AN: Are you guys ready for this chapter? Prepare yourself! Things are happening!

All thanks given to Katherine my beta.

"Woah, what's that?" Gabe asked as he slid into a chair next to Mia at her usual table in the library.

"A letter to Sirius with beach recommendations for Christmas." It was a long letter. Mia hoped if she crammed in enough useless information, he would forget about the book. Hermione had a few great beach recommendations she passed on.

"Oh cool, you guys are going to a beach?"

"No, just him and Remus. They want me to stay here for the ball."

There was a long pause. "Why didn't you tell me?" Gabe asked softly.

"I didn't think it mattered," Mia said as she kept writing. She didn't like thinking about him asking someone else to go, but she didn't want to admit that even more.

Gabe was silent for a long time as he watched her write. "I think you addressed that wrong, it says 'Dad' instead of 'Um'."

Mia glared at him, but he was smiling sadly and she didn't want to fight anymore.

Colin Creevey came up to their desk and dropped a box heavily onto the table. "Mia! I keep forgetting to talk to you. I have some pictures for you that I've taken over the last three years. What with getting petrified most of second year I lost track of a few rolls, and then kept forgetting last year."

Mia wondered quietly to herself if he had forgotten last year or if he was just too scared of her last year to approach, what with her dad being a murderer and on the run and everything.

"Anyways, let me see." He opened the box and started rifling through the pictures. First came out one of Mia with Fred and George, their heads bent over a paper at a table in the common room. Next was one of her and Hermione working in the library. Then one of her and Gabe working in the library, followed by one of her and Gabe eating at the Gryffindor table, one of her working in the hospital wing. Most of them were mundane things, eating or doing homework, but together they started to piece together a picture of her time at Hogwarts, the friends she'd had even when she didn't quite realize it. Lastly, he stuck on top a picture of Mia and Gabe just outside of the hospital wing, Gabe was scarlet red, his hair and eyebrows a shining gold. And Mia was looking up at him fondly. He was frowning in the picture, then he would turn and look at her and shove her to the side before smiling down at her.

"I love this one of both of you. It's my favorite. I hope you don't mind I kept a copy. So are you two going to the Yule Ball? Stinks that third years can't go! I doubt any older girls are going to ask me. It would be weird you know? I'm shorter than most people in my year. I will definitely be shorter than any fourth years or above! So are you guys going!?"

Something within Mia broke a little after looking at all the old pictures and with her sadness and frustration with Gabe over the last few weeks. "No Colin we aren't together we're just friends," Mia snapped.

She hated that question, the one that implied they were together and at that moment Mia realized why. It was because when somebody asked and implied that they were together, Mia then had to inform them no they weren't, much to her sadness and frustration. She wanted to be with Gabe, and she couldn't hide it from herself any longer. She picked up her letter and the pictures on the table and left the library before she started crying. What was the point in buying an expensive dress if she wasn't wearing it for the person she wanted to?

A few days before break Mia and Gabe joined Harry, Ron, Hermione and the twins at the Gryffindor table for lunch.

"So. . . you lot got dates for the ball yet?" George asked them.

"Nope," said Ron.

Mia pulled out a letter she had been writing to Sirius and tried to ignore the conversation.

"Well, you'd better hurry up, mate, or all the good ones will be gone," Fred said.

"Who're you going with, then?" Ron asked.

"Angelina," said Fred promptly, with a little pride in his voice.

"What?" Ron was shocked. "You've already asked her?"

"Good point," Fred turned and called across the great hall. "Oi! Angelina!"

Angelina had been chatting with a Ravenclaw at their table and looked over at him. "What?" she called back.

"Want to come to the ball with me?"

Angelina looked Fred over with a little grin.

"All right, then," she said, and turned back to her conversation with a small smile.

"There you go," Fred said before taking a bite of his sandwich. "Piece of cake."

George stood and walked closer to Mia, who was trying to focus on her letter. He leaned over in between Gabe and Mia till one elbow was on the table, and his chin rested softly in his hand, his head completely blocking her view of Gabe.

