Sophia woke up the next morning with a stiff neck, groaning as she pulled her head up from Fred's shoulder. The fire that was once lit had been extinguished and the morning Sun lit up the common room through the large windows. Looking to her left, she saw Fred was still asleep with his head back against the sofa. Thinking about yesterday, she had to conceal her own giggles while she got up from her place to stretch out her stiff limbs. She was stopped in her actions when she heard a tapping sound come from one of the large windows nearby. Sophia looked to see that Pigwidgeon, Ron's miniature owl, was sitting on the window sill with a letter in its beak.

The owl went berzerk as soon as she opened the window to retrieve the letter. It flew into the room and started circling around the top of Fred's sleeping head, the constant hoots and chirps causing him to stir awake. Fred groaned aloud and pulled his head up to rub his eyes from their state of sleep and haziness.

"Shut that bloody bird up," his voice was croaky and made Sophia grin to herself from her spot at the window. The owl had flown back towards her and perched itself on her shoulder, excitedly still hooting and fidgeting about. Once Fred noticed she was standing there, he stood up from the sofa with a lazy grin now on his tired face. "Morning lovely Lupin."

"Morning bed-head Fred," she motioned towards his long hair that looked ruffled and dishevelled from his sleep. He grumbled while attempting to flatten some of it, but soon gave up once he made to stand in front of her. Sophia's attention went down to the letter into her hands and she pulled open the wax seal that was on the back. Pulling out the letter, Fred leaned over her shoulder to look at the small writing that was addressed to her.

Sophia,

I heard about Harry being entered into the tournament. This is horrible news, but I know of the circumstances set by Barty Crouch and Ludo Bagman. I do hope that you will be guiding Harry along the way, as I suspect he won't be having many friends at the moment. And you are a Lupin after all, it would be sinful not to be.

Yes I do remember Miss Delacour. A very charming character I seem to remember. Especially when she attempted to show me to the caretakers' cupboard in order to have me start mopping up the hallways. I heard she is the Beauxbatons champion for the tournament too, as well as Viktor Krum. Harry's got a lot on his hands is all I can say.

As for what you've seen in your map, I'm sure you've worked out some of the readings already. The supposed important woman it was referring to must be about Bertha Jerkins, a woman from the Ministry who's disappeared suddenly. As for the other two, I assume it was hinting towards Harry's name being put into the goblet. Whoever it was that did it wants him dead. And I regret to say that that isn't a very short list of people. Sirius is dead worried about him, but he can't do much at the moment. He's not allowed to leave his house in London for the time being.

On an equally as depressing subject, yes I have been taking the potion. I have been able to make up a new batch too, and I have been keeping in contact with Molly and Arthur Weasley for some guidance and company.

I hope you are well, and that you're staying out of trouble. Stay safe Soph.

Love, Dad.

P.S: I'm sure Fred isn't too happy about that.

Sophia went through a range of emotions while reading her father's letter but ended on a depressed note. He hadn't mention at all about getting any more successful job interviews or a job at all. He did say about Mr and Mrs Weasley giving him some support, making her think that he was eating at their house every night. Had their financial situation gotten that bad?

"What won't I be happy about?" Sophia jumped in her place at Fred's voice from behind her. She had forgotten he was standing there, making her now embarrassed at the fact that he had read the letter also. Thankfully, he hadn't read the letter she had sent to her father which meant Fred wouldn't know what she had been talking about in the first place.

"Oh um," she stammered and folded the paper, Pigwidgeon now flying back out the window and towards the Owlery. "I said about Valentin calling me Sophie every time he saw me."

"Oh right. He's right, I was and am not happy about it," Fred confessed with a form of stern look on his face.

"Well when you see him next, you can tell him that," she retorted as she started to walk back over to the sofa and gather up the blanket that was once covering them in their sleep. She hadn't known how it'd gotten there, but guessed it was someone the two of them knew well.

"I will!" Fred followed her round the common room. "I don't need some Durmstrang pumpkin-head following around my girlfriend all the time-"

"Girlfriend?!"

