Wow you guys sure do know how to make someone feel good about a story. So I would like to say thank you to oddballrandomness, ladygoddess8, Areej, Minerva's-kitten, kttykiwi, runrigrocks, horcuxhorror, just Reading08, Missie101, nightangel1220, Tink607, jessirose85 and Poppinswannabe who reviewed for chapter 7. Thank you and I will try to give thanks to everyone who reviews from now on. Here's Christmas Day just in time for the winter season to be over.
Also this chapter may be a little sad.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
When Hermione woke up on Christmas morning, it was to a feeling of excitement she had not felt on that day, in a long time. She looked at her clock and saw that it was 7 in the morning. Well that's plenty early she decided and ran out of the room. She started to go downstairs but stopped out side of Minerva and Albus's door. She knocked softly and when she received no answer she peeked in. They were both asleep. She grinned impishly and softly shut the door behind her. She walked to the foot of their bed and paused. What if they didn't think it was funny? She shook her head, if yesterday had been anything to go by they would think it was funny. She climbed up on their bed.
"Wake up! Wake up! It's CHRISTMAS, it's Christmas." She jumped up and down on the bed yelling. "UP, UP. Come on wake up!" She saw Albus and Minerva jump and stare at her. She stopped jumping and grinned.
"Come on those presents aren't going to open themselves." She told them and jumped off the bed and ran downstairs. Albus started laughing and Minerva just fell back onto her pillow.
"It's to early." Minerva moaned. Albus pulled her up out of the bed.
"You get up earlier during the school year, come on Minnie." He said handing her, her dressing gown. They followed Hermione down the stairs. They saw her sitting in front of tree smiling. Albus went and sat on the floor next to her. Minerva walked towards the kitchen.
"Let me just get some tea and I'll join you." She said, returning a couple minutes later with a cup of tea. She saw that Albus had decided to darn a Santa hat for the holidays.
"Mrs. Clause has decided to grace us with her presence at last." He said joyfully making a Santa hat appear on Minerva's head. She didn't take it off but did glare at him.
"You are not starting that again." She said stiffly.
"You know you enjoyed that year." He said smugly. Hermione looked up at both of them while Minerva sat in the chair behind Hermione, picking up Albus's camera.
"What happened?" She asked.
"I decided that the few students at Hogwarts for the holidays deserved at treat. So instead of having them open their presents in their dorms, we did it in the great hall. I was Santa Claus and I made Minerva be Mrs. Claus. It was quite fun." He said.
"You didn't have to face the rumors that swirled around school afterwards." Minerva groaned. Hermione laughed at her tone.
"Well then, I suppose we had better start opening presents then. Here Hermione you get to start." He handed her a flat package.
"It's from Ron." She said opening it. "Oh, yea, chocolate frogs." She said pulling the boxes out. Albus grabbed another present and handed it to Minerva. It was from Hermione. Minerva gave the girl a questioning look and opening it.
"Oh, it's beautiful Hermione." She said pulling out an emerald green scarf with her initials engraved on the bottom. Albus took a quick picture of her before she became aware that he had the camera. "Thank you so much sweetie." She slid to the floor to give Hermione a hug. Hermione leaned into it. "Did you make it?" Hermione nodded.
"I made it last night, Albus got me the fabric and I knitted it." She said softly. Minerva kissed her head and hugged her again.
"I love it and it's my favorite color." She said smiling. "Now I believe it's your turn Albus." He gladly reached for one with his name on it.
"Yes." He shouted opening one of his presents from Minerva, revealing the bag of lemon drops and M & M's. "Thank you dear." He kissed her lightly. Hermione reached for another present seeing it was from Minerva she looked up at the women before she opened it. At Minerva nod she started ripping the paper.
"Oh thank you thank you." She said looking at the magical history text that she had been eyeing in Flourish and Blotts. She turned around and gave Minerva hug.
"Look again there's one more." Hermione turned back eagerly. She pulled out an older book. "Advanced Transfiguration and Animagus training?" She said looking up at Minerva.
