My theory on housework is,
if the item doesn't multiply, smell,
catch on fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be.
No one cares. Why should you?
Erma Bombeck
Finally, the term ended and it was time to go home for the holidays. There were enough professors willing to stay in the castle over the holidays so that both Harry and I were able to return to London on the train with the students. With all that happened to the train in the days we were students, parents that remember the war were always much happier knowing professors rode. Especially when two of those professors were the famous Potter and Granger, parents felt quite content regarding their children's safety and good behavior.
Harry and I chatted with the students and parents at the station. We waited until the last student was escorted from the platform. We both visibly relaxed at that moment. "Thank Merlin!" Harry exhaled.
"How can it be that there is always a family nearly two hours late picking up their child? The train arrives at the same time, each time it comes!" I exclaimed.
"No matter, Mione, it's done, we're free, and it's Christmas!" Harry cheered me. He charmed the trunks down in size to fit in the pocket of his coat. We had changed into muggle clothes on the train as we were planning on doing a bit of last minute shopping in muggle London.
I needed to get a few things for my family. I thought I would pick up some earrings for my mum and perhaps a watch for my dad. My mum wrote that his just broke. That is her subtle way of hinting I should buy him one for a present. It would have been subtle if it had not been written in each of her last six letters. All sent in the last seven days I was at Hogwarts.
"Shall we, my lady?" asked Harry as he held out his arm.
"We shall, my lord." I linked my arm through his and we left for our shopping excursion.
After a few hours, I finally got to the jewelry shop I needed. I began hunting through the cases for a watch. After a few years of teaching and a fairly modest amount of expenditures, mostly on books, I was in a position to spoil my parents this year. There it was, a perfect watch for my dad. Extra dials and such, just as he would like given his love of gadgets. He gets along well with Mr. Weasley as the two can talk for days about muggle gizmos and gadgets. I motion to the attendant that I need help. He walks over, I indicate the watch.
"No, that's not everything; I am also looking for a pair of earrings for my mother."
"This way miss," he leads me to another case full of earrings from the simple single stones to huge monstrosities that must cost more than I would make in my life of teaching.
I know my mother likes fairly simple jewelry. We have that much in common. I ask for the tray with simple, single stone earrings.
"Harry, which do you think my mum would like better?" I hold up one pair of garnet earrings suspended by a simple gold loop and a pair of pearl studs.
"Well, they are basically the same to me," Harry starts to answer, but as he sees my face he knows that is the wrong answer. "I think that she would like the pearl earrings. I don't think I remember her ever really wearing dangling earrings except when she's all dressed up. She would probably wear the pearls more often." Harry redeemed himself quite well.
"Good answer," I reply and peck him on the cheek.
"Shall I wrap these for you?" the jeweler asks.
"Oh, yes, that would be lovely," I smile.
I begin wandering around the store looking through the other items. The case with necklaces catches my eye so I meander over to it. I am looking intently at a couple of necklaces with deep garnets and odd purple sort of stones in them when Harry comes up behind me.
"Now who are you shopping for?" he asks.
"Just browsing while we wait for the watch and earrings," I reply. He glances over my shoulder to see what I was looking at so intently.
"They are pretty," he says.
"Honestly, Harry, they're gorgeous."
We are then interrupted by the clerk who returns the now wrapped packages to me. He wishes us a happy Christmas as we leave. As the door closes behind us, he turns to the other clerk and I hear him say, "What a charming couple."
I feel a faint blush creep up my cheeks. Luckily the chill wind hides my mild embarrassment. I shiver as I wonder why I was embarrassed. People have commented on my relationship with Harry, and Ron for that matter, since we were in school. Even when I was dating Ron I never blushed about it. Oh, well, I must just be tired from the school term.
"Cold?" Harry asks as he noticed my shiver.
"Hmm, I guess," I reply
He stops and turns to me. He ties my scarf tighter around me, pulls my wool cap out of my pocket and places it on my hair, and then puts his arm around my shoulders and began walking on my right side again. "Better?"
I shivered again, though I don't think I was still cold. He squeezed my shoulders tighter and rubbed my right arm with his free hand. "To the Leaky Cauldron then for some warm butter beer!"
I laughed. It must just be the cold and the exhaustion and the excitement for my favorite holiday.
