3 years later (didn't see that coming did you)

Phil's POV

For 3 years straight, even when our breaks got plagued by studying and homework, me and Dan spent them together, either at the library or at the usual spot by the lake. All though I didn't see Dan get bullied ever again, I saw the bruises on his arms and legs, even on his face sometimes, as he walked towards me with a sombre expression. It always made me scared that one day they would go too far and I wouldn't be there to stop it. I wondered often why they picked on him, because no matter how much Dan tried to hold back his tears on those dark days, I knew how much the punches, kicks and especially words got to him. Did it create some sort of victory for those idiots, seeing break? Many times I'd held the boy against me while he cried uncontrollably during that first year. Now he seems to ignore it, maybe someone told him he shouldn't cry at 15 years old, but I could see the pained expression on his face each time someone so much as pushed him or snickered at him when they thought he wouldn't notice. He always did though, I saw him grow paranoid and scared trying his best to be strong, and he was so strong when he held his head high in the corridors.

Even though all my breaks were spent with Dan, my bond with the girls and guys of my dorm became stronger, weirdly enough I grew very close to Tiffany and she became one of my best friends with Mels. I didn't know I was what you could call "popular" until I heard some girls whispering my name and giggling, and Mels pointed them out with a smug look on her face. Surprisingly Mels also grew pretty close to Dan as she insisted to meet him and almost instantly they hit it off, I guess it's hard not to like the freckled girl.

Over all my fourth year at Hogwarts really couldn't be going any better and sometimes I wish I could say the same about my very best of friends Dan. Even though after 3 years of bullying and harsh words he grew strong I could sometimes see the way his sad eyes didn't twinkle when he was sat at the long Slytherin table, all alone, still not having made any friends. I still believed he didn't belong there.

-24th December 2012-

I groan desperately and bang my head in frustration on the wooden table where all my books and pens are spread out. It's Christmas eve and while the others have gone out in the first snow of winter I forced myself to come and study in the library in preparation for my O.W.L.s because I haven't even tried in the past 4 months. To be honest I don't see the point of it because for some reason I absorb information easily and I usually don't need to study for any sort of test. But this is the exams and my mum even sent me a letter reminding me to study at least a little bit, she knows me and my procrastination.

I rub my temples and just as I'm about to open my Transfiguration book I feel a cold hand on my shoulder and I instantly smile, I know exactly who that is. I turn around and see Tiff standing behind me grinning, no one else always has the capacity to have extremely cold hands even after sitting in front of the fire.

"Is your spreading of school work all over this fine wooden table supposed to make me believe you're actually studying?" She says while raising her eyebrows and blowing a strand of frizzy dyed red hair our of her eyes.

"That was the plan" I mutter as I turn back to my table and groan inwardly. She doesn't leave me though, she's an extremely stubborn person. Instead she leans her head on her arms and rest them of my shoulder and neck, creating a heavy weight on my shoulders, literally.

"Phil come on, you're not even getting anywhere with this! Just come outside, please? The snow is really awesome, we started making an igloo!"

"Tiff I just started studying and you're already stopping me?" I whine while trying to shift her weight off of me.

"Well... you know you're not actually going to do any studying. Aaaand..." She says stretching the word and smiling cheekily "Dan joined us like 5 minutes ago, he was asking us where you were."

At that information I instantly get up and grin at her, gathering quickly my books in my arms.

"Why didn't you say so first?" I say and she just laughs, following me out out of the library and into the halls of the castle. Surprisingly over the years I only managed to lose myself a handful of times.

"So how is it going with you and Chris?" I ask as I walk to my room to leave my school stuff. Tiff and Chris have been going out for about two weeks now when he asked her out, since then there's been some sort of tension between her and Mels. I wonder if maybe Mels likes Chris sometimes, even though I try not to get to much in their business, it is scary sometimes how angry Mels will get when she sees the two together. Tiff tenses next to me and I frown, putting my books down and heading for the exit of the castle.

"Ok I guess..." she says not very enthusiastically.

"Wow, sounds like true love" I say sarcastically and she rolls her eyes at me.

"It's just that since we got together Mels has been avoiding me more and more, I miss my friend..." she looks down sadly, and I nod in agreement. Maybe I'll talk to her later.

We head out and I nearly squeal at the snow on the ground and the snowflakes spiralling down quickly, making the place even more beautiful that before. I start running while grabbing Tiff's hand and I laugh in pure happiness while we head out to where our friends are, our feet crunching in the snow and my scarf flying behind me.

When we get to our circle of friends, who are now getting extremely intense in a snowball fight, I jump in the middle of them and land on my back in the snow and I hear everyone laughing around me.

Suddenly I feel a weight and let out a "umpf" as Mels jumps on top of me with a giant grin, gesturing for the others to pile on top while I struggle underneath her. Soon everyone has followed Mels and now Chris, Joe, Caspar, Tiff, and finally Dan are laying on top of me all laughing. I let out a very girly squeal and try to get the human nuisances off. When they finally do, Dan is left in front of me as the other go back to planning the igloo, and he suddenly takes me in his arms and spins me round, laughing like I've never heard before. My heart warms and I ignore how unusually happy the hug makes me feel and how his touch sends a shiver down my spine. He puts me down and before he can say anything, I'm hit with a snowball and I glare towards Joe for interrupting the moment as he smiles sheepishly at me. I gather an enormous ball of snow and just as I'm about to throw it he squeals and hides behind Caspar, hitting him in the head instead. My eyes go wide and thus ensues a very intense snowball fight.

