A/N Hope everyone's been able to have some festive fun! I watched 'The Man Who Invented Christmas' today and I definitely recommend it.

Three French Hens

Hermione groaned as her alarm clock went off, and hit the snooze button. It had taken her ages to get to sleep the night before as she had kept reliving the staff meeting over and over.

Needless to say the turtle doves had not stayed quiet for the duration of the staff meeting.

Used to Hermione's idiosyncrasies, no one questioned that she had brought doves with her. She had after all once brought an endangered Golden Snidget with her, in order to emphasise a point.

Seeing her bring the doves into the meeting, Draco had raised an eyebrow at her questioningly to which she'd made a helpless gesture in response.

Everyone was however a little surprised at her lack of punctuality. Her boss, August Battersbea, an extremely ancient wizard, who should have retired years ago in Hermione's opinion, had pointedly looked at the clock at her entrance.

Hermione had muttered her apologies and then slinked into her chair like a reprimanded child, placing the dove cage under her chair.

All was fine, until Hermione had to give her monthly report. Halfway through a loud, "Coo," was heard. Hermione kept going, now speaking in a faster tone so she could finish quickly.

Then another, "Coo," was heard, followed by the sound of frantically flapping wings. It sounded like the doves were getting a little too friendly with one another.

Hermione valiantly tried to ignore it but she could see no one was paying her any attention as they were completely distracted by the amorous bird noises.

Just as it had reached peak noise, Draco, who was quietly chuckling to himself, cast a Silencio at the cage.

Hermione was completely mortified that she hadn't thought of that herself.

As soon as the staff meeting had finished she had bolted as fast as she could.

She'd had a rather large glass of wine that night with Ginny, who although tried to cheer her up, couldn't help but find the whole thing rather amusing.

"Cheer up, Hermione," the redhead had said, "I've got some good news for you!"

"Really?" asked Hermione excitedly, "You've finally decided to come to the Christmas markets with me in Germany?"

Ginny had made a face, "No, I told you I'm at my max of Christmas markets after last year when you made me go to every single Christmas market in London."

"It was hardly every market!" Hermione had exclaimed indignantly.

"Ok, ok, I exaggerate," smiled Ginny, "but only slightly. No the good news is that I've found you a date with another eligible bachelor."

"Nooooo," said Hermione, rather dramatically in Ginny's opinion, "No way! I told you after the last disaster I wasn't letting you set me up with anyone ever again."

Ginny had been true to her word and after Hermione's 'Quill Moment' with Malfoy, had immediately set about finding Hermione a date. It hadn't been that hard actually. As soon as she'd put word out there that Hermione Granger was in fact interested in dating, lots of men started showing an interest.

What had followed was what Hermione referred to as her 'dating season' where she had obediently went on every date Ginny set her up with. Now some of the men were nice enough, and some even made it to a second date, but when she would have her debrief with Ginny afterwards, the conclusion was always, in Ginny's words, that she "wasn't really feeling it."

After the last date had ended with him trying to convert her to a cult, she had declared that Ginny was no longer allowed to set her up with anyone.

Hermione did however value her 'dating season.' Each date had helped her work out what she was actually looking for in a partner as well as getting her over her fears of dating in general. She had to admit that chemistry was important, that there had to be an attraction there. Just lining up on paper wasn't enough.

She wanted someone who could keep up with her when she spoke and not just nod along, pretending to understand what she was talking about. She wanted someone who would challenge her as well as someone she could have fun with.

Hermione wasn't sure if such a partner existed, but she was determined not to settle for something mediocre, and in the meantime was getting on with her life and enjoying it.

Now, her alarm was going off again and Hermione knew she had to get up and face the day. Just as she had summoned the energy to have a shower she heard a tapping on the window. She normally didn't get her post till slightly later so feeling slightly puzzled she walked over to the window. A large, rather snooty looking owl was waiting for her with a rectangular wooden box in a wicker basket.

She offered the owl some owl treats which it turned its beak up at, obviously finding them to be rather inferior from its standard fare. The box looked rather fancy and Hermione cautiously opened it and she couldn't help but laugh out loud at its contents.

It was a rather expensive looking French wine, called 'Three French Hens.' It was a Merlot, which was her drink of preference, and it described itself as a 'warm and rustic red, freshly laid en France!'

The gift sender had perhaps got the message that there were only so many birds you could send a girl before she became extremely aggravated.

Hermione's brain went into analytical mode, who would know that she drank Merlot? Well anyone who had seen her drink at The Leaky Cauldron, after all her lack of adventurous ordering was a running joke with Tom the landlord.

She'd made a mental note to update Harry later and check in with how his investigations were going.

She looked thoughtfully again at the wine, the bottle was really beautiful and she could tell it was clearly very expensive. She decided to open it when she had finally completed her To Do List as a well-earned reward.

At work she felt really motivated and, while listening to Christmas music of course, she whizzed through her To Do List. Even the thought of her weekly meeting with Malfoy the next day wasn't enough to spoil her good mood.