Alison had been acting strange since the night of the 'Death Moths' as Hanna was now referring to it (people gave them strange looks whenever they discussed it in the corridors), and no one really knew why. She had been spending a lot of time in the library and away from her friends, which was a very un-Alison thing to do. But worst of all, she was being distant. Not so distant that she was turning cold, just a bit strange. As if she wasn't quite there. It was almost as if she was constantly nervous and scared, and the girls were starting to come to the conclusion that she really had seen a ghost.

"Okay, but, there are ghosts everywhere in Hogwarts. Why would she be so freaked out from seeing one?" Aria questioned. Spencer rolled her eyes.

"Obviously she hasn't 'seen a ghost'" she told her "It's just like a figure of speech, for when you've seen something that freaks you out. People don't mean it literally"
"Yeah well not all 'people' go to Hogwarts" Aria scowled back, but her scowling was quickly interrupted by Hanna Marin shoving a first year boy out of her path and bounding over to the girls table. The first year boy looked frightened as he picked his books back up and continued walking.

"Jesus christ, Hanna" Spencer said to her as she excitedly jumped onto the chair next to Emily.

"Sorry, sorry!" she said to them, and then to the first year boy "I'm just so excited, aren't you? The day has finally come!" Emily, Aria and Spencer shot each other looks of confusion.

"What day?" Emily asked, taking a bite of her buttered toast. Hanna slapped her.

"You're telling me you forgot?" she yelled in discomfort "How can you forget! My whole life's been building up to this moment, and now its finally here, and you forget?"
Spencer shifted a smirk.

"What's happening, Han?" Aria asked with a quiet voice, not wanting to aggrovate the mad Hanna. Hanna rolled her eyes and slapped her forehead.

"Our first trip to Hogsmeade, of course!" she threw her hands wildly into the air, knocking the piece of toast out of Emily's hand.

"Is that all?" Emily asked, angrily grabbing at another piece of toast.

"Actually, I think my parents might have taken me and Melissa to Hogsmeade when I was little" Spencer added. Hanna flicked a tomato at her.

"I'm sorry, Spencer Hastings, did I ask for your bloody opinion?" she said "I've been waiting to go to Hogsmeade for years, and I will not have you and your bloody arrogance ruin it for me!"

Spencer was quiet from then on.

...

"Remember, students, there will be no going to Hogsmeade if you do not have a signed permission slip on you!" Professor McGonagall reminded the students, who were now busy zipping up their coats and and jackets in the courtyard of Hogwarts. The 3rd years were gathered round some of the older students, who were sharing tales of all the exciting things you could buy at Zonko's and Honeydukes, and about the new store that had recently opened called 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes'.

"It's gonna be so awesome" Hanna was telling Emily excitedly, rubbing her hands together to keep them from freezing up "Where do you wanna go first?"
Emily wasn't really listening. She was busy scanning the crowd of excited students for Alison Dilaurentis, who she realised she hadn't seen since the feast the previous night. She was starting to worry about her friend, and wondered what it was that was so important that she had had to skip breakfast three days in a row now.

"I-I don't know, Han" she replied simply "That joke shop sounds good"

"Which one?" Hanna asked "Because theirs Zonko's, but apparently that place is old hat ever since the Weasley's opened their new store in Hogsmeade. I hear they do love potions and all stuff like that-"
"Why on earth would you need to buy a love potion, when you have a perfectly willing boyfriend at your side every second of the day?" Spencer interrupted, as naturally she couldn't help but over hear the conversation. Or, lack there of.

"You never know" Hanna shrugged, and something about her tone was a little unsettling.

"I think that is all, Mr Filch?" McGonagall turned to the schools caretaker for permission to escort the students to the village of Hogsmeade.

"Yes, I think s-"
"Wait!"

Surely enough, it was Alison Dilaurentis, running wildly towards Professor McGonagall was a slip of paper in her hand. The Headmistress rolled her eyes.

"Might have known it'd be you" she told her, snatching the permission slip from her hands "Quickly, Miss Dilaurentis!"
Alison ran down to where her four friends were standing, and it came as a shock to them. None of them had seen Alison since the day before.

"Ready?" Alison said simply, not even mentioning the fact that she had been distant of late.

"Yeah" Spencer replied, as the group of 3rd years followed Professor McGonagall to the village.

...

"Hey, you alright?" Emily couldn't help but ask her best friend, as the two walked awkwardly through Hogsmeade together. Hanna and Aria were busy in Zonko's and Spencer had found Toby Cavenaugh and they were heading off to some little tea shop on the corner.

The girls had already been to Honeydukes and bought themselves a years supply of sweets that none of them had even heard of before. They had then gone to 'The Three Broomsticks', and had managed to convince Aria to try a sip of Butterbeer. Emily thought she must be the only person in the entire wizarding world who didn't like Butterbeer, as she had immediately spat it onto the table.

The snow crunched aggressively beneath their feet as they walked,which was a good thing because it meant there wasn't really awkward silence. Still, Emily couldn't help but noticing that Alison still hadn't spoken a word to her since last night.

"Yeah" Alison replied a little too quickly "Why wouldn't I be?" Emily shrugged, truthfully not having a clue what was wrong with Alison right now.

