In their third year at Hogwarts, Xiang and Emil began dating. It just took them a while to figure that out.

"You remember the plan, right?" Emil asked, double checking with Xiang yet again.

"Of course I remember the plan," Xiang confirmed rather testily. "I made up the plan. Stop asking if I remember it." Seriously, his memory wasn't that bad. It was more that he was selectively forgetful of things that weren't important to him, such as the Goblin Rebellion of 1612, but this wasn't one of those things.

"You made up half the plan," Emil corrected him. The only reason he was asking was because he was worried that Xiang would forget the other half. "Could you just go over it again? For my sake?"

The two young men, a month and a half into their third year at Hogwarts, were sitting together on the cold, stone floor of some long forgotten corridor on the sixth floor. It'd become a regular meeting place for them over the past year. There were almost no classes on the sixth floor, so students mostly only passed through to get to Astronomy and Divination, and by the time they were close to reaching those classes, they were usually too tired from the stairs to take notice of anything else. Emil and Xiang were safe there.

They'd become quite familiar with those little spots on the Hogwarts grounds where two people could hide away without being seen. There were the sixth floor hallways. There were the unused dungeons that had been abandoned for teaching purposes because a ghost named General Winter made them too cold. There was the cottage of the groundskeeper, Sadiq Adnan, who seemed to have a personal vendetta against a certain Hufflepuff student but was rather fond of Emil. They'd also managed to find a few magically hidden locations, such as the hidden room on the second floor. Its entrance was blocked by a portrait of little man in a big hat. The trick to getting in was scaring the little man out of his portrait by making a loud noise. Afterwards, the portrait swung open on its own. Xiang and his experimental glue-bomb fireworks had been instrumental in helping them find that out, and also conveniently getting Emil and himself stuck together for several hours with a valid excuse.

While those little spots were good for keeping them hidden, there were a few drawbacks. One was that most of them were rather inconvenient to get to. They were too high or too low or far removed from any area of the grounds where they should reasonably be. Another reason was that they generally weren't very nice places. There was nothing very appealing about some far-flung hallway or a smelly, freezing dungeon. Plus, another Slytherin who apparently enjoyed visiting General Winter, Ivan Braginski, had found them there once and found them out before they could make any excuses. Cheerfully, he'd promised not to tell anybody about their friendship, but only on the condition that they pay him back someday. That hadn't sat well with either of them.

Emil at least thought Sadiq's place was nice. It was small and cozy, there was always some interesting food around, and the older man told them great stories about his homeland and the different customs of Turkish wizards. Xiang, on the other hand, was less fond of Sadiq's hut. Or, rather, he didn't like Sadiq. Or maybe he was just jealous of him. Whenever they went to the groundskeeper's cottage, Emil ended up only paying half of his attention to Xiang, at most. Which was stupid. Xiang was Emil's best friend, not some smelly, hairy old man. They went of their way to hang out together, not with other people.

There was also the fact that no matter how well they hid, there was still always the chance that Yao or Lukas might find them. A week into the new school year, Yao had come to Sadiq's cottage, looking for some extra cat food, and walked in on the two boys having tea with him. Seeing them together, behaving so amicably, Yao had become enraged and began yelling in Chinese so quickly that even Xiang – who, admittedly, was not a great study of the language – couldn't keep up with him. Sadiq had covered for them, thankfully, telling Yao he'd found the boys fighting and was trying to teach them a lesson about getting along, but it was still a close call.

All of this was exactly why the upcoming trip to Hogsmeade was so important.

Seeing Emil's concern over the matter, Xiang played along for his sake. "We're both going to tell our big brothers that we don't want to go to Hogsmeade and that we'd rather stay in the castle and spend the day with them," Xiang recited. "That'll keep them from going to the village." All of that would be easy enough. Lukas had been to Hogsmeade often enough that he wouldn't mind missing one visit if it was to spend time with his little brother, who would appear far too anxious about going to Hogsmeade. Yao, as well, would practically jump at the chance to miss the visit if it meant spending time with his little brother, who would appear very eager to take some lessons about traditional Chinese wizardry. "Once they're out of the way, we meet in the village and spend the day together," he finished confidently. "Everyone'll be too distracted to notice us."

"And when we get back," Emil added quickly, "when Lukas and Yao ask where we've been, we just tell them we didn't want them hanging over us the whole visit. Remember to tell them that, Xiang."

"Merlin's beard," Xiang groaned, rolling his eyes. "I'll remember."

"I'm just making sure," Emil grumbled.

