Lavender Brown was having an awesome day. It was a Hogsmeade weekend and Vincent Crabbe was throwing galleons around like they were autumn leaves.

He was desperately trying to impress Lavender so anything she pointed to, he bought. And she repaid him in giggles, hugs, and pecks on the cheek. Truthfully, she was not that interested in the material things: it was the attention that she craved. And Vince had all of his at her disposal. After a while, she stopped pointing at things and started talking about the stuff nice boyfriends did for their girlfriends and he immediately went to work, imitating every single thing she mentioned: he jumped a fence to steal some roses for her, and they ran away laughing; he opened every door, pulled her chair at every establishment and she had to stop him when he was about to throw his coat over a puddle so she would walk on top of it. She reminded him he could perform a drying charm on the puddle or just carry her in his arms. Vince chose the latter, absolutely elated.

Parvati Patil was having a strange day. Her friend Lavender had out of the blue declared that they would spend the day in Hogsmeade with Crabbe and Goyle. Her first instinct was to shriek and say no, but she thought back to their potions class a couple of days ago. Goyle had called her name as a partner, and she had approached him hesitantly. But he looked so happy that she didn't have the heart to give him any mean looks. When they started working she asked him to read the recipe and he froze, then mumbled something about him always being the one that collects and chops the ingredients. She sighed resigned and started directing him. He did pretty well, to her surprise, and they got a good mark for their potion. When the class was dismissed he offered to carry her books and escort her to the next class. And then yesterday he seemed to be looking for chances to wave at her all through the day.

So today she thought she would follow Lav Lav's lead and worst case scenario ditched them all. But a few minutes into the walk to Hogsmeade, she was feeling quite comfortable. Lavender was pulling Crabbe really fast towards town and she stayed behind with Greg (when did she start calling him Greg?), who was asking questions like how did it feel to have a twin and what were her parents like. He seemed very interested in family life, and she wondered if his family was not affectionate like hers. By the time they got to Honeydukes, she realized her arm was laced on his, and she blushed a bit when letting go to get inside the packed store. When they entered the shop all heads seemed to turn towards them. He blushed and offered to stay behind so she wouldn't be embarrassed. Parvati felt her heart cringe. She squared her shoulders, summoned her Gryffindor courage and owned her feelings: she liked hanging out with Gregory Goyle. So far, He was being nice to her. So she grabbed his pinky finger with hers and pulled him through the maze of sweets. Greg couldn't help the huge grin that was fixed on his face.

Later in the afternoon, Parvati and Greg were walking back to the castle, holding hands and laughing, when she noticed something quite disturbing: Hermione Granger was walking in front of them, one arm laced with Draco Malfoy and the other holding hands with Harry Potter. Suddenly, her date with Gregory Goyle seemed like the most natural thing compared to that.

Ronald Weasley was too dizzy to think how his day was going. Pansy Parkinson was a force of nature, ad he got sucked into a whirlpool of batted eyelashes, fingers running up and down his arms and flirtatious pouts that she used to talk him into going to places he didn't want to, like the cosmetics store. That was until she tried on a couple of colors of lipstick and asked him to look carefully at her full lips and give her his opinion. He barely managed to nod and by some miracle to not drool each time. But she knew that boys needed to be managed like horses, with a stick and a carrot, so the next stop she suggested was Honeydukes, to Ron's delight. And then, things got even more exciting for him when Pansy grabbed a chocolate frog, held it firmly to avoid the jump, and put it between her teeth, then leaned in to let Ron bite off half of it. He managed to do it without fainting. Then, with his eyes closed, he chewed on the chocolate and blushed, noticing that his favorite snack will never be the same, now that he knew what it tasted like when mixed with the cherry flavor of a pretty girl's lipgloss.

Blaise Zabini chose today to be a brave day. He had set his eye on Ginny Weasley. Usually, all it would take for him to get a girl would be to direct his Italian charms toward her and watch her fall like a leaf. But Ginny presented a series of challenges. Three of them still in school, actually. He needed to befriend the brothers before even thinking about any risky behavior. The opportunity presented itself at the town square: the twins were obviously doing their underground dealing of joke products and Ginny was hanging close with her friend Lovegood, laughing at the jokes and pranks. Blaise took a deep breath and walked toward the twins.

"So, what is the latest and greatest? Anything challenging?"

Ginny saw with horror that this handsome boy was her savior from two days ago and tried to stop the debacle that was sure to come

"Don't," she said, grabbing his arm

The twins smirked

"What's the problem, little sister? Scared we are going to ruin your snake friend's handsome face?"

Shit. Blaise didn't consider that. But now it was too late to back up. He squared his shoulders, happy to feel that Ginny was still holding him, so he turned to her

"I'm sure I can take whatever they throw at me," he said, voice carefully still though he knew this was a very bad idea.

"Try this," said Fred Weasley. Only ten sickles.

Blaise gave him the money and took the little yellow cupcake, noticing that it was different from the other cupcakes in the box. Those were plain, this one had a cherry on top. He put it in his mouth and swallowed before his courage failed him. After three seconds he puffed up into a giant canary, much to the delight of all the surrounding audience. He breathed. He will stand this like a man and after that, the Weasleys will all think he was cool. But then Ginny shrieked

"Why is he not turning back? It's been two minutes! It's supposed to last a minute only!"

The twins laughed

"These are the deluxe canary creams, hence the cherry on top. They would last an hour. Maybe more."

"You can't let him like this for an hour!" yelled Ginny. George shush her, she was attracting too much attention

"Calm down Ginny. We have a makeshift infirmary, is a room in the three broomsticks. I'll take your friend there and you can stay and keep an eye on him and others that may fall for the new products."

When Blaise imagined himself alone in a room with Ginny Weasley, he most certainly was not a big ass canary. He slumped on a couch, resign. This had been the worst idea of his life.

Ginny sat next to him and grabbed his wing

"I don't know why you did that, I'm pretty sure you knew something like this could happen."

He shrugged and made a tweet sound. She chuckled

"You know, one time I eat one of the regular canary creams and actually pulled some of the feathers with my beak, it did not hurt and when the feathers are off that part of the body goes back to normal. Do you want to try?"

He nodded, another tweet.

"Tell if it hurts, ok, I'll stop." then she took the wing and easily pulled off a few feathers and two fingers appeared. She looked at him and he nodded for her to continue, so she freed his hand and then the whole arm. He tweeted and signaled to his face

"Are you sure? Ok, but let me know if it hurts."

She started with his forehead, noticing that just caressing over was enough to loosen the feathers and make the change. She kept going, slowly running her delicate fingers over his face, and he closed his eyes, thinking this was the best idea he ever had. When she touched the beak it transformed back into his lips. His handsome face was back but he still tweeted. She caressed his throat and he felt the feathers everywhere shiver and puff up, but was finally able to talk. He grabbed her hand with the good arm

"Stop"

"Why?"

"Because this way I can talk to you but we can stay here until the rest of the feathers finish falling off."

"You want to stay here...with me?" she asked, feeling her hands tremble.

"Yes," he said, and let her lean her face on his had, cupping it softly. He felt his Slytherin pride surge. Best. Idea. Ever.