(Y/N)'s POV

We arrived at the party fifteen minutes late. The reason being that I was supposed to meet Parvati in the common room, but even after Harry and Hermione left with their respective dates mine was nowhere to be found and apparently still applying makeup.

Ron was taking a well-earned breather between snogging Lavender to make fun of me while she helped Parvati with her dress and makeup, I was more concerned with adjusting the collar of my dress robes.

It took quite a while and meant I had time to question just about every decision I had made that led up to this, but they did an excellent job. She descended from the girl's dorm as if it was a runway.

It was honestly kind of impressive considering she was wearing fancy heeled shoes, much to my relief, I could do without the neck pain that looking down all night usually gave me.

Parvati was wearing a dress that was similar to her robes from the Yule Ball, the pink not being as vibrant as back then, but otherwise it was pretty similar, at least to me, I'm sure there where a thousand intricacies that I wasn't able to catch.

To my uncultured eyes, it just seemed like a more mature version of the original, not as girly I suppose. It was much tighter than what I expected her to wear, more form fitting? Not that I'd care about anything like that. I have a girlfriend...kind of...I think.

It was at this point I realised I couldn't think straight and questioned why I was doing this in the first place. I stood up nervously, my mouth slightly agape at the sight before me as Ron pretended he wasn't doing exactly the same.

I'm sure I looked terrible in comparison, but before I could give her any praise she spoke, "Shall we head off then?" she beamed at me, holding out her arm. Snapping out of it and back into reality I caught myself.

"I think we shall" I smiled, hooking my own arm through hers and escorting her out of the room. Eventually, after cursing several times and wishing I had the Marauders Map handy, we managed to find our way to Slughorn's office.

"Why is it always so bloody dark in here?" I sighed as we made our way through the dungeon, Parvati giggled and held out her wand "Lumos." I nodded "Smart," I shook my head, "I forget I'm a wizard sometimes"

Casting my own charm I looked down the hall and tried not to think about where she had pulled her wand from in a dress like that. "Are you that nervous?" she asked, trying not to laugh, I shook my head.

"Nervous, me? Never. I'm just an idiot" She seemed to find this answer acceptable "True." She giggled playfully, we made our way inside. This was not what we were expecting. That was for sure.

Whether it had been built that way, or because he had used magical trickery to make it so, Slughorn's office was much larger than the usual teacher's study. The ceiling and walls had been draped with emerald, crimson, and gold hangings, so that it looked as though they were all inside a vast tent.

The room was crowded and stuffy and bathed in the red light cast by an ornate golden lamp dangling from the centre of the ceiling in which real fairies were fluttering, each a brilliant speck of light.

Loud singing accompanied by what sounded like mandolins issued from a distant corner; a haze of pipe smoke hung over several elderly warlocks deep in conversation. My first thought being 'how are they even allowed those? This is a school."

A number of house-elves were negotiating their way squeakily through the forest of knees, obscured by the heavy silver platters of food they were bearing, so that they looked like little roving tables.

"I swear if he's making Winky do this I'm going to hit him with a serving tray" I promised myself. Speak of the devil. Slughorn was wearing a tasselled velvet hat to match his smoking jacket. "You're late my boy" he said weakly, "What can I say? I like to make an entrance"

After that I introduced Parvati and sang her praises, only realising halfway through that I didn't know what she was good at other than Divination, Slughorn didn't seem to care

Unlike with the other guests, Slughorn barely spared time to greet me, he was delighted to have Parvati, but he simply gave me a small wave and toddled off. A bit rude but not an unwelcome behaviour.

"I expected a more dancy fancy party, this is one of those old people 'chat and shake people's hands' parties" Parvati expressed her disappointment, I shrugged, "Slughorn doesn't strike me as much of a dancer."

She snorted and nodded, but soon cheered up as she caught sight of one of the Weird Sisters, as she went to talk to them I went to go and get drinks, refusing to have a house elf wait on me. I met the Carrows over in the corner of the room

I waved at them awkwardly and complimented their dresses, they thanked me in monotone and sort of stared at me, then in unison, both of them looked above me and I noticed the line for the drinks had conveniently placed me under some mistletoe.

