I nurse my cup of tea with a slight smile on face the next morning, stretching it into a grin as Tom flops down lazily beside me, his eyes bright. Both Bella and Lily eye us warily opposite, hiding behind the ginormous toast stack.

"Good morning, Bliss." His tongue rolls out the greeting slightly lazily, but his prize smirk says over wise.

"What do you mean, good morning? Do you mean to ask whether I am having a good morning? Or did you mean to say that it is a good morning? Or-"

He elbows me in the arm, casting me a slightly withering look as my grins becomes a rather good impression of Cheshire Cat's. "Shut up."

"Well, I must say," Bella leans forward, twiddling a hair between her fingers, a crooked smile playing on her lips, "I am glad that your little 'lovers spat' is over and done with."

I kick her under the table, but Lillian is the one who exclaims in protest, rubbing her shin with a sour expression. I apologise furtively and Tom casts me an amused look. I blush behind my hair.

Bella rolls her eyes at us, and then claps her hands together like a mad man hatching a scheme. "Are you planning on asking Bliss to the dance, Riddle?"

I choke on my tea, my red face now even redder. Tom splutters around his mouthful of cereal, fidgeting slightly beneath his robes as pink dusts his high cheekbones lightly. Lily is clearly biting back a grin, but she shoots me an apologetic look, her eyes laughing.

"Of course he's not! Shut up, Belladonna." I scowl at her, still beetroot red, and she cackles, tucking her knees up to her chest in case I try to kick her again. Tom, however, swivels around on the bench so that he's looking at me directly, his legs dangling either side of the wooden blank, his eyebrows raised.

"Won't I? And how, may I ask, do you know that?"

Lily gives a little squeak. "So you are?!"

I hush her, my eyebrows knitting together so that I can eye him quizzically, looking for a sign of twitching lips or laughing eyes. He stares back at me serenely. "I know you won't. You'll probably ask Miriam."

He grins at me mischievously. "'Probably,'" He air quotes with his fingers, "is not 'definitely', now, is it? When have I ever said that I wanted to go with Miriam, of all people?"

I stare at him incredulously my mouth slightly agape. "But-But you said, you asked me whether you should date her not a few months ago!"

"I was joking." He leans forwards slightly, his eyes flickering to mine. "And a lot can change in a few, short months."

He smirks at me cryptically, inclines his head, and exits the hall with his robes flowing out around him, sauntering with a casual grace.