"I'm off again in my world." -Avril Lavigne (My World)

The morning after I got home for the Christmas holiday, I got up early to make my traditional snow woman. I liked to build it early on the morning after I got home every year. That way she was there for the entire Christmas holiday.

"Do you need any help?" My dad asked me this every year, but I always declined.

"No," I said with a smile as I shook my head. "I like doing this by myself. You know that."

"Well, here, at least take this," he answered, handing me a piece of toast. "I know you want to get started as soon as possible so there's no hope in trying to get you to sit down and eat."

"Thank you," I said, kissing him on the cheek before dashing out the door.

I took a bite of my toast as I walked around the yard, trying to figure out where exactly to build my snow woman. Every year I liked to build her in a different spot. I mean, variety is the spice of life, isn't it?

Eventually, I decided on a spot on one side of the door in front of the dirigible plums we had growing there. I finished my toast and brushed the crumbs off my gloved hands before reaching down to start the bottom of my snow woman.

"Wait!" I heard the sudden yell from behind me and spun around.

"Neville!" I exclaimed in slight surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to help you with your snow woman. If you don't mind, that is."

"No, of course not, but how did you get here?" I looked around his shoulder. "I don't see your Gran anywhere and you haven't taken your Apparation test yet. I highly doubt you ran. It's much too far."

Neville shook his head. "No, I Apparated with Gran, but we ended up a little further that way." He pointed over his shoulder. "Gran apparently couldn't remember the exact spot of your house. Anyway, I walked the rest of the way. It wasn't that far. Are you surprised, though?"

"Very," I answered. "It was very sweet of you to come."

"I'm glad I got here in time. When you told me you were building your snow woman today, I didn't think to ask what time but I figured it would be early."

"You guessed right," I said. I pointed to the front steps. "The broken mop for the hair is right there as well as the stones for the eyes and mouth and the carrot for the nose. Other than that, we just need the snow."

"Just the snow," Neville repeated with a nod.

"It's actually very easy to build a snowman," I said, kneeling down and beginning to form the snow into a ball. "At least I think so."

"Is there anything difficult about it to you?" Neville asked, kneeling down next to me and helping me with the base of the snow woman.

"No, not really," I answered. "Maybe it's just because I've been doing it for so long."

"You're a professional now," Neville said giving me a playful nudge.

"I guess you could say that. I've actually never thought of that but only because I like doing it so much."

"There's so much stuff that you like to do," Neville said as we finished forming the bottom part of the snow woman and started rolling the middle part. "Is there anything you don't like?"

"I don't really like lima beans," I answered.

"Why not?" Neville asked. "I mean, lima beans don't taste like anything so how can you like or dislike them?"

"That's exactly how," I said. "They don't taste like anything. I find them boring."

"Okay," Neville laughed, grinning. "Anything else?"

I shook my head. "No, not really. I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of things that I wouldn't like to do that I haven't had to face and hopefully I'll never have to. For instance, I don't think I'd want to get trampled by a giant, but hopefully I'll never be in a situation where there's a possibility of that happening."

"Well, I don't think anyone would want to be in that position," Neville said.

"True," I agreed as Neville lifted the snow woman's middle and placed it neatly on top of the bottom section. "One more," he said.

"One more," I repeated.

"So," he said as we started on the snow woman's head. "You don't like lima beans." "Not especially," I said, "but on the other hand they are supposed to be very good for you and my dad tends to cook them a lot so I eat them."

"Does he know you don't like them?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. I've never complained about eating them, but I've never said I loved them either."

"Why don't you tell him?"

I shrugged again. "It doesn't matter. It's not like they're going to do any harm. Like I said, they're quite good for you, so even though I don't like them, they're healthy."

"You're incredible," Neville said, shaking his head in amazement. "When I was younger, I made sure my Gran knew when I didn't like something so that she knew that I would never want to eat it again. Although, she was very insistent with spinach. You see, I don't like spinach, and that was the one thing she always tried to force me to eat."

I nodded. "It is healthy."

"I feel like a little kid again," Neville said. "You know, discussing which vegetables are good for you."

I smiled and lifted the now completed snow woman head, standing on my tiptoes to put it on the snow woman's body. "Well, do you like carrots?"

"I do," Neville nodded.

"I do too," I said, walking over to get the carrot lying on the front steps, "but unfortunately, this carrot isn't going to be a vegetable today. Today, it's going to be a nose." With that, I stuck it into the middle of the snow woman's face. "Now for the eyes, mouth and hair."

"And the arms," Neville said. "We can't forget those."

