Professor Zabini had this knack of knowing exactly when to end the lesson. Today was no exception; he dismissed the class the moment the bell rang to signal the end of the lesson. He returned to his desk, placing the essays we'd submitted into his bag as he prepared to leave the potions lab. But he would wait, like he always did, until every student had left the lab so he could lock it behind him. There was a rumour that he'd taken to doing that because of an attempt someone made of sneaking a love potion into his cauldron during his first year of teaching.

I focused on packing away my work as Aliyyah chatted away happily beside me. Her words trailed off mid-sentence, making me look curiously towards her. She watched the approaching Hufflepuff and I did a double take when I saw the blue haired boy walking towards our desk. Coming to a stop before our desk, he grinned at us and Aliyyah and I shared a look, waiting for him to say something.

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me?" he questioned, my eyebrows rising at the blunt question. He hadn't even bothered to say hello and how were we supposed to know which one of us he was talking to?

It was as if Aliyyah had read my thoughts as she questioned, "Which one of us are you talking to, Lupin?"

"To Jones," he said with a bashful smile, rubbing the back of his head. Turning to Aliyyah he added, "Not that someone wouldn't be lucky to go to Hogsmeade with you Shafiq."

Aliyyah rolled her eyes, nudging me in the side when it became evident that I wasn't going to say anything. I was still recovering from the shock that he wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me, especially when I'd probably spoken less than 100 words to him during our entire time at Hogwarts.

Lupin cleared his throat, looking to me with a hopeful expression. "What about it, Jones? Hogsmeade?"

I contemplated for a second, coming past my shock. I would have said yes, had I not looked past him and seen his friends joking from over his shoulder. One of them gestured in our vague direction and I sighed; of course. Rising to my feet, I slung my bag over my shoulder and prepared to leave.

"Ha ha," I deadpanned as I walked around him, "Very funny. What was it that your friends said to you? 'I bet you can't get the ice queen to go to Hogsmeade with you?' Was that it?"

Brushing past him before he could answer me, I gave Aliyyah a grateful smile when she threw him a foul glare and walked after me. Linking her arm through mine she began to mutter about how Hufflepuffs had become such douchebags and I was grateful that she didn't tell me that I was over reacting. She, out of everyone, knew the real reason that I'd taken to guarding my heart so that it was impenetrable. She knew why I had no issue being called the resident ice queen.

I thought that my blunt dismissal of Lupin had ended the matter but clearly I had been wrong. He appeared in front of me within seconds after having run out of the classroom. Arms spread out of either side of him, he blocked the path so I couldn't just brush past him.

"What?" I questioned coldly, watching something indecipherable flicker through his eyes.

"I really want to go to Hogsmeade with you," he explained earnestly, eyes on mine.

Narrowing my eyes, I reasoned that he didn't seem like he was lying. His body language certainly didn't point towards that. Neither did the earnest expression on his face.

"You weren't put up to this?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow.

He lowered his arms, placing one on the spot above his heart. "I swear."

Well.

"Why?"

"Why?" He chuckled as if he couldn't believe what I'd asked him. "Because you're cute."

My eyes widened at the blunt confession and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop the colour from blooming on my cheeks. Clearing my throat, I looked away from him and pointedly ignored the giggle Aliyyah gave at his words. Wasn't she supposed to be the one with the clear head in this situation?

"So?" He questioned again, tucking his hands into his pockets as he stared down at me. "Hogsmeade?"

I couldn't bring myself to look at him, even as I nodded yes.

"Great." I could hear the smile in his voice as he went on to say, "I'll meet you outside the great hall?"

"Sure," I said quietly, biting my lip as I watched him closely. "Sounds like a plan."

"Sounds like a date," he corrected, eyes twinkling with mischief.

I would have sworn that his eyes changed colour to match mine. And I would have blamed it on my eyes had he not currently been sporting turquoise blue hair. The small change rendered me speechless.

Linking my arm through Aliyyah's, I hurried away from him and heard him chuckle behind him. I distantly heard him murmur 'cute' and dismissed it, lest I end up blushing even more at his words.

As we approached the common room Aliyyah broke her silence and dissolved in giggles and the moment we crossed into the common room she teased me that I had finally managed to get my long-term crush to notice me. She even went on to ask me how I'd managed to do it and honestly, I had no clue.

