Magnolia's final days at home were quiet. She spent more time in the bookstore, her mother now meeting her inside the store after her shifts instead of upstairs in the flat. Magnolia would watch as Elliot would chat her mother up always leaving Elizabeth in a beaming grin as they went up the stairs at the end of the night. She wanted to ask her mum what was going on but chose against it.

Magnolia packed her bag and snuck one of her mother's sweaters away along with her the gifts she's bringing back for her friends. She also packed a smaller bag with all the goodies she was packing with her. Muggle candies along candies peppermint brownies, cookies and a small batch of fudge.

Elliot had kept his promise and supplied her with three new books for her to read. He claimed they were literature classics and would be missing out if she didn't read them. She tucked those into her other bag neatly. Her mother walked through the door with Elliot in tow.

"You ready kiddo?" Her mum questioned.

Magnolia nodded and followed them, Elliot offered to drive them to the station insisting the weather was too cold for them to be walking to the station again as they had home. They piled into his small sedan and made their way to King's Cross. When they arrived Elliot helped unload Magnolia's bag and said he'd wait with the car running while they departed.

Magnolia held her mother's hand as they weaved their way to the platform. They were more familiar with this trail now. The Weasley's stood around saying their goodbyes. Mr.Weasley gave Magnolia and her mother a welcoming wave. The twins spot Magnolia and pull her into a smushed hug between them.

Her mother chuckles beside them, "Looks like someone missed you." She teases.

"These two couldn't shut up about her." Percy pokes. George gives his older brother a nasty sneer.

Fred blushes and hides his face in his scarf, Magnolia pulls away from the twins and moves back to her mother's side swiftly. Elizabeth rubs Magnolia's arm and turns her to face her.

"I want you to write once you get there. Tell me what the girls think of their mitten okay?" Elizabeth proposes. Magnolia nods with a grin.

Magnolia turns her head to see the twins waiting by the platform. "I promise. I love you." Magnolia feels an unfamiliar feeling in her gut.

"I love you too." Magnolia feels her mother press a soft kiss against her head, her beanie covering her head.

They embrace each other and Magnolia feels like she needs to breathe in her mother's scent one more time. This would be the longest she'd be away from her mother. Her citrusy shampoo filling her nose and her honey scented perfume. The first three months at Hogwarts flew by but now she'd be gone for even longer. Magnolia gripped her mother's coat a little tighter before she heard Mrs. Weasley whistle behind her.

"Hate to break up this tender moment but you can't be late." Mrs. Weasley shrugs wearing an apologetic smile.

Magnolia shares one last quick hug against her mother's side before pulling herself away and towards the platform. The twins link their arms with Magnolia's and move towards the train.

"I'm gonna miss her." Magnolia mumbles as they make their way to the train.

"Little Mags, you'll be home in no time." George snagging up her beanie.

They separate as the step onto the train. George leads them to a cart her beanie hanging from his back pocket, Magnolia following behind him patting down her messed up hair and Fred behind her, "Cheer up. I'm sure you're going to get excited when you see what we got you for Christmas!" Fred nudges the girl lightly.

Magnolia shrugs as George turns into an empty cart. She takes a seat beside the window crossing her legs underneath her. Magnolia pulls her bags up beside her. Fred takes a seat beside her getting comfortable and stretching out on the extra space. George takes the other seat by the window and kicks his legs out comfortably.

"I do enjoy sharing with you Mags, get so much extra space." Fred says pushing his legs out closer to Magnolia's side.

Magnolia gives him a stern look and shakes her head, "Must you always make comments on how short or small I am. I could get taller one day, you never know." She points her wand in his direction, "Besides Weasley I could hex you quite easily if I wanted."

Fred sits up and pushes her wand away with a smirk, "You won't do that, you're too scared of getting in trouble and we all know it." He teases.

