Chapter 18- Good Boy: The Morning After

Dennis woke the next morning to a splitting headache, remembering the night before as if it was a movie playing in his head. He couldn't believe what he had done to Lena, and he couldn't understand why he had done it. Most of all, he feared facing her at breakfast. She was going to slap him, hard. Worst of all, he deserved it.

However, as he was changing, his door opened and Lena walked in.

"Shit, Lena," Dennis said hoarsely holding a shirt over his privates. "Don't you know about knocking?"

"Not really," Lena said. She sat on his bed and looked at him. Her clothes suggested that she was willing to forget what had happened the night before. "I need to talk to you…"

"If it's about yesterday, I am so sorry about what I did," Dennis pleaded.

"No," Lena said standing. She began to pace the room. "It's my fault. You see, my necklace, I didn't know this at the time, but it has powers. Anyone I kissed fell madly in love with me until I took the necklace off. That's why you thought you loved me. That's why Baddock suddenly fell in love with me when I kissed him. That's why Kevin began acting weird, because I blew him a kiss."

"You put a spell on me?" Dennis asked.

"I didn't mean to," Lena said. She faced him as she continued to talk. "It's like last year, when you sneezed and accidentally turned Flitwick's hair hot pink because your wand flicked in his direction. Accidents happen all the time."

"So you kissed me by accident?" Dennis asked.

"No," Lena said, "that wasn't an accident. The accident was the spell."

"So…"

"I meant to kiss you," Lena said. "And I really want to again." Lena took a few steps toward him. He tried to back away, but found that a wall was not more than an inch behind him. Lena put her hands on his shoulders and got onto her toes before kissing him.

Dennis couldn't help but close his eyes. His mouth worked in perfect sync with Lena's. Before he knew what was happening, they had fallen to the bed. He didn't know why he wasn't covering himself with the shirt anymore, or why he reaching his hands under Lena's shirt. Well, he actually did, but was trying to tell himself he was imagining it all. The only problem was that it was not his imagination, not by a long shot.

He and Lena rolled so that he was holding himself over Lena and he found that in what seemed a moment, she had lost all of her clothing. Of course, what his head was saying was very different from what his body was saying, and he waited a moment before he moved.

"Dennis," Kevin's voice called through the door and the entire surreal mood was ruined. Dennis crawled off the bed and grabbed his clothes as Kevin continued talking. "Are you planning on coming out anytime soon? The rest of us are waiting for you before we start the whole Christmas thing. And do you know where Lena is?"

"No," Dennis called through the door. "I'll be out in a minute or two, so don't wait up for me."

Dennis finished pulling his clothing on and tossed Lena what she had lost during their tumble. He didn't understand what she wanted. He clearly remembered that the night before, she had pushed him away from her when tried to get under her skirt, and now that he was back in an almost normal state of mind, she wanted him again.

He figured that she was using that as a ticket only if she couldn't get him any other way. Last night, she had him, but now he wasn't crazily obsessed with her anymore. He left his room allowing Lena to get dressed alone. Dennis took a detour to the restroom and splashed some cold water on his face before anything else.

By the time he came to the dining car, Lena was already sitting between Lena and Stella. She said something to Stella and Stella replied what looked like, "I told you he wouldn't." Since when did Lena and Stella sit with one another?

Dennis sat near Kevin and leaned against the wall. Dumbledore smiled at him and began passing out presents from under the tree which had appeared overnight. Dennis was surprised that he received eight presents. One from Kevin, two from his friends that were still at Hogwarts, four from his family, and the last wasn't signed.

Kevin and Dennis had given each other the same gifts every year since their second year; Kevin gave Dennis a large box of Honeydukes assorted chocolate and Dennis gave Kevin enough fireworks for a large commotion that Kevin always used the last day of the holiday before school started again. Dennis's other friends got him a book on advanced spells for all sorts of situations and a bag full of Zonko's products. His family sent him clothes, and a lot of it.

The gift from the mystery person came in a small box. It wasn't wrapped, it just had a string tied around it to keep it from opening before he intended to. When no one was looking, Dennis untied the string and opened a small box. Inside was something he recognized. It was an identity bracelet that had been his dad's. However, Colin had found it a few summers back and wore it because it was labeled, "Creevey." Dennis always wanted to wear it, but Colin had it on every time Dennis tried dig through Colin's trunk looking for it.

Now it was his. He knew exactly who had sent him the gift. Dennis looked up at Dumbledore, catching his eye. Dumbledore didn't turn his head, but rather winked as Dennis fastened the bracelet around his wrist.

"What's that?" Dawn asked as Dennis fingered the bracelet fifteen minutes later when everyone was eating a large breakfast.

Dennis looked at the bracelet, and then turned to look at Dawn. He was surprised when he met her eyes. Her beautiful indigo eyes didn't flinch looking into the eyes of a Muggle-born. "It was Colin's," Dennis said. "Just a bit of memory of him."

Dawn smiled sweetly and nodded.