Natalie looked up from her breakfast of kippers and buttered bread and caught Charlie's eye over the flagon of pumpkin juice. She smiled at him and he smiled back. She felt the accustomed swoop of her stomach in reply but she tried to ignore it.

Sometimes it can be hard when you're in love with your best friend.

"What?" Natalie asked through a mouthful of bread and butter.

"Classy." Charlie said sarcastically. Natalie wrinkled her nose at him, unrepentant, and chewed her food as she waited for him to get to the point. "If Sirius Black came in right now and started blowing the tables apart and all that sort of thing, what would you do?"

Natalie was so used to Charlie's random questions she didn't waste time asking why he wanted to know. She took a gulp of tea as she thought about it.

The coffee pot was in reach, she could probably throw it at him and scald him, that might put him off for a few seconds. Perhaps that would give her time to tell Charlie how she felt about him. She watched Charlie as she thought. He was currently scooping cereal into his mouth, his curly brown haired head bent over the bowl, obscuring his hazel eyes which seemed to have green sunbursts within them. His nearness thrilled her. She counted her blessings every moment he spent time with her, which these days wasn't as much time as she wanted to spend with him.

Natalie shook herself out of her useless revere. Anyway, if she threw the coffee pot at Sirius Black there was no doubt that he would merely kill her before everyone else. She was a Hufflepuff, she would not be the one doing the heroics, leave that to some Gryffindor or a glory hungry Slytherin.

"Probably hide under the table." Natalie finally replied, but Charlie wasn't listening any longer he was looking over at the Slytherin Table. Natalie sighed and turned to the girl on her right.

"Look Amy he's doing it again." Natalie said. Amy shook her head in despair

"Charlie, she's not going to notice you, just give up." Charlie turned back to the Hufflepuff table on hearing his name and he swelled himself up pompously in the way he normally used as an impression of the silly Gryffindor headboy in the year above.

"Shows what you know." Charlie said "Estelle's in my Ancient Runes class and we're translation partners, she's always telling me how much she appreciates my help." And with that Charlie went back to craning his neck in search of Estelle on the Slytherin table.

Natalie bit her lip in worry and exchanged concerned looks with Amy. Whilst Charlie mooned after Estelle in private it was fine, nobody got hurt, well maybe Natalie, but Charlie was quite happy dreaming up fanciful scenarios of their 'shared love'. But if Estelle was now taking an interest in Charlie it wouldn't only be Natalie she hurt.

Charlie thumped his hand on the table, just missing his goblet of pumpkin juice as his eyes remained fixed upon the Slytherin table, and said to nobody in particular "There she goes."

Indeed Natalie watched a waspishly thin girl rise gracefully out of her chair, still laughing with her fellow Slytherins. As she put her satchel on her shoulder she brushed back her syrupy blonde hair in one fluid motion. As she turned for the large doors which led to the entrance hall she saw Charlie smiling bemusedly at her and she gave him a wink from brown eyes Natalie could imagine boys drowning in. She puckered her lips at him before turned up her little delicate nose and flouncing out.

Natalie rubbed her own rather rounder nose and muttered about a pimple hex she'd recently learned. Amy surprisingly heard her and grunted in approval.

Charlie on the other hand was positively beaming, and Natalie couldn't help but smile back at him. "You saw that right? You saw. I'm not dreaming. Should I follow her? Do you think she'd want to come to Hogsmeade with us?" Charlie's face crumpled with confusion. Natalie and Amy looked at each other alarmed. They'd both been looking forward to the last Hogsmeade trip before the Christmas holidays as a day off to spend altogether(sorely needed after all the studying for their NEWTS), with all the rest of their Hufflepuff year mates coming as well it had looked like it was going to be a raucous outing (even if everyone was already bored of the snow which made walking tasking); but if they had to spend all day with Estelle who, all things considered, was a Psychopathic attention seeker, well, it wasn't an appealing prospect.

"I say go for it man, I mean if a girl winks it's got to mean something doesn't it? I'm so jelous of you man, I mean seriously-" and Sam on the other side of Amy whistled his appreciation of Estelle. Amy hit him hard on the shoulder and hissed at him,

"You idiot!" but the damage was already done. Charlie was looking up at the cloudy ceiling un-seeing and speaking to himself.

"Yeah, I should, I should go out there and ask her to come to Hogsmeade." Amy groaned. Natalie tried to look like she didn't mind too much, but it felt like her stomache was already in the dungeons and still dropping. Charlie looked straight at Natalie and blurted quickly, already trying to yank his bag out from under the table and tangling himself up in the process "You've got to come with me."

"What?" Cried Natalie, certain that was the last thing that she wanted to do.

"I can't do this on my own." Charlie looked so plaintively at her that all she could do was nod.

"Natalie?" Amy cried exasperated. Natalie shrugged,

"What's the guessing she'll say no anyway."