A/N- So I tried something different in this chapter. This one is from Tori's POV. It's an important chapter and I hope I haven't messed it up.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

How dare he? How fucking dare he? I brushed my teeth with such force that I was sure either the brush would break or I'd lose one of my teeth. This was obviously his fault. Fucking wanker.

Getting ready wasn't proving to be very easy as the events of the morning played in my head again. He was actually sleeping like that! With his arms around me! Like I was a fucking pillow! A small part of me reminded the larger part that I had also been pretty intensely, er, wrapped up in him. Quite literally. But the larger part was able to squash that thought by an overwhelming amount of expletives.

The worst part was that Dani had found us like that. Merlin! She was never going to let this go. If it wasn't bad enough that she had this insane idea that we had something going on between us, that dumbfuck had given her actual ammunition! As if. I would never be involved with that Quidditch obsessed tosser. Pfft.

Everyone was already at the table when I reached. They were just about to begin and Mrs. Wood summoned a chair next to her son.

Gah! Perfect. This had to be the only place vacant. Next to Oliver fucking Wood!

I could sense Dani's eyes on us and resisted the urge to chuck the pepper shaker at her. Next to me, Oliver was behaving like nothing had happened. Like we hadn't woken up tangled up in each other. Like his nose hadn't been buried in my hair and my lips hadn't been near his Adam's Apple.

"Pass the jam, would you, Tori?" he asked, buttering a piece of toast.

I picked up the dish of jam and held it at such an angle so that it was near him but he would have to reach out in order to actually get it.

He raised an eyebrow when I didn't extend my arm forward and instead of taking it from me like a normal person, he took a spoon and scooped up some jam from the dish I was holding.

"What are you doing?" I asked, irritated.

"Putting jam on my toast. You want some?" he asked, tilting his head to one side.

"Why are you making me hold the dish?" my tone was quite clipped.

"I'm not making you do anything. You chose to hold it instead of passing it to me. You make your own decisions and do things according to your own free will. I have no part in what you do."

"I held it because I thought you'd take it from me. Not be a sodding prat and scoop out the jam while I kept holding it!"

"I thought you didn't want to let it go. Wouldn't be the first time today," he said lightly.

I paused for a second and saw a strange glint in his eyes. No. He wasn't…

"Not the first time?" I asked, repeating what he had said.

"Exactly. If you intend on denying it, I can show you the wrinkles around the neck of my t-shirt," he said in a low voice.

I had never heard him speak like this before. It seemed more than light teasing. Was he flirting with me?

"That is completely irrelevant," I hissed, not having much to counter with.

I could see the smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. This only proceeded to increase my anger. How dare he flirt with me?! After the shitty way he had behaved with me! Did he think this was a fucking game? Like Quidditch?

No. Of course not. If he did, then he'd take it seriously.

I huffed to myself and finished eating my food as quickly as I could, eager to get away from him. I was also aware of Dani being unable to contain a wide grin. Some friend she was.

UGH.

…

The scene outside was beautiful. I always loved snow. There was something so magical about it. I especially loved sitting down on the white surface and lazing about. It gave me an odd sort of comfort.

I was currently sitting under a tree and casually brushing my hand over the snow. I saw a shadow come up behind me and instinctively knew who it was.

"Go away."

He didn't. Instead, he sat down beside me. A little too close.

"What do you want?" I asked, trying hard to not elbow his nose.

"Nothing. Just wanted to relax a bit. It's a little crazy inside," he said, gesturing towards the house.

"So why are you here?"

"Why shouldn't I be here?"

"Stop behaving so nonchalantly!"

"What's gotten into you?" though his tone implied he knew exactly what had gotten into me.

"Did you not sleep well last night? I did." There was no implied knowing here. He was stating it clearly.

"Since you brought it up, why the fuck were you treating me like your personal pillow?" I hissed.

"For your information, you were the one who rolled off the couch and fell on top of me in the middle of the night. And then didn't let go of me when I tried to move you away," he said, looking at me challengingly.

"Don't lie!"

"I'm not. You refused to wake up and let go of me."

"Why didn't you wake me up then?"

He didn't reply and shrugged his shoulders.

"You can't evade conflict all the time, Oliver. Answer me!"

"Answer what? I told you, I tried moving you."

"You clearly didn't try hard enough. I was asleep but you weren't. Explain why exactly your arms were around me." I getting tired of dancing around the topic.

"Do you want me to answer that?" he said in a strange voice.

"Obviously. Why else would I be asking?"

"Just confirming whether you'll be trying to hex me again," he shrugged.

"What? You're making it sound like you had no fault in that situation!"

"No! That's not what I meant!"

"Then what did you mean? Please explain it clearly because I seemed to have lost a few of my brain cells trying to have a rational conversation with you!"

I had started shouting by this time and he had a troubled expression on his face. If things were different, I would have felt bad for him. But things weren't different. And I was in no mood to be kind.

"I meant that I was trying to explain things that time as well. But you didn't really give me a chance to explain," he said, slowly.

"No, you weren't."

"I was! I told you-"

"You did not tell me anything! You didn't tell me why you almost kissed me after the final. You didn't tell me why you started going out with one of my best friends a few hours later. You didn't tell me why suddenly started avoiding me. And you sure as hell haven't told me why you sleeping with your arms around me last night!"

Oliver looked stunned, to say the least. His eyes were wide and the color had faded from his cheeks. The worst part was that his eyes looked hurt and guilty. What a fantastic combination.

Knowing that I wouldn't get a reply, I got up and brushed the back of my pants. Just as I started walking away, his hand caught mine. My jaw tightened and I looked at him straight in the eye. He said nothing, just looking at me and holding my hand for some strange reason.

