The Library Girl | Hermione Granger

6. At Grimmauld Place

Grimmauld Place was somewhere where you could live having nightmares every night because it used to be Sirius Black's childhood home. His mother's portrait that was in the hall constantly used to scream and curse every person that walked next to her, especially to Sirius and the Weasleys. Not to talk about the house-elf Kreacher, who was cursing almost every minute while he wandered around his master's home. Sometimes, and almost every time, Sirius had to kick out Kreacher from the room where he walked by due to his annoying dry voice and the uncountable insults directed to the people that were temporarily staying there.

Except for the fact that it was now inhabited by the Order of the Phoenix and Felicity and her friends, that house was haunted by Sirius's traumatic past.

But it was Christmas and so that gave everyone a different view and a little joy time to enjoy besides all the negative circumstances. Molly Weasley, Ron's mom, used her wand to decorate the kitchen where the Order of the Phoenix reunited the last days and it gave it more colorful energy. Unfortunately, the younger ones had to do all the cleaning from the house, and it took them a whole week to go one by one cleaning the dirt and washing every curtain and carpet. 

One of the funniest things to have fun with was that the twins, Fred and George, were now older enough to be allowed to use magic outside the school and their brilliant idea was to annoy their mom wherever she went. At some point, it turned to be annoying for Felicity too, she just laughed when Harry and Ron were surprised by their apparition in the room where they were cleaning. 

- BLOODY HELL -. Ron shouted every time he jumped from the scare.- Can you stop doing that!? I almost died from a heart attack -.

- Sorrily, my brother, we won't -. George said, and a thousandth later they vanished again, leaving Ron shaking and cursing in a low voice.

Finally, December 25th arrived, and the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, Sirius, and Felicity were sitting on the kitchen table with cups in their hands and gifts around them.

- I want to toast for Harry because, without him, I wouldn't be here -. Arthur said, raising the cup with butterbeer and smiling at Harry. He shyly smiled back. 

- Harry -. The rest of them said in unison, raising their cups too and drinking a sip of butterbeer. 

Molly turned around and left a pile of named gifts on the table, and began to distribute them to the ones who had to receive them. 

- These ones for you two -. Molly said to the twins, before handing them their gifts she made a game of hands in a funny way to guess which one was for each of them.

She also gave Ginny and Ron other two packages, and for Harry too, who received another stitched sweater with his initial on it. 

- This one's for you, Fel -. Hermione said to Felicity, handing her a medium red packaged gift with her name written in her handwriting. 

- Oh, thanks, Mione -. Felicity said, brightly smiling. And gave her a gift she bought in Hogsmeade for her before they left Hogwarts for holidays.

When they both started to unwrap their gifts, Harry laughed about Ron's gift but, luckily, Molly didn't receive it badly because she was enjoying how his son was reacting to the vest she made for him. Honestly, for Felicity, it wasn't pretty, but it's better to be nice than throwing it away. 

When Hermione completely unwrapped her gift, she brightly smiled and looked into Felicity's eyes. She felt an electrifying ray across her body and felt happy. Hermione received a limited edition of three books about the history of the wizarding world beyond what the people have written in other famous books. Felicity knew that Hermione hadn't read them because those were a special edition and almost a little bit possible to find in other libraries. And she felt truly completed when Hermione thanked her and began to flip through the pages. Her honest smile was the only thing she wanted to see during those Christmases.

Felicity came back from the trance and began to unwrap the gift Hermione gave her, and she felt how Mione was looking at her trying to figure out if it was good for her. 

When the last piece of red package was out of the gift, Felicity couldn't hide her surprising expression and a little laugh for her happiness. Right in front of her was a box with a book about astrology and the universe decorated with golden drawings of the planets and stars, a tiny telescope to carry in the bag, and a map of the constellations. 

- THANK YOU -. Felicity said excitedly, and without finding the exact words to thank for Hermione's most nice gesture she made to her. 

Hermione didn't say anything back but just smiled pleased and looked into Felicity's eyes. She looked at her too and felt the overwhelming warm feeling of serendipity she never felt. Hermione was always so pretty besides all of her lowest moments, she never ran away from anything or anyone even if she was tired of it, always giving her best though even she had nothing else to do. She was the ideal projection of the person Felicity was wondering if she was ever going to meet. That girl she met at the age of eleven and grew up with, and still does, next to her was the girl she wanted to stay near to.  

Nothing was enough to say how naturally pretty and kind she was, with her bright smile and hypnotizing honey brown eyes. No one was able to deny that Hermione was the exact definition of beauty, not even, heavenly, Umbridge would.  Felicity felt infinite the time she spent staring and smiling at Hermione and also she did too based on her expression, and wasn't negative at all. They were just smiling at each other, there weren't words to say about it, nothing to disrupt the moment, not even Fred complaining that he received George's gift and he received his. Not even Sirius's complaints at Kreacher's interruption did break their silent conversation. 

Until Ron took Felicity's gift and began to finger it and complain about her precious and special present.

- This isn't fair! How could you receive something a hundred times better than this? -. He said, taking his jacket and analyzing it disgustedly. Felicity quickly took the book and put it back in the box.

- It's a nice present, Ron! Think that your mom did it with her own hands, it was work done with love. Don't belittle it -. She responded, smiling at Molly, who also gave her a blue sweater with her initial on it.- Besides, if you do, then you won't receive less than a coal stone. We all did what we could be possible to -.

- It's ridiculous... I mean -. He abruptly said, releasing that Molly was standing next to him with a threatening expression.- Thanks, mom! -.

- Next time I will sew you a hat to combine it with the jacket, Ronald -. Molly said, smiling with her new idea and walking back to Arthur. 

Ron saw her walk away with a frightened face and gulped by the simple visualization of his next gift. There was a moment of silence until Felicity, Hermione, and Harry laughed out loud.