Chapter 24: Christmas Break Part three

The rest of the night at the ball had gone smoothly enough and the group had returned home around four in the morning and all had quickly changed and collapsed into bed. Hermione awoke with her head splitting and her hand in immense pain, she groaned and rolled out of bed heading to the kitchen. She grabbed a bag of ice and made a pot of coffee and grabbed some aspirin. When her cup was ready, she took it and her aspirin out to the garden where she sat on the bench under the tree with the ice sitting on the back of her neck. With her she had brought her sketchpad that she and her mother had bought that day in Diagon Alley. She opened to an open page and started drawing what she saw and what came to mind. She wasn't keeping track of time and was startled when Draco came outside holding a quilt and two fresh cups of coffee.

"Good Morning."

"Good morning Draco, geez you gave me a fright."

"Sorry. What are you doing?"

"Relaxing."

"You draw?"

"I attempt."

"May I watch?"

"Sure, just let me relax alright."

"Deal," Draco sat next to his sister and quietly observed her work. When she was done he spoke, "May I see the rest of your work?"

"Sure."

Draco flipped through the book finding numerous pictures of the school and the manor, one of Minerva and Albus, one of their parents, one of herself Blaise and himself, one of the Weasley children one of Harry and one of Severus. "Does Father know you draw?"

"No I'm in the closet about it."

"Why you are really good."

"Thanks but I do it for fun, I don't plan on making a career of it."

"What did you get Mother and Father for Christmas?"

"You will have to see."

"Oh come on I'll tell you what I got them."

"Nope."

"Fine." The siblings smiled and sat in silence until their mother called them in to the house for a proper breakfast.

At the table Draco tried to get Hermione to spill her guts about her drawing but she caught on and glared at him.

"Children, I would like to let you all know that we will not be spending Christmas Eve together."

"What? Why?" Draco asked.

"Hermione has some friends expecting her tonight." Narcissa smiled at her daughter.

"Really, I can go, for sure?"

"Yes baby girl."

"Yay!" She jumped up and hugged her parents, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"You are very welcome, and feel free to invite them to our family dinner on New Year's."

"Ok."

That evening, her parents were true to their word and allowed Hermione to go to headquarters to spend her Christmas Eve with her friends and 'family.' They had a big feast like always; Ron glared at Hermione over his broken nose numerous times but she ignored him and enjoyed listening to the twins talk about their new inventions. At the stroke of midnight they made a toast to Harry, during the end of term, he had had a dream about an attack on Mr. Weasley and it had saved his life. Arthur was grateful as were his wife and kids.

"With out you, I wouldn't have been able to experience such a wonderful Christmas with all of you." Harry blushed and Molly handed out the traditional presents, sweaters. They all tore into them and showed them off.

"Hey George, will you wear my sweater?"

"Sure Fred, will you wear mine?"

"Oh well since you asked so nicely…" The twins put on the other's sweaters and announced "We are Gred and Feorge, the inventers of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezers!" this made everyone laugh. When the laugher had died down, Hermione made her invite open, "If you all would like, my father has invited you all to our house for New Years, we have a big dinner and then we can light off fireworks, which I am sure Feorge and Gred could help with."

"We would be honored my lady. We will be there."

"Hermione dear, we would love to be there as well, you can count on the entire Weasley clan to be there."

"Great!"

"Not me, I will not partake in any holiday with you Malfoy, you or your family."

"That's fine with us Prick, no one is making you. You can stay here and pout all by yourself." Ginny said sourly.

"Maybe I will." Ron got up and left the room.

Hermione gave them the rest of the directions for the on goings of that day and then she flooed back home. She went to bed excited for what the next few days would bring.

She was awoken by her brother and Blaise jumping on her bed, "Get up Hermione, we have breakfast to eat and presents to open."

"GO AWAY," she yelled into her pillows.

"No come on I am hungry and mother won't let us eat until you are down there."

"Fine get out so I can get dressed," she said slowly climbing out of bed.

"YEAY!"

Hermione grabbed her pair of plaid flannel PJ pants and put on the sweater that Molly had made her for Christmas. She grabbed a ponytail holder and walked down the steps French braiding as she went.

"Good Morning Mia Bear, Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas Daddy. Merry Christmas Mother."

"Merry Christmas Baby Girl." Hermione hugged and kissed both of her parents before taking her seat next to her father.

"What no 'Merry Christmas' for us?" Draco asked.

"Your 'Merry Christmas' is me not hexing you both for waking me up this morning."

"Wow someone's PMSing." Blaise said. Hermione grabbed a sausage link and threw it at him. "Hey!"

