Christmas of Surprises

Christmas of Surprises - chapter 3

Boxing Day

Once again, Hermione woke first. It took her less time to work out where she was than the previous day, and she turned her head and watched Ron sleeping for a while. When he looked as though he was starting to wake, she whispered a soft "Hello", and his eyes snapped open in surprise and he looked at her. After a moment, he smiled, as he'd woken properly. Ron looked at his watch, and discovered they were an hour early for breakfast, so they caressed each other and made love again.

The two of them showered together and then helped each other get dry.

Hermione looked at her clothes, and realised something. 'I need to get some clean clothes from my dormitory. I don't want to put those back on -- I hope Professor McGonagall's not coming to check on us!'

'Why, what are you going to do?'

She grinned. 'I'm going to carry yesterday's clothes round to my dormitory, without putting them on. I think that might give her a shock.'

'Wait -- I'll carry them for you, and I can check nobody except us is around. I bet there won't be.'

'How chivalrous, carrying them so I don't have to,' she said, teasing.

'Oh, it's not that. I want to watch you, and I don't want a bundle of clothes there when I remember this moment.'

Hermione laughed, and pretended to slap his face. They did as Ron had suggested, and found nobody around.

'It just feels so odd, walking around like this in the common room,' Hermione said.

'It may feel odd, but you look great.'

'Are you coming up to my room, or should I carry the clothes up?'

'Is it OK if I follow you? You don't mind?'

'Well, you'll be breaking a school rule,' she said with a grin.

'I don't like that rule,' said he, grinning back at her. They went up to her dormitory, Ron lagging back a few steps, as he claimed it improved the view. He'd never been in any girls' dorm before, and looked around curiously. It was a mirror image of the one he was used to, although there were only three four-poster beds in this one. He noted without much surprise that rather than Quidditch and football posters, there were posters of people, but he was surprised to see that one was of Gilderoy Lockhart. Hermione saw him looking at that one. 'Lavender still likes him, and doesn't believe he was a fake,' she said. The Lockhart in the poster smiled and waved back at them.

'Do you think he can see us? Well ... you, mainly. I don't think he'd be interested in looking at me.'

'I hope none of them can!' said Hermione, considering it. 'Given how long they've been up on the wall, with the three of us girls in here.'

She dressed quickly, as she'd realised it was almost time for breakfast, and they went down to the Great Hall together to eat.

Breakfast was once more at the group table, meaning that they could talk to the pupils from other houses again, something they didn't often have much opportunity to do. Snape looked his usual unhappy self, which they decided was due to there being no Slytherins at school over Christmas-- or perhaps the cold sliced turkey wasn't to his liking. Filch took some of the sliced turkey, but didn't eat any. He just put it on a small plate which he placed on the floor for Mrs Norris.

Ron took two big spoonfuls of sage and onion stuffing, and claimed when he'd finished it that he was now stuffed. Hermione giggled, Dumbledore and Sprout both smiled, McGonagall tried not to show a smile, and Snape glowered at Ron.

All the pupils wrapped themselves in warm cloaks and scarves, and went outside after breakfast. The sun was shining, making it feel warm despite the snow on the ground. The two Gryffindors wandered over toward the lake, to see if the giant squid was visible.

'Can you swim?' Ron asked Hermione.

'Yes. I learnt at primary school, and I get practice on summer holidays, so I can still manage it. Why?' she said, suddenly moving away from the lake.

'I'm not going to push you in! It'd be freezing, and much worse than that snowball down my back. I don't know, I just remembered what Harry said about the Tournament and the second task.'

'Oh. I've never tried swimming in the lake. I know some pupils have had swimming lessons, but I never did those.'

'I just swam as a kid. I suppose I still can, but I probably wouldn't be much good at it,' said Ron. They wandered right round the lake, leaving two sets of bootprints in the pristine snow that surrounded it. They didn't talk much, though they looked at each other often. When they did talk, their conversation touched on the Burrow, the previous year's Tournament, whether You-Know-Who would leave Harry alone this year and their forthcoming O.W.Ls. When they reached the point again where their bootprints started round the lake, Ron suggested confusing people, and they carefully stepped into the old prints, making their tracks into a complete circuit of the lake, then walked slowly back towards the castle backwards, in their previous prints. Nearer the castle, there were so many prints covering each other that they were able to walk forwards again to get back indoors.

By now it was almost lunchtime, so they went quickly upstairs to leave their cloaks, scarves and boots, changing back into indoor shoes.

Lunch that day relied heavily on turkey leftovers, but there were other options too, such as pork chops. Snape looked no happier than at breakfast, but Ron and Hermione tried to ignore him as they ate. Ron took some more of the stuffing, as he'd decided he liked it, and Hermione tried it too, but neither of them repeated his breakfast joke.