We made eye contact and they grinned at me. Luckily, I also spotted Luna, she was wearing a set of spangled silver robes that were attracting a certain amount of giggles from the onlookers, but otherwise she looked quite nice.

Taking this as my cue to leave, I dashed off to join her, only to see Harry pull Luna after him into the crowd; chasing a long mane of brown hair that disappeared between what looked like two members of the Weird Sisters.

I circled around the crowd in search of Parvati as they began a hushed conversation. "Hermione! Hermione!" "Harry! There you are, thank goodness! Hi, Luna!" "What's happened to you?" asked Harry.

Hermione looked distinctly dishevelled, rather as though she had just fought her way out of a thicket of Devil's Snare. "Oh, I've just escaped — I mean, I've just left Cormac," she said. "Under the mistletoe," she added in explanation.

As Harry continued to look questioningly at her and I made a mental note to burn any mistletoe I saw and maybe McLaggen while I was at it. "Serves you right for coming with him," he told her severely, a stance on the matter that cheered me up a lot.

"I thought he'd annoy (Y/N) most," said Hermione dispassionately as I tried not to gasp in offence as I made my way behind her, winking at the others. "I debated for a while about Zacharias Smith, but I thought, on the whole —"

"You considered Smith?" said Harry, both revolted and trying not to laugh. "Yes, I did, and I'm starting to wish I'd chosen him, McLaggen makes Grawp look a gentleman. Let's go this way, we'll be able to see him coming, he's so tall..."

"Yeah, I'm told that stops people from sneaking up on you" I said from behind her, she jumped about a foot and went a shade of pink. "Enjoying yourself?" I asked, trying not to snicker. She got embarrassed and basically dragged Harry and Luna away with her. "I'll take that as a yes."

I delivered our drinks to Parvati and while she chatted away to various celebrities that I couldn't care less about, instead, I scanned the faces of the servers for a familiar face, finding no house elves resembling Winky I was put at ease and Slughorn had dodged a bullet.

As had I, I thought, locking eyes with the Carrows again and weighing the pros and cons of only ever drinking from a flask from now on just to be safe like Moody.

We spent forty minutes doing the exact thing Parvati had predicted, shaking hands and making small talk, the prediction was so accurate it made me wonder if I should have taken Divination for my N.E.W.T.

The whole time the only entertaining thing to do was watch the new and creative ways that Hermione dodged McLaggen or make up backstories for the strangers at the party.

Like Moustached Wizard with the dragon pipe, who had been cheating on Weird Sister number one for twenty years and had only been discovered tonight, he was trying to make up for his betrayal by sending flirtatious looks across the room. Truly a story for the ages.

Parvati seemed to notice I was staring and took matters into her own hands in the most terrifying way possible. It started with a few flirtatious looks of her own, then she grabbed my wrist and pulled me closer to her, then things escalated even further.

Suddenly she pressed herself very close to me and said "Why did you ask me to this party?" I panicked and squealed out "Because you wanted to go!" I don't know why I felt like this, it felt like it was against the rules.

I didn't know if 'breaks' had rules, but with Hermione involved I'm sure they did. Parvati suddenly put on a more sultry voice and said "Is that the...only reason?" trailing off with a suggestive undertone and tapping her pointer finger to my chest.

Freezing up like I had been petrified and trying to stop my heart from exploding, I said, "Yeah...as friends" the final two words slipping out of my mouth before I knew I was going to say them. Another part of me argued that I had every right to do this. Right?

Me and Hermione weren't together right now. But then doubt started to form in my mind, would I even want to risk it, doubt that was reinforced by Parvati's next words. "Funny, I don't remember you telling me that."

"It's just, you barely talked to me before the party so I was wondering..." she trailed off sadly. She batted her eyelids and I realised I hadn't said that so she might have misunderstood.

I felt terrible, I didn't mean to lead her on but to be honest I just wanted to spy on Hermione, I was going to ask Luna to come, but Harry took my opportunity. Before I could get the truth out my stupid panicking brain said.

"What? Am I not allowed to admire someone from afar?" As if It was a way to save face and not look stupid. I smiled awkwardly, then she looked me dead in the eyes, smiled at me, and leaned in. "Mistletoe..." she trailed off.

