#kayceerice

Writing date: November 2019

Genre: fluff fluff fluff. They’re starting to grow into their feelings though :)

Warnings: Nope, no warnings. I actually really like this chapter!

Word count: 7.9k

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Summer

He felt her before he saw her.

The tight pressure of her arms wrapped around his middle, the curve of her lips caused by her face being buried in the crook of his neck, her shriek of happiness filling his ears.

His smile doubled in brightness.

And to think he actually didn't want to come to the Quidditch World Cup. He had never been really into Quidditch, despite going to many Hogwarts matches to cheer for Harry. It just wasn't as exciting for him as for some other people. Ron had been nagging him about coming together with the Weasley's, trying to pursuade him by saying that Molly missed him, or that it'd be good for him to get used to magic again a little before the school year started. Nothing had helped though, and Ron had given up, when Sean had realised something very important:

Hermione had told him she would be staying with the Weasley's around that time.

Which meant Kaycee would be coming as well.

"Nice to see you too, Kayc."

The short girl lifted her head, positively beaming at him, eyes shining. Oh, how he'd missed that face.

"I missed you so much."

It was hard for Sean to put to words how strongly he felt it within him when she said those 5 words, so he concentrated on absorbing as much of her scent and warmth as possible for now.

"You have no idea how much I missed you, Kayc."

He wanted to stay there forever, basking in the sunlight of the field they were on, the excited buzz of people surrounding them, Kaycee's hair slightly tickling his jaw because she had tucked her head under his chin. Not that he minded.

What did bother him, however, was Ron's yelling seemingly becoming louder with every passing second. He tried to ignore it at first, but reacting just became inevitable after a while.

"Hey, Kaycee, I just found a really great spot to see the next match! If you come quickly, it won't be crowded yet! Oh, hi Sean."

Sean stayed silent, not really knowing what to say to such an utterly insensible act, but Kaycee lifted her head off of his chest.

He saw her uneasy smile towards Ron, but it didn't compensate for the empty spot on his chest completely.

"Yes, alright, I'll come with you Ron."

And that's when she seperated herself completely from his body. He couldn't really blame her, it was only logical that she wanted a good spot to look at the Quidditch game. It had been proven multiple times already that her height, as adorable as he thought that trait of her's was, was often challenging when it came to watching Quidditch matches. He couldn't help but long for a moment to themselves again though, without anyone interrupting.

But his semi-sulking session was cut short soon by Kaycee, who was shaking her curls, trying to get them to behave, even though he found her curls beautiful no matter what. When she was satisfied with her hair, Sean had just enough time to catch himself staring before she turned around again, looking expectantly at him with a broad smile, her eyes slightly squinted because of the sunlight.

"Shamu, are you coming, or are you going to stand there all day?"

He smiled back at her, and started to jog to catch up on her.

And when he walked next to her and the back of her hand brushed against his by accident, he sighed in contentment.

He was ready for a new year full of magic.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Autumn

"HARRY POTTER"

Sean's hand had immediately enclosed itself around Kaycee's wrist when Dumbledore had repeated himself, louder than the first time he had said Harry's name. They had all been in the Great Hall to finally find out who the contestants of the triwizarding tournament would be, and no one had expected Harry's name to come out of the renowned goblet.

Instantly, the Great Hall had been filled with urgent whispers from students, guests and teachers. The atmosphere had managed to get dark within seconds, and Sean hadn't known if it was just him who had felt so cold inside, or if there had actually been some sort of magic that had made the temperature of the Hall decrease rapidly.

Next to him, Hermione had turned her back to him, facing Harry and ushering him forward.

He had seen the hesitation in his friend's steps, the way his hands had clung to the side of his pants, a habit Sean knew he had created out of fear of not having a good grip on his wand when he was sweating in stressful situations.

Suddenly, someone had shouted, effectively overpowering all the other voices:

"He's a cheat!"

The shout had immediately been followed by someone else yelling that Harry wasn't even seventeen yet, and Sean had only been able to watch his friend's shoulders slump with every audible comment.

Then, when Harry had finally reached the other contentants, he had turned around, and his eyes had locked with Sean's.

The Ravenclaw had seen a lot of emotions swirling inside Harry's eyes, but the deep, raw fear was definitely the superior emotion swirling inside his orbs. Harry had been completely, utterly engulfed in fright, and Sean had felt the goosebumps on his arms erupt.

It was in that moment that he had vowed to himself that he would do everything in his power to help Harry.

And up until now, he had. Harry's name had come out of the goblet exactly thirteen days ago, and Sean had kept his promise. He had spent more time in the library than in the last 3 years together, searching for the right books to help his friend, reading them, taking notes and putting the information he collected into complicated schemes until even he couldn't see the logic in after a while.

To say that he was exhausted was an understatement.

"Mr Lew, I was kind enough the last time. Please give me the books you're reading now and leave the library. Your sudden obsession shouldn't interfere with my night rest."

Sean's back promptly straightened upon hearing the librarian's voice, and he felt his neck muscles protest at the sudden turn his head made. That was going to hurt tomorrow.

"My apologies, Madam Pince, I'll make sure-"

"I'll make sure he'll get to his common room safely, Madam Pince. Come on Sean, hurry up. It's too late to read something other than fictional stories."

This time around, both his and Madam Pince's head turned around abruptly. In the doorway of the library, a few feet away from him, stood Kaycee. She was wearing light pink pyjamas with little white dots on it and her hair was down, falling in dark ringlets past her shoulders.

"Shamu, are you coming, or are you going to sit there all night? You know Madam Pince wants to go to sleep, and I know that you could use some of that as well."

Kaycee's first sentence promptly brought him back to the last time she had said something along those lines, back to better times, when the only thing on his mind had been Ron interrupting their little moments. He hadn't even thought about Ron in the last month.

He stood up, quickly collecting his books and giving them to the librarian. It was only when he gave her the books that he was close enough to see the bags under her eyes, and a wave of guilt washed over him, knowing he had been the one who had been keeping her up for the past 6 weeks.

Thankfully, Madam Pince seemed to realise he felt guilty, for she gave him a small smile and a barely noticeable nod.

"Good night, Mr Lew."

He smiled back at the older lady and walked towards Kaycee, feeling his smile change from slightly awkward to genuinely happy. They began walking out of the library together.

"Let's get you to your common room, Lew."

Sean quirked his eyebrow.

"That doesn't make any sense Kayc, my common room is in a tower, yours is next to the kitchens. We're going to your common room first, and I promise you that I'm going straight to my common room as soon as you're safely inside yours."

But Kaycee was already shaking her head, her eyes closed and her eyebrows high, trying to make a strict face to show how much she disagreed with his plan.

"We're definitely not going to do that. I am going to bring you to your common room, and then I'm going to return. You have been doing research for way too long, and I do understand that you want to help Harry because I do too! I care about him a lot and I want to help him as well. The difference is that I understand that I'm not going to be able to fully support him if I'm dead inside, like you've been for the last 2 weeks, no offence. Also-"

Her words didn't seem to register anymore, his brain was way too tired for that, he could only focus on one thing at a time. For now, that thing was to get her safely inside her common room, no matter how hard she protested. Instead of listening to her, he automatically seemed to focus on the expressions she made, how her curls bounced as she moved her head, how her hands made such graceful gestures, trying to put more power to her words.

"And so it's more important for you to get more sleep tonight than I do than the other way around. I mean, I-Oh."

Kaycee had promptly stopped rambling when she finally took the time to look at her surroundings, and discovered that they had, in fact, walked to her common room, and not his. She faced him now, eyebrows furrowed, about to open her mouth again when Sean stopped her.

"Shh Kayc. It's okay. I'll promise to go to bed now, you've convinced me that it's important to get rest. Go inside now, I'm not the only one it's late for."

She was smiling again, and he noticed only now that the right side of her mouth went up a little more than the left side. She studied his face, her smile dropping a tiny bit when her eyes rested on the bags under his, but going up again when her eyes locked on his. She nodded.

"Alright, good night, Shamu."

She turned around now, took a few steps away from him, and Sean already felt colder than when she was by his side. She had already tapped the common room door in the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff, and it had already given her access, when the words tumbled out of his mouth:

"Do you want to go to the Yule Ball with me?"

She turned around, surprise sketched on her face. It was only then that he realised what he had said, and he was about to open his mouth again to apologise, when she beat him to it.

Her surprised expression morphed into a warm smile again, her eyes shining brighter than they had all night.

"I would love to."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Winter

"Oh dear, Kaycee, you look breathtaking!"

Kaycee, turned around, looking at her sister with doubts swirling around in her mind. Was she as beautiful as her sister claimed?

"I-I don't know Mione. As beautiful as this dress is, I just feel like it's somehow too pretty for me, and tonight I need to...well, I need to be perfect."

At Kaycee's words, Hermione walked towards her sister, standing beside her and gazing in the mirror the Room of Requirement had been so kind to let appear for them.

"Kaycee Caitlin Granger. You see, there's this really important thing you're completely overlooking. You are stunning just as you are, every single day. You see this dress? It doesn't make you any more beautiful than usual, it just emphasizes what's there every day: your light, Kaycee. You are glowing, shining, lighting up a room when you walk inside. It's been this way since you were born. I still question why mum and dad never favoured you over the rest of us. I've never been jealous of it though. I am proud, Kaycee Granger, to be your sister. You are such an amazing human being and I'm proud of the extraordinary young woman you have become. I love you so much."

Kaycee could only smile, her eyes closed to prevent them from watering, searching with her hand for her sister's, and when she found it, giving it a little squeeze.

Hermione understood.

"Let's go, Kaycee."

And then the sentence that made the butterflies in Kaycee's stomach come to life:

"I bet Sean's already waiting for you."

Kaycee opened her eyes and looked straight forward, right into the mirror.

Her smile stayed.

In fact, it only brightened even more when she arrived at the top of the staircase, because Sean was standing at the base of it.

Sean. Shamu. The one she used to see as a wonderful friend. The guy, she started to realise during her second year, who made her skin tingle every time he took her hand, or gave her a hug. The person who, since the Quidditch world cup a few weeks ago, was the subject of all her dreams, dreams in which he held her hand in another way than what he did now, dreams in which he called her 'love', and 'darling', dreams in which they cuddled and once even kissed.

She could no longer deny what that all meant.

Still, she was content being just his friend. It meant she didn't have to confront him about her feelings, while still being able to be close to him. And with the way he looked at her while she came down the grand staircase, she definitely wasn't complaining anytime soon.

"You, Kaycee Granger, look absolutely breathtaking."

He said it with a breathy voice too, as if what he was saying was literally true. His eyes had a twinkle in them, his dimples ever-present.

"Thank you. You too, Sean."

And while she had been talking about him as a person, she realised now that the clothes he was wearing definitely did some good as well. His dress shirt was white, and the sleeves were rolled up, showing the veins on his arm. It was neatly tucked into his black pants, and his shoes shone, reflecting the candlelights that floated through the corridor.

"Ready to show them your dance moves?"

She laughed at that, both of them knowing that they would only get to slow dance. Not that she was complaining. She nodded, and together, they walked into the magestically decorated Great Hall.

That night was turning into the best of her life so far. She swirled around gracefully on the dance floor, without a care in the world, the music flowing through her veins, Sean's hand on the small of her back, her hands on his chest. She wished she could freeze the time and live in this moment forever, for this moment was absolutely, utterly and unquestionably perfect.

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Why tonight?

It was a question she'd asked herself multiple times in the last half an hour.

Only 2 hours ago, she and Sean had stood at the base of the staircase, gazing at eachother. Everything after that -up until half an hour ago of course- had been an absolute dream. Kaycee had never ever wanted the evening to end, as cliché as that sounded.

Now, however, she wanted to go back in time, and not necessarily to do one more magical dance with Sean. While she had discovered that that was her favourite thing in the world, it was -looking back at it- way more important to make sure Ron would keep his mouth shut.

"Shh...Mione, it's all going to be okay, I promise you."

Hermione's crying didn't decrease one bit, however, and Kaycee was afraid it wouldn't stop anytime soon.

"B-but, you guys...you don't- he said that I was a-a traitor for going to the ball with the enemy."

Kaycee was just about to make sure her sister knew she wasn't a traitor, when she saw Sean stand up abruptly. He had been sitting on the other side of Hermione, and together they had been trying to cheer her up, but apparently, he suddenly had other plans.

"Hey hey hey, where are you going?"

Kaycee couldn't really keep the annoyance out of her voice. Sean had always been such a selfless, loyal person to his friends, and she didn't understand this sudden strange behaviour.

Sean turned around, and somehow his worried expression about Hermione's wellbeing had morphed into an angry scowl.

"To Ron. He doesn't deserve to have fun now. I'm going to tell him exactly what has been on my mind for a freaking year now. I've dealt with enough of his crap!"

"Sean w-"

But Sean had already stomped away, unable to hear Kaycee anymore.

She felt torn in that moment, standing beside her sniffling and clearly heartbroken sister, but also feeling the need to make sure Sean didn't do anything stupid.

"What's going on here- Oh crap Hermione, what happened? Are you hurt?"

The question had come out of Harry's mouth as an automatism, so aware of his friends constantly getting hurt on their adventures, that he hadn't thought of the other, non-physical kind of hurt. In this case, the double meaning made Hermione burst in tears all over again.

"It's Ron, Harry. He said some really freaking stupid things to Hermione and now he hurt her, as you can see, and Sean just ran away to go after Ron and he was so livid and while I know he won't do anything physical, I don't think he'll be that gentle either and I actually want to go after him but then Hermione's all alone and, and-"

"Kaycee, calm down. Take a breath."

Harry had laid his hands on both of her shoulders, and it immediately calmed her. She closed her eyes, took a moment for herself, and nodded.

"Kayc, you can go to Sean, I'll manage, promise. Ron's just an idiot and I need to get over him, that doesn't mean you should feel torn between staying here or going to Sean. Go, I love you."

"I'll stay with Hermione, Kayc. Hey, Mione, you like me just as much as your sister, right?"

There was something in Harry's tone that showed he obviously knew he could never surpass Kaycee, which is why it was so funny when he said it. And it paid off. Hermione slightly snorted, and while her smile was small, it was at least a genuine one.

It was all Kaycee needed to lessen her guilt.

"Okay, thanks. I'm just going to make sure they don't do anything stupid with each other. I love you both."

She heard the echoes of their 'I love you too''s, but she was already too focused to pay attention to them. Her steps were light but her pace fast, and she wished her hair was up in a bun instead of gracefully styled to lay on her back.

It wasn't long before she heard a voice, and for some reason she immediately recognised its owner.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

She had just turned around a corner when she saw them: Sean had asked Ron the question while dragging him forward with the lace around his neck into a deserted classroom.

As soon as they were in, Kaycee came from behind the corner and sneaked to the classroom, where she stopped slightly right to the door, so she could hear their voices more clearly.

"W-what do you mean, Sean?"

"Are you serious? Don't act so surprised you hypocrite! I know Kaycee isn't my girlfriend yet, but Merlin Ron, the way you act is not okay either! Going out of your way to give her weird, misplaced compliments and then acting so utterly tactless to Hermione! Do you really think that's the right way to win Kaycee's heart? Because I'm telling you now that it's not."

On the other side of the wall, Kaycee's eyes had widened, because she hadn't missed a word of Sean's outburst.

She hadn't missed the 'yet' after 'kaycee's not my girlfriend' either.

Nothing had ever made her head spin as much as this one little word had, not even Mcgonagall's 'you're a witch, just like your sister' when she delivered Kaycee's first Hogwarts letter.

She was forced to focus once again though, because Ron had apparently found his voice back.

"Wait- you, you think I try to make Kaycee interested in me in that way? Why would you th-"

"WHY?! MAYBE BECAUSE YOU INTERRUPT EVERY SINGLE MOMENT ME AND KAYCEE HAVE TOGETHER!"

Kaycee heard footsteps after that. Seeing as she was too afraid to look through the door opening, she could only guess that Ron had been literally taken aback by Sean.

