Walton had made good on his offer. First thing he'd done once he got on the Hogwarts Express to head back to the station in London was look for his Hufflepuff friend, Rayven. He'd had a very good time dancing with her at the ball the previous evening. He'd had a good time at the ball in general. It was a lot more fun than he'd expected. Walt had expected to be more like some sort of elaborate and fancy gala with students minding manners and waltzing. That was a part of it, for sure, but it had been a lot more than that. And dressing up was kind of fun. And seeing all of the girls in their fancy outfits with their hair so meticulously styled had been interesting. It was strange to see how different many of them looked that evening.

He was sitting with Rayven in one of the cars nearer the back of the train. When he heard the sweets trolley making its way down the corridor, he looked over to Rayven with a grin. He liked sweets. Cakes, cookies, pies, candies... And as far as he knew, most girls did as well. Maybe he could do something nice for her- buy her a bit of candy to make the train ride a tad more pleasant.

"Do you want anything?" he asked. "Cauldron cakes, chocolate frogs, bertie botts beans?" He dug into the pocket of his blue jeans (definitely glad to be in muggle clothing again) and extracted a handful of coins. "My treat. The least I can do since you're keeping me company, and don't mind me popping out every now and then to check on everyone else in the train." He plucked an owl treat from the handful of coins and fed it through the bars of a large cage sitting in the corner of the train car.

"Hmm. A chocolate frog, please. I'm still working on my card collection. When I take them home, my parents like to see them."

Rayven smiled. She had a wonderful time with Walt the night before. She had enjoyed spending time with him and dancing with him. She was seriously considering making a trip to London over the break. She could make a vacation of it for a couple days. Not only would she be able to spend time with him, but she could spend some time seeing the sights and exploring the city a bit. It would also make it look less like she was going just to see him and come off the wrong way.

"I don't mind sitting here and waiting while you do your rounds. I'm keeping your owl company while you're out anyway," she said with a chuckle as the owl munched the treat. "I understand that you have duties to tend to. I will when we get back from break. I'm going to be a prefect."

Rayven was happy about getting her new position. It meant more responsibility, but she was going to be able to help more people. She smoothed out her skirt also happy to be in her muggle clothes. She liked how they felt much better than her uniform. They were more loose and flowing and she felt more natural in them.

Somehow, she'd missed the cart. Possibly in the process of trying to wrangle something out of her backpack. But it was break and she wanted some candy, damnit. And thus she'd stomped her way down in search of the cart.

Only to see that it had stopped next to the Head Boy. Great. Telling first years about lightsabers was funny! It wasn't her fault they thought they were real...well, it kind of was, but it didn't make it any less funny.

"Still got any Jelly Slugs?" Things seemed to go fast. But stuffing her mouth full of them and then glaring sarcasm towards everyone nearby seemed pretty good at the moment.

He stood up, and reached to slide open the door of the compartment. Just as he got the door open, Rayven told him she was going to be a prefect. "Wow, really?" he asked, smiling widely. "That's brilliant, Rayven! I'll be able to help you out, you know, with getting settled and stuff and figuring out rounds. Part of my duty." He was excited. That meant he would get to hang out wit her more often- without needing to find some sort of lame excuse to do so. "You'll be a good prefect," he added before sliding open the door.

He picked out a few chocolate frogs and a bag of fizzing whizbees. Walt was debating between a peppermint toad or exploding bonbons when Georgiana approached the cart, asking if there were any jelly slugs left. Those sounded good. "Yeah, I'll have some of those too, if you've got any," he said to the lady pushing the cart. With a shrug, he finally just went with both of the items he'd been debating between.

"You can add Trishna's slugs to my total," he said. It was, after all, only polite. If he was going to purchase candy for Rayven, it would be rude to make Gigi pay for her own. His mother had always impressed upon him the importance of being a gentleman. Hopefully the Slytherin girl wouldn't be offended by that. Perhaps he should have asked first.

