This was not how he was expecting his first night of rounds to go.

With his prefect badge near glistening status, Louis had been determined to make his mark and strive for the greatness he knew he could achieve. His sister had never been a prefect, so there was much pride to be regained to the Bonaccord name. He had spoken so highly of the position this past summer that even the droll informational meeting led by Diggle and Avery had been quite captivating to the fifth year. Louis was simply proud of his accomplishments, there was nothing wrong with that.

However, he had not recalled rescuing first years from castle haunting poltergeists as part of the job description.

"Now, see here, Peeves," Louis began, pointing a stiff finger at the wretched creature. The first year Ravenclaw wailed miserably from her upside down state, her robes muffling her cries. "You put Miss. Smith down this very instant!"

"Spewy Louis and his shiny golden badgey!" Peeves cackled at his rhyme and the dangling first year spun at least three times in the air. Louis' wand went out to attempt to levitate the girl down, but Peeves' magic was resisting.

"Peeves!" Louis shouted again, unable to stop himself from stomping his foot in frustration. "You're going to hurt her!"

"Peeves is just having some funsies with the firsties! Shouldn't be out of bed so late! He he he!"

That fact was true, as it was far past the first year's curfew, but no one deserved the punishment of being flung about in the air by a blasted poltergeist! Louis was about to bark off some more orders when the sound of footsteps began to bounce off the corridor walls. Only pulling his gaze from the madness floating above him for a second, he spotted his partner coming back from her section of rounds.

"What on Earth---" Saoirse Mullet let out, standing beside Louis and staring up at the scene with wide, confused eyes. He bristled, keeping his wand out and ready to catch the first year in case Peeves' attention span finally quit.

"I'm handling it," he said stiffly.

"Clearly."

Louis took a moment to glare at the girl before stepping toward Peeves once more, "Peeves, if you don't put Miss. Smith down, gently, I'm getting the Bloody Baron!"

"OooOOoooohh!" Peeves shivered, though he didn't seem at all frightened, "Calling for helps on your first night! What a riot! What a hoot you'll be! Spewy Louis! Can't handle the pressure!"

The prefect's face paled; the poltergeist was right, there was no way that he could call for help on his very first night of rounds! The entire Slytherin house would never let him live it down! Saoirse would end up taking not only her badge, but his! He'd be the laughing stock of the entire castle, even though Peeves terrorized all houses equally. But---he couldn't let the first year get hurt, even if Peeves' playfulness was mostly meant to be harmless. Any slight distraction could drop the girl to the stone ground in a split second!

"The Baron's already heading this way, I saw him on the staircase," Saoirse said, crossing her arms. Her steely gaze never left Peeves, and though her glare was notorious for casting people aside, the poltergeist tossed some superbly hidden water balloons at them. They both let out sounds of surprise and frustration, and Louis yanked a handkerchief from one of his robe pockets. He flung it at Saoirse and with tight fists, stormed up to stand directly below the poltergeist.

"DROP HER! NOW!" he roared.

It was one thing to embarrass him in an empty corridor, it was another to hit him with a bloody water balloon! To hit a girl with one, at that! Causing a scene was the last thing on Louis' mind, and though the reaction was delayed, Peeves' eyes widened in fright and a second later he shot off down the corridor, but not before dropping not only the massive amount of his hidden water balloons on top of Louis' head but Miss. Smith as well. He caught her, just barely, and stumbled into the wall as he choked for a breath between the water and extra weight in his arms.

Louis blinked rapidly to regain some sense, unsure of how his demand had actually worked. What had---oh. He spotted the Bloody Baron hovering by a nearby classroom door, looking somewhat pleased at the reaction of the poltergeist at merely the sight of him. The ghost lifted his chin in a slight acknowledgment to the two Slytherin prefects and then without a word slipped through the stone wall.

Saoirse came forward to help untangle the girl from his arms, but the first year refused to remove her tight grip from around Louis' neck. The other prefect smirked, "Looks like you've got your first damsel in distress."

"Funny." Though, the first year really was clinging to him rather tightly. Saoirse smirked, and she tucked the now soaked handkerchief into his front pocket.

"If you're done playing hero for the night, we should get her back to Ravenclaw Tower."

Louis grumbled something about not having any intention of playing hero again and proceeded to attempt to pry little Miss. Smith's hands off of him.

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There was a bit of face slapping as Louis attempted to shove and smother Adian in the dimly lit broom closet.

