(Outfit)

One of Winnie-Leigh's favorite things to do was raid her mother's numerous trunks of muggle clothes. Her mother often bought them while working for the Muggle Worthy Excuse Committee, and she knew that her daughter enjoyed them, so she always brought things home for her. Winifred was obsessed with muggle clothes and the muggle world and wanted to work with muggles somehow one day. She was bad enough at magic she could fit right in, she supposed.

So since it was a weekend, and Winnie intended to lounge around the common room most of the day, she had found a very comfortable (though not exactly stylish) outfit inspired by the miss-matched batch of muggle clothes she had, and curled up on a large, overstuffed love seat in the common room near the fire.

In her lap was her new diary and new favorite fuzzy pen. Winifred's mother had bought her some pens to use, since she made such a mess with ink and inkwells. Though she couldn't use them in classes- she could at least manage not to botch up her diary with them. Winifred had spent quite a while scribbling furiously in the pages about how much she really disliked her classes- mostly because of her lack of wand-based skill, and a rant on how silly the new Charms professor looked with that ridiculous mustache.

But now that she was done babbling to the pages, Winifred was lounging on the couch with her kitten in her lap. She was holding him up by his paws, making him dance. "How doth the dragon hatchling, improve his shining tail and pour waters of the Nile on every golden scale! How cheerfully he seems to grin, how neatly spreads his claws, and welcomes little kitties in with gently smiling jaws!" she recited to her kitten, before playing chomping his ear.

Valentine's day had come and gone and frankly, Dax was glad it was over. Bruises aside, it hadn't been a complete disaster. Just mostly one.  He sulked into the common room, with his homework done and nothing else to do. Shirts optional, of course; he'd been intending to go work out, since he'd been off that lately and it always made him feel better. Still, his mood wasn't that bad, really. And walking around shirtless usually cheered him up too, though for other reasons.

Winnie's voice caught his attention as he came out of the7th year's dorm hallways and he wandered over, glad of any distraction. The kitten, of course, became his instant focus of attention.

"Kitty!" he said, and thus introduced Winnie to his standard level of intelligence. He cleared his throat and made at least an effort to not seem brain dead. "Cute cat," he said, leaning on the back of the couch. "What's its name?"

Winifred was shocked to hear Dax Fayette speaking to her. He and his twin brother were both dreamy, and seventh years! Most seventh years did not talk to Winifred- and many fifth years didn't either. Somehow she was considered to be immature by most people her age and older. It seemed that other fourteen year old girls were expected to behave as little ladies- but Winnie liked being a little girl. She liked having fun and being young- it was all that she cared about.

Well, not all she cared about. Winifred did care about cute boys- but in her own way. Mostly Winnie just fawned over them and giggled and gossiped with her friends- rarely did she talk to them, and Winnie had never had a boyfriend. The Hufflepuff didn't really want a boyfriend either- she got all stupid and giggly when cute boys talked to her. And, on top of that, she tended to ramble with little thought to what she said or how it spilled from her lips.

Indicated by the way she covered her mouth to suppress the nervous laugh when Dax approached, asking her about her kitten. Winifred cleared her throat carefully and held him up for Dax to inspect. "His name is Lord Fluffybutt!" Winifred announced. "I got him as an early birthday present. My mum and dad wouldn't ever let me have a cat before." The cat meowed loudly in protest and wiggled it's fat little body, wanting to be set down again. "He is cute though, isn't he? Cutest little kitten that I ever saw."

Winifred rested him on her lap, scratching him behind his ears. "You can hold him if you like," she said. "He's not always very nice though." In truth, Lord Fluffybutt was quite temperamental. He tended to scratch and bite most people- Winnie included, but she just thought it was endearing and kitten like behavior.

"Sounds like my dog. He's a mean little cutie to everyone but me." Dion included. Precious had a tendency to latch onto Dion's face when Dion pissed him off. Dax reach down and rubbed Fluffybutt behind the ears, and smiled. "Somethin' tells me he's gonna be just 'Fluffy' in about a year," he said, as the cat nipped at his fingers.

