Author's Note: Thanks guys for the great reviews! I'm glad you liked the last chapter…I hope you like the continued Christmas fluff….
Chapter Eight
I'll Always Be Right There
"When you're all alone,
and you need a light,
someone to guide you through the night,
just remember that I am here,
to hold you close and dry your tears."
"And just when you thought you were falling,
but you know I'll always be right there."
(Michelle Branch-"I'll Always Be Right There)
For a split second when she awoke the next morning, Hermione forgot where she was. She wasn't in her dorm room, asleep in her own bed. She was lying on the floor, wrapped in a grey flannel blanket. She groggily opened her eyes and saw her clothes, in a haphazard pile on the floor. A few feet away from her clothes, were Harry's discarded clothes. The events of last night came flooding back to her.
The conversation. The reconciliation. The dinner. The dancing. The moment of truth…and then, they'd given each other their innocence. It was a big step. It was more than likely the most monumental decision of her life. Once you passed that line, there was no turning back. She'd known that. He'd known that. She'd been ready. She'd known that.
When she'd planned this evening with the help of Ron, she hadn't consciously thought that this would be how the evening would end. She'd planned on confronting him with her own feelings. She was going to tell him how she felt. She was going to tell him that she knew the risks involved, but she'd gladly face them if they could be together. She'd had faith that he'd give in and admit that he still loved her as much as he always had. She'd thought that after they made up, they'd share a nice dinner and then spend the evening listening to music and talking.
She'd be lying if she said that she didn't think their sleeping together was at least a remote possibility. Something deep inside her told her she should read up on birth control spells, so she'd checked out a book from the library called Magical Medicine and Maladies. Just as a precaution, she'd performed the spell on herself before she'd gone upstairs to the Room of Requirement to get things ready. She was glad that she had. She knew that at 16 years of age, she was ready for a good many things, but being a mother wasn't one of them. Maybe someday, but now wasn't the time.
Still, she couldn't believe it had actually happened. It made sense, really. They had gone through a whole lot in the past six years, especially in the past few months. They had come to realize how much they cared about each other. Everything had been said, but not everything had been done. It seemed like a logical step. It seemed right that the greatest gift she could see to give someone, she'd give to him. He'd meant the world to her these past few years. She'd didn't know how she'd be able to tell him how much she loved him, how her heart raced when she saw him, or heard his name. She wondered if she meant all of that to him. She couldn't help thinking with how gentle and tender he'd been the night before, that he must feel the same way.
She'd always heard from other girls how painful and awkward the first time could be. While it had been those things, it had also been sweet and nice and she wanted to stop herself…she sounded like those sappy romance novels Lavender and Parvati read.
Besides, she heard Harry starting to wake up. She turned on her side to face him. As she did so, she suddenly became acutely aware of the fact that she was naked underneath this blanket. Naked, as in absolutely no clothes, period. Naked, as in absolutely no clothes, beside her best friend/boyfriend, who was also naked. She stifled a laugh as she watched him rubbing his eyes sleepily.
"Hi," he said softly.
"Hi," she said shyly.
They didn't speak for the longest time and just lay there looking at each other.
"What are you thinking?" she finally asked him.
He looked thoughtful for a moment and gave a slight laugh. "The truth?"
She nodded. "Please."
"I was just thinking that this is unlike any Christmas morning I've ever experienced in my life," he said simply.
"It's Christmas!" she said, bringing her hand to her mouth. "Happy Christmas, Harry!"
She leaned in and kissed him softly.
"Happy Christmas to you," he said, caressing her cheek. He turned over on his back and motioned for her to come in closer. She willingly snuggled in close and rested her head on his chest; his arms went immediately around her.
"You aren't sorry, are you?" he asked, his hand rubbing her arm. "I mean, you're not sorry about what happened? I mean, if you were, you could tell me. I'd understand."
She turned around to look at him.
"No," she said, her eyes serious. "I wanted to be with you last night. I want to be with you now. There are many things I feel about what happened last night, and I can tell you without a doubt that regret isn't one of them."
He smiled. "I love you so much, Hermione."
He leaned in and kissed her and they spent a few minutes just rolling around on the floor, laughing into each other's faces, kissing, touching. All of a sudden, he stopped.
"What?" she asked him, breathlessly. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"Your Christmas present!" he said.
"I thought you gave that to me last night," she said cheekily, winking at him.
His cheeks turned a crimson red. "Not that," he said. "It's downstairs in my room." With that, he released her and walked over to where his clothes were and quickly scooped up his boxer shorts and put them on. Hermione watched as he continued to get dressed. As he pulled his sweater over his head, he saw for the first time that Hermione had been watching him the whole time.
"Were you just watching me, then?" he asked her, trying to look shocked.
