AN: Enjoy!

Back at Hogwarts, everyone soon settled back into their usual routines. Wanda and Vision continued to sit together in Potions class, and spend breaks together. They still sometimes received strange looks, but both of them were long past caring.

It might have helped that, over time, the two of them continued to expand their friendship circle. The more people who saw them together, and also got to know them, the less unusual their friendship would seem, and the less strange looks they would get. This was advice that Laura had given Wanda before they returned to school, and when she had told Vision about it, he had agreed that it was a good idea.

Their first step towards this goal was following through with their idea to join the Gobstones club. Both had been a little nervous upon arriving at the first meeting they attended, multiple games taking place scattered around the School Courtyard, until Scott waved them over. He had been watching a game between two second year girls, a Gryffindor and a Slytherin.. Almost as odd a pair as Wanda and Vision.

"Hey, guys!" Scott greeted cheerily, a trademark goofy smile on his face. "Welcome to Gobstones Club."

"Thanks" Wanda smiled shyly.

"Are there any special rules we need to follow?" asked Vision.

"Not really, it's mostly just for fun. Although, its encouraged to play with a few different partners, to build up the social aspect" said Scott, turning back to the game he'd been watching. "I'm waiting to play the winner of Hope and Ava's game. One of you guys can play whoever wins my game, or if you don't want to wait, you can play the winner of Bucky and Mantis's game.."

Wanda, slightly surprised, looked over to where Bucky was about to win a game against a First Year Hufflepuff girl.

"Hi, Vision!" Mantis waved.

"Hello, Mantis" Vision greeted.

Wanda shook off a sudden feeling of jealousy and turned her attention to Bucky.

"Hey, I didn't know you were in the Gobstones Club."

"Don't tell your brother" said Bucky sheepishly. "Steve knows, but Pietro and Sam.."

"It's okay. Your secret is safe with me" Wanda smiled.

Bucky smiled, about to reply, but was interrupted by a whoop from the Gryffindor girl, Hope, as she won her game.

"Okay, Lang, it's your turn to try and kick her butt.." The Slytherin girl moved aside, allowing Scott to move in and set up a new game with Hope, but her eyes soon fell on Wanda and Vision. "Hey, you're the first year with the little pet Hufflepuff."

"Ava, be nice" Hope frowned. "It's their first meeting, and you know how hard it is to get new members around here."

That was true. Gobstones was not the coolest of Hogwarts pastimes. This didn't matter much to Wanda or Vision, but probably explained Bucky's reluctance to let Sam or Pietro know he was in the club.

"And Vision's not a pet" Wanda frowned, while Vision blushed. "He's my best friend."

"Come on, you have to admit it's a little weird" Ava scoffed. "Slytherin and Hufflepuff are two of the most opposite.."

"Is there a problem here, Starr?"

Coupled with the sound of the familiar voice, Wanda felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see Natasha standing beside her.

"Uh, no.." Ava gulped.

"Good" Nat smirked. "In that case, leave my little Firstie friends alone and go find another game to jump in on before I find a reason to 'accidentally' hex you.."

"Right.. Yeah.. sure.." The Second Year hurried off.

"Hey, kiddo" Natasha winked at Wanda, then turned to Vision. "Hey there, little badger. Vision, right?"

"Y-Yes, I'm Vision.." said Vision shyly. "Hello."

"I wasn't expecting to see you here" Wanda smiled at Nat.

"I'm not officially in the club" Nat shrugged, "But sometimes I come to watch Bruce play. He wants to go Pro.. speaking of, I'd better go find him. Have fun, kids."

And they did. They had quite a bit of fun. Wanda played Bucky after he won, and Vision played Scott after his game with Wanda.

Still, they remained each other's favourite person to play with. So, after a few rounds with their newer friends, Wanda and Vision played a game together, chatting and giggling through the game. They played until the club meeting ended, everyone heading inside to escape the cold.

It was well-known that, despite its proximity to the relatively cold Dungeon areas, the Hufflepuff Common Room was just about the warmest and cosiest of them all. For this reason, on some of those colder afternoons, Vision developed a habit of sneaking Wanda into the Hufflepuff Common Room. This was very much against the rules, but the good natured Hufflepuffs didn't seem to mind all that much. No-one had ratted them out yet. Still, the young pair would try and make themselves as inconspicuous as possible, huddling in corners as they studied or did Homework.

"Are you sure we should keep doing this, Vizh?" Wanda asked him, on what had been one particularly icy afternoon.

"No one minds" Vision shrugged, reading over the Potions homework that they had been working on together.

"You could get in trouble.."

"We would both get in trouble, so at least we would be in trouble together..but that would only happen if we are caught" He pointed out. "Nobody is going to tell on us.. Hufflepuffs are loyal."

"But.."

"Trust me. You said your brain doesn't work so well when you're cold. It's nice and warm in here. You wouldn't want to risk your marks.."

"Well.." Wanda paused, thinking. She did have some quite lofty goals where her grades were concerned, probably part of the Slytherin ambition coming out in her. "Alright then."

"Wonderful!" Vision grinned.

"But if anyone does catch us out, we'll say it was all my idea.." Wanda took Vision's parchment, checking his answers against her own, "They're way more likely to believe a Slytherin cooked this up, and you won't get in as much trouble.."