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"What are you doing out here?" Harry asked.

"Could ask you the same question." She smiled and sat down beside him. "I thought you'd be in the Hall dancing it out with your classmates. You could use it; you're one of the champions after all."

Harry smirked. "I didn't really feel like it." He muttered.

"Is this just because you didn't get a date?" She raised a brow. "A proper one, I mean? Someone you like?"

Harry sighed, knowing that he couldn't hide it from Celosia. She knew almost everything. She was blood too, after all. "Something like that. Plus Ron there is dragging me down with him."

"Ah, Hermione does look beautiful this evening." Celosia smiled and Harry wondered how she knew. "And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Who's the lady you're running after?" Celosia smirked and Harry blushed looking away, making her laugh. "Your father was always the lady's man."

"Really?" Harry raised his brows. "And my mother hated him for a while?"

Celosia laughed. "Yes she did. He fancied her right away, wouldn't leave her alone. She found it quite irritating and bothersome. She was also close with the Marauders and whenever they tried to do something against the rules, Lily was there to try and talk sense to all of them."

"She was that powerful?"

"Oh, no. She tried, not succeeded. She did a few times but not a lot."

Harry nodded, wanting to learn more. All the questions that swam in his head made him suddenly draw a complete blank. He had to think back hard on everything. "Did she date anyone beside my dad?"

"Not at all." Celosia smiled. "Married her high school sweetheart, as the Muggles would say. It's actually rather sweet, like they were meant to be. But no, she didn't date anyone else. The next male she was closest to the most was Severus."

New questions started to swim into his mind. "So my mother and Snape were close?"

"Yes." Celosia nodded. "I didn't approve of it at first, but he started to grow on me."

"So that's why you and he are close too?"

Celosia nodded. "We became much closer when I came back in your third year. In all honesty, I missed him. He meant a lot to Lily and me."

Harry nodded in understanding. "So if Snape and my mum had such a strong friendship…why does he hate me?"

Celosia was taken aback. So that fool made it obvious enough for Harry to realize Severus hated him? "Well your father and him didn't have the best relationship."

"Why?" Harry asked, looking up. Celosia sighed.

"I do wish I could tell you Harry, but I can't." She muttered. "Not without Severus' permission. Suffice to say, your father could have had a better attitude. I never called him James in our school days; I always referred to him as Potter."

"Seems like it rubbed off on Snape." Harry muttered. Something above them seemed to be growing, the smell of peppermint and holly drifting to his senses. Hee looked up, shaking his head. Celosia looked up as well, grinning. "These are so troublesome."

"My idea, actually." Celosia smiled, lifting her hand up to touch the growing mistletoe with her finger. "They come and go around this entire courtyard. Your mother loved mistletoe around Christmas time. James set them up everywhere once he found out."

Harry smirked at how deeply passionate he felt about Lily. Celosia grinned and kissed his forehead, sparking another question as the mistletoe disappeared. "Did my mother used to call me 'love'?"

Celosia frowned. "No she didn't. She called you 'sweetheart'."

"Oh." Harry muttered. "Why do you call me that?"

"I've always called people who care deeply to me that." She smiled. "I called your mother 'love', even Petunia sometimes. I've called Severus that just a few times in our school years but not in the way I did to Lily. Of course I did and still care about Severus. I also used to call my husband that."

Harry nodded and noticed Celosia's tone get softer. "What happened to him, my uncle?" He asked. "And my cousin? From your side of the family?"

Celosia let out a breath, staring at the snow that started to softly fall to the ground. "After Lily graduated and the three of us Evans sisters moved out, we went our own separate ways. I worked in a Muggle high class tailoring shop, and this man with dirty blonde hair walked in. His eyes were the brightest shade of blue I've ever seen, they caught me right away. We had some small talk and found out his name was Alexandre, Andre for short. After that encounter he came in often and we just started seeing each other."

Harry listened carefully as Celosia played with her fingernails. "We didn't get married until after Lily and Petunia did though. It was wonderful. I got pregnant right away, which was surprising to the both of us. Your parents hadn't even conceived you yet. I was about two or three months along, not enough to know the gender of the baby when-"

Celosia trailed off, her throat feeling tight. "Death Eaters broke into our home." She muttered. "Andre was a Muggle and accepted I was a witch. I don't know why or how but it was at the rise of the Dark Lord and…a Death Eater broke into our bedroom. I tried to defend him but I hadn't been near the wizarding world in so long, and I hardly used my wand in an offensive and defensive way anymore. It was disarmed out of my fingers so fast."

