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December 23rd, 2006
The Burrow
“Absolutely not!”
Well, it was never going to go well, Hermione thought.
“It’s Christmas for Merlin's sake. You can’t go abroad.”
Molly’s voice was rising at an alarming rate. Hermione caught Harry’s eye across the room and knew they were thinking the same thing - we need to get out of the kitchen. Hermione quietly pardoned herself to go to the loo, whilst Harry shortly followed behind not even trying to make an excuse.
Although they could still hear the argument in the next room, at least they were out of the firing line now. They had planned and planned and planned how to tell Molly that they would be spending Christmas in France this year, but no matter how they went about it, she was never going to be pleased.
“You can’t just abandon your family!” They could hear Molly shouting through the walls.
“For Godric’s sake Mum, no one is abandoning you.” You could tell Ginny was irritated by her tone, “Yes, we will be going to France to celebrate Christmas and New Year, but the Delacours, Bill, Fleur, Victoire, Dom inique, Perc, Penelope, Fred jr, George, Alicia and some of the Order members are going to be here.” she took a deep breath, as if to make a point. “Also, Charlie isn’t coming home at all, so it’s not as if we are the only ones not spending Christmas here.” As with her mother, Ginny’s voice raised the more irritated she got. It won’t be long until they had a full blown screaming match on our hands.
Harry just dropped his head into his hands. Neither of them had wanted to be here when they told Molly, but Ginny had basically insisted her husband join, and Harry said he wouldn’t do it unless Hermione came too. So here she was.
“It’s her fault. She’s making you go”. The spite in Molly’s voice was evident.
“No, absolutely not. We are not doing that”, and now Ron’s voice was also getting raised. “You are not going to blame my girlfriend for us choosing to spend Christmas abroad.”
“Well if it wasn’t for her you wouldn’t be choosing to leave us all. And you’re taking Ginny, Harry and Hermione with you”.
Oh God. This was not going well.
“Shall we head outside for some air?” Harry looked at her, with the face of a man who wanted as much space between him and his mother in law as possible. Hermione simply nodded, wishing to be as quiet as possible as they left.
As they closed the front door behind them, and made their way across the garden towards their favourite tree to sit under whenever a ‘Weasley moment’ was happening, they heard something shatter, causing their footsteps to quicken.
“Well then” Harry said with forced cheeriness, as he cast a wandless, wordless warming charm over them and their bench.
“Yeah. We knew she was not going to be pleased. I still think they should have waited until Bill, Fleur and the kids were here, they always seem to improve her mood. And Bill and Fleur know we’re staying at the Delacours, so they would have been good back up to have.” she surmised, in that incredibly Hermione way.
“I know, I know. I agreed with you every time we planned with them. But you know neither of them will listen once they’ve decided what they want to do” he replied with a grin.
Hermione just raised her eyebrow in response. She looked back at the Burrow, one of her favourite places in all of the world, wondering how long it would be until they saw the siblings walking over to join them.
They had all decided to go and stay in France for the holidays back in October. They were having drinks in the Leaky Cauldron and Gabrielle had made the suggestion. It seemed perfect, they all wanted a bit of space from wizarding Britain and this was the perfect opportunity. Get away from the gossip columns, the prying eyes and just let their hair down. Hermione often mused that as grateful as the wizarding community at wide was for what The Order, DA, and her wonderful extended family had done during the war, they didn’t fully appreciate that they had, mostly, been children at the time. And sometimes they wanted to act like people who are in their early 20’s - not celebrities who are written about in the news every time they entered a shop, or went for dinner.
So it was decided that Hermione, Harry, Ginny, Ron and a small group of their friends would stay with Gabrielle at the Delacour Mansion over the holidays. Gabrielle’s parents would be spending Christmas with Bill and Fleur, and by extension the Weasleys in Britain, so they would have the Manor and the grounds to themselves. It all seemed perfect, until Molly came up in conversation. They all knew the Weasley matriarch would be less than pleased when she found out about the plan, which is why they had left it so late to tell her, to minimise the chances of her meddling. She meant well, Hermione and Harry both knew this, but sometimes she couldn’t see beyond what she wanted, and could not appreciate others' points of view.
Case in point was when Hermione and Ron’s short-lived relationship came to an end. The split was amicable, and they both agreed it was for the best. They loved each other dearly, and would have died for one another during the war, but that did not mean they were right for each other long term. If she was honest with herself, she knew the chemistry just wasn’t there. Harry and Ginny had been relieved when they found out. They knew that it would be an unhappy relationship if it had continued. But Molly kept insisting that she knew best, and knew they would ‘work it out in the end’, even though they had nothing to work out.
