Christmas holidays were just a week away, and like every other student, Ivy could not wait to go back home. Warm cozy nights wrapped up in blankets near the fireplace whilst they sipped on hot chocolate, their mum making Christmas delicacies every day, baking together, the gifts, the decoration— Christmas was the only part of Winters Ivy liked now.

“I can’t wait for this week to end. It’s seriously the longest week of my life!” Paige groaned. The girls were all sitting in the grounds, basking in the sunlight that was so rare these days. “You say that every year.” Ivy commented, writing her Transfiguration essay on a parchment paper.

“Ahh, this is so relaxing,” Alexis said, eyes closed, taking in the warm winter sun. “This is a good feeling.” Maria laughed. “Weren’t you just saying a few weeks ago that you hate the sun and sunlight?” “That was when I was reading a book about vampires. Honestly, muggles really fantasize about them. Wait till they actually meet one. I still liked the book anyways.” she shrugged.

“And what is your current read?” Maria asked. “Probably a holiday romance book.” Ivy replied instead. “Wow, you guys know me so well.” Alexis exclaimed, bewildered, as she lifted up her book to show them the cover. A holiday romance, indeed.

“Paige, get off of the tree, you’re going to hurt yourself.” Maria stood up. Paige held onto the branches as she looked in front of her, squinting her eyes.

“I think there is a duel going on over there.” she said. “Where?” Alexis asked, and the girls looked in the direction Paige pointed at. There, a little far in the courtyard, seemed to be a crowd of students gathered. Ivy returned back to writing, disinterested. Duels were too common at Hogwarts. What actually mattered was who was dueling.

“Crowd seems big.” Alexis commented. “Who’s dueling, Paige?” “I’m trying to see.” Paige leaned forward. “Careful!” Maria warned, standing right down the tree like a worried mother. Ivy didn’t bother being interested. “Why does it matter who’s dueling? Some Professor is probably gonna come and break them off any minute with detentions.” She stood up, straightening her parchment sheets. “And on that note, I have to submit these in Transfiguration class, I’m off.” She hurried off towards the Castle.

Just as she left, Paige squealed. “Oh my God!” She quickly climbed down the tree, scratching her arm in the process, but she didn’t seem to notice.“We have to see this! It’s Macnair and Black!” she rushed off. “Black from Slytherin!” she shouted back, already running through the Courtyard. Alexis instantly bolted up as well, grabbing her book and was right behind Paige.

Maria sighed. She had no choice but to follow as well. She gathered Paige’s stuff who had been in too much of a hurry to carry it, and walked behind the girls too. “Wait for me!”

Ivy walked past the crowd, trying to get inside the Castle but the students kept blocking her way, and shoving as more of them gathered to witness the duel between the two Slytherins. It was starting to annoy her. She threw one cursory glance to see who was dueling and saw Walden Macnair standing opposite to her, wand braced in his hand as he glared at the boy in front of her. Ivy could only see his back, but it didn’t take her a minute to know who it was.

Macnair yelled out a spell, pointing it towards Regulus, but he was quick to dodge it. Regulus tutted. "Is that all you have, Macnair?" He smirked. Macnair stepped forward with another spell thrown at Regulus. He effortlessly dodged that one too. "Is that really all you got?"

So far, Macnair was the one attacking and Regulus had been dodging the spells and throwing snarky comments. “You’re boring me, Macnair. Is this what you called me to duel for?”

“Shut up!” Macnair shouted back. “Oh, are my comments diverting your concentration?” Regulus asked in an apologetic tone. “I’m sorry, I’ll say something encouraging next time.” Macnair burned with rage as he sent a set of spells at the boy, one after the other. Missed again.

“I’m sure you can hit me if you try hard enough. I believe in you!” A surge of laughter and giggles came from the crowd. Macnair’s face became visibly red with humiliation.

He tried to be smart this time and sent the curse to the side, rather than directly at Regulus , so the boy would get hit when he moves aside to dodge it. But the plan completely backfired when Regulus stepped in the other direction and the spell was sent straight at Ivy who was just trying to make way through the crowd.

The parchment papers in Ivy's hand got damaged due to the spark of the spell, hours worth of her effort drained. The cheering crowd suddenly grew quiet, mutual gasps as they saw Ivy wide eyes, looking at half damaged essay in her hand. It was at this moment that Macnair knew he had messed up.

"You!" Ivy said angrily, taking quick strides towards the Slytherin. Macnair felt his breath hitch. She stopped a few steps ahead of Regulus. A wave of excitement gushed through the crowd. Things were just about to turn even more interesting.

"You idiot! It took me hours on this essay!" Ivy didn't waste a second to fire a spell at him. The spell hit right on spot, and the students saw Macnair's nose turning red, and swelling. Within seconds, his nose had turned into a red giant ball on his face, like a clown's.

