Christmas morning Harry woke early, Hermione having insisted the night before that he meet her in the common room before the sun had even risen, for a surprise.
Stumbling sleepily into the common room, he found Hermione perched on the couch looking like she'd been awake for some time already, stroking Crookshanks who was purring contentedly in her lap. But as soon as she saw him, after carefully setting Crookshanks down on the cushion next to her, she leapt up with a bright smile, quickly crossing the room to give him a tight hug as she wished him Merry Christmas.
Harry wished her Merry Christmas in return, before asking, "So what is it that's so important I had to wake up thirty minutes before sunrise on Christmas morning?"
"Come on," smiled Hermione in answer. "I have something I want to show you."
And with that she grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the portrait hole, and down through the castle. Eventually they made it outside, where Hermione continued to lead him through the fresh, undisturbed snow and around the edge of the Black Lake, until finally coming to a rock outcropping over the lake, that she sat down on the edge of, her feet dangling out over the water ten feet below.
As Harry sat down next to her, she said, "Now we wait — about ten minutes, I think."
But before the ten minutes had fully passed, as the sky began to light up in brilliant color, Harry finally realized why they were out there — the sunrise.
As the edge of the sun finally peaked above the distant mountains, flooding everything in brilliant gold, Hermione said quietly, "I come out here often, at all times of the year, before anyone else is awake, to watch the sunrise and be reminded of just how blessed I am to be a witch and to be able to attend Hogwarts. And it gives me the encouragement to always give a hundred percent in everything I do, and not waste the gifts and opportunities I've been given," she explained. "Not that I don't naturally love learning, and wouldn't try my hardest anyway, but it can all eventually weigh down even on someone like me, especially with all the crap we have to go through every year, and this just helps keep me going when I might want to throw the towel in and only give ninety percent on a day when we have double History of Magic and Potions with the Snakes," she finished with a light chuckle.
Harry laughed lightly along with her, choosing not to say anything and instead just wrap his arm around her shoulder. They sat there like that in silence for a long time, watching the sunrise and then just enjoying the early Christmas morning nature, until Harry's stomach finally rumbled, causing Hermione to giggle.
"Sounds like our morning nature expedition is over. Ready for breakfast?"
"My stomach certainly is, even if I could continue staring out over the lake for the rest of the morning," replied Harry, finally dropping his arm from around her shoulder so they could stand up.
A short hike later and they arrived back at the castle, where the Great Hall was just opening up for breakfast, and a decent handful of people were already beginning to eat, having woken up early enough to have already opened their presents and made it down to the Great Hall. Harry and Hermione joined in, digging into the scrumptious breakfast of everything imaginable that the house elves had provided, both of them more than hungry after their early time of arising and hike through the snow-covered grounds of Hogwarts.
As the hall began to really start to fill up an hour later, they themselves had finally filled up as well, and they headed back up towards Gryffindor Tower so Harry could open his presents. When they walked through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room, they found Ron and the other fourth year boys just walking down the stairs from the dorm, only then having finished opening their presents and heading down to breakfast.
But as soon as the redhead saw Harry, he exclaimed almost angrily, "Harry! Where have you been?! Why haven't you opened your presents yet?!"
"I went to watch the sunrise over the lake, and then ate breakfast because I was hungry," answered Harry, unsure why his absence had caused such a stir for the redhead.
"But you didn't open your presents first!" exclaimed Ron in what could only be described as pure disbelief, like it was against the law to leave unopened presents at the foot of your bed, or like everyone had suddenly started calling He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named by his real name (nickname or birth name).
"It was dark, everyone was still asleep, and I was in a hurry," replied Harry. "What does it matter to you anyway whether I opened my presents yet or not? Or whether I even open them at all — they're my presents, not yours."
It obviously mattered a great deal to Ron, but as all he could apparently do was stand there and gape like a fish at Harry, his jaw occasionally working up and down but no words coming out, Harry never found out why it mattered so much.
Because after several seconds without any reply from Ron, Harry finally shrugged and started walking towards the staircase again, Hermione following close behind him.
Hermione had already opened all of her presents before meeting Harry in the common room to go watch the sunrise together, so she now joined him to watch him open his. Walking into Harry's dorm room, Hermione immediately ran over and jumped onto his bed, before eagerly sitting up straight with her legs crossed under her, looking at Harry expectantly.