When the day of my date arrived, my dormmates woke me up early to make sure that I didn't oversleep and, in my half-asleep state, they rummaged through my clothes to pick what I'd wear for the day. I was simply too tired to bother arguing against them and wore what I was given before sitting down to let them handle my hair and makeup. Personally, I didn't understand why they wanted to make me over so much. I'd already attended this school with Lupin for six years now – he knew what I looked like. So really, what was the point? But I kept those thoughts to myself and thanked them for their help.

When we reached the great hall for breakfast, the girls even offered to accompany the pair of us down to Hogsmeade and I only declined because I thought that it would be too awkward. But personally, I would have liked to have walked with them, just so I wasn't left alone with a boy who I hadn't spoken properly to. What would we even talk about?

I changed my mind when we exited the great hall and I found Lupin waiting with his friends. Godric, I wasn't prepared to walk up to them on my own. Reaching out to take Aliyyah's hand, I sent her a look and after a few moments, all the girls were aware of the change of plans. Spotting our small group, Lupin waved us over.

"Should we get going?" he asked once we were beside his friends. He made no comment on the group of our friends who were walking with us, "We don't want the carriages to fill up."

We made up a large group, taking up an entire carriage by ourselves, as we rode down to Hogsmeade. There wasn't really a moment for us to talk between ourselves and I wondered if that annoyed Lupin. But he didn't say anything so I thought it didn't. When we reached the village, he was quick to gesture our friends away and I watched as his dormmates ribbed his gently about being impatient.

I briefly caught Aliyyah's eyes as she was led away by the rest of our friends. She sent me a final encouraging grin and I smiled reassuringly at her. What were the chances that I was going to screw this up majorly. Although, that being said –

"So, where do you want to go first?" he asked, pulling me from my thoughts as they grew increasingly dark. "What about Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop?"

The face I made was a purely visceral reaction. I'd had my fair share of memories made in that tea shop, each one more horrible than the last. Merlin, I never wanted to set foot in that shop again. I hesitated, wondering if he suggested the tea shop because he wanted to go there. "Actually –"

He chuckled, "Don't worry, I'm not going to force you to go into the tea shop." At my grateful smile he admitted, "I've actually had my fair share of horrendous memories in that shop."

"You're not the only one." Biting my lip tentatively, I looked up at the taller boy.

He took one look at my expression and gestured for me to speak freely. "Is there somewhere else you'd rather go?"

"Spintwitches Sporting Needs?" I suggested hesitantly, watching as his eyebrows flew to his hairline in obvious surprise. "Do you not want to?"

"No – no I do," he assured me as we began to walk towards the shop, "It's just – I never thought a girl would choose Spintwitches over Madam Puddifoot's."

I shrugged and said nothing as we walked into the shop. I made a beeline towards the quidditch gloves; I was desperately in need of some new ones. Peering down at the display, I picked up a pair of dragon skin gloves before growing aware of the eyes trained on my face.

"What?" I asked defensively, looking at him from the corner of my eye.

"Your face lights up when you're excited," he noted as if it was a casual observation. I cleared my throat, picking up a different set of gloves to compare with the first. From the corner of my eye I saw Lupin grin at my embarrassment as he leaned against the counter, watching me with a small smile, "You know, I've never taken a girl here on a date."

"Well maybe you need to get better taste in girls," I muttered, throwing a look at him.

"I don't know about that." He reached out to tuck some of my hair behind my ear, fingers brushing against my cheek as he brought his hand back to his side. "I happen to think that I have pretty good taste."

Colour rushed to my cheeks and I turned away from him to hide it as I murmured, "Well, you would."

He chuckled but said nothing else as I decided on which pair of gloves to buy. Once I had made my purchase – which I paid for despite his protests – we stepped back out into the street. As we walked along the pavement, I noted that he was walking closer to me than he had when we first arrived. But I saw no need to mention it. In fact, I might have moved closer to him as a result. He definitely noticed that and grinned, turning his eyes skyward for a moment.

"Where to next?" he questioned, looking down at me.

"Why don't you pick," I suggested and gestured to the bag of my shopping that he was carrying. He insisted on carrying it for me, despite the fact that I could have easily carried it myself. "I picked Spintwitches so it only makes sense for you to pick the next one."

He was teasing when he suggested, "Madam Puddifoot's?"

I shook my head, speeding up to walk past him and called out over my shoulder, "Fine, but this'll have to be a one-time thing then."

"Well we can't have that," he declared, using his long legs to catch up to me. "I definitely want to repeat this."

