FIRST YEAR – CHARMS CLASS

As the third child of a wizarding family, of which each generation had attended Hogwarts, I had been told all of the ins and outs of the school. I knew most of the secret passages and thanks to my older brothers I knew which teachers I was supposed to avoid and which ones I could be more relaxed around. I already knew which subjects were the best, according to my brothers anyway, and which ones were absolute pants.

But, I thought, maybe I shouldn't trust all of my brother's guidance. For one thing, they said that charms sucked but so far it had been nothing but fun. We watched as Professor Flitwick demonstrated the levitating charm before giving us a chance to try out the charm for ourselves.

The girl beside me, a small bushy haired girl who seemed to be overwhelmingly bright, but was pleasant all together. She gave me some pointers, having studied the charms' masters' wand movements before she gave it a try. She had managed to get it on her first try.

Raising my own wand I looked down at the white feather sitting innocently on top of the desk. "Wingardium Leviosa."

Swish and flick.

The feather floated slowly up above my head and I felt an excited smile make its way onto my face. Charms was boring, my backside. My brothers probably hated it because they were never any good at it. I lowered my wand slowly, the feather following the movements of my wand until it settled back down onto the table top.

"Well done." I looked up at Professor Flitwick who smiled at me, "You've got great wand control."

"Thank you." I said before turning to look at the Granger girl sitting beside me, "Well done, you were the first one in class to do it."

She paused slightly as if uncertain of who I was talking to before giving me a big smile. "Thank you. You did well too."

I turned back to the front and wondered why everyone was picking on the poor girl. She was smart, so what? Wasn't intelligence something that was supposed to be respected and sought after? Why was she being picked on for being more intelligent than most of the people in the class. Maybe they were all jealous.

Especially that awful Malfoy boy.

I was ripped away from my thoughts by the sound of something exploding violently behind me. A startled scream left my mouth as I ducked instinctively and squeezed my eyes shut in anticipation, waiting for something to hit me. When nothing did hit me, I opened my eyes and straightened up in my seat. Turning to my left I glared at the soot covered boy beside me who was too busy looking down at the ashes of what had been his feather to notice my glare.

I let out a sigh and turned back to the front only to see Granger's startled face. "Your hair is on fire!"

"What?" I shouted, only then registering the heat coming from the top of my head as the adrenaline from the original scare died away.

Calmly Granger reached for her wand to extinguish the flames but Professor Flitwick beat her to it. With a quick flick of his wand, and a spell muttered under his breath the flames evaporated and the heat disappeared. The smell of burning lingered in the air and I raised a hand to the top of my head to touch my hair. It was been burnt completely.

"Five points from Gryffindor Mr Finnigan," Professor Flitwick announced before turning to look at me, "Perhaps Miss Granger should escort you to the hospital wing? I'm sure there's a potion or some sort of concoction that will reverse all of the damage to your hair."

I rose from my seat, Granger doing the same from beside me. Walking out of the room, I cast one more glance back at the troublesome boy who had started this entire chaotic scene. Finnigan had the nerve to smile at me as if he wasn't aware of the glare I threw his way.

The trip to the hospital wing and back had been short. The matron of the hospital wing took one look at the singed mess that was my hair before handing me a potion that tasted like bottled frog's farts. Granger and I made our way back to our common room after I had taken the potion and been given the go ahead to leave and somehow along the way we had become friends.

Announcing the password to the Fat Lady, we stepped into the common room. We went to walk over to one of the sofas in the room when a distinctive Irish voice called out my name.

"Oi, wait up."

"Go ahead," I said quietly to Hermione, "I'll join you in a minute."

She nodded her head and walked further into the common room. I turned and looked at the boy who was walking towards me and felt my face pull into an unimpressed expression. He stood in front of me and I looked up at him expectantly.

"What do you want?" I held my charms textbook defensively against my chest.

"I just wanted to talk to you about what happened in class."

He was looking at me, waiting for me to say something but all I could do was let my own gaze flicker to his hair. My brothers had taught me well. I suppressed the mischievous smile that wanted to appear on my lips and raised my wand slightly but kept it out of his sight. The muttered spell left my lips and I watched his hair turn a vibrant shade of blue. Satisfied with the outcome, I placed by wand back into the pocket of my robe and gave him a small smile.

"Don't worry about it; the past is in the past."

