Dana Lively barely noted the small puddle of drool forming underneath her friend's mouth. As it was, they seemed to be forming under everyone's mouths, until the entire History of Magic class resembled London after a heavy rain. She herself was too busy planning out her outfit for Hogsmeade on the bottom right hand corner of her paper. The pencil sketched out a stylish pale pink blouse, with a pleated skirt and matching boots, paying excruciating attention to the subtlest details in craftsmanship.

The bell rang suddenly, and her drooling classmates were jerked awake. She shoved the paper clumsily into her bag and waited for her friend Jessica.

"Morning," Jessica greeted from the desk next to her, rubbing her eyes and adjusting her upset hair.

"Morning," Dana said.

Jessica rose from her chair and perched her satchel bag on her right shoulder, and the two of them brushed past the rest out of the classroom. As they walked the hallways to the Common Room, the blonde made conversation with her friend.

"So, what'd I miss in History of Magic?"

Dana giggled.

"Nothing much. I picked out a totally cute outfit for the Hogsmeade trip this weekend though."

"Oooh," Jessica cooed excitedly, "Do tell."

"Alright, so I know it's rather cold and everything, but I just adore this pink blouse from Madam Eleanor's."

The choice of fashion over weather was given. Nothing came between Dana and an adorable clothing item.

"Then," Dana continued, at a nod from her friend, "I thought I'd wear that pleated skirt we got when we went shopping in Paris last summer."

Again, Jessica nodded, this time in remembrance of the week-long shopping spree they'd indulged in just before school.

"...and then those black boots with grey fake fur on the inside from some Muggle store in London," Dana finished, waited expectantly for the other girl's reaction.

"I like!" Jessica squealed, her voice reaching inhuman heights. A few passersby glanced at her but didn't say anything.

"I know!" Dana squealed back, her voice not going up quite as high.

They pranced lightly down the steps to the cellar, reaching a broad, well-lit passageway. Cheery paintings waved to them as they walked toward the picture of a woman carrying a fruit basket along the far wall.

"Why hello girls," the woman in the picture greeted cheerfully, her braids bouncing happily.

"Hello Georgina," Dana said, Jessica smiling identically beside her.

"Password?"

"Shepard's Pie."

Georgina nodded kindly and her painting swung forward to reveal the passageway into the Common Room. The painting closed behind them once again as the two girls made their way to the center, where a fire crackled heartily. Overstuffed chairs with golden upholstery were scattered about the room in clusters, various mismatched rugs lay about the wooden floor, and the stone walls were decorated with torches and a large Hufflepuff banner.

Jessica and Dana both took seats in two of the overstuffed chairs by the fireplace, the latter immediately reaching into her satchel to pull out a Transfiguration textbook. She propped the thick book open in her lap, opening it to the page she'd been looking at in class.

"Why are you studying for Transfiguration?" Jessica asked curiously.

Dana shrugged, trying to be inconspicuous.

"I dunno, I just 'ave a feeling McGonagall will be testing us soon."

Jessica sighed and brushed a strand of blonde hair out of her face distractedly.

"You've been studying far too much lately," She said, scanning the room as she spoke.

Dana shrugged once again, but took advantage of the other girl's lapse of attention to brush the nervous sweat from the back of her neck. Not that Jessica would particularly mind if her friend suddenly became as studious as your typical Ravenclaw. She would however, be alarmed if she knew that Dana wasn't studying for the sake of her own education, but for the attention of a certain red-haired, freckle-faced Prefect in her Herbology class.

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"Careful now, class, try not to add too much dragon dung manure," Professor Sprout shouted over the noises of the class' potting.

Dana nodded; trying to appear knowledgeable as she carefully measured out amounts of dragon dung manure and added it to the seedling of Screechsnap.

Despite her careful measuring, the plant began squirming and wriggling as though uncomfortable.

"Uh, Dana," Her partner Erica said, "I already added manure to that one."

"Seriously?!" Dana squeaked, wide hazel eyes evident in her slowly reddening face.

Erica nodded, looking at Dana in a mixture of pity and amusement.

"Oh Merlin…" Dana said, hastily removing manure from the plant.

Her slip up had obviously passed beyond just her section of the table, as laughter reached the tips of her red ears.

"Nice one, Lively," came catcalls from the Ravenclaw students seated at the opposite end of the long table.

Dana was painfully aware that Percy Weasley was passing by on his way to get more dragon dung manure just as her mistake was made. She could just picture him passing right by, shaking his head at the nincompoop of a Hufflepuff he used to know who'd managed to get stuck in yet another embarrassing situation…as it seemed she was always doing.

What is wrong with me?

"Ms. Lively, try to be more careful next time," Professor Sprout reprimanded softly.

"Yes, Professor."

