Alexander had begged Nicolai to keep silent about their encounter, which prevented her from telling Florence almost immediately. He wanted to discuss it somewhere where other people could not necessarily eavesdrop. It was hard keeping her mouth shut for an entire day, however Nicolai was able to let it out almost as soon as classes ended.

"Xander's got a date for Hogsmeade!" She yelled as she entered the common room, finding Florence curled up on the couch, along with Fred—who obviously wasn't supposed to be there. Her gleeful look dropped, pointing at the redhead as she plopped herself onto another couch. Xander followed suite, also looking at Fred in a very questioning manner, "Why is he in here? He's not supposed to be in here."

"To be fair," said Fred, who looked all too comfortable in his spot, "I did answer the riddle myself. So the eagle let me in." he said proudly.

Florence shrugged, as both of her friends looked to her for verification, whether or not he was telling the truth. "He actually did answer the riddle by himself. Didn't help or anything... But he was just leaving! We both agreed that he could only stay for twenty minutes."

"I did not agree to anything," he declared, "Therefore I shall not go through with these ridiculous terms."

"Fred," Florence said in a firm voice, "Go."

"No," he retorted, snuggling deeper onto the fluffy couch pillows.

"Wrong answer. Try again." she folded her arms over her chest, a frown on her face.

"Yes...?"

"Ding ding! Correct. Now go."

"Pfft. You wish."

"Now, now, Weasley," said Nicolai, "You wouldn't want me to tell Florence about what happened during the summer before third year—" She had no clue what happened exactly, but George had told her about it being a very effective blackmail against Fred. His eyes widened, a faint blush rising to his cheeks, "Don't you dare go there, Clearwater. Don't you dare."

"Wait," Florence interrupted, "What did happen on the summer before third year?"

"Nothing that concerns you, love. Now if you'll excuse me, I shall show myself outside. Bye now!" With that, Fred had bolted off of the couch, planted a quick kiss on Florence's forehead before exiting the Ravenclaw commons.

"Okay," said Nicolai, maneuvering them back to the main topic as the redhead was out of eyeshot, "So Alexander may or may have not been asked out to a date this Hogsmeade weekend." she told Florence, who gaped at Nicolai, her gaze averting then to Alexander, "Really? Who?"

"Olivia Banks," he said meekly, watching the surprise grow bigger and bigger on his friend's face. He sighed, "Look, I haven't got a clue why either. It's as sudden as it sounds."

"Well, it isn't really unlikely that an attractive girl would ask you out, Xander. Have you seen yourself? You're definitely a wonderful sight to see." Said Florence, to which Nicolai snorted.

"You did not just analogize him to a bloody tourist attraction." She laughed, making Alexander frown, as she was yet again picking on him at the most unnecessary time.

"What? Our best mate is gorgeous, Nic. Ofcourse he can attract a few girls himself. Never underestimate the Haddlowe genes."

"I'm not underestimating it," Nicolai said, "I'm just saying that she's Oliver's sister. Remember when Jillian and him had a thing? Ofcourse you do, it wasn't that long ago."

"Where are you getting at?"

"All I'm saying is that isn't it kind of fishy that Olivia pops out of the blue just weeks after the whole fallout with Jillian?"

"Well if you put it that way, yes, it does sound fishy." Florence agreed, "But I think it's better if we don't jump in to conclusions this early in to the issue. Let it play out for a bit, see how it goes."

"Flo's right," said Alexander, "We'll see how this goes."

Nicolai sighed at this, "Well, looks like I'm going dateless to Hogsmeade this year, yeah?"

"Well, Nic, I actually need you tomorrow... You know, keep an eye out on things. I'm actually really scared."

Nicolai snorted at this, "Alexander William Haddlowe, 6 foot 1, scared of a Hufflepuff girl? I don't think Olivia's going to bite you or anything." Florence remarked.

"Yeah, what could that Hufflepuff possibly do to you?"

"Well, considering one just broke my heart into tiny pieces without any remorse,—okay, maybe a lot of remorse— I'd say Hufflepuff honey badgers are lethal as hell. Don't underestimate them, Nic."

"You'll be fine," Nicolai said, "I'll agree watch you tomorrow, okay? Now stop fussing. Send down an owl to Olivia or something, to tell her that you'll accept her date offer."

"Can you not call it that?"

"Call it what?"

"A date."

"But it is a date." Nicolai pointed out.

"I know it is. But it's weird. So stop."

                                     -----

"Florence," Nicolai whispered, shaking the girl awake. Sunlight began creeping into the room, making her squint due to the brightness. "It's morning already?" She grumbled, not wanting to leave her bed any time soon. She snuggled deeper under her duvets, "Give me five more minutes and I'll get dressed."

"Uh, no five minutes." Said Nicolai, "Believe it or not Fred's actually in the common room. Like right now."

"What?"

"You heard me. He's developed a knack for answering the eagle's questions. Soon he's going to be walking in and out any time he wants to."

