When Jackie woke up the next morning, she didn't get out of bed right away. It was all a dream, she told herself. I just dreamed that yesterday was the Yule Ball. Any second now, I'll get up and see the presents at the foot of my bed…

But when she got up, there were no presents on her bed.

She got ready for her run mechanically, her mind churning over the events of the previous night. I spent the majority of the Ball with Trent. He asked me out. What about Alamexia? What does this mean? Does Stephen know? What the bloody hell am I going to do about Derrick?

These thoughts were spinning in answerless circles as she walked down to meet the Slytherins in the Entrance Hall. She wondered if Trent was going to be there – what should she say to him? She was still debating this when she walked into the Entrance Hall and only saw Stephen.

'Nice watch,' he greeted her with a smile. Jackie looked down and realised that she had put on the new one he gave her.

'Thanks,' she smiled back. 'You know, Ari really enjoyed those beans.'

'You gave away my present to you?' he scoffed in mock offense. Jackie just rolled her eyes. 'Yeah, I figured as much. Thanks for the book – but it's not needed.'

'Yeah, sure.' Jackie laughed at him.

'Alright, maybe I've already started reading it,' he confessed with a smile.

'So where's Trent?' Jackie asked in what she hoped was a nonchalant way.

'He's out like a rock.' Stephen shrugged to excuse his friend. 'Shall we?'

Jackie gestured for him to lead the way and followed him around the lake.

'How was your night last night?' Jackie asked.

Stephen shrugged. 'Not too bad. Luckily Alamexia wasn't too annoying when she found out that it wasn't Trent that she had been with. It had been one of our roommates, but I still tried to make myself scarce.'

'Understandable.'

'How about you?' he asked back. 'How was your night?'

Jackie gave a noncommittal grunt. 'It was pretty good. Derrick was drunk before the ball even started, so I dumped him. I doubt he even remembers anything that happened last night.'

Stephen nodded. 'Probably not. But how was your time with Trent?'

'How did you know?' Jackie was offended that she seemed to be the only one that had been left in the dark.

'He asked me to set up Alamexia with someone else so that he would be able to get away for a while – so I assumed that he wanted to spend the night with you,' Stephen explained with the air of telling a person something they should already know.

'Why would you assume that?' Jackie asked, growing more curious about what else she had missed in her life as the conversation continued.

'He's fancied you since the beginning of this year, when you almost ran him over in Potions.'

Jackie flushed at the memory. 'Really?'

Stephen laughed. 'Really. You mean you honestly didn't notice or suspect anything?'

Jackie shook her head. 'I didn't. However, I could tell that you lied to me earlier. He's awake. Why didn't he come this morning? Was he afraid to see me?'

'No, no, nothing like that,' Stephen backpedalled immediately. 'He just wanted to give you some time on your own to see if you did still want to see him later today.'

'I said I did, didn't I?' Jackie said, though her voice didn't sound quite right to herself. Stephen didn't seem to notice, though, and they finished their run talking about harmless things like Quidditch and classes. They parted in the Entrance Hall with a smile and wave.

Jackie spent the morning finishing her homework in the common room. Once she was done, she snapped her book shut and the sound made Nathaniel look up from the floor where he was building an elaborate house of Exploding Snap cards.

'Tired of it?' he asked.

'No, I'm done,' she told him, gathering her papers together. Nathaniel's mouth dropped open. 'You shouldn't do that,' Jackie suggested. 'You'll catch flies.'

'How the bloody hell are you done?' he asked her incredulously.

'I actually work on it instead of starting and moving on to card games,' she informed him. When she stood up, the house exploded and Jackie danced out of the range of the blast. She looked back to see Nathaniel still on the floor with the surprised look still on his face.

Jackie went to her dorm to drop off her books and grabbed Ender's Game, the book Nathaniel had given her for Christmas. When she got back to the common room, he was cleaning up the scattered pieces of his house.

'So, what's this book about?' Jackie asked him, examining the cover of the book.

'Oh, that's one of my favourites.' Nathaniel grinned; pitching the exploded cards he was holding and walking over to her. 'It's about this American kid in the future – basically, Earth is being threatened by these aliens and Ender, the kid, goes up into space to this Battle School where they train him to fight the aliens.'