After a warming drink, we made our way to the flat. I should have prepared myself better for apparating into that entryway. I really should have known. After all, fourteen years of knowing Ron should prepare me for what he can do to a place when left alone for nearly four whole months.
"Ronald Weasley, what do you think you have done to this flat? Are you an animal or a wizard? Did you even learn anything about cleaning charms or that you are supposed to put your things away after yourself?" I holler out at the top of my lungs which are well developed after years of yelling at the boys and now a few years of teaching.
"Mum! I didn't think you'd be dropping by today!" I hear from the kitchen.
At this Harry loses it and collapses on the floor in a fit of laughter. He seems to do that quite a bit.
"Ronald I am not your mother, but you can be assured she shall hear about how you keep up after yourself when left unattended!"
"Merlin's beard Hermione! Take a deep breath; it's just a bit of clutter!" Ron dares to say as he comes into the entryway. "Hey, mate," he says to Harry. Harry merely continues laughing hysterically on the floor, clutching his sides, leaning against our door frame.
"You, sir, are going to clean every inch of this place immediately! I refuse to dwell in such a sty and I also refuse to clean up after you yet again!"
"But, Mione, you always cleaned up after me and Harry every time you came home!" he says. "What's so different now?" He has a look on his face that is new to me. I shall have to investigate that, later though, as I am still most displeased with him.
"Ronald, you are twenty five years old and well able to take care of yourself. Clean this place up now!"
"Yes, Mione," he mutters. I hear him stalk back into the kitchen and hear the plates, pans, food, and other sundry items return to their rightful locations. He moves through the rest of the flat and after twenty minutes has my approval for his work.
"Very good, Ron," now if you can manage to do that once a week it would be charming," I hug him. "Hello, it is wonderful to see you, where are you taking me to dinner tonight?" I continue talking as I head down the hall to my room to change.
"How does she do that?" Ron asks Harry who had picked himself off the floor in an effort to not be sent zooming through the flat in Ron's hasty cleaning. "I mean one minute she is spitting more fire than a dragon, the next she is hugging me hello, and then she is demanding dinner. Women!"
"I heard that Ronald," I call from my room just before heading into the shower.
I decide that I really want to celebrate; after all, Christmas is just a few days away and so I pull on my favorite black dress, find some black stockings, these amazingly high black heels, and the appropriate undergarments to complete the ensemble. After dressing, I sit down at the vanity. Cocking my head to the side, I say a few words and my hair is behaving itself in pleasant curls held back by some simple silver clips. I dig through my jewelry box but do not see anything that would go with the dress other than a pair of silver earrings. No necklace tonight, I guess.
I head down the hall and hear the boys talking. I follow their voices and find them on the sofa.
"Well, I see that I'm going to have to change. I was hoping Harry would be wrong when he said we'd have to be dressed up tonight." Ron knows that he best not argue with me when I get the rare itch to splurge. He drags himself from the sofa where he was wearing a perfectly fine pair of khaki pants and blue shirt. "I'll be back."
"Do I meet with your approval, my lady? I would not want to disgrace such a beautiful and charming lady such as you," Harry asks as he stands up and twirls. I inspect the classic black suit with which he managed to find an emerald green shirt and coordinating tie that made his eyes shine even brighter and suited the festive season. He stopped turning and caught my eyes.
"You'll do, I do believe you'll do," I say with a slightly condescending air.
"Oh, I'll do, huh?" He then reached out, grabbed my hand, twirled me around then dipped me over his knee.
"Oi, you two, knock it off, I'm starving," Ron said as he came in the room. There was that look again.
That night was wonderful. Harry and I told Ron all about the new students, especially Miranda, Anthony, and Nicholas. As Ron had given up his map, he had particular interest in them.
I left the next afternoon for my parents. Harry and Ron were going to the Burrow. Harry alternated holidays with our families as he was a member of each in all but blood. I guess that with all that we had been through over the years enough of our blood had been spilled for each other that even that is not quite true. We stay with our families through Christmas Eve. At midnight we apparate back to our flat for our own celebration.
I love time with my parents. On Christmas Eve, we have a huge family supper and then open gifts. The gifts were exactly what my parents wanted. My dad put the watch on immediately and began playing with all the dials and such. It took him about three hours to set the time. My mom rushed to the mirror so she could see the earrings as she put them on. "These are stunning, Hermione," she gasped.