Magnolia bites the inside of her cheek and she pulls her wand back into her pocket rolling her eyes. George snickered beside them. Magnolia attempted to send him a warning look but failed as Lee fumbled into the cart with a disappointed Roxy and chipper Juniper in pursuit.

The three charades around stowing their bags away, and the girls beat Lee to the open seats beside George forcing him onto the floor.

Lee grimaced at Fred's stretched legs on the open sheet between him and Magnolia. "Oi, tell me why I got to sit here on the floor when your legs are taking up a good spot right there." Lee pipes as the train pulls away from the station.

"Because Mags doesn't want to sit by you." Fred shrugs leaning his head back lazily.

Lee reaches over and thumps against the ginger boy's forehead. The girls giggle beside George who shakes his head. "Why don't you just sit by her," Lee questions.

Magnolia turns her head to the girls in search of a lifeline. They share a simple shrug, "Maybe I'll just sit on the floor, I don't take up much space anyways." Magnolia offers moving down.

She sunk down pulling her bag into her lap crossing her legs underneath her again, Lee was quick to shove Fred against the window so he could move to a seat. Fred glared at Lee for a moment before looking down at Magnolia. She attempted looking out the window but had no luck seeing anything.

Magnolia turns back to her bag and pulls out one of the books Elliot gave her before leaving. She attempts to cushion her bag up against her more to give her a little comfort. Fred taps Magnolia's shoulder, she looks up to meet his soft brown eyes staring back at her.

"You can sit here. I'll take the floor, that way you can watch the view." Fred moves to his feet. He offers her his hand and helps pull her up.

Magnolia sits down and tucks her bag against herself. She feels Fred leans his head against her knees, his red hair brushing her legs. She looks down at him with a warm smile.

"Thanks Freddie." Magnolia said softly. Letting her finger ruffle his hair a little.

He didn't look up at her but she noticed his smile. She didn't waste time digging out everyone's gifts from her bag. She passed the girls their gifts first, then passing Lee his and then gives the twins theirs. The girls carefully unwrapped the mittens from Magnolia's mother first both excited to wear them, matching yellow and black. They carefully unfolded the tissue paper around the bracelets that Magnolia made. Juniper squealed clutching against the charm, she bounces in her seat strutting her wrist out to Roxy with her other hand offering out the "J" charm.

"Help me put mine on and I'll help with yours." She offers. Roxy nods and ties the cord around Juniper's wrist and she returns the favor.

Magnolia pulls her coat off carefully not to budge against Fred's relaxed head. She rolls her sweater sleeve up to expose her own "M" charm on her wrist.

"My mum says you have to leave them on until they break. That's how friendship bracelets work." Magnolia beams, "I figured we can upgrade if you grow out of them."

Roxy nods, "This is really nice, thank you." She adds.

Lee rips apart the messy paper package revealing the stock pile of muggle candies Magnolia thought he may like. He grinned happily digging into the sweets.

He ripped apart a lollipop wrapped and popped the sucker into his mouth, "Thanks Maggie, I don't think I've ever seen such a variety of Muggle sweets." Lee mumbles around the round sucker in his cheek.

"It's no problem. I thought you'd like them but don't spoil too much. I've got more goodies for later." Magnolia hinted.

Magnolia turns to the twins prompting them to open theirs next. George opens his package to reveal the Whoopie cushion and a pack of zapping gum. Fred finds a buzzer that slips over his hand and disappearing ink. They chuckled at the items in front of them and Magnolia worried she made a mistake. She thought because they enjoyed pranks and she found out their dad had a fascination in Muggle things that they'd love these things although simple.

"What on Earth is that?!" Roxy questioned looking at the limp whoopie cushion hanging from George's fingers.

Magnolia felt her cheeks grow hot as she lost her words, "They're like Muggle prank stuff." A silence falling between the group.

"These are brilliant." George finally breaks the tension, Magnolia feels the weight leave her shoulders.