"Nice present," he said, grinning. "I just got a box of candy and a 'Why aren't you taking as many NEWTs as I think you should be?' letter from Mum," he said, then remembered she was a third year. "Be glad you don't have to worry about those or the OWLs yet. They suck."

The kitten mewed again and scratched at him. Dax chuckled. "Should probably watch out for that behavior from 'im, though. It's hard to get them to calm down if you don't discourage it early."

Winifred scrunched her nose at the suggestion his name would change. "His name can't change," she informed the older boy. "Imogen's cat Duchess is Lord Fluffybutt's girlfriend. If he isn't a lord, then he can't very well have a Duchess as a girlfriend, now can he?" she asked. It made perfect sense to Winifred, and thought it ought to make equal sense to any other person. At least Imogen understood- even if nobody else did. "If he were just Fluffy, he'd be a common cat- and a common cat would offend Duchess' delicate tastes," Winifred said- borrowing the phrase from Imogen herself.

"Oh, I figure I'll fail out of Hogwarts when it comes time for my OWLs," she said. "I'm bad at basically everything except for Muggle Studies. But that's only because I'm obsessed with them- the muggles, I mean," Winifred clarified. "My mother works for the muggle-worthy excuse committee, so I see a lot about them. Maybe I'll scrape by a few- but I doubt it. I wonder..." Winifred trailed off, tapping her chin, distracted as he mentioned something about her cat's behavior.

"He's just a kitten," Winifred said. "I'm sure he'll grow out of it. Besides, so long as he isn't scratching and biting me I'll be alright." He could scratch and bite everybody else all he wanted to though...

Now what was it she was about to say? Oh yes! She had wondered... "Say, Dax, do you know if I fail my OWLs in Charms and in Transfiguration whether or not they'll kick me out of Hogwarts?" Winifred asked. "I mean, that's pretty much all that magic is. How many NEWTs are you taking? Are you good with a wand?"

Dax's smile turned into something more like a smirk; there were plenty of reasons why a Duchess might have a common boyfriend but none he wanted to say to Winnie, given her age. Or Fluffybutt's for that matter.

"Really? My mum works with Muggles too," he said, which was true; there was a reason their shop had two halves to it. "She says their money is just as good as wizard's when it comes to keepin' the roof on. The Excuse commitee sounds more interesting, though. We just get housewives who wanna know boring things, usually. Not a very diverse crowd."

He leaned on one of his hands and vaulted over the back of the couch, landing on the far end hard enough to bounce Winnie upwards and rock the couch off its far legs.

"Sorry. Anyway. I don't think you'd fail, naw. Lots of people are rubbish at that stuff," he said. "Besides, you still have DADA. Though Storm is kind of strict." He draped himself over the arm of the couch, kicked his shoes off and sat sideways, indian style. "How many NEWT'm I takin'? Too many. Uh. Charms, Transfiguration, Defense, History, Care of Magical Creatures, and Divination." When you spelled it out like that it seemed ridiculous. "I'm pretty decent with a wand, yeah. Not like Dion, but the job gets done." There was a dick joke in there. He hoped she didn't pick it up.

"Oh?" Winifred asked, genuinely curious about what his mother did with muggles. "Most wizards don't like working with muggles, but I don't know why. My mother says even in the ministry they look down on it- which has always surprised me. Maybe I'll run away with a muggle some day," Winifred supposed with a rather romantic sigh. It would be a proper scandal to run away with  a muggle and live in the muggle world! Imagine all of the amazing possibilities that could hold! Winifred knew that muggles didn't bother with silly things like wands- because they couldn't use them. Winifred would have to figure out what kind of a muggle life she would lead... "What does your mum do with boring muggle housewives?" Winifred asked.

She let out a small yelp when he bounced onto the couch- sending her up off of the couch cushion a few inches. "Oh my!" she giggled, covering her mouth again. "Better be careful or you'll break the furniture. I'm sure that's against the rules- there are so many of them these days." Too many rules, really. Winifred would much rather come and go as she pleased with no interference from the staff. Most of which weren't fond of her. It wasn't that Winifred was always in trouble- but they always had something to say to her about one thing or another.