Jackie nodded. 'Sounds cool.' She sat down in her favourite armchair to read it. She made it through the first few chapters before she realised that it was three-thirty and she had to get ready. She was again at a loss of what to wear – when she finally decided on a nice shirt and jeans, she had ten minutes before she had to meet Trent.

'Where are you going?' Ari asked as she walked through the common room.

'I'm not sure,' Jackie answered cryptically, yet truthfully, as she exited the room.

At four o'clock on the dot, Jackie entered the Entrance Hall and saw Trent waiting for her. Grinning nervously, she walked over to him. When he saw her, his face broke into a huge smile. 'Hey,' he greeted her. 'You ready?'

'What do I need to be ready for?' Jackie asked as he led the way to the Room of Requirement.

'You'll see,' he smiled shrewdly, opening the door that had appeared there.

When they walked in, there was the same 'Teevee' box as there had been on her dates with Derrick, but the surroundings were different. It looked like they were outside in part of the room and there was a picnic bench next to a big black grill.

'What?' Jackie asked, looking at the grill. She had seen Ari's dad grilling when she went to their house in her first year, but she hadn't known anyone else to make their food in that fashion.

'I'm going to make you dinner.' Trent had the giddy look of a child on his face as he lit the grill. Jackie wondered suddenly if the room was fireproof.

'You do know how to work that, right?' she asked, looking at it warily.

'Yeah, I'll be fine. I learned from Stephen's parents – they're into Muggle things. My dad would pop a blood vessel if he saw me doing this.' He clapped his hands. 'So, how do you like your hamburgers?'

'Cooked?' Jackie guessed, smiling at the way he got animated as he talked about this.

Trent laughed. 'Okay, one cooked burger, coming right up. Do you want it to be pink at all in the middle?'

Jackie shrugged. 'How do you like yours done?'

'I like mine well done, no pink at all. There're five stages – well done, medium well, medium, medium rare and rare. They get more pink as you go more rare,' he explained.

'Er, I guess I'll have mine like you have yours,' Jackie said. All of his explanation had gone right over her head.

'You got it.' He smiled before turning to the meat and getting it ready.

'So where are we?' Jackie asked, looking around.

'We're in Stephen's backyard, minus the house and lake. It's the first place that comes to mind when I think of grilling,' he told her, putting the meat on the grill. 'Do you want cheese on your burger?'

'Er, no thanks. Why are we having burgers?'

Trent laughed. 'I know, it's a very American thing for a British wizard to do, but it's what I learned to do. I did try to do a steak once, but that didn't turn out so well…' he trailed off. 'Let's just say that it's a good thing that the Flints have a lake in their backyard, especially since none of us had our wands at the time. We didn't think that we'd need them…' Jackie couldn't help but laugh at the picture that his story formed in her mind.

Trent joined in. 'Yeah, I leave the steaks for Mr Flint. I'm pretty good at these burgers, though,' he commented, flipping a burger into the air and catching it on his spatula before placing it back on the grill.

'Show off.' Jackie laughed at him but he just shrugged, unapologetic.

They chatted while he continued to work the grill and Jackie couldn't help but compare it to her dates with Derrick. She was much more comfortable and there was a lot more laughing with Trent. With a flourish, he presented her with her plate and gestured to the couch by the 'Teevee.' She walked over and sat down as he put out the fire in the grill and joined her.

'What are we going to watch?' Jackie asked, getting ready to take a bite out of her burger.

'I was thinking maybe something like 'The Hunt for Red October' or 'Die Hard.' Either of those sound good?'

Jackie shrugged through her bite of hamburger and swallowed quickly to answer him. 'I don't know – I just started watching movies at the beginning of this year.'

'You didn't watch TV when you were younger?' he asked, surprised.

'You did?' Jackie retorted, even more surprised.

Trent nodded and swallowed his bite. 'Yeah, when I was younger I had a few Muggle friends. I would have to sneak out to see them, my dad wasn't too happy about it, and I watched TV with them. Even when he banned me from seeing those friends, I would go home over the holidays and go see them first, before going home, so my dad didn't know that I was still seeing them.'

'Ah. So what are those movies about? Or do you want to just pick one and we can watch the other one later?'

Trent thought a moment, then a video appeared on the counter next to the TV. 'We'll start with this one – "Die Hard". It's an action movie.'

