"Hey, let's skip school," yawned Dan around 3am. "I'm not tired," he said, rubbing his eyes and stretching.

"Neither am I," said Phil, smiling. "And sounds like a plan."

They spent the wee hours of the morning playing 21 questions, inquiring about things they already knew about the other.

"What's your favorite color."

"Phil," Dan said, rolling his eyes. "I've known you for four years."

"I'm your favorite color?" He giggled.

"Phil," he said, stressing the I.

"What's your favorite . . . word?"

"Hm. That's weird. I guess blasphemy. It's a pretty word. I mean, I guess if you forget about the meaning and just focus on the word itself, then it's a pretty word. Or condescending. Condescending just sounds like cotton candy."

"You like insulting words, huh."

"Yeah."

"Mine is emotion. It sounds like ten things at once. Joy and sadness and love and anger and offense and adventure and thoughtfulness and fear and hurt and happiness and pain and it really captures the meaning of the thing. Emotion is a good word."

"I love you and the way you explain things."

Phil blushed.

"I'm rambling about emotion and you profess your love, for both my aforementioned rambling and I."

"It honestly couldn't be less appropriate," he said. He was lying on his back, covering his eyes with his left forearm. Phil was sitting at his feet, cross legged, Indian-style.

"What's your favorite color? Oh wait no I asked that already. Uh. What's your favorite Muggle poem?" Asked Phil. He was especially interested in Muggle culture and asked Dan about it whenever possible or relevant.

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth."

As Dan suddenly began to recite a poem unknown to Phil, seemingly from memory - unless he has the words written on his forearm, I guess, thought Phil - he listened intently and leaned forward.

"Then took the other, just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

They were quiet for the moments that followed. Phil closed his eyes and said, "Again."

Dan repeated the poem and held Phil's hand.

"You're the cheesiest person ever," said Dan, grinning after he finished the Robert Frost poem for the second time.

"Um, excuse you, I'm lactose intolerant."

________

They fell asleep around 4am and woke up again at 7.

"Hey Philly," Dan yawned. "I'm gonna go take a shower. Brb."

"Did you just say 'brb' out loud?"

"No."

Dan came out about five minutes later, as his room came with a little bathroom on the side, with only a thin towel wrapped around his waist. "Shit," he said, opening the door and realizing he hadn't brought clothes to change inside the bathroom. The grogginess of the morning plus the warm shower had made his thought process considerably slower. He came out as fast as he could, sprinting to grab a T-shirt and jeans, deciding to worry about his shoes later.

"Dan Towell," whispered Phil.

Dan howelled laughing, saying "you need to stop."

He changed quickly and Phil got dressed as well. When they were both ready, Dan's eyes lit up with sudden realization.

"Hey, Philly."

"Don't call me that," he said, giggling.

"Philly, did I ever show you this rather marvelous contraption?" He opened the trunk he kept in front of his bed with a key, picking the lock that kept it shut and out of lurking eye's way. Phil gulped. What the hel - heck - could he possibly show me?

"Cover your eyes."

"Dan . . . you're not doing any of that 50 Shades stuff you've told me about, are you," Phil asked, only half joking.

"What? No." Phil heard the pop, click, and creeeak of the apparently ancient trunk opening. "Okay, open your eyes now."

When Phil removed his hands, he couldn't see Dan.

"Dan? Where you at."

He heard muffled giggling from the left corner of the room, but he still couldn't see anything. He still had sensitive ears from, you know, being a vampire for 23 hours, so he followed the cute laughter into the crook, but still nothing. He looked under the bed, out the window - it's the Great Lake, Phil, please - and even creaked the door open but he could not find Dan. He called him out again, and heard a "yes?"

In the corner was Dan's floating head.

"What - ?"

Phil shrieked and jumped a little, causing a laugh from Dan.

"You're silly," he said.

"It's this cloak I found in second year while I was, uh, exploring - long story - anyway, when you wear it, you turn invisible! Isn't it cool? I thought maybe we could use it to explore the school while everyone else is in class."

"Woah. That's so cool! You don't reckon we'll get in trouble, do you?"

"I mean, probably. But who cares? It's your birthday. It's cool."

Phil laughed nervously. His stomach rumbled loudly and Dan chuckled. "Let's go eat then, monster."

"Breakfast doesn't begin until 8."

"It's too bad you're not a Hufflepuff. The house elves practically worship those annoying gits . . . ," Dan grinned. Phil punched him on the shoulder and held his hand as Dan slipped the Cloak over both of them.

It seemed like half the school was awake by now, either of them having to peak around every hallway to make sure that there would be no clumbsy passerby to run into. They very nearly crashed into the Divination professor, knocking off her huge goggles, who looked like she had been visited by the ghost of a loved one.

When they reached the huge painting, Dan keeping guard, Phil tickled the pear and the door creaked open loudly, emitting a loud groan as it slid wide enough for the two boys to slip through.

Dan whipped it off as soon as it closed, so as not to seem like they were trying to steal food. Well, he thought to himself. Technically we are. But we're asking for it nicely. So it doesn't count.

But the grand kitchens were empty. No house elves could be seen, the fireplace uncared for, and the tiled floor looked dusty. "What?" Said Phil. He looked around everywhere, calling for the small creatures, but they were no where to be found.

"Huh, that's weird," said Dan, his words muffled by a muffin in his mouth. "Open the door for me." His arms were preoccupied with breakfast food neatly packaged in a transparent box the size of a two year old, and additional snacks for later piled on top neatly, like Tetris.

"Dan!" Said Phil, shocked. "The elves are all gone and you worry about food?"

"Well, isn't that why we came?" He said, finishing his muffin. "I'm sure they're all in one of a basements playing slap jack or something. They're fine, Phil."

The raven haired boy looked around the kitchens wearily, scanning the room one last time and then finally opened the door for his boyfriend after securely attaching the Cloak over the both of them.

"See, chivalry isn't dead."

"Gee, Dan, too bad you're not a wizard," whispered Phil, imitating Dan's voice from earlier. "If you were, you could find an easier way of carrying all that food."

"I keep forgetting."

_________

They wound up sitting on a log just smack dab in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, their last visit there notwithstanding.

Dan had picked up a brown wicker basket when they were walking from the school and put the food in there, making it look somewhat appealing. There were cute little sandwiches cut into halves with fresh apples, grapes, pineapples and mangoes. There were also tiny pink pastries that looked simply delicious.

"You can have the meat from my sandwich," said Dan.

"You can have my cheese."

"Sandwiches for breakfast is pretty weird."

"Yeah." Phil leaned and laid his head on Dan's shoulder, closing his eyes and drinking his water.

Dan suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to kiss him. How long had it been since their last? He lifted the boy's chin with his finger and guided it so it faced his. Soundless, he leaned in and said everything he felt without words.