A tear started to roll down Celosia's cheek and she sniffed. "Andre got hit with the Killing Curse. I don't know why that Death Eater didn't kill me but he or she used the Cruciatus Curse for I don't know how long. After that I just blacked out and woke up in St. Mungo's a week or so later, just me. No one else."

Harry gulped silently, knowing that was a way of saying that the baby hadn't survived either. "You were conceived by Lily shortly after that."

Celosia wiped her tears away suddenly, standing straight and trying to compose herself. "What would you have named the baby?" Harry asked quietly.

A smile graced itself onto Celosia's lips. "If it was a girl, I would have chosen something along the Muggle lines, like Katherine. Now if I ever had a girl I would name her Lillian, after your mother. If it was a boy I would have wanted to name him Xavier."

Harry smiled. "I like those."

"Andre did too." She said softly then looked at him. "Do you like your name?"

Harry was taken aback. He never really thought about it. "Yeah, I guess I do. I wouldn't mind if it was changed but it hasn't bothered me before."

She nodded. "Out of all the names in the world, I don't know why your parents insisted on Harry." She giggled. "At least Harrison or something, but just Harry? Not like there's anything wrong with your name."

"Oh, no offence taken." Harry insisted and smiled along with her. "You were really close to them."

"Sirius and Remus too." She smiled. "Peter not so much, and I was on and off with Severus."

"You two are really close now."

"Like I said before, he meant a lot to Lily and me."

"Mr. Potter." A voice said and the two looked up, Severus standing in front of them. "The Ball is near its conclusion, why are you spending it out here?"

Harry stood up. "Nothing wrong with coming out here to talk with my aunt, Professor." He snapped.

"You should get back anyways." Celosia stood up, smiling. "Ron and your date must be worried about where you've gone."

Harry looked at her and nodded. "Thanks. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Celosia nodded with a smile and ruffled his hair. "Your robes look wonderful. Good night, love."

As Harry walked off Severus and Celosia's eyes watched him. Once he was out of sight the older man turned on her. "What were you two doing out here?"

"Just family bonding." Celosia smiled, walking over to the overpass right beside the place she sat. She leaned against the stone, arms crossed as Severus stood across from her, wand tucked away.

"For an hour?" He raised a brow.

"He had a lot of questions."

"Some of which included me, I heard." He sneered and Celosia looked at him.

"Relax, I didn't tell him anything he shouldn't have known." She insisted and kicked off the wall, dropping her arms and standing closer to him. "I wouldn't do that. I don't want to remember what they did to you just as much as you don't want to remember either."

Severus merely stared into her eyes. "What have you been doing out here for an hour and a half?" She asked, remembering he had disappeared a good thirty minutes before Celosia left to talk to Harry.

"Breaking up students that were getting too intimate out here." He sneered and she laughed.

"The point of the mistletoes were for them to be able to kiss without teachers going around stopping them." She laughed.

"Yes well a peck would do, not when they grope at each other." He sneered and Celosia giggled again.

"Severus, no Hogwarts student in their right mind would shag during a Ball, outside, in a carriage in weather like this." She pointed out. Severus looked at the falling snow on the ground, taking one eye sweep of the entire grounds to notice that every student had left. The temperature had indeed dropped a few degrees.

"Speaking of which, aren't you cold wearing just that?" He raised a brow, looking at her up and down.

Celosia then noticed that her arms and legs were bare and she shrugged. "I actually didn't notice but now that you mention it I am feeling a little chilly."

"Shall we go back inside then?" He suggested. "The Ball is almost over; you might want to look over your fabulous work before we take it down tomorrow."

"Ah yes." Celosia frowned. "That really was my best work."

"And it will be forever remembered." He insisted, taking her arm lightly before she froze.

Celosia laughed, pointing towards the sky. Severus looked up and his brows furrowed, a small bit of mistletoe growing between them. "We should really start by getting rid of these."

"Why should we?" She smiled. "Christmas ends next week. We should still remain in the spirit."

"Are you kidding me?" He frowned, seeing she wasn't. "Speak to the Headmaster about it yourself. Now let's go."

"I don't think so." She smirked, looking up as the mistletoe remained between them. Severus sighed, knowing that if he walked away he would never hear the end of it.

"You brought this onto yourself." He muttered and stood closer to Celosia.

"I know." She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck, looking at him in the eye. His musky smell of lavender and potions filled her nostrils again and he could see desire flash in her eyes before she closed the space between them, her lips pressing into his softly.