Hermione was pulled from her thoughts from a slam of the side door to the Burrow. Looking up she saw an irate Ginny Potter, fiery red hair billowing in the wind behind her, stomping up the path towards the tree that Harry and Hermione were sitting under, closely followed by a furious looking Ron, whose face was bright red, despite the December chill in the air.
“Sooo, how did it go?” Harry asked, trying to break the tension as they joined them on their bench.
“She’s a nightmare. Honestly. She blamed the whole holiday on Gabrielle. She hates her.” Ron huffed as he kicked a rock at the base of the tree.
“Your Mum doesn’t hate her, Ron. She’s just disappointed you both won’t be spending Christmas here this year. It’s a big change, you know?” Hermione tried to explain calmly.
“Oh don’t stand up for her Hermione”, Ginny snapped. “She’s being an arse, and is definitely being horrible to Gabs. It’s the whole Fleur thing all over again ‘ she’s taking away my son ’ and ‘ she’s using her Veela powers on him ’. And it’s worse for Ron ‘cause she’s still convinced you two will end up getting back together.” She gestured between Hermione and Ron.
Ginny’s summation shut Hermione’s response down. She couldn’t believe how horrible she used to be to Fleur, making her time in Britain more difficult when she had no one other than Bill. Hermione had apologised to her about it as an adult, but having the same thing happen to Gabrielle just brought all of those awful feelings back.
“For the love of Merlin she needs to get over it. We got over it bloody years ago now! Hermione, you know I love you but she needs to realise we aren’t getting back together!” Ron looked at her, running his hand through his windswept hair, a look of pure frustration on his face.
Hermione stood and walked over to him, placing her hand on his shoulder. “I know Ron. Honestly, I think it’s going to take us both getting married, and possibly even having children for her to realise that it isn’t going to happen” she let out a small laugh. She turned back to the others, Harry had wrapped his arms around Ginny’s waist, with her sitting on his lap.
“To be honest, even that might not dissuade her. '' Ginny joked.
“Not helping Gin” Ron grumbled. Hermione just laughed.
“Look, she knows now, and so does Dad. We leave tomorrow, so we won’t have to sit through them trying to change our minds. We just have to go back in, finish dessert, and then we can all head home and pack.” Ginny smiled bracingly up at Hermione and Ron, who had moved closer to the bench under the tree. “And because we will all be in France, we won’t have to hear her tell the others about how awful we were as children, or say anything horrible about Gabs. Not that she is likely to say anything negative about her after today, as her sister and parents will be here anyway.”
“That’s a good point” Harry mumbled into Ginny's shoulder.
“Of course it is,” Ginny grinned, “I said it!”.
They slowly made their way back to the Burrow after another half an hour chatting about the trip, what they may need to pack and the travel plans for the next day. Molly was still furious and refused to speak to any of them directly, but Arthur seemed to understand their reasoning that they wanted to spend some time abroad. When Bill, Fleur and the children arrived they seemed to distract Molly a bit, and discussion of all the family and extended family the Burrow would be hosting over the coming week seemed to cheer Molly up significantly. Even so, as they went to make their leave, Harry and Hermione took turns in wishing Molly a Merry Christmas, and although they did get the customary hugs and kisses, they were a little stilted.
*****
Hermione joined Harry and Ginny at Grimmauld for a while before flooing back to her flat, while Ron went straight home, as he was heading to France this evening.
They had tea and discussed the upcoming holiday and how much they were looking forward to being away from Britain.
“I’m just over seeing my bloody face in the newspaper every time I get to training” Ginny moaned. “It’s awful having all of my teammates and the coaching staff make assumptions about me, my partner and friends based on shit they’ve read in the bloody Prophet!”
“We know Gin” Harry soothed, “You know they just make anything up to keep the press rolling.”
“It’s pointless, worthless drivel” agreed Hermione. “You know I’ve apparently been on dates with David from Magical Sport, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Warren who works at Flourish and Blotts AND Cormac McLaggen so far this month?! I have an incredibly active dating life according to the Prophet and Witch Weekly, even if it is entirely fictional.”
Ginny rolled her eyes, “Well, you’ve always been popular with the boys according to the papers” the redhead teased. Hermione threw a pillow at her. “Anyway, are you planning on staying for the whole holiday, or are you back to work early?” Ginny said through laughter.
“I’m not sure, it depends whether or not they want me back early.”
“‘Mi, come on, you never take time off, you never actually use up your holidays. Enjoy the holiday with us, you need to unwind. We all agreed, getting away from all of this” he gestured around with his arms, “would be good for us.”
“I know, but you know what my work is like …” she trailed off.
“We know ‘Mi, but it isn’t the only thing in the world.” Harry levelled her with his bright green eyes. “It’s not even what you said you wanted to do.” He raised his eyebrow at her.
