"We're going too fast! We're going to crash!"
"No, we're not. Just lean when I lean."
Hermione did as George Weasley told her and let him steer them expertly, if a bit recklessly, up and down the snowy hills near the Burrow. They traveled at high speed in a sled powered by magic, narrowly missing the scattered trees along their path, and he was laughing and whooping with glee while she clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Only when they finally came to a stop did Hermione give a shaky laugh in relief that the ride was over. She gratefully climbed off the sled and found George grinning at her. She sobered at once.
"Don't tell me you weren't having fun just now," he said.
"You mean when I wasn't fearing for my life? I don't know how I let you guys talk me into doing that." Hermione brushed the snow from her coat and jeans. When she glanced up at him again, George was still looking at her in amusement. "What are you smiling about?"
"Nothing." He shook his head, all innocence. "Nothing at all."
"Okay. It was a little bit fun," she admitted grudgingly. "But there's no way I'm doing it again. It's too dangerous."
"That's fair. At least you gave it a try." He stepped towards her then, and she froze as he raised his hand to her hair. "You had some snow," he said in response to her questioning eyes.
"Oh. Well, thanks," she said awkwardly, thinking of Remus and subtly shifting away from the Weasley.
George's expression turned serious as he gazed at her. "Hermione, have you ever thought—?"
A scream of exhilaration interrupted his question. Hermione turned around just as Ron and Luna came zooming into view on their own sled. They couldn't have appeared at a more welcome time for her. She was nearly certain now that what Ginny had been telling her about George fancying her was right.
When she told her this as they walked apart from the others on their way back to the Burrow, Ginny wasn't surprised to be proven correct. "He asked me earlier, very casually in conversation, if you were dating anybody."
"And what did you tell him?"
"I told him you were sort of involved with someone and asked him why he wanted to know. He just said he was curious and then changed the topic. But I wouldn't put it past him to try to corner you later and ask you out."
Hermione still couldn't fathom why George would be interested in her, but she put off musing that mystery and said to Ginny, "Everything seems great between you and Harry. You seem as in love as ever."
"Yeah, you were right. I was worrying for nothing. He told me these past few months have been really hard for him too, so we just want to make the most of the holidays before I have to go back to school." After plowing their way through the snow a few more feet, Ginny added, "You and Lupin should do the same. Maybe, when he comes later, you can get him on his own and talk." Her eyes gleamed mischievously. "Or maybe do more than talk."
"Ginny!"
"Just saying. You never know what might happen tonight."
Hermione narrowed her eyes at her friend. "Why do I get the feeling you're up to something?"
"Because you know me too well."
"What are you—?"
"You'll find out soon enough," she replied with an impish grin.
Hermione, Harry, Luna, and the youngest four Weasleys reached the Burrow just as Hagrid was arriving. They all gathered in the living room where a beautifully decorated Christmas tree stood tall and festive in the corner, stockings hung from the mantel above the blazing fire, and garlands of holly joined gold and silver streamers around the room.
Everyone was in merry spirits, but as time passed and Remus still hadn't arrived, Hermione began to worry that he wouldn't show up this evening. It wasn't until about half an hour later as she stepped away from her friends' chatter and into the kitchen to fetch more butterbeers for everyone that he finally arrived. She'd just loaded into her arms as many butterbeers as she could carry when Mrs. Weasley, who had been shooting annoyed looks at her daughter-in-law, Fleur, who was apparently trying to take over the dinner preparations, looked out the window and announced, "Remus is here!"
In her excitement, Hermione dropped a butterbeer and knocked to the floor the silver platter that had been on the counter beside her. She cursed silently at the mess she'd made — the nerves she sometimes felt around Remus often made her nearly as clumsy as Tonks.
While she did her best to quickly clean up her mess, she heard Fleur and Mrs. Weasley scramble to the door to greet Remus. To Mrs. Weasley's further annoyance, Fleur got there first.
"Eet is good to see you again, Remus! Oh, you didn't 'ave to… Let me take zat for you."
"I'm so glad you could make it, Remus. Happy Christmas Eve!"
