"What makes you different makes you beautiful." –Backstreet Boys (What Makes You Different)

On the last day before the Christmas holidays, I made my way up to the clock tower after classes. I was supposed to be meeting up with Neville later, but I wanted to spend some time up in the clock tower away from the crowds of students that were moving around the entire castle. It felt like the clock tower was the only place I could get some peace for a few minutes.

I walked to the center of the room before lying down on my stomach and pressing my cheek to the floor. I closed my eyes and just kept still and enjoyed the quiet. The good thing about staying up here for awhile is that I always know what time it is without having to open my eyes. All I have to do is wait for the clock to chime. This way I knew I wouldn't be late to meet Neville later on. It was our one year anniversary and naturally we were going to spend it together.

"I thought I might find you up here."

I didn't even jump at the voice. I probably should have, but I had never been a jumpy person. Instead, I opened my eyes, propped myself up on my elbow and turned towards the door. Neville was standing there, smiling at me. "And how did you know that?" I asked with a smile. "There are plenty of places I could have been."

"Well, I know all of the spots you like to go to and I checked this one first. I was hoping you weren't feeding the thestrals because I was actually hoping we could do that together later on."

I smiled. "Of course we can."

Neville crossed the room and sat cross-legged beside me. "Did you want to be alone?" he asked. "Is that why you came up here?"

"I didn't want to be alone, exactly," I answered. "I just wanted to go somewhere quiet and away from the crowds. It's the last day before break and the hallways always seem more crowded for some reason."

Neville nodded and began fiddling with his shoelaces. I closed my eyes and rested my cheek on the floor again, letting my mind wander back to the night of Slughorn's party. Neville and I had stayed in a corner of the room just talking, laughing and occasionally dancing. Slughorn didn't even seem to notice that one of his helpers had gone missing.

"Speaking of missing," I began, opening one eye to look up at Neville.

"What?" Neville asked. "We weren't speaking of anything."

"Oh, that's right," I said. "I was thinking of it."

"Why were you thinking of that? Who's missing?"

"Harry went missing halfway through Slughorn's party. Didn't you notice?"

"No," Neville shrugged. He looked down at me sheepishly and moved a piece of hair of my cheek with his index finger. "Honestly, I was too preoccupied with you."

I sat up and smiled at him, resting my head on his shoulder. "That's nice, but I saw Harry hurrying for the exit just after you and I started dancing."

"I think he went to follow Malfoy."

"Why?" I asked.

Neville shrugged. "Malfoy crashed the party. Harry probably thought it was suspicious. It kind of is. Malfoy had to be lying."

"He's been acting very strange lately too," I said. "He's hasn't teased me in quite some time. Now he just ignores me. I don't think he even sees me or anyone else for that matter. He looks more zoned out than me."

Neville shrugged again. "He looks odd. Tired and worn out, I guess. Everyone's noticed."

"He's an odd one," I said with a smile. "I honestly think he's mixed up when he tells me I'm odd."

"I agree," Neville said with a small laugh. "So, what do you say we head down to see the thestrals now?"

I nodded in agreement and Neville stood before reaching out a hand to help me up. We walked hand in hand down to the kitchens to pick up food for the thestrals and then we headed outside.

"It's snowing," I said happily, sticking out my free hand to let the snowflakes fall into my palm.

"Yeah," Neville said, staring up at the sky.

I laughed and immediately fell onto my back to make a snow angel. "Pull me up." I held out my arms and Neville grabbed them, pulling me to my feet so I wouldn't mess up my snow angel.

"It looks nice," he said with a smile.

"Yes, it does," I agreed. "Now you have to make one."

Neville hesitated, but I gave him a smile and he flopped into the snow next to my snow angel and began sliding his arms and legs back and forth. When he was done, I helped him up and wrapped my arms around him as we looked down at our snow angels.

"I've never made a snow angel," Neville said. "When I was younger there weren't many kids around for me to play with and whatever kids were around were either a lot older than me or a lot younger than me. And Gran hates the snow. So I never went out in it much."

"I used to go out in the snow with my mum all the time. Every year after the first snowfall, we would run outside. Well, when I was a baby, she would pull me around on a little sled. When I got older, we would make snowmen and snow angels. My dad would watch from the kitchen window or the front steps and he would smile and take pictures of us."

"What happened after your mum died?" Neville asked, sensing that was where I was going with my story.

"Well, the winter after she died, I didn't want to go out in the snow at all. It reminded me of her and I knew it wouldn't be the same without her, but my dad convinced me to go make a snowman. He told me my mum would be disappointed if I didn't."

"So did you build one?" Neville asked.

"I did. Actually, I made a snow woman. My dad gave me the end of a broken mop to use as hair."

Neville laughed quietly. "Sounds like a lovely snow woman."

"Oh, she was," I told him. "I wished she could have stayed there forever in my front yard, but sadly she melted. She comes back every year, though."

"She does?" Neville asked.

"Of course. I rebuild her every single year. I always have. You see, when my mum and I would build snow people, we would mix it up. We'd do men, women, children, animals and different creatures, but since mum died I've only done that one. I like to think of it as my mum being there for the holidays, but as a snow person."

Neville didn't say anything right away, but when I looked up at him, he was looking at me. "That's really sweet. And not to mention creative. I honestly don't know how you think of these things."

I smiled. "Come on, let's go feed those thestrals."