“Yes, yes, but it is my job, and I’m doing good work.” They had had this conversation so many times. Harry and Ginny always said that she should leave her job and become a teacher, or researcher, not to keep working in the Ministry.
She worked in the DMLE, in the development and amendments of laws and regulations, focusing on the laws around Muggles and Muggleborns, whilst also supporting the team on the development of regulations around magical creatures. She knew it was not fulfilling her in the way she thought it would, there was a lot more red tape and jumping through hoops to make laws come to pass than she was aware of. The amount of time and effort that was put towards developing any minor changes, let alone new regulations, was ludicrous. The Wizengamot had a hold of the leash to all rules and regulations, and they had to approve any and all changes.
It was a bloody nightmare. And it was exhausting. And she was exhausted. But there are so many projects that she had been working towards and spending her time on that she was loath to leave. But that had been the case for almost 2 years now. She knew she wasn’t being mentally simulated, and she knew she could be doing more,but she didn’t know where she would go, or what she would even do. And she knew she could make changes, no matter how slow they were.
“Right, sorry love, but I need to kick you out, I haven’t actually started packing yet.” Ginny pulled her from her musings on her less than fulfilling career.
“Ohh, sure. I also need to finish packing.” She said standing from the sofa she had ended up curled up in. “I’ll see you both there tomorrow?”
“Yeah, of course. Do you want me to walk you down?” Harry asked, taking her mug from her.
“I think I’ll be alright Harry, I know the way to the fireplace” she chuckled.
“I know, I was being polite!” he replied, shaking his head. He vanished her mug, wandlessly, sending it down to the kitchen to be washed, and then gave her a hug and kissed her on the cheek. “See you tomorrow ‘Mi”
“See you both tomorrow” she called as she headed out of the door.
******
December 25th, 2006
Delacour Manor, Bordeaux, France
“Merry Christmas ‘Mione!”
“Happy Christmas Granger”
“Happy Yule Hermione”
Hermione was showered with Christmas wishes as she walked into the main sitting area of Delacour Manor. She looked around and saw her beloved friends all in one place. Her family.
A lot had changed in the years following the war, but some things were also exactly the same. Her love for the people in this room, how she would do anything for them, how just being around them made her heart feel lighter.
She had never got her parents back after the war. She had tried, and failed to retrieve the memories that she had protected so well. But they were alive, safe, and happy. Which is all that truly mattered. However, that meant she had no more ties to the Muggle world, she now lived full time in the Magical world, surrounded by the people in this room.
“Merry Christmas everyone!” she called into the room. It warmed her heart, being out of Britain for the holidays, and being able to really enjoy the holidays with her friends.
“We’re just waiting on a few stragglers and then we can get started on presents!” came the excited voice of Ginny, who was sitting next to Harry, with James on the floor by their feet.
She made her way over to the table set up at the end of the grand room where a selection of breakfast foods and drinks had been set up by the Delacour house elves. She made herself a large mug of coffee, and started putting a plate together of pastries to enjoy as they opened their gifts.
“Merry Christmas Darling”.
Neville had come to join her at the table, reaching to make himself a mug of tea. Godric that nickname.
“Merry Christmas Nev” Hermione beamed up at him. He smiled back at her, making her knees weak. Merlin that smile.
“I’m so glad that Gabs suggested this. It’s such a wonderful way to spend the holidays.” Neville was also putting together a plate of food for himself. “Since Gran passed away Christmas has just never been the same.” He looked at her, a sad turn to his mouth.
“I know Nev, it must be hard with your parents too” she rubbed her hand up and down his bicep, in what she hoped would be a soothing manner.
“Yeah. It’s always been a difficult time of year. But now without Gran … it feels like I’ve lost the last real connection I had to their lives before the first war. To who they really were.” his voice had become small, like he didn’t want the others to hear what he was saying.
“I’m so sorry, love. But you still have the memories that you gathered after the war, so you can always look in the pensive if you really need to.” she was almost whispering back to him, to ensure their privacy. “And you have all of the photos we collected too.” She tried smiling at him bracingly. He gave her a half smile back, but it didn’t fully reach his eyes.
“Yeah, I know. It’s just hard.” He shrugged, “thanks ‘Mi”. He put his plate down and gave her a bone crushing hug.
“Anytime. You know I’m here for you whenever you need” she said into his chest. And she meant it.
They separated and looked at each other for a while, before he cleared his throat, stepping away and grabbing his plate. “So, who do you think will be the last to get up?” he asked.
“Well, I would have said Draco and Eden, but they’re already up. So maybe Susan and Hannah?” she said thoughtfully.