Fred reaches a hand up and gives her a pat on the knee, "Quite hilarious actually and simple. Love them." He turns to give her a soft grin.

"How do they work?" Fred asks.

Magnolia grins and motions them to hand her the toys. She presses her lips against the deflated whoopee cushion blowing air into it inflating.

She hands it back to George, "Now sit on it." She nods.

The rest of the cart all gives her an odd look but George doesn't hesitate to plop down on the cushion. The plastic releasing a loud fluuuurrrppp! As the air was released between the plastic. Everyone erupts into a playful roar of laughter. George's face blushing and he rips the cushion out from under him.

"How many detentions if we put this on Professor Snape's chair?" George laughs, finally holding the cushion out to Fred.

"Doesn't matter it'd be worth it to prank him, now if we can make it to be invisible I think we could get more than just him. Forget the other stuff." Fred says pushing aside the other things.

The two began fiddling with spells and charms on the cushion in front of them. Magnolia pulled out a batch of the peppermint brownies dividing them amongst her friends. The group fell into a lull of laughter and stories of their holidays.

Magnolia drifting between conversation and looking out at the snow covered fields. Her head rested on the side of the window. She wrapped her coat across her lap like a blanket enjoying the new flow.

••••••

As Magnolia stepped into the school with Juniper and Roxy, the twins and Lee in tow, she bid the twins goodbye for the evening following her house mates promising to meet up to explain more on the muggle pranks she gave them. George tossed her back her stolen beanie. Magnolia tugged her beanie over her ears shielding from the cold that still chilled Hogwarts. She shivered as they made it down the stairs through the dungeons and to the Hufflepuff common room.

Juniper took the honor of knocking the barrels, she enjoyed so much for some reason, so Roxy and Magnolia never argued. The three girls drag their bags up to their dorm and slump on their respective beds. Magnolia took in the smell of her dorm and savored how different it was from her home. Hogwarts had many distinct scents throughout the walls. The Hufflepuff common room had a faint smell of fresh soil and vanilla, Magnolia's dorm was rich vanilla and Roxy's perfume, with a hint of cinnamon that lingered on Magnolia's sweaters. Her home smelled of cinnamon, and her mother's citrus, honey blend then melted together so familiar.

Magnolia scooted up the bed kicking her boots off and laying her head on her pillow still on top of the covers. Magnolia can hear more shoes tumbling to the floor as she rests her eyelids. There's a knock at their door shortly after she feels her eyes shut. Roxy groans and moves to her feet opening the door to find a grinning Demi.

She pouts sarcastically, "Are the little ones a little tired?" She teases.

Juniper sits up in her bed crossing her arms, "Don't be daft, of course not." She argues.

Roxy sits back on her bed throwing back her covers, "Speak for yourself. I'm ready for bed, after my holiday I want to rest." Roxy opens her trunk and pulls out pajamas.

Magnolia sits up on her elbows, "Rox we still haven't eaten dinner?" Magnolia reminds the girl.

Roxy nods, "Oh I know, I'm going in this." She confirms leaving the room to change. "Then I'm coming straight back here and going to bed."

The three girls share a quick look, "She's going to lose us house points, isn't she?" Juniper pouts.

"Most definitely. However I do give her props for the bravery." Demi shrugs with a smirk.

Magnolia lays her head back against her pillow staring at the ceiling above her. She sometimes wondered as she lied in her bed here what it might be like in the other common rooms and the other dorms. She wondered what they might feel like, would they be warm or cold. Wondering about the smells, would they have sweet smells or rich deep scents that lingered. Demi plopped at the foot of one the empty beds.

Magnolia remembered the mittens packed away in her bag, she sits up and grabs her bag off the ground pulling it open to pull out the crudely wrapped gift. She tossed it to Demi who caught it with ease. Demi was the chaser for the Hufflepuff quidditch team. She even helped explain it to Magnolia when she first started at Hogwarts.

