With the summer holidays rapidly coming to an end, our family found ourselves trying to make the most out of each day before I was to return back to school. The weather slowly cooled as August drew to a close to welcome in September and we had rather haphazardly decided to throw a last-minute barbecue with the muggle family next door. Although, I was the only person in my family that wasn't a muggle.

The Thomas family had arrived in their large numbers with the majority of the little ones running inside the moment I'd opened the door. A frazzled Mrs Thomas greeted me with a smile and I silently pointed upstairs when I spied the sleeping babe in her arms. Thanking me quietly, she ducked upstairs to put the youngest of the Thomas brood to sleep. Bringing up the rear of the group was Mr Thomas and Dean himself as they carried the family's contributions to the barbecue.

"You really didn't need to bring anything," I protested as I shut the door behind them, dropping into step beside Dean.

"Well mum said otherwise," he countered as we walked through our house and into the garden where the barbecue was already lit with both my father and Mr Thomas manning it.

Once Mrs Thomas had put the youngest to sleep, she headed out into the garden with a baby monitor held in her hand. Scanning the garden, she headed directly to my mother's side and the two old friends caught up. Dean set down the bowl he'd been carrying on the garden table but before he could return to my side, he found himself accosted by my brother. The toddler wrapped his arms tightly around Dean's legs and grinned up at the taller boy. With a playful laugh, Dean easily picked my brother up and when he pointed toward the swing set at the end of the garden, the older boy readily obliged.

I would have found myself facing a swarm of young girls had my mum not called out to me to bring the burger buns out into the garden. Ducking into the house briefly, I returned with the burger buns and began to help Dean's little sisters with making their burgers. And by the time each of the little girls were seated and digging in– to burgers which were bigger than their heads – Dean was walking over to the table with my brother sitting on his shoulders.

Stepping forward to help him, I reached out to help lower my brother onto one of the chairs. Dean, one of the only people that could seem to make my picky brother eat, was already making my brother's burger. The excited boy nodded eagerly whenever Dean asked whether he wanted something in his burger and I couldn't help but make a face; he was my brother, wasn't he supposed to listen to me?

Once he was finished, Dean cut the burger in half before placing handing one half to my brother. I eyed the toddler like he was a time bomb and sure enough, his eyes began to wobble as if he was about to cry. But before he could, Dean settled down into the seat beside him and leaned over to speak quietly to him, "If you manage to finish that half, then I'll give you other. Ok?" He waited until my brother nodded before turning away, satisfied with the answer. Looking up to meet my eyes, he patted the seat beside him, "Come and sit down, Rubio."

Walking around the table to join him, I sat down beside him and poured us both a glass of lemonade. Placing Dean's glass beside his plate, I returned his grateful smile with one of my own when he put the burger he'd been busy making onto my own plate. Lifting the top half of the bun, I grinned; he'd made it just the way I liked it.

"When are you heading back to school?" he asked suddenly as he reached out to assemble a burger for himself, not noticing the way I froze in my seat whenever he mentioned school.

Merlin, it was difficult to hide the fact that I was a witch – it was having to conceal part of my identity. And it was especially difficult having to hide that part from one of my closest friends.

"I'm supposed to catch the plane at the end of the holiday," I murmured the lie before reaching out for my glass of lemonade. "What about you?"

"I have to catch the train," he explained with a frown. "It's fun to be able to see my friends after such a long time, don't get me wrong about that. But the train ride itself takes forever."

"That's what you get for going to a boarding school in Scotland."

"As if you're one to talk," he shot back, nudging me with his shoulder. "You're boarding school is in France."

I simply shrugged before taking a bite of my burger. Sometimes I wondered whether he noticed the way I closed myself off when he brought up school. But if he did notice it, did he think he had some sort of explanation for the hesitance? Or did he just think it was just the usual hesitance for a student to discuss school in general? Merlin, maybe instead of sitting in silence and causing the conversation to dry up completely, it would be better to get him to talk about the elusive boarding school that he went to.

"What's your school like then?" I asked with what I hoped was the right degree of casualness. "You never talk about it."

It was his turn to shrug and turn away from me, to face my brother when he reached to tug at Dean's sleeve. "It's just a school – completely average." Looking back at me with a small smile, he asked, "What about yours?"

"Just a normal school – completely average," I murmured, repeating his answer back to him.