"You'll be a good prefect."

Rayven smiled widely. Hearing him say that meant so much to her. A lot of her friends had told her that, but it coming from him meant so much more. He was head boy after all, so for -him- to tell her made it that much more flattering. She hadn't expected to be picked for the position. She just enjoyed helping people and being a good friend.

"Thank you so much for saying so. I hope I'll be able to do the position proud and be able to handle all the duties. If... you would like to help me though, I certainly won't turn down the offer."

She was so happy he was there and wanting to help her. It was an excuse to spend time with him and not feel like she was getting on her nerves or bothering him. Plus if they were pending that much time together, she could get to know him better. If they didn't just talk about school of course.

She heard Georgiana speak outside and heard Walt offer to buy her candies as well. She smoothed out her skirt again and sat a bit taller. Most Slytherin girls gave her a hard time because she wasn't "up to their standards" and what not. She didn't know if Georgiana would be the same, but she thought she would be prepared just in case. Especially if Walt invited her to sit with them.

"Hey, thanks!" Gigi took a handful of jelly slugs and shoved a couple of them into her mouth. Free candy was the sweetest. "They never have enough of these, I don't know why they don't buy more."

And she couldn't go off and be too grumpy at someone who bought her candy. Well, unless it was Tapendra. Taprenda could always get her grumpy and sarcastic.

"So, doing anything exciting for break?" She pulled her horde keychain out of a pocket and fiddled with it.  Georgiana Trishna had very big, important plans for the next couple of weeks. Plans that involved cramming as many video games  in as she possibly could and wearing very brightly colored and revealing clothing.  Breaks were awesome.

She craned her head a little, looking back at the compartment Walton had been sitting in.

"I'll definitely help you," Walton said over his shoulder. "It's part of my duty as head boy to keep all the prefects in line. Assign patrols and help you all out and stuff." They could figure it all out together. He hadn't been head boy for very long and was still trying to figure out his footing in the position.  "Don't worry, it's not as scary and intimidating as it seems. I was afraid at first, but now I pretty much like it."

"You're welcome," he said looking back at Gigi. "And I don't know. Just hanging out at home. Looking forward to catching up on all the movies and television I've missed while I was at Hogwarts," Walt said to Gigi.

He watched as she craned her head to look into the compartment, and after the sweets trolley went on to the next compartment he held the door open for Georgiana. "You can sit with us if you want to," he told her. "It's just me and Rayven." He didn't mind if she hung out for a while, even if he was hoping to get to spend some time with the Hufflepuff girl. He wasn't about to be rude. And as far as Slytherins went, Georgiana wasn't so bad in comparison to the rest of them.

Walt sat back down, slipping some cauldron cake crumbs into his owl's cage. "Rayven's going to be prefect next term," he said to Georgiana. "We were just talking about that."

"Tapendra's going to make sure we all watch Doctor Who." Gigi gave a resigned shrug-she couldn't complain, and she'd enjoy it more than she admitted. Tennant's puppy eyes could get to even her sometimes.

She stuck another jelly slug in her mouth as she took one of the seats and lounged on it. Three people left a little space still. "Prefect, huh? Guess Trumble'll have to behave himself." Probably look down at something and be awkward. Gigi had no idea how he was supposed to keep anyone in line.

Even Hufflepuffs.

"Can't say that I'd jump for Prefect, though. Got my brother on my ass enough as is." The scowl was distended by how much her mouth was getting stuffed full of candy. "Going to lock myself in my room and worship the internet."

"We rarely use the internet at my house. When the whole family is together, we do family activities. We do camping and hiking and such in the summer. In the winter we sometimes go to a cabin in the woods and enjoy the nature and solitude. I think we're going to be playing some games over winter break. I... may go to London for a day or two as well. I'm still not completely sure."

She looked over at Walt a moment and then began munching on her chocolate frog. She didn't know exactly how he felt about her traveling that far to see him. She had been avoiding the subject as much as she could so they didn't talk about it too much. The more time she spent with him though, the more she wanted to visit him.