His response was only a confused smile. Shrugging slightly he walked back towards the other first year Gryffindor boys and I made my way over to where Hermione was sat.

"Where did you learn that spell?" She asked as soon as I had sat down.

I followed her gaze and watched as Finnigan approached his friends who laughed as soon as they saw his hair. "My brothers taught me a lot of useless spells and charms. I have to admit; I never thought that I'd actually ever need to use one."

We watched as Finnigan was told by his friends about the state of his hair. When he had figured it out, he turned and locked his eyes onto mine. I had expected to face a killer glare but instead his eyes brimmed with mischief as a small smirk played at the corner of his lips.

FOURTH YEAR

The castle was fuller than I had ever seen it. But that made sense when you considered that it was holding the Hogwarts's student population and the delegates from both Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. The hall was abuzz with the recent news of the Yule Ball and everyone was looking forward to the event. Somehow word about the ball had even reached home. Mum had arranged a day out to help me pick a dress, Dad had asked me to remind whoever my date was that he was a highly regarded auror and my brothers, well they had demanded that I not take a date. My eldest brother was currently staying at Beauxbatons to carry out some research and had explicitly told me to stay away from any of the French boys, or you know, all boys in general. They had used a bloody howler which thankfully only went off in the safety of my dorm and not in the great hall.

"Someone's in a good mood," I remarked as Hermione sat down across from me for dinner.

"Does it seem like I am?" She asked innocently and I glanced around the great hall. Not many people were here yet and there was a distinct lack of Harry and Ron. I leaned across the still empty tables and lowered my voice slightly, "It's a boy thing, isn't it?"

"How could you tell?"

"I couldn't," I admitted, "That was just my first guess. So spill it, Granger."

"I have a date to the Yule Ball," she said in obvious excitement. I grinned at her.

"Who is it?"

She went to answer me when Harry and Ron slid into the seats on either side of her. Her mouth shut and I sighed, they sure had some sense of timing. She looked back at me and gave me a secretive grin.

"I'll tell you later," she promised.

"Tell her what?" Ron asked loudly as the rest of the hall began to fill up. Hermione jabbed him in the side.

"We're sharing period horror stories," I said with a roll of my eyes, "She was about to tell me the worst one she's ever heard."

The effect of my words was instantaneous; they flinched physically. Ron scrunched his nose in disgust.

"Merlin, you girls are disgusting."

"What's wrong about periods Ron?" I asked, enjoying how uncomfortable he was talking about this. "It's a natural biological process that we have to go through once a month."

He turned away from me and didn't say another word. I shared a grin with Hermione as Parvati sat down beside me.

Once dinner had finished and Hermione had gotten up to leave the great hall, I followed her out. There was no way I was going to let her hide who her date was. Seeing my movements, she slowed down slightly to let me walk beside her.

"Do you think Ron and Harry knew what we were talking about?" She asked as we walked up the stairs.

"I think that they think they know what we were talking about. But do they know about your Yule Ball date? They have no idea." I looked at her curiously, "Why don't you want them to know who your date is?"

"You know how immature boys can be," She said as a means of explanations, "They'd probably call me out for associating myself with the enemy or something equivalent to that."

"The enemy?" I repeated, "So it's another Triwizard champion then?"

She nodded and I went to prod further when someone called out, "Excuse me."

We both looked over our shoulder to see one of the Beauxbaton delegates walking down the hallway. He walked towards us making Hermione and I share a look. I had become fairly familiar with the Beauxbatons student; he was working alongside my eldest brother as a student assistant during his stay at the French school.

"I was wondering if I could talk to you?" He asked looking straight at me.

"I'll meet you in the dorms," Hermione said, excusing herself and I watched her leave before looking back at the older man before me.

"What was it you wanted to talk about?"

"I actually wanted to ask you something," he admitted, tucking his hands into his robe pocket. "Will you go to the Yule Ball with me?"

"You're not doing this to win more of my brother's favour are you?" I asked teasingly.

"No of course not." He shook his head and then said with a wry smile, "I think him finding out that I asked you is risking my student apprenticeship with him."

"That's true." I tucked some of my hair behind my ear.

"So will you go to the Yule Ball with me?" I nodded and his smile grew bigger, "Thank Merlin."

