Winifred's day had been a good one. She had caught up with a bunch of her friends, and was surprised to see how many of the third year boys seemed to have grown up over the summer. Some of them were even good looking now! How exciting. She would get her first boyfriend, yet. Even if Uncle Archer and her mother and father had promised to murder any boy who tried. At least her Aunt Leola was supportive of romance!

It was close to nine in the evening, and Winifred was sitting on one of the common room couches, wearing another pair of her footed pajamas. Her mother had bought her some to wear at the Egypt trip, and Winnie had fallen in love with the style, so her mom had gotten her a few more. She claimed they were popular among muggles, which made Winifred like them even more.

This was the last night of freedom before school started. No homework to do, no rushing- just relaxing before the classes got into full swing in the morning.

Her large, fluffy cat- Lord Fluffybutt- was curled up in her lap. And she was reading one of the romance novels that her Aunt let her borrow. It was about star crossed lovers- a rich, pureblood man who had fallen in love with a squib. It was a very good book so far.

"It's a shame we can't just live in the castle and not have to go to classes and do homework, isn't it?" Winifred said aloud when she heard someone coming through the portrait hole into the common room. "It would be much more fun than having to bother with learning."

Elijah rushed through the hallways, making his way to the Hufflepuff common room. It was located near the kitchen, something that proved very valuable whenever some Huffle was very hungry but found himself without any food. Elijah himself had already made a nightly walk to the kitchens many times before. The elf's and him had come to know each other fairly good, and when he came to the kitchen the elf's would already know what he wanted to eat without even asking: some pumpkin juice and apple pie. Walking past the kitchen Elijah felt the urge to walk in and say hi, to be polite and nice, but decided not to now. He would probably made a nightly visit later on, as he was already feeling hungry.

Reaching the barrels that granted people entrance to the common room Elijah got out his padauk wand from his inside pocket, preparing himself to tap the barrel. He one time tapped out of rhythm, resulting in him being covered in vinegar. Not wanting that to happen again he was always very cautious when reaching the barrels, even though it had become a thing he could do with his eyes closed. He tapped the barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row, in the rhythm of ‘Helga Hufflepuff’, making the lid swing open. Crawling through the passage that lead him to the common room, he sighed again. He hated the crawling.

Elijah entered the common room, annoyed by the whole sequence it took him to get there, and saw Winifred sitting on one of the couches, wearing a footed pajama. Sighing again, he was certainly not in the mood for Winifred, Elijah moved forward, with half a smile on his face. He heard the last part of the sentence, something about not bothering to study, while he looked around. He did not see anyone, which made him wonder. Was Winifred talking to herself now? Was she so fond of talking that she would actually talk to herself?

Why he did not know precisely, but he rather disliked Winifred. The girl got onto his nerves. It irritated him that she was a fourth year, he did not like young people, and that she talked só much. She would seriously be able to talk all day long. If she did not need to sleep. Or eat. Putting on his smile like he always did he walked forward into the common room. “Hello Winifred. I assume you had a good day?” He said to the girl, trying to be polite. He always formed his questions so that he could simply get a yes or a no, not that that was possible with Winifred anyway. Sighing, Elijah sat down on another couch, getting out his history book. He loved history.

Uniform.

Winifred had not realized that it was Elijah who had come into the common room- one of the new Prefects for the year. He was okay, she guessed, but none of the older students were ever going to hold a candle to the Fayette twins... especially Dax. Even so, she had no reason to be mean or rude to Elijah and he had asked how her day went.

"It was as good as it gets, I guess," she said with a shrug. "I don't want to start classes tomorrow. But it was very, very nice to see my friends! And Lord Fluffybutt got to see Duchess for the first time since last year. They're betrothed, you know," she said. Winifred assumed everyone knew that by now, because she and Imogen had chosen the date for their wedding to be in the fall of this school year and they had already asked a few of their friends to attend the wedding.

Of course, now that Winifred was very nearly fifteen, that all sounded a bit childish... But it did still sound like a lot of fun. Fun still out weighed trying to be an adult for Winifred. And she was only a fourth year, so she didn't have to grow up just yet. That could wait until next school year when she had to figure out whether or not she was capable of passing any of her OWLs.

"It will probably be the best day I'll have until something exciting happens for the tournament. I haven't gotten to meet a whole lot of foreign students yet." Winnie frowned a little at that. From far away a lot of them seemed to be very cute. "I heard they're staying in the castle!" Winifred added enthusiastically. "You wouldn't know where their dorms and common rooms are, would you?" Winnie asked. "Are there any in the dungeons with us and Slytherin?"

As Elijah flipped trough the pages of his book, not knowing precisely what to look for, he heard Winifred answering his question with a lot of talking. 'Oh dear lord.' Elijah thought as he closed his book again, placing it on his lap. Putting on his smile, the one he always had, he turned his face to the girl. "Yeah it is brilliant seeing your friends again, isn't it." He replied, deciding to ignore the comment on her pets getting married.