"You can thank Harry tomorrow, too. He helped me to pick them out at the shop." I answer.
All of our families gather together at the Burrow on Christmas day for a huge family reunion of sorts. Each of us lost some family in the War, but we also found family in the friends around us.
My mother gave me a look and said, "I will thank him. How has his first year of teaching been?" Thus begins a long conversation about the school year.
After the gift opening, I take a short nap. At exactly 11:45 at night I wake up and get my things together. I apparate back to the flat, in my room, not the entryway. One year we all arrived back within second of each other and ended up with quite a few bumps and bruises as we piled on top of each other. After that, we decided to apparate into our rooms to avoid any Christmas injuries.
I dump all my things onto the bed and find my new flannel pajamas. It is also tradition that the three of us must wear our pajamas to our Christmas celebration.
I pad out of my room in my red and green pajamas with little sprigs of holly embroidered all over. My feet are warmly encased in my Mickey Mouse slippers. They look like his big yellow shoes. After the war, when things settled down, my family and I took a trip to Disney World in America. I saw these ridiculous things and had to have them. They boys love to torture me about them, but I do not care.
Harry and Ron had yet to arrive; they usually manage to show up at exactly midnight. I go to the kitchen to begin the food preparations. As I am getting together the hot cocoa and other treats, I hear the telltale pops from the boys' rooms. Two minutes later they come out ready to celebrate.
"Happy Christmas!" we all call to each other. Luckily we charmed all the walls long ago so as not to disturb our neighbors with our late night antics. Harry comes in wearing an old muggle sweatshirt and pajama pants that have flying snitches whizzing around them. Ron comes in wearing basically the same outfit, but with an old Quidditch jersey as his shirt. They both glance at my feet and snicker. They are merely wearing old socks on their feet. Nothing quite as charming as two boys wearing dirty socks.
"Are all the gifts by the hearth?" Ron asks eager as always.
"Mine are," I say.
"Same for me," Harry replies.
"I've got the cocoa and pop corn ready," I hold up the bowl of munchies. "Can one of you grab the tray with the mugs?" Harry dashes forward to take the tray.
"I've got some of mum's special Christmas biscuits!" Ron calls as he leads the way to the living room.
We settle into the sofa and I pull a blanket over my lap. I am always cold. Harry starts a roaring fire up, "Warmer?" he asks.
"It helps."
"Okay, who is first?" Ron asks. I roll my eyes.
"Here, open this one from me." I hand him a package in green foil wrap and a huge gold bow. He tears it off in half a second.
"Wow, a book…" he trails off, a bit confused at first.
"Honestly, Ronald, open it up!" even at Christmas he can be so dense.
"Great Merlin!" You see, it was not just any book, but a collection of photographs all signed by the greatest Quidditch players from our youth. All the players that Ron talked incessantly about all seven years of school, even when we were hunting the Horicruxes. Having a bit of fame is useful on occasion.
Ron dropped the book and gave me a huge hug. "You are bloody incredible, Mione!" I don't even bother trying to correct his language. There are some battles I just do not want to fight on Christmas.
"Here's mine Ron," Harry says as he reaches over me to hand Ron another gift. I guess great minds think alike, because Ron croaked out another, "Great Merlin!" as he opened the gift from Harry. Inside was a broom.
"Harry, this isn't even out in stores yet! The team's been talking about it all season and how it is supposed to knock all other brooms off the pitch!"
I know Harry used his name to get his hands on this broom; it was the latest and best, not even due in stores until the summer. When it comes to friends, he does pull out all the stops.
"All right Harry, your turn!" Ron declares after giving him a manly hug, or rather one handed pat on the back in thanks.
Harry looks at the package trying to determine which side is the correct end to open. Finally he finds the biggest piece of spell-o-tape and pulls at that. He pulls out several items.
"I know you were upset that you were going to have to miss my games, so this is a personalized Quidditch fan gift!" Ron announced.
Harry opened a card from which tickets and a note fell. The tickets were to every game that Ron played including box seats for next year's World Cup should his team make it. They were favored and we were hoping. The note was from Minerva. Much as our parents had to give us permission to go to Hogsmeade, this note was permission for Harry to leave the school on any weekend day when Ron had a game. Also in the box was a brand new jersey with Potter on the back and a framed picture of the three of us at the last game we were all at before the school year began.