Hermione set the butterbeers on the counter along with the platter she'd knocked to the ground and turned to the door where Mrs. Weasley was giving Remus a hug. He stepped toward Hermione next, flashing her a warm smile, and she beamed in return. He looked especially handsome this evening, perhaps because it had been a while since she'd last seen him. It'd been nearly a week — much too long in her opinion.
"Hi, Remus."
"Happy Christmas Eve, Hermione." He came in for a hug, and spurred by her nervous energy Hermione did something without thinking: she kissed him on the cheek, catching them both off guard.
Her face felt warm as she pulled away from him, but fortunately a distraction came in the form of Harry.
"Hermione, where—?" Harry started, but then he caught sight of the new arrival. "Remus! How have you been?" he said, coming forward to shake his hand.
"Fantastic," Remus replied just as cheerfully. "And you? I hear you've been excelling in your Auror training."
The pair moved into the living room to talk and Hermione followed.
"Where's the butter — Oh," Ginny said, spotting Remus and grinning. "I see you've brought something better instead. No matter. It looks like Ron and Luna have forgotten all about the butterbeer they wanted." Hermione followed the redhead's gaze, which had roamed over to the pair talking and laughing by the busily-ornamented Christmas tree. "Hey, you don't think…?" Ginny whispered, her eyebrows rising incredulously. "Ron and Luna…?"
It certainly did look like something was developing between them. Hermione shrugged and smiled. "Crazier things have happened."
A short while later, Mrs. Weasley and Fleur announced that dinner was ready. The party managed to seat themselves comfortably enough in the tight quarters of the kitchen, Ginny slyly maneuvering them all so that Hermione ended up sitting next to Remus, and they enjoyed a delightful and delicious dinner in which laughter erupted around the table more and more frequently as the bottles of wine and firewhiskey steadily depleted.
Afterwards, Hermione passed up a game of Exploding Snap with Ginny, Harry, Fred, and George and instead joined Remus and Bill's conversation about a controversial article on goblins that had recently appeared in the Daily Prophet. Their discussion was cut short, however, when Fleur rolled her eyes and gave a dramatic sigh as Mrs. Weasley tuned into the Christmas broadcast by her favorite singer, Celestina Warbeck. While Bill hurried over to the pair of testy witches to smooth things over, Hermione caught Remus's eye and laughed.
"It seems this has become a Christmas tradition for the Weasley family," he said, watching the scene play out between Bill, Fleur, and Mrs. Weasley.
"Speaking of Christmas traditions…" Hermione got up from her seat to retrieve a present from under the Christmas tree. She handed it to Remus upon her return. "I know we're not supposed to open gifts until morning, but I won't be here tomorrow — I'm spending Christmas with my parents — so I thought you could open the present I got you now."
She watched as Remus happily obliged and unwrapped his gift to reveal a book of poetry by Rumi.
"I thought of you when I saw this in the bookshop," she told him as he studied the beautiful, richly colored cover. The words that were engraved on the necklace Remus had given her for Christmas in the past, "be silently drawn," had been taken from a poem by Rumi, so she figured he was a fan of his work.
Remus glanced up at her, looking amazed. "So you're familiar with Rumi?"
"Yes. I've been reading a lot of him lately. Do you like it?"
He chuckled in response. "Wait a moment. I'd like you to open my gift for you."
He strode over to the Christmas tree and returned with her present. Hermione tore off the wrapping to uncover… a lightly worn copy of a book of Rumi's poetry. She raised her eyebrows in the same astonishment Remus had shown.
He smiled. "I thought you might enjoy it, and I suppose I was right. I especially like this translation and particular collection of poems, but I couldn't find another copy of the book, so I thought I'd give you mine."
Hermione opened the book and found a name written inside in elegantly looping letters. "Hope Howell?"
"My mother. It used to belong to her. She was a big fan of Rumi. When my father was courting her, he gave her a necklace he'd had specially engraved with a phrase from one of Rumi's poems. It was one of her most treasured possessions."
Hermione froze — was the necklace his father had given his mother the same one Remus had given her when he was seventeen? It had to be... She'd had no idea it had once belonged to his mother.