Even during the summer it was difficult to be graced with the summer sun when your school was in a remote part of Scotland. But, Hogwarts was finally being graced by the heat and it seemed like the rest of the summer was going to continue to shower us with the glorious warmth. It drove students out of the school building and onto the grounds in an attempt to make the most of the heat until it disappeared again.

Me and my friends were no different. As it was the weekend there was no lessons and we took advantage of this and headed out to Black Lake to reserve out space under the trees. I was resting against one of the tree trunks, listening as Maria was telling us about something that happened during her Care of Magical Creatures lesson where Hagrid had introduced them to some creature which she said 'must have been a violation of at least a dozen school rules'. To cut a long story short, the creature had almost escape and she was certain it was going to haunt her dreams for the rest of the term.

Aliyyah rolled her eyes, and went to say something when Lupin's voice spoke over hers, "Mind if we join you?"

We all looked in the direction where his voice had come from and I smiled at the sight of him. He returned it with one of his own which his friends saw and began to tease him for it. I remembered his question and hesitated with my answer. Merlin, we both knew that we were going to grilled about our not-quite relationship. Was he willing to sit through that?

"Sure," Aliyyah piped up before I could decline. She had been sitting beside me but rose to her feet and moved to sit between Jiyeon and Iris.

Lupin saw the action, recognised its intention and threw her a grateful look as he settled into the empty space beside me. His friends made themselves at home, dotting themselves between the group of us. I prepared myself quietly, knowing that it wasn't going to be long before one of them started to tease us.

I was right as his friend piped up, wriggling his eyebrows as he teased, "You seem close."

"Oh, shut up Kai," Lupin muttered, closing his eyes as he leaned his head against the tree trunk.

"Don't go and act all shy," his other friend – the one we shared potions with – chastised, "Merlin knows you don't stop talking about Jones when we're back in the dorm."

"I know what you're trying to do Hamish," Lupin muttered, opening his eyes to throw his friends a look. "Your attempts to embarrass me aren't going to work so stop it."

He didn't deny it, I realised with a start, looking to him. Lupin looked down at me with a grin, meeting my shocked eyes with mischief brimming in his. Leaning closer to me, he lowered his voice so only I would hear his next words.

"What? Do you not tell your friends about Jones?" He pretended to be offended, "Isn't that what girls do about their crushes?"

"Who said I had a crush on you?" I threw back.

"No one had to say it." He nudged me with his shoulder, "Your actions tell me everything I need to know."

Someone cleared their throat, shattering the moment between us and I looked around the small circle. All of the girls had their eyes trained onto Lupin who, realising this, straightened up under their eyes. He glanced at me from the corner of his eyes as if to ask what he'd done wrong and I could do nothing more than smile when I realised they were being protective over me. Gryffindors always looked after their own.

"Look," Jiyeon began bluntly, narrowing her eyes at Lupin, "we've all been witness to her disastrous relationships and we've seen what they've done to her so we're really reluctant to just let anyone date her." Lupin opened his mouth as if to protest but decided against it when she arched an eyebrow at him. "Frankly you haven't managed to impress all of us yet."

"You've impressed me," Maria piped up, ignoring the look Jiyeon threw her way.

"Me too," Aliyyah added, grinning when Lupin threw her a thankful glance.

"Well I don't like you," Iris added icily, throwing a look at Hamish, "mainly because you're friends with idiots. Which, therefore, makes you an idiot by association."

"So, what do I need to do to impress you?" Lupin asked, crossing his arms. "Answer some questions?"

"What are your intentions with her?" Jiyeon demanded from across the group. "Because if you're going to play around with her, then I'll feed you to the giant squid."

"I'm going to get you to fall hook, line and sinker for me," he admitted, looking at me from the corner of his eye. "That way she can feel the same way about me that I feel about her."

He wouldn't notice that his words were beginning to sway my friends because instead he had focused on the way I was shying away from him because of his words.

He muttered to himself, "It's a bit difficult to do when I haven't even been able to kiss her yet."

Only I heard his words. Clearing my throat to get his attention, I nudged him teasingly.

"Maybe you should borrow some of my Gryffindor courage?"

He leaned in close to me. "Deal."

Before I could react, he pressed his lips against mine, giving me a slow kiss which managed to render me a little breathless. I tuned out the sound of cheering around us and there was even some grumbling about public displays of affection. Drawing back from him I caught the colour shifting from his eyes and hair as they momentarily returned to their natural colour. I had read somewhere that it only happened when a metamorphagus lost control over the manipulation. Was a kiss all it took for me to make him lose control?

