Hey thanks for your awesome reviews! Well, I started feeling better this morning but then I made the mistake of going to my granny's house for her birthday and she has a cat, which I'm highly allergic of, so I'm kinda back to being sick. But i took sum meds which better work! Haha.

To answer your questions, almightyswot: uh, yeah, Ron and Weaselys don't exist in this story. I know if your mad, but I just don't like them. They kinda annoy me, please don't hate me! Hehe.

And I know babies start crawling at 8 months but she's not even standing up and my nephew started standing up before he could crawl, so I was kinda worried because I wasn't accurate, oh well.

I still have one more day to do my homework, so its no biggie. Hehe. Besides I just have to revise the paper, I dont actually have to come up with a topic and write something new.

So this chappie is about a month later in December close to Christmas, which I think is going to be cute.

Chapter Three: The Visitor and Christmas Eve

A month later, Lily was crawling all over the place. She was everywhere, in the pantry, in the bathroom, in her room, in her Mummy's room, in her Daddy's room. They had to start baby-proofing the Manor. It was five days until Christmas, and the young Potter family was getting excited. Harry and Hermione put the artificial tree up (A/N: we have an artificial tree, so I dont know any different. haha), and Harry lifted Lily into his arms and let her put the star on the top.

Lily was so intrigued by the lights on the tree and the colorful boxes under it. A couple of times Harry and Hermione had to scold her for trying to open one. Each parent went out to the store by themselves to shop for Christmas presents while the other stayed home with the baby.

One day the week before, Hermione's parents came over and they all took a picture together and then Charlotte and Jacob took a picture of the happy Potters. They got them developed and blew the picture with the three of them up, frames it, and put it over the mantlepiece, as a family portait.

Today was a special day. Today was the day the the worker from the Ministry was going to come and inspect their home. Hermione made sure everything was spotless and in order. She bathed Lily and dressed her all pretty and cute in a beautiful winter dress that was pink as well as her shoes.

They all got dressed up pretty nicely and awaited the arrivial of their visitor.

Finally noon rolled around and as the clock struck twelve, the doorbell rang. Harry looked at Hermione, who nodded. They both stood up, Hermione with Lily in her arms, and went to get the door. Harry opened it and a tall man, about in his mid-fifties, stood there. He was dressed in black robes and had a quill and parchment in his hand. He had a serious look on his face, but smiled when he looked at them.

"Hello, sir, you must be from the Ministry," Harry greeted, holding out his hand with a polite smile.

The man shook it gratefully, "Yes, I'm John Barrows, with the Magical Child Services Department at the Ministry. You must be Mr. Harry Potter."

"Yes, it is. This is Hermione Granger and our daughter, Lily," Harry introduced.

Hermione shook hands with him and Lily smiled at him. "Come in," Harry urged in and they stepped aside to let him in.

"Would you like anything to drink?" Harry asked.

"Oh, no, thank you. I sure would like to get this over with. I feel like I'm intruding your Christmas time," Mr. Barrows said with a smile.

"Alright, then, sir, what's first on the agenda?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I'd like to ask you a few questions if you don't mind, if we could just..." he trailed off gesturing to the living room.

"Oh! Yeah, come on, let's go sit down," Harry led them into the living room. Mr. Barrows sat in a chair, while Harry, Hermione, and Lily sat on the couch.

"So, you two live here, but you're not...?" Mr. Barrows asked.

"No! We're just best friends. Just best friends," Harry answered.

Mr. Barrows wrote something down on his parchment. Harry craned his neck to see what it was, but could not see it. Mr. Barrows looked up and gazed at Lily. "How old is she?"

"She's about nine months, the Healer said," Hermione answered.

"Has she learned to crawl yet?"

"Yes, she began about a month ago. We taught her."

"Alright," Barrows wrote something else down.

"Okay, is she sleeping well?"

"She sleeps pretty well, about nine-ten hours a night and we put her down for a nap three times a day, maybe, depends on how she's feeling," Hermione was on a roll.

"Okay, I'd like to see your house, if you don't mind."

"Sure." Harry stood up and brought him to every part of the house, the kitchen, the dining room, the library, the study, his room, Hermione's room, the nursury.

Hermione had stayed in the living room with Lily. Lily played with her Mummy's necklace curiously. Then looked up at her, seeming kind of sad. Hermione noticed. "What's wrong, baby? Why are you sad?" Lily looked towards the way Daddy and Barrows left and then looked back at Mummy.

"Oh, you're scared you're going to be taken away from us," Hermione said, astonished that she could understand not only her but the situation. "Look at me, Lily." The little baby girl flicked her eyes to her Mummy's and stared at her. "You are our baby girl. You are never going to be taken away from me or Daddy. We love you so much. You're the most prefect little baby in the whole world. It's sad that other people don't think so." She was referring to Lily's real parents, the ones who had abandoned her. "You are staying right here and never leaving, I promise." Lily wrapped her tiny arms around her neck and hugged her. Hermione hugged her back real tight, never wanting to let her go. She kissed the side of her head.

