Today Winifred Leigh Oliver turned fifteen! She was very excited about it, and liked being one of the oldest fourth years there was. Winnie was now the same age as most of the fifth years! That was super duper exciting. Her day had been really good so far, too. This morning she'd gotten presents from her family, and they were all really neat. Her brothers had even given her some money for her birthday so she would have some extra spending money when they had their first Hogsmeade weekend. Winnie usually thought they were stupid, but today Zeke and Earnest were the most awesome brothers anyone could ever ask for!

It sucked that she had to go to classes today, but that was just how things were (unfortunately). But after classes, after dinner, and after working on some homework she finally had time to hang out in the common room. Lord Fluffybutt was curled up in her lap as she opened a brand new book from her Aunt Leola. More volumes from a romance series Winifred had been reading. She absolutely adored romance novels! They were the best. And it made her wish very much that she had a handsome, romantic boyfriend that she could actually enjoy snogging!

So far Winnie had kissed two boys. She hadn't really enjoyed either of them. Kissing Ambrose was okay, she guessed. And kissing Blake wasn't very exciting, either. Winifred was still convinced kissing a cute older boy like Dax Fayette would have been a much better first kiss experience. Of course, kissing Ambrose and Blake didn't count anyway. They were just practice. They weren't real kisses.

Winifred looked up from her book about an hour later, marking her place by folding down the page, and noticed that one of her favorite people was in the common room. Well, one of her new favorite people. She'd always been friendly with Seto. He was a nice boy and he was handsome. But now that Dax was gone, he was her new favorite person. Because he was blonde and good looking just like Dax. Winnie had also heard that Seto had kissed Ayla- that made her very jealous, but also very curious about whether or not he was the sort of sixth year who didn't mind fourth years if they were old enough.

"Hullo Seto!" she greeted loudly, getting up from the chair she had been lounging in to plop down next to him on one of the sofas in the common room. "Did you know that today is my birthday?" she asked. "I just turned fifteen! Isn't that exciting?"

It had been a pretty good day thus far for the Hufflepuff. He had taken a nice swim with a pretty Slytherin girl, eaten copious amounts of food (as was usual) and had gotten his average twelve hours of napping in. All that was missing, really, was a nice kiss from someone cute to make it a perfect day. Well, okay. A kiss was the minimum. There were plenty of other things Seto could think of that would be much more enjoyable. Still, kisses were always nice and kisses weren't outside the realm of possibility.

He had only been in the common room for about five minutes when Winnie came up to him. At first he hadn't even realized the girl was there, he had been to tired. And Puff wasn't exactly making it easy on him with all his squeaking. Honestly, the little guy had been acting like he was mistreated ever since Seto returned from summer holiday. Maybe he was lonely. Probably missed being around other pygmy puff's or something.

"Hullo Seto! Did you know that today is my birthday? I just turned fifteen! Isn't that exciting?"

Seto blinked at her, sort of surprised at the greeting. He had always liked the girl for she was certainly friendly enough. But sometimes her constant perkiness frightened him. It was like she maintained a constant energy level until her battery died and she recharged at a power station.

"Oh, uh, congrats, Winnie," Seto said, smiling at the fourth year. He didn't actually know it was her birthday, it wasn't really something he kept track of. "If I had known I woulda gotten ya somethin'." At least he figured he would have. "What'dya get?"

"Thank you!" She liked being congratulated on being fifteen. It was a very big deal. It meant she was that much closer to being sixteen. And then seventeen- and a real adult in the wizarding world! Winnie coudn't wait to be a grown up and be able to do what she wanted without having to answer to her parents or her relatives.Then she would be able to say I'm an adult, thank you very much! to everything!

"I got all kinds of really neat things! My brothers gave me some money to spend when we go to Hogsmeade." Her older brother Earnest was a fellow sixth year Hufflepuff. "I thought that was very nice of both of my brothers! My mum sent me a lot of cute new clothes. She works with the muggles and I love old muggle clothes and she sent me some. My daddy sent me some new records! And a neat outfit for Lord Fluffybutt. And my Aunt sent me lots of romance novels and a huge huge HUGE box of chocolates! I think it's one of the best birthdays I have ever had!"