Following his trial and his subsequent probationary period, Draco decided to move to America. He’d explained to them later he wanted to be somewhere where people didn’t look at him and see his father straight away. He wanted an opportunity to be ‘Draco’ and not ‘Malfoy’. Whilst in America he decided to train as an Auror, and completed his training with flying colours. During his time there he met Eden and they had fallen in love like teenagers, they had planned to stay in America, but when Narcissa had fallen ill 2 years ago, they decided to move back to Britain. Following Narcissa’s passing they had decided to stay in Britain. He was now working fulltime as an Auror in the DLME and had become strong friends with Harry. Through this workplace friendship, Draco had started joining them for drinks at the end of the week at the pub, and then he and Eden had started joining them for birthdays or celebrations. And so it had become that Draco Malfoy and Eden Conner had become friends with Hermione.
“I think you’ll be right there. Hannah never was good in the mornings!” he chuckled kindly at their friends. “The year after Hogwarts when we shared a flat I would have to wake her up with a coffee everyday to make sure she made it to work on time. Who knows what she would have done if she had been living on her own.”
They continued chatting, as they made their way back over to their rag-tag gang who were dotted around the huge Christmas tree in the centre of the room. Hermione had to admit, the Delacour Manor was far bigger and far more opulent than she had been expecting. She knew that Fleur’s family had money, but she wasn’t expecting a manor where nineteen of them could stay and barely take up any room. The grounds that the manor was set on were gorgeous, and had a forest to the back end of the property. It seemed like the French countryside rolled on for miles. When she had arrived the night before into the main entrance hall, she was staggered by the height of the ceilings, and when a small pop sounded the arrival of one of the Delacour’s house elves to escort her to her room. She had been begrudgingly grateful to the little elf, as she would have gotten lost in the maze of hallways and rooms. She was roomed in between Luna and Parvarti, which she was grateful for, as this meant she was separated from the children a few rooms away.
Looking around at the group of friends she noticed they were only waiting on Hannah and Susan, Seamus, Padma and their daughter Ruby, and Parvarti, who she assumed was with her sister and brother-in-law.
Seeing her chosen family all sat together caused a warmth to bloom in her chest. This was it. This is what they had fought so hard for. In this room there were purebloods, half-bloods and muggle borns, people who had been on either end of the war, some who had been able to protect themselves and others who had to be in the eye of the storm. But they had made it. Moments like this are what made the constant ache of losing her parents easier. Because right now there were houses all across Britain, and even Europe, where families were celebrating together, in peace, because they had managed to survive.
She sat herself down on a cheize next to Pansy and baby Iris, who was bouncing happily on her mother’s knee.
“Hi little one” she cooed at the baby.
“Ohh, Granger, can you take her for me?” she asked, already handing baby Iris over to Hermione. “I need to get a drink. I’d ask Dean, but I think he’s gone looking for Seamus and the girls.”
Pansy had never fallen out of the habit of calling them all by their last names. It was an endearing part of her personality now, but it had been strange when they had first started hanging out with her when she and Dean had begun dating.
“Ohh of course, come here sweetheart”. She positioned Iris on her knee looking out at the room.
Whilst Hermione was jiggling the little one on her knee the stragglers slowly filtered into the room and grabbed drinks and food, gave well wishes and dispersed themselves around the tree.
Once they were all settled, Gabrielle stood up in front of the tree, where she had been sat next to Ron. “Bonjour! Joyeux Noël!” she cheered. “Now that we are all awake”, she gave a pointed look at Hannah who was yawning into her coffee, “we can start opening the gifts!” She gave a little clap in excitement. She was practically vibrating with joy, it made Hermione smile.
The morning passed by with squeals of excitement from the children and laughter from the adults and they all opened their presents.
Hermione received books. A lot of books, which wasn’t a surprise, that's what she always received. As well as a gorgeous new set of robes from Pansy and Dean (see: just from Pansy, she always said Hermione should try ‘more stylish’ clothes), a beautiful handbound journal and new set of inks from Harry and Ginny and what she assumed was a painting of her and James from the toddler himself. She absolutely loved it.
*****
The day wound on with lots of food, wine and merriment. She, Ginny, Hannah, Draco, Eden, Pansy, Dean and Iris had gone for a walk around the beautiful grounds of the manor in the afternoon, whilst the others were either napping or playing games in one of the lounges.
She fell in step with Hannah towards the end of the loop that they were all walking together.
“How’s Sue?” Hermione laughed. Susan had had rather a lot of wine to drink.
“She’ll be fine” Hannah laughed. “She hasn’t been off of work for Christmas for a few years, so she warned me she was going to take advantage of being on holiday for Christmas this year. We’ve been working flat out with renovations of the Leaky, so it’s a welcome break.”
“That’s fair enough.” Hermione conceded with a little laugh. They continued walking along in amicable silence for a while.
“Hey, ‘Mi, can I ask you a question?” Hannah asked, glancing sideways at the witch, hesitantly.
