We waited in silence for a few minutes. I wondered what was going through Harry's mind as we stood in the silence of the cemetery. Wet snow hitting us was the only sound around.

Eventually, Hermione's teeth began to chatter. "Can we go somewhere warm?" she asked. I looked to her and saw that it was paining her to ask that, because she didn't want to pull Harry away from his parent's grave.

Harry nodded and stood up. We walked quietly back into the village. The first building we came across was a small church. I noticed a lot of smoke rising out of the chimney, and hoped we would be able to seek refuge from the cold in there. I prayed that the Christmas Eve vigil people had come and gone.

"Hominum revelio," Harry said quietly, waving his wand at the building. When no one showed up, he held the door for us.

Inside, the heat was turned up impossibly high. I assumed either the vicar was very old or my perception of warm was skewed by the cold. Hermione sat down in the first pew she got to.

"It's warm in here," I said to Harry. We took off our thick cloaks and placed them next to Hermione.

"We can't stay for long," he said. "Just long enough to get warm. We've got a lot to do tonight, plus we still need to find somewhere to sleep when we're done."

I nodded. "Lumos," I said, and my wand lit up. I decided to look at the stained glass windows while we waited. The beautiful bits of coordinated colored glass reminded me of Hogwarts. I wished I was at Hogwarts tonight. Christmas was always such a beautiful time there. I wanted the trees in the Great Hall, the fairly lights that were everywhere, the warm crackling fires in the Common Room, and the Christmas feast.

I went into the vestry and started to look for any food there might have been. I knew that stealing food from a church was a terrible thing, but I liked to think that if there was a God, he would be okay with what we were doing.

I heard a noise, and turned around, but it was just Harry. "Hey," I said.

"Find anything?" he asked quietly.

I shook my head. "Accio food," I said.

Nothing happened, so I decided it was fruitless. "That's unfortunate," Harry said.

"Well I hope you weren't waiting for a Christmas dinner to magically appear," I said.

He chuckled. "Never lose hope," he said. "I would really love it if one of Molly Weasley's Christmas dinners showed up right now."

I pursed my lips and wondered if Ron was enjoying one of those right about now. Probably. I was a little jealous. Harry sat down on the bench and I sat down next to him.

I rested my head on his shoulder as we sat there. The way his chest rose and fell was comforting, so I closed my eyes.

"Don't fall asleep, Kat," he said gently. Why wasn't he going to let me sleep? I saw nothing wrong with sleeping here for the time being. We could do whatever else we needed to do tomorrow.

"Please, Harry..." I said.

"Come on," he said. I felt his warm hand on my face and looked up.

Meeting eyes with him always intimidated me. I could see the determination in his eyes and knew that he was going to kiss me.

"I don't think here is the place," I told him, and turned my head away. A warm blush found it's way to my cheeks. Things weren't awkward, really, we both knew we shouldn't be doing this now. We needed to focus on doing what we had to do before we could get Hermione somewhere warm to get better.

He nodded. "You're right," he said.

When he offered me a hand up, I took it. Hermione was asleep, but I shook her to wake her up. It felt mean to wake her, but she did not complain. She was so dedicated to this cause that she just got up, wiped the sleep from her eyes, put on her cloak, and walked to the door.

Harry and I followed her. We walked down a small street and came to a really battered house. Although it was covered in snow, I could quickly tell that it had half of it missing. Vines had overtaken most of the front. The bushes in the front yard had grown up to cover the ground floor's windows. It was left in a very sad, very crumbly state.

This was the house that Harry and his parents lived in when they were killed and he was first attacked by Voldemort. Even being tired and cold, I couldn't believe it had taken me that long to figure out what I was looking at.

"The house has remained untouched as a monument to the Potters and as a reminder of the violence that tore apart their family," Hermione's voice carried over from where she stood, near the gate.

I walked closer the them, the snow crunching under my feet. The sign was covered in messages of hope and support for Harry. Looking to him, I couldn't tell exactly what sort of emotions he was feeling after reading the sign. His face did not reveal his emotions.

"Should we go closer?" I asked him, touching his arm.

"No," he said quietly, without taking his eyes off the sign. "We're good here..."

I nodded. We waited a moment, then heard the crunching of snow once more. But none of us were moving...

We all turned slowly, our hands moving to the wands that were stowed in our pockets. An old woman stood behind us, bent over severely.

"Come with me," she said quietly, beckoning us with one old, wrinkly finger. I looked towards Harry.

"Are you Bathilda?" he asked.

