Disclaimer: it wasn't mine in the last 5 chapters so i doubt its mine now.

A/N: i'm sooo sorry about the long update, writers blocks in hitting hard at the mo. i think some of you are gonna be mad at me after this chapter, but i promise it won't last long (i hope ; ))

'Harmony, come on, its Christmas – will you please put the books away?' Caitlyn asked exasperatedly.

'Actually, there's still four days until Christmas, so I can carry on studying all I like.' Harmony didn't remove her eyes from the book she had had her head buried in for the past three hours. And for the past three hours, Gemma, Caitlyn, Charlie, Jason, Lori, Damon and Shaun had been attempting to pry her away from her books. After their final attempt, which had involved Charlie's twin brothers and a large can of Zonkos Xmas Spray, Harmony had retreated to the girls' dorm, brushing confetti and glitter out of her hair and dodging the fairy lights that had been issued from the can.

Unfortunately, hiding in the dorms only resolved the problem for a while. Although Charlie, Damon, Jason and Shaun were unable to come up, the same couldn't be said of Caitlyn, Lori and Gemma. After allowing her fifteen minutes of grace, they had come bounding into the dorm to attempt new ways to take her away from her books.

'Geez Harmony, where your Christmas spirit, child? Anyone would think you were in Slytherin!' Gemma exclaimed, resulting in a disgusted look from Harmony. Since he had read Hogwarts: A History, Harmony knew exactly what a Slytherin was and was not at all pleased with being called one.

'Just because I like to study doesn't make me a – hey!' Caitlyn had taken advantage of Harmony's distraction and grabbed the book away from her, holding it out up in the air, well out of Harmony's reach from her position on her bed. Harmony made to jump up and dive for the book but she had barely climbed off the bed before Lori and Gemma came charging at her yelling:

'Pillow fight!' they were both brandishing overstuffed pillows and gave Harmony no opportunity to protect herself before diving onto her and attacking her with the pillows. Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Caitlyn flung the book in a corner before launching herself at Harmony and grabbing a pillow as well. Harmony managed to free herself from the group and scrambled off the bed, running over to the other side of the room. Lori, Caitlyn and Gemma wasted no time following her shrieking random war cries in between bouts of laughter. However, when Harmony turned around she had holding her own pillow and wearing a huge grin. The three of them paused for a second, eyeing Harmony's pillow.

'Get her!' Lori yelled, and the three of them lunged at Harmony once again. Shrieking, Harmony held her pillow in front of her, a pathetic shield against her three crazy friends. They knocked her to the floor easily and the four of them spent the next ten minutes pummelling each other with the pillows. Finally, exhausted, the four of them lay in a tangled heap, surrounded by feathers – a result of Gemma's over-enthusiasm – and still giggling helplessly.

'We did it!' Caitlyn declared in loud voice, throwing her arms into the air. 'We got her away from her books!' she collapsed into giggles once again.

'Well, now I'm off back to them,' Harmony declared, not about to be beat. She detangled herself from their bodies and stood up.

'Harmony,' the three of them groaned, but Harmony cut them off.

'I really want to finish this book, ok? Please just leave me alone until I do.' She went and sat resolutely on her bed.

'Nah, we don't make deals,' Caitlyn picked up Harmony's book. 'Especially when we have the upper hand.'

'We kindly left you alone to read earlier –' Harmony raised an incredulous eyebrow at this, but Gemma ignored it and carried on. '– but now you're coming with us to have fun.'

'Do you remember what that is, Harmony?' Lori asked and received her answer in the form of a single finger.

'Come on, we're going – and you're coming too. Now.' Caitlyn commanded. Knowing she was defeated, Harmony allowed herself to be pulled from the bed and led towards to door.

'You might want to put this on.' Gemma threw a large black coat at Harmony, but didn't elaborate on her statement.

'Enjoying yourself?' Charlie sat down next to Harmony underneath the large oak tree by the frozen lake.

'Oh, yes sitting out here in the middle of December is just my idea of fun,' she answered sarcastically, whilst staring out at the lake. Charlie smirked; obviously she wasn't an outdoors sort of person. Their attempts to get her to join their snowball fight had failed tragically and she instead opted to sit on the sidelines watching. Knowing that Caitlyn, Gemma and Lori would refuse to allow her back inside and also knowing that none of his other friends were likely to tear themselves away from their battle anytime soon, Charlie took advantage of the opportunity to ask Harmony about the "incident".

'Um, Harmony, the other day in the library…' Charlie could sense Harmony stiffen next to him and he wondered whether he should be asking. Harmony had so far managed to evade him every time he'd tried to bright the subject up, so he decided to press on while she had no means of escape. 'Did you see something, er, from your past?'