Kaycee promised to herself that if she heard wands being drawn, she would interfere. For now though, she wanted to hear a little more of the conversation.

"I- I, Sean I really didn't mean to do that, I promise you. I've never felt things for Kaycee like that, I love her, but I love her like a sister. Truly, I never wanted to steal her from you."

Kaycee frowned at that. She wasn't anyone's property, not even Sean's. She thought it was weird of Ron to put it like that, but she couldn't really blame him. If she was standing there in Ron's shoes, she too would probably try to please Sean as much as she could.

"It's not about stealing Ron, she's her own person, not my property. It's just that I don't understand why you are all over Kaycee, but insult Hermione. Was it really neccesary to call her a traitor? I just don't understand your behaviour. It's time to give something up, you can choose whether that's your immature behaviour or our friendship. Girls have feelings too, and it's not fair to play with those. They earn your respect, especially someone as amazing as Hermione."

Kaycee smiled, feeling a pleasant kind of warmth spread through her chest at Sean's words.

"Okay, I'll explain everything to you, I promise. But then you have to promise not to tell anyone, especially not Hermione, alright?"

Sean stayed silent, so Kaycee assumed he had nodded his head. Truth be told, Kaycee was also curious where this was going. When she had come here, she really hadn't expected Sean to drag her into the fight.

"Last year, I came to the conclusion that I somehow really, really like Hermione. I tried to get her out of my head at first, I mean she would never like me back in that way, but it didn't work, and at some point I really had to admit to myself that I fancy her. But she's always so mad at me, and I mean, I can't blame her, and I always try to be kind to her, but it just doesn't work, I always snap and I regret it so so much, every single time. In the beginning, I tried to make it up to her by starting a conversation, but you know better than anyone else that Hermione is really stubborn, and that she'll completely ignore you if she's mad at you. So I did the thing that seemed second best: being kind to Kaycee. I figured that if I was nice to her sister, she would see that I could be a nice bloke, you know? I never, ever intentionally flirted with Kaycee, I promise you that. And the interrupting of your moments with Kaycee...well, this is really selfish, but I just wanted to spend more time with her, because the more I did that, the bigger the chance Hermione would notice me. Or so I thought. Nothing has happened and she'll always see me as this annoying boy who apparenly looks like he's flirting with her sister. Oh Merlin I messed up. I'm so sorry Sean."

Kaycee didn't think she had ever had such an existential crisis. First, her annoyance at Ron for being so tactless, then her guilt for leaving Hermione, her utter disbelieve at hearing Sean say she wasn't his girlfriend yet, whatever that meant, immediately followed by Ron's mind blowing theory about being extra kind to her to please her sister.

It was all way too much, but not enough. She wanted to hear more, understand more details, figure things out to wrap her head around all this new information.

The 'too much'-part of her brain slightly overpowered the curious part though, because suddenly her legs gave out and she landed on the floor with a thud. She shut her eyes closed, praying they didn't hear anything, and she sighed of relief when Sean talked to Ron again, with a much calmer voice now.

"I-Ron. You idiot. Do you have any idea how much better it would've been for both of us if you would've been honest about this all along? I could've helped you, you know, instead of spending my time being jealous and annoyed at you. Look, tomorrow, we'll figure out a way for you to make it up to Hermione. For now, I think it's better to just go to bed, it's been a long day. Alright?"

What followed was the sound of an intricate rhythm of claps, and Kaycee couldn't help but smile, knowing it was a part of one of Sean's choreographies that only required hands, kind of like a difficult handshake. Sean had taught it to Ron about a year ago, in one of their good moments, to show Ron that dancing wasn't only for girls, Ron had actually thought it was cool and it had been their thing ever since.

Then, she heard footsteps, and she started to panic, knowing they were going to come out of the classroom soon. Quickly, she got up and hid herself in the broom closet a few feet away from the door. She had barely closed the closet doors when Sean came out of the door opening, followed by Ron. She saw Sean turning around to his friend.

"Okay, I need to go up these stairs to get to my common room. I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"

"Wow-wait, not so fast, Sean. Care to explain why you said that Kaycee isn't you girlfriend yet?"

Ron was facing Sean, obviously, so Kaycee couldn't see his face from her hiding place, but she could clearly hear the grin in his voice. Her main focus, however, was Sean's face, and how his expression turned from a happy but exhausted one to a surprised one, as if he had forgotten all about that sentence.

Kaycee knew she definitely wouldn't forget it any time soon, if ever at all.

Sean got a hold of himself again, the right corner of his mouth slightly going up.

"You know I can't tell you a lot about the time turner incident last year, but let's just say it made me realise some things, most of all how madly in love I am with Kaycee.."

Ron actually snorted this time, Kaycee could hear it. It distracted her from all the other things she had just heard, and she was glad for that distraction, she wasn't sure she would be able to stay silent if she permitted all those feelings and thoughts to completely get through.

"I'd say, welcome to the Seaycee shippers, Sean! Everyone has been a shipper for years, and that includes me, even if it may have looked like I wasn't. Now go and dream about your girl! Goodnight, Sean."

Sean's smile had grown to be a completely glowing expression on his face, and he nodded at Ron, walking up the first few steps of the staircase.

"Goodnight, Ron. Remember, Hermione might not be as unreachable as you think she is. There's always hope."

And while Sean walked up the stairs and Ron turned around a corner, Kaycee still sat in the broom closet, arms wrapped around her knees, silent tears of happiness streaming down her cheeks, wondering how in the world she got so lucky.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Why are we always talking about my love life? You have a crush on someone as well!"

Kaycee's tone was hushed while walking through the corridor with Luna, careful so no-one would actually hear what they were talking about.

It was the 24th of February, a few weeks after the Yule Ball, and Kaycee had had a bit more time to think about everything she felt towards Sean. It was clear to her now that her feelings went much deeper than just a crush, and she had realised that it was also the reason she hadn't jumped out of the closet a few weeks ago, but had instead cried her eyes out, even though she had been immensely happy.

"Because your crush actually likes you back, Kaycee Granger. I don't even know if Neville smiles at me because wrackspurts got to him or because he thinks I'm nice."

"Luna, I'm sure he thinks you're nice! He got all flustered when you congratulated him on the Gillyweed idea today!"

And it was true. Kaycee and Luna had watched the second task of the Triwizard tournament together. The whole task had ended about half an hour ago, and she and Luna had talked to Harry for a few minutes afterwards. After he told them Neville had given him the idea to use gillyweed, Luna couldn't help herself and congratulated Neville when they saw him right before walking back inside, where they planned on visiting the house elves in the kitchen. Luna had asked Kaycee to come with her -she had said that she wanted to try to interview a few of them for an article in the Quibbler- and Kaycee definitely wouldn't let go of the opportunity to get hot chocolate.

"Maybe...I don't know. The blushing could be the nargles' fault as well. I mean, I hope he blushed because of me, but I don't really want to get my hopes up either. You see, a broken heart tends to attract umgubular slashkilters, and you definitely don't want those anywhere near y-"

"You're such a coward, Longbottom!"

The origin of the sound could not be mistaken: this was Draco Malfoy talking, and one look on Luna's face told her he would regret ever speaking to Neville like that.

"L-leave me alone.."

They were almost at the end of the corridor now, the sound getting louder and louder. Kaycee could hear the sadness in Neville's voice, and it truly broke her heart. He was her friend as well, and he didn't deserve to be treated like that.

Malfoy's snicker echoed through the corridor, hard and cold. It made the hair on Kaycee's arm stand up straight.

"Why would we? You can't do anything, just like you parents, you ugly-"

"Actually, Draco Malfoy, Neville can do a lot of things. Did you know he was the one who advised Harry to use gillyweed? I'm sure he also knows about a plant that could turn you into a frog, or a stone or something, right Neville?"

All eyes were on Luna, Draco's big from surprise, Neville's with an admiring gaze in them. Kaycee wished she had a camera to take a picture of this, it would be the perfect picture to laugh at, because Malfoy's expression, and the best chance she would ever get at convincing Luna that Neville actually did like her.

"Uhh- yes, o-of course. Tribulus terrestris would definitely do the job."

Kaycee smiled at that. Luna defending him had clearly given him some much-needed confidence, although she definitely noticed how red his cheeks became when he named the herb, or how his eyes flickered towards Luna just a few times more than usual. Next to her, Luna cleared her throat impatiently.

"You heard him, didn't you, Draco? I think it's time for you to leave Neville alone, as he so kindly asked you. We both know I'm great friends with the house elves in the kitchen, and, I mean, I don't think you'd be so happy with some tribulus terrestris in your pumpkin juice tonight, or should I say sprite?"

Kaycee was very surprised to see that Draco actually paled even farther when Luna mentioned Sprite. She didn't know why, but Draco's face become funnier with every passing minute. The slytherin was silent for a moment, his mouth slightly opened, as if he wanted to say something, but didn't find the right words. After a while, he finally spluttered something:

"I-I'll go now. Bye, L-Luna, Neville, Kaycee."

And with that, he turned around and wobbled away, awkwardly trying to keep his pace between walking and running.

Kaycee couldn't help but laugh her head off, and Neville and Luna soon joined in.

"W-what just happened? I swear I've never seen Draco so..so..unconfident!"

They had calmed down a little bit by now, and Luna answered with her signature dreamy smile on her face again.

"Draco, he drinks Sprite. He charms his pumpkin juice to be sprite, and he's really embarrassed about it because it's a muggle drink, wizards usually don't even know it exists, and, well, you know how he gets with his blood purity and all."

"That's...genius!!"

It was Neville who had praised Luna, finally recovering from his fright and surprise, and Luna's ever-pale skin actually got some colour around her cheekbones. Kaycee thought it was adorable.

"Thank you, Neville. That's a very kind thing of you to say. However, Kaycee and I really must go now, we promised the house elves in the kitchen that we would pay them a visit. But you can join us if you want!"

"I would love to, but I'm still not doing well in charms and in astronomy, and Gran wants me to study more.."

Kaycee immediately felt sympathetic. Neville was always so kind and he worked so hard, but still his grandma couldn't see any of these admirable qualities. She wished she could help him, but she knew it was his gran who should realise things, not Neville who should study more.

"You know what? Let's study together in the library tomorrow! Madam Pince has always had a soft spot for Ravenclaw's, so she probably won't mind me tutoring you."

Neville smiled at that, clearly happy at the prospect of being able to spend more time with Luna. Kaycee desperately tried to keep her fangirling to a minimum.

"Y-yes, that'd be nice Luna. Thank you for defending me, by the way. I uh..appreciate it. A lot. So...thank you"

If Luna noticed his awkward repetition of words, she didn't show it. Instead she smiled -Kaycee wondered if she had even stopped smiling at all these last few minutes- and nodded at Neville.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then. Bye Neville! Don't forget to get some tribulus terrestris, in case Malfoy ever bothers you again."

Kaycee quickly said goodbye to a suspiciously spluttering Neville, and followed Luna to the kitchens, feeling giddy about witnessing such a cute moment between those two.

It wasn't until weeks after that she finally understood why Neville had acted so weirdly every time Luna had mentioned the tribulus terrestris. She and Hermione had taken their turn in tutoring Neville in the library, when the topic somehow came up again. After much nagging of both of the sisters -Kaycee wanted to know why he always got so flustered while talking about it and Hermione just wanted to learn something new- he finally gave in: a herb that made someone turn into a frog didn't exist, let alone one that turned a human into stone. The tribulus terrestris did exist, however. It is a herb that increases a woman's fertility, and for some -in Neville's opinion very embarrassing- reason, it was the first thing that came to his mind while looking at Luna in that situation.

For Hermione, it was an interesting new thing she learned. For Kaycee, it was proof Luna definitely wouldn't have to worry about the umgubular slashkilters anytime soon. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spring

"How was it? Did he make a move? Did you make a move? Tell me all the details!"

It was an early evening, the last strays of sunshine warming up Kaycee's and Hermione's skin. Kaycee had just come back from a hogsmeade afternoon with Sean. He had asked Kaycee, Hermione, Ron and Harry who would go to hogsmeade, proposing they went together, but in the end, only Kaycee could go with him.

Or at least, that's what everyone wanted him to believe. Harry had been smart enough to understand the look on Hermione's face, and told Sean him and Ron had to practice for their charms exam. Hermione had claimed she would rather read something in the library than go outside. Sean thought she seemed a bit suspicious, but he had smiles nonetheless, and afterwards, Hermione had claimed giggling that he probably didn't mind spending alone time with 'his girl'

And now, with Sean safely out of earshot, Hermione apparently couldn't wait another second to hear everything about their afternoon.

Not that Kaycee minded reliving everything once more.

"Well, he- I...it was nice."

And then, when Hermione kept looking at her expectantly:

"He took my hand and held it for, like, half an hour. And we-"

"Wait, wait. How did he hold your hand?"

Kaycee looked at Hermione, confused. Why did it matter? Wasn't she happy for Kaycee? She really hadn't overthought the whole hand holding thing when it had happened. She'd been too busy just enjoying the tingles that had coursed through her in that moment.

"Just tell me, I read something about what holding hands means exactly and I want to see if it actually works like that in real life too."

Kaycee thought that was a bit weird, but at the same time, it was still Hermione who had said it, and that explained a lot, even though it didn't explain why Hermione found it so important.

"Uhm, well, his hand was in front, and he just took mine and intertwined our fingers. There wasn't anything excessively complicated about it, Mione"

But her sister apparently found this little fact incredibly valuable -and judging by the squeal she let out- really cute.

"Okay, now explain why this is so important."

Hermione seemed to realise again that her sister didn't know what was going on in her head, and her expression changed from a squeal into a normal smile. Her eyes kept their twinkle, though.

"Look, it has something to do with the subconscious state of us, humans. In the prehistoric era, humans were nomads, which brought some dangers with it. A man needed to protect his woman, and to make sure he could do that efficiently, he held her hand, with his hand in front of hers. That way he could push her behind him if there was any danger in front of them. He wouldn't be able to push her behind him that easily if her hand was in front of his. Wait, let me show you."

Hermione took her hand, and showed her that it was indeed much easier to pull someone behind you when your hand is in front of the other person's, than if it was the other way around.

"Nowadays, women are, of course, independent, and no longer need to rely on men to protect them, but most men still hold their partner's hand like that, subconciously to protect them. The fact Sean held your hand like that...well, you can draw your own conclusions."

And she did. Or at least, the butterflies in her stomach did before she gave them permission to move. She felt her smile getting broader again, after her confusion about Hermione's question.

"Thanks, Mione. That was a very useful piece of information."

Her sister smiled at her.

"Now go on! There's undoubtedly much more you haven't told me yet!"

"Well...we went to the three broomsticks first, where we had this whole conversation about dancing- oh and we agreed on making a choreo together this summer! And after that, we just walked around, he took my hand, as you know, but we were both too shy to actually say something about it, so it just kind of happened. We went into honeydukes to fill a bag of sweets - he let me pick the candy and there was this one sort I couldn't reach and he took it for me - and then we went outside to eat the bag while sitting on a bench. After that, it was time to go back to the castle. He didn't take my hand again, which was kind of sad, but he did give me a hug before going back to his common room."

By the end of her monologue, Hermione was positively beaming at her, which only stimulated her butterflies even further.

"And what are you going to do now? Does this mean you're a couple, or does he, like, have to ask you to be his girlfriend? Are you going to make a move next time you guys hang out?? Ahh I love this! My ship is finally sailing!"

And as much as she liked Hermione's enthusiasm, she wasn't about to do anything drastic that would change her relationship with Sean, even if change meant being able to act on all of her feelings.

She was still content with the way things were going now. She could easily enjoy holding Sean's hand while not making everything official yet. It was good this way, slowly getting to know this side of each other, without pressure from other people to do or to not do certain things. It wasn't that she had commitment issues, she was definitely and completely ready to tie herself to Sean in that way. She just wanted to do it their way.

"Everything in time, Hermione, everything in time."

And while the sun started to lower itself towards the great lake, Kaycee realised that there would indeed be a certain time for everything.

****

In many ways, Hermione's hug was similar to the one her sister had given him at the beginning of the school year, and in many ways, it was not.