She nodded. He started to follow her, so Hermione and I did as well. This was who we were looking for. I had to hope that wherever she was taking us, it was somewhere warm.

We walked all the way down the street, to a rather secluded house. Something about this house made my stomach feel weird. My gut was telling me not to go in, but I didn't have it in me to fight with Harry. If he wanted to go in, we were going to go in.

As soon as we went in the door, I could smell a very strange smell. It was as if the house hadn't been cleaned in years, and all the food had been left to rot. My eyes were watering, it was so bad. The only redeeming quality the house had was that it was warmer than outside. Hermione started coughing and sputtering.

Bathilda beckoned us again, motioning up the stairs. When I started to follow her, though, she put up her hand. She only wanted Harry.

"You stay down here with Hermione, I'll be fine," he said, turning his back on me and going upstairs.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

She shrugged and wiped her nose on a handkerchief. "I'll be better when we get to stop for the night."

"I'm sorry," I said.

She shook her head. "It could have easily been you that was sick... or Harry. You just have to keep going."

"I don't like it here," I said, very quietly. "It doesn't sit right with me."

"I know what you mean," she said. "I mean, look at these picture frames. Half of the pictures are missing..."

I hadn't noticed it before, but now that she pointed it out to me, it was freaky. Most of the pictures in the frames were cut in half. The incomplete pictures were such an eery sight.

There was a huge thud upstairs, and Hermione and I both grabbed our wands. We ran up the stairs, to find a room even more disgusting than the one we had come from. "AGH!" Harry said. I turned the corner and saw that he was fending off a massive snake.

"Nagini!" Hermione yelled. She tried to stun the snake, but her reflexes weren't fast enough, it started going after her.

I grabbed a wooden chair and raised that. I knew that in the long run, it would not protect us much from this monstrous creature, but I didn't want to pick up my wand and accidentally hurt anyone or anything. My heart pounded in my chest. We had not come this far to get defeated by a snake, but it was so very scary.

"Stupefy!" Harry yelled, and the snake froze. We took advantage of the one second of peace and meet in the middle of the room.

"Where are we going?" Hermione screamed, her voice cracking in the middle.

I looked at Harry. "I know where to go," I said, "Let me lead, please."

He nodded, and I gathered all my energy to make sure we got to the right place without leaving body parts behind. That would be the hardest part, because I wasn't very experienced in aparating more than myself.

We landed just where I had hoped, at my family's summer home. We hadn't used it much in the recent years, because Vera was not fond of the beach, but I had fond memories staying in this house with Robert and my father when I was a young girl. It would be empty, and because it was winter time, no one would be in the surrounding houses. This was the perfect place to be right now. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it before.

"Where's my wand?" Harry asked, as soon as we landed.

"Let's get in the house first, at least," I said, opening the door. We walked into the open living room. My priority was getting Hermione into bed near a warm fire, and then figuring out what else we had to do tonight.

"Here," Hermione said, thrusting two pieces of wood at him.

His wand was completely broken. I saw the look on his face, of so, so much despair. "You broke my wand?" he asked.

"The curse ricchotched and hit your wand, I didn't do it on purpose. Maybe Kat can repair it," she said. She looked sorry, but I could tell she was so worn down, she didn't have the energy to fix it herself.

"I will, but come on, Hermione, I'll show you where you can sleep and set up a fire," I said.

"Leave me your wand," Harry said. I could tell he was pissed, but I didn't think it was very fair at the moment. I threw it at him.

Walking into my old bedroom was so bizarre. I had not been in here for probably ten years, yet here I was, lighting a fire in the fireplace and getting blankets out of the closet. I cringed when I realized that they probably weren't clean anymore, but they would keep her warm.

I went back downstairs and Harry was sulking in the living room. "Will you start a fire?" I asked him, considering he was the one of us who had a wand.

I rummaged through my bag and found a can of soup and a half gone bottle of wine. We deserved it, tonight, I thought. I lit the gas stove and began to warm up the soup.

Ten minutes later, I joined Harry on the couch with two glasses of wine and two bowls of chicken soup. He was still sulking, in the corner of the dusty couch. I tried to give him a disapproving look.

"You don't understand, Kat," he said. "His wand, and my wand... they had the same core. I'm not sure I can destroy him without that."

It took me a moment to place that the him he was talking about was Voldemort. "We'll figure something out, Harry, I promise. We haven't come this far to give it all up," I explained. I reached out to touch him, even though my hands were cold compared to his. "Now eat up before it's cold."

