AN: Hey guys, I know it has been a while since I last posted. I'm truly sorry. The other day I went on a nine-hour road trip to come and visit my family, and after one night of visiting, we all caught the stomach flu. So after a lot of grossness, I'm finally healthy again and ready to update. I hope you all had a lovely (and not-so-gross) New Year's eve and I wish you all the best for the year 2018. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy!

December 20th—The Seventh Day of Christmas

"Remus?"

"Yes, my dear?"

Hermione blushed at his pet name for her, and Remus loved that blush on her cheeks. It was possibly the most adorable thing he had ever seen. "Can we go out and get a Christmas tree? I really can't stand the thought of Christmas without a tree in the house, even if we don't put any presents under it. I just really want a tree."

Remus considered this for a moment. "You're absolutely right. We must go and do it today. Do you know of any tree farms near London?"

Hermione's face lit up like…well, like a Christmas tree. "No, but we don't need to go to a tree farm for a tree. I know a gorgeous forest that is full of beautiful fir and evergreen trees. We can simply apparate there, cut it down, then shrink it so we can easily apparate back."

"Alright, sounds wonderful. Let's go then," Remus said, standing up and walking to the door.

"But Remus! We're in our pajamas! We can't go out in public looking like—oh, right. We won't be in public," Hermione laughed, smacking herself in the forehead.

"You know, for the brightest witch of your age, you can be a little slow sometimes. The rest of your generation must be pretty dim," Remus teased.

Hermione laughed. "You've met Harry and Ron. They're of about average wit these days." Hermione started to pull on her coat and scarf.

"Yikes. That's a scary thought." Remus feigned a shiver of fright as he started pulling on his winter clothing as well.

Remus took Hermione's arm, and, using side-along apparition, Hermione brought him to the Forest of Dean.

As they took in their surroundings, Hermione realized that she had apparated them right into the small clearing where she, Ron, and Harry had stayed during their hunt for the Horcruxes. It felt like an eternity ago.

"Where are we?" Remus asked, admiring the beauty of the place.

"The Forest of Dean. My parents used to bring me here as a child. The last time I was here, it was winter and Harry, Ron, and I were trying to track Voldemort's Horcruxes while trying to figure out how to destroy them," Hermione said softly.

She wasn't ecstatic to be back, but she didn't regret coming either. It was sort of nice to see how far she'd come from being a little girl camping, then a teenage girl in the middle of a war, and now an adult coming to get a Christmas tree for the house that she and her boyfriend lived in. What a refreshing thought.

Remus, on the other hand, felt really awkward at the thought of being here now. He didn't know much about what happened during that year that Hermione, Harry, and Ron ran away, but he could guess that it would have been pretty awful. Three seventeen-year-olds trying to survive alone in the forest with the weight of saving the world from a dark lord on their shoulders…probably wasn't much of a party.

"Are you alright, Hermione? We can just go to a regular old tree farm if you want…"

"Don't worry, Remus. I'm fine. There are much scarier places to visit. Hogwarts, for example, and yet I still go there.

Remus chuckled. "Not to mention you work at the Ministry of Magic, a place where you fought Death Eaters as a fifteen-year-old. You really are one tough chick, Hermione," he pointed out, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her close to him.

Hermione looked up at Remus lustfully. "Kiss me, Remus."

He happily complied. After a few minutes of making out like two hormone-crazed teenagers, Hermione pushed Remus away. "We should stop now while we can," she smirked.

Remus groaned. "Do we have to?"

"Yes, we do. It's much too cold to shag in the middle of the forest, and I have a feeling that's the direction we were headed in fifteen seconds ago."

"You're probably right, as per usual," he smiled with a frustrated sigh.

"Of course I am, though I have to admit that the thought of you pushing me up against a tree…hot."

Remus groaned again as Hermione sauntered away teasingly. And so together, they started searching for the perfect Christmas tree. After about ten minutes of searching, they found a six-foot tree that looked positively picturesque. They had to have it.

Hermione cast a strong severing hex at the tree and watched with satisfaction as it fell to its side, flinging snow at Remus. She laughed at the indignant expression on his face as he dusted off the snow from his coat and cheek.

"You're practically asking for a snowball fight, you know. And I'm warning you, James Potter taught me all of his tricks, so I am quite the fearsome snowball fight opponent."

"Hit me with one snowball, and you get no sex until the new year."