"Emil," Xiang snapped irritably.

"Well, you might forget," Emil told him. "You're a forgetful person. You still always forget your History of Magic compositions until the last minute, and I always have to remind you."

At that, Xiang smiled a little. "Emil," he began in a playful tone, "do you ever think I let myself forget my compositions until the last minute because I know you'll remind me?"

Emil didn't quite know what to say to that. He also didn't quite know how to feel about the way Xiang looked at him at that moment, because it was a look that was different from the way they usually looked at each other when they were just being friends, joking around. It was a softer look, somehow. It was…well, Emil didn't really know what it was, just that he'd caught Xiang giving him that look several times over the past year. Because of the way he seemed completely unaware of it, Emil couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever given Xiang that same look as well.

He settled for telling Xiang one last time not to forget the plan and then rushing off to his Ancient Runes class, which was actually in an hour and a half.

For once, for possibly the first time in their awkward teenaged wizarding existences, everything went according to plan. It was as if someone had slipped them a dose of luck potion in their morning cornflakes. Emil and Xiang told Lukas and Yao their little lies, and they believed them. The two older brothers stayed behind in the dorms while the boys snuck out with the rest of their houses. It went amazingly smoothly. So smoothly, in fact, that Emil began to worry something bad would happen to them soon, just because that's how things happened for them.

But again, nothing did.

Because the houses left in different groups, Emil and Xiang were separated at first. They'd both heard of the Three Broomsticks Inn so that was where they agreed to meet. They agreed to get there as soon as possible so they could have as much time together as they could.

That part of the plan did go a little off, but it was only in a good way. Hogsmeade was a completely wizarding village, the likes of which Emil and Xiang had never seen before. It was all too easy for them to get distracted from their goal for a bit.

Upon arriving in Hogsmeade, Xiang was almost immediately drawn in by a collection of shiny objects making loud bangs down the street. Without a second thought, he changed his course and ended up in front of a stall selling reflective, metallic orbs of various sizes called Gizbangs. Gizbangs were big, shiny distractions that could be remote controlled with a spell to roll wherever their master directed them. They basically existed to distract people. If a shiny rolling ball wasn't enough to get their attention, then one that made obnoxiously loud bangs – activated with a second spell – surely would be. Just set one of these to follow a person and you could drive them away quick as a whip.

Xiang could only imagine the sort of mischief he could get up to with those. He could sneak around anyone's back if he had one of these to distract people from their posts. He could have them annoy Yao and Arthur just for the hell of it. Given all the time in the world, Xiang would've bought one right then and spent the whole day trying it out, just to see how angry he could get people. But he didn't have all the time. He had to get to Emil. In the end, it only pained Xiang a little to tear himself away from the Gizbangs, because he knew he was going to see his best friend instead.

He even made sure to pick up a feathery, little puffball that was charmed to fly around for Emil on his way to meet him. It looked a bit like a puffin. He figured Emil would like that.

Emil encountered a similar problem on his way to meet Xiang. He was drawn into a fancy pet shop where he found birds; birds of all shapes and sizes. Birds charmed and bred for all sorts of appearances. There were warbling, pink chickadees, golden ravens that strutted about like kings, and tapdancing neon green flamingos. Most importantly, there were also puffins – plain, black and white puffins who, according to the shop's caretaker, came from the same breeder as his own Mr. Puffin. Emil, who still sorely missed his pet and was working on a way to smuggle him into the castle, would've gladly spent the whole day in the smelly shop, looking after the birds and feeding them. However, he couldn't. He was going to meet Xiang instead.

It didn't hurt quite so much to leave the puffins with that in mind. The only other stop Emil made on his way to the Three Broomsticks was at a Quidditch supplies store, where he bought Xiang a practice Snitch. He knew Xiang had been trying to get onto Gryffindor's team since their first year, and thought something for a little extra practice might be helpful.

When they met, they exchanged gifts with an awkward, "I got you this," and a bashful, "I thought you might like this." They examined the puff and the Snitch for a moment, and then, simultaneously, Emil and Xiang looked up at each other and smiled. They were more openly glad than they had been in a while, not really because they'd gotten something nice, but because they'd gotten something nice for their best friend. The pair then went on to spend a wonderful day at Hogsmeade, doing everything they had time for.

They went to Honeydukes and bought enough of their favorite candies to make them sick. Emil's bag of licorice was considerably heavier than Xiang's bag of cracklegum.