"CLOSE YOUR FACE!" Louis hissed, losing his grasp on the English language. His hand clamped fully onto Adian's mouth and the other boy, his best friend, bent backwards awkwardly to remain standing as Louis continued to apply pressure to his hold. The Slytherin held his friend in this position until he felt satisfied that Adian would not begin wailing once more. Slowly, he removed his hand, holding it up in the air as if ready to strike back down onto the Gryffindor's mouth.

"Are you okay, now?" Louis said lowly. Adian gained his balance back and straightened up, rubbing his cheeks which were still a bit red. His lips pressed together in thought as he fixed his askew glasses, and just when Louis thought his friend would remain silent, it felt like the world had exploded again.

"WE'RE GOING TO GET KILLED, LOUIS!"

Louis lunged at him. This time there was grabbing and pinches of the cheeks and lips to quiet each other, but their bickering could hardly be contained. Adian sounded like a wounded animal, just begging to be put out of his misery, and Louis could not have it. "Your big voice is going to get us killed!"

"We tried to prank the best pranksters in the world," Adian cried, losing all his strength and slumping into Louis' chest. Yes, yes, they may have aimed too high when it came to proving their magic expertise, but when you wanted to impress the seemingly unimpressionable girls of their year, you had to go big. It did not help that the older Slytherins who had overheard his and Adian's discussions had planted the seeds as to how exactly they should go about things.

Louis scowled to himself; he most certainly should not take advice from William Jugson and Rhys Nott again, not when it came to picking your targets. All the two older Slytherins had said was that if they pranked these blokes, they'd go down in Hogwarts history. Louis and Adian had waited patiently, hidden in the nook of a window and when Jugson's signal came, they'd poured the rather hard to remove mixture of powder and pixie dust over the victims entering the courtyard.

It was only after they'd dropped the buckets that they'd realized just who'd they'd pranked. Louis could not believe he had been so gullible to fall for the older Slytherins tricks, as they had simply used him and Adian as pawns in the little war they had going on with the Gryffindors, but he would never admit that to his friend, seeing as that may cause him to have an actual heart attack.

"We will stay hidden until curfew," Louis said, hoping that he could keep Adian alive until then, "---and then make it back to the dorms—"

"They live in my dorms!" Adian shrieked. "They're going to eat me! They're going to pulverize me! They're going to turn me into a toad!"

Louis' hands went up in frustration, ready to knock some sense into Adian, when the door of the broom closet opened and pulled away the darkness that hid the two third years. They shirked to the back of the closet, feeling awfully small in front of the four sixth year Gryffindors.

"Toads don't do a thing for me, what about you, Prongs?"

"Too sticky, Padfoot. What about dungbeetles? They'd make such cute dungbeetles."

Sirius Black and James Potter shared a wicked grin. They stood beside each other, flanked by Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, the latter still covered in the tell-tale signs of the glittery dust they'd been doused in. Quite the group of fairies, the older Slytherins had roared after the infamous Marauders had been hit. Louis felt his heart drop into his stomach, and barely had time to react when Sirius and Remus took hold of him, the other two grabbing onto Adian.

"Wee little Gryffindor," James said, nearly hefting Adian onto his shoulder, "We've got to teach you some manners."

"And I'm an expert at dealing with snot-nosed ickle Slytherins," Sirius said, smiling maniacally inches from Louis' face. "This is going to be fun."

The two third years shared a quick, terrified glance before they both let out loud, ear-piercing screams for help.

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"What the fuck!"

Louis' back slammed into the wall, the darkness of the tapestry blocking any light. He stared up in surprise as Walden MacNair pushed forward, wand out and lit. Antonin Dolohov came around the tapestry, looking bored as he examined his nails.

"MacNair, what the—"

"I'm going to give it to you straight," Antonin broke in, putting out his hand to push Walden to the side.

Louis' hand clenched onto his wand tightly as now a third person came behind the tapestry, Barty Crouch Jr. Louis knew Antonin and Barty from quidditch, but outside of that he didn't try to socialize with their group. All the years seemed to meld into their own miniature societies and it was hard to break into them even if you wanted to. With the war swirling around them and the rumors of who supported who and what, he had no desire to get any closer to the truth.

Antonin rolled his shoulders, studying Louis for a moment before he spoke. "We don't appreciate who you associate with."