"I think Zel will do just fine showing me the ropes. We get along alright. I mean, we're not close friends or anything but we've been in a lot of the same classes together and we exchange pleasantries in the hall and such. And Walt said he would help me some too if I needed it."

She smiled at him again and lightly blushed as she thought about them wondering the halls together. She needed to stop thinking of such things. It was too soon and unnecessary to have such thoughts about someone she barely knew.

"I hope you'll have fun over your break, Gigi."

"My dad loves Doctor Who," Walton said, sitting back down in the compartment. "He's a huge fan of science fiction and other typical nerd stuff. That's why I got named Walton. It's Indiana Jones' middle name, and my dad is an archaeologist. Er- well, he was. Now he teaches at uni." His parents had given him that name shortly after adopting him when he was still a baby. His middle name was given to him by his birth mother. "But that sounds like a fun thing to do. I don't get to do a whole lot with my family. I mean, when I was young we went out all the time. Dad took me on a few digs. But now they both work at uni and they're just busy. So when Summer rolls around they kind of pursue their own stuff since they finally have time off. But you know, they're great parents and interested in what I'm doing and stuff."

He grinned when Gigi said she had no interest in being prefect. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, Trishna. No offense or anything, but you don't strike me as the sort they'd pick for a Slytherin prefect. Not that, you know, you're a bad person or anything... But you're sure as hell not like the rest of the kids in your house. Which is, most definitely, a compliment."

"And I'm sure Zel will do fine showing you around. He's a good kid. Just a bit quiet. I just hope you've got more of a spine than he does. You've got to be able to be firm with people, and I'm not sure how good Zel is at that. I might have to give him some lessons on it." Not that Walton was exactly great at putting his foot down, but he was definitely learning a bit about leadership- even within the last couple of weeks. "You don't have to be a hardass or anything," he added, "just have to know when enough is enough. I wouldn't want to be the kind of headboy that everybody avoids cause he's a rat. Gotta pick your battles and stuff." He shrugged a little and took another bite out of his cauldron cake.

"I hope you do some to London," Walton said to Rayven. "If you wanted, you could probably stay at our house for a couple of days. We've got a guest room, and I bet my parents would love to meet another magic person. I'm the only one that they know. They've never met a witch before. Just me, their wizard son. Sometimes I still think they don't believe it. But since I've turned seventeen and I don't have the trace I've shown them a few things. Just have to be careful not to fry the electronics in the house. I learned that the hard way. You'd think they'd teach you not to do stuff like that." Or maybe they had and he'd forgotten. "Mum and dad had to buy a new telly after the first time I tried to show off. They weren't happy."

"I suppose it's a good thing I turn 17 today then. I could show off just a bit. Very carefully of course. I would hate to be responsible for buying your parents a new telly."

Rayven laughed. She thought about staying with him for a couple days and blushed a bit. Spending basically an entire weekend with him? She thought it would be fun though. It was suppose to be a vacation right? A vacation included spending time with friends and family. She would have her own room so it wouldn't be too bad.

"I think spending a couple days with you would be fun. You and your family I mean!" She sighed a moment. "You know what I mean."

Rayven thought she was making a fool of herself. She realized how ridiculous she sounded and took a deep breath. She thought for sure she was going to muck everything up. She was trying not to, but found herself tripping over her own words for some reason. She fiddled with a string on her skirt and turned her attention back to Gigi.

"So... is there anything you're really looking forward to doing over the break? Other than hiding with the internet?"

"Heh, your dad sounds pretty cool." Gigi was a little impressed. Indiana Jones was fun and all that. Had to be better than her family. "And we'll probably wind up swiping wands from some people, with everyone who's going to be over. Not expecting Oliver to behave." Wasn't sure how much good taking away Winnie's wand would be, though. "And thanks, Walton." Sometimes she wondered why she'd wound up in Slytherin. Not like Azorma was going to swoop down and pat her on the head for it.