Magnolia watched eagerly as she watched her unwrap the yellow and black zig zag mittens. Magnolia suggested her mother try a more complicated pattern for Demi since she was the one who picked up the gift she gave her mother. A bright smile was brought to her lips as she felt the knitted material in her hands. She slipped them over her hands and clapped her hands together.

"Well little Maggie you've done well. You've earned your gift now." Demi pulls a small box from her cloak pocket and places it in Magnolia's hand.

Magnolia is careful pulling off the small lid, Juniper peering over from her bed. Unfolding delicate tissue paper Magnolia finds a pair of earrings that has a small sapphire pendant dangling from the silver post. Magnolia stares down at the earrings bring a hand to her ear. The skin is smooth and untouched, she didn't have her ears pierced. Magnolia looks at Demi forcing a smile.

"What do you think?" Demi prompts.

"They're beautiful! I love them it's just-" Magnolia cuts herself off.

"I knew you didn't have your ears pierced!" Juniper shrieks dramatically. She jumps from the bed and rushes to Magnolia's side.

Magnolia felt Juniper move her hair aside, and tug on her ear lobe. "We gotta pierce them then." She shrugs.

Magnolia turns to the girl with a look of horror. "Absolutely not! I will just save them for summer and have my mum take me somewhere." Magnolia confirms.

Demi chuckles patting Magnolia's knee, "There, there little one. No need to be scared I promise you I've pierced ears here loads of times." The older moves to Magnolia's other side, her hips nudging her towards Juniper.

Demi moves Magnolia's dark hair and tucks it behind her ear. The older girl takes her small ear in her fingers and inspects it. She looks around to Juniper and nods.

Magnolia shifts her gaze from the older girl to Juniper who is now rummaging around her trunk at the foot of her bed. Magnolia feels her face flush and nerves settle in. Just as Juniper lifts her head out of the trunk with a crooked pin from who-knows-what, Roxy returns.

Magnolia jumps to her feet, "Nice jams, now let get to dinner. I'm starved." She pushes Roxy ahead of her out the door leaving the scheming sisters behind.

Roxy gives Magnolia a strange look but chooses to ignore it. "You never did tell how holidays went?" Magnolia asks.

The make their way up the steps to the great hall. A few older kids giving odd looks and sneers as they notice Roxy's pajamas.

"It would've been alright if my mother hadn't asked so many questions about the common room." Roxy griped, "The woman went on and on about how clean and maintained the Ravenclaw house, and how she could never imagine being bombarded with so much harsh yellow, and how could stand the smell of soil that many hours in the day." Roxy impersonating her mother with narrow eyes and a hand on her hip.

The taller girl stole the scrunchie on Magnolia's wrist and propped her blonde strands in a mess on top of her head. "So I take it you holed away in your room?" Magnolia giggles.

Roxy gives her a simple affirmative nod. Magnolia hears the sounds of chatter and laughter as they get closer to the hall. Professor Snape crosses paths with the girls, wearing a sneer, he takes twenty points from Hufflepuff and sends the girls on their way.

"How did yours wrap up?" Roxy turns to Magnolia as they sit at their table.

Magnolia shrugs, "It was as expected. I read and baked just like I always do. Mum and I watched some movies and I invited the guy from bookstore up for Christmas dinner."

Juniper and Demi walk into the hall taking seats across from Roxy and Magnolia. Food begins to fill the tables around them. The group serves themselves and begin to shovel in the delicious feast.

"The one under your mum's flat?" Roxy asks.

Magnolia nods, "Elliot, he gave me some books to read while I'm here. I'll give you the one he gave me at Christmas to read. You'll like it." Magnolia recommends.

Roxy smiles behind her fork with a nod. Her blonde hair shakes a little as does so the scrunchie in her hair wobbling. Magnolia wishes she had another one to tie her own hair back, it was getting quite long and she wished she had got a haircut like her mother had suggested. She pushes her hair behind her shoulders hoping that would keep the dark strands out of her face and food As soon as she leans forward for another bite her hair slips past her shoulders and gets dipped in the brown gravy covering her mashed potatoes.

