Well, that was it. Pax had survived the first term of his second year. And it hadn't been quite as difficult as his first year had been, even! Maybe he was even, very slightly, starting to get better at wandwork. Just a little. Possibly.

One would think the last thing on his mind on the first Saturday morning of the winter holiday would be studying, but one would be wrong. Pax had found the classroom that he knew was used only infrequently, and set up an array of apples he'd nabbed from breakfast in the Great Hall.

Most of them were still apples-- and most of them heavily bumped and bruised from being knocked off the desk-- but now there was also a pear, a nectarine, and something that very nearly resembled a butternut squash. Now Pax, standing a little back from his fruity subjects and holding out his wand as a conductor might a baton, drew in a deep breath, muttered a familiar incantation, and in a pattern of sweeping motions tapped three apples in turn. One, two, three. Yellow, blue, green. Pax grinned broadly. It took him months to master at times, but if I kept at it long enough, he hadn't met a Charm he couldn't cast. As long as it was within a first-or-second-year skill level. And taught as part of the Hogwarts curriculum. And possible to pronounce.

Stretching out his limbs, Pax wondered vaguely what spells he could practice next. He'd been working hard this morning and wanted to have a bit of a break from concentrating on making apples look like not-apples. Maybe revise the Levitation Charm? Let off some steam by exploding one or two of them?

But as he looked around the empty classroom properly for the first time that day, Pax noticed something rather striking. There were a lot of desks in this room. And a lot of chairs. And a decent amount of space. And... no one else around. An uncharacteristically mischievous grin flitted across Pax's face, and soon, he was putting away his wand and books and stacking the apples and ex-apples back into the cloth bag in which he'd brought them upstairs. Then, after stowing his things out of the way in a corner, he started to move the tables and chairs, creating a space in the middle of the room. He had pushed the door to, hoping to minimise the noise of the scraping wood, but he wasn't too concerned about keeping the noise down. He figured no one else was likely to be studying nearby.

When was the last time he had done this? It must have been primary school, with his friends, and a collections of blankets and sofa cushions. Once a space was cleared, he carefully started arranging desks on the floor, on their sides, to create an initial perimeter. Pax couldn't believe he'd been at Hogwarts for one and a half years and never noticed that this was a room that cried out for a fort in it.

Alice was walking happily down the corridor, her arms swaying by her sides, and her bag full of new books. She couldn't wait to get back to the common room, and cuddle into the big red arm chair, in her blanket, and read. Read until her eyes felt like they'd fall out. Then she'd go to bed, wake up the next morning and repeat the process.

As she walked by one of the empty classrooms, she heard the movement of desks, and chairs. Alice poked her head in, and saw Pax building a structure of some kind. "What are you doing?" She asked, turning her head, and walking in. She looked at the structure, and folded her hands in front of her.

"Can I help?"

Pax froze in the middle of turning a chair upside down, looking for all the world like a small child who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. 'Um...'

Of course Alice, avid reader that she was, would be on her way to find somewhere to settle down with that pile-of-books-shaped bulge in her bag. That was a perfectly logical thing to do now that school had finished for the term and there was still a day free before the Hogwarts Express departed. Building a fort in an empty classroom was a whole lot less logical, and Pax found himself struggling to justify himself. 'Well... y'see... I was, um, just taking a break from practicing spells, and... See, 'cause, I just wanted to kill time, y'know, before the Yule Ball...'

Okay, now he was being ridiculous. This was Alice Hunter he was talking to, one of the nicest people he knew. Why was he floundering with excuses? She wasn't the type to judge.

Setting the chair he was holding, still upside-down, on top of one of the upright desks, Pax cleared his throat. 'Scratch that. Truth is, I'm building a fort.' He turned back to Alice with a sheepish half-smile. 'Kinda silly, right? I'm thirteen and I still like playing with furniture. I mean, I'll put it all back afterwards, I'm not just gonna leave it for someone else to tidy up, but...' He scratched the back of his neck self-consciously. 'You ever build a fort before? It's really fun. You can totally join in, I mean, if you still want to.' Pax didn't want to say it out loud, but fort-building was one of those activities that was more fun with others.

Alice smiled. "I used to build the best forts. All the time too," Alice explained with a smile. "I haven't built one in a while, but I'd love to join in." Her face fell. "I really don't want to bother you, of course. I, uh, I don't want to be a bother." She said, looking down at her feet. She was being silly. Thinking that she could just hang out with a second year like that? Who did she think she was? Some crazy social person?

"I mean, I'm not very good at building forts, but I've made a couple." Alice put down her bag, pushing a table closer to the fort, creating a second wall. She couldn't help but let a smile escape her lips. It brought her back to the days with Lexi in her living room.

