Winifred's day had not started out so great. It was Saturday- but when she woke up, the weather was quite abysmal. She had been hoping to take Lord Fluffybutt outside to chase some birds and play with him, but that was out of the question. He did not like getting wet. So she had gone to breakfast, moodily eaten her bacon and eggs, and trudged back up to the common room.

She had gone to her room and flopped on the bed when she heard a familiar pecking at her window. Winifred let the owl in, and it dripped across the floor, dropping a package on her bed. "A present!" she exclaimed happily. She reached into a drawer on her night stand and pulled out a fish flavored cat treat and fed it to the owl. It chirruped happily and flew back out into the rain. Winnie shut the window then climbed into her bed. Sitting with her legs crossed, she unwrapped the string from the package and then ripped into the paper.

There was a note from her Aunt Leola inside.

Dearest Winnie-Leigh,
You're growing up! And I'm so proud of you. I saw this at the shop earlier and I thought you would like it. You'll be a woman soon, and it's time you started acting like one.
Love,
Auntie Leola

Winifred tossed the note aside and opened the box. Inside were three books with beauty tips and easy 1,2,3 charms. There was also a large make-up kit- including some pieces that were charmed to be self-applying. Winifred bounced- excited. What a marvelous gift! Aunt Leola was the best!

She was in the process of writing a thank you note when one of her roommate came in. "Ayla!" Winnie exclaimed. "Come and see what my aunt has just sent me!"

The simple beauty of the friendship between Winnie Oliver and Ayla Collins was that regardless of how often they fought, how many times they said they hated each other and would never speak to each other again their friendship would always will out. More recently Ayla had been mad at Winnie for kissing Blake (mostly because her best friend had stolen the first kiss of the guy she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with) but had quickly resolved that it was not Winnie's fault it was Blake's and it was just one more thing for her to be mad at Blake for, leaving her to be nice to her best friend once more.

Her green and gold eyes lit up at the sight of the present and she quickly threw her bag onto her own bed before hopping up onto Winnie's and rifling through the goodies, "Oh wow these are amazing." She quickly singled out a compact of self applying eye shadow and a bottle of ever changing nail polish. The label on the bottle read: Everlasting Ever Changing Beauty. The only Nail Polish you'll ever need, simply apply and watch with amazement as it changes colour with every change of clothes. Can only be removed with our specially designed Everlasting Ever Changing Beauty Remover.

She held up the bottle for Winnie to inspect, "So what's with the presents? Did I miss your birthday or something?"

Winnie was glad to see that Ayla seemed just as excited as she was. She pulled out some eye shadow and nail polish, and Winifred grinned. "Isn't it just the best?" She emptied out the make up kit on her bed, spreading it out so that she could look at it all at once. There was so much! Her mother never would buy her make up- claiming Winnie was still too young (even though she was nearly fifteen!) but it seemed that Aunt Leola disagreed.

"Naw- not my birthday until September!" she said to Ayla. "My aunt just sent it to me just because! She always tries to give me lots of fun, awesome stuff. She's not a stick in the mud like my momma. She says I'm too young for make up but my Aunt Leola says that it's time I start acting like a woman!"

Winifred rifled through the stuff on the bed, pulling out a stick of eye liner. "It looks like most everything applies itself!" she said. "These books look like a lot of fun too. I bet they have some super awesome charms and stuff... Not that I could really do them- least not yet. I've been getting loads better with my wand though! Especially with all the tutoring and whatnot. Maybe by next year I'll be good enough to point it at my own face and give it a try, yeah?"

"I bet it comes in handy next year," she added. "I'm going to date a sixth year next year. I've already decided. Cause you know- boys our age are so immature."

Ayla opened the Everlasting Ever Changing Nailpolish and began putting it on her slender nails, that she had just finished shaping that morning. The liquid came on smoothly and started off as a sort of rainbow mixture. She supposed it would adjust to the match her clothes once it dried though she had no idea what it was going to do to match her school uniform and could only hope that it would pick up the yellow and black of the Hufflepuff colours instead of the drab grey of her vest and skirt.

"I'm going to have a fantastic love affair over the summer." Ayla smiled. She often talked like this with Winnie, about who they liked and who they hated, who they thought was cute and who they dated. Ayla had actually only had one boyfriend and even then her and Xavier had only really made out a bunch of times before he broke it off because she wasn't pureblood or something stupid like that.

"I think I'm going to go with an older guy too." She tried not to think about Blake. For so long she had wanted to date him but now she only got angry with herself whenever she thought of him. Maybe if she came back next year with a boyfriend she could make him jealous and realize how much of a jerk he was being.

She moved onto her other hand holding the bottle a little awkwardly as she used her left hand to paint her right nails, "Any idea which sixth year you want to date?"

