Chapter 68

Christmas at the Grangers

They had spent a quiet train ride back into London's Kings Cross Station where they were met by Mr and Mrs. Granger and taken to their home in Manchester. The Grangers had a nice two story house that was on a quiet rural street. Hermione was excited about getting home for the holidays, and showing Harry what a Muggle Christmas was really like. When they got home, she found that there was about five inches of snow on the ground already, and she helped Harry quickly get their trunks and cages up to the guest room that Harry had stayed in the last summer. When they had their stuff up in their rooms, they went down stairs to meet up with Mr and Mrs. Granger for hot cocoa and dinner.

"So Harry, did you have a good year so far?" Mr. Granger asked with a ready smile for the young man that had a hold of his daughters heart.

"Yes it has been an interesting year so far sir. We have been learning quite a few new things, and I am glad that I am able to spend time with my Godfather that didn't know I had. He was accused of betraying my parents to the Dark Lord, but his name was cleared this last summer. Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up such a low subject on a conversation during a happy time of year." Harry smiled at the two adults, and went back to eating his dinner.

Hermione was glad that Harry was able to talk about something like this with her parents without feeling to self-conscious. "Yes, Harry has been doing a lot of different things this year, and so far we haven't had any troubles this year to say of. I mean we had a run in with the former minister of magic, but that wasn't to much trouble, we were just out there trying to help a friend, and had an adult with us that helped out with him." They were having a great dinner, and were talking about what they were going to be doing this vacation time, and about going out tomorrow to get a tree for the living room. Hermione was really excited about that, for she always remembered what it was like when she went out with her father to get a tree for Christmas. "You will like doing this Harry, we go out into the woods, and find a big tree that would be perfect for the season. Then we come back, and decorate it with all kinds of ornaments, and lights and stuff. We are going to have so much fun this season." She hugged him with glee, and they finished their dinner up.

After dinner, Harry brought down his Guitar, and joined Mrs. Granger at the Piano to sing Christmas Carols with the family. He didn't know a whole lot of Muggle ones, but he picked them up quite quickly.

They spent the next couple of days getting a tree, and then decorating it and the house up. Harry was loving the muggle Christmas traditions more and more. They went caroling out in the neighborhood with some people from Hermione's church and then went back to the church for cider and egg nog. There was a youth group Christmas Party, that the teenagers went to, and had a lot of fun at.

Christmas morning found Harry being woken up by Hermione jumping up and down on his bed saying, "wake up sleepy head, it's Christmas." Harry slowly woke up with a smile, and gave Hermione a hug and a good morning kiss.

"Ok, I'm awake Mione. Let's get down to see what we have gotten for Christmas, shall we?" He got up and went into the bathroom with his clothes and got a quick shower before getting dressed. They went down to the Granger's living room to find the tree filled with presents underneath it. "Well this is interesting, I wasn't expecting all this for just the four of us. Is there something that you haven't told me Mione?" He looked at her with a smile that said that even tho he was surprised, he didn't care that he was.

Hermione blushed a bit but looked at him with a smile. "Well Harry, we have my grandparents coming for Christmas, and also a couple of my Aunts and Uncles, along with a few cousins. Don't worry about having to get them presents tho, I put both our names on the ones from me. Don't give me that look, I was expecting this and I figured that it would be ok." She gave him a huge hug and kiss again as they made their way down to breakfast. When they got there, there was a lot more people there than were there the night before. Hermione was ambushed by four other littler people that were obviously her cousins.

"Hermione, it's been so long. How has your school year been so far? Who is this guy?" They were looking at Harry like he was some stranger, which he was, but without showing any ill toward's him. The three girls and a boy looked at him with awe, but also one of them who looked like they might have been ten or eleven looked at the scar on his forehead and nodded.

"Guys, I would like you to meet my boyfriend, Harry Weasley. Harry these are my cousins, Megan, Brianna, Julie and Brian. Their all brother and sisters. Brian is the oldest, then Julie is seven, and Megan and Brianna are the five year old twins." Hermione made the introductions, and Harry shook the hands of each of them, saying hello.

