As the month of September faded into October, the weather got colder, and the trees gained more color. Everyone had settled into their routines, and it seemed as if everyone had gone back to normal.

"Students, your midterms will be coming up next week, so I recommend that you all pay attention." Professor Flitwick slapped his hand on Padfoot and Moony's table. "Especially you, Mr. Black and Mr. Potter."

Sirius rolled his eyes, "Please, I have Remus, there's no way I'll fail."

"That's true," James added, "I have Daphne, she won't let me fail."

I scoffed, "Yes I would."

"Class dismissed."

I grabbed my books from the table and shoved them into my bookbag, eager to get out of this classroom. The three boys gathered their things as well and trailed me out of the classroom.

"We'll catch up with you later." James mumbled.

I turned around just in time for James to grab my hand and drag me down the corridor.

"What the fuck-"

"Just be quiet please."

James pulled me down the busy corridor, turned into an abandoned corridor, and opened a door dragging me after him.

He slammed the door behind us, and I looked around at my surroundings as my eyes attempted to adjust to the dark.

"Why are we in a broom closet?" I asked, annoyance filling my voice. "I want to go to lunch."

"Daph-, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important-"

"What, James?"

I could still clearly see the hazel of James's eyes in the dark. They were filled with worry and frustration.

"Can you please help me study? I'm worried that I will actually fail."

I smirked, "Is that it?"

James looked back at me in disbelief.

"If you needed help studying, you should've just asked. I thought charms was your favorite class?"

James sighed and I could practically feel his breath on my cheek. "It is, but I've been too busy with my quidditch captain duties that I forgot to study and I haven't been getting enough sleep."

"I would be more than happy to help you, only if you go out there and win for Gryffindor on Saturday."

James grinned back at me, "Oh we are going to kick Hufflepuff's arse."

I leaned in a kissed James cheek, "You better."

His face turned pink as he opened the broom closet and stepped out. Not watching where he was going, James ran directly into Sirius.

"What are you doing here?" James yelled.

Sirius pushed James off of him, "What are you doing here?"

"I asked first!"

Remus was standing against the corridor, smirking to himself.

"We-"

"No, just Padfoot." Moony assured.

"Fine-, I wanted to know what you both were up to. So I used our map to follow you. Why the fuck were you in a broom closet?"

Sirius narrowed his eyes and looked at me. "Why is he blushing, Vixen? What did you do?"

"I-, I didn't do anything! We were talking."

Padfoot scoffed, "Yeah, sure, and Moony and I just 'talk' when we go study together."

"Sirius, shut up!" Moony yelled, his face blushing as red as James' still was.

"But we were actually talking, I was asking Vixen to help me study for the charms midterm."

"Why do you need her help? You're great at charms." Sirius assured.

James gave me a quick look before turning back to his best friend. "Because I have been so busy with quidditch that I've started falling behind in the difficult classes."

Remus stepped away from the wall and put his arm around James. "You're not going to fail mate, because we are all going to help you study."

"All of us?" Sirius mumbled.

I smacked him upside the head, "Yes, all of us."

Before Sirius could pout anymore, I got an idea.

"If you don't help, I won't bring you to France with me. I was planning a trip over the holidays." I announced, nonchalantly.

Sirius's eyes lit up.

"Okay, I am more than happy to help. Please do tell more about the said trip."

• • • • •

"Jamesy passed his midterms!"

The four of us laughed and James nudged me in the ribs. I ruffled his hair, "Now we can start planning our trip for the holidays."

"Fuck yes!" Sirius exclaimed, practically jumping up and down with excitement. He stopped and looked at me, fear etched across his face.

Sirius grabbed onto my shoulders, "Vixen-, I don't know any French!"

"Suce à sucer." James teased sticking his tongue out.

"Prongs you can't do this to me! My brain can barely comprehend English-, let alone French."

Remus and I began laughs but quickly stopped before Sirius could yell at us.

"Padfoot, you'll be fine. James and I speak French, so we'll be fine."

"Vixen's right." James mumbled.

After several comments from Sirius about how he would be a disgrace to the French if he didn't at least know the basics of the language, the four of us settled into a couple of the red plush couches in the common room. The crackling of the fire was the only sound other than our hushed conversation, and the heat radiating from it warmed me up despite the crisp November weather.

It was just after eleven on a Wednesday night, making us the only ones in the common room. At least until the sound of footsteps on the staircase echoed throughout the empty room.

The four of us looked up to see a lone figure standing in the doorway.

Her long red hair hung straight down to just above her waist. Her green eyes were tired, the firelight slightly illuminating them.

"Oh hey, Lils." I exclaimed.

Lily Evans stepped into the common room, her Gryffindor jumper hung around her thin frame and her plaid pajama pants hovered over the cobblestone floor.

The boys all looked up and greeted the girl.

"It's past curfew." She mumbled taking a seat to the left of me.

Sirius groaned, "Please don't send us to bed-"

"We're making our holiday plans!" James added.

Lily laughed, "I wasn't going to make you. Where are you lot going?"

"France." Remus replied with a grin on his face.

I smiled, "Well, you know that I'm from France, and we still have a house in Paris, so my parents are letting us spend the holidays there."

