Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting around the Gryffindor common room enjoying the relative quiet that, for once, described the place. Neville, who was leaving Christmas morning for his grandmother's house, walked nervously down the boys' dormitory with a Charms and Transfiguration book under his arm. "Oh, hello," he said, making a beeline for the porthole exit. "Have a good Christmas."

"Neville, it's Christmas break," Ron rolled his eyes. "Why the bloody hell are you carting around books now?"

"Well, I figured it would be a good chance to get the library to myself…" Neville said, looking down determinedly as a blush rose up his cheeks. He didn't truly want them to know that he was going to study with his new Slytherin friends. If they knew that then, undoubtedly, Harry and Ron at least would question him or make his life miserable in some way. They, at least, had Hermione to help them. She always seemed too busy for Neville to ask for help and, besides, at the rate those three got into trouble he wasn't sure he wanted to be too close to them.

Unfortunately this was the wrong reason to give Hermione. She immediately brightened and rose from her seat, nearly skipping over to Neville with joy. "That's a great idea Neville," she said happily, pushing through the porthole and pulling Neville with her.

Neville tried stammering out half a dozen reasons as to why he would prefer to study alone, but Hermione wasn't having any of it. She dismissed his concerns with her usual good cheer, misunderstanding that he wasn't just being kind. They were at the library far sooner than Neville would have liked, already dreading the encounter that was bound to happen.

In the library several of the desks had been pushed together and a group of a dozen or so students, primarily Slytherin, were sitting around laughing and joking with one another. Hermione spied them and then made to pull Neville to their own table. "Come on, Neville," she said firmly. "Let's sit over here."

It was then that one of the Slytherin sixth years spied Neville and smiled at him, rising from her seat and walking over to where Neville was resisting Hermione's pull. "Neville, glad you came!" she smiled, taking the books from under his arm. "Good thing you finally remembered to bring this, you pretty much have Cheering Charms down. I can't really help if I don't know what you are working on."

"Thanks, Triss," he said in a low voice, all too aware of the piercing look currently burning through the back of his head courtesy of Hermione. "'preciate it."

"You're Hermione Granger, right?" Triss asked pleasantly, offering a hand in greeting. Hermione tentatively took it and Triss sent her a slight smile. "If you'd like, you are more than welcome to join us. We've been helping Neville with Transfiguration and Charms. In return he's been helping us get through Herbology. He's absolutely brilliant at it, did you know that?"

"Of course," Hermione said at once, evidently taking this as a challenge when it wasn't. "Erm, not to be rude, but why are you helping him?"

Triss shrugged. "He said he needed help, so we're helping."

Now Triss took a willing Neville by the arm and sat him down at the spare seat beside her, leaving Hermione standing alone very confused and very suspicious. Triss opened one of Neville's books and pushed it in front of him. "It's been a while since I've gone over these Charms," she admitted, wincing good naturedly. "So bear with me, it might take me some time to figure them out again."

"Oh, are those third year charms?" Rookwood, one of the other Slytherins at the table asked eagerly, pulling the book in front of him. He laughed and shook his head. "I loved this year, the charms were great for exams. The Cheering Charm is good too, gives you a great feeling going into exams and that helps loads, trust me. But, you probably should start with just Banishing Charms."

"Actually we just covered Banishing Charms," Hermione spoke up from where she had been standing. "Right Neville?"

"I never actually managed one," he said in a low voice, staring down at the table in embarrassment. "I just chucked my pillow when no one was looking."

This seemed to stun Hermione into silence. But Rookwood clapped Neville bracingly on the shoulder. "It's all right mate," he said confidently. "You couldn't do a Cheering Charm at all remember? Bit of practice, all it takes."

Neville heard an aggravated huff and the sound of feet stamping out of the library and knew, without looking, that Hermione had just left the library. A few of the people at the table, a Ravenclaw and a Slytherin, watched her go with some mixture of concern and curiosity. "What do you reckon her problem is?"

"Probably the fact that Neville is hanging with Slytherins?" the Ravenclaw offered, returning to his book. "To be fair, when you lot offered to study with me I was sure you were just setting me up to hex me."