"Oh I'm dreadful with defense, too," Winifred told him. "Especially offensive spells. I don't like hurting people- and half the time when I use my wand it just sets things on fire. My mum and dad say it's because I don't have an Ollivanders wand. I got mine from an Irishman- my parents say his wands have a bad reputation. Got a non standard core and all. But it's alright- at least I've got some magic. My dad's a squib, s'why I'm so bad at it I think. It's almost like it comes and goes." Winifred shrugged indifferently. As much as she wanted to have magical skill, she didn't hold it against anyone. Some people were just good at magic, and some people weren't.

"Besides, six NEWTs isn't bad! Some people don't get that many. And you've got good classes there. Enough to get involved in a lot of stuff that the wizard world has to offer, I'd wager. I figure I'll probably get mine in Muggle Studies, Herbology, and History of Magic at least. Those three are the only classes I usually do okay in. Even Herbology is off sometimes. I don't think that Professor Bombay likes me very much... He thinks I'm unpredictable or some such nonsense. One of his dumb plants was attacking my friend so I hacked it up- he didn't like that much. Not that he seems to like very much at all."

"Hahaha - you could always run away with a muggleborn," he said, jokingly; obviously he wasn't about to advise a third year - or anyone - on their love life, given how his was. "Best of both worlds, right? That way if you wanna go back y'don't have to break up or do that 'guess what, I'm magic, no seriously' talk." He rubbed the back of his head. "My mum's a Seer - tells fortunes, sells 'em crystals for the healing, and the like. Fake ones for the muggles of course; the Ministry'd have our necks otherwise. Too bad, really; it doesn't make much money." Which was true; they'd added a lot of merchandise to the shop for that very reason. "Parents came over from France so she does the whole 'Foreign Fortune Teller' thing. Seems to work on both sides equally well, actually." He slouched even further into the couch, if that was possible.

"That sucks, 'm sorry," he said, when she mentioned her father. The two words didn't really sum up the situation Squibs lived in, but he did mean it. "Non-standard core? What is it, Kelpie? Heard those're pretty temperamental."

He grinned again. "From what I've heard Bombay doesn't like most people. He did lessons with attacking plants? Man. That would have been fun - all of my Herbology classes were boring." He pouted a bit. "If we'd gotten to battle plants I might have gotten my NEWT in it. Could turn into a horse and eat 'em."

Winifred giggled. "It would be so much fun, to have that talk I bet! Can you imagine the look on his face?" she closed her eyes and grinned as she briefly daydreamed out the scenario of sitting in a living room with a handsome muggle man and him proposing to her and then countering with telling him she was a witch. "I wonder if he'd faint," she mused, eyes popping open to focus on what he was saying about his mom being a seer.

"That must be brilliant!" Winnie exclaimed. "Is she a seer that sees stuff all the time, or just has it in flashes? I don't know much about how it works. I don't think we have any seers in my family." She would have to ask her Uncle Archer about it sometime. "I take divination now- but I'm kind of rubbish at it. But I was told it was pretty easy. None of the other electives sounded safe enough. But I had hope maybe I could have some magic there since I don't have magic much else."

When he asked if it was kelpie, Fred shook her head no. "It's diricawl feather. You know- those birds that disappear and reappear. I guess it's fitting. I figure the feather must do the same thing- maybe that's why my magic only works half the time. Applewood, diricawl feather- and it's bent funny to the left, the shaft of it. But I guess it works. I mean, I tried all the wands in two different wand shops- and none of them chose me. But this one did, and even if it is short and bent- I love it all the same!"

She shrugged when he babbled about Bombay. "I'd rather not have to fight plants. I'd rather just read about it from a book. I don't like applied lessons, they make me feel dumb when I mess them up- cause it seems like nobody else ever does anything. At least, not as wrong as I do. You must not know how it feels, to explode stuff every time you have to use your wand in Transfiguration or Charms." She frowned, chewing her bottom lip. It felt awful.

"She mostly just sees boring mundane stuff when she has her visions, like the fact the robe shop will have a sale on Monday," he said, waving a hand vaguely. "It's not as interesting as the other seers, really. She can evoke them sometimes but she usually does it for stuff like "your wife will leave you' and 'Dax isn't doing his homework'. It's lame."

