Y/N woke up early and got the special package from the trunk at the end of his bed. He got dressed and walked down to the common room sitting on the couch waiting for Hermione. She appeared about ten minutes later.

"Morning beautiful" Y/N smiled as he got up and kissed her. She kissed him back before smiling and replied: "You're in a good mood this morning."

"Well I get to say Happy Birthday to the most beautiful girl in the world, why wouldn't I be happy" Y/N chuckled as he grinned like an idiot.

"Thanks baby, I didn't even forget this year" Hermione giggled.

Y/N led Hermione to the couch by her hands and sat her down before pulling out a small box. She opened it to see a shimmering golden bracelet in there.

"Oh it's lovely, Y/N. Thank you" Hermione smiled.

"There's another couple of parts to it baby" Y/N said excitedly, the way he always did whenever he gave Hermione gifts. It always melted Hermione's heart, hearing and seeing how much he enjoyed spoiling her.

He handed her two smaller presents which she opened. One was a solid golden heart encrusted with rubies and diamonds and the other was a dragon with small sapphire eyes. Hermione gasped in disbelief.

"It's a charm bracelet love. The heart obviously represents our love, and the dragon, well it represents my faith and trust in you, showing you my deepest secret that no one else knows. I hope they're ok bu-"

Y/N was cut off by a passionate kiss from his girlfriend. She licked his lips and was instantly granted access as she locked tongues with him and moaned into his mouth.

As they parted with a trail of saliva between them Hermione looked into Y/N's eyes. She was crying. Y/N wiped her tears away and said apologetically:

"Baby I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry love."

Hermione tearfully laughed as she wiped her eye:

"No you goof. It's just the presents are so beautiful and heartfelt. Thank you so much love."

Y/N smiled and placed the charms on her bracelet before placing it on her wrist for her.

"I also thought we could add to it as we live our lives together sweetheart" he added. He was met with another passionate kiss.

The couple headed to the Room of Requirement. As Y/N took his shirt off he noticed Hermione sit at the desk staring. She didn't even bother to get books from her bag.

"Not even pretending to work anymore while you have a perv, huh?" Y/N asked with a cheeky grin. Hermione smirked, replying "Nope" as she continued watching her boyfriend.

—~—

After Y/N had finished and showered the pair headed down to breakfast. They walked slowly, holding hands- smiling and laughing, both just thoroughly enjoying being in love.

They had a relaxing breakfast and chatted with their friends until it was time for Ghoul Studies.

"You sure you want to come to my lesson babe, you wouldn't rather relax with Lav or something?" Y/N asked as they got up.

"No I want to stay with you sweetheart, that's my birthday wish" Hermione replied and smiled sweetly as they kissed before saying goodbye to their friends.

They walked to the Ghoul Studies classroom and were greeted by Sam who shook both their hands.

"Stopping in again Hermione?" He asked kindly.

"If it's ok. It's just my..."

"Birthday. Y/N mentioned it the other day. And I'm guessing you want to stay with Y/N all day?" Sam spoke with a warm smile. Hermione nodded happily:

"Yes, if it's ok."

"Of course it is. Jess was the same..."

Sam smiled before realising what he said. His voice trailed off before he quickly cleared his throat and signalled for the pair to sit down.

Sensitive subject I think Y/N said to Hermione via legilimency. She nodded discreetly. Sam smiled before turned to face Hermione directly, a slight look of guilt growing on his face.

"So, Hermione... I'm sorry if taking Y/N on hunts has caused any problems between you two. I hope you can understand, it's not only the fact that practical experience is a part of the assessment for Ghoul Studies. Y/N is an incredibly skilled and powerful wizard and he has great instincts. You can't buy what he brings to a hunt. He's saved lives as well, a lot of them. He saved mine." Sam smiled as he turned to Y/N appreciatively. Hermione smiled proudly and daintily took Y/N's hand, interlocking their fingers and squeezing:

"No it's ok, Sam. I was angry and worried at first, and I'm always going to be worried when he is out in danger's way, but I get it. He's a protector, that's who he is. It's one of the things I love about him, despite the worry."

Hermione smiled at her boyfriend and kissed him gently before they turned round to look at the smiling Professor.