"I don't think I can have a fantastic love affair over the summer," Winifred said. "When I'm at home it's just me and my stupid brothers. I go visit my uncles sometimes- mostly just Uncle Archer- he's an auror you know." Of course Ayla knew. All of Winnie's friends knew about her infamous Uncle Archer who was the most awesome and the most badass auror to ever exist.

But of course they had both agreed to go with an older boy. And Ayla soon asked Winifred which sixth year she would want to date next year. Winifred stopped digging through the make up she had dumped on the bed and thought for a moment.

"I'm not really sure, to be honest," she told Ayla. "But I'm sure I'll figure it out next year. You know a lot of boys are going to be much better looking. I doubt any of ours come back very different, though. But you know some of the fifth years aren't bad looking. Josh Harcroft and Daryl whats his name are cute. Razzy is kind of scary, but you know Figaro isn't half bad. And you know Percy is super adorable, and so is Lucas. Slytherins are totally off limits though," she said- giving Ayla a very stern look. "You should have learned your lesson with that already, of course."

Ayla let a smirk curl her lips as she listened to Winnie, her eyes intent on what she was currently doing with the nail polish. Of course she knew all about Winnie's uncle Archer. In the beginning Ayla just kind of let Winnie talk about him without listening. That was until she finally glimpsed a look at a picture of him in the Daily prophet and decided he was ultra yummy. After that she listened intently every time Winnie talked about him.

She paused in her painting to look at her best friend as she continued on the subject of who she was going to date. It was true that a lot of the older boys were only going to get better looking by next year, most of them heading straight towards manhood. Afterall the sixth years next year would be Seventeen soon and considered to be adults in the wizarding world. Ayla briefly wondered if that meant they'd be more interested in dating Seventh years than fourth and fifth years. She supposed Winnie and her would just have to make them see why it was so much better to date an under classmen.

She nodded along with her assessment of the current fifth year boys, "Percy's a fantastic kisser." She said almost absently removing her shoes and stockings so she could paint her toe nails as well. She couldn't remember if she had ever actually told Winnie about that. She had told Fauna all about it when she found out that Percy actually went to Hogwarts instead of Beaubatons like she had originally thought. During the Winter Break she had accidentally charmed him into falling for her and they had a mini make out session in the middle of Hogsmeade square.

She blushed and ducked her head making herself look even smaller than she actually was, "Yeah consider that a lesson well learned."

Winifred was always curious about how many people Ayla had kissed, and how she managed to get all those boys to kiss her. So far Winnie had only kissed Ambrose and Blake. Neither of which she would describe as a "fantastic" kisser. It had been kind of weird when she had demanded that Ambrose practice kissing with her. And kissing Blake had been even more awkward given the circumstances. Even so- Winnie had never actually made out with anyone. She wasn't particularly sure how she felt about the idea, either. From what Winifred had seen making out was a particularly slobbery business, and she would rather not have another boy's spit all over her face. It didn't seem very pleasant on the outside looking in.

"What's so fun about kissing anyway?" Winifred asked. "I kissed Ambrose and Blake and it wasn't any fun. It was just weird. I guess maybe it'd be different if I were kissing somebody like Dax Fayette- cause he's gorgeous and all- but I mean, it's not like I'll ever have a boy like Dax as a boyfriend, so I guess I'll never really get to enjoy kissing." Winifred sighed wistfully, and then picked up one of her beauty books.

She flipped through a few pages, then looked up at Ayla again. "What's sad is that I can't really use these. I'd be afraid to turn a wand on my own face, I might blow up my head! But I guess you can practice them some," Winnie suggested. "And maybe, if you don't mind, you could practice some on me, too, sometime?" Winnie asked her friend. Hopefully Ayla's answer would be yes. Winifred wanted to be beautiful! And if a few easy charms could make her super mega awesome foxy hot- then why not?

Despite what most people thought, thanks to the rumors that were circulating about her, Ayla had actually only kissed three boys in her life. The first had been her best friend Aleks last Christmas when she had gone home to visit family. All of her old friends had known that she had moved to London because of her father's job but none of them had known about her being a witch and she planned on keeping it that way (besides it wouldn't do for an Ambassador's daughter to breach the Statute of Secrecy) Apparently Aleks had been in love with her for years and decided to finally let her know. The unfortunate part about it all was that Ayla didn't return his feelings and was sure she had broken his heart because of it.

The second had been Xavier and the few times they had kissed he had been the one to initiate it. Xavier took to kissing like he took to everything else in his life, fast and hard without much thought to the consequences. Every time their lips met Ayla's knees melted and her brain turned to mush. Just thinking of it now made her miss him though she would never admit it not even to her best friend.