He kissed me again before I could follow my line of thought. This time I wrapped my arms around his neck, curling my hands into his sandy brown hair. When we drew away, I briefly realised that our friends had abandoned us. Teddy realised this too and manoeuvred himself to lay his head in my lap. I stared down at him in confusion.

"I didn't get a lot of sleep last night," he explained, closing his eyes and throwing a hand over them.

I watched him incredulously for a few seconds before sighing and settling back against the tree trunk. Looking down at him, I ran my hands through his hair and watched as it slowly morphed back to his regular turquoise blue as he gained control of himself.

Interesting.

Teddy had developed the habit of walking me back to the Gryffindor common room after our shared potions class and who was I to stop him from doing something that he so clearly wanted to do? We walked together, hand in hand, as we approached the Gryffindor common room. He was talking to me about some interesting research he'd come across which was still in its developmental stage when he stopped abruptly in his step.

"Teddy?" I looked up at him, seeing the way he was looking further down the hallway with furrowed eyebrows.

He called out, "Harry?"

It seemed like he was looking at an older man as he walked towards us. The closer he came, the easier it was to recognise Harry James Potter, the saviour of the wizarding world and now a renowned auror. I recognised him easily from his chocolate frog card and remembered with a start that Teddy had told me once that the powerful auror was his godfather.

Godric, I wasn't ready to meet him.

Trying to pull my hand out from Teddy's, I was planning to make a quick getaway. But Teddy wasn't going to let that happen. Tightening his hold on my hand, he looked down at me with a grin.

"I think it's time to see if he approves, don't you?"

Narrowing my eyes at him, I threw him a glare when he only chuckled. He let go of my hand and I was tempted to hurry away from him and I would have done so, had the older wizard not stopped beside us. Mr Potter looks curiously between Teddy and me, coming to his own conclusions about our relationship. I released a deep breath to steady myself before turning towards the older wizard.

Teddy saved me from having to introduce myself as he spoke to his godfather. "What are you doing here?"

"Professor McGonagall invited me round for tea," he explained, turning his eyes from me and to his godson. The two shared a secret grin which Mr Potter coughed to hide. "I think she's trying to convince me to become the new Defence Professor. The current one is retiring at the end of the year."

"And are you going to take it?"

Mr Potter shook his head, "Not with James coming to Hogwarts next year – I don't think he'd be pleased to have his dad teaching him. But if I get offered the role again later on then I might reconsider." He contained himself for long enough and looked back to me, raising an eyebrow as he asked Teddy teasingly, "This is the girlfriend then?"

Before I could protest to being called his girlfriend, Teddy took my hand in his again and grinned at his godfather. "Yes, she is – beautiful, isn't she?"

Mr Potter chuckled, clearly a little shocked by the way Teddy was behaving. I resisted the urge to push him away from me; Godric he was so embarrassing.

"Teddy's told me a lot about you, Miss Jones," Mr Potter said with a smile as he looked back to me. "Not that he's pleased I told you that."

And sure enough, he wasn't. Teddy glared grumpily at his godfather who was grinning mischievously back at him, seemingly pleased to have embarrassed his godson. Merlin knows it was time for him to be the embarrassed one, not me.

Mr Potter stepped towards me, lowering his voice so only I heard his words, "He owled me for a lot of advice on how to ask you out – so take care of him for me?"

"I – I will," I said back quietly, looking at him with mild surprise.

He drew back from me, seemingly satisfied with my words and grinned when Teddy looked suspiciously between the pair of us, not having heard a word of what we'd said.

"What did you tell her?" he asked to Mr Potter but focusing his eyes on me.

"That I'm glad you got the girl."

Teddy only grew further embarrassed by his godfather's teasing words. Having heard enough, he began to pull me away from his godfather. We inched past Mr Potter who chuckled at Teddy's behaviour as if he still saw him as an adorable little child. I personally still found him adorable, but he was nowhere near being a child anymore.

As we walked away from Mr Potter, he called out from behind us, "Make sure you bring her round for dinner during the summer Teddy! Ginny will want to meet the girl you've mentioned in your every letter home."

"You write to your godparents about me?" I questioned in surprise.

His ears reddened under my eyes as he asked defensively, "What? Don't you write home about me?"