She gazed at the man before her, her heart swelling. Because she realized his gift had been more personal than she'd thought. She imagined the necklace must have meant something special to him since it had belonged to his late mother and probably represented to him the love between his parents, and the fact that he'd decided to give it to her…
Remus must have felt her staring because he stopped leafing through the pages of the book she'd given him and looked up at her again.
"That's sweet," she managed to say, her voice a bit thick with emotion. "The necklace… Thank you, Remus." He gave her a questioning look, and she quickly added, "For the book. I love it."
Hermione wondered if he could see in her eyes how incredibly touched she was by his gifts, how it meant much more to her than he could possibly know due to his Obliviated memory, because he held her gaze, a slight, thoughtful frown appearing on his face as he studied her. She wished desperately that he could read the truth in her eyes. She wished desperately that he could remember and that she could thank him properly and, more than anything else, that she could kiss him…
As if he'd read her mind, he glanced down at her lips and her heart gave a little flutter. But the moment that had been building between them ended abruptly when a sudden commotion broke out upon the conclusion of Harry and the Weasleys' game of Exploding Snap. Startled by the outburst of cheers and groans, Hermione jumped and nearly dropped her book to the floor. She then had to clutch it tightly when George, reveling in his victory, unexpectedly grabbed her hand, pulled her up to her feet, and twirled her around before releasing her again and doing the same with Fleur.
Hermione, who had already felt a bit dizzy before George had spun her around, blinked and slowly returned her gaze to Remus. "I… I think I'll go put this away," she said to him rather breathlessly as George continued to celebrate his win in exuberant fashion and the others playfully protested their loss. "I don't think it'll be safe out here." Remus, a faint frown still on his face as he looked up at her, agreed.
Grateful for the excuse to step away for a while, Hermione headed to the hall and up the stairs to Ginny's bedroom to carefully tuck the book away in her bag. She needed a moment to herself after what had just happened, what she'd just learned.
When she'd succeeded in reining in her emotions a bit, she returned to the living room. Remus was deep in conversation with Mr. Weasley, so she joined Harry by the Christmas tree, alone with him for the first time this evening.
"I've hardly had a chance to talk with you. Ginny's been monopolizing your time," she said teasingly. Harry grinned. "But I don't blame her. So how have you been?"
"Missing you. It's strange going out on missions and not having you around to bail us out of sticky situations. But tell me, how have you been doing? Ginny mentioned in a letter a while ago that you were out of sorts but she didn't know why, but when I wrote you, you said you were perfectly fine. What's going on really, Hermione?"
Harry regarded her with such brotherly concern, and it wasn't until right that moment that Hermione realized just how much she missed having him around. She wanted to talk to him and tell him everything, but she held back. This wasn't the time or the place.
"I was going through a bit of a rough time, but I promise you things are better now." She smiled thinking of the gifts Remus had given her and how things truly were better now. Before Harry could question her further, though, Ginny joined them.
"Where have you been?" Hermione asked her. The youngest Weasley had been mysteriously out of sight since losing the game of Exploding Snap.
"Around. Come with me, will you?
Without waiting for an answer, Ginny grabbed her arm, said "excuse us, Harry," and dragged her to the hallway. She directed the bemused Hermione into standing in a very specific location and said, "Now take a step back."
"What? Why?"
"Just do it."
"Fine. But you have to tell me what you're up to." Hermione took a step back so that she was standing at the foot of the stairs.
"Perfect. Stay right there."
Ginny turned to leave, and Hermione called out, "No, wait! You have to tell me—"
"I'm going to get Remus over here so you can talk. Alone."
Hermione wasn't sure she liked the smile on her friend's face. "Ginny—"
"Just keep standing exactly where you are, all right? Or you can sit down on that step. That might look more natural."
None of this felt natural to Hermione. "I don't understand why—"
"Please, Hermione, just trust me, okay? Stay there."
Ginny disappeared back into the sitting room and Hermione stood there, shifting from one foot to the other, wondering what the youngest Weasley was really up to. Before she could figure it out, George strolled into the hallway. He gave her a sort of amused, inquiring look when he spotted her.
