When Harry's eyes lazily opened on Christmas morning, Ron and Hermione were sitting on his bed, kissing. It wasn't just normal kissing, though. It was so passionate and intimate that Harry couldn't tell which body was whose. Suddenly filled with unexplainable anger, Harry sat up quickly.

"Harry!" Hermione squeaked,"What's wrong?"

Harry opened his eyes. Hermione was sitting on his bed, but Ron was nowhere to be found. Harry blinked. Nothing changed. "Nothing." He mumbled, propping himself up on his elbows,"Bad dream."

"What was it about?" Hermione handed Harry his glasses.

"It...nothing important. It wasn't...like the other night." Harry didn't want to tell her the truth, which was strange because that was what he always seemed to want to do.

"Harry." She took his hand gently and squeezed it,"Are you okay?"

Harry lied,"Yep. I'm fine. Perfectly, wonderfully, fine. Yep."

For what it was worth, Hermione didn't look like she believed him at all,"Okay." She said slowly, standing up and making for the door,"If you need anything - anything at all - just come and ask me, all right?"

"All right." Harry repeated, forgetting to ask what Hermione had been doing in his room whilst he was asleep.

"Happy Christmas, Harry." Hermione whispered as she left the room.

Flopping back down onto his back, Harry let his thoughts run wild again. Where had that dream come from? What did it mean? Should he have told Hermione? Probably, he thought to himself. The pair had only been at Grimmauld Place for a couple of days, but Harry was really missing Hogwarts already. He had wanted to stay. He didn't understand why he had had to leave, but Dumbledore wasn't a good person to argue with at the best of times, let alone in the middle of the night.

A little while later, Ron came charging into the room and asked,"Mate, are you going to get up at all today? It's Christmas and Dad's back and we're all waiting for you." When Harry showed no signs of wanting to leave his bed, Ron added,"You have to come. Hermione seems really down about one thing or another. No one can get her to smile. You're good at that, she likes you. Me, on the other hand..." Ron snorted mirthfully,"Merlin, I should really try and be nicer to her. We'd be dead if she didn't keep on saving our lives, eh?" He said with a huge smile and hopped gleefully out of the room.

Reluctantly, Harry got up and pulled some clothes on to go downstairs in. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, however, he bumped into-

"Sirius." Harry grinned broadly at his godfather.

"Harry." Sirius hugged him tightly,"Glad to see you're joining us. Merry Christmas."

"And to you."

"Let's go and get some breakfast, shall we?" Sirius began leading Harry into the kitchen, but Harry stopped him.

"Uh...Sirius, you do realise it's one o'clock in the afternoon, don't you?" Harry asked.

Sirius had simply shrugged and gone into the kitchen anyway.

Harry was in extremely low spirits for the rest of the afternoon. It was only when the sun had set and Hermione had dragged him back up to his room that Harry finally felt a wave of warmth soar through him. Catching Hermione completely off guard, Harry put his arms around her and hugged her, not wanting to let go.

"Harry," she began, regaining her balance before she could fall,"what's wrong? You haven't been yourself all day. You only smiled when Arthur came back, and even that didn't seem genuine." Harry didn't answer. "Is this about the dream you had earlier?" She asked softly, prising Harry off of her and setting him down gently onto his bed.

"Mm." Harry grouched as Hermione sat next to him. Suddenly feeling as though he had been rude, he added,"Yeah."

"Harry, it's okay. Dreams aren't-" Hermione stopped talking, realising that what she was going to say probably want what Harry wanted to hear at that point.

"Aren't what?" He challenged glumly.

"Aren't things that should make you feel like this." Hermione took Harry by surprise at how quickly she had responded,"Real life can make you feel great things, Harry. Dreams can't do that. Not really. And...what was it Dumbledore said? Oh yes, it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. That's true, trust me."

"In...in the dream-" Harry began to tell her, unsure of what else to say.

"No. You don't want to tell me - I can see you don't want to tell me - and quite frankly, I don't want to hear it if you don't want to say it. Unless someone's life is in danger or you think it has something to do with Voldemort, I don't want to hear it." Hermione said bluntly.

Harry looked into Hermione's eyes and smiled at her genuinely. She smiled back. "Happy Christmas, Hermione."

"Happy Christmas, Harry. Here, presents will make you feel better."

But Harry didn't need presents to feel better. Not really. He had Hermione to do that, and she was brilliant at it. The first present Hermione had gotten him was a moleskin pouch. It was barely the size of Harry's palm, but Hermione told him that it had a similar engorgement charm on it that he had put on the little black beaded bag he had given her for her birthday a few years ago.

"You can hide anything in there." She told him,"Only the owner can get it out. They're really quite rare, I think."

"Hermione, thanks!"

The next gift was a penknife. It had a dark wooden handle with the letters H.P carefully carved into it and the metal areas of it shone so bright that the pair were almost blinded.

"It opens doors that have been protected against the Alohomora charm." Hermione explained,"You insert the blade into the crack between the door and the doorframe and move it up and down."

"It's brilliant, thank you!"

She had bought him an entire Treacle Tart all to himself and three defensive spell books that Harry had never heard of.

"A Compendium of Common Curses and their Counter-Actions, The Dark Arts Outsmarted and Self-Defensive Spellwork." Harry read their titles aloud.

"They're all in the Restricted Section of the library, so I bought them myself. Those are the books I've been reading to come up with ideas for the Dumbledore's Army meetings."

"Hermione," Harry grinned,"you can call it the DA. Everyone else does."