"That's one of my old books and while you still young I thought that if you want to I can teach you how to be an Animagus. How ever it wouldn't be until you are a bit older, I'm giving it to you now in case you want to read up on the subject." She smiled at Hermione's eager look. Hermione sat the books back down and gave Minerva the biggest hug she could. Minerva eagerly hugged her back and felt her shoulder get wet. She pulled back and looked at Hermione worried.
"What sweetie." Hermione sniffed.
"It's just . . . you guys have done so much for me . . . and this is the most I've ever gotten for Christmas, and you actually got me presents and you got me clothes and your taking care of me. . . no one's ever done that before. And I don't know how to say thank you . . . this is the best Christmas I've ever had. And now I feel stupid." She wiped her eyes, and tried to run away. Minerva kept a firm grip on Hermione and pulled her up in the chair with her and held her tightly.
"You are not stupid and I never want to hear you call yourself that again. It's not your fault you've never had a good holiday. And you don't have to get me anything for taking care of you; I love just having you here." Minerva whispered into Hermione's ear stroking her hair. Hermione sniffed again.
"But you got me that book and I know it was expensive, and you're letting me have one of your own books. They never gave me anything from the heart like that." She mumbled. "I don't deserve it." She said that very quietly. Minerva felt so much anger at those muggles, but she knew this wasn't the time to be anger at them. She also knew that if she didn't get though to Hermione now, she was afraid that she never would.
"You deserve every little thing you get. You are the most wonderful girl I have ever met, and you deserve everything the world has to offer you. You are sweet and loving and so brilliant that I'm surprised you can't realize it." Minerva paused even though she knew what she was about to say was true, it took a lot for her to say it. She had only said it to one person in many years. "I love you Hermione . . . you're the daughter I always wish I had." She spoke softly but she knew Hermione could hear her. Hermione brought her head up.
"I love you too." She said choking up and Minerva felt herself start to cry to. Hermione put her head back on Minerva's shoulder. They stayed like that for a few minutes until Hermione pulled back.
"I think I'm ok now." She said and Minerva smiled but let Hermione stay in her lap. Albus walked back into the room about a minute later smiling as if nothing had happened.
"Where did you go?" Minerva asked her husband. He held up a candy dish that was half empty and Minerva sighed pretending to be annoyed with him. They quickly got though the rest of the presents. Hermione got a book on charms from Harry, a sweater from Mrs. Weasley, and Albus got her some socks that changed color randomly. Minerva got the new transfiguration book from Albus and a few other tokens various presents from her fellow teachers. Hermione had made Albus a knit hat in a bright blue which he happily wore for the rest of the day, and a lot of books from various fans and colleagues. He pushed those back under the tree.
"Why do people always assume I want books? You two get me," He said pointing to Minerva and Hermione. "I can always use a hat and candy they have more practical uses." Minerva shook her head at her husband, and Hermione was glad he liked her gift.
With the presents open they moved into the kitchen for a light breakfast. Minerva started making the food and Hermione and Albus sat at the table. Albus had broken out some exploding snap cards and was teaching Hermione how to stack them so they wouldn't blow up in your face. Minerva had just turned around with some food when Albus put the final card on top of the stack. It blew up on in their faces. Hermione and Albus started laughing they both had dirt on smeared on their face.
"I hate those cards." Minerva grumbled. "I don't know how many times I've had to confiscate them from students." She sat the food down right on top of the smoldering cards. She pulled a napkin out and started to wipe some of the dirt off of Hermione's face.
"I think she can wipe her own face Minerva." Albus said smiling. She rolled her eyes but handed Hermione the napkin. They sat down and ate. An owl at the window interrupted their breakfast briefly. Albus opened the window and it flew in and landed in front of Hermione. She took the letter off of it and it collapsed on the table.
"Who's it from Hermione?" Minerva asked as Albus carefully sat the owl on the back of the empty chair.
"It's from Harry and Ron." She told her and she opened the letter and read it silently. When she looked back up Minerva asked her about it.
"So what did they say?" She asked.
"Oh, they wanted to wish me a merry Christmas, and they wanted to make sure that I got my presents all right. Make sure I was having a good holiday. Do you mind if I write them a reply after breakfast?" She asked.