“Sure?” Hermione wondered why the blonde seemed so awkward all of a sudden.
There was a long pause, while Hannah was trying to frame the question in her head. “Well, umm … why haven’t you decided to leave the Ministry yet?” She said it all in one breath when it finally came out, a slight flush on her cheeks.
Well that’s not what she had expected. “Ohh, well. You know, I have so many different projects on the go, and I can’t really leave the team in the middle of something…” she trailed off.
Hannah stopped walking, and set her with a levelled stare. “Come on ‘Mi. You and I both know that’s bull.”
Hermione stopped too, looking at Hannah directly in the face. There was no anger or malice in her features, the only thing held there seemed to be concern. So Hermione walked back so they stood right in front of each other. Hannah was one of her closest friends as an adult, both being from muggle backgrounds they had shared experiences they could bond over. Hannah had supported Hermione when she struggled with how much she missed her parents, or when she got particularly down about the life and future they would never have together because they didn’t know who she was.
Hannah knew when to call her out, which was one of the many reasons she loved her. But she didn’t want to discuss this. She was having such a nice day.
“Come on ‘Mi. Talk to me. What’s really going on?” Hannah pleaded with her. “I know you hate that bloody job, you’ve told me so yourself.”
Hermione let out a long breath. “I don’t know Han.” She wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the December chill. “I’ve worked so hard there for so many years, I don’t want to just up and leave.”
“Sorry ‘Mi, but that’s a fucking excuse and you know it.” Hannah was staring her down, there was no backing out of this conversation. “When Sue worked with you, she always said that the department was understaffed and they took advantage of you. Of both of you. They just expect you to put up with it because you’re ‘Golden Girl, She-Who-Saved-Us-All, Brightest Witch of Her Age’, Hemione Granger. And it’s not fair. As your best mate I’m telling you it’s not fair.” the witch almost stamped her foot.
“Look,” the blonde continued, “I know you were drunk when you-”
“No.” Herminoe cut her off. “Not for debate or discussion Han.” She was absolutely not talking about this.
“‘Mi, please” Hannah stepped closer to her to keep eye contact, placing her hands on Hermione's shoulders. “I know it’s probably weird because we had a thing in school, but I really think you should go for it. Regardless of him”.
“But I would have to see him every day Han” Hermione lowered her voice, so she wasn’t overheard by the others, though they were a far way ahead of them now. “I don’t think I could do it.”
“It’s the perfect job for you. You’d be doing what you really want to do, making a difference in the lives of others, supporting Muggleborns, and shaping the future of the Wizarding World. Isn’t that what you wanted out of the job you have now?” she asked.
“Yeah” Hermione conceded lamely.
“Then are you really going to let a man stand in the way of you doing that? That’s not very Hermione Granger of you” she smirked.
“I just think it would be too hard. Seeing him all the time, and knowing nothing could ever happen.” she admitted.
“Why not though ‘Mi?”
“We’ve gone over this Han, there’s nothing there. There never has been. Gods I wish I’d not told you about this.” she huffed.
“Yes, well, that’s what you get for having a best friend who owns a pub and deciding you wanted to do a lock in after a particularly crappy date.” she laughed. “I think you’d be perfect together”, Hannah raised her voice as Hermione tried to butt in, “I think you’d be perfect. And you don’t actually know how he feels. You are basing all of this on ‘well he’s never said anything’, but as I told you months ago, neither have you”.
Hermione let out a long breath from her nose. “Fine, you’re right, I’ve never said anything either. Can we leave it there now please? I’m cold and want to get some hot chocolate.”
“Sure. As long as you promise me to think about the offer. You’d be incredible at it. Regardless of him” she nudged her best friend in the shoulder.
“Thanks Han.”
“Anytime” she grinned, and linked their arms together as they trailed after the others who had all made their way inside by now.
*******
Later that evening after the children had all been put to bed, the adults kept drinking, getting merrier as the night went on. Hermione had stopped drinking the punch that Gabrielle had made, as she had a feeling there was deceptively more alcohol inside than she originally thought.
She had joined in on a few card games, whilst some of the group had been playing wizard chess. She kept glancing over at one member of the group, trying to be inconspicuous, but realising she had failed when Luna came over to say goodnight, and when they were hugging whispering in her ear, “He really likes you, you know.” She squeezed her arm and gave her a warm smile, as she left.
Hermione was mortified and she could feel the blush creeping up her neck, the only people who knew about how she felt were Hannah and Susan, she hadn’t told anyone else. But then again, Luna had a strange ability to know things she shouldn’t. She grabbed another punch, hoping that she could blame her flushed demeanour on the alcohol.
As the night wound on, people slowly started making their leave, heading off to their rooms to sleep off the day's merriment.