We ate in silence for a few minutes. The food was warm and filling. For once, we didn't have to split a can of soup three ways. It was the best soup I had ever tasted. He didn't speak, though. I knew he was upset and had a lot going on in his brain that he didn't want to talk about yet. That was all right. It would happen in time.

I sipped the wine after my soup was gone, and got closer to him for the warmth. Out the window, I could see more snow flying about. It was going to be a white Christmas, that was for sure.

"Is this the right place?" he asked, moving closer to me.

"Huh?" I asked, turning to him because I didn't understand what he was asking, but he was close enough to lean in and kiss me. I couldn't resist it here.

"Yes..." I said, when he pulled away. It would not stop at a simple kiss, underneath it all, I knew that. We both wanted, and perhaps needed, more than that tonight. There had been attraction brewing between us for months, and tonight, we would act on it.

I closed my eyes, but I could feel his lips form a smile against mine. A nervous feeling started to rise in my stomach. I had only ever been with Adam before...

"You're thinking too much," he said, pulling away for a breath. "Just let it happen, Kat."

He squeezed my shoulder, which I hadn't realized I had been tensing. "I'm sorry," I murmured. I felt his eyes on me, but it wasn't uncomfortable. He leaned in to kiss me again, and there was so much more passion there than there had been before.

I placed my legs on either sides of his hips, wanting to follow his instructions and not think so hard. His hands wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer to him. His hands wandered down my back and under my shirt and left a trail of goosebumps in their wake. I untucked his shirt and tried to unbutton it, but failed.

"Shh," he said. "It's okay."

He quickly unbuttoned my shirt, which had really belonged to him before it had become mine. I knew I would be self conscious as soon as he slipped it from my shoulder.

I could see that things were escalating quickly, and before my brain went completely foggy, I wanted to move. I didn't think it was very nice to do this in the living room for Hermione to find if she wandered down in the night.

"Let's go in the other room," I mumbled. It was on the other side of the hearth, so we wouldn't have to worry about being cold.

He picked me up, and I clung to him for my life. I didn't think he was really strong enough to carry me, though he managed it. He placed me down on the futon in the other room before using his wand to turn it into a bed.

While I waited for him to join me, I shrugged the shirt off. He was overdressed, and I could feel my cheeks go warm as I felt him looking at me. He shed his shirt before kneeling on top of me. His hands on my body felt like a static, like so much more than a simple touch. It was a little overwhelming, but very wonderful at the same time. It was exactly what we both needed.

His hands slid down my body, and he gripped my hips firmly. My brain was getting very foggy. I helped him unfasten my bra. "You're beautiful, Kat," he said. I tilted my head up to kiss him better.

My hand trailed down his chest and began to unbutton his trousers. He groaned as my hand brushed against him, and he wriggled out of his trousers, kicking them to the end of the bed. The next minute my pants followed it. I clung onto him, starting to feel uncomfortable. but he kissed my hair reassuringly.

I nodded as he removed my knickers and moaned again as he kissed her mouth so softly. His lips were soft, but I enjoyed the feeling of his stubble against my face.

"Are you sure?" he whispered against my lips.

I nodded.

And then he thrust into me. I dug my nails into his shoulders and let my head fell back. He dropped kisses on my neck. I moaned as he did. My hips moved to meet him and we formed a rhythm that worked for both of us. I could feel the pleasure building in me, threatening to push me over the edge.

And then it finally did. My breath heavy, I fell against him, clinging onto him as he slowed too, enjoying his own pleasure. And then we both collapsed together onto the bed, a tangle of legs and arms, both feeling hazy and exhausted. He brushed strands of hair out of my eyes, placing a kiss on my temple.

I was too sleepy to process everything, so I just rested my head on him and pulled the blanket around us tight. "Sweet dreams, Harry," I said, quietly, taking off his glasses.

I slept so deeply that I imagined this was what it felt like to be dead. It felt so good, like I was getting ten nights worth of sleep in the tent. I was warm, full of food, and felt so safe with Harry right next to me.

I woke up, sure that we had missed a day or two from sleeping. I started stretching my arm, and jumped. Harry and I were not alone in the room.

My father stood in the doorway.

End Part 1.

Author's Note: I'm pretty much just gonna leave it there. I won't touch this story for a bit... probably until Thanksgiving, at least. I've been working on it for month, I need to cleanse my palet. In the mean time, I would like to direct everyone to my new story, Unwritten, to read while Not Alone is on hiatus. It's short and sweet and the third chapter is going up soon! Let me know what you all think! Thanks to potter-reading-coastie for betaing!