"No," she said, shaking her head and trying to avert her eyes. "I was just, um, staring into space. You sort of got in the way of my line of vision. So, when you think about it, it's really your fault. And, I am appalled that you would even think so little of me that I would be some sort of peeping Tom or some rubbish like that."
"Sorry," he said, waving his hands. "I don't know what I was thinking. I didn't mean to accuse you of being some brazen, shameless-"
She held up her hand. "Stop while you're behind."
He laughed. "Okay."
"Where are you going?" she asked him.
"I told you," he said, sitting down on the couch to put his socks and trainers on.
"Down to my room to nick your presents and round us up some breakfast."
"Oh, great," she said, beaming at him. "I'm starving."
"I'll be right back," he said, leaning down to plant a kiss on her. "Don't go anywhere."
Luckily, Harry ran into Dobby on his way downstairs to Gryffindor Tower. The house elf wished him a Merry Christmas and Harry responded in kind. He then asked Dobby if he could leave a basket of pastries and some hot chocolate outside the Room of Requirement. Luckily, Dobby didn't inquire any further and happily agreed to do as asked.
Harry laughed as he watched the house elf nearly skip down the corridors happily singing Christmas carols.
He practically ran the rest of the way to Gryffindor Tower. He couldn't believe how things had changed in such a short amount of time. Less than 24 hours ago, he had been alone. He hadn't been happy about it, but he'd resigned himself to it. Well that wasn't exactly true, but he'd at least made the effort to accept it. He knew now that no matter what he said or tried, he'd never have truly been able to accept it.
The cold hard truth was that he loved her. He could try and put distance between them, he could stop talking to her, but he would never be able to change that.
He'd never imagined that they'd have done what they had so soon. He'd thought about it, of course, but he thought it would have happened much later.
He knew that no matter what he did or where he went in his life, he'd never forget that first night with her. He wouldn't just remember the act of making love, but he'd remember how it felt to hold her, to feel how soft her skin was. He'd remember how she'd responded to her kisses. He'd remember how great it was that they'd experienced this monumental event in their lives together. He'd remember how she'd fallen asleep in his arms and how he'd woken up in the middle of the night just to look at her as she slept. It was in moments like that, that he felt as if everything would be alright. He could actually believe that things would work out well in the end. With her, he didn't have a legacy or a name to live up to. He could just be himself. He could just be.
He sprinted through the portrait hole and up the stairs to his room. He retrieved Hermione's Christmas present from under the bed. He'd bought it a couple of months ago in Hogsmeade. He'd placed it underneath his bed and had wondered if he'd ever get the chance to give it to her. He smiled as he picked it up.
He quickly walked back out of the room and noticed that there were some additional presents for he and Hermione under the tree. There were the presents Ron and Ginny had told him about and Hermione had a few from her parents. He grabbed a basket from the corner of the room and quickly loaded the presents inside.
He struggled through the portrait hole with his load of presents, but was able to make it through without dropping anything. He was nearly to the staircases when he met Professor Lupin.
"Happy Christmas, Harry," Lupin said, smiling warmly at him. "I was just coming to see you."
Harry peered over the basket of presents and smiled. "Happy Christmas to you, too, Professor Lupin."
"You sure are loaded down there," Lupin said. "Where are you off to?"
"Um," Harry said sheepishly. "I, um, well, I was going to-"
Lupin chuckled.
"I take it this means you and Hermione have made up then?" he asked Harry good-naturedly.
Harry looked at him dumbfounded. "How did you know?"
"Well, I'm no Trelawney, but I did see your friend Dobby heading to the seventh floor yesterday afternoon with Miss Granger in tow and just a few moments ago I said the same house elf happily heading to the seventh floor with a basket of pastries. And if I'm not mistaken, you are heading in the same direction, are you not?"
Harry sat down the basket and looked uncomfortable.
"You don't have to be embarrassed, Harry," Lupin said. "I was 16 once myself, of course it was ages ago."
Harry nodded, still looking down at the floor. He sort of wished it would open up and swallow him, taking him away from this awkward, uneasy situation.
"I was actually heading to Gryffindor Tower to invite you to join me later tonight for some butterbeer. I had a present for you. I'd very much like it if you and Hermione would join me."
"Yeah, that'd be great," Harry said, finally looking up to meet his gaze.
"Why don't the two of you come by my office after dinner tonight?"
Harry smiled. "We'll be there."
********************************** **************
A few moments later, Harry was finally walking through the door to the Room of Requirement. He found her sitting at the table, eating a blueberry muffin.
"You're dressed," he said, as he closed the door behind him.
"I know you didn't think I'd open the door stark naked when Dobby came by, did you?" she asked with a laugh. "I nearly killed myself trying to get dressed."
Harry laughed, and set the basket of presents down before joining her at the table.
"Yeah, well I ran into Professor Lupin on my way back here," Harry said. "I think he could see right through me."
"You didn't get in trouble did you?" she asked, a worried tone to her voice.
