Hey hey! Next chappie! ~The Redheaded Duck~

The rest of the week went extremely slow, especially with the growing pile of homework that the fifth years received. The common room was often still occupied well after midnight, as everyone struggled to finish all of their schoolwork. It was Saturday, however, that Elisa, Corinne, Lorelei, and Lindsay, were not looking forward to, because they were all still dateless and unhappy about it. Corinne tried to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal, but the rest were all mad at themselves for not living up to the promise that they had half-heartedly made. It wasn't until the grounds of Hogwarts were covered with a light blanket of snow that the castle itself seemed to perk up. It was very early Saturday morning, and the snow made another appearance, only this time very loud against the window; so loud that it woke Elisa up. She noticed that her other dorm members seemed to be unaffected by this, and now she couldn't very well go back to sleep. It was only a little after six, so she decided to grab her cloak and take a short walk in the new, clean snow that she loved. She slipped silently out of the dorm, down to the empty common room, past the Great Hall, and finally out of the castle. As her feet became engrossed in the snow on the ground, her thoughts became engrossed with a particular "Marauder".

* A bottle of white *

The sound came from nowhere Elisa could see...

* A bottle of red *

It sounded like a song being whispered...

* Perhaps a bottle of rose instead *

She couldn't think of where it came from, but the song, or whatever it was, seemed to stir something from deep within her soul, as if they were memories from a past life. Unfortunately, learning at a magical school tends to make you take "weird" things for granted after some time, so Elisa had forgotten all about the mysterious voice as she finished her walk and headed back to the castle. Of course, who did she bump into but James Potter? He wore casual Muggle sweats with a blue t-shirt that said "Marauder" underneath his black cloak. He held his broomstick in one hand and there was a slight pink tint in his cheeks, as if from the cold, even though he wasn't even outside yet. "Um. Hi. Um. What are you um, up early. Um?" It almost pained Elisa to see him stammer so ungrammatically, but then again, she usually had that affect on guys.

"Yeah, I woke up early. What about you?"

"I love this kind of weather. Even when it snows, as long as it's not too much, it's great to fly in." He smiled, and looked embarrassed. "So what are you doing today?"

Elisa's heart pounded, she was sure James could hear it, but she fought to keep her cool. "Hogsmeade, you know, I need some, uh, Pet Peppermints, uh, for my dog. His breath, phew, pretty bad," she waved a hand in front of her face as if she was swatting a fly, and forced a laugh. "What about you?"

He shrugged, and said he'd do the same, in a voice as if he'd rather not talk about it. Just as Elisa started to get disappointed that she would really have to turn up to her friends dateless, James stammered once again, "So, do you, wanna maybe, go, you know, to Hogsmeade? With uh, me?" He stared down at her snow-covered shoes.

"Yeah, I'd love to," she flashed her mega-watt smile.

"Really?" He ran a hand through his hair subconsciously, and smiled. "Great. There's a new Italian place, maybe we can check it out." His nervous face became relaxed again, and Elisa remembered how cute he was.

She started to walk back to Gryffindor Tower, when he called her. "Oh, and Lis?" She smiled at the sound of her nickname on his lips, counted to three, and turned around with a nonchalant look on her face. "You better wipe your feet, Filch'll kill you if you get snow all over the place." He grinned broadly, and went outside to fly.