Just like back then, Sean had felt the girl before he had seen her. The difference was, however, that this time, he had expected it.

Hermione had stayed strong up until madam Pomfrey had told them they weren't allowed to go inside, to go to Harry, and barely a few seconds after the nurse had turned her back to them to check on her patient, Hermione had crumpled, turning to him and burrying her face in his chest, curls bouncing as she cried, and his heart broke.

They stood there, he and Hermione, amidst of all the chaos. Some people were running away as fast as they could, afraid more bad things were about to come, others tried to get closer to that damned maze, their curiosity getting the better of them.

He tried to block out the outside world and concentrate on his best friend only, but it was no easy task, not with all the screams of terror of all the people who had only just seen Cedric Diggory's body. Sean saw from the corner of his eye that the hufflepuff was being dragged inside by Hagrid, Cedric's undoubtedly cold hand in his father's, who kept begging his son to wake up.

Cracks, blows, cuts in his heart.

He didn't know how much more he could handle.

Then, he felt a hand on his upper arm, slightly rubbing up and down, and he didn't have to look to know who it was. Kaycee was sniffing too, and it didn't take him and her sister more than a split second to include her in their hug.

Even though she was hurting as well, Kaycee made sure that she had given both Sean and her sister a kiss on the cheek before giving in to her own needs and burying her face in her sister's hair. At the same time, she took Sean's hand and intertwined her fingers with his.

For a brief moment, Sean wondered how they must look from the outside, him hugging two girls who weren't his family, but then he realised that everyone around them had better things to do than watching 3 people hug, and that even if someone saw them hug, he really, really didn't care. He already knew that the safety and well being of these girls would always be his first priority, and he wasn't ashamed of that. Besides, he was very aware of the fact that he wasn't only offering them comfort, they were the only reason he still stood straight as well.

And then suddenly, he felt another hand, on his shoulder this time, and he tilted his cheek from the top of Hermione's head to see Ron, looking paler than usual, tears brimming in his eyes. His friend wrapped one of his arms around Hermione's middle and laid the other on Sean's back, and Sean knew when looking into Ron's eyes that he didn't join because he was jealous that Sean was the one holding Hermione first. In fact, he knew that nothing of this was out of jealousy. It was out of love, for both him and Hermione, even though those were two completely different types of love.

In return, Sean put his hand on Ron's back, beckoning him to come closer, to join their hug, and Ron did. He heard Hermione sigh, keeping her arms around Sean but laying her head in the crook of Ron's neck, slightly having to stretch her own neck to do so because she was simply so much smaller than Ron.

And through all the darkness, the grief and the tears, he felt his mouth stretch into a small smile, looking at Hermione trying so hard not to let him go while also being close to the boy she loved in another way than a friend.

It made him think about all the good moments, him and Hermione finally succeeding in playing that one piano piece together, the way Kaycee's eyes shone during the Yule Ball- actually, no, the way Kaycee's eyes every day, Neville finally getting his deserved moment of victory after giving Harry the needed gillyweed,...

Hard times were coming, he was no fool, he knew it would be tough. But he also knew that in the end, it would be worth it. Worth it because he wanted all the people he shared those good moments with, to keep having a good life, a good world to live in. He wanted Hermione to be able to continue with S.P.E.W, wanted Ron to keep irritating her, Harry to finally have a moment of rest. He wished for Luna to get the courage to tell Neville about her feelings, instead of only smiling at his picture while laying in their common room, and he wanted Neville to give Luna that hug he had -according to Harry- been sleep talking about for 3 months now.

There was so much he still wanted for his friends, family and himself. All they needed was time, and he would make sure it's what they got. Time.

He was aware of the fact that he didn't know a lot yet, but he was convinced that in the end, everything would be worth it.

Light would drive out darkness.

Writing date: August 2019

Genre: still fluff, actually the entirety of Hogwarts Highlights is fluff tbh.

Warnings: none, except some kissing but I don’t think a warning is necessary :) OH AND BETA-ED CONTENT! Thanks Annie, ily 

Word count: 7.4k

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summer

Dear Sean

I have so much to tell you that I don't even know where to start! As you know, we're in France at the moment, and I'm honestly having a blast. I even made some new French friends a few days ago! Can you believe that I, small and shy Kaycee Granger, socialised?

Yesterday, mum, dad, Hermione and I explored a small village nearby a little bit. Kylie and Devon claimed that a vacation is supposed to be a period of time where you just lay down and relax, but honestly, that's nothing for me. Anyway, we went and explored a little bit, and suddenly, we came across a boy around our age, with Asian roots, and he was tap dancing on a little platform he'd layed down on the corner of the street. He was really good, so a lot of people put some money into the hat he had put on the ground, but he still seemed to be a bit timid, humble, when he wasn't dancing. He reminded me of you, Sean. Honestly, I miss you. So much. I know that I'm supposed to enjoy my vacation, and I really do, but it's just not the same, away from you. Does that make sense? I really hope so..

"You really care about him, don't you?"

Kaycee turned around, startled by the voice that sounded so close to her. It was Hermione, peeking over her shoulder to read the letter she was currently writing to Sean. Kaycee had thought that it was safe to write him now, because everyone had gone to bed, but apparently, Hermione hadn't been asleep.

"Of course I care about him. Isn't that normal? You care about him as well, don't you?"

A small, knowing smile made its way to her sister's face.

"I care for him, yes, he's my best friend, but something inside of me tells me that you care about him more than I do."

Kaycee didn't like where this conversation was heading, even if she didn't really know why she felt so uncomfortable suddenly. Carefully, she began folding her arms over her letter, so Hermione couldn't read it anymore. She loved her sister dearly, but sometimes she just didn't want an analysis of everything she did. This was personal.

"What do you mean, I care more for him than you do? You're his best friend, Hermione, I think you're supposed to care for him more than I do!"

She was getting irritated, but her sister's little smile stayed etched on her face.

"Nevermind. You'll understand eventually, I'm sure of that. I'm going to go to sleep now, don't stay up too late, alright? We have a busy day tomorrow. Sleep well Kayc..."

And with that, Hermione turned around and went upstairs, leaving Kaycee with a lot of questions and an unfinished letter.

Might as well finish it, then there's at least one thing I don't have to worry about anymore..

Kaycee grabbed her pen again, since she was writing to him the muggle way, and continued where she left of:

It's pretty late right now, so I'm going to make this last bit a little shorter. I just wanted to tell you that I miss you lots, and that I really look forward to seeing you again on the hogwarts express! We're sitting in the same cabin, right? I really want to catch up with you, it's been such a long time since I last saw you...I hope you're okay too. I hope that you're having just as much fun as I have, because you deserve it. You deserve so much Sean. I really can't thank you enough for everything you've done for me in the past, and everything I'm sure you will do for me in the future, because you're such a generous soul.  I'm so happy that you came into my life, Shamu..thank you. Really.

I'm thinking about you.

Kaycee

Satisfied with her letter, she put her pen down and folded the piece of paper, putting it in the envelope she'd made earlier. Then, she stood up and went upstairs, to go to sleep. Hermione was right, it was going to be a busy day tomorrow, but she was determined to enjoy every single second of her vacation with her family. Still, a small part of her just wanted to be with Sean. That boy was going to get one hell of a hug when she saw him again..

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey Sean!"

Sean smiled at the chorus of 'hi's' that echoed Hermione's. They were in the Great Hall, everyone had just finished eating their first dinner of the new school year. Right before the feast, Dumbledore had announced that people were allowed to go sit at other houses' tables after their dinner, and Sean decided to make good use of that offer.

"Ronald, honestly, this is the 5th plate you're eating. Isn't it a bit much? I get nauseous just seeing you stuff your mouth!"

Sean turned towards Hermione, who was now beside him, and laid his hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her. He actually found it hilarious, the way Ron and Hermione always had to bicker so much. They cared about each other, and anyone could see it, except for them, it seemed.

The ravenclaw's smile decreased though, when Ron began growling something at Hermione, clearly not amused with her opinion on his apetite. They all watched him as he forcefully put his fork down, shoved his -still unfinished- plate towards Hermione, who sat opposite of him, and stomped off, leaving Harry, Hermione and Sean behind in the great hall, all shocked by the sudden outburst.

Sean hadn't missed the way Ron had glared at him upon leaving the table, but he had no idea what the glare meant.

"What's going on here? You all look like you've seen a ghost! Although, that's actually not that impossible here. I just keep messing up muggle expressions with magical ones!"

The cheerful, giggling tone of Kaycee brought them all out of their reverie, and Sean couldn't contain a sudden smile from coming up, as much as it confused him. He was about to answer her, but Harry beat him to it.

"Ron stomped off. He became annoyed after Hermione said that he was eating a lot. But he'll get over it, come on, have a seat!"

Kaycee happily took Ron's previous place next to Harry, just as Sean decided to follow Harry's advice to shrug Ron's behaviour off. He sat opposite of Kaycee, and while she engaged in a conversation with her sister, he had all the time to look at her. He didn't even realise he was staring, entirely too occupied, too engrossed in her features to notice what the conversation was going about, or the look of understanding that dawned on Harry's face after looking at his friend for a while. He didn't notice anything, except for Kaycee's curls, gently bouncing when she excitedly nodded at Hermione, or the way her eyes shone, happy to be here again.

And Sean was happy to be here again as well, and it wasn't only because Kaycee was here. Of course it was amazing to have her by his side again, he really had missed her and for some reason, he felt his best when he was with her, but he was also happy to be really here again, in Hogwarts, surrounded by the magic that naturally flowed through his blood. Hogwarts, with its moving staircases and talking portraits, with its floating candles and translucent ghosts.

Hogwarts, where he felt home.

He closed his eyes, smile still evident on his face, and took a moment to take in the atmosphere. He felt the excitement he shared with the other students, to be finally in the castle again. Heart full of emotions, he let the sleepiness caused by his first magical meal wash over him. He'd go to his bed soon, but he wanted to enjoy the warm feeling he had now, sitting with his friends, for a little longer.

His smile increased for the umpteenth time that night.

This was home.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Autumn

"Come on Sean, there are Hermione and Ron!"

Sean tried his best to ignore the tingling feeling of his hand, which Kaycee had taken in her own to drag him towards Hermione and Ron, who were already sitting on the bleachers. The first quidditch match was about to begin in less than ten minutes, and it could easily be felt in the atmosphere. The sun was shining its last warm sunrays of the year, and the exciting buzzing of people all around him made him feel really happy. It was a nice day, and even Ron, who had been grumpy for a few days after the confusing incident during their first meal in Hogwarts, was in a great mood because of the quidditch match, judging by the goofy smile on his face.

They barely had time to talk with Ron and Hermione before the quidditch match begun, and soon, the bleachers were filled with the deafening noise of applause and cheering.

Kaycee didn't share the crowd's enthusiasm for long though. The game had only begun about 15 minutes ago, but a few boys suddenly came running into the bleachers. They came to a halt in front of Kaycee, effectively blocking her view.

Now, she wasn't really mad at them, they probably hadn't even noticed her problem since she was really small, but she was still bothered by the lack of view, so she decided to be brave.

"U-uhm, excuse me, could you please move a little? I-I can't see right n-"

"Shove off you baby. We're watching a game."

The boys had rudely interrupted her question, towering over her tiny form and immediately squashing her bravery.

Kaycee sighed, convinced she wasn't going to enjoy this game and might as well go back to her common room to study a bit, but apparently, Sean had other thoughts about that.

"Hey! Shut it! You don't have the right to talk to her like that!"

Kaycee looked up then, taken aback by Sean's sudden anger, but grateful nonetheless. She felt a peculiar warmth spread through her chest, not really knowing what it was, but having a good feeling about that warmth. She smiled at him, trying to convey her gratefulness, and he beamed back at her, dimples showing.

The boys in front of her, however, weren't as impressed with Sean's words. They simply laughed at him, too arrogant to even answer the Ravenclaw.

"Come with me, Kayc. I don't really mind coming to the common room with you. We can study a bit more together for your transfiguration test in two days."

Hermione had barely spoken, when Kaycee's entire form got even smaller, shoulders down, looking defeated.

He didn't want that for her.

He wanted to see her smile, cheering at the quidditch players, having a good time. He wanted her to be happy.

So he did the first thing that came to his mind, afraid that the sisters would be gone by the time he came up with another, probably more sensible idea.

He crouched down.

"Come here Kayc, put your legs on my shoulders, you'll be able to see when I stand up"

Kaycee merely stood there, confused. She hadn't expected Sean to care this much.

"A-are you sure Sean? If I sit on your shoulders, your neck is seriously going to hurt tomorrow.."

But Sean really was sure. He wanted her to be able to enjoy the game, at all costs. If that meant he was going to have a sore neck for the rest of the week, then so be it.

"Don't be silly, I can easily hold you. Now come here"

And so Kaycee did. Somewhat clumsily, she put her legs on both sides of Sean's neck, only feeling safe when Sean wrapped his arms securely around her shins.

She'd expected to feel scared when he'd get up from his crouching position, automatically distancing herself from the ground, but when it came to it, she didn't feel scared at all. She felt surprisingly safe, up there, Sean's hands on her shins, looking over the rude boys in front of them, clearly seeing all the details of the quidditch game.

She didn't know right now, but for the rest of her life, she would get a big smile on her face every time she thought back to this moment...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Winter

Sean's steps were echoing through the corridor. It was quite late already, the time almost reaching curfew, but Sean was distancing himself from his common room with every step he took.

A few weeks ago, the Ravenclaw had discovered the way to the kitchens, and, inquisitive as he was, wanted to go inside to actually understand how the house elves made all the delicious Hogwarts food.

Even though students weren't actually allowed inside the kitchens, the house elves quickly grew fond of the boy and gave him permission to enter whenever he wanted. Some of the house elves even became his friends.

Sean knew Filch would eat him alive if he caught him now, but his current craving for a cup of steaming hot milk overpowered his fear.

He'd been to the kitchens so many times already, that he could probably walk to it with his eyes closed. He was just about to turn the last corner before his destination when something made him halt.

A short sniff, barely audible.

He recognised that kind of crying. When he'd been over to the Granger's for a few days before they went to France, Kylie had teasingly asked them if they still knew what a movie was. They'd all watched 'the odd life of Timothy Green' then, Kylie jokingly claiming that a movie with a little bit of magic would be easier for them to understand, and it had resulted in him and Hermione trying to hold back their tears, and Kaycee bawling on his shoulder. He'd tried to make her stop crying then, secretly quite irritated with Kylie for making her sister cry, and after a while of him soothingly rubbing her back, her bawling indeed subsided to some irregular sniffing.

He would always be able to distinguish her specific kind of sniffling from everyone else's.

He hadn't thought about how he would approach her, what he'd ask her, didn't even question if she wanted him to be near her now. He had to see her and make sure that she was okay again.

He hated it if she cried. He didn't know why he felt so strongly about it, since he wasn't as upset when Hermione cried. Of course he was also worried about his best friend, but there was just something about Kaycee that made him jump in protective mode the second there was something wrong with her.

His feet had automatically brought him closer to the sound. He was in front of a deserted classroom now. Slowly, so as to not immediately alarm her of his presence, he pushed open the door, giving himself a clear sight of her slumped form, still shocking with her sniffling. As always, his heart skipped a beat at the sight of her, but this time it wasn't in a good way.

"K-kayc, what's- do you- can I come in?"

He saw her head turn around quickly, not expecting any visitors so late at night. Her wide eyes were red, and her cheeks were blotched, the patterns of her previous tears glistening in the light the candlelights emitted.

"Y-yeah, sure"

Sean couldn't help but get a sort of warm feeling in his heart when he saw that Kaycee did absolutely nothing to hide the fact that she was feeling miserable. She didn't put up a fake smile, nor did she dry her tears.

She trusted him.

Soon, he was by her side, sitting on the ground next to her. He wrapped one of his arms around her, pulling her closer by her shoulder, while the fingers of his other hand wove themselves through her hair. There they sat, Sean slightly rocking both of them back and forth, remaining silent. He knew better than to speak now, knew she needed her time. She would talk when she wanted to, if she wanted to, and he was not going to force anything out of her.

