Chapter 22

December 24, Grimmauld Place

Harry's holiday party was in full swing. Teddy, Andromeda, The Weasleys, eight people from his office, Katie, and Clarice were talking, eating, laughing, drinking and encouraging Hermione to take a turn at the piano. Teddy sat next to her on the bench and watched her play, fascinated as her fingers moved over the keys. Hermione and Harry exchanged an amused glance when they saw Ron and Katie talking quietly in a quieter corner of the library. When 10 p.m. approached, Andromeda and Teddy thanked Harry for the party. It was way past Teddy's bedtime, and of course the boy disagreed, but his yawn and drooping eyes told otherwise.

"I'll come and see you again before you go back to school," Harry said. "I want to know how you're doing at Hogwarts, how things are with your friends, school stuff."

"Of course, if he wrote home more often..." Andromeda teased.

Teddy rolled his eyes. Harry understood that 12 year old boys just didn't sit down and pen letters as much as the 12 year old girls did. He chuckled and ruffled the boy's hair.

"When you come over...can you bring Hermione? Do you think she would mind helping me with some things? It's just that she set a lot of records with her marks 'cause she's so smart, so I figured-" the boy babbled, slightly embarrassed.

Harry saved him from further embarrassment. "I'll ask her, but I'm sure that she'd enjoy helping you."

Boy and grandmother gave Harry one last hug, a quick wave to Hermione, and left. He returned to the party to see Hermione performing her unofficial role of hostess, navigating through the throng of party-goers with a pitcher of Butterbeer and making sure everyone was having a good time. She caught his eye and joined him, refilling his mug.

"It's going to be much quieter at my parent's home," she said. They were planning to spend most of Christmas Day at the Grangers the next day.

"That's not a bad thing, just different," he said and glanced at something over her shoulder.

His lips twitched, causing her to look at what amused him. Luna and Crooks were on the couch, and Luna was talking earnestly to the cat. Amazingly enough, the cat was sitting there; his tail wrapped neatly around himself and appeared to be listening to her. Crooks never paid more than ten seconds of attention to her, except when he wanted food. He would look around imperiously, flick his tail impatiently, or lick his paws in boredom.

"That's amazing," Hermione said.

"She's a naturalist, so she has an affinity for animals," Harry pondered with a shrug.

Just after midnight, Harry wished the last of the party-goers a happy Christmas and closed the door.

"What a party," he said and flopped down on the couch

She was flitting about the room, cleaning and straightening the library before she moved to the dining room.

"Thank goodness it's only this room, the dining room, and the kitchen or we'd be here all night cleaning," she said.

"You don't have to do that," he said.

"If it's not done now, we'll wake up to the mess. Do you want to wake up to a mess on Christmas morning? Besides, we do have magic, remember? It'll take no time at all," she said.

In the morning...

"I really need to go to the market," Harry said, taking bowls from the cupboard. "We shouldn't be having cold cereal on Christmas morning."

"Then let's go my flat, I can whip up some waffles," she said.

Ron came into the dining room and went straight for the cupboard stash of Every Wizard's Hang-Over Elixir.

"I'm making waffles, want to join us for breakfast?" Hermione asked.

"No thanks, I told mum I'd be at the house today," Ron said and poured the elixir in a cup of tea Harry slid to him. "The whole family will be there, so there'll be a huge breakfast."

"Tell them hi for me, I'll drop by later," she said.

"Me too," Harry said.

"Sure thing, Happy Christmas," Ron said and left the kitchen, throwing a quick wink at Harry.

At Hermione's flat...

"I need to go back to the house to change," Harry said when he took the last bite of his waffles.

"But you look fine," she said.

"I'm not going to your parent's home for a holiday occasion in a jeans and t-shirt," he said and gave her a quick kiss.

She shrugged. "All right, see you in a bit," she said to the floo, coating the last bites of her waffle in syrup.

Seconds after Harry left by floo, the cat door swung open and Crooks came in.

"There you are, I was wondering if I'd see you today," she cooed.

The cat sniffed the air, flicked his tail, and made his way to his bowl in his usual imperious manner.

"I got you something different, the pet shop is carrying some new kinds of food," she said.

He licked his paw without a care in the world. She took a tin of creamy salmon from the cupboard and opened it. He sniffed the air and started winding his way around her legs. She crouched to scratch behind his ears and under his chin, then filled his bowl. He mrowed and settled down to eat.

"Now I want to change my clothes," she said.