He raised my hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to it before taking his leave. When he was out of sight I headed for the common room and my eyebrows raised in surprise when I found Hermione waiting in front of the Fat Lady for me.

"Did he ask you to the Yule Ball?"

"He did," I said with a smile and then looked at her, "You know who my date is, when am I going to find out who your date is?"

Once I had somehow managed to get a date, everything else seemed to fall into line. Mum had helped me pick out an amazing dress, and thanks to the dance lessons put on by Professor McGonagall I could dance without embarrassing myself. Now the only thing left to do was to get ready without embarrassing myself.

Thank Merlin for the existence of makeup charms. After having spent weeks perfecting the charms, I was able to do them with ease and so doing my makeup was easier than it had been originally. Hermione and I were the only girl left in the dorm, the others hadn't wanted to be late. Neither had I, but I had managed to lose track of my shoes. But I had found them, cast a charm to prevent pain from wearing them, and was now wearing them.

"Hermione?" I called out to the girl that was somewhere in the dorm. "I'm going to get going now."

"Alright," she shouted back, "I'll see you there!"

Walking out of the girl's dorm, I headed into the common room to see Seamus sitting on one of the sofas.

"Seamus?" I walked over to him.

He stood at the sound of my voice and turned to look me over. I shifted nervously as his eyes roamed across me before meeting my own.

"Wow, you look…amazing."

"Thanks," I said quietly and cleared my throat, "Why are you still here? Unless you've been kicked out already?"

"Of course not." He looked over to the top of the boy's staircase. "I'm waiting for some friends. We were going to go down to the Ball together. Do you want to join us?"

"Oh, I would love to but I think I've kept my date waiting long enough."

"I guess I'll see you there then." He said with a smile and I nodded.

"I'll see you in a bit Seamus."

This time I did leave the common room and made my way down to the great hall. I found my date waiting for me by the stairs. Seeing me walk down the stairs, he walked over to me and met me on the bottom step.

"You look beautiful." He said with a soft smile, pressing a kiss to my hand.

"Thank you," I said, putting a hand on the arm he held out, "You look very handsome."

Once I was led inside, we waited for the entrance of the Triwizard champions. A few hours later and almost everyone was on the dance floor. I looked up as snow was magicked to fall from the ceiling, twinkling in the light. I was spun around, a giggle leaving my lip,s before being pulled back towards my date. He stepped closer towards me and lowered his head to speak in my ear.

"I'm having a lot of fun," he admitted. I smiled up at him, a small blush colouring my cheeks. "Shall I go and get us some drinks?"

"Yes, please."

He pressed a kiss to my hand and walked away from me. Glancing around the great hall I realised that I was stood in the middle of a now, admittedly, almost empty dance floor. I made my way back to the table where we had eaten and sat down to relieve some of the pressure on my feet. I might have cast the spell to stop the pain but standing in these shoes for so long was still uncomfortable.

"Having fun?" A voice asked from behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder to see Harry approaching my table. He settled down into one of the seats beside me and gave me a smile.

"A lot," I answered, looking around for his partner who seemed to have already left the ball. "What about you?"

"It's not really my thing," he admitted with a sheepish smile. "I can't dance; it's like I've got two left feet."

I let out a soft laugh; I'd noticed his lack of dancing capability. It seemed as if Parvati had been the one leading him during their dance.

"Well, the Yule ball is a dance Harry."

"Unfortunately."

"Where's Ron?" I asked. The last I had seen of Ron, he had been sat beside Harry. Or rather that had been the last I'd seen of him before he decided to make a fool of himself and make Hermione cry.

"He's gone up to bed already, I was going to go up as well but I saw you sitting alone." He leaned closer towards me and lowered his voice slightly. "You don't know why Hermione was crying and shouting at Ron, do you?"

"I do," I confirmed, "But I'm not telling you."

He didn't prod further and instead looked around the hall. "Why are you sitting here alone? Where's your date?"

"He's gone off to get some drinks."

Harry nodded before looking at me curiously, "Do you want to dance?"

"I thought you couldn't dance?"

"Well I can't." He agreed.

"What are the chances that dancing with you will injure me physically?" I teased.

He acted as though he was considering it for a moment, "You know what, maybe dancing isn't the best idea."

"Maybe not," I agreed.

"I should probably get going," He said, rising from his chair, "It's getting kind of late and I don't want your date to think I'm trying to steal you away."

