Christmas Eve

Hermione had woken up a bit later than normal and headed to the kitchen hoping that Ron hadn't been alone with her parents too long. Things had gone very well all things considered but she didn't want to push their luck and have something unpleasant happen. She was just about to walk into the kitchen when she heard her mother's voice say softly. "They will be up soon, please don't make a scene on her last day at home."

"I'm not going to make a scene Liz. I just think they are a bit too comfortable with each other."

"Ron is a good lad William, the kind of boy I hoped she would find when she grew up. Don't you think that maybe you are being a bit too hard on him?"

Hermione's dad sighed for a moment "Don't get me wrong Liz, I think he's a good guy as well. It's just he's a bit too…too…" his voice trailed off and he looked confused.

"It's he's a bit too male isn't it William."

"Maybe…..I always thought that when Hermione brought a boy home it would be a quiet, shy, bookish boy who wouldn't look at her like Ron does."

Hermione's mom laughed at him "Just how does he look at her?"

Mr. Granger looked up at his wife "When we were putting the presents under the tree last night Hermione wanted them to be just so. She spent a good bit of time arranging them to be just right so naturally she had to crawl around on the floor a bit and I swear that boy's eye's never left her bottom the whole time."

Hermione felt herself getting hot and had to choke down a chuckle at the same time.

Her mother on the other hand didn't try not to laugh one bit.

"Well of course he did William he's a boy. Do you honestly expect him not to?"

"Well maybe not but I still don't have to like it."

"There's something else you might want to think about. What if Hermione was trying to get him to look."

"I do not want to think about that."

"I imagine you don't but you better get used to it. Women no matter how strong or smart like to know that there men find them attractive. You don't think I wear the things I wear to bed because they are comfortable do you?"

"But this is Hermione Liz."

"Yes and I bet my father didn't think to highly of you looking at my bottom either but you sure did a lot of it."

Hermione's father sighed again "Ok ok I give up. I'm just not happy about losing my best girl that's all."

Hermione's mother's voice got a little lower "Well maybe I can just be your best again."

The voices were quiet for a moment then Hermione heard her mother giggle "William stop it, they will be up soon."

It was at that point that Hermione decided that she needed to go back to bed for a bit.

Hermione had gone back to her room and read for a bit before she heard a knock on her door.

"Come in" she answered the knock.

Her mother stuck her head in through the door.

'I just wanted you to know Ron is up and I think he's eating everything that's not nailed down in the kitchen."

Hermione laughed "Thanks mom, I'll be right there."

"Ok dear I'll tell Ron."

"One more thing mom, thanks for this morning."

Her mother looked very confused for a moment and then blushed "Well I just helped your father see how things were." Then she paused for a moment "I hope you didn't eavesdrop too long. It's not polite." she said with a very faint blush.

"Of course not mother, I barely heard anything at all."

"Well then I will see you in a moment."

Her mother closed the door back as Hermione put a book mark into the spot where she had stopped and straightened up her clothes. Then feeling like today was going to be a great day she went down to the kitchen.

When she got to the kitchen she found her father and Ron deep into a discussion of Quidditch of all things. To her amazement her father seemed to be truly interested in how the game was played and Ron of course was always ready to talk about it. It never ceased to amaze her how both he and Harry loved that game. Of course she tried to never miss a Gryffindor match and she had seen most of the other houses games but that was mostly because Ron and Harry had all but picked her up and carried her to them. Really she enjoyed the matches a great deal as long as Ron and Harry were with her. It was a bit harder to take when they were playing. Quidditch really was a pretty brutal game and she had seen Harry get hurt several times. Now she lived in constant fear that one of them would get hurt playing. Their lives were already dangerous enough without Quidditch.

Still Quidditch seemed to make both of them happy and there was no denying the fun the two of them had playing. Since all of his brothers had played for the house team it seemed like Ron was born to play and Hermione would never try to stop him from doing something that made him so happy. She would just keep her worries to herself and hope for the best.

Shaking herself a bit she noticed that the conversation at the table had turned to what Ron planned to do after he got out of school. She keep quiet and listen with growing pride as Ron explained how he wanted to be an Auror and what all that entailed. Deep down Hermione hated the idea that he would always be doing a dangerous job but even Professor Moody thought Ron would be great at it. As the thoughts ran though her head she noticed everyone was looking at her.

"I'm sorry I didn't hear you." she stuttered.

"I was just wondering if you had decided what you wanted to do after graduation dear." her mother repeated.

"I have thought about it a lot but I haven't decided on anything yet."

"Hermione will be able to pick whatever she wants. There's no doubt she will be Head girl next year and she will probably set a record for the highest N.E.W.T. scores as well."

Hermione smiled at Ron after he said that. "Now you know they could pick someone else to be Head Girl and I might not do as well on the N.E.W.T.'s as you think, they are going to be very hard."

"You not being Head Girl, not bloody likely."

Hermione reached over and put her hand on his arm and looked at him softly.

"Oh sorry about my language Hermione."

"It's ok Ron, I also appreciate your belief in me."

"It's not just me Hermione, everyone in school knows you'll be Head Girl in seventh year. If you could be you'd be Head Girl now."

Mr. Granger spoke up "Any chance of you being Head Boy Ron?"

