A/N: Just a reminder that this story is a bit behind where Leap of Faith is timeline wise, so still a few weeks left in the summer. I'd like to get to the point where they're pretty even and I'm working on that. But, hey! Two updates on two stories in two days! Enjoy and please review and you might get things like that more often!

"Wait, does that mean you're quitting?" Louis asked his sister. Dom shook her head, her long, strawberry blonde ponytail whipping back and forth as she worked to contain a grin.

"I should have time to do both, and I'm hoping Hannah will still let me use the kitchen. I bake in there all the time anyway."

"That's brilliant," said Hugo. "We still get free samples though, right?"

Dom rolled her eyes but grinned at her cousin. "I suppose I'll need taste testers every now and then."

Hugo and Louis shared twin grins of triumph.

"That really is amazing," Louis told his sister, going back to munching on his plate of chips again. "When does this all start?"

"Well," Dom said with a sigh, showing her first lack of excitement since she'd told Hugo and Louis about her new endeavour, "I still have to check with Hannah, though she's the one who put me in touch with Lucinda, so I'm hoping she's fine with it."

"How could she not be?" Louis said through a mouthful of potato. "You're a fantastic baker. No way is she going to just not let you."

Dom gave her brother an amused smile and handed him a napkin. "Thanks, but you never know. She's started to rely on me quite a bit lately. She's been busier than normal with the business side of things."

Hugo nodded, taking another biscuit off the plate Dom had brought out to them when they'd finished their lunch. It had become a bit of a routine throughout the summer for him to have lunch at the Leaky Cauldron a few times a week, usually accompanied by a friend or cousin. He'd noted how smoothly things were running and that Dom was doing most of the running of things. He'd hardly seen Hannah tending to customers all summer, and she could usually be found either in the upstairs flat or at one of the tables in the pub with books and parchment spread around her.

And now that Dom had been offered an opportunity to sell her bakes in a local bakery, he actually wondered how well Hannah would take it.

"So," said Dom after a few moments of silent eating, "how're things going?"

She asked the question entirely too innocently as she glanced between her brother and cousin. Hugo narrowed his eyes at her. "Things are fine, thanks."

Louis gave an amused snort, taking a moment to swallow his food before saying, "He's in denial."

"Am not."

"About what?" Dom asked with a chuckle. Neither she nor Louis were paying Hugo any mind.

"That's he's sick of all this shit and just wants it to be behind us," he said matter-of-factly.

Dom shrugged and looked at Hugo. "Sounds easy enough."

"It bloody well isn't," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I might be sick of the shit, but I've done just about everything I can to fix things aside from just swallowing my pride and letting Lily have her way. And I'm not about to do that."

Dom cocked her head to the side and looked at him curiously. "Why not?"

Hugo's eyes widened. "You're joking. That's the last thing she needs."

"And who says you know what she needs?" Dom challenged.

Hugo let out a sigh. "Look, I think I know her well enough to know that it would be a horrible idea to just roll over and let Lily be right. Especially in this instance."

Dom shrugged, not looking entirely convinced as she grabbed a biscuit. "Suit yourself. I've just recently discovered that admitting when you're wrong doesn't have the worst consequences in the world."

"See, that's not what my problem is," Hugo argued. "I know I've been wrong a lot through this whole thing. Lily is the one who won't admit that I'm not the only one who's wrong."

At Hugo's words, Louis snorted into his butterbeer, causing his cousin and sister to look at him curiously. His eyes widened in panic as he set down his glass before assuming an innocent look. Hugo eyed him shrewdly.

"What do you know, Lou?" he asked, fixing his cousin with a look of suspicion.

"I know a lot of things," Louis said with a shrug. "I am trying to become a Healer, you know."

"Oh, fuck off, you know that's not what I meant," Hugo said with a roll of his eyes. "Did Lily say something to you?"

Louis looked between his curious sister and determined cousin before holding his hands up in defense. "Look, I think this family works much better when we don't all go around spilling each other's secrets, don't you?"

A burst of laughter escaped Dom. "Honestly, it's when we don't tell each other things that it all gets really messed up." She stood from the booth as Hannah walked back in from her lunch break. "Hope you sort your shit out, Hugh."

As soon as she was gone, Hugo focused in on Louis, who was still attempting to look innocent, but now also appeared slightly conflicted.

