A Makeover Story

A jolt of electricity surged through Hermione. She had never experienced anything this amazing before.

But as quickly as it started, it ended. Hermione´s lips still tingled.

For a few minutes, neither Draco nor Hermione could say anything.

Wanting to end the silence (and awkwardness), Hermione cleared her throat and spoke up.

"Well, uh, thanks for the help. I´ll be seeing you!" she squeaked, and ran quickly back to the Gryffindor tower.

For the next week, Hermione avoided Draco. She wanted to get the kiss out of her head, but the image of Draco´s mouth attached to hers didn´t seem to disgust her like it used to.

And every time she saw him in the halls, her stomach went haywire.

And her heart fluttered.

And she felt like giggling.

But it didn´t matter, because she was supposed to feel like that about Ron. And she wasn´t going to let a little kiss mess things up.

It was time for Operation Hogsmeade, as Hermione liked to call it.

Mission: Avoid Kisses.

She pulled her cloak on and went to the common room to meet Ron.

It was almost Christmas and Hermione planned on spending her time at Hogsmeade buying presents.

Ron was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs.

"Hi Hermione! Ready to go?"

"Yep. I´ve got my money, I´m going to try and buy everyone´s Christmas presents today."

"Okay, that sound likes like fun. But we have to make at least one stop at Honeydukes."

Hermione rolled her eyes. Some things would never change.

Hermione was having a wonderful time. She had bought all of her Christmas gifts; a silver watch for Ginny, a large box of assorted sweets for Harry, a book on wizarding dentistry for her parents, and (when he wasn´t watching) a pack of chocolate frog cards for Ron.

They had spent the rest of their time joking with Fred and George at Zonko´s, testing new sweets at Honeydukes, or drinking warm butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks with Harry.

But her heart did a jump when Crabbe, Goyle, and Draco walked through the doors to the Three Broomsticks. Hermione tried to hide behind her mug of butterbeer, but looked rather foolish.

Both Harry and Ron gave her quizzical looks.

"Uh, Hermione...what are you doing?" asked Harry.

"Heh heh...just uh...making a joke!"

After exchanging a confused look with Harry, Ron said

"I don´t get it."

"Oh never mind..."

Hermione looked up and caught Draco´s eye, but he wasn´t going to talk to her with Harry and Ron around.

"Well then! Best be getting back to the castle!" Hermione said rather loudly.

"Hermione, why are you talking so loud?"

"Oh sorry Harry! I didn´t realize it!"

She sure was acting strangely today.

Hermione practically ran out of the Three Broomsticks. She couldn´t be in the same room with Draco for too long.

After she had started up the path to Hogwarts, she heard Ron run up behind her.

"Hermione!" he said breathlessly. "Why´d you leave so fast?"

"I really want to get back. We have so much studying to do!" she lied.

"All right then. I´ll go back with you."

"Oh no! You don´t have to! Go back with Harry. I think I´ll study alone."

"Okay...well goodbye," he said.

But before Hermione could turn away, he leaned in and kissed her. Mission: Failed.

When he pulled back, she could see Draco staring at them.

"Well, bye then!" she said quickly.

What was she going to do?

The last day of the term had finally come and gone. Hermione was happy she was on holiday, even though she wouldn´t be going home. She had decided to stay at Hogwarts again this year, mainly because both Harry and Ron were.

She knew tomorrow would be full of fun; Christmas Eve always was.

There would be a snowball fight; she and Ginny would watch and giggle until one of the boys threw snow at them and they would join in.

Then they´d build snowmen, the muggle way, and everyone would try to out-do everyone else.

Then they would go inside and drink hot cocoa, and sit by the fire. Hermione would watch Harry and Ron play chess, and eventually fall asleep. Then Harry would wake her up and she´d go up to bed.

She couldn´t wait.

Christmas Eve was just as expected. There was the snowball fight, the snowman contest, the hot cocoa. But this year, Hermione didn´t fall asleep. She had too much on her mind.

First there was the kiss with Draco, and now with Ron. And how did Draco feel about her? That wasn´t happiness on his face at Hogsmeade. She was so confused.

There was only one place to turn in circumstances like this: What to Do When You´re Caught Between Two Men.

Hermione decided to skip chapter 2 and just flipped to the back of the book entitled: Questions and Answers

"This should be interesting..." she said to herself.

Question:

What do I do if I´m caught between two men?

Answer:

Perhaps you should read this book first.

Q:

What do I do if I´m caught between three men?

A:

Wait for our sequel, What to Do When You´re Caught Between Three Men, coming out in late June.

The questions continued to be silly and random, like What do you do if you´re caught with one of the men inside a burning building? and What if you accidentally get pregnant with one of the men´s children?

One question, however, sparked Hermione´s interest.

Q:

What do you do if both men kiss you?

Why was this question in the book? It seemed totally normal!

A:

Perhaps you should keep at it. As long as they don´t know, there is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with merely kissing both of them!

That was why.

She shut the book. This was not helping her at all.

Hermione awoke early the next morning to the sounds of her roommates gleefully opening gifts. She was tired though; she wished they had gone home for the holiday.

Figuring that she would never get back to bed, Hermione began to open gifts.

First was a book about Witchcraft during the French Revolution from Harry. However eager to start reading it, she continued opening her presents.

Then there was a large box of wizard makeup and hair products from Liz. She had to remember to thank her.

Next was Hagrid´s gift, a large sack of rock cakes. She decided she would give those to Crookshanks to play with.

Then she opened all of the gifts from her family. There were only two left, and she knew one was from Ron, but not sure of who the other was from.

From Ron she received a beautiful diary engraved with her name in gold. It was easily her favorite present so far, but she had a feeling that Ginny had picked it out.

Finally she got to the last present. It was a long and narrow box, tied with a simple green ribbon.

She gasped when she saw what was inside.

It was a beautiful silver charm bracelet, and it had one charm on it, an "H", which Hermione supposed stood for her name. She looked in the box and saw a note.

Happy Christmas Hermione

was all it read, and it was in handwriting she didn´t recognize.

Then she noticed that the "H" had a tiny engraving on it.

To someone amazing like you. Love, D.