There was some kind of cheerfulness when the students woke up on the weekend of the first Hogsmeade trip of the school year. After weeks of nothing but schoolwork, they were glad to finally visit the village they could never get tired of visiting. Nicolai had miraculously woke up thirty minutes before Florence could even pop an eye open.

By the time she was fully awake, Nicolai was already sporting a plain white shirt and muggle jeans, beckoning her into the showers and repeatedly telling her to hurry up.

She made a mental note to wake up extra early during the next Hogsmeade visit.

Alexander was patiently waiting for them at the common room by the time they had gotten out of the girl's dormitory. Nicolai let out a furious groan by the sight of the blonde boy, who now had an impish look on his face as the girls descended from the staircases. "I told you to hurry up!" Nicolai muttered to Florence, who remained half asleep and was oblivious to the whole situation.

Until Nicolai handed Alexander three galleons.

"Perfect for a couple bags of chocoballs." grinned Alexander as he tucked away his newly earned money, "Thank you, Flo, for dragging Nicolai down."

"Come on, we're not going to bloody waste another second in this castle. Hogsmeade and all it's joyous wonders awaits us on this beautiful day!" yelled the brunette, who practically ran out of the Ravenclaw tower, Alexander and Florence a little bit behind her. "You know how she thinks she can turn into freaking Shakespeare when she's happy?"

"Yeah?"

"She can't," Xander stated in an unembellished tone, "She's inadequate."

Florence chuckled, watching her friend skip on every step, "Tell that to her and she would probably skin you alive and beat you with a bag of your own shredded skin."

"Yep. Sounds like our Nicolai— Merlin's beard." Alexander gasped, stopping in his tracks before letting out a silent groan, Florence frowning. "I think I'm going to die." he whispered, staring at something in the distance. "I can't see anything, Xan. You know how short I am—"

She stopped in mid sentence, seeing what her friend was seeing.

Apparently, Jillian was with a date, a lanky seventh year brunette who looked strikingly attractive in his muggle clothes. Alexander subconsciously stared down at what he was wearing, before exhaling. "Yep, that's it. If you want anything, I'll be drowning in the Black Lake surrounded by Grindylows." he said, walking off to the opposite direction, Florence grabbing him by the hem on his shirt.

"Oh boo, you. You're seriously intimidated by that? He looks like Filch dressed in expensive clothes."

"Atleast he's dressed in expensive clothes." he muttered gloomily.

"Shut up, Xander. You know you're lucky it's me who you're talking to about being jealous, and not Nicolai. If it was, then she'd probably be judging you by a hundred-fold right now."

"Like you aren't judging me." he chortled.

"Maybe I am. But atleast I'm not voicing it out."

"Hey slow arses! Are you two bloody waiting for Christmas?! Come on guys, you're wasting precious time!" Nicolai yelled from where she was stomping her feet impatiently.

Hogsmeade was packed with a lot of people, from seventh years to third years visiting the village for the first time, it was quite a large crowd that the three opted to hold each other's hand like kindergarteners, so that they wouldn't loose each other in the sea of people.

But there had been a conflict when it came to which shop they were going to check out, Florence being in the middle as usual, telling the two of them that she was fine wherever.

"Come on now, Flo, you have to pick a side!" said Nicolai exasperatedly, Alexander nodding in agreement, "Should we go to Honeydukes first or should we get Nic's pathetic tea leaves at Puddifoot's?"

"I told you two, I'm fine wherever we go first!" her companions groaned, Alexander agreeing to go to Puddifoot's tea shop for the sake of ending the arguement.

The two waited with a plate of fudge cookies while they watched Nicolai strategically pick her tea from the different kinds that were laid out in front of her by the shop owner, who by this time already knew who Nicolai was. If Penelope and Nicolai had other things in common aside from their surname, it was their tea obsession, and that they were both very loyal costumers of Madame Puddifoot's tea shop.

Alexander grabbed a lavender box, reading the label, "Hey Nic, why don't you get a box of this calming tea. It might deduce the level of your bitchyness." Nicolai had briefly glowered at her friend, plucking the box out of his grasps, before bartering it with a fuchsia pink colored box.

"So thoughtful to think of me and my sanity, Xan. I should probably be a dear friend and tell you that that beauty enhancing tea actually works. Especially on critical conditions, i.e., your face." she said sweetly.

Xander put down the box as Florence sniggered, immediately sobering up as Alexander gave her a look of pure and utter betrayal. "You guys are a special kind of rude today, you know that?"

"Thanks," said Nicolai, her eyes not tearing off the tea labels, "I try."

"Don't worry, Xander, you're much cuter than Nic anyways."

"Seriously woman, which bloody side are you on?!"

Next on their list was Honeydukes, and one could never not be overwhelmed by the amount of sweets that the shop had for sale. Florence had filled a whole bag with Cockroach Clusters, another bag with Fudge Flies and a few sickles worth of Berty Bott's every flavor beans. Alexander was contented with his chocoballs and Crystallized pineapples. Nicolai, who wasn't really big on sweets, settled with a bag filled with Drooble's Best blowing gum.

After they were all content with their purchases, the three had decided on buying a butterbeer, spending their last few minutes at Three Broomsticks. It wasn't long before the teachers had called them out, beckoning them back into the castle as it neared nightfall.

Dinner at the Great Hall was hectic, Filch going down the rows of third years, confiscating whatever illegal goods they purchased at Hogsmeade while everybody else swapped a few sweets with each other. The food was under-appreciated, and were barely touched by the students who were still hungover by their trip to Hogsmeade.

"Colin Creevey burnt a hole in his tongue!" someone from the Gryffindor table shouted just as Madame Pomfrey escorted a small boy out of the Hall, followed by Argus Filch who had a fistful of Lee Jordan's robe, dragging him out of the feast as well. Florence rolled her eyes as she saw the Weasley twins giggling in their seat. "Demonic activity right there. Poor Creevey." she said sympathetically.

