It was four days after Christmas when Seamus' letter arrived. Lily noticed an owl outside the kitchen window, an owl she didn't recognize. Evanna happened to be walking in when Lily opened the window.

"Who's owl is that?", Evanna asked as the it flew in. "No idea.", Lily replied, shivering as she closed the window again. The letter it had in its mouth said "Evanna" in messy handwriting. "It's from Seamus."

Lily looked at her. "Were you expecting him to write?", Lily asked. "No. What could he possibly have to say that couldn't wait until after the holiday?" She grabbed the letter and opened it.

"Dear Evanna,

I want to apologize for what I did and said at the Yule Ball. I realize now that it was horrible of me to say

that to you. I'm sorry I danced with her. You were my date, I should've said no.

See you at school.

Seamus"

'What would make him write this?', Evanna thought. Lily read the letter for herself. "This really doesn't sound like he would write it.", Evanna said. Lily quickly understood. 'They made him write this?', Lily thought, 'She'll find out!' "You didn't think he'd apologize?", Lily finally asked. "Well, I hoped he would.", Evanna replied, "It seems kind of...forced, I guess." "I don't know, sweetheart.", Lily said, making a mental note to talk to James.

When James got home later that day, Lily made sure Evanna was in her room, then went to talk to him, grabbing the letter on her way.

"This came today.", she said, handing the letter to him. "Really?", James said, trying to sound innocent as he read it. "Yeah. Evanna said she didn't think it sounded like Seamus. It sounded 'forced'." "If you're

accusing me of writing this-", James began, but Lily cut him off. "I'm not saying you wrote it. I'm saying you forced this boy to write it to her." James looked around the room, avoiding his wife's eyes. "James!"

"Okay, okay. Yes, I told him to write it. Come on, Lils. You said yourself he deserved this." "That's not the problem here. He probably only wrote this because he's afraid of you! Who knows if he's actually sorry?", Lily said. They heard footsteps quickly running from the room. "Great.", Lily muttered. She glared at James when he just stood there. "What?" "Are you going to go talk to her?", Lily asked angrily. James nodded and reluctantly went upstairs.

It took all of his courage to knock on his daughter's bedroom door. "I'm not in the mood." was the response. James walked in anyway. "Should've locked the door.", he said, trying to lighten the mood a little bit.

Evanna was lying on her stomach on the bed. She didn't look at him. "I'm sorry, Vanna. I was just angry that he hurt you.", James said after a long silence. Silence. "Can you at least talk to me? I might settle for you just looking at me."

She did finally talk. "The worst part of this is that he's probably not even sorry. He wrote, what, three sentences?" "The thing you have to realize", James said, "Is that teenage boys are idiots. You know what, Sirius and I are still idiots. We're just more fun." He smiled when Evanna laughed a little. "I really am sorry." She finally sat up. "It's okay. Thanks for trying, though."

James put his arm around her. "Let me know if you do want to get back at him, though. We can work together." Evanna laughed. "Thanks, I'll remember that for next time."

The End!

AN: Woo-hoo! Happy ending! Thanks to all of you who read and review!