Just a couple of weeks after the start of the year, every House was buzzing before the first Hogsmeade trip of the year. Plans were afoot in Hufflepuff house.

Elfleda, still a second year, hugged Bets McCaulley, Toff's younger sister. "Have fun, okay? Bring me something back? Something nice? Maybe something tasty?"

Bets gave her younger friend a warm squish. "Of course! We'll be going to all the shops."

Filbin, ready early, got an arm around each of the girls. "Clear on the plan, Bets?"

She nodded. "Keep Chris distracted shopping for Fish's birthday with Toff while you guys get everything ready for her surprise party at the Three Broomsticks!" She blinked thoughtfully. "It's probably a good thing Fish doesn't like trains… or he'd come too and it'd have to be a double birthday."

Elfie blinked. "Double birthday? Are those harder to plan than a single birthday?"

Filbin waved off the concern. "Fish doesn't like a lot of things. He's afraid of milk. We're fine. He's not going anywhere, especially now Toff loaned him that muggle book. He'll be happy as a clam for a week. Now! What do we say if Chris asks what I'm doing with Dwyer and Gwen?"

"I'm supposed to say you're showing them around because they don't know Fish yet and they wouldn't be helpful at all in shopping for his birthday," Bets recited.

Filbin beamed. "Way to go, Bets! Toff will show you all the best places. I made him promise you won't miss out on your first trip." He patted Elfie's head too. "And your turn will be next. Did Durmstrang have any places for weekend trips?"

Elfie shrugged. "I was only there my first year, but it didn't sound good at all. They only did winter trips when the ice train ran into Schonbeck over the bay to see Quidditch and dueling tournaments. I heard the beer was good…?"

"Hogsmeade is better," Filbin assured her. "I'll bring you back something nice, okay?"

Elfie giggled, pleased. "Yay presents!"

Chris did want to help, and tried to explain Fish to the Selkie twins. "He's… well, he's a Ravenclaw. Over analyzes things."

"Everything," Toff corrected. "He's a good guy, just really really" –

"He's careful," Bets supplied. "He likes to point out how much more dangerous life is with magic in it. Seems to think muggles have it safer. He knows a lot of interesting stuff about them! Hasn't he got a signed copy of The Muggle Mystery?"

Toff nodded. "Yup. Got it signed by Arthur Weasley himself. Stood in line for hours at Flourish and Blotts when it came out. Even bought two copies, one to get signed and the other to actually read."

"Sounds like a nerd," Dwyer said.

Gwen shoved his arm for being rude, but the rattling of the train car did more to move him than her shove. "That's not nice!"

"Oh, he's a nerd," Chris agreed, "but that doesn't mean he's not a good friend. He helped me learn to hunt magic herbs when my folks still thought I was a squib!" She smiled at Toff. "I'm glad to help shop for him."

Gwen looked appropriately disappointed, though she and Dwyer knew the birthday plan perfectly. "Still… I kind of hoped we'd go on our first Hogsmeade trip together."

Chris was touched. "Aw. Next time, for sure."

The train pulled in and the kids poured out. Filbin and the Selkies went one direction, and Chris followed the McCaulleys in another.

Both Chris and Bets looked around wide-eyed before grabbing Toff and sprinting toward the shops.

Filbin and the selkies hung back. "Okay! Good. Come on, The Three Broomsticks is this way. We ought to make sure the stuff is all ready for later."

Gwen skipped with a giggle, her long white hair in a thick braid that swung back and forth with her steps. "This is gonna be great!"

Chris and Bets made a straight line to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes' wildly popular branch in the small school town.

Toff, not one for buying frivolous things, followed them around as they browsed the incredibly colorful selections. "This really isn't Fish's style," he said, jostling with the thick crowd of Griffindor students clogging the aisles, most of them with red hair. "He tests everything before he puts it in his mouth… And he'd be terrified of getting caught using anything like this." He did pause to look at the classic Skiving Snackboxes, though more with disdain than interest. "Why would you even want to skip class?"

"Maybe for another day to study?" Chris suggested, eagerly looking over the ingredient list on some voice-changing candies.

Bets suddenly ran up and grabbed both their arms. "Come on! Come over here! Look look look!"

They pushed their way back toward the door, stepping inside a charmed circle on the floor that muted the chaotic noise inside the shop.

Toff slowly smiled. "Now this is Fish-friendly…"

Chris looked over the items, all packaged in soothing shades of blue. "Silent Sparklers… Trigger Talismans… I dunno, aren't these for serious problems?"