He smirked slightly at the description of her wand, trying to ignore the dick joke and failing. "That sucks, man. My wand's a twin to my brother's so we get them mixed up all the time, which is dumb. His always makes stuff spin in circles when I cast spells - really sucks when I turn it on me. Threw up on my bed last time." He stuck his tongue out in a 'blergh' kind of expression.

"I dunno, applied lessons can be fun. You get to run around and stuff. And dude, Winnie, trust me. My bro is like the overachiever of the century. As far as my mum's concerned I'm dog food so even if I get stuff right she rags on me. Wait, you blow stuff up? That's awesome!" he grinned, his usual wide idiot smile. "I wish I blew stuff up sometimes. Usually when my spells go wrong stuff just kind of...goes pfft." He waved his hands vaguely. "Hey, y'know, I could like..help you if you want. With your magic."

Winifred giggled. "Do you have a habit of not doing your homework?" she asked. Winifred had a habit of not doing hers. It was partially why she seemed to have such dismal grades in all of her classes, although a lot of that had to do with a genuine lack of skill as well. "Maybe she's just guessing at that part. Do your homework sometime and owl it to her, I bet she'd be really surprised then." Maybe that's what Winifred ought to do next time her uncle accused her of slacking off at school...

"What were you doing turning a wand on yourself in bed?" Winnie asked with an arched brow. She could understand casting a spell on yourself during class or if you were doing something important, but not while you were in bed that was just... weird. Then again, she supposed that most witches and wizards went to bed with their wands. "I don't even take my wand to bed with me. No use. If I wake up in the middle of the night with the need to use it, I'd just explode something anyway." It was sad, really, that wand mishaps had become such an integral part of her life- perhaps her own lack of confidence had a bit more to do with her lack of skill than she (or others) realized.

Whenever Dax offered to help with her magic, Winifred swelled up with... well, with something. Not pride exactly, but enthusiasm. Dax was one of the most handsome seventh year boys at Hogwarts! And he wanted to help her with magic! That had to mean something. Oh if only she wasn't a third year! But, Winifred supposed, as far as third years went she could be a lot worse off. She was nearly a year older than some of the others in her year. If only she had been born a week or two earlier than Winifred would be a fourth year and that much closer to having a real chance with cute boys!

"Would you really help me?" she asked, bouncing on the couch. "D'you mean that? I mean, a lot of people offer and after a couple of times of me mucking it up they give up. And I get distracted and stuff. I mean who can really study and stay focused more than a half at a time? You should take breaks when learning! Give your brain some time to soak things in and rest. All that stuff... Anywho! If you want to help me that would so super duper awesome! I promise I'd try really hard!"

"'Do my homework all the time. I just do it all at once to get it over with so I can party," Dax said, grinning lopsidedly. "The only stuff I wait on is like...boring stuff."

He suddenly found the floor interesting as she asked him what he'd been casting on himself in bed. "I was uh...bored and we were testing new spells and so I decided to cast Engorgio on my....on my feet. Yeah, feet. I wound up spinning like a top when the spell took hold." The reality had been worse - and hard more painful. Certain body parts should not spin. Ever.

He couldn't help it; her energy kept him grinning, too. "Yeah sure I'll help ya. No guarantees it'll help much but...yeah I can try, right? I can help you with your homework too. If you want. 3rd year homework is prolly pretty easy." He realizeed how that must sound. "Compaired to the stuff they make me do, anyway," he added quickly.

Engorge his feet? Winifred blinked. "Why would you want to make your feet bigger?" she asked, taking his confession at face value and not realizing he meant something else all together. "I guess that would be handy if you were going to kick somebody's butt, or if you got cool shoes that were too big, but other than that I mean... they're just feet." Dax was weird, she decided, then and there. But that was alright, Winnie kind of liked weird people. People thought that she was weird too, sometimes, silly people!

