Catching Her Heart Pt. 1

Chapter 14

Hello my lovely readers! And Happy Valentines Day! Hope you had a good day. Personally I don't celebrate Valentines, mainly because my husband and I will be celebrating 17 years in two days, but hey, I thought I'd give you my own little valentine by giving you an extra long chapter. This one comes in 3,366 words of Hermione and Oliver goodness! Enjoy!

The castle looked magical, more magical than usual, all decorated for the holidays. Hermione almost regretted that she'd signed the notice that she would be going home for Christmas when she saw Hagrid carrying in the twelve large trees. The trees were brought in one at a time, and the teachers could be found decorating them and the rest of the castle when they weren't in classes. It was truly breathtaking.

From November 10th to December 22nd, the day before Hermione returned home to see her parents for Christmas break, she'd gotten Harry and Ron to go to the library with her. After all their homework was done, of course, she had them help her look for information on Nicholas Flamel.

The morning she was scheduled to leave on the Hogwarts Express, Hermione stopped by the Great Hall to find Ron and Harry in yet another game of wizard chess — although she'd never really paid attention to it before, noticing for the first time that the pieces actually moved.

"Queen to E5," Ron said with a grin on his face as Hermione walked up to the table.

She was surprised and disgusted when Ron's queen moved and beat up Harry's knight with her throne. "That's totally barbaric," she proclaimed.

"That's wizard's chess," Ron announced. "I see you've packed."

"I see you haven't," Hermione countered.

"Change of plans," Ron said. "My parents went to Romania to visit my brother, Charlie. He's studying dragons there."

"Good," Hermione replied. "You can help Harry then. He's going to go to the library to look for information on Nicholas Flamel."

"But we've looked a hundred times," Ron groused.

Hermione bent low over the table and lowered her voice as she looked between them. "Not in the Restricted Section," she answered before perking up. "Happy Christmas."

With that, she turned and headed off to join the other students who were heading to the train in Hogsmeade to go home for the holidays.

23 December 1991
Oliver,
I hope that you have a happy Christmas. I was going to stop in Hogsmeade and get your present, but there wasn't enough time from when Professor McGonagall took the first and second years down to the Hogsmeade station to catch the train and the time it left. I will try and get out tomorrow when I am with my family, but I can't make any promises, it'll be Christmas Eve after all.
Ron stayed at Hogwarts with Harry. They will be looking in the library for information on Nicholas Flamel. I'm surprised that we haven't found anything on him at all yet. I feel like we've been through nearly the entire library since the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quidditch game and haven't found a thing.
I am so excited to see my parents again, though I did feel a little sad about leaving Hogwarts. The castle looks so lovely now. It's a shame I'll have to miss it. My parents and I have our own traditions though.
My mom will have been baking since the first of December, taking cookies and homemade breads and other treats to friends and family. Tomorrow we'll have friends and neighbours over for a Christmas Eve party. It generally ends after midnight. Then, we pack away any leftovers from the party to pull out and reheat the next afternoon, while mom works on replacing anything that was totally devoured.
In the morning, we have pancakes and eggs, sausage and bacon for breakfast and open our presents. We go to mass at the nearby church, and after mass is over, we head home and family comes over for a late lunch/early supper.
I will miss decorating the tree, mom and dad will have already done that by now, but dad and I can go to the park and go ice skating and mom can join us in playing out in the snow. That's another thing she does — she'll make vanilla ice cream out of the second snowfall. It is so good! Better than any I had from a store!
Anyway, I hope that you have a nice time with your family, and happy Christmas! See you when we get back!
Hermione