After a while though, she felt the need to talk.

"It's so stupid Sean, that's the reason I didn't come to you or Hermione in the first place. I-"

She sighed, hesitating, and Sean knew she was contemplating whether she should continue or not. He decided it was time to speak up now.

"Go on then, I won't judge, you know that."

He felt her comforted smile against his neck, but it didn't last as long as he'd hoped it would.

"I just miss my family. And the fact that I do makes me feel so silly. I mean, sometimes, when I'm in my class without you or Hermione, I feel so out of place. All those girls are talking about make up and boys, saying who they're dating and who their crush is while I'm sure they don't know anything about love. I mean, how could they, they're only 12 or 13! I only just turned 13! But I- I don't know. Please don't make me feel silly with your answer on this, but sometimes I just feel...older than all the others in my year. It's like I want to have a serious conversation with someone, but no-one actually cares about serious or meaningful things. They only want to spread rumors or talk about silly things and I'm just not- not into those things. At first I thought that I was behind on my age, but when I talk to you I don't feel like that, so now I just feel old and unappreciated whenever I'm with the girls of my year. But then there are the moments when I'm homesick and I just feel like such a baby, so now I don't really know what to think of myself. I-I'm sorry I'm dumping this all on you, Sean."

He could not believe she just said all that.

He could not believe someone as bubbly and happy as Kaycee had to fight all those thoughts, those demons.

"Kayc...oh dear Lord Kaycee, I wish you'd come to me sooner with this...I had no idea you felt like that. Honestly though, do you really feel like a baby when you miss your family?"

Kaycee only meekly nodded her head, rubbing her face on his shoulder.

"Kaycee, honestly, do you think I'm a baby? Because I miss my family as well. Seriously, everyone here misses their family sometimes. You really shouldn't feel guilty about that! And as for the whole feeling older thing...well, I do as well."

Kaycee promptly lifted her head up from the crook of his neck, looking at him with a surprised expression on her face. Sean, funny, social, talented Sean, had the same problems going on in his head as her? For some reason, that just made her feel a whole lot better. She wasn't the only one dealing with stuff. Problems didn't make her a baby. She felt her usual smile take over, gazing into Sean's brown eyes.

"Please don't ever feel bad about missing your family, or about being more sensible than those other girls. You are unique, Kayc, and that's something to be proud of, not ashamed."

He didn't know why he was whispering, it just felt right. He didn't need a loud voice, Kaycee only being inches away from him, her head slightly tilted upwards to look him in the eyes. He felt it, this moment was special to both of them.

His hand went from her back to her face, slowly wiping her tears away with his thumb.

"Thank you."

She was whispering now as well, as if the delicate moment would be broken by speaking too loud.

He'd kissed her forehead  in the hospital wing at the end of last year, swiftly, afraid she would wake up or someone would walk in on that. He'd been scared to show her his affection then, afraid that she wouldn't want him this close to her.

He wasn't afraid anymore.

He lowered his head, slowly, for the same reason they were whispering, and kissed her forehead softly, holding her close to him.

And when she nuzzled her face in the crook of his neck afterwards, her lips that were curved in a smile a warm line against his skin, he knew that this time, with her full knowledge of what had happened, it felt even better.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spring

Kaycee would never have guessed she would sleep so well in the Great hall with all her fellow students cramped together and thoughts of Sirius Black creeping through her mind, but she had. Her sleep had been blissfully dreamless and uninterrupted.

That is, until her friend felt the need to wake her up even though the first sunrays of the day had barely had a chance to seep through the stained glass windows.

"Kaycee Granger, goodmorning!"

The fact that Luna had the decency to whisper did nothing to soften the blow of suddenly waking up from her deep sleep.

"Luna...wha-what's going on?"

Kaycee could just make out the excited expression on the Ravenclaw's face.

"Well, there's nothing really going on, I just wanted to ask you if you want to come with me to feed the thestrals. I've wanted to ask you for a while now, but I keep forgetting to do so when I talk to you during the day and when I wake up and go to the thestrals in the morning, I can't ask you because you're still in your common room. So, what do you think?"

"I think that we're not allowed to go outside yet. Do you remember the reason we were forced to sleep like a bunch of sardines in the first place?"

But Luna merely smiled at her friend's concern.

"No, I've been up for quite a while. I heard professor Snape ask professor Dumbledore if he could allow pupils to go outside, and Dumbledore answered that it was safe again now that it isn't completely dark outside anymore.

Kaycee thought about that for a bit. She had liked to sleep a little bit longer, but she was awake now anyway, she might as well use her time to talk with Luna. She didn't make nearly enough time for that, Kaycee realised.

"Alright then, but keep quiet please, other people won't be as forgiving as I if you wake them up."

Luna nodded her head enthusiastically, and helped her up, so they could go outside.

"Why do you even go to the thestrals so early? It's the weekend, you have all the time in the world, Luna."

"Well, the thestrals woke up just like us, they need breakfast too, it wouldn't be nice of me to only give them food in the afternoon, now would it?

Kaycee wondered if Luna realised they hadn't eaten either, but chose to keep that thought to herself. This was Luna, she probably had a good reason for giving the thestrals their breakfast first.

"Also, I pass greenhouse 4 on my way to Hagrid's hut where I pick up the meat for the thestrals. Neville Longbottom is always watering the plants in greenhouse 4 around this time, so I can see him as well if I go this early.

Kaycee lifted an eyebrow and looked at her Ravenclaw friend.

"Neville Longbottom? Isn't he in Gryffindor, in his third year? How did you start talking to him if you aren't in the same year or house?"

"Oh, but I have never talked to him. Not yet anyway. He seems like a really nice guy though, so maybe I should start making my presence known when I watch him working in the greenhouses. Do you think that'd be a good idea?"

Kaycee shouldn't feel surprised that Luna watched a guy in the greenhouses while never talking to him, she knew she shouldn't, it was Luna after all, but she couldn't help it. She burst out laughing.

"What, why are you laughing? Are the wrackspurts making your brain fuzzy? I should've known that would happen, your brain isn't used to being outside so early in the morning so it's extra vulnerable to wrackspurts. Are you okay, Kaycee?"

Kaycee's laughter had subsided by now, but the smile that seemed to be permanently glued on her face whenever Luna was around, stayed.

"No Luna, no wrackspurts are making my brain fuzzy, it's just the fact that you are so positive about a boy you've never talked to is quite funny. I would go talk to him though, Hermione says he's a nice guy, so I guess talking to him wouldn't hurt you."

And Luna's face lit up even more. It was a beautiful sight to see, really.

"Okay, it's decided then. Tomorrow, I'll say hi to him before I go to the thestrals. Oh, this is going to be so wonderful, Kaycee! I've always had a feeling he'd have a role in my life! I can't wait!"

And while Luna accelerated her steps into skipping, Kaycee concluded that that would definitely not be the end of Luna and Neville's quirky story.

Being normal was overrated anyway.

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"We can't just do nothing, Hermione!! There has to be a way, and I know for a fact that you have exactly what we need to fix everything! You just don't want to give it to us because there's 'too much risk' but you know what? That's freaking selfish! Maybe we have to take a risk, but if we don't, people will literally die. Do you want to be responsible for that Hermione? Because I certainly don't!!"

Sean sat in the hospital wing, watching how Kaycee got furious with Hermione. He didn't like the direction this was going, Kaycee's red cheeks and dilated pupils reminded him too much of last year, when he'd been at the receiving end of her wrath. He never wanted to have to go through that again.

Hermione stood up from the hospital bed Ron laid in, and Sean held his breath. An angry Kaycee made him sad because he made her mad, but an angry Hermione was simply terrifying.

"I know Kayc, but be reasonable for just a second! We can save some people, but we also risk a lot! I don't want you in danger Kaycee, you're my little sister! In the process of saving lives we could get killed ourselves! You have no idea what you're starting with if you go through with this! And you know what? You can't. I won't let you!"

"So you're saying that you'd rather let Buckbeak die, than take some risk yourself. I thought gryffindors were supposed to be brave, Hermione."

No-one said anything to stop the sisters from fighting, Sean noticed. It was understandable, this was their argument after all, although it'd probably be wise if someone stopped them from scratching each other's eyes out. He was just about to say something, when the big, wooden door of the hospital wing made a high pitched, creaking sound, signaling that they had a visitor.

"Now now, misses Granger, what's gotten you both so worked up?"

The low, warm sound of professor Dumbledore sounded through the room effortlessly, even though he hadn't raised his voice at all. Something inside of Sean told him the headmaster knew exactly what was going on.

Hermione wanted to speak up, but surprisingly, Kaycee beat her to it.

"Headmaster, I know how we can save buckbeak, but Hermione doesn't want to go through with my plan because it holds some risk. I understand that it has some dangers, but aren't multiple lives worth a risk?"

The headmaster's eyes began to twinkle looking at Kaycee, and Sean wondered if he knew what kind of plan Kaycee was talking about. He probably did. The professor turned to look at Hermione, addressing her.

"Miss Hermione Granger, I understand your concern, and I'm not a fan of my students taking unnecessary risks, but considering you made it through the unfortunate events a few hours ago and know what's going to happen, I understand your sister as well. I have faith in you all. I'm not going to force you to do anything about the situation, but if you decide to agree on your sister's plan, I'd suggest you turn it 3 times. Good luck."

And with that, he turned around and exited the hospital wing, leaving Sean, Harry, Hermione, Kaycee and Ron to themselves. It stayed silent for a while.

"Why don't you want to go, Mione?"

Kaycee's tone was softer now, looking at her sister with big, sad eyes. Sean's stomach dropped, seeing those eyes. They were supposed to shine with happiness.

He turned his head, looking at Hermione instead. It was easier.

His best friend sighed, as if tired, but Sean knew better. Hermione was just trying to find a way to convince Kaycee that it was better to not take any risks.

"Kayc, that's not it. I do want to go and help, I just don't want you to go with us. You weren't there, and that's what makes it so much more risky. Please, just understand me. I just don't want you hurt. And before you're going to say anything, I'm not babying you because you are a year younger, this is purely because you weren't there."

And she was right. Kaycee hadn't been there. She'd been with Luna going to the thestrals to visit them. It had become a weekly ritual, Kaycee had once told him, since Luna asked her to go with her a few weeks ago. Because Kaycee had been away, Sean had decided to hang out with Hermione, Ron and Harry that afternoon, resulting in him unintentionally getting involved in the whole affair with scabbers being Peter Pettigrew and professor Lupin being friends with Sirius Black.

It had been quite chaotic, and even though he knew it was for the best, Sean didn't look forward to going there again.

"Okay."

He looked up again, having been so lost in thoughts that he hadn't been following the conversation anymore. The 'okay' was Kaycee's, and Sean had to rack his brain to remember what she was referring to.

"A-are you serious? You're not angry? Last year you were angry for weeks at Sean for not including you...are you sure you're okay with this Kayc?"

But Kaycee only smiled bravely at Hermione.

"I'm sure Mione. If I have to choose between you guys saving lives again or nothing at all, then of course I want those lives to be saved. Just...be careful, please. I love you all so much, I don't want any of you hurt. Come back quickly, okay? I'm going to be worried anyway."

Sean's heart felt like it expanded just a bit, Kaycee's inner Huffelpuff coming through just made him really proud of her. She was so brave for letting almost half of her loved ones go on a dangerous mission. He knew that waiting for people to come back safely was often scarier than doing the dangerous things yourself.

Hermione had stood up completely from Ron's bed now, quickly walking to Kaycee to wrap her in a big hug.

The moment was honestly so beautiful.

"I-uh, I guess it's better this way, with Kaycee staying here with me. I mean, I wouldn't want her hurt."

Sean's eyes promptly shifted from the sisters' embrace to Ron, who was looking quite awkward at what he just said, and from the corner of his eye, he saw Harry shooting his best friend a weird look as well. Normally, Sean didn't care at all when Kaycee's other friends showed affection towards her, she was a very likeable person after all, but something about Ron's tone just made him run cold. He didn't really know why, he only knew that Ron's behaviour towards Kaycee had been really strange this year. He couldn't really put his finger on it, something just didn't feel right about Ron's affection towards Kaycee. He was...too nice?

There wasn't much time to overthink the whole situation though, because Hermione was already taking matters in her hands, and he knew that if she was handling the situation, he should probably pay attention. Her plans were always intricate, she wasn't called the brightest witch of their generation for nothing.

"Okay, here's the plan guys. I have two timeturners. The rules say that you can transport a maximum of two people at once with a timeturner. Ron and Kaycee aren't coming with us, which leaves Harry, Sean and myself. I suggest you guys take a timeturner, and I take the other one. I know how this works so I can do it on my own. If something doesn't work out, at least you'll have eachother. Does everyone agree with this?"

Everyone nodded solemnly.

"Alright. Here's your timeturner. Professor Dumbledore said we had to turn it 3 times to travel to the right hour. You always turn clockwise. Put the chain around both of your necks and close your eyes when you're timetraveling, it'll make you less dizzy when you arrive, okay? Now, good luck. I see you in a minute. Oh and Kaycee, don't worry too much please. It's all going to be alright. I love you"

And before anyone else had the time to react, Hermione had spun her own timeturner and dissolved in thin air.

"Alright, come here Harry. We can't let Hermione fix this on her own, now can we?"

Sean hated the way his fingers were slightly shaking as he put the chain over Harry's head. He wasn't supposed to be nervous for this, he had saved Kaycee out of the Chamber of Secrets while Voldemort was in the same room, for Heaven's sake!

He knew deep down why he was nervous though. When Kaycee had been in danger, his head had focussed solely on getting her out. Now that Kaycee was safely inside of the hospital wing, unharmed, there was time to think the situation through, rather than just paralyzing fear of Kaycee being in danger through his veins.

It seemed that his body had his priorities already sorted out.

"Alright, so we needed to turn counter clockwise, 3 times, wasn't it Sean?"

Harry's voice so close to his ear broke him out of his reverie.

"No, Harry stop! It's supposed to be clockw-"

But his voice slowly faded away, like it stayed in the place the words had been spoken, instead of going with him.

Because he, he was timetraveling.

As soon as his surroundings became steady again, he turned to Harry, who had come down next to him.

"Harry! Are you serious?! It was clockwise! Hermione told us one freaking minute ago!! What did you do now?"

But Harry was eager to get his friend to shut up.

"Not so loud, Sean. I'm sorry, I just...I was still thinking about Ron's strange behaviour and counter clockwise seemed to be logical since we're going back in time rather than forward. Let's go, maybe it all didn't matter that much and we can just go find Mione, okay?"

Sean could only set his worries aside as he tried to keep up with Harry, who had began walking out of the -currently empty- hospital wing.

The familiarity of the corridors they went through made his heart slow down a bit, and he had almost calmed himself down enough to focus on the mission they had to accomplish, when Harry abruptly stopped, right behind a corner.

"Why are we -"

But his voice faded away for the second time in only a few minutes, because another voice boomed through the corridor, a voice which made Sean shake to his core.

"I cannot believe this just happened. Honestly Kaycee, how long has this been going on?"

The voice was low, and obviously very angry. Sean wanted to know who was being so aggressive towards Kaycee. What kind of right did he think he had to treat her like that?

"Sean, stop overreacting. This was the first time this happened, and they didn't have any time to do something to me, now did they? You were fast enough to show them I'm all yours"

Behind the corner, Sean's eyes widened tremendously. Kaycee was talking to him.

And she had said that she was 'all his'. He may be only 14, but that didn't mean he didn't know anything about that kind of stuff: she was clearly insinuating that they were together.

He had to look, couldn't help it. He needee actual, visual proof that it was really him and Kaycee behind that corner. Slowly, he laid a hand on Harry's shoulder, wordlessly alerting him of what he was going to do. After Harry nodded to him, he peaked behind the corner, just enough to see him and Kaycee.

And the sight that greeted him made something inside of him just burst, spreading ice cold streams of shock through his body, followed by a warm, fuzzing glow right after.

