A/N: Sorry for the very long gap between updates - I have actually got all of this and Year Three written, but real life has just kept getting in the way. However, I've just finished University, and so the plan is to post one chapter per day. It's all un-beta'd, so read at your own peril! And now, without any further ado, I present to you: Chapter Fourteen!

Chapter Fourteen

Dove Ackerley

"Louis' got a girlfriend, Louis' got a girlfriend!"
Hugo came dancing into the inter-house common room after dinner on the first full day back after Christmas, Louis following more sedately.

They'd got back to Hogwarts late on Sunday evening, and then lessons had begun Monday morning. Mia already had homework for Transfiguration, History of Magic, Potions, and Modern History of Magic. She'd just got started on her potions essay when Hugo and Louis came into the common room.

"Who? Who?" Lily asked excitedly, as Louis said,

"Shut up, Hugo."

"Dove Ackerley," Hugo said, and Mia's wasn't surprised. She'd seen the way Louis had spent all of their last Care of Magical Creatures lesson before Christmas trying to get Dove to notice him.

"Dove?" Lily said. "Why?"

"Why not?" Louis scowled.

"She's a... a little featherhead," Lily said.

"She's in Ravenclaw," Louis said. "That means she's got brains."

"I didn't mean she hasn't got brains," Lily said. "Just that all she cares about is her appearance."

"And why shouldn't she?" Louis said angrily. "She looks great."

Mia snorted.

"Shut up," Louis laughed.

"What I want to know is how on earth you managed to get her to go out with you," Mia said.

Lily and Hugo laughed.

"I didn't mean it like that," Mia protested. "Just that she wasn't very interested in you before Christmas."

"I wrote to her," Louis shrugged.

"Stalker, muchly," Lily said.

"I just wrote to her," Louis said. "I didn't like declare my undying love for her or anything, I just said..." he started going red and then stopped talking. "Aaanyway..."

Everyone laughed.

"So where is the love of your life now?" Lily grinned.

"Getting books from her dormitory," Louis said. "Then we're gonna work on the Modern History essay together."

"Because we're just not cool enough for you," Hugo said.

"Pretty much," Louis shrugged. "Oh, there she is."

Everyone looked over to the door where Dove had just waked in. Louis got up and walked over to her, and Lily, Mia and Hugo watched as the two of them found a table together.

"Dove Ackerley?" Lily said as the three of them turned back to their work.

"He could've chosen worse," Hugo shrugged.

"Yeah, like Ilonka or something," Mia said. "Dove's just a bit full of herself."
"Her and Louis both," Hugo grinned. "I predict it won't last – no relationship's big enough for both their egos."

"What, like Rose and Scorp?" Lily asked.

"Nah, they just like arguing too much," Hugo grinned. "Anyway... Potions." He dipped his quill in some ink and started writing.

The three of them all settled down to work, occasionally stealing glances over at Louis and Dove. Dove was deep in her work, one had furiously writing, the other rested on her textbook, holding it open. Mia watched as Louis surreptitiously walked his fingers across the table and rested his hand on top of Dove's. She looked up at him and smiled, blushing.

The Gryffindors' first lesson the following morning was Potions. All the way down from breakfast, Lily and Hugo entertained Mia with tales of their Christmas at Number 12, Grimmauld Place, and Lily was still at it when they sat down at their usual table in the dungeon classroom.

"How was your Christmas, Luci?" Mia asked, as Lily started repeating the James-and-Fred-and-the-exploding-Christmas-pudding story for Zoe, who'd just caught the end of it. "Did you spent it in Switzerland?"

Luci nodded. "We always spend Christmas at my grandparents' house," she said, briefly glancing up from her textbook. "It was nice."

"What about you, Cassie?" Mia asked. "You stayed here over Christmas, didn't you? How come?"

"My parents were abroad," Cassie shrugged, her head buried in her textbook in a very Luci-like fashion.

"What were they abroad for?" Mia asked as Professor Cooke entered the room.

"Work," Cassie replied, and, as Professor Cooke started the lesson at that point, she couldn't elaborate.

After Potions, the Gryffindors headed outside for Herbology, whilst the Hufflepuffs went upstairs for Charms. All the way down to the greenhouses, Luci walked with Mia and a very reluctant Lily, but when they reached the group of Slytherins already waiting outside Greenhouse Two, she predictably went to stand with Ilonka and her sheep.

"She should stay away from Ilonka..." Lily scowled.

Mia sighed. There really was no pleasing Lily sometimes – she'd complained when Luci had hung around with them all the time, and now she was friendly with Ilonka, Lily didn't like that either. "Give her a break, Lily. She can be friends with whoever she wants."