"Just what are you doing standing there so awkwardly?" he asked as he stepped toward her, joining her at the foot of the stairs.
"Um… I'm not entirely sure, to be honest," she replied.
George smiled. "Fancied getting away from the party, did you? Couldn't stand listening to any more of Celestina Warbeck's warbling?"
"No. Well, yes. She sings beautifully, but…" Hermione remembered Ginny's warning earlier about George cornering her and decided it would be best to return to the party. "I should really get back, actually. There's eggnog and — and — Hey!" She'd attempted to start to slowly and casually head out of the hall and toward the living room but found that she couldn't move. She tried again, but her feet wouldn't budge. "Why can't I move my legs?"
George looked down at his own legs and frowned. "I can't either." He glanced all around them, then up at the ceiling directly above their heads. "Ah. That explains it."
Hermione looked up too. "Is that—?"
"Mistletoe. And not the ordinary kind."
She turned her gaze back to George warily. "Is it one of your joke products?"
"Yeah, it's part of the new line of Christmas-themed gags we put out this year… But how did it get here?"
"You didn't hang it up?"
"Definitely not. Neither would Fred. This one's not ready for use. It's one of the prototypes we used to practice on and it still has some of the kinks we eventually worked out for the final version of the product. I wonder who put it up there."
"It must have been Ginny." Hermione finally knew what her friend had been planning and she couldn't believe it. She'd make sure to give her a piece of her mind later.
"Ginny? Why would she—?"
"Never mind that. Is immobilizing a person one of the kinks?"
"It's supposed to do that, actually. And we're not immobilized." To demonstrate this, George took a step closer to her. "See? We can move towards each other, just not away. Fred and I enchanted the mistletoe so that when a pair gets caught beneath it, they're trapped there until they kiss. Once they do, they're free to move wherever they like, and the mistletoe disappears again and reappears at some other random location within a room — best way to catch people unawares."
Hermione digested this information with unease. "So… you and I will be trapped here until we — until we kiss?"
"That's right," he answered, eyes gleaming.
"And it has to be on the lips?" she asked, hoping he'd say no, hoping there was a way around this.
"Right again. You could get away with a kiss on the cheek with one of the sprigs of mistletoe we sell at the shop, but this mistletoe demands a proper kiss. Now, aren't you glad you're stuck here with the better-looking twin?" He winked at her. "I promise you, I'm an excellent kisser."
Before Hermione could overthink this and fully panic, George took ahold of her, dipped her gracefully as she'd only ever seen done in old Hollywood movies, and kissed her full on the mouth. She felt a blush creep into her cheeks as he set her upright again, and a grin slowly crossed his face.
Hermione cleared her throat. "So, um, we can move away from each other now?"
"Only if you want to."
She did. She tried to move her legs yet again, but still she was unable.
"Ah, yes, that's one of the kinks," George told her. "This mistletoe's a bit temperamental. Sometimes it takes more than one kiss before it decides to release a couple from its clutches."
He pressed his lips to hers once more, and though Hermione wasn't exactly comfortable doing this, she had to admit George wasn't lying when he'd said he was an excellent kisser.
Even so, when the kiss had gone on for longer than necessary, she pushed him away. "That's enough, don't you think?" She attempted to step away from him, and this time she was successful.
"Hermione, wait — can we talk?"
"Hermione?" Ginny called, suddenly reappearing in the hallway with Harry by her side. Upon seeing Hermione and George together, she clapped a hand to her mouth. "Oh no…"
"Could you guys give us a moment?" George said to his younger sister.
"No, we can't. Sorry, George." Ginny grabbed Hermione's arm like she'd done earlier and marched her up the stairs, Harry following behind them. Up in her bedroom, door slammed shut, she said, "I'm sorry, Hermione. I thought—"
"You were going to trap Remus and me under the mistletoe? That was your plan? That would have been bad, Ginny, forcing him to kiss me like that!"
"It wouldn't have been forcing him, it would have been giving him an opportunity to acknowledge his feelings for you! I thought this way you two would have to talk about things. But, well, my plan sort of backfired."