Sophia whipped around in her place with a halt in her step, making Fred stop as well while looking down at her. The word had slipped out so easily from his mouth, and he wasn't sure if he was proud of it or in a state of panic. He had been planning to ask her formally to be his girlfriend sometime today or even yesterday. But the cat was out of the bag now and he'd already really indirectly asked. The astonished look on Sophia's face kept him wondering whether she was going to say anything else, but considering how long they stood in silence, he took the lead.

"W-Well yeah. I would like you to be my girlfriend," Fred's ears started to tint a light red from the slow realisation of what he had put himself into. "I was going to ask but I guess... I already have? Should I do this again? Merlin I'm hopeless at this mooshy stuff-"

For the first time, Sophia had jumped up on to her tippy-toes and trapped Fred into a kiss first. His eyes were wide at first and he had spread his arms out to the sides of him in a state that looked like he had been petrified by a Basilisk. But once he realised what she was doing, Fred wrapped his arms around the girl's petite waist and returned the innocent kiss. Sophia cupped Fred's jaw with both of her hands, feeling the familiar firework euphoria in her stomach as their lips moved against each other. The blanket that was once in Sophia's hands was now disregarded on the floor and Crookshanks had sauntered into the room to perch himself on it. The couple hadn't noticed this because of how busy they were lapping lips together in Sophia's surprise kiss. It was also her who pulled away first with a soft pull of Fred's bottom lip to signify the time to stop momentarily. Opening her eyes, she looked up into the deep brown ones that stared down at her with such admiration and affection that she had only seen in Muggle films.

"I didn't see that in my map..." Sophia whispered, her lips brushing against Fred's because of their close proximity.

"Oh thank Merlin for that, otherwise you would have known the whole time I was going to ask," Fred replied with an equal amount of softness.

"So you are asking me?"

"I thought I made that clear. I still don't know your answer, even though it's probably irrelevant at this point."

Sophia laughed and buried her nose into the crook of Fred's neck, practically gleaming at this point. She would never have thought she would come to this point considering the fact she had only moved to Hogwarts a year ago. But she couldn't be happier to have met the Weasley who was obsessed with Quidditch and pranks that would make anyone laugh.

"Yes Fred, I'll be your girlfriend."

Seeing as it was Sunday, Sophia and Fred were lucky to spend the whole day together on their first day of being in a relationship. They had breakfast in the Great Hall first, sitting next to each other with their hands en-laced up on the table. It wasn't until Fred had leaned over and placed a quick peck on her lips that people at the Gryffindor table started staring. Sophia went to giggle but stopped when she noticed that Hermione, Ron, Neville, Ginny and George all were eyeing them, their Breakfast now long forgotten.

"I'm guessing your date went well yesterday then," Ron spoke up first with his eyes moving back and forth between the two.

"Oh no it was absolutely awful. We hate each other now, haven't you noticed?" Fred sassed. Ron glared at his older brother and Hermione swooped in next with a bright grin.

"So it's official?" she asked hopefully. Sophia went to look to her side in hopes of Fred speaking for the two of them as she didn't trust her voice at this point. She hated to appear as some hopeless romantic that everyone disliked, snogging in the corridors and making everyone uncomfortable. But when Fred didn't answer and only smirked with a prideful look, she just relied on her own small smile that she displayed for everyone to see. The Gryffindors seemed to catch on to these silent signs, Hermione and Ginny 'aww'ing at the sight of Sophia's shy smile and Fred's boyish smirk.

"Good on you Fred," Neville congratulated, followed by Seamus and Dean who were sitting further down the table. "But I think everyone already knew it was comin'. Even Professor Flitwick held me back after class to ask if you two had a thing going on."