Harry rolled his eyes at her antics as he crossed over to the small pile of gifts at the foot of his bed, saying, "You seem more excited to watch me open my presents than you probably were opening yours."
"I like seeing you get gifts when you didn't for the first decade of your life, and still don't from your biological family — what can I say?" replied Hermione with a shrug, as Harry reached down and picked up his first present. The one he instantly knew upon seeing was from Hermione, based on the very careful wrapping, neat edges, and perfectly sized bow on top.
It also had 'From Hermione' written in large, clear letters on the tag in the top corner.
But before he could start to open it, there was a sudden crack, and Dobby was standing before them.
"Ah, Harry Potter is finally opening his presents, sir!" squeaked the house elf excitedly, his ears bobbing up and down, before continuing on tentatively, "Can Dobby give Harry Potter his present now?"
"Of course," answered Harry. "And I have one for you as well."
He opened his trunk and rummaged around until he found the Ugly Christmas Sweater he'd ordered by owl mail from a wizarding shop that specialized in selling muggle items to the wizarding world, and that Hermione had shrunk down to house elf size. Because thanks to the wonderful girl sitting on the bed next to him at the moment, who'd been the one to think of the idea, he actually had bought Dobby a Christmas present shortly after they'd discovered that Dobby had come to Hogwarts. Similarly, Hermione had bought Winky a cute hat, and they'd been planning on going down to the kitchens sometime in the afternoon to give both Dobby and Winky their gifts, but as Dobby was already there now, Harry saw no reason not to go ahead and give it to him.
Handing Dobby the sweater and taking the small package the house elf held out in return, Harry said, "Here you go — and thank you for this, you didn't have to get me anything."
Opening the package up he found two socks, the left one bright red with a pattern of broomsticks upon it, and the right one green with a pattern of Snitches. Harry immediately pulled them on while thanking Dobby again, causing the house elf's eyes to leak with happiness.
Once the house elf had disapparated back to the kitchens, Harry resumed opening the rest of his gifts, starting with Hermione's that he'd set on the bed next to him to get Dobby's gift out from inside his trunk. Opening Hermione's gift up, he found Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland, the most comprehensive book on Quidditch in the British Isles ever written, and a book that had been on Harry's wish list to read ever since he'd seen it in the Flourish and Blotts owl mail catalog Hermione had been perusing one evening in the library after they'd finished their homework. Too grateful for words, he turned and hugged her tightly, saying more than he could ever say out loud.
"You're welcome, Harry," she said softly as she hugged him back, happy her present had made him so happy.
She still wasn't particularly enthralled with Quidditch herself, or perhaps it was more the danger she saw it put Harry in year in and year out, but she knew he loved it more than almost anything else in the world, the one thing he excelled at that no one could say was given to him. So when he'd eagerly read the description of the book over her shoulder, she'd ordered it the very next day (along with the dozen books she'd already earmarked for herself for a little light reading in her spare time), to give to him for Christmas.
Harry eventually let her go, and reached down to pick up his next present, a badly wrapped one obviously from the gamekeeper. Inside was a giant box of sweets from Honeydukes, including Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, and Fizzing Whizbees, all amongst Harry's favorites. Harry opened a chocolate frog each for him and Hermione to munch on, before continuing to open the rest of his gifts.
Sirius had gotten him a knife that could supposedly unlock any lock and undo any knot, something Harry ruefully thought he really could have used the night his name came out of the Goblet of Fire, when he couldn't get the Gryffindor banner Lee Jordan had tied around his neck undone as he was trying to talk with Ron when he'd gotten back up to the dorm. He immediately tucked it away in his robes, so he'd always have it with him whenever he inevitably needed it.
The next gift he opened was from Ron, a bulging bag of Dungbombs. "Is this supposed to be a gift, or a threat?" he asked in a slightly confused tone as he held up the package for Hermione to see. "It's from Ron, and honestly I could see it as being either way."
"Knowing Ron, I think he actually thinks you'd like this," answered Hermione, taking the bag from him to look at closer. "So I'm going with gift to try to get back in your good graces. Anyway, I don't think he even knows what passive-aggressive is in the first place — he's always gone straight up aggressive when it comes to me, at least."
