Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "Twas the Day Before Christmas" by apAiden, one of my favorite writers. Harry starts out with Ginny, but she gets unreasonable one time too often and Hermione has to step in to help him, which in turn helps her realize where her heart really lies.

Chapter 12 - Christmas

Friday, December 25, 1994, Christmas Morning.

"Happy Christmas, Jasmine! Happy Christmas!"

Blinking and bleary-eyed, Jasmine awoke abruptly to find two big brown eyes staring back at her from about two inches away.

"Gah!" Bolting upright and suddenly breathing heavy, Jasmine recognized the eyes as belonging to her girlfriend, Hermione Granger. Whoa, deja vu, she thought.

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" she asked rather heatedly.

Grinning broadly, Hermione answered, "Of course not. I didn't think you'd want to sleep in on such an important morning!" Under Hermione's prodding, Jasmine had finally divulged a bit of her history with Christmas at the Dursleys during their discussion the previous evening. While she had obviously been reluctant to offer many details, Hermione had finally come to understand why the green-eyed witch had never gotten excited about the holidays. This was a situation she found unacceptable and was determined to fix it, now that she understood the cause. "C'mon, let's open presents and then go have Christmas breakfast in the Great Hall."

Sighing in resignation, she let her bushy-haired girlfriend — whose hair was especially bushy after just having gotten up — drag her over to her own bed where she had apparently stacked up the presents that had been left for each of them at the foot of their beds. "Now," she began, "in my family we usually hand out the presents to whomever is there and then take turns opening them. At least, that's what we do when it's a small group, like just me and my parents. When it's a large family gathering, everyone opens the gifts at the same time. What would you like to do?"

Jasmine had never had any real Christmas traditions — well, aside from slaving away all day then being tossed into the cupboard like an unwanted tool — so she was at a bit of a loss. Hermione patiently waited, though, and fought her innate desire to decide what to do and forge ahead. This was for Jasmine, so she needed to make the decision on her own. Finally, the auburn-haired witch said, "I think I like what your family does. So let's pretend like we're with your parents and take turns. Oh! But you have to open mine last. Please? Pretty please?"

Hermione smiled at that last comment — it wasn't something that a completely detached, indifferent person would say. Jasmine cared about what they did, and that was a good sign.

One by one, they each worked through their respective pile of presents. As in past years, their school friends generally gave sweets like packs of chocolate frogs, though Neville went above and beyond by getting high quality wand holsters for both of them. When worn they were invisible and would prevent wands from being summoned, but they would release the wands for their owners with a simple flick of the wrist.

As usual, Mrs. Weasley sent Jasmine her annual Weasley jumper which, also as usual, the young witch immediately put on. Her first Weasley jumper had been her first exposure to personal, hand-made Christmas gifts, and it was a memory she would always treasure.

One pleasant surprise was the presence of a gift for each of them from Professor McGonagall. Following instructions on the tags, they opened the boxes together and found a matched set of journals. According to the instructions, these journals were spelled to have an unending supply of pages, and to only open to the person keyed to the book with a drop of blood.

"Oh!" Hermione cried, "I never thought to get her anything!"

"Don't worry," Jasmine said with a smile, "I got it covered."

"What did you get her?"

Grinning now, Jasmine replied, "You'll have to wait and see when we see her next." Hermione wasn't pleased at being made to wait, but her girlfriend refused to spill any details.

Hermione's parents had sent her several gifts, and what stood out the most for Jasmine was the relatively impersonal nature of all of them: some clothing, warm pyjamas, a new brush set, some toys for Crookshanks, and some sort of dental care kit. The nicest gift was some fancy stationery, but even that stood out as odd because they only time Hermione would likely use muggle stationary was when writing letters back to her parents. So was it more for Hermione or for them?

The Grangers had also sent a gift to Jasmine, and that was most curious. Hermione watched intently as Jasmine tore off the wrapping paper — clearly she wasn't expecting it nor had any idea what was inside. Upon opening the box, Jasmine discovered a small photo album. That wasn't the real surprise, though: the real surprise was that it wasn't empty. The album contained dozens of photos, all of Hermione at different stages of growing up. Most even had labels with her age and the occasion.

"I didn't even know that they had this many photos of me!" Hermione exclaimed. "I don't remember either my mother or my father running around, constantly taking pictures like some parents do. They never struck me as the sentimental types."