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Dinner on Friday Night was more festive than usually. Everyone was excited for the coming Hogsmeade trip, and friends from different houses mixed and mingled, foregoing the former boundaries of separate tables. Dana was pulled over along with Jessica and Erica to sit with their friends at the Gryffindor table. She noticed with both embarrassment and joy that Percy was sitting there as well, conversing with his own friends…who were all capable witches and wizards like Penelope Clearwater and Avery Dander, who wouldn't be caught dead adding too much dung to a Screechsnap.

It's no wonder he left me to be friends with them, Dana thought miserably.

"Hello Dana," said a soft voice.

The voice's source was the Gryffindor fifth year Trudy Fisher, who was already seated at the table. She smiled in a friendly manner, and stared with kind navy blue eyes as Dana took the seat opposite her.

"Hello Trudy," Dana said.

"Heard about your little escapade in Herbology this morning," piped the voice of a nearby student. The brown hair streaked with red and gold gave her away as Carmen Gray, also a fifth year, but in Ravenclaw.

Trudy glared warningly at the girl, but Carmen continued on without noticing.

"How on Earth do you manage to do these things, Lively?"

Dana felt a deep blush working itself up her face.

"I wasn't meaning to," She said defensively, "I just hadn't realized that Erica'd already added the manure."

"It's true, I really should've told her," Erica said, jumping into the conversation in Dana's defense from a few seats down.

"Everyone makes mistakes at some point or another," Trudy said supportively.

Dana smiled gratefully at her.

Penelope Clearwater spoke up too, being seated directly to Dana's left.

"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll do better next time."

"Yeah, and just remember next time to check if something's already been done first," Percy threw in.

Dana blushed again, this time for an entirely different reason.

"I will," she mumbled.

"Have you studied for the Transfiguration test?" Percy asked.

Dana grinned, proud to have something to talk about that she had done correctly.

"Yes, I have."

Jessica added, "She actually spent her free time yesterday studying."

If Jessica had any suspicions about Dana's sudden studying habits, she was much better at concealing it than Dana would have thought, as no trace of suspicion was evident in her features.

"You lot all going to Hogsmeade?" Carmen asked.

"Yeah," Dana replied.

Conversation quickly turned to the coming trip…and Valentine's Day

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Twelve year old Dana stood in the corner of the library, searching various shelves for the textbook she needed for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Bogeys and Boggarts, Gadding with Goblins, and Draconian Vampires were just a few of the titles her eyes skimmed past. Just as she neared the very edge of the shelf, she stopped in her tracks at a sound. Someone was sobbing on the other side of the bookcase.

Turning the corner of the bookshelf, she looked down the aisle, which was entirely empty save for one lone red headed boy, who sat against the wall looking extremely dejected, his head in his hands.

"What's wrong?" Dana asked gently, walking up to kneel beside the sobbing boy.

The boy looked up startled at the sound of her voice, and rubbed at his eyes.

"Peeves threw my books into the Black Lake," he said miserably.

"Well it's alright, you can always get new ones," Dana said.

The boy shook his head.

"Can't afford new ones."

"Well, you can share mine for a while," Dana offered.

The boy looked up hopefully.

"Really?"

Dana nodded.

"Alright then, thank you. Erm…what's your name?"

"Dana Lively."

"I'm Percy Weasley," the boy said, holding a hand out.

Dana shook his hand, beaming at him the entire time.

"It's nice to meet you, Percy."

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The next morning, Dana woke to the sound of her alarm. She groaned and rolled over on her bed. She'd been having such a nice dream…a memory really, of how she and Percy had first met. They'd been best friends for a long while, Dana lending him her books, and him helping her with Potions work, which she seemed particularly troubled with, in return. It was only the beginning of fourth year when he'd stopped speaking to her, most likely when her first signs of incompetence from the academic viewpoint had first begun to appear. She had tried not to be so clumsy, but her brain seemed to always have missed something, so she was never safe from classrooms slip ups or accidents in the hallway.

"What time is it?" She asked anyone who happened to up, her voice muffled by the pillow.

"Six thirty," a girl's voice answered.

Dana shifted her weight and rolled back over so she could see. Of course Amelia was already up. The girl was no night owl, and often went to bed hours before the others, but was always the first to wake in the morning.

"I suppose I should be getting up then," Dana said groggily.

She rolled out of bed, flinching as her bare feet hit the cold floor. Soon recovering from the initial shock of the sensation, though, she turned back to make her bed.

"The rest still aren't up, so you've got plenty of time," Amelia said, smiling at her from behind a large book.

"Great, thank you," Dana replied, mirroring Penelope's smile with a rather mismatched morning version of her own.

Gathering a towel and washing necessities from her trunk, Dana stepped into the shower to wake herself up. By the time she exited, Jessica, Erica, and their other roommate Karen Chang were all awake and scrambling about the room for their things. She made her way to her bed quietly, where she had already laid out her clothes.