"But she's a Gryffindor, and Ilonka's a Slytherin," Lily said.

"So?" Mia said. "People in different houses can be friends – we're not in the Dark Ages, Lily. And we're friends with Louis, and Mac, and Zoe, and Cassie, and they're not in Gryffindor. And-" she continued, knowing that Lily was about to say that Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw weren't Slytherin "-and we're friends with Theo and Ruby, and they're Slytherins."

"Yeah, but they're alright, Ilonka's not," Lily said.

"Then it's Ilonka you have a problem with, not Slytherins," Mia said. "And you generalize that problem with Ilonka to being with all Slytherins."

"So what if I do?" Lily shrugged.

"So it's not fair on all the decent Slytherins," Mia told her.

"But it still means Luci shouldn't be friends with Ilonka," Lily insisted.

"Maybe not, but that doesn't mean you should decide that for her – let her make her own choices, and her own mistakes."

It was the last lesson before dinner before the Gryffindor had anything with the Ravenclaws. As the class filed into double History of Magic, Mia and Lily took up their usual places at the back, with Hugo just in front of them. Louis, however, didn't join them, instead sitting on the other side of the classroom with Dove.

"What are you doing over there?" Hugo demanded as the classroom filled up around them.

"Sitting with my girlfriend," Louis grinned.

Hugo rolled his eyes and turned around in his seat to face Lily and Mia. "So I have to sit through an hour and a half of Binns all by myself?" he sighed.

"You can turn round and talk to us," Mia told him. "Once Binns gets started he won't notice."

"I'm not sure I like this whole Louis having a girlfriend thing," Hugo said.

"Maybe you should get yourself one too?" Lily suggested, grinning.

Hugo pulled a face, and Lily and Mia laughed. "I'm twelve," Hugo said. "I do not want a girlfriend. Yet. I'm not even a teenager!"

Professor Binns floated through the wall next to the open door, and everyone pretended to listen to him for the first five minutes, before going back to their conversations. Mia managed to copy down an occasional name or date, but for the most part she paid little attention. Alexander and Kieran were quietly disarming each other, in front of Hugo. Derek Downer and Andy Cattermole were playing hangman on a scrap of parchment in the front row. Dove was dozing off, her head resting on Louis' shoulder as he played with her hair.

"What was that lesson even about?" Hugo yawned as he walked down to dinner with Lily and Mia. Louis had gone on ahead with Dove – they were just visible at the end of the corridor, hand in hand, Louis carrying Dove's bag as well as his own.

"Goblin wars?" Mia suggested.

"Witch burning?" Lily offered.

"Well, I thought I heard the international statute of secrecy mentioned..." Hugo mused. "History of Magic really is a waste of time."

"Agreed," Lily sighed, as they reached the bottom of the stairs down into the Entrance Hall. At the Gryffindor table, they found seats opposite James, Fred and Chris, and started helping themselves to large servings of steak and kidney pie.

"Who's that girl Louis is practically hanging off of?" James demanded, looking over Mia's shoulder at the Ravenclaw table.

"Dove Ackerley," Hugo told him, his mouth full of pie.

"Dull who?" James asked.

"Dove Ackerley," Mia corrected him, giggling. "She's in our year, Ravenclaw. They started going out yesterday."

Hugo swallowed his mouthful. "Only after Louis practically stalked her over Christmas," he said.

"Aren't you lot all a bit young to start dating?" James asked. "Chlo and I didn't start going out until the end of fourth year."

"There was that time you snogged Ruthie Blue in third year, though..." Chris mused.

"That was a dare!" James protested. "You dared me to do it."

"Hey, Ruthie!" Fred called to a girl with electric blue hair who was sitting a few places along from Hugo.

"What?" Ruthie said, looking up from her chocolate gateaux.

"Remember third year, when you snogged James?" Fred grinned.

"I think you'll find he kissed me, actually," Ruthie said.

"Details," Fred shrugged. "So, you've already proved you'd snog the son of the Chosen One – would you snog his cousin?"

"In your dreams, Weasley," Ruthie said, rolling her eyes and turning back to her pudding.

Fred turned back to James, Chris, Lily, Mia and Hugo, grinning. "She likes me," he said confidently.

"She thinks you're an idiot," James told him bluntly.

"So what?" Fred shrugged. "I am an idiot."

"Well," Lily said. "You can date her, so long as it's only casual."

"Who gave you permission to dictate my love life?" Fred demanded.

"What love life?" James snorted, as Lily elaborated,

"You said you weren't going to get serious until you're at least forty. So no serious relationships for you!"

"Or any at all, judging by Ruthie's attitude," Chris grinned.