A/N: I'm sorry, I know I said I would get this out last Friday, but some problems with my document hindered it and then I got a little sick and then some other things happened. I just hope this chapter makes up for it with the length.
I'd also like to thank everyone who reviewed, telling me what they thing and what I can do better.
If some of you have wondered why I haven't really mentioned Durmstrang or Beauxbatons, it's because they don't really have a part in this story. Just a little heads up in case any of you were wondering. This story is about Harry becoming independent, Hermione coming out of her shell and how it can help defeat Voldemort with a bond (not a soul bond) building between the two.
Not totally happy with this chapter. I'll probably go back and revise it a bit, but I wanted to get it up. A big thank you to all who catch my spelling mistakes! It helps me out a lot, so please do tell me if I mess up.
Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter.
Chapter 6
"Expecto Patronum!"
An otter burst from Hermione's wand, making her gasp and Harry stare. It swam around as if it was in the water, moving around Hermione as if it was playing with her. Warm feelings enveloped the witch, amazing memories flashing through her mind - spending time with her parents, books, and Harry. All their time spent together was flashing through her brain and she felt completely safe with her protector. She giggled at the otter, an actual giggle escaping from the lips of Hermione Granger, and watched it disappear into a white wisp.
Hermione was breathing a little heavy from the amount of magic used to get her form and Harry was just smiling at her, a feeling of pride welling up inside of him as he looked at Hermione. She had been the one helping him these last weeks, teaching him spells, and he finally taught her something. He taught her something that would keep her safe, something that seemed to be becoming a goal of his.
"I did it!" she squealed happily, feeling accomplished, more so than any other achievement she received. More so than winning the spelling bee competition when she was seven, more so than receiving perfect scores on her O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s. It was even better that Harry taught her.
Harry rushed forward just as Hermione moved and crashed into the girl, hugging her tightly in celebration. In his excitement, he picked her up and twirled her around, her giggles like music to his ears as they celebrated her accomplishment.
Time caught up with them and they realized what their position was, Harry hugging Hermione to him tightly and Hermione's arms around his neck, their faces only inches apart. Emerald locked to brown, Hermione felt the heat flaming in her cheeks as Harry gazed at her, looking content and relaxed. A small smile quirked at his lips, and she felt her own lips mirroring it.
Harry's eyes dropped down to Hermione's lips, which looked incredibly inviting and he had the urge to close the short distance between them. It was something he was curious, yet also afraid of. The ramifications of kissing her. He was sure that she wanted to kiss him, but what would it mean? Just the thought of explaining his feelings made an uneasy feeling settle into his gut. He didn't like talking about things along those lines and usually bottled them up deep down. But, he wanted to kiss her badly. 'Bugger it,' he thought, leaning forward...
A sudden pop caused the two to jump back and turn toward the noise, seeing a sheepish Dobby standing there holding a tray of hot chocolate. Truthfully, both were thankful for the interruption, not exactly sure about the feelings that were unfolding. They were rushing through the two teens and slightly overwhelming, Hermione would compare it to a roller coaster. You psyche yourself up to get on the ride, knowing that it's an exhilarating adrenaline rush and you might be a little scared, but you want that feeling of euphoria at the end. Hermione felt that she wasn't quite yet ready to get on the ride, but she was in the process of psyching herself up for it.
"Thank you, Dobby," Harry and Hermione said as Dobby sat the tray on the table, popping away with a small smile on his face. They settled on the couch with their homework and hot chocolate, not speaking of what just occurred. Further analysis would be reserved for later.
About a half an hour later, while Harry was doing his typical teenaged boy blowing things up stuff, Hermione saw a photo album peeking out of his bag, and her curiosity got the better of her. She gently took it out and laid it on the desk, looking over her shoulder, she saw that Harry was too occupied with practicing spells to notice what she was doing.
She opened it up and saw a magical picture of a beautiful auburn haired woman with bright green eyes much like Harry's. She was enveloped in the arms of a man who looked like Harry's brother with hazel eyes. At the bottom of the page in elegant script was Lily and James, 1978.
