A/N: I just wanted to say thank you to Christine11, your review made me really happy and pleased! So thank you!
Later down, I've written Ulrika Eleonora d.y. D.y. in Swedish means the younger!
20th December
When the holidays started 20th December, Hermione couldn't be happier. For once, if felt like she had no problems at all and she would spend her holiday with 3 of her friends! Sure, she would miss her parents, but she would see them at the soon.
She sat in her room and had just finished packing her bag with clothes, books and presents that she would need for the break. Her parents, Harry, Ginny, and Ron's present were currently on its way towards Britain with five of the schools strongest owls. She double-checked that she'd had everything she needed, gave a slight sigh and started to close her trunk when Blaise walked into her room.
"Hey, what's with the sight sigh?" He asked amused.
"I'm just going to miss this place, spending the evenings with you and Draco." she said with a sad smile.
"But at least you are going to see Draco a lot." He said, trying to cheer her up.
"That's true. Will you help me carry this downstairs?" She said, pointing at her trunk.
"Sure!" Blaise said. When he'd lifted it he huffed under it's wight and grunted: "What do you have in it, rocks?"
"It's not that heavy!
"Yes it is!"
They continued with their friendly bicker till they reached the bottom of the stairs were they broke out in uncontrolled laughter, oh, she would definitely miss Blaise. It was so easy being around him. She could really be herself around him without feeling like a dork.
ooo
Gabryel had said to Draco that they plus Hermione and Ellie would travel together to Ellie's house where they would meet Ellie and Gabryel's families for some tea before Draco and Gabryel would take a port key to his house.
Traveling to and away from the Institute was another big difference from Hogwarts. Here, they did not take a train to the school. They each booked a port key at the ministry in their country and when the students travelled home, Mrs. Nord and the other staff-members created the port-keys. So it took a while.
When it finally was their turn the quartet took their trunks and reached for the old plate Mr. Wilkner (their Herbology-teacher) held and put one hand on it and the other hand grabbing their trunks.
"Are you ready?" Mr. Wilkner asked the group. When they all nodded he started to count down from five and when he'd said zero Draco felt the usual feeling that indicated that they were on their way. Seconds later he felt his feet stand steadily on a flat floor and he dropped the trunk and port-key to smooth his robe, feeling a bit dizzy. He always had hated traveling with port-keys.
"ELLIE!" he heard a little girl scream and saw how a dark-blond hair passed through him to flung herself at Ellie.
"Hi Louise!" Ellie said bending down to pick up what Draco guessed was her little sister. He looked around and saw that they had landed in front of a quite big brick-house with a large garden. No neighbors' as far as Draco could see. A perfect place for a wizard-family to live!
He walked to he stood next to Granger and watched how the two families greeted their children. Then Ellie and Gabryel introduced them for their parents Mr. and Mrs. Atterling and Mr. and Mrs. A. Bonér.
Before they arrived Gabryel had explained to him that his father had taken his mothers last name because Bonér was a nicer family name than Atterling. But his father had not wanted to just delete his original name, so the family was now called Atterling Bonér, but no one ever said Atterling.
They walked into the house and after having tea with the Atterling family, he gave Hermione and Ellie each a hug before he left them for Gabryel's home. They landed outside a house that looked like a small castle.
"Draco, Welcome to Bonér castle!" Mrs. Bonér said. The castle was made of terracotta bricks with copper-roof that had begun to be green. The castle had turrets and towers and he guessed that it was similar to the size of Malfoy manor. The castle had a medieval feeling over it and Mrs. Bonér told him that it had been in her family's estate for generations.
They walked in and he was given one of the guest rooms that apparently was called 'The royal chamber' because of a long time ago, before the Bonér family lived here, the Swedish King Fredrik and Queen Ulrika Eleonore d.y. Not that he really cared, but it was a good story to brag about to his Slytherin friends later.