We shared a glance for a moment longer before turning back to our food. I really was not made out for this secret keeping business. Dean had always been able to tell when I was lying so it was nothing short of a miracle that he remained so very clueless about my biggest secret.

At the end of the previous school year, Beauxbatons had invited each of its students to enter a random draw to select the students who would form part of the delegation that travelled to Hogwarts for the year. The majority of the positions were for the older students and there were very few places open for those of us that were in the younger years. But the idea of being able to study closer to home for once was too much to resist and I submitted my name to the draw. The chances that I would be selected were slim to none, but I did it anyway.

On the first day of school, the selected students had been called into the headmistress's office and I had actually screamed out in joy after finding out I'd been selected. The selected delegation, made up of no more than two dozen students, were often pulled out from class to practice our entrance. I'd attended each practice faithfully, not wanting to leave a bad impression of our school. Merlin, what if I tripped and ruined the entire thing? It was that worry that had me practising earnestly to reduce the chance.

But now, as I stared at the double doors that lead to the hall, I was suddenly regretting it. The entrance, a downright stupid thing made up of unnecessarily panting and posing, was just embarrassing to think about. Merlin knew what it would be like to actually perform it.

"Prepare yourselves my dears," Headmistress Maxime called out as she stood towards the back of our group.

This was it. Taking a moment to steady myself, I made one last pep talk. It was only a few minutes; that was it. A few minutes and it would all be over in the end.

And just like that, the doors were pushed open and we made our entrance. Maintaining the smile on my face, I tried to stop myself from speeding my movements up and when we reached the end of the hall, I was secretly proud that I'd managed to get through it all without falling flat on my face. Our headmistress made her entrance and we took the cue to bow. Sudden whistles and cheering rang out across the hall, taking us all by surprise. The witch standing beside me, a sixth year if I remembered correctly, even had to smother incredulous giggles. We were escorted to sit at a table of students decked out in blue and bronze ties – Ravenclaw house, as I was later told – and waited until our headmistress was seated before settling down ourselves.

Only when I was sat down did I let my façade drop. Cringing fully, I burrowed my head into Fleur's shoulder and the older witch, who had been the one assigned to show me around my school in my first year, turned towards me. She just laughed quietly, reaching out to pat my back gently as the final school, Durmstrang, made their entrance. After the announcement of the tournament, Professor Dumbledore invited us to begin eating. I watched in wonder as the tables were suddenly filled with food.

"Merlin, I love magic," I said with a bright smile as I looked across the table.

Whilst I loved studying abroad in France and the food there was exceptional, there were occasions when I missed British food. Even if the other students from Beauxbatons complained about how the meat was overcooked, or how cold the castle was, all I could think was that there was a chance that I could have attended the school. But because I was registered with dual citizenship, my parents had been offered the choice between the two schools. They had claimed that Beauxbatons was safer; whether that was actually true, I didn't know. But I certainly didn't feel as out of place as I had thought I would.

Once we were finished with our meal, we rose to our feet to head back to the carriages for the night. I went to join the rest of my schoolmates when someone caught my arm suddenly. Frowning, I turned to face the person to ask what they wanted. But the words died on my lips and instead I was left to stare at them in surprise.

"Dean!" I exclaimed so loudly that some of the nearby students glanced curiously towards me. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," he shot back before we both laughed at how absurd it was.

"Merlin," I said in awe as I looked over his school uniform. He took the chance to do the same, eyebrows rising slightly, "we're both wizards but because we thought the other was a muggle, we couldn't say anything."

"What are the chances of that?" he agreed, noticing the way I was eyeing his red and gold tie. "What?"

"Red and gold? What house is that?"

"Gryffindor." His chest puffed out a little as he announced, "The house of the brave."

"The house of the brave," I snorted, not believing him. "Do your housemates know that you cried because you saw a squirrel?"

"I was five!"

"But it was only last year when you needed me to catch the spider in your room!"

He frowned, disgruntled as he muttered, "It's not my fault the thing was huge."

"Rubio," Fleur called out from behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I watched the older witch gesture me over towards her, "'Urry."

"Give me a moment!" I called back before turning to face Dean. "It looks like I have to go."

"Me too," Dean said with a sigh as he gestured towards his housemates who were slowly leaving the hall. "I – I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Definitely," I grinned at him, waving before I turned to hurry to Fleur's side.

