Surprisingly quickly, Winter Break came, and most of the students went home for the holidays. That left the twins in a large castle with very few other students, and not very many options for how to amuse themselves. The younger students released their boredom by singing Christmas carols in the halls, which were festively decorated with tinsel and ornaments. The castle constantly smelled like the holidays; that sweet mixture of cinnamon and evergreen. If emotions had smells, that would be the scent of happiness and excitement. Everyone was cheerful, it seemed; everyone except Layla.

Christmas was only a few days away, and Layla had just spent the entire morning outside, staring at the lake. The rock she had been sitting on had been covered with a light powdering of snow, and the lake looked like it was almost frozen over. Despite the cold, she had sat there for two hours, thinking. Her mother was dead, and it was all her fault. It wasn't so bad to be in danger herself, but the thought that Jeff might find them again and kill Ren was unbearable.

Then, of course, there was James. He was plaguing her mind, and she felt horrible because of it. Layla kept reminding herself that she wasn't supposed to like the best friend that she had here in the way that she did, but she couldn't help it. The more she learned about him, the more she liked him; even his imperfections seemed perfect in her eyes.

So, she found herself walking towards the Room of Requirement, content in the thought of hiding in her old room with Louis and writing cheesy love songs, which James would never hear. Her thoughts were abruptly stopped when she walked right into someone as she turned a corner.

"Are you okay?" she asked instantly, jumping to her feet and offering a hand down to the girl she had run into.

"How is it that every time we meet, that's the first thing you say to me?" Ella laughed, brushing her copper bangs behind her ears.

"We've got to stop meeting like this," Layla teased, grinning at the younger girl. She had found out, the day they had met, that Ella was a year younger than her, also in Gryffindor.

"Where were you off to, in such a hurry? Not off to have wild sex with James in a broom closet, right?"

Layla blushed, and put her face in her hands to hide her pink cheeks. "Why must you be so observant? It took Ren weeks to notice, and even then, she didn't know who I liked. It didn't take you more than four days."

"It's a gift, I guess," Ella said with a smile. "So, where were you really off to, if not to bring your sexual fantasies to life?"

"The Room of Requirement," Layla said, her cheeks darkening a few more shades of red. "Want to come?"

"Sounds like fun. I was going to wander around the castle until my legs collapsed, for lack of a better thing to do," was the cheerful reply.

"You are a strange one."

Layla paced in front of the familiar blank wall, and they walked into her old bedroom. Ella smirked in approval, admiring it for the first time. They both sat on beanbags in the middle of the room, and just talked about random things that came into their heads. After a while, Ella's eyes fell on the calendar hanging above the daybed.

"Christmas Eve is a full moon, this year…" she whispered sadly, more to herself than Layla.

"Yeah… I feel bad for all of the werewolves. What a shitty day to have to transform… though, you know, I always wondered what it would be like, to be a werewolf. The worry and fear that comes once a month, the self-hatred they might endure, the distrust from others in the wizard community… and of course, this month, they have to deal with that on Christmas Eve, which is just all the more sad…" Layla trailed off, realizing that she had started to ramble. To her surprise, Ella didn't laugh at her or call her weird; she was nodding slowly, and her eyes looked like they were filled with tears.

"You understand a lot better than most. Too many ignorant people seem to think we like changing once a month, enduring all the pain of the transformation only to forget who we are and possibly kill everyone we care about. Idiots," she muttered, almost angrily. Her face took on an expression of shock and fear when she realized what she had just said, and then she buried her face into her hands. "Oh, no, I screwed up. You're going to hate me, and the whole school will find out, and Dumbledore's going to kick me out, and then my family will be in danger again…"

Layla's heart went out to the girl; they were more alike than she had realized. Both lived with a curse, though Layla knew that hers wasn't as bad; she could control the vampire in her, and Ella had no choice. She got up and went over to her new friend, hugging her tightly and letting her cry on her shoulder.

"It's okay, don't cry. Your secret is safe with me. I know what it's like, the fear," Layla said once Ella had calmed down a little.

"You know a lot more than normal people. You understand… thank you," Ella said, wiping tears off of her cheek.

