4th year, Christmas Break

"Psst."

Mia looked up. There was Claire Lupin, her cousin, handing her a drink.

"I already have one," she gestured to the cup in her hand half-filled with pumpkin juice. This was strange, usually her cousin wasn't so dense. Maybe Claire was just feeling suffocated with so many family members all crushed into the Burrow together. There were so many of them nowadays, there was barely any room to breathe. Even though they all gathered for every holiday and even every Sunday for lunch (there were only a few of them off at Hogwarts so those lunches contained most of the family) Mia wasn't sure she actually really knew all of her family.

Mia tilted her head and observed Claire further. Usually, Claire wasn't so giggly, either.

"Trust me, you want this one," Claire took Mia's glass out of her hand and deposited the other one in it.

Mia raised her eyebrows. "Am I going to wake up tomorrow and not remember anything because you ruphie-ed me?"

Claire laughed, a little too high and a little too tinkly for normal.

"Are you okay?"

"Oh, fine, fine," she waved it off. She flicked her blonde hair over her shoulder; the tips turned momentarily blue. "Be sure to share it with Alex," she said as Alex came upon the two of them.

Claire shoved Alex over a bit after flicking her eyes upward towards the ceiling, and then practically danced over to Aunt Luna, before the two of them went downstairs to the rest of the family.

"What's up with her?" Alex asked with a raised eyebrow.

Mia wished she could raise only one eyebrow like Alex could. Cassie could do it, too. She frequently did it to Mia when Mia did something she didn't approve of.

"Who knows?" she shrugged and took a sip of the drink.

She nearly coughed it back out. "God, that's bitter. What is this?"

Alex laughed. "She gave you some of the punch."

"The punch?"

"The punch."

Mia stared before comprehension rose. "Oh. The punch." She stared back down at the glass and took another sip. It spluttered out of her mouth as the bitter flavor stung her tongue again.

Alex smirked. "Looks like Little Miss Mia doesn't like her alcohol."

Mia scoffed. "Not true." Just to spite him, she downed the glass, wincing as it burned her throat.

Alex's eyes were practically bugging out of his head. "I didn't mean you should do that. Shit, Mia, you know that's not good for you."

Mia would've retorted, but instead she fell silent as, just then, things were starting to swing around a bit in her vision.

Alex grasped her arms. "You okay?" he searched her eyes quickly and groaned, letting his head fall back before running a hand through his hair. "You're going to be so drunk in just a few minutes and then I'm going to have to run interference for you all night and I'm supposed to be watching Caitlin," he said, referring to his three year old sister.

Mia giggled. "Or you could just get drunk with me." She paused. "I think I rather like it."

Alex groaned and let his head fall back again. His eyes widened at something on the ceiling and Mia looked up once she heard his dreaded, "Oh, shit."

"Wh-what?" she asked, then saw what he'd noticed. Mistletoe. Claire had pushed him under the mistletoe – with her. That little devil meddling bitch. Mia kept telling Claire that nothing was going on between her and Alex, but Claire refused to believe her. This was Claire's way of making sure something happened. Well, shit.

Mia tried to take a step out from under the holiday garnish. No luck. It was the enchanted kind. Uncle George or Uncle Fred (or was he her cousin? She could never understand how familial relations were supposed to work or what everyone was technically called) had probably hung it for a laugh.

She looked up at Alex and shrugged. "We have to," she mumbled.

"You mumbled," Alex chuckled. "I have never heard you mumble before. Not even when your parents are yelling at you."

Mia could feel the tell-tale blush spreading across her cheeks. Oh, if only her mother hadn't been a Weasley.

"We'll just get it over with and then I'll drag you to the bathroom for the rest of the night to save your drunken ass from the rest of your family."

Mia barely noticed as Alex leaned down, but she noticed when his lips met hers. And when he didn't pull away lickety-split like he should've.

And then she noticed when she liked it. She liked kissing her best friend. Liked kissing Alex Carmichael.

And then she noticed when their lips started moving. And when Alex's hand reached up to tangle in the hair at the back of her neck. And when she wrapped her arms around his neck.

When Alex backed her into the wall at the top of the stairs in the hallway across from the bathroom.

When she, barely conscious of her own actions at this point, opened her mouth and Alex's tongue gently pushed in.

And Jesus, oh dear God and Merlin, then she felt it change. It wasn't sweet any longer, oh no. It was harsh and skilled and filled with too much lust for her fourteen-year-old body to handle.

"Mia!"

Alex reared back from Mia, away from her body and practically all the way across the landing.

"Mia! Get down here!" Scorpius called up the stairs. Mia thanked Merlin they were on the second landing and her father couldn't see what was going on. "Nate got sick; we've got to go home."

"Hermia Jane get your ass down here!" Now Mia could hear her mother's slightly distorted voice, she suspected it was the alcohol, calling up the stairs in her 'frustrated voice': the voice Rose attained whenever she was incredibly stressed or frazzled. She would lash out at everyone and then apologize the next day when she realized what she'd done.

"Rose, that is no way to talk to your daughter!"

"Don't use that kind of language, Rose; I am still your mother!"

Mia could hear her mum's barely audible, "Oh, fuck off." She giggled.

Alex chuckled, too, and Mia remembered he was there.

He was rubbing the back of his neck and looking anywhere but at his best friend across the landing. His lips were swollen and Mia couldn't help but feel a little proud that it'd been her lips that had done that.

She was pretty sure Alex was thinking the same thing, because a slight grin crossed his face fleetingly when she caught him looking at her lips.

"I've got to go," Mia whispered. "I'll see you tomorrow." She slipped passed Alex to the landing, but Alex grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug, gently kissing her cheek.

Mia's cheeks burned the rest of vacation, whenever she thought about the kiss she'd shared with her best friend. She was pretty sure she'd never look at Alex the same way again.

Review, please!