"Goodnight Harry," I called out as he walked away from the table. He glanced over his shoulder and returned the sentiment.

"You came with Potter then?" A voice called out as I watched Harry's retreating back. Glancing in the direction that the voice had come from, I saw Seamus walking towards me. He sat down in the chair previously occupied by Harry.

"Potter? Since when did you call Harry, Potter?" I asked as I turned my body to face the boy. "Besides, didn't you see Harry walk in with Parvati and the dance they had together?"

"No," he admitted with a shake of his head, "I was waiting so long for my friends that I ended up being late and missed the beginning of the ball. Who did you come with then?"

"Why is everyone so curious about my date?" I wondered before gesturing to my date who stood, talking to another boy from Beauxbaton. Seeing my eyes on him he waved and gestured that he'd be back shortly.

"A Beauxbaton? The enemy?" I quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Merlin, do all of you boys stay together and share a single brain? Why is it that anyone from a different school is the 'enemy'?" I rolled my eyes. "Maybe you've been spending too much time with Ron, Seamus."

"Do you fancy him?"

"Who?"

"Your date. Do you fancy him?"

"Not that it's any of your business but I don't think I do."

He nodded and stayed silent for a while, as though he was thinking about my words. "It would probably be better for you to stay away from Harry, as well. He likes Chang, he has done for a while now, and you'll just end up getting hurt."

My eyes widened as I looked at him. Off all of the ridiculous things I had ever heard –

"I don't fancy Harry!"

He didn't bother to answer me and only rose from his seat when my date started to walk back towards my table. "Your date's coming. Enjoy the rest of your night."

He walked away and I couldn't help but watch him leave. What the hell was wrong with all of the boys in my year?

FIFTH YEAR

Fifth year brought with it a devil that was disguised from head to toe in pink. The devil that for many of us, was seen as being worse that You-Know-Who himself. She had placed so many restrictions on every little detail about the school day, had somehow managed to oust our beloved Headmaster and had introduced punishment methods that were rooted in the dark ages. Her very presence in our school, sitting in Dumbledore's chair during meal times, had set everyone on edge. Tensions were high and confrontations were inevitable. But it seemed as though everyone's favourite person to pick a fight with was Harry, and that was the same this time around too.

I had just come back from serving a detention, one that was not regulated by Umbridge and so the punishment had involved some good old reflection and scrubbing of some trophies. Nothing more. There was a crowd gathered that blocked the passage from the portrait, stopping me from going further into the room. I started pushing my way through the crowd to try and get to the dorms when there was an announcement made, the voice full of vicious spite.

"I think you're a liar Potter."

I stilled at the words and nudged one of the first years beside me. The first year looked at me momentarily before turning his eyes back onto the scene before him.

"What's happening?" I asked watching as the first year strained to get a better view. "Why is Seamus shouting at Harry all of a sudden?"

"Because he doesn't believe Potter," the first year answered back, using his smaller body to push easily through the crowd. I followed after the first year.

"What doesn't he believe him about?"

The first year turned to look at me then, both of his eyebrows raised as though he couldn't believe I had asked such a stupid question. Godric, first years got cheekier every year. "About You-Know-Who's return."

I released a long suffering groan at the words and pushed my way through the rest of the way through the crowd. When I reached the centre of the crowd I found Harry flanked by Hermione and Ron who were all watching as Seamus confronted Harry. The inner most portion of the crowd consisted of mainly the students from our year.

"Seamus," I hissed as I made my way over to him, shooting a look at Dean as I did so. Really, the pair of them might as well have been conjoined; could he not have talked Seamus out of such a public confrontation. "You are making a scene!"

"I'm the one making a scene!" He repeated, giving me a look.

"Of course you are," I insisted quietly, "Look around at the size of this crowd for evidence."

He froze at my words, his eyes never straying from mine. "If I'm the one causing a scene then why is he going around spouting all of the rubbish about You-Know-Who's return for attention? It's freaking out the younger kids, making them scared but I'm still the one causing a scene?"

"Seamus-"

"You-Know-Who's dead and there's no need for Potter to resurrect him for the sake of getting attention."

"That's enough Seamus!" I lowered my voice and tucked my arm through his.