The final gift Harry opened was from the redheads' mother, the yearly sweater she sent him, along with a large number of mince pies she'd made.
"Do you think she's heard we're not friends with Ron anymore?" Harry asked as he unfolded the green sweater with a dragon stitched onto the front. "Someone clearly told her about the first task, or else she read about it in the Daily Prophet."
"That's the weirdest thing though, Harry," replied Hermione pensively. "I've taken and read the Daily Prophet every day since I learned I was a witch and learned that the Daily Prophet existed, and neither Rita Skeeter nor anyone else wrote any article in the days following the first task saying what happened or giving the results of it. In fact, other than Rita's one article after your name came out, there hasn't been a peep about the entire tournament. Because if there had been, like say over the summer to let everyone know it was happening this year, I would have known about it before Dumbledore told us at the Opening Feast. But I didn't. I found out when you, and Ron, and the twins, and everyone else in this school found out. For supposedly being the biggest event in wizarding history in the past couple centuries or whatever Dumbledore touted it as, the only news source in the entirety of the Isles has been completely mum on it. I hadn't specifically thought of it before now because we're living though it, but it's all really weird now that I do think about it.
"But coming back to Mrs Weasley, it means someone did have to tell her, unless she's got another news source I'm unaware of. Which I'm guessing wasn't the twins or Ron unless they failed to mention that you're no longer friends with Ron anymore, since she still sent you her normal present — unless it's an attempt to pressure you into becoming friends with Ron again by making you feel guilty about receiving a gift and not reciprocating it at least through friendship with her son, which could be a possibility. But my best guess would be that Charlie told her, since he was in charge of the nesting mother that understandably tried to kill you."
After a second, she added suddenly, "Oh — and did you get Ron a present this year?"
"No," replied Harry shaking his head. "I found this Chudley Cannon hat I know he would've liked, but as I saw it after my name came out and he'd stopped being my friend, I didn't get it. You?"
"Nope," replied Hermione. "No way I was going to get him anything after how he's treated you since your name came out."
They sat there in silence for several seconds, before Hermione pointed at an envelope still lying on the floor that Harry didn't seem to be in any hurry to pick up, and asked, "What's that one?"
"My relatives," answered Harry, still just staring at the envelope, wondering why they even bothered — unless Hedwig pecked them until they gave her something to give to him, or else were trying to intentionally be cruel and remind him that they hated his very existence.
But eventually he did pick it up and open it, to find a single tissue.
"Shame owl mail is free for them, or there's no way they would have paid postage to send this by Royal Mail — it's worth far less than the stamp would cost, and then I wouldn't have to even receive it."
Hermione wrapped her arms around him, leaning into his side and resting her head on his shoulder. She knew there was nothing she could say to make up for his relatives' behavior, but she could show him that she would always be there for him no matter what, so that's what she did.
Eventually though, they wandered back down to the common room, where the twins talked them into joining the after lunch snowball fight they were arranging. So after eating again and a quick stop by the kitchens to give Winky her Christmas present, they headed out onto the still mostly pristine grounds, where they threw and dodged balls of snow until the early-setting winter sun drove them back inside soon after the sun set behind the mountains at three-thirty in the afternoon. Deciding to avoid the overcrowded Gryffindor common room, Harry and Hermione settled in the completely empty library, where Harry began reading Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland, and Hermione opened Advanced Runes for the Overeager Sixth Year to the furthest page she'd been on.
Several hours later at seven o'clock, an hour before the Yule Ball was set to open, Hermione looked over at Harry and commented, "We should probably think about starting to get ready sometime soon."
"I suppose," replied Harry, closing his book and setting it down. "What do you have in mind?"
"Want to meet back up in the common room at fifteen till? By the time we actually get up and walk back over there and up to our dorms, that should give us twenty minutes or so to get ready and back down, and then we'll still have plenty of time to make it down to the entrance hall by eight."
Harry contemplated her plan for several seconds, before finally saying slowly, "Actually, Hermione…I have a slightly different idea in mind if you're open to it."
"I'm all ears," replied Hermione.
