Winifred was excited to get back to Hogwarts! She'd had lots of fun at the Trishna's over break, but Hogwarts was tons of fun and she was very excited to get back to her lessons and her friends. After receiving the amazing Christmas gift from Zel, she had decided she absolutely must buy him something in return. So she had purchased him a cat sweater in honor of the lovely sweaters he'd bought for Lord Fluffybutt along with lots of pumpkin pasties and other pumpkin flavored candies. She knew he liked pumpkin.

And, of course, there was also the matter of the letters they had written. In retrospect, Winifred felt a little awkward at having basically demanded that Zel be her boyfriend now. Ladies never asked a man to her boyfriend, and in her romance novels the girls never, ever, ever made the first move! It was always the boy. But Zel was shy, and he was not at all like the main characters in the novels which she held so near and dear to her heart. He might be a werewolf and a prefect, but he was not particularly brave or outspoken or vicious like she had initially expected him to be. But that was okay. Zel was nice to her, and he talked to her like she wasn't an idiot, and he didn't seem to mind when she rambled on and on about things nobody gave two hoots about.

She was waiting for him in the common room, with the brightly wrapped present sitting in her lap. Since he was a prefect, Winnie wasn't sure when his rounds started- but it certainly wouldn't be before lights out, and it was only a little while after the end of the welcome back feast.

When she finally saw his tall figure, she bounced up from her seat with a bright smile. "Zel!" she called out. "I've got your Christmas present! I'm sorry that it's late! But I was afraid the owl would try to eat it part of it," Winifred told him. "Please come and open it up!" Winifred exclaimed. "I'm so very excited for you to see it! I think you'll like it very much!"

Zel crawled through the tunnel and into the common room, as he did every evening after dinner. He had to start rounds in a bit, but he had enough time to meet with Winnie. He knew the conversation was coming, and even with all the time he had to think about it, the werewolf still couldn’t decide. He did know this: Winnie was a sweet, wonderful, entertaining, good-hearted person. If anyone was going to be his girlfriend, he wouldn’t be against it being Winnie! After all, they had hit it off at the Yule ball. Conversations they had rarely went down a negative path. He liked it. He genuinely enjoyed being in her company, even if she came on just a little bit too strong.

“Winnie.” He greeted her and smiled, “You didn’t have to!” But Zel was obviously pleased. Although he had told Winnie that she didn’t need to get him a gift, it was still thoughtful and very much appreciated.

He accepted the package with the obvious giddiness of a seven year old at his birthday party, and carefully opened it.

Candles—pumpkin pasties! Oh, and a sweater with a cat face on it! It was a surprisingly manly one too. Zel put the sweater on over his clothes, and was pleased to see that it was his size—If not a little loose. Perfect, he didn’t know how much he’d be growing.

“Thank you, Winnie.” He said, unwrapping the pumpkin pasty and splitting it in two. He offered her a piece. “I love it. Really.” Now he and Lord Fluffybutt could wear sweaters together.

“How was your break? Does Lord Fluffybutt like his clothes?”