Winifred was very disappointed that on Valentine's day she had to wear her boring, drab uniform. After the drama that had happened in Hogsmeade over the weekend the school could really use some bright and cheery shades of red and pink- but as a Hufflepuff she was restricted to a few gold accents on her uniform and nothing else. The holiday was going to be ruined in general thanks to the kidnappings. Which was probably a selfish of her considering that one of her very best friends had been kidnapped. But Winifred's way of dealing with scary, harsh facts of life had always been to ignore them and put on an annoying, shining face of optimism instead.

It was hard to do, but she was doing her best. The day of classes had been long and when it was finally time for dinner she couldn't wait to sit down and eat and get back to the common room. Valentine's Day had always been one of her favorite holidays. This year, however, it was quite obviously drastically different.

Winnie had popped by the bathroom to touch up her hair and her makeup before dinner. Her feet were dragging a little- exhausted from trying to smile and look on the bright side all day- and by the time she got to the great hall it was packed full of students. Her usual spot at the Hufflepuff table was full and it took her a few moments to spy some empty seats. At least  they were around Josiah- someone she knew. Joey was from her same town and she saw him sometimes at her aunt's pub during holidays. And he was nice.

She plopped down next to him and helped herself to a large glass of pumpkin juice. "This will probably go down in history as the worst Valentine's day ever, you know that, Joe?" she said to him with a slight frown. "I'm so worried about everyone and no matter how much I tried to stay friendly today nobody was having it. I can't wait for it to be time for bed."

Josiah glanced up from his plate and gave her a lopsided sort of sad smile and nodded a bit in agreement, "Yeah, it's been a rough year for everyone and it's only month two." That was an understatement and a half if he'd ever heard one, let alone made one. How did one bounce back from something like the horrible business with Zel Trumble only to turn around not two months later and have fellow students go missing while at Hogwarts.

He'd always felt so safe at school, arguably it was one of the safest places on the planet for witches and wizards. Only, if you stopped to think about all the times things had gone wrong, not even going back as far as the second war, just in the last two and a half years, maybe feeling so safe wasn't wise. Technically it had happened in Hogsmeade but Hogsmeade was as much a part of "home" as the castle was.

He felt bad for everyone but he especially felt bad for Winnie because while she acted like the world was sunshine and roses he knew that it was lack of coping mechanism rather than being callous or cold to the plight of her friends. Winnie wasn't good at dealing with hard things, her heart was just too tender for them was all. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze, "It'll be alright, Winn." He didn't expand on the point because he wasn't actually sure how things could get better at this point, but he didn't like the worry lines creasing her forehead.

"That's an understatement," Winnie mumbled. Only month two. How could things be so bad when 2011 was so new? And to think how much worse it was for the kids who had been abducted. That was so terrifying. Winnie couldn't help but think that it was such a real possibility that it could have been her. What if they didn't come back? Or got hurt? Or were never the same afterward?

Winnie leaned into Joey when he put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. She sighed a little. That small physical gesture made her feel a lot better. "I hope it will be," she said. "I don't like all this stuff going on. Stuff like this shouldn't be happening at Hogwarts. There's been so much bad stuff that's happened since our first year- sometimes I'm surprised my mum still lets me be here. But I guess her bringing me home would be worse because then I'd never be able to do even basic magic. Not that I can do much now," she said with a soft chuckle and a shake of her head.

She pulled out of his hug and piled a few things on her plate. Winifred really didn't want to talk about all of that, though. Talking about it made it too real and Winnie didn't want to face reality right now. "So what have you been doing with yourself?" she asked instead. "Seems like everyone is so busy trying to get ready for OWLs that I never see anyone anymore."

Josiah frowned, shaking his head a little, "Hey, don't say things like that. You've really improved over the last year. I know maybe it feels like you won't ever catch up but the fact you have grown so much says a lot about you Winn," he hated seeing her so sad. He knew, realistically, there was nothing he could say that would cheer her up, and he couldn't promise her that her magic would keep getting better... it just really bothered him to see her so down on herself.

Maybe he saw her through rose tinted glasses, maybe he saw potential in her that wasn't there but there was just so much to like about Winnie that he hated the fact she was so self deprecating. Winnie was the kind of person who always had a smile for you and a bit of chirpy gossip. He knew a lot of people wrote her off as flighty and fluffy in the brain but he'd had a crush on her since they were kids. Over winter hols he'd made excuses every day to show up at her aunt's pub, just to catch a glimpse of her smile.

Of course he'd never admit that to anyone and had told Winnie herself it was just because the pub was the only place outside of Hogsmeade you could get a half decent butterbeer. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly when she pulled away and gave a small shrug of his shoulders, "School work mostly, a little song writing when I have time. I've been thinking about putting a band together. I was reading an article about Nola and the Knockturnals, and she was talking about how having the band in her 5th year kind of kept her from going too crazy about O.W.L.s, so I thought that might be a thing to do? Other than that it's Orchestra taking up most of my time."

"I won't catch up in time for OWLs," she told him. "But that's okay. I'm up to working on fourth year spells which is a lot better than I ever thought I would be. Even if I don't get to keep taking the classes after fifth year I can still practice. I just know I can't NEWT in them. I don't know I'll be taking many NEWTs at all to be honest. I could definitely get into Muggle Studies and in Divination but I'm not sure what else. But we'll see. I've been working extra hard this year." Which was unusual considering how much of a slacker she'd been previously.

Winifred perked when he mentioned starting a band. "Oooh! A band? Really? Like a wrock band? That would be so cool! I don't think we have any bands at Hogwarts at all, do we?" Winifred couldn't remember hearing of any- but her memory wasn't exactly the best. "If you start a band you have to let me come to practice some time to hear how you sound. I want to be able to say I was there before you got famous!" She gave him a friendly nudge and waggled her eyebrows at him.

"But if you aren't too busy maybe sometime you could help me study. I tend to work better when I have someone to help me. My brother tries sometimes when he's able to- but he's so busy with NEWTs now he doesn't have as much time as he did before which is a total bummer. I promise to do my very best not to explode you or maim you in any way," Winnie assured him.