Pax gave Alice a sideways look as the younger student's confidence seemed to evaporate. He remembered he hadn't been terrible sure of himself when he was a first-year either. (Come to that he still had some issues with confidence.) Well, he'd just have to do his best to make sure his fellow Hufflepuff felt comfortable around him. After all, if she knew her way around a fort, she was definitely worth having around!

'No no, I heard you, you just said you used to build the best forts,' he told her with a grin. 'So that's what you're gonna help me do. No backing out of it now.' With Alice creating a second wall on one side of the perimeter, Pax started on the third on the opposite side. Taking on a slightly more serious tone, he added, 'You're not a bother, you know. I mean, I know what it's like to worry about bothering people. But you don't have to worry about that around me, okay?' Pax offered her a more genuine smile then, slightly self-conscious, focused more on tugging desks into place. He hoped he wasn't being too forward, but he was very much aware that it had been older students who had helped him feel better about himself when he'd first started at Hogwarts, and he wanted to pay that forward to kids younger than himself in any way he could.

'Hey, how've you been getting on here?' Pax lighted on a standard conversation topic, preferring to chat than to work in silence. 'Do you like the classes okay? Professor Storm hasn't set off a fire or anything in the classroom, has he?' Pax thought very highly of Ignan Storm, but there also wasn't much he wouldn't put past the DADA teacher.

'You're not a bother, you know. I mean, I know what it's like to worry about bothering people. But you don't have to worry about that around me, okay?'

Alice blushed. "I'm sorry. I'm just used to not being wanted around, and, I don't know, I just don't want to bother people who don't want me around. I'm sorry, this is probably really boring for you. And I don't want to seem really weird around you." She explained, as she continued with the perimeter. "Sometimes I'm just  not wanted. Like I'm some, I don't know. Just some silly first year being annoying." She shrugged her shoulders.

'Hey, how've you been getting on here?'... 'Do you like the classes okay? Professor Storm hasn't set off a fire or anything in the classroom, has he?'

Alice smiled. "No, no fires. But I like class. I like to learn, and with all of these new studies, it's all just so interesting! The learning possibilities are endless!" She said excitedly, smiling. She loved Hogwarts. She loved the abundance of studies. All of the knowledge that was possible here.

Pax couldn't help but give Alice a concerned look when she mentioned not being wanted. That definitely couldn't be true, Alice was such a sweet kid after all. Did she really feel that way? He almost wanted to give her a hug, except he didn't really know her well enough for that.

Fortunately her mood seemed to pick up when the topic moved on to class, and Pax felt his own face split into a wide grin. 'You sound just like some of my Ravenclaw friends,' he told her with a chuckle as he arranged an upside-down chair on the outer side of an upright table to create a sort-of wall. 'I know what you mean though. There's so many new things I've learned since I started here, and I even knew about magic to start with. Not... much, I mean, I never really managed to do any magic before I came to Hogwarts... And I'm still not all that good, um, at least, except maybe for Potions and Herbology... But, well. Um.' He gave an awkward shrug and a sheepish sort of smile.

'I'm kinda rambling, huh? Hey, you have to tell me if I'm annoying you.' He hadn't realised he could get self-conscious around the younger kids as well as the ones that were his age or older. Well, you learn something new every day.

Alice smiled as Pax trailed off and told her to tell him if he started to annoy her. Her. As in the first year. Alice felt so, not loved, but friend-ed, even though that wasn't a word. Acceptance was what she was feeling, the feeling of being wanted. And it felt nice. She continued to build with a smile, before looking up at Pax. "You're a very nice person, Pax. And I consider you a good friend." She said, looking back down at the fort.

"Sometimes I wonder if I was sorted wrong. If I belong in Ravenclaw." She explained. "Some people confuse me with the Ravenclaws. I always take that as a complement. I mean, all of the houses are so amazing in their own ways." She then lowered her voice. "But where can I fit in? I'm just that strange first year who doesn't fit in, and just stands out all the time." Her smile disappeared as she continued to build in silence.

Pax couldn't help but grin his lopsided grin when Alice called him a good friend. That was what he always strove to be, and to hear it out loud was always a treat. It brought warmth to his cheeks and a tingly feeling to his stomach. It also made him a teensy bit self-conscious, though, so he got himself a little distance by swinging himself over one of the desks and onto the outside of the 'building site', ostensibly to get a proper look at how the fort was progressing. He and Alice were doing pretty well, actually, if he did say so himself. Three quarters of the perimeter were constructed.

