The library was close to deserted, only a few students scattered here and there stuck at Hogwarts over break like she was.  She didn't mind though, not this year, she had something else to focus on.  Imari was seeated at a table  near a window that had a spectacular view with her Transfiguration book open in front of her and a few pieces of parchment next to that.  Her right hand held the quill poised over the top sheet as she reread the chapter again and began to take notes.  She'd done her homework already, but it never hurt to do extra.

She was having problems focusing on the task she'd come into the library to do.  Her thoughts were constantly straying from homework and note-taking to thinking about what Damien would be doing right now.  She still had problems believing that their relationship was real.  Imari wasn't usually the girl who got attention from boys, at least not the good kind of attention and now she had an attractive and sweet boyfriend.  She looked up towards the window as a smile graced her lips.  If she'd been home and got to see her nieces this would be the perfect Christmas.

But she wasn't, so far though, she was having a pretty good time anyway.  It was only a couple days into break and she was already enjoying herself far more than she had in previous years.  A drop of ink dripped off the end of her quill and landed on the clean parchment, but Imari didn't notice. She'd started to daydream about what spending the whole Christmas break with Damien would be like and all thoughts of studying escaped her mind.

Damien searched high and low in his room for his pen case, he was going a bit crazy trying to find it. He refused to take notes with a quill again, it was all fun and dandy and it gave you the full Hogwarts experience, but most of his professors back home at Salem had never seemed to mind that he preferred using a fountain pen ever now and again. It was, to a degree, the same thing; wasn't it?

Right as he was about to give up, he found them, and threw them in his bag along with two textbooks and his notebooks. He was going to the library to meet up with Imari, he knew she'd be there, it was a regular haunt for her; or so it seemed to be. If she wasn't there, he would find her in the alcove; but his money was on the fact that she was probably in the library. Most likely working hard and getting her homework done. To be truthful, Damien had barely started his; back at home, he would have it done and he would be visiting professors so that they could review it for errors. Holiday break, for Damien anyways, was reserved for conditioning and getting ready for baseball in the spring.

If there wasn't such bad weather, Damien would go running today; but the outlook was bleak, and the only thing on his mind was Imari anyways. He often found himself daydreaming about her, he was a bit lovesick; and he always thought about their kiss under the mistletoe. Even though he might be a guy, that didn't mean he didn't think it was still really sweet. He'd confessed that night to his friends, and they'd offered to do his hair for his next date. He'd declined by throwing his pillows at them and slipping confusion droughts into their pumpkin juice. It only lasted for fifteen minutes, but it was one of the funniest things he'd ever pulled off.

He skipped down the stairs, two at a time, and landed at the bottom with a thud. And off to the library he was, he'd memorized his way there, and the moving staircases didn't confuse him as much as they used to. The school seemed so quiet, so empty; it felt strange to be here with so few students around.

Damien found Imari near a window in the library, her back was to him. He smiled as he walked over to her, stopping to kiss her on the cheek before sitting down across from her. "Hello beautiful, how's the homework going?" He asked with a bright grin, he was his happiest when he was with her; it was probably why he was semi-addicted to being with her, he never wanted the good feelings to end.

Imari was startled out of her daydream by a kiss on the cheek and she turned to see Damien.  A smile broke out on her face and she blushed involuntarily when he called her beautiful. It took her a minute, but she finally answered his question, "It would be going a lot better if I could focus." she said with a smirk.  "It seems that all I can do right now is focus..." she paused for a moment before turning in her chair to face him completely, "on you."

"Well," he replied with a smile as Imari admitted she couldn't focus because of him. "What if I disappeared?" He joked, putting his hands over his face, pretending to hide from her. "See, now I'm not here anymore, so you can focus," he whispered, not wanting to get kicked out of the library.

He peeked through his fingers to see her still looking at him, "If you keep looking at me, you'll never know that I'm not here, which I am, but I'm not." He said, confusing himself thoroughly. "Alright," he said as he dropped his hands, "I'm confused. Are you confused? Maybe I should read some of my homework, see how hopelessly confused I can get today..."

Damien opened up his divination book and flicked his eyes up to look back at Imari, "Sorry, too much talking at once. I'm running on caffeine if you would like to know."

Imari just smiled and shook her head, "It's alright, I was a little confused, but not too much." She looked back at her book and sighed, "I know I'm usually in here and doing my homework, but it's the first time since I came here that I dont' want to be in the library.  I am not good at having fun in the cold though," she stopped and looked up at him, "Would you have any ideas?"

"Well at least you're dedicated to your homework, typically I am too, but there's too much to see around here to be focused." Damien said, looking around the mostly-empty library.

His eyes drifted back to Imari and the questioning look she was giving him, "Oh, sorry, ideas. Right. Umm, we could put you in a bubble and heat it up so technically you wouldn't be in the cold, and then you could have fun." Damien joked, moving his pen in circles on his paper.

Imari looked at Damien like he was a little crazy, but remembered that she had told him she'd had problems with being in the cold.  Then she said what she was thinking, "You know what, I'm tired of sitting inside on cold days, everyone seems to have so much fun in the snow.  Let's ditch our homework and go play!" she said excitedly.

Closing up her books and putting them back in her bag, she told Damien, "I'll meet you in the Entrance Hall in 20 minutes okay, I am going to go change into something appropriate to play in the snow in." she said and in one of her rare  moments where she wasn't shy, she walked over to him, placed her arms around his neck and kissed him lightly on the cheek.  "I'll be right there." she said and disappeared out of the library.

She had an ulterior motive to leaving Damien in the library.  It was close enough to Christmas that she could give him his Christmas gift.  She was always the one person in her family who never wanted to wait until Christmas, giving her family small gifts until the big day when they all got to open their extremely thoughtful gifts.  Imari practically bubbled with excitement as she raced down to the Slytherin dorm, she just hoped that Damien liked his present.

Damien didn't know what to make o Imari's sudden display of emotion, it wasn't like her to kiss him in the middle of the libary. He hugged her back briefly as she ran offfir the Slytherin dorms. He smiled to himself, shaking his head; he didn't think that he would have been able to get Imari to go outside. In the cold. To play in the snow. He reveled in this thought for a few minutes until he realized that he only had ten minutes left before he had to meet Imari in the entrance hall.

Damien put away his books in his bag, his hand brushing past the slender black box that contained Imari's present. He really wanted to give it to her now, but thought it would be nice to wait until Christmas.

He hopped up from where he was sitting, heading out of the mostly empty library and out into the silent hallway. It was much different when no one was at school, and Damien didn't know what to do with himself half the time now that the main haunts of the older students were now unoccupied.

He found himself in the entrance hallway, by himself, two minutes ahead of time. Damien leaned against the wall and waited for Imari, excited to go play outside, even if that sounded childish. Anything he did with Imari would be perfect, even if they responded with enthusiasm that resembled a couple of four year olds.

Imari changed quickly and slipped the little velvet box in the pocket of her coat.  She knew she probably wouldn't give it to Damien today, but in case she changed her mind she'd have it.  She walked into the Entrance Hall and spotted Damien, "Ready?" she asked.  Imari wasn't sure about playing outside, but she would be with Damien, so it would be fun no matter what.

"I'm not sure about playing in the snow, I haven't done that since I was a young girl." she told him as she walked up to him and slipped her arm around his.

Continued here...