"No, of course not," I said. I looked around. "Would you mind going to grab a few twigs for the arms? I forgot to get some. Just grab any that look good."

"Sure," Neville agreed, walking off into the yard to examine the closest tree. By the time he returned I had arranged the stones into a smiling face and was just setting the broken mop piece on the snow woman's head.

"Those are perfect, Neville," I said, taking one twig from him and sticking it on one side of the snow woman. Neville did the same on the other side and then we stepped back to admire our work.

"I'd say it looks pretty good," Neville said.

"Just pretty good?" I asked.

"You're right, it's perfect actually." Neville slid his gloved hand into mine and I rested my head on his shoulder.

"Thank you so much for your help," I finally said. "It was nice to be able to do this with you."

"I was glad to help," Neville answered. "I didn't know if you'd rather have done it alone, but I had to take a chance and come over anyway. The worst that could have happened was that you'd make me leave."

"No, I'm glad you came. If I can't do this with my mum and if I had to pick someone else to help me, I'd pick you."

"What about your dad?"

"He's not really a snow person," I said. "He likes the nicer weather the best. I might have mentioned that before. Now that we're done do you want to come in for some Gurdyroot infusion? Dad makes it all the time."

"What is it, exactly?" Neville asked, looking slightly skeptical.

"It's a drink. It's purple and made from Gurdyroots."

"I figured, but-,"

"You'll have to come try it for yourself," I interrupted, pulling him towards the house. "Dad's probably making lunch, too. At least stay for that."

"Of course I will," Neville grinned, squeezing my hand.

Once we returned to school after the holidays, time seemed to move faster and the end of the year seemed to be coming a lot quicker. It was always like this after the Christmas holidays. I had noticed that in my first year.

Things went on relatively normal and uneventful at school once we got back. Neville and I spent the day together on my birthday in February. It was a Hogsmeade weekend and Neville bought me a new Ravenclaw scarf and a bunch of Honeyduke's candy as gifts. Then we sat inside the Three Broomsticks sharing the candy and drinking butterbeer. It was one of the nicest birthdays I'd ever had.

In March, it spread around the school very quickly that Ron had ingested a poisoned drink and had to spend some time in the hospital wing, which caused him to miss the next Quidditch match. I had actually been asked to commentate the match since Lee Jordan had already left Hogwarts, and Zacharias Smith, who had commentated last time, was playing for Hufflepuff.

"I think you'll make a great commentator," Neville said as we stood at the bottom of the stands together just before the match.

"You really think so?" I asked. "I've never done it before, but I have been practicing."

"How can you practice commentating?"

"I've been coming out here alone and making up pretend matches in my head and then commentating them. It's quite enjoyable, but I haven't done it in front of people yet."

"Well, you'll be fine and even if nobody else appreciates it, just know that I do."

"I know that," I smiled.

"Okay," Neville nodded. He rested a hand on my cheek and gave me a kiss before hurrying off to the stands.

Once the match began, I watched it with my head tilted to one side. "And that's Smith of Hufflepuff with the Quaffle," I said. "He did the commentary last time, of course, and Ginny Weasley flew into him. I think probably on purpose. It looked like it. Smith was being quite rude about Gryffindor. I expect he regrets that now he's playing them—oh, look, he's lost the Quaffle. Ginny took it from him. I do like her, she's very nice. Oh, now that big Hufflepuff player's got the Quaffle from her. I can't remember his name, it's something like Bibble, no, Buggins, or maybe-,"

"It's Cadwallader!" Professor McGonagall interrupted from beside me.

"Yes, that's it," I said with a smile. "Now Harry Potter's having an argument with his Keeper. I don't think that's going to help him find the Snitch, but maybe it's just a clever ruse. I'm not sure. Anyway, has everyone noticed that cloud directly above the Gryffindor goalposts? It looks like a Blibbering Humdinger to me. And I can see another one that looks like a Gurdyroot."

"The match, Miss Lovegood," Professor McGonagall interrupted. "Focus on the match."

"Oh, yes, of course. Well, Zacharias Smith has the Quaffle again, but now he doesn't anymore. It was taken from him by Ginny Weasley. I don't think I've seen that boy hold on to the Quaffle for more than a minute. He must be suffering from Loser's Lurgy…"

"Harry!" I called after him on Monday morning. I had just seen him and wanted to hurry and give him the note in my hand before I lost him again. The match on Saturday had turned out quite horrible, ending with Harry being hit with a Bludger and landing a spot in the hospital wing, where I had just come from. I had hurried away from Neville, promising I'd meet up with him after breakfast so that he could walk me to my class.

