When the day finally arrived, Harry and Hermione took the train together with the other students back to London.

At the train station they got picked up by aunt Petunia, who warmly hugged them both.

"Did you kids enjoy the term? Learned something new?" she asked them while they were driving through what was almost a snow storm.

"Yeah… uh, a lot", when he got a quick gaze from Hermione.

"And I hope you don't spend too much time together during your studies, right?" aunt Petunia said with a smirk.

"No, but you know Harry. He'll never take his eyes off me even if his life would be in danger", said Hermione and aunt Petunia laughed softly.

Afterwards, Hermione and aunt Petunia had a discussion about possibly every topic that was currently relevant: from the plans for Christmas and things that had happened at school to Hermione's parents and the snow storm.

It didn't take long until they finally stepped into Harry's room, and Harry could rest his ears.

Immediately he fell down in his bed with a sigh.

"What?" laughed Hermione as she sat down beside him. "I can't help that your aunt likes to talk with me. I had to bring her up to speed about things."

"Yeah, yeah."

Hermione lied down with her head on his shoulder.

"Your aunt said she'll need help to bring out the Christmas tree from the basement later", she said.

"Yes, I heard. I was just not paying much attention."

Harry picked up his phone that was still lying on his bedside and charged it. About twenty missed calls from Tony Stark.

"Maybe you should call him first, though", she said with a crooked smile.

Harry frowned and smiled. "Nah, he can wait."

"Harry…", Hermione said in a serious manner.

"Alright, fine."

Harry jumped out of bed and tried to call Stark, but got no answer.

"No answer, I'll try later", he threw the phone back on the bedside.

Hermione leaned on her elbow, looking at him. "Maybe he's busy with something?"

Harry shrugged and threw himself down beside her again.

"Maybe", he said with a smile.

He moved closer to her. He put his hand on her hip and tried to kiss her, but she pulled away.

He looked confused at her, surprised over her reaction. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing", he tried to kiss her again only for her to reject him again. "I'm not in the mood right now, Harry. Maybe later, okay?"

He couldn't help but feel a bit hurt on the inside, and didn't want Hermione to notice it so he decided to leave the room.

He slowly nodded and got up from the bed. "Okay, I'll go out and see if aunt Petunia needs help."

Christmas Day came around, and a before lunch-time both Harry and Hermione got ready for the Christmas meal they were going to have with aunt Petunia and Hermione's parents.

"It's not a formal dinner, Harry", Hermione laughed after Harry had combed his hair and checked his shirt for almost twenty minutes.

"To me, it is", Harry looked at her over his shoulder.

She sighed. "They are dentists, Harry – not fashion designers. You don't need a tie."

"They could be circus-performers and it wouldn't matter, Hermione", he quickly looked at himself in the mirror and pulled off his tie. "Actually, no; you're right, I don't."

Not long after they got themselves ready, the door-bell rang and aunt Petunia opened.

In walked mr and mrs Granger, both hugging their daughter as soon as they spotted her. Aunt Petunia greeted them welcome, they shook hands with her and Harry, before they headed to the table.

After they sat down, Hermione gave Harry a meaningful look which told him to not screw things up. Harry shrugged back as an answer.

"It's a very nice apartment, Petunia", said mrs Granger. "I must say the decorations are very well done."

Aunt Petunia gave a small laugh. "I get that a lot these days. Thank you."

As the meal went on, so did the discussion. Harry dreaded for the inevitable moment when he had to say more than a few words during it.

It wasn't that he thought that Hermione's parents were awful people to talk to, it was just that he was scared to say something stupid in front of them – especially since they didn't seem to like him very much.

He didn't blame them; he could only imagine how it must feel to have a daughter that had a such famous boyfriend, especially after how the Daily Prophet had painted him as crazy liar last year.

Hermione suddenly looked at Harry. "You've not said much, Harry."

Mr Granger lit up and looked up at Harry. "Why yes. Hermione talks so much about you, it's hard to not hear about you. She says you're excellent at self-defense and sports. Do you mind specifying what areas you have mastered?"

"Uh…"

"Excuse my husband, Harry", mrs Granger said with a comforting smile. "He always gets so formal during dinners with others."

"I just want to be polite. Is that too much to ask for, honey?", said mr Granger and shook his head. "Well, if you don't mind answering my question, Harry."

Harry felt a bit confused, looking from mr Granger to Hermione and back.

"Well, I… uh, I wouldn't say excellent", Harry began nervously.

Hermione smiled. "He's just being shy."

"Well, uh. The self-defense is more so general defense than physical, if that makes sense. What I'm trying to say is, it's not martial-arts. And the, uh Quidditch – a form of football…"

Time passed by much quicker than Harry had expected after he got a bit more comfortable around Hermione's parents and could actually talk to them without being overly nervous.

After dinner they opened their presents together, after which they spent time in the living room talking, laughing, drinking and eating – just overall having a good time.

Harry couldn't remember the last time he'd been this happy and relaxed, and actually enjoy himself and not having to constantly worry about his surroundings.

The only thing that was missing now was his best friend who hated his very existence, but he didn't let it bother him for too long.

As the others prepared the family photo, Harry was just on his way to refill his glass but on the way he stopped in front of a window when he heard the sounds of sirens.

A couple of ambulances and two police-cars sped by down on the street. Obviously something bad had happened; but he couldn't do anything about it because Spider-Man was a selfish prick who was too busy celebrating Christmas with his friends and family instead of helping people in need.

