"I'm a little bummed we don't get to see you thrown around the car again," George said as we entered a train car.

"Wow, thanks," I mumbled, plopping down on the seat by the window.

"It was kind of funny," Fred agreed, sitting down next to me.

"What's kind of funny?" The three of us turned to the door to see Glinda Baker standing there in all her glamorous glory, this time with a tan.

"Baker! Nice to see you being as nosy as ever," she walked in and sat herself next to George, shooting him a sly glare.

"I've got to get all caught up, apparently someone left Hogwarts for once," Glinda nodded her head toward me.

I hadn't even realized that, it had been so long since I had rode the train to and from the nine and three-quarters platform. She probably was in shock at just seeing me in the train compartment.

"I actually went to the Weasley's for Christmas," I replied, smiling.

"You're joking," her eyes went wide, and she uncrossed her arms to lean forward.

"He's not," George smirked.

"Well, it's about time you left that stupid castle for once, even if you had to hang out with these idiots."

"Hey, we're not that bad," Fred replied with mock offense, "Soot even got a Weasley jumper!"

"Oh God," she laughed, crushing her palm to her forehead. "Well, then I guess you don't need my gift."

"No!" I cried out suddenly. "I mean," I cleared my throat when I realized Fred and George were looking at me oddly, "You can still give it to me later..."

"Ah, if you insist," Glinda smiled.

"So how was Italy?" I asked, glancing over at her carry-on and wondering if she had any sweets.

"Oh, let me tell you," she said excitedly.

Glinda spent most of the train ride telling us about the crazy wizard community in Italy, and how many cute guys she managed to bump into down there. It was therapeutic listening to her talk about it while the landscape went by, and as the familiar stone outline of Hogwarts peaked out of the treeline I found myself actually excited to go back.

It was a little bittersweet to take my luggage and go back to the Hufflepuff dormitory, I was happy to return to what I considered my home-but it felt so much quieter than the Burrow.

There was a bit of bustle around though as students stumbled around with huge suitcases and fresh gifts.

"Soot! How was your Christmas?" Jeremy asked as I entered the dormitory.

"Very good," I smiled, throwing my luggage up onto my bed to unpack.

"I see you finally got out of Hogwarts," John commented.

"Yes, and how refreshing that was."

"I'll bet, I couldn't imagine staying here year-round and not getting tired of it."

"Right on, amazing you haven't gone crazy yet," Jeremy continued as the three of us quietly unpacked.

My owl twittered as I set her cage off to the side, and I let the door open for her to peep her head out. Bells was a bit shy, I knew she wouldn't hop out and cause a ruckus.

"Your owl's still basically a cat, I see," Jeremy commented.

"Of course," I mumbled, closing my wardrobe.

"Where did you go for Christmas, by the way?" He asked, turning around and looking at me while he ate some chocolates.

"Oh, to the Weasley's actually," I responded. I didn't see the harm in letting it be known. Plus..Fred and I were dating now, I would be round the Weasley's for every holiday they would have me now.

"Oh, really? The twins invite you? That's awful nice of them," John politely remarked.

"Yes, best Christmas I've had in a long while."

"Thomas, there's a girl here for you." I turned to see Cedric peeking his head around the door. "She said it was very urgent."

"Oh," I was caught off guard by him, I had only just gotten back to the dorm and Glinda was already here? "Thanks, I'll be right there."

He nodded, before shuffling back to whatever he was doing before. Since whatever this was had to be urgent, I didn't bother putting anything else away and left my clothes sprawled across my bed. I slipped my shoes on and snatched my robe from its hook and made my way to the entrance to the common room.

"Took you long enough," she said in familiar fashion.

"Well, I was unpacking," I responded, sliding my arms into the sleeves of my robe.

"Packing is low priority, you need to spill the beans immediately."

"Oh, right," I blushed a bit as Glinda walked to some hallway on the outskirts of the school-somewhere people wouldn't be listening.

"So, how did you get there? Did Fred invite you? Oh, I bet he did, and he was probably all smooth about it too. I tried to get details from George and he just wiggled his eyebrows at me and shrugged," Glinda talked rapid-fire, barely getting in a breath between words and certainly not leaving me room to actually answer her questions.

"Well," I murmured quietly once she paused, "He did invite me, it was while I was tutoring him in herbology. I remember thinking he was being really flirty, but I thought it might've just been because we were alone-"

"Alone?" She exclaimed, gripping my arm tightly, "You sly dog, getting alone with him in the greenhouse, did you? Ah, I've taught you well."

"I was only showing him how to transfer mandrakes," my cheeks inflamed and I felt the tips of my ears grow red hot.

"On with it, on with it."

"George drove us to their house, in a flying car-did you know they had one of those? I swear, you could tell me they had a pet dragon and I'd believe them at this point."

"They sure do have a lot of tricks up their sleeves," she agreed.

"But when I got there, their Mum was just amazing. I'm telling you, I didn't lift a single finger my entire stay and she spoiled me rotten with food."

"Mm," she hummed, "As much as I love hearing about that...I'd rather hear about the dirty details, Soot." She wiggled her eyebrows like how I had imagined George doing to her.

"Ah, well," I stammered, "We...had to share a bed, and-"

"Share a bed!" She cried out, hopping a bit in place. "I bet that must've been crazy, oh that's straight out of a romance novel. 'Oh, there's only one bed, what shall we do?'"

"It was that or sleeping on the couch, and George insisted we were close-"

"Georgie did that? Ooh, I'll have to give him a pat on the back, carrying on my legacy in my absence."

"Will you be quiet if you want to hear details?"

"Right, right."

"Anyways," I breathed out, "We may or may not have...kissed in his bed. Pretty much the first day I was there."

I could tell she was just about bursting with the need to talk and spill out how proud of herself she was and all that. It did make me happy to realize that all our efforts paid off, and I finally did have a thing going on with a guy I thought was way out of my league.

"And so we're kind of dating now." At that, Glinda couldn't contain herself and let out a fit of giggles and squeals as she wrapped her arms tightly around me and jumped up and down.

"Oh, Thomas that's just wonderful, I can't believe this worked out so well! I thought there would be years and years more to this plan and here it is finished before I could blink!"

"I know, it is a bit crazy. I still can't really believe it, nothing has felt real since I left Hogwarts for the break."

"Do you think they'll have you for the summer as well?"

"Oh, I didn't think about that," my blush reignited at the thought of not only spending a week with Fred, but several months uninterrupted. "That would be...nice."

"New objective," Glinda said definitively, "Pass your O.W.L.s to impress your new in-laws."

"In-laws?" I sputtered, "Glinda, we're fifteen-"

"Fred is sixteen!" She stuck her finger up and rested her other hand on her hip, "In the middle ages you two would already have been wed!"

"Glinda, it's 1993."

"Still the 1900's, we must prepare you for the utmost success. Oh, and here." She plopped a small shell in my hand inlaid with botanical designs.

I let out a sigh as she dragged me toward the great hall for dinner, not sure what she had in mind.