Ana's personal preference of dinner was usually meat loaf and carrots.

Sometimes pasta and beans.

Maybe a sandwich and some ice cream for dessert.

But mac 'n' cheese was a tad bit surprising.

When Ana walked across the hallway back to her room, she smelled cheese in the air.

"Er-" Ana said, walking into the kitchen. "Do you need any help with dinner?"

"Could you grab two bowls?" asked Arnie kindly.

Ana nodded and pulled two bowls out of the drying rack and set them next to the pot Arnie was stirring.

"What is that?" Ana asked curiously.

"Mac 'n' cheese," said Arnie matter-of-factly. "Here, it's all cooked. Go ahead and grab some, I need to go to the loo."

He turned off the heat and dashed to the bathroom.

Ana grabbed a serving spoon and placed a large dollop of mac 'n' cheese into her bowl. Grabbing a fork, she went to go sit at the table and started eating.

When Arnie came back, Ana looked up and said, "Sorry about already starting to eat."

"It's alright," he said with a chuckle. Arnie served himself some dinner and went to sit down at the dining table next to Ana. "So... what's your plan for the summer?"

Ana thought. "I dunno," she said. "A friend invited me over, but that's not even official, so..."

"Oh, what friend?" asked Arnie eagerly.

He had missed out on 16 years of her life, Ana understood that he wanted to make up for it. "A friend of mine named Remus Lupin."

Arnie's eyes widened. "Hold up- any relation to Lyall Lupin?" 

Ana furrowed her eyebrows. "Yeah... Lyall's his dad. Why d'you ask?"

"I knew Lyall," said Arnie, a bit bitterly. "Never liked him much. Always had a thing against magical creatures... especially werewolves."

Ana paled. "Well, Remus isn't like that. He loves magical creatures. Thinks they're wonderful to learn about. He's really quite sweet."

"That's nice to hear," said Arnie, looking somewhat please that Ana wasn't friends with someone like Lyall.

"What are YOUR plans for the summer?" asked Ana, finishing up her mac 'n' cheese. "You obviously can't go outside. What'll you do all day? And when I'm in school, too?"

"Maybe I can do a bit of Transfiguration on my face when I go out?" suggested Arnie. "Maybe get a job somewhere? At a Muggle firm, so they can't track me down."

Ana almost scoffed. "Are you kidding? Of course not! Voldemort's cronies could be out there, anywhere! What if you get caught? Absolutely not!"

"You sound like your mother," said Arnie with a slight smile. "Except she was a Ravenclaw. Smartest person I knew. I was a Hufflepuff."

Ana grinned. "Oh, yeah? How'd you two meet?"

Arnie turned red. "That is a story I have a hate-love relationship with."

Ana stifled a snort. "Go on."

"We actually met in our 4th year," sighed Arnie. "We knew each other before that, of course, but only in passing. Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had Potions together, and Professor Slughorn switched the seating charts so we sat together."

Ana nodded. It was comforting to hear stories about her parents, living a happy life, not knowing of the horrors that lurked ahead. Ana shook off this thought and returned her attention to the story.

"We had to try making some Wiggenweld," said Arnie, slowly turning red. "And I may have blown up our potion onto our faces. I did not give Al a good first impression. But you know what she did? She snorted so loud the whole class just looked at her in shock. Al sat there for a good couple of minutes cackling like a maniac."

"She really did that?" said Ana with wide eyes. "Doesn't seem like her."

"She really did do it!" said Arnie, still tomato red. "When we finally cleaned everything up, Al was STILL giggling! At one point I had to Silencio her in the middle of class. After class, I lifted the charm and she began doing her odd cackle again. At that point, I think she was just doing it to annoy me."

Ana snorted. "And then what?" she asked eagerly, reminding her of when she was 7 and Mum would read her bedtime stories.

"She walked away, still laughing!" continued Arnie. "Everytime we saw each other or passed in the halls after that time, Al would ALWAYS do her weird cackle just to annoy me."

"So you guys were friends then?"

"More like passing acquaintances at first," said Arnie. "After a while, some of our professors saw her laughing everytime she saw me and switched our seating charts so we sat next to each other. They thought we were really close friends or something, and after a while, she did become my best friend."