The last had been Percy and she still felt guilty about the whole thing. Percy had been looking for something sweet at her baked goods stand during the winter festival. Ayla had been so infatuated by him that she had accidentally given him a cupcake that was charmed to make him fall in love with the first person he saw. Although he had been charmed to love her Percy's kisses were soft and gentle and incredibly sweet. It often made Ayla wonder if he would kiss like that when he wasn't under a spell.

The thought of Winnie kissing Blake sparked a tiny flame of jealousy but the petite hufflepuff pushed it down. A nasty part of her - the side that fought with Winnie almost as much as the two spoke to each other - wanted to tell her friend that she must have been doing it wrong, there was no way that it could have been Blake's fault because obviously he would be the most fantastic kisser in the world. Thankfully she kept it to herself and instead smiled at her friend, "When you get a boyfriend who's even more gorgey than Dax you'll enjoy kissing, trust me."

With her toe nails finished Ayla picked up one of the charm books and started to flip through the pages as well. Even at a quick glance there seemed to be a lot of quick little charms she knew she could make use of. She was already rather good at usual her natural talent with charms when it came to her clothes, it was about time she used that talent towards her daily beauty routine.

"Of course I'll practice on you, and we'll make you super sexy." She chuckled and gave her friend a sly smile, "Even sexy enough that Dax Fayette will take a double take when you walk past him."

Winifred grinned when Ayla said that she would find a boyfriend more gorgeous than Dax. Though, at the moment, Winnie couldn't imagine anyone being better looking than Dax Fayette, or that anybody who was better looking would want to be her boyfriend. There were lots of girls (like Ayla) who were a lot prettier than she was- and Winnie knew that boys who looked like Dax Fayette dated the super pretty girls. But that was okay! Because Winifred wasn't sure she really wanted a boyfriend right now anyway!

"I guess I'll have to take your word for it," she said to Ayla. "Because I just don't think kissing can be fun. It's just weird."

She was glad when Ayla said that she would help her with the beauty charms and make her super sexy. "I don't know that I want to be sexy though," Winifred said. "I just want to be very cute and pretty. I don't think I could pull of sexy. And Dax already told me that I am cute and if I was older he would probably want to be my boyfriend." That wasn't exactly what Dax had told her, but it was certainly how she had decided to interpret it.

"I bet we could get one of the older girls to help, too," Winifred said. "Cause I am not going to point my wand at your face to try any of these, I'd be afraid I would be blow up your nose."

Ayla laughed as her friend admitted that kissing was just weird. While she couldn't say that she agreed with her (kissing was awesome!) she was happy to know that her best friend wouldn't be trying to kiss Blake again anytime soon. Not that Ayla had even been thinking about him in the slightest. Afterall they were barely even friends anymore and it certainly wasn't any of her business who the little scoundrel decided to kiss. He could go snog Naomi for all she cared, she was SO over him!

Ayla smirked and flipped through the pages of the book again, "I think you could pull off sexy but I guess pretty and cute is good too. Afterall you're already pretty adorable, guys just have a hard time getting past the whole wand thing. It might actually be worth it to date a muggle over the summer just to avoid the stupid expectations everyone has of us as Witches." Although Ayla was better than Winnie when it came to Wand work she was only really good at Charms, other standard spells, hexes and jinxes, curses and counter curse she was completely lost on. Charms was the only class she was was truly excelling in (other than potions but that didn't require a wand and it was basically just like baking)

Ayla perked up at her mention of an older girl helping them out, "Who do you think we could get? Naturally I'd say Fauna but I don't think she'd really be into the whole make over thing, not to mention she probably wouldn't know what to do with a beauty charm if it was hexed into her butt."

"I don't know any muggles," Winifred said to Ayla. "I live in a wizard town with a bunch of other witches and wizards, and I spend the summer at my aunt's pub most of the time. She said this year I might be old enough to help her wait tables! I will be fifteen soon, after all." It was odd, being one of the oldest in her year- but Winnie usually liked it. Besides, Ayla was right there with her.

"Besides, I don't think I could date a muggle anyway. They can't know about me being a witch and I don't think I could keep it a secret and I'd end up in trouble with my family and the ministry and stuff. So it's just easier to avoid that." She liked to talk- a lot, and Winifred especially liked to talk about herself, so dating a muggle was just out of the question. Not that she had anything against muggles. Winnie thought that Muggles were fascinating and was really entertained by learning about them, but it just wouldn't work for her. (At least not while she was still so young!)

Winifred frowned at Ayla when she said something about a beauty charm hexing Fauna in the butt. "That's not nice," she said. "I like Fauna. She's really nice and I think she's pretty without needing the beauty charms. I think you can be pretty naturally, and I think Fauna's like that. She has really pretty eyes and nice hair." She meant what she said, too. Fauna had always been nice to Winifred, and she wouldn't say anything bad about her.

"Maybe we should learn how to make people look worse and use it on the Slytherins instead?" Winnie suggested. "That sounds more entertaining to me, at least."