Just as she was getting ready to leave she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she came face to face with Neville.
“Hey, how are you?” he asked.
“I’m good thanks, just getting ready to head to bed.” she looked up at him, feeling the heat from his hand on her shoulder.
“Ohh, okay. Umm, could I come to your room in about … 10 minutes?” He asked with an open expression. “I have a gift for you that I forgot to put under the tree yesterday.”
“Ohh, uhh, sure?” This was the second time today that someone had asked her a question she had not seen coming.
“Cool, well, I’ll meet you there?” He gave her that lazy grin that he used to use when they were in school together.
“Uhh, yeah.” she replied meekly.
What was happening?
She watched as he said goodbye to the remaining group members awake, and turned to smile at her, and then leave the room. She exhaled, realising she’d been holding her breath.
She walked over to Hannah who was sat on a sofa, with Sue asleep, head in her lap.
“Umm, Han, do you know if there is something going on with Nev?” she worried at her lip.
“What? No. Why, what’s happened?” Hannah raised a brow at her.
“Ohh, nothing. He, umm. He’s just asked to meet me in my room in a few minutes? Apparently he forgot to give me my Christmas gift, but I had a gift from him this morning” she’d sat down on her other side now. Worry consuming her.
Hannah’s eyes widened, “Really? Well that’s very interesting”.
“No it’s not bloody interesting Hannah.” Hermione swatted her arm. “It’s scary is what it is. Why would he want to give me a gift away from everyone else?”
“No idea babe. But this could be an opportunity for you to give him his actual Christmas present?” the blonde wiggled her eyebrows at Hermione.
Merlin, she needed to stop getting drunk with Hannah, she always ended up telling her things she didn’t mean too.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She raised her chin. “And even if I did, how would you know if I’d brought it with me?”
“Because of course you bloody did. Now go and find out what the hell he wants. And remember what I said earlier; you don’t actually know what he’s thinking.”
“I hate you.” she deadpanned.
“I love you too, goodnight!” Hannah replied, a smirk plastered on her face.
Hermione stood, and gave Hannah a kiss on the head, followed by the sleeping Susan, before waving goodnight to the others and making her way to her room.
What the hell was going on? She needed to calm her breathing down.
She opened the door to her room and quickly tidied away a few bits and bobs that were laying around on the floor and on the bed. She opened up her travel case and pulled out a package wrapped in brown paper, and damn Hannah for being right, because of course she’d brought it with her, and then chickened out at the last moment.
“Knock knock, can I come in?” Neville's voice travelled through the small crack she’d left open in the door.
She quickly shoved the book under the duvet. “Uhh, yeah, come in!” she twirled around quickly, trying to look like she hadn’t just been hiding something under the duvet.
“Hey” he smiled warmly over at her.
“Hi” she gave what she hoped was a warm and open smile back. “So what did you want to show me?”
“Um, could we sit down?” He inclined his head towards the small sitting area. Each of their rooms had seating areas consisting of a fireplace, a sofa, armchair and coffee table, there was also a bar cart and bookcase in each room. They were much more living quarters than simple bedrooms.
“Sure.” she replied, making her way over to the plush sofa, curling her feet underneath her as she sat. She assumed Neville would choose the oversized armchair opposite, but instead sat right next to her on the sofa, turning his body so that he was facing her directly. As he made eye contact with her he gave her one of his heart stopping lazy smiles that filled her with warmth.
“So, I may have lied.” his gaze turned sheepish. “I do have another Christmas gift that I wanted to give you. But first I wanted to talk to you about the job McGonagall offered you, that you’ve turned down multiple times.”
Hermione blanched. Fuck. She did not want to talk about this.
“Umm, well, what do you want to know?” She tried to keep her voice even.
“Well, why are you turning it down? You always used to say you wanted to teach. And you’d be amazing at it. So what’s the reason?” he was looking at her, a look of genuine curiosity on his face.
“Well, you know me, I’m rather busy at work. I have a number of projects in motion at the moment, and I have put a lot of time and effort into them. I can’t just leave. You know?” she tried to sound final, hoping to close this line of questioning down.
His expression didn’t really change, but his brows pulled together a bit. “Right. But she’s been offering you this role on and off for years. You could have prepared to leave. I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be rude, or pushy, and if you really don’t want to talk about it we don't have to, but it seems like there is something else going on here Darling.”
Gods that nickname. She tried not to avert her eyes from his face, but it was too hard to hold his honest stare.
“I don’t really know what to say, Nev. It’s hard. I umm-” She didn’t know how to finish the sentence.
His hands reached out to grasp hers, holding onto them tight, grounding her to him and the conversation they were having. “‘Mi. Come on. What’s happening? There must be a reason. You can tell me. You know you can tell me anything.” He was almost pleading with her.
