A/N: Hey everyone! I decided that for a little Christmas present (and another apology for not getting the second chapter for "Not My World" out sooner) I would write a short little Christmas fic. Hope you enjoy, and Happy holidays to everyone!
Disclaimer: Anything you recognize here is not mine. On the contrary, it belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Rating: PG
A/N: Just as an FYI, I had a lot of trouble writing the beginning of this story. I think I went through three different beginnings, until I came up with this one. So, in case it seems a little choppy or not right, I'm sorry!
Okay, I'll just shut up now…
***
Harry Potter was not a happy camper.
Not that he knew what a happy camper was supposed to feel like, of course, since the Dursleys had never taken him camping before in his life. But Harry supposed that if he had gone camping, he would have had a good time, and then would know how a happy camper was supposed to feel like.
But, that's not that point. No, the point is that Harry Potter was not feeling jolly right now, despite the fact that it was December, and everyone was bustling around full of energy and Christmas spirit. Nope, Harry wasn't feeling any of this happiness. On the contrary, he was in a rather bad mood.
And what, you may ask, put Harry in this cranky mood?
Two things, actually: Fred and George Weasley.
Why?
Because they were planning a Christmas party.
"Now, everyone," one of the twins in question started to explain. "We have two hats up here. The green one on the right if for the girls and the red one on the left if for the boys."
"So, when your name is called," the other twin continued. "Go up and pick one of the tabs of paper in your appropriate hat. The character on your slip is who you have to dress up like for the party next week."
Yep, that's right. The Weasley Twin's holiday party wasn't just any old Christmas party. Nope, it was a costume party. And knowing the humor the two possessed, most of these characters were probably ones most sane people would not want to be.
"Oy, Ronniekins," George called. "You're first."
"Why do I have to go first?" Ron scowled.
"Because we said so!" Fred answered.
Ron grumbled something incoherent under his breath and slowly made his way to the front of the room. Closing his eyes, he reached his hand into the red hat and picked out a small white piece of paper. As soon as he unfolded it and glanced at the writing on it, a look of horror planted itself on his face.
"You have got to be kidding me," Ron said angrily.
Fred grinned. "Who'd you get?"
"That bloody donkey Dominick!" Ron exclaimed.
At this, half the room burst out laughing, including Harry. Ron's character, however, confirmed Harry's earlier point, though, so a feeling of foreboding crept into his mind again.
When everyone calmed down, George asked for the next victim, which ended up being Ginny. With a scowl that rivaled Draco Malfoy firmly in place, she walked up to the front of the room and reached her hand into the green hat.
When she read hers, she raised one of her eyebrows. "Rudolph? Isn't he male?"
"Well," George shrugged. "We ran out of girl characters."
Ginny just shook her head and returned to her seat.
And so it went on: one by one, everyone who had been invited on to the twins' party committee went up to pick a character. The characters actually ended up being better than Harry thought, seeing as most were pretty normal. Bill ended up getting Frosty while Charlie, Lee Jordon, and Arthur got the role of the three kings. Luna, Katie Bell, and Alicia Spinnet were to be angels, and Angelina Johnson was going to be the virgin Mary. Fred and George themselves even picked slips, to reveal that Fred was going to be an elf and George was going to be Joseph, Mary's wife. Finally, only two people were left.
"Okay Hermione, your turn," Fred nodded towards her.
With a sigh, Hermione walked the short distance to the green hat to grab the last piece of paper.
"Mrs. Clause," Hermione read. Harry could have sworn he saw her blush a tad bit, and glance at the red hat across from her quickly, but he decided it must have been his imagination.
"Well Harry," George said. "Looks like you're the last one left. Might as well just tell you who you're going to be, though, since obviously there's only one character left."
Fred stood up and went over to where Harry was sitting and casually threw an arm over his shoulder. "Ladies and gentlemen, let's give it up for this year's Santa Clause!"
The room broke into a combination of laughs, cheers, and applause. `Oh well,' Harry silently thought to himself. `It could have been worse. I could have ended up as Dominick the Donkey, like Ron…'
***
On the day of the twins' party, which just happened to fall on Christmas Eve, Harry woke up earlier than he normally did. When he did, he felt anxiety creep into him.
Frowning, Harry wondered why. It wasn't like he was going to be an embarrassing character or anything, like Ron was. And the party was just for friends and family- people Harry all knew.
Deciding to just ignore it, Harry went on with his day. He spent a majority of it wrapping gifts and doing some last-minute shopping, along with working on a report he had to get done by next week. Finally, at around four-thirty, he began to get ready.
First, and with reluctance, Harry had to pop an "Instant Balloon" pill into his mouth, so that he would physically resemble Santa. It was, of course, invented by Fred and George, and was supposed to only last five hours.
After he did so, and felt his stomach expand greatly, he got into his Santa costume. Finally, he put on his white wig and beard, opting not to try out the twins' special Holiday candy cane that was "guaranteed to make you age a hundred and fifty years!"