Linking my arm through the older girl's, I listened as she told me about the awkward encounter she'd just had with one of the seventh year Ravenclaws who had decided to approach her. The poor fool had stuttered over his tongue before making a very inappropriate remark about the way her uniform fit her, and it was no wonder that Fleur hadn't hexed him. If one of the boys from our school had spoken to her in that way, they'd have landed in the medical wing. But, because we had to put on a good impression for the other schools, she'd had to restrain herself.

I shook my head as I listened to her. Boys really were very strange.

Even though we were away from school, that didn't mean we didn't have classes. We were still forced to sit lessons, whether those lessons were sat in the carriage or alongside the Hogwarts students in their classroom. Because what else said international cooperation, if not students being forced to be bored together? The teachers at Hogwarts were different to those at Beauxbatons, they slightly were more informal. Hogwarts, in general, was a lot more informal. At the beginning of the lesson there was no standing until the teacher sat down and at the end of the lessons, there was no rehearsed thank you on the way out of the classroom either. It was certainly different; not better or worse, just different.

I had sat through my first Herbology lesson at the school and the group of fourth-year Hufflpuff girls had been kind enough to let me sit with them. The girls chattered slightly more than I was used to, but they were sweet, and their rather straightforward way of talking was growing on me. Once the lesson ended, I packed my things and prepared to leave when the girls called out to me. Dropping into step on either side of me, I found myself walking in between the pair of them as they offered to escort me to the hall. Jones and Abbott were rather curious about what Beauxbatons was like and they went to express their interest in learning more about what our castle looked like.

And before I could answer them, my name was called out from behind. Looking over my shoulder, I grinned when I found Dean jogging down the hall towards me. Turning back to the Hufflepuff girls, I smiled apologetically, "Will you excuse me?"

They waved goodbye to me before continuing on their way. Waiting for Dean to catch up to me, I gestured for him to hurry up when he slowed down and took his sweet time. Recognising the gesture, he slowed down even more, and I frowned.

"Dean Thomas, hurry up or I'm leaving."

"This castle is huge!" he called out, laughing as he started to jog once again. "You don't even know you're way around. I give it two minutes tops before you get lost."

"Well if you cared so much, you'd hurry up!"

Rolling his eyes good-naturedly, he finally dropped into step beside me, "So, first day of lessons then? What have you been up to?"

"I spent most of it on the carriage," I complained, looking up into his face with a slight pout. "But I manage to get off it for Herbology. Although I got a little lost along the way, but Jones and Abbott found me."

"You've made some friends," he teased, ruffling my hair as we headed towards the hall. "And here I was thinking that I'd be your only friend within these castle walls."

"Oh please," I scoffed, "who said that I even considered you my friend."

"You're right – we've been around each other too long to be friends."

"Brother maybe?" I wondered, and he recoiled as if I'd slapped him. "Or not?"

"Definitely not like your brother." He stared down at me incredulously before his eyes narrowed at me. "Why do you keep wrapping your arms around yourself like that?"

"Is this castle always so bloody cold?" I grumbled as I rubbed my arms.

"Of course, you're cold," he exclaimed, gesturing towards me. "Just look at your uniform!"

I glanced down at my uniform with a frown. Whilst it wasn't as flimsy as the silk uniform we'd worn for our arrival; our formal uniform wasn't fit for a winter in the Hogwarts castle. Eyeing his uniform jumper a little jealously, I watched in mild surprise as he laughed before shrugging out of his robes. Reaching out to drape the robes across my shoulder, he took my bag to let me slide my hands into the sleeves which came down past my hands. He chuckled at that and didn't pass my bag back when I motioned for it.

"Just focus on walking without tripping over," he retorted, gesturing to his robes with were far too long for me.

I eyed the black material which trailed out behind me and I suddenly wanted to do an impersonation of their terrifying potions master. But I didn't. Instead, I grinned up at him. "Thanks."

"Whatever." Rolling his eyes, he took hold of my hand – which was still covered by his robe sleeves – and led me towards the hall. "I'd better lead you the entire way before you face plant and embarrass yourself."

Reaching the great hall, I went to head towards the Ravenclaw table to join some of my schoolmates when Dean began to lead me towards the Gryffindor table with a simple invitation of, "Join me."