"Yeah, you trapped me and George under the mistletoe instead!"
"Not only that. Lupin saw you kissing."
"What?"
"I told him I'd just seen something under the stairs that looked like one of the creatures we learned about in third year — said it was maybe an Ashwinder or a Bundimun — and I asked him if he could check it out, you know, as an excuse to get him into the hallway with you. But he must have seen you kissing George because he came right back out in a hurry, mumbled something about needing to get some air, and went outside. He looked pretty upset. Which is good, isn't it? If it upset him to see you kissing George, then that's a good sign, right?"
Hermione shook her head, still slightly irritated with Ginny and not knowing what to make of Remus's reaction.
"What in Merlin's bloody name is going on?" Harry demanded suddenly, making both girls jump. They had completely forgotten he was in the room with them. Utterly bewildered, he looked from Hermione to Ginny and back again. "Why is Remus so upset? And why would you want to trap him and Hermione beneath the mistletoe? What things do you need to talk about?"
The girls exchanged a look.
"Maybe you should tell him," Ginny said quietly after a few moments. "I think he'd also like to know about…you know…Lily and James."
"What do my parents have to do with anything?" Harry inquired, looking even more confused. "I thought this was about Remus."
Hermione bit her lip as she considered Harry. She had always felt guilty about not sharing with her best friend all that she had experienced with his parents in the past. She'd always wanted to but had held back because doing so would have meant also telling him about Remus, and she hadn't been ready for that yet. But maybe this was the time and place to tell him after all.
"Harry," she said finally, "I think you should sit down."
Harry plopped down on Ginny's bed, watching Hermione curiously as she sat down next to him. After an encouraging look from Ginny and a deep breath, Hermione began. She told him an abridged version of her time traveling tale, starting with the rose and being sent to the past where his parents, Sirius, and Remus had befriended her, and ending with the way the situation was between her and Remus now. Harry listened in silence the entire time, astonishment registering on his face more than anything else, and he remained quiet after she finished her story, his brow slightly furrowed in thought.
"Harry?" Hermione said tentatively. "What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking… Wow, Hermione." He ran a hand through his hair then rubbed the back of his neck, audibly letting out his breath. "You and Remus… I suppose… I dunno. That's — Well, that's great."
"Great?" That was definitely not what she'd expected him to say.
"Yeah. It's sort of… fantastic."
"You — you really think so?"
"I'll be honest, I would have never imagined you and Remus… And if someone would've told me before that you two… I would've thought it strange. But now… I think about it now and it doesn't seem so strange at all. Somehow it seems…"
"Right," Ginny supplied, looking at her pensively. "I think that whenever I see you two together. I've been watching you guys a lot ever since you told me about all this, seeing how you get on. Everyone thinks you make a great pair running the Defense Club and you work really well together, but it's more than that. Haven't you noticed how everyone always asks you to do demonstrations in class and practice duels in Defense Club? I think it's because they like to see you two together. You have some special sort of chemistry even when you're dueling that's fun for us to watch."
"Remus was telling me about that earlier, about Defense Club and you being his assistant," Harry added thoughtfully. "He seemed really happy, Hermione. I thought it was just because he was teaching again, but now I think it might be because of you."
Hermione had also noticed Remus to be much more lighthearted of late, but she would never presume it was because of her. Still, Harry's words, the support of her friends, made her feel far better than she had several weeks ago when she'd been keeping all this to herself.
"Hermione," Harry said quietly after a while, "could you — could you tell me more about my parents?"
"Oh, Harry!" she said, wrapping her arms around him. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you before. I really wanted to but — oh, they were so wonderful and it isn't fair that I got to spend time with them when you couldn't. I'm sorry."
"It's all right, Hermione. I understand. Could you just tell me more about what they were like?"
"Your mum," she said, releasing him, "she was as lovely as everyone has always described her…"
Hermione shared with her friend everything she could about his parents' personalities — their humor, courage, kindness, and loyalty — and their blossoming romance — how they'd first gotten together and the love she'd witnessed between them — while Ginny held his hand and rested her head against his shoulder.
