So, I know that this is a few days late, but I've been a bit busy. And if things go according to plan, hopefully I will have another chapter out tomorrow.

Enjoy ;D

The time in the past two days had flown by for everybody in 8th year. They'd been sitting by the fire talking, watching muggle movies and decorating every inch of the common room ready for Sunday.

And then there was the Secret Santa presents to give out. They had been given out on Christmas Eve morning before anyone left to visit family, but Hermione had insisted that they all wait until Christmas day to open them if they were going to be at school.

All of this led to it being Christmas morning in the head girl's bedroom when she woke up from some very vivid dreams.

The day before Hermione had received another letter from her mystery man

Xx Harry Potter xX

When Hermione woke that morning it was to the sound of a bird tapping against her window. She groaned as she stretched before getting up and opening the window to let the owl in.

She looked over to her clock and realised that she had, in fact, slept in, and not been woken up too early in the morning.

She looked at the owl and recognised it as the one that had delivered her the letter from her mystery man the other day.

As soon as the bird had dropped the letter onto her lap she ripped it open to see what it said;

Hermione,

I do hope that you like your Secret Santa gift you're going to receive today, when I saw it, it was just so you, that I had to buy it.

By the way, I hope that this letter will help narrow down your list to 5 people, seeing as I know one of those guys isn't participating in this whole charade.

And to answer your question, I am on that list, and I'm also interested in why you underlined Draco Malfoy's name?

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas day,

- X –

She was confused at the letter 'what does he mean? I thought all of those guys were doing the Secret Santa.

She got dressed as quickly as possible and went to find Pansy.

Xx Harry Potter xX

She had then found out that Theodore Nott wasn't participating in the Secret Santa '1 down, 4 to go' she thought to herself as she got out of bed and started to get dressed, pushing all thoughts of her dreams of Draco Malfoy out of her head.

Meanwhile, in the head boy's bedroom, Draco had woken up content at the fact that Hermione would open her present today, and hopefully, she would love it.

He still wasn't sure who had had him for the Secret Santa, he had it narrowed down to 2 people; Pansy or Hermione, but he didn't know which! He used to be better at stealthing, but since the whole Hermione thing he had been a bit distracted.

He heaved himself out of bed, earlier than usual (obviously) seeing as it was Christmas day. He was excited to see what he'd got for Christmas (what? Sometimes you just have to ignore what people expect of you and have some fun!).

So in true fashion, he, as well as everyone else in 8th year, got dressed as quickly as possible and raced downstairs to see all the presents.

It was a great spread, they had to admit it. There were presents covering almost the entire floor space under the tree, all labelled to different people who were still there. Given, there was only 10; Hermione, Pansy, Susan, Draco, Blaise, Harry, Justin, Ron, Cormac and Ginny (she was joining them today so she was with her boyfriend and brother) - but still, more than expected.

Hermione was secretly excited. She wanted to see what her 'mystery man' had bought for her in the Secret Santa. She was hoping it was something that she could keep with her forever, and from what he had written in the note, that is exactly what it would be.

She was very aware that in the back of her mind, there was a voice telling her that it wasn't a 'mystery man', it was Draco. But she didn't know that to be true, did she? She didn't want to jump to a conclusion and have her heart broken (spending all that time with him was making her fall in love with him) it was silly to even think about being in love with him, but she knew deep down it was true.

She looked around the common room and realised Draco was missing. She was going to say something when she turned and saw him walking down the stairs to join their group.

As Draco came downstairs he realised, that in true Malfoy form, he was last to arrive. The second thing he noticed was the fact that Hermione was staring at him, and she only looked away once he turned to look at her.

He came over to her and Pansy and smiled, saying his hello's before everyone went about separating the presents into piles for everyone.

"Okay, so seeing as I'm not involved, why don't you all open the Secret Santa gifts first?" said Ginny, smiling up at Harry and then around to everyone in the room.

"That sounds great" said Hermione, "Let's do it" And everyone did.

Hermione found the small box with neat handwriting on saying,

For a lovely lady, from your secret Santa x

She smiled before opening the box and gasping at its contents.

Lying inside the box was what looked to be a solid gold charm bracelet with one charm already in place in the shape of a lion rearing back its head. It was incrusted with several small rubies, obviously symbolising the Gryffindor house – in short, the entire thing was breathtaking.

She carefully removed it from the box, realising that she was holding something that was very expensive, and admired it glinting in the morning light.

Ginny gasped when she saw it, immediately coming over and looking at it, admiring it just as Hermione was, before insisting that Hermione had to put it on because it would 'look absolutely adorable on you, especially with your skin tone'.

Draco watched all of this with a content smile on his face. He was broken out of his daydreaming when Harry nudged him in the side,

"Bloody hell mate! That must have cost you a lot of Galleons. You must really love her." And before Draco could respond Harry was halfway across the room, talking to Ron and Ginny while Hermione showed Pansy her gift. He looked down at his half-opened present and decided to see what had been bought for him.

He was pleasantly surprised to see what looked like a muggle watch with his name engraved onto the back. He smiled down at it before putting it on, 'it's definitely from Hermione' he thought as he fitted it onto his wrist.

He looked up and saw Hermione looking at him putting on the watch. There eyes met, and just for a second, it was only them in the room before Hermione was pulled away from his gaze by Pansy handing her a gift as the phrase 'Merry Christmas' started resonating around the room from different people handing out their gifts.

Time then seemed to slip past everyone that morning until people started to realise that it was time for lunch, so as a group, they headed down to the great hall for the customary Christmas lunch.