Hermione took a deep breath. Lifted her head up. And looked into his beautiful face, those eyes that had stolen her heart years before. She let the breath out.
“I think, if I am honest with myself, it would be too difficult to be at the castle, to work in the same place as you.” She kept a hold of his gaze, forcing herself not to look away. “You are too good and kind. It would be impossible.”
There was silence. He was silent. Just looking at her. Still holding her hands. Why was he still holding her hands?
“I don’t understand ‘Mi. Why wouldn’t you want to work with me?” He barely covered the hurt in his voice, but he definitely didn’t cover it in his eyes.
She snached her hands out of his, rather more forcefully than probably necessary. “Don’t worry about it. Just pretend I didn’t say anything. Okay?” She stood, making her way over to the bed, leaving him looking like the bottom of his world had just fallen away.
“Umm, no? I can’t just pretend you didn’t just say that me working in Hogwarts would make it so you refuse to work there? Hermione, you’d be an incredible teacher, what have I done?” He wasn’t even trying to conceal the hurt in his voice now.
Gods this was physically painful. But she needed to pull off this plaster too. She pushed back the duvet and grabbed the big brown package, and made her way back over to the sofa, sitting down facing him. He didn’t take her hands this time, if anything it seems like he moved back from her.
“I umm, I got you another gift as well.” She held the package out to him. He didn’t even move. “Take it? Please?” her voice was almost a whisper.
He took the brown package from her hands, but didn’t look at it, or make any move to unwrap it, he was just looking at her. Broken. “‘Mi-” he started, hopeless.
“Nev, please open it. I promise I’ll try and explain if you just open it.” She needed him to do this.
Slowly, he looked away from her, and began removing the brown paper packaging around the big gift. They were completely silent as the plain brown wrapping fell away.
“Ohh my god.” his eyes snapped up to meet hers. “You remembered?” he sounded completely breathless, as if he’d just run all the way back from Hogsmead.
“Of course I remembered.” She smiled with a small shrug.
“How did you find this?” The confusion etched into his face.
“There are some perks to being ‘The Golden Girl’,” she let out a little awkward laugh. “I have a number of connections with book stores across Britain. I’d asked a friend, a bookseller and collector I know that if he ever found a copy of this to let me know. And he finally did.” she shrugged. She felt like all she was doing was shrugging at him.
“But sweetheart this must have been so expensive, it’s so rare, I’ve never found a copy and I’ve had a number of Herbologists across Britain and Europe keeping an eye out for me!” He looked completely floored by the original copy of The Perfectly Imperfect Complete Guide to Muggle and Magical Plants of Britain and Ireland. It was considered one of the seminal texts of the early years of Herbology, rumoured to be one of the chosen books of Helga Hufflepuff herself.
“It’s not a big deal Nev” she shrugged. Why couldn’t she stop shrugging? “I knew you wanted it, and I found a copy.” She waved her hands as if to say, and that’s that.
“Not a big deal?” he asked, almost incredulous. “‘Hermione, how did you remember this? I mentioned this to you once, years ago.” He suddenly looked very serious.
“I knew it was important to you.” she said simply. “I wanted you to have a copy if you could. I knew it would mean a lot to you. Especially when you told me of the importance with your parents.” she was back to looking at her hands, not really sure what to do with herself. This was a mistake. She felt really awkward.
“Please look at me, Darling.” He put the book down on the coffee table and moved himself closer to Hermione on the sofa. “This is the best gift anyone has given me. I love it so much. Thank you.” He leaned forward and enveloped her in his arms, hugging her so hard she could feel nothing other than Neville around her.
She kept muttering “it’s fine” and “it’s nothing”, but it was drowned out by him repeating “thank you so much” and “it’s perfect”.
When he finally let go of her he looked teary eyed. “I can’t thank you enough ‘Mi. I never thought I’d get this bit of them back.”
Years ago, after the battle in the Department of Mysteries, where Hermione had almost died, she had found Neville sat on the far edge of the Black Lake late one evening. And they talked. They talked about their fears of the up-coming war, her fears about what would happen to her parents, his fear that they had lost her less than 2 weeks before. She told him stories of her parents and the holidays they went on when she was a child, before she had known she was a witch and he told her of what had happened to his parents, what Bellatrix Lestrange had done to them. She told him that she wishes they could have some of their childhood back, and that it wasn’t fair that his parents had been taken away from him at such a young age, and he told her that what he was most upset about was all the memories they’d never be allowed to make together.
It was on that day that Neville had told Hermione of how much Alice Longbottom loved Herbology, how she had sourced a copy of The Perfectly Imperfect Complete Guide to Muggle and Magical Plants of Britain and Ireland and had hand annotated it. But on the night of their torture at the hands of a small band of rouge Death Eaters; as well as destroying the minds of his parents they had also set fire to large parts of the Longbottom Estate, most notably his mothers office, which held her most prised possession, her hand annotated copy of The Perfectly Imperfect Guide.