My entire body went into panic mode, "Was she going to kiss me? Am I supposed to kiss her back? Do I want to? Well, look at her, of course part of me wanted to. But was I allowed to? What about Hermione? Somebody tell me the rules!" and that was as far as my brain got.

Parvati put her lips about a quarter inch from mine, then smiled, took a breath and shook her head, "(Y/N), you really are hopeless" she giggled, "At least try to act as if you're the slightest bit interested." She scolded me and said something that shook me to my core.

"Lavender was right. You really do love her still don't you?" I let out a small "huh?" and she rolled her eyes. "I don't think I'm the person you've been 'admiring from afar' tonight." "Lavender?" I stuttered out as she let go of my dress robes, which she had seized to pull me in for a kiss.

"Hermione. You idiot." As she pat me on the chest with a sigh, I let out a breath I don't remember holding and with that breath I realised that women just might be the scariest things on the planet.

"...What?" I stuttered out again, my brain still playing catch up. Parvati sighed, "Boys..." Then smiled and explained "She's happier with you, much better then McLaggen, he's a bit of a pain. You're sweet when you're with her, it's honestly the cutest thing."

All I could do was stutter as she sauntered off proudly. Had this been her plan all along? Did Hermione put her up to this? No, she's smart, but not that smart, surely. So she had come up with this all on her own? Why? I was so confused.

Then I clocked it. Lavender. She was best mates with Parvati, and she had been with Ron for the whole time he had been following after me. She must have put her mate up to this once I invited her. They had a secret squirrel plan.

"Parvati, you and Lavender scare me sometimes..." I trembled, she wiggled her eyebrows as her face lit up with pride, "Good, now, I'll do more than scare you if you don't stop being an idiot and upsetting my friend. Go on, she probably needs saving from McLaggen anyway."

"Please don't tell Ron about this." I begged, realising I had scolded him for doing something similar in fourth year. With her newfound smile and a small giggle Parvati said, "My lips are sealed."

"Thank you for inviting me to the party, I had a lot of fun" I nodded "The food is good" I said without meaning to. She laughed and went off to chat with the other guests. This left me alone to ponder in the corner of the room again, I was not expecting to be wing-manned by my date.

As I mulled it over, I realised that, yet again, I was only accompanied by the Carrows. I waved to them again and I started to talk to them as I got a drink to calm my nerves, which were now shot thanks to Parvati.

This was when I realised they weren't so scary after all, I asked them why they wanted to come with an idiot like me. They explained that it was because of my outburst at the end of my first year about the unfairness of the house cup.

I didn't think people remembered that after all the crazy stuff that's happened over the years. But I understood them a little better now. "Wanna dance?" I offered. They looked at each other, then to Hermione off in the distance, and shook their heads.

I swear, woman have better telepathy than I do. It freaked me out. I needed to distract myself. True to my word, I had been setting fire to a few small bunches of mistletoe on my rounds perusing the room.

Most of the smoke being camouflaged by pipe smoke, I considered it good practice for my charm. "Could you please not set fire to the room!" whispered a temperamental and out of breath Hermione, who had been darting and dashing to avoid her 'date' all night.

I shrugged, "Depends on how bored I get." "Where's Parvati?" I pointed vaguely in her direction, "Last time I checked, somewhere over there talking to some Quidditch bloke. Why?" "Because it's not my job to babysit you and stop you committing arson!"

"Aren't you a prefect?" I said, yawning "So, really, it is." She went to retort, but her eyes widened, she quickly darted behind a buffet table to avoid McLaggen, who was parting the crowd in search for her.

To be fair, Hermione was right, him being tall did make him easy to spot in a crowd. Unfortunately, the same was true for me, he saw me and with the fakest smile I had seen since Lockhart's tenure, he walked towards me.

"Afternoon" he said, trying to hide the distaste in his voice but not trying too hard. "Seen Hermione?" he asked as I took a sip of my drink. "Yep, she went that-a-way" I said quickly pointing behind him.