"Oh, hi, Luna," Harry said, turning to face me.

"I went to the hospital wing to find you," I said, beginning to go through my bag, "but they said you'd left." I pulled out a Gurdyroot, a toadstool, and a bag of Crumple-Horned Snorkack food and handed them all to Ron to hold. "I've been told to give you this note, Harry."

"Nice commentary last match," Ron said as he passed me back the toadstool and the Snorkack food.

"You're making fun of me, aren't you?" I asked, pausing as I reached for the Gurdyroot. "Everyone besides Neville says I was dreadful."

"No, I'm serious!" Ron said. "I heard it through the hospital wing window and I can't remember enjoying commentary more! What is this, by the way?" He held up the plant in his hand.

"It's a Gurdyroot," I answered. "You can keep it if you'd like. I've got a few of them. They're really excellent for warding off Gulping Plimpies."

"Oh, wonderful," Ron said, examining the Gurdyroot.

"Yes, well, I'll see you later." With that, I turned and headed off to breakfast. The sooner I ate, the sooner I'd get to walk to class with Neville.

By mid-April, Ginny and Dean had broken up. "That's good news, isn't it?" I asked her as we sat waiting for our Charms class to start. "If you weren't all that happy with him then it's good that you broke up."

"You're right," Ginny agreed, resting her chin in her palm. "I mean, he's really nice but we just started fighting all the time and he always insisted on helping me through the portrait hole into the common room and down staircases. It was as if he thought I couldn't walk."

"I'm sure he knew you could walk. You walk perfectly fine," I said seriously.

"I know that," Ginny said, blowing a puff of air out of her mouth. "I'm not elderly."

"Yes, that's obvious," I answered, nodding.

"Anyway," Ginny continued, "the relationship had just kind of run its course."

"It wasn't meant to be," I shrugged. "That's all. Now you can find the person it was meant to be with." I debated whether or not to mention Harry, but decided against it.

"Yeah," Ginny said slowly.

I looked at her and smiled, feeling that Ginny was most likely already thinking about Harry without my help.

At the end of April, a date was set for the first Apparation test, but only for students who would be seventeen by that date. Neville wouldn't be seventeen until the end of July, so he couldn't take it yet.

"I just want to get it over with," he said impatiently as we watched the group of students taking the test leave the castle. "I mean, I managed to Apparate into my hoop during the last lesson, but I'm not good at test taking. I'm going to mess it up."

"Just pretend it isn't a test," I said, shrugging. "Pretend it's practice again, or pretend you already passed the test and you're Apparating on your own for the first time to any place you'd like. Except, 'any place you'd like' has to be where they tell you to go-,"

"We have to Apparate from one end of Hogsmeade to the other."

"Okay, so pretend you want to go to the other end of Hogsmeade," I said.

"To buy you a present."

"You already bought me a birthday present. My birthday was a while ago."

"I didn't say it was a birthday present," Neville said. "Maybe it was a just because present."

"Okay, if you like buying presents just because, then that's where you can pretend you're doing. If you keep telling yourself it's a test, you'll only make yourself even more nervous."

"So, from now until I take the test in July, you want me to forget about it completely?"

"No, not forget completely," I said. "Just forget it's a test. It's going to be a completely normal, casual Apparation trip from one end of Hogsmeade to the other."

Neville nodded. "Okay, I'll keep that in mind."

"I'm sure it'll help. That's what I do on all my tests and it works for me. I pretend I'm simply doing my homework, except for I can't use my books or ask anyone for help."

Neville nodded again. "You really think it'll work?"

"I'm almost positive," I answered.

"Almost positive," Neville repeated.

"Completely positive," I said. "I wouldn't tell you something if I didn't mean it or didn't think it would work. I want you to pass your test as much as you want to pass your test."

"I'll be able to visit you on my own."

"That's the best part, isn't it?" I asked.

"I have to agree completely," Neville answered. "Loads better than going to Hogsmeade."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked.

"Completely," he answered, smiling.

"Good," I replied.

He laughed and leaned over to kiss my temple. Everything was calm and practically perfect at that moment, but I should have remembered the saying about things being calm before the storm, because it was only a little over a month later that a group of Death Eaters were invading Hogwarts, let in by Draco Malfoy and including none other than Bellatrix Lestrange.

A/N: I hope everyone likes the chapter. Please don't forget to review and let me know what you think! Also, I entered the Twin Exchange challenge this month and the poll is up so make sure to go vote for your favorite entry! There's a link in my profile. :)