"How… how young were you, when you were bitten?"

"I never was bitten… well, not in the way you mean. I was born one. My family is descended from one of the most famous French werewolves, from the late 1500s. Queen Isabella. So, naturally, I get to inherit my curse and my name from her," she said with a scowl.

Layla suddenly remembered the day they had first met, and the conversation that they'd had. "Is that… is that why your brother is dead? Because he was a werewolf?"

"Yeah..."

"I'm sorry..."

"Don't be. We all knew the risks. He was supposed to be in the pit when the full moon came, but he wasn't, so he followed his nose to the town. He couldn't control himself. Blood lust, you know?"

"Yeah…" Layla grimaced, Jeff's face coming to her mind.

Layla spent the rest of the morning talking to Ella about their families, sharing memories and experiences. It was a comfort, to know that someone else had experienced loss and self-hatred like she had. At the same time, it reminded her that she needed to tell Ren the truth, and soon. She decided that she'd do it the last day of Winter Break; she didn't want to ruin Ren's Christmas with such news, though it was going to be sad enough anyways. Their first Christmas without their mother, their first Christmas in a strange new land. Layla was an atheist, but she still gave gifts and celebrated the holiday, since her mother had always insisted they have as normal a life as she could give them.

She didn't see her twin at lunch, so she ate a little with Ella before excusing herself to go to the library. She hadn't seen James in the Great Hall, either, and was hoping that she would be able to find him there.

He wasn't in the foreign language section like usual, so she pulled out the French romance novel she had read twice since arriving at the school. She was still curious as to what could be in the book that Madame Pince had refused to let her see, but had accepted the fact that she would probably never find out. When she was a few pages from one of her favorite parts, she sensed a presence nearby, and looked up. Just a few inches from her was James. It looked like he had been trying to read the book with her upside down; as it was, she couldn't help but notice how easy it would be to just lean over and kiss him. Her body was on fire, begging her- no, ordering her- to kiss him, just once, but she fought the urge.

"Hey," he breathed, and she shivered as she felt his warm breath on her lips.

"Hey," she whispered back, unable to think of any greeting more creative than that.

Layla's eyes glanced at his lips, they looked so inviting, and she wrestled with her mind for self-control. Her mind and body were at war, head versus heart, as she stared at him. Every time he breathed, her body gained another point for its side. Yet before a victor had been declared in her mind, James did something that she had definitely not expected, something that only happened in her dreams; he kissed her.

Soft lips, his lips, were pressed lightly against hers, and she was still for a moment as her confused mind tried to determine if this was reality or a dream. Deciding that it didn't matter whether or not it was real, she kissed him back. The two sat like there- Layla's book pressed between her knees and her chest, James' chest pressed against the other side of her knees- until they needed to breathe again. When they pulled apart, a few small inches lay between their faces again. Blue eyes met brown ones, and they looked at each other with exhilaration and uncertainty.

"I'm sorry… I just…" James muttered, as if she hadn't kissed him back. He didn't look away from her gaze though, but seemed to be searching it, as if trying to read her feelings.

Layla placed a finger lightly against his lips, shivering again as she did so. "Don't apologize… I wanted to do the same thing, but… I thought you would hate me, if you did. And that was probably just a spur of the moment thing, and now you're going to hate me because you know I like you. I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't, but I can't help it, you're just such an amazing person, and I just- I'm sorry," Layla stammered, biting her lip gently and breaking their eye contact.

With her finger on his lips, James couldn't say anything against her little speech. He wrapped his hand around hers, pulling it away from his mouth but not releasing it afterwards, and gently pressed his lips against hers again. Layla stopped in the middle of her apology, looking at him with confusion.

"To be honest, Layla… I really like you. I thought you would hate me for kissing you, too, but I couldn't help it… and now, I'm really glad I did, because, well, it was amazing, and now we both know how we feel about each other, so there's no more uncertainty," James said, a tinge of color coming to his cheeks.

The only thing keeping Layla from jumping on him at that moment was the knowledge that they were in a library, and it would be entirely inappropriate in their current setting.