'Harry's parents,' Hermione thought as she flipped through the book, finding several more pictures like that, including their wedding, a pregnant Lily, and a baby Harry, the last couple making her smile. 'He was such a cute baby.'
Like being hit with a bludger bat, she finally knew what she was going to get Harry for Christmas. She had been fretting, not having much knowledge in the buying gifts for your 'friends' department, considering Harry was her first friend. The fact that he already had everything money could buy was also disconcerting and she was going nuts trying to think of something. Then a picture formed in her head and she was positive she could do the Charms with some help from her Head of House.
She took out her wand and saw the magical pictures, tapping her wand on each one, muttering, "Exemplum!"
A duplicate of each picture she copied appeared on the desk, and she quickly put the album back in his bag and the duplicate pictures in her own, peeking over her shoulder and seeing Harry laughing as he hit a training dummy with a reducto, causing it to blow up.
"Boys," she shook her head and grabbed her book from her bag, opening it up to read with a smile on her face.
-oOo-
Harry and Hermione were walking through Hogsmeade side by side. Many of the students were shopping for Christmas presents, others were last minute shopping for the Yule Ball. Harry and Hermione separated for a bit to do some shopping for each other's presents.
Since she had the pictures and a general idea, Hermione's supplies for Harry's gift was very easy to get. On the other end of the spectrum, Harry had no clue what to get Hermione. He never had to shop for a girl before and spent an hour the night before talking to Sirius about it.
"Girls like jewelry, and I'm sure Hermione's no different," Sirius had told him, which was how he ended up in Dia Menty's Magical Jewelers, looking and feeling completely out of his element. There were some couples shopping quietly, while Harry just looked idly, not a clue in the world of what to get.
"Can I help you?" Harry turned to the voice to see an auburn haired, brown-eyed witch standing there with a warm smile on her face. Harry guessed that she was in her mid twenties and very pretty. "You have no idea what you want, do you?"
"Am I that obvious?" Harry asked and the woman sympathetically nodded.
"Don't worry, it's why I'm here. I'm Amber," she said, shaking Harry's hand. "First things first, who are you shopping for?"
"Uh...my friend. She doesn't really wear jewelry, but my godfather said that it was always a good way to go with a girl," Harry admitted sheepishly.
"Your godfather is right. Even an athletic tomboy type of girl loves a nice piece of jewelry. Now, we just have to figure out what to get her," Amber said, leading Harry over to a couple a couple of shelves. She took out her wand and tapped it against her chin, "I assume that a ring would be too much for her. Tell me, and this is a little personal, so you're free to not answer, but is this girl just a friend?"
Harry's eyes widened, comically in her opinion, "Does that even matter?"
She smiled, "Oh, yes. Girls are naturally more in touch with emotions and can read gifts, seeing the hidden messages in them. Messages you didn't even know you were trying to convey."
Harry blanched, the pressure suddenly building on his shoulders. He didn't know what kind of message he was trying to give Hermione, he just wanted to show her how much he appreciated her help, and maybe slide in that he had some more than platonic feelings for her.
His eye then caught the nice piece of jewelry on Amber's wrist, "Do you have something like your bracelet?"
She looked at him before glancing down to it and smiled fondly, "Why yes we do."
Harry watched as she tapped the third shelf with her wand, the shelf opening and then expanding until it was about five feet tall with different bracelet chains on it, of all different colors and sizes. "So, what do you think? Gold, silver, platinum, white gold?"
She saw his blank look and picked up the white gold chain and placed it on the table in front of her. "I prefer white-gold. So, what kind of charms do you think to put on it? We can transfigure just about anything."
"How many should I get?"
"Hmm...well, I'd only get two or three right now, just to start her off. It's good to build on it with different memories of your relationship," she said, before extending her arm and showing her own. "See, my husband gave me this back when we started dating my fifth year. The three broomsticks charm signifies our first date, the snitch because he played Quidditch, the rose because it's my favorite flower, my birthstone. Stuff like that."
Harry thought about it, before he smiled and glanced up to Amber. He knew exactly what to get Hermione and the next hour was spent transfiguring the charms and placing extra charms on the bracelet so it wouldn't be stolen, wouldn't break, etc. It was the best money Harry had ever spent.