There he was, at least a few years older than now, probably around 17, with Kaycee next to him, also around that age. He had grown a lot, Sean noted, he seemed much taller than he was now, since he was towering over Kaycee. His bone structure was more defined, and if he looked very closely, he could just make out a very slight stubble on his chin.

He had grown up.

And then there was Kaycee.

He could honestly say that he had never seen someone as beautiful as the young woman behind the corner. Kaycee had always been beautiful, he realised now, but the person standing next to his grown self was just absolutely breathtaking. Her hair wasn't straightened, falling in rich dark ringlets over her shoulders, highlighting her cheekbones and making her eyes shine just a little more.

So some things didn't change after all.

His older self relaxed at Kaycee's words, smiling now. He wrapped an arm around her and rested his hand on her hip, pulling her closer to him, grinning while looking into her eyes.

"That, you absolutely are, my darling. All mine to love."

The older Kaycee looked up to him, eyes still twinkling. Then, she wrapped her arms around his neck, standing on her tiptoes.

And then, she kissed him.

Kaycee actually kissed him. Full on his lips.

And he didn't seem hesitant to kiss back at all, quite the opposite. He smiled into her kiss, the arm that was still wrapped around her waist pulling her closer to him, his other hand weaving through her curly hair, angling her face so he could reach her better.

He had read some books where writers described moments like these as 'it felt unreal' or 'it didn't register at all'. Not with Sean, no. He was completely, thoroughly aware of what was happening in front of him. He felt it in his body, the little shots of electricity that coursed through him, the clammy hands, the frantic beating of his heart.

This was the future. This was real.

Kaycee pulled back from his lips now, but only slightly.

"I love you Shamu"

It was hard to hear from where he stood, since it was only whispered against his lips, but Sean was sure that's exactly what she said. His older self smiled, dimples showing before Kaycee began poking them, resulting in the two falling into a fit of laughter, clinging to eachother, trying to get at least a little bit of oxygen in between these laugh attacks.

He was so concentrated on the couple in front of him, that he didn't feel the tap on his shoulder the first time. It was only when Harry took a hold of his upper arm that he became aware of his current position again. He looked at his friend, who nodded towards a place behind him. Quickly, Sean turned around, only to be hit with another shock.

There was Hermione, just as grown as the two on the other side of the corner. He actually had to look up, he noted. Hermione had always been at least a head shorter than him, but now he had to tilt his head upwards to look into her eyes. He immediately noticed that her hair wasn't as bushy as it was in his time, but fell down into the same graceful curls Kaycee had, although Hermione's hair had always been a few tints lighter than her sister's. Apart from that, the only thing Sean could register was that she looked stressed.

"Come with me, you two. Hurry!"

She took the fabric of his t-shirt and actually pulled her with him. Trying not to stumble, he quickly followed.

As soon as they reached the first classroom the came accross, Hermione pulled both him and Harry inside and swiftly shut the door behind her.

"First of all: don't ever do that anymore. You have no idea how fragile timing is since you've never used a timeturner before, but I'm telling you now that if it wasn't for me, you would've messed up the timeline tremendously. Am I making myself clear?"

They could only nod solemnly. If possible, Hermione had gotten even scarier when angry through the years.

"Alright. I made sure I would be here on time. You haven't seen anything that'd make such a big difference in time. You both saw Kaycee kiss you, Sean, but we all saw that one coming anyway, now didn't we?"

Her tone was more playful now, her face had softened, and Sean released a breath he didn't know he had held in.

He didn't hear Harry snigger at Hermione's words, too busy paying attention to the older version of his best friend.

"Now, as nice as it was meeting your innocent, young selves again, it's better that you go to your present time as fast as possible, alright?"

She walked closer to them, pulling the chain of the timeturner that was still around Harry around Sean's neck as well. Then, she tapped her wand 4 times on the actual clock of the timeturner, looking very concentrated. She was just about to say a spell -Sean had seen that expression a million times before on her face and would always be able to recognise it- before her head shot up again.

"Oh, Sean, before I forget, one advice for you. Don't worry too much about Ron's behaviour. He seems nuts now, I know he does, but he has no intention whatsoever to hurt you or Kaycee, or your relationship for that matter. He has his reasons to act like he does, truly. Okay, it's really time to go now. I love you both so much. See you in a few minutes."

And before he could answer her or even fully register what she had said, her eyes were focused on the time turner again.

"Tempum quattuor anno verto"

The world was spinning again. Sean closed his eyes quickly, trying to ignore the churning sensation in his abdomen. He wanted to find Harry in this swirling mess, desperately in need of something solid, but his hands could only grasp air, or at least something that felt like air.

And then, as soon as it had come, it was over. His feet hit actual floor and his surroundings became clear again.

For the first few seconds, his mind was solely focussed on making sure that they actually came back to the right time and that Harry had come back to the present with him unharmed. It was only when he sat down on one of the vacant hospital beds and took a deep breath, that everything came rushing back to him, as if his mind had bottled up the discoveries of the last hour and abruptly let these revelations spew out of that bottle now.

His voice. Kaycee's hair. He called her darling. She kissed him.

And suddenly, he understood.

He understood all the jumps his heart made when she was around, the nauseous feeling he felt when she laughed with other boys, the goosebumps that erupted on his skin when she touched him.

Writing date: November 2018

Genre: Fluff? 

Warnings: Genuine childish innocence. Also, get ready for beta-ed (someone explain this conjugation to me) stuff in the next chapter :)

Word count: 9k lol

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Autumn

"Granger, Kaycee!"

The 11-year old hesitantly walked towards professor McGonagall, so the sorting hat could decide which house'd be best for her. She saw her sister give her a thumbs up from the corner of her eye, but it didn't help calming her nerves. The walk to the front of the Great Hall seemed to take ages, but in reality of was only about 40 seconds. Before she could really prepare herself for her sorting, the hat was already pulled over her head.

Kaycee closed her eyes, waiting for the sorting hat to say something. She knew what would be coming. Hermione and Sean had told her all about their conversation with the sorting hat.

Except, there was no such thing as a conversation right now. The sorting hat stayed completely silent.

Time seemed to stop, even though mere seconds seemed like hours in that gigantic room. Kaycee wanted to ignore everything around her and focus on the hat instead, but it was simply impossible. And it became even harder when the other students began whispering to eachother. She strained her ears, trying to hear what they were talking about. The word she seemed to hear the most was 'hatstall', but she absolutely didn't know what that was. Was it a wizarding term? If it was, Hermione surely hadn't told her about it.

Just when Kaycee was convinced that there had been some kind of cruel mistake and she wasn't a witch, the sorting hat surprisingly shook her out of her thoughts:

"You're quite the extroardinary lady, miss Granger. It's a very rare occurence that I have difficulties sorting a new student... I'm going to be very honest with you. It's going to be either Ravenclaw or Hufflepuf. You have this massive amount of loyalty in you and your kindness is one of your strongest traits, but I can't just ignore your uniqueness, your individuality, which could indicate that you're destined to be a Ravenclaw...what do you think, yourself?

Kaycee was silently thinking, eyes closed. If she was 100 % honest with herself, she had to admit that she felt like a Hufflepuf. She couldn't explain it, she just felt like she belonged there. However, there was also a part of her that screamed: 'You're a weirdo! Ravenclaw praises uniqueness! And Sean's in Ravenclaw..."

And she didn't know why, but she suddenly had to fight a heavy blush from coloring her cheeks. The sorting hat on her head was long forgotten.

"Okay, miss Granger. Your thoughts really helped me making a decision. You've sat here way too long, people are already talking about the fact that you're the first hatstall in years."

Kaycee wanted to ask what a hatstall was, but the sorting hat seemed eager to get this over with.

"You've got a unique personality, miss Granger, but your kindness outnumbers your uniqueness effortlessly. And now I know that you don't really have a preference, I am convinced that you're destined to be a...

"HUFFLEPUF!"

Finally, Kaycee opened her eyes. The first thing she saw were Hermione and Sean, simultaneously standing up from their respective housetables and urging on their housemates to join them in their standing ovation.

A smile crept on Kaycee's face.

And then she caught sight of the Hufflepuf table.

All her housemates were, without exception, beaming at her, applauding, beckoning her to come over and join them.

So she did.

She didn't doubt it anymore.

She was a real Hufflepuf.

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"Take your books on page 24. We're going to investigate the difference between monkswood and wolfsbane. Everyone is going to make an essayment about what you learned this lesson and hand it in by next one. The minimal length is..."

Kaycee couldn't help it. She tried to listen to professor Snape, but his voice was so monotone that she couldn't help but zone out. Her mind took her away from potions, and brought her to an evening during the summer holidays.

She'd been at home, it'd been pretty late. She'd been to Disney world with her parents, her siblings and Sean that day, which had resulted in her brain being way too active to go to sleep. There was only one thing that helped her when she couldn't sleep: dance. After tossing and turning for a few hours, she'd tiptoed downstairs, towards her dance room.

When Kaycee'd arrived there, she'd turned around, straining her ears to hear if she woke anyone up. The whole house had been silent, so she'd quickly opened the door and gone into het dance room...

She was dancing, moving her body to the music like she was water, so fluid. Her mind went blank, the only thing she felt was the immense happiness dancing brought her. When she was dancing, she could really let go of everything and just be herself.

She absolutely loved it.

The music stopped, and Kaycee hurriedly ran to her phone to pick another song. She was busy choosing one, when she heard a voice speaking, not that far away from her:

"That was really beautiful, Kaycee. Hermione told me you dance, but I didn't realise that you'd be this good..."

Kaycee turned around as fast as possible. She hadn't meant for someone to see her, and certainly not Sean. He stood there, leaning against the door frame, with an expression of wonder on his face.

She felt her cheeks turn crimson. How could she draw the attention away from herself?

And then Hermione's letter from a few weeks ago shot through her head: "Sometimes, he reminds me so much of you, it's unbelievable. And not just because you both dance..."

Kaycee got an idea. She smiled at Sean and said:

"Oh, well, thanks. But I'm not that good...anyway, Hermione told me you dance too! Care to show me something?"

She looked right into his eyes, and saw something flicker in them. It was kind of hard to say, but she thought she saw a mix between curiousness and passion in them. Dancing clearly meant as much to him as it meant for her.

He walked a few steps into the room, still hesitating. "Okay, then. But only if you dance with me."

Kaycee thought about that. It wasn't a bad idea. In fact, it'd be the perfect opportunity to get to know him...

"Deal!"

She turned around and let the music blast once again through the speakers. When she was done, she turned around and saw that Sean was beckoning her to come over to the middle of the room. When she was close enough to him, he gave her an encouraging smile, as if to say: let's do this together, and began dancing. Kaycee watched him move. At first, it was slow, but soon, he seemed completely in his own world, not even moving in time with the music, but owning it.

Kaycee felt herself move in sync with him. She didn't even try, it just felt so natural...they locked eyes again, and the world seemed to stop.

In the few days that Sean had been here, she'd gotten the impression that he was a nice boy, but she hadn't really gotten the chance to get to know him. She'd wondered why Hermione had seemed so convinced that they would get along so well.

She had her anwer now.

She had never felt so connected to someone in her entire life. She was dancing her heart out, pouring out so much emotions without feeling embarrassed that he was there to witness it. Without agreeing on it, they were already dancing like this was a duet and not just some improve. A wonderful feeling spread through Kaycee's entire body. She felt warm, safe, she'd even go as far as to say that she finally felt like she was ho-

"Miss Rice, do you care to explain why you are still sitting here? I thought I made it very clear that the class was dismissed, but apparently, you find yourself important enough to force me to repeat myself. You. Are. Dismissed."

With every word that Snape said, he came closer to Kaycee, who'd woken up from her daydream as soon as the scary teacher's voice had echoed through the dungeons. She looked around the class room: it was completely empty, except for herself and professor Snape. How had she managed to daydream for so long without noticing?

Her eyes landed on the greasy-haired man again, and she suddenly remembered what he said.

She collected her stuff as soon as possible and scurried out of the class room, all the while mumbling apologies.

She turned the corner and let out a deep sigh.

Leave it to Sean to get her into trouble when he isn't even physically there.

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Kaycee Granger sat on the grass, in a secluded spot near the Great Lake. This was by far her favorite place in Hogwarts. It was an afternoon in late octobre, but the sun shone brightly and it was surprisingly warm for the time of the year. The young girl tilted her head backwards, letting herself bask in the warmth of the sun. She loved this: the slight breeze that blew through her hair, the birds singing one last time, before they flew to warmer regions, the sun rays touching her skin. It was one of those perfect moments where you just want to stay in forever.

Kaycee was just contemplating whether she could procrastinate her homework for another hour or not, when she heard Sean's voice coming closer and closer to her.

"Unbelievable! The nerve of that boy! How dare he call you a mudblood!"

Kaycee turned her head now, wanting to know what was happening. Walking in her direction were an annoyed looking Sean, a strangely emotionless Harry, her sister who was seemingly very determined to figure out her thoughts and Ron....who was vomiting?

No-one seemed to notice her.

"Hey, Hermione, wait! What happened?"

All four of them now stopped in their tracks, looking at Kaycee. Sean didn't seem to mind that he had another person to spill his guts to, so he quickly turned around and sat down beside her. The rest followed suit.

"We came across Draco Malfoy", Sean began, still worked up from whatever had happened. "He found it necessary to call Hermione a 'filthy little mudblood'. I was angry, but apparently, Ron was much angrier, because he took out his wand and tried to jinx Malfoy. But the spell backfired and now he's stuck with vomiting slugs until the spell wears off."

Kaycee looked at Ron sympathetically. The poor boy couldn't say anything. Every time he opened his mouth, a handful of slugs came out. She really pitied him, he was a nice boy who was only trying to protect her sister. Kaycee considered him as a friend, after all the stories her sister had told her about him and the few times that she had spent time with the group of friends.

Her eyes shifted towards Sean, and she put up a sad but determined smile, addressing both Ron and Sean.

"Guys, I know Hermione means a lot to both of you, but you should really calm down about these kind of things. There'll always be people like Malfoy who go through life like this. He was raised this way, he can't really be blamed for the way he thinks now."

This time, Ron said something. Or at least, he tried to.

"K-urghhhh Kaycee! Are you seriou-uuuuuurhhg defending that ferret now?! You th-think it's okay-uuuurggghhh to, to call people mudbloods? Seriousl-uuuurggghhh"

Kaycee shook her head.

"No, I'm not saying it's okay to call people mudbloods, I'm simply stating some facts here. Malfoy shouldn't have done what he did, but let's be honest: his dad doesn't seem like a warm and caring father either. I'm saying I'm not surprised by how Draco acts, if you see in what kind of family he grew up."

At this, Hermione's head shot up, surprised by her sister's words.

"You saw Draco's father? When? Where? And where was I when at that moment?"

Sean had to admit that he too was surprised. He began feeling slightly sick to his stomach. First, Hermione being called a mudblood, and now Kaycee apparently knowing Malfoy's father. Both girls meant the world to him, and the last thing he wanted was to see them hurt. He asked himself the same as Hermione had asked Kaycee: where had he been when Kaycee saw Draco's father?

Sean felt a twinge in his chest. He should've been there when she had seen that man.

But Kaycee was quick to reassure her friends.

"Don't worry, guys, nothing serious happened. You were all busy with professor Lockhart's book signing. I was just looking through the shop when he passed me. The opening between the stacks was quite small, so he grunted that I should move for him. I did, but he still brushed against me. He didn't apologize to me, but it doesn't really matter. I'm okay now, aren't I?"

"If you say so...But if you see him again, or anyone else who makes you uncomfortable for that matter, please make sure that I'm around, okay?"

"Don't worry, Sean. I can handle those purebloods. I appreciate the fact that you want to protect me, but you have nothing to worry about."

Kaycee was sitting there beside him with a smile on her face, convincing him that she was okay.

But the sinking feeling in Sean's stomach didn't go away.