"So, how are Apparation lessons going?" I asked Neville later on as we were walking out of dinner. We had talked about a lot when we had fed the thestrals, but I hadn't remembered about his Apparation lessons until now.

Neville gave a half-hearted shrug. "They're alright. We've haven't had all that many lessons and so far only a few people have managed to actually Apparate. A lot of people have splinched themselves too."

"Have you done either of those?" I asked.

"No," he answered, "but I did manage to make myself dizzy after spinning in place for a while. I was frustrated that nothing was happening."

"Well, it's good that you haven't been splinched," I said, "and don't worry, you'll Apparate soon enough. It's not an easy thing to do."

"Tell me about it," he groaned. "At least I have plenty of time until April. That's when I take my test."

"You'll pass," I said confidently. "I wouldn't worry too much about it."

"Easy for you to say," Neville muttered. "I'll worry about it anyway."

I didn't answer right away, but when I did, I changed the subject. "We have an hour or two to spend together right now. What do you think we should do?" I looked at him and smiled.

Neville thought for a few seconds before shrugging. "We've already fed the thestrals today and gone to the clock tower."

"Greenhouses?" I asked, tilting my head to the side and grinning. Neville immediately brightened and I smiled even wider. I had figured he would want to go there and truthfully I did too. What better a place to spend our one year anniversary than at the place where it began?

"It was right here," Neville said when we reached the greenhouses. He dropped my hand and marched across the room to the spot where he had first asked if I wanted to be his girlfriend and also the spot where we had our first kiss.

"Right there," I said, nodding. I joined him and we stood in that spot for a little while in silence, looking at the ground as if it were something incredible special. Then again, to us it was special.

"It's too bad there's no mistletoe hanging up there this year," I said, pointing to the ceiling.

"There is some in the greenhouse somewhere," Neville said. "It's not usually kept hanging from the ceiling though." He let out a small laugh and headed to the corner of the greenhouse where the mistletoe must have been kept.

"So why was there some up there last year?" I asked, tilting my head in thought.

Neville let out another laugh, but it was more nervous this time. "Well, you weren't supposed to know this, but I put it there."

"You did? Why did you do that? Oh, I think I know! Were you trying to keep the Wrackspurts away by moving it around? Wrackspurts aren't all that intelligent. Moving plants around will keep them away. Usually."

"No, that's not why," Neville said. He turned and looked at me. He had found some mistletoe and he fiddled with it before dropping his hands to his sides. "I put it there because I had been planning on asking you to help me feed the plants for a while so I could ask you to be my girlfriend. I knew I would be too shy to just kiss you on my own, so I put the mistletoe there so you would be kind of, well-,"

"Expecting it?" I finished.

"Yeah," Neville said quietly, "and to kind of help me to actually do it without chickening out."

"Smart," I said. "That was very smart, Neville, but while I did love the mistletoe, I don't think you would have needed it. You're a lot braver than you think."

"I don't know," Neville said. "I'm scared of a lot. The Sorting Hat actually couldn't make up its mind between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. It took forever to decide. I kept thinking Hufflepuff over and over in my mind. I thought I would fit in better there, but the Sorting Hat chose Gryffindor in the end."

"I didn't know that," I said.

Neville shrugged. "I've never told anyone, not even Gran. I told her the hat chose Gryffindor right away."

I walked over to him and leaned against a table across from him. "Remember the first time you fed the thestrals with me last year? We had a conversation similar to this one."

"You told me the Sorting hat must have put me into Gryffindor for a reason," Neville said, smiling a half smile.

"Exactly," I said. "I still believe that. You thought you would fit in better with Hufflepuff, but if the Sorting Hat agreed completely then there would have been no debate. The decision would have been made right away, but clearly the hat thought you fit into Gryffindor just as much. That's why it was such a hard decision, but in the end it did decide on Gryffindor and there must have been a reason."

"Probably just because my parents were in Gryffindor," Neville shrugged.

"No, that doesn't always happen," I said. "Padma Patil is in my house and she was telling Cho Chang that both of her parents were in Gryffindor. Even her twin sister is in Gryffindor. You're not getting away with putting yourself down this time, Neville." I took his hand and when he looked up at me, I gave him a reassuring smile.

"It's so hard to win a debate against you," he finally laughed. "It's because you're so smart." He lightly tapped the side of my head.

"You are, too," I said with a smile.

"Not as-," Neville began, but he stopped when I raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I am," he said quickly. "I am a genius."

"That's better," I said. "Think positive."

Neville smiled and shook his head. He pulled me into a hug and I hugged him back as tightly as I could.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Neville let me go and held up the mistletoe. "I took this out for a reason, didn't I?"

"Yes, I believe you did," I answered, taking the plant from him. I held it above his head and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"That's not fair!" Neville cried. "That wasn't even a real kiss."

"So you're saying you imagined it?"

"I could have," Neville said.

"Would you like a do-over?"

"I would love one." He closed the distance between us and wrapped his arms around my waist. Before I could say or do anything, he had actually lifted me up onto the table. We were around the same height now so I didn't have to stand on my tiptoes to reach him.

"Where's the mistletoe?" I asked after a moment, breaking off the kiss we were in the middle of.

"We don't need it," Neville said, shaking his head. "It's probably way too infested with Wrackspurts by now anyway."

"Oh, you're right. I wasn't thinking about that."

"I'm so smart," Neville teased.

"Positive thinking," I answered before leaning in for another kiss.