As November flew by and they entered into December, Jessica was growing more and more excited for Christmas. She would be staying in the castle for the first few days like she usually did, head home on the twenty-third, then go back to Hogwarts in January. At times, she would have loved to stay home longer to be with her family, but she always enjoyed staying in the castle for a short part of the break because Christmas at Hogwarts was unlike any other. Glorious feasts, enchanted decorations, cold weather perfect for hot cocoa, and simply being in the castle and enjoying her stay there instead of worrying about academics everyday were just some of its perks.

"What are you doing for Christmas?" Oliver asked, unrolling his next roll of parchment.

Ever since the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, Jessica noticed that Oliver seemed to be in the library more often. Their small talk turned into short conversations, and she was beginning to get used to the boy. It was weird, to say the least; he was a fifth year, the Gryffindor Quidditch Team Captain, the one who had accused her of being a spy, and he just didn't seem to be the type to stay still in a library for so long. Jessica supposed that because she had started offering him books to use for his homework, he had become more obligated to actually do them. This was, in fact, quite true. The library didn't seem as boring to Oliver as it used to, and though it seemed like he was using Jessica, it certainly was convenient and amusing whenever she had the perfect book recommendation for whatever homework he had to complete, which almost always happened to be due the next day.

"I'm staying in Hogwarts for the first few days," Jessica replied. "Then, I'm going home for Christmas itself."

"Why don't you just stay at home the whole break?"

"You wanna get rid of me that easily?"

"What? Come on, that's not what I mean, Hawthorne," Oliver said quickly. Jessica chuckled at his reaction.

"Well, to answer your question: I sometimes stay here for a few days because holidays in Hogwarts are just so... magical. Christmas back home is fun, too, but muggle ones aren't as fascinating."

"You're a muggle-born?"

She nodded. "Well, both my parents are muggle-borns."

"So the rest of your family doesn't know you're a witch?"

"Yes. Except for my cousin, Charles, and his parents, of course. He turned out to be a wizard, too."

"Wait, Charles Hawthorne, Chaser from Puddlemere United?" It felt like Oliver had been struck by lightning. "You're related to him?"

"Yeah," Jessica laughed. "I thought you knew. We do have the same last name."

"I'm not exactly the smartest wizard there is."

"I won't argue with that," she said with a hint of humor.

Oliver would have glared at her, but he was too starstruck at the fact that his new friend was related to a Quidditch player from his favorite team.

"Is there any chance Charles will pick you up on the last day of school?"

Jessica let out an amused breath. She had only ever witnessed Oliver speak passionately about Quidditch, but seeing him get excited over her cousin, a professional player of the sport, was a sight to see.

"Highly unlikely," she said, crushing his dreams. "Unless you decide to go over to my house one day and meet him there."

"Can I?"

Jessica scoffed and jokingly replied, "Sure."

"Puddlemere United is my favorite team," Oliver then explained.

"Don't tell that to Charles. He'll get really bigheaded."

"He has every right to be — they're amazing!"

Jessica grinned, noting how Oliver looked like a child receiving candy with the way he spoke about Puddlemere United.

"They are," she admitted. "I play with Charles a few times during the summer, and he's incredible even though I'm sure he's taking it easy on me."

"You play Quidditch, too?" Oliver said, his interest shifting.

"Er, only when I see my cousin, which isn't that often because he has trainings. I'm not good, anyway."

"What position do you play?"

"Usually just Chaser. Charles is still pretty damn good even when he plays as a Keeper. I never really beat him."

"Come on, you can't compare yourself to him. He's a professional, and we're just students. You can't expect to beat him." Oliver was right. Jessica had always had those thoughts at the back of her mind, but she still assumed that since Charles always played it easy with her, it was just her imagination tricking her into thinking she was a decent player.

"Still," Oliver continued. "Why don't you tryout next year?"

Jessica let her quill hover just above her parchment, the ink dripping onto it as she thought of a reply.

"I told you, I'm not good."

"If you truly know you aren't good and really don't want to tryout, you would've said no right away."

Jessica didn't reply. Oliver was smarter than she let on, and he smiled smugly as if he could read her mind.

"Call me biased, but something tells me that you're better than you think. It wouldn't hurt to tryout next year, you know."

"You are biased," Jessica deadpanned.

"I'm serious," Oliver sighed.

"You haven't even seen me play."

"I have a gut feeling about this. I always trust my gut."

