Christmas of Surprises

Christmas of Surprises - chapter 2

Christmas Day

Christmas Day dawned. Hermione awoke first, was puzzled for a moment by the slightly unfamiliar look of the room, then realised from the feel of Ron against her where she was, and remembered the previous evening. She stretched, smiling, and then hugged Ron as he slept.

Ron slept for a few more minutes, then yelped, sat up in bed, and blinked.

'Good morning,' said Hermione with a smile.

He turned his head to look at her lying beside him, and rubbed his eyes. 'It wasn't a dream then! Not even the bit about being a matchstick?'

She shook her head, giggling at the second part.

'Do you know how many times I've had dreams like that?'

'No. Was it always me in the dreams?' she asked coyly.

'You were in all the good ones,' he said. 'Sometimes with Harry.'

'What?'

'Those were better than the ones with Malfoy or Padma. Padma always ran away from me.'

She frowned at him. 'You dream about Malfoy? And what did you mean about Harry?'

Ron blushed. 'Well, there were a couple of dreams where you said you couldn't choose between Harry and me, and we all three went to bed.'

Hermione giggled. 'As long as it wasn't just you and Harry. But what about Malfoy?'

'Oh, those were dreams of true love ...'

'What?'

He laughed at her expression. 'Well, they were. Usually they'd have you and me getting romantic somewhere, and then Malfoy would interrupt. Mostly they happened after a day in which he'd annoyed me for real.'

'So you had a lot of those, then?'

He grinned at her, then noticed a pile of presents at the foot of his bed. 'Oh, I've still got more presents.'

'More? How early did you start?'

'I unwrapped something very nice last night -- that reminds me, where are my pyjamas? Oh, never mind.' He got out of bed just as he was. Hermione watched him walk round the bed to where the presents were. He looked back at her and grinned again, as did she.

'Oh,' she said, stretching again. 'I suppose I ought to put my pyjamas back on and go and open my presents in my dorm.'

'No, don't go,' Ron said, looking at the presents piled up.

'I've got to really.'

'Aren't you going to open your presents first?' he asked, putting one on the bed where she could reach it.

Hermione looked at it, and her jaw dropped open. It was addressed to her. 'Oh no.'

'What? Is it from someone you don't like? Or someone you didn't give a present to?'

'Ron, this means the house-elves at least know I was in here last night!'

'Oh. Right, I'm not completely awake yet. I suppose we don't really want anyone to know.'

'You said last night -- I'm not supposed to be in here! I'm certainly not supposed to be in bed with you and spending the whole night here!' She looked at his expression. 'I don't mean I regret it -- I don't. I enjoyed last night. I just didn't want people to find out.'

Ron looked happier. 'I wasn't sure what you meant at first. Look, I know you were all worried about the house-elves, but it's only them that know. Most people here never even speak to the elves, so how are they going to find out?'

'Harry talks to Dobby,' she said.

'True; maybe we should ask Dobby not to tell him anything about this.'

'Maybe.' Hermione got out of the bed, looked down at herself, then at Ron, and then put on her dressing gown loosely, without tying the cord. 'It's too cold in here to stay like that.' She started opening her presents, but looked preoccupied.

Ron asked, 'Still worried about Dobby?'

'No. What do you think we should do about Harry?'

'Ambush him so he can't talk to Dobby? What do you want to do?'

'Oh, what?' Hermione suddenly burst into giggles, looking at the present she'd just opened, a paperback book.

'What is it?'

Still giggling, she passed him the book. Ron looked at the cover, and gaped. 'Who gave you a book about making love? I know I didn't!'

Forcing herself to stop giggling, she said, 'Mum did.'

'Your parents must be very different from mine! Well -- I suppose if I'd actually managed to talk to Dad about the potion, maybe they'd react like yours, but I don't think so.'

Hermione looked at the maroon jumper with the letter 'R' on it and started giggling again.

'It's not that bad -- but I wish she wouldn't keep making them maroon.'

She shook her head, unable to speak for giggling.

'I'll tickle you if you don't stop giggling!'

'I was just thinking of something else she could have knitted, if you'd told your parents.'