"Bobby said to say hi as well Y/N. He was over the moon to see you again and you impressed him, a lot. That's rare" Sam chuckled.

"So for today we just need to talk about the theory side of your assessment. You've done absolutely outstanding in the practical aspects, but NEWTs come with theoretical assessments as well."

Sam laid out the papers that were due:

"A 3ft scroll on the Patronus charm, a 3ft scroll on Dementors, a 3ft scroll on the difference between ghosts and vengeful spirits and a 3ft scroll on wendigo. I want you to place specific emphasis on recognising and eliminating harmful creatures such as the vengeful spirits and the wendigo, and try not to double up on too much information between the patronus and the Dementor scrolls."

Y/N noted down everything Sam said and asked: "What's the timeline on these Sam?"

"Don't kill your self getting them done, but the quicker they are done and out the way the quicker we can move on to more fun stuff."

Y/N chuckled and nodded. Hermione eyeballed the pair of them and remarked dryly:

"You two have a very different definition of fun to the rest of us."

Y/N popped into Hermione's mind:

Maybe I can show you my definition of fun later on baby.

Hermione suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree, smiled profusely and looked down at her feet attempting to hide her blushing smile. Sam who was oblivious continued on:

"Now as we discussed for your major piece of assessment, in place of an exam, you will be establishing a Dark Creatures biome in the enclosure, and the two of us will be populating them by capturing creatures. In discussion with the Headmaster and Newt we will be establishing two biomes today. One for dark hominid creatures, which Dumbledore and Newt Scamander will be demonstrating for you, and one for dark beasts, which you will be establishing yourself. Any questions?"

"Yeah one Sam, the practical component of my major assignment is establishing and populating the biomes, but what will the theoretical assessment compose of?"

"Excellent question Y/N. After capturing a beast or hominid you will be writing a one foot scroll on each, basically an information guide. Species, habitats, danger level, description, how to capture or dispose of said beast. These will be compiled at the end of next year into a report as your final assessment piece. Sound good?"

"Sounds exciting Sam, when do we get started?" Y/N smiled.

"We're heading down now to meet Dumbledore and Newt if you want to pack up" Sam replied as Y/N nodded and began.

Hermione sat quietly, in silent admiration of her boyfriend. He was in third year taking on NEWTs and excelling. She really was proud of him.

—~—

The trio walked down through the school to the entrance of the Creature Reserve. Hermione couldn't help but giggle at her boyfriend and Sam. She had noticed, like Y/N, the gawking stares of all the female students they passed looking at Sam. Y/N had pointed it out, and seeing Sam fidget uncomfortably had made Y/N chuckle and tease him even more. As they approached the entrance to the Magical Creature Reserve Sam whined: "Y/N stop, man."

"Hey, I'd like to Winchester I really would, but I owe you for getting me covered in Wendigo guts" Y/N laughed.

"I told you that was an accident" Sam snapped with a grizzle.

"Bitch" Y/N chuckled.

"Jerk" Sam chuckled back.

"You two are seriously more like brothers than teacher and student" Hermione giggled at the pair. They turned quickly hearing a voice behind them:

"I was just saying the same thing to Newt here, Ms. Granger"

Albus smiled mischievously as he spoke.

"However, given the close bonding of hunting partners, and the life or death situations these two have found themselves in, I think we can turn a blind eye to formalities in this case."

The headmaster and Newt shook Sam's hand and Y/N's and Hermione gave a surprised Newt a hug as he said quietly:

"Great to see you again too, Hermione."

The pair also wished Hermione a happy birthday, Newt handing Hermione a present from he and Tina.

"Sam has kept me abreast of your performance in the field, Y/N, and I must say I'm impressed. Brave, intelligent, selfless. I believe "saved my arse" was my favourite quote" Albus chuckled again as he spoke.

"Yeah that sounds a lot like a young man I know" Newt smiled.

"Tina sends her best to you both, she does so enjoy her weekly correspondence with you Hermione. You both must come and stay with us next summer, we can have Rolf at the same time"

"That sounds great Newt. Rolf is a wonderful young man, best friends with my younger cousin Patroclus. They are a cute pair of little Ravenclaws" Y/N laughed.

They headed into the Reserve and Dumbledore started to explain the creation process to Y/N.