They went to the Shrieking Shack, where they played chicken to see who could get closer. Xiang won by almost getting close enough to touch the shack's front door, but he heard an ominous wail from within that sent them both scampering away.

They went to Zonko's Joke shop, for about five minutes. Emil had to drag Xiang out after that to prevent a complete sensory overload induced meltdown. The prank potential was simply too great for the Gryffindors to handle.

"Did you see them? Did you see them, Emil?" Xiang demanded, his eyes unusually wide from excitement. "They had charmed joybuzzers that shoot off rainbow sparks! And stuffed toys that turn you into animals for five minutes! Do you know what that means?"

"Yeah, you turning Beilschmidt into something unnatural and somehow getting us both detention for a month," Emil grumbled, "again!" He was pulling Xiang along behind him, trying to get his friend away from the joke shop as quickly as possible. They were holding hands again. Neither one had noted this as anything awkward or significant.

"No, get this," Xiang said, rushing to match Emil's pace and falling in step beside him. He explained in a rather manic tone, "We could like, get a cat for Yao and get a dog for Lukas and then put them in a pen and watch the sparks fly! They'd be going at each other like, you know, cats and dogs!" He grinned at Emil and raised his thick eyebrows expectantly, making the Slytherin laugh as if he'd just told a much funnier joke.

"Xiang, that's cruel," he scolded him, still chuckling a bit.

Xiang shrugged unapologetically. "Not any crueler than keeping their little brothers apart for three years," he said.

Now, that, Emil couldn't really disagree with. Lukas and Yao really were Grade A jerks in that respect.

After their visit to Zonko's, it was beginning to grow dark. It wouldn't be long before the shopkeepers started herding the students out of their stores and back towards the castle. Emil and Xiang decided to make the Three Broomsticks their last stop as well, and get something to warm them up before heading home. The inn was fairly crowded, filled with other students with the same idea, but, after ordering two Butterbeers, the pair still managed to squeeze through to the back, where there was a rickety little table with two chairs just for them. The boys only let go of each other's hands once they were seated.

The pair waited in silence at first. The normally quiet boys had already spoken to each other quite a lot that day, so they couldn't think of anything else to say right away. They just pulled off their gloves, twiddled their thumbs, and glanced around the inn, taking in a bit of the scenery. Then, when they realized they couldn't really see anything over the heads of anyone taller than them – which was basically everyone else there except for the odd elf or goblin – they looked back to each other.

Emil spoke first.

"Xiang," he said, having to speak up to be heard in the crowded inn, "I had a really great time today."

"Yeah," Xiang nodded. "Hogsmeade sure is something, right? All that fancy merchandise at the shops, and the food here, and all the people," his eyes widened at the memory as he added, "and Zonko's, it's all way cool. I don't see why any wizard or witch would ever want to live in a muggle town, and not in a place like this."

"You only think that because you already live in a muggle town," Emil pointed out. "If you lived with an all-wizard family, you'd probably think muggle things were interesting too."

"You mean, like you, fancy, little wizard boy?" Xiang asked teasingly. When Emil blushed slightly in embarrassment, he went on, "Okay, I can see how muggle stuff might seem interesting to you, living in your magical manor all your life, but it's not. It's really not. It's all like, boring and logical." He snorted, as if "logic" was such a terrible, dreary concept. "Stuff's way better in the magical world. Way more explosions here."

"First of all, I've told you before, my family doesn't live in a manor," Emil insisted. "We've got a big place in the country, but it's not a manor." He really preferred for Xiang not to think of him as such a high class wizard. It was just another thing that seemed to be driving them apart. Plus, it gave Xiang another thing to tease him about, which was the last thing he needed. "And secondly, I wouldn't mind spending some time around "boring and logical." It's new to me, like some magic things are new to you."

At first, Xiang found this all rather laughable. Just because boring things were new didn't mean they were any less boring. His Slytherin fancy-boy obviously didn't know anything about the real world. When he thought longer about this however, he realized that this presented an interesting opportunity. "So, what you're saying is, you wouldn't mind checking out a muggle house sometime?" he asked hintingly. Emil shrugged, in the kind of shrugging that said no, he wouldn't mind that at all. "You should come over to my house then!" Xiang exclaimed, brightening up with some of the energy he'd lost over the day. He sat up straight and looked right into Emil's eyes, although he seemed to be looking off into the distance instead.

Emil frowned. "Your house?" he echoed uncertainly.