Just like that, I found myself sitting amongst the lions who eyed me curiously. After Dean made vague introductions between myself and the fourth year Gryffindors, I started to answer every question they had about my school. Scanning the table, I reached out for the roast potatoes when Dean tutted and caught my hand.

"What?" I grumbled; he should have known better than to get in the way of me and my food.

Dean rolled his eyes and I watched silently as he folded back the sleeves of his robes, so my hands were revealed. And, as if he'd done nothing, he settled back into his seat and turned to look across the table. Picking up the jug of pumpkin juice, I poured him a glance to thank him, only to find Dean busy with loading some of my favourites onto my plate. He turned back to hand me my plate, chuckling in surprise when he found himself facing the glass of juice I outstretched towards him.

"What the hell are you two doing?" The question came from Weasley who stared between the two of us in surprise.

"Nothing?" I replied slowly, looking to Dean for an explanation.

"Ignore him," he suggested with a roll of his eyes as he set my plate in front of me.

I did my best to ignore Weasley and turned back to my food. And maybe it would have been a lot easier to do if I hadn't noticed that both of Weasley's best friends were eyeing the pair of us just as strangely. What was so weird about what had just happened?

All the visiting students had been given a map upon arriving to help us navigate our way around the castle. But, truthfully, it was absolutely useless. Or maybe I was just really bad at ready maps. As I stared down at the map in my hand with a frown, I tried turning it around to see if I was holding it the wrong way around. Only that didn't help either and served to only confuse me even more. Merlin, why was it so difficult to get to my Transfiguration class!

The map was suddenly ripped out of my hands, pulling a shocked gasp out of my mouth. Looking for the perpetrator, my eyes settled on Dean as he sidled up to me, staring down at the map with a frown. Folding it back up again, he shoved it into his trouser pockets before wrapping an arm around my shoulder as he walked.

"What are you doing?" I frowned up at him, contemplating whether or not I should reach across him to steal the map back. But if someone happened to walk past and see me reaching into his trouser pockets, what would they think?

"You're heading off to Transfiguration, right?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer. "Let me walk you, otherwise who knows how long it'll take for you to find your way."

"You're having a lot of fun teasing me," I muttered, elbowing him in the side. He removed his arm from around me, rubbing at his side. "If you ever come to Beauxbatons then expect to be treated in exactly the same way."

"I don't think you'd ever be able to wrap your arms around my shoulder, Rubio," he teased, quickening his steps until he was jogging away from me.

"What would your mother say if she knew you were teasing me like this," I called out to him, following his pace and jogging a short distance after him.

"She'd tell us to get married!"

"Merlin you're annoying."

Eyeing him dirtily, I watched as his steps came to a stop as he reached a classroom. He waited for me to come to his side before he gestured for me to head in first. Walking into the room, I looked around at the three seater tables and wondered whether the tables had always seated three students or if they had been enlarged to fit the additional students from the other schools. Regardless, I glanced back at Dean when he grabbed my shoulders to steer me past the other Beauxbatons fourth years and towards a desk where only Seamus was sitting.

The smaller Gryffindor made a show of dusting the seat in the middle before patting it for me to sit. Faking a frown, I settled down between the pair of them and got my things out in preparation for the lesson.

The lesson began when Professor McGonagall – the head of Gryffindor house, Dean leaned in to whisper in my ear – walked into the room. Just the presence of the older woman had a silence filling the classroom. Not even five minutes into the lesson, the boys on either side of me began to fidget with boredom and it was very distracting. I tried my best not to pay any attention to them, but it proved pointless when Seamus leaned in towards me.

"You probably know more about him then I do, right?" he whispered quietly, not needing to explain who 'him' was.

Propping my chin on my hands, I looked at him with a grin that matched his own mischievous one. "I do – we've been around each other for so long that I know all of his dirty secrets." Glancing conspicuously back at Dean, I was relieved to find that he was actually paying attention to the lesson now. "I'll tell you everything that you can use against him."

Seamus was outright grinning. "I think we'll be good friends, Rubio."

"Not too good friends," Dean piped up suddenly, linking his arm through mine and pulling me towards him.

"Weren't you listening to Professor McGonagall?" I asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"How could I possibly pay attention with the pair of you nattering away in my ear?" Pulling a face, I dragged my arm back to my side. "You're returning to the carriages after this, right? Want me to walk you? We can't have you getting lost again."