"So, Amelia, I hear you aren't attached for the ball yet," he said, his voice taking on a deep raspy tone. Mia set down her quill and looked at George as he smiled at her. She wasn't sure what his game was and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. "So anyways, I was thinking since you don't have a date or anyone else who's interested in going with you, you might want to go with–"

Gabe took that moment to tackle George to the ground.

"Ouch! Adewumi!" Gabe got in one good punch on George's stomach before George put his hands in the air and yelled. "I surrender! I surrender!" Gabe stopped fighting and looked down at the redhead underneath him as though he was confused. "I bequeath the lady's hand to you, Sir Gabriel the wise," George said with a grin.

Gabe turned and looked up at Mia from the floor. "Hey Mia, do you want to go to the Yule Ball with me?"

Over Gabe's shoulder, George mouthed 'you're welcome' at her. Mia picked up her letter and stood up from the table. "Boys are so stupid!" she yelled as she left the hall.

"Mia!"

Mia ignored Gabe's call and took off up the staircase heading for the Owlery where she could finish her letter in peace. Footsteps chased after her and Gabe caught up pulling her to a stop in the middle of the intersection on the third floor.

"Mia will you wait for just a second!"

"What Gabe? What could you possibly want?!"

"You haven't given me an answer."

"What? So just because George Weasley asked me to the ball you suddenly want to go?"

"No, I've wanted to go with you since they announced there was going to be a Triwizard Tournament at the beginning of term."

"Then why didn't you?"

"Maybe because you were so insistent on going home for the break, or maybe because anytime anybody ever brought you and me up you would start yelling and insisting that we were just friends."

"But we are just friends."

"Not by my choice! You acted like you didn't want me to ask you!"

"I didn't want you to not ask me, I just figured you didn't feel that way about me, and it was weird."

"Mia, I've had a crush on you since first year. Ever since you made that pin cushion explode in transfiguration and peppered Neville's left side full of pins." Gabe was grinning stupidly when he said it. "You didn't even know I existed back then."

"Why would you have a crush on me for being a total screw up?"

"You're not a total screw up. You're the most brilliant, funny, beautiful, hilarious witch I've ever met in my life." He stepped forward and grabbed her hand, his warm copper eyes were filled with love as he met hers. "The only times I've ever been foolish or reckless in my entire life was when I thought it would impress you, and I would do it all over again just for the chance to be your friend." He took a step closer. "But I don't just want to be your friend, I want more." He leaned in closer to Mia till they were inches apart.

A deep male voice cleared their throat and Gabe and Mia jumped as one and turned to see McGonagall and Snape standing side by side watching them from the entrance to the next corridor.

Snape's arms were crossed and he had a look of absolute disgust on his face.

McGonagall had one hand gripping her bunched robes at her neckline. "Oh my, don't stop on my account," she said.

"I think it's time I consider retiring," Snape said in a dull voice.

"Oh no, on the contrary," McGonagall started. "This is better than any book Filius has ever loaned me."

Mia had no words for the two teachers and apparently neither did Gabe for he grabbed her hand and pulled her up the stairs past the two teachers.

"No canoodling in the Owlery!" Professor McGonagall called after them.

They were laughing in hysterics by the time they reached the fifth floor and had to stop and catch their breath by a statue.

"Did you really beat up George because he was going to ask me out?"

Gabe's chuckles faded and he shook his head. "I don't know what came over me. It's like I snapped. But to be honest he didn't fight back, I think it's what he was planning for."

"I don't know if he expected you to attack him, but I think the end results were what he was planning for. He mouthed 'you're welcome' over your shoulder when you asked me. But I think you took him by surprise by tackling him."

Gabe laughed sheepishly. "Sorry. I said it before. Sometimes I have a hard time thinking rationally when it comes to you."

Mia blushed and looked away.

"No." He put a gentle hand on her cheek and turned her face back to him till their eyes connected. "Don't throw up walls or try to get out of this. Just be real with me for a moment. What do you want Mia? You know what I want."

