Ch. 50

The next few days were spent exploring around the city, mainly with Hermione leading them around everywhere. The other three practically had to pull Hermione away from the Louvre Museum, where she had kept them for nearly the entire day. Only after a promise from Draco that he would take her there again in the future and she could spend as much time as she wanted then did Hermione reluctantly leave the museum.

Ginny and Hermione made a point to visit their little café every morning for coffee and tea, which allowed Draco and Blaise to plan out their schedule for the day. They fell into a routine with the boys meeting them at the café and then they would head off to do their activities. Then for dinner they'd go to any one of the really nice restaurants in wizarding Paris.

Christmas day was different. Hermione woke up to the smell of cinnamon and espresso, and she laid in bed for a few moments savoring the smell before getting up and investigating.

She found Draco and Blaise cooking in the kitchen with a sleepy Ginny sitting at the table by the window holding a mug. There was another steaming mug of something across from Ginny, and Hermione assumed it was hers.

"Good morning, beautiful," Draco said happily, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "There's a latte on the table for you, and breakfast should be ready soon."

She smiled at him and walked past Blaise to the table where Ginny smiled at her. "Happy Christmas, Hermione."

"Happy Christmas, Gin!" She replied with a smile.

They clinked their mugs together and Hermione looked outside. It had snowed in the middle of the night and continued to snow lightly, making it a perfect Christmas. Well, almost perfect.

She could hardly remember the last Christmas she had spent with her parents. She partially regretted skipping the skiing trip her parents had organized her fifth year to stay at Grimmauld Place for Christmas, though at the same time she didn't regret it as Mr. Weasley had suffered his horrible attack from Nagini. And in sixth year, she had stayed at Hogwarts for the Christmas break; that one she very much regretted. All those missed times. And now, she might never get them back.

Hermione fought back the tears that threatened to fall and took a sip of her latte, but Draco sensed something was off. He had a feeling he knew what it was though as he looked at her and saw her stare out of the window at the falling snow.

Ginny noticed the sigh of sadness come from her friend, and she reached her foot over to get Hermione's attention before using Legilimency.

Hermione sighed again.

Ginny gave her friend a sad look.

Hermione smiled at her friend.

Ginny grinned.

"You know," Blaise started, grabbing the girls' attention, "We feel a little left out when you two do that."

"That sounds like a personal problem, love," Ginny said with a shrug.

"What were you two talking about?" Blaise asked with a small grin.

"Well, if you must know, Hermione and I were talking about girly things, like periods, dresses, comparing the sizes of your-"

"Alright, alright!" Blaise scowled. "I'm sorry I asked."

Ginny grinned before returning to her own mocha and winking at Hermione, who shook her head. "That was mean."

"I could've been a lot worse," Ginny shrugged.

"Breakfast is served!" Draco exclaimed happily, interrupting them.

The two Veelas set the platters down on the table, revealing French toast, pancakes, bacon, eggs, and fruit. Draco leaned down to kiss Hermione's forehead and sat down next to her.

"It smells wonderful," Hermione said, grabbing a few slices of French toast.

"We'll open presents afterwards," Blaise said, snaking an arm around Ginny's waist. "Then we can figure out what we want to do for the day!"

The four of them ate happily, nearly finishing all of the food. After clearing the plates and refilling their drinks, they went into the living room where the girls gasped with happiness at the sight of it. A Christmas tree was sitting between the two windows and both fireplaces were lit, warming the entire room. There was a large pile of presents under the tree, which did not include the presents that the girls still had not added.

"Don't tell me you two bought all of those for us," Ginny exclaimed, whirling around to look at Blaise.

"No, of course not!" Blaise laughed. "A lot of those are presents from your families!"

Hermione's shoulders dropped. Ginny glared at Blaise and smacked his arm quietly, shaking her head out of Hermione's line of sight.

"Come on, let's go ahead and start opening!" Draco said, trying to change the subject.

"We just need to get ours first," Hermione said quietly, leaving the room quickly and to hers and Draco's room to grab the pile of gifts she had.

She quickly wiped away the couple of tears that had escaped as soon as she entered the room and gathered the gifts, levitating them out to the living room. Ginny appeared shortly after with her pile of gifts, setting them on the floor next to the main pile while Hermione plastered a fake smile on her face and dropped hers on the other side.

As soon as she sat down, Draco immediately placed a present in her lap, smiling. "This is the first from my parents."

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him but slowly opened up the silver wrapping paper, revealing a first edition of that was signed by Bathilda Bagshot herself. Hermione stared at the book before smiling at Draco.

"You told your parents about it?" She said, holding it up to reveal the present.

"Only that it was your favorite book," Draco said with a shrug and then smiled. "They asked for a few things you liked."

"And everyone knows you know that book like the back of your hand," Blaise said. "You have something from Draco's parents too, Ginny."

He handed Ginny a large box that she opened quickly, her eyes wide when she lifted the lid. "They got me new chasers' gloves and boots!"

Blaise grinned. "Let's just say they're excited about your future in quidditch."

"Apparently," Ginny said with a large smile at Draco. Then she set aside the large box and reached over to grab two packages, handing one to Blaise and one to Draco with a large grin.

Draco opened his first, revealing a black sweater with "I'm with stupid" and an arrow pointed to the left, while Blaise opened a matching "I'm with stupid" sweater that had an arrow point to the right.