"Harry Weasley, hmmm, are you sure it's not Harry Potter?" Both Harry and Hermione looked a bit shocked when Brian had asked this.

"Where have you heard that name before Brian? How do you know who Harry Potter is?" Hermione and Harry took and went with the rest of the cousins to breakfast where they met Hermione's Grandparents and Aunt and Uncles. After the hugs and introductions were made, they sat down to a nice Christmas breakfast.

After breakfast they went to the living room to open presents. Brian took Harry and Hermione aside and said they would talk about it later. When everyone was settled into opening presents, Harry found that everyone had gotten a present also, like they had known that he was going to be there or something. He had gotten a lot of books and sweets like Hermione did. When it came time for his special presents to come, he asked Hermione and her parents to come to the kitchen with him for a special present that he has for them.

When they got to the kitchen he closed the door, and smiled at them. "I didn't want to give you guys these presents in front of your relatives, because I didn't know what they knew about magic." Harry let out a low whistle, and two white owls came through window and to them. "These are for all three of you. This one here is for you two Mr and Mrs. Granger so that you can owl Hermione or myself at anytime during the school year, and the other one is for you Mione, so that you can owl your parents or whoever without using a school owl." He smiled as they hugged and thanked him for the special gifts.

"I see why you wanted to do this Harry, and we thank you for that. Now let's get back out to the others so that they won't think it weird that we're gone. What shall we do with the owls while they're here?" Mrs. Granger asked this with a smile.

"Well you can let them go hunt, or they can go up to their cages which are up in your respective rooms." The two owls gave hoots then flew up to their respective owners rooms.

"Well that's taken care of. Now Mr and Mrs. Granger, what do you know about your nephew Brian and what he knows about our lives in the magical world. He seems to know who I am, at least who I was born as. Not many people know about that, in fact I don't think you even know about that. You see, I was born as Harry Potter, but my parents were killed by one of the most evil wizards of our time when I was a little over one years old. I was adopted by the Weasley's once that happened. Brian knows who Harry Potter is for some reason. It's not like it's something that I'm hiding, but not a lot of people know about it, in fact I didn't think it was known outside of the wizardring world, except for you that is." Harry had an interesting expression on his face when he said this, as if he was in thought.

Hermione was deep in thought over this, and then it hit her like a ton of bricks. "When did Brian start going to school? You see Harry, they live in France, and that would mean that Brian goes to Beaux batons school. That would explain things like him knowing who you are. Do the rest of them know what magic is mum and dad?" Hermione asked and smiled knowing that they all would know.

"Yes they all know about it, they didn't want to say anything before so that you wouldn't think it is strange. I think that we should go out and let them know that you know now." They left the kitchen and went back into the living room.

They let the others know that they were also witches and wizards. The rest of the day was spent talking about different things and all. Brian and Harry got into a heated conversation about Quidditch and which were some of the better teams in the world. They were all happy to be able to discuss wizard things without any problems. Harry had brought out his guitar when they were getting into Christmas Carol singing, and having a fun time of it.

That night they went out looking at the different light displays put up by their neighbors and all. They had hot chocolate by the fire as they talked about anything and everything. They were discussing the differences in the teaching styles between Hogwart's and Beaux baton's and the different teachers that they had. They were joking about the ones that they liked and the ones that they hated. Brian was a first year this year, while Hermione and Harry were third years.

The rest of the holidays went by rather quickly, and they all had fun. They all went to the Burrow for Boxing day, and Harry introduced his family to the Grangers and others. He told them that they all knew about magic, because Hermione's cousin Brian also was a Wizard, and that he went to Beaux baton's in France. They played Quidditch in the backyard pitch, and completely enjoyed themselves. Harry and Hermione stayed for the rest of the holiday, and they had invited Brian to stay also, but he kindly declined but he said maybe another time.

They spent the rest of the holiday playing Quidditch, getting their homework done, and just relaxing and having fun. New years' eve was an interesting one, and they had fun ringing in the new year.

A/N: Ok I changed my mind, I said that I was going to put each one of the sets into two chapters. Well I decided to put them in one chapter each, to cut down on the chapters. Please read and review as always. —Donald