"Look, if there's something that would be helpful for me to know..." Hugo reasoned, trailing off and watching his cousin expectantly. Louis occupied himself with his butterbeer, his eyes refusing to meet Hugo's as he seemed to fight internally with himself. Eventually, he set down his butterbeer and let out a long sigh before looking at Hugo.

"We talked," he said with a shrug. "The day of the Quidditch match."

Hugo's eyes widened in shock. "What do you mean 'talked'?"

Louis hesitated, his lips pressed thinly together before saying, "We had an actual conversation about everything, and it didn't end in either of us yelling or storming off."

"You fucking serious?" Hugo snapped at him, suddenly growing angry. Lily had been horrible that day, and Louis had actually indulged her? "That was almost three weeks ago! Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Look, I'm sorry if that's like… some sort of betrayal," Louis said with a roll of his eye, obviously not taking Hugo's anger seriously, "but she's my cousin too, you know? And this whole thing has been screwed up enough by people not talking to each other."

Hugo nodded, feeling slightly ashamed of his response and still a bit shocked by Louis' revelation. "All right, fine," he conceded. "So, what did you talk about?"

"A lot of things," said Louis. "And I'm not telling you everything, but I will tell you that you're wrong. She does know she messed up. And she wants to fix things. But I think we all know it won't be that simple, and I told her to give you a little bit of space first. Caleb too. She's got a lot to sort out."

Hugo nodded, thankful that at least one of them had finally seemed to turn the corner and was now handling the situation maturely. He'd never been more thankful for Louis, actually.

"So, I need to wait for her to come to me, you think?" Hugo asked. He really did want everything to be fixed and behind them, so much so, that he was actually occasionally considering being the one to make the first move towards fixing things.

"Probably best," said Louis with a shrug. He finished off his butterbeer before nudging Hugo out of the booth. "Although, it probably wouldn't hurt if you stopped glaring at her every time you saw her."

Hugo grimaced and nodded. "Yeah, probably a good idea. How long before you think she'll-"

"WHAT?!"

Dom's shriek carried through the pub, causing the remaining lunch customers to fall silent. Hugo and Louis whirled around to see Dom standing at the bar across from Hannah, who was glancing nervously around the room.

"You can't be serious," Dom continued, her voice still carrying even as Hannah gestured for her to keep it down. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Hannah looked uncertainly towards Hugo and Louis before turning to Dom and coming to the conclusion that this wasn't going to be a private conversation. "Nothing will really change for another few months, and it's not even a done deal yet, so I didn't want to tell you if it all came to nothing. But with this new development of yours..."

Hannah trailed off uncertainly. Hugo glanced questioningly at Louis, but both seemed to be equally in the dark. For her part, Dominique seemed to be at a loss for words. She was staring at Hannah, her mouth opening and closing as she struggled to come up with a way to respond. It was the landlady who finally made the next move, turning to walk back into the kitchen and signalling for Dom to follow her.

"Any guesses?" Hugo asked as the patrons in the Leaky Cauldron began to talk amongst themselves once again. Louis shook his head as they made their way out into Diagon Alley.

"Probably business or staff related. Come on, I'm out of broom polish."

They wandered over to Quality Quidditch Supplies before making a stop in at Flourish and Blotts, both of them needing to grab a few last minute things before they went back to Hogwarts.

"We still have a few weeks, you know," Louis said impatiently. "You can always come back later."

"Just shut up and give me a minute," said Hugo, not even sparing his cousin a glance as he continued his perusal of the most recent few issues of Martin the Mad Muggle comic books. He blamed his dad for his love and appreciation for them. The older versions were a little ridiculous, but the more recent ones were not only actually very clever, but they told well thought out stories.

He set down the most recent issue to pick up the one from the month before, turning it around to read the back. And it was the first time he noticed who was responsible for publishing the comic.

"Hey, look!" Hugo said excitedly. "It says Bobbin Books is the publisher. That's where Rose works!"

He was fully expecting his cousin - who didn't like to admit that he actually enjoyed the comics himself - to join him in his surprise at this new information. But he got nothing. Hugo glanced in the direction Louis had been standing only moments ago, seeing that he was, in fact, still there. His attention, however, was completely focused somewhere off in the distance. Turning so he could see what was so enthralling that Louis seemed completely incapable of movement, Hugo soon realized that whatever had caught his cousin's attention was outside. He had to tilt his head a bit to be able to see out the window, but a smirk broke out across his face as soon as he saw what was so intriguing. Or rather, who.