Bets took a Care Candy variety box off the shelf, a blue version of the Skiving Snackbox. "You don't have to have something terrible happen to be uncomfortable or panic about things," she said calmly. "I think Fish will love these."

Toff nodded agreement. "And it's not like they're medicinal. They're just to make life a little easier."

Bets held the box reverently. "I'm getting this for him. It's perfect. You guys want to check anything else out here?"

Chris shook her head. "Maybe later. I want to get him something, but I don't even know what shops are here, let alone what in them could be right…"

"Don't worry," Toff replied. "They've got a used bookstore here too that I know has stuff he wants, and it's nearly on the other end of town. We'll see everything on the way."

While the Fish party made their way down the street with an eye out for promising window displays, Filbin and the Selkies were just leaving the Three Broomsticks, Dwyer grumbling about them not being there long enough to taste anything.

"We'll get back here later and down as many butterbeers as you can buy," Filbin assured him. "Plus cake! Who doesn't love cake?"

Gwen paled and yanked on their sleeves. "Chris is in the street! Come on!"

Filbin let her, but Dwyer fought a bit… while still letting her pull them out of sight. "Why? She knows we're here?"

"She can't know we've been in there without her! She'll be crushed!" Gwen had pulled them behind some empty barrels at the side of the building and now she peeked out from between them to be sure their friends didn't see them. "Okay, she's gone." Gwen looked at Filbin. "So, where now?"

"Decorations! Better hit Weasleys' for the best ones. This way!"

Bets stopped to get some snacks from a street vendor – there were several set up at different points around the street.

"They're not around all the time," Toff explained. "Around here, Hogwarts weekends are a massive deal. Lots of places send carts up just to get some gold off the students. Suggestion – if you don't recognize the name on the cart, don't buy it. There was a guy up here last year running a cart selling roasted chestnuts that turned into stones once they cooled off enough to eat." He made a face. "Not even a good spell, yknow?"

Bets stared in concern. "Did anybody eat them?! Were they hurt?!"

Toff shook his head. "No, no one was hurt. Just swindled. A couple third years ate them, but they were fixed up just fine once they got back to the school."

"Yick!" Chris gagged. "They probably had to down a doozy of a digestive potion… can you imagine what it'd take to dissolve chestnut sized stones? Even small ones?"

"Serves them right," Toff said. "It's a lesson learned. Here's the book shop."

They went in, instantly lowering their voices to fit the hushed feel of the mostly empty shop.

"Guess nobody wants to be looking at books on holiday from school," Bets said. "Except you," she said, when her brother shot her a withering look.

"Used books are often better for research than new," he said, heading between the haphazardly leaning stacks of books toward a crooked sign reading "history".

While Chris went with him, Bets took a turn another direction toward the potions section. While they were shopping for Fish, she still wanted to get Chris something. She traced the faded titles looking for something on unusual, and edible, magic ingredients.

"So what's Fish into these days?" Chris asked, wishing there were bookcases to lean against. Instead, the books were in neat, albeit leaning, towers up to the ceiling.

"Muggle stuff, as always," Toff replied, "but he and Ashe spent this summer compiling a list of facts about famous witches and wizards to submit to the Chocolate Frog Card contest, especially ones from way back. They've even got five new ones they're hoping to get in circulation. Come on, help me find something that sounds… Fishy?"

They'd looked at dozens of promising titles and were thinning down the handful of front-runners when Bets rejoined them, having already paid for her pick. "Found the perfect one yet?"

Chris put back another they'd decided wasn't perfect. "Lots of good stuff, but Toff's got a better idea what he's looking for." While Toff considered two tattered volumes, each thick as his arm, Chris looked at Bets kind of sadly. "Y'know, I still don't know what to get him… I didn't see any shops that really said Fish…"

"I'm sorry," Bets replied, troubled. "Do you want to double with my gift, or Toff's?"

Chris shook her head. "No, no. That wouldn't feel right. Thanks, though. I really want to get him something that gets him all excited… that he can use and open up and really light him up…"

"He only gets that way about muggle stuff," Bets said. "We got him a rubber duck once, just because we saw it on a cart while on holiday and wanted to see his face. He got so excited he nearly hyperventilated…"

Toff set one of the books down, reconsidered and swapped them, huffed in frustration and switched them again. "There's a muggle junk shop somewhere in town," he said, his focus on the incredibly hard choice between the two books. "I've never been in it, but we could poke our heads in there. Bets, what time is it?"

She checked a dusty (but functional) clock hung not on the wall, but on the stack of books leaning against the wall. "Oh. It's plenty time for a late lunch. I'm hungry. What about you, Chris?"

"Starved, but I don't want to go get something until I've found Fish's gift."

