A/N: This is a long chapter of mostly conversations. But I wanted to speed things up a little bit! Please let me know what you think!

"Tell me about your family, Eliza." Maxwell asked out of nowhere one night in early December as we were finishing up our tutoring session in the near-empty library.

"Pardon?" I asked, closing my textbook before I looked up at him. "My family?"

He was leaning back in his chair casually, regarding me with a friendly smile on his lips.

"Oui," his smile grew. "Your family. Potter is your…" he gestured with his hands and waited for me to fill in the blanks.

"Cousin." I supplied. "My mum and his mum were sisters."

His face clouded over for a moment, and his eyes swept down to the wood of the table. "I am sorry for your loss. I've heard of your aunt and uncle's bravery. Of course, everyone has."

"Oh, It's ok, really. I never even knew them. I mean, I wish they were still here, of course, and my heart breaks for Harry when I think about how much better his childhood would have been with them, but it is hard to mourn for someone you never actually knew. You know?"

"Didn't you and Potter have the same childhood?" He looked confused.

"Ehh, yes, but you see, my parents are…" I struggled with how to finish that sentence.

My parents were a lot of things. None of them good.

Maxwell waited patiently for me to find my words.

"My parents are muggles. And are really and truly awful."

He furrowed his brow at that confession. This conversation was uncharted territory for me. No one, not even my friends, talked to me about my parents. They all knew it was my least favorite thing to even think about. But for some reason, I didn't mind talking to Maxwell about it all.

"Awful?"

"Yes, awful. They are the worst people I have ever met. They are judgmental, paranoid, and….just awful. And they have been so, so terrible to Harry. He's lived with us, has since it happened, and they have treated him like dirt since he was left on the doorstep. I hate them for it."

"But you and Potter are close, no? Like siblings it seems."

I nodded. "I never treated him like my parents did and never understood why they did what they did. When I was little and they would send him to bed without dinner, I would sneak him half of my meal when they went to bed. I was still scared of them then though. Now I just fix him a plate right in front of them and go eat with him in his room. And," I took a break. This next bit always made me feel so much guilt it was hard to talk about. But Maxwell was looking at me with such kindness in his eyes that I continued. "They used to make him sleep in a cupboard under the stairs. For years. It took me so long to realize that was wrong and terrible. Too long. But finally, I think I was seven, I demanded he have the spare room next to mine. Threw quite a fit over it really." I chuckled, remembering how I had screamed and thrashed around so much my mum finally gave in. To spare her eardrums, she'd said.

My tactics for taking care of Harry in that house have become slightly more sophisticated since then, thank Merlin.

He looked thoughtful for a few moments and then nodded. "You're very brave, you know that, right? It is never easy to stand up to one's family, and you did it at such a young age. And to protect someone you love. I think that's incroyable, Eliza."

I felt my cheeks heat at his flattery and looked away from his dark eyes. He had hit on something buried deep in me. I had carried guilt around for years about not standing up for Harry sooner, so to hear that someone thought I still did a good job made a warm feeling settle over my heart.

"Should have done it a lot sooner," I finally said, looking back up at him.

He still had on his serious expression, which I hadn't seen very much of in our usually playful tutoring sessions. I couldn't help but notice how pillowy his lips were when they weren't stretched into a wide grin.

"You are very hard on yourself, Eliza." I snapped my eyes back to his eyes from his lips when he spoke. "You shouldn't be."

I shrugged noncommittally.

"So you have both found a new family here at Hogwarts, haven't you?" he said, finally smiling and cutting the tension that had wrapped around the table from our serious discussion.

I pictured my friends, the twins, Hermione, and Ron at his words and smiled back at him.

"I suppose so."

"'You are lucky. I've seen the way those redheads, Weasleys I think, care for you. Those twins, what are their names?" He was really smiling now. That big one that showed his perfect, white teeth and gave him two dimples in his smooth cheeks.

"George and Fred."

"Ah, oui, George and Fred, they look like they are ready to hex me whenever I pass them in the corridors. I didn't know why at first, but now I think it must be because of our tutoring sessions?"

I was mortified, but he was still smiling and didn't seem upset about the twins' behavior.

