"Merry Christmas, Trinity."

Trinity looked up as Harry handed her a large present. She gave him a small smile. She still had yet to tell anyone about her prophecy. She knew she could tell Harry and yet, it had been a week and she hadn't said a word. "Thanks Harry. You got my present, right?"

"Yeah, thanks, I was running out of broom servicing stuff. . . . So go ahead and open it."

Trinity sat down in a chair in the common room, with Harry's present in her lap. Carefully she unwrapped the red paper to reveal a green book. She looked up at Harry who grinned at her. "Open it."

She looked back at the book and opened the cover.

"Oh . . . Harry."

Inside were dozens of photos. Photos of her mother and father and Harry's parents too and Remus. Photos of her parent's wedding. Her mother and father waved out to her as they ran up an aisle, people throwing rice at them.

Her eyes stung and she blinked back the tears. She sniffed and lowered her gaze. "Thank you, Harry."

"No problem. . . . Did you want to hang out with us at Hogsmeade today?"

"Um, I don't think I'm going today. Not feeling well."

"Okay. You get some rest."

"Right."

Harry left to go catch up with Ron and Hermione. When she was sure she was alone, Trinity ran from the Common room and out to the Quidditch Pitch, clutching the photo album to her chest.

When she reached the Pitch, she was out of breath and nearly collapsed onto the bench. She looked around quickly before transforming, the album dropping from her grasp.

In her place now sat a majestic black panther with multicolored eyes. Purring softly, she picked up the album gently in her mouth and padded out to the middle of the Pitch, laying down in the soft grass. She settled the album underneath her paws and rested her head on it, closing her eyes against the pain.

It began to snow.

Ron's POV

Ron wasn't sure how he decided, but after close to four hours in Hogsmeade with Harry and Hermione he said, "I think I'm going to head back up to the castle."

Harry and Hermione grinned at each other. "Going to go check on Trinity?" Harry said.

"No," Ron protested, though his cheeks went red. "I'm just – It's started to snow and I'm freezing."

"Right, Ron," Hermione said. "We'll meet you back up at the castle. Tell Trinity we said hi."

"Shut up, Hermione."

Back at the castle, Trinity was no where in sight. Ron practically searched the whole castle for her, asking everyone who had stayed if they saw her.

"Trinity Black?" said one Hufflepuff second year. "Yeah, I think I saw her heading towards the Quidditch pitch around the time everyone left."

Ron thanked the boy and hurried off towards the Quidditch Pitch. Something didn't feel right.

Ron was quiet as he entered the Pitch, not really knowing what to expect.

What he didn't expect was to see a panther sitting in the middle of the field, its eyes closed and its fur drenched in snow. Could it be dead?

Ron took quiet steps towards the creature. As he got closer, he noticed that only one spot beneath the creature was dry. And in that one spot lay a green book.

"Trinity?" Ron whispered.

The panther's ears twitched and it lifted its head, its eyes snapping open. Even from where he was standing, Ron could see Trinity's multi-colored eyes.

Ron took a small step back as Trinity growled at him. She was angry at him for finding her. She snatched up the book in her mouth and rushed past him. "Trinity!" he called.

Running as fast as he could, he chased after her. Snow hit him in the face and the wind blew his hood off. He continued to call Trinity's name but she didn't seem to be anywhere in sight . . . again.

He finally found her, crouched underneath the tree by the Black Lake. Carefully, he approached her. "Trinity?" he said.

She looked up at him with angry eyes. But he still continued to walk closer to her.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself, Trinity," he said. "You can't keep isolating your feelings and isolating yourself from your friends. We're – I'm here to help you. I know I can't do anything to bring back your family and I know you don't want anything to replace them, but I can do all I can to make sure that . . . that you feel like you still have a family. Will you let me do that?"

Trinity's head dropped and, slowly, she transformed back into her normal self. The book was now clutched in her arms and she was soaking wet from her head to her sneakers. Ron rushed forward, taking off his jacket. He wrapped it around her shoulders and helped her to her feet.

Trinity POV

Trinity stumbled along as he rushed her back up to the Common room. She was shivering violently. It had been stupid for her to sit our there in the snow, she realized. It would be her fault if she got violently sick.

Once in the empty Common room, Ron made her sit down in front of the fireplace while he rushed up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. He came back down minutes later with the quilt from his bed and a bundle of cloths. Trinity tried to get to her feet, but she fell again, feeling weak.

Ron was by her side immediately, helping her up.

"I have to go c-c-change," she said. She had a massive headache, almost like a brain freeze.

"I'm not sure if I can let you go up there alone," Ron said. "You might pass out and then I won't be able to get to you until a girl comes back. . . . Come on."

He led her up the stairs to his dormitory, letting her inside. "You go ahead and change and I'll be right out here."

The door closed and Trinity slowly changed into the pajama pants and the sweatshirt Ron had given her. So this was the boys' dormitory, was it? It was incredibly messy.

