The next morning greeted her with warm sunlight through the window of her dormitory. The girl slowly opened her eyes, trying to adjust to the light. After a few minutes, she swung her legs out of the bed and sat up. All her nicer clothes were buried in the depths of her trunk, so it took her a while to find something wearable. She usually just spent her days in either her school uniform or in something comfortable to sit and study in the library. Finally, she got hold of her dark blue jeans and a loose black blouse and put those on. A bit of makeup later and she was ready for Hogsmeade.

As she was walking up the staircase from the dormitory she already spotted Fred and George around the corner. As always she found a smile forming on her lips, which soon vanished as she realized they were standing with a huge group of other students from different houses, except Slytherin, of course. It took all her willpower to not turn around at the spot and hide in the darkest corner of the dungeon. Instead she just stood there, not knowing if she should get closer or not. Maybe Fred and George had just met the others by chance and didn't want them to know they had anything to do with her? But as she was standing atop the last stair, Fred and George spotted her and waved her over enthusiastically. Hesitantly, Jayla came closer. She could feel all the others from that group turning towards her with expressions of either curiosity or disdain. Fred grabbed her and drew her closer as soon as she was within reach. "Everyone, this is Jayla!" he announced with a huge grin on his face. Unable to look at the others in fear of their reaction, Jayla's eyes darted back and forth between Fred and her shoes.

"Isn't she a Slytherin!?" One of the Gryffindor girls asked with obvious disagreement in her voice.

"Yeah, so what!?" George glared at her, daring her to challenge him.

Jayla had never seen such a stern and angry expression on the usually smiling Weasley. This was followed by a moment of tense silence.

One of the other girls broke the tension by taking a step towards Jayla and extending her hand.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Juana. I'm in Hufflepuff," she said with a genuine smile.

Jayla shook her hand gratefully. Now, most of the other students came forth and quickly introduced themselves. There were mostly Gryffindors, including Fred and George's best friend Lee Jordan, who actually hugged her instead. Jayla was so surprised by such an unusual gesture that she almost couldn't stop herself from following her instinct and take her wand out in defence.

Jayla tried to stay a few feet away from the group while walking down to Hogsmeade. Noone paid her much attention, but she still felt like an intruder on their conversations. George, who was walking closest to her, threw her some sideway glances, which she responded to with an assuring smile. She would definitely try to be social with the others for their sake. There was no way she was going to destroy their Hogsmeade trip. About halfway through the Hufflepuff girl from earlier suddenly appeared at her side.

"Don't pay Angeline too much heed," she whispered. "Somehow she always seems threatened by new girls. She's acted like that with all of us, but she'll eventually calm down and then she's actually really fun to have around." Juana threw her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, I'm used to it," Jayla replied. This sounded sadder than the girl had intended. To hide her emotions she quickly added: "I'm actually really excited about today! I haven't been to Hogsmeade in ages."

"Have fun then! And don't spend too much money," the girl said with a wink before she walked back to the other girls.

The village was already bursting with students when they arrived. After the group had stopped shortly to discuss when they'd meet at the Three Broomsticks, they split up. Some had to get some school supplies, while others just decided to check out some of the shops.

"Well, I for one could use some Cauldron cake!" Fred mentioned.

"Didn't you just have breakfast?" Jayla asked.

"Breakfast was an hour ago!" Fred exclaimed. "Plus, dessert NEVER counts as part of a meal!"

Jayla just rolled her eyes and chuckled. "I'll never understand how you Weasley boys can eat that much." She threw him a mischievous smile.

"And especially where the hell you put it."

"Ouch!" Fred shouted jokingly as she had poked his belly with her finger to emphasize her point. Fred looked like he wanted to say something, but somehow he seemed lost for words.

"She does have a point, you know," Lee chipped in.