Remus' face fell in fear at the serious look on Hermione's face, and he went over to pick the tree up with his tail between his legs (pun definitely intended). They shrunk the tree so that it fit in Remus' coat pocket, then apparated back home. Only when they got back and were about to enlarge the tree did Hermione notice that they had no tree stand or ornaments.

"We could always go buy some?" Remus suggested.

"Oh, but ornaments are so expensive these days. We can't just go out and buy hundreds of lights and ornaments all in one go. Maybe we could go visit Mrs. Weasley! I know for a fact that the Weasleys have three times more ornaments than they ever use. They'd definitely lend some to us."

"Alright, and perhaps we could invite them back to decorate the tree with us. It would only be polite since it's their ornaments."

"Sounds great, only…" Hermione trailed off, unsure.

"Only?"

"Are we telling people about us yet? I don't mind if you still want to keep us quiet a little, perhaps get people comfortable with the idea of us spending lots of time together before we drop the 'we're together' bomb?" Hermione explained at a lightning tempo.

"Calm down, Hermione," Remus said, rubbing the sides of her arms soothingly, "if the speed at which you just said all that tells me anything, I take it you aren't completely ready to go public?"

Hermione's head dropped. Was there a man out there as perfect as Remus Lupin? "Please know that it has nothing to do with you. It's just that I'm not ready to tell all the Weasleys about us—especially Ron. I'll be ready soon, just not today. Is that alright with you?"

Remus kissed Hermione on the forehead. "Of course, my dear. Mum's the word for now," Remus dropped his head so that his lips were touching the shell of her ear. "But just know that as soon as you're ready, I'll want to shout this from the rooftops."

Hermione shivered and nodded, once again lustful. How did he do that? He made her go from bashful to horny in less than five seconds. Nobody had ever made her body react in this way before.

"Alright, so are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" Hermione asked, her head now spinning from the close proximity between them. How did he manage to always smell so good?

"To apparate to the burrow, silly," Remus said, all the huskiness and desire now gone from his voice, almost as though they had never been there in the first place.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Let's go."

Hermione caught the tiniest glimpse of a smug look on Remus' face before he spun on the spot and vanished into thin air. He was teasing her! He was getting revenge for when she laughed at him back in the forest. The bastard…

Hermione followed suit and apparated just outside the wards around the Burrow. Together—though with an innocent amount of distance between them—Hermione and Remus walked through the frozen marsh area and up to the front door. Mrs. Weasley must have seen them coming because the door opened before they had even reached it.

"Hermione! How lovely to see you!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, enveloping Hermione in one of her world-famous bear hugs. "Oh, and Remus, too! How wonderful to see you both!" she beamed, giving Remus a motherly hug as well.

"It's good to see you too, Molly," Remus smiled politely. That was another thing that Hermione loved about Remus; he was so polite to everyone, even to those whom he disliked.

"Oh, won't you both come in? Nearly all the family's home and they'd all love to see you both," Mrs. Weasley gushed. Hermione was now starting to feel bad that she hadn't visited Mrs. Weasley in so long. It was obvious how much she missed seeing Hermione, and Hermione was just beginning to realize how much she had missed her mother figure as well. The Weasleys were as close a thing as she had to a real family, and so Hermione felt awful for not having visited sooner.

Remus and Hermione quickly stepped into the kitchen of the burrow, eager to escape the cold. "You said most of the family is home? Who isn't?" Hermione asked, crossing her fingers that it would be Ron.

"Well, Charlie will be coming home from Romania tomorrow. Oh, and Ron is currently out with his girlfriend," Mrs. Weasley explained, and if Hermione hadn't been searching for the hint of dislike in the word 'girlfriend', she might have missed it. But it was definitely there. Just the hint of disgust on her face, disappearing before Hermione could get a really good look at it.

"Hermione! Professor Lupin! What are you doing here?" Ginny asked excitedly as she crossed from the living room to the kitchen, where Hermione and Remus were removing their winter clothes.

"Visiting, of course," Hermione chuckled, though Ginny and Mrs. Weasley didn't look entirely convinced. "Oh, fine! Remus and I want to put up a Christmas tree in Grimmauld Place but we have no ornaments and we were hoping to borrow some from you. But we also wanted to visit you all! We could have gone out and bought some, but we thought it might be nice to get together with you guys and perhaps we could all go over to Grimmauld Place to decorate? Only if you wanted, though…"

"Ooh, that sounds like fun! I love decorating Christmas trees! I'd totally be up for it!" Ginny squealed.

"We'd love to have the entire family over for dinner, Molly. It gets lonely when it's just the two of us in the house," Remus said.

