RECAP: Harry climbed in after her and his mouth dropped open in amazement. Both of them just stood there, looking at their new living quarters with their jaws on the floor.
"Oh my god..." breathed Hermione.
The place was indeed beautiful. There was a large living room, complete with sofas, chairs and tables, as well as a cream carpeted floor. There were also two doors on either side of the living room. One was blue, and the other was pink. Hermione assumed that those were the bedrooms and moved towards the pink one. She opened it and gasped. The room had a queen-sized bed, a huge dressing table with a mirror, a large closet and a door leading to a well-equipped bathroom. She heard Harry exclaim and knew that he had found his bedroom as well. Hermione jumped on the bed, opened the closet (where all her clothes had already been arranged) and tried out the bathroom. She was so excited that she was starting to feel a bit giddy. That night both Harry and Hermione slept comfortably in their own new beds in their beautiful new living quarters.
Back in the Gryffindor dormitories, Ron was still wake. He was feeling hurt that neither Harry nor Hermione had come back after meeting Dumbledore. He kept telling himself that they had probably got duties already and that was the reason they couldn't come and talk to him. There were several other things running through his head, like how he felt about Harry and Hermione spending so much time together without him. It took Ron several hours to think things over before he finally fell asleep.
THE NEXT DAY
Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting at the breakfast table and talking.
"So what happened last night?" asked Ron, careful to keep his face expressionless.
"Oh Ron, Harry and I have our own living quarters and they're so beautiful! You just have to see them! We don't have classes today so you can come straight after breakfast ok?" said Hermione.
Ron nodded, and the three of them continued talking about other things, from the classes they had this year to the Christmas event that Harry and Hermione hadn't decided on yet.
After breakfast, Harry and Hermione took Ron on a grand tour of their bedrooms. Then the three of them went out on to the grounds and went to their favourite spot under a huge tree.
"So Harry, what do you think we could organize for this year's Christmas event?" asked Hermione lazily, leaning against the bark of the tree.
"Hmm... I donno, a ball sounds really boring and clichéd." said Harry, "Wait how about that muggle thing, Secret Santa!"
"Oh my gosh yeah! That's a great idea! It's never been done before here I'm sure!" exclaimed Hermione.
"Wait, what's Secret Santa?" asked Ron, who never had any knowledge on muggle things.
"Oh Ron, it's like you get a name of someone, and you have to get them presents, and then on Christmas day you reveal yourself to them. And in turn there's someone who's your Secret Santa who'll be giving you presents." explained Hermione,
"O...k..." said Ron, who was clearly struggling to understand.
"Don't worry Ron, you'll understand it properly when it takes place." consoled Harry.
LATER THAT DAY
Harry and Hermione were sitting in their living room, having just told Dumbledore about their idea. Dumbledore had thought it was a great idea and had advised them to get it started soon because Christmas was only 2 months away. Harry and Hermione were currently organizing the names and the letters of explanation they would send to everyone. They came up with the following note:
You are the Secret Santa of ……………………………….
Your job is to send them small gifts at least once in two weeks. On Christmas Day, there will be a gathering in the Great Hall and you will reveal yourself to your person. In turn your Secret Santa will reveal him/herself to you.
They made copies of this letter and wrote each person's name in Hogwarts on a letter. Then they carefully stacked the pile away and went to bed.
THE NEXT DAY
Students were buzzing around the notice board. A new notice had appeared, signed by the Head Boy and Girl. The notice explained the plan for Christmas and told everyone to meet in the Great Hall before dinner so the names could be given out.
Sure enough, that evening every single student gathered in the Great Hall in anticipation of the Secret Santa game. Those who were muggleborn or who had associated with muggles had already heard of the game and had quickly passed the knowledge around to the others, so everyone was very excited.
Hermione and Harry stood up.
"Welcome everyone. Tonight we're going to give each person a note telling you the person you are to be Secret Santa to. A word of advice, we know people will be tempted to tell everyone who they got, but please keep it to yourself, for that makes the surprise at the end even more enjoyable." said Harry.
"We are participating as well. The names will be given out completely randomly so we will not know who has who at all. That makes it possible for us to participate. So without further ado, here are your letters," said Hermione, giving her wand a flick, and as she did so, the pile of letters next to her flew into the air and zoomed towards the crowd.
Everyone caught one and for a few seconds there was silence as people read their letters. Then came the exclamations as people saw whom they had got. There were groans and whoops, much to Harry and Hermione's amusement. Hermione looked at hers and registered the person she had got in her heads. Then she turned to look at Ron. Ron's ears had turned pink as he stared at his piece of parchment.
"What's the matter, Ron?" asked Hermione, curious as to whom he could have got.
"Hmm? Oh nothing. I have a question? What sorts of gifts are we supposed to give?" asked Ron, his ears turning even redder.
"Oh it depends. If you know the person well, you'll know the type of things they like. If not, you can get them anything really. Just don't spend too much, because that won't be fair on others who aren't getting such extravagant gifts." Hermione told him.
Ron said no more, but kept giving his letter worried glances.
Harry was also looking at his letter, and a crease had appeared on his forehead. He kept reading the same sentence. You are the Secret Santa of Ginny Weasley. Harry didn't know why he was feeling so weird right now. He had given Ginny several gifts before, at Christmas and once on her birthday when he had been staying at the Burrow.Yet now, he was feeling a swooping sensation in his stomach, much like the first time he had done a dive on his broomstick.
Hermione had glanced at her parchment and had seen the name Harry Potter. She smiled, "This will be easy!" she thought. Yet at the back of her mind, she could not help wishing that she had got someone else, a certain red-haired someone else.
AN: God it's still kinda boring right? Ok, I'm going to try my best for the next chapter ok, and try to but a bit more humour into it. Please review and tell me what you think!