A Christmas Miracle

Chapter 14

Ginny huffed before placing all her shopping bags down on a nearby bench, "Honestly Hermione, as much as I love you and shopping, having done this in the Muggle realm is a pain in the—"

"Gin, I swear I'll make it up to you! I'm treating you to lunch." Hermione spoke quickly as she noticed a woman with a baby stroller and a toddler walking by the duo.

The redhead sighed, "Alright, but can we please go somewhere where we can magically condense all these shopping bags into one, just putting an expansion charm on it?"

"There's a pub up ahead, we can go behind the alleyway and do it there." Hermione offered. Both agreed and begrudgingly hauled their shopping bags as quickly as possible to the alley way.

About 5 minutes later, the women decided they were too tired to walk any further, and entered the building. Flat screen tv's were placed on all corners of the pub, each one having a different sports channel being played.

Ginny was both confused and in awe of her surroundings, "What is this place? How are those pictures moving continuously and not repeating a moment?"

"Those are telly's, Gin. They show those things I taught you before, "videos", only these show things that are far longer than most videos." Hermione grinned at her friend before leading them to a booth towards the back of the pub.

Both women were famished and scanned the menus hungrily, not bothering to look up once their waiter arrived to take their order. Ginny spoke, "I'll have the cheeseburger with fries, and a butter-beer please. How about you Hermione?"

"I'll go with chicken parmigiana, and a Shirley temple, thank you—-" Hermione looked up to see a smug looking Draco.

"With pleasure, ladies." He winked at her and began walking away quickly before Ginny could catch sight of his face.

Ginny's eyebrows furrowed, "His voice sounds awfully familiar...did you see who that was?"

"Hm?" Hermione was looking through the menu as if it was the most interesting article of paper she's ever seen, "I'm sorry, I was browsing the dessert menu."

Ginny eyed her suspiciously before catching the mysterious blonde man vanish behind saloon doors leading to the kitchens. "You know...Harry tells me you've been seeing someone lately..."

Hermione took a sip of her service water before answering, "Yes...I have been. He's widowed and has a wonderful 6 year old boy whom I've grown to love as my own."

Ginny looked at her with mixed emotions of happiness and concern, "I'm happy you're putting yourself out there!"

"But?..." Hermione noticed her hesitance.

Ginny sighed, "...But do you genuinely like the man or do you like the idea of being a family and having this opportunity to become a mother?"

Hermione was taken aback by Ginny's insinuation,"Wow...you think I've really become pathetic haven't you?"

Ginny shook her head vigorously, trying to explain her questioning better, "No that's not it at all! I just...I want to make sure you're with someone who genuinely makes you happy and not just...trying to fill a void, you know? It doesn't just hurt you in the long run, but could also affect the man and his kid, and I know you...you would never want to do that."

Hermione sighed, "...I'm happy Gin...after what happened with Ronald a couple days ago, it solidified whatever conclusions I've drawn in regards to my feelings...I should also let you know that I've known the man I've been seeing, since I was 11 years old."

Ginny's eyes bugged out, "Are you serious? Did he go to Hogwarts with us? Who is it?"

There was a sparkle in Hermione's eyes as she spoke, "We've only reconnected 2 months ago, but goodness, Ginny! In a span of 2 months, I've learned how intelligent, witty, loving, caring, thoughtful, and wonderful he could be...I think I—"