Godric, he was beginning to get on my nerves. Teddy had somehow managed to find out that I was helping Pince out in the library today – he had probably been told by Aliyyah and had hunted me down only to annoy me. He wasn't here to help me. No, he was here to remind me that the work I was doing was purely voluntary and I could leave whenever I wanted. He refused to leave me alone unless I kissed him. Randy bugger.

"Look Teddy," I said with a sigh, coming to a stop in one of the aisles. Teddy, who had been following after me, stopped beside me with an innocent smile, "You want me to leave with you, yes? Well I'm not planning on leaving until I finish putting the rest of the books away so why don't you make yourself useful?"

I handed him a small pile of books which he held with a frown. He peered down at them with a sigh before raising his eyes to mine. Recognising his hesitance, I decided to convince him. If he was busy then he was less likely to bother me.

"If you help me with this then I'll be finished quicker and after that, I'm all yours." He didn't look convinced and I decided to just go for it. Looking around to see if the coast was clear, I promised quietly, "One kiss for every book you put away."

I had his interest then. He looked to the pile of books in his hand and counted them – 5 – with a frown. Reaching out quickly, he snagged the rest of the pile from table tops and deciding that those weren't enough, he took the book trolley from my hands. I gave him an incredulous look but couldn't help but giggle at his eagerness.

He grinned at me, leaning against the trolley slightly to say, "Harry owled to remind me to invite you over for dinner. So, what about it?"

I hesitated, walking further along the aisle and picking up some books that had been haphazardly discarded once they had been used. Teddy followed right behind me, pushing the trolley in front of him. Clutching the books against my chest, I bit my bottom my lip and looked back Teddy who was waiting patiently for my answer.

"I'll think about it," I murmured.

He tried his best not to frown and barely managed that. "There's only a few days left until the end of the school year."

"I – just, give me that time to think about it?" Stepping towards him, I kissed the frown from his lips.

When I pulled back from him, he gave me a small smile, reaching out to tuck some hair behind my ear.

"You know I can't think when you do that," he whined playfully, pressing a kiss to my forehead before drawing back. He gestured back toward the trolley and made a face, "If you need me, I'll be putting these away." And off he went, pushing the trolley in front of him only to stop after a few steps, looking back to me. "Don't even think about going back on your promise. I've counted about 40 books on this trolley and I'm going to collect every kiss."

"Ok, ok," I gestured for him to hurry up. "Now get going."

We headed off in opposite directions of the library to return the books back in the right sections. I looked down at the last textbook in my hand before heading back towards the earlier aisles, trying to find the poisonous plants section. I found the right section, putting the book away and wiping my hands clean when I was finished.

I headed off to find Teddy when –

"Aren't you taking this a bit far, Teddy?" I frowned, looking through one of the empty spaces in the bookshelf to find Teddy talking to one of his roommates. Whatever the roommate was saying it wasn't pleasing Teddy who was glaring at him. "You're falling for Jones, Teddy! Helga, you've already fallen for her. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?"

The words of the unfamiliar Hufflepuff sent a chill right through me. Godric, this wasn't happening. I looked back to Teddy, my boyfriend, who tightened his hold on the trolley. His knuckles turned white from the force and he let out a long breath.

"Drop it," he said forcefully.

He didn't deny it, I realised with a start. He didn't deny it.

The other Hufflepuff wasn't going to listen as he demanded, "Have you forgotten the dare? You were dared to get her to fall for you, not –"

I took in a shuddering breath, hurrying away from the bookshelf and accidentally knocking some books over in my haste. Crouching down, I picked the books up with shaking hands and took a deep breath to steady myself. Godric, this wasn't happening. I had been so, so incredibly careful not to go through this all over again. Teddy chose that moment to come around the corner, walking into the aisle where I was currently crouched on the floor. Upon seeing me, he froze.

Of course he did. The asshole had been caught in the act and I –

Seeing the books scattered on the floor, he hurried towards me and bent down to help me pick them up. We were both knelt on the floor and I swallowed thickly, finding myself going out of my way to make sure that I didn't touch him. This was all one big cruel joke.

"Are you alright?" he asked quietly, scanning my face as we picked up the books. I couldn't help but wonder if he was looking for a sign that I had overheard his words.

I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of –

"Did you get hurt somewhere?"

"I'm fine," I said quietly. He wasn't convinced, looking over me carefully. I had no idea why I did, but the moment his eyes met mine, I gave him a reassuring smile. "Really, Teddy, I'm fine."