But Ivy wasn't done yet. She hit him once more, and Macnair watched in horror as his head throbbed, brown antlers starting to poke out from his hair. The students laughed again. "Macneer the reindeer!" someone shouted out, earning more laughter from the crowd.

Macnair clenched his jaw as he sent a counter spell back at Ivy so she'd face the humiliation too, but the girl was prepared as she casted a protection charm. His counter attack had just ticked Ivy off like a bomb. How dare he hit her back when he was the one who messed with her in the first place! She had been too angry to notice how Regulus had taken one step forward infront of her, as Macnair raised his wand again.

Ivy sent every spell she knew, every jinx that came to her and directed them all at Macnair who started backing away. She wasn't giving him a chance to attack.

"What's going on here!?" Professor McGonagall's voice sent the student scurrying out of the way as the professor came towards the dueling students. Ivy stopped firing the spells at Macnair but kept standing there, heaving as she glared him down in anger.

"Explain yourselves!" the professor said in fury, stern gazes fixed at the students. Ivy kept glaring at Macnair, not saying a word. Macnair was just horrified at the size his antlers had grown making his head heavy and hard to balance. So Regulus stepped forward.

"Macnair invited me to a duel, Professor. I accepted. Miss Binns got hit by Macnair accidentally so she joined in." "Detention! Detention for all three of you!" McGonagall announced. "Take him to the hospital wing." she ordered, pointing at Macnair who was having a hard time balancing his head. A student nearby quickly helped him out.

Then the professor turned to face Ivy. "I really didn't expect this kind of behaviour from a student like you, Miss Binns." she said in disappointment. "I'm sorry Professor but he ruined my Transfiguration essay when I wasn't even involved in the duel." she crouched down and picked up the damaged essay.

"I know you are hot headed Miss Binns, and you really need to overcome that." the professor's voice turned soft. "This essay could be fixed with a simple Reparo," Mcgonagall pointed the wand at the pieces of parchment and it returned back to its original state. "You should've kept your calm, Miss Binns and come to me regarding this scenario rather than punishing Macnair yourself and would have saved yourself from this unnecessary detention." Ivy hung her head low clutching the parchment essay. She didn't regret what she did to Macnair but a professor telling her that she let them down hurt a lot, a lot more than a damaged essay.

"Your house teacher will inform you when to come for your detention." with that Mcgonagall left the scene. "Ivy, are you okay?" Maria asked as the girls rushed forward to her. Ivy stared at Regulus who kept standing there dusting his robes. "I'm fine," she told the girls. "Just have to serve detention now." she pursed her lips. "It's okay, everybody gets detentions." Lexi patted Ivy's back. "I think if you haven't ever had detention, it means you never enjoyed your school life." "You've never had detention." Paige pointed out. but Lexi just shushed her as they all slowly started walking back towards the castle.

Ivy looked back at Regulus again, still glaring at him. McGonagall had only seen Ivy duelling. He could've easily moulded the real story and taken himself out of the punishment. Yet he still went on and told the professor that he had himself taken part in the duel too. His honesty and fairness was starting to infuriate her.

"You guys go on, I'll be right back." Ivy told the girls. She took fast steps back towards him. Regulus cocked an eyebrow to see her coming. She stopped right in front of him, glaring straight in his eyes. "What?" he asked. Then she stepped on his foot with all her might and took off.

"Ouch!" Regulus groaned, limping. "What was that for!?"

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"I can't believe I have to go serve detention today!" Ivy grumbled, combing her hair. "Today is the last day before the holidays! I want to spend my time in the common room with everyone. But I have to go clean the stinky Potion's classroom." she pulled her arm into the sleeve of a sweater. "Just be done with them quickly and come back." Maria said. "Then we can have fun."

"We brewed the stickiest, slimiest potions last week." Ivy groaned in frustration. "It's not going to be a quick task." Paige laughed. "Remember how you said last week whoever's going to have to clean those cauldrons will sure have a lot of fun. Who knew you'd be the one to end up doing it." Ivy glared at her sister, threatening to throw the pillow at her. She sighed, then bade the girls good bye as she came out to their common room door. Ivy climbed down the never ending flight of stairs— Ravenclaw being the second tallest tower and walked to the Potion’s classroom. She had to reach there by 8.

The Castle was cold, chilly winter air blowing. Ivy's teeth clattered and she wrapped her arms around herself to prevent from shivering. "Maybe I should have worn the warmer sweater instead," she thought to herself. But she didn't want to get her pretty sweaters dirty from the cleaning, so she had decided to wear this thin sweater instead. But she regretted her decisions now. "I'd rather get a pretty sweater dirty than freeze in this thing." she grumbled to herself, entering the classroom.

She was met with a familiar Slytherin sitting comfortably in one of the seats. Hands in the pockets of a fancy black coat, legs sprawled ahead of him, a bored expression on his face. But he smirked mischievously as soon as he saw her. "Fancy seeing you here, Binns." Ivy just rolled her eyes, not saying anything. She stepped forward to examine the cauldrons. They waited in silence for a while before Professor Slughorn came in.

