Her green eyes sparkled with mischief when she saw Regulus. She flipped her long, strawberry-blonde hair behind her and approached him.

"Regulus," she voiced. "Long time, no see."

He moved pass her without even looking twice and entered the common room. That angered her, she needed to be looked at. He walked towards the fireplace and sat down in the black leather loveseat. Xyris followed behind him.

"What do you want?" he asked, slightly agitated. He was not in the mood to be bothered with her.

She took a seat next to him, "You know what I want."

He sighed. "Sorry," he said, not actually meaning it, "but I'm kind of with someone."

She fluttered her eyelashes, "Yes, I know, but you two aren't officially together, are you?"

"Well, no. That doesn't mean I'm going to mess around with you, though."

Xyris shook her head and laughed, "You barely even know her. How long have you 'liked' her? A week, maybe?"

"That's not the point," he said, firmly. "I'm still not interested in you, nor was I last year."

She glared at him, "Whatever, but don't come running to me when you two aren't 'together' anymore. I gave you your chance."

"Trust me, I won't," Regulus replied, standing up. He walked across the common room and up the staircase. He wanted to find Aleron because he felt the need to talk to someone. Aleron and Sirius were the only people he could really tell almost anything to.

He pushed open the dormitory door and found Aleron sprawled across his bed, his golden hair a mess, staring off into space.

'Hey," Aleron said, sitting up. "I heard about your little rumble."

Regulus walked over to his bed and sat down.

"Yeah, I couldn't just let him say that about Aaralyn. Avery is such a ....." he finished his sentence with some very creative vocabulary.

"Yeah, he is. What," Aleron stretched and yawned, "did you get for a punishment?"

"Oh, I have to stay with Slughorn for three hours, everyday, for a week."

"That's not to bad for breaking someone's jaw. You could have had to stay with McGonagall."

"Yeah, I know."

"Hey... uhh, never mind," Regulus had wanted to tell Aleron about what was going to happen on Christmas break and ask for advice on what he could do. He decided not to at the last minute because he didn't want to loose Aleron as a friend. There was no one he could talk to about it and it was looming closer and closer.

"What?" inquired Aleron.

"It's nothing, just forget it," he yawned. "I'm going to bed, 'night."

He changed into his green pajamas and drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

- - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - -- - - -- - - - --- - - - -- - - - -

The weeks flew by for Regulus. His detentions cut into his homework time and, unfortunately, into his Aaralyn time. Xyris had not bothered him since that day in the common room. It looked like she moved on to Drazan, the Slytherin Quidditch captain. Slughorn had him clean the Potion classroom. Slughorn wanted to make sure that Regulus was not upset with him and asked him numerous times if he still wanted to go to the SlugClub's Christmas party. Regulus told him that he would since he went every year. Aleron was still head-over-heels for Fanchon but the feeling still not mutual. Fanchon had started going out with Kaz Brylee. This bothered Aleron a lot at first but he still only had eyes for her despite the many girls that took interest in him. Sirius was spending all of his spare time with Wynnie. It looked, in Regulus' opinion, that she might be able to tame the unruly Sirius. Aaralyn and him were spending all of the time they could together, which was not too long considering the amount of homework they had and the amount of time they spent studying for O.W.L's. As he expected, a letter came from his parents, asking him if what Avery had told them was true. Regulus lied and wrote back saying that Avery just wanted to get him into trouble. His parents believed him, since they thought that Regulus would never have anything to do with a Muggleborn. Slytherin had won their first match of the season against Hufflepuff 250-100. Regulus had caught the Snitch right underneath the other Seeker's nose.

It was December fifteenth and Regulus was going crazy. He started counting off the days to Christmas break.

"Ten days to go," he thought to himself.

It was a chilly Sunday afternoon. He was heading down from the library to eat lunch. He paused to watch the snowflakes plummeting from the white sky through a small, round window. He started walking again and entered the Great Hall. He saw Aaralyn, she had her long, dusky hair tied up in a ponytail, at the Ravenclaw table. He walked over to her, sat down beside her, and wrapped his arms around her small waist. Burying his face into her neck, he murmured, "I've been thinking about you."

Aaralyn kissed the top of his head, "What have you been doing?"

He sighed softly, "Studying in the library for that D.A.D.A. test tomorrow."

Regulus picked up his head slowly and kissed her on the cheek. He wrapped one arm around her and used the other arm to eat. He scanned the table to see who else was there. Sirius was sitting, snuggled up to Wynnie, a few seats down. Fanchon was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Fanchon?" he asked Aaralyn.

"She's at the Gryffindor table with Kaz."

Regulus glanced behind him and saw the two of them cuddled pretty close together. He turned back around and saw Aleron scowling at them, from the Slytherin table.

They finished eating and left the Great Hall.

"Do you want to go for a walk outside?" Regulus asked Aaralyn.

"Yes, I love the snow. I have to go get my jacket though." She grabbed his hand and led him in the direction of the Ravenclaw common room. They arrived at the top of the stairs and headed for the door.

"I'll wait out here for you," Regulus said, letting go of her hand.

"Why? You can some in if you want to."

"Oh, okay." He had never been inside a different common room before. Aaralyn approached the door and it asked her a question. After she answered it correctly, it swung open.