She knew he had been searching for a copy for years. She knew how much it would mean to him to finally have a copy of his own.
She sniffed, trying to hold back her own tears. “Ohh don’t be silly, it’s nothing-”, she couldn’t even finish the sentence without her voice cracking and the tears beginning to flow down her face.
They were sitting knee to knee on the sofa, his hands still on her shoulders from where he’d hugged her. She couldn’t pull her gaze away from his eyes.
“Umm” Neveille cleared his throat, and moved himself back, but they were still touching. “I-I, I don’t know what to say. I have a gift for you as well.” He picked it up from where the book had knocked it off the coffee table and onto the plush carpeted floor. He looked up at her, seemingly hesitant to give her the small gift.
“I have had this for a while, but it never seemed like the right time to give it to you.” There was a blush rising on his cheeks, but he shook his head slightly and let a light laugh out. “Uh, when Gran was in the hospital, she told me that she knew that I’d pulled this out of the family vaults. You know what she was like, she knew everything that was going on.” he smiled fondly at the memory of the old witch. “She made me promise her that I would give it to you by the end of the year, and said I needed to use some of that famed Gryffindor bravery.” He let out a huff of air. “ Basically she told me I needed to get my act together and be the man that my Mum and Dad would have been proud of.” He raised a hand to stop Hermione from arguing with him from the off. “I know they would be incredibly proud of me, don’t worry, but I know what she was trying to say. I haven’t been exemplifying the bravery of my house, which isn’t good, especially since Minerva offered me the Head of House Position.”
“Ohh my god, Nev! That’s amazing, congratulations!!” she shrieked, bouncing in place on the sofa.
“Thanks ‘Mi. But she’s right, I haven't been being true to myself recently. So, umm, Merry Christmas.” He handed her the wrapped gift.
She unwrapped the delicate wrapping paper to find a small box enclosed. As she lifted the lid on the box, her breath left her. Inside the box was a beautiful necklace. Made of a delicate white gold, with small gems dotted every so often up the chain.
She was speechless. She just started shaking her head and looked up at him.
“This was Mum’s, according to Gran she used to love this necklace. And I want you to have it.” He had a look of complete sincerity and openness on his face.
“Nev, I can’t keep this. You know I can’t. Especially if it was your mother’s!” she needed to make him realise that this was too much.
“Yes, you can. I’m giving it to you, that’s the whole point.” He laughed lightly, placing his hands over hers to stop her trying to wrap the box back up. “Here, let me put it on you.”
He took the small package box out of her hands and carefully took the delicate silver chain out of the black velvet box.
“Turn around,” he said quietly, looking up at her.
This is madness. I can’t keep this necklace.
She felt the warmth of his fingers on her shoulders, shifting himself closer to her. Then his hands appeared in front of her, as he unclasped the necklace, and brought it back together at the back of her neck. She felt the light chair settle on her clavicles, raising a hand to touch the chain. It was so beautiful.
“Hermione. I really would like for you to take the Charms position.” Neville whispered into her ear. And then his lips were on her neck, just below her ear. She closed her eyes against the pleasure of his lips on her skin.
“Neville …” She needed to talk to him.
“Yes Darling?” His voice had dropped what felt like two octaves, she could feel the rumble against her neck.
“I. Umm-” Why had her brain stopped working? “We, rather. Umm. We need to talk about this.”
He’d gone back to kissing her shoulder, moving back along towards her neck and nipped at her ear lobe.
“Okay.” Kiss. “You’ve just said.” Kiss. “That you can’t take a job.” Kiss. “That you would love.” Kiss. “That you would be great at.” Kiss. “Because of me.” Kiss.
“Mmhmm” words were failing her.
He moved one of his hands up the column of her neck, taking hold of her mane of hair, and moving it to one side. She tilted her head with the light pull, moving her face to look at him more.
“Turn around.” She shuffled her weight, so that she had her back to the arm, and was facing him fully. His hand laid on her shoulder, still with a handful of her hair. Looking directly into his eyes, she could see his pupils had blown fully.
“You just gave me a first edition , priceless, rare, impossible to find book. That you know means the world to me.” His smile was full, and warmed his whole face. She wanted to keep making him smile like that. “And I finally plucked up the courage to give you something I’ve wanted to give you for … well years if I’m honest about it.”
This couldn’t be happening. “Nev, are you saying what I think you’re saying?” She couldn’t allow herself to believe it.
“Darling,” he raised his hands to cup her face, “I’ve been yours for a really long time.”
He pulled her forwards, and their lips met in a moment like stars colliding.