Toff ended up taking both books up to the counter on their way out. "We'll find something in the junk shop. Don't worry."

Filbin greeted classmates as they poured into the pub for the party. "Go on, up the stairs to the right. Thanks for coming! Yeah, get up there and find a good hiding spot if you can, and a bad one if you can't. They should be along any minute. And leave the food until they get here, okay? You can't yell surprise if your mouth is full, can you?"

Dwyer and Gwen guarded the door from the inside, letting Filbin in last only after he gave the special knock.

"She here?" Gwen asked, snapping the door shut behind him.

"I heard them come in on my way up the stairs," Filbin grinned, jostling with some giddy 3rd years hiding behind some chairs with a handful of fizzers, ready to let them loose for the surprise. "Shhhhh! Everybody, sh! They'll be up in just a minute!"

The whole room, packed almost to the rafters with their friends, fell silent, quieter than many of them had ever been in their life.

Toff and Bets' voices carried up the stairwell, growing louder.

"You picked a great one, Chris," Bets said. "He's gonna love it!"

"I don't get it. But I usually don't," Toff sighed.

"Why are we going upstairs? There was plenty of room down there for us."

Gwen giggled, and Dwyer clapped a hand over his sister's mouth so she wouldn't ruin the surprise.

"I don't know," Toff lied. "That's just where Filbin told us to meet him for lunch." The knock sounded on the door.

Filbin gave his wand a flick and the door unlocked for them. He held up his fingers in the semi-darkness, counting down from three.

"Well this can't be the right room," Chris sniffed. "It's all dark and" –

She and Bets reflexively covered their ears, but not soon enough to block out the roar of greetings and popping of fireworks, everyone jumping up as the fizzers whirred along the floor like sputtering fire mice.

Eventually the number of birthday wishes clued Chris in that this was for her. She flushed bright red and grinned so hard her face hurt. "OH! OH OH! OH you guys, you're amazing! And SNEAKY!" She hugged them fiercely, pounding their backs and laughing in their ears, making the rounds of the room with unbridled enthusiasm.

"This is the best birthday I ever had! And it hasn't even started yet!"

After the train back from Hogsmeade dropped the revelers back at the school, Chris, Filbin, Toff, and Bets brought the Selkies with them to the mostly empty great hall, over by one of the large fire places.

Jerome Fish and Zaeden Ashe, both 5th year Ravenclaws, sat with books spread out in the warmth, only one of several scattered study pairs throughout the hall. Fish looked downright tame, which he was, compared to Ashe whose multiple piercings, cattish green eyes, and trendy haircut usually drew all the attention available.

Ashe looked up when the Hufflepuffs (and Dwyer) came in, gave them a subtle thumbs-up and dug something out of his bag. "Hey, Fish? Isn't it your birthday?"

Fish didn't look up from his book. "Yeah, this week. Why?"

Ashe set a snack cake in front of his friend on the book. "Cuz we're gonna celebrate!"

Fish stared at him, a flicker of fear crossing his face.

"Well not in any crazy way," Ashe laughed. "But it's worth celebrating! Hope you don't mind we put a little something together?"

Fish fumbled and flustered a little as their friends sat down, setting out their gifts in bright wrappings. "What? I mean… Wow! You guys did all this?"

"Sure, we did!" Toff said, beaming while the small group sat close around.

"I know you've got a lot to do," Chris said kindly, "but I hope you'll find a few minutes for gifts?"

Fish adored the books, and offered Toff the appropriately Ravenclaw offer to share after his right of first read. He was also particularly touched by the Calming Candy box. He gave Bets a big hug for that, letting her sit close to him while unwrapping Chris' gift.

"It's not booby trapped, is it?" he asked Bets, being careful of the wrapping.

Bets giggled. "No, we wouldn't do that to you. Go on, though, we want to see what you think!"

Chris hooked her arm in Gwen's. "I can't take the suspense!"

Fish pulled out the box with gawdy colors and a name blazoned across the cardboard. Recognition was followed closely by bubbling over enthusiasm. "YOU FOUND A SNUGGIE! OH MY GOD! ASHE! TOFF! THIS WAS THE THING I WAS TELLING YOU ABOUT! THE BLANKET WITH SLEEVES!"

Ashe looked at it. "You mean… the backwards robe?"

"No, it's totally different!" Fish insisted, scrambling to get it out of the package. "Chris this is amazing! It's just- just perfect!" He threw it on himself, not caring at all that the only Snuggie in the muggle junk shop was a glaring neon pink.

Chris and the others laughed, just glad to see him not worried about anything, even just for a moment. "Happy birthday, Fish!"