"Sure sweetie." Minerva told her; smiling and happy that she had good friends like Harry and Ron. She remembered the first few months of the girls stay at Hogwarts; Hermione had come to Minerva asking to be sent home. Minerva had convinced her that the bullying would go down and she would have friends in no time. Now she realized how bad the bullying must have been to make Hermione want to return to her parents. Breakfast ended and Hermione dashed upstairs to write her letter, while Minerva and Albus straightened up the living room. Minerva wanted to arrange everything around the tree so that she could take a picture of it. When she was finally finished and sat down in front of the fire, Albus walked up to her with another present.
"What's this Albus I thought we opened all the presents?" She held it and turned it in her hands. It felt like a book.
"I thought that you would prefer to open this when Hermione isn't here." She gave him a questioning glance and opened the present. She pulled out a large red and gold scrapbook.
"Open it." He urged and she did. She gasped at what she saw. On the first page in gold writing Albus had wrote:
To my love this Christmas day, as our little family gets bigger I think our memories should to. Merry Christmas Minnie, Love Albus.
She turned and looked at him with a warm smile.
"Look though it, it still needs a lot to be added but I got a couple started." He told coming to sit next to her in the chair. She started to flip though it. Only the first two pages were filled. She saw the picture Albus took of her holding a sleeping Hermione. The version of herself in the picture was rubbing Hermione's back. Right next to it was the "family photo" as Albus called it with both of them smiling with Hermione still lying down. Next to that was one of all three of them playing the board game from other night. Minerva gave Albus a raised eyebrow.
"I do have a pensive." He said with a smile. She nodded and continued to look though with a smile. The next one was from yesterday. It showed Hermione and Albus covered in sprinkles with the plate of cookies right next to them. The next one caused her to laugh out loud. Albus had gone into his memories and taken a picture of the three of them sitting on the couch covered in flour. The Hermione in the picture actually sneezed from the flour on her nose. There were only two pictures left on the page. The first was the Minerva and Hermione putting the head on the snowman they had made outside. The second was of just Hermione on the ice trying to stay balanced but managed a wave. Minerva decided that, that was her favorite. Just because it showed how happy Hermione was, she was beaming in the picture. She felt tears come to her eyes for the second time that day as she hugged and kissed her husband.
"Thank you so much Albus." She said holding the scrapbook to her heart. He smiled.
"I think you needed something to remember this Christmas." He said and she just laughed.
Meanwhile . . .
Hermione had ran up to her bedroom after breakfast. She reached the desk in her room and pulled out a piece of parchment and looked at the letter from the boys. She felt slightly bad that she didn't tell Minerva and Albus the full truth about what the boys letter had said but she couldn't dwell on that. She reread that section of the letter again.
Hey, Hermione
It's Harry and Ron,(Harry's writing) How's your Christmas going? We're having fun here we've been playing some two on two Quidditch, and have been chasing the gnomes with firecrackers. We hope you can get your presents all right. We're sending them though owl order so hopefully it will work. Now we want to talk about something serious. Is the plan still going on when we get back to school? If so what day should we do it? Let us know and Merry Christmas.
Harry and Ron.
Hermione pondered what to tell them. Did she still want to go though with the potion. Yes. Did she feel a little uneasy that she was going to be breaking about 50 school rules when she was staying with the two top professors at the school? Oh yeah.
However the more she thought about the more see felt they had to do it. Something had if out for the muggle-borns at Hogwarts including possibly herself. She shuddered at that thought. And from what she could understand from Minerva and Albus, none of the teachers had a clue. If Malfoy knew and they found out then they could save lives. She nodded her mind was made up, if Minerva and Albus found out she would lie or take what ever punishment she got. She picked up her quill and started writing.
. . . On to serious matters, we are going though with it. We'll do it the day we get back after the feast. We're less likely to get caught after that. . . .
Hope everyone likes this chapter I had fun writing it. I added the little section with Hermione because I wanted everyone to know certain aspects of the story will stay the same. And thank you for all the reviews if I missed anyone I'm sorry and I'll add you next time. Also if you like Percy Jackson and the Olympians check out my new story. Though I do promise that I will update this story before that.