"If you don't have anything to say, I'm leaving," I said and yanked my hand out of his.

…

Needless to say, I wasn't in a very festive mood after that encounter. The days passed by agonizingly slowly and I could feel the life drain out of me as I tried avoiding Oliver and also prevent any strange questions arising. I was just glad that Dani and I were leaving on the 1st. That just meant that I had to survive one more night with the Woods and keep the cracks from showing.

That doesn't mean that things were made easy for me.

Dani obviously knew that something had happened and because she knew I'd never say anything if she asked, she targeted Oliver instead.

I had been steadfastly ignoring and avoiding him since Christmas. Every time he tried to talk to me, I would miraculously have something else to do, somewhere else to be or someone else to talk to. Amazing how these things pan out.

But once Dani was involved, that got a lot tougher.

After several attempts at preventing me from escaping, she had finally succeeded in getting Oliver and me in a situation where neither was able to leave.

"Ollie, please go and help Tori with rooftop decorations. Everyone else is busy," Dani said loud enough for Mrs. Wood to hear.

"Victoria is upstairs all alone? Honestly, Oliver, don't you have any sense? The floor becomes exceedingly slippery during the winter. Go and help her before she gets into some kind of accident," she chided.

I was about to walk down and protest but Oliver ran up before any of this was possible. He had a challenging look on his face, as if daring me to go down and protest. He knew I wouldn't because it would lead to unnecessary questions.

Wanker.

"Tori," he began.

I ignored him because that was something I was good at. I had had a lot of practice growing up. It was my go-to technique for dealing with anger.

"Merlin, Tori! Just listen to me!" he said, blocking my path.

"Well played. Cornering a person after you fuck up royally. You clearly know how to do things well," I said, sarcasm dripping from my voice.

"Stop. Just stop and listen to me once. After you give me a chance, I promise I won't bother you. Just give me one opportunity to explain."

I didn't say anything and my lack of movement encouraged him to continue.

"About what happened that night… I, uh, I've thought about that a lot. And the only reason I can give for not waking you up like that is because I didn't really want to."

"Huh? You prefer handling problems when they're asleep and can't fight for themselves?"

"Gah! No! Merlin! Would you just let me finish?"

I pursed my lips, frown knitting my brows.

"I didn't want to wake you up because I liked having you next to me. I didn't move you away with more force because I didn't want you to move away from me."

Wait. What? This isn't how this conversation was supposed to go. I wasn't supposed to start blushing. And he definitely wasn't supposed to sound this sincere and vulnerable.

"Tori," he said softly, leaning towards me.

I knew where this was going. Any minute now, he would pull away and ignore me for the next few months. I waited. But he didn't seem to have any intention of backing away. In fact, his invasion of my personal space was increasing slowly.

"I don't really know. But I think that I might fanc-"

"Stop."

I pushed him away with my hands before his lips could get any closer. He was still very close to me but there was enough space between us for me to be able to think clearly.

"You can't do this. You can't become my friend, show signs of being more than that, then ignore me, start talking to me randomly, cuddle with me while we're sleeping and then try and do this," I said, gesturing between his lips and mine.

"It's not as simple as that. You can't alternately be close and treat me like shit. It doesn't work that way."

He nodded his head. He took a small step back and the disappointment was evident on his face. I felt a thousand different emotions course through me in a couple of seconds. There was anger. Directed at him, the situation, Dani and my own self. There was fear of history repeating itself. But it was the last emotion that really got to me.

"But I've been waiting too long to do this. You will have plenty of time to think things through after tomorrow so screw everything else."

He looked up with surprise evident in his eyes.

I knew that if I hesitated a second longer, I wouldn't go through with this. So, I took my right hand and smacked him on the head.

It was beautiful. I felt lighter and happier than I had in days. The amount of magic could make up for the sheer joy associated with physical violence.

Oliver raised an eyebrow and held my gaze fearfully. I wanted to laugh at how clueless he looked. It was adorable.

"I think we're even now," I said.

I was on a roll that night so I thought I might as well go for it. Today was the last day of the year. I'd have a fresh start tomorrow. Clean slate and all.

I took a step towards him and he moved away, clearly anticipating more violence.

Instead, I quickly closed the gap between us and pressed my lips onto his. It took a second for him to relax but that was all I was giving myself.

Pulling away, I saw the stunned expression on his face. His cheeks were slowly turning red and I was sure mine were heading in that direction as well. It took all my self control to not kiss him again. I had wanted to do this for so long and that nano second peck wasn't really satisfying. But the nagging feeling at the back of my mind hadn't left yet. I still didn't know why he had behaved like that in school. Just because he seemed to be more accepting of something more than friendship now, didn't mean that he could just evade that topic.

There was a lot to be cleared up between us and I knew that the only thing that would help was time and distance. I hoped that I hadn't fucked up everything by kissing him. It hadn't even been a proper kiss. Just something to settle my nerves. And it's not like it was against his will! He had been leaning in to kiss me just seconds before that. I just changed the circumstances a little.

I knew that I had to move before he decided to do anything. Positive or negative.

This was probably a horrible way to leave things but I had gotten the shorter end of the stick for a long time and it was time that he suffered a little as well.

I ran down the stairs and began engaging myself in other tasks, successfully avoiding Oliver for the rest of my stay.

He had time to think things over. And I hoped I would be okay with whatever he decided.

…

They WHAT? STFU. NO! BUT?

So many questions :3

Soon my dearies. Let me know what you think. Reviews are my beautiful prizes which I cherish.

Cheers!