A/N: Due to the numerous reviews I received asking for more, and because the idea for this chapter and the next won't leave my head, I decided this is now a story in three parts. I'm not going to change the name, but I am going to change the description.

A million thanks to everyone who left a review. I love me some McGee, but this is a pairing I've never done before (though I think they would be a cute couple). I'm glad y'all seem happy with it! Enjoy.

A soft Christmas carol played through the house. Tim watched Hermione, now his girlfriend of three and a half years, as she performed simple 'magic' tricks, much to the delight of Amira. No one knew that Hermione excelled at the tricks because she was really a witch and not just talented at sleight of hand. And, truth be told, Amira didn't care either way. She was just delighted at Hermione's ability to make small objects levitate, light bulbs turn on of their own accord, and flowers to appear out of nowhere.

The fact that she was a witch had been a shock. He would admit that to anyone. If someone had told him before he met Hermione that witches and wizards were real and living all over the globe he would have pointed fingers at the creepy, loner-types who tended to scare young children and have an affinity for cats. Hermione seemed so, for a lack of a better word, normal. They had gone on five dates before she invited him up to her apartment, and when she hadn't let him take stock of her small home. He would have noticed how different it was, or at least the complete lack of technology. How he missed the owl in the cage in the corner… well, Hermione's insistent tugging at his shirt was very distracting at the time. But as distracted as he was there was no distracting from her climax, or more specifically what happened during her climax. Maybe the fact that the bed had levitated six inches off the ground might have been easy to miss, given the fact that it had done so slowly, but the sudden crash back to the floor was impossible to miss. It was then Hermione admitted everything, producing a wand and performing some extraordinary magic that had sent him into a dead faint.

It had taken some getting used to, but he had no desire to break up with Hermione over her magic. Everyone has their talents, he reasoned, and while her talent was beyond extraordinary, it was still a talent. He wouldn't have left her if she revealed that she was a world-class athlete or if she revealed she could speak in iambic pentameter without thought, so he wasn't going to leave her over her magic. It delighted Hermione that he accepted her, and she had made him so late for work the next day he was afraid that Gibbs was going to skin him alive. The only thing that had saved him was Ziva saying that he had mentioned something about a doctor's appointment, and caught him on the elevator to tell him the story.

The more magic he was around, the more he got used to it. The first time Hermione had used her wand to clear the table had been a shock, but slowly it became so commonplace that he would playfully tease her for getting on a 'fitness kick' if she got up to clean dishes without magic. And it wasn't just Hermione teaching him something new. Hermione had been around computers, telephones, and the like as a young girl, but as she established herself more in the magical community she severed her ties to most technology, and by the time they started dating Hermione had cut most of it out of her life save for a lone cell phone that she left at the house more often than not. So when she started staying at his house he started teaching her how to work his things. A couple of times she threatened to hex something when she became confused at how things didn't seem logical, but he managed to fix it, and she would tease him about being part-robot.

The more serious their relationship got, the more Tim started looking towards the future. He wasn't sure when he stopped looking at Hermione solely as his girlfriend, but gradually he started seeing her as his potential wife, and a few times he caught himself wondering about what their kids might be like. If it was anything like what Tony kept saying, they'd be nerdy little braniacs more concerned with getting their homework done than doing anything he considered fun.

And that's how they got to Christmas dinner at Ducky's house. The ring was bought, he had it in his pocket, like he had for a week. He was waiting for the right time, or at least that's what he was telling himself. Hermione and Amira were probably the only two people in the house who didn't know he was preparing to propose, the team had found out three days ago. They had been gathered in Abby's lab when he went to pull a piece of paper out of his pocket and the box hand fallen to the floor. Ziva saw it first, gasped, and snatched it up before he could hide it away. She was across the room in seconds, Abby behind her in that annoying soundless communication that girls seemed to be able to do. They reminded him of Gollum as they pried the box open and gushed over the ring. Before he even had managed to steal the box back from them they had seemingly planned half the wedding, and it was only Gibbs snapping at them that brought them back to work.