"Shut up."

"Did you drink last night?"

"I had one butter beer and then I had to deal with Ronald so I have minor headache but not from alcohol."

"Good for you."

"Why aren't you two eating?" Hermione asked her brothers.

"We have to wait until everyone is here."

"I came down…"

"We are waiting for Minerva and Albus dear."

"Oh… Wait I could have slept for another few!"

"Well we weren't expecting you to run down her so fast."

"You two are dead." The boys looked at each other and then shut their mouths. Five minutes later, the fire place roared and through it stepped Minerva and Albus with presents in their pockets. They enlarged them and then put them under the tree before joining the others at the table. They ate with excited chatter, which Draco used as his cue to ask his next question, "Minerva, Albus, can we ask you a question?"

Minerva looked at Albus, "Sure Draco."

Draco looked at Hermione, "Don't you dare look at me, I wanted to wait."

"Wait for what?"

"It was your idea."

"So?" Draco gave her the puppy dog eyes and she caved, "Fine." She looked at her two professors, "Draco and I were wondering… well, neither one of us has really had grandparents around before…and we have seen how close you both are to our parents and…"

"What Hermione is trying to say is that we were wondering if you two would be our honorary grandparents?"

Minerva wanted to cry, she had her hand over her mouth while Albus put a comforting hand over her other one.

"See Draco, I told you to wait but no, you had to bring up all this emotion over breakfast!"

"It was your idea…"

"To tell them as our present to them, that means you were to consult me before you told them."

"I did."

"No you didn't and now you have forced us to make Minerva cry."

"It's a shocking question for someone to ask someone else Hermione." Blaise defended his friend.

Hermione groaned, "You two are so immature, I have lost my appetite," then she briskly walked to the garden.

"I'm not hungry anymore either, I'll meet you all in the sitting room." And he too was gone.

"Min, are you alright?"

"I just didn't know they felt that way," Minerva said.

"Me neither."

"Did you two know anything about this," Minerva asked, she noticed something that she didn't see before, "Cissy are you alright?"

She nodded, "I always thought of you as a mother even before Mother died; I always wanted my children to have a loving family member like you and Albus to help them through life when Lucius and I could not. I didn't know what they were planning," she said through her teary eyes.

"I would be honored to be their honorary grandmother," Minerva said going to hug the young lady that she viewed as a daughter.

"And I their grandfather," Albus said. "Let's go find Hermione and Draco."

"Why don't you and Lucius go find Draco, Cissy and I will go find Hermione." Albus and Lucius nodded leaving the table.

Minerva and Narcissa went out and found Hermione on her designated bench, her shoulders shaking slightly with sobs. "Hermione?" Minerva asked approaching the girl, "Baby what's wrong?"

"I didn't want to make you cry, Draco is such a jerk, I never wanted him to come flat out and say it, I wanted to wait until after presents but he obviously didn't understand why, I'm sorry."

"Hermione, we came out here to tell you yes."

"What?"

"Yes I would be honored to be your honorary grandmother and Albus said yes too!"

"Really?"

"Yes."

"With the titles and all?"

"If that's what you both want."

"It's what we had thought about," Hermione said looking at her hands.

"Hermione, why didn't you and Draco tell your father and I what you were planning?"

"We wanted to surprise everyone."

Minerva wrapped her arms around her honorary granddaughter and pulled her to her. "You know Hermione; I think this is the best gift that I could ever receive."

Hermione lost control and hugged her as tight as she could, when they broke they decided to go inside before the boys strained themselves resisting the urge to open their presents. When they entered the sitting room, they saw Draco chatting animatedly with Albus and Lucius, Albus spotted them, "There's my beautiful granddaughter!" He stood and she ran to him throwing him into a giant hug similar to the one that Minerva had shared with her. He spun her around once before setting her down on the ground and said, "Can grandpa spoil you with lemon drops?"

"I would say yes but they are gross," Hermione made a face and smiled at him.

"That's my girl," Minerva said causing the room to laugh.

"Well then how about I spoil you with ice cream?"

"Done," She hugged him again and broke apart from him when Draco started whining about sitting here and the presents nagging at him to open them. They all laughed and took their spots around the room; Minerva and Albus took the couch, Narcissa took her chair that was next to Lucius', Draco sat in front of his parent's chairs, Hermione sat in front of her Mother, which just happened to be next to the couch and Blaise took the other arm side of Lucius' chair. Blaise took the job of handing out the presents; he started with Narcissa and then just picked presents.