He shook his head. "No, thank Merlin for that."
A few seconds later, Hermione broke into a fit of giggles.
"What?" he asked her, intrigued.
"Could you just imagine?" she was finally able to get out. "One hundred points from Gryffindor for shagging on school grounds."
Harry started to laugh, too. "Well, I can't think of a better way to lose points."
Hermione broke off a piece of her muffin and threw it at him.
"Hey," he protested.
She grinned a Cheshire cat grin.
"He wanted us to join him for some butterbeers after dinner tonight. He said he had a present for me."
She nodded.
"Speaking of presents," he said, leaning down and picking her gift out of the basket.
"Oh, I have one for you, too," she said, getting out of her seat and running over to the tree. She came back a few moments later, carrying two perfectly wrapped gifts.
"Two?"
"Yeah," she said. "You open yours first."
She sat back down and looked expectantly at him. He grabbed the smaller of the two presents and carefully began to unwrap it. Inside the box was a silver compass.
"A compass?" he asked her.
She nodded. "I got this for you so you'll never lose your way."
He grinned at her. "As long as I have you, I don't think I could ever lose my way."
She beamed back at him.
"Thanks," he said sincerely.
"You're very welcome," she said. "Open the next one."
"Yes, ma'am," he said, laughing. The bigger present was a book, but not just any book. It was Quidditch through the Ages: the Greatest Players of our Time. It had been on the best seller list of The Daily Prophet for weeks. Harry had mentioned a number of times to Hermione how he'd planned on getting it the next time they were in Hogsmeade.
"Thanks, Hermione," he said, kissing her on the cheek.
"My turn now?" she asked, greedily, rubbing her hands together.
"Of course," he said, handing her the gift.
She shot him a wide smile as she opened the present to find a music box. She gasped as she ran her fingers along the engraved pink and yellow roses that were carved exquisitely on the outside of the mahogany box. Her eyes lit up as she opened it and the familiar melody of the song "Yellow" played. It was the song she and Harry had danced to that night in Atlanta at the planetarium. As the music played, figurines of a young girl and boy danced underneath a starry sky backdrop.
A single tear fell down her cheek as she looked at the music box.
"So you like it, then?" he asked her.
She nodded. "I love it."
He smiled. "I love you."
"I love you, too," she said, getting up from her chair and taking his hand, pulling him to his feet.
"Where are you taking me, Miss Granger?"
She said nothing as she led him back over to the couch. She ushered him to have a seat and then she sat down beside him. Her eyes never left his. She kissed him tenderly then. She coyly tugged at his sweater.
"So, you're just going to have your way with me, then?" he asked her.
She smiled as she planted a kiss on his neck.
"Hmm," she said. He could feel her breath on his skin and tickled.
"You know how I am, Harry," she said. "Once I get started on something new, I just want to immerse myself in it completely."
"You know," he said, between kisses, "I've always liked that about you."
Voldemort closed the door behind him and nodded to the guard.
"Make sure he stays alive," he ordered. "He is of no use to me dead. You have to remember to give him the potion every three hours. Trust me, you imbecile, if I have to come back down here to clean up your mistakes, it will not be pretty. Don't think for one moment that I'd have a problem killing you. It's taken me a long time to pull this plan together and I'm not going to let complete idiots rob me of it."
"Yes, sir," the guard said, standing up straight.
Voldemort gave the guard one last cold stare before leaving the room altogether.
Through the slot in the door, the guard could hear the prisoner coughing. He'd been doing that most of the evening. He'd ceased breathing full stop nearly an hour ago. The guard reluctantly had to summon Voldemort to the dungeons where the prisoner was being held.
The guard could hear movement behind the door as the prisoner's chains were dragged across the floor.
"Please help me," the prisoner whispered.
"I'm not supposed to talk to you," the guard muttered back. "Keep quiet."
"Are you going to let him tell you what to do?" the prisoner asked, his voice was quite hoarse. "You do realize your life means nothing to him. He's just using you."
"If I help you, I'm as good as dead," the guard said simply.
"I can help you," the prisoner said, again breaking out into a coughing fit.
"How are you to help me behind closed doors, chained to the wall?" the guard scoffed. "You can't even help yourself."
"Get word to Harry Potter for me," the prisoner said, urgently. "If not Harry, Albus Dumbledore. You know that he's the only wizard that Voldemort has ever feared. Or Remus Lupin. Either of them could help you and me."
"Shut up!" the guard barked back at him. "My honor and loyalty goes to the Dark Lord."
"You'll regret that," the prisoner whispered back. When the guard didn't respond, the prisoner slumped back against the wall. The guard obviously wasn't going to go for it now, but maybe if he kept pushing, he'd have an ally. He admitted it seemed pretty hopeless, but it was all he had at this point. There had to be someway to warn Harry of what was coming. There had to be some way to warn him what Voldemort had planned. But how?