Ron shook his head as she started giggling again, and went back to opening his presents.

After a while, Hermione kissed him, then took her presents back to her room, as she had to get dressed. Crookshanks was glad to see her, as he had been asleep when she went to Ron's dormitory.

They met again in the common room, and went down to breakfast like two people from the same house who'd just met downstairs and definitely hadn't been sleeping together all night.

After breakfast, they went outside with the other students to have a snowball fight, the three Houses being the teams. Ron's mind didn't seem to be entirely on the fight, and he managed to duck hardly any of the snowballs aimed at him.

'Stop! I give in! Stop!' He shook himself and tried to brush most of the snow off his cloak. 'I'm soaked to the skin now -- I've got to go back in and warm up.' Then he yelped again -- Hermione had just dropped a handful of snow down the back of his cloak. He spun round and glared at her. 'You can stay here if you want, but I'm going to warm up!' He stalked back to the castle, muttering about friends stabbing him in the back.

Hermione watched him go. 'Oh dear. I'd better go after him and apologise. See you all later.' The snow was awkward to run through, and she didn't manage to catch up with Ron until he was climbing the stairs from the second floor.

'Sorry,' she said breathlessly. 'I went a bit too far there.'

'You did.'

'I wanted it to look as if I was just following you in to apologise.'

'What? Why?'

'I didn't want to say, "Get all those wet clothes off and I'll get a towel and dry you" in front of them all, did I?'

Ron stopped and looked at her. 'It was just an excuse?'

'Yes -- it was supposed to be. Sorry. I'll think of a better one next time.'

Ron started back up the stairs. 'I'll only forgive you if you do a really good job of drying me,' he said playfully.

'I'll try,' she said, following him.

Ron spread a large towel on his bed, then they undressed each other and Hermione rubbed him dry with a smaller towel. Crookshanks sat washing himself on a windowsill, having followed them up from the common room. Ron had threatened to kick him out if he interfered with the drying.

'This is the most fun I've ever had, getting dry,' he told her.

'Good! I'd hate to think you'd had more fun with someone else.'

He grabbed and tickled her. 'It's a bit one-sided though -- how about if I open the window and get some snow off the windowsill to throw at you?'

'Don't you dare!'

'Ooh, don't "dare" me,' he teased.

'I surrender!' she said, putting her hands above her head.

'Mmmm, you look nice.'

'Thank you,' she said, starting to dry him again. 'What do I still need to dry, anyway?'

He told her, and she kept drying for a while. 'Oh! What time is it?'

'Why does it matter?'

'We don't want to miss lunch -- McGonagall knows we're here, and might come looking for us!'

Ron grabbed his watch from the table. 'We've got just under half an hour.'

'Oh. I suppose we'd better get dressed again then,' said Hermione in a disappointed voice.

'We could carry on later,' said Ron hopefully.

The two of them managed to reach the Great Hall in plenty of time for Christmas lunch -- in fact, they were slightly early, but so were the other pupils, and Professor Flitwick. Instead of using the House tables as usual, a table had been set for fourteen; there were eight students, Professor Dumbledore, the four heads of house and Filch the caretaker. Although Ron and Hermione enjoyed the food, and the crackers, they didn't take much part in the conversation, as they were distracted by thoughts of what they had been doing and planned to do more of. They were not, however, the first to leave the table.

When they left, Ron crossed the Great Hall, then noticed Hermione wasn't keeping up with him. He looked back at her, walking slowly across to the great staircase.

'Are you OK?' he asked.

'Just thinking. I'm not sure, but I think McGonagall was giving us some odd looks.' She caught up with him, but just stood on the bottom step, biting her lip.

'I didn't notice her. I just noticed you.'

She smiled. 'And the food!'

'OK, and the food. It takes a lot of food to replace all that energy we used!'

Hermione started up the staircase. 'I think we might be acting a bit differently today -- we need to be more careful.'

'OK. I don't want to get detention for this -- or expelled.'

'Do you think they might go as far as expulsion?' she asked worriedly.