"I don't think it sounds as good." Hermione said defensively, trying to hide her smile.

Harry had bought Hermione another large box of Pumpkin Pasties (they were her favourites) and a few things from a shop called Pilliwinkle's Playthings which was located in Horizont Alley in London. Harry had never been there, but Ron had once told him it sold some great things, so Harry had sent an owl asking for anything suitable for a sixteen-year-old girl. He has sorted through everything and picked out what he thought Hermione would like. The cast-offs were sent back to the shop.

The first item was a white stuffed Hippogriff toy that had been neatly knitted. Harry hadn't really known why the shop had sent him this, but he knew Hermione would like it.

"Oh, Harry, it's adorable! Thank you!" Hermione squealed with delight.

The next gift was a wooden box that had a puzzle inside. This wasn't a regular puzzle, though. It had been enchanted to create an endless amount of images. All the owner had to do was shake the box, and the shapes and patterns on the puzzle pieces would change to create a brand new puzzle.

Hermione's eyes lit up,"Thank you, Harry! That's amazing!"

The final toy Harry had gotten Hermione was the original version of Exploding Snap. It had more cards and a variation of different creatures were on them. The pair had great fun playing it for the rest of the evening.

He had also taken twenty galleons out of his Gringotts bank and transferred it into hers. Upon hearing this, Hermione gasped.

"Harry! That's...that's a lot of money!"

"I know."

"That's," she quickly counted in her head,"one-hundred pounds!"

"Ninety-nine pounds and fifty-nine pence, actually." Harry said with a playful smirk,"You're welcome."

"Thank you so much, Harry. Really." Hermione hugged him again.

Harry suddenly remembered what he had been meaning to ask her all day. "Hermione, why were you on my bed this morning when I woke up?" He asked, pulling out of the hug.

"Mrs. Weasley sent me to wake you up," Hermione began explaining,"but you looked so peaceful...I couldn't bring myself to wake you. I don't know why I stayed...you just...you being so calm...it made me feel...I'm sorry."

"No, no, it's okay. Thanks."

"For what?"

"Everything."

***********

"Goodbye, Sirius." Harry hugged his godfather tightly before climbing onto the Knight Bus with the others. Mrs. Weasley had thought it would be safest if Harry returned to Hogwarts that way instead of on the train, much to everyone except from Hermione's adamant protests. She had agreed with Molly that it wouldn't be a good idea to send Harry on the train, but Harry didn't mind too much. At least he wasn't alone on the bus this time.

The previous day, the trio had visited St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. They had met Neville and his Grandmother, who had been visiting Neville's parents. They learnt about how a Death Eater called Bellatrix LeStrange had captured them and tortured them for information, but they hadn't given in. Augusta Longbottom (which they later learnt was Neville's grandmother's name) had been telling them this seemingly against Neville's will, but was interrupted by a short, hollow-faced woman who had dozily wandered up to them and was holding something out towards Neville.

"What is it, Alice, dear?" Augusta had asked the woman haughtily.

The woman hadn't spoken. She had just held her fist out to Neville, who took what seemed to be an empty red sweet wrapper from her hand.

"Th-thanks, Mum." Neville had almost whispered.

Alice Longbottom had given a sharp nod before turning around and strolling back to the other side of the wing.

Only when he had breathed out did Harry realise he had been holding his breath. Hermione had let out a sad-sounding noise from behind him. Harry grabbed her hand, and when he squeezed, she squeezed back.

***********

On the first DA meeting after the Christmas holidays, Cho finally confronted Harry about their sort-of-kiss. Hermione had been waking towards Harry, clearly wanting to ask him something, when Cho cut right in front and began talking.

"Look, Harry," Cho started saying,"about the...about the kiss...I know I surprised you and-and you didn't like that but...I-I really enjoyed it. Really."

Paying very little attention, Harry simply said,"Uh-huh." He glanced from Cho to Hermione - who was now looking extremely irritated - and back to Cho again, struggling to listen as she continued to talk to him.

"So? Do you want to or not?" Cho said sharply, now aware that Harry hadn't been listening to anything she had just said.

"Oh...um...yeah, sure." Harry stuttered, with no idea what he was agreeing to.

The huge smile that spread across Cho's face told him all he needed to know,"Ooh, this'll be fun! Goodbye, Harry." She leaned in and kissed him longingly.

Harry wanted to pull away more than anything, but Cho's hands were firmly on his neck and she was a lot stronger than she looked. He let what happened happen and, when it was over, gave Cho a smile so similar to Umbridge's that he genuinely felt terrible. Cho strode off happily, finally giving Hermione a chance to come forwards.

"Are you finished?" She asked rudely. Upon seeing Harry's face, however, Hermione must have realised the situation,"Sorry."

"What...what did I just agree to?" Harry asked, mouth hanging down to the floor.

"You and Cho are going on a date in Hogsmeade on Saturday." Hermione said, face deadpan and voice toneless.

"Oh. Oh. Oh." Harry's knees began to shake weakly,"Oh. Oh no. Oh. No."

Hermione put her hands on his arms to steady him,"It's all right. It's just one date. Besides, I wanted to ask you something."

Regaining his composure, Harry asked,"What?"

"Once your date is over on Saturday," she said slightly coldly,"meet me in the Three Broomsticks. I've got something very important to tell you." And with that, Hermione left Harry alone in the Room of Requirement once more, pondering his feelings, which frankly was not the best things for anyone in Harry's current position to be doing.