Ron looked startled and coughed for a moment. "Not very likely Mr. Granger, really Harry should be Head Boy , in fact Harry should have been Prefect this year but he's so busy with…er…other activities."

Mr. Granger stood up and walked over to a drawer and pulled out several newspapers. "Like these activities?"

Ron and Hermione looked down and say that it was several different copies of the Daily Prophet. One of them was about the fight at the Department of Mysteries. The other were from the times either Harry or Ron had gotten into fights with Death Eaters.

Mrs. Granger looked at Hermione "We have had several of your professor's keeping us updated on what happens in your world. It would have been better if you had told us yourself however."

Hermione had trouble looking her parents in the eyes but finally looked up. "I just didn't want you to worry about things you couldn't control."

"We understand that darling but you still should have told us."

"I'm sorry, from now on I'll tell you about everything that's happening."

"Professor Dumbledore also told us how Ron and Harry both look out for you and depend on you when things are difficult. It's why we never seriously thought about keeping you out of school."

"You can believe me when I say that I would never let anything happen to your daughter while I was still alive to stop it." Ron interrupted.

Both of Hermione's parents turned and looked at Ron. For one moment it looked like Hermione's mother was going to cry but then Mr. Granger put his hand on hers "Now that's all I can ask of the boy who took my princess away isn't it."

The rest of the day passed in a rush of Christmas lights and good food. Hermione's family always opened most of their presents on Christmas Eve so they had settled down after dinner to exchange gifts. Ron had given the Grangers a book on the wizarding world that could only be read by the people it was given to. He had told them it might make it easier to understand what Hermione's life was like. Hermione had of course loved the book he had given her, so much so that he saw her looking at it while the rest of them open presents. The Granger's had given Ron a very nice Retro bomber jacket from the forties and Hermione thought he looked very dashing in it. Hermione didn't give him her gift right at the start. He had been having such a good time that he hadn't noticed until Mrs. Granger seemed to pull Mr. Granger out of the room.

"Ron I wanted to give you your present alone, I hope you don't mind."

"You know I never mind having time alone with you." he said giving her the lopsided grin he hoped she liked.

Hermione reached around and pulled a small box from behind her back. She kissed him for just a moment and said "Happy Christmas".

He took the box from behind her and opened it, inside was a long silver chain with a glass circle at the very end. On the glass circle was etched a Knight with a long spear fighting a dragon.

"It's an icon, they were given to knight's who had made long pilgrimages. The way I see it you have traveled a very long road to get here and it's about time you got a reward for it."

Ron swept her up in a hug and then leaned forward to kiss her. "I already have everything I wanted."

"It's more than just an icon though; I enchanted it to act just like the necklace you gave me. Now in a very real sense we can never be truly apart no matter what."

Ron kissed her a bit more fiercely and slid his hands down her side where they flared over her hips and came to rest softly cupping her rear.

Hermione blushed then laughed.

"May I ask what's so funny?"

"Just that everyone in the world knew how fond you were of my rear before I did."

"Well it is a brilliant rear."

"When we get back to Hogwarts we will definitely have to find more alone time. I want to find out what else you are fond of."

They spent of rest of Christmas Eve almost totally in silence both of them reading. Hermione still hadn't quiet gotten used to Ron reading. Now you still wouldn't catch him reading on a sunny day but he paid a great deal more attention to his studies and to books in general. Hermione believed that almost all the books were fighting spells of some sort or another but at least it was a start. The quiet gave her time to start reading the book Ron had given her. It didn't take her too long to realize that Ron had read the book or he might have been a bit embarrassed to give it to her. The book dealt in what it referred to as women's magic. It had gone into great detail about spells for women and then went further into spells that groups of women could cast. Some of them were quite powerful and some of them were flat out dangerous. Just as her eyes were starting to get heavy and she was thinking about sleep her mother came back into the room.

"Hermione this came for you this morning by owl but I forgot to give it to you."

"Thanks mom" Hermione took the letter and opened it.

Hermione,

I just wanted to let you know we are going to have an Order meeting the day after Christmas. There are some things going on that need to be discussed. Also be prepared for some fireworks between Order members. Sadly we still have to keep this a secret from Ron. I'm not sure how you will be able to and I don't envy you having to do it but I don't see a way around it. Tell the big git I said to hurry home and I'll see you both Christmas day.

Love,

Harry

Hermione looked over at Ron who was looking at her questioningly.

"Everything ok luv?"

"I think so Ron it's just that special project for Professor Dumbledore I've been working on."

Ron nodded and went back to reading.

Hermione was thankful that Ron hadn't asked her about it. The fact that Ron knew she was in the Order without her having to tell him was a blessing. It also reminded her of the party she stood him up at, that was not a blessing and she probably should make it up to him somehow. She got angrier as she thought about why she had to keep Order secrets from Ron. Who do those people think they are? What more did they want? Ron was brave, loyal and from all she had heard a very good duelist. He had also been there for Harry from the beginning. Didn't that count for something? He was there when they had to go after the Sorcerer's stone. He was there when Harry had to go into the Chamber of secrets. He had been there for all of it and he had the scars to prove it. Well she was going to set some of those people straight. Even as she drifted off to sleep on the couch she was still indignant about the situation.

Nobody treats my Ron like that.

A/N For those that are interested I will doing a story for the Christmas past challenge on

Also sorry if this feels a bit disjointed, I have a hard time writing from a female point of view.