'I don't know. I'm sure Fred and George have done this, and they've never been expelled. I can't imagine Percy doing it though.'

She laughed at that. They continued up to the common room without talking. There was a warm fire already lit, with Crookshanks sleeping in front of it, and they sat near to it. Hermione's cracker had contained a wizard chess set, which she started to set up. Then she looked up and saw Ron's disappointed expression.

'Didn't you agree we needed to act carefully? McGonagall can come in here if she wants to, you know. She knows the password,' she said.

'Oh, of course. Yes.'

'I wonder what the school's official attitude to pupils sleeping together is, anyway. After all, they hand out those permission slips. There's no guideline with them -- do they mean "go ahead, but don't get pregnant" or "we don't want you to do anything, but if you really are going to, don't get pregnant"?'

Ron shrugged. 'All Fred and George told me was that part of my body would turn green to show I'd taken the potion, and was "safe" to sleep with. When I called their bluff, they admitted there's no way to tell.'

Hermione laughed, and looked down at her chess set, then back up at Ron. 'Want to play a nice innocent chess game?'

They played two games of chess. Ron won the first one, although the new pieces were much more hesitant to obey Hermione than those in Ron's more experienced set, which had been his grandfather's, were to obey him. During the second game, Ron had just captured a knight, when the portrait hole opened. Professor McGonagall came in. Crookshanks rolled over onto his feet, and walked over to her.

'Hello, Professor,' said Hermione, who was sitting facing that part of the common room.

Ron twisted round to see who it was. 'Oh, hello Professor. Is something wrong?'

'No,' she replied, 'I was just checking that both of you were all right. I see that you are.' She leant down to stroke Crookshanks, who was rubbing against her legs.

'I got this set in a cracker at lunch, and we're just giving them some practice,' said Hermione.

'Very laudable -- quite a suitable activity for a winter's day. Don't forget meals, though, will you?'

'Oh!' exclaimed Hermione, checking her watch. 'Oh good, I thought you meant we'd missed one. It's not for another hour, is it?'

'That's right -- you haven't missed it, but I know how distracting wizard chess can be. Well, I won't keep you from your game any longer. I'll see you at tea.'

She stroked Crookshanks again and then left, and Hermione grinned at Ron as soon as the Fat Lady's portrait had completely closed. After a minute, she said, 'It's just as well we're two nice innocent children, and not up to anything.'

Ron grinned back. 'Yes, you were right. But I took your knight anyway.'

'Oh, it's my turn!'

Ron won the second game also, then they went down to the Christmas tea together. The tea included chocolate cakes; they both reached for them at the same time, then grinned at each other, remembering how they'd used such cakes in their second year to knock out Crabbe and Goyle. These ones, of course, had not been tampered with.

After they'd finished their tea, they sat around talking to the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, as if they were in no hurry to return to their common room. When the others had left for their own common rooms, Ron and Hermione headed upstairs.

'Goosefeathers,' said Hermione to the Fat Lady, who obligingly swung open. She looked as if she was asleep -- with only two pupils to open and close the portrait hole for, who were always together, she wasn't being kept as busy as was usual, even over Christmas.

The two of them sat in the same chairs they'd been in before. Crookshanks jumped up into Hermione's lap, curling up to doze. Hermione started setting up the chess pieces again, after stroking her cat between the ears. When she looked up from the chess set, Ron had a wide grin.

'Don't look so happy -- you might not win this time!'

'I wasn't thinking of that,' he said. 'I was just wondering about strip chess.'

'Strip chess?' repeated Hermione. 'What, with every piece taken, that player has to take something off?'

'Yes. Why not?'

She looked at the board. 'There's too many pieces. Nobody wears sixteen items of clothing, do they?'

'We could go upstairs as soon as one player runs out of clothes. You can even count Crookshanks as one item, if you like. I'd like to try it, anyway!'

'Of course you would -- you keep taking more of my pieces than I do of yours!'

Ron grinned. 'Won't that give you more incentive to win?'

'No, it'll mean we're both concentrating on short-term play instead of the strategic game.'

'That sounds like a good idea!'

