For: Ammiel, who faithfully reviews, and always makes me smile.

And for Bendleshnitz, a great friend of mine who I've already mentioned in previous chapters. She essentially came up with the idea, and I love her for it!! (Hope you don't mind that I changed it a bit, hon.)

Day 17

On the seventeenth day of Christmas…

She's not right for me, he tries to tell himself. She's so whole…and happy…

But he can't deny it anymore.

It's the second time they've met on the street.

They work together, something he learned only this year. He's seen her everywhere, now that he knows to look, but this time, as he's in a little-known shop in Diagon Alley, just thinking of whom not to buy things for this year, he actually gets the courage to talk to her.

"Audrey?" he asks, coming up behind her.

"Percy! I haven't seen you in ages! How are you?" She talks as though they're best friends.

"I'm – I'm alright. How are you?" He decides to be honest, because he doesn't want those eyebrows to go up, those lips to press together, those eyes to become suspicious. He hates that she can somehow detect lies.

She doesn't ask why he's only alright. She knows enough not to. "I'm quite good! I can't stay long, I just came to pick out a present for Roger – my brother, you know – and I'm really in a rush…" She gestures to a moving puzzle she's picked out, especially challenging because the shapes keep changing.

"Ooh, how fun that looks," he says, and he cannot keep the sigh of longing from escaping his mouth.

"I'll buy you one, if you like," she offers.

"No," he says, "thank you." It's no fun without someone to do it with you.

"Roger and I were going to do it together," she says, voicing his thoughts. "We love puzzles." Yet another reason why he can't ask her out. She has a normal family, a happy family. They do puzzles together, and will spend Christmas drinking hot tea and opening presents by the fire. He will be in his flat, freezing because he didn't keep his sweater. His family will be in the messy Burrow, listening to songs no one but his mother enjoys, with stupid little Harry Potter sitting there in his sweater. Harry doesn't deserve to be apart of his beautiful, dysfunctional family.

She clears her throat and smiles. "I've really got to run," she tells him apologetically. "It was nice to see you again, though! We've got to see each other more at work!" She leans forward and kisses his cheek, and then hurries off.

What would she think if she went to the Burrow?

No, no, she's all wrong for him, and he's got to go back to his cold flat and stare at the wall for a couple of hours. She wouldn't like that – she'd be doing a puzzle.

(Percy/Audrey)

Notes: This is during the 5th book, and it's almost in line with my other fic about them, Four Months. (Yes, only 3 more to go and I'll be on schedule!)