"George, is that Professor Lupin that I hear?" a familiar voice asked loudly from the top of the stairs.

"I believe it is, Fred," another familiar voice responded from the same area.

"What do you reckon he's here for?"

"I dunno. Perhaps he's here to collect that essay that we never handed in back in our fifth year?"

"Never handed in or never finished?"

"Probably both."

And with that, the Weasley twins descended the staircase with their most charming smiles plastered on their faces, obviously hoping to charm their way out of trouble.

"Good day, Professor! Fancy seeing you here! I do hope you're having a wonderful holiday," one twin—Fred, if Hermione had to guess—said in his most saccharine voice.

"Oh! Hello, mum! Wow, may I just say that you look lovely in that tartan robe of yours this afternoon!" the other twin commented.

"The colour really brings out your eyes," the first one added.

"Boys! When will you ever grow up? You are much too old to play these games with me anymore. And besides, you haven't even said hello to Hermione yet in your foolish attempt at escaping trouble," Mrs. Weasley scolded.

Apparently, the boys hadn't yet noticed Hermione standing just a little behind Remus, as they both exclaimed "Hermione Granger!" when they found her and enveloped her in a big hug at the same time. This resulted in Hermione being crushed between the tall, stocky frames of the Weasley twins, with her head being squeezed between their chests due to her shortness.

"WE MISSED YOU SO MUCH, HERMIONE! Get us out of here and you can get any one thing from our shop, free!" the twin on her left whispered loudly to her, causing her and Remus to chuckle, and Mrs. Weasley to scowl.

"I missed you guys, too."

"Did I hear someone say 'Hermione Granger'?" Bill said, walking in from the living room with five-year-old Victoire on his back.

"Auntie Hermione! Look at me! Do the thing, Daddy!" Victoire ordered Bill, and Hermione laughed as Bill sighed comically and began spinning around on the spot. Victoire was giggling incessantly, and Hermione was again hit with that feeling of regret for not visiting in so long.

"That looks like so much fun, Victoire! Do you think your Daddy will let me have a go at it?" Hermione laughed.

Victoire fell into yet another fit of giggles. "Of course he won't, Auntie Hermione! You're much too big!"

Hermione feigned a forlorn sigh. "Oh, you're probably right."

Bill crouched down to drop Victoire from his back, then walked over to hug Hermione warmly. "How are you, love?" he asked.

"I'm well, how are you?"

"Positively wonderful," Bill smiled before going over to shake Remus' hand. "Remus! It's been a while. How are you? Still looking for work?"

"When am I not looking for work? And I'm fine, thank you for asking."

Hermione couldn't help but admire Remus in this different setting. This was as close as Hermione would ever get to introducing her boyfriend to her family, and Remus was faring admirably. Well, it's not as though they're all strangers. And the Weasleys don't know that we're a couple yet…

"Hermione and Remus just offered to have us all over at Grimmauld Place for dinner and to help trim their tree this evening. What do you all think?"

"Sounds like fun! The girls would love that, wouldn't they Percy?" Audrey commented to Percy as they, too, entered the kitchen. Hermione embraced each of them and then introduced Audrey to Remus as she was too old to ever have had him at Hogwarts.

Soon enough, the entire Weasley family (bar Ron and Charlie, of course) was gathered in the kitchen, preparing to apparate (or in the case of the children and their parents, Floo) to Grimmauld Place.

"Bring a box of decorations, everyone! Oh, except the little ones of course—that means you, little Molly dear," Mrs. Weasley ordered, "Alright, everyone who is using the Floo network, line up by the fireplace. Everyone else…well, I hope I don't have to give you instructions on how to apparate. Let's move!"

Hermione looked to Remus, who gave her a small smile and a discreet wink, and she tried to pretend she didn't see Ginny with a shit-eating grin out of the corner of her eye. Hermione turned on the spot, apparating back into the kitchen of Grimmauld Place to take stock of how much food they had. She looked through the fridge and cupboards, thinking that there was enough food for a big batch of lasagna, mashed potatoes, and garden salad. Remus joined her after a minute and agreed that he could definitely cook all that with a little bit of help. Hermione gladly volunteered, thinking it would give her a little alone time with him this evening.

All around the house, there were cracks of apparition and the sound of the roaring green flames of the Floo network. Soon enough, Christmas music was being played on Sirius' old record player, the Weasley twins were throwing a Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Firework show for the kids in the living room and drinks were being handed out. Bill, Mr. Weasley, and Percy all began helping to fit the tree into the spare tree stand that had been brought. Chuckling at the utter chaos that was created anywhere where five or more Weasleys got together, Hermione and Remus decided to start on supper.