"I don't know" she said "You've just been kinda strange, ever since-"
"Ever since what?" Alison interjected, her voice raising a little and her footsteps slowing down.

"Since, you know" Emily's voice was now a whisper, as there were students walking by and they might give them funny looks if Emily started talking about 'Death Moths'. She spotted Hanna and Aria running out of Zonko's now, and towards them.

"I don't know what you're talking about" Alison lied, purposely turning away and shrugging her shoulders. Emily cut her eyes at her.

"Where next?" Hanna asked them excitedly. Both Emily and Alison shrugged, which instantly overshadowed Hanna's excitement.

"Weasley's!" Aria said excitedly, desperatly trying to brighten the new extremely dull spirit.

"Sounds good" Alison said, not really having an opinion on where they went next but didn't want to seem uninterested and distant (which she was).

"Hey, where's Spence?" Aria asked, scanning the village.

"Off with Toby" Emily explained, pointing towards the little pink tea shop, noticing a very pink in the face Spencer Hastings sitting in the window opposite an equally pink Toby Cavenaugh.

"We'll leave her" Hanna said "Cmonnn, I've been wanting to go to Weasley's ever since they opened down in Diagon Alley!" Aria followed her as she ran eagerly towards a large orange shop titled 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes'

"Coming then?" Emily asked Alison, who had gone from looking bored to looking quite nervous.

"Y-yeah" Alison replied, catching up with Emily.

...

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was one of the greatest places Emily had ever seen. The inside was tall and orange, and there were stacks and stacks of wonderful products that no one had ever heard of piled up on the shelves. The place was jam-packed with students of Hogwarts and other members of the wizarding public, swarming around different things and admiring them. On the far side of the wall was a large lifesized painting of a young man, with firey red hair and a huge grin on his face. He was pulling silly faces at little children, who were pointing and laughing with glee. Aria instantly ran over to a group of girls, who were huddled round something that looked a bit like a giant pom-pom. It took Emily a white to realise that the pom-pom was alive and laughing and hopping about, as the girls were tickling its belly and making squeaky noises at it.

"Bloody hell" Hanna breathed, wiping a fake tear "It's beautiful" And within a second, she had wandered over to try some sort of nosebleed sweet.

That left just Emily and Alison, who still hadn't properly spoken since moth night. Emily kept glancing in Alison's direction, desperate to make eye contact and ask her what was wrong. She was just about to say something, when suddenly the unfamiliar face of a young man dressed in a bottle green dragon skin suit came bounding towards them.

"Why the long faces?" the ginger man said animatedly, bending down and darting his eyes back and forth from Emily to Alison. They both shrugged.

"Well don't be looking like that! I can't have grumpy children in my shop!"
Emily looked up at the man, and suddenly saw a glimpse of familiary in his face.

"You're the man in the painting" she told him. The man's face suddenly fell and he pinched his lips.

"Actually – er – no" he told her "That's Fred, my twin. He, uh-"
Emily realised what he was getting at and suddenly felt bad for bringing it up. Alison caught on, and unfolded her arms to look up at the man (who she noticed only had one ear).

"I'm sorry" Emily told him "I didn't mean to-"
"It's fine, it's fine!" The man said, waving his hand "My own mother still gets me confused with him sometimes. She'll call me Fred when she asks me to pass her the potatoes, things like that. But I tell her, I'll say "I'm not Fred, I'm George! Honestly woman, you call yourself our mother-"" Something about that line seemed rehearsed, and Emily noticed a tear leaking out the man's eye.

"I'm s-sorry" Alison managed to say. The man shrugged.

"I'm George" the man told them, wiping the tear from his cheek "George Weasley"
"Here we go" Emily heard Alison mutter under her breath, before she even said anything.

She couldn't help but laugh.

"Ginny Potter's brother!" She said excitedly. George Weasley nodded.

"Blimey, is she really that famous?" she asked her "Hard to picture her as a top quality Quidditch player married to the most famous guy in the wizarding world when we knew her when she was 2 years old and pooping on the garden gnomes" He forced a chuckle.
She noticed that he had automatically said 'we'.

"We love your shop" Emily told him, which made him smile.

"Glad you like it" he told them "My brother Ron's currently watching over the one in Diagon Alley, and I thought I might as well wander round and make an appearence" Alison had suddenly 'woken up' and now seemed to be interested in what he was saying.

"There's a pretty face!" George said to her, mockingly pinching her cheek "What's got you all in a muddle, broken heart?"
"Something like that"
"What the hell does that mean?" Emily wondered.

"Well we've got all sorts of cures for that" George told her "Just over there, you'll find our wide range of love potions. Can make any boy fall in love with you at first sight for however long you want. 100% success rate" Alison shook her head.

"I'm alright, thanks" she told him bluntly "I – er – have to leave"

And just like that, she had run out the door. Emily stared dumbfoundedly at her as she pulled her coat hood over her head and ran through the blizard to a place called 'The Three Broomsticks'.

"Lordy, what's up with that one?" George asked Emily, who was now grinding her teeth.

"Couldn't tell you" she told him with a shrug. George stuck his bottom lip out in curiosity.

"Well, little one, if you need anything just let me know" he told Emily, patting her friendily on the back. Emily nodded absently, still watching Alison creep into the Three Broomsticks.
"Y-yeah" she said to him "I will do"