"Oh, Merlin, Maxwell, I am so sorry. They think...well I don't really know what they think. They're great big gits!"

He laughed and said, "No it's fine! They think of themselves as your big brothers, I can tell. And of course they don't like me. Some strange French boy you spend your evenings with. I can't blame them. I'd be the same way if my little sister was spending so much time with a charming, fit, French boy." He said, with a mischievous look in his eyes, using the word from our first tutoring session.

I rolled my eyes at him, but had to agree with what he was saying. "Yeah, they do tend to coddle me just a bit."

"It's lovely, really. That you and Harry came from a home you despised and were able to find a new home at this school and with these people."

I didn't want to talk about Harry and my pathetic home life any longer, so I quickly changed the subject and said, "Go on then, your turn. Tell me about your family."

By the time we finished talking that night, our schoolwork long forgotten, we were the last people in the library.

Besides Madam Pince, who was glaring at us from her perch behind the counter.

Maxwell had told me about how his father had died when he was young, and his Grandmother, mother, and little sister, who he lived with in Paris when he wasn't at school. It sounded like his grandmother could be a little overbearing sometimes, but he didn't complain. A soft look came over his face when he spoke of his mother. "She never really recovered from my father's death. She has a sensitive disposition, and sometimes has episodes that leave her in bed for days." Maxwell seemed to open up to me that night. I suppose as a repose to my own revelations about my family.

This tutoring session had felt different than all the others before it. We were revealing things to each other that I got the feeling neither of us liked to talk about very often.

XXXX

The next week, McGonagall announced the Yule Ball and the school fell into a sort of madness. As third years, my friends and I got to watch from the sidelines as girls looked longingly at boys from across the library or the breakfast table, willing them to ask them to the dance. I was thankful I didn't have to stress about it, but was also a little jealous of the people who did actually get to go to the ball.

But just because we couldn't go, didn't mean we didn't talk about it constantly. We would fall asleep in the dorms every night that December talking about who we would want to go with if we could go with anyone, what our gowns would look like, and so on.

Ginny and Tilly were even in a bit of a tiff over who would get to go with Cedric Diggory in our group fantasy. I had claimed Charlie, even though he didn't go to school anymore so that would be impossible. And Amelia claimed Professor Flitwick, and the image of the two of them waltzing always left us in hysterics.

So when Amelia came to breakfast late one morning looking slightly annoyed, we were shocked when she revealed that she was going to the ball, with a Slytherin no less.

"WHAT?!" All three of us shouted at once, causing a few sixth year Ravenclaws to send us rude looks from their table next to ours.

"Who?" I demanded to know, while Ginny and Tilly were still recovering.

Amelia rolled her eyes as she said, "Theodore Nott."

"Why?" Ginny all but demanded to know.

"It's really quite pathetic, actually," Amelia said as she examined the nails on her left hand, she always kept them painted in a bright Gryffindor red, another subtle dig at her family "His mother wrote my mother and asked her if I would go with him. Apparently she's worried he wouldn't have the courage to ask anyone. But really I think she was just worried he'd ask a halfblood or something unthinkable like that. Terrible women, both of them."

"But why are you going with him, Amelia?" Tilly asked. "You never listen to your mother."

"I know, I know. Well, I guess I feel bad for the bloke. We grew up together and he wasn't all bad. Plus...I really do want to go to the ball." She finally revealed, looking up at me and Tilly across the table and slyly smiling.

I glanced over her shoulder to where Theodore Nott had just sat down at the Slytherin table. His cheeks were pink and he was studiously avoiding looking in our direction. He was actually pretty cute, if you could get past the green on his school robes. He was tall, thin, with nice dark hair.

It made him even cuter that he wasn't in Malfoy's little gang with Crabbe and Goyle. Instead he was sitting away from them with Blaise Zabini.

"He's kind of cute, Amelia. For a Slytherin, I mean" I said, happy to have something to tease her over.

"Don't make me hex you, Dursely." She growled, but with a smile on her face.

XXXX

That same evening, halfway into our tutoring session, Maxwell shocked me by announcing that he thought he was finally caught up on Arithmancy.