Lily smiled, "That'll be fun! Marlene, Mary, Dorcas, and I are heading to the McKinnon's house in Birmingham."

"Tell the ladies that I say hi." Sirius said with a wink.

Remus rolled his eyes at his friend, "England will be fun, Lily."

"Yes, it should be. Anyways, I'm just doing my prefect duties, don't stay up too late."

With that, Lily saluted is and made her way out of the portrait hole to do her prefect duties. Remus was a prefect too, but he didn't have any duties tonight.

"So we'll leave on Sunday, the 19th, and take the Hogwarts Express to Kings Cross?" Remus asked.

I cleared my throat, "Yes, and then we can Floo from there to the house in Paris."

"I'm so excited." James admitted. "I've never been to France, mum and dad aren't big on traveling."

Sirius leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, "So about this house of yours-"

"Yes?"

"How many bedrooms, bathrooms, and what's the square footage?"

Remus elbowed Sirius, "Does it really matter?"

"No, of course not," Sirius replied annoyingly, "I am just quite the curious bloke."

The four of us all began laughing until the three boys turned their attention to me.

"It has six bedrooms, four full bathrooms, it is around eleven thousand square feet, gardens, and an indoor pool and spa."

Remus's jaw dropped, "I forgot that some people have rich arse families."

I rolled my eyes, "It's only because of my parent's inheritance from my mum's parents."

"So we each get our own bedroom?" James asked.

Sirius cleared his throat, "You can have your own bedroom but I will be rooming with Moony, here."

"I didn't agree to this." Remus joked.

"Fine then," Sirius crossed his arms around his body, "I'll go cuddle with James then."

Remus pulled on one of Sirius's dark curls, "Stop being a brat."

"That's kinky."

I began laughing and James fake gagged himself, "Can I have a room far away from theirs?"

"James, you can have any room you'd like-, except for the master bedroom because that's my parent's room."

He smirked, "Gladly."

After figuring out the logistics of the trip, I said goodbye to the boys as we went our separate ways up the staircases.

I had just finished getting ready for bed when the door quietly opened. It was just about midnight, and Lily was due back from her prefect duties.

"Hey, Lils."

"Hey Daph, you get the trip figured out?" She whispered.

Jolie, Marlene, and Mary were fast asleep in their beds. To be honest, I'm surprised that Jolie's in our dormitory for the night.

I smiled, "Yeah we did, I'll talk to you in the morning."

"Good night."

"Good night Lily."

• • • • •

The last day before the holiday was always a crazy one. Students were anxious with excitement, little productivity, excessive chatter. The four of us had never been one to go along with this, but this year we were all counting the minutes until the holiday. Especially the boys, none of them had been to France, let alone Paris. I had grown up there so I had already seen the touristy things, however, I was just as excited as them because I got to spend Christmas with my real family in Paris, which is known for the most beautiful Christmases.

As soon as Professor Binns dismissed us, Sirius practically dragged me out of class to go find James and Remus.

Sirius and I were the only ones that had History of Magic together, and James and Remus would be leaving Potions right about now. All three of them, especially James and Sirius, had been bouncing around all day like someone gave them an unneeded Pepper-Up Potion. Remus was just as excited, but he had been able to sit still and retain his usual calm composition.

As I was blindly dragged through the crowded corridors, Sirius was busy ranting about how excited he was and that he had learned some simple French phrases.

I let Sirius drag me all the way to the Gryffindor tower before we practically crashed into Remus and James.

"Sorry guys, Prongs was practically dragging me." Remus muttered.

James raised his hand, which was grasped around Remus's pale wrist.

"Oh, me too. Padfoot almost led me into a fucking wall." I announced, finally able to get my hand back from Sirius's grip.

Sirius rolled his eyes, "At least Prongs and I retain our childlike excitement."

"That's not the only childlike thing you retain-"

James cut me off, "Shut up Vixen, let us have our moment."

"Yeah, you and Moony are such downers."

Remus and I shared a glance before rolling our eyes at the two dark-haired boys.

"Have you packed yet?" Remus asked as James muttered the password to the Fat Lady.

The portrait hole flew open and the four of us walked into the bustling common room.

Sirius and James stopped abruptly, causing Remus and me to run into them. The two turned around to look at us.

"Of course we packed!" James exclaimed.

Sirius nodded, "We've been packed for a few days."

"We've been waiting."

"See?" Sirius teased, "Childlike excitement."

I rolled my ocean blue eyes at them, "Well I'm glad you're both packed so I don't have to harass you about it the whole night."

James stuck his tongue out at me.

"You're letting us trash your expensive French house, the least we can do is pack ahead of time."

Sirius pointed his finger at James, "This man," He turned to look at me, "Is absolutely right."

The four of us dropped our stuff in our dormitories, did our last bit of packing, and went to dinner. Dinner was filled with extra chatter from seemingly everyone.

After a quick dinner, I spent some time with Jolie. I was still upset she couldn't come with us to Paris, but her family was going to Italy to visit her grandparents.

The boys came to bid me goodnight, and they each got a kiss on the cheek from me, before Marlene told them to, "Get the hell out."

When I made sure that my trunk was completely packed, my clothes for the morning were set out, and everything was in order. Then, and only then, I crawled into bed and let sleep overtake my exhausted body.