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Winter

About a month went by since the slug incident, and the temperature outside had dropped dramatically. Kaycee, however, had other things on her mind. It was approximately 5 in the afternoon, and she was walking with quick strides towards her destination: the ravenclaw tower, or more specifically: Sean Lew.

Originally, she'd intended to go to him to ask him about a specific chapter in her DADA book she didn't really understand, but now that she was walking, she didn't even remember her question anymore. Deep down, she knew she could've asked him when she saw him tomorrow, she just chose to go to him immediately.

While she was walking, her mind drifted towards Sean. She was sure he wouldn't mind her coming to him for her questions about her homework. In fact, she realised while a smile began forming on her lips, he didn't mind her asking him anything.

Maybe they could go to the abandoned classroom they always went to to dance together after he'd answered her questions.

She'd been so lost in thoughts, that she hadn't realised she already arrived at the ravenclaw common room.

And then it hit her: she didn't know how to enter. Moreover, she didn't know if she was allowed to enter altogether.

"Do you want to go in?"

An airy voice startled Kaycee out of her thoughts. Quickly, she looked in the direction the voice came from and saw a girl around her age, with long strawberry blond hair and a dreamy expression on her face. The Hufflepuf nodded, she hadn't found her ability to speak yet, still trying to recover from the shock of someone seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

"If it was my decision, I'd let you enter, you seem like a genuinely nice person. Unfortunately, only Ravenclaws are allowed to enter, and if I'm not mistaken, you're a huf-- wait a minute! You're Kaycee, aren't you? Sean Lew's friend? I saw him this morning, he was complaining about the fact that he couldn't just dance with you, instead of going to professor Snape's class. I guess you're here for him? I'll make an exception for you, and I'll show you how to enter, listen closely!"

The rambling girl smiled at her and began enthousiastically explaining to her how to enter. Kaycee couldn't contain her smile either.

"This eagle knocker asks a different riddle every day. If you answer the riddle correctly, you are allowed to enter. If not, you have to wait until someone solves it for you. It's as simple as that!"

Kaycee wanted to answer the girl, but the Eagle already cut her off:

What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?

Kaycee wracked her brain, trying to understand the riddle, but she didn't get it...someone behind a computer who talked to people around the world with the help of the internet? But a computer was a muggle object, surely the knocker wouldn't ask something like that, would it? She turned her head towards the other girl, who was watching her with a mild smile on her face. She wasn't laughing at Kaycee though, it was an encouraging kind of smile, and for that, she was the ravenclaw incredibly grateful.

"Can you help me please? I really don't know the answer...?"

The girl's smile became even brighter, and for some reason, she reminded Kaycee of herself. Her whole family always told her how her smile was her best characteristic, and it was the same with this girl.

"Of course! Anything for a friend! And the answer is a stamp."

The door opened, and the girl turned around to walk away, clearly just here to help the huffelpuf and not to enter herself."

"Wait- STOP!"

The blonde stopped in her tracks and shifted her attention towards Kaycee.

"I wanted to say thank you! And I don't know your name yet!"

"I'm Luna Lovegood. It was nice helping a new friend, Kaycee Rice. But now I really should get going. I promised the thestrals I'd visit them today. Bye!"

She didn't know who the thestrals were, come to think of it, she didn't even know if the thestrals were a group of who or what. But as she watched the quirky girl walk away, she realised that she was glad she made friends with someone like Luna. Someone who wouldn't only accept kaycee's weirdness, but also understand it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"SEAN CHARLES LEW, YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW ANGRY I AM AT YOU RIGHT NOW!!"

Sean was sitting in the library. It was the 26th of decembre, and Hermione had been brought to the hospital wing after her 'makeover' yesterday. Sean felt guilty. Even though he hadn't really been responsible for Hermione's semi-transformation into a cat, he had been participating in their plan to get Harry and Ron into the Slytherin common room. His guilt made him come to the library, even though teachers didn't give them tests anymore. He wanted to find something to cure Hermione faster. The young ravenclaw knew madame Pomfrey was already doing everything in her power to make Hermione better as soon as possible, but trying to find a better cure seemed to ease the guilt just a tiny bit.

Hermione had been incredibly embarrassed yesterday, not even wanting to show him her face. She'd made them swear not to tell a soul about the incident, about how she looked, and the boys had all promised to keep their mouth shut.

But apparently, Kaycee had discovered her sister's condition.

And judging by the volume of her voice, Sean Lew was about to face her wrath.

In a library.

He tried to say something that'd stop her from making a scene in such a silent room, but no words came out of his mouth.

With blazing eyes, she hissed: "come outside. I need to talk to you. Right now."

And with that, she turned around and marched out of the library. Sean wasn't stupid. He didn't even think of dissobeying her. The scared boy immediately scooped up all the books that were scattered on the table, and followed her outside. As soon as both of his feet were outside of the library, she began her tirade once again.

"I am so incredibly dissapointed in you. I never thought you'd be so stupid. I thought you were nice, God, I thought we were friends, but apparently, I was wrong."

Sean's eyes widened. She didn't want to be his friend anymore? He knew she'd be angry with him when she'd discover what had happened with her sister, but breaking their friendship? Malfoy wasn't worth such a high price.

He didn't like the blonde Slytherin, much less trusted him, but if she wanted him to leave the ferret alone, he would.

For her.

"K-kaycee, I am so sorry...I know it was stupid of us to make that potion, but I swear I only joined because Malfoy had insulted Hermione. I mean, I don't want that to happen to her again, and I certainly don't want it to happen to you. I just wanted to protect the two of you. It was stupid of us, and I-I just hope you can forgive me. W-we're still....friends, right?"

Sean looked with his hopeful eyes in her angry ones. She didn't seem to be any calmer than before his speech.

It scared him tremendously.

"Don't you get it Sean? I'm not angry that you made that stupid potion or tried to enter that common room, I'm angry because you didn't tell me! If I'd be even a tiny bit important to you, you would've told me what you guys were doing all that time, but no, you leave me out of everything you do!! Why? Because I'm a year younger than you guys are? Seriously, I'm not a baby anymore, you can tell me things!!"

Kaycee sighed.

"Why do I even care? You clearly don't care about me. I'm not talking to you anymore."

She turned around, but Sean was quicker, terrified that she'd leave him alone.

He laid an arm on her shoulder, which made her stop in her tracks and turn around.

Sean felt his heart sink. He could handle an angry Kaycee, but the intensity her eyes held only moments ago was gone. Now, he only saw hurt and immense pain in those beautiful, big brown eyes.

It made his heart break.

"Please Kaycee, I'm sorry. Don't go. Talk to me."

But while he was looking into her eyes, he already knew her answer.

"We'll see about our friendship when Hermione gets out of the hospital. You really hurt me, Sean."

With that, she walked away again, and this time, he let her.

But it broke his heart all over again.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spring

Sean Lew was absolutely desperate. Hermione had been in the hospital for weeks, and Kaycee had kept her word: she hadn't talked to him in 36 days and 14 hours.

And Sean was absolutely miserable without her.

It was still quite early in the morning, his roommates not bothering to get up anytime soon since it was a Sunday, but Sean had other plans. He'd visit Hermione today, just like the previous 37 days, but today, he'd also talk with his best friend about Kaycee. He needed Hermione's advice on this, he wanted to make it up to Kaycee, but had absolutely no idea how to begin with that.

Ignoring the cold that hit his body when he pulled te blanket off of him, he got out of his four poster bed and put some clothes on. After quickly brushing his teeth and putting on some shoes, he began walking towards the hospital wing.

His mind was filled with a million questions on his way there. How was Hermione doing? Would she be able to get out of the hospital wing soon? Would Kaycee talk to him after that, or still be stubborn? Would their friendship really end?

His mind was so busy with all those questions, that he almost walked right into the massive oak door of the hospital wing. Scolding himself for being so inobservant, he raised his hand to open the door, until a certain voice on the other side made him freeze.

"Come on, Kaycee. How long have you been avoiding him? Just admit to yourself that you are hurting because of this as well. It's pointless, Kayc. Why don't you just admit that you hate not being around him?"

Shit. Kaycee was visiting Hermione.

Some part of him wanted to get away from this situation as soon as possible, but another part of him was really curious about Kaycee's answer.

He stayed.

"I know, Hermione...I- I don't...He-"

Her voice clearly gave away her frustration.

"Can I tell you something really personal, Hermione?"

"Of course Kayc, I'm your sister, I'll always be there for you, and you know that."

"I never would've thought not talking to him would affect me so much. I thought it'd bother me a bit at first, but I'd get over it after a few days. But, really, I don't eat, I'm never hungry, and when I want to sleep, I constantly dream about him and wake up even more exhausted then when I went to bed...what do I do now, Hermione? I am getting desperate.."

Still wide-eyed from what Kaycee had told her sister, Sean tried to hear as much as he could from the conversation. He could hear a bit, but the thick wood of the door wasn't making it very easy.

Sean needed to hear more. He had missed her voice.

The 12 year old knew very well that it was a bad idea, but nonetheless, he opened the door only slightly, peeping through the crack he'd made.

He saw Hermione, who looked a lot healthier then she did a few weeks ago, sitting on her bed with her legs crossed. Then, his eyes shifted towards the other person in the room, and his breath hitched.

There she was, Kaycee Rice, long, curly hair hanging loosely around her shoulders, eyes big with worry, arms crossed over her body, as if to shield herself from the world.

"You solved your own problem, Kaycee, if you miss him so much, you have to talk to hi- Oh look who's there! Sean, come in! I think it's about time that you and my sister have a serious conversation!"

Shit. That didn't go as he'd planned.

Hesitantly, he made his way towards Hermione's hospital bed, looking at the ground, scared of making eyecontact with the 2 sisters.

"Hi, Sean"

It took only 2 words to change his mind. He looked up from the ground, and locked eyes with the girl he had missed more than anything he ever had in his entire life. Her eyes were big, and looked at him with more emotions swirling inside them than sean could count.

They didn't talk, didn't have to. The 2 of them just stared at eachother. They talked without words, their bond still strong enough to communicate by just looking at the other.

They understood effortlessly.

Sean saw the hurt in her eyes, but he also saw the hope. Hope, he realized, that they could fix whatever they'd broken a few weeks prior. Hope that their friendship would be as strong as before, if not stronger.

Hope that everything would finally be okay.

He prayed that she understood his eyes as well. That she understood how sorry he was, how much guilt he felt. How much he'd do to fix this.

And then suddenly, he saw something change in her eyes. It almost seemed like the last barrier, the last thing holding her back from forgiving him completely, crumbled.

And she did as well. Shaking, she put a few steps forward and fell into his arms, clinging to him. Her sobs made his sweater wet, and his teardrops landed on her hair.

They didn't care. All they felt was the other's presense, their warmth, the fact that the other was really there, was real.

They didn't know how long they stood there, just holding onto each other like their life depended on it. It could've been minutes, or hours, or days.

It didn't even matter.

"Ahem. I'm really happy that you guys, uh, talked, but if you don't want to get yelled at by madame Pomfrey, I'd make sure to get out of here. If she discovers I haven't had a chance to sleep in about 3 hours, she probably won't let me go tomorrow, and I don't want to lay in this bed a second longer than is necessary."

Sean had completely forgotten about Hermione, but something she'd said had caught his attention:

"You're allowed to leave tomorrow?"

Hermione gave him a bright smile and nodded.

"Yup. I can finally get back to class now!"

But that wasn't what Sean was concerned about. Sure, he was really happy for Hermione, she was his best friend after all, but he could only think about one thing: if Hermione was leaving the hospital tomorrow,  would Kaycee consider talking to him again?

He looked down at her, only to see that she was already looking up at him. She answered him verbally, knowing him well enough to understand what he was thinking.

"Of course I forgive you, Shamu. You still hurt me, but I talked with Hermione about it and I understand now that you didn't do it on purpose. So we'll continue our friendship from now on...if you still want to, that is..."

Her eyes grew worried towards the end of that sentence, and Sean didn't know if his heart was breaking or melting. He wanted to take away her doubts, worries, pain. And even though he really didn't know what he was feeling at this moment or what he was supposed to do in a situation like this, he just did what felt right.

He tightened his arms around her and gave her a light kiss on her forehead.

"Of course I still want to be friends with you, Ricebowl. I wouldn't want to trade our friendship for anything in this world."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Why are you packing your stuff already? We've only been in here for 2 hours!"

Kaycee was in the library with her sister. While her time in the library had been very productive - Hermione had made sure she was actually studying and not zoning out - she really wanted to get out of there and actually have some fun.

"Sean's almost coming. We agreed to watch the quidditch match between Hufflepuf and Gryffindor toge-"

"You ready Kayc?"

Both sisters turned their head and saw Sean. He had a bright smile on his face, clearly excited for the quidditch match, although Hermione secretly assumed it had something to do with the fact that he'd go somewhere with Kaycee.

Kaycee nodded her head, equally as excited, and stood up from her chair, ready to walk out of the library.

"Slow down guys, not so fast...Sean, where's the time you cheered for Gryffindor?"

Sean looked sheepishly at his best friend. He didn't really know what to say to that. Was she really that upset about him cheering for Hufflepuff? She didn't even like quidditch, or did she?

He didn't have to worry though, because Hermione giggled, and quickly reassured him that she was just making fun of him.

"I'm only kidding Sean, of course I'm not upset. Go have fun, I'll stay here and study a bit more. Maybe I'll come as well when I'm done here. But just so you know it, I'll cheer for my own house."

Sean and Kaycee both got a big smile on their face, glad that Hermione wasn't upset. They both knew very well that an angry Hermione was not so easy to deal with. And for some reason, it was so much more fun to do things when you knew your best friend or sister supported you.

So they waved goodbye to the Gryffindor, and off they went.

The walk to the quidditch pitch was filled with laughter. Kaycee realised that she really couldn't help but feel good whenever she was around Sean. He made her smile, made her a happier person, a better one.

Soon, the game began, and Kaycee couldn't have asked for a better afternoon. They both weren't that fierce about quidditch, but that wasn't really a problem. Whenever there wasn't a lot of action during the match, they'd both come up with crazy dancemoves they could try on a broom. Maybe they could even try a whole broom choreo in the future...

Time seemed to fly, and before they knew, the game had ended. The sun already began to set, and Sean and Kaycee decided it was time to go inside. The 2 students began walking towards the castle, and Sean grabbed her hand so they wouldn't lose each other in the mass of people. As soon as his fingers closed themselves around her palm, her palm heated up and weird sparks seemed to come off of it, but Kaycee shrugged it off, not really knowing what the feeling meant. Little did she know that these kind of things were something she would worry about a lot, a few years from now...

Even if she wanted to at 11, she didn't get the time to overthink those sparks, because professor McGonagall was standing in the middle of the still buzzing crowd, and she was coming their way.

Kaycee had an uneasy feeling that the grim expression on her face had nothing to do with the fact that the rest of the quidditch season had just been cancelled.

"Mr Lew, miss Granger, please come with me. I need to show you something very important."

She didn't say anything else, she just turned around and began making her way through the crowd.

Sean and Kaycee shared a worried glance. What was going on? What did professor McGonagall want to show them when they both weren't even in her house?

They entered the castle. Kaycee and Sean followed the professor blindly, staircase up, staircase off...until they arrived in the hospital wing.

Kaycee felt like an ice cold hand got a grip on her heart. All previous sparks Sean's hand had given her were gone, and they were replaced by shivers that went up her spine.

If professor McGonagall wanted both Sean and her to come with her to the hospital wing, it could only mean one thing: There was something going on with Hermione.

Nothing could've prepared Kaycee for what she saw when the curtains to Hermione's bed were opened.

There her sister laid, completely stiff, eyes wide open in terror, with a mirror laying in her still raised hand.

The cold fist around her heart tightened its grip, and she felt like she couldn't breathe.

Her sister had been petrified.

She heard Sean's sharp intake of breath beside her only slightly, much less registering his hand around her shoulder, trying to comfort her, or the soothing words he tried to reassure her with. The only thing Kaycee's mind could register at the moment was the rigid form of the sister she was closest to.

"Breathe, Kayc, you need to breathe. Come on, let's sit down, I don't want you to pass out."