Blaise had gotten a sweater from the Weasleys with a green B on it, Harry had gotten him a book of defense, Draco gave him a journal, Hermione had given him a scarf, Minerva and Albus got him a gift certificate to both Flourish and Blotts and Honeydukes, Lucius gave him a book of various charms and Narcissa gave him a set of novels for him to read, and he received a quill set from Severus.

Draco had gotten exactly what he had asked for, Hermione got him a journal and a book he had eyed on their last trip to Hogsmeade, Blaise got him some joke items from Zonkos, a sweater from the Weasleys, his parents had gotten him a new owl, and his new grandparents had gotten him a Slytherin house ring, one just like his father's, he too got a quill set from Severus and a book from Harry.

Hermione got a sketchbook and pencils from the Harry, a journal from the boys, a Gryffindor necklace like her mother's Slytherin one from her grandparents, a stationary set from the Grangers, her mother had gotten her the Black family ring from the Black house Lucius had gotten her a gift certificate from Flourish and Blotts and Severus had gotten her an advanced potions book for her extra studies and a two way mirror.

Narcissa had gotten a journal from Minerva and a Camera from Albus, a music book from Lucius along with a diamond necklace with two sapphires and an alexandrite for Hermione, Blaise and Draco's birthdays, Hermione got her the sketch of the three kids to go along with the necklace and a scrapbook of her growing up (which was for both her and Lucius), Blaise and Draco tag teamed Narcissa as well and got her a recipe book, Severus also pitched in and got Narcissa a two way mirror that was the other half to the one Hermione had gotten.

Lucius had gotten a book from Minerva and Albus, a watch from the three children, and Severus had gotten him an over cloak that was green with silver trimming and a matching set of dress robes from Narcissa.

Minerva and Albus got not only the chance to have grandchildren as a gift, they also received journals from Narcissa and Lucius, Blaise got them each a new pensive (He figured Albus' was getting pretty full) Hermione and Draco had gotten Minerva a necklace of Sapphires for her 'grandkids' and they had gotten Albus a never ending bag of lemon drops.

"Is that everything?" Narcissa asked.

"Looks like it," Draco said

"Oh wait there are three behind the tree!" Hermione said.

"How did we miss those?" Lucius asked.

"I don't know, they weren't there a second ago."

"I don't know, they kinda blend in with the wall," Hermione pointed out. "And they are covered in branches."

"Very true," Blaise pulled them out, "They're for us."

"Which us?"

"Draco, Hermione and me us," Blaise said flatly

"Oh, let's open 'em." Draco said.

"Together?" Hermione asked

"Why not? On the count of three… 1…2…3!" the three kids tore off the paper at the same time. Hermione was given a necklace with a clear gemstone in it, the boys had rings with the same stone, until Hermione touched hers, it turned apricot, the boys didn't touch theirs but theirs turned the same color. "WHOA!" Draco and Blaise shouted at the same time.

"Touch it and see what colors yours turn," Hermione said removing her hand from the necklace; Blaise went first his turned a teal color, when Draco went his was a peach color. "What are they?"

"I don't know, do you guys have a parchment in yours?" Blaise asked.

"Yes," Hermione and Draco said. Each took out their letter, Hermione scanned to the bottom and all the color drained from her face.

"What is it baby?" Nacissa asked.

"It's from…. Ohmare."

"WHAT?" Narcissa exclaimed.

"Read it out loud Mia." Lucius said.

Hermione cleared her throat, "To my dear Goddaughter Hermione, by now you know of your biological parents and myself. This is a box to you from me, it is everything for you. There are things in here to help you and your family survive this war, I wish I could be there to guide all three of you children through this but sadly that is not an option. I just want to let you know that I adored you and your family; it had nothing to do with you when I disappeared, and it was by my own choice. Anyway, here is a short explanation as to what is in the box: there is an item of jewelry for you to wear at all times (there is also one for your mother and godmother) this is an emotion necklace, if anyone of you are feeling an emotion it will turn a specific color and if it is a strong emotion, you will feel it. The necklace Gem never loses its color unless everyone has theirs off. Now I am sure that you are wondering how you will distinguish which color and emotion belongs to which person, that's the thing, you will just know, it's all about love Hermione, trust in it and it will lead you in the right direction. Attached is a list of the colors and what they stand for until you get the hang of it. There is also a journal to plan out your thoughts and organize them. Also is an enchanted map that will show you your desired place along with who is in it, use it well. Always, your godfather, Ohmare Zambini."