"Mate, just go talk to her," Hugo said with a roll of his eyes, turning to peruse the comics once again. "I thought you'd made up your mind to ask her out?"

The question seemed to snap Louis out of his daze. "I did," he said a bit impatiently.

"So do it!"

"I did!"

Hugo turned to look at his cousin with wide eyes. His attention was still on the girl across the street, and he seemed torn between frustration and embarrassment.

"What? When?"

"Right before I got called away to talk to Lily," he said with a roll of his eyes, crossing his arms as frustration seemed to settle in. "I'd just managed to do it when Freddie came up to me and said she was asking for me and wouldn't come out of the bathroom."

Hugo gave a snort of amusement and finally settled on just going ahead and getting both issues he'd been looking at. "Ruining your moment with the girl you fancy just seems par for the course for Lily right now."

"Shut up," Louis said with a groan. "I really am sick of all that shit. It was pretty rubbish timing, though."

"So?" Hugo asked as they headed up to the counter to make their purchases. "What'd she say?"

Louis let out a sigh. "That's the most frustrating part. I'd literally just asked her when Fred interrupted. She didn't have time to answer."

Hugo let out a low whistle, imagining how rotten that must've felt in the moment. "That really is some rubbish timing, mate. Any clue what she was going to say?"

"No idea," Louis said with a sigh. "And now I'm fucking terrified to talk to her again. What if she says no? Or what if she was about to say yes and now she's had time to think about it and realize it's a horrible idea?"

"Nah, mate," Hugo said bracingly as they made their way to the front of the store. "I'm not too bright when it comes to girls, but I'm pretty sure that one-" he nodded towards the girl still across the street at the ice cream shop as they paused behind the glass door "-barely does anything besides give all of her attention to you whenever you're around."

They continued to stand there in silence, Louis appearing to be contemplating his options and Hugo observing the rest of the street. He couldn't help but smirk when his eyes landed on another familiar face.

"I'm also pretty sure Daniel Creevy had a thing for her towards the end of the year, but you and Jill were both so busy paying attention to each other that you never noticed."

Louis gave an unamused snort, his attention still focused on Jill. "Trust me, I noticed."

Hugo grinned. "Did you also notice that he's heading towards Fortescue's at this very moment? Where the very girl you're arse over tits for is currently spending her Wednesday afternoon?"

It was far too amusing to watch Louis open his eyes comically wide, frantically look up and down the street, and then burst through the door with a hurried "fuck" uttered under his breath, dropping his bag of recent purchases as he went. Hugo was struggling to hold back a laugh as he stepped through the door behind him.

This was going to be highly entertaining.

He watched it all play out from across the street with a bit too much joy. Daniel Creevy noticed Louis making his way through the crowd and towards Jill. She was sitting with a girl with short brown hair that Hugo recognized as a fellow Ravenclaw in her year. Jill's back was towards Louis, so she noticed Daniel first and sent him a small wave as the Gryffindor quickened his pace. This just caused Louis to do the same, not even caring that he was bumping into people as he crossed the crowded street. Jill's companion spotted him, though, and she was quick to widen her eyes and tap repeatedly on Jill's arm to grab her attention.

But Daniel had reached their table. Just as Jill glanced over her shoulder to see Louis, who was still a few feet away.

Hugo grinned in triumph to see the excitement, fear, and delight overcome Jill's face, even if it was only for a split second. Her attention was pulled quickly away by Daniel announcing his presence. Pausing briefly to grab his cousin's discarded items, Hugo began to make his own way through the crowd as Louis finally reached the table, stopping behind Jill and no doubt glaring daggers at Daniel Creevy, who was having trouble not fidgeting as he avoided Louis' stare and attempted to talk to Jill.

"-been having a good holiday?" Hugo caught Daniel saying as he stopped just behind Louis.

"It's been lovely," said Jill, who'd definitely picked up on the obvious tension. She was keeping her focus on Daniel, no doubt trying not to be rude even though she was clearly fighting the urge to give Louis her full attention. Her body was twisted towards him even as she looked at Daniel.