-oOo-
Harry walked out of the jewelry shop with a large smile on his face. Amber said that Hedwig could pick up the completed bracelet in the next two days, which meant that he would have to have Dobby pop over to Hermione's to give her her gift on Christmas.
All in all, he couldn't wait for her to open it, but was a little glad that she'd be home opening it so he wouldn't see if she hated it. He decided to make a trip to Tomes and Scrolls to get her a backup gift.
He found an expensive book on the animagus transformation and figured that they could probably do it together if they wanted. He had been wanting to ask Sirius and now would have someone to do it with, if she wanted, that is. He knew that she'd appreciate the knowledge anyway and bought it, before walking out of the store to see Hermione walking toward him.
"Hey, how did it go?" she asked, adjusting her blue and bronze scarf tighter. around her neck The chill had picked up a bit and Hermione's nose and cheeks were rosy, her brown eyes sparkling. Harry felt his breath get caught in his throat as he gazed at her, but managed to answer her.
"Great. You?"
"Great," she repeated with an extra bright smile, which made Harry's own smile brighten. 'Were her smiles contagious?' he wondered as they started walking toward The Three Broomsticks to grab a bite to eat.
-oOo-
Two mischievous red-headed twins were watching from afar and knew that they needed to give the kids a little push together, since they both seemed either oblivious to each others feelings, or just too scared to admit them. It was also an opportunity to be a little naughty, and really, when would they pass that up? They walked up to them just as they were exiting The Three Broomsticks, "Ah, Forge, look at these two lovebirds out on a nice romantic stroll."
"Makes this heart warm to see it, Gred."
"What are you two on about?" Harry asked as he and Hermione blushed red at the word 'lovebirds'.
"Just congratulating you two on your recent relationship," they answered in unison, amused at watching the pink color on their cheeks turn bright red.
"We're not-" Harry and Hermione started at the same time, sputtering for an explanation, and the twins knew that they had them in the trap.
"Whatever, we're not-
"-privy to your business. We wanted-"
"-to offer our congratulations to Hogwarts'-"
"-newest couple."
They bowed and walked around the two thoroughly embarrassed teens, snickering all the way to Zonko's. "That should give them something to talk about."
"Ingenious, dear brother of mine," Fred said to his twin, who beamed with pride.
"Why thank you, mon frère."
-oOo-
"Well, I'll see you next year," Hermione joked, trying to lighten the mood, to no avail. She, for the first time in her Hogwarts schooling years, didn't really want to go home for Christmas. Of course, seeing her parents made her very happy because she missed them terribly, but she kind of wished she could go to the Yule Ball with Harry. He hadn't even gotten a date, though he had many offers. He rejected them all, since most of them came from the girls who were calling him a cheat not even a month ago. She couldn't help but feel at fault a bit.
"Yeah," Harry murmured, both of them standing a little awkwardly in front of each other.
"Harry!" he saw Colin Creevey hurrying over to them with his little brother in tow. Colin and Dennis were one of the Gryffindors to believe Harry, mostly because they all but worshiped the ground he walked on. They had their trunks with them, on their way to go home.
"Hey, Colin, Dennis," he said, seeing them beam at being acknowledged by their hero. He then saw them glancing back and forth between Hermione and him, and saw the girl next to him smiling, "Dennis, Colin, this is Hermione Granger. Hermione, this is Dennis and Colin Creevey."
"I know you! You were in the hospital bed next to mine in first year when we were petrified. Wasn't it cool how Harry killed that Basilisk?"
"I didn-"
Hermione cut Harry's protest off, "It was very cool."
She winked at Harry's mock-exasperated look, suppressing a laugh.
"Can I get a picture of you two?" Colin asked, Hermione and Harry looking to each other and shrugging.
"Uh...sure," Harry said, turning to Hermione who nodded. Colin beamed and stepped back with Dennis, raising the camera. Harry and Hermione moved closer, Harry wrapping his arm around her waist as she smiled at him and turned to the camera. Harry and Hermione smiled as the camera popped and Harry turned to Hermione, looking at her still smiling as Colin took another picture of them.