"Something on your mind, McGee?" Gibbs appeared next to him on the couch, and for a brief second he remembered when Hermione told him about the Taboo on Voldemort's name and the Death Eaters knew the second someone said his name.

"I… I just… Nothing, boss," he stammered in reply.

"You haven't asked her yet."

"No. No I haven't."

"Something wrong?"

"No. I just… I'm worried. What if she says no?"

"Why do you think she'd say that?"

"I just look at her. She's too good for me."

He gave a little shrug. "All men think that. If she thought that, do you think she would have stayed with you this long?"

"No," he replied.

"If you're going until you're sure of her answer, you spent a load of money on a ring she's never going to see."

Hermione stood up as Amira ran off towards the bathroom. Her eyes scanned the room until they landed on him. She smiled and locked eyes with him, and he returned the smile before standing up and walking out onto the porch. A few seconds later she followed, closing the door behind her.

"Is everything alright, Tim?" she asked.

"Yeah. Everything… everything is good," he nodded.

"Timothy…" she said, a kind smile crossing her face.

He reached for her, and she stepped into his embrace, kissing his cheek lightly and resting her head against his shoulder. "Everything is okay, really," he assured her.

"I'll take your word for it," she whispered. Unexpectedly the window opened a crack, and the sounds of "White Christmas" filled the air. She moved one of his hands to her waist, intertwined the fingers on their other hands, and started leading him in a dance until he reluctantly took over.

"Are you having a happy Christmas so far?" she asked.

"It might be a little better if we hadn't spent half of it solving that case," he grumbled.

"You gave someone an answer on Christmas. It may have been for a question they wished they never had to ask, but it is probably better they have that answer than spend their whole holiday wondering."

"I know. But sometimes I would like to be able to sleep in on Christmas."

"You have tomorrow off. I'll let you sleep all day. I'll make you breakfast in bed, even, so you won't have to leave the room if you don't want to. Or, if it'll convince you to stay in bed, I'll stay there with you. I'm sure we can think of something to do in bed all day."

"Yeah," he chuckled nervously, feeling his face turning red and glancing through the windows to make sure Tony wasn't in earshot. They rotated slowly for a while, neither really listening to the song, before Hermione suddenly stood on tip-toe to catch his lips with hers.

"You looked like you could use a kiss," she explained, her face still close to his.

"Hermione I have to marry you," he replied, without even thinking of the words that came out of his mouth.

She stopped dead, looking at him. "You what?" she asked in a low voice.

He winced. "I totally messed that up. I swear it's not how it went in my head. I'm sorry. I just should have…" he sighed, then sunk to his knee in front of her, fumbling for the ring and dropping the box as he managed to get it out. He swore under his breath, picked it up, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he looked up at Hermione, who had one hand covering her mouth in surprise. He took her other hand and suddenly realized that he was more afraid not to ask. "Hermione Granger, my time with you has been nothing short of, well, magical. I cannot wait for every moment we get to spend together, and nothing would make me happier or more honored to think that those moments are going to be around forever. I love you so much- will you marry me?"

"Yes," she managed in a whisper, and he slipped the ring on her finger. She didn't even look at it before flinging herself at him, arms wrapping around him, kissing him passionately. "I kind of liked the bit about having to marry me," she laughed against his lips.

"I meant I had to ask you something."

"It was a good slip-up."

"I love you, Hermione."

"I love you, too, Timothy," she said.

"Do you want to go in and tell everyone?"

She took his hands again, starting their slow dancing again. "I think a few more minutes of this would be good," she said, resting her head against him.

He knew that in a few minutes he'd be dealing with his teams reactions- Ducky spurting some old quote about marriage, Ziva offering heartfelt congratulations and possibly a blessing in her native tongue, Tony teasing him, Abby turning into a black-topped blur of excitement and Gibbs' fatherly nod of approval, but in that moment he was happy. In that moment life was perfect.