"That's great!" Daniel said enthusiastically, obviously sensing he was in danger of losing her attention. "I know Caleb Wood's birthday party is tomorrow, but do you have any plans for Sunday?"

Jill looked at the eager boy in complete surprise, proving Hugo had been right. She hadn't noticed his attention last term.

"Oh," she eventually managed to get out. "Well, I-"

Her attention snapped to Louis as he made a show of grabbing a chair from the unoccupied table next to the two girls, placing it beside Jill, and sitting down. He leaned forward and rested his arms on the table, a warm smile on his face as he focused all of his attention on Jill. And Hugo was suddenly struck with the notion that his cousin had never been more attractive.

Wait, what? Why on earth would he ever be thinking that?

"Hi, Louis." Jill's voice pulled Hugo away from his confusion. She was looking at Louis with a ridiculous smile on her face, completely mesmerized by him. And then it all made sense.

Louis may have been only one eighth Veela, but it was enough to be able to turn on some magical charm when he wanted to.

Hugo had only ever seen him do it while trying to get out of trouble with a parent or teacher. Never once had he used it on a girl.

Shit. This wasn't good.

"Hey, Jill," Louis responded with a disarming smile. "I've missed you."

If possible, Jill melted even more into a puddle of giddy delight. Something Hugo hadn't seen her do since she…Oh. She had had a crush on James when they were younger! Hugo was a bit surprised he'd missed it, especially if this was the way she'd behaved back then.

It would be reasonable for Hugo to consider Jill's behaviour as a good sign. But he knew his cousin, and the one thing Louis had sworn he'd never do, was use any type of Veela magic to get the attention of a girl. Because if he truly was interested in her, he wanted to know that she liked him for him, and not because he'd tricked her into anything. Which - even though there'd been clues for a while now that Jill had genuine feelings for Louis - he would now be in danger of thinking was the case.

This was heading downhill fast.

"I thought we'd talked about this," Jill said flirtatiously. "You're more than welcome to write to me. Anytime."

Louis grinned at her. "I'll make sure to remember that from now on. What're you up to the rest of the day?"

Hugo watched in mild delight, but mostly horror, as Jill turned in her chair to face Louis even more fully, resting her elbow on the table and propping up her chin as she smiled brightly at him.

"Absolutely nothing."

Hugo grimaced and glanced at Daniel Creevy, who looked slightly crestfallen, but appeared to be accepting his defeat graciously. He turned to walk away with nothing more than a farewell nod to Jill's friend, who was either called Ruth or Ruby. There was one of each in Ravenclaw in Jill's year, and Hugo could never remember which was which.

Whoever she was, she didn't seem to mind that whatever plans she might've had with Jill were now completely derailed. In fact, she was practically beaming at the potential couple.

As tempting as it was to just let all this play out, Hugo came to the annoying realization that he was too good of a friend and cousin to let things go any further than they already had. Which meant he had to butt in, when he really didn't want to.

"Lou, wait," he said, trying his best not to look like he was lying through his teeth as he approached his cousin, who'd stood from his chair and was already helping Jill out of hers. "We promised your mum we'd help her out today, remember?"

Louis looked at Hugo in confusion, caught off guard and most likely having forgotten Hugo was even there at all. "What?"

"You know," Hugo continued, trying to communicate as subtly as possible that he was doing potential damage control, "she said she needed help - er - fixing the siding that's come loose on the house? And that she'd regret it if she didn't get us to help before we went back to school? I'd hate for anyone to have regrets about anything, wouldn't you?"

It was lucky for them that Jill still seemed to be completely caught up in Louis, who thankfully got the message Hugo was trying to send with his subtle words and rather obvious glances towards Jill. The remaining charisma surrounding him melted away as he looked at Hugo in horror, but he recovered himself enough to turn to a confused Jill, offer her a hurried apology and farewell, and then grab Hugo by the arm to drag him away.

"See you later!" Hugo hollered over his shoulder at Jill, who was looking a bit out of sorts and extremely confused. They were around the corner and far away from her in no time at all.

"Why the hell did you let me do that?" Louis snapped, stopping abruptly and turning to face Hugo with his hands on his hips and a scowl on his face.