"Oh, What a day!" he said. "Seeing my top students for detention." he laughed. Ivy just pursed her lips nervously. "Well, I’ll be needing your wands." Ivy and Regulus handed their wands over to Slughorn. "What about Macnair? He's still not here, Professor." Ivy inquired. She had no interest in working with Macnair, but she wanted him to serve punishment as well. "I'm afraid Mr. Macnair is still at the hospital wing. He says he still doesn't feel quite... balanced." Yea, right. Ivy scoffed in her head, she knew he was just stalling to prevent himself from the detention. It didn't take a whole week for the antlers to go back. And the nose could be fixed with a single counter curse. "He'll be serving his detention after the Christmas break." Slughorn explained. "Now, then. Get started." he motioned his hands towards the cauldrons and sat down on the teacher’s chair.

Ivy and Regulus took the washcloths provided and slowly began the job. After about 15 minutes, Slughorn got up from his seat. "Well.." he started. "Since you both are my top students, I trust you both enough. I don't think you'll need my surveillance, now, do you?” he chuckled. "I’ll enjoy some christmas treats in my room, you both can work comfortably." he gave them a sheepish smile then left the classroom.

"Finally!" Regulus huffed, then took out another wand from his pocket. Ivy’s eyes widened at the sight. "What are you doing!?" she said. "Stole it from Nott." Regulus winked. "What if he comes back?" she looked back at the door where Slughorn had just left. "Not that I care if you get punished. I just don't want to be roped in with you." she added quickly. Regulus smirked. "Oh, he won't be back any time soon." The slytherin began saying cleaning spells at the cauldrons."I've made sure of that."

"What do you mean?" Ivy crossed her arms. "Well you think a box of the finest chocolates just randomly appeared at Slughorn's door? the chocolates that may or may not have been drugged with trace amounts of sleeping potion that may or may not have been stolen from this exact room." he smiled mischievously at his achievement. "Slughorn has a thing for sweets. I knew my plan was failproof." Ivy just shook her head. So much for being fair and honest. She kept cleaning the cauldron with the washcloth. "Okay now you're just making me feel guilty seeing you scrubbing like that." he said. Ivy didn't respond and kept scrubbing. After a few minutes, Regulus grumbled, putting the wand back and grabbed the washcloth again.

"I guess I'll just have to spend an extra hour with you now." he pursed his lips. "Or two," he added, noting the cauldrons behind the desk as well. Ivy glared at him, then continued scrubbing quietly and quickly. Another cold rush of air came in through the window causing Ivy to shiver once more, but she ignored it, focusing on scrubbing. She just wanted to be done as soon as she could so she could go sit in the cozy common room. Just thinking about the fireplace made her feel warm inside.

There was the sound of a click, and Ivy looked behind to see Regulus closing the window. Then he proceeded to turn the burners on that they used for Potion making. Ivy stopped scrubbing, looking at him. “What? I’m cold!” Regulus rolled his eyes at her then went back to cleaning. Cold in that coat? Ivy thought. But then again, it was really chilly tonight. At least the burners were now warming the room and it wasn't as cold as before.

Minutes of silence tickled by them as they both quietly did their job. It wasn't an awkward silence, not a comfortable one either. It was the silence of pretending that the other person wasn't even there. and Ivy seemed to be an expert at that.

"By the way," Regulus said, breaking the silence. "What the hell did you say to Parkinson!?" Ivy smiled, still not speaking as she focused on cleaning. "She's just like smitten with me. Even more than she used to be." he shuddered. "I feel bad for lying to her. I might as well just tell her the truth. Then she can go back to hating me. and maybe you too." Ivy replied. "Fine by me," he said. "But seriously though, I could potentially shape a diamond from her nose.” he chuckled. and for a second, Ivy was going to laugh back too. But she got hold of herself in time. What was he doing? What was she doing?

She looked up at him. "Why are you doing this?" the sternness was visible in her voice. "What? cleaning?" he asked, confused. "Why are you talking to me?" she said in all seriousness. "We're not friends.. or anything. Why are you talking to me? engaging me in conversations? You were doing it last time as well." her voice was getting higher. "I don't know what's up your sleeve this time but do not attempt to talk to me again, alright? I hate you."

Regulus was a little taken aback at the sudden change in her, but he remained indifferent to it nonetheless. He straightened up. "I hate you.. and in fact.. I've never hated anyone as much as you." Ivy said the words with scorn, staring straight at him. For a second, for just the fraction of a second, there was a look of hurt on his face. Like a crack, but it was gone so quickly that Ivy thought she had imagined it all. It was never there. Why would it be?

His lips slowly turned into a smirk. "Sweet" he said, then began cleaning the cauldron.

The silence was sharp this time.