Harry and his friends were overjoyed when the snow finally fell halfway through December. Not only that, but it was also officially Winter Break, and the students who were staying at Hogwarts could all remain in their cozy common rooms by the fires, instead of going down into the cold dungeons…well, except the Slytherins, since their classrooms were in the dungeons, but they probably had fires too, and either way, Harry didn't care if Malfoy and his lackeys were cold.

Sirius was excited that he would be able to see Barbara again.

"I've missed her a lot," he told Harry, Ron and Hermione, who were all staying for Winter Break. Harry figured a Christmas at Hogwarts would be the best Christmas he had ever had, Hermione didn't want to fly all the way to Hawaii and back (not to mention stay on an island, where the only way back was an airplane unless you wanted to row all the way across the Pacific Ocean), and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were visiting Ron's brother Charlie in Romania, so he was staying, too. Two weeks out of the three it would be just Harry, Ron, Hermione and Sirius; for one week, it would be Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Since he didn't have class anymore, Harry wanted to make the most of Winter Break in terms of Hermione. Thinking of his self-confidence, he knew he should tell Hermione he liked her, and if she liked him back, that would be fine…but what if she said she didn't like him back? Their friendship might be destroyed, this time for good.

"So, Ron," Harry said to Ron one day in their dorm room, the day after Sirius left. It was empty except for them, as their other three roommates had all gone home for Winter Break. "What would you do if you had a crush on a girl, and you told her you liked her, but she said she didn't like you back?"

Ron looked up from the book he was reading (The History of Wizard's Chess).

"Why?" he said suspiciously. "You haven't got anyone in mind, have you?"

"No!" Harry said frantically—nobody must know the secret. "I'm just asking, that's all!"

"You're being defensive," said Ron.

"Who's defensive?" Harry demanded. "I'm not being defensive!"

"Uh, yeah, you are," Ron told him. "And anyway…I don't know, I guess I'd just tell her I was under a trance by a Dark wizard or something and I didn't mean it."

"Why would a Dark wizard put you in a trance just for you to tell a girl you liked her?"

"I don't know," said Ron. "That's the only thing I can think of."

"And you wonder why you don't have a girlfriend," said Harry jokingly.

"No, I don't wonder," Ron told him in a mock-sniffy voice. "I don't have a girlfriend because I don't want one…Well, except maybe Holly," he added dreamily, his eyes misting over.

"You don't even know her last name," Harry pointed out. "Besides, she's probably got a boyfriend."

"No, she hasn't," said Ron. "I heard her talking to one of her friends, saying that boys her age are so immature, that they just want her for her body. She said she wanted to date a man who was older than she was, maybe experienced in fighting the Dark Arts, someone who was handsome, brave and strong, someone who was passionate about destroying evil. She's very against the Dark Arts, Holly is…"

"She wasn't talking about Sirius, was she?"

"I don't think so." Ron shook his head. "She also said she wanted someone who was loyal to his family and cared about them—who might even risk his life for them, if it came to that—and Sirius definitely doesn't qualify there…and she said she wanted someone polite and subtle, too. There's no way she was talking about Sirius. Besides, she's a reserve for the Gryffindor team, so I bet she likes Quidditch blokes—and Sirius never played Quidditch for his House team."

"But who do you think she was talking about, then?" Harry asked.

"Probably nobody in particular," Ron replied. "I guess she just dreamed up her image of the perfect man and talked about it to her friends. She was tired of the boys here always staring at her breasts…not that I blame them. Those things are perfect."

"Oh, what do you know about breasts?" Harry said, rolling his eyes. "What do you know about girls in general?"

"Nothing," said Ron, "but neither do you. We're deprived. All the witches in our year are just girls. But Holly…she's a woman."

Harry frowned. Even though he knew he could only love Hermione, he had to admit, Holly was kind of nice to look at.

"Sirius says that when a girl becomes a woman, more happens to her than just breasts," Harry told Ron, glad to know something Ron didn't.

"Like what?"

"Don't ask me," said Harry. "Ask Sirius."

"You ask him."

"No!"

"Fine, then." Ron rolled over onto his back. "I guess we'll never know."

…

Talking to Hermione was different than talking to Ron. Of course, he never brought up anything having to do with romance in front of her. They talked about normal things, like school, and the holidays, and Sirius…all kinds of different things. Hermione was smart, so she was always an interesting person to talk to.

"Do you think we should be studying?" she asked Harry one day as they ate in the Great Hall. Around them, everything was very pretty. There were twelve Christmas trees—three for each House. Earlier in December, Hogwarts had managed to procure a ten-foot-tall menorah (Sirius's idea), but since Hanukkah had ended on December 9 that year, it had been taken down weeks ago.

"I don't think so," Harry told her. "It's Winter Break, after all."

"Yeah, but I meant practicing DADA," Hermione explained. "You know, since Sirius's lessons have halted for the break, since so many students are going home for the holidays, and he's not here anyway."

"You know, you might have a point," Harry said pensively.

"And you're really good at Defense, too," Hermione added. "You kind of have a knack for it."

…

So in the days preceding Christmas Eve, Harry, Ron, Hermione and the other Gryffindors who were staying at Hogwarts practiced everything Sirius had taught them so far. (Ron was a little disappointed that Holly had elected to go home.)

Harry was especially good at Disarming people. It was kind of his special spell. It was a little harder for Harry to Summon things, so Hermione insist he work a little harder on that, and he did, because he would do almost anything she asked of him.

Everyone in Gryffindor was excited for Sirius to come back, which he had promised to do on Christmas Day. Their spirits high, Harry, Ron and Hermione had an amazing snowball fight on the grounds on Christmas Eve, joined by the Weasley twins. Harry and Hermione played against Ron and the twins, so they were losing spectacularly, but it was still fun.

"You want a snowball fight?" Harry taunted. "Well, I'll give you a snowball war!"

"Bring it on!" hollered one of the Weasley twins.

The Weasleys were still mopping the floor with Harry and Hermione when all five of them heard the roar of an engine behind them, a roar that was very familiar to Harry.

"Oy, Harry!" Sirius called, taking off his helmet. "Need some help?"

"Yes, please!" Harry called, just before he was smacked in the face with a snowball and knocked onto his back. Sirius helped him up, then threw a well-placed snowball at Ron, who fell over too.

Harry's team did much better with Sirius on their side. Both teams wanted him, in fact. Ron and Sirius traded places for a bit, and since it had mostly been the Weasley twins doing the winning thus far, Harry's team was still destroyed.

They continued their snow war until it got dark, and then they all went in, so they could eat dinner and warm up.

"You came early, Sirius!" Hermione said happily as they walked into the Great Hall, stomping their boots on the ground when they came in, so as not to ruin the floors.

"I thought I'd surprise you all," Sirius told everyone, his eyes gleaming. "Barbara doesn't mind. She's Jewish, you know, so she's just eating Chinese food with her family. It's the only thing that's open."

"Well, we're glad to have you back, Sirius," said Harry sincerely, giving Sirius a hug around the waist.

"I'm glad to be back," Sirius replied, separating from them to go to the High Table. "I missed Hogwarts dreadfully."