"Okay, could you chop up the potatoes into quarters, put them in a big saucepan, dear? Yes, that size should do—fill it with enough water to cover the potatoes, put a little salt in, then bring them to a boil, please? Thanks, love."

"Is this good?"

"Yes, now just reduce the heat to medium-low and wait about fifteen minutes. While you're waiting, you can help me by placing a layer of noodles at the bottom of that dish. Thanks, love."

Once the lasagna was in the oven and the salad and potatoes were made, Hermione and Remus had nothing left to but wait. Hermione started walking to the kitchen door, wanting to join the others, but Remus had her pinned up against the kitchen wall before she could so much as reach for the doorknob. Hermione squeaked as Remus began snogging her with near-violent passion.

"Why is it that even the simplest things like watching you cook make me hard as a rock?" he whispered into her ear. He then kissed down her jaw as he pressed his erection into her hip.

"Fuck, Remus. Do you think we could get away with shagging in the kitchen without being caught?" Hermione moaned as she let her hands explore Remus' back under his shirt.

"I seriously doubt it, though I promise that we will christen the kitchen after everyone leaves."

"I'd be perfectly alright with that…" Hermione sighed as Remus started sucking on her neck.

Suddenly, the door to the kitchen opened and in came Mrs. Weasley and Ginny. Mrs. Weasley let out a gasp of shock as she saw Remus jump away from Hermione, trying to make it look as though they hadn't been getting intimate near the food.

"Oh! Well, we were going to offer to help, but it looks like you two are just fine on your own. I—Ginny, stop that now!—I think that we'll just go back to the living room. Give us a shout if you need us. Oh, Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley said awkwardly, looking back and forth between Hermione and Lupin with a combination of reproof and happiness in her eyes. Ginny was now having trouble stifling her laughter, and Hermione was sure that her own face was beet-red.

Both the Weasley women left the kitchen, and Remus scrubbed his face with his hands. "Hermione, I'm sorry. I know you weren't ready yet…"

"Remus, it's fine. It wasn't those two that I was worried about. It's more Ronald that I'm afraid of."

"Is there anything I should know about your relationship with him? I mean, I obviously know you two were together for a while, but should I worry about what his reaction to us will be?"

Hermione sighed. "I don't know. He has a girlfriend now, but he can be such a jealous prick. Honestly, just ignore him as much as you can. I'm sure he'll be civil enough because he knows that I have no qualms about telling his mother of his shenanigans."

"Alright. Thank you for telling me," Remus sighed. He didn't seem too keen to deal with Ron either.

"Hey, look on the bright side: think of all the consequences we'd be facing now if you hadn't refused my proposal of shagging. That would have been awful…" Hermione giggled.

"Too true. Maybe it's time we checked on our food…" Remus said, his cheeks blushing at the thought of Mrs. Weasley catching them in a truly compromising position.

"I agree. Let's eat," Hermione smiled, kissing him on the cheek.

The rest of the evening was a blast. The lasagna that Remus had made, as always, was positively heavenly. Hermione's potatoes and salad weren't too bad either, just not nearly as good as the perfection of Remus' cooking.

After eating, Hermione, Remus, and the Weasleys all gathered around the tree and began decorating. Bill lifted Victoire onto his shoulders so that she could place the star on top, while little Molly and Lucy had fun decorating the bottom branches, as they couldn't reach much further up. Lucy had actually taken to asking Hermione to lift her up so she could place all her swimming swan and flying cardinal ornaments higher up on the tree. Some of the adults grew so drunk they began singing Christmas carols. The Weasley twins even did their own parody of Baby it's Cold Outside (Pulling Cool Pranks Inside):

George: To Filch's dismayyyyy

Fred: We're pulling cool pranks Inside

George: Causing disarayyyyy

Fred: We're pulling cool pranks inside

George: This evening we've beeeeen

Fred: Hoping you'll fall for it

George: Out spreading liiiiiiceeee

And of course, after all the Weasleys left the house that night, Remus fulfilled his promise to Hermione by shagging her on every large and sturdy surface that they could find in the kitchen (which, surprisingly, there were quite a few of).

"Sirius would be disgusted by us if he ever found out," Hermione said after all the amazing shagging. She was now washing and disinfecting the table, which coincidentally was now her favourite spot in the kitchen.

"Actually, I think he'd probably be proud of us," Remus said, smirking. Knowing Sirius, Remus was probably right.