After lunch, they decided against going outside again, as the sun was now hidden by cloud, and the two Gryffindors went back upstairs to their common room, where Hermione shocked Ron with an announcement: 'I don't know what you want to do, but I'm going to start on the Christmas homework we were given.'

Ron put his hand over his heart, and staggered theatrically. 'No ... you can't ... agh!'

Hermione laughed, and picked up her bookbag from beside her usual chair. Ron hadn't even realised she'd left it there. She started pulling out necessary books and parchments, together with ink and a quill.

'You're serious!'

'Of course I am! We can't spend all our time in bed; this homework has to be done, and it won't do itself.'

Ron sighed, and decided he might as well do the same, although it wasn't quite the sort of togetherness that he'd prefer to be experiencing. He looked at Crookshanks, who had curled up again on Hermione's lap, and wished he was sitting there instead, or that she was sitting on his lap.

After an hour or so, the portrait opened, and Hermione looked up and saw Professor McGonagall there again. 'Hello, Professor.'

'Ah. Not chess today, I see. I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised to see you doing homework, Miss Granger, but to see Mr Weasley doing the same on Boxing Day is a little more surprising.'

'She persuaded me. She was very convincing, talking about our O.W.Ls,' said Ron.

'Good. Well, I won't disturb you any longer,' she said, and left the common room.

Hermione waited until she was sure McGonagall had gone, and said, 'Do you think we're driving her crazy, with chess and homework?' Ron laughed, and she smiled back at him. 'I haven't thought of a good way to tell Harry yet,' she said. 'Have you got any ideas about it?'

'No. Well, not really.'

She looked at him inquiringly.

Ron laughed, and explained, 'I thought of making up a Chocolate Frog card with the two of us on, and then some sort of text saying, "Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley -- friends since the fight with the troll, lovers since Christmas Eve", but I don't think it's the right approach.'

'Lovers,' said Hermione, as if trying the word out. 'I suppose we are. I hadn't really thought about that.'

'No?'

'I was just thinking "extremely close friends".'

'Too long,' objected Ron. 'And it's not clear enough on the card!'

She laughed at him. 'OK. So now we've got two ways to tell him, and don't want to try either of them.'

Both went back to doing homework, though each occasionally looked up and just watched the other, and was then caught when the other one looked up too.

Sooner than they realised, it was time for dinner, and they headed down there together. Snape was missing from the table, having apparently chosen to eat in his office instead. Nobody seemed to miss him.

Ron did an impression of Professor Trelawney. 'Oh, all is doom and gloom! There are thirteen of us seated at this table, and the first to rise will surely be killed by the mad axe-man waiting just outside that door!'

Professor McGonagall managed a unique expression, consisting of a frown (aimed at Ron) while her eyes were clearly laughing. In any case, following the meal, the first to rise was a third-year Ravenclaw who completely failed to be killed by any mad axe-men.

Following dinner, Ron and Hermione returned to the common room, where Hermione continued to work on her homework, while Ron read a book he'd been given for Christmas, in between glances at her. Twice, she had to go up to her dorm room to fetch things. Crookshanks had curled up on her lap again, but got fed up with her moving him, and went to sleep in front of the fire.

'Are you ever going to stop doing that and do something that's fun again?' he asked after a few hours.

Hermione looked at her watch, and saw that it was now after 10 o'clock. 'Oh. It is getting late.' She picked something up from the table and held it out to Ron. 'I made this earlier when I went up to get the Charms book.'

Ron took it and looked at it in disbelief. It was a Chocolate Frog card, but with a picture of the two of them waving, and with the wording he'd suggested. He looked at Hermione in amazement.

'I thought it would be fun to have one, even if we didn't use it to tell Harry,' she explained, blushing slightly.

'You just made it? Just like that? While you were getting a book? I didn't even realise you'd been gone long enough.'

'I had a few of the real cards, and I copied a photo of us at the Burrow onto one, and then changed the words to what you'd said. It's not difficult.'

'For you, maybe it isn't!' He gave her the card back, still amazed at her skill. 'After all these years as friends, you still surprise me sometimes. Which is good, of course.'

'Does that mean I shouldn't go to bed now?' she asked archly.

'Good girls should go to bed early,' he said, 'and very good girls should too.'

Hermione laughed at him, and started to collect her parchments together, before realising there wasn't anybody who'd move them by accident anyway.

Ron watched her, and added, 'Of course, the biggest surprise you ever surprised me with was on Christmas Eve. I never thought you'd even be interested in me -- not in that way, at least.'

She smiled, and kissed him, then pulled him over toward the stairs to the boys' dorms. He didn't resist her.

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Next chapter: Harry returns, ageism raises its ugly head, Hermione gets a letter, Harry considers kissing Draco and everyone gets depressed.

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