"Thanks!" Colin chirped as he and his brother got on one of the carriages and Hermione turned to the boy next to her.
"Happy Christmas, Harry," Hermione summoned all of her courage and leaned forward, kissing Harry's cheek, before getting on one of the carriages with the two muggleborn wizards. The carriage, thankfully, started moving as soon as she was on, sparing her any embarrassment.
Harry stood rooted to his spot, baffled at what she did. He rubbed the spot on his cheek she kissed as it seemed to tingle and smiled as he turned back to the castle.
Hermione had been sitting in the compartment when the bludger bat idea producer appeared once again. She stood up ad walked down the train corridor until she finally found Colin and Dennis sitting in their compartment, talking to one another. She gently rapped on the door and they both turned to see who it was, their eyes widening. She took that as her permission to enter the compartment.
"Colin, can you help me with something?"
-oOo-
On Christmas morning in Kent, Hermione had woken up to the wonderful aroma of chocolate chip pancakes. Christmas was the one day that the dentist parents were lenient on chocolate and her mum cooked her 'famous' pancakes. It was a tradition since Hermione was a little girl and she smiled, hopping out of bed to go through her normal routine, minus getting changed. It just wasn't Christmas unless you unwrapped your presents with your pj's on!
She saw her parents chatting happily in the kitchen, greeting them with hugs and kisses, the normal Christmas greetings before they enjoyed breakfast together. Afterwards, they went into the living room and opened up their presents while listening to Christmas music on the stereo system.
They were just about finished opening presents, when they heard a popping noise and a tiny creature appeared in the living room, seemingly out of thin air. Hermione's mother let out a shriek while jumping into her husband's lap in fright.
"Dobby!" Hermione exclaimed in surprise.
"Master Harry's Grangy! Dobby apologizes for intruding, but Master Harry Potter sir told me to give this to you," Hermione smiled as Dobby's speech was getting a lot better through her teaching him whenever Harry was reading his Occlumency books. She took the wrapped gifts from Dobby's hands and smiled at the thought of her friend.
Hermione turned to her stunned parents, "Mum, dad, this is Dobby. Dobby, these are my parents."
"It is an honor to meet Master's Grangy parents," Dobby said with a low bow, confusing the two muggles who saw their daughter nod to greet him, a promise of explanation in her eyes.
"Nice to meet you too, Dobby." Emma offered softly, the elf still not completely used to such kind treatment.
"Oh, Dobby, I have your present, hold on," Hermione said, before racing up to her room and grabbing the little gift from her trunk along with Harry's gift. Hermione showed signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when she returned home after her first year. Her parents took her to a therapist - who was told she had gotten into a car accident - and she suggested finding an activity to keep her mind and hands busy besides reading, so she took up knitting the summer after second year. She had worked on the present for Dobby before bed every night since she found out that Dobby had an affinity for socks.
"Happy Christmas, Dobby." Hermione said as she handed him the wrapped gift, the little creature's tennis ball eyes misting. "Open it."
"They are beautiful," Dobby choked out, holding the blue socks in his hand, his eyes misting and Hermione moved forward, enveloping him in a hug.
"Here could you give this to Harry, too?" Hermione asked, handing him the gift. She had worked on the present the ride home with Colin since she couldn't do magic at home.
"It would be Dobby's honor to," he said before snapping and popping away to Hogwarts.
"Uhm...sweetheart? What exactly is Dobby?" Dan asked, hoping that he put that in best terms he could.
"He's a house elf, daddy. His magic is bonded to Hogwarts castle and he works there with other house elves. Sometimes they bond to witches and wizards to work for them."
"How do you know so much, Hermione? You weren't thinking of getting one, right?"
"Oh, absolutely not!" Hermione exclaimed. "I was trying to find a way if I could free them actually, but, unfortunately, it's impossible if you're not bonded to them. It's horrible, some of their Masters treat them like slaves. Harry actually freed Dobby from his horrible Master."
The Grangers saw their daughter lighting up at the mention of Harry and shared a secretive look, but were curious to know more about this boy. "And how did he do that?"