At a quarter past five, Harry apparated over to the Burrow, where the party was to be held. Walking in, he smelled the brilliant cooking of the one and only Molly Weasley. Surveying his surroundings quickly, he was impressed at the amount of red, gold, and green decorations strung up.
"Harry?" a female voice laughed. "Is that you?"
Harry turned around to see a woman with snow white hair pulled back in a bun. A flowing red velvet skirt sat gracefully on her body, with a fluffy white coat covering her top half. With a start, he realized that it was Hermione, dressed up as Mrs. Clause.
"Wow Hermione," Harry said. "You look great."
"Thanks," Hermione blushed through the heavy make-up she was wearing that was designed to make her seem older. "You don't look too bad yourself. Though I seriously hope that stomach isn't real."
"Oh it's real alright," Harry chucked at the look of horror on Hermione's face. "Don't worry, it's only temporary."
Hermione relaxed and laughed with Harry.
`Wow, Hermione has a beautiful laugh!' A voice in Harry's head exclaimed.
Harry frowned. Where had that come from?
`Well of course she does,' another voice chimed in. `Everything about her is beautiful!'
Harry's eyes widened. Since when did he start thinking thoughts like that about Hermione?
"Harry, are you okay," Hermione asked with concern.
"Yeah," Harry blinked and shook his head. "I'm fine."
***
Twenty minutes into the party Harry could tell that Fred and George, along with the rest of the Weasley's, had worked hard on it. The food, as always, was excellent, and the games and activities for the younger attendees were perfect for the holiday season. The decorations were amazing, especially the hundreds of fairy lights strung out around the ceiling and the magic snow that fluttered to the ground. The best part, however, were the characters. Everyone fit easily in their roles: the angels sang Christmas songs gracefully periodically throughout the night, Rudolph trotted around merrily, the elf sprang happily around giving out little gifts to the younger ones, Mary and Joseph walked around together with one of the Weasley grandchildren in the Mary's arms, and Frosty hopped around with a large top hat upon his head.
Harry, being Santa, had the job of sitting in the living room near the fireplace, and talking to all of the little ones about what they wanted for Christmas. Hermione even offered to take pictures with her camera of the kids sitting in Harry's lap.
About half-way through the party, when the kids were off watching a short skit the twins were putting on outside, Harry found himself alone in the living room for the first time since the event started.
"Hey," Harry looked up to find Hermione walking through the doorway. "How are you holding up, Santa?"
"Okay," Harry, forgetting about his extra weight, began to stand up quickly. A second later, he landed with a thud back on the chair.
Laughing, Hermione went over to her best friend, and held her arm out. "Here, let me help you."
Harry grunted as he took her hand. As soon as their skin touched, a tingling sensation ran through Harry's arm. Startled, he pulled it back quickly. He looked up into Hermione's brown orbs, to find a similar shocked look on her face, which made him guess she had experienced the same thing.
For what felt like an hour, the two friends stared deeply into each other's eyes. Harry was certain that they could have kept on going, if it weren't for the group of kids that suddenly barged back into the room.
"Look," one of the little girls, who belonged to Bill and his wife Fleur, giggled. "Santa and Mrs. Clause are having a moment!"
"What do you mean?" another girl questioned curiously.
"They were kissing!" the first girl shouted.
Another look of shock could be seen on Harry and Hermione's face.
"No," Hermione started. "We weren't kissing. We were just talking."
"Exactly," Harry continued hesitantly. "Just talking."
"I want to see them kiss!" Yet another little Weasley grandchild cried.
"Yeah, c'mon, kiss!"
Soon, almost all of the kids were chanting the same four-letter word, over and over. Hermione and Harry looked at each other, uncertain of what to do.
"Well, we are supposed to be married," Harry whispered to Hermione.
"Yeah, but…" Hermione trailed off as Harry's lips crashed down upon hers.
Time stopped and the kids' cheers faded to nothing. Fireworks exploded in Harry's head he slowly pushed his tongue into Hermione's mouth, who certainly wasn't complaining. Finally, some moments later, the two broke apart breathlessly.
"Harry…" Hermione gasped.
Harry looked at her face to find that the same love and passion he had just felt was mirrored in her beautiful eyes. And he suddenly knew why he had been anxious this morning, and why there were those voices in his head earlier, telling him she was beautiful: he was in love with Hermione. And he was pretty certain now that she loved him back.
Gently, he rested his forehead against hers. "Merry Christmas, love."
The End
A/N: Eh, not sure if I like this one or not. I really wanted to do a Christmas fic this year, and I had loved this idea when it popped into my head last night, so I kinda rushed it to get it out on time. Oh well, hope you still enjoyed it and I'd really appreciate it if you reviewed!
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Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukah
Happy Kwanza
Happy Holidays!
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