He nodded, went to walk away and then turned on his heel and spun back to me. "Granger's looking good, isn't she?" he goaded me, I honestly just wanted this conversation to end so I said "Yeah, very pretty" dryly, taking another sip.

He nodded, "No hard feelings then...that the best man won?" I sighed internally and tried to calm down, "Nope, no hard feelings. The best man always wins in the end" He smirked at me, "Good, good, you know I was starting to think she didn't like me..." he just kept talking.

"Wherever would you get that idea?" I said as he droned on. Trying not to bring up the fact she had been avoiding him all night. "She's been playing hard to get all night, the little minx. Was it the same with you?" he asked.

"Nope" he smirked at me "Oh, I see, likes the chase does she?" he nodded, raising an eyebrow that made me realise that If he kept going, I'd probably be serving time in Azkaban by the end of the night.

"Does this happen to you a lot when you get dates? You start talking and they run away? I imagine it does" I chuckled. He ignored me and kept going, I grit my teeth and reminded myself that It wasn't any of my business, but he just...kept...talking.

"-She looks like the type to be grateful for it if you know what I mean" he said, sounding proud of himself. This was my last straw, Hermione was still my friend, I wasn't going to let him keep talking about her like this. "No, I don't think I do."

"In fact McLaggen, I think you've had enough 'pumpkin juice' for one night mate, maybe you should quit while you can still walk, yeah?" I veiled a threat. He stormed up to me, his nostrils flaring, vein in his forehead protruding.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he barked, I shrugged and went to take another drink. "Well, take a minute to think about it, I'm sure you'll get it eventually, if you try really hard." I smiled at him.

He slapped the drink out of my hand. I watched it hit the floor and couldn't help but frown, "Well, that's just rude, someone has to clean that up now" he shoved me a little, cursing belligerently.

"You should learn to take a joke mate" I muttered. "Now, Cormac, do yourself a favour and just walk away and go to bed" I recommended as I bent down to clean up the mess he made, not wanting to leave something that the staff had to clean up.

"You may have a point there (L/N), I wouldn't normally invest this much time in someone like her." I stood up and cocked my head, "What's that supposed to mean?" McLaggen smirked and said "Take a minute to think about it, I'm sure you'll get it eventually."

"I mean, she'd definitely get it. Even if she is a bit of a bi-" I punched him, just once, he was laid out, dropping like a sack of dragon dung, it was very unsatisfying. But it was almost comical watching him going from mid insult to unconscious.

By the time he hit the floor I had already formulated a plan to hide him in a corner, maybe if I find some sunglasses somewhere I could prop him up like in that old movie. It didn't go that well though.

The music stopped and I realised that McLaggen was a pretty big bloke in comparison to almost everyone else here, the sound of him hitting the floor was not a gentle one, especially because he brought down several clattering serving trays with him. "Oh no...he fell..." I tried.

That was how I was kicked out of the Slug Club and banned from all future events, honestly I considered it to be a win-win, no more stupid parties and I got the added satisfaction of knocking out McLaggen.

"Worth it" I said as I got dragged out of the room by Filch, who had caught Draco Malfoy skulking about. "Draco, if you wanted to go with me, you could have just asked nicely!" I called after him as Snape dragged him away.

Harry's POV

Leaving Luna to talk with Trelawney, I followed after Snape and Malfoy, it was easy for the most part, fortunately, I thought ahead, I figured I might need the cloak to make a quick exit. I only had to pull the Invisibility Cloak out of my pocket and throw it on, luckily, the corridor was quite deserted.

What was more difficult was finding Snape and Malfoy. I ran down the corridor, the noise of my feet masked by the music and loud talk still issuing from Slughorn's office. Perhaps Snape had taken Malfoy to his office in the dungeons...or perhaps he was escorting him back to the Slytherin common room

I passed a familiar figure on the way, (Y/N) was wandering the dungeons looking very confused. I tapped him on the shoulder, "Peeves, not now mate, I'm lost" "It's me!" I said, shuffling around the cloak so he could see my face.

"What's up?" he asked, looking concerned, immediately stepping into the cloak with me, not needing any explanation, just knowing something was up. I pressed my ear against door after door as we dashed down the corridor.

