The Captain's Jersey

Christmas

For the first time ever, Harry would be spending the Christmas break at the Granger's, with just Hermione and her parents. She had pestered him for months about it, and she kept reminding him of all the holidays he'd spent at the Burrow, so that by the end, it almost felt like it was Harry's idea to stay with her. Ron had invited him also, but Harry had been respectful and polite and declined; but to be fair to Ron, he seemed rather unphased by them spending the holiday without him and had wished them a Merry Christmas at King's Cross.

Harry had never been to Hermione's house before and he found himself rather excited as they were driven to it by her parents in a reasonably priced car. It sat on a long stretching, isolated beach, that was rather like a cove, and was so picture-perfect, that Harry wondered if this was really where Hermione lived, or just a beach house they stayed at during the holidays. The house was rather large and spacious and had more than enough room for the four of them.

Harry and Hermione spent their time enjoying each other's company by talking walks along the beach when it wasn't snowing and decorating the house for Christmas. Harry had one of the best afternoons of his life hanging tinsel and ornaments on the tree that Hermione's parents had erected in the living room, and he managed to catch his girl standing under the mistletoe several times. After the first two times, however, he started to think she was doing it on purpose.

When Christmas day arrived, Harry woke to find the windows in his bedroom were pure white, as the build-up of snow had become quite extreme. However, he got the suspicion the house had central heating because when he spotted his sack full of presents at the end of the bed and crawled out from under the covers to get to them, it didn't feel cold. He had barely managed to rip open the first present at the top when Hermione walked in holding Crookshanks.

"Morning Harry," she said happily as she approached him, "Merry Christmas!"

"Morning," Harry said, looking up from his present, "Merry Christmas, Her—"

Harry trailed away. He had just spotted her standing there, at the end of his bed, holding her ginger cat to her chest and the colour of the fur was clashing with the garment that she was wearing over the top of her woollen pyjamas. Harry had to blink several times to make sure his eyes were telling his brain what he saw.

"What're you...?" Harry found himself to be rather speechless. "Is that my jersey?"

"Yes, yes it is," Hermione said instantly, not bothering to lie. "Why do you ask?"

"How is it that you're wearing my jersey?" Harry asked in disbelief, narrowing his eyes at his girlfriend. "I left that at Hogwarts."

"Oh," Hermione said, raising her eyebrows in question as well as giving him a small smile, "did you?"