"Well, the only way to free a house elf is for their Master to give them a piece of clothing. Dobby's former Master was Lucius Malfoy, personification of a pureblood bigot and all around disgusting human being. His son Draco is just like him, Harry actually defended me and cursed Draco when he called me a mudblood, but that's another story," the parents chuckled at their daughter, knowing she was in her babbling mode. It was a trait she had gotten from Emma, but Dan loved both of his girls for it.
"Anyway, Malfoy had left something in the office and Harry gave it back to him, but Malfoy gave it to Dobby. Harry had put a sock in the diary and it freed Dobby. He's so brilliant when he wants to be! Especially now that he's away from that prat, Weasley."
"Weasley?! The same little shit responsible for you being hurt?" Dan snapped, his temper always short when he thought about the little shit responsible for his daughter being attacked by a bloody troll. It was only those puppy dog eyes she pulled that saved her from being pulled from Hogwarts and the magical world. "He was friends with that little git?"
"Was being the operative word, dad. People make errors of judgement. Harry's a much better person now that they're not friends anymore. He was really angry when he and the other Gryffindors had confronted me. I thought he was going to punch Ronald."
"Maybe it would knock some sense into the git," Dan Granger muttered, Hermione and her mother shared an eye roll, though they also shared the same thought.
Hermione took Harry's presents and opened the biggest one first, seeing that it was an animagus book. She was stunned, her jaw dropping.
"What is that, Hermione?"
"Mum, this book is all about becoming an animagus, which is basically turning into an animal. It takes a lot of studying and discipline to accomplish." Hermione explained, handing her mother the book while she grabbed the other present, which had a note on top of it. She smiled at Harry's chicken scratch,
I'm rubbish at gifts, and I've never seen you wear jewelry before, but my godfather said that it was always a good way to go with a girl. If you don't like it, I hope that you at least enjoy the book.
Happy Christmas, Hermione.
Harry
Hermione unwrapped the gift and opened the velvet box, gasping at the contents. She reverently picked up the silver piece of jewelery and held it up. It was an absolutely beautiful charm bracelet. She studied the three charms already on it: a book, an otter, and the letter H.
"Ooh, sweetheart, that's beautiful!" Emma exclaimed, looking at the beautiful charms. "Why an otter?"
"It's my patronus form, mum," Hermione said, but saw Emma's blank look. "A Patronus is like a magical form of protection. Some have corporeal forms and mine is an otter. It's extremely difficult, but Harry taught me how to do it."
"The bracelet is simply beautiful, sweetheart."
"It is," Hermione murmured, her tone bordering dreamy. She gazed at it for a bit, before turning to her mum, "Could you put it on me?"
Her mother just smiled and gently took it, putting it on her daughter's left wrist. She watched as her daughter examined the present, her eyes sparkling a smile on her lips. Her baby girl was positively smitten with this boy and she was so happy for her.
Hermione constantly had trouble making friends. She was too precocious, too intelligent, too different. Her letters from Hogwarts were the bare minimum, nothing about any friends. The only other student she had mentioned in her letters was Harry Potter, only once or twice, though and it was mostly just telling them the general idea about who he was in the wizarding world.
Then they got the visit from Professor McGonagall who told them that their daughter was attacked by a troll, something out of a story book. It was devastating to see her so broken and then the terrible nightmares she was plagued with after, and wasn't able to have any of the potion they gave her at school. They saw Hermione become indifferent with the isolation, burying herself in her studies, resigning herself to loneliness. It wasn't healthy.
Then a couple of months into this school year, she told them about befriending Harry Potter and how she was helping him with the tournament he was being forced to compete in. Emma was overjoyed when Hermione described her growing feelings for Harry and Emma tried to help her daughter as much as she could. She had a crush on the boy, though her feelings were growing quickly. She tried to aid her in confessing her feelings to Harry, but she knew it would be difficult due to her isolation. Opening up to her and Dan was tough enough. That time to confess was coming though and Emma would help her daughter anyway she could.
The happy mom just smiled and snuggled into her husband's side, enjoying Christmas with her family.
-oOo-
Harry opened his eyes and rubbed the sleep from them before putting his glasses on. He saw Dobby standing at the foot of his bed, bouncing up and down in excitement, "Happy Christmas, Master Harry Potter!"