Jackie nodded and held his plate while he got the movie set up. When he sat back down, he sat closer to her and once he finished his meal he put his arm around her shoulders. Jackie enjoyed the movie, and when Trent had to explain a joke or reference she didn't understand, he explained it so well that she laughed and felt like she knew it all along.

When the movie was over, Trent took her hand and walked her back to the base of the stairs to Ravenclaw Tower. 'So, do we keep this discreet or let it all out?'

'Well, I assumed that you would want to keep it discreet because of Alamexia…' Jackie thought out loud.

Trent nodded. 'Yeah, that may be the smartest plan. Then, I shall say good night here. Same time Sunday?'

Jackie nodded. 'It's a date.' Trent smiled back and kissed her hand before letting her go up the stairs.

When she entered the common room, Ari wasn't waiting for her, so Jackie sat down next to Nathaniel.

'Where were you?' he asked.

'Eating dinner,' Jackie responded truthfully. She could see that he was curious, but was thankful that he didn't pry. She still needed to think up a story to tell Ari.

Ari still didn't appear when Jackie was getting tired, so she went up to her dorm to get ready for bed.

'There you are,' Ai sounded exasperated. 'I was wondering when you'd come back.'

'I was wondering when you'd come looking for me – I've been in the common room,' Jackie smiled.

'Really?' Ari was surprised. 'Huh. Well, where were you?'

'I was eating dinner, and then I took a walk and was talking with Stephen,' Jackie recited the story she had come up with.

Luckily, Ari was appeased. 'Alright, I guess that's acceptable.'

The next day, Derrick came up to Jackie in the Entrance Hall as she was going to the Great Hall for breakfast. He looked like he was still hung-over from the Ball. 'Hey, Jackie. How are you, babe?' And without waiting for an answer, he continued. 'Hey, I'm sorry if I acted like an idiot at the Yule Ball; I don't remember any of it. Did we have a good night?'

Jackie walked past him, her voice cold. 'I dumped you. There is no "we" anymore. Shouldn't you be off somewhere "studying" with Acantha Malfoy?'

He looked surprised. 'How did you find… er, I mean… I don't know what you're talking about,' he tried to cover up lamely.

Jackie turned, her eyes blazing. 'I saw you greet her with a kiss before you even noticed that I was in the room. You then proceeded to choose her over me. Now go away, Derrick, go to your other girlfriend, because I don't want to have anything to do with you anymore.' She turned away from him and sat down at the Ravenclaw table in a huff. Angrily, she saw that Derrick was walking over to where she was sitting.

'Jackie, I–'

'I don't care what you have to say to me anymore,' Jackie told him, pulling out her wand. 'And if you don't leave me alone, I will curse you into oblivion.'

Luckily for him, he seemed to be sober enough to realise that she wasn't kidding and left. Ari and Nathaniel were exchanging looks around Jackie's fuming head, so she grabbed a plate of bacon and toast and went back up to Ravenclaw Tower.

They both entered the common room right after she did and sat on the floor next to her.

'Are you okay?' Ari asked softly.

'Yeah, I'll be fine.' As she said it, she felt a few tears escape. Nathaniel put his arm around her. They sat there quietly for a little while longer before Jackie was feeling better, Ari holding her hands and Nathaniel holding her.

'I'm good now,' she said, standing up. 'Thanks.'

'No problem,' Nathaniel gave her shoulder a squeeze and let his arm drop.

'It's nothing for a friend,' Ari gave Jackie a hug and they both let her go up to her dorm alone.

As she lay on her bed, a grey owl flew in through the window. 'What are you here for?' she asked him, stroking his feathers and taking the note attached to his leg.

I heard about what happened, I'm sorry I wasn't up there sooner. Are you okay?
Trent
P.S. This is my owl, Winston.

Jackie smiled. 'Hello, Winston,' she greeted the owl as she took out her quill to respond.

Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks.
Jackie

She sent Winston back and took out Ender's Game to read the rest of the day.

Jackie spent the rest of the Christmas holiday reading, hanging with her friends, including Trent, and laughing at Nathaniel as he scrambled to catch up on homework.

'If you would have just concentrated before, you could have avoided all this trouble,' Jackie observed from her seat near the fire while he worked at a table.

'I had more important things to do,' he retorted.

'Like building houses that explode at a moment's notice?'

'Exactly.'