Granger, Romance Expert

At Christmas, everyone had their own plans, but Harry did not.

Hermione was going skiing with her parents. Ron thought it sounded fascinating; he had never heard of Muggles tying planks to their feet and sliding down mountains.

Ron himself was going back to The Burrow. Harry had been jealous for days, until he asked Ron how he planned to get home for Christmas. Ron said, "You're coming too! Didn't I tell you? Mum wrote weeks ago and told me to invite you!"

Hermione rolled her eyes, but Harry's heart soared. Spending Christmas at The Burrow would be wonderful, though Harry felt a little guilty that he could not spend the holiday with Sirius.

He wondered whether he could persuade Mrs. Weasley to invite his godfather as well, but not only did he doubt Dumbledore would let Sirius leave Grimmauld Place, he also strongly suspected Mrs. Weasley would not welcome him. She and Sirius were always at odds.

Sirius had not contacted Harry since disappearing into the fire last time. Although Harry knew it would be unwise to try contacting him under Umbridge's watch, he did not want to think of Sirius alone in his mother's old house, perhaps pulling a cracker with Kreacher, lonely.

What he probably did not know was that Sirius now went to see his newlywed wife at set times every day. The version Jon had heard was that he was maintaining his marital relationship with his wife, while Dumbledore said Phineas had made Sirius anxious, and he was desperate to have a child.

No matter how one put it, though, it was a good thing that matters had developed to this point.

After the last meeting before the Christmas holidays, it was obvious that something had happened.

This time, Harry returned to the Gryffindor Common