"And Harper's coming over. Almost makes up for everyone else who'll be around."  She clunked her boots together. "Don't know how we're fitting everyone at all. Pretty small house, lots of fourth years."

Time for more slugs, though. They tore pretty satisfactorily with her teeth, and after the first few it was best to eat them in little bites. Lasted longer that way.

"It's your birthday?" Walton asked, surprised. "I didn't know that! Well, Happy Birthday then! Sure is a shite way to spend your birthday, isn't it? On the Hogwarts Express. Maybe when we get back to London we could head to Diagon and we can grab a butter beer for your birthday?" Walton asked. "Depending on whether or not your parents are meeting the train to pick you up right away." His had told him to ring when he got back into London, he could always call and tell them to put it off for an hour or two. "If not, then when you come down to London over break we'll do something then." He would just hate for her not to get to do anything with friends for her birthday.

He grinned a litle when she fumbled over her words a bit. "I know what you mean. And yeah, I think it would be fun, too." But they could plan that more over owl when another person wasn't hanging about. Walt felt a little awkward, embarrassed even, at the way he kept grinning at Rayven.

Walton coughed into his hand when Trishna said Oliver was coming over. He knew of Winifred Oliver by reputation. "Maybe she won't be too bad?" he offered hopefully. "And at least you'll have someone to hang out with, too. Fourth years aren't too horrible. A lot of the ones in Gryffindor are nice enough." But Walt liked younger years, and enjoyed helping them out a bit.

"Schlagenweit is staying with you too, though, isn't he?" Walton asked. "I thought that's what he told me. I was going to drop by to badger him a bit at some point over break. Gotta find a way to occupy my time without being at Hogwarts."

Rayven liked the way Walt kept smiling at her. It made her feel good and she felt butterflies in her stomach when he grinned certain ways. She was liking being around him more and more. She could hardly believe that the head boy actually wanted to spend time with her. She wasn't even concerned with spending part of her birthday on the long train ride. She was spending time with someone she wanted to spend time with.

"The train ride isn't that bad. It'll be over before we know it. It always seems that way to me at least.  But, I would love to get a butter beer with you when we get there. I'm suppose to ring my parents too. I can let them know that I'm in town but want to hang out there a bit. I'm sure they won't mind. As long as I'm home in time for my birthday dinner. I would invite you but... three hour trip back home and all. We can certainly do something together when I come to visit though. I would really like that."

She liked the thought of having friends around her for her birthday. Her family was always there and she had her friends from home, but she hadn't really gotten a chance to hang out with any of her magical friends outside of school. She would be sure to owl Walt and a few other friends while she was at home though.

She looked toward Gigi again, but decided to stay out of the conversation. She didn't really know the people who were staying there and Gigi didn't seem to interested in discussing winter plans with her. It was alright. They didn't know each other really. Perhaps she was a more private person? She certainly didn't want to prod Gigi and risk upsetting her.

Gigi was halfway through another jelly slug when her brain caught up with the comment about birthdays. She stared at Rayven. "Seventeen? I'm jealous. Happy birthday. Got months myself before mine. Can't get Tappy off my back til then." And the Muggle stuff would have to wait another year, even. She just wanted her own WoW account already.

Maybe another tattoo, too. "And yeah, Schlawkward's going to be over. You should both stop by and drag his head out of his ass. Don't know if he's got books stuffed up there or what." A shrug. Sasha was Sasha. Wasn't necessarily much she could do. Grinned at Walton anyways. Couldn't have Sasha sitting around the house all the time boring it up.

"As long as I'm home in time for my birthday dinner. I would invite you but... three hour trip back home and all."

A look back to Rayven. "And hey, I'd think Walton here could apparate. Save him half the trip, at least." There might have been something going on there, but it wasn't too much her business. Unlike the candy. "Might be some floo to find too, hell if I know."