Later that night, me and Mels are sat in the common room while Tiff is saying good night to Chris. I observe Mels as she looks at them, an upset look on her face. I think I'm probably right about her liking Chris as she looks downright miserable when she seems them kiss innocently and lowers her gaze. Soon, Chris is gone and as Tiff says goodbye to us I turn to Mels.

"Mels what is going on?" She looks up at me and forces a smile on her face.

"I don't know what you mean." I'm getting tired of her hiding things from me, I thought she was my best friend, so in exasperation I say :

"Mels I know you have a crush on Chris, but that's doesn't mean you have to treat Tiff like a piece of shit." For a second she just stares at me in confusion and then after a while, she just bursts out laughing, she just laughs in my face.

After she calms down she smiles at me while shaking her head in desperation.

"Phil it's Tiff I like, not Chris!" And everything suddenly falls into place. Of course it was Tiff all along.

"So you mean you're..." I say cautiously, treading carefully on my words, not wanting to say the wrong thing.

"I don't what I am Phil, but does it really matter? I don't want a label, I'm just me, I want my special label Mels." She sighs at her owns words and I smile adoringly at her. I pull her into a tight hug and she nestles her face in the crook of my neck, mumbling a muffled "thank you".

Just then someone walks in and I see Tiff looking at us with an expression I can't quite make out, but she quickly leaves and I swear I can see a look of jealousy in her eyes.

Those two are meant to be together, no labels attached.

-25th December 2012-

Me and Dan have both decided over the course of the next day to give each other's gifts in the evening, just the two of us. As the end of the day rolls around, I bury my face in the warm knitted scarf Mels made me for the special day as I walk back towards the library where I arranged to meet Dan. I hold the present I wrapped for him tightly in my hands and walk into the library, seeing him already there in a comfy armchair.

He looks up at me as I walk up to him and he smiles sweetly, making room for me on the armchair, and even though it's a bit cramped, I don't mind at all as our sides are pressed together, sending my heart beating impossibly faster.

"Merry Christmas Phil, thank you for being my friend" Dan says softly. He's always been so caring and considerate towards everyone but with me it feels even realer. I try not to think too much of it as I turn a bit to face him.

"Thank you for giving me that opportunity" I flash him a smile and before I can say anything else, he pulls out a gift from next to the armchair and I beam at him when he hands it to me. It's wrapped very neatly in a silver wrapping paper and is square and pretty flat.

I take it carefully and as I eagerly tear it open my heart skips a beat when I see he made an entire frame where a painting must've once been and replaced it with pictures of the group and me and him, I guess the girls helped him with the photos because I recognize photos they took of us two. In the middle is a photo of me and him, laughing like idiots. It's always been my favourite picture of all time, Mels took it on a day like any others, when he'd said a sarcastic remark and I'd ended up laughing like an idiot, covering my mouth while he looked at me fondly.

I feel a smile stretch my face and I jump in his arms, well more like collapse in them since he's so close to me and he beams at how happy the gift made me.

"I love it" I mumble in his neck.

He holds me for a while until I slip out of his grasp, instantly giving him the really badly wrapped gift. He rolls his eyes at the flap sticking out.

"Hey, it's endearing!"

"It looks like you made your owl do it" He says rolling his eyes again, but still opening it very carefully. I watch his long fine fingers unwrap the gift and I stare in anxious anticipation, scared the gift might be not enough after what he gave me.

But as soon as I see his eyes brighten up at the present, I know he likes it. I made him, as cheesy as it may sound, a best friend bracelet. It's made out of purple, white and grey strings carefully put together and in the middle is his name spelt in silver letters. The second part of the present is something I have no idea how he'll react to. I made him an actual "Best Friend In the World Certificate" and I expect him to chuckle at the stupidity at it. But he just looks at it for a second and to my surprise I see his eyes water as he smiles, emotion taking over.

"I've never been anyone's best friend before..." He says, as he hugs me tightly against him and even though that information doesn't surprise me, I still feel a pang of hurt for the boy in my arms.

"Well now you are, and you're doing a wonderful job" I say comfortingly and I swear I can feel him smile against my shoulder. As he sits back up I slip on the bracelet and my fingers graze over his arms as I tie two knots, making my heart flip slightly. When I finish I just look back up at him and I suddenly realize how close he is to me and out of instinct, because it feels right for some reason I lean forward. But just as our lips are about to connect he coughs and sits straight up again, leaving a bit of tension in the air. It quickly leaves though as he makes some jokes about how cheesy and emotional we are, and I try to avoid staring at him for too long, making myself not like him even more, when it's clear he doesn't feel the same way.

That was the last time I ever spoke to my best friend Dan Howell, something happened during the time he went home for a couple of days. When he came back he wasn't the same, and I never heard of him again. Until today, 3 years later, when we both grew up and didn't get to spend our eighteenth birthday together because as the other years, he ignored me. That is, until today.

Yes this is EXTREMELY cheesy, forgive me. The plot thickens... How did you like this? Thoughts on the Tiff and Mels situation? Please comment :3 I had fun writing this it made very happy for some reason ^-^ Also, sorry if there are any mistakes, i didn't edit this, i'll do it tomorrow, I am way too tired and lazy to do it now. Especially lazy.