"Hey Dana, can I borrow those jeans with the rhinestones on the pockets?" Karen asked, as she hurried around the room, black hair flying behind her.

Dana replied in gasps, pulling on a bra and underwear as she spoke. "Sure, they're on the top of my trunk."

"Thanks, babe," Karen replied.

Dana pulled on her pleated skirt, smoothing down the ends until it was completely even.

"Merlin, girl, you're so skinny!" Karen joked, as she retrieved the jeans, "Better be getting to breakfast."

Dana laughed.

"If you lot don't hurry, we won't have time to be getting to breakfast," Amelia said.

"Alright, alright," Karen said, surrendering and returning to her own bed to get dressed.

Dana buttoned up her beloved pink blouse, carefully pulling down the long sleeves to their appropriate length. She placed her feet in her boots hurriedly, and then turned to the wall mirror to fix her hair and makeup.

"Here, you should wear my hoodie over that, Dana," Erica said, "You'll be freezing wearing just that."

"Thanks," Dana said, catching the black and pink hoodie in question before turning back to the mirror.

"Oooh, someone's wearing makeup today," Jessica said.

"Just a little," Dana defended, shielding her face instinctively.

She was only putting on some eyeshadow and lip gloss, as her light brown hair granted her eyelashes dark enough for her not to need mascara. She brushed her hair out quickly, before running a hand through it to lighten up the top layer.

"You look great," Amelia said, looking at her through their reflections in the mirror, "Now let's go."

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It was freezing cold in Hogsmeade, but the town was alive with the warmth that seemed customary to the holiday. Heart decorations, signs, and advertisements for Valentine's Day specials decorated the windows splendidly and were plastered across every other available surface, until the town seemed to glow with colors pink and red. Dana was glad for the warmth of Erica's hoodie as her fellow students shivered past her on the sidewalk. Wizard-made, it provided just as much warmth as a heavy coat might.

"Hey Dana!" someone called from behind her.

Dana spun around, gasping at the sudden rush of cold air to her lungs. Percy was walking briskly toward her, his arm raised in familiarity, as though they were age old friends, instead of two students in a long ago abandoned friendship.

"Hey Percy," She said, faking her most normal smile. "Care to walk with me?"

She had meant for the comment to sound offhanded and casual, but realized only afterwards all the meanings she wished it could have.

"Sure," Percy replied.

They strolled along the slightly less crowded streets for a while, admiring the highly decorated shop windows and laughing at the overly-expressive couples. It was just like old times, before he'd become the reputable picture-perfect Prefect, and she'd been left in the dust.

They stopped at Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour for a treat as they turned back to travel in the opposite direction.

"You know, it might seem unusual to some people that we're eating ice cream when it's freezing cold outside," Percy remarked as they walked slowly along the stone street.

Dana shrugged.

"Maybe."

He gave her a look that clearly said she was being ridiculous again, but she only giggled and skipped a few steps ahead. He laughed at her.

"You have a huge gob of ice cream on your face," he said.

"Where?" She said, suddenly self-conscious.

"Right…." He said, drawing closer and reaching a hand forth without thinking, "there."

He wiped the ice cream of her face, and in doing so trailed his fingers across her lips. He looked uncertain all of the sudden, and distracted. She stopped giggling immediately, and felt the familiar blush creep its way up her slender neck.

He leaned forward, so close to her face that she could feel his breath warming the cool air that surrounded her. His soft lips slowly met hers, and for a moment there was no one else there. They were in complete solitude, not in the middle of the street. Everything was quiet, not bustling with the activity and consequent noise characteristic of teenagers.

The moment of peace disappeared when Percy suddenly drew back.

"What?" She asked, still slightly delirious from her five seconds in heaven, and not understanding this sudden return to reality.

"I'm sorry," He said.

Her face was blank, her eyes searching his for some further clue.

"I-I shouldn't have done that," He stuttered, "I've asked Penelope Clearwater to be my girlfriend."

"…but," Dana trailed off.

Her face hardened when she saw the telltale look in his eyes. Of course he'd rather see Penelope Clearwater, the goody two shoes Prefect who woke up everyday at precisely the same time, never made a mistake, and was the spitting image of everything the words 'perfect' and 'predictable' defined.

"Don't you remember how we used to be?" She asked, almost begging for his memory.

His eyes dropped ashamed to the ground, and he mumbled something, but she didn't hear him.

"Don't you remember who your best friend was all that time? Who helped you up when Travis Eaven and his friends stole your books and hexed your legs together?"

He still didn't answer.

"Don't you remember!?"

She was shouting this time, almost urgently, her eyes pleading with him to answer her…or rather, to give her the answer she wanted, the one he couldn't give her.

Percy gave the girl standing before him in the snow a solemn look.

All he said before walking away was, "I'm sorry, you're just--too ditzy for me."