Draco spend two days alone with Gabryel's family before Ellie's family came the 22 December. They would stay there for the rest of the holiday and that made Draco quite happy. Even though he had Gabryel, Draco had felt a bit lonely. He hated to admit it to himself, but he missed Hermione. He enjoyed her company and he liked to make her laugh. Gabryel also noticed that Draco became happier with Hermione here and teased him restless about it.
Ellie was still a bit angry with Gabryel because of this whole Dean-thing. But she quickly forgave him when her father told him that their cousin Veronika would come at Christmas. Apparently they did not like their cousin and they refused to talk to their parents the whole day because they had forgot to mention their cousin's arrival.
"What is it about your cousin that you don't like?" Hermione asked them when they were sitting in Ellie's room. They were all doing different things. Hermione read a book she had borrowed from the castle's library, Ellie was braiding her sister's hair, Draco was writing letters and Gabryel was drawing something he observed form the window.
"She's mean!" Louise said. "And her brother Viktor too!
"She only cares about herself and her brother. She is a bitch to everyone, she is always in a foul mood and all she cares about is getting so much attention as possible." Ellie said, filling out her sister's sentence.
"Sounds a little like you Draco." Hermione teased.
"Ha ha." was his only response.
"Well, you'll meet Veronika tomorrow, so you can always see for your selves!" Gabryel said with an indifferent tone.
They all decided to go to bed when they saw that Louise had fallen asleep in her sister's lap. There was always a day tomorrow!
ooo
The morning after they were all woken up at 9 by the castle house-elf Hortencia and they all sat at the table eating breakfast at. 9.30 a.m. when a grey owl tapped at the window.
"Oh, it's you Aunt Tyra's owl Gabryel!" Mr. Bonér said, opening the window and reading the letter.
"It looks like they are a bit delayed. They should come in time for after-noon tea though"
"Yeay!" They heard Louise shriek when she heard that her cousins, aunt and uncle would be late, and not even her parents could avoid laughing.
They spent the morning with having a huge snowball fight and then they had a lovely soup-lunch. Hermione then enjoyed the last hours of peace, as Ellie called it, in Draco's room sitting in a chair reading. They were suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door and Ellie looked in with a smirk and a mischievous look in her eye telling them to put on their cloaks so they could greet her Aunt Tyra and her family.
Ten minutes later they all stood out in the cold waiting for the family to arrive. After two more minutes Mrs. Atterling said:
"There they are" and pointed to the sky. First Hermione didn't see anything but after a while she was a carriage and two horses up in the sky.
"Why don't they travel with port-key? Draco asked.
"Not fancy enough" Gabryel answered. They all stood quite after that and watched how the carriage came closer and closer until they saw it land bumpily on the ground. The door was flung open and a beautiful woman stepped outside. She quickly went to hug her brothers that she had a lot in common with when it came to their looks. She had long dark blond hair but was paler than the brothers.
After her, a quite not so beautiful man came out and greeted the brothers as well. She guessed it was her Bulgarian husband Ellie told her about and not long after him a girl in their age stepped outside. She had long, dark brown hair and her skin had paleness that you could compare to Draco's. She stepped aside so her brother, who looked like her, except he was a boy, could step out. They started greeting everyone and when she came to Ellie and Draco she just looked them in the eye and greeted them with a simple "cousin."
Then she came to Hermione. She looked at her with a surprised look.
"And, are you?"
"My name is Hermione Granger, it's a pleasure to meet you." Hermione replied politely.
"Yea, we'll see about that" Was Veronika's answer before she turned to Draco. This time she did not look surprised, but more like she just seen a miracle or something similar.
"Draco Malfoy." Draco said, not being polite to her after her rude comment to Hermione.
"Pleasure meeting you." She said with a slimy voice. Then she turned to the man driving the carriage and said.
"You carry in my bag to my room."
A/N: Moahahah I can't wait for the Christmas day chapter!
So here's the chapter. Tell me what you think about it will ya? And as always thanks to my amazing friend and beta Freakyella. Don't know how I would manage without you!
R & R.