"People are miracles that ignore themselves."

Albert Camus

Most of the Hogwarts students were in the park, skating on the frozen black lake or having flying snowball fights. On that cold but happy afternoon of December twenty-four, Hogwarts was united. Christmas was undoubtedly Minerva McGonagall's favourite time at the castle. Not for the party night itself, but for what it represented. Few students were left, so those who were present had fun together, even if they weren't friends before. What Minerva liked most of all was the cohesion between the houses. No matter the colour of the uniforms, the students ate, studied, skated together. A Gryffindor could sit at the Hufflepuff table without any problems. So could a Slytherin sitting at the Ravenclaw table. Minerva liked this united school, students who were part of Hogwarts and not Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin or Gryffindor. There was still a disagreement between the reds and the greens, two colours that go so well together at this festive time. Whether it was Slytherin or Gryffindor, no house would ever admit that red and green didn't really go together, but Minerva was a hatstall, she had Ravenclaw wisdom and intelligence, and she knew how to think. This year Minerva had one wish, the same one she had had since she had become a transfiguration teacher twenty-one years ago. Minerva was desperate, but she wasn't giving up. She didn't know it yet, but Christmas miracles did exist. They were extremely rare, but they were there.

Her gaze fell on a young woman sitting against a tree by the lake. She was reading a book and for the first time since Minerva had seen her, she seemed at peace. The witch walked over to her student and sat down next to her, not bothered by the looks of the other students who didn't care about their teacher.

"Helena."

Hermione turned around abruptly, she hadn't heard the witch coming. She closed her book and turned to Minerva.

"They might hear us, you know. They wouldn't understand why you call me Helena."

"Come on, no one cares about us. The few students who are left are doing anything but worrying about their teacher. Where's Remi?"

"I'll never get used to that name, or my own for that matter. Helena Grace.

"See, that's what's dangerous. I know your name is Hermione, but I try not to think of you as that. Also, you shouldn't call him Remus."

"I call him Rem', it's fine either way but you should tell him, he always calls me Hermione or Mione. He's resting. The full moon is tomorrow night and he's very tired."

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm tired, but it's mostly the day after the full moon that I sleep a lot. Well, sleep is a short word. And I'm still considered a 'young' werewolf, it's only been two years. After that I don't really know how to calculate, with my journey. The same goes for my age. It was March when we left."

Minerva didn't answer her immediately, she didn't really know how to respond to that. She wasn't a werewolf, nor had she time travelled. However, she was very fond of Hermione and Remus. They had both suffered so much, it was almost inconceivable to her. She hoped that she would never experience such pain in her life. She didn't want to have Remus' tortured, hard look and Hermione's dangerous look, filled with vengeance and despair.

"Are you getting used to the bracelet?"

"Yes, the hard part is never being able to take it off. I've almost forgotten the feeling of having both my wrists free." the witch began. "But I don't mind, it's for a good cause" she rushed to add.

"Yes, I was used to having rings, but this one is much bigger and more dangerous. They're all equally important, but it's connected to my life and it's hard to accept that I could die because there's a scratch on my ring."

Hermione dropped her gaze on the time ring and admired it for a long time. It was beautiful, magnificent even. But this ring was a burden, as much as the destruction of the horcruxes. She turned her head to her other hand, which was adorned with two signet rings, the Black and the Potter. Harry had written her a letter, if he died, he wanted Hermione to take care of them. Sirius had explained the history of the signet rings to him and although the animagus didn't care, for Harry it was a way to remember his parents and his godfather. Hermione had made a promise to herself to never leave her rings and to protect them. She had managed to hide them magically, with the help of a complex spell, and so she was the only one who could see them. She snapped out of her thoughts and said goodbye to Minerva. She walked towards Remus' chambers and entered without his permission, not for the first time, not for the last, but her friend didn't really care and he wasn't really in a state to answer her. Hermione didn't even know if he would be able to come and celebrate Christmas Eve with the students who had stayed at the castle and the other teachers.

She settled into the armchair in the room where she could see Remus sleeping. This was a much more complicated time for him than for Hermione. He was very tired the two or three days before the full moon, but after the full moon, ten hours of sleep was enough to get him back on his feet, most of the time. Hermione was quite the opposite. She was tired before the full moon, but struggled not to collapse and succeeded. But the next two days were just awful. She slept a lot, could hardly walk and had very painful aches. So, since Hermione's bite, she looked after Remus on the days before the full moon, and he looked after her during the post-full moon. This routine suited them, although since their time jump it had been somewhat complicated. Hermione didn't mind missing classes, but Remus did, and he couldn't watch over his friend and teach her classes at the same time. Hermione had almost ordered him to go and teach the other students new things, but the wizard was never at peace with her being alone with her nightmares, though it didn't change Hermione's habits, it was unfortunately amplified by the physical pain.

Remus was moaning and tossing in his bed, Hermione hadn't checked, but she was sure he had a fever. It was good that the full moon fell during the holidays, Remus seemed weaker, sicker than usual. It happened to everyone that they didn't feel well, but Madam Pomfresh would make anyone feel better in a few minutes. She would have had a hard time with Remus, and the students would have wondered about their teacher's absence and the smart ones would have understood. Hermione turned back to her book and pushed the thoughts out of her head.

"Mione?"

"It's me Rem', are you feeling better?"