Pax hopped up onto one of the desks that hadn't yet been incorporated into the structure, and looked at the fort thoughtfully. In part he was considering how to make an entrance way, but mostly he was digesting what Alice had just said about standing out. 'I can kinda understand how you feel,' he admitted. He felt he should say something helpful, or supportive. He was an older kid, after all, even if he wasn't much older. He wondered what his former housemates Fauna or Ruby might say.

'You know, Alice, I think you're right that you stand out. But it's in a good way. When I was in primary school, I mostly just stood out for having trouble keeping up in class. Then when I started trying harder, I stood out for being a swot and a teacher's pet instead. Wasn't much fun. But coming here? I felt like I got to choose what made me stand out. I tried new things and made new friends. And some people didn't like how I was and some people did. And that's okay.' Sometimes it didn't feel okay; Pax did so dearly want to get along with everyone. But part of growing up was learning that that wasn't always possible.

'Just like it's okay not to fit in. You're still only in your first year, after all.' Pax offered his younger housemate a small but genuine smile. 'And as far as I can tell, the things that make you stand out are things like being smart and kind. Good things. Just stay true to yourself, and--' Pax broke off and his face contorted into an exasperated frown. 'Oh dear Merlin. Did I really just say "Stay true to yourself"? See, this is why I don't do pep talks. I end up sounding like a bad Disney sequel.' He shook his head slightly and let out a brief sigh. 'I guess what I mean is, I don't think you need to worry about being strange. We're all pretty strange here, you know. Well. We are magical, after all.'

Alice listened intently through the pep talk, and much with Pax's help, she felt better about herself. Sure, she was a little odd. Maybe she did spend too much time in the library. But she was Alice. Alice the proud hufflepuff. And she was going to own it. "Thanks Pax. That really made me feel better." She said with a wide grin on her face. This was why she loved the Hufflepuff house. The Hufflepuffs were always there to cheer her up and make her feel better about herself.

When it seemed like the fort's perimeter was 95% done, she stepped back to reflect. "This may be the greatest fort I've ever made. And in my 11 years of life, I've made many forts." Alice said with a smile, looking down at the fort. "I don't really know what we should do after we finish it."

Alice's assurance that she felt better gave Pax a warm, fuzzy feeling. He'd helped someone else feel better! That was something he could hold onto next time he worried about annoying his peers or being inadequate at spellwork.

'Amazing what teamwork can do, huh?' Pax replied to Alice's comment about the fort. He adjusted the entrance, a low doorway of sorts made of two upturned chairs resting on two sideways tables. 'Hey, if we ever do this again, we should see if any of your friends want to join in.' He started a walk-around of the perimeter, looking for gaps to fill in. 'I just wish I had a blanket to put over the top, like a roof. Or that I could transfigure something into one. Ah well.' Pax looked over their creation and had to admit to himself, even without the roof, it was a still pretty impressive. 'It'll just have to be an open-top fort.'

He propped an extra chair upside-down on one of the desks to complete the wall, then returned to the entrance and ducked inside. 'Yep,' he said. 'I declare this fort a triumph. We'll call it Fort Hunter. Since it wouldn't be this awesome without your help.' He shot his younger housemate a grin, then sat down in the corner of the construction. Sometimes the nicest part of making a fort was just sitting in it.

'I guess we'll have to take it down again eventually, and put the tables and chairs back. Well. I can do that.' Tidying up afterwards wasn't as fun as the building part, so Pax didn't want to drag Alice into that. He glanced at his watch. 'We've got a heap of time before we need to get ready for the Yule Ball though. Personally, I think forts are a nice place to read,' he said with a smile. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Alice without at least one book nearby.

'Amazing what teamwork can do, huh?...Hey, if we ever do this again, we should see if any of your friends want to join in.'

Alice nodded. "Most definitely. Though this is brilliant. Friends make things fun." She said with a tilt of her head as she gazed down at the fort. It was really impressive, but Pax was right. It would have been more fun to do all together with a bigger group of people. Next time for sure she'd let her friends know and they could make a party out of it.

'I declare this fort a triumph. We'll call it Fort Hunter. Since it wouldn't be this awesome without your help.'

Alice blushed. "No, no, we should call it Fort Pax. You're the one who thought of it. And the one who started it. All I did was help. It was your idea and your schematic in your head." She explained with a smile. "Or, we could call it Fort Huntergreen! Since it was both of us who made it." She added. "Green from your last name, and Hunter from mine! That way the name is just as awesome as our fort is."

He then added the idea of reading in the fort. "Oh, I do have a new book from the library out!" She said excitedly, as she raced over to her bag, and pulled out a book. She then climbed into the fort, and sat legs crossed. "You don't mind if I read, right?" She asked looking at Pax. "I realize it is an antisocial activity, and I really should be social, but you brought up a great point about reading in a fort, and I'm sorry."