My eyes widened at his announcement, but I tried to hide my disappointment. I had grown to enjoy this time with him. And wasn't ready for it to end.

"Oh," I said back, lamely. "Ok."

I started to pack my books and parchment, but was frozen in place when his warm hand landed on mine. When I looked up at his brown eyes, he was smiling at me. I heard a book slam loudly somewhere nearby, but I didn't break eye contact.

"But…" he said, removing his hand from mine. "I really enjoy...studying with you, Eliza." He seemed to be choosing his words very carefully. "Would you want to keep… meeting here to do our class work together? I mean, if you want to…"

"Yes!" I said a little bit too loudly, and heard someone shush us aggressively, Madam Pince I guessed, but I was still lost in the warm gaze from his velvety dark eyes. "I mean, I would like that very much, Maxwell. I like, um, studying, with you too."

His look of relief was the most adorable thing I had ever seen and I felt my smile mirror the one on his face uncontrollably.

When he kissed my hand later, at the foot of the stairs to the Gryffindor tower, I officially changed my fantasy Yule Ball date.

XXXX

A few days later Ginny asked me to stay back with her after Care of Magical Creatures. She looked worried, but smiled and waved Tilly and Amelia off as she very slowly started to pack her bags.

She didn't speak until we were totally alone. I was nervous by the time she finally spouted, "I think Neville is going to ask me to the ball. I'm so worried about it. He asked Hermione yesterday, but she's already going with Krum, oh don't tell Ron I want to see the look on his face when she walks in with him, but Neville has been looking at me a lot today, and I just can't do that to Tilly. What do I do, Eliza?"

Ginny was never anxious, so this rambling, edgy Ginny was a rare thing.

"Ok, it's going to be fine." I said, trying to reassure her. "I'll think of something. Don't worry about it, Gin."

Ginny looked at me skeptically. I wrapped my arm around her as we made our way back up to the castle for our next class, still trying to comfort her.

She was a fierce friend and would never hurt Tilly like that. But I knew she didn't want to hurt Neville either. He was such a nervous boy, a second rejection would be too much for him.

"What am I going to do?" Ginny asked through a groan. "Poor Neville-"

A brilliant idea popped into my head as she kept whining on. I wasn't going to tell her about it just yet though. I didn't want to get her hopes up. "I've an idea, Gin. But in the meantime, just try to avoid Neville, ok? He can't ask you if he never sees you."

Ginny narrowed her eyes at me as we walked into the Entrance Hall. "What's your idea, Eliza?"

"Don't worry about it!" I said, finally breaking away from her and dashing up the stairs. She was close on my heels, but didn't ask me again.

I was about to play matchmaker. I only hoped it worked.

XXXX

That night was the first night that Maxwell and I didn't have tutoring to fill our time together. I had been worried that it would be awkward to sit there with him in silence and work on other things, but it had ended up being rather nice.

Not to mention, I really liked that I still had the chance to steal little glances at him every once in a while.

I liked the way he furrowed his brow when he was concentrating on something, and the way his thick, dark lashes fanned onto his high cheek bones when he was looking down at his parchment. Or how his wavy hair would fall over his eyes every once in a while. My fingers positively itched to reach out and move it back for him.

I even caught him glancing at me a few times when I was working. I would look up and smile at him, which would make his cheeks blush slightly, which would then make my cheeks blush and have me staring back at my work quickly.

"What are your plans for the holidays, Eliza?" He finally asked after 45 minutes of us glancing at each other, while pretending to do school work.

I looked up at him from the same page in my Rune dictionary I had been looking at all night. "Oh, Harry and I always stay at Hogwarts. It is a much better holiday than we ever had at home."

"Yes, the castle really is lovely right now. Do they always decorate it this beautifully?"

I nodded. The castle was looking a little better than it had in years past during the holidays, but not by much.

"How lovely," he said, smiling at me sweetly.

"Are you going back to France for Christmas?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"No, Grandmere thinks it would be best if I stay here and represent the family at the Yule Ball."

My smile faltered at his mention of the ball. I felt inexplicably awkward, and had to look away from him.