"Whoa, mate," said Hugo, his hands raised in innocence and confusion on his face. "I just saved your arse. How was I to know you were about to pull a stunt like that?"

"Shit," Louis said through clenched teeth, gripping his hair and beginning to pace in front of Hugo. "What if I just messed everything up?"

"No way," Hugo assured him. "She fancied you already anyway. I bet your magical charm didn't even work on her."

Louis shot a look at Hugo, who was smirking at him. "Oh, come on, loosen up," said Hugo. "I honestly believe she does like you, and any type of meddling your Veela magic could've done wouldn't even make a difference. I probably would've let things continue if it weren't for the fact that I know you wouldn't have believed any of it was real afterwards."

Louis let out a groan of frustration, burying his face in his hands and ceasing his pacing. "And I'm going to see her at Caleb's birthday party tomorrow night," he practically whined. "What the hell am I supposed to say to her?"

"I wouldn't even mention it if I were you," Hugo said with a shrug. "Except to maybe apologize for ditching her today. If it didn't really affect her like I think it didn't, she won't even realize anything else happened."

"Right," Louis said with a nod, seeming like he was trying to convince himself of Hugo's words. "I'll just play it cool and hope I haven't cocked it all up."

Hugo chuckled and began to walk down the street again, Louis falling into step beside him. "I mean, there's always the chance she falls for Creevy's charms instead."

He had to duck to avoid the swing that Louis took at him.

"Whatever," said Louis, a bit disgruntled as Hugo laughed and handed him back his sack of purchases. "At least I don't snog random birds for petty revenge."

This time, it was Louis who had to duck to avoid a blow to the head.

"Seriously, though," Louis continued with a chuckle as they made their way towards Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. "Any idea how you're gonna handle the fallout from that?"

Hugo shrugged, hoping his cousin wouldn't notice the traitorous color his ears were turning. "Well, I had been hoping it wouldn't be an issue."

They continued down the street in silence for a few moments, Hugo studiously avoiding Louis' questioning look. With a sigh, he stopped at the entrance to the joke shop and faced his cousin, though avoided looking him directly in the eye.

"She owled me," Hugo admitted. "Last week."

At Louis' silence, Hugo chanced a glance at his cousin. It looked like it was taking everything in Louis to refrain from laughing in Hugo's face.

"I'm sorry," Louis managed to laugh out as Hugo turned with a scowl and flung open the shop door. "That's seriously unfortunate."

Hugo rolled his eyes but kept walking through the crowded store as his cousin followed, waving at Lysander when he saw them from the register.

"So, what'd she say?" asked Louis, undeterred as they wandered behind the counter while Lysander continued helping a customer.

"Something about being worried since she hadn't heard from me," he admitted begrudgingly, searching the shelves behind the counter. "And she asked if I'd be free to get together before term starts."

Louis let out a low whistle, joining Hugo in his search. "What'd you say?"

"Nothing," Hugo said with a shrug. "I had no bloody clue what to say to her."

"Girl trouble?" came Lysander's smug voice, accompanied by his arm draping around Hugo's shoulders. He shot the older boy a look as he and Louis paused in their search.

"He snogged the wrong one," Louis said with a smirk. Hugo aimed a kick at him.

"Ooh, rotten luck, mate," Lysander said with a grimace. "Only one way to fix that."

Hugo looked at him skeptically. "How's that?"

Lysander smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't do it again."

Louis gave a snort as Hugo glowered. "That doesn't actually fix my current situation, though, does it?"

Lysander looked contemplative for a moment before shrugging and saying, "Huh, guess you're right. Suppose you can't really fix things."

Laughter erupted behind the counter from the other two boys as Hugo slugged his father's employee in the arm, continuing to scowl.

"Like I'd take your advice anyway," he grumbled before gesturing towards Louis. "Didn't you almost blow it with his sister?"

This seemed to just roll off Lysander's back. "But I didn't, though," he said breezily. "And I actually snogged the right girl, so you probably should take my advice."

Resigning himself to the conversation, Hugo folded his arms and leaned against the shelves behind him. "Fine, I'll bite. How'd you know she was the right one?"

He wasn't even sure why he was asking this. It wasn't like there was a girl out there that he was considering snogging. Or that he thought might be right for him. But what could it hurt, really? Dom seemed happy. And so did Ly. He was actually beginning to think the older wizard might have something useful to say.