She rifled through her wardrobe and picked out an older but nice green cable-knit jumper and a brown broomstick skirt. She let her hair down and fussed with it to give it fuller "accidental-messy-on-purpose" (Ginny's words) look. Luna called it windblown, Katie called it shag hair. Whatever you called it, Harry liked her hair down, and it was easier, so she left it that way. The floo sounded.

"You here?" he called out.

"Yeah, just getting my shoes," she said.

She came back into the lounge to see him there with a green sack of presents and a Santa's helper hat on his head. He had changed into black trousers and a dark green button down shirt. He looked fantastic, even with the silly hat.

"You look beautiful," he said and buried his face in her hair.

"You should show up one day in your formal Auror uniform, mum would faint," she said and patted his chest.

At the Grangers, Ian warmly welcomed the two and was echoed by a happy squeal from Evie. She was moving fast along the furniture to make her way towards them.

"Hi kids!" Grace called from the kitchen.

"She's getting fast," Hermione said.

"The day care says that she's the fastest baby there," Ian said proudly. "Your mum's elbow deep in some kind of dough."

"I'll help," Hermione said and gave the baby to Harry.

She immediately went for his glasses, but he applied a sticking charm to them ahead of time. He laughed at the baby's confused frown as she tugged at the glasses, until the ball of fluff on the tip of the hat caught her attention.

"Come on lad, let's get these presents under the tree," Ian said to Harry. "I've got a nice bottle of sherry waiting to be enjoyed."

In the kitchen, Hermione was pressing Christmas tree shaped biscuit cutters into biscuit dough. Grace opened the oven to baste the turkey.

"That smells great," Hermione said.

"I decided to honey-bake it year, instead of herb-baked. Let's get some of these biscuits baking and join the others, it'll be at least an hour before the turkey is done."

"The bird smells fantastic," Ian said and gave Grace a glass of sherry.

Harry cleared his throat. "I know we're not going to open presents until after the meal, but I have a present for Hermione that just can't wait."

He summoned a flat box from under the tree and gave it to her. She opened it and saw a stack of parchment.

"It's a genealogical study," he said. "Haven't you always wondered where you got your magic? As powerful as you are, as naturally as it comes to you?"

"Love, I'm 30 years old, I would have found out before now, so I quit wondering about it. Muggles that have magic are an anomaly, it didn't come from anywhere."

"But what if it you aren't an anomaly?" Harry countered.

"If there was a person with magic in either of our lines, we would have known," Ian said. "I did an ancestry project at university."

"You did a muggle ancestry project, while I initiated a magical ancestry project on Hermione's behalf this past summer as a birthday present for her. I agree with the researchers at the Ministry about witches or wizards present in ancestral lines. Witchcraft persecution was rampant in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, so out of fear or embarrassment..."

"They quit magic," Hermione said.

"Did you find someone?" Ian asked.

"Let Hermione tell you. Go on love," he encouraged.

She read each page and flipped to the next, coming to the last page. She gasped and looked at Harry, then her father, then read the last entry on the last page.

"In 1620, Waverly Haskins, of Coventry, was accused of Witchcraft and burned at the stake," she read.

"There's no Haskins in my line, and no one in my line came from Coventry," Ian said.

"After Waverly was killed, they moved and changed their name to protect the family to prevent further suspicion," Hermione said. "They changed the family name to Granger and moved to London."

"That's astonishing," Grace said.

"Clever too. There's so many Grangers in London, even at that time, so it would have been easier to blend in," Ian said. "I'll be right back," he said and left the room.

He returned minutes later with an old file of papers. "My university ancestry project."

He showed them the last page. "This is as far back as I could find, a Bernard Granger, who died in the revolution of 1688 in an anti-Catholic riot."

"And this Waverly Haskins was Bernard Granger's grandfather!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Simply astonishing," Ian said, echoing Grace's earlier sentiment.

"What about my line?" Grace asked.

"Sorry, Mrs. Granger, no magic there. Your ancestors consisted of knights, sailors, farmers, and you even had a member of parliament tucked in there a long time ago," Harry said, grinning.

After the turkey, potatoes, stuffing, etc...

"Here we are!" Grace said and emerged from the kitchen with a flaming Christmas pudding to general applause.

"Mum, that's the best ever!" Hermione said.

"If that's as good as the turkey was, I might be staying here for good," Harry said.

"That reminds me," Ian said. "I have a surprise, for Gracie mainly."

"Oh?" Grace asked and put slices of cake on plates.

"I got the insurance settlement three days ago," Ian said.

Gracie almost dropped the knife. "And you said nothing?" she asked.