"Happy Christmas, Dobby," Harry said with a smile, before standing up and walking over to the elf, handing him his gift. He had given Dobby Hermione's present the night before so he could pop over to her house and give it to her. He was incredibly happy when Hedwig delivered it, the final product exceeding his expectations.
For Dobby, he had had bought a nice sweater, since he knew Hermione was knitting him socks. He snickered at the old lady jokes he made to Hermione when she knitted int he RoR. She just stuck her tongue out at him and continued knitting. Dobby thanked Harry profusely, clinging to his leg and sobbing at the wonderful gift.
When he finally calmed down, he grabbed a present from the floor near his bed and handed it to Harry, "This is from Master Harry's Grangy."
"Thank you, Dobby," he said, smiling at the present and watching as the house elf bowed and popped away. Harry saw the top note and read Hermione's intricate handwriting,
Don't worry, I only copied them from your album and the others I got from Colin. I hope that you like it, and thank you for everything. Especially for being my friend.
Happy Christmas, Harry.
Yours,
Hermione
'Yours...that sounds really nice', he thought with a blush gracing his cheeks before he opened the little box, pulling out a gold snow globe. He looked at it and saw that it was charmed to look like it was snowing inside of it.
"Wow..." he breathed and his finger brushed the orb, causing the snow to spin in the orb and he gasped as a familiar magical picture formed. The picture was one of his parents together, outside and smiling. His dad was twirling his mum around as she beamed beautifully, both of them so in love.
He was shocked once more as it changed again to one from their wedding. His mum looked beautiful in her white dress and his dad couldn't take his eyes off her. Sirius and Remus were standing next to his dad, his mother rolling her eyes as they were teasing Prongs, making Harry laugh.
The pictures kept switching, all from his album: one of him as a baby in his dad's lap, smiling at the camera, him and his mum, who placed a kiss on his cheek as he smiled wide, him and Padfoot, him and Moony. He felt tears prickling in his eyes at the beautiful gift, before it switched once more.
It was of him and Hermione hugging after the first task. Harry shook his head at Colin's sneakiness, but was touched by these pictures. The next one wiped the smile from his face, as he gazed at it.
It was from right before Hermione left to go home, when they were saying goodbye. Harry's arm was around her waist, both of them smiling at the camera. Harry in the picture turned to look at Hermione, his gaze full of something he could not identify. He would have to ask Sirius...
Hermione looked beautiful, beaming at the camera. She just looked so happy, so different from a month ago when he didn't really know Hermione. Was there a time when he didn't know Hermione? He knew that definitely didn't want to go back to then. He liked the here and now. He had felt himself change, for the better. He didn't let people just walk all over him. He stood up for himself. He could look at himself and the mirror and not be disappointed. He was finally starting to be the man he wanted to become.
He smiled and reminded himself to thank Colin for the pictures, and then thank Hermione for the wonderful present. He hoped that she liked her present and wished that time would go by quickly so she could come back to school, as selfish as it was.
-oOo-
Harry was standing in the Gryffindor common room, all dressed for the Ball, but definitely not ready to go. The time on his watch showed that if he didn't leave right away, he was going to be late and he couldn't find it in him to care. He couldn't seem to get his feet to move, not a single sliver of motivation to attend the stupid ball. He was incredibly uncomfortable in the robes and he didn't even bother get a date.
All the girls who asked him acted snobby when they thought he put his name in the Goblet, then all of a sudden, they wanted to date him. What really pissed him off was when he rejected them, they started going at Hermione to Harry, saying that he could do better. Most of the Gryffindor girls learned that talking about Hermione was not the right thing to do when he snapped at them, practically raging before Neville and the Weasley twins calmed him down.
He was going to look foolish and he just wished this whole night would end already.
"What's the matter, my boy?"
Harry turned to see Professor Dumbledore walking through the portrait, a concerned look on his grandfatherly face. He just shrugged, "It's nothing, Professor."
"From the look on your face, it looks like something."
"It's just...the person that I want here...isn't. I don't even want to go to this stupid ball," he muttered, before looking up at the amused Headmaster, "No offense, sir."