"Most of these are candids — only a few are posed," Jasmine pointed out. "So I guess they were taking pictures when you weren't paying attention. Or maybe they got some from other relatives? Regardless, I wonder why they would send this to me and not to you. I can sorta understand sending it to you as a memento of your childhood, but why me?" Jasmine picked up the wrapping paper again and confirmed that, yes, it was for her. "You don't think it was a mistake, do you?"

"No," Hermione answered with a firm shake of her head. "My mother and father almost never make that sort of mistake — they are incredibly meticulous and careful in everything they do. They make me look sloppy sometimes. So you can assume that it's for you. But I agree, it doesn't make sense."

Jasmine then hugged the book tight to her chest and said, "Well, it's definitely mine now and I'm not giving it up. You look absolutely adorable in some of these photos. I love it! I'm definitely going to have to send a thank-you letter back with Hedwig!" Jasmine also started thinking of what else she might add to that letter, just to start paving the way to help her girlfriend with her parents.

Hermione looked at her like she was crazy, but turned back to her own pile and saw that she only had the three gifts from Jasmine left. "Well," she said, "it looks like all that's left are the gifts we got for each other. I'm afraid that I only got you one, so shall I open first?"

"Yes!" Jasmine nearly shouted, grabbing and thrusting at Hermione the gift that was clearly book-shaped.

"Hmmm..." Hermione hummed with amusement as she hefted the the package and proceeded to give it a shake. "I wonder what's in here..." Smiling happily, she pulled off the wrapping paper... and was rendered speechless. It was what she expected, and yet also not.

"Hogwarts: A History?" Opening the cover, she read: "Fifth Edition? 1208? Sweet Merlin, Jasmine, where did you get this? How much did you spend? How could you spend so much on me? You shouldn't waste your money on me like that! You know you mmmpppff!" Once again, Jasmine stopped Hermione's tirade by planting a firm kiss on her lips.

"You know, Hermione," she said with a smile, "we've already established a precedent for me responding to your babbling with kisses. If you keep it up, I'm going to have to assume that you're doing it on purpose because you want me to kiss you like that."

"Jasmine! Honestly!"

"Stop worrying about it," Jasmine insisted. "The book didn't cost me a thing — it's a family heirloom." Hermione opened her mouth to protest some more, but she was interrupted by Jasmine. "Yes, it turns out that the Potter family does have other vaults. Yes, one, is for heirlooms like this. No, I didn't tell you because if I had then I wouldn't be able to surprise you with this. No, I won't tell you how I got it — it's a secret that I'll share with you another day."

Hermione looked rather annoyed at that, but Jasmine added a little plaintively, "Please, can we just enjoy the gifts today?" That got a reaction, and Hermione looked a bit contrite over pestering Jasmine for details that weren't truly important at the moment. Her goal had been to help Jasmine learn how to enjoy Christmas, but here she was, being pushy instead of appreciative.

Caressing the book in manner that Jasmine thought looked a wee bit too... intimate, Hermione said, "Thank you, Jasmine. Thank you so much. I can't wait to start reading this. It's a treasure. I'll bet not many copies of this even still exist!"

Jasmine smiled, "Good, I'm glad you like it. I thought that would be a pretty safe gift. Should I open mine, now? The other two there for you are sort of related, so it makes sense to open them together."

"OK, yes, do open it," Hermione answered, looking slightly nervous at what the remaining gifts might contain if they deserved to come after that book.

Unwrapping the gift from her girlfriend, Jasmine discovered... another photo album. Looking up, she said dryly, "Really, Hermione? A photo album? You're sure that you didn't coordinate this with your parents?"

"Yes!" Hermione said with some exasperation. "I had no idea that they would do that. If I had, I'd have tried to come up with something else — and they had no idea what I was getting you, either. I can't believe that my own parents — and probably my mother, specifically — would preempt my gift like that!" She was clearly annoyed, but Jasmine didn't mind. Flipping through her new, second photo album she found all sorts of pictures of her, Hermione, and their friends from the past three years.

"Don't sweat it, Hermione. Great minds think alike, right? This is a fantastic gift. And it's not really the same gift, since these are wizarding photos taken in a very different context. Where did you get them all?"