I spent the following days wondering what to do and how to handle situation. None of my friends knew what I had overheard because they'd react by hexing him. Not only would they get in trouble but he'd realise that I'd fallen for him and he'd win his dare. And I wasn't willing to let him know that yet.

It had become a constant source of my worries, even while I was on the train back home. I had been uncharacteristically silent, staring out of the window. Even when Teddy sat beside me and took my hand in his, I did nothing more than take my hands out of his. I couldn't stand even the thought of him touching me anymore.

The train pulled into the station and I hurried to alight from it, waving a quick goodbye to my friends. I just needed to get away from him and then I could breathe easier. But he wasn't willing to let me get some peace.

The moment I set foot onto the platform, Teddy took my hand in his halting me from going off in search of my parents. He did a good job of looking concerned, I had to give him that. Merlin, after Hogwarts he could even go into acting! He'd certainly done a good job of deceiving me all this time.

"Is something wrong?" he asked quietly as I lowered my eyes from his. Merlin, even looking at him had become painful. "You were silent the entire way back. If something's brothering you then you can talk to me about it. You know that, right?"

Letting out a breath, I pulled my hand back from his. Screwing my eyes shut for a moment, I forced myself to bring my Gryffindor courage to the surface and met his gaze head on. If I was going to do this then I wasn't going to cower whilst I did it. I was a Gryffindor!

"Godric I can't do this," I murmured, feeling a second of doubt. Teddy heard my words, giving a concerned call of my name which I ignored in favour of burrowing my doubt deep inside me. I wasn't going to let myself be played around with any longer.

"What's the matter?" he asked again, stepping closer to me. His expression fell as I took a reflexive step back from him.

"I know about the dare," I declared, meeting his eyes. His eyes widened and I could just see his thoughts racing in his head but I was going to be the one to talk now. He would just have to listen silently, "Merlin, you managed to do it Teddy. You actually got me to fall for you so you better wipe that fake shock from your face and show your real happiness. You won so you can finally show your real bloody colours."

He went to say something, stepping towards me. "Listen –"

"No," I shook my head, halting his approach, "You listen to me. Do you think that I don't know about the ice queen rumours that follow me around the school? Honestly, I've heard it all; I'm unfeeling, I'm cold and heartless. And where did those rumours come from? The fact that I rejected each boy before they could properly ask me out. Well look where finally accepting one got me."

His expression grew more animated, eyebrows pulling together as he tried to interject something. I didn't let him. Continuing to speak over him, I watched as he shut his mouth and was forced to listen without speaking a word.

"Merlin, every one of my relationships has been the result of a joke pulled by some twisted asshole. Do you want to know why I cut myself off from boys and made sure that I never had a relationship with anyone?" He knew what I was referring to, of course he did. Godric, the entire castle knew but I said it anyway. Taking in a shuddering breath, I forced myself to continue; I'd already come this far "Because in my fourth year some bastard decided to steal my first kiss, become my first boyfriend, my first – everything. And it was all for some fucking bet. This time it's a dare – of all things. So congratulations Edward Remus Lupin, I hope you're pleased that you won and I never want to see you again."

As I came to the end of my speech, a deep breath left me. Reaching out for my trunk, I turned to walk away from him, content that I had said all I needed to say. All that was left was for me to get over him and move on. I had enough time to do that; the entire holiday if that was what it took.

He hurried around me, cutting in front of me to block my path. Before I could try and move around him, he reached out to hold my trunk in place. Godric he didn't know when to quit.

"You've got to let me explain," he pleaded earnestly and I scoffed; he was still carrying on with this act. "Please. You have no idea how sorry I am about –"

"Save it," I cut in, forcefully pulling my trunk away from him. "I don't want to listen to anything you have to say."

I dodged past him before he could try to stop me from leaving and came face to face with Mr Potter. He looked like he was going to say something, whether it was to me or to his godson, I didn't know and I didn't plan on staying around long enough to find out. Dodging around him, I hurried down the platform in search of my parents.

When I found them, I wrapped my arms around my mother, hugging her close. The action took her by surprise but she did nothing more than pat my back slowly.

"What's the matter, darling?" she questioned quietly, clearly concerned.

I shook my head, holding her tighter to me. Feigning calm, I muttered into her hair, "It's nothing. I just missed you."

