*Huggles* Thanks you so much Joanna for beta'ing this. And *sigh* my lovely sister Stephanie for tweaking with it a bit.

Rose couldn’t believe it. It was that time of year again. It seemed like only yesterday that it was the first of January and now, it was days away from Christmas. Not that she wasn’t pleased it was here already, she loved Christmas. The Weasley family held the biggest Christmas party for miles, the location of it rotating from house to house within the family. Her mother had a thing for magically decorating the whole house with a few flicks of her wand but always left the tree for the whole family to decorate the Muggle way. Rose also loved to make snow angels outside or starting snowball fights with her many cousins and brother, Hugo.

She dressed warmly in a long sleeve top and snow jacket and trousers before descending down into the Gryffindor common room, which had been decorated creatively overnight by the house-elves. Rose plucked some holly from the common room and ran back up to her dormitory to hang it above her bed and decided to make her bed neatly. When she returned, Albus was spread across the lounge, his nose in a thick book. She tapped him on the shoulder and he looked up surprised, with emerald green eyes.

“I’m going to just take a walk around the school before breakfast, Al,” she said, checking her watch for the time. “Meet you in the Hall in an hour?”

He nodded, already deeply immersed in his book again. She shook her head with a smile and headed out of the portrait with a cheerful, “Merry Christmas!” to the Fat Lady who returned it with a smile.

She was too busy gazing happily around at the decorated walls to notice the boy in front of her. He, too, was to busy reading a piece of parchment in his hands and they collided suddenly. Rose landed flat on her back and jumped up, Scorpius was still rubbing his head tenderly. She held out a hand to him and said shrilly, “I’m terribly sorry, Scorpius!”

He turned a flushed pink colour and hesitated before taking her hand. He brushed dust off himself and tried to raise his eyes to Rose, his unwanted shyness overpowering him. She smiled brightly at him and his lips twitched and he mumbled a soft, “It’s fine, Rose. It was my fault completely.”

They stood there for a moment, neither meeting the other’s eyes. When Rose lifted hers from the ground, she took in his appearance. Muscles bulged visibly underneath his clothing due to his training and playing on the Slytherin team and he was around half a head taller than her, having shot upwards unexpectedly over the last summer holidays. His blonde hair had a sort of un-brushed appearance to it; no matter how much he tried to make it lay flat, much like her Uncle Harry’s.

She cleared he throat and made to go around him and Scorpius moved timidly out of the way. When she reached the next landing, she turned and said brightly, “Merry Christmas, Scorpius!”

He nodded and repeated the words back to her. As she turned and continued walking down the stairs, he watched her slender figure move with such ease, her red hair swinging merrily in its pony tail behind her. He ran his eyes off every bump and curve on her body which the top clearly showed. He, unnoticed, blushed a deeper red before hurrying away.

***

He had noticed her changing over the last few years, and not just her growth from a small eleven year old, things appearing on her upper body. He couldn’t help but look at her in ways so different. And plus, the boys in his dorm sometimes talked about girls that they thought were pretty in their year, so he knew he wasn’t the only one. He would love to talk to her in more than inaudible words, but he was just too shy.

***

Rose peered over the Slytherin table quickly, hoping to catch a glance of Scorpius. He was surrounded by people, and she didn’t dare approach him. Albus turned to speak to her and her head swiveled back around swiftly.

Over at the Slytherin table, a boy nudged Scorpius and said teasingly, “Little Miss Weasley was staring at you again, Scorpius.”

“Come on Scorpius! Give her a little kiss for us will you?” he jeered, poking Scorpius in the arm painfully. “Just a little peck on the lips won’t hurt her!”

Other Slytherin boys gave him hard claps on the back on encouragement, cheering far too loud for everyone to hear.

Scorpius turned bright red and busied himself with eating his sandwich, not making eye contact with the Gryffindor table for the rest of lunch. There was no hope of him asking Rose out, so he had decided to stay away from her. After breakfast, he had seen her coming in his direction, so he sped off to his first class and sat right at the back, knowing perfectly well that she usually sat at the very front. He didn’t mean to be rude, but every time she was near, he turned into a blubbering fool. She was just so pretty in his eyes.

The bell rang, signaling the next class and as everyone made it to the Entrance Hall, Professor Longbottom pulled Rose and Scorpius to the side. He waited until the hum of conversation left the hall with the students; Scorpius pretended to be interested in the house banners. Once they were alone, he said to them both cheerfully, “Before everyone leaves for home tomorrow for Christmas break, I’ve decided to throw a special Christmas dinner tonight and the Hall needs a little decorating. Hagrid has put up the trees already so you can decorate them and you can do anything else you want.”