Harry and Barrows came in and gazed upon mother and child. Hermione embarrassedly wiped stray tears and smiled at Harry, who gave her one of comfort. Barrows looked at the young mother and said, "Your home is lovely and a perfect environment to raise a child. However, we cannot give you an 'okay', so Lily's not permanently yours until we give you the notice."

The two parents looked at each other and smiled. Then Harry led Barrows to the front door to let him out. "It was nice meeting you, Mr. Barrows." He stuck out his hand for him to shake.

Barrows shook it and said, "It was nice meeting you, too, Mr. Potter. We'll be sending you a notice by owl in about a month. Have a merry Christmas!"

"You, too, sir. Thank you!" He shut the door as he went out.

Harry went back into the living room, where Hermione was holding a sleeping Lily. "I think that went well."

"Yeah," she replied as he plopped onto the couch next to her. "She's out." She gestured to the sleeping girl.

Harry chuckled and ran his hand over her cheek. "I'll go put her in her crib." Hermione stood and left the room with Lily in her arms, dozing. Harry watched them leave, glad to have such a wonderful family.

H&Hr H&Hr H&Hr H&Hr H&Hr H&Hr H&Hr H&Hr

Four days past, and it was Christmas Eve. Harry, Hermione, and Lily were going over to the Grangers for Christmas Eve dinner. Lily wore a red-and-black-checkered dress, with a white sweater, white stockings, black dressy shoes, and Hermione put a red barrette in her hair.

Hermione was wearing a black and white, flowy dress, that went down to just above her knees, a black cardigan, black high heels, and her hair was curled. Harry thought she looked so beautiful.

Harry was wearing a dark maroon shirt, black slacks, black dress shoes, and a black tie (A/N: yes i know you're tired of black! Oh well, its Christmasy to me! Haha!). Hermione thought he looked very handsome.

When Harry first saw her coming out from the hallway to wear Lily and he were waiting in the living room, he stopped dead and smiled. She twirled for him. "What do you think?"

"You look...amazing!"

She blushed and picked up Lily. "Come on, we don't want to be late." Harry grabbed her and Lily and they apparated to the car in the garage. It was quicker. They strapped her in and got in themselves and Harry drove off to the Granger household.

When they arrived, they parked and got out of the SUV, walking up to the front door. Hermione knocked and a few seconds later, the door opened revealing Charlotte. "Harry, Hermione, Lily, so glad you're here!" She kissed each of them and let them in. "Come in, come in!"

Jacob was in the kitchen, getting the turkey out of the oven. "Hey, kids!" He put it down and rushed over hug them.

"Dad! Merry Christmas eve!" They all exchanged greetings and Hermione put Lily down on the floor, in which she just crawled back to her Mummy. "Can't stay away can you?"

"I think she likes your perfume," Charlotte reasoned.

"No, I think she likes you," Harry protested gazing at her, smiling. She smiled back and picked her daughter back up. "I better go feed her. She's getting hungry." She brought her over to the highchair and strapped her into it and fed her a Christmas meal, strained sweet potatoes and green beans. Jacob gave Harry a soda to drink, since he was driving home. "Here, son."

"Oh, thank you, sir." He took it gratefully.

"We have some presents for Lily."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Charlotte said that she can open the ones from us tonight."

"Okay, yeah, that'll be okay."

After Lily ate, Hermione put her in a pack n' play that Charlotte had gotten for Lily; so that the adults could eat and she couldn't crawl and get into anything. Lily was, of course, very upset about this, but once Harry gave her a few toys to play with, she calmed down.

The feast consisted of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and corn bread dressing. Harry never had a better meal than the Grangers' cooking. He felt so stuffed. But when Charlotte brought out the pumpkin pie (A/N: hehe), he groaned, knowing that it looked so good not to eat it. So he had a small piece and it was to die for.

After dinner, they took Lily, to her happiness, out f the pack n' play and set her on the ground so that she could open the presents from the grandparents. There were two of them. Hermione set her in her lap and Charlotte gave her one that was red and green-striped with a green bow wrapped around. "Here, watch, Lily," Hermione showed her how to open it. "You take the bow off, like this, and pull the paper off, like this." She took the bow off and ripped a small piece of the beautiful wrapping paper off and let Lily do the rest. Lily ripped it off as fast as she could and then looked at her Mummy as if to say, "Am I doing this right, Mummy?" Hermione nodded, urging her to continue. Once Lily got the wrapping paper off, she gasped very, very very cutely. They all chuckled as she opened the box and revealed a baby doll. That was the only thing Lily did not have that all baby girlss did. It had blonde hair, brown eyes, and had a pink dress on (A/N: i know you're tired of pink dresses, but its a girl! haha). Lily thought it was so perfect for her.

