Christmas of Surprises

Christmas of Surprises - chapter 7/10

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December 30th

When Ron awoke, he found Hermione lying with her back to him, apparently still asleep. He stroked her back to see if that would wake her, and she turned over and smiled at him. She had the book in her hand, and he realised she'd woken first again.

'How about this?' she asked, showing him the page she had been reading.

Ron read it and gulped. 'Does that work?'

She shrugged. 'I don't know. I suppose they tried out all these ideas before putting them in the book.' Suddenly she laughed. 'Can you imagine being on the editorial team that worked on this book?'

Ron thought about it, and grinned. Hermione pushed back the blankets so they had more room, and they tried out the position she'd been looking at.

Afterward, lying happily beside Ron, Hermione said, 'Yes. It works!'

Ron laughed at her. Then he remembered something. 'Don't think I didn't enjoy that, but do you think we're worrying Harry again?'

Hermione took their watches off the bedside table and checked. 'Not quite, but we will be soon.'

Once downstairs, they found Harry playing with Crookshanks and his piece of string. He looked up as they entered the common room, and checked his watch.

'You are getting more restrained.'

'In that case ...' said Hermione, pulling Ron towards her and kissing him for what seemed to Harry like a very long time.

When they separated again, both grinned at Harry, who rolled his eyes. 'Keep that up, and you should get rid of any rumours about Hermione being my girlfriend.'

'Perfect!' said Ron. 'It's fun, and it destroys rumours!'

The three of them were chuckling most of the way down to breakfast. After breakfast, all the pupils went outside to take advantage of the previous day's snowfall to have another snowball fight. Ron looked at Hermione suspiciously. She looked back at him, all innocent. Harry looked from one to the other and asked, 'All right, so what was that about?' They explained about the Christmas Day snowball fight, and the drying-off that had followed. Harry managed not to blush that time.

Once again, the fight was between the three Houses, and this time Ron didn't get soaked. 'That's a shame,' said Hermione as they went back into the castle afterwards and headed for Gryffindor Tower. 'I can't dry you today then.'

'Not again!' said Harry. Ron just laughed.

Back in the common room, Harry and Ron got on with their homework, and Hermione read parts of a book she'd borrowed from the library on the way upstairs, and made notes on a piece of parchment. Ron finished his homework too, and he and Hermione played another game of chess.

'This isn't fair,' grumbled Harry.

'It's what happens when you stay with Sirius and don't take your homework with you,' teased Hermione.

'He's setting us a bad example,' agreed Ron.

'You're beginning to sound like the twins,' said Harry, glowering at Ron.

'Prefects are meant to set examples, though,' said Hermione.

Harry glared at her, and went back to doing his homework.

'I just noticed that neither of you are wearing your badges,' said Ron.

'I didn't take mine to Sirius' flat, and I forgot to put it back on,' said Harry.

Hermione shrugged. 'There didn't seem much point with so few pupils here.'

'If you'd kept it on, we'd have noticed you had my robes on,' said Ron.

'That's true. See, that's another good reason not to wear the badge.'

'Oh. I just thought of something. On Boxing Day, you told me I'd be breaking a school rule if I followed you up to your dormitory, and I said I didn't like that rule, and followed you.'

'I definitely wasn't wearing the badge then,' she said with a grin. 'I didn't have anything to pin it on.'

'I disobeyed a Prefect!' said Ron in mock-horror.

Harry laughed at the pair of them, and stretched his arms.

'So you did,' she said sternly. 'It's detention for you, Ron Weasley. Report to my dormitory this evening.'

'Yes, madam Prefect!'

Harry groaned. 'Is everything going to be about sex for you two from now on?'

'We're still only in the first week,' she reminded him. 'You've got to expect us to be still a bit enthusiastic.'

'"A bit enthusiastic"? That's like saying Filch is slightly interested in keeping the castle clean! Or that Snape tries to keep his fondness for Gryffindors hidden!'

'The school needs to start up a Rhetoric and Sarcasm class -- you'd do well in that,' she said.

Harry resumed his homework, muttering 'a bit enthusiastic -- huh!' under his breath.

'Anyway, you don't have to do your homework right now,' she added.

'Why not? I've never heard you say that before.'

'Because it's almost lunchtime.'

Ron was disappointed to find that there were still some items of turkey leftovers for lunch: a plate of turkey sausages, and another plate of stuffing. He was equally disappointed that Snape was eating with them.

After lunch, they finished playing the game of chess while Harry continued his homework and grumbling.

'Now what? Do you want to play another game?' asked Ron, who'd won again.

'We never did try strip chess,' said Hermione. 'Do you want to try that?'

'Hey!' protested Harry. 'Not while I'm here, thanks!'

Hermione grinned at him. 'You must have seen Ron in the showers in your dorm. I'm going to win this time!'

'No chance,' said Ron with an evil grin. 'I don't think Harry wants to be that close a friend to you, either.'

'I really don't,' said Harry. 'No offence, Hermione. I just think that'd be going too far.'

'Well, we could play in my dormitory,' suggested Hermione.

'Yes!' said Harry.

Ron laughed. 'Yes!' he echoed. He and Hermione took the chess set upstairs to her dormitory, while Harry shook his head and concentrated on his homework.

'You stay down here where it's quiet,' he told Crookshanks, who was again lying stretched-out in front of the fire. Crookshanks purred back at him.

Upstairs, the chess game went quickly, as both players were concentrating on short-term gains instead of the long-term game. Ron was surprised to discover that Hermione was better at tactical chess than the usual strategic version, and began to wonder if she would win. However, she lost her last item of clothing while he still had two left.

She pouted at him. 'I should have put my Prefect's badge on, and counted that!'

'Too late now,' he grinned.

'I've still got my watch on!'

'Stop trying to make it last longer, you've lost! Besides, so have I -- oh.'

'What's the matter?'

'We'll have to get dressed again and go back down for tea.' he said.

'Oh. We should have played this after tea.'

'This bit isn't fun.'

'We could make it more fun by dressing each other,' she suggested, and they did that. Then they headed back to the common room, flushed and grinning.

Harry looked up at their approach. 'Get bored with chess, then?'

They reminded him of the time, and went down to the Great Hall, where they found Snape was once again eating with them.

After tea, they returned to the common room, where Crookshanks was pleased to see them, and rubbed against Harry's legs.

'You're my cat!' said Hermione.

'He must think you've got a new pet to play with,' said Harry, grinning.

'Well, while you get on with your homework, we're going to play another game of strip chess, right Ron?'

Ron agreed, and they left Harry downstairs while they went to play a second game. Ron won again, but this time he only had one item of clothing left.

'I forgot my badge again,' she said. 'Oh well, if you take that off, we can play a different game.'

'But it's too early to go to bed,' joked Ron, removing his last item of clothing.

'You've been naughty though, and you're in detention -- remember?'

'OK!'