The summer flew by in the blink of an eye; I had been named head girl and spent every waking moment of the holiday trying to push Teddy further and further from my mind. It was harder to do because I had been crushing on the dickhead before he had decided to play such a cruel trick on me. But I had long since learnt to push those feelings away.

Even now, as I walked through the train in search of the prefect's carriage to meet the head boys – and Merlin I already knew who the head boy was – I was mentally making sure that I was prepared to see him again. What would it be like to see him again, after months apart? Would I hate just the sight of him? Would I need to remind myself that there was no need to reach for my wand? Or would I just find his presence emotionally draining?

My friends had expressed their concern about me going to this meeting because I had finally filled them in on everything that had happened. They knew who the head boy was and were reluctant to let me anywhere near him but this was something that I needed to do. It wouldn't do to continue cowering behind them.

Upon reaching the prefect's carriage, I stepped inside and instantly saw the only other person in the carriage. All of my predictions had been wrong; I didn't feel the need to reach for my wand, I certainly didn't hate him and his presence wasn't emotionally draining either. If anything, I was glad to see him. But that lasted for a few moments before I began to worry about how gaunt-looking he had become over the holiday.

Clearing my throat, I dismissed the concern and approached him; I wasn't going to let the bad history between us stop me from doing my duty. He had been leaning against one of the tables, looking over a piece of parchment before looking up at the opening of the door. He continued to watch me as I made my way through the carriage, heading towards him as he waited for me to say something. But I had nothing to say to him.

As I drew closer to him, he rose to his feet but I didn't bother acknowledging his presence. Reaching around him to pick up a copy of the patrol schedule, I made a face when I realised that we were supposed to share the majority of our patrols. Well, so much for not seeing him.

He cleared his throat to get my attention and simply got a raised eyebrow in return. With a sigh, he said tentatively, "I'm glad to see that you got head girl. I can't think of anyone who deserves it more than you do."

I looked to him then and internally cursed him for looking so hopeful as if he was waiting for me to speak to him, as if he had missed me. He had no right to be looking at me like that.

"What time are the other prefects supposed to get here?" I asked, turning my attention away from him, "I wasn't a prefect last year but you were. So, you're bound to know, right?"

"In about 10 minutes," I heard him briefly murmur.

And so, we sat in absolute silence for 10 minutes. I had taken a seat, pretending to look over the parchments spread across the table that he was leaning on. He had tried to start a conversation with me but after being greeted by silence he had soon given up.

The prefects arrived at the meeting, filing into the room and listening as Teddy spoke to them about their duties and other trivialities. When it was my turn to speak, I kept my distance from him and went through the expectations that we had for the prefect's behaviour. And just like that the suffocating meeting came to an end and the prefects began to leave the carriage in small clusters.

We were the last two people in the carriage as we packed up the spare copies of the patrol timetable in silence. Teddy kept throwing glances my way, looking like he was going to say something but he chickened out in the last minute. Once we had packed everything up, I took the earliest chance to leave the carriage.

I managed to get to the carriage door before Teddy snapped out of whatever daze he was in. He crossed the carriage in four large strides and shut the carriage door forcefully. I refused to move or be cowed as he stared down at me.

"You didn't respond to any of my owls," he began quietly.

I looked up at him incredulously. "Did you honesty expect me to bother?"

He sighed, running a tired hand over his face, "I was apologising. I spent the entire holiday trying to apologise to you and –"

"Why?"

"Why, what?"

"Why apologise?" Crossing my arms, I stepped away from him before I could become affected by his physical proximity.

"Because it was wrong," he said as if it was obvious and it was obvious. So why had it taken him so long to realise that?

"So it didn't occur to you that it was wrong when you accepted the dare?" Raising an eyebrow, I let out a scoff. Godric, he was going to make some head boy.

"It was wrong and I knew that but I accepted it because I'm an idiot." He swallowed thickly, thinking over his words before he spoke again, "The dare became void when I actually started to like you – on our first date. But not all of my friends knew that."

"Well, you need better friends."

He smiled uncertainly, not sure if I had forgiven him or not. Reaching out hesitantly, he moved to take my hand but I sprung away from him.

"You might be speaking the truth Teddy, but I don't trust you." I let out a breath, "I don't know if I want to trust you."

The prefect's bathroom almost made me regret not having worked harder in my earlier years at school. If I had worked just a little harder than who knows, I might just have been named the female prefect for Gryffindor. As I changed into my pyjamas after my bath, I wrapped my hair with a towel and shrugged my school robe over the top of my pyjamas.