"If you think it's easy that'd be a great help then," she said. Winifred wasn't offended. She knew that most people didn't struggle like she did. And he was right- if he was a seventh year, then third year homework should be a breeze for him. Maybe if it helped and her grades got better she could impress her mom for once. It might be easier, too, to get someone's help other than Earnest's (her older Hufflepuff brother). Earnest was short tempered with her and thought she was pretending to be so clueless. It wasn't cute, he told her all the time, not cute at all. Not anymore. Not since she had grown up.

"Maybe we should engorgio Lord Fluffybutt," she commented. "He's such a tiny kitten. Duchess might not like him much anymore if she ever realizes she is fatter than he is. A woman should never be fatter than her husband." Words of wisdom from the other women in her family that Winifred was just regurgitating. She did that sometimes when it came to romantic relationships. Most often she was quoting her Aunt Leola- she had a lot of opinions on relationships, especially of her Uncle Archer's relationships. "Would it hurt him do you think?" she asked Dax.

Dax looked shifty. "Y-yeaaaaah. It was so I could kick Dion in the face. And it would have been epically funny." Admittedly they'd all found it epically funny at the time - except for him. He'd been groaning in pain.  Man, that had been a fun trip to the nurse when the bruises hadn't faded after a few days.

Aware he was staring off into the distant as Winnie chattered, he pulled himself out of his painful and embarrassing  memories. "When I was in 3rd it was hard," he said, shrugging. "But if that stuff isn't easy in my 7th year I'm kinda boned on my N.E.W.T.s, right?"

He stretched out, casually hooking his legs over the back of the couch and rolling so his shoulders and head were resting on the floor. He regarded Winnie from his position upside down on the floor.

"It's not painful. It kinda feels like..." he tried to figure out how to put it, popping his neck as he thought. "It's like...it kinda feels like being a bubble of bubblegum. It's not painful, it just feels like you're expanding. It's weird."

He looked at the cat. "Though I dunno. It might kinda traumatize him a little. Cats are weird like that. I know my dog kinda flipped out when I put Reducto on 'im to make him cuter. Bit me right on the - anyway. Now he gets all growly if I so much as pull out my wand."

"It would be Very Sad Indeed if Lord Fluffybutt was traumertized!" Winifred crowed- not realizing her mispronunciation of the word. "And I don't want him trying to scratch up my wand, I don't think my wand would like it very much... It could explode all over Lord Fluffybutt! Then I'd have a charred kitten and I don't imagine that cats would smell good all charred or taste good either- not that I'd go 'round eating charred cats if I happened to find them. It would be Very Gross Indeed!"

She sat up quite abruptly- remembering a very important question. "Do you think that it would be alright to bring Lord Fluffybutt to Fauna's party tonight?" she asked quietly. Winnie had heard about the surprise party- she didn't want to spoil the surprise for anyone who didn't know, though. "He could wear a party hat and a nice party outfit and socialize!" It would be a lot of fun. Winnie had really enjoyed taking him to the dance- and there were more people at the dance than there would be at Fauna's party.

"Or do you think that would make me seem like a baby?" Winnie was occasionally very concerned with not looking like a baby. "I really want people to think I'm grown up if I'm going to be around so many older students. Especially since there will be boys," Winifred giggled, waggling her eyebrows at Dax. Dax was a boy- a very cute boy. "But all the cute boys are so old," Winifred whined. "And I'm just a third year! And older boys don't care about third years," she pouted. Not that Winnie would know how to react if they did. She'd never had a boyfriend.

"Do you think I'm bad looking to be fourteen and a half?" she asked. "Imogen tells me all the time I shouldn't eat cupcakes or sweets at meals- she thinks I'm fat. And my big brother Zeke tells me all the time that boys don't like girls that are bigger than they are. My dad tells me that Zeke is just being a mean big brother and that I'm not fat at all. But I am bigger than most of the other girls in my year. And it wouldn't be so bad if I looked older I guess. I mean... Ayla has such big boobs! She looks so mature! And she has even snogged a fifth year! Maybe more than one! And I should have big boobs too, shouldn't I?" she asked. "Don't big girls usually have big boobs?" It didn't cross her mind the conversation might be awkward. She had now decided that Dax was her friend... Besides, Winifred never had much of a filter between her brain and her mouth.