With a great jolt of excitement, we crouched down to the keyhole of the last classroom in the corridor and heard voices. "...cannot afford mistakes, Draco, because if you are expelled —" "Oh my god, we're stalking Malfoy again! I thought somebody was dying!" whispered (Y/N) harshly in my ear.

I shushed him and pressed my ear closer to the door. "-I didn't have anything to do with it, all right?" "I hope you are telling the truth, because it was both clumsy and foolish. Already you are suspected of having a hand in it." "Who suspects me?" said Malfoy angrily.

"For the last time, I didn't do it, okay? That Bell girl must've had an enemy no one knows about — don't look at me like that! I know what you're doing, I'm not stupid, but it won't work — I can stop you!"

There was a pause and then Snape said quietly, "Ah...Aunt Bellatrix has been teaching you Occlumency, I see. What thoughts are you trying to conceal from your master, Draco?" "I'm not trying to conceal anything from him, I just don't want you butting in!-"

"There's an idea"(Y/N) muttered as he pushed me aside and pressed his eye to the keyhole, trying to get a view in, with no luck. What had happened to make Malfoy speak to Snape like this? Snape, toward whom he had always shown respect, even liking?

"-So that is why you have been avoiding me this term? You have feared my interference? You realise that, had anybody else failed to come to my office when I had told them repeatedly to be there, Draco —"

"So put me in detention! Report me to Dumbledore!" jeered Malfoy. There was another pause. Then Snape said, "You know perfectly well that I do not wish to do either of those things." "You'd better stop telling me to come to your office then!"

"Listen to me," said Snape, lowering his voice, "I am trying to help you. I swore to your mother I would protect you. I made the Unbreakable Vow, Draco —" (Y/N) clapped a hand over his mouth to stop from making any noise and looked horrified.

"Looks like you'll have to break it, then, because I don't need your protection! It's my job, he gave it to me and I'm doing it, I've got a plan and it's going to work, it's just taking a bit longer than I thought it would!" "What is your plan?" "It's none of your business!"

"If you tell me what you are trying to do, I can assist you..." "I have all the assistance I need, thanks, I'm not alone!" "You were certainly alone tonight, which was foolish in the extreme, wandering the corridors without lookouts or backup, these are elementary mistakes —"

"I would've had Crabbe and Goyle with me if you hadn't put them in detention!" "Keep your voice down!" spat Snape, for Malfoy's voice had risen excitedly. "If your friends Crabbe and Goyle intend to pass their Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L this time around, they will need to work a little harder than they are doing at pres —"

"What does it matter?" said Malfoy. "Defense Against the Dark Arts — its all just a joke, isn't it, an act? Like any of us need protecting against the Dark Arts —" "It is an act that is crucial to success, Draco!" said Snape.

"Where do you think I would have been all these years, if I had not known how to act? Now listen to me! You are being incautious, wandering around at night, getting yourself caught, and if you are placing your reliance in assistants like Crabbe and Goyle —"

"They're not the only ones, I've got other people on my side, better people!" "Then why not confide in me, and I can —" "I know what you're up to! You want to steal my glory!"

There was another pause, then Snape said coldly, "You are speaking like a child. I quite understand that your fathers capture and imprisonment has upset you, but —"

I had barely a second's warning; hearing Malfoy's footsteps on the other side of the door, I flung myself and (Y/N) out of the way just as it burst open. Malfoy was striding away down the corridor, past the open door of Slughorns office, around the distant corner, and out of sight.

Hardly daring to breathe, we remained crouched down as Snape emerged slowly from the classroom. His expression unfathomable, he returned to the party. I remained on the floor, hidden beneath the cloak, my mind racing.

"They can't be serious. An Unbreakable Vow" (Y/N) said almost breathlessly, holding either side of his head as if it would help him process the information faster. Then he shook off and said "Nah, he can't have..."

"Snape wouldn't do that, not for some slimy git like Malfoy, we must have misheard" he reasoned, shaking his head again. Then his eyes widened, his face paling, he gripped my shoulders and dragged me up, pulling me along back to Slughorn's office.

I tried to resist but he was not having it, "We have to get back to the party." "What?" I said, how could he think about a party right now, this confirms everything he had been denying all year. Malfoy was up to something!