"Are you coming, Harry?" Hermione called.

"Yeah, in a second."

Very late in the evening closer to midnight, Harry sat in the couch and watched TV while Hermione had dozed off in his lap with her arms loosely around his waist.

He felt pretty sleepy himself but tried to keep himself away, even if the occasional thought snuck up on him that he could just fall asleep here on the couch instead.

In the background aunt Petunia and Hermione's parents were still talking by the kitchen table, very loud and with a lot of laughing involved.

Harry had a nice thought about going to the warm and soft bed, so he finally could shut his eyes. He tried to stifle a yawn but didn't succeed very well, which drew the attention from the table.

"I think someone needs to sleep", said aunt Petunia with a smile.

"Yeah", Harry mumbled and shut the TV off with the remote.

"But they do look so adorable", said mrs Granger. "Can you take a photo of them, Petunia – if you don't mind, Harry?"

"Stop torturing the poor boy, honey; he's tired, so are we all", said mr Granger with a concerning look at his wife who seemed to have one too many drinks tonight.

"Oh for…", Harry sighed; he was so tired and just wanted to sleep for once.

Aunt Petunia came rushing with her camera.

Harry rolled his eyes tiredly. "No, no. Nope. It's fine. I don't need sleep, do I?"

"Relax. It's just a photo, sweetie", aunt Petunia said with a short laugh.

The camera flashed in his face a few times, until she was satisfied.

"Can I sleep now?" Harry asked irritably. "We'll bring in our presents in the morning to my room, I swear."

Aunt Petunia smiled. "Don't worry, you can go."

Harry lifted Hermione up in his arms and stood up, beginning to slowly walking to his room.

Mr Granger hastily stood up from his chair. "You need help with that?"

"No, thanks. I got it."

After he'd gotten Hermione in bed and tucked her in, he closed his door and walked towards the window, just looking out over the streets.

It was very tempting, but he was way too tired. He yawned and pulled the curtains over the window, and was just about to lie down in his bed when his phone rang.

As quickly as possible to not wake Hermione up, he answered it and distanced himself from the bed.

"Hello?"

"I was expecting you to pick up sooner or later", answered Tony Stark's voice in the phone; he didn't sound very happy.

"Yeah…"

"What? You think just because you're a kid you can ignore people however you want? Just so you know, I'm late to my midnight Christmas party because of you."

"I was at school, alright? I couldn't exactly pick up your calls; bad reception", Harry said.

"Sure, and I'm uncle Sam. I've been keeping an eye on you, kid."

Tony must've monitored him during his occasional trips to London.

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh. Do you realize how much time I waste on you? Too much."

Harry started to walk around the room.

"What do you want?" he mumbled; he wasn't really in the mood for this right now.

"Okay, I've been thinking about your little masquerade; maybe we can evolve it to something bigger. I… might've heard that you handled yourself pretty good against that Goblin-guy. Except for the fact that you wrecked an entire library taking him down, and you almost got yourself killed."

"Wait what? How can you…?"

Tony snickered. "Funny, isn't it? No technology works within the area of where your school supposedly is located; it stops to function and is rendered useless. But I've another solution."

Harry bit his own lip in anger. "So what, you've been spying on me?

"Yeah kinda."

"What?" Harry said loudly but quickly covered his mouth to not wake up Hermione.

"Hey, it took me months to get past whatever scrambles all electronic devices known to man; phones, computers, cameras – you name it. But I managed to get a little help from a mythological friend of mine and I managed to get past it… and had a guy on the inside to plant some tiny micro-camera on your suit and in your dormitory; so small you won't even notice."

Harry scoffed. "Great, so now you know everything about my life."

"Do I seem like a stalker to you?" Tony said. "But yeah, pretty much."

"Turn it off."

"Can't. Won't."

"Turn it off."

Tony sighed.

"You really want to do this?" he said. "Over the phone? Kid, I've got guests waiting…"

"And I have the rights for some personal space!" Harry yelled.

"Trust me, I only check every now and then, and it's not fun to pull the screen up and see you two sucking each others faces off", Tony added a nervous laugh.

Harry was quiet for a while. He was angry beyond comprehension, that Tony would just do this without his knowledge. Did this mean he knew about the Wizarding World?

"How much do you know?" he finally asked.

"Enough", Tony answered.

Harry took a deep breath and exhaled.

"Turn it all off. Now."

"Alright, fine. There – done. Don't blame me for this."

Harry slowly nodded. "And never call me in the middle of the night again. Never", he hung up and threw the phone to the side on his chair while walking back to bed.

Hermione was still out like a light after the eventful day. He took off his contacts and laid down beside her under the warm cover, with his arm holding her tightly.

He gave a sigh of relief, to finally be able to sleep.

"Who was that?" she suddenly mumbled.

She must've heard him yelling.

"What? Oh, just that jerk Tony Stark. Sorry if I woke you up."

He couldn't tell if she was smiling, but he was pretty sure she was.

"It's alright", she closed into him and kissed him gently on the cheek.

With one last look on her blurry face he quickly fell asleep.

AUTHORS END NOTES

Here's a fun fact for you: in every story I've written I named Hermione's parents Henric and Matilda Granger, but I did not want to

bring that into this story, so I had to dance around not giving away their first names. I still wish J.K would at least reveal their names, but that's highly unlikely.