After Astronomy Cyhirae, giving excuses to the rest of their friends, pulled Winnie into an empty classroom nearby. Of her friends Winnie was the only other one that had a boyfriend and, even more importantly, was the best female friend of Cyhirae’s boyfriend.

“So,” she began, “Do you have any ideas for what I should get Ambrose?” Cyhirae began anxiously playing with a section of hair, “For Valentine’s Day I mean. It’ll be our first and I want it to be wonderful and romantic. I do have ideas but I don’t know if he would like them.”

Men really did seem to have it much easier in the gifting department. Roses, chocolate, and jewelry, the grand trifecta of romantic gifts for women. A lady seeking out a gift for her guy didn’t seem to have a go to answer, a toolbox nowhere near romantic. Candy would probably work, though she didn’t know what Ambrose liked. Which brought out another insecurity about her and Ambrose's relationship. What kind of girlfriend was she if she didn’t know what kind of candy he liked?

She looked curiously at Winnie, “What are you getting Zel for Valentine’s Day, Winnie?”

Winnie's feet were dragging. She was exhausted and Astronomy was just so boring and she was so bad at it, no matter how hard she tried. And she did try! She liked Professor Has-Awesome-Abs Trishna, and since she was friends with Cy and had spent the holiday at the Trishna house she felt compelled to try really hard at getting better at Astronomy. She just... couldn't quite manage it.

She stumbled as Cy pulled her aside into an empty classroom. She rubbed her eyes and grunted incoherently, obviously annoyed. But then Cyhirae mentioned Valentine's Day and Winifred perked up almost immediately. That was a topic she liked to talk about! And she was so very excited about the holiday... Especially since she finally had a boyfriend to spend it with.

"I actually owled Dax to ask some advice! My uncle intercepted the owl, though. He said to get stuff for Zel that I knew he would like. I got him some pumpkin seed brittle and a really cool looking cat sweater and a stuffed werewolf from a muggle shop. I had my mum pick it up for me... I lied to her, though, and told her it was for class. I don't know if she knows I have a werewolf boyfriend. I don't know how she'd take it."

But the crux of the matter was what she thought that Cy should get for Ambrose. Winnie should know this. Ambrose was her best friend, it shouldn't be hard. But Valentine's Day was supposed to be romantic, and she had never thought of Ambrose in that way. He was just her friend. "Wonderful and romantic? Well then obviously you should go to Puddifoots! And it's more important what he gets you anyway. That's what will make it most romantic... So I guess you start with the stuff that you know he likes! Just don't get him books or anything. That would be super lame."

“Oh?” Winnie certainly had things in hand. Far more than Cy did, that’s for sure. “That’s good I’m sure he’ll like it.” Even on the off chance Zel didn’t like Winnie’s gifts, he was too much of a nice guy to voice it. If he ever did tell Winnie no he didn’t like it, she was pretty sure most of the school would suspect that they had a polyjuice imposter, or else Cy would need to start investing in manure proof umbrellas.

“Well, aside from not liking books, what does he like? I don’t know so that’s why I’m asking.” She flushed in embarrassment and squirmed a little. Admitting out loud that she had no idea what her boyfriend would like as a gift made it seem worse than when it was just in her head. Though they had only been together only a little over a month that should have been enough time to have some inkling. At the very least she could eliminate any and all techy toys since, as a wizard boy living in a wizarding world, Ambrose wouldn’t be able to use them.

“Maybe a scarf or a sweater? That’s romantic right?”  she said, trying to brainstorm something other than books. Even if Cyhirae knew how to knit, there wasn’t enough time to make one so having a homemade gift was out. Still she was pretty sure she could get Aunt Sonya to owl her something that wasn’t too inappropriate.