She opened the door and Ron took her by her hand, leading her back downstairs to the Common room where they sat in front of the fire.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked. "There's something else besides your family, isn't there?"

Trinity looked over at him before looking back into the fire. She reached over to her wet pants and pulled out the prophecy. She had been carrying it around since she found it. She unfolded it, a small bitter smile on her face. "Here I was, missing my family when I'm going to see them again pretty soon."

"What do you mean?" Ron said.

". . . . I'm supposed to die, Ron."

"You're supposed to – Trinity, what are you talking about?"

"The other day, when we went to the Ministry of Magic, a prophecy was made while I was standing in the room. It was a prophecy about me and Voldemort."

She held out the paper again, the fire shining through the worn parchment. "'A girl born the morn after the Chosen One will be the link between the Dark Lord's downfall. Only through her will the Chosen One be able to defeat the Dark Lord. Through sacrifice.'"

"What does it mean?" Ron said.

"It means this is why those Death Eaters came to my house to try to kill me. Voldemort would have tried to kill me himself, but if he does, the curse will backfire like it did with Harry when he was one year old. Even if we find all the Horcruxes, Voldemort will still be strong. This way, Voldemort will be weakened, Harry will be able to defeat him, and . . . I'll be dead."

Ron was silent for a moment. "I won't let it happen."

"Ron, this is how it has to be. I have to sacrifice myself in order for Harry to save the world. It's okay, really."

"It's okay? How can you say that?" Ron hopped to his feet, his cheeks red. "You talk about dying as if it's the thing to do, that it'll make everything better! But what you don't realize is that it won't make things okay at all! It won't make things better for Harry, it won't make things better for Hermione, it won't make things better for my mom and dad, and it sure as hell won't make things better for me! You'd be giving yourself up only to leave behind tons of hurt people and I'm sorry if I sound selfish, but I'm not going to let it happen!"

Ron dropped back down to his knees, taking Trinity's hands in his. Trinity was in a state of shock and it showed. Ron had never yelled at her before. But besides that, she never realized how many people did actually care about her. She wasn't as alone as she liked to make herself.

"I'm not going to let you die, Trinity," Ron said, lifting her cold hands to his chest and sandwiching them between his. "I'm going to keep you safe. Prophecies have been wrong before. Maybe this one will be wrong too."

Trinity looked away from Ron's determined eyes, realizing that her own were filled with tears. She let them fall though, the salty water landing on the carpet between her and Ron. Ron pulled her towards him and wrapped her in a tight hug. She clung to him, needing his protection and his caring words. The hard shelter she had put around her heart had since cracked and was falling apart, opening up to all she had been feeling the past couple of months.

After she had cried for a couple of minutes, she leaned back from Ron, wiping the tears from her face. "I'm not as tough as I act," she told Ron.

"Could have fooled me," Ron joked, making Trinity laugh.

They sat in silence for a minute before Ron got back on his feet, offering his hand to her. "Dance with me."

"Can you even dance?"

"I don't know what Hermione's been telling you. I dance perfectly fine. . . . Come on, just one dance."

"Why?"

"Well, since you won't come with me to the end of year dance."

Trinity smiled. She refused, no matter what, to attend a school function as trivial as a dance, especially considering she had Quidditch, Horcruxes, and an impending prophecy to worry about. But. . . . "I'm still thinking, I told you."

"Yeah, well, you're taking to long. Keep on waiting and some other girl might come snatch up this hot guy."

"Ha, sure. I bet I'm the best you can get."

"Only because you are the best."

Trinity's cheeks got hot, she could feel, and the smile on her face got a little bit bigger. Shaking her head, she took Ron's hand and he pulled her to her feet, pulling her closer to him at the same time. She wrapped her arms and around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder. "Ron . . . there's no music."

"I know."

"You know we can't just forget about –"

"I know. But for now, let's just spend this time with each other."

Harry and Hermione POV

Harry and Hermione came back from Hogsmeade their arms laden with sweets.

"I hope Trinity's feeling a bit better," Hermione said.

"She's has been acting a little strange lately hasn't she?" Harry said. "I'm sure she's fine though. Maybe Ron made her feel better."

Harry and Hermione entered the Common room and were greeted with the sight of several of their classmates crowded around a couch, whispering and laughing quietly.

Harry and Hermione pushed through the crowd the couch, their sweets almost dropping out of their arms.

On the couch lay Ron and Trinity, his arm around her waist and her head on his chest. Harry turned to the crowd and began to angrily shoo them away. "Mind your own business."

When they were all gone, he turned back to Hermione was still staring at Ron and Trinity. "Should we wake them up?" she whispered.

Harry thought for a minute before pointing out the small smile on Trinity's face. "I don't think we should mess with anything that puts that on her face. They'll wake up eventually."

Harry levitated the quilt from the floor and laid it over them. Then he and Hermione went to the other side of the room to eat their candy.