Christmas spirit filled the air that year, as the snow pelted down outside and students prepared for their visits home.
A boy and girl entered the great hall, talking in the way that best friends do.
They complained, as they so often did, of a certain other boy in their year.
"I mean, did you hear him in transfiguration?"
"I know. He's so full of himself."
The pair observed the familiar surroundings. Plates upon plates of food covered the four long tables, the last meal they would have before returning home for the holiday season.
A presence passed above them, cackling.
"Lookie here, Snivelly."
The boy sneered at the familiar nickname, having recently been taken up by the castle poltergeist.
He looked up angrily, but his attention was soon no longer focused on the magical pest, but on the small cluster of mistletoe that hung above his head.
He was beet red as he looked back at the girl, expecting her to recoil in disgust.
But she simply shrugged, her lovely smile not leaving her face, and leaned into him.
She pressed her lips to his.
It was just a peck. Friendly at most.
She laughed.
Not in a cruel way, but in the beautiful way she always did.
She commented on how glad she was that it wasn't that certain other boy with whom she had been caught under the mistletoe (was she really?) and the two waved goodbye, making their way to their separate house tables.
Perhaps she would not think much about the kiss, no more than any other memory of him at least. Another simple moment between friends.
But he, as he sat down to eat and for so long after, could not seem to get his heart to stop beating so very fast. Nor could he wipe the large grin that had now spread across his face.
"Expecto patronum!" The boy, now a man, called out.
A silver doe burst from the tip of his wand, laced with memories of her.
It leaped gracefully across the room and out the window.
"After all this time?" asked the older man, tears springing to his eyes.
"Always."