Chapter 7
It was five days until Christmas. Hermione was trying to talk her parents into coming to her house for a little Christmas Eve party. Jennifer was the family hostess, the family always came over to Jennifer's house for any occasion. And Jennifer Granger enjoyed being a hostess and it wasn't something she was going to let go of easily. But she was going to have to.
"Mum! Come on! I want to have this party. It's my turn." Hermione exclaimed.
Jennifer knew she was fighting a losing battle; Hermione was as stubborn and hard headed as her daddy. She stuck to her arguments, and persuaded her points so perfectly. If she hadn't gone to Hogwarts, Hermione probably would have gone on to law school.
"Ok, sweet, I'll call the relatives and tell them to go to aunt Pearl's." Jennifer consents.
"Thank you!" Hermione chirped. She and her mother promptly began planning the party; leaving her father free to watch television.
The guest list turned out to be the entire Weasley family and her parents. Since the Weasley's were all wizards. (Wizards, who were mostly unwise to the Muggle world). It didn't seem wise to release the entire Granger family at a party with a group of wizards, who almost never dealt with Muggles on a regular basis.
Hermione threw herself into the party. Her free time? Yeah, she had almost no free time any more. Being Head Healer at St. Mungo's, and being much younger than anybody who also applied for the job didn't make her well liked.
"Hey Hermione. How are you?" Emily Garmin, (the blonde welcome witch) grinned at her busy busy friend.
"Howdy, Emily." Hermione said while she dug through her purse for her ringing cell phone.
"Howdy?" Emily asked questioningly.
"Sorry, my dad was watching a Western at my house yesterday."
"Oh." Emily said. She got up to do some filing.
"Hang on, gotta take this, it's my mum." Hermione said "Hi mum."
"Hello, I'm just at the grocery store, how many people am I buying for?" Jennifer asked. Hermione mentally counted the Weasley's, her parents.
"Hang on mum. Emily what are your plans for Christmas Eve?"
Emily looked thoughtful for a moment. "My dad's on holiday with a mistress in the Caribbean. And my mother, has a hoity toity party and she will probably not even notice that I'm not there." She trailed off.
"Want to come to my house, I'm having a little Christmas Eve party?"
"Sure." Emily says with a bright smile on her face.
"So mum, my friend Emily is coming and I say about twenty four people are going to come."
"Ok. I'll talk to you later sweetie." Jennifer says.
Hermione left her address and phone number with Emily, then she went home. To take a very good, long, satisfying nap.
The day before the party Jennifer and Hermione were rushing around anxiously cooking, cleaning, and doing else they could think of. Jennifer only got freaked out once when Hermione set a charm upon pastry bags full of frosting to self decorate the dozens of cookies they had made.
The day of the party, Hermione and her mother were rushing around setting up the food in an appetizing way, when Molly Weasley appeared with several trays filled with goodies.
"Oh, Mrs. Weasley, you didn't have to!" Hermione exclaimed with an uncontrollable smile.
"You've seen Ron eat, haven't you?" Mrs. Weasley said. Hermione nodded in agreement "yeah, now multiply that by seven"
"Oh."
Mrs. Weasley smiled.
"Mrs. Weasley, this is my mother, Jennifer Jane Tyler-Granger, Mum, this is Mrs. Weasley." The two matriarchs shook hands.
"Hermione, dear, I'm going home to get your father then we'll be back." Jennifer said pecking her daughter on the cheek. And bit back a scream as the fire in the fireplace blazed green and two people stumbled through. Harry and Ginny Potter.
Emily arrived next. "Hey." She looked stunning in dark jeans and a red cashmere sweater. The red sweater set off her blonde hair nicely.
Soon everybody arrived and the party was in full swing. Her mother arrived about half an hour later and her father looked very unhappy to be stuffed into a dress shirt and tie.
The doorbell rang and Hermione answered it. Who was at the door was a complete shock. She leaned against the door in surprise
"Charlie... I didn't expect..." Hermione began.
"I know, I know. I probably shouldn't have come, but I couldn't resist."
"What are those?" Hermione points to the bouquet in his hands, wonder in her eyes.
"Well, I really didn't know what kind of flowers to get you, and I asked Ron but he's completely useless when it comes to giving a straight answer so I got you dragons..."
"Dragons?!"
"Snapdragons." Charlie supplies.
Stunned by his thoughtfulness Hermione smiles and backs up so that he can come inside, he steps inside, instantly dwarfing her doorway, when he holds the flowers out, nervously Hermione takes them and takes a deep breathe from the fuchsia blooms.
"I probably should have brought food."
"No. Your mother brought enough to feed an army."
"That's mum for you."
"Come in, please."
Charlie steps into the living room and is immediately assaulted by his many brothers and only sister, Hermione smiles sympathetically and strolls off towards the punch bowl, she couldn't believe he had given her flowers, especially with his girlfriend and all. Guiltily, she takes another sniff of the flowers before putting them in a vase and placing them in an honorary spot on the mantle, all smiles she turned back around, and right into Charlie's chest.
"You're not gonna get away that easily." he said, smiling brightly.
"I wasn't trying to escape." she retorted
"Sure you weren't."
An awkward silence ensued, neither could come up with the words to explain themselves, Charlie was the first to recover he looked up and stared into her brown eyes, reading the confusion and embarrassment in her eyes. He put out his arms and touched her shoulders lightly, squeezing them, scars rippled across his forearms and his hands were calloused as they touched her.