"Aw, hell, he's onto us," Triss teased, snatching Neville's book back from Rookwood. "But Rookwood is right. You don't want to fall too far behind."

"Well that goes for you too, right?" Neville blurted out, reaching for Triss' and Rookwood's Herbology books. "You've been helping me only the past couple days, it's my turn to help you. What are you going over now? Flesh-eating plants?"

In the hallway, Lupin and Sam listened in as Neville began to tutor the others at the table about the finer points of Herbology. Lupin was smiling as Neville went around the table to address the difficulties each student was having. "You know," he told Sam in a low voice as they moved away from the library and towards the entrance. "I think that Neville may very well have a future in teaching. He seems to have a good grasp of the finer points."

"It helps that Triss is among the kindest students that attend school here," Sam said, smiling.

The two professors wandered down the courtyard and beyond the edge of the school grounds to where Apparation was possible. They turned on the spot and appeared in the center of Hogsmeade, the village alive with shoppers and the like going about their business. Several of the older students saw them appear and waved eagerly at them before returning to their various activities. "I must confess, Sam, picking gifts is not at all my area of expertise." Remus said as they strolled up and down Hogsmeade. "Particularly as I have very little notion as to what any of the others, or you for that matter, would possibly want for Christmas."

"Yeah, well, Dean isn't really hard to buy for," Sam said, peering into a pet shop window and admiring the selection of owls they had. He dismissed the idea a few moments later when he remembered Lucy's vendetta against them. He stopped short and thought about this statement for a moment.

Christmas had always been important to Dean. Sam was fond of the holiday as well, but not so much as his brother was. No matter how little they had, or how much danger they were in, Dean had always made sure that their holiday was a happy one. Or, at least, as close to happy as he could make it. It had been such ever since they were kids and he had stolen a little girl's Christmas presents for Sam and claimed they had been from their father.

Sam was adamant: he would make sure to get something that Dean would love. His first idea had been fairly obvious: an impala. But just as quickly as that idea had presented itself he had thrown it out. Dean loved that car, but it was only that car he loved. If Sam had gotten him another one Dean was just as like to throw it into a Vanishing Cabinet as he was to keep it. Thus, Sam tended to agree with Remus. Christmas shopping was difficult.

"I heard you have been teaching Harry Potter the Patronus Charm," Sam said as he turned away from the pet shop. "Has he made any progress?"

"Actually, I haven't yet started." Remus said, matching Sam's pace as they continued their stroll. "I promised to him that we would begin after the Christmas holiday. Considering how affected he is by them, I deemed it prudent to instruct him on how to defend himself."

"Smart choice," Sam agreed. They lapsed into silence and Sam was content to simply walk.

"Perhaps Zonko's?" Lupin asked, stopping before the joke shop. "Dean seems the type to enjoy a good practical joke."

"I have worked very hard to make sure that Dean never learns about Zonko's." Sam said determinedly. If his brother learned of a magical joke shop, well, he knew that he would never be able to trust so much as a glass of water ever again. When Fred and George inevitably opened up their joke shop his life would become hell, especially considering the way they seemed to worship Dean. "I would appreciate it if you helped me keep it that way."

"He won't hear a word of it from me," Lupin smiled. "You said that Dean isn't hard to shop for, so why are we looking so hard?"

"I hate Christmas shopping." Sam said in answer, scowling. He wasn't a perfectionist, not by any means, but he absolutely intended to get Dean a good gift now that they actually had money available to them.

Sorry for the delayed update, been a tad busy with things. I hope you enjoy this, I played a bit with the perspective. If you enjoy this, I will be happy to continue to show more student perspectives. In addition, would you, my wonderful readers, want me to speed up the time line? I have at least ten more chapters consisting of Book Three. I also have a summer arc planned for the crew. But, if you would prefer, I am happy to speed things right up to the TriWizard Tournament. And, for my last question, that pesky Guide is up to her tricks. So, who would you like to see brought in from the Supernaturalverse next?

I hope you all are wonderful.

Yours, Hallowed