Hermione busied herself with studying, and found that December was slipping away faster than she had anticipated. Which was a good thing. But she still tried hard not to let herself think about it too much. If she did, she would find herself overwhelmed fairly quickly. And that wasn't a good idea at all.
She was getting ready for the holidays, when one night, she was awoken in the middle of the night by Professor McGonagall. Very disoriented, she rolled herself out of bed, and nearly tripped over her own feet.
"What's going on Professor?" she asked.
"It seems Mr. Weasley has been attacked. I've already sent the Weasley children home, but the headmaster wanted me to inform you of this. We've moved your parents to Grimmauld place. They should be safe there."
Hermione nodded, her nerves rising. "How secure is the floo from there?"
"Once they've been at Grimmauld place, there shouldn't be any problems. The fidelius charm is fairly powerful, but everything should be fine once they're in on the secret."
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. She was worried that her parents might just move to Bulgaria. Not that it would be a bad thing, but there would be less time to spend with her friends. And she wanted to spend time with them.
"And Mr. Weasley?" she asked.
"He'll be fine. He's in St. Mungo's hospital. I'll be sending you, Mr. Potter, and the rest of the Wealeys home through the floo. I don't want any of you getting into trouble," McGonagall said.
Hermione nodded, and fell back into her bed, asleep within seconds of her head hitting her mattress. She had missed her pillow, but it wasn't likely to make that much of a difference from the way she seemed to be sleeping soundly.
When she woke in the morning, she practically flew to McGonagall's office. She was sure the older witch would take care of the luggage. Her stuff was already packed and she would have hauled it off herself, if she didn't need to know when they were leaving.
"Miss Granger, do come in," the professor said when she opened her office door. "Your friends should be arriving shortly."
"Still asleep?" Hermione asked.
"They should be," McGonagall said. "I know last night was hard for them, and they don't get back to sleep as easily as you do, but once they were asleep, they should sleep as long as they can."
Hermione nodded. She thought that was wise of her teacher to let them sleep. But she figured that some of the others were awake, but not willing to face the world yet. She knew that if it had been either of her parents, she would be fraught with worry.
"But, since you're here, perhaps you would like to wait for the arrival of a very special guest with me," McGonagall said.
Hermione was incredibly confused until the fireplace roared to life, and a certain Bulgarian she had been missing stepped out. She ran over to him, glad to be in his embrace once again.
"Viktor," she cried. "I didn't know you were coming."
"Vas rather vorried," he said. "Vith Christmas, and the vedding, I didn't know you vould be in hiding so soon."
McGonagall looked worried at the word wedding. "I hope you two aren't planning on being wed over the holidays."
Hermione looked from Viktor to her teacher and laughed. She hadn't considered the possibility that someone would confuse the implication of Viktor's words. Reflecting on his words, she could understand why her professor was confused, but she still found it funny.
"No. We're. It's." She tried to speak between bouts of giggles. It wasn't working so well.
"Vhat Her-me-owny is trying to say is that ve vill be going to the Diggory, Varrington vedding together," Viktor filled in.
Professor McGonagall relaxed visibly at his words. She had been concerned that Hermione was rushing into something. And wizards lived longer than muggles. She shouldn't have to marry so young if she wanted to do something else.
Hermione calmed down slowly, though she still giggled a little every now and then. Especially when she looked at her teacher. The idea just seemed so absurd to her that she couldn't help but laugh.
Viktor was thoughtful as he helped Hermione to stay upright. He hadn't brought up marriage with her, but he wanted to. He was half hoping she would drop a hint of some variety when she was ready to deal with the subject. He was fairly sure she loved him, but he didn't want to drop that bomb without some warning.
Hermione finally managed to quit laughing, though she kept her eyes firmly off McGonagall. "We should probably go get everyone up and ready," she said to Viktor.
They walked out of the transfiguration teacher's office and into the hallway, where Hermione kissed Viktor fiercely. "I missed you so much," she breathed into him.
"Did you really?" he asked. The smile on his face told her that he was teasing her, so Hermione couldn't find it in her to be mad at him.
"You know I did," she said before kissing him again.
They were fairly engrossed in each other that they didn't notice there were students starting to roam the halls until one of them made retching noises.
"I guess we really should get a move on," Hermione said.
She led him up to Gryffindor tower where the Weasleys and Harry were pulling trunks down into the common room. They all looked glum, but Fred and George brightened a sliver when they saw Viktor.
"Vicky," Fred said.
"We certainly weren't," Gorge added you
"…expecting you or anything," Fred finished.
Hermione rolled her eyes. Twinspeak, which she was almost sure was a real thing, still confused her. Even when Padma and Pavarti did it. Which they were careful about, but sometimes got caught up in things and did it without thinking about it.
"Alright boys, there's going to be more than enough time to pester him later," she said. She headed up the stairs to her dorm to get her trunk.
She was incredibly surprised to find Viktor behind her when she got there. He looked as though nothing was wrong.
"How did you manage that?" she asked.
"Manage vhat?" he asked.
"Getting up the stairs. They're charmed to turn into a slide for the boys," she explained.
He merely shrugged, picked up her trunk with one hand and held her hand with the other while they descended the stairs. The looks on everyone else's face was wonderful. All of them wore expressions of disbelief at Viktor's ability to reach the girl's dorm.
"You have got to show us how to do that," both Fred and George had said at the same time.
Viktor looked at both of the twins dubiously. "Ve vill see."
They traipsed down to McGonagall's office and flooed back to Sirius' home.
"Mum," Hermione cried as soon as she stepped out of the fireplace. "You're here."
"Where else would I be?" Helena Granger asked.
"I don't know. Bulgaria?" Hermione teased.
Mrs. Granger held up her hands in surrender. "Alright. Alright. You caught me."
"Now will you tell me what's going on?" she asked.
"Maybe when all your friends sort out their stuff." Helena gestured around the room. There were trunks stacked all around the fireplace, just waiting to be put away.
"Alright," Hermione conceded. She knew it was her mother's way of saying "not yet." And she found that as long as she got to hear all about her parents' exploits, she didn't really care.
Soon enough everyone had their stuff at least in their rooms. They were all sitting around the kitchen, cups of tea in their hands as they swapped stories. Even Hermione's parents were able to join it. It felt like one big family. And it was.
It wasn't long before Mrs. Weasley informed them that the next day, Mr. Weasley would be able to receive visitors. They would all go visit him in the morning.
Hermione sat next to Viktor listening to her mother talk about their time at the Bulgarian ministry. She was enraptured with some of the things she had seen. And there was a whole lot.
"So now we're going to be ambassadors to Bulgaria," Mr. Granger said.
"I'm so proud of you, mum," Hermione said. "All your hard work is paying off."
Helena Granger smiled warmly. "It still feels so surreal. I spent years working hard to be a dentist. And I made an awesome one. But it's strange how quickly your priorities can change."
Hermione looked at Viktor who was sitting next to her. "Yes. I would have to agree with that."
A/N: Sorry for not updating sooner. I just haven't been into this as much as I feel I should have been. I'm working on it. Hopefully I can manage to get the next chapter up before too long.