It was mid-December and Harry, Ron and Hermione were walking along in silence, each lost in thought as they returned from a Hogsmeade visit. Harry was revisiting the events of the last few weeks; the huge amounts of homework, his messy love life, his friends and the letter Dumbledore gave him that his mother had written to his father shortly after Harry's birth. Harry sighed out loud; he pushed the nagging thought that the letter brought up to the back of his mind. He kept thinking, this time about the last few days, which had been pleasant, weather-wise at least. The days had been cold and windy, but surprisingly sunny and everyone had been outside, enjoying the break from the monotony of the endless grey skies so common at Hogwarts at this time of the year. However, everything else in Harry's life seemed much less pleasant.
The sixth-years had an unprecedented level of homework and Harry and Ron were barely able to stay on top of things. Even Hermione was suffering from a few sleepless nights in order to keep up. Luckily enough, the following day after this particular Hogsmeade trip was the official beginning of the Christmas Holidays, or if you counted the weekend, it would be the third day.
However, it wasn't just the homework that the trio were having trouble with. Their love lives left much to be desired. Though not really expecting much, ready for disappointment to head his way at any time, Harry had tried getting back together with Cho. She was certainly much happier this time, but Harry was not the reason for this. The reason for Cho's unexplained happiness was to Harry's surprise, Ron.
Harry had walked in on them kissing in a Transfiguration classroom when searching for a misplaced essay draft. His first reaction was to punch Ron hard in the nose, but Cho stepped in to stop him. She began pleading for Harry to let her be happy or something like that, Harry didn't really know because he wasn't listening. In his first feelings of anger there came also a shock revelation. He didn't really care. He had had low expectations of this relationship from the start. He didn't like Cho in that way anymore. To his surprise, and Ron and Cho's it seemed, he really was not at all upset at either Ron or Cho. He didn't like Cho, she didn't like him, his best friend was happy and so was Cho. He really saw nothing wrong with the situation at all, apart from the fact that his girlfriend had cheated on him with his best friend. 'But...' he told himself, 'what does it matter. Neither of you fancy each other anymore and they're both happy so why worry? Isn't your friendship more important than some silly fight that you are about to have that wont result in you getting off any better than you are now?' So Harry decided to not bother, he found his essay and left them to it. When Ron returned to the Common Room later, he sat down near Harry, looking nervous. When Harry saw him, he laughed and explained the situation to him. Ron looked relieved. Harry began to realise something, the reason he didn't mind about Ron and Cho was that he was developing feelings for someone else. Someone much, much closer to home.