"There's no need," I assured him before gesturing to the other Beauxbatons students in the room. "We're just going to walk together."

"If you're sure," he said simply with a shrug.

"Dean," I started cautiously before he could begin to pay attention to the lesson again, "for the past few days, the boys in the castle keep approaching my friends and me. But then they run away? Is there something going on?"

He rolled his eyes. "It's the yule ball. Everyone's going mad trying to find a date in time for the night."

"Well, why do they run away even before they begin to ask?" I wondered, casting a contemplative glance at a certain red-headed wizard. On numerous occasions, he had been one of the wizards to run away.

"That's hardly our fault," he insisted. "If anything, you girls should stop walking around in groups. I swear, regardless of which of the three schools you're from, you girls are joined at the hips. It just makes it hard for any of us to get close to you in the first place."

I watched him for a long moment, picking up on the unsaid words. Leaning in closer to him, I watched with mild surprise as he drew away from me slightly. But I pressed on, lowering my voice as I teased, "Why does it sound like you're speaking from experience, Thomas?"

"Stop reading so far into things," he threw back, straightening up abruptly and making me sit up properly in surprise. Poking my arm with his index finger he muttered, "Just focus on the lesson – I'm not going to help you if you fall behind."

"Oh please," I scoffed, "I might not be the best at studies, but I'll definitely outdo you any day."

When the opportunity arrived for us to venture into the surrounding village, we flocked together for the chance. The carriages had become too stuffy; even if they had been magically resized on the inside to cater to all of our needs as well as having some classrooms for us to study in. Even on the occasions where we were out and about the castle, the number of students around the place were numerous and the appeal of exploring a new place was slowly beginning to wear off. The castle became less novel and more and more comfortable. Not that it was a bad thing.

But with the upcoming ball, all the girls wanted to head into town to get some space from prepubescent boys who shouted at the girls that they wanted to ask out. And there was also the matter of dresses. Whilst half of the girls had decided that they would have their parents send their dresses over, the other half had decided to see what the local dress shop was like. And as one of those girls, I found myself combing the racks as I searched for a dress.

I had already tried on multiple dresses and was almost one of the last girls to find her dress. The girls that had managed to find their dresses, and the ones that were having theirs sent over, were helping us to pick our dresses. But Merlin, I hated being the centre of attention and that was just what happened whenever I walked out of the changing room after trying on another dress.

I glanced up curiously when a hand reached out to pluck a dress from the rack. Fleur pulled out the dress, holding it out towards me with an encouraging smile.

"Try it," she said gently, thrusting the dress into my hands and pushing me into the changing room.

Obligingly, I walked into the changing room and tried on what must have been the seventh dress in the last few hours. Without bothering to even look in the mirror, I prepared to step out to show the other girls when Fleur knocked on the door. Her voice carried across to the other side as she asked whether she could come in. Opening the door, I watched the older woman step into the small room and look me over from head to toe. A slow smile spread across her face and I hesitated, not having gotten that reaction in the other dresses.

"Fleur?"

"This one," she assured me. "It's perfect."

"Really?" I questioned hesitantly, turning to look at myself in the mirror.

The older woman came up behind me, gathering my hair into a bun at the top of my head and tying it with the spare band she always carried on her wrist. "A beautiful English rose. But of course, it depends on whether you like it or not?"

I finally let myself look in the mirror, eyeing my reflection for a short moment. And then, a small smile appeared on my face before I nodded. "Let me just change again and then I'll pay. We can head out once everyone's found their dresses."

Fleur obligingly stepped out of the room and I changed back into my own clothes. After handling the cheque, I joined the other girls as we waited for everyone to find their dresses. It wasn't long and then, once the shopkeeper had assured us that the dresses would be sent up to Hogwarts, we stepped out into the busy street. Walking arm and arm with Gabrielle, I listened to the younger girl as she told me about a sweetshop she'd heard the Hogwarts students raving about. The girls leading the front of the group slowed their steps and peering over their shoulders, I smiled at the sight of Dean walking towards us with his dormmates. His dormmates, startled by the sheer number of girls in one place, actually flinched a little and I stifled a grin at that. Merlin, if the sight of girls was so scary to Potter, how on earth was he going to cope in this tournament?