Harry gave Ron another manly 'hug.' I gave Harry his gift.
He chuckled as he pulled out a book, "You really do stick with what you're good at, don't you?" Then he opened it and read what it said on the first page. Ron was actually silent and still at this point, knowing what was inside.
"Oh, Mione, this is incredible," Harry whispered.
As he never had a normal family growing up, his aunt and uncle were family in name only, family was a special thing to Harry. I decided to put together a photo album of Harry's family. I knew he had a photo album of his parents that Hagrid gave to him first year, so I thought I would give him an album with photos of his current 'family.' There were pictures of the Weasleys all smiling and pulling their usual antics. I put in quite a few from Ginny's wedding as that was such a wonderful event and everyone Harry cared about was there. A few pictures of the three of us over the course of the years we lived together made it in the album. I even had a photo of Minerva and Harry chatting at Hogwarts. Neither knew I took the picture so you saw them caught in an animated discussion. The expression of Minerva's face was what I recognized from my aunts' faces when they spoke with me. Harry paged through the album for several minutes. The last picture was one of the three of us taken at the end of Ginny's wedding reception. The boys were in formal robes and I was in my special maid of honor robe. We were all shoeless and lounging in chairs laughing. You could see we were exhausted, but completely happy.
Harry had tears in his eyes as he turned to hug me. The hug lasted considerably longer than the one from Ron. "You have no idea how much this means to me, Mione," Harry whispered in my ear.
"You're family, Harry, you know I love you. You know Ron loves you," I whisper back.
When Harry finally lets me go, I feel a bit bereft without his arm about me. Ron breaks whatever moment had just occurred by shoving something into my lap. I think it is a Christmas gift, but it could just be a huge pile of wrapping paper held together by a massive amount of spell-o-tape.
I manage to open this package. Inside is a flannel wrap. "Oh, Ron, I love it!"
The boys know I am always cold during the winter, no matter what charms I try or how big a fire is in the hearth. Ron managed to find a flannel wrap I can wear in my chambers at Hogwarts that matches my favorite pajamas. I give him a hug.
"Wait a minute, there's more!" he says before I toss away the wrappings.
I look again and sure enough under some tissue I see a bit of deep scarlet fabric sticking out of what was once the pretty gold wrapping paper. I pull the fabric out and I gasp. "Ron, how did you every pick this out! It is beautiful!" He found a gorgeous cashmere cardigan sweater with little silver buttons down the front.
"I figured the wrap is for when you are by yourself and the sweater you can wear about without embarrassing yourself." He was quite proud of his gift. I kissed him on the cheek.
"My turn," Harry said as he gave me a fairly small box.
I carefully unwrapped it as it was in beautiful paper. Actually, it was muggle gift wrap and vaguely familiar. Finally I get down to the box, deep blue velvet and about the size of my hand. My mouth dropped when I opened it. I did a stunning impression of a fish out of water as my mouth flopped open and close several times. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ron's eyes go wide and a soft whistle come out of him.
"Harry, this is…wow..." I stutter.
"I thought you might like it, you seemed to like it at the shop," he sheepishly said.
"I love it," I launch at him and surprise him with a huge hug. I was aiming for his cheek, but instead my lips crashed onto his for the briefest of moments before shock set in as to what I had just done. He must have turned his head as I flung myself at him. I quickly pull away and ask him to put the necklace around my neck.
I then do a grand imitation of my mother, woe is me, as I rush to the mirror to see. There, lying around my neck is a small cluster of stones set in silver on a silver chain. The garnet and what look to be purple hued sapphires shimmer in the glow of the candles.
"Mate, glad she opened mine first. There's no following that," Ron said to Harry.
I turned around and shot a glare at him. Something about his tone though makes me wonder if he is referring to the necklace or the accidental kiss. Then again, why am I thinking about that?
I return to the sofa and curl up again under the blanket. The three of us stay there talking for hours. Just before I drift of to sleep as the boys discuss the finer points of Quidditch, again, I curl against Harry and I feel him draw the blanket closer around me.
Author's Note: Consider this a balancing chapter for the previous short one. Don't forget to share your reviews. Happy thoughts are my personal favorite. Constructive criticism appreciated. Flames will be used to help keep Hermione warm.