She set her cat down on the floor when he started squirming under her tight grip. He pranced off, tail high in the air. "Course, I guess since you're a boy those kinds of presents don't excite you like they would me, huh?"

"Are you excited to be a sixth year?" Winifred asked. "So that you can compete in the tournament and stuff? If I was sixteen I sure would compete! Or at least try to. If you ever get to be a champion you will be my favorite champion, Seto! Because you're a Hufflepuff and because you're super duper nice and stuff."

Winnie had said a lot just now, and Seto wasn't sure he heard it all. That was something he had forgotten about her over the summer. She talked a lot. Not that it was bad. It was just that he sometimes had a hard time keeping up with her and her ability to say three thousand words a minute. At least he had picked up on some of the gifts.

"Well I ain' the type to turn down chocolate when it's given to me," Seto said with a smile. The rest of her presents, he had to admit, weren't really things he was interested in. Well clothes were always nice. But the problem with them was that Seto only ever wore a good four or five shirts.

Seto shrugged slightly. "I'm excited to not hafta take a buncha classes," he said with a smirk. That was really the only plus to being a sixth year that he saw. It made his life so much easier, after all. "And wouldya now? I didn' even think of puttin' my name in. Seems so gruelin'. Not really my style." Seto shrugged and leaned back some. "But I suppose I do like the idea of bein' a champion. Maybe next time, if I get the chance."

Winifred grinned. "I never turn down chocolate either!" If she wasn't trying to make the candy her Uncle Archer had sent her last, she might offer Seto some. But it was delicious and very nice... and also upstairs tucked away in her trunk at the foot of her bed. But she'd remember that Seto liked chocolate and offer him some, or maybe buy him some from Hogsmeade. Cause friends did nice stuff like that for each other, after all.

She understood what he meant- about how being a champion would  be a lot of work. Winifred had not really considered the hard work aspect of being a champion, just the glory and popularity part. "I'm looking forward to dropping classes, too," she said. "I just hate Transfiguration and Defense. I'm not good at it. Not good at Charms, much, either. I just want to focus on stuff I actually like and am good at." Assuming she passed enough of her OWLs to continue her education at Hogwarts at the end of her fifth year, that was.

"How many classes are you taking?" Winifred asked. "I don't know I'll want to keep taking very many, or qualify for them after tests next year. Can you get booted out of Hogwarts if you don't get enough of your OWLs?" Perhaps that was a question better suited for a professor, but she figured since Seto was a sixth year that he'd know the answer. "Like what if I only get the chance to take two NEWTs? Seems a waste, doesn't it, to keep me around?"

Seto smirked, considering what she had said. Not good at Transfiguration and Charms? That must suck. Those were probably two of Seto's favorite and best subjects, if only because they made his way of life a lot easier. Defense he could understand, he wasn't really much for that either. Still... he was considering trying to get back into that class, if he could.

"I'm only takin' four," he answered. Normally this was the part where he expected people to declare he should take more but Winnie didn't seem the type. "I don't actually know. You might have to repeat a year or somethin'? I mean, most all the teachers require ya to get an E at least, I think. So if ya get all A's they may make ya repeat the courses." Seto considered for a moment. "Though I suppose if ya only took four ya probably could and agree to be tutored, or somethin'?"

He shrugged. This wasn't exactly something he knew that well. Honestly half of what he said was probably wrong and she would be better off asking a teacher. Still, he did have an idea to how many classes she needed. "They told me last year that I should take four minimum," he said with a shrug. "So I'd say pick four ya're good at and focus on them. That's what I did anyway."

"You can take just four?" Well that sounded like it was a much better situationf or Winifred. "I already do really good with Muggle Studies and with Divination. I bet I could work hard at History of Magic and get a good grade in that, too, I've always thought it was really interesting." She wasn't the best at studying and comitting dates to memory, but at least the subject interested her. And it was easier than others. "That's three classes right there I could take!"

As far as a fourth... Well, Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense were probably just not going to happen, even if she scraped by with an A on those exams next year. "I'll figure it out before next year, which ones I should focus on so I can stay at Hogwarts. I wouldn't want to repeat a year or get sent home."

