Your friendship with Jim had begun long before your academic years. Then Sirius and Remmy had joined in. Only with Peter, for some reason, it hadn't worked out. From the very beginning, he had looked at you as though you had taken a place he believed rightfully belonged to him. Maybe bias was the most fitting word.

Well, perhaps it was peculiar⎯to look at your boys from a different perspective.

Had it been just a joke, you wouldn't have paid it any attention, but those odd glances and, worse still, the romantic impulses were impossible to ignore. They were becoming more obvious. James would hold your hand a bit too long after a match victory. Sirius would unexpectedly find himself near you, catching a stray lock of your hair. And Remmy… well, Remus was Remus⎯a hopeless romantic. However, his gazes were the most agonising of all.

Frankly, it became something of a thorn in your side. So it was hardly surprising when they all eagerly decided to stay at the Academy for Christmas after learning you weren't going home.

Snowflakes fall on your eyelashes and melt on your cheeks, flushed from the pinching cold. James playfully tugs your hand, making you slow down, while Remus, smiling awkwardly, takes your other hand in his.

But then Sirius suddenly stops, a mischievous gleam lighting up his grey eyes. “Look, you all!” the wizard exclaims at last, pulling two bottles from the depths of his robes. “Elven wine. Swiped it right out from under their noses⎯they didn't even notice.”

Jim stifles a laugh, wrinkling his face slightly as his glasses slide down his nose. He claps Sirius on the back. “Spoil our bookworm, mate?” The young man lowers his gaze to you, sliding a finger across your cheek.

Remmy presses his lips together. Jealousy? Perhaps. “We're already a bad influence on our little nerd,” he hums.

“Said the nerd,” Sirius chuckles without malice, tousling his friend's sandy-coloured locks. “Alright. Let's flop down and celebrate the holiday.”