A bit calmer now, Hermione explained, "Most are from Colin. I got him to sell me copies of a lot of different photos he's taken over the past couple of years. I also paid him to take some new ones for this year. Finally, I was able to get a few from older students who I knew had cameras at different times. That's why there aren't many photos from our first year."

"You know," Jasmine said thoughtfully, "Maybe you and I should get a magical camera. Then we wouldn't have to rely on Colin and others."

"Oh, that's a good idea," Hermione said excitedly. "I hadn't thought about that. I never think about taking photos, but now looking at these two albums, I'm starting to see what I've been missing. We'll check Hogsmeade the next time we can go into town."

"Great," the auburn-haired witch said. "Now it's your turn. Open the larger one first."

Unwrapping the gift slowly, a bit nervous about what she might discover, she found what was clearly a jewelry case. Her head snapped up, eyes wide, but didn't say anything. With her hands shaking slightly, she flipped open the lid and saw the exquisite — and expensive — necklace and earring set.

Seeing that her girlfriend was not only speechless, but in fact barely able to breathe, Jasmine slid over next to her and started to explain, "I got these for you to wear for the Yule Ball tonight. They're all real diamonds and sapphires, with some small emeralds thrown in. I hoped you'd see the emeralds as a subtle link to me. I already know that you're going to be the prettiest witch at the ball, but I'm hoping that with these you'll stand out while everyone else is dull and colorless next to you."

Hermione had no idea what to say. She'd never had jewelry like this. In fact, she was pretty sure that her mother never had anything remotely like this either. She was no expert, but she suspected that the necklace might be worth as much as her parents' house. She wasn't sure she could or should wear something that expensive. "Jasmine," she started, "This is too much. I couldn't possibly..."

"Why not?" Jasmine interrupted. "Who else is going to wear them? They are Potter family heirlooms and there are no Potters left except for me. If no one wears them, they'll sit useless in a vault that no one ever enters. They are literally worthless to me if they are sitting in the vault — they were worthless to me last month when I didn't know about them, and they'll be worthless to me if you insist that I send them back. The only value they have to me is in making you look even more beautiful. So tell me, what should I do with them?"

Looking back and forth between the gift and the giver, Hermione finally said, "If these came from your family's heirloom vault, then they must have been important to your family at some point. Maybe very important. You should value them as a connection to your family, at the very least."

Jasmine had to consider that for a minute. It wasn't a factor she had taken into account — she had been focused on gifts, not links to family she never knew about. Hermione was right, though, which means that that vault might have lots of information for her. But that was a subject for another time.

"OK, Hermione, you may have a point," Jasmine conceded, "but unless I can find out who owned it before and why, then that link doesn't exist for me. And even if I do discover it, I think that I will place far more value on the connection it creates between you and me than on a connection it signifies between me and some long-dead ancestor. Remember, those people are complete strangers to me, and that won't be changed simply by knowing that some many times great-grandmother of mine received these for a birthday. So again, the real value for me lies in you wearing them."

Frowning, Hermione tried another approach, "What if I just borrow them for the evening?"

That this was a mistake became evident almost immediately as Jasmine started to pull back in on herself. "Do you... not like them?" she asked. "I just wanted to give you something nice. I've never had anything nice myself, much less had anything nice to give. Now that I do, I... I... well, I wanted to share it with you, because you're so much more important to me."

Hermione realized that she couldn't just refuse the gift, even though she also felt that it was far too extravagant. Deciding on what she thought might be a better compromise, she threw her arms around Jasmine and whispered, "Thank you. I do love them, I just don't want to feel obligated to you after receiving such a huge gift." Jasmine was about to protest, but Hermione stopped her with a kiss. "I know you won't feel like I'm obligated to you, but I'll feel that way. So let's do this: you give them to me as a gift, but you store them in your family vault for me. I'll feel better if they remain under your control, and my trunk isn't secure enough for something so expensive anyway. OK?"

Jasmine had to think about that for a moment, but finally she agreed. When Hermione looked down at the third and final gift, she felt more than a little trepidation. Having seen the quality of the first two, she was concerned about what might be behind door number three.

Instead of waiting for Hermione to act, Jasmine picked up the last gift herself and started talking, her nervousness showing through clearly. "Hermione, this gift is special. It's not even really a Christmas gift, it's something much, much more. It's about you and me. It's about how important you are to me, and how committed I am to making this relationship work. I know you've been a bit confused regarding your sexuality, but I think things are pretty good between us, and I know that it's going to get better."

