Hello Daphne,

I promised I would write to you, so here I am, sitting in an empty common room thinking of what I should say. How was your Christmas? Did you get all you could dream of and more? I hope you had a great time. I know how important your family is to you. I'm glad you are able to share the holidays with the people you love most in the world.

I'm really starting to miss my mom. School keeps me busy during the school year, but during this break I am bored and left with too much alone time to miss my mom. It get's lonely here being so isolated. The headmaster combined the staff and the few students remaining in the castle for Christmas dinner to try and help ease the loneliness of Christmas of those left in Hogwarts. It wasn't a joyous occasion. It is awkward to eat that close to the professors, especially Snape.

I miss you and our conversations as well. You really bring out the best of the Slytherin house. You are smart and clever. I really enjoy the banter we share when we are able to have conversations. And your eyes are truly beautiful; I could stare into your icy blues eyes and get lost in them forever. Wow, that is cheesy. You really are pretty though and you deserve to be told it. I wish we were given more time to talk after Slughorn's party.

Do you mind if I ask you some questions to get to know you better? Tell me about your parents? What are they like? What do they do? I know you adore your sister but what is her personality? I would love to take the time to get to know you better. I guess I should end before I say anything more embarrassing than what I already have said. Take care Daphne; enjoy the rest of your break. I will look forward to the time I will be able to see you again.

Sincerely

Samuel Ashcroft

I wrote to Daphne the day after Christmas. It was now a few days after New years and I never got a response back. Maybe she is just really busy with her family and everything going on. Or maybe she doesn't like me as much as I like her.

Hermione walked into the common room and caused me to stand up from where I was sitting. "Hello Hermione, how was your Christmas?"

"It was good. It is always nice to go home to family and get a reset on life. When we are at school we tend to get a little dramatic and lost in this little world here at Hogwarts. It probably is some form of cabin fever. How was your Christmas Samuel?" Hermione seemed to have a new bounce to her step.

"It was good. Really it was pretty lonely here without everyone. I missed you and Harry and Ron and …"

"Daphne." Hermione finished for me.

"Well, yes. I'm glad you are in better spirits Hermione. Do you feel good enough to interact with Ron normally again?" I asked hopefully.

"It wasn't that good of a break." Hermione frowned at the thought of seeing Ron again. "I'm going to go see Hagrid. Want to come with me?" Hermione asked with a smile.

"Nah, I think I'm going to go to the Great Hall, eat lunch and see who all is back so far."

"You mean you are going to see if Daphne is back yet. Good luck Samuel" Hermione smirked at me.

"Maybe. Catch you later Hermione." I grinned and left for the Great Hall. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find Daphne the whole day. She probably just wanted to spend as much time with her family as possible before coming back to the school.

"Hey Harry and Ron, come look at this Apparition Lessons are going to be offered. We can't do that in the States until we are 18." We were in the common room about to leave for breakfast the day after everyone had arrived back at Hogwarts, when I noticed the new announcement had been hung up.

"Hopefully it is better than side along apparition. That was pretty uncomfortable." Harry was grimacing at his memory.

"Still, it would be wicked to be able to just poof, go wherever you want." Ron said with a hand gesture of an exploding hand to go along with the word poof.

The next couple days went by and I still had not seen Daphne. And after asking around I realized no one had seen Astoria, Daphne's little sister, either. Something must be going on and unfortunately, no one I talked with was close enough to any Slytherin to help me get any good information.

Finally, the second day of classes, Daphne arrived in the middle of Slughorn's potions lesson. She quietly entered and took her seat at the Slytherin table. She looked very sad. "Harry what do you think is wrong with Daphne."

"Huh, what. Sorry I'm trying to concentrate on this Golpalott's Third Law thing. Come on Hermione, you have to help. I need Slughorn happy." Harry was too preoccupied to look up at Daphne.

"You all are on your own. What does your precious book have to say for this lesson hmmmm?" Hermione was out to prove a point and none of us were on her good graces when it came to potions at the moment. Ron for being Won-Won, Harry for his potions book and me because of the break up. Even though we were friends still, she was leaving us in the cold.

"Harry, you need to break down all the poisons, figure out how much of each poison there is, and then get the corresponding amount of antidote for each poison. It is not that difficult it just is tedious." I turned to Ron. "What do you think is going on with Daphne?"

"Are you talking to me? I don't know Samuel I'm so lost. I don't know about girls, I don't know about potions. I'm going to fail this lesson." Ron looked like he was sweating pretty badly due to the stress.

Right before the class was over Harry got up and ran to the cupboard. He came running back to the desk with a bezoar. "I don't know if that will be acceptable Harry. That is not really what was assigned but it would work for these poisons."

"Why didn't you grab me one?" Ron asked.

"It would look stupid if we both did it. Sorry Ron but I need this to go well." Harry did look apologetic leaving Ron without a chance to pass the lesson.

No one had finished the lesson. Hermione was the furthest along and I was a somewhat close second. Would have been closer if I wasn't spending so much time looking at Daphne with concern. Her eyes looked watery and my biggest concern was her, not the assignment. However, Slughorn loved Harry and his bezoar, for relatively no work Harry had outperformed us all in his eyes.

As the class emptied Harry lingered behind but I didn't bother to ask why. I just wanted to run after Daphne. "Daphne wait up." I caught up to her at the entrance to the Slytherin common room, luckily. The potions class is only a hall away from the dungeons the Slytherin house calls home. "What's wrong Daphne?"