"None taken, Harry, but you know, it's funny that you say that, because I received a letter from parents of a student here. Follow me if you would," Dumbledore said, and Harry frowned, but complied. Harry smiled as he saw Fawkes and gently stroking the Phoenix who twilled a little song.
"What are we doing, Professor?"
"You'll see. Hold on to my arm," he said and Harry frowned, but did as he was told. The last thing he saw was Dumbledore's twinkly eyes before he was pulled through a tight tube. He felt like he was spit out as he landed on the hard ground, dizzy and a bit nauseous.
"Always happens during first time," Dumbeldore said as he helped Harry up, conjuring a glass over water for him to drink. Harry's stomach settled after a couple of seconds and he stood on slightly shaky legs, glancing around to their surroundings to see that they were in a muggle neighborhood. He started to panic that someone saw two people suddenly appear out of thin air, one of them dressed in...interesting festive dress robes in the Hogwarts Headmaster's case. Dumbledore caught Harry's look and gave him a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry, my boy, we have charms on us. No one even sees us, until now," he said, waving his wand over them.
"Where are we, Professor?" Harry asked as Dumbledore started walking toward the house they were standing in front of. Harry glanced around, seeing that they were all similar, upper middle class two-story houses that Petunia and Vernon would kill for. All the houses were lit up with nice Christmas lights and decorations. They were the kind of houses he wanted when he grew up, the type of neighborhood he could raise a family in.
The walked up on the porch of a house and Harry was thoroughly confused, but trusted Dumbledore. He was in for a shock when the door opened, his shock mirrored by the girl standing there. "Harry!"
"Hermione!"
"Hello, Miss Granger," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling and a wide grin on his face.
Hermione seemed to realize that her Headmaster was standing there and sputtered, "Professor...wha-"
"Ah, Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Granger," the old mage said as he saw the two Granger parents walking toward them, knowing smiles on their faces as the two teens just stared at each other.
"Thank you for allowing this," Emma Granger said to Dumbledore as he walked by a stunned Hermione and inside the house.
"What's going on?" Hermione asked Harry, who could only shrug in response. He had no idea, but followed Hermione into the Grangers home.
"So, what is going on?" Harry decided to ask the obvious question on his and Hermione's minds.
Professor Dumbledore just smiled. "Well, Harry, Mr. and Mrs. Granger here wrote to me asking if you could spend the rest of Christmas holidays with them."
Hermione's eyes widened, "What?"
"Are you serious?" Harry asked, staring at Dumbledore.
"Nope, I am," a voice said from the doorway and everyone turned to see Sirius Black standing there with a cheeky grin on his face, "Emma, Dan, nice to see you again."
"Sirius!"
"Hey, pup. I have some clothes for you," he said, handing him the bag with a wink, before turning to Hermione. "And the lovely Miss Granger. Wonderful to see you again."
"B-But, what about the-" Harry asked, turning to Dumbledore, who just shrugged.
"I think that they can make do with three champions."
"Thank you, Professor," Harry said with a grateful smile and the Headmaster winked with eyes twinkling, before apparating out of the house, much to the surprise of the muggles.
"Well, I gotta get back to Grimmauld. Andi and Ted are visiting with Nymphadora. I'll see you later, Pup." Sirius said, hugging his godson and kissing Hermione's hand, before waving goodbye to the Grangers and apparating away. Harry was then approached by Hermione's mother, who was smiling warmly.
"Hello, Harry. I'm Emma and this is my husband, Dan. We're so happy to finally meet you," she said before pulling Harry into a gently hug, just like Hermione's. Just like Hermione said, she looked just like her mom with her father's brown eyes. She had the same kind nature that Hermione had and he felt extremely welcome. She led them into the living room. Harry saw that it wasn't like the Dursley's stuffy home during Christmas, it was comfortable. The tree had what looked like personal ornaments on it, with a gold star on top. There were some Christmas decorations placed around the room. Harry smiled, he liked it.
"Nice to meet you, Harry," Dan said, shaking Harry's hand, but his brown eyes were studying the boy in front of him, sizing him up. Emma saw what her husband was doing and knew how protective he was with his girls.
