him.
"More like it nearly hit me on the 'ead on my way up here. You should be more careful with your books, Hermione," Hagrid said.
"Oh, I will," Hermione said, laughing. "Thank you so much."
"Now you get back up to your rooms, hear me?" Hagrid said. "And a Happy Christmas."
"Happy Christmas!" Hermione and Ron called after him. Hermione turned to Ron and then opened the book. There, in the front pocket, was a necklace with a small, glowing crystal heart.
"Oh, it's beautiful," Hermione breathed, holding it in her hand. Ron took it from her and put it around her neck, clasping it with cold, awkward hands.
"D'you wanna g-g-go up n-n-now?" Ron asked, his teeth chattering. Hermione kissed him one last time and took his hand, leading him back through the snow.