"Yeah, over the summer," Xiang continued on, already caught up in his own thoughts. "If you think looking at muggle stuff is cool, then we can have a great time together. We – we can hang out and play video games for hours, 'cause I can show you a lot newer stuff than those outdated 8-bit games you've seen, and I can show you my favorite shows on the TV too. And I could take you to an ice cream parlor so you could see the machines that the ice cream comes out of. And, uh…" Unsurprisingly, the 13 year-old wizard's thoughts only stretched as far as TV and food when considering what to do over the summer. After all, that was how he usually occupied himself during his vacation. By the time school started, the sun had usually become an unfamiliar object to him.

It wasn't his ideas that Emil wanted to object to. Honestly, any amount of his summer spent not only away from Lukas, who was always so pushy about making him study and finishing his homework, but with Xiang in a partly muggle household where he'd get to play video games and watch TV to his heart's content sounded like the best thing in the world. However, he couldn't help but think that this dream was not meant to be. "But, Xiang," he objected slowly, hardly having the heart to burst his friend's bubble, "wouldn't that mean our brothers and families finding out about us?"

"Wouldn't wha – oh." Xiang visibly deflated as he was reminded of this. The light in his eyes – which had been very similar to the spark that had entered them when he'd entered Zonko's – quickly left, and he went back to slumping over in his chair. "Oh," he muttered again, "yeah. Well, that sucks Quaffle balls."

"I know," Emil agreed quietly, and he joined Xiang in his slumping. "Today was really great, though," he added, trying to cheer the both of them up. "At least we got to get away from everyone for once." The Gryffindor nodded at that, but said nothing more.

At that moment, they were feeling more upset over their situation than ever. Of course, their day together had been great, and they should've been celebrating their good time, but all they were thinking about was how in less than an hour, they'd be back at their separate tables for the Halloween Feast, and back in their separate dormitories, and back to being separated by Hogwarts house lines. They were both getting really sick of it all.

Fortunately, at that moment, an angel appeared to save the last moments of their little holiday. A beautiful blond woman with a black headband and a smile bright enough to make a werewolf sing pushed her way through the thick crowd effortlessly. She was carrying the two Butterbeers they'd ordered, as well as a small, heart shaped apple tart with two forks. She set them all down before the two boys with a cheerful, "Here you go!"

"Excuse me," Emil said, pointing out the tart, "but we didn't order this."

Xiang poked Emil in the side to silence him. "Hey, don't ruin this," Xiang hissed his ear. "It's free food. Let it go." Who argued against free food?

The woman said they could keep it, nevertheless. "It's on the house, boys," she told them sweetly. "I thought you two looked a little cold coming in, and you could do with something to eat. I'm guessing this is your first visit to Hogsmeade, right?" They nodded. "Well, I hope you two had a good time today," she said, "and you come back to the Three Broomsticks the next time you visit too."

"We will," Emil told her. "Thank you very much." He certainly would be back if this nice lady would be the one serving them in the future, although he would probably be more wary of her if he knew she was actually Emma Donia, the younger sister of their harsh transfiguration teacher. Either way, he gave Xiang a nudge with his elbow to remind him to say thank you as well.

Emma said, "You're welcome," and then spun around, feeling even more light-hearted than before. It was always nice, seeing the wide eyed little third years out on their first visits to Hogsmeade, but it was even better seeing them in their cute, third year romances. She knew a good couple when she saw one. Of course, they were only 13 years old, so chances were they wouldn't last long, but it still did her heart good to see their puppy love.

Meanwhile, Emil and Xiang were on their own again, left to ponder the tart she'd left them.

"Why is it heart shaped?" Emil asked, unwilling to see what should have been a fairly obvious clue.

"I don't know. Maybe just a Three Broomsticks specialty," Xiang shrugged. "But why'd she only bring us one?" he added, ignoring another obvious hint.

"Well, it was a favor for her to bring any at all," Emil said, "and at least she brought us two forks."

"So," Xiang concluded slowly, "I guess, she expects us to…"

"Share?" Emil finished for him.

"Yeah, probably. And, you know, doesn't that seem sort of like a…"

"Couple thing?"

"Um, yeah."

"Yeah…"

There wasn't much left to say about the matter. By that point, it was fairly clear what the waitress's intention with the tart had been, or at least it would be, if they weren't in such deep "We're just friends," third year denial. However, that's how it was. They were stubbornly stuck at the stage "secret friends to the end" and these friends had just been served some free food.

So, instead of making any more awkward conversation, they did what any reasonable 13 year old boys would do and wolfed down the apple tart, even having a small battle with their forks for the last delicious bite. That sort of relationship was good enough for them.

At least, until the end of third year.