Pulling off the paper, she ignored Hermione's gasp when the witch saw what was obviously a ring box. Jasmine opened the box, revealing two gorgeous rings. "These are two promise rings, one for you and one for me. Originally there was a wizard's ring and a witch's ring, but the goblins reforged the wizard's ring into a duplicate witch's ring."

Taking a deep breath, she continued, "I'm giving you your ring with a promise: Hermione Jane Granger, I promise I will treasure you, honor you, and respect you for all the days we are together. I promise I will listen to you, be honest with you, and work to improve myself so I can be the sort of witch you cherish and respect. And I promise that we'll work together to create a society where, someday, I can officially and legally put a much more significant ring on your finger."

After removing one of the rings, she set the box down and held the ring out with a questioning, expectant look on her face. It was all up to Hermione now. She could either accept or she could refuse. Jasmine was right that this was not a typical gift. This was a gift that came with a serious commitment — both in the offering and in the accepting.

Hermione, of course, took a few moments to think about what was happening. Despite being sorted into the house of the lions, she did not typically succumb to taking rash or hasty action.

Staring at the ring, she thought, Am I ready for something like this? Merlin, it was only a few days ago that I even started to accept that I may indeed be attracted to girls! And it was only two weeks ago that I got my first kiss! Isn't this too fast?

But then again, she had been with Jasmine for over three years now. We've been together more and done more together than most dating couples… than most married couples, even. The romance may be new, but the relationship isn't, and maybe that's why I've experienced such a strong pull towards her over the past few weeks. Logic is trying to tell me that this is too fast, but every other fiber of my being is shouting at me that this is right.

She looked up from the ring and stared into the beautiful green eyes of her girlfriend, and suddenly all doubt fled her mind. She somehow knew exactly what the right thing to do was and without any further hesitation, she held out a slightly trembling left hand and waited as Jasmine slowly slid it on her ring finger. As they both watched, it magically resized so that it fit perfectly, and then immediately a warm, yellow glow surrounded both their hands as Jasmine's promise became magically binding.

Grabbing the box before her logic could interfere and cause her to chicken out, Hermione pulled out the second ring. Jasmine held her hand over it, though, and asked, "Are you sure? You don't have to do this."

"No, but I want to," Hermione said a little breathily, "I really do. And besides, what's the sense in accepting your promise without making my own?"

Holding out the ring, she took Jasmine's left hand in her own and recited the same promise Jasmine made as she placed the second witch's ring on Jasmine's finger. As with Hermione's ring, it magically resized until it fit perfectly. The same yellow glow also surrounded their hands as Hermione's promise became magically binding.

Hermione then held out her left hand, and the two witches looked at the two rings on the two hands, side-by-side.

As she was about to close the box, Hermione noticed a tiny corner of parchment sticking up from behind the ring mounts. Pulling it out, she discovered that it was a message from the goblin who had reforged the wizard's ring. "According to Silverflare, master metalsmith," she explained to Jasmine, "these rings originally came with several enchantments, all of which he restored to the reforged ring. They resize to fit our fingers, they can only be removed by us, they can be willed invisible or visible, they will never tarnish, they are highly resistant to damage, and they will never snag on clothing. For appropriate fees, there are more enchantments that can be added, like a warning for dangerous potions that are close to that hand."

Jasmine looked at her hand, and after scrunching up her face in intense concentration, she made the ring disappear. "Spiffy! Hey, I can still feel it — I just can't see it!"

Hermione did the same with her own ring, though with a lot less obvious effort. "Good thing, too. I don't think we'd have gotten away with wearing identical rings without raising some difficult questions. You know it would take Lavender or Parvati all of about five seconds to notice one of the rings, another three seconds to notice that we have matching rings, and one more second to start asking awkward questions."

"Uh, yeah," said Jasmine sheepishly. "Sorry. I didn't think of that. I was so excited about giving you a promise ring that I didn't consider anything else. Actually, it was only supposed to be a ring for you — the discovery of a second ring that could be reforged was a lucky accident. So I didn't plan that one out."

Not bothering to say anything in response, Hermione grabbed her girlfriend by the front of her pyjamas and started snogging her senseless. A bit later, when they were out of breath and more than a little disheveled, Jasmine remarked that that was easily the best Christmas gift she'd ever gotten, earning her a light punch and another long snog from Hermione, who seemed determined to improve on their previous experience.

