"You lying cheating little... slut!"

"You never complained about me sleeping with you before."

"Yes, with me! Not with Anthony!"

The shouts echoed down the stairs from the girls' dorm where Tom and Razzy were standing head to head, faces bright pink.

Emily groaned and planted a pillow over her face. "Mmf mm mhh muh MUF MA!"

Beth, who had her face screwed up from the shout, laughed. "Emily, take the pillow away before you try to talk!"

Emily obliged.

"Why can't they just SHUT UP?!" she said, shouting the last two words up the stairs. Silence rained down on them for a moment or two, then-

"You're just jealous because you want that little...!"

The common room filled with groans again. Beth sighed and slid her pawn forwards on the Wizard Chess set. Opposite her, Bec was trying to convince her pawn to move five spaces to the right to take Beth's king. "Come on, it's not that far..." The shouting upstairs stopped for a moment and a rush of footsteps came tearing down the girls stairs.

Beth looked up with shock as the girl with dark hair and green eyes stood over her. "Listen to me," she hissed, menacingly. "Tom is mine, not yours! He always has been and he always well be." Beth raised an eyebrow.

"Well, if he is then there's no reason to threaten me, is there? Besides... I don't like pathetic wimpy guys." Razzy fumed then turned and flounced out the door.

"What was her problem?"

---

It was late at night and Beth was leaning on the window sill of the common room window, watching as the first flakes of snow drifted towards the ground. She had stood there for at least an hour, watching as the dark landscape slowly turned silver, the moon peeking from behind the clouds and reflecting off the snow drifts. Beth smiled gently. She had always loved watching the first snowfall. When she had been younger, before she had known about Joe, her dad used to creep into her room and shake her awake.

Right now, ten years on, Beth could still hear the excitement trembling his gruff voice.

'Bethy? Bethy, wake up. It's snowing.'

She turned and stretched moving back towards the fire. Her face was white from cold, bright spots in her cheeks. Kneeling before the roaring fire, she held her hands out to the warmth, her eyes glittering.

"Beth?"

Beth jolted in shock and looked over her shoulder. The happy, enlightened, peaceful look on her face shrunk away. "Oh. It's you."

"No need to sound so disappointed." Tom moved out from the shadows and sat near her. She shuddered. Kneeling at Tom's feet was not giving her the best feeling in the world.

"Why, should I be happy?" She turned back to the fire, refusing to look at him. "Give me one good reason. After all, me being so shallow, didn't you think I didn't have feelings?"

"I was... misinformed."

"Clearly."

"No need to bite my head off."

"Who by?"

He looked down at her and frowned in confusion. Beth sighed and stood slowly, unfurling herself gracefully. Tom watched her every movement and his gaze changed her shivers from cold to unease. She looked down at him, making him look up at her. She felt a troubling stab of triumph. "Who said I was shallow?"

"That doesn't matter." Beth nodded acceptingly causing Tom to look at her harder. She smiled slightly. "I don't push. If you don't want to tell me, that's your business. But I will find out sooner or later."

Tom smirked. "So, are we friends now?"

"I wouldn't go that far."

The smirk dropped from Tom's face.

"But."

"But..?"

"But, I won't say no to a trial run. Probation, if you will. First... that smirk doesn't exactly do wonders for your appearance..." she grimaced apologetically and, to her relief, he gave a quick smile.

"And you have to be nice to my other friends."

"So long as you're nice to mine. I heard you were mean to Razzy." Beth frowned then shrugged it off. Maybe her retort earlier had hurt Razzy more than she thought.

"Alright. Deal?" She held out her hand and, standing, Tom shook it, his grey eyes locked on hers.

"Deal."