Christmas morning dawned, clear and sparkling, and I awoke bright and early, to find a pile of presents at the bottom of my bed. Pulling the covers off, and crawling down the bed, I screamed loudly, and woke everyone else up, when my hand touched something warm and squishy under the covers that I was crawling down. It turned out to simply be the Fluff-ball. When everyone else had finished staring at me grumpily, we all began to open our presents, and the room was soon filled with piles of wrapping paper.

I held one present in my hand, not wanting to let it go, it seemed so special to me. I had just unwrapped it, and I looked down at the smiling faces in the photo, which were waving at me. It was from Remus, and was a photo taken at what must have been my parent's wedding. They all looked so happy, and I could instantly recognise some people, as I had seen Harry's photo of similar calibre. But there were one or two faces that I couldn't place, one of them being a young woman, who must have been the same age as my parents. She was standing, partially hidden, by Sirius. She was wearing a pale blue dress, and her long dark hair was intricately and beautifully tied up. She was smiling, a sad and wistful smile, and whilst the others waved, she looked up at Sirius, as if she wanted him to notice her. I would ask Harry who she was later.

I received some brilliant presents from other friends and family, and as I made my way down to breakfast, was greeted with many cries of "merry Christmas" from many different people. I noticed Seiji looking at me, when I entered the dining hall, but decided to gracefully ignore him, and I instead made my way to the Gryffindor table, helping myself to a glass of water, and a piece of fruit. I ate quickly, as my brother and the Weasely's had proposed a snowball fight, and I didn't want to be dragged into it, although I thought I might go and watch for a little while. As Kerkera and Ginny seemed to have disappeared, and spending too much time with Hermione annoyed me, I had little to do.

Grabbing my thick coat, I pulled on a very long scarf, wrapping it around me several times, and took a book, with the intention of going and sitting in the snow for a little while. I made my way outside, and had not been sitting there for very long, when I turned, and felt something hit me on the side of my head. Lifting my hand to touch my hair, I felt it was covered in a clump of snow, and turned, to see who had thrown it. Thinking it might be Seiji, I called out to him, "Ben? Is that you?"

"No," Draco came around the corner, and looked at me, a harsh look in his deep blue eyes. "Do you wish it was?"

Part of me did, but I didn't want to say this, "No. Should I?"

"I don't know. Why are you going with him?"

"To what?"

"The ball."

"Because no one else asked me," I stared at him pointedly. He knew without asking, that if he had asked me first, I would've gone with him. "Who're you going with, anyway?"

"Oh, just, someone," he spoke airily. "I don't know why, but she interested me, so I asked her."

I didn't trust him, he was being too mysterious, "Are you going to tell me who?"

"No. Anyways, why do you want to know? Jealous?"

"Pfuit. Me? Never."

"Shame," he sat beside me in the snow, and pulled his black cloak closer around him. He leant back, his hand behind him, holding him up. I looked at him, and my eyes softened.

"I would've gone with you, you know."

"Really?" he sat up, and looked at me. I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not, or I he genuinely wanted to ask me something. "Then do!"

"We can't now. We've both got dates. And I genuinely like Ben."

"So you don't like me?" he lifted one hand to my face, and gently stroked my cheek, his cold fingers making me shiver. "You're cold." He pulled me closer to him, and held me in his arms. I felt helpless with him, and let him do what he wanted, even if it meant that I was fraternising with my brother's worst enemy. He wasn't too bad, after all.

He held me, with his arms clasped around my waist, so that we were face to face. And yet again, before I knew what was happening, we were kissing, and his tongue was gently pushing its way into my mouth, and I let him. He was a very good kisser, and it was soft, and gentle. And then he broke away, before looking at his watch. "Don't you need to go and get ready?"

I took his hand, and looked at the watch face. It was 11 o'clock. "how long do you think I need?" I was shocked at how vain he thought I might be. "It only takes me an hour. I don't need to change for hours yet."

"Well, I do. So I'll be seeing you later." He stood up, brushing snow off him, "Goodbye, Kara. I'll see you tonight." He walked off, and I found myself staring at his back, as he trudged through the snow.

I turned my head, and found myself looking at the snow that surrounded me. I loved the cold, and the ice. It intrigued me. I let my fingers gently play with the snow beside me, until I felt that someone else was nearby. I turned my head, to look behind, and saw no one. Turning my head once again, to its usual direction, I screamed and jumped up, at once falling backwards, and landing in a huge snow drift.

Laughing, he held a hand out to me, and helped me up, although I was grumbling in frustration and annoyance.

"Its too cold to be outside," he spoke. "Can we go in?"

"Where too?"

"My room?"

"And how will you get me in there, without being noticed?"

"No one will care."

"Hmm…"

"Come on. Please?"

Urg. Boys were so annoying. "But, I like it out here."

"Do I have to confound you, again."

"Ben, you ever fucking confound me EVER again, and I will personally see that you never have the power to confound anyone."

"Ooh, It makes good threats, but is there anything behind them?"

I lunged at him, playfully, but before I could do anything, he caught me in his arms, and wrapped his thin arms around me. Although thin, he was bloody strong, and he held me tight until I stopped struggling. When he eventually put me down, he grabbed at my hand, and dragged me back to the castle, where I was pulled rather forcefully down a staircase, and towards the Slytherin common room.

It was fairly deserted, most girls preparing for the evening, and most boys either doing the same or out in the snow. He took me into a room, which I presumed was his dorm, although it was empty, and had little stuff in it.

Taking me to one of the beds, he sat down on it, and pulled me until I was standing in front of him. I had to look down on him, and he looked up at me with brilliantly glowing eyes. My soft grey ones seemed to melt under his gaze, quite literally, ad I swooned onto his lap.

When I opened my eyes once more, I found myself lying on his bed, with the green hangings pulled around it. I heard two voices, which I instantly recognised, as one belonged to Seiji, and the other to Draco. They seemed to be having a rather heated conversation, in which many words popped up frequently, such as "she", "Kara", "me", "you" and "us". It intrigued me, and so I pretended to be asleep once more, choosing to wait until they decided to wake me. As I rolled over on the bed, they were quiet for a minute, and I lay, as still as I could be, without moving.

"I think she's waking up," I heard Draco whisper.

"I'm sorry," Seiji spoke.

"Just leave it, ok?" And I heard him stalk from the room.

Seiji walked over to the bed, and wrenched the hangings apart, gently touching me on the shoulder. I did my best to simply pretend to just be waking up, and I blinked a few times, and yawned. He let his hand linger finally on my shoulder and still kept it there, wehen I rolled onto my back, meaning that it pulled him onto the bed, on top of me. He lay there, looking deep into my eyes, once more, before kissing me, long and hard.

"You look so cute when you sleep."

"What happened?"

"You swooned," he explained with a grin. "Probably lack of food."

"Uh, ok. What time is it?"

"Time for you to go and get ready."

"Uh, ok. I'll see you tonight, then?"

"Foot of the staircase. I'll be waiting."

He kissed me one last time, before leading me back downstairs, and letting me out of the common room. Once I had left, I quickly made my way to the Gryffindor common room, and then my dorm, to begin my preparations for the evening.