"This is quite complex magic, Y/N. You are literally creating space where there is none, in effect it is a pocket dimension, within the space between atoms that are preexisting. We will demonstrate for you first, then you try. Don't be discouraged if you don't successfully create a biome today, indeed if you did it would be miraculous. This is magic that it takes wizards years to master. I wouldn't even dream of asking any other student to attempt it."

Y/N, Hermione and Sam were joined by Barnaby and Liz and they watched as Dumbledore and Newt waved their wands.

The pair willed a biome into existence, next to the ocean exhibit. It took all of five minutes. It was dark inside, desolate. It looked like a scene from a muggle monster movie.

"So you must will it into existence Mr. L/N. Again, don't be discouraged if you have no luck" Albus again reassured his young student.

Y/N stepped forward and thought back to his training with Lord Dhalsim. He pictured the atoms in his head, dwelt on the digital reality of matter at an atomic level.

He willed for a pocket dimension to be created, waving his wand. Nothing happened.

Y/N kept his focus and after ten minutes a small circular shaped void started to appear in front of him, but he couldn't hold it. As it popped from existence, Y/N bent over breathless and grunted in frustration.

"Well done Mr. L/N, well done" Dumbledore gushed as he lead the others in a round of applause.

"Remarkable progress on your first attempt. I think it would be best to leave it there for today. We will try again next week" Newt smiled.

"No, wait. Let me have one more try" Y/N said as he stood again.

Newt looked at the headmaster concerned, which instantly made Hermione anxious, but the headmaster knew full and well the stubbornness of the boy. He was truly Jacob and Dean's younger brother.

"One more Mr. L/N, but that's it. It takes a tremendous amount of energy and concentration to do this and you don't want to exhaust yourself" Albus said calmly.

Y/N nodded and took a moment to compose himself. He focused hard, with everything he had. Suddenly a shape formed in front of him, it became larger and larger as it occupied the space between the dark forest exhibit where Frumoasa lived and the exhibit that had been created only moments earlier.

Y/N felt a tremendous pain in his head and groaned, but he kept pushing, willing the enclosure into existence. The pain got worse as he heard the others calling to him to stop but he blocked them out, gripping his head with his left hand as the pain intensified and he felt a trickle of blood down out of his nose.

A/N: Imagine it's Y/N not Sam bleeding and he's holding a wand.

Finally, the dimensional walls of the enclosure flashed a luminescent glow formed against the boundaries of the reserve, signifying the spell was complete.

The moment he released the spell Y/N fell to his knees in exhaustion and Hermione rushed over to him. She wiped away his blood as the wizards and witches behind the pair looked at the newly created enclosure stunned. Albus and Newt looked at each other with a difficult to read expression. They had both in truth thought it would be a long process that could have taken Y/N the rest of the school year to complete. Not in their wildest dreams did they think he would be successful today.

Y/N looked up at the enclosure as Sam and Hermione helped him to his feet.

"Turned out pretty good, hey?" Y/N smiled at his shocked girlfriend, Hermione still being dumbfounded that Y/N had such magical power and ability.

After a mixture of praise and admonishment for pushing himself too hard Dumbledore finally stated:

"You are done for today Y/N. Go and rest and enjoy Ms. Grangers birthday with her, forget helping in the Reserve today, you've done more than enough.

Before they left Newt had one last surprise.

"To christen these new enclosures, I brought in a very rare life form, from Tina and I's basement Reserve."

He summoned a large bubble out of his pocket and levitated it before sending it to the Dark Hominid enclosure.

"It's an Obscurus, a parasitic magical force formed in children who are forced to suppress their magical abilities. That came out of a seven year old girl I was unable to save in 1925. I think it is about time I let go, and I'm pleased to add something to your project Y/N" Newt said solemnly.

Y/N thanked them all before leaving with Hermione, a little shaky on his legs. As the two aged wizards watched the young couple leave, Newt said quietly:

"That was unexpected Albus, I never imagined he would complete it today"

"Indeed It was miraculous, Newt. I don't think either of them realise what he just did."

Sam could do little but nod in agreement.

—~—

Y/N and Hermione enjoyed a quiet remainder of the day, doing little but hang out with their friends and enjoy being a young couple in love.

They snuck out to their special place that evening, spending the night demonstrating their love for each other once again.