Jayla had almost forgotten the others where there, but their laughter reminded her she actually wasn't alone with them and should watch her mouth. But everyone else seemed to find the encounter they had just witnessed amusing. All except Angelina who looked like she wanted to rip Jayla's head off for whatever reason. Jayla was kinda surprised she didn't turn to stone with the glare that girl threw her. Luckily, Angelina joined Juana and a few other girls on their shopping trip, whereas Jayla, the twins, Lee and a couple Jayla didn't know went with them to Honeydukes.

As soon as they opened the bright green doors, Jayla was hit with the smell of sugar, chocolate and cake, which made her stomach rumble. She had decided to skip breakfast today and all the brightly coloured sweets looked very tempting, but she also couldn't decide which one to get because there were just too many options. The others had just walked in and immediately went to the shelves with their favourite sweets, but Jayla just stood there, mouth wide open, trying to take in as much of the shop as she could.

"You've never been in here, have you?", George whispered suddenly, while putting his hand on her shoulders.

Jayla just slowly shook her head. She hadn't want to mention it in front of everyone earlier, but she felt like it was safe to admit it to George.

"Just give me a second," George said and was off before Jayla could stop him. She watched him walk over to the others, who were already waiting at the door as they had finished their shopping, and say something to Lee. Lee and the others nodded and walked out of the shop.

"You don't have to do this, you know…" Jayla started as George appeared back at her side again.

"I just told them we're gonna catch up with them in a bit, so don't worry. Plus, I can't pass up an excuse to load up on even more sweets. Only so that you get to try them, of course," he added with an mischievous grin.

"Of course," Jayla replied, "the things we do for research…"

"Now that that's settle, I already have some sweets in mind you do have to try. Come on." George suddenly grabbed her hand and led her to a shelf. Jayla was so surprised by that gesture she just let it happen and didn't even think of withdrawing her hand. It just felt…natural? It probably also was for everyone else, but Jayla definitely had to learn again how interactions with normal people worked.

Even though George showed her his personal favourites, which were all sweets with rather weird effects like pepper imps that made you breath fire or Fizzing Whizzbess that made their eater levitate a few inches above ground – Jayla promised him to definitely try those later – he also left her enough room to explore the store on her own. She had just paid for her sweets, which were a lot more than she could probably eat in a month, when George suddenly hugged her from behind with one arm while presenting two cauldron cakes balancing on his other hand. This gesture made Jayla jump so badly that she almost knocked over the cauldron cakes. Luckily, George was able to save them with his second hand.

"Sorry. Forgot you're not used to hugging," he chuckled.

"Yeah…Wait a minute. How do you know?"

"You looked like you were a second away from cursing Lee when he hugged you earlier," the boy explained.

"Oh. I guess my weirdness is showing a lot more than I had hoped," Jayla replied embarrassed.

"You'll get used to it," George assured her. "Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I got us Cauldron Cakes. Care to eat them outside now before Fred sees them and wants to have another one?"

Jayla nodded and followed George outside. They found a cute little green bench on the side of the building, which was out of view from the main street. As soon as Jayla sat down, she sighed deeply and felt her shoulders relax. As much as she enjoyed being around Fred and George she could never relax completely when other people were around. Even while navigating Honeydukes, she constantly though about what the others in the shop might think. Luckily, there hadn't been anyone inside that knew either Jayla or George, but it would only need a second of being inattentive and someone could walk into them. She was used to being talked about and sneered at, but she would feel terrible if Fred and George had to go through the same because they hung out with her. Their younger brother Ron, especially, never made a secret about what he thinks about Slytherins.

The sweet smell of the Cauldron Cakes, which George had just unwrapped, tore Jayla away from her negative thoughts. He handed her one of them and they both dug into them. Jayla had had those before as they were also sold on the Hogwarts Express, but somehow eating it with a friend by her side made it taste even better. By the time they were done, the spring sun had finally reached the little village. Jayla closed her eyes and found herself leaning her head against the redhead's shoulder.

"So much for no body contact, eh," George joked.

"Sssh…just shut up," Jayla chuckled, but still didn't open her eyes.