Hermione looked at her watch. 'I hope Professor McGonagall doesn't check on us again.'

'If she does, we've had it.'

'That's optimistic!'

'Do you think she was embarrassed when she came in before? Or maybe disappointed?' asked Ron.

'You mean, because she caught us being innocent? I don't think she was disappointed, but she did seem a bit awkward -- I think that's why she reminded us about tea being an hour away. She didn't have anything planned to say unless she caught us ... whatever.'

'I'd like to "whatever" you,' said Ron, grinning at her. She laughed, and threw a pawn at him.

'One down! Take something off.'

'Hey, thrown pieces don't count!'

Ron put the pawn back on the table, where it ran back to its place, then he looked at the time. 'It's not that late yet. Maybe we should play one game normally, in case she does come back, and then play strip chess?'

Hermione checked her watch, and agreed. They played through their third game of the day, chatting about things. At one point, she asked, 'You said that the twins told you that part of your body would turn green. Which bit?'

'I'll show you later, when I've undressed.'

'I'll remind you of that. OK.'

They played several more moves, then Hermione stopped to ask, 'What about Harry? I started asking about him earlier, and then I saw what my mother sent me.'

'He's staying with Sirius. You know that.'

'Of course I do! I mean, should we tell him about us?'

'I hadn't thought about it. I suppose it wouldn't be the same as letting everyone know. Harry'd keep it secret if we asked. Do you think we should tell him?'

'I can't remember anything else we've ever kept secret from him,' she said.

'This isn't the same sort of thing, is it? I can't imagine how we'd actually tell him. How would you bring the subject up?'

'I don't know,' admitted Hermione. 'I suppose it wouldn't be that easy.'

They played out a few more moves, and Hermione suddenly said, 'You know, we've got one good reason to tell him, since he's going to be back here the day after tomorrow.'

'What reason?'

'We'll have to stop spending the night together if we don't tell him. We'll have to anyway when term starts and everyone else comes back.'

'That's a very good reason! OK, we have to think of a way to tell him.'

Hermione took first one, then another of Ron's pawns and then giggled.

'They're only pawns! Those moves weren't that good.'

'It wasn't that. I just thought of a way we could let Harry know about us.'

'OK, spill it.'

'We just get up late on the 27th. Harry's getting back here in the morning, so when he doesn't find us in the common room, he'll go up to your dormitory looking for you.' She giggled again.

'And he finds us in bed together? I think I'd like a more subtle way.'

'Yes, I wasn't that serious. But now we've got one idea, and we only have to find a better one.' She smiled and looked away from Ron.

'Thought of another idea?'

'I was just remembering the dreams you told me. He finds us in bed together ... and we invite him to join us!' She giggled at his expression. 'It was your dream! But I wasn't serious.'

After some more moves, Ron said, 'I've got no idea how to tell Harry, but here's a different idea - mate in two moves.'

She raised her eyebrows at him. 'What meaning of mate do you mean?'

He laughed. 'The chess one!' He made his next move, she responded, and he checkmated her as he'd said.

'Do you want to try strip chess now, or just go upstairs?' he asked.

Hermione looked at her watch. 'It's getting late anyway; let's just go upstairs.' She put her chess pieces away, but left the set on the table rather than take it up to the boys' dormitory. She played with Crookshanks' paws until he woke, then half-stood so that he jumped down. Ron and Hermione then went upstairs. 'You've got to show me what the twins said would turn green.'

Ron laughed. 'It doesn't work anyway, as I haven't taken any potion.'

'What's the boys' potion called anyway?'

'Nonpater. Why do you want to know?'

'I wanted to look it up.'

'Why? Never mind, I know why. You look everything up, don't you?'

Once in the dormitory, they both rapidly undressed. Hermione didn't have any pyjamas with her this time, so Ron didn't bother with his either, and they both shivered at the cold air in the dormitory.

'This is the bit the twins said would turn green. But they wouldn't show me when I called their bluff. Now let's get warmer.'

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Next chapter: Ron breaks a school rule, Snape eats turkey, Hermione shocks Ron, homework and another visit from a teacher, plus a Chocolate Frog card.

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