"Nothing. I need to get to my dorm and put my textbook away before dinner." Daphne certainly didn't look alright.

"Did you get my letter?" I asked with concern in my voice.

Tracy was pulling Daphne into the common room. "Come on Daphne. You can try and talk later, okay Samuel."

"Yes I did Samuel. We can talk later." With that Daphne walked into her common room.

I wasn't going to let go of this until I had a chance to talk to Daphne. I ran to the Gryffindor common room and deposited my books in my dorm. I turned and ran straight for the Great Hall. I was going to catch Daphne before she went in for dinner.

On my way out I noticed Harry had returned and was arguing with Ron and Hermione. I need to remember to talk to them all later and see what is the matter.

I waited and waited and waited. Daphne and Tracy were among the last to come to the Great Hall for dinner. "Daphne, please can I have a quick word."

"Go ahead Samuel. But please make it quick." Daphne said with new tears on the verge of coming.

"Will you please tell me what is wrong? I only want to help."

"There is nothing you can do to help Samuel."

"Just let me try." I tried to show her with my eyes how truly sincere I was.

Finally Daphne gave in. "My dad died on Christmas. We had the funeral on Saturday and Astoria and I finally felt ready to return to school this morning."

"I'm so sorry Daphne. I don't know what to say."

"Of course you don't." She cut me off. We stood there awkwardly for a few seconds but what felt like forever. It lasted until I started to whisper one of my favorite songs.

"I wanna wake up each morning
With you for the rest of my life
I wanna feel your heart beating
And just get lost in your eyes
You can tell me your secrets
You can let me feel your pain
You can show me your weakness
And never be ashamed"

I was gradually getting louder as I got more into the spirit of the song. "Are you singing Samuel?" Daphne asked starting to look embarrassed, kids were still coming for dinner but they were now looking at us instead of moving on into the Great Hall.

"Hold on to me when your world's turnin' cold
When it feels like your life's spinnin' out of control
You're hopin', prayin', tryin' so hard to believe
Hold on to me when there's no middle ground
And every emotion is comin' unwound
And you don't know if you can hold on to your dreams
Baby you can hold on to me"

I gradually started to close the distance to Daphne and luckily she didn't run off screaming. Harry, Hermione, Ron and Lavender had all joined the crowd as the last of the students arrived for dinner.

"I wanna lay down each evenin'
With you right here by my side
I wanna get drunk on your laughter
And wipe all the tears when you cry
You can scare me with your darkness
You can blind me with your light
Throw your worries out the window baby
On your wildest night

Hold on to me when your world's turnin' cold
When it feels like your life's spinnin' out of control
You're hopin', prayin', tryin' so hard to believe
Hold on to me when there's no middle ground
And every emotion is comin' unwound
And you don't know if you can hold on to your dreams
Baby you can hold on to me"

"Sing it Samuel!" Ron shouted. The small crowd was getting into the moment and was supporting me and my bravado to sing in public like this. Daphne was blushing but slowly a smile was creeping up her face.

"Hold on to me when there's no middle ground
And every emotion is comin' unwound
And you don't know if you can hold on to your dreams
Baby you can hold on I said
Baby you can hold on I said
Baby you can hold on to me"

As I finished singing I closed the remaining distance and gave Daphne a hug. I tried to put all my heart into that hug to let her know just how much I cared.

"I didn't know you can sing." Daphne was smiling and I couldn't help but smile broadly.

"I think I sing well in the shower but I never sing in public. This is way out of character for me." I was blushing. The crowd was applauding and cheering for me.

It was at this moment that Professor McGonagall came out of the Great Hall causing me to break away quickly from Daphne. "What is going on out here? Everyone, into the hall immediately for dinner before I start assigning detentions. Who started, whatever it is that is going on out here?"

Hermione spoke up first. "Samuel was singing to Daphne and it was so romantic."

"I don't care what it is. Great Hall, everyone, now." McGonagall opened the door and the remaining students poured in for dinner.

As I walked toward the door I grabbed Daphne's hand. "I'm sorry if I embarrassed you too badly. I only wanted to show you how much I care. I know you don't like to be seen with a Gryffindor like me."

"Samuel, it was the kindest, nicest thing you could have done and I don't care if anyone sees us together." With that she gave me a kiss on the cheek and walked toward the Slytherin table leaving me dumbstruck.

Luckily Harry grabbed me and pulled me to the Gryffindor table. "Come on loverboy. Let's eat."

"I can't believe you sang in front of everyone like that." Ron looked like he had seen bigfoot fighting a yeti.

"I can't believe you snog Lavender in front of everyone and make it look like a wrestling match." That shut Ron up.

"Really that was great Samuel. A lot of people, me included, were having a really rotten day and you brought a lot of smiles to a lot of faces. So thank you for your bravery. You are a true Gryffindor." Having Harry complement me meant more to me than I thought it would. He is a great guy and I have really grown to appreciate his friendship.

"And if Daphne doesn't start to date you after that, I would guess a lot of girls would be happy to be your girlfriend. There was a lot of swooning going on out there." Hermione smiled and I was grateful we had moved back toward friendship rather easily.

AN*

I'm back from my vacation. I will try to write as often as I can. I have another idea for a story but I will keep moving on with this one before I start it. The song is called "Hold on to Me" by john Michael Montgomery. Thanks for reading.