And then felt like such a silly cow for my reaction.

He would be going with one of the beautiful Beauxbatons girls, no doubt. He certainly didn't want to go with me, I told myself.

"That's nice." I finally said, trying to sound cool and relaxed.

I failed.

When I finally looked back at his face, he tilted his head and furrowed his brow as he regarded me with concern.

"Are you alright, Eliza? You look a little…" he couldn't even find a word for how daft I must have looked in that moment, apparently.

I knew I looked like a loon, but took this opportunity to bolt. "Actually, Maxwell, I'm so sorry, but I do feel a bit peaked. I think I'll call it a night a little early tonight." I said as I carelessly threw my things into my bag and stood from the table. "Have a lovely evening!" I said, a little too loudly and winced.

He looked absolutely bewildered as I backed away from the table, but didn't say anything. My odd behavior seemed to have frozen him in place at the table.

What was wrong with me? He'd only mentioned the ball. Hadn't even said who he was taking or even hinted at asking me. I shook my head at myself, trying to shake some sense back into it.

Merlin, why did things like balls and dances have to make everyone go absolutely mad? Myself included.

I burst through the library doors, a tad dramatically I suppose, and ran right into someone's hard chest.

I almost fell over, but felt strong hands steady me. I looked up into Ron's concerned face.

"You alright, Eliza?" he asked me.

"Yes! Sorry, Ron. I just don't feel very well." I lied.

"You sure?" He asked, as he looked behind me through the library doors. His blue eyes narrowed as he saw Maxwell standing from the table, looking towards us in the corridor with a confused look on his face. "Did that bloody French git try something, Eliza? I swear, I never liked him." He grumbled, as he finally let my arms go and reached for his wand in his pocket.

"What? Merlin, no Ron. Come on." I said, dragging him away with me before he could do something that would embarrass me more than I already had myself.

By the time we finally made it to the stairs, I had recovered slightly from my attack of utter lunacy.

"Sorry about that, Ron." I said as we climbed the stairs.

"Is' okay, but what happened?" He asked. "You can tell me if he said something, Eliza. I'll keep my head, I promise."

I snorted at that. Ron rarely kept his head when it came to defending his friends. He was loyal to a fault sometimes.

I groaned before telling him. "Honestly, all he did was start talking about the Yule Ball. And I sort of...well, I guess I sort of panicked for some reason."

When he didn't respond right away, I looked over at him. He was snickering into his hand, trying to suppress a laugh.

Eventually he said, "Just mentioned it did he?" before chuckling again.

"Shut it," I said, before sharply nudging him in the ribs with my elbow.

"Ow!" he cried. "Merlin, Eliza that hurt."

"It was supposed to."

"Well, it's just funny is all."

I regretted telling him about it already. But at least Ron wasn't one to talk about feelings. So I wouldn't be subjected to a long conversation about it all.

"Shut it," I repeated, as we made it to the Fat Lady. "And please don't mention it to Harry."

Ron was still laughing as he sputtered the password, so I gave him a little shove as he climbed through the portrait hole, sending him sprawling into the Common Room.

XXXX

I caught up with Harry in the Common Room the next morning before he headed down to breakfast and launched into my grand-matchmaking scheme.

"Ginny?" He asked me, "I don't know, Eliza."

"Well, I know Cho already has a date, so I just thought you would like to go with someone you actually know and like as a friend! I added at his sharp look and not one of the random girls around the castle who have asked you…"

Mentioning Cho was sort of a low blow, his crush on her was too obvious, but this was for his own good. And Ginny's. And Neville's. And Tilly's, for Merlin's sake.

"Well…" he pondered. "Why not Hermione? I don't think she has a date yet."

"She does."

"Who?"

"I've been sworn to secrecy." I said, drawing an "x" over my mouth.

He rolled his eyes at that. "Ok."

"Ok?" I excitedly asked him.

"I mean, I need to ask Ron if it's ok- Oh Ron!" He exclaimed, finally remembering his friend was still dateless. "Who'll he go with?"

"Is that really your concern, Harry?" I already knew what his response was. And really, who was I to judge based on what I was currently in the process of trying to make happen.