Sean led her to the two seat beside the bed, gently made her sit down and then sat down beside her himself.

"Now I know that you're scared Kaycee, but everything will be fine. Hermione's really strong, and we both know that. She won't give up so easily. Besides, there's a cure for this, professor McGonagall just said it, but I don't think you were really listening...it doesn't matter, I listened for the 2 of us. Anyway, this might look really scary, but it'll be okay, I promise. Don't be scared, I'm with you. Just please breathe."

Kaycee forced her eyes to look away from Hermione, and took a glance at Sean. She didn't know what she did to deserve him. They'd known each other for what? 11 months? And she was already attached to him like her life depended on it. He was the only one who could calm het down, the only one who could make her breathe.

"But Sean, aren't you scared? Your best friend is in hospital. You shouldn't have to worry about me.."

She wanted to look away, being ashamed all of a sudden, but Sean was having none of it.

"Nonsense Kaycee. Here's the thing: I am worried about Hermione, I really am, but I can't do anything to make her better right now. I can, however, let you calm down. You both mean a lot to me, and if I can't help one of you, I can at least make sure that the other one is safe and well."

The hand around her heart loosened its grip just a little bit, and while she was still worried sick, the panic wasn't paralyzing her anymore.

Kaycee knew full well that this situation was nowhere near good, but Sean's comforting hand and soothing words were registering now, and they made the world at least a little bit better.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summer

Sean Lew felt like the past few hours of his life were a movie he had been sucked into.

It had all begun a few hours ago, when he was walking under the first few warm sunrays of this year, trying to clear his head. He was just strolling around the lake, when Harry and Ron came towards him, all the while calling his name.

They had told him that they figured out where the chamber of secrets was.

He'd raised his eyebrows at first, not really believing them, they had been searching for a whole year after all, but when the two Gryffindors explained it to him - Hagrid and his spiders, the girl who was killed in the bathroom and Hermione's clue about the basilisk- it suddenly made sense.

The 3 of them had made their way back to the castle, forced professor Lockhart to take them to moaning Myrtle's bathroom and upon arriving there, had had a hurried conversation with the latter.

After that, Harry had opened the chamber by speaking parseltongue, and they'd all crawled through the opening. They knew they didn't have much time left. The writing on the wall, "her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever", was still engraved in all of their minds.

But then, Lockhart had begun being a thorn in the flesh, threatening to wipe their memories, and Sean had been scared that their plan to save 'her' from the chamber would've been in vain. Fortunately, Lockhart's spell had backfired and Ron had proposed to stay behind, which permitted him and Harry to continue their way through the previously hidden dungeons.

They came across a set of doors, and Harry had to use his ability to speak parseltongue a second time that day.

They went through the door, and arrived in the chamber of secrets.

On the other end of the chamber was a gigantic statue of Salazar Slytherin, and right in front of that laid a seemingly lifeless body.

Kaycee Rice's body.

This whole time, Sean had felt as if he was in some kind of movie, everything had happened in a blur, but now, standing there in that gigantic chamber, looking at the laying form of the girl, he felt as if an ice cold bucket of water had been thrown over his head.

That girl there was kaycee, not some random person, but the girl he had fun with, trusted, subconciously already loved.

He didn't hesitate, didn't think about the consequences of running through a room that had been locked for over 50 years. He just did it.

When he was close enough to her for his liking, he let himself fall on knees. His hands automatically went to her shoulders, gently trying to shake her awake. "Kaycee, please, wake up, we've got to get out of here."

"Oh believe me, she won't wake up."

Sean quickly turned around. In front of him stood a pale boy, black hair, Dark eyes, emotionless expression on his face. Whoever this boy was, Sean immediately took a dislike to him.

But Harry apparently didn't.

"Tom! Please help us! We've got to get out of here with Kaycee, please!!"

As Harry came closer to him and the pale boy, realisation dawned upon Sean.

This was the mysterious Tom Riddle, owner of the diary Harry had told him all about.

Tom didn't seem that affected by Harry's entreaties, he merely scoffed.

"How could you have survived Voldemort's attack on you as a baby?"

And suddenly, all pieces clicked together in Sean's head. He understood. In a fright, he looked over at Harry, only to see his friend with a confused expression on his face.

Sean knew he couldn't start yelling, he couldn't do anything now to warn Harry that he was talking to you know who. He just had to keep calm and try to get harry and Kaycee out of here before Tom Riddle could cause even more harm.

A cold, vicious laugh echoed through the chamber, and made Sean wake up from his previous thoughts.

"You don't get it, do you? Okay, let me help you, Harry"

The pale boy took out his wand and began writing something in the air with red, glowing letters.

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

Sean saw Harry's eyes widen, his head turning to him, looking at him with eyes full of terror. Sean tried to give Harry a look of reassurance, to tell him to stay calm non-verbally, but it just didn't work. As much as he loved Harry, they simply didn't have the same connection as he and Kaycee had.

There wasn't much time to communicate, however, because Tom Riddle began speaking again:

"You think I kept my filthy muggle father's name? No, I gave myself a new name, a name I knew people would fear once I became the greatest sorcerer of all time! "

It was at that moment that Sean's blood seriously began to boil. Not one muggle, or muggleborn for that matter, should be called filthy. Being a pureblood didn't make you a great wizard, muggleborns were just as good. And the fact that he had the nerve to call himself the greatest sorcerer of all time made Sean just forget his previous plan to keep his mouth shut.

"Albus Dumbledore is the greatest sorcerer of all time!"

Slowly, Tom Riddle tore his eyes away from Harry, and focused on the young Ravenclaw instead.

"And what gives you the right to talk to me? I don't think I've ever seen someone who looks like you in a book about pureblood families, which means that you're either a mudblood or a halfblood, and that means that I won't spend my precious time talking to you. Just go lay with your mudblood girlfriend or something."

Sean didn't think he had ever been this angry. He wanted to run to Tom, swing his fist in his face, spit at him, strangle him, but Harry took a hold of his arm before he had a chance to do anything. Tom Riddle, however, didn't pay much attention to the younger boy's sudden outburst. Instead, he simply turned his back towards them, and began speaking.

In parseltongue.

Harry turned, once again, to Sean, eyes even wider than a minute ago, if that was even possible, and this time, their communication went flawless.

Run.

But Sean didn't want to.

Harry seemed to have forgotten the curly-haired girl in all his fright, but Sean definitely hadn't. He had to keep her away from harm, at all cost.

And it wasn't even that he wasn't scared, 'cause he definitely was. He was terrified, frightened, panic-stricken, you name it, Sean felt it.

But loosing Kaycee would hurt so much more.

They should've known that there would follow something much worse than just the sissing sound of parseltongue, should've known that those kind of Dark things always led to other Dark things, but they weren't prepared for what came closer to them as a response on the parseltongue.

Out of nowhere came Salazar Slytherin's basilisk.

And the creature was ready to attack them.

Instinctively, Sean shuffled closer to Kaycee, trying to protect her. He was looking for something to defend himself with, but when he looked up, he saw that he shouldn't be scared for his own life.

He should be scared for Harry's.

The basilisk seemed to ignore him and Kaycee completely, diving to Harry as if he was the only one in the room.

"HARRY! COVER YOU EYES!!!"

His friend didn't turn around, but followed Sean's advice, thankfully.

Harry was blindly running now, seemingly not really caring where he was going, as long as it was out of the basilisk's eyesight. Just as Sean began to think about a plan to help the Gryffindor, he heard a long hoot.

He looked up. There, high up in the chamber, was Fawkes the Phoenix, with in his beak, the sorting hat.

Sean watched while the beautiful bird flew a few circles in the air, and then descended, letting the sorting hat fall near Harry's feet. He saw Harry looking at him from where he stood, a questional look in his eyes. Even though this wasn't the perfect moment to roll your eyes, Sean couldn't help it. Sometimes, when Hermione wasn't with them, Harry seemed to believe that Sean knew everything, just because he was a ravenclaw.

"I don't know! Pick it up! Maybe something's in there!"

Harry seemed to understand him, because he was already reaching for the hat, when an aggresive sounding hoot came from Fawkes. Harry, knowing that he couldn't look up if he didn't want to die, screamed at Sean:

"What's going on up there? You can look for me, he doesn't seem to notice you!"

Agreeing with the Gryffindor, Sean looked up, only to see the Phoenix dug his claws in what seemed to be the creature's eyes, or at least near them. He couldn't look directly in the basilisk's eyes, of course, but since the creature's back was turned to him, he didn't have to cover his eyes, which meant that he had a fairly good view on what was happening.

He was fascinated by the way Fawkes seemed to be absolutely livid. What made him come here? Maybe professor Dumbledore had sent h-

"SEAN! THERE'S A FREAKING SWORD IN THE HAT!"

Sean's eyes flew towards his friend, surprise probably quite noticeable in them. He figured that it wouldn't be a coincidence that Fawkes had taken the hat with him, but a sword? That was probably the best thing he  could've brought. He made a mental note to ask professor Dumbledore about all this later, when they came out of this chamber.

If they ever came out of it.

Trying to push down the anxiety that treatened to overtake him, he screamed back at Harry:

"GO ON! DEFEND YOURSELF! I'LL TRY TO GET KAYCEE OUT OF HERE!"

He saw his friend nodding, before taking the sword out of the hat and running towards the basilisk. Sean had to admire his bravery.

Quickly, he did as he had promised. He turned around to face the girl, ignored the pang in his chest when he noticed that she didn't look any healthier than she did a few minutes ago, and scooped her up, letting her rest on his shoulder. His arms were tightly wrapped around her legs, terrified he'd let her fall.

He stood up carefully, and began shuffling towards the other side of the room, crossing the distance he had run towards her once again. He made sure to stay close to the wall of the chamber, trying to be as unnoticeable as possible.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Harry, mainly trying to dodge the basilisk's strikes.

The third time the creature tried to hit Harry, however, Sean saw something change in his friend's posture. Harry seemed more confident, more prepared. Sean stopped in his tracks, it felt like he forgot how to move his feet.

Something was going to happen.

He was right. Something did happen. It all happened so fast, Sean couldn't really follow anymore. He saw the basilisk move, saw Harry move, and the next thing he knew, the sword of Gryffindor was pierced into the basilisk's beak, while Harry was laying on the ground.

And to top all that, Tom Riddle seemed to appear next to Harry out of nowhere.

"You'll be reunited with your mudblood mother soon, Harry."

Something about Tom's voice seemed to trigger something inside of Sean, something outrageous, violent, dangerous.

He knew he had to help Harry. He would do the same for him.

Even though he was livid, he found enough gentleness to lay Kaycee down on the floor slowly, careful not to let any parts of her body fall harshly.

Then, he rushed to the middle of the room, where Harry and Tom Riddle were.

Only when he came closer did he see the reason why Harry was laying down: a large fang pierced his skin.

Tom Riddle didn't do anything to stop the boy from coming closer to his friend, probably thinking that a 12 year old without magical parents couldn't be a threat.

Well, Sean would learn him not to underestimate 'mudbloods'.

"This is going to hurt a bit, sorry Harry", Sean said, while walking straight up to the two, not even acknowledging Tom, and therefore not giving him any time to react to Sean's sudden move.

Before Riddle or Harry could comprehend what was happening, Sean had crouched down, gripped the fang, and ripped it out of Harry's arm.

The poor boy gripped his arm, rolling up into a ball, grunting in pain.

Originally, Sean had only planned on getting the fang out of Harry's arm and finding a way to get out of here before Riddle could get to them, but now that he stood there, he noticed the diary, laying on the floor.

And suddenly, everything became crystal clear.

He gripped the fang with both hands, took a deep breath, and burried the fang in the diary.

The boys were shook to their core when Riddle let out an absolutely terrifying scream. They both looked at the young form of you-know-who, who seemed to get burned from the inside out by a bright light. First, only his chest lit up, but after a while, his whole body was glowing, until he exploded into into more than a thousand little sparks.

Sean let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in.

Tom Riddle was gone.

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Sean found himself sitting on the side of a hospital bed for the umpteenth time that year. Only this time, it wasn't Hermione laying in it, but Kaycee. Sean thought back to what had happened a few hours ago. He felt a shiver run up his spine and shuffled closer to the curly haired girl, still needing to convince himself that she was here, alive.

When they had come out of the chamber a few hours ago, Madame Pomfrey had immediately taken Kaycee with her. Sean had followed, begging the nurse to tell him in how bad of a state Kaycee was. After inspecting her for a few minutes, she had turned around to the boy and had given him a smile. She had told him that Kaycee would be fine, as long as she would rest enough. Sean had thanked Madame Pomfrey and had quickly rushed to the bedside, taking a hold of Kaycee's soft, but cold, hand.

And that's where he still was, a few hours later.

There was one thing he'd learned from this whole adventure, he decided. He and Kaycee had a special connection. He didn't know what it was, or where it came from, but it was definitely there. He'd felt it for the first time when the basilisk came out of it's hiding place. The first thing that had flashed through his mind, was that he had to keep her safe. He didn't know why, but he seemed to want to be close to her, whether that was to protect her or something else he didn't understand either. She was definitely something special.

After quickly looking around to check that the curtains surrounding her bed were closed, he acted on that instinct, shuffling closer to her and, after a moment of slight hesitation, gently lifting her head and placing it in his lap, so he could run his hands through her soft curls.

He didn't know what the future would be like for them, didn't know where they would be 10 days from now, let alone ten years.

But all that wasn't important at the moment. Right now, she was in his arms, safe and well.

Writing date: October 2018 (it’s so old help)

Genre: Fluff? Friendship? idk lol

Warnings: The beginning of a long road...jk, no warnings, everyone is 11 after all. Also, this isn’t editted, I only got a beta by chapter three, so grammar will dramatically improve, I solemnly swear!

Word count: 4k 

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Autumn

'Well well, what do we have here? Sean Charles Lew... I guess this won't be too difficult, but before I sort you into your house, I want to know your opinion...What house would you like to be in? Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuf or Gryffindor?

Sean remained silent. There he was, in the great hall, with an enormous hat over his head, thinking of finding a way to communicate with the sorting hat without making a fool of himself in front of all those other pupils.

'I kinda like Ravenclaw', he thought, 'but I'm okay with any house the sorting hat will put me in. I'm thankful I'm here, the sorting hat knows what house suits me best. I'll let him decide.'

And to his surprise, the hat heard everything and answered the young boy:

'And that, my boy, is what I wanted to hear. You have a unique personality and an incredible wisdom for an 11-year-old. Your house will be...'

"RAVENCLAW!"

And with that, the Ravenclaws rose from their seats and began applauding. Soon, the other houses followed, although less excited than Sean's house mates.

His housemates...

Finally, there was a group of people that would understand his uniqueness, his individuality. He'd make friends there, family even. He'd finally fit in completely. He felt professor McGonagall tilt the sorting hat from his head. "Go on, next!" He hurried out of the chair and walked, with a smile gracing his features, towards the Ravenclaw table.

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Sean was laying in his four poster bed, curtains closed. He did that a lot, just laying there, thinking. Some of his roommates laughed at him for always having his curtains closed, speculating that he needed to hide things, but Sean didn't really care. He liked the intimate atmosphere he created, like he was in his own little bubble. He got his best ideas while laying like that. Today, he was thinking about a dance routine he could do when he got home. He could dance here in Hogwarts too, but he couldn't film it, which is why he'd rather wait to do it. Now, before you think that he filmed his choreo's to get attention, that's not the case. He filmed his choreo's because he wanted to be able to look back in 10 years and see his own growth.

Everything was peaceful, until 2 voices disturbed the silence:

"Of course I can play the piano! My mum used to teach me!"

"I don't believe you...not to question your intelligence, but you're just so clumsy with everything you do, how could you move your hands so precise?"

"You want me to prove it to you? Saturday, there's a piano workshop in the Great Hall. Muggleborns can go to play, or purebloods to learn from the instructor or their housemates. Dumbledore organized it, he said it's good to get familiar with muggle instruments...are you coming with me?"

"I don't know. I have a lot of homework and...

