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Hermione came home to find the house in a complete mess.
She hadn’t even had the time to yell a greeting to her girlfriend, that she had found herself in the middle of what looked like a war zone.
There were pillows scattered all around the living room, blankets of all sorts covering the floor completely, making it impossible to take a step further into the house without stepping on something, and a weird smell she later recognized as burnt chocolate lingering in the air.
“Great” she thought to herself, making her way across the room and picking up pillows and comforters from the floor, throwing them on the nearest couch, not caring to fold them.
After the hell day she’d had at work, she was feeling absolutely exhausted, and returning home to find their apartment in such a mess didn’t exactly make her feel better.
Everyone at the Ministry those days was exceptionally busy, trying to finish up all the paperwork left before the end of the year, which was just four days away.
That meant spending more time at the office during the Christmas period, the one period of the year which you’re supposed to pass with your family and friends watching hideous Christmas movies, making cookies and singing Christmas carols.
Unfortunate.
But obviously, it wasn’t Hermione’s problem.
She, being her usual far-sighted self, had already finished up all her paperwork and was looking forward to spend some quality time with her gorgeous girlfriend and adorable nephew, doing all possible kinds of stereotypical Christmas activities, having a good time and creating memories to cherish for life.
And all of that could’ve happened, if her Head of department hadn’t thought better.
Unfortunately, as the only Minister employee without mountains of paperwork to do in her department, she was also the only one who was able to take a new case.
So, they assigned her an important case, involving the mysterious disappearance of some dangerous potion ingredients from the Apothecary in Diagon Alley, that into the wrong hands could represent a serious problem, and a possibility of a new neo-Death Eaters’ attack.
With all the attacks that had happened the past year it felt more like a certainty than a possibility, and that thought, other than pushing her to do her best to sort things out as quickly as possible, made her also incredibly sick to her stomach. Thinking of the past attacks, how close the last one was to Pansy’s shop… Made her worry about her girlfriend’s well-being so much to make her anxiety reach impossible levels of paranoia.
Sitting on the couch, she pressed her hands up to her face, hiding her exhausted expression in her palms, and taking a long and deep breath. After a moment of sitting like this, trying to regain some kind of composure, she looked around the living room another time, focusing on some rather important things that hadn’t even crossed her mind previously, the second she walked in.
First of all, where was Pansy? Second, why the hell there were so many pillows and blankets everywhere? And third, sweet Jesus, the smell of burnt chocolate was nauseous, and was giving her a terrible headache.
She decided to get up and try to find an answer to her first (and most important) question, and made her way to the kitchen.
Here, leaned over the kitchen island, with earbuds on and a YouTube video playing, found her girlfriend.
Pansy was in her black silk pajamas. Her hair, now longer than how it was back in their school days, was tied up in a high bun, with a few curls escaping and framing her face.
She was focused on whatever the girl in the video was saying, and didn’t seem to acknowledge Hermione’s presence in the room. Biting her lower lip in exasperation, she made some annoyed sounds and abruptly stopped the video, taking the earbuds off.
“Oh, fuck muggles! Fuck muggles and their stupid methods to make hot chocolate, fuck their stupid pillow forts, fuck-”.
“Uhm..” tentatively said Hermione, trying not to scare her girlfriend too much.
Pansy couldn’t help flinching at the sudden voice, and hastily turned back to face Hermione, a hand on her chest.
“Dear Salazar, ‘Mione! You scared me!”
“Well, sorry dear, it’s not like it was my intention to. Now, could you please tell me what sort of bomb exploded in the middle of our living room? And what role has hot chocolate in all of this?”
Pansy looked at her with an amused and almost guilty expression, and lowered her eyes. Swaying her hips, she made her away across the room to her girlfriend, wrapping her arms around the other girl’s neck.
“The thing is, I was watching a movie on the telly and I discovered a new muggle thing. They call them “pillow forts”, and they seemed so cozy, and festive, and I wanted to make one, and I tried to, but honestly I can’t say mine really looks like one, so after two hours I gave up, and since I was bored I tried to follow a YouTube tutorial to make hot chocolate since I know that you love it but it didn’t turn out well and I almost set the kitchen on fire, please don’t kill me”.
Pansy looked at her with a hopeful gaze and an apologetic smile, batting her lashes in the way she did when she wanted to sound all innocent. She was probably waiting for Hermione to say something, or at least show some kind of reaction, but Hermione just stayed silent, hugging her girlfriend tighter, burying her face in the crook of her neck.
“You are insane. I love you, a lot, but you are insane”.
That made Pansy laugh out loud, so hard that she felt her cheeks hurting, happy to have her beautiful girlfriend back in her arms.
She ran a hand through Hermione’s black and thick hair, smiling uncontrollably, and feeling the other girl relax under the gesture.
“Well then, maybe tomorrow you can help me with pillow forts and hot chocolate, since you always seem to know everything about anything”.
“With pleasure, darling. But now, please leave all of those pillows and blankets and comforters and let’s just go to bed. I’m exhausted”.