During their explorations, the blue and green glows returned to their chests, with tendrils once again reaching out from each towards the other. Unfortunately, the glowing was never given the chance to progress further than last time: contact, but no more.

Friday, December 25, 1994, Early Christmas Afternoon.

After finally managing to drag themselves down to a late breakfast, during which Jasmine sampled gingerbread pancakes for the first time and confidently declared them the Best Christmas Breakfast Ever, the Gryffindor friends were faced with an abundance of free time — time they didn't want to fill up with work, but for which they had no pre-planned activities. Remembering the newly fallen coating of snow she had spied out the windows earlier, Hermione dragged them all outside.

Jasmine had never had the opportunity to enjoy a snowball fight before Hogwarts (she didn't think it counted to get pelted by hunks of ice by Dudley and his gang) and had only had a couple of opportunities since. Hermione herself had never been a big fan, but she wanted Jasmine to relax and enjoy the day so she insisted — and when Hermione insists, it's tough for even the most stalwart Gryffindor to successfully resist.

Teams were formed, with Hermione, Jasmine, Dean Thomas, and a newly arrived Viktor Krum on one side and Ginny, Neville, Ron, and the Weasley twins on the other. Team Weasley (one of the twins charmed Neville's hair red, just so he'd fit in) had an advantage in numbers and in the twins' experience with pranks. Team Random (because no one could think of a name that fit them all) had power with Viktor, but Dean Thomas was the only one with much experience with snowball fights as a kid.

The advantage of numbers proved to be a challenge, but it was the advantage of pranks that was impossible to overcome. Someone had neglected to set "no magic" as a rule, and after a while the twins decided to put an end to things by levitating an entire snow bank over their opponents, only letting go when the foursome noticed the sudden shadow and comically looked up at their impending doom. Luckily Viktor was capable of rather powerful drying and warming charms, so no one froze solid, but the looks from Hermione and Jasmine promised painful retribution in the near future.

Begging off returning immediately to the castle, Jasmine and Hermione opted to take a walk and enjoy the winter scenery for a bit. They had few opportunities to simply act like a normal couple in love, and while even now they couldn't do things that other couples took for granted, like holding hands, at least they could pretend.

"The castle and grounds are beautiful with the snow, don't you think?" Hermione asked.

Sighing, Jasmine agreed, "Yes, and I think it would be almost sappily romantic for anyone else. It's so hard to hold back and not grab your hand or put my arm around you. Merlin, Hermione, how long do you think it will be before couples like us can walk around in public like anyone else?"

Pulling her arms tight against herself, whether to stave off the cold or to resist her own temptations, Hermione answered, "I don't know, Jas. But as long as we're together, I know we'll be alright."

Eventually they made their way back to the Gryffindor common room, where Ron asked Jasmine if she wanted to play a game of chess. It was Hermione who answered, though. "Can't, Ron. Don't have time. We need to go start getting ready for the ball."

"What?" asked Ron. "It's only 4PM. Why would you need four hours to get ready?"

"Yeah," agreed Jasmine. "Why do we need four hours? I didn't plan on starting until at least seven."

"Seven?" Hermione practically squeaked. "Jasmine, what's the matter with you? We have far too much to deal with! We have to shower. We have to shave. We have to pluck. We have to..."

At that point, Ron started quickly backing away. Putting his hands up against his ears and shaking, he said, "I don't want to know. I didn't hear any of that. Don't tell me, please don't say any more..."

Looking even more aghast, Jasmine said, "Pluck? Pluck what? Where? What do you have planned?"

Smirking now, Hermione grabbed her girlfriend's hand and started dragging her to the dorm. "Oh, Jasmine, I forgot that you've never had to prepare yourself for an event like this. And of course your dearest aunt never taught you about this sort of thing, either, did she? You have so much to learn and not much time to learn it in. I'm sure Lavender, Parvati, and the others might be willing to lend a hand to help, too. Maybe they'll treat you as their new project."

"Oh, no. No, please no. Can't we talk about this? Compromise, maybe?" Jasmine's pleading cries became more and more desperate as she was pulled inexorably towards the now ominous-looking door to the fourth-year girls' dorm. "Ron! Neville! You gotta help me here! I'm too young to be... to be... PLUCKED!"