Hindsight

A Merry Christmas

Harry and Hermione continued the same routine for the next week. They would have breakfast at Hogwarts before sneaking out into Hogsmeade and apparating to the Grangers. Ginny and Neville were responsible for spreading the story that Harry and Hermione had gone the whole day to find somewhere to engage in 'couple-related activities'. That story was believed by most other students in Gryffindor Tower, including Ron, though Ginny said that he took it with a lot of grumbling and surliness. To be perfectly honest, Harry and Hermione could not care less. Nobody in Gryffindor Tower wanted to hear Ron unload his bile, and as long as he kept it to himself, then that was fine by them.

After the rather depressing first meeting, subsequent visits to the Grangers were quite cheerful. Josh had brought the entire family plus Harry to a football game in London. Harry had never seen football before, except for a few rare snippets on television. The Dursleys, of course, never brought him – not that they were interested in sport in the slightest – and almost from the day he had left for Hogwarts, he had been too busy with other things – namely fighting a Dark Lord. For a first game, though, it was quite boring. Neither Chelsea nor Liverpool scored any goals. Hermione sat through the entire game with a look of curious disinterest on her face, no doubt wanting to return to her books, while Helen was bored enough to watch her daughter be bored, the expression on her face somewhere between blank and amused.

Harry spent Christmas Eve with the Grangers. Reluctantly, Helen and Josh let him take part in preparing the dinner. They did not seem to regret it though, after tasting the result of Harry's cooking.

'It's good Hermione…uh…married you,' Josh had joked. 'She can read and memorize the instructions in the cookbook to the letter, but the moment she's presented with a pan and spatula, it's time to call the firemen.'

Harry had joined in the ribbing, for which he received the overly harsh punishment of being given the cold shoulder for the rest of the night.

Bright and early on Christmas Day, they had apparated to the Grangers again for a quick visit to exchange presents before returning to Hogwarts to prepare for the Yule Ball. Weasley Christmases were usually quite chaotic and sometimes a bit overdone, he remembered, and he found that he liked it quite a lot more with the Grangers. They were less…flashy…about the whole affair. A simple exchanging of presents, a cup or two of hot cocoa, and – since Harry and Hermione were technically of age – some flutes of champagne was all there really was to it.

Harry had given Josh a book on Quidditch and Helen a big box of Toothflossing Stringmints. His present for Hermione, however, was the one he most anticipated giving.

Harry handed her a small, inconspicuous package and bade her to open it. She carefully undid the bow tie and removed the wrapping.

Inside was a felt-covered box. Hermione looked up at Harry, wide eyed. Harry said nothing, but simply smiled at her.

She opened the box and inside sat a rose-gold ring set with numerous small, light brown accent diamonds. In the head was set a single emerald.

'Promise ring, Harry?' Helen observed. 'But haven't you already married in the…er…future?'

Harry nodded. 'I know it wasn't really necessary, but I promised I'd give her a ring this time around,' he explained. 'We didn't want to get actually married again, ceremony and all, until after we graduate, so for right now, I thought I'd give her that to wear if she'd like.'

'Of course I'd like!' Hermione squealed, throwing her arms around Harry and squeezing him tight. Only the presence of her parents stopped her from going any further in showing how much she would like.

Hermione held out the box to Harry, pink in the face. 'Would you like to do the honours?'

Harry removed the ring from the box and placed it gently on Hermione's ring finger. She admired the ring for a second before cupping Harry's face with her hands and furiously kissing him.