"Well...yeah kind of." He answered.

Touché.

I thought for a moment.

"Tilly!" Of course. She would be so excited to be asked to the ball. By anyone. And Ron was fun. They would have a good time together.

"Tilly?" Harry pondered some more. "I'll talk to him, but I can't promise anything."

I gave him a kiss on the cheek and flew from the Common Room before he could find another fault with my plan.

XXXX

By the end of the day Harry and Ron had asked Ginny and Tilly to the ball. Neither girl could contain their excitement.

"Better than Diggory, Gin?" Amelia asked from her bed that night as we all fell asleep.

"Much better." Ginny whispered dreamily.

"I wish you were going too, Eliza." Tilly said, sounding sad in the dark room.

"It's alright, Tills. Don't worry about me."

"There's always Neville…" Amelia's voice filled the room.

"No…" Tilly said. "He asked a Hufflepuff girl last week."

I let out a barking laugh as Ginny shot up in bed, whisper hissing, "WHAT?!"

XXXX

A few nights later I had just finished dinner and was tucking into some ice cream with Fred and George on either side of me. They were talking about the Yule Ball, and I couldn't help my small groan at the topic.

I was tired of hearing about it. Not to mention I was the only one not going. Even if that had happened by my own orchestration.

"What's wrong, Little Eliza?' Fred said, elbowing me lightly at the same time.

"Nothing. I'm just ready for this Yule Ball madness to be over with. I'm tired of hearing everyone talk about it."

Ron snorted into his pudding from a little ways down the table. "You don't say, Eliza."

"What do you mean by that?" Ginny asked him. "Eliza, what does he mean by that?"

I felt everyone's eyes on me and my cheeks burned. I was about to mumble a noncommittal answer when Maxwell suddenly appeared behind Ginny's shoulder, smiling down at me.

Now everyone's eyes were on him. Great.

I could feel the hostile looks that Fred, George, Harry, and even Ron were shooting at him, without looking at them. And my friends were no doubt ogling the handsome boy.

"Bonsoir," He cheerily said as he waved to my friends, ignoring any tension that was in the air. "Eliza, I thought we could walk to the library together this evening," he directed to me, dimples out his smile was so wide and friendly.

"She's not done with her ice cream, mate." George said from next to me in a voice I had only heard him use a handful of times. Ice cold.

"Honestly George," I heard Hermione whisper from next to Harry.

Maxwell was un-phased by my friends' mixed reception of him, but I wasn't. I felt like there was sand in my brain and I couldn't for the life of me remember how to speak.

"Oh, je suis désolé, Eliza, I will wait for you to finish." he said as he glanced down at my half-finished bowl of ice cream, which was rapidly melting. He stood there awkwardly for a moment.

"Have a seat, mate," Fred said scarily and pointed to an empty space next to Tilly, who looked rather terrified at the thought of being so near to the handsome French boy.

Maxwell did as Fred said and then looked across the table at the twins expectantly, as if he already knew what was coming.

"What's your name, mate?" Fred asked, emphasizing the last word.

Everyone knew Maxwell's name. This was ridiculous. But Maxwell didn't seem to mind.

"Maxwell Laurent. And you are...Fred Weasley. Right?" he then moved his eyes to George on my other side, giving me a quick smile in the process. "And you're George." He kept looking down the bench and across it, naming each of my friends. "And you're Harry Potter, Eliza's cousin." he ended, giving Harry a meaningful look.

I felt like the whole table was holding their breath as Harry looked back at him, green eyes shrewd behind his glasses.

Fred and George may have been my most vocal guard dogs, but Harry was the one whose approval was most important in our group, for me at least. Maxwell seemed to get that.

After a few tense moments, Harry finally came to his decision. "Nice to meet you finally, Maxwell. How do you like Hogwarts?"

I felt like the entire table, the entire room, let out an exhale at my cousin's friendly words.

Maxwell smiled at Harry, that megawatt one that was so charming, I saw all the girls at the table's eyes glaze over just a bit at that. "I like it very much, thank you."