"I wanted it to be a surprise for you...I couldn't figure out a way to leave it under the tree. We got the full settlement amount."

Grace gasped and hurried around the table to hug her husband. "We can start looking for a house!" she gushed.

"What a great present for them," Hermione said quietly to Harry and fed him a piece of cake.

"Delicious," he said softly and fed her a piece in return.

"Yes, quite delicious," she said, quickly licking her lips.

They were startled out of their own little temporary world by Gracie's voice. "The cake must be better than I thought," she said lightly.

When they finished with their cake, they went to the lounge for presents, music, Christmas telly programmes; just enjoying each other's company in the warm, cozy flat while snow fell heavily outside.

"Here, you first," Hermione said, giving Grace a large, heavy box. Harry gave Ian another box.

"They go together," he explained.

Grace gasped when she saw the box. It was the most elegant Noritake dinnerware on the market. Ian opened matching glassware.

"I'll use this for New Year's supper, you'll be here, won't you?" Grace asked, her eyes shining.

"Of course," Hermione said, winking at Harry. The matching glassware was his idea.

"These flutes look too elegant to use," he said, admiring one at different angles. "Fine gifts, you two, fine indeed."

Hermione opened her first present from her parents. It was a leather-bound, golden-gilded Jane Austen collection. She was speechless.

"I think she approves," Grace said. Hermione nodded and carefully turned the pages of Mansfield Park.

"Harry, we sort of knew you would be with our pumpkin today, and we weren't sure what to get you," Grace said and gave him a present.

"We hope you like it," Ian said.

His gift was a billfold of the finest leather. He took his from his pocket and held it up for inspection. It was old, discolored, and barely held together.

"This is excellent, just what I needed," he said and started transferring the contents of the old billfold to the new.

Hermione gave him the next one. He was amazed when he saw the contents of the box. It contained Auror handbooks from 12 different countries from around the world.

"I thought you might like them as collector's items," she said.

"How did you get these?" he asked, flipping through the Afrikaans Beskermer* manual.

"Hey, I'm a true bookworm," she said with a casual shrug.

"I can't wait to show these to the blokes at the office," he said.

Evie of course received a treasure trove of toys. Harry gave the fun toys while Hermione leaned toward the learning kind. She had already scattered the bin of brightly colored building blocks while banging on a kiddie drum. She looked at the adults and squealed in glee. Hermione couldn't help but to scoop the baby in her arms and laugh with her.

"Ginny's baby is due next month, so I'll have another pretty baby to cuddle," she said.

"How is she?" Grace asked.

"Exhausted most of the time, glad that it's almost over with," Hermione said.

Knocking was heard at the door.

"Who could that be? Surely a salesman wouldn't come calling on today of all days," Grace asked. "Ian, did you invite someone else today? No matter, we still have plenty of food..." she said, contemplating unexpected guest hospitality as Ian left the room.

Right on time! Harry thought.

They heard the front door close and to everyone's (except Harry) surprise, Crooks trotted into the lounge as if he owned the place and went straight for Hermione.

"He was just sitting in front of the door," Ian said, perplexed.

"How did you get here?" she asked, spying a heavily-jeweled ring on the cat's collar.

Harry almost burst out laughing at her perplexed look. He could see just by the look on her face what she was thinking. Why or how did her cat suddenly appear at her parent's house, on Christmas, sporting a ring on his collar? Who got Crooks a ring?

"Cat jewelry? How odd," Hermione said.

"It's not for the cat, it's for the cat's mum...if she'll take it," Harry said, his mouth suddenly dry as the Sahara in July. He removed the cat's collar and slid the ring from it. Hermione was gazing at him, tears in her eyes. Grace was holding Ian's hand. He took a quick sip of sherry and cleared his throat.

"To me, this has been almost twenty years in the making. You took hold of a skinny, orphaned, eleven year old boy's heart and held on tight. We've been through the worst, seen each other at our worst, but being with you has been the best time of my life. Even now, after all these years, you still have hold of my heart and I'm happy for it. Marry me, Hermione, and I'll promise to love you as long as forever lasts."

She nodded, wiped the tears from her cheeks, and threw herself into his arms. Grace was reaching for another tissue.

"Good lord, that's the sweetest thing I've ever heard," she declared.

Harry slid the ring on her finger and kissed her hand. "A diamond, the toughest and most precious gem on earth, like you. An amber stone match your pretty eyes, and a ruby to match the fire inside of you."

"It's perfect," she said.

They kissed heatedly, momentarily forgetting the others in the room.

"Happy Christmas," he whispered.