"Even though you're missing the ball, I think you should have at least one dance," Emma said, before she walked over to the stereo system and put on what Hermione identified as 'What Are You Doing New Years Eve?' for the teens, before winking at Hermione and walking upstairs with Dan. "Hermione, you can show him the guest room. Night, kids."
Hermione's father shot a look that clearly said 'behave' at the kids, before he also shot a glance at the boy with his daughter, which Harry read as 'do anything to my princess, and I will end you', before disappearing up the stairs with Emma.
Harry gulped and turned to Hermione, who was smiling softly at him, which was the encouragement he needed. "May I have this dance, milady?"
"I'm not really appropriately dressed," Hermione said with a smile, gesturing to herself.
Harry took in her appearance. His teenager brain first noticed the tightness of her jeans which showed that she had quite nice legs, which were always in the shapeless skirt and tights - always tights; she also had on a dark blue flannel shirt and fluffy red and green striped socks on. Her bushy hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and as usual, there was no makeup on her face. He averted his gaze to the floor, his cheeks darkening.
"I think you look beautiful," Harry said, not meeting her eyes at all. He felt weird telling her that, not because it wasn't true, but because he never expressed himself while growing up with the Dursley's. Emotions and expressing them were still out of reach to him, but Hermione smiled and gently took his hand in hers.
"You may, my Lord."
Harry snapped his head up and grinned, before looking a little confused as he held up his hands in the waltz position, looking wary. Hermione smiled and grabbed his hands, placing them on her hips much to his shock. She successfully managed to suppress a chuckle when his eyes comically widened.
She then placed her own on his shoulders and helped sway them side to side. With her leg, it would have been difficult to waltz, another con against the Ball. This was much more relaxed and...intimate.
She watched the worry melt away from Harry's face as he found that this was much easier and a lot more fun, no risk of him stepping on her toes. As the song progressed, the space between the two closed. Harry had both of his hands on the small of her back, Hermione's arms were wrapped around his neck, as she leaned her head on his right shoulder, inhaling his wonderful scent.
"Do you like your present?" Hermione asked, a little uncertain as she looked at him through her lashes. All uncertainty melted away at the bright smile plastered on Harry's face. She swore that it was going to crack his face in half and she wanted to make sure those smiles made even more appearances in the future.
"Hermione, it's brilliant! I can't even tell you how much I love it. Thank you so much," Harry replied. He felt his palms starting to sweat as he wanted to know, "Did you like yours?"
"Harry, it's absolutely lovely. You're right, I don't normally wear jewelry, but I'll wear this every day." Hermione beamed and Harry felt incredible at her words. He glanced down to the bracelet on her dainty wrist, a swell of pride filling him that he picked a good gift for her. "The book is also amazing. I can't wait to read it."
"I was hoping that maybe...you and I could become animagi. Sirius said that he'd help us out with the potion and..."
"Harry, I'd love to."
The two felt something forge within them. Deeper than the friendship they shared and it definitely wasn't unpleasant, quite the contrary - comforting and warm. Hermione liked being in Harry's arms, Harry liked having Hermione in his arms. He wished that the song would last forever with the way he was feeling. There was no worries about a tournaments, no worries about a megalomaniac trying to kill him, it was just him and Hermione together, dancing in her living room on Christmas.
It was so normal and it was absolutely perfect.
"I'm glad you're here," Hermione whispered in Harry's ear, feeling her cheeks flush pink at the admittance. Harry slightly turned his head to look at her and smiled, before leaning in to her ear.
"I'm glad I'm here and not at some stuffy ball. I'm glad I'm here...with you," Harry whispered back, feeling his own face flush. They both pulled back and smiled at each other, just as the song ended. Hermione leaned forward and kissed Harry's cheek again.
It was a Happy Christmas indeed.
A/N: Harry Connick Jr.'s cover of 'What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?' fit the scene in my mind. I hope that you liked Dumbledore in this scene. Dia Menty's is a jewelry store I created for Hogsmeade.
What did you think? Like Harry said, much better than some stuffy ball.
Next: A date, New Years Eve, and some sugar.