I was extremely conscious of the crowd surrounding us. Stepping closer to him, I weaved my arm through his and tugged him to follow after me. Leading him through the crowd and up the stairs to the girl's dorms, I noticed the rest of the crowd separating and getting back to their own business. When we reached the top of the stairs, I led him into our dorm room. Here we could talk without people listening in.

"Seamus I understand that the idea of You-Know-Who returning is scary – trust me, I'm bloody terrified, but this is Harry you're talking about." I insisted.

Seamus remained by the door of the dorm, listening to my words carefully, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"This is the same Harry that's been shoved into the spotlight from the moment that he was born and he hates every single minute of it." I gave a sigh when he showed no response to my words. "He's not the type of make up something as horrifying as the return of the darkest wizard in history up, just to get some attention. Besides, Seamus, Dumbledore believed he was back. Don't you believed Dumbledore?"

My words had no effect on him. He remained watching me, "I thought that you of all people would still be on my side."

He opened the door and walked out of the dorm room leaving me on my own.

Perhaps my trying to sort the matter out with Seamus had only made things worse? He had taken to completely ignoring Harry. Which, as I was told by Neville, had made the entire atmosphere in the boy's dorm so stifling that none of them could even rest in their room. Any attempts at making him see sense hadn't worked so far and so Dean had taken to seeking me out to help fix the situation. How I was supposed to help though when I had no idea of how to make Seamus see sense? And I told him as much.

"Dean," I said with a sigh, looking at the boy who was sitting on the sofa beside me. "I don't know what you expect me to do? How am I supposed to help when the matter doesn't even involve me?"

"You involved yourself when you came to Harry's defence," Dean said cryptically. "Just talk to him."

"What makes you think that me talking to him will have any impact?" I raised an eyebrows at him. "If you, his best friend, talking to him made no impact then what makes you think that me talking to him will?"

"Because you're you."

"I'm getting really sick of your cryptic comments Thomas," I muttered, looking at the boys with narrowed eyes. I rose to my feet with a sigh. "Where is he?"

"In the dorms."

"Fine, but you owe me."

He called out, "I'll keep it in mind," as I walked down up the stairs and to their dorm.

Reaching the top of the stairs and locating their room, I knocked on the door and waited for a response.

"Come in," he called out and I walked into the room, closing the door behind me. He was sat on his bed with his back facing the door. "What's wrong with you, you bloody numpty? It's your room as well, walk in whenever you want."

"Seamus?"

He stiffened at the sound of my voice and looked back at me, "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk-"

"About the whole Harry thing, right?" His voice was mocking as I nodded, "Well go ahead, I'm all ears."

"I think you believe Harry-"

"Really?" He asked as he got off of his bed and walked towards me. He stood a metre or so away from me, "If it's not my belief that Harry's lying then why do you think I'm doing all of this?"

"The way you're behaving makes it seem as if you're jealous of Harry," I admitted, the words leaving my mouth quickly before I could even try to censor them. "It's like he has something you want but you don't know how to express that. Only – I have no idea what it is you're after."

"You think I'm jealous of him?" He crossed his arms defensively over his chest, staring down at me. "Well I am. Do you know why? It's because he has everything that I want. He's on the quidditch team, loved by everyone and you! You bloody well fancy him."

"Merlin's beard Seamus!" I exclaimed in exasperation – not this again. "I don't fancy Harry. Why can't you see that? Maybe if you weren't so pig-headed and stubborn, you'd realise that I don't fancy him – I never have. Seamus, I bloody well fancy you!"

I'd said it now. I had told him how I felt and all he was doing was watching me. In the space of five minutes I had managed to ruin a good friendship, probably beyond repair. I'd admitted my crush to him and I felt absolutely horrible whilst doing it.

Turning to leave the dorm, I stiffened at the hand that caught my arm to stop me from opening the door. Gathering all of my courage, I turned around to face him.

"Did you mean it?" He asked, removing his hand from my arm and peering down at me.

"Seamus I-"

"Did you mean it?" He repeated softly, "Yes or no."

"Yes."

He grinned at my single word and leaned down to press a kiss to my lips. I leaned up and met him more than half way. When he pulled back from me, he was still grinning.

His eyes rose to meet mine but he didn't take even a single step away from me, "I'm sorry I set your hair on fire."

"It's alright," I said quietly, a smile blooming on my face, "I got my payback anyway."