"Well, I was thinking that maybe I should actually be waiting for you in the entrance hall. Because if we walk in together, maybe half the people down there will turn and look at us. But if you walk down the Grand Staircase alone in your stunning dress robes — which yes, I know I haven't seen them yet, but I already know they'll be stunning — the prettiest girl in the castle clearly walking down to meet someone, every eye in the entire castle will be on you, and everyone will be looking to see who you landed. Of course, then they'll see it's just me, but for a few moments at least you'll be the center of the entire school's attention, the star of the Yule Ball, the envy of every girl and making every guy jealous that he didn't think to ask you first."
"Oh, Harry!" cooed Hermione. "But I'm pretty sure it's the other way around — no one's going to become envious until I attach myself to your arm, the youngest champion and co-leader after the first task."
"Agree to disagree," replied Harry with a smile. "But you'll do it?"
"Gladly, Harry," answered Hermione. "You know I don't generally like being the center of attention, and I know you hate it, and of course it's just going to fuel what Ron already thinks he knows about you being an attention-slut, but for once I wouldn't mind standing out. Even a know-it-all, bushy-haired bookworm like me is still a girl, and can't turn down the opportunity to be the center of attention every once in a while if it's being the center of attention for a good reason. So absolutely, Harry, even if I think you're exaggerating just how much attention people will give me."
Plan settled, Hermione packed their books away in her bag and they meandered back to the common room, where they found almost exclusively guys left, all the other girls having hidden themselves away in their dorms hours before to change their looks from what they'd been when the guy they were going out with had asked them out.
Bidding goodby to Hermione for the moment, Harry headed up to his own dorm room to throw on his dress robes and head down to the entrance hall to wait on her.
Upstairs he found Ron, Seamus, and Dean staring at Ron's dress robes, where they lay on his bed looking like they'd been massacred by a pair of rogue scissors. Harry briefly wondered how Ron had managed to fail a severing charm so miserably to result in that, but he certainly wasn't about to stop and ask, as he had no interest in getting involved in anything but Hermione in the entrance hall in twenty minutes. So he breezed past them all, grabbing his own robes out of his trunk and quickly throwing them on, before heading into the bathroom to determine after one quick look in the mirror that his hair wasn't even worth trying to deal with without a spell by Hermione. He quickly headed back out and down the stairs before any of the other boys could try to engage him in any conversation, and through the now mostly empty common room and out the portrait hole.
And so now he stood alone in the crowding entrance hall, waiting for his date to arrive to steal the show.
In order to pass the time, he began looking around him, to see who was going with whom. He'd only been doing so for a few minutes when Ron in all his frayed cuffs glory hurried up to him, clearly eager to show everyone around that he was best of friends with the first place champion.
"Find a partner, mate?" he asked cheerfully, as if they spoke to each other all the time.
"Yes — she should be here in a minute or two," replied Harry politely as he continued to scan the crowds around him.
"Who'd you get? Is she pretty?" asked Ron.
Of course that's what the redhead would be concerned about — if she was pretty or not. Harry wanted to completely ignore Ron's question about whether she was pretty or not, and only say that he thought she had a wonderful personality and was someone he'd enjoy spending the evening with, but it was Hermione — he couldn't help but brag on her when he had the chance, and he really did think she was the prettiest girl in the castle in his eyes. So he did both.
"I think she's beautiful," he answered, finally looking directly at his former friend. "But more importantly she's the nicest girl I've ever met, and I can't wait get to spend the next four hours with her. And you'll see her in a minute, so don't ask — you can find out with everyone else."
As he looked at his dormmate, Harry noticed that the redhead didn't seem to be with anyone, so he continued on politely, "Did you ever ask anyone to come with you?"
"Well, you know, I eventually decided I'd just come solo and play the field once I got here," answered Ron cockily. "Find some pretty girls who didn't get asked by anyone, some girls who left their boring dates here at the party, and dance with them. No reason to limit myself to just one girl, when there's a whole castle full."
So every girl he desperately asked at the last minute turned him down, translated Harry to himself as he listened to the redhead's ridiculousness. But before either of them could say anything more, there were several low whistles and gasps, and most of the crowd turned towards the Grand Staircase.
Harry turned as well.