Charms

On the eighth day of Christmas, Hermione was somewhat puzzled with her gift. It made no sense. *~ The other gifts have all reflected the day...what on Earth is happening this time? ~*

Beside her bed were 8 small packages, each wrapped carefully in red paper with a silver ribbon. Tranquillitas, her swan, was nosing each gift gently.

"Well girl, I guess I'd better start at the start."

What to do, what to do...

This is the day that this song goes completely off the rails.

Why would I want to give you a live person?

So here are 8 gifts, all with a theme...

She opened the first gift. It was a small packet of Muggle 'Milk Bottle' candies. The next, a bar of milk chocolate...lastly, after the seventh gift (a small box of strawberries and some cream), she cracked up laughing, waking her roommate. There, lying among the papers on her bed, was a pair of cow Christmas tree decorations.

*~ They are so adorable! ~*

As she picked them up to get a closer look, something happened that made everyone in the room nearly fall off their beds with laughter...the cows began to tap dance in mid air.

**********

While Hermione had been opening her gifts, Harry and Ron had been getting an earful of abuse from their respective girlfriends.

"She is fucking miserable..."

"Why did you do it? What did she do to you, ever?"

Neither of the boys had guessed that when their girlfriends had asked to meet them in the Astronomy Tower early on Thursday morning, that they would be getting yelled at, instead of snogged.

Ginny sighed, and threw her hands up in desperation.

"She was starting to cheer up because of this whole secret admirer thing..."

"And now it's practically the only thing keeping her alive! I'm not even in Gryffindor, and I can see it."

"But she doesn't look that sad..." remarked Ron off-handedly.

Ginny just rolled her eyes as Cho explained: "She doesn't look sad, but it's obvious. She never really smiles."

"Why did you do it?" Ginny repeated Cho's earlier question.

Harry, who had so far been silent, chose that moment to speak up.

"Well, we didn't really need her...now that we had you two, and our studies were better...we just kinda drifted apart."

"Why did you say such mean things to her?" queried Ginny of her boyfriend.

"I have no idea..." replied Harry.

"She wanted to study with Malfoy rather than go visit Hagrid with us," interrupted Ron. "She's the one who doesn't want to spend time with us, so we told her to get stuffed."

"For Merlin's sake, you stupid boy!" Ginny was really in a rage now; "You haven't voluntarily spent time with her in months. Even Harry admits that! So she found someone to study with. Big deal! People form inter-House study groups all the time, I'm in one! And I don't see either of you complaining about that."

Ginny wasn't Molly Weasley's daughter for nothing. But it was Cho who really made the boys start to see some sense.

"But when your best friend since you were eleven decides to join one, it won't do. That's just damn hypocritical of you. She has done nothing wrong. You two have. And, until you decide to grow up and realise that you need Hermione a hell of a lot more than she needs you, don't come around us. If you're not going to treat your female friends right, how do we know that you are going to treat us fairly?"

With that, the two girls turned and walked out.

"Bloody hell," breathed Ron. Harry agreed.

**********

Hermione was rather disappointed. Classes had been cancelled that afternoon, in order for the students to go to Hogsmeade.

*~ I think I'll just wear my dress robes from last year again. It's not like I'm going with anyone. ~* Inspite of this, Hermione had been dragged out of her dorm by her roommates and Cho. They had decided that some female bonding was in order. This meant shopping.

**********

** Wonder Boy and the Weasel aren't with their girlfriends. Wonder why?** Thinking of how Hermione had cried in his arms a few days ago, Draco decided that it was about time for Evil Bastard Draco to come out of hiding.

"Well, well, what do we have here? Little lost Gryffindors without their girlfriends?"

Ron narrowed his eyes at Malfoy. "Bugger off, Ferret Boy."

"You boys seem to have a knack for pissing off women. Maybe your girlfriends would like to spend the evenings cuddled with me in front of a nice warm fire instead?" **Shouldn't have said that. Now they'll get the wrong idea. Dammit, dammit, dammit...**

Before Harry could step in with his slightly more moderate opinion, Ron's Mons Igneus-like nature asserted itself.

"The only way you could get a woman into your arms would be Imperius. And since the Dementors, unfortunately, haven't taken you to Azkaban for using an Unforgivable Curse, I guess you're just making it all up."

Watching as his best friend stormed off, Harry just shook his head.

"Look after her, Malfoy."

**Huh?** "Huh?"

"I know you two are studying together. You're going to get some flack for that. So look after her, and if you even think of hurting her in anyway, I may be the one using the Unforgivables."

Shocked that not only did Potter know that he and Hermione were studying together, he accepted it and trusted Draco not to hurt her, Draco just stared dumbly as the other boy sped up to join his friends.

**********

After exiting the last dress shop in Hogsmeade, the girls quickly stopped at the Three Broomsticks for a Butterbeer. The weather was miserable, and the girls were glad that they had Hermione with them, as she knew tons of charms to keep them warm and dry. A quick look in the direction of Harry and Ron as they sat with some other boys from Hogwarts (whose girlfriends had also abandoned them to go shopping) showed that they had not mastered such charms. However, Draco Malfoy obviously had, and caught Hermione's eye. They grinned at each other quickly, before Nott dragged Draco back into the Slytherin conversation.

As Ginny and the others walked back to Hogwarts eagerly discussing their dress robes for tomorrow night, Hermione found herself lost in thought.

*~ I wonder who my secret admirer is? They must be someone who knows me well...who knows that I like music, and silly, tacky little things...who could it be? The only person I know who has that kind of money to spend is Harry, and he's made it plain that he doesn't like me at all... ~*

When they reached Hogwarts, Cho split from the Gryffindors as they went to their separate towers. Hermione said goodbye and made her way to the Library, where she tried to read the newest edition of "Hogwarts - A History". But her thoughts kept drifting to her secret admirer. And they just became even more confused when Malfoy stopped by.

"There you are, Hermione. I was hoping you had come back from Hogsmeade." Hermione looked up into the blue eyes of Malfoy.

"What is it?" she asked, feeling rather uncomfortable due to the thoughts circulating in her head about who her secret admirer was.

"I was wondering if we could continue to meet and study together over the holidays. You are staying?" At her nod of agreement, Draco continued, "So am I. Shall we meet in our study room at lunchtime? I'm sure I can persuade the House Elves to deliver our food there..."
"That's fine. Is there anything in particular you wanted to study?"
"No, just to get out of the dungeons really. Though getting someone to challenge me over the answers to my holiday homework will be interesting." With a grin that made Hermione's heart skip, Draco turned and walked out of the Library.

*~ Why did my heart do that? ~*

For the rest of the afternoon, Hermione was plagued with thoughts of a certain blonde Slytherin, and the remembrance of her dreams from the past few nights.

**********

By the time she got ready for bed, Hermione had made a decision. It had been a hard one to make, but after abandoning 'Hogwarts - A History' (which she was reading for the 90^th time), she had eventually come to it.

*~ I'll just have to tell my secret admirer that although I appreciate their gifts, I'm already in love with someone else. ~*

And Hermione once again fell asleep to dreams of a charming silver dragon.

~

Fin.