Christmas at Hogwarts

Christmas at Hogwarts (01)

By: Dobby&Winky

"Bye Harry and Hermione, have a Happy Christmas!" Ron yelled to them from his seat by the window, on the train to King's Cross Station. He was going to spend his Christmas with his family in Romania to visit his brother Charlie, who works with dragons.

Harry and Hermione were the only students staying behind at Hogwarts during Christmas. Hermione's parents were visiting her sister, Lucy, and she didn't want to go with them because she and her sister were not on speaking terms. And of course, Harry wasn't going to go back to the Dursleys for Christmas, which would be horrible. So, sadly, Harry and Hermione walked back up to Hogwarts alone, not knowing that this was going to be one of their best Christmases ever.

"Hey Hermione, want to go play Wizard's Chess?" Harry asked her.

"No thanks, I have too much work to do. And since we have the same classes, you do too. I think you should come to the library with me to start on our homework," Hermione said.

Since Harry had nothing else to do and he couldn't play Wizard's Chess by himself, he decided to give in and start his homework; after all, he only had two whole weeks! So both of them walked up to the common room and grabbed their books and headed to the library. Harry couldn't concentrate on his work. He had to do a History of Magic essay about something so boring I can't tell you, simply because it would be too boring. He had his quill in one hand, and his blank sheet of parchment right in front of him, as well as his History of Magic Textbook, with all the answers, but today, he felt, was just not a day to do homework. He tried looking over at Hermione's paper, to see if he could find some useful information to put into his essay, but she kept catching him and yelling at him, so he finally gave up.

After ten more minutes of trying to find something useful to put into his essay, he suddenly found himself staring at Hermione in an unusual way. When he caught himself, he quickly looked away, but what was going on? He certainly didn't like, like, Hermione, he only liked her as a friend. Right? Well, maybe you like her just a little...Yeah as a friend! Nothing more...but she is sort of pretty and smart and nice and caring...JUST SHUT-UP, OKAY! As you as you can see, Harry was debating with his consciousness whether he liked Hermione as more as a friend or just as a friend. He still didn't know. All he knew was that he had just been staring at her like she was the most beautiful creature in the world. Weird....

After several hours went by and Harry had found himself staring at Hermione more than five times, it was time for dinner. They went down, Hermione chattering away on how Harry had only written one sentence and how much time he had wasted. When they arrived, they found most of the teachers already sitting down on the twelve chairs assembled around the one table there. They had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner with turkey and pudding and a bunch of other delicious foods. (Hermione was very mad at how the house elves probably had to work extra hard to make this, and she kept going on about S.P.E.W., or spew, as Harry and Ron called it). They had great conversations, and overall, a great time. Then Professor Dumbledore announced that there would be a Hogsmeade visit the next day. At hearing this, Hermione asked Harry:

"Hey you want to go tomorrow?"

"Sure," Harry replied. At least Hermione couldn't make him do homework if they went there.

"Happy Christmas Harry!" That was the first thing that Harry heard the next day, shouted by Hermione, the most beautiful, smart girl in the world...Snap out of it! Harry kept telling himself.

"Happy Christmas Hermione!"

"Oh my goodness, its beautiful! Thanks so much for the present Harry! Do you think I might have time to read it all before vacation is over...." She trailed on and on about the gigantic book Harry had bought for her. It was called "The Most Boring Book In The World About Things That Nobody Cares About," but Hermione seemed to like it. Hermione rushed over and hugged Harry. He was very surprised, but then smiled and thought himself the luckiest guy in the universe. He took in everything about her: her perfume, her hair, her freckles on her neck....

"Er, Harry, can you let go of me please?" came Hermione's beautiful voice from far away.

"Oh right. Sorry. Well, er, I loved your gift too. I love Chocolate Frogs. Now I could really add to my collection of famous witches and wizards," he finished weakly. How embarrassing that had been!

"Hey Harry look what we're standing under!" Hermione said.

Harry looked up, and to his horror saw mistletoe. He looked at Hermione and it seemed that she was expecting a certain something. Well, this can't possibly be that bad. Just calm down and kiss her on the cheek. There's nothing to be embarrassed about, its not like I have to kiss her on the lips! Harry thought to himself. Well, here we go...

Harry leaned in and was about to peck her on the cheek, when she suddenly moved her head slightly, and he ended up pecking her lips. Well now, that is something to be embarrassed about, he thought miserably. But it felt so wonderful, wow.... Oh my gosh! I just kissed the girl of my dreams on the lips! Maybe she turned her head on purpose! Probably not. Doesn't she fancy Ron? Hermione looked up shyly, while smiling, and turned away.

"Well, I suppose we ought to go on to Hogsmeade...." Hermione always had a way of clearing up an awkward moment.

"Yeah, okay...." Harry replied, almost not believing what had just happened.

And so they headed off to Hogsmeade in a very shy silence.

To be continued....