Harmony stayed silent, staring out over the lake with a pensive look on her face. Charlie wondered if she was actually going to answer him or if she had even heard him.

'I'm not sure,' she said finally and Charlie could tell she was choosing her words carefully. 'I mean, I think so, but it was really fast and, well hard to see properly.'

'Oh. So, you don't know what you saw?' he asked, feeling slightly disappointed. Over the past few days, he had found himself thinking more and more about Harmony and wishing he knew more about her, which of course, was impossible as she didn't even know much about herself.

'Well, I know I was a lot younger in it and there were other people there,' she offered, but it didn't take a genius to tell there was something she wasn't letting on.

'Ok,' Charlie said, but obviously his disbelief was portrayed in his voice, because Harmony turned to look at him with an unreadable look on her face. However, her tone of voice definitely showed she was annoyed.

'That's what I know, and if you don't want to believe me, fine, but don't pretend you do.'

'I'm sorry, I do believe you, I guess I just expected you to remember more,' Charlie said awkwardly, but apparently he managed to keep his doubt in check this time, as Harmony's face relaxed into a smile.

Neither of them spoke again, but sat in a comfortable silence watching the other five launch snow balls at each other and tackle each other to the ground. In particular, Charlie noted, Jason appeared to be tackling Gemma a little more than necessary – although, Gemma didn't seem to mind so much.

Charlie's eyes wandered towards Harmony and he saw, once again, her face was masked by an unreadable expression. Her face was calm, serene, yet Charlie could see – no, sense – something was…different. The past week that he had known her, she had been happy, bubbly – maybe a little overbearing at times – but, in all, a pleasant person. However, Charlie had noticed a slight change in her since yesterday. A little too quiet and distant for someone who had been so bubbly just two days ago. Charlie realised he was probably reading far too much into her behaviour and pushed it to the back of his mind. If Harmony saw fit to tell him something, she would. Anyway, now was not the time for excessive thinking. He jumped up from his place on the white blanket that was the Hogwarts grounds, making Harmony jump.

'Come on,' Charlie held out his hand, which Harmony stared at with a confused look adorning her features.

'What?' she asked, looking at his hand as though it was covered in boils and hair.

'Well, if you have to be out here you might as well enjoy it,' he gestured to the group behind him who were still attacking each other, although their fight now involved some well aimed banishing charms.

'No thanks, I'll stay here,' she turned to look out at the frozen lake.

'No you won't.' Charlie replied stubbornly and before, she had chance to protest, he had dragged her up by her arms and was pulling her towards the group.

'Charlie stop! No, really Charlie, I don't want to – I much rather –' what Harmony would 'much rather' do, Charlie never found out as the rest of her sentence was lost in her shrieks as Damon and Sean took it upon themselves to pelt a few exceptionally large snowballs towards Harmony.

Three hours later Harmony sat in the seventh year boys' dorms with Lori, Caitlyn, Gemma and Sean and Jason. Charlie and Damon had left about half an hour earlier and had yet to return. They hadn't revealed where they where going or what they going to do once they got there, just promising they would all be grateful for it in the end.

Harmony didn't have to wait much longer however, as the boys returned just then, carrying four bottles containing an amber coloured substance.

'This is all we could get up here without Filch or Percy catching us.' Damon said, dropping the bottles of Fire Whiskey onto one of the beds.

'Bloody brothers of mine – sometimes I wonder how we're related.' Charlie dropped his share of bottles onto the bed, keeping hold of one and unscrewing the lid. He took a long swig. He finally lowered the bottle, a look of happiness spreading across his face. 'Ah, you have no idea how much I needed that.'

'I still don't get how you manage to get all this stuff in here with being caught.' Caitlyn said taking the bottle out of Charlie's hands and taking a generous mouthful herself.

'You can thank Fred and George for that. They know so much about this castle it's almost scary.'

'Well then,' Jason said, grabbing another bottle off the bed and opening it. 'Here's to Fred and George!' with that, he raised the bottle to his lips and downed around half the contents. When he finished, his face bore a look of someone who had just sucked on a lemon. Apparently though, the taste wasn't enough to stop him taking another drink.

'Oh god, he's gonna regret that so much tomorrow.' Gemma said, watching Jason with a look of amusement on her face.

'Gemma dear,' Sean replied. 'We're all going to regret this tomorrow; it wouldn't be a good night if we don't wake up with hangovers the size of Hogsmeade.'

'Well in that case, I won't be one to spoil the fun,' Gemma reached over and pulled the bottle out of Jason's hands, causing him to choke on the sudden intake of air.

'Oi!' Jason spluttered. 'That's mine!'