Magnolia groans loudly and attempts to clean her ends with a napkin she dunked into her water glass. Cedric sits down beside her arriving a little late. He notices her scrubbing at her hair with no luck.

"Do you want help?" He offers with a smile.

Magnolia feels a blush and nods. Cedric does a turning motion with his finger telling her to turn around. Magnolia twisted on the bench and faced away from Cedric and towards Roxy. Cedric pulls all of her hair to lay against her back. His fingers brush her back as he settles the strands down. He pulls his wand out and mumbles a simple incantation and then taps her shoulder signally she can turn back.

"Good as new," he beams before serving his plate, "Have a good holiday Maggie?"

She nods and tucks her hair into her robe so it can't escape. "It was good, got some new books and I baked a lot." She smiles, "If you remind me in the common room I've brought peppermint brownies that are absolutely delightful."

He nods happily, "Glad I get the honor of trying them. Those Weasels of yours don't ever shut up about how good you bake." He chuckles.

"It's Weasley," she corrects, "And they seem to brag about that a lot." Magnolia shrugs taking another bite.

Cedric began to detail his holidays, Magnolia enjoyed talking to him. Cedric was always smiling like Fred and George but he came from a place of joy and pure wonder. He always had a soft glimmer in his eye, his wavy hair flopped over perfectly. Magnolia felt an odd flutter in her tummy when he would laugh. She wondered if she looked as her mother did when she talked to Elliot. That's how new friends talk to each other, Magnolia thought.

Dinner passes and the black pudding is brought in, Magnolia digs in. Sure baking something and getting to enjoy after was nice but being able to just enjoy it was so nice. Magnolia took a couple pumpkin pasties and wrapped them in a napkin. The girl may have been small but she was always hungry, it didn't take her long to start sneaking food from the hall at meals so she could snack throughout the day. She may have also lost house points for eating in class a couple times but who hasn't? Magnolia had thought.

She followed behind her dorm mates after the meal finished up. They laughed and poked fun at Magnolia for the blush she wore the rest of dinner after Cedric helped her with her hair.

"I wonder if you and Ced will have a summer wedding or winter wedding?" Juniper teased.

Magnolia's face flushes red, "No wedding with Cedric and I is happening. He's my friend." She huffs crossing her arms. Juniper knocks on the barrels and the door opens to their common room.

Roxy gave Juniper a look of disappointment before wrapping an arm around Magnolia in an attempt to comfort her. "Maggie we all know it isn't Cedric you'll be planning a wedding with but rather one of the Weasley twins." Roxy adds to the teasing.

Magnolia's mouth gapes as she walks into their shared dorm, "I'm not planning any weddings right now." She retorts.

She pulls open her trunk and pulls out clean pajamas to change into. As Magnolia goes down to the restrooms to change she bumps into Demi who holds a folded piece of parchment.

Demi hands it to the younger girl as they pass, "Your boys wanted you to get this." She smirks.

Magnolia snatches the parchment shoving into the mess of clothes in her arms. She turned on heel quickly to the restrooms where she took a quick hot shower and changed into her pajamas before returning to her room. Roxy had an eye mask over her eyes and the covers were rugged up to her neck. The blonde girl already dozed off. Juniper sat up in her bed, her curls now twisted into braids. Her amber eyes staring off into a textbook. She had a single candle lit by her bed illuminating the text.

Magnolia folded her discarded clothes and placed them at the foot of her bed before unfolding the parchment.

Mags,

We've cracked the code. Who should be our first target? I reckon Dumbledore would get a good laugh out of it. Meet us in the library tomorrow during lunch. Top secret.

Gred and Feorge

Magnolia shook her head, what has she gotten herself into now?