"Hey, can I ask you a question? You can say no, if you want to. It's kind of personal." Winifred was still curious about his kissing Ayla, and wanted to ask him about it. She also wanted to ask him about kissing in general. She hadn't really gotten an older boy's perspective on the matter, and what she might be doing wrong that made it not-fun when she had kissed Ambrose and Blake. She would have asked Dax if she wasn't afraid her Uncle Archer would intercept the letter and beat him up.

"Aye, jus' four," Seto said with a grin. It was possibly one of the easiest setups he'd ever had in his entire life. While other students, primarily of the Ravenclaw variety, struggled with their seven or eight classes, Seto sat back with just a measly four. And with all the time in the world to study, if he wanted, it wasn't as if the boy was in danger of failing any of them.

"Tha's wha' I did," he commented on the girls plan. "So long as ya ge' A's an' wha' no' ya don' need to worry abou' a thing."[1] It was really a pretty solid plan. Seto didn't see why more students weren't doing the same. But he supposed they actually cared about their future. And for him, worse come to worse, he'd simply work in the Muggle world for a bit and live off his families money.

Seto tilted his head slightly. "Eh? A question?" He wondered why she was asking, honestly. Even if it was 'personal'. The Hufflepuff couldn't think of anything nearly specific enough that would be considered personal. At least nothing she should know about. "Well ya've already asked a few," Seto replied playfully. "So yea, feel free." After all, how bad could one question be?

1.	Goodness this accent is getting silly XD

All thoughts and discussions of classes went right out the window when Seto agreed that Winifred could ask him a personal question. Good! She could quit beating around the bush and get to the whole entire reason she'd come over to talk to him to begin with! Small talk was not Winifred's strong point in conversation. Her strong points simply included being too blunt and overdramatic. She was about to be the former of the two.

"So Ayla told me that you two kissed," she said with quite a serious expression on her face. "I think it's nice, you know, that you don't discriminate because she's just a fourth year. But she said that you two weren't boyfriend and girlfriend when I asked. And Dax told me last year you could kiss and not be dating- so long as you got along and liked each other well enough." Of course, he'd also told her there ten bases. (Later on he'd corrected himself, but Winifred didn't remember all of those conversations.)

"Anyway-" she pressed on, "last year I kissed two boys. I kissed Ambrose and I kissed Blake, and I didn't like either of them very much. But Ayla says that kissing is really nice. And she would know, cause when she was a third year she did get to kiss a fifth year. Even if it was a super gross Slytherin butthead. So I was wondering- since I'm guessing you've probably kissed more than two people and you've been doing it for a while- when does it become fun and not just weird and kind of boring? "

Seto stiffened slightly at Winnie's mentioning of his little excursion with Ayla. "Did she now?" Was all he could say at first. Though he couldn't actually recall he thought they had agreed not to talk about it. Or maybe he had forgotten that part and just went with it. That seemed more likely, now that he thought about it.

"Well, yea, Dax would be righ' on the money with that." Seto had, after all, lost count of how many people he had kissed in his life. He partied pretty hard when he was back home over the summer. A lot of bases could be covered during that time. But when did it become fun? He had never really thought about it before. "Uh... it's always been fun for me, I dunno," he confessed with a grin. "Uh, I guess when ya ge' older? Maybe?"

Seto shrugged. Thinking that people didn't like kissing just seemed strange to him. He'd been kissing people since his second year and had never really found it weird or boring. "I guess if ya kiss someone ya really find attractive is when it gets fun. As for weird, hell... I guess it's when ya don' think of it as a big deal. Kissin' is pretty pure all things considered."

"Well, I am older now," Winifred told Seto. "I'm fifteen now, instead of only fourteen. I think maybe Blake and Ambrose just didn't know what they were doing because they had never kissed somebody before, either. But I figure it's no use to practice with someone who doesn't know what they're doing- especially if I don't what I'm doing either." Because naturally kissing was something that you ought to practice.

Finding someone attractive... Well... that part had been a part Winifred had missed when she kissed Ambrose and Blake. They weren't ugly or anything, but they weren't the sorts of boys she had ever had a crush on. Of course, Winifed had only ever had crushes on older boys. And Dax had been her first real crush, but he wouldn't kiss her because he'd said she was much too young at the time. She was going to have to grow up before he'd give her that chance.