"Oh Merlin," Sophia covered her face in embarrassment. How was it that even the teachers' of Hogwarts knew about the two? She somehow couldn't picture Professor Snape discussing how two fourth year Ravenclaws' were caught together near the Forbidden Forest at the weekend with Professor Sprout. George and Ginny could be heard laughing at Neville's information, Fred even joining in eventually with his arm swinging around Sophia's shoulders. He pressed his lips against the side of her head with her hands still over her face, luckily hiding the deep blush that had once again settled on to her cheeks.

They decided to spend the day down at the Black Lake where coincidentally, Neville and Harry were perched quietly. Neville had put on some Wellington boots in order to venture into the water to gather something he wanted for Herbology while Harry sat on the bank of lake. He still hadn't spoken to Ron or anyone much, Neville being one of the few who would sit in close proximity to him. Sophia and Fred decided to sit a few paces away (not because they didn't like Harry, but so they didn't make him uncomfortable), their knees bent up to prevent their feet from getting muddy from the wet mud that layered from the water. Fred had his arm wrapped around Sophia's middle, leaning her against his side as she laughed at his imitation of Viktor Krum who they had seen sauntering about the corridors this morning.

"Here comes trouble," Sophia mumbled when she caught sight of Ron walking towards Harry with Hermione and Ginny next to him. The couple went silent as Ron whispered to Hermione in a hushed tone, before the girl stepped forward with a hesitant look.

"Ronald would like me to tell you that Seamus told him, that Dean was told by Parvati that Hagrid's looking for you," she said in a rush to Harry.

"Oh does he? Well you can tell-... what?" Harry looked stumped for a moment and Hermione turned back to Ron for some more hushed whispers. Hermione then went to say what she had tried to say again to Harry, but sighed in frustration.

"Please don't ask me to say it again. Hagrid's looking for you," she then went to turn away to walk back up the hill with Ginny, when Harry did the worse thing he could do.

"Well you can tell Ron-"

"I'm not an owl!"

Silence settled in and Hermione stomped off with Ginny next to her, leaving Ron to awkwardly look at Harry. Harry glared harshly at him and turned back around to face the Black Lake in an attempt to make Ron get the message to go away. When he did, Sophia could see that Harry was fuming as well as in deep thought. Neville had watched the exchange also, but kept quiet by returning back to the plant he had pulled from the Lake's muddy bottom.

"Ronniekins really is a twat," Fred stated into Sophia's ear.

"Hm, I blame you and George primarily," she replied and Fred jumped in his sitting position with a look of surprise and post-defence.

"What?! Why?!"

"He probably feels neglected right now," Sophia didn't like Ron at the moment for his treatment of his supposed best friend, but sympathised with him to an extent. "Think about it. Bill, Charlie and Percy all have good jobs as well as had good grades at school. You and George are good at Quidditch, as well as having each other even if you guys do get into trouble. Ginny's doing well in her classes and is pretty good at Quidditch already. But Ron's just left to sort of get on with it. Let's face it, he probably feels shadowed at home as well as school. Being the 'best friend' of the Boy Who Lived can't be the most honouring of titles."

"You talk like a book," Fred said dumb-founded, making Sophia roll her eyes. "But I don't see what that's got to do with me and George."

"Well you two are very patronising. Especially towards Ron. It would probably take the edge off if you two didn't hint towards putting spiders in his drinks all the time."

Fred huffed but in all honesty, Fred had understood what she meant. It doesn't give Ron the right to act the way he's acting, but it does explain why he's being so uptight about the tournament. He had previously mentioned about how having eternal glory would be a nice change and was probably talking about being the Weasley that his parents fussed over for once.

"But they'll make up eventually," Sophia nodded to herself with a short gaze at Harry's depressed figure. "Just like you and George did once you found out it was actually Peeves who had set off one of your pranks too early last year."

"Hey! You would have done the same if you'd have done the detention I had to do with Filch," Fred fought back, wincing at the memory of having to scrub the benches that were in Snape's Potions class. The fact that Filch had taken his wand off him at the time wasn't a bonus either. He came back to the common room with raw hands that nigh. Sophia had to fix them with the Episkey spell when he had resulted to complaining and whining at every chance he got.