As everyone left the common room, Hermione noticed a piece of paper in the bottom of the box she had received. She bent down and picked it up to see what it said,

Hermione,

That first charm for the bracelet is to symbolize your Hogwarts house. You will receive one to symbolize mine on Saturday.

I have bought you one for every day of Christmas – 12, and hopefully you will want the last 5 once you know who I am.

Merry Christmas,

- X -

She put the note in her pocket, heading to lunch, and pushed the thought of all of this to the back of her mind.

Xx Harry Potter xX

Everyone had a great laugh; pulling crackers, telling absurdly bad jokes and drinking alcohol (those over 17 anyway) and by about four o'clock, everyone was happy to go and settle down, talk to their friends etc.

Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron were heading to the burrow the next day to celebrate Christmas with the whole Weasley clan, so she decided to make the most of the rest of the day and spend time with Draco, Pansy and Blaise.

Draco, also planning to head home the next day, was thinking on the exact same lines, so all four of them headed upstairs to Hermione's dorm room (hers was tidier) to talk and have a bit of fun.

Xx Harry Potter xX

A few of hours later (at about 8 o'clock) , Hermione was winning yet another game of blackjack, laughing at her friends faces as she sat smugly up against her bed.

"Oh my god, how on Earth do you keep winning? I'm supposed to be the best at card games here!" huffed Pansy as she folded yet again, meaning Hermione would win.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have agreed to play a muggle card game then. It was obvious I would win" said Hermione, raking in her winnings, chuckling a little at the fact that the three Slytherins were such bad losers.

"That's it" cried Blaise, throwing himself down onto the bed and huffing, "I refuse to continue playing, you win almost every time!" he complained, rolling over and pouting in Hermione's direction. She just laughed before picking up all the cards to put away.

"Fine, but what do you suggest we do then? I thought it was fun playing Black Jack" said Hermione, standing up and stretching before heading over to her desk to put way her cards.

"How about we play spin the wand?" asked Draco, who was laying down on Hermione's floor staring up at the ceiling, waiting for some answers.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun" said Blaise, who ran a predatory eye up and down Draco before he came back to sit on the floor.

"I suppose this is just like the muggle game spin the bottle?" asked Hermione, to which she received three nods, "Okay, but I think we should change the rules slightly, as in, the kiss escalates every time you kiss someone seeing as there's only 4 of us" she received some blank looks from Pansy and Blaise so she elaborated, "As in, at first it's just a kiss in the cheek, then on the mouth, then we set some time limits, okay?" This seemed to make more sense to the others, who all voiced there consent.

"One other thing" said Draco, who pulled out a couple of bottles of fire whiskey from his robes, "we might want some of this"

Xx Harry Potter xX

Another hour and a half later, Hermione had determined 3 things.

Number 1, Blaise was definitely gay,

Number 2, she was definitely straight,

And Number 3, she really wanted to snog Draco Malfoy.

Draco had already previously determined 2 of Hermione's 3 things a few years ago (they didn't talk about it).

The one he had just now come to realise was the he really wanted to snog Hermione senseless, no matter what was happening.

Pansy was close to passing out, Blaise was starting to rant about his parents between snogs, Draco had gone oddly silent, and Hermione was spinning her wand.

As it span, she was hoping that it landed on Draco. Frankly, she had kissed Pansy and Blaise enough tonight, and she now considered them too drunk to kiss properly, but she had noticed that Draco hadn't drunk as much as the others so hopefully he would remember what happened the next day if the got a proper kiss.

Draco looked down at Hermione's wand as it stopped facing him. He was just drunk enough to put his worries aside and go for it and not too drunk to forget what was about to happen – just the right combination.

Neither of them knew who lent forward first, and if you asked, they would never know, all they knew was that at the moment their lips touched, they both felt fireworks.

Hermione closed her eyes almost immediately, seeing stars in the back of her eye lids. Draco did the same, seeing the same, feeling absolutely blissful.

He lent forward, deepening the kiss, pulling her toward him with his hands on her hips. She put her arms up to tangle her hands into his hair as she allowed his tongue entrance to her mouth.

Millions of thoughts were racing through Draco's head, 'she tastes like heaven', 'does she actually reciprocate my feelings', 'oh my god, she is divine' – all of these thoughts getting cut off when he heard someone clearing their throat next to him, and then he got the feeling of loss.

Hermione pulled away when she heard Blaise clear his throat behind her with a smirk on his face,

"Um, you guys should…" she cleared her throat before continuing "You guys should leave. We all need to leave early tomorrow. Merry Christmas" she smiled as best as she could as they walked past her.

Draco was the last to leave,

"Look, maybe we should talk abou-" but he was cut off when Hermione held up her hand to stop him,

"Just, leave now. We can talk some other time" It looked like Draco was about to speak again so she continued "I'm tired, so another time, yeah?" Draco just nodded absently and left before Hermione said anything else.

He went over to his room, not hearing Blaise calling his name as he shut his door, all the while thinking about what happened, 'why won't she talk to me about it?' he thought, 'maybe she doesn't like me the way I like her. Maybe it was just a big misunderstanding' he pondered as he stripped down to his boxers before climbing into bed, not caring about pyjamas at this point, his thoughts plaguing his mind.

Hermione wasn't faring much better in her room, 'why did I push him away like that?' she though to herself as she changed into her pyjamas, 'he probably thinks that I don't like him now, that's just great' she thought and she climbed numbly into bed.

She herself wasn't sure if she loved him, but she definitely liked him, a lot.

And as they both lay there, similar thoughts entered both of their minds;

'Maybe he doesn't like me back'

'Maybe she doesn't love me back'

So just to clarify, Hermione does sort of love him, but he has loved/liked her a lot longer, hence the bit at the end.

Feel free to leave a review D