"Well, you know, if you ever wanted to help me practice I'd be okay with that," Winifred offered. For anyone else it might be awkward- but not for Winnie. It was just another run of the mill conversation about kissing for her. "Or if you wanted to give me a birthday kiss, I'd be okay with that, too." Hopefully she could lure the sixth year into it. Maybe it would be different with someone who had actually kissed a few girls and probably had some handle on what they were doing.

"But I'll warn you I'm probably not very good at it, since I've only kissed two boys and they weren't very good kissers from what I could tell. But it might have just been me who was the bad kisser. I figure kissing is the sort of thing that takes some practice to get good at. I guess not everyone can be a natural, yeah?"

Wait, what? Seto had to stop an think a moment. Did she just ask him if he wanted to practice kissing with her? How... odd?  He was flattered, really, but at the same time it wasn't as if he was overly surprised. No, vanity dictated that he knew most people wanted to give him a good kiss and just never said it.

But practice? "Well, I don' really need much practice," Seto said coyly. "I mean I have kissed my fair share of people." Thirty-six people to be exact. And most of them more than once.

Of course, if she was looking to snog him he wouldn't say no, either. "But uh, if you want the practice then I ain' objectin' to it." Seto sort of saw it like doing a service to people. They wanted a nice kiss, and he wasn't too particular. Not to mention his lips hadn't sunk any ships that he knew of. At least no yet.

"Oh goodness!" Winifred exclaimed. "I didn't mean to say you needed practice! I'm sure you're very good at kissing, Seto. Especially if you've kissed more people than I have. I mean- you're also older than me, too, so I guess you've had plenty of time to get in practice. You probably never even needed it to begin with!" Of course he didn't. He was handsome. Seto was probably able to kiss like a pro right from the beginning!

She blushed when he said he wouldn't object to helping her practice. That wasn't really the answer she had been expecting! Winifred had been hopeful that maybe, just maybe, Seto would give her a proper kiss for her birthday but was surprised that he had actually said yes. Wow!

"But if I let you kiss me, you have to promise you won't start wanting to be my boyfriend," she told him sternly. "Dax told me last year that if boys kissed you that they always ended up liking you as more than just a friend. As supremely handsome as you are, I am holding out for a gorgeous foreign student to be my boyfriend this year... Or a seventh year. Whichever I happen to find first." Chances were that Winifred wouldn't find either of those things as a boyfriend.

Seto gave another sly little grin at Winnie's, well, it seemed like embarrassment to him. It was rather adorable, really. While he hadn't taken offense to what she had said before, he always did like to stroke his own ego. And hearing people say that they thought he was a great kisser, likely because they though he was good looking, was generally a good way to get a self esteem boost he so desperately didn't need.

He let out a laugh when she said he had better not want to start dating her. How often did you hear anyone say something like that? Although he supposed establishing that there were no strings attached was as good an idea as any. "No offense to Dax, bu' I don' think he knows wha' he's talkin' abou'." It wasn't like Seto really cared one way or the other. Relationships were very dull in his opinion. Let her hold out for a foreigner all she wants.

With another grin Seto scooted closer to Winnie, placing an arm on her shoulder and leaning in slightly. "So is now a good time for you? Or should we reschedule?"

Winifred's heart was about to beat out of her chest when Seto put his arm around her and leaned in. Now? He wanted to kiss her NOW? In the common room? WHERE ANYBODY COULD SEE IT? ... Winifred wasn't sure how she felt about that, but telling him that now was not a good time might just deprive her of any chance she had of getting to kiss Seto Spalding. And if Ayla had kissed him, then she was going to do it, too. Because it was her birthday! And she wanted to figure out whether or not kissing a boy she thought was cute would be different from kissing Ambrose and Blake.

Even though Winifred had decided now was as good of a time as any, she was still blushing. "Now is okay," she told him quietly. It was probably the only time in her life Winifred's voice had ever been so quiet. But she was nervous. She had never expected him to agree. And she didn't want to make Seto regret it or have him tell everyone she was the worst kisser EVER. That would be pretty awful, wouldn't it?

Winifred followed Seto's lead, and leaned in closer, too. She brought her face closer to his and closed her eyes (because she did at least know you were supposed to do that much). Then Winifred puckered up and waited.