Rose looked delighted at the thought but Scorpius said, puzzled. “Why us though, Professor?”

“Because, you Scorpius are the best in Transfigurations class and could help transfigure the Hall and Rosie here is brilliant at her Charms.” Rose blushed red in pride at Neville’s words and Scorpius nodded. “And I think this year, it would be good if the students had a go at the decorating. When in class, students don’t seem to concentrate that hard, especially around this holiday. So I though we ought to make it a little more enjoyable! Headmaster Merrit agrees with me completely, she thinks it’s a wonderful idea.”

He nodded and left the Hall to head outside to his waiting Herbology class. Scorpius turned away from Rose and set to work on the Hall. Rose looked confused at his behavior and sighed, and started on her side of the Hall.

Rose peered over her shoulder every now and then to see Scorpius cleverly transfiguring the House Banners. Now, the each had a different Christmas related picture on them. One held a Father Christmas picture, his hand waving, a smile plastered on his face. Another was simply a decorated Christmas tree. Rose turned and waved her wand, wordlessly. The Santa let out a booming, “Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!”

She grinned at Scorpius who managed a brave smile before continuing his work. Rose rolled her eyes in frustration; she couldn't get much out of him! They each made their way down the Hall, decorating their own sides. Eventually, they met in the front of the Hall, in front High Table, behind which was the last of twelve undecorated trees.

Rose summoned the last box of decorations, which were for the trees only. Neville had left it up to their imaginations for the other decorations in the Hall. Scorpius waved his wand, and tinsel erupted from the box, hanging itself artistically on the tree. Rose nodded in approval and began making baubles jump from the opened box and float around the tree, attaching themselves from branches.

Scorpius then flicked his wand again and snowflakes poured out and were being directed onto the tree. He circled the tree once, to ensure that snow covered it all. Scorpius bit his lip nervously. Should he?

He turned his wand on Rose, sending snow all over her. She squealed and raised her own wand, making tinsels shoot out of the box at him. They were at war, spreading snow and tinsel everywhere and ducking behind the Christmas tree.

Scorpius slid on the snow and fell over, laughing madly. Rose helped him up and he didn’t hesitate. He was having too much fun to be shy around her at the moment. They stood there for a few moments, laughing and throwing tinsel at each other. They were so caught up in their fun, they hadn’t heard the bell end the previous class.

The door opened Professor Neville came in, his face full of amusement and he said, “Finished decorating?”

Rose nodded between snorts of laughter and Neville looked around at the brilliantly decorated Hall. The Santa banner gave another booming cry and Neville smiled admiringly at it. Something was missing. They had forgotten something important. He raised his wand and with a small pop, mistletoe appeared from the end of his wand. It floated away from them, hovering around in the Hall.

They all set to work, cleaning up the snow and tinsel from the Hall. Scorpius and Rose bumped into each other again and their eyes met. Scorpius couldn’t bring himself to look away nervously like usual. She was so pretty. Rose gave Scorpius’s body a glance over. She looked up, distractedly and noticed something dangling above them impatiently.

“Mistletoe,” she whispered quietly and he nodded, blushing lightly.

They moved closer towards each other, she could feel his hot breath on her face. She closed her eyes as their lips met, brushing lightly at first before they were fully touching. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled her lips from his with a smile. They looked around suddenly; Neville seemed to have mysteriously disappeared.

She drew closer again, lips barely touching when the bell rang for dinner and the rumbling of students approaching met their ears. She stepped back, but not before kissing him lightly again on the lips. The doors opened and students filed in, hardly noticing Scorpius and Rose. The two went their separate ways to their tables and joined the other students.

When the Professors had taken their seats, Rose caught Neville’s eyes and blushed. He grinned widely at her; he would probably be informing her parents of the recent development in her friendship with Scorpius.

As she ate merrily, she ran the events over in her mind. She felt much older and mature, now that she had officially kissed a boy, excluding being kissed on the cheek by Teddy, as he was basically family.

And Scorpius felt most pleased with himself, his thoughts of Rose had been transformed in actions by a simple mistletoe. Christmas had brought people together around him all the time, changing their holiday with its sneaky decorations.

They caught each other’s eyes over the top of people’s heads and smiled.