His eyes were like a living force drilling into her. She wanted to break the stare, to look away and escape from the feelings cascading inside of her but she couldn't. "I want you,'' she said at last.

He smiled and it was a million times more powerful than any smile Viktor could have made. It lit up his whole face, his whole person, and lit up her soul. "Good." He laced his fingers with hers. "You have me. Now let's go mail your letter."

They didn't talk again about love or things of the heart or what they wanted from each other. Instead, it was enough just to be together. There had been a wall between them for the last few months and Mia hadn't really realized it was there until it was gone. They were back to their easy ways but now it meant more.

She told Gabe at last about her secret potions project. She wasn't sure anymore why she had been keeping it a secret, as though he would think her a failure for not having been successful on her first attempt.

"Mia that's brilliant," he said when she was done explaining it.

"But it's not. Not yet. I still haven't figured it out. It's like there's something I'm missing. It's like the color changing potion I used on you all over again, there was an element I was missing, the spell work conflicting with the potion, but with this it's different because the potion doesn't even work by itself. I just don't know what I'm missing."

"You'll get it eventually I know you will. You're brilliant."

"Or I won't. If it was easy someone else would have done it already. I don't know why I think I'm so special that I could do it."

"Well it's like you said with the color changing potion, there was a factor you didn't think about. And you were a second year so it's not like it's such a big crime. And now, you're only 14. Even if you shelve this for a year and come back to it when you know more, that doesn't make you a failure."

"Right," Mia said to herself. She thought back to her past failures. There was something else integral to the process she was missing. She had a thought, and it wasn't a very good one because if she was right then she was either going to need the help of Sirius or Remus if she wanted to try her potion before the end of the year. She couldn't tell Remus. She didn't know how he would respond. Would he be angry or upset? She could ask Sirius but... He had humored her so far, taking her at her word and trusting her to know what she was doing with the potion she made for him, but this was so much bigger. Would he trust her in this?

When they headed back to the great hall for dinner, Mia saw Fred talking with Angelina and George sitting nearby, eating.

She stopped Gabe. "Do you care if I screw with George a little?"

Gabe smiled wickedly. "Only if I can watch."

Mia laughed softly and told him to wait by the entrance to the great hall. She passed Hermione, eating as she was reading a book, and dropped into the seat next to George. Mia screwed up her face like one of the girls she saw watching Viktor in the library. "Oh George, I know we got interrupted earlier, and I'm so sorry. It took me too long to come to terms with my true feelings. Ask me again Georgie!"

George's mouth hung open, and part of his food fell out and onto the table. Mia covered her mouth and giggled like she thought he was adorable.

"Uhhhhhh," George stammered. "Sorry Mia, but I kinda like girls with... bigger heads." He looked over her shoulder, then away.

Mia snorted. "Bigger heads? That's the best you can do?"

"Yeah Georgie," Fred put his hand on his twin's shoulder. "You can't just let a girl down like that!"

Gabe was by her side then, and she stood and laced fingers with him as they sat a seat away. George looked immeasurably relieved. "No hard feelings about me tackling you, yeah?" Gabe asked.

"You two work yourselves out then?" Fred asked glancing between Mia and Gabe.

She looked at Gabe and he smiled back at her. He squeezed her hand three times under the table. "Yeah I think we have," he told Fred.

"Good," George said as he took a big bite of potatoes and talked around the food. "Then you are forgiven."

"Just make sure you treat our girl right," Fred said.

"Or we'll have words again," George finished.

Mia snorted and asked Hermione how she felt about their potions assignment on antidotes.

AN: OK, was it everything you hoped it would be? It's a slow start, but a start all the same. Next week is the yule ball, so stay tuned! Review and tell me your feels :]

In other news, I just finished the 4th draft of my novel and sent it back to my editor for the next round of edits. I'm so close to publishing but time feels like it's inching by! Either way, it should be available before the end of summer. I so can't wait.