Sean zoned out of the conversation the 2 boys had. A workshop piano playing? That was interesting. He loved Hogwarts and all it's magic, but a piano was something from his other life, his non-magical one. A life he secretly missed sometimes. 'Besides', he figured, 'I could use some social contact. Haven't really worked on making friends since I got here. I could use some company.' And that's all it took to make his decision. With a sigh, he left threw open the curtain and left his safe haven. He was going to get ahead with his homework, because he certainly wouldn't have time for that on Saturday.

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Sean Lew sat in the great hall behind a grand piano. He was surrounded by complete silence. The instructor of the workshop had cast a spell so they wouldn't hear the other people around them. That silence felt misplaced in such an enormous room, so he decided to break that silence. Tentatively, he reached out his hand towards the keys. The, he pushed the first one, the second one, 2, 3 at a time. Soon, he was lost in a world full of melodies and harmonies, and everything around him suddenly didn't exist anymore...

"Hello, I'm Hermione Granger, do you mind sharing this piano with me?"

Sean looked up from the keys to the girl who'd just spoken to him. Het hair was bushy and her teeth were crooked, but she had a polite expression on her face, which indicated that she was genuinely asking him something, and not making fun of him.

"Uhm, no, of course not...but wouldn't you rather want your own piano?"

"Well, I'd like that, yes, but the instructor just explained that there aren't enough piano's for everyone, so the people who have never played the piano before that chance first. Since I already play the piano at home, she ordered me to sit with you, 'cause you play the piano as well, apparently. Haven't you listened at all?"

"Actually, no. I was a little lost insides my own bubble. That happens a lot when I'm busy with music."

Sean quite liked this girl. She seemed friendly, but with a strong personality. And she played the piano already, so he immediately had a topic to talk about. He scooted over.

"Have a seat"

And that was the beginning of a great friendship.

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Winter

"It's no wonder no-one can stand her...she's a nightmare, honestly."

Sean and Hermione were walking right behind Ron. As soon as Ron's words reached them, Sean looked at Hermione, to check how she took that remark. She was biting her lip to keep from crying, but her eyes began watering nonetheless. Sean's blood began boiling and his hands balled to fists. Who did Ron think he was? What gave him the right to insult his best friend? 'Cause that's what Hermione became to him over the past few weeks. His best friend. After they had to share the piano they began talking, and discovered that they really had a connection. They bonded over walks around the lake and studysessions in the library, and Sean began feeling quite protective over her. He wanted her to be happy, but right now, she was anything but. And that was all Ron Weasley's fault.

"Don't mind him, he doesn't know anyth-"

But Hermione had already ran off, leaving Sean alone with his building rage.

"You! You just had to go and embarrass her, didn't you? Why? Because she's smarter than you are? Because she knows more than you do and tries to teach you nitwit something? Now look what you've done! Are you happy now, knucklehead?!"

And with that, Sean began catching up with Hermione, leaving Ron speechless.

"Hermione, please wait! He's not worth your tears!"

Hermione turned around, eyes already blotchy and red.

"I appreciate your efforts to comfort me, but right now, I just want to be alone for a while. You understand, right? You often just need a bit alone-time to order your thoughts. I need that now. I'm sorry, Sean, thank you for being there for me."

He wanted nothing more than to comfort her, be there for her. But he understood like no other that you need time for yourself sometimes, regardless of how much you love the people around you. So he gave her a sad smile and gave in.

"Alright then. But remember, you're not a nightmare and there are people around you who care for you. You're not alone."

And with that, he turned around to go to the great hall.

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"TROOOOOOLLLLL!!!!!! IN THE DUNGEONS!!!!!!! TROL IN THE DUNGEONS!!

The whole hall kept silent, not knowing how to react to this.

"I thought you ought to know", professor Quirrell added as an afterthought, before fainting.

All hell broke loose.

Students of all ages began whispering or screaming, some already jumped up to leave the great hall until...

"SILENCE!", Dumbledore yelled.

"Anyone, do please not panic. Prefects, lead your house back to the dormitories. Teachers, you follow me to the dungeons."

All ravenclaws rose from their seats and followed their prefects, but Sean was having none of that. Hermione was still God knows where, probably crying her eyes out, not knowing about the troll. He had to find her. So, he quietly snuck out of the stream of students and into a deserted corridor. He waited until it was totally silent before coming out of his hiding place. "I have to find Hermione, I have to find Hermione", was the only thing on his mind. He kept repeating it like a mantra.

"I have to find Hermione"

But when he didn't find her after wandering throught the castle for about 15 minutes, panic began creeping through his veins. A cold feeling started spreading through his chest.

What if he didn't find her in time?

He began running. At the end of a particularly small corridor, he turned right...And promptly collided with someone else. He fell to the ground. When he looked up, he saw -to his surprise and utter dismay- Ron Weasley and Harry Potter.

"What are you doing here?", Ron asked Sean hesistantly, probably still a bit scared of the Ravenclaw after his outburst earlier.

"I'm looking for my friend, who's ran off after you had to talk about her like that. Not that you'd care."

Ron's cheeks colored red from shame.

"Actually, we are looking for Hermione. We realized that she probably doesn't know about the troll, since she wasn't at the Gryffindor table for dinner. We went looking for her, but we just can't seem to find her. Do you know where she is?"

"Do you honestly think I'd run around the castle like that if I knew where she was?", Sean snarled at Ron, but he noticed that Ron had a guilty look in his eyes, and softened a bit.

"Come on, if we look for her together, we might find her sooner. There's no time to waste."

And so the 3 boys began searching for any signs of Hermione. They didn't have any luck, until they heard a massieve crash, followed by an extremely high-pitched "AARGGHG!!"

They looked at eachother. Time to rescue Hermione. When they arrived in the girls bathroom, they couldn't believe their eyes. Everything was destructed, and the troll stood in the middle of all the debris.

"HELP!!"

Sean saw her first. A head of bushy brown hair, hidden under the sink. "There!", he pointed towards her, so Harry and Ron would see her too. As soon as his Ravenclaw brain could, he made a plan.

"Okay, Harry, Ron, you guys distract the troll, then I crawl under the sink and get Hermione out of here. Then we all run as soon as possible. Deal?"

Harry and Ron nodded their head and began with their task. While Ron threw things at the troll, Sean began crawling towards his friend. It didn't work. The troll kept trying to hit Hermione, until Harry jumped to action. He ran towards the scary creature and managed to sit on his schouders, but not for long. Suddenly, the troll squeezed harry in his fist and swung him around.

"Do something!", he yelled at Ron, but the boy seemed frozen in place. Upon seeing him so helpless, Sean screamed: "Ron! Try wingardium leviosa! Quick!", from under the sink, while still trying to get to Hermione. Ron took out his wand and cast the spell. The troll loosened his grip on Harry, who fell to the ground, but was able to stand up quickly. They all watched in horror how the troll's bat flew out of his hand, floated in the air, and landed on the troll's head with a big whack. After that, Sean was able to take Hermione's hand and they climbed from under the sink together. All four of them now stood around the troll.

"Is it...dead?", hermione asked.

"I don't think so, just knocked out.", Harry answered the girl. Sean was the first one to come closer to the troll.

"Harry's right! It's still breathing, but slo-" he fell silent when they heard a number of feet approach them. In just a matter of seconds, the girls bathroom was invaded by a number of teachers, all looking in between scared and worried. McGonagall was the first to speak:

"Oh my goodness, explain yourselves, all of you!"

Harry started stuttering something, but to the gryffindors' surprise, Hermione cut him off.

"It was my fault, professor McGonagall. I went looking for the troll. I thought I could handle it, but I was wrong. If Harry, Ron and Sean hadn't come and found me, I'd probably be dead."

The dissapointment on McGonagall's face made them all cringe.

"This was an extremely foolish thing to do. I would've expected more rational behaviour on your part and I am fairly dissapointed in you, miss Granger. Five points will be taken from Gryffindor."

Sean looked up from the feet and glanced at Ron and Harry to seize their reaction on the house points, knowing that they were both fairly competitive. But to his surprise, both boys were still looking at Hermione with open mouth, shocked by what she had just done. Sean couldn't suppress a grin. Maybe they'd finally show some respect for her after this was over.

"As for you 3 gentlemen...I just hope you realise how fortunate you are. Not many first year students could take on a full grown mountain troll, and live to tell the story. 5 points will be awarded to each of you. For sheer dumb luck!"

After giving them all one more dissapointing look, the transfiguration teacher turned around, signaling to her colleagues to follow her. They all did.

Now, Ron, Harry, Sean and Hermione stood in front of eachother, processing what just happened. Harry was the first one to break the silence.

"We're really sorry, Hermione."

For a second, all boys thought she was going to cry, but her expression soon changed from vulnerable to cold.

"I could've handled this, you know. Why would you even want to help a nightmare?", she said, emphasising the word 'nightmare'. Ron looked down, The guilt eating at him. He shouldn't have talked to her like that. She honestly wasn't that bad, even helped him in class...He decided to swallow his pride for once:

"H-hermione, I'm sorry. I didn't even mean it like that. I guess I'm just a bit frustrated because you know so much... and Sean, I thought about what you said, and you're right. You were only defending your friend, so I shouldn't hold a grudge towards you either. Can we start over please?"

Sean looked at Hermione, to check if she agreed with making up with Ron and Harry. She nodded her head slightly to signal that she was okay.

"Alright then. I'm thankful that you came and rescued me from that troll. We can start over."

The reached out her hand towards the two Gryffindors.

"Friends?"

They broke out into a grin and both shook her hand.

"Friends!"

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Spring

"Thank you so much for taking me out of the castle, I hadn't realised I needed this so much! Ron's just so annoying sometimes, ugh! You can't even imagine! Always laughing and joking, never even a tad bit serious! Seriously, why does he always expect me to be okay with giving him my notes? If he would pay attention for just 10 minutes, he..."

Sean chuckled. He and Hermione were taking a walk around the great lake. He'd pointed out that she looked stressed and needed to take a break, so that's what they were doing: taking a break. Or at least, he was, Hermione was using her non-homework time to ramble about how annoying Ron was. It amused him greatly.

"Mione, you're rambling again. Let it go. Just relax for once. You'll see, it'll do you good."

Hermione shot him a greatful smile. She really did need her Ravenclaw friend sometimes.

"Hermione and Sean, sitting in a tree, k.i.s.s.i.n.g! First comes lo..."

Sean's head turned around as soon as humanly possible, in the direction of where the voice -or better, voices- were coming from.

"Who on earth are those girls and why are they singing...that...about us?"

He looked over at Hermione. The was rolling her eyes and had a disgusted look on her face.

"That's Lavender Brown, on the left, and her best friend Parvati Patil beside her. They're my roommates."

She spit out the word roommates like it was something moldy.

"Don't mind them. They're just two girls who love drama and spend their time with gossiping instead of making homework. I can't stand them. Come on, let them sing. We're out of here."

She took his arm to signal that he had to keep walking, which only caused Lavender and Parvati to whistle harder.

"Mione, calm down...like you said: don't mind them. They don't know anything about us...I mean, I'd never even think about kissing you, that's just...eww...right?"

"Same here. You kind of remind me of my little sister, so I guess I see you as my little brother...definitely not as someone I'd consider kissing. You're right, that's just eww."

"Should I feel honoured that you see me as family or offended that you remind me of a girl?"

Hermione let out a laugh. "Definitely the first one. I really love her, just like I love my older brother and sister, it's just different with my younger sister, because we are the closest in age. She's only one year younger than us. She's probably coming to Hogwarts too next year. She's always showed signs of accidental magic like me, we just never knew what it was, until I received my Hogwarts letter last year. I can't wait to see her again when we get home for the summer holiday. Speaking of vacation, what are you doing this summer?"

Sean sighed deeply. That was something he'd rather not talk about.

"Don't remind me, please. My parents want to visit my grandmother. For 2 weeks! Now before you begin defending a 'nice old lady': there's nothing nice about her! When we're there, my sisters and I aren't allowed to do anything! She even forbids me to dance, saying that it's something for girls! She always invites her friends for tea and then we're forced to sit with all those old ladies and listen to their gossip for hours! I wish my mum would let me stay home, but she doesn't want me to stay alone. She thinks I'm too young for that. So, until I'm at least 15, I'm getting tortured with tea parties every summer."

Suddenly, Hermione gasped and her eyes widened.

"That's it!"

Sean looked at his friend weirdly. Where did that sudden outburst come from?

"What's going on, Mione?"

"I've got a brilliant idea! It's simply perfect! I'll ask my parents if you can come to us while your parents and sisters go to your grandma! I'm sure they won't mind, they're ecstatic that I finally made a friend. They even said during christmas break that they'd like to meet you! This is the perfect opportunity! What do you say?"

"Hermione...are you sure your parents won't mind? I mean, I don't want to bother anyone...and since you have 3 siblings...won't they mind?"

But Hermione shook her head and shot him a radiant smile, still excited about her idea.

"They won't mind! My brother moved out a few years ago, he's an adult. My older sister's best friend comes to us every summer, so we're used to that by now, and as I said, you kind of remind me of my younger sister, I'm sure you'll get along really well. Hou could get to know her sooner than septembre. Oh, this is such a great idea! If you'd excuse me now, I need to write a letter to my parents. Bye!"

And Sean was left alone. But considering that it was likely he would get to spend 2 weeks of his vacation with Hermione and her siblings instead of with his crazy grandmother, he really couldn't complain.

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Summer

Dear Kaycee,

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm very sorry I didn't write to you sooner. It's simply because I'm always so busy! I'm constantly doing something, not to mention exams. I'm actually quite relieved that they're over. I didn't even have time to read Hogwarts: A history! this month! I'm constantly trying to learn new things, 'cause there's so much I still don't know about this world. A lot of my time is spent in the library and outside at the lake.

And that are just my normal pursuits.

Something extroardinary yesterday and I just have to tell you. That's the reason I'm writing this right now, even though I'll see you in a few days (I can't wait!)

Basically, my teacher Defence Against The Dark Arts turned out to be a helper of You-Know-Who (the 'bad guy' I told you about) Quirrell was the one who tried to rob the wizarding bank (Gringotts), he was the one who allowed a troll to enter Hogwarts (I told you all about that already) and he was also the one who jinxed Harry (My friend with the black hair and scar, the famous one) during his quidditch match! And if that's not enough, I somehow got involved in a very dangerous situation yesterday. We (Harry, Ron and I) thought professor Snape (the one who looks like a vampire, remember?) was trying to steal the philosopher's stone (told you about that as well), so we tried to go after him. We went through different chambers, each one with a puzzle, to try to catch up with professor Snape. I'll spare you the details, but I helped Harry get through those chambers till the second-to-last one, where I had to stay behind in order to let Harry continue. I was so scared, Kaycee. I was absolutely convinced something was going to happen to him. After all, we're only first years and we wanted to fight against a professor.

But boy was I wrong.

It turned out to be professor Quirrell, not professor Snape. Anyway, Harry bravely doucht Quirrell and we were all able to escape. We even got housepoints which led to Gryffindor winning the house cup !!

On another note, I want to inform you of something really exciting. You know about my best friend Sean, right? Well, his parents are going to his grandmother this summer. Apparently, his grandmother doesn't like him, and even forbids him from dancing when he's at her house (could you imagine not being able to dance for 2 weeks? You'd probably die!) So, I suddenly got a great idea when we were talking about his grandma: letting him stay at our house for those 2 weeks! Mum and dad already told me that they're okay with it. It'll be perfect! Sean doesn't have to deal with grandmother and I can introduce him to you! Sometimes, he reminds me zo much of you, it's unbelievable. And not just because you both dance. He just has the same kind of personality as you have. Maybe that's the reason we get along so well.

I'm sure you'll like him too, Kayc!

Much love,

Hermione

Satisfied with her letter, Hermione rolled up the piece of parchment and attached it to one of the Hogwarts owl's leg.

"Bring this to Kaycee Granger, please."

The owl hooted and flew off, and Hermione watched how the owl became smaller and smaller, until it was just a tiny dot at the horizon.