Hermione smiled and a tear leaked out of her eye. Like most of Lily's stuffed animals, this doll once belonged to her. It was her favorite thing in the world when she was Lily's age. They all just wanted to die at what Lily did next. She looked at her Mummy and saw that she was crying. She turned around and, with her thumb wiped a stray tear off of her face. "Don't cry, Mummy, it's okay," she wanted to say. Hermione wrapped her arms around her and hugged her for a few seconds and then said, "Come on, let's open your second present."

Charlotte gave them a present that was wrapped in the same wrapping paper, but it wasn't a box. It felt soft and flexible. Lily knew what to do now, without Hermione's help. She took off the wrapping paper to find a colorful quilt. However, it was what was on it that caught their attentions. The whole quilt was made up of squares, but instead of patterns it contained sayings and in a few, pictures. In the exact middle square, it said, "Welcome to the Family, Lily!" To the right of it, was a picture of the two grandparents. To the left of the middle, was the smae picture they had over their mantlepiece of the young family. There were sayings every now and then of quotes about family, sewn into the fabric. Hermione looked at her mother, and knew this was her artwork. "Mum..." she said beginning to tear up again. She gave Lily to Harry, stood up and walked over to Charlotte and hugged her tight.

"Thank you so much." She turned to her dad and hugged him as well. "I love you both."

"We love you, too, dear."

Hermione wiped her eyes and waved her wand to refreshen her make-up, happy that both of her parents were permanently accepting of her adopting a baby girl.

Soon it was time to go. Hermione picked Lily up into her arms and they said their goodbyes. But before they could go out the door, Jacob stopped them. "Uh, Harry, Hermione..."

"Yeah?"

"Look up."

They did and blushed. Mistletoe.

"Um,..." Harry stammered and began to lean in. Hermione complied but hurriedly gave Lily, who was asleep, to her Mum, and kissed Harry on the lips. It was supposed to be a peck, but it soon deepened into a full-out snog. She wrapped her arms around his neck while he wrapped his around her waist. Tongues clashed. Sparks went off. It lasted for about thirty seconds before they heard Jacob's throat clear.

They pulled away, blushing furiously and not looking at anyone. "Sorry."

"So, we'll come at around noon tomorrow," Charlotte said smiling at what just took place.

The two teens nodded and Hermione grabbed Lily. They both left and drove home. No one speaking until they got home. Hermione brought Lily into her room and waved her wand so that she was in her pajamas. It was a quick way to change her without waking her up. She put her in her crib, laid her new quilt on her, and set her new baby doll next to her. She kissed her head goodnight. Harry was behind her and did as well. She flinched when she saw him, not realizing he was there.

He smiled and they left the room, shutting the door, but leaving a crack.

"We need to talk," he said.

She nodded, wondering where this was going to go. "Yeah."

They went into the living room and sat on the couch. "We need to talk about that kiss."

"Yeah, I liked it," Hermione said going red and looking away. Harry looked at her surprised and smiling widely. "You did?"

She looked at him now that he was looking at her. "Yeah. Did you?"

"Yeah, yeah, I did. So,...we both liked it. Now what do we do?"

"Try again." He looked confused as what she meant, but then understood as she leant over to him, grabbed his jaw and kissed his lips. He grabbed her waist and pushed his tongue into her mouth, exploring every inch. It was a passionate, loving, and wonderful kiss shared between two best friends, who might possibly start something more. Harry broke away for air. "Wow."

"Yeah." Once they regained their breath, Hermione pushed him against the arm of the couch and straddled his hips, cupping his face, as she practically sucked it off of his head (A/N: I know that doesn't sound right (as in clean) but they're still kissing Haha) and loosened his tie.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Hermione..." Harry said as he broke away. "I think we should take this slow, you know?" She nodded smiling, and kissed him again.

"So, does that mean we're together now?" she asked putting her arms around his neck.

"We can be whatever you want us to be," he replied.

She grinned and gave her answer with another long kiss.

H&Hr H&Hr H&Hr H&Hr H&Hr H&Hr H&Hr H&Hr

Up the stairs and down the hall, a baby girl lay sleeping in her crib.

She smiled.

TBC...

Hey I hoped you liked this chappie. Its kind of short, I know, but I liked it. Well, Harry and Hermione are finally together. The kissing scene was inspired by my own first kiss which happened less than 24 hours ago. Yay! We didn't kiss like that. But there was tongue involved. Hehe.

I think my fav part of writing this was the last part. It's so cute.

Well, this is my last post for now. Got to go to church and write that paper and do mid-term shit that I've been holding off for YOU. haha. Just kidding. Thank you so much for the reviews.

And I do not know why the Ministry never inspected the Dursleys. Dumbledore must have had something to do with it, I guess or its probably a new department. Whatever you want to believe. Haha. Anyway, please, review!

Later!