"Bet you do," George grumbled next to me, so only Fred and I could hear him. I rewarded him with a sharp elbow to the ribs. "Oi!" he shouted, rubbing the tender spot.

"So, Maxwell, enlighten George and me," Fred began. Oh no. "What, precisely, is the French translation of the word tutoring?"

That was enough.

I jumped up from the table, almost knocking the twins over in the process. "I'm all done, Maxwell. Let's go study!"

Too loud. I was always too loud around him.

He looked up at me, smiling a sly smile where his teeth didn't show. "Parfait." He said before standing from the table. "It was lovely to meet you all." He said to my friends, before starting to walk to the end of the table to meet me.

When he turned his back to walk away, I smacked both Fred and George on their ginger heads, "Prats." I said, before turning on my heel and walking quickly away. The laughs of all of my friends in my wake.

A sense of nostalgia hit me as I walked to meet Maxwell at the doors to the Great Hall. This was exactly how it had happened on our first night of tutoring. Before we really knew each other. I had only thought of him in a superficial way back then, about how handsome he was. But now, I realized suddenly, there was a lot more of him to like than just the way he looked.

That fact suddenly had me nervous around him.

He gave me a smile as I made it to him. The inquest he had just faced hadn't seemed to bother him one bit. "They are very funny." he said when I made it to him.

"Yeah, sure, funny," I muttered. "That's one word for it."

"Would you like to take a walk, Eliza?" he said, instantly making me forget about the idiots back at the Gryffindor table. "It's such a lovely night, and I don't have much work to do really." We were standing at the bottom of the stairs that would take us to the library. I stopped and looked up at him. His strong brows were lifted in question. .

Was he nervous too? Impossible.

"That sounds nice," I surprised myself by murmuring. I really didn't have that much to do either. Well, nothing that couldn't wait until tomorrow at least.

"Parfait," he quietly said again, and gestured towards the main doors of the castle.

He was right, it was a lovely night. One of those early winter nights that is cold, but not freezing. The crisp air revealed a clear night sky, the moon so bright I could see every detail of the grounds and castle.

We walked close to each other in silence, and our wool covered elbows would bump every once in a while. But we didn't touch other than that as I led us down to the Black Lake. It was my favorite place to walk on the grounds, and was otherworldly at night.

"I'm sorry, Maxwell," I finally said. "Bloody gits," I added under my breath.

He chuckled at that. "I really don't mind, Eliza. Like I said, I'd do the same thing for my little sister."

"You never told me her name," I said, we were walking close to the edge of the lake now.

"Celeste."

"That's a lovely name. How old is she?" I asked, trying to keep the conversation up.

"Ten." was all he said.

Clearly I was the only one worried about awkward silences. Maybe he was one of those people who liked to take quiet walks. I'd never been one of those people.

We made it all the way around the lake before he finally spoke.

"Eliza…" I stopped walking when I felt his hand lightly touch my elbow.

"Maxwell…?" I asked back. "Are you alright?" I'd turned to look at him. He looked pale in the moonlight and his eyes were really so dark and beautiful.

He looked down at me and laughed softly. "I'm fine. Just nervous for some reason."

I swallowed audibly. Had I been right?

"Why are you nervous?" I whispered back. Not wanting to be my usual too loud self.

His hand was still on my elbow and he took a deep breath.

"Eliza, I think you are…" he stalled out.

I was surprised. Maxwell didn't seem like the type of guy to let his nerves get the better of him.

"Well, ok, I think you're wonderful." He said, as he looked me in the eye. I felt like he must have been casting a spell on me, because I couldn't move or look away. "And your friends were right to be protective over you. I must admit, my friendship with you isn't entirely academically based." He chuckled. "I would have most definitely switched out of Arithmancy if Professor Vector had set me up with anyone else as my tutor. Grandmere even wanted me to, but I told her no."

"Oh." was all I could say back.

He smiled at my speechlessness, confident and charming Maxwell was back in control.

"Would you like to go to the Yule Ball with me, Eliza?"

A/N: I hope you liked this longgg chapter! Next chapter will be Yule Ball fun. From there I think I will speed things up again. I have big things planned for the Deathly Hallows year and am overeager to get there.