Louis's expression changed from surprise to confusion, "What? I don't—"

"Your tweaky little Gryffindor pet," Barty said with a laugh, mimicking glasses on his face with his hands. "Rosenberg."

The three older boys snickered and Louis pressed his lips together. He and Adian had run into some teasing and taunting over the years for being friends, but the pressure put on them had been heightened recently with the war raging outside the castle. Hogwarts was not as secluded from the world as the professors would like them to believe.

"Adian's harmless," Louis snapped, unfortunately causing the others to laugh. He'd defend his friend to death, and his face grew hot as he began to understand their intentions. "He's harmless. What's it matter?"

"Oh, it matters a lot," Antonin said. "When it comes time to pick sides, having a mudblood Gryffindor attached to your hip won't make you any friends. Or, the right ones, at least."

Louis gaped, the words ringing in his ears. Pick sides? He wasn't going to---did they mean allegiances and…He frowned, straightening up. "And have you picked yours?"

MacNair let out a grumble, but he sounded…pleased?

Antonin took another step forward, effectively pinning Louis to the wall. He reached out and toyed with the prefect pin on Louis' cloak. "With your name and bloodline, you could make a lot of useful friends, and quickly. But if you keep disrespecting those you truly belong with by playing nice with the mudblood, then it'll be your neck they'll be after.

"You have potential, Bonaccord," Antonin finished, sending a shiver of fear down Louis' spine.

"Consider this an official invitation. You know where to find us," Barty said, grinning madly and clamping his hand on Antonin's shoulder. The three boys shared a glance and MacNair extinguished his wand as they swept out from behind the tapestry, leaving Louis in the dark.

He stayed against the stone wall until he couldn't hear their footsteps any longer. After what felt like hours, he let out a breath and slumped to the floor, overwhelmed with confusion, anger, fear---everything hit him square in the chest and he shut his eyes, attempting to push away their threats. His hand pressed against his prefect pin, using the pressure in an attempt to slow his frantically beating heart. He knew—he knew he'd never join their cause, but he'd never imagined he'd actually be invited to…he'd never thought about how hard it would potentially be to decline the offer… Louis' eyes remained shut, focusing first on getting himself to breathe again.

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“Do you hear that?”

“Shh! I’m reading!”

“No---did you--do you hear what I hear?”

Louis frowned, and with a bit more urging on Adian’s part, pushed his ear against the glass of the window. They both sat, cramped on the window sill of Gryffindor Tower’s common room. They had both decided that they would stay home for the holidays, as they were now old enough to make that decision (twelve was most definitely old enough), and had somehow ended up being the soul students left behind in their respective dorms.

They’d deemed this not a problem at first, but by the end of the first day Louis had ‘offered’ to keep Adian company and they’d set up a rather nifty campsite in the Gryffindor common room (Louis was not sure if the Slytherin dorms would be very kind to a Gryffindor). Pillows and blankets created their cover, and they’d nicked a string of Christmas lights from the dorm of one of the muggleborn students.

“I do not hear a thing!” Louis huffed, turning back to his book. If he wished to be a prefect, and then head boy, he needed to keep straight O’s, and Professor Slughorn had shown a special interest in him this semester--therefore, he was harder on him than most. “I have to finish this chapter!”

“But, Louis!” Adian squeaked, “I thought I heard---”

The Gryffindor’s mouth shut and his ears turned pink. Louis was going to thank the good graces that Adian had decided to be quiet, but his curiosity got the best of him.

“What did you hear?” Louis asked, closing his book. Adian shook his head, wrapping his arms around his knees. “You have to tell me now.”

“It’s stupid.”

“Maybe. What was it?”

“I thought---You’re going to laugh!” Adian said, looking back out the window. “I heard---jingle bells!”

“De Père Noël?”

Adian blinked, and it was Louis’ turn to flush. He was still not accustomed to voicing his surprise in the proper language. “Of---Santa? He is not real.”

“I know that,” Adian hissed, his face growing an even deeper red. “I just said that I heard---”

A strong gust of wind opened the top half of the window, causing a swirl of snowflakes to come flurrying into the common room. Louis and Adian jumped from the sill in awe at the sight. And, as if laced in the gust was the most definite sounds of bells chiming. Louis and Adian gawked at each other before hurling themselves at the window and opening it wide. The cold wind stung their cheeks and it seemed like the dark grounds of Hogwarts were just as empty as their dorms. But, then!