"Snape's bound to notice you're gone; we have to get back to make it look like we don't know anything. I can stand at the door and say I'm waiting for Parvati so I can walk back with her."

As we rushed back, I couldn't help but ask him to help me fill in the blanks. "Snape must have tried to use Legilimency on Malfoy, but Lestrange has been training him in Occlumency, that's why I felt resistance at Borgin and Burkes."

"I tried to get eye contact but it's too dark in here and the keyhole was too narrow, and since I couldn't tell where they were standing I couldn't even make a connection in the first place"

I nodded as we made our way to Slughorn's office, "What was that other thing, the Unbroken Vow?" he shook his head, "Unbreakable Vow, it's something you don't mess with, now get in there!" he said, snatching the cloak from me and pushing me through the doors.

(Y/N)'s POV

My mind was racing, little things from throughout the year were suddenly falling into place. Why Malfoy got stopped at the secrecy sensor outside the castle, why he was failing transfiguration and why he looked so sickly. Well, that last one might have just been a weak constitution, but he looks more sickly.

Everything at Borgin and Burkes made sense now, he was looking for something he could use in this mission of his, and as I told Harry, Bellatrix must have been teaching him Occlumency so nobody would learn what he was up to.

Only one thing didn't make sense, he said he hadn't tried to kill Katie, sure that might have just been a lie for Snape, but if it wasn't, does that mean there were others in the castle that had similar plans?

Before I could explore the options any further a voice pulled me out of my head, I noticed people were filing out of Slughorn's office, looking up, I realised the person that shook me was not Pavarti like I had first expected it to be.

It pleasantly surprised me to see Hermione staring back at me. I smiled at her and she returned it, but quickly changed to a stern face and said, "What did you do that for?" "What?" I said, not expecting a sudden interrogation. "I mean McLaggan"

She pointed behind her, it brought me a weird sense of pride watching Cormac McLaggen being led out by the arm, hindered by a very swollen eye that looked a deep shade of purple. He was groaning and grunting in pain, milking the attention for all it was worth.

I turned back to Hermione and tried not to smirk, "Because he's a pompous git who talks to much, and he was being rude." I shrugged, she pursed her lips but nodded. "Listen, I-" she started before we were rudely interrupted.

McLaggen shook off the people tending to him and snarled at me, "You sucker punched me!" I nodded, "In my experience, people who complain about being sucker punched, usually deserved the punch but didn't think anyone would give it to them" I explained calmly.

He didn't like that, he was calling me just about every name under the sun, "But yeah, I s'pose I did, but to be fair, if you'd shut your mouth, you might have seen it coming, if you tried really hard" I winked at him.

Cormac was getting gradually more flustered and he was drawing a lot of attention, just to be safe, I rested my hand next to my wand. "Fine, have it your way! Keep her, she's not worth my time anyway-" "You look like your about to cry" I giggled.

He paused for a second and wiped his eyes, muttering in disagreement, "Oh, nevermind, might just be the swelling" I poked at his bruise with my free hand. He cried out as if he was in terrible agony.

I don't know if it was a spur of the moment thing to annoy him, or something else, but I got another pleasant surprise. Hermione chose this moment to intertwine her hand in mine. Despite the circumstance, I couldn't help but smile.

I know It was only a little thing, but it meant a lot, it was the first physical contact I've had with Hermione since our break, so I was ecstatic. It was progress. I felt like all the stress in my body had just flown away.

I don't know if it was to calm me down or maybe to make sure one of my hands was busy to avoid a repeat offence, but Hermione was facing McLaggen and looked as if she was trying not to laugh in his face.

"I'll have you expelled for this you psychopath" I just kept nodding, "Good luck with that, just remember, next time, don't insult the psychopath's friends, he doesn't take it well." I shook my head, "Why am I talking like this?"

I gave him a little wave as he walked off, he glared at me and went to say something, but he changed his mind when I turned to face him. Instead, he began storming away to the hospital wing and mumbling insults to himself.

"If I get kicked out of Hogwarts because of Cormac McLaggen I'm burning it to the ground as I leave" I nudged Hermione, her eyes widened as if she had just come to the realisation that it was a possibility.