So the person responsible for Hermione's former boy troubles and present happiness was George Weasley, not Viktor Krum as he'd previously believed. That had been made abundantly clear to Remus a few minutes ago when he'd glimpsed them together in the secluded hallway. He was pacing around the yard now, kicking at the snow every so often and attempting to rid his mind of the image of Hermione kissing George at the foot of the stairs.
He'd wanted to tear George's throat out when he saw them. Something dangerous had stirred from deep within and he'd felt a powerful surge of anger and possessiveness, a startling flash of the wolfish aggression he rarely experienced at any time other than the night of the full moon. But more troubling still was the fact that the wolf wasn't the only part of him to have had a strong negative reaction to seeing Hermione kiss George. Every part of him had deeply disliked it, and he disliked even more that he'd so deeply disliked it because that could only mean that he… No, he couldn't possibly…
"What are you doing out there, Remus? It's freezing!" Molly's voice called out from the kitchen door. "Come inside for some hot cocoa."
Remus followed her back to the living room, but the cheerfulness that had filled him when he'd first arrived to the Burrow had disappeared. Now he was trying hard to keep his troubled state of mind controlled. That was increasingly difficult to do, however, as time passed and neither Hermione nor George returned to the party. He had to constantly remind himself that it was none of his business where they were or what they were doing. It shouldn't concern him. It didn't concern him. Still, he felt a slight sense of relief when George finally reemerged in the living room alone. Hermione came much later accompanied by Harry and Ginny.
Not long after that, everyone turned in for the night. Remus stayed in the bedroom the Weasleys offered him, but sleep did not come easily. His agitated state and rampant thoughts, scored by Hagrid's rumbling snores from somewhere below him in the Burrow, disturbed his rest…
The pale light of dawn peeked through the window as Remus sat drinking hot cocoa in the kitchen Christmas morning, trying to ease his troubled mind.
"You're up early." Remus looked up from his mug to see Hermione had joined him in the kitchen. His feelings of distress only intensified when the sight of her strongly roused his inner wolf's desire — was it already that time of the month for him? "Couldn't wait to unwrap the rest of your presents?" she teased.
He forced a smile as he suppressed his wolfish impulses and tried not to imagine her wrapped up in a bow. "Would you like some cocoa?"
Though she looked tempted, she responded in the negative. "I need to get going."
"You're leaving?"
"I'm spending Christmas with my parents."
"Oh, yes, I remember," he said in disappointment.
"Actually, I'm glad I got a chance to see you before I left, Remus. I wanted to tell you… what you saw last night between George and me… it's not what you think. I—"
"You don't have to explain anything to me," he interrupted, not exactly eager to hear more about her romantic situation with the Weasley twin. "It's none of my business."
She seemed to want to say something more, but she dropped the subject instead. "I suppose I should get going, then."
He walked her to the door. "Enjoy the rest of your holidays, Hermione."
"You too, Remus."
What happened next absolutely stunned him: one moment they were standing on the threshold and she was wishing him a merry Christmas; the next moment, her lips were on his.
She pulled away from him quickly, her eyes wide and a blush painting her cheeks. Then she turned on her heel, her dark hair flying behind her as she took off across the snowy yard. It took a second to regain his senses, but when he did, he chased after her. He reached her by the gate and caught her wrist to keep her from fleeing.
She stared up at him anxiously, her eyes searching his, and he gazed back at her with a sudden, fierce hunger growing in his heart. And then Hermione was in his arms. He was kissing her without the slightest reservation, his fingers twining in her hair, and she was kissing him back with a passion that electrified him—
Heart pounding wildly against his chest, Remus awoke Christmas morning to the sound of Hagrid's rumbling snores.
A/N: Hehe it was just a dream :P
Thanks to each of you awesome reviewers! And thank you so much to whoever nominated this story for the Marauder Medals 2016 Best Work In Progress! Wow, that was a wonderful surprise! If you'd like to vote, you can go to shriekingshacksociety*.we*ebly.c*om (just remove the asterisks). Voting ends November 30th.