"Not really, what time is it? Has dinner started?"

"No, it's only six forty-five, it'll start in three quarters of an hour" she replied, glancing at her watch.

"Well, you can help me get up, I need to get ready."

Hermione stared at him, looking forbidden. He didn't mean what he said.

"Do you really think you're in any shape to go and celebrate Christmas? You can hardly stand up, you'd better get some rest."

"It's all right, I'll go."

"You're so stubborn!" she exclaimed, sighing.

"I'm much less stubborn than you are, now come and help me."

Hermione gave in and lifted her friend out of bed, he went to get ready and the witch waited in the living room for a good fifteen minutes.

"Aren't you ready yet?"

"I was waiting for you to finish. You could have fallen."

"Aren't you the one who reproaches me for covering you too much? You're worse than I am, you'd think I was a little old man who was going to die at any moment. "

"You are old!" she joked.

"I'm only forty-two. Go get ready, I'll be in the Great Hall," he told her with a knowing look.

The evening passed quickly, Hermione enjoyed the food that graced the tables at will. The teachers seemed more relaxed, the students from each house had mixed together and if you didn't know a student, which Hermione mostly did, it was quite impossible to determine their house without talking to them and finding out their character. Hermione looked longingly at the first years, which had a glimmer of innocence that she had lost long ago. Hermione ate alone but didn't really care. When they were here, Hermione ate mostly with the marauders or Lily and her friends, but she hardly ever spoke, she wasn't alone at the table, it was just that it changed. Hermione left to give the gifts she had bought to the house elves to distribute and went upstairs to bed in the Room on Requirement, although she didn't sleep much, the full moon was bringing back her worst memories, even more than normal.

Remus woke up on the morning of December the 25th exhausted, as he was every full moon day. He got up with difficulty from his bed and went to his bathroom. After taking a hot shower that had the merit of waking him up, he went to his sofa and saw to his great surprise that there were several gift packages laid out on his table. He suspected that he would get a present from Hermione, but that was all. Who could have sent him a present? He sat down quietly and recognised Hermione's handwriting on the first package. It was a book on Muggle fighting techniques, Hermione had promised to teach him, which she still hadn't done and this seemed to show that she would soon. He picked up another gift and saw that it was from Minerva, she was giving him a book for defence against the forces of evil filled with practical exercises to do with students of all levels. He flipped through it quickly and saw that it contained some very interesting things. There was also a greeting card that Dumbledore had sent to the entire teaching staff and another package, quite large. The shape was very peculiar and Remus hurried to open it, curious to see what this strange package contained. It was a body, a training dummy. Hermione had told him about it, she was training against one of his kind, in both Muggle and Wizard combat. Last time I checked, he could parry spells, but not send any on his own. There was one small package left and by the smell of it, she recognised what it was. It contained four chocolate bars, along with a note from Hermione, saying that she had bought some for herself to take there, so she wouldn't be stealing Remus's anymore and would have some that belonged to her. Remus suspected that if the tablets stayed at home they wouldn't last long, even if they did say 'Hermione' on the top.

He left his chambers and made his way to the Great Hall. He sat down next to Minerva and thanked her for the book. She did the same, Remus had given her a book as well, but on shapeshifting throughout history and how that form of magic had evolved. She asked him where Hermione was, she also wanted to tell him that she appreciated the necklace she had given him. Just then Hermione entered the room and naturally she made her way to the teachers' table.

"Thank you for your gifts. I really like them."

"Thank you very much Helena, the necklace is very beautiful."

Hermione received a flying note, similar to the one she had seen at the Ministry when they had broken in with Ron and Harry. She read it quickly and took her leave of her friends.

"I'll leave you to it, we'll talk about your presents later Rem'."

She stepped down from the podium, which was noticed by most of the students in the room. She sat down at the Gryffindor table and received a second note telling her to move to another table. She stood up with a sigh and walked over to the green and silver table, much to their surprise.

"May I ask why you haven't joined me at my table?"

"I can't sit at the Gryffindor table! My house would kill me."

"What about mine?"

"Don't be silly, you don't care what anyone else thinks."

"Why did you ask me here, Sev'?"

"Your present. I didn't expect to get one from you. I was very surprised."

"It's nothing, really."

"It's a potion recipe, of course it's something! I did some quick research. There's nothing about this potion. Is it dark magic? I didn't have time to look into it."

"It's not dark magic, but if I gave it to you, there must be a reason. I wish you'd realize that."

"You can't be serious! Can you? It's the most difficult potion I've ever seen. And the ingredients? They're extremely rare."

"Don't worry about the ingredients, I'll find them. You think you can do it?"

"I'll try. But why don't you do it yourself?"

"I'm not good enough at potions."

Hermione, having revealed this, changed the subject. They talked a lot, not caring about the students who were glaring at them. The most surprising part of this discussion was when they laughed together. Neither student had ever heard them laugh before. There were many murmurs in the room and some of the teachers turned to the cause of the whispers.

It was with great emotion that Minerva smiled, for the first time since she started teaching, her wish had come true. Christmas miracles did exist. Minerva, ever since her first Christmas as a teacher had only wished for one thing, for a Gryffindor and a Slytherin to make peace, a Christmas truce or more. This was finally possible, thanks to potions gaps, werewolves and time travel.