"What have I done?" Florence grumbled, heaving herself off of her bed, sluggishly heading to the bathroom to do her morning hygiene stuff. She put a little bit of effort in piecing together what she was going to wear, which was a nice looking top along with blue denim jeans. As she walked down to the main commons, she saw not just one of the redhead twins, but both of them, sitting idly on the couch as they conversed animatedly with each other. George was the first to catch sight of the brunette heading their way, smiling at her as she drew closer to them. "Florence! Just in time. Freddie and I were just talking about today's plans. Speaking of which, would you rather stop by Three Broomsticks before we went to Zonko's or after?"

"George," she said sweetly, "Would you care to explain to me exactly why you're here?"

He turned to look at her, "When you say here, do you mean, here as in on his comfy blue couch, or here, as in existence wise? Because if it's the latter then I can't quite answer it just yet, the question's too deep—"

"No, George. I mean here as in the Ravenclaw common room."

George grinned at he impishly, "Easy. Fred's here, and so should I. You'd know by now that we're a package deal."

"I see..." Florence's voice trailed off, before looking down at the other twin, who refused to meet her gaze, "Fred. That was one invitation. You can't waltz in and out of here any time you please. Prefects aren't very considerate—with the exception of Xander."

He snorted, "And you know that I don't care about detention... But since you're fussing about it so much, fine, I promise to not come in to the Ravenclaw commons whenever I please." Fred said, "I'll send you an owl first."

Florence rolled her eyes, "Forget that I tried..."

"If it's any consolation, you can come in to the Gryffindor commons and visit me any time you feel like it. This week's password is cowfish."

"No thank you."

"Oh sure you do," retorted George, "Surely you'd want to indulge in a little fun time under the sheets with my brother—ow!" he cried, as a throw pillow smacked him square in the face. Both Fred and Florence were already blushing. "Shut up, George." Nicolai said, resisting her urge to laugh out loud."

"I meant cuddling! Cuddling, okay? Jeez, get your heads out of the gutter. Although, all jokes aside, Pricey, you're spending the day with Fred and I." said George, "And you're going to love it."

"I expected nothing less." she grinned just as she recovered from embarrassment, beckoning the two to get up from their seats, "Come on, we best go down and eat breakfast so we can leave for Hogsmeade early." she then turned to look at Nicolai, "Where's Xander?"

"Holed up in his room and pissing in his pants," Nicolai replied jokingly, "Nah, I'm kidding. Grant said he's already at the Great Hall...eating his nervousness away."

"Keep an eye on him, Nic."

"Yeah, I will keep an eye on our little six foot one blonde baby." she replied in a monotonous voice.

The four of them went down to the Great Hall to eat breakfast. There barely were any people when they sat down, as all of them were hurrying off to the carriages, excited to spend a day out in Hogsmeade. Florence remembered Sirius' letter that she had tucked away safely in one of her drawers, looking around for Harry.

Wherever they were planning to meet, she hoped that it was safe enough.

Nicolai stayed behind after breakfast, to comfort an anxious Xander who was just moments away from backing out of the date and fleeing to his room. Florence went on ahead with the Weasley twins to the carriages.

"Do I have to do this?" Alexander breathed out as they both waited for Olivia to arrive. Nicolai shrugged, giving him a sideway glance, "I dunno. I mean, it isn't necessary. You can dump Olivia Banks for all I care. Do you want to do this, though?"

"I don't know," he sighed miserably, "I was just caught by surprise, is why I said yes."

"You and me both, Xander. Who knew she'd just ask you out of the blue,"

"Well, if you didn't spend so much time obsessing over that fake lesbian bitch, my invitation wouldn't have looked like it was out of the blue at all." said Olivia, who crept up from behind them yet again. Nicolai scoffed, frowning at the brunette, "Stop sneaking up on us like that...and don't call Jillian a bitch."

"What?" Olivia said, "I'm just stating the facts here." She eyed Nicolai in realization, "You're that girl that she likes, aren't you?"

Nicolai's cheeks flushed into a deep shade of red.

"What do you know about anything?" she retorted.

Olivia chuckled, "Wow.... Jillian sure did fuck up bad this time. Wow. What is it like for you two then, hm? Friendship over, betrayer in each other's eyes?"

"How about I smack you right up the head, yeah?" Nicolai said behind gritted teeth, Alexander grabbing her wrist to stop her from lunging at Olivia, who didn't look fazed in the slightest.

"Merlin, I was joking! Don't be so uptight all the time, little Ravenclaw." she smiled, which fueled Nicolai's urge to scratch her face even more, "Xander...How about we go find a carriage, yeah? Say goodbye to your friend, I'll meet you at the doors." Olivia said, before she sashayed away from the two.

Nicolai glared at the girl's retreating figure, "Damn," she grumbled, "Who knew a Hufflepuff could be that much of a bloody bitch?"

"I told you, don't underestimate them." he replied.

"Well shit, this is going to be interesting."

/////

a.n: I ACTUALLY HAVE A VERY VALID REASON as to why my update is three days late. Wattpad crashed on me Saturday night when I was about to publish it, proceeding to delete the chapter that I had written out. So I had to come up with another one because I entirely forgot what I wrote on there... so... there you go. AND HAPPY 6k you guys! I love you ❤️

-Denise