“Look!” Louis squeaked, jumping on his toes. There, in the distance! Shooting across the sky looked to be a large sleigh, lit up and bright as it shot through the air. The sound of the bells grew louder and a loud (and somewhat familiar?) ho, ho, ho filled their ears. The streak of light zoomed over Gryffindor Tower and out of sight, and the boys were left hanging out the window, craning their necks for another look.

“It couldn’t have--”

“---no, there’s no---”

“But who---?!”

“It was just a---”

They both shut their mouths tightly at the same time, but their eyes were wide with excitement. It was surely a trick, some crazy wizard from the area playing with the children and their emotions, but what if...

“If we run fast enough, we might be able to catch him outside of Ravenclaw Tower,” Louis said excitedly, already heading toward his shoes and cloak. Adian was right on his heel, and they both made off across the castle in great haste.

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Louis choked on his drink, nearly toppling off the ledge of the bridge they were perched upon.

“I did not break up their wedding!” he said, scandalized, gazing down at the frozen lake beneath them as he steadied himself. The ice most certainly would not have cushioned his fall.

“Adian told me you were with her!” Penny said, her hand having shot out to keep him balanced. “How could you have ended up in Japan with her if you didn’t help?”

He felt a flash of raging anger toward his best friend, who Louis had still not forgiven for ratting him out with the whole Dianna Dobbs Debacle. Louis bristled, but sat straighter, kicking his feet out.

“Miss. Dobbs was in the ministry looking for a portkey to flee with when I ran into her,” Louis said, recalling the rather whirlwind evening. “She was going to take the first one leaving, but I had a friend in Japan that was looking for someone to help with new exhibits at---”

“You are very good at reminding people of how worldly you are,” she interjected with an amused smile. Louis pulled a face, lifting his chin.

“Now you will not hear the rest of the story,” he said, waving a dismissive hand, even though his ears burnt. That may not have been the first time he’d been told he liked to tell his stories. “It was a good one, with cherry blossoms and fireworks.”

Louis could not keep his face straight for long, and they laughed. The park was empty, which made sense for mid-winter in London. It had been a few weeks since their whirlwind night on New Year’s, hopefully giving them each enough time to clear their minds. Louis would admit that his initial idea to leave the party had been spurred by the delirium brought on by the jinxed masks, but it had been easy to think of things to do, to enjoy the time. The cold air of the night had not brought an abrupt end to the, for lack of a better word, magic, and it had been one of the best nights of his life.

So, what now?

A simple lunch date, he’d proposed. Date might be too strong of a word! To try and top their first night out was impossible, so how did a simple stroll through the park sound to her? Louis would not admit that he was far more nervous extending the invitation than he had been with a girl in recent memory, but thankfully she had accepted.

He thought it had been going well. Conversation wise, he did his best to reign in his tendency to share anecdotes that might be seen more as bragging than adding to the dialogue. It was hard! Louis was proud of his accomplishments, but he did know that his pride was frustrating to some. Penny seemed to take it in stride, however; perhaps she could see there was sincerity behind his words, that he truly thought she’d find his tales interesting.

“Why did you take her?”

Louis turned to Penny, intrigued. All anyone had asked was why he hadn’t stopped Dianna from leaving, it was her wedding day, not why he’d helped her go. Penny had been one of those people, he knew. He saw an honesty in her eyes, though, and he knew that Penny was asking to have a real answer for it all. He shrugged, looking back down at their dangling feet.

“She wanted to see the world.” Louis looked up, straight ahead and across the lake. The park seemed so much bigger than it did in the summer, the snow creating a brand new world to discover and explore. “Who was I to deny her that?”

Penny let out a hum and he wasn’t sure how to take the response. Louis kept his gaze straight forward, attempting to not look too concerned at the seemingly lack of approval of his answer.

“So...you don’t make it a habit of whisking girls away to impress them.”

He let out a howl of laughter and shook his head, leaning toward Penny with a sly grin, “Why, were you?”

She pressed her lips together in a vain attempt to hold back her smile. Louis reached out a hand and brushed his fingertips over the blush that had flowered across her cheeks. He was glad that she’d had a good time.

“I’d never been to New York,” she settled on. Louis’ eyes widened in exaggerated surprise.

“Neither had I.”

“Honest? Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure!” he laughed and his hand dropped, resting lightly on hers. “And I’m rather happy with my first visit, at that.”

Penny smiled, and now she turned away to face the vastness of the park. Louis straightened up, feeling content about taking on this brand new adventure.

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