Elijah produced a filter in the last couple of years, specially made to filter out the interesting and important things when people tended to talk a lot, not really saying what they were planning to. Winifred was a person where this filter was especially good for. Elijah waved his wand, accompanied by a "Accio Chocolate Frogs", wanting some sweets. As the chocolate frogs floated his way he heard Winifred asking him about the foreigners and their residence in the castle.

He vaguely knew where the strangers stayed in the castle, somewhere in the dungeons where the Durmstrangs, and was surprised she also knew, or had a hunch. As Elijah unpacked his frog, he tossed away the card immediately as he saw it was Dumbledore, again, he focused at the girl again. "I have no idea where they stay. And even if I knew, I would not be allowed to tell little fourth year Huffles about it." He replied as he started nibbling on the chocolate. "You will meet some of them this year, I am sure." He followed, wanting to assure her in some way. As a prefect he had to at least try at be nice. Right?

Winifred didn't even realize that Elijah was mostly disinterested in what she had to talk about. He kept responding to her, and that was all Winnie really needed to keep blabbering on at him. "Oh yeah! It really is. I had missed them so much! A lot of my friends didn't go to Egypt over the summer. And since my dad chaperoned the trip I didn't get to have nearly as much as I would have if he hadn't been there!" Mostly because her father knew the kind of trouble Winifred could get up to unsupervised.

She watched as he summoned the chocolate frogs, and frowned a little when he said he wouldn't be allowed to tell her about where they were staying. "Well that's just silly," Winifred said with a huff. "It's not like I could get into their rooms anyway! I wouldn't know the password. I guess I'll just have to ask one of the foreign girls where they're staying if I want to know, then!" Really, it wasn't like telling her would hurt!

"I hope I do get to meet them!" she exclaimed, agitation forgotten. "I've always wanted to meet someone neat from America! And the Beauxbatons girls are so pretty! I bet they know a lot of neat beauty spells and potions they could teach me!" She wondered whether or not the French girls would be nice enough to teach her some of that. The things Winnie had tried to learn on her own had definitely not gone over very well. She and Ayla could both have fun with those kinds of spells!

"Are you going to compete in the tournament?" Winnie asked. "Or at least try? I know I sure would try if I was old enough! Even though I'm really bad at magic, the goblet picks people so I don't think it would hurt to put my name in! It's a shame I'm not the right age," Winnie groaned. "Just one more year and I'd be sixteen you know! And I could be a Hogwarts champion and everyone would cheer for me!"

His eyes rolled as Elijah nibbled on his chocolate frog. It was amazing how much this girl could talk, or even change the subject from this to that. It was rather fascinating, to be honest. He turned his head so he faced the ceiling, letting his head rest on the comfortable couch. Deciding that he was ignoring her first questions again since he was not going to argue about the whereabouts of the other schools he focused on her last question.

Him being a champion. He had thought about that, really. But then again, he could never be champion. He would not even be chosen by the goblet anyways. Who would choose an insecure, shy Hufflepuff to represent Hogwarts? Not him. And probably no one else either. He once imagined holding the Champion cup, being the one true champion. Not shy. Not insecure. Not getting red cheeks when talking to woman. It would be his utopia. But then again, Elijah was a realist, and that would never happen.

Elijah shook his head, focusing on reality again. He opened his eyes, turning to the fourth year again. "Nah. That is not in my interest really." He lied partially. "I will just focus on passing my classes. And my history books." He continued, putting up his book up as an example. "Maybe reading would be something for you too?" He said jokingly, smiling broadly.

"Oh! But I do read!" Winnie exclaimed. "I read all the time! My Aunt Leola owls me books, and my uncle does on occasion, too. There is this great author- Matilda McLean- who writes some absolutely divine romance novels!" Winifred sighed. She hoped she would have a great romance one day. "They always feature couples in the wizarding world who have to overcome obstacles to be together!"

"I just read a great one about a prolific witch who fell in love with a muggle man that she met in the train station just after getting home from her last year at Hogwarts, and how hard it was for them to fall in love! He didn't trust her because she was keeping secrets, but she couldn't tell him that she was a witch! Their love prevailed, though," Winnie told him. As if the sixth year could care. "Because in romance novels love always prevails! As it should in real life, if real life was as fun as a book."

"She's got others, too! About a witch falling in love with a centaur, there's one about a pureblood having to decide between his family fortune or the squib that he loves, all kinds of great ones."

"I read muggle books, too," Winifred carried on. "My mum brings them to me all the time! I love them. They're a lot of fun. But I guess that reading books about muggles is a lot like them reading books about magic and stuff. I like to read fiction books. I just don't like to read for class. I mean, I don't mind so much- depending on the classes. Sometimes History of Magic is really interesting! But... reading for herbology and potions and stuff like that is just so dreadfully boring," she finally finished speaking, her wide eyes still glued to the older boy.