"When did you finally get together?" asked Ana, brushing her brown hair behind her ear.

"More than half the school wanted us to get together by our 5th year, but it didn't actually happen until our 6th. By that time, it was more than obvious I liked her, but because of my stupidity, I didn't realize that she liked me too for quite a while." Arnie took a big bite of his mac 'n' cheese, like he wanted to avoid the rest of the story.

"And then?" encouraged Ana.

Arnie swallowed his mac 'n' cheese. "This is the mushiest thing I've ever eaten. Hmm. It could use some more cheese."

"I know you're stalling," muttered Ana under her breath in a singsong voice.

Arnie grumbled. "Well, this part's not very interesting."

"Ok. You telling me the story?"

"Stubbornness runs in the family, I swear," grumbled Arnie. "Fine." He put down his fork.

"It's a horribly mushy story," sighed Arnie. "But we had just finished Astronomy, and it was almost midnight. You would have thought we should have been in bed by then, but it was the night we were to look at some specific constellations or something. Anyways, our professor, Professor Lufkin, has me and Alwena stay behind to collect everyone's star charts and clean off the telescope lenses. Everyone leaves, and me and Al are left there alone, cleaning up in the tower. She stops dusting off the telescopes for a second and stares at the sky." Arnie now had a slightly misty look in his eyes, as if he remembered exactly how everything went that night. "Then..."

December 24th, 1945, 11:54 PM

Alwena stopped wiping the telescope's lens. "The sky looks so beautiful tonight," she said dreamily, staring at the sky.

Her raven-black hair curtained her face and her blue eyes reflected the night sky.

"So do you," Arnie said softly. Then, realizing what he said, Arnie slowly turned a deep shade of red. He quickly turned his head down, and his dark brown curls fell over his green eyes.

Alwena turned suddenly towards Arnie. 

"Thank you," said Alwena, walking towards Arnie and pulling him into a gentle hug. "You're very beautiful too."

Arnie hugged Alwena back awkwardly, but screamed internally. That was his chance. And he went and missed it. 

"Al?"

"Hmm?" Alwena asked, going back to dusting off the telescopes, as though nothing had ever happened.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You just did," chuckled Alwena. "But go ahead."

He didn't know if it was a random burst of courage, or maybe his pumpkin juice had been spiked with Felix Felicis, but Arnie Loughty did one of the bravest things he had ever done in that moment.

"Can I kiss you?" he blurted out.

Alwena didn't move. 

Neither of them made a single sound.

The only thing that was heard was the chirp of crickets all around the Hogwarts grounds.

"Yes," said Alwena, slightly breathlessly, turning around to face Arnie. 

They were now less than an inch close to each other.

Arnie reached out and tucked a piece of Alwena's hair behind her ear before leaning forward and connecting his lips with hers lightly.

Alwena locked her arms around Arnie's neck.

It was a beautiful first kiss, and as the clock dinged midnight, Arnie picked Alwena up by her waist and spun her around, lips still connected.

"Merry Christmas," Alwena said quietly.

"Merry Christmas, Al."

Arnie breathed out, his eyes lit with reminiscence. "It was the best night of my life. Al would say the best time of her life was our wedding, but I know it was the snacks she got after the wedding."

Ana laughed. Her smile faded slowly. "Helga, I miss her."

"I know," whispered Arnie. "I do too."

Ana felt herself get slightly misty-eyed. Pushing the tears back, she got up from her chair. "Well, I better head to bed."

"Good night, Ana," said Arnie with a gentle smile.

"Good night... Dad."

AHHHHHH I'M SOOOOOO SORRY FOR THE LONG BREAK IN THE CHAPTER AHHH

HiH went down again and I couldn't update

i'm sooooooooo sorry :(

But I recently had an idea for another book

And this one wouldn't be a marauders one

This one would be an alwena and arnie book because I'm obsessed with the excerpt that I just wrote of them

What do you guys think? Should I do it when I'm finished with this book? Or should I make something from a completely different series? Maybe a golden trio era book? 

Let me know what your ideas are! I'm open to all suggestions and questions, you can just post on my wall or owl me! 

Love, Jui Weasley