Everyone was stunned by the letter to say the least, the boys read theirs out loud as well and revealed that Draco was given a potions book of healing and strengthening potions and a similar journal to Hermione's. Blaise was also given a journal along with a charms book of healing charms and protection charms. Each was given an extra ring, for their godfathers. Narcissa helped Hermione put hers on while Minerva helped Narcissa put hers on and Albus put on Minerva's. Lucius put on his ring and he could feel a really strong emotion coming from his hand: puzzlement.

"So what do the colors mean?" Lucius asked

Hermione read the list out loud:

"Black: Excited, stressed, hurt, angry

Brown: nervous troubled worry and fear

Red: passion, love, excited

Red Orange: tormented, overwrought, aggressive

Orange :on edge, guilty, impatient

Yellow-orange: endearing, concerned, sad

Yellow: distracted, cautious, unsettled

Green-Yellow: expectant, restless, irritated

Green: normal, good, calm, jealous

Blue-green: enthusiastic, flirtatious, surprised, puzzled

Blue: Relaxed, content, pleasant

Indigo: really happy, tranquility, in love

Violet: Heated, creative, mischievous, irked

Red-Violet: infuriated, despair, unhappy

Pink: Affectionate, at rest, reflective,

Ice blue: phobic, emotionless, faux/fraud

White: restrained, stunned and shocked

Grey: sullen, tired, depressed

Light blue: solitary, lonely, sorrow

Green sky blue: bemused, surprised, considering

Cobalt blue: enamored, lambent, connected,

Blue-green-yellow: heartfelt contemplation, indecisive, wavering aura

Violet-green: motivated, upbeat, rejuvenated

Violet-brown: distant hope, haunted by memories, regret

Green-Brown: muted, pressured, misguided

Green Pink: consoled, comforted, bewildered

Again, you will know which is which."

Sure enough, Lucius' ring was blue-green.

"So it's like a mood ring."

"A what?"

"There are these rings that muggles have that read their emotions based on their skin temperature."

"Oh, that's cool."

"What I don't understand how they got here, we haven't seen or heard from Ohmare in fifteen years, why is he just now appearing back in our lives? How did he know we had found Hermione and how did he know how the final battle was approaching?" Narcissa asked, her speech is getting faster as she continued to ask her questions.

"I don't know Dear," Lucius said shaking his head.

"Well I am going to… go put my stuff away," Blaise said.

He was just about to leave the room when Hermione called out, "Hold it." He froze, "You've been in contact with him haven't you?" he was silent, "Blaise answer me, have you been in contact with your father?"

"Yes."

"YES?" Hermione was furious, "How could you be in contact with him and not tell us?"

"Am I not allowed to be contact with my father?"

"You are, but he is my godfather, I have a right to know."

"Do you know where he is?" Draco asked.

"No I have asked numerous times but he never answers."

"So you told him everything since we found out that I was a Malfoy."

"Yes."

"So you knew the presents were here?"

"Yes."

"Blaise, I can't believe that you would put us all in danger like that."

"What do you mean Hermione?"

"Ohmare obviously disappeared for a reason, what if the Dark Lord found out, he would kill us all for information on him, and you kept this from us. You are so stupid Blaise, I can't believe you!" Hermione stormed out of the room.

Blaise plopped onto the floor, "She's right, I'm sorry I put us all in danger."

"You did Blaise and I think that the fact that he is trying to help us all survive this war is worse. I am not going to forbid you from talking to him, but I don't want you to write him anymore concerning family matters or anything about Hermione; just to be cautious."

"I understand."

"Good, now let's get some lunch on the table and let Hermione cool off."

The group dispersed and got lunch ready; Minerva took the task of getting Hermione down stairs. She knocked three times and waited for a response, "Come in."

"Hey baby girl."

"Hey Grams."

"Are you ok?"

"I don't know, I'm just confused I guess. How could he keep something like this from us?"

"Everyone has secrets Hermione.

"But Grams, this could have put us all in danger."

"We are all already in danger Mia." Hermione looked at her, not with confusion but with mild understanding.

"Because of Grandpa?"

"Yes and no; Hermione, yes Grandpa has a good part of it, but if you recall, your father is a target already because he was a spy, Blaise is a target because of Ohmare, your mother and brother are in danger because of Lucius and you are a friend of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. We have all done things that have made us a target dear, Blaise isn't all to blame."

"I suppose I overreacted."

"Really?"

"Ok I Did overreact, I should go apologize."

"That's my girl."

The two walked to the dining table where Hermione apologized to Blaise and then they ate. The rest of the evening was generally uneventful and then everyone went to bed.

A/N: Hey everyone… once again, thanks for the reviews and all the favorite/alert author/story adds they are much appreciated and encourage the old gears to turn! Please review and keep smiling!