"You'll have to stay with each other during the holidays."

Ron wasn't sure what he'd been expecting Dumbledore to say but it hadn't been that. The idea of having Pansy in his home, and her staring in disdain at his belongings combined with Dumbledore's semi amused expression was enough to make him turn red.

"She's not staying with me. " he protested loudly, causing Fawks to let out an indignant squawk.

"Very well then, I'll write to Mrs Parkinson and tell her to expect you at their manor during the holidays. Till then, stay close to each other and you'll be fine. "

He turned back to his work, clearly dismissing them.

"I'm not sorry." Pansy said coldly to Ron and soon as they'd left his office. "It was an accident and I have nothing to apologize about."

"Really? Nothing to apologize about? In that case I have nothing to say to you."

He started to stalk off to emphasize his anger, which would have been more dramatic had the flash of pain that racked their bodies when he'd walked 10 steps away from her not sent them both tumbling to the floor.

"I don't care if you have nothing to say to me," Pansy grumbled, struggling to get off the floor, "if we're stuck together then I'd prefer it anyway."

If the binding situation wasn't bad enough for Ron, he discovered at lunch that Harry and Hermione were going to be staying at the Burrow for the holidays anyway, even though Ron wouldn't be there.

"Don't look so sad" Harry whispered to Ron from the corner of his mouth. "Ginny's invited Michael Corner to visit during the holidays so we'll be stuck with him too."

Ron looked considerably happier when he heard this.

It might have been the last day before the break but the Professors weren't cutting them any slack.

Blaise leaned upon his hand as he watched Padma scarf down her breakfast while trying to complete as much homework as she could.

"Blaise you're staring at me again. " She hadn't even looked at him lately she'd started being able to sense when he was looking at her. To be fair, he did it an awful lot.

"Ugh just make yourself useful, you feed me my porridge and I write. Teamwork."

Blaise however, didn't feel a separate pair of brown eyes boring into his back as he laughed and stuffed spoons of porridge into Padma's mouth.

He was pulled into an empty class room the minute he left the great hall. Padma was still trying to finish her essay.

"Padma? " he asked confused. "Oh. You must be the twin sister."

His eyes quickly scanned her face and registered the differences between the twins. Parvati's face was thinner, she was Skinnier than her sister. Her eyes were the same shade of brown but while Padma's were usually dreamy, Parvati's shone with a fierce determination.

"So how long have you been in love with my sister, Zabini? "

For a few moments, Blaise was lost for words. He recovered quickly.

"Did you stretch before you jumped to that conclusion?" he asked coldly.

"Oh drop the act" she snapped back, "I'm trying to help you. And anyway you're not even hiding it. I thought slytherins were supposed to be sneaky."

Blaise's expression changed like a mask dropping off his face.

"I don't want to talk about it."

Parvati's look was withering. "Suit yourself. I'm offering you a solution anyway. If you pretend to be my boyfriend, jealousy would make her snap out of her denial pretty fast. "

"Thanks for your help but.. That's kind of messed up. "

"Listen" she said fiercely, "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it for her. She's been afraid of emotional intimacy ever since her best friend died years ago. You're her only chance at fixing this. But if you can't pull your head out of your ass long enough to help someone else, then leave it."

She began to stride away.

"Wait. I'll do it. And, how did her friend die? "

"Okay we'll tell her we've been seeing each other after classes today. Oh and, you'll be coming to our house in the holidays. The adress is written here. "

She completey ignored his last question.

Shoving a note into his hands, turning to look at him one last time before she left, "and please, for her sake, don't be an idiot about this. "

Padma was sitting at the Hufflepuff table in the Great Hall when Blaise and Parvati approached her.

She was ignoring her food for her book again, and Blaise forgot to breathe for a few seconds when she finally glanced up from her book and smiled at him. She looked exhausted.

Her smile vanished as soon as she saw their interlaced fingers though.

"What's going on?" her voice was a mixture of cold and suspicious.

"Blaise and I have been dating for a while now and we thought we'd finally tell you. Aren't you happy for us? You don't look happy."

"When did this begin? "she demanded, narrowing her eyes.

"A few weeks ago. It's because of you really. I thought since I liked one Patil sister so much, I was curious what the other was like. And then we... Just hit off. "

He plastered a smile onto his face.

"Right. " Padma's eyes were flicking from Blaise to her sister.

Parvati stood on tiptoes and pecked Blaise on the lips before smiling angelically.

"And since I like him so much, he's going to come over to our house during the holidays. You won't have a problem will you? Since you're both such good friends?" she smiled sweetly.

"No. None at all. If you excuse me I have to go." she grabbed her book and hurried off.

The second she was out of sight Parvati dropped Blaise's hand.

"Please, don't kiss me again. " Blaise said shortly.

"As if I wanted to, you smell of peppermint. I hate peppermint. Now stop being such a whiny baby. "

"I like your sister more. " he called after her as she left.

A/N: so sorry about the last two filler chs . I'm saving all the things that happen in the holidays for the next ch so I hope that one makes up for these :(