"Mistletoe." he said gently, still looking into her eyes.
"What?"
"You know the tradition right? I think it's a muggle one."
"Oh, mistletoe." above their head floated a bunch of the beautiful leaves.
"I'm going to kiss you now." he whispered softly
Hermione couldn't stop him, she had waited too long for his kiss, too long for his touch, she dreamt of it when she fell asleep at night, he leaned forward still watching her eyes, even as they hazed over with dreamy passion. Just as their lips were about to touch, the door to Hermione's living room flew open and there, outlined in light was the one she had waited on for so long, Michael Desmond. His eyes searched the room, he looked around at the faces that stared so intently at him, then they found Hermione's, Hermione flushed and tilted her head away from Michael. The hurt was still fresh.
"Hermione, who is that?" Charlie said.
"Michael." she whispered.
"Hermione!" Michael yelled.
In his hands were the most beautiful white irises she had ever seen, but somehow they didn't quite match up to the flowers Charlie had given her.
"Hermione! I'm glad I found you. I've missed you so much!" he was panting like he had run a mile. "I love you, Hermione!"
A collective gasp filled the room; silence followed his entreaty. "Hermione..." he said and took a deep breath. "I've missed you, and I'm so sorry that I hurt you. You told me what you were and I turned you away and for that I am forever sorry."
"Michael..." she sighed.
"Please Hermione, I need you so bad, it hurts. I've been such an idiot, letting you go. You were just trying to tell me the truth, trying to come clean about yourself and I hurt you. I'm sorry, Hermione. I love you."
"Don't say this unless you mean it." she warned.
"I mean it, every single word."
"Oh Mikey!" Hermione threw herself into his open arms, hugging him close, behind her she heard Charlie shift uncomfortably.
"Hermione, I never meant to reject you when you told me you were a witch, I was just... confused and a little upset. It was my mistake."
"Damn straight it was." Charlie mumbled loudly.
"Excuse me?" Michael questioned, an angry look was beginning to touch his features.
"I said damn straight it's your mistake."
"I'm going to ignore that." Michael huffed.
"Oh Mikey, do you mean it all?" Hermione interjected.
"Yes, Hermione. Will you marry me?"
Hermione was speechless.
"Obviously we'll have to work on you being a witch, I can't marry a woman that floats things around the room."
"Why?" Charlie nearly shouted.
"Well, I'm up for a permanent position at Oxford. If she does something I can't explain, I could lose the position."
"Excuse me?!" Charlie boomed.
Hermione lowered her head, she didn't want to lose Michael, now that she had gotten him back.
"How can you love her?"
"What?" Michael was close to yelling now.
"How could you possibly love her if you can't accept all of her? She's a witch and better yet, she's the best damn witch around. She's smart and pretty and she's one of the best healers at St. Mungo's."
"What would you possibly know about our love? You love Becky so why the hell should you care about us?" Hermione interrupted angrily.
"I broke up with Becky and I don't think its love that Michael has for you."
"How the hell would you know? I slept with you once!" she yelled.
Everyone seemed to be staring at them. "You slept with my brother?" Ron said, shaking his head.
"Oh God. I can't believe I said that." Hermione closed her eyes in embarrassment.
"You slept with this guy?" Michael sounded outraged.
"Once, it was a... mistake." The words didn't feel right rolling off her tongue.
"Mistake? Mistake?! I can't believe that I was coming over here to ask you out."
"You were going to... to ask me out?" Hermione felt surprised and confused.
"If you think I'm such a mistake then I'm just gonna leave."
"No, Charlie!"
"Don't Hermione, it was just sex. A mistake." Charlie spat angrily, regurgitating the words back at Hermione. It hurt a lot. She looked away from him. Charlie left and slammed the door on his way out.
Michael thrust the irises into Hermione's hands, she stared at them as they changed, the petals of each flower turning crimson then blooming into a dozen roses, she stared at them even though she was thinking about Charlie. She wondered if she could ever make it up to him, because she was staring so intently at the roses in her hands she didn't notice the sneer on Michael's face when the flowers changed. But everyone else did, and everyone agreed with Charlie, Michael was not the one for Hermione. They wondered if it was too late to fix what was so obviously broken.
"Yes, Michael. I will marry you.
Author's Notes:
-duh duh duh
-It's midnight and a bug just flew up my nose. (what fun! not.)
- So I feel that this chapter would not have been at all possible if it wasn't for my friend TheCountess6680, my beta. Also my silent co-author. (She brought you the last half of this chapter, the first chapter and some coming attractions. Stay Tuned!) ( )
- The deal with the roses is that Michael came to Harry and Ginny and told them that he wanted Hermione back, while initially unwilling to help, they agree because Michael is begging and they think he's the right guy for Hermione. Harry enchants the irises to change when Hermione holds them (Michael does not know about this)
-(you know, in case you were wondering) because I couldn't fit that into the scene
-also I swear that I will always try to make my stories grammatically correct, and with good spelling etc. because bad grammar sucks. And I was reading a badly edited story the other day and I swear it made me feel physically sick, if I hadn't liked the characters and plot so much, I would have flamed. So I swear that I will always try.
-ok, rant over. Now, see the purple button? Put it to good use and….
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