Until he shrugged and opened his mouth once again.

"Actually, I didn't really think it through before I snogged her," he admitted, sounding thoughtful rather than apologetic. Louis looked unimpressed.

"And then we just sort of carried on not thinking about it for a while," Lysander continued with a shrug. "But it never felt wrong, so I never really paused to think about whether or not it was right. I just knew it was. I suppose that's the way it is sometimes, and thinking about it too much just complicates things."

Well, maybe he wasn't as much of an idiot as Hugo had thought.

"Anyway," said Ly. "You're bound to snog a few wrong ones before you find the right one. Unless you're my brother, lucky bastard."

Hugo and Louis shared in a laugh with Lysander, who was pulled back to his duties by a customer a moment later. They turned back to the shelves once again, quickly realizing the object of their search wasn't there.

"Oi!" Hugo hollered at Lysander as he and Louis began to make their way back towards the offices and storeroom. "My dad in his office?"

Lysander nodded, only pulling his attention away from his customer to say, "And I'd knock if I were you!"

With a shrug of his shoulders and an amused look shared with Louis, Hugo led them further down the back hallway. He quickly rapped his knuckles on his dad's office door before letting himself in. The first thing he noticed upon doing so was the sound of laughter that was distinctly feminine, and the second was the sight of his mother sitting on his father's desk.

Hugo gave a start, Lysander advising him to knock and the casual position his mother was in causing him to assume the worst. But he let out a sigh of relief a moment later when his mother looked over her shoulder at him and he noted the cup of tea in her hands. His eyes then snapped to his father, who was sitting at his desk and in the middle of taking a bite out of a sandwich.

"Thank Merlin," he murmured, leaning against the door and smiling at his parents.

"Something wrong, dear?" his mother asked, setting down her cup of tea and gracefully hopping down off the desk.

"Nope," he assured her as she came over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Just came by to pick up the stuff for Caleb's birthday."

"Really?" his dad asked, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "You looked like you'd seen a ghost for a second."

"It's nothing," Hugo said with a dismissive wave. "Just wasn't sure what you two were...anyway. The stuff wasn't outfront."

Smirking, his dad stood from his desk, making his way to a shelf in the corner and grabbing a box. "Don't worry," he said as he made his way towards his son and wife. "Unfortunately, your mum and I haven't fooled around in here in ages."

"Ron!"

Hugo groaned and rubbed at his eyes while his dad chuckled. "Not only do I not want to hear that, but Louis is literally right behind me."

Ron grimaced and looked behind his son as he handed him the box. "Sorry, Lou."

"No worries," he heard Louis say with a chuckle. Cheeky bastard. He probably wouldn't think it was nearly as funny if it was his own parents.

"Do you need anything else for the party?" his mum asked, her cheeks a bit pink as she threw one last annoyed look at her unbothered husband.

"I think we're good," said Hugo. "Molly and Jill are taking care of drinks and Aunt Fleur is doing the snacks. I think that's all we need."

"Okay," said Hermione, and Hugo was about to say goodbye and head out. But then he noticed the look on his mother's face.

"Was there something else?" he asked, knowing it would probably be a better idea not to ask. But he couldn't help it when his mum looked like that, worry and uncertainty radiating off of her.

"I just...I was wondering…," she began haltingly. "Is Lily coming to the party tomorrow?"

He should've known that's what she would ask. His mum had been graciously silent when it came to his current relationship with Lily, but he knew she'd been dying to talk to him about it. And as much as he found himself actually wanting to talk to his mum, there was way too much to get into now. So he settled for a simple answer.

"No. She's not."

Hermione nodded, a touch of sorrow in her eyes as she affectionately stroked his arm, reaching up to kiss him on the cheek once more. "See you for dinner?"

Hugo nodded, wishing both of his parents farewell as he and Louis left.

"That's another reason for you to sort things out with Lily," Louis pointed out as they entered Diagon Alley once again. Hugo threw him a questioning look and he shrugged. "People will stop asking you about her."

Hugo couldn't help sighing and nodding in agreement. He was tired of arguing about it, tired of talking about it, done with feeling like he was supposed to hate her, and sick of missing her.

Was it enough to hope that she was at least starting to feel the same?