As his dormmates went to walk away, Dean waved them away with a smile and laughed slightly at just how relieved they looked to be getting away from us. Peering around the girls standing in front of me, Dean grinned and gestured for me to come out.

"Let's hang out," he suggested with a smile, seemingly unfazed by the number of eyes on him.

Slipping out from the group of girls, I waved them away before turning to link my arm through Dean's. Smiling up at him, I grinned, "Lead the way."

"Where do you want to go first?"

"Somewhere we can get some hot chocolate. It's absolutely freezing," I said with a smile and watched as he winced slightly. "What is it?"

He made a face before muttering begrudgingly, "There's Puddifoot's."

"Puddifoot's?" I repeated curiously. Without a word, he pointed down the street towards a pink monstrosity and it was obvious that Dean didn't want to step foot in there. "We can just go somewhere else?"

"I thought you wanted some hot chocolate?" Without giving me the chance to answer, he took my hand and lead me into the shop which was filled with nauseating couples.

I sat down at one of the tables, throwing a disdainful glance at the couples around me as Dean headed off to get our hot chocolates. When he returned to the table, handing my mug to me, I picked some of the cream from the top and licked it from my finger.

"What were you boys up to then?" I asked.

"It's a dire situation," he admitted, rolling his eyes slightly. "They called a meeting and we've actually set a deadline for finding a date. If someone doesn't find a date by then, they have to go through some horrendous punishment."

"And that's supposed to help how?"

"Something about motivation."

"That makes no sense." Taking a sip from my mug, I eyed him closely, "But you don't seem particularly worried."

"I'm not," he admitted truthfully with a shrug. "It'll be easy for me to ask the person I want to."

I watched him for a moment, realising that he truly wasn't nervous, before I teased, "That's lucky for some. We've even made a deal in the carriages. If we don't find a date, we're just going to pair off with each other. I think I was paired with one of the sixth year boys? If we do end up going together, it'll just be so bloody awkward. I've never even spoken a word to him before."

"I'll save you the trouble," Dean declared, watching me over the top of his steaming mug. "Let's go to the ball together."

It was my turn to watch him as I raised the mug to my lips. We shared a look and I tried to fight a smile. But it didn't work. Instead, I hid it behind my mug, nodding my head slowly. He made no attempt to even try to hide his. Instead, he was full out grinning, as he picked up his own mug to take a sip.

I had a lot of memories with Dean. Memories that made me feel happy, sad, angry, excited or anything in between. But I didn't think I'd ever made such an awkward memory with Dean as I did on the day of the ball. Or rather, the beginning of the ball had been awkward as we both had no idea how to approach one another in such a situation. Merlin, we were friends but what were we doing, acting as each other's dates to a ball of all places? And yet, actually being each other's dates made sense. It wouldn't have made sense for anyone else to be his date.

Strangely enough, as we shared our first dance for the night, it was our mutual acknowledgement of the awkwardness that had it rapidly disappearing. His hold on me slowly softened and I relaxed into his arms, letting him move me around the floor.

"Merlin Dean," I whispered conspiratorially as we passed Potter who looked as if he was flailing on the dance floor, "I hope you have better dance skills than Potter. Have you practised at all or should I be prepared for you to step on my feet?"

"I'll have you know that we've been practising, thank you very much."

My eyebrows rose in surprise. "Really?"

He nodded before ducking his head a little bashfully as he admitted, "McGonagall taught us all. We've all been sneaking practices in whenever we get the chance. Behind our dormmates backs, of course."

"Of course," I grinned, laughing slightly when he twirled me under his arm. "You wouldn't want anyone knowing your dirty secret, now would you?"

"More like we wouldn't want them to have something to embarrass us with."

He twirled me again and I stumbled slightly in my step when an arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me quickly away from Dean. Startled, I blinked up at Seamus' grinning face. Looking back to Dean, I couldn't help but grin at the pure shock on his face as he stared down at Seamus' date who had wound up in his arms. Looking at me for some sort of help, he shrugged and started to dance with her anyway when I turned back to face Seamus.

"Is there any particular reason you've decided to abduct me, Mr Finnegan. Or is it just something that you do every now and again?"

"I thought we had a deal," he started as we rocked slightly from side to side. "You were going to tell me all of Dean's dirty little secrets? I swear, sometimes the tosser is so unnecessarily secretive."