"Why can't those two use the efforts they exert in pranking, on their academics, I mean if that would be the case, then I'm sure they'd top us."

Alexander snorted at this, "Oh please, nobody could ever top me."

"I see hundreds of other guys in this school topping you by a thousand times, Xan." interjected Nicolai as she fixed up a plate of steak and hash browns.

"Oh yeah? Like who?"

"Like that guy who Jillian walked hand in hand with at hogsmeade." she retorted, tragically shutting the blonde boy up. Florence laughed as Alexander's face pulled in to a deep scowl, "Remind me to kill you in your sleep, Clearwater."

"By then I would of have already beaten you to death with Florence's flying broom."

"No," Florence protested, "You're not getting blood on my baby."

The three were exhausted from the excitement of that day, heading up to the common room as soon as the Great hall was cleared of food. Their homework had been done during Friday afternoon, wanting nothing of any sort of distraction during the first Hogsmeade weekend. Considering the treacherous state that they have been in starting from the first day of school, Hogsmeade weekends were one of the very few days that they had the opportunity to have actual fun.

Florence had been reading a muggle book as she sat at the common room, Alexander and Nicolai at it again with their bickering as the conflicted over a petty game of chess. Ofcourse nothing was ever petty to the two, who took everything against the other as some sort of life-and-death game.

Alexander, per usual, won, Nicolai burying her face into one of the blue cushions in shame.

Their relaxing evening had been disrupted by Professor Flitwick, who came scurrying into the common room by ten in the evening, a frantic look on his face as he gathered everyone to the common room.

"Everyone is requested to go down to the Great Hall. An emergency came up and the Headmaster had requested everyone down in one place so that they could perform cautionary proceedures!" Penelope Clearwater had came bustling in, beckoning everyone out of the Ravenclaw tower, making sure that Nicolai went with the lot.

"Pen, what's happening?" Nicolai asked her sister as soon as she saw Penelope's panic-stricken face, Alexander and Florence in tow.

"Something about Sirius Black attacking the Gryffindor portrait. Dumbledore reckons that he was trying to break in to the common room. That's all I know, Percy's been busy alerting the other houses."

"Sirius Black is in the castle?" the three repeated incredulously.

"Yes! Now go!" She said, pushing them along with the crowd after he whispered instructions to Alexander. "Please make sure that Nicolai doesn't go wandering about." Alexander nodded, before catching up to his friends.

By the time they had arrived to the great hall, all the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs were gathered in respective corners, Percy arrived shortly with all of the Gryffindors, murmurs buzzing about in the hall as Dumbledore stepped up to give an announcement.

"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore told them as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick closed all doors into the hall. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately,"

Alexander took it as a cue to head towards the other prefects, eyeing Jillian from afar.

"Oh," Dumbledore said right after whispering something to Percy Weasley, "You will be needing these." and with a quick snap of his fingers, he was able to conjure hundreds and hundreds of purple sleeping bags from thin air. Nicolai grimaced at the color.

"Sleep well," said Professor Dumbledore, closing the door behind him.

"Purple? Seriously?"

"Now, now, Nic. Not the best time to be picky." she said, the both of them heading over to the pile to grab one for their own, and another for Alexander, setting it up on the far right corner, where most of the Ravenclaws had gathered. A few feet away were the Weasley twins, both waggling their eyebrows at Florence as soon as she spotted them.

"I don't think I'd be able to sleep knowing that I'm in the same room as them." she grumbled, setting up Alexander's sleeping bag for him, so that it wouldn't be too much hassle for him after he patrolled.

"You and a hundred other souls, Flo. I'm more concerned that I am sitting at least three hundred feet away from them, rather than Sirius Black possibly prowling around the castle halls."

The hall immediately began to buzz excitedly; the Gryffindors were telling the rest of the school what had just happened.
"Everyone into their sleeping bags!" shouted Percy. "Come on, now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!" Nicolai scowled at her sister's boyfriend, muttering something about his rather abnormally inflated head and how he wasn't near the slope of attractiveness.

"Ofcourse, you'd say that."

"The lights are going out now!" Percy shouted. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!"
The candles all went out at once. The only light now came from the silvery ghosts, who were drifting about talking seriously to the prefects, and the enchanted ceiling, which, like the sky outside, was scattered with stars.

Alexander had came back from patrol about an hour after, the hall still filled with talking no matter how hard Percy and Penelope tried shutting everyone up. He let out a comfortable sigh as he laid his back onto the sleeping bag, thankful for finally resting after a long time standing.

"I don't know how you're finding this comfortable, Haddlowe." Florence said suddenly, her back aching because the foams were too thin. They were nothing like the comfort her dorm bed gave her. "It feels like we're sleeping on a layer of tissue."

"Price, Clearwater," the Head boy chastised as he prowled towards their corner, "I made it clear that everyone should stop talking and go to sleep as soon as the lights are out, didn't I?" Nicolai scoffed loud enough for him to hear. "You out of all people don't get to tell me what I could and could not do. Even if you're head boy. Wait till I tell mum that you and Pen are still together—"

"I'd appreciate it if you refrained from blackmailing your way out of curfew, Nicolai." snapped Penelope as she neared them. Nicolai had always told her friends that Penelope was half a bat, because she had the sharpest hearing.

"Now go to sleep." she ordered, before dragging Percy away from the lot.

"Boo." She muttered, trying to get into a comfortable position, "But did any of you see Percy's face? Priceless."

Florence went rigid as she suddenly remembered the pun that the Weasley twins had made out of that word, before hastily shaking the thought off her head as she persuaded her mind to go to sleep.