'Learn to share Jason. Didn't anyone ever teach you manners?' Gemma smiled, thoroughly enjoying this.

Jason looked as though he would very much love to teach Gemma "manners", but for some reason held his tongue, instead opting to take Charlie's bottle away from him and drink that instead

And so the war for who could drink the most in the shortest time began. Harmony was having so much fun she didn't even notice when one of the bottles was passed to her and only realized when she felt the liquid burning the back of her throat as it made its way to her stomach. Apparently her face wore an expression to rival the one Jason had pulled earlier, because she drew Caitlyn's attention.

'You never drunk before Harmony?'

Harmony shook her head, still recovering from the burning sensation in her stomach. Caitlyn laughed at her and patted her back.

'You'll get used to it.'

Of course, as the night wore on, everyone became steadily drunk. Everyone, that is, apart from Harmony, she didn't go quite as "steadily" as the others. Having never drunk before (at least, not to her knowledge), it had taken little more than a glass of fire whiskey to get her drunk.

'Hey, 'armony, you ok?' Sean asked, watching Harmony stumble across the room and sit on Jason's bed, promptly falling onto the floor and bursting into a fit of giggles.

'I'm – hic – fine,' she slurred, pushing her bushy brown hair out of her eyes. 'Pass the fire whiskey please.'

'I think you had enough –'

'Oh don't be a spoilsport Charlie,' Lori interrupted him. 'If she wants to drink more, let her. Here you go Harmony.' she passed the half empty bottle to Harmony, who wasted no time pressing it to her lips and draining most of the liquid out of it.

'Thanks Lori,' she said once she had successfully emptied the bottle. 'You are re-really nice, you know? I really like you, you're a gre-great friend.'

Everyone in the room burst into laughter. After all, it was common knowledge that Lori was not "nice" – unless of course, she was getting something out it. Even Lori cracked a smile.

'Maybe you're right,' Lori said to Charlie. 'Maybe you should stop now Harmony,'

'No, I'm fine,' she said, in a miserable attempt to sound sober. 'I – am – not – drunk. Pass the bottle please.'

'There's none left,' Gemma said disappointedly. 'Who drunk it all?' having spent most of the night flirting continuously with Jason, she had been oblivious to the last ten minutes worth of conversation.

'Harmony,' the rest of them answered simultaneously, causing Harmony to jump at the sudden mention of her name.

'W-what?' she looked at them round eyed, apparently trying to locate who had said her name and received another bout of laughter.

'I'll go get some more,' Charlie said, standing up from his position on the floor and swaying on the spot. He shook his head slightly and left the room, staggering only occasionally.

'Hey Harmony, this time, d'you think you could leave some for us?' Damon asked, trying to drain the last few drops out of one of the bottles.

Harmony didn't answer, she was staring at the wall, her face had turned a sickly colour and she was gagging slightly.

'Oh no, Harmony, no…' Caitlyn warned. 'Go on, bathroom – now!' she pulled Harmony up and pushed her towards to the door.

Harmony stumbled down the stairs, one hand clutching the rail for balance and the other one clasped over her mouth. She rushed across the common room and up the girls staircase, not sure how much longer she could hold it in.

Ten minutes later, she emerged from the girls' bathroom with a burning feeling in her throat and wondering why she hadn't just gone to the boys' bathroom instead. Harmony groaned; she wished the ground would just stay still – who said it could move anyway?

Harmony began her treacherous journey down the girls' dormitory stairs, praying to anyone who was listening that she wouldn't fall. Half way down the stairs, she paused, hearing noises coming from the common room. It sounded like someone (mostly likely two someone's) shuffling around. When she heard something that sounded very much like a moan, Harmony cringed. The last thing she wanted to do was walk down there and catch Gemma and Jason eating each others faces off.

Deciding she was probably too drunk to remember it in the morning anyway, Harmony walked down the rest of the stairs and into the common room.

Harmony's first thoughts were that at least she wasn't in any danger of catching Gemma and Jason "in the act". That was, of course, before, what she was seeing registered in her mind. Then she just felt nauseous again. Lori was pressed up against the far wall, her arms wrapped tightly around Charlie's neck, her lips trapped in Charlie's. One of his hands was running roughly through her hair while the other one made its way down her back.

The two were so involved in each other, they failed to notice Harmony, for which she was grateful. No longer wanting to be in the company of other people, she did an abrupt about turn and retreated back upstairs, a heavy feeling in her stomach which she was almost positive wasn't a result of the alcohol.

A/N: I heard we're not allowed to answer reviews in chapters anymore, so unless someone tells me otherwise, i won't be answering anymore: ( but keep on reviewing anyway, love readin em :D