Unfortunately, she let go of my hand and instead covered her mouth in horror, "What if-" she started "Hermione, I'm not getting expelled," I stopped her before she started. Dumbledore couldn't expel me, I was his safety net for the golden boy.

Slughorn did not help things, as he finished escorting his guests out and waddled his way over to me, "A word?" he asked, I sighed and told him I'd be right over. Hermione went into panic mode.

"IDIOT! I SWEAR IF YOU-" she couldn't finish the thought because, not knowing what to do with my hands now, I booped her on the nose, "I promise you, I'll be fine, if my theory is correct, then Dumbledore will let me off."

"Doubt I'll get anything worse than a few detentions. Maybe some lines." I smiled, showing her the back of my hand. "And if it's wrong?" I called after him. "Then I'm sure I'll be a very handsome gamekeeper" I said with a half wave, walking off to face my punishment,

He pulled me into a corner, away from any lingering guests. "Sooo...Detention? Or a trip to see McGonagall?" I enquired, wanting to speed this up. He looked even more flustered then McLaggen did.

"N...No, no need for that I think my boy," He was still avoiding looking at my face, it made me wonder if I had something in my teeth. "As I understand it, it was simply a minor incident, a blemish on an otherwise enjoyable evening."

"Think nothing of it my boy," he said s he wheeled me towards Hermione and scurried off as fast as he could, "Although I am afraid you will not be invited to any future gatherings." he tacked on the end as his office door slammed shut.

"Result, didn't even have to go to Dumbedore this time, frees up my evening a bit at least, and I don't really want to talk to the old man anyway" I thought as I looked back over to Hermione, who was waiting patiently for my return.

"What did he say?" she asked nervously, "Nothing, guess he didn't like McLaggen either" I shrugged, "Well what punishment did he give you?" I shrugged again, "Slap on the wrist I suppose. Revoked my slug privilege's. Ron's never going to let me live it down."

"I think Slughorn's scared of me" She chuckled, "I wonder why? It's almost as If he'd just seen you hit one of his guests." "For the betterment of the party to be honest, I don't think anyone wanted him there." I reasoned.

"I still can't believe you hit him!" Hermione sighed. "Oh come on. Don't kid yourself, we all knew it would end this way eventually since the spoon incident" I chuckled, "I'm honestly proud of myself that I lasted this long. Guess I'm growing up."

"Yes, two whole warnings, you were very nice" she rolled her eyes, I paused, "Wait...you heard him!" She nodded and frowned, "Well then, you know why I did it!" she nodded again, this time with a smile on her face.

"I just want to say I don't need you to fight my battles. This is what I was talking about. I was perfectly capable with dealing with him on my own" I snorted, "Sorry, did I hog all your glory as you hid behind the buffet table?" she pouted, "That's not what I meant."

"I appreciate you looking out for me, but I'm not made of glass" I was very confused, "I know, but I'm not letting anyone talk that way about any of my friends, I don't care who it is" She nodded.

"All I'm saying is...well, you don't see me trying to duel Parvati or the Carrows" I nodded but I was still  a little confused, "I would pay money to watch though, so if that ever happens let me know."

"Speaking of which, I think my date's done a runner, guess I'm walking back on my lonesome." "Get it? speaking of which" she furrowed her brow, "Like, speaking of witch" I chuckled, she groaned, "Never mind, you're hopeless" she said, grabbing onto my hand as we headed to the dorm.

"Well, since your date is nowhere to be seen and mine is getting medical attention, do you want to walk back...together?" Hermione asked me, her blush was so deep she looked like a Remembrall. "Yeah, sounds like a plan."

At first we headed for the dorms, but it ended up being more of a midnight stroll then anything, we didn't even know where we were going or when we would head to bed, but it was utterly brilliant

"-So I can't punch your dates, that's good to know." I made a mental note "Now can you please tell me the rules" she took second to catch my meaning, then smiled and said, "Try not to worry, I don't think they will matter for much longer."

As we walked we joked about and teased each other, pushing our luck more and more until it almost felt like nothing had changed, it felt like slowly but surely everything was fitting back the way It was always meant to.