"That's why you need me to help you with your homework. Trusting your gut doesn't get you O's."

Oliver ignored her insults, knowing she was only trying to change the subject.

"There's really no getting through to you once you've set your mind to something, is there? You're pretty stubborn," he commented thoughtfully, leaning back in his chair.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Kind of." Suddenly, Jessica stood up, packing up her belongings quickly. "Wha — where are you going?"

"Isn't it obvious?" When he looked at her in plain confusion, she smiled. "I want hot chocolate."

This girl was certainly confusing for Oliver. Perhaps she was too smart for him. At first, they were talking about their plans for Christmas break, and then it was all about Puddlemere United and Charles Hawthorne being Jessica's cousin (he was still in shock, but now that he thought of it, he should have realized it earlier from their surname alone), then they were talking about her Quidditch skills — and though he had never seen Jessica play, he knew she was a big fan and related to a professional. Surely, she was a decent player, and he hoped she would tryout for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team next year — he had a good feeling about it, because if she wouldn't be able to snatch a spot as a Chaser, she could at least be a reserve player.

And now, this girl had the sudden craving for hot chocolate. Oliver had to admit, though, that she was very entertaining in her own way.

"Are you coming?"

Oliver blinked a few times before nodding. "Yeah, of course."

Jessica paused, replaying Oliver's previous words in her head as the boy fixed his things. Why don't you tryout next year?

"By the way," she began, piquing the fifth year boy's interest once more. "I'll think about what you said."

★ ★ ★

On the way down to the Great Hall with Oliver, Jessica bumped into Bethany. The redhead was on her way to meet up with a classmate of hers, so when Jessica invited her to join them for hot chocolate, she told her she'd try and join them later on when she was finished. That left only Oliver and Jessica in the Gryffindor table, sitting across each other with two mugs of steaming hot chocolate placed in front of them. Jessica's hot chocolate had marshmallows floating on top while Oliver's was topped with a swirl of whipped cream.

"Marshmallows? Be a little more adventurous, Hawthorne," Oliver said.

"Excuse me?" said Jessica. "Marshmallows in hot chocolate are a classic. You can't go wrong with it."

"They're boring."

"You're boring."

"You're running out of comebacks."

Jessica huffed, taking a sip of her thick hot chocolate. It was heavenly, and of course, the marshmallows added texture to it and made it so much more tasty.

"Whipped cream on hot chocolate sounds really messy," Jessica went back to the topic. "On Butterbeer, it's fine, but hot chocolate is different. The marshmallows give it just a little more flavor and the whipped cream is just too much."

"Have you even tried it?" Jessica shook her head at Oliver's words. The boy sighed and pushed the mug towards her. "Go on. I haven't sipped it yet."

Jessica gave in and picked up his mug. "It's not like I wouldn't know how this probably tastes like. I can guess because whipped cream is just —"

"Just drink it."

With a small huff, she drank the hot chocolate, the cold whipped cream contrasting with the warm chocolate drink. It felt nice — it was like drinking Butterbeer — but hot chocolate was much thicker and richer. She had to admit that it did taste good, but whipped cream barely had taste and was just full of sugar, so she still preferred the marshmallows any day.

"So?"

"It's okay," she shrugged, setting it down and pushing it back to him. "Good, but not as good as mine."

Oliver sighed, disappointed that his point wasn't proven. However, he couldn't help but smile at the whipped cream mustache Jessica now had.

"You have a mustache."

"I knew that," said Jessica quickly, reaching for a napkin.

"Yeah, clearly."

She threw the napkin at his face.

"Argh!"

Oliver grumbled, picking up the napkin that Jessica threw. He leaned closer to her, almost choosing to wipe the mustache off of her face on his own. Jessica could tell where this was going, waiting for him to create a cliché moment. Instead, Oliver thought twice about it and simply handed it back to her.

Jessica let out a breath and took it from him. Oliver then sipped his hot chocolate, leaned back with a satisfied smile, and revealed that he too had whipped cream all over the top of his lips.

As Jessica finally made use of the napkin, removing the embarrassing foam mustache, she wasn't sure whether or not she was relieved that Oliver didn't wipe it off for her. Again, it would have been very cliché, but she didn't think she would mind.

She was sure about one thing, though: whipped cream on top of drinks was really messy.

A/N: Can you imagine how cute Oliver and Jessica would look when they both had whipped cream mustaches, just smiling at each other?