"He's always been like that," I admitted with a shrug. "But what kind of information, Finnegan? Anything in particular?"

"Every embarrassing thing you know about him."

"That'll be a long list." Seamus laughed and we both turned to look at my date as he danced, clearly annoyed by the change in his partner. "But, seeing as he's my date for tonight, I don't think it's right for me to make him annoyed." Just as Seamus went to frown, I added, "I can tell you tomorrow though?"

He laughed aloud before announcing, "I knew we'd be good friends."

And before I could say another word, Seamus spun me out of his arms and directly into someone else's. Bracing myself against a chest, I grinned up at my original date for the night. Dean looked down at me in surprise before grinning once again.

"What were you two talking about?" he asked curiously as the music came to an end. The couples slowly walked off from the dance floor and Dean pressed a hand to my back to lead me to the table where Seamus and his date were already standing.

"You," I answered truthfully, taking him by surprise.

"Me? What about me?"

"I can't tell you, I'm afraid," I teased as I sat down at the table.

Dean settled down on the chair beside me. Knowing that he wouldn't get any information out of me, he switched his target to his best friend who was also doing his very best to remain mum. I watched the two friends with a smile that only grew when, under the table, Dean reached out to link his fingers through my own.

The Christmas holidays finally arrived, and I had sought special permission from our headmistress to take the train home. It just didn't make sense for me to take the carriage back to Beauxbatons, then to floo to the French ministry and then to take a portkey home. Not only was it much more practical to take the train, it was also less time-consuming. Whilst the train ride itself was long, when compared to the total time my original journey would have taken, it was relatively short. When the train finally reached the station, Dean and I had clambered off together, only to be greeted by our equally confused families. The adults had a right laugh at how ridiculous the situation was before we were forced to separate to head off to our own plans.

Each day of the holiday past by quickly, like they always did, and before I knew it, Christmas Eve had arrived. I was hanging up the last of the decorations around the house – extremely last-minute ones that Dad had brought home in the middle of the night as if the dozens of boxes of decorations we already owned wasn't enough. The doorbell rang and mum, the only person free at the moment, opened it.

"Dean's here," she called out after a moment and I tried not to smile so quickly but it was impossible.

"I'm in here!" I called back, hopping off the stool in time to see Dean walk into the room with arms full of presents. "What on earth?"

"Mum said to put these under your tree in preparation for tomorrow," he explained, kneeling before the tree and arranging the parcels.

Once he was finished, he dusted his hands on his trousers and rose to his feet. Hesitating a little awkwardly on his feet, Dean glanced towards my mum when she walked into the room to hand Dean a mug of hot chocolate.

Not recognising the odd atmosphere, she patted Dean on the shoulder and assured him, "Why don't you stay for a while? The boys are out visiting Santa, but they'll be back soon?"

"I have some presents for the girls," I said suddenly, excusing myself to duck up into my room. But he followed after me step by step.

Merlin, just last year – no even weeks ago, I'd had no problem being alone with him in my room like this. But now, now it was downright annoying that I was so affected by something so stupid. He must have realised it too as he hesitated slightly in his step before sitting down on the bed.

Kneeling beside the bed, I reached under it to pull out the presents we'd gotten for his family. Just as I reached under to pull out the final present, I started slightly when Dean kneeled suddenly beside me. Watching him cautiously, my eyes flickered between the ever-shrinking distance between us until there was nothing left. He took my face in his hands, tilting it towards his own and kissing me once, twice and –

Without warning, the door opened.

Pushing roughly against his chest with enough force to send him sprawling, I rose quickly to my feet. Staring apologetically down at Dean, I watched as he hurried to his feet and we both turned towards the open door where mum stood, watching us with blatant amusement. Shuffling away from Dean slightly, I cleared my throat awkwardly.

Mum, clearly having the time of her life, turned to leave the room. She hesitated before closing the door. Considering again, she pushed the door fully open and left it that way. Neither of us could bring ourselves to look at the other. I didn't even glance his way when he gathered the presents into his arms and went to leave the room.

He paused in the doorway, clearing his throat before he called out, "I should probably get back now. I'll see you soon."

"Definitely," I murmured, finally bringing myself to look at him. And just like that, we were both grinning.