I was simply minding my business, making my way back to my common room when I had the misfortune of catching one of my house out long after curfew. And I knew exactly who the first year Gryffindor was. Merlin, it had been just under a week since the school year had begun and the first year was already causing so much mischief.

"James Sirius Potter," I barked out, startling the first year who jumped at the sound of my voice. He turned towards me with an innocent grin and I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Jones," he greeted back as I approached him.

With a sigh, I asked, "Why are you already losing points for our house?"

"You don't need to take points from me," he pointed out, "No one will know that you didn't take points from me. We can keep this a secret between the pair of us."

"Nice try," I said dryly. "Now why are you hanging around the castle in the middle of the night. Curfew was hours ago."

He grinned, smiling up at me. "I was actually hoping to run into you."

"Why?"

"I'll tell you on the way back to the common room," he suggested, playing with his wand.

"Fine," I grumbled as I threw him a look.

He acted oblivious to it and started to walk towards the common room. I walked beside him, wondering when being Head Girl had turned into babysitting the eldest Potter child. James walked beside me in silence, seeming like he wanted to say something but didn't know how to begin.

"Whatever it is that you want to say to me, you can just say it," I promised, "I'm not in the position to judge anyone. So feel free to say whatever you want."

He nodded and after a moment he began to speak, "Teddy spent a lot of the summer over at my house. He wasn't like his normal self and he spent the entire time moping. Mum and dad tried to talk to him but –"

"Look James," I cut in meaningfully, "I don't want to talk about this – especially to a first year that I don't really know. I'm not even sure how you know about me."

"Teddy told me. If you don't want to talk to me, then just listen to me," he said bluntly, "he's like my older brother. And that, Jones, makes you like my sister-in-law."

"It really doesn't."

"It does," he insisted as if his first-year wisdom outweighed mine. "And stop interrupting me."

"Why are you so nosy?" I wondered curiously, looking briefly towards the first year.

"I'm half Weasley," he said with a shrug as if that explained everything. "Look I might seem like a dumb first year but I care about Teddy and I don't like to see him so upset. He really likes you."

James looked to me, waiting for me to say something but I had nothing to say. My silence had him sighing and just as he went to say something else, we happened to run into Teddy. His eyebrows rose in surprise at the sight of me and I didn't react to the way his lips curved upwards when he saw the way I was wearing my uniform – or lack of uniform. I folded my robes self-consciously over my pyjamas. He looked back to this godbrother and frowned.

"How did you managed to get caught?" he asked the younger boy who was already grinning at him. "Don't you have the cloak and the map?"

"Cloak? Map?" I questioned but they both chose to say nothing.

James reached out to pull on Teddy's robes. "Walk us back to the common room? I don't trust Jones to keep me safe."

Scoffing, I reminded the first year, "You trusted me to protect you before Teddy arrived."

"Alright fine," James drew out the word, rolling his eyes as though he was humouring me. "You can protect me, and Teddy can protect you. Ok? Can we go now?"

Rendered speechless by James, I walked silently beside him as the three of us walked towards the Gryffindor common room. As we walked silently through the corridor, I caught James trying to move to the other side of Teddy so we were standing together. Before he could move, Teddy reached out to fist the back of James's robe in his hand and made him stay where he was. James grumbled the rest of the way to the common room.

When we reached the Fat Lady, James announced the password and hurried into the common room, but not before telling me to take my time. The portrait swung shut behind him and I was left staring at it in surprise. Cheeky little bugger.

"He's always been like that," Teddy explained quietly before turning to walk away.

I reached out to grab his robe sleeve. He stopped mid step, looking at my hand and turning back to me. If this all went wrong then I was the biggest idiot on the planet, but how would I know if I never risked it? Playing safe wasn't always the best idea. It certainly wasn't the Gryffindor thing to do.

Teddy called my name and I swallowed thickly.

"You better not make me regret this," I muttered as I raised my eyes to his.

"Regret what?"

I took a step towards him, watching as his eyes took in the shortening distance between us. Raising a hand to his tie, I used it to pull him down towards me. Surprise flickered through his features and he waited patiently to see what I was going to do next.

"I mean it," I swore firmly, "don't make me regret this."

He shook his head, licking his bottom lip, "Never."

Closing the remaining distance between us, I pressed my lips against his. Distantly, as Teddy pressed a hand to the small of my back and brought me closer to him, I heard the Fat Lady let out a wistful sigh.