The Best Christmas Present

The Best Christmas Present- One Hogwarts Christmas Day That Was Not Fun

Harry opened his eyes in the early morning of Christmas Day. He was sore all over.

"Ouch!" groaned Harry as he sat up. Every single part of him -bones and muscles- ached. It took Harry a while to remember the events that had taken place the previous night. "That's right, I had a big snow fight with Hermione." Harry smiled at the memory, but his grin froze when it came to the part where he kissed her.

"How could I have been so stupid?" Harry smacked his head furiously. "She probably hates me now. I'd better go and try to apologise and explain."

Harry leapt from his bed immediately. "Aargh!" he moaned in pain as his muscles announced their objections to his action. However, he still went down to the common room in an attempt to find Hermione.

Hermione wasn't sitting in the common room. Crookshanks was curled up in a ball by the warm coals of the fireplace, apparently asleep. Harry scanned the common room from Hermione's favorite armchair to the darkest corner of the room, but Hermione was nowhere in sight.

Harry eyed the girls' dormitory warily. No one apart from Hermione would be there. He nearly started to climb the stairs before he remembered Ron's misfortune while attempting to climb those stairs a few years ago.

"Hermione? Are you up there?" Harry resorted to calling. "Hermione? Please come down, I want to talk with you!"

However, no one answered.

Crookshanks, who was wakened by Harry's voice, stood up and gave Harry a glare of annoyance before settling down to sleep again.

"Sorry," whispered Harry as he walked out of the common room and headed for the Great Hall, thinking he might find Hermione there.

The Gryffindor table was empty when Harry got to the Great Hall. In fact, apart from a few teachers finishing their breakfast at the High Table, there wasn't anyone around at all.

Miserably, Harry sat down on his own. He had not had a more miserable Christmas since he stepped foot into Hogwarts. He was kicking himself for acting upon what he was sure was a teenage hormonal impose. He had scared away his best friend and had to spend Christmas alone.

Quickly and silently, Harry finished his breakfast, only eating a little bit. Somehow, he had lost his appetite. He hurried out of the Great Hall to try and find Hermione again. He hoped that Hermione hadn't locked herself up in her dormitory as he went outside.

Albus Dumbledore drank from his goblet deeply as he watched a very anxious Harry walk out of the Great Hall, smiling in spite of himself. Due to his wide knowledge of what was going on in Hogwarts, he already knew that there were two very confused teenagers in the castle that day.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Hermione did not lock herself up, as Harry suspected. She instead went up to the owlery, where she thought no one would find her, with a book to read, needing a day of peace and quiet for herself to analyse her feelings.

She couldn't quite lay her fingers on the exact emotion she was going through. It was a new experience for Hermione Granger, who usually knew exactly what was going on inside herself as well as how Harry and Ron were feeling. It was weird. Her thoughts went back to the moment Harry had kissed her the previous night.

They were having so much fun in the snow. Hermione couldn't remember being that happy since she had been quite young. For once since she entered Hogwarts, Hermione had stopped thinking about school work, home work, exams and etcetera. She enjoyed the fight more than she ever thought she would. Hermione let out a small giggle as she remembered the look on Harry's face when she hit him with a snow ball.

Then, she and Harry had both fallen into the half frozen icy lake. It would've been very funny had the incident that occurred afterwards not took place. The kiss.

Harry had kissed her. Hermione was confused. She could understand why Harry did those things that he did before the kiss, but her logical reasoning just wouldn't give her a satisfactory answer for Harry's behavior. Why would he hit on his best friend?

And the other confusing part to it was that Hermione didn't really mind being kissed by Harry. It was her first real kiss and all, but she didn't really mind. She remembered herself blushing and running away in confusion, but she couldn't remember herself getting angry or anything.

Hermione sighed and looked at the cover of the book she'd brought with her for the first time. It was a Muggle romance novel Ginny gave to her the previous Christmas. Not being a fan of romance, Hermione had flicked through it without much interest. She could vaguely remember something about two friends falling in love or something like that. Why did I bring this book instead of Hogwarts: A History? Hermione asked herself as she opened the book and began to read. Surely I could find more interesting things in there.

Page after page Hermione turned. This time, she wasn't skimming through the words, but actually reading the text. She was very surprised to find that she was caught up with the plot, which she had once waved off as boring and immature. I must be losing my touch, thought Hermione sadly. First I couldn't figure out what happened to me, now I find a romantic novel interesting. This world must be turning upside down.

Hermione's eyes grew rounder and rounder as she read on. The plot sounds so familiar, have I ever read another book similar to this one?

Suddenly, Hermione gasped out aloud, frightening a few half-asleep owls in the process. Her hands trembled as she looked up from the page. According to the book, which Hermione believed without a doubt, even if it was a romantic novel, certain things would happen when two very close friends fell in love and, with what had happened the previous night, they had displayed every sign listed.

No! This can't be happening! This definitely can't be happening! Hermione shook her head helplessly as realisation finally dawned on her. I can't believe this is happening, but it did. Harry and I have done everything the hero and the heroine of this book have done! I do believe that the sun had risen from the west this morning and that it is summer, here in England, right now in the middle of December!

However, seeing the thick snow outside the castle, Hermione knew that she hadn't been dreaming and that the world hadn't turned upside down. Merlin, moaned Hermione, how did I get myself in such a mess in the first place?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Harry had spent a very lonely and exhausting day looking for Hermione so he could apologise. He looked around every dark corner of the castle, but she wasn't anywhere Harry could think of. He had looked through the library, every single empty classroom he could find, and even risked his life by crawling into Snape's dark dungeon, only to find, much to Harry's dismay, a greasy haired Snape singing and dancing around the dungeon in a very disturbing way.

Harry looked through every single broom cupboard in Hogwarts, which roused Filtch's suspicion, and nearly got kicked in the backside when he checked the last one. He went to the Room of Requirement and asked for Hermione. However, he had only received a photo of a five years old Hermione in return. He even flew up into the girls' dormitory on his Firebolt just to check if Hermione had indeed locked herself up.

However, Hermione seemed to have vanished like mist.

As a last resort, Harry went to Hagrid's hut around dinner to see if Hermione had decided to see their giant friend.

"Hermione? Nah, haven't seen her for the whole day," said a very unconcerned Hagrid when Harry asked if she had been around. Judging from the smell coming out of Hagrid's oven, he had been baking.

Harry was getting nervous. What if something happened to Hermione when she went out for a walk? He didn't even understand why he was so concerned, but he was.

When Hagrid offered Harry some freshly baked rock cakes, Harry sat down and chatted with Hagrid. They had a very interesting and long conversation about dragons. Harry had become so interested in the conversation that he had forgotten all about Hermione temporarily until....

"Great Merlin! Just look at the time!" Harry jumped. "I've go to get back. It must be five or six in the morning!"

Sure enough, the sky outside was already murky grey.

"Sorry to take up so much of your time, Hagrid. It's been nice talking to you, but I really must get going. See you!" Harry said as he ran back to the castle.

Hagrid chuckled. "Well, if that boy's heart isn't taken up by a girl, I'd swear he must be insane."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Harry burst into the Gryffindor common room around six, soaking wet from the snow melting against his body. He was very worried about Hermione, not believing that he could have forgotten all